Here I am pushing a cause. This time it is not for the welfare of the world, but my own personal welfare! This cause, is a worthy one for anyone who wants good information on almost any subject instantly! It is, of course, WIKIPEDIA! If you use a computer and you really want to know about something or somebody living or dead, where do you go? . . .of course, WIKIPEDIA!

In my own little world, I didn't realize how the service was funded, I was only interested in the fact that I could learn all sorts of things I needed to know reliably and instantly. It turns out that it is entirely donor funded. I learned this a few weeks ago and just received the following email which I hope you'll read and consider joining the list of supporters to help pay for such a wonderful FREE service.

Dear Allan Stuart Gleason,

Thank you for your donation to this year's fundraiser. We're a little more than half-way toward our 2010 goal, so I hope you won't mind if I ask you to help again.

Most people don't know this, but I'm a volunteer.

I don't get paid a cent for my work at Wikipedia, and neither do our thousands of other volunteer authors and editors. When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising, but I decided to do something different.

Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia.

To keep Wikipedia ad-free, we ask for donations every year on the site. We're sending you this email because we are scaling up our infrastructure this year, and we're simply not able to raise the whole budget from the banners alone.

We have an easy way to make an automatic monthly donation to Wikipedia, and we're looking for people who would like to become sustainers. (Of course you can make a one-time donation as well.)

Please make a monthly recurring gift of $2, $5, $7 -- or whatever you can:

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/WMFRE021/en

Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others. It is a unique human project, the first of its kind in history. It is a humanitarian project to bring a free encyclopedia to every single person on the planet.

Every single person.

If all of Wikipedia's 400 million users would donate $1 each, we would have 20 times the amount of money we need. We're a small organization, and I've worked hard over the years to keep us lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others.

To do this without resorting to advertising, we need you. It is you who keep this dream alive. It is you who have created Wikipedia. It is you who believe that a place of calm reflection and learning is worth having.

This year, please consider making a sustaining monthly donation of whatever amount you like to protect and sustain Wikipedia.

Thanks,

Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia Founder

P.S. -- If you can't commit to a recurring monthly donation, I hope you'll consider making another one time gift to help us reach our goal before the end of the year. Please make your donation today.

Wikimedia Foundation
P.O. Box 894879
Los Angeles, California 90189-4879
United States

Thanksgiving letter from Defenders of Wildlife

I'm posting this Thanksgiving letter because it has been an eventful year on behalf of our wildlife and I think it important for you to know that good things do happen (once in a while)!

Dear Allan,

Thanksgiving is Thursday, and we here at Defenders have a lot to be thankful for.

Allan, thanks to your efforts and support, here are just a few things we've accomplished this year:

Instead of facing another deadly hunting season this fall, wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies once again enjoyed protections under the Endangered Species Act.

Polar bears, bowhead whales and other Arctic wildlife won a reprieve from Big Oil's drills in the Chukchi Sea.

And since Monday, more than 38,000 supporters have urged President Obama to continue to protect this special place and the wildlife that depends on it to survive.

Hundreds of prairie dogs were moved to a new home on the Great Plains -- and away from the threat of poisoning.

In the wake of the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history, tens of thousands of Defenders supporters mobilized to pass the CLEAR Act in the House of Representatives -- critical legislation to help reform offshore drilling and restore habitat in the Gulf -- and nearly 30,000 supporters have urged the Senate to do the same.

But we’re most thankful for the people who made these and many other wins for wildlife -- and all our work -- possible: you and the hundreds of thousands of caring Defenders of Wildlife supporters.

Our wildlife still faces some enormous challenges. But with the ongoing support of dedicated supporters like you, we can face these challenges head on.

From all of us at Defenders, thank you for all you do to protect our wildlife and wild places.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife

© Copyright 2010, Defenders of Wildlife
This message was sent to algleason@frontiernet.net.

I normally write my own stuff, but I received this in an email and was impressed by its common sense. Of course, since we Americans have lost most of our common sense, this article comes from a Canadian - you know. . . the sensible people who live north of us!

