Sunday article round-up
Again some stories that I didn't blog about, but deserve some attention. Let's start with a New climate plan 'to rival Kyoto' announced by China, India, Japan, America, Australia and South Korea. Now the plan is crap with voluntary reductions and a promise to transfer technologies to help reduce carbon emissions. Yet, the good news is that America is engaging with China in addressing problems as equals with a common goal, rather than a Cold War mentality of "us" versus "them".Yet, on the homefront, we have an Energy Reality Check: Congress isn't ready to declare independence and learn that the New energy bill features $14 billion in tax breaks with the vast majority of the tax breaks benefiting companies that produce and supply traditional forms of energy, with a large portion going to the oil and natural gas sector. So again the devil is in the details and the details are rubbish!
In a related story, the First Wind Farm in National Forest Planned. This is a brilliant move by anti-environmentalists. It puts the pro-environmentalist movement in a bind. If they oppose the wind farms, energy must be produced with climate destroying fossil fuels. If they don't oppose it, then the national forests could be permanently transformed (disfigured) with wind farms. Truly a brilliant political move by the administration, but a bad one for the citizens.
With that kind of news, is it any surprised that Bush approval ratings hit lowest point of tenure. That hasn't stopped him from passing some legislation to reward his contributors and friends. He might be a lame duck, but he sure is quackly loudly.
Away from Washington, scientists wonder if Marriage as learned behavior: Can divorce be foretold?. The results are very interesting. The short answer is yes.
Down in Arizona, we see corporate welfare is benefiting the largest corporation in the world because Close to one of every 10 Wal-Mart employees is getting health insurance paid for by Arizona taxpayers. Interesting because back in May Wal-Mart quarterly sales hit record. I bet every business wished the state picked up the costs of 1/10th of their employees.
In the Christian sub-culture, the Southern Baptist Press slams Christians for embracing the Invasion of the ‘residential SUVs’. Erich Bridges slams Christians for gladly rejoicing in greed and covetness of all things materialistic and grand. Will the flock listen?
For a little bit of fun, go to BBC's 10 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Week. I liked learning that the Very Hungry Caterpillar has sold one copy every minute since its 1969 publication. Over at Beliefnet, they've got a Rock Star Religion Quiz that may surprise you.
Finally, at the Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary a Parrot placed in solitary for swearing at vicar . This parrot has quite the vocabulary. Most of the swear words are British, so e-mail me if you want a translation. However, enough are universal you should get the drift. ;-)
Pick your favorite article or two and leave some comments. What other articles/topics did I miss that you want to see addressed? Are you enjoying the weekly round up?
posted by Expat Teacher @ 9:00 AM
