be the change you want to see in the world

In recent months the US military has continued to slaughter Iraqi civilians - men, women and children - non-combatants who just “get in the way.” I have written about this before, but I recently came across an excellent short essay on this subject.

It is the ‘price to pay’, the ‘sacrifice’ that has to be made as we fight terrorism, the ‘cost’ of this war against evil forces. That is what we say to justify these killings. But those of us who speak of this price to be paid, this sacrifice to be made, do not pay this price, do not make this sacrifice. Our own country is not being destroyed, attacked, occupied. Our own children are not being blown up, our civilians are not becoming homeless by the millions. Those who speak of the necessity of this sacrifice, would they be prepared to pay such a price? In their own country? With the blood of their own families?

The Price of Loss
How the West values civilian lives in Iraq

by Lily Hamourtziadou

The key issue of electability gets swept to the dark corner of the room during primary season while the various camps try to outdo each other singing today’s tune to the masses. The tune changes monthly, weekly, even daily. What remains is general impressions.

According to Rasmussen, the general impression is that we will either have President Edwards or President McCain.

here are the numbers on electability:

Obama (47%) Giuliani (37%)
Obama (45%) Huckabee (43%)
Obama (43%) McCain (46%)
Obama (50%) Paul (31%)
Obama (45%) Romney (39%)
Obama (47%) Thompson (40%)

dwards (44%) Giuliani (44%)
Edwards (49%) Huckabee (37%)
Edwards (46%) McCain (39%)
Edwards (50%) Romney (34%)
Edwards (48%) Thompson (39%)

Clinton (44%) Giuliani (45%)
Clinton (42%) Huckabee (45%)
Clinton (38%) McCain (49%)
Clinton (49%) Paul (37%)
Clinton (43%) Romney (44%)
Clinton (46%) Thompson (44%)

See what two weeks of fighting has gotten Hollary and Barack-stabber?

The poll, released by the Reno-Gazette Journal seems to show that the race in Nevada is a complete toss-up right now. Here is the results of their poll of 500 likely caucus goers:

Barack Obama: 32 percent
Hillary Clinton: 30 percent
John Edwards: 27 percent

Go Edwards…he’s the best candidate anyway.

Researchers have created beating hearts for lab rats using baby rat cells and the cadaverous scaffold of a rat heart. Is this Frankenstein or what?

The researchers removed all the cells from a dead rat heart, leaving the valves and outer structure as scaffolding for new heart cells injected from newborn rats. Within two weeks, the cells formed a new beating heart that conducted electrical impulses and pumped a small amount of blood.

With modifications, scientists should be able to grow a human heart by taking stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow and placing them in a cadaver heart that has been prepared as a scaffold, Dr. Taylor said in a telephone interview from her laboratory in Minneapolis. The early success “opens the door to this notion that you can make any organ: kidney, liver, lung, pancreas — you name it and we hope we can make it,” she said.

Wow.