America - He's your President for Goodness Sake!

By William Thomas
Posted: Friday, October 1st, 2010

There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm.

Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.

Four days before President Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.

Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America, an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina, later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the President of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that.

Last spring, President Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president can’t take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theatre without adequate security is a tragically bad idea.

Remember: “Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?”

At some point, the treatment of President Obama went from offensive to ugly and then to downright dangerous.

The health-care debate, which looked more like extreme fighting in a mud pit than a national dialogue, revealed a very vulgar side of America. President Obama’s face appeared on protest signs white-faced and blood-mouthed in a satanic clown image. In other tasteless portrayals, people who disagreed with his position distorted his face to look like Hitler complete with mustache and swastika.

Odd, that burning the flag makes Americans crazy, but depicting the president as a clown and a maniacal fascist is accepted as part of the new rude America.

Maligning the image of the leader of the free world is one thing, putting the president’s life in peril is quite another. More than once, men with guns were videotaped at the health-care rallies where the president spoke. Again, history shows that letting men with guns get within range of a president has not served America well in the past.

And still the “birthers” are out there claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States, although public documentation proves otherwise. Hawaii is definitely part of the United States, but the Panama Canal Zone where his electoral opponent Senator John McCain was born? Nobody’s sure.

Last month, a 44-year-old woman in Buffalo was quite taken by President Obama when she met him in a chicken wing restaurant called Duff’s. Did she say something about a pleasure and an honour to meet the man or utter encouraging words for the difficult job he is doing? No. Quote: “You’re a hottie with a smokin’ little body.”

Lady, that was the President of the United States you were addressing, not one of the Jonas Brothers! He’s your president for goodness sakes, not the guy driving the Zamboni at “Monster Trucks On Ice.” Maybe next it’ll be, “Take Your President To A Topless Bar Day.”

In President Barack Obama, Americans have a charismatic leader with a good and honest heart. Unlike his predecessor, he’s a very intelligent leader. And unlike that president’s predecessor, he’s a highly moral man.

In President Obama, Americans have the real deal, the whole package and a leader that citizens of almost every country around the world look to with great envy. Given the opportunity, Canadians would trade our leader, hell, most of our leaders for Obama in a heartbeat.

What America has in Obama is a head of state with vitality and insight and youth. Think about it, Barack Obama is a young Nelson Mandela. Mandela was the face of change and charity for all of Africa but he was too old to make it happen. The great things Obama might do for America and the world could go on for decades after he’s out of office.

America, you know not what you have.

The man is being challenged unfairly, characterized with vulgarity and treated with the kind of deep disrespect to which no previous president was subjected. It’s like the day after electing the first black man to be president, thereby electrifying the world with hope and joy, Americans sobered up and decided the bad old days were better.

President Obama may fail but it will not be a Richard Nixon default fraught with larceny and lies. President Obama, given a fair chance, will surely succeed but his triumph will never come with a Bill Clinton caveat – “if only he’d got control of that zipper.”

Please. Give the man a fair, fighting chance. This incivility toward the leader who won over Americans and gave hope to billions of people around the world that their lives could be enhanced by his example, just naturally has to stop.

Believe me, when Americans drive by the White House and see a sign on the lawn that reads: “No shirt. No shoes. No service,” they’ll realize this new national rudeness has gone way, way too far.

OCTOBER 2010 SENIOR LIVING MAGAZINE VANCOUVER & LOWER MAINLAND

The Dancing With The Stars Fiasco....

This is an open letter to ABC (Disney) regarding the obvious screw-up in their popular Dancing With The Stars program. This week was bad and I'll predict that next week will be even worse!

Sirs,
I’m certain that you’ve observed tonight the dying moments of your otherwise top-rated show, ‘Dancing With The Stars’.

So what are you going to do about it? I’m sure that your ‘box office hit’ will not survive this disaster for next year! Last year’s travesty was comparatively miner, but should have given you ample warning that public input, which does not in any way include your viewing public, but rather those relative few with direct Internet connections to decide winners in the competition. They are a small subset of your viewers.

Even the cast, judges and MC’s, of your show were in shock – and you can’t evade the problem by saying that it was “democracy in action”. You should know that your show is perceived to be a dancing talent contest. You have provided judges who have some expertise in the field of dance. So why on earth would you enable input from viewers which could make a mockery of your judges? If I had been a judge last year, I would not have returned this season. It may be that your judges see the show to be what it is, a popularity show based loosely upon dancing, so in fact, they are wasting their time judging the acts when those judgments will be over voted by God knows who.

The show is obviously a fraud because your celebrity contestants have worked their hearts out to achieve, only to find themselves second to right-wing political interests!

It is now well known via MSM that the so-called “tea party movement” produced an Internet memorandum to all tea party followers how to submit their multiple votes for Sarah Palin’s daughter in this contest. And of course, everyone knows that Sarah Palin is the figurehead, if not leader of that ultra right-wing movement.

I think that this fiasco is going to destroy an otherwise good entertainment... and if your sequel, “Skating With The Stars” has the same voting format, there will be abuses there too.

Let me suggest that in show business, democracy doesn’t work because networks don’t have the mechanisms needed to prevent abuse. ....and why should it? Good experienced judges should be better than asking the hoi-polli their opinions of something they don’t even understand beyond its entertainment value? If the show really is a dancing contest, obviously the best dancer should win over and above any other considerations.

Finally, let me say that when I see injustice, such as presented tonight, I no longer am entertained by your show and will consider other entertainment. I would hope that I am not alone and that someone will pay for the injustices imposed upon the celebrity contestants

The Dumbing of America is true!

Whew! This mid-term election is finally over... and what a sad event it was!

Seems the main complaint is the economy - and who we should blame. Our elected politicians,are the obvious choice... whomelse?

Of course, just ask any capitalist and she will tell you that it isn't the politicians who control the economy, it is big business, free enterprise, distribution of wealth, production of goods & services, the consumption of those goods... and of course, jobs.

In other words, it is the "private sector". Politicians have little influence beyond their highly controversial role in regulating business practices - and then, only those which become obvious to the public and don't jeopardize their chances for reelection.

So last night the great unwashed dumped Democrats out of the House and installed brand new shiny Tea Party Republicans with orders to change things, improve the economy, create jobs and "do not negotiate"! Well, sorry folks, but it just don't work that way!

I suspect we will be faced with two more years of congressional stagnation and frustration. Thank goodness Obama passed his most important and memorable legislation in the last year because nothing will get done in the next.

Of course, we all want the economy to get better, but it took ten years back in the thirties. Unfortunately, we have a "catch 22" situation which will tax our patience to unravel:

* The economy won't improve until people start buying stuff, spending their money on anything and everything to get the money wheel spinning. Seventy percent of our prosperity is consumer based. Our government (both parties) tried to do that with stimulus funding - and it was working... slowly. The economy has improved some - like 3%.

* IF companies have enough demand for their products, they will then, and NOT before then, start to hire workers, that is, if they can't get cheaper products to sell from China or India.

The problem is that unemployed workers will have to spend money they don't have to create sufficient demand to enable their being rehired! If the government doesn't continue priming the pump, we will never recover and America will become a 3rd world nation.

It also doesn't help that less than ten percent of Americans control most of the money available to jump-start the economy... and they ain't spending -- its in a can buried in the backyard! They don't need to spend, they already have everything.

It's odd to me that Americans don't seem to understand this.

What the Pope Knew...

I just finished watching CNN's documentary, "What the Pope Knew" - and although certainly not shocked by the revelations, was very surprised that such a news organization would take on the world's largest religion of 2.6 billion people!

Cults at the Jones Town level are much more comfortable for news exposés, especially since most of those victims are dead.

But, of course, religion is a large collection of cults. Some of those cults are benign or even constructive despite their having been built upon (I think) false premises. Others have horribly malevolent histories... especially, I’m sorry to say, the Catholic church. I don't have the space to list the attrocities committed by the church but I'm sure those of you who know her past history including the 'inquisition' period don't need to be reminded.

Religion seems to be important to many, if not most people. Recently a relative had their wedding ceremony in a Unitarian church because, although not members, thought it would be a good place for people of all denominations to assemble! So, perhaps Unitarianism is a good step toward religious freedom! However, it does profess to be a religion – as does Buddhism!

Religion, as President Jefferson knew, was beyond the province of government simply because no government can effectively mess with the indoctrinated beliefs of the masses! Fortunately, no one religion constitutes a majority and their religious beliefs and goals are so disparite that secular politics has a chance to suceed in their place, but it is always under siege!

So, what follows are a couple of opinions of the show I watched both pro and con.... enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaJE3_PYaCU

Catholics, Media, & Culture
Perspectives from the Crossroads by John W. Kennedy

I've spent the last three sessions of this blog running an interview with CNN's Gary Tuchman about his one-hour documentary entitled What the Pope Knew airing tonight at 8:00 PM ET.

As the title suggests it deals with the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church and, after watching an advance copy, I can tell you that I found it to be an excellent piece of journalism.

Though I could have done without the sometimes with unnecessarily dramatic background music, the reporting itself is seems rock solid and delivers the facts in a straightforward manner that is tough but fair.

Unfortunately, the facts do convincingly show that Pope Benedict XVI (when he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during the papal reign of John Paul II) did not do all he should have done when cases of alleged child sexual abuse by priests were brought to his attention. The strong suggestion being that then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was much more sensitive to the cause of protecting that Church's reputation than to the pain of the victims of child molestation.

On the other hand, the program (which, BTW, features an interview with Msgr. Charles Scicluna of the Vatican) does take care to note that as Pope, Benedict has charted a new course for the Church that much more aggressively deals with such allegations. He has also met privately with abuse victims and has publicly apologized for the Church's decades-long failure to adequately protect children in its care from priestly abusers.

Critics, of course, say that he still hasn't done enough and that, in any event, his chief concern is still protecting the image of the Church.

Who can know what's in a man's heart? But I choose to hope (and pray) that Benedict's heart has been truly opened to the pain of the victims. It wouldn't be the first time in history God chose someone who made serious mistakes in judgment to be a positive force for healing.

And, I pray that the victims too experience healing. It was a terrible thing that was done to them -- made worse by the Church not showing the concern and compassion it should have when the crimes occurred.

At the same time, I feel compelled to note that I have seen and experienced the compassion of good priests in my life -- priests who don't deserve to be tainted by the actions of some who were, tragically, allowed to repeatedly commit heinous crimes.

While the Church is far from perfect. There are occasions of hypocrisy and corruption that need dealt with. That's certainly true of any large organization and the way the sex abuse allegations were handled does constitute a scandal within the Church.

But it is also true that the Church is filled with many, many good people who sincerely devote their lives to God by serving His people. It is possible to acknowledge both truths.

Balance requires a willingness to admit and truly come to grips with what happened (so healing can begin and necessary reforms can be made) as well a realization that the Church stands for something that is good and solid and beyond the failings of even its leaders -- and that is the love and forgiveness offered to the world through Jesus Christ.

What the Pope Knew exposes a dark period in Church history to the healing power of light and truth. And, as all Christians know, the truth shall set us free.

For many years I’ve watched Larry King (CNN) because he is a great interviewer in that he lets the ‘other guy’ speak... and he listens. Now, I am not always thrilled by those he chooses to talk to and often, after checking, go to some other source of entertainment, but I always check.

Larry King is soon to be a ‘celeb’ of the past as he is leaving his spot on TV. This week he has booked an eclectic group of interviews for his final hours which so far has been interesting - that is until tonight!

It is one thing to interview politicians and personalities... and that is good box office. But when one gets into the area of international politics and, of all people, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... my God! King has guts! Ahmadinejad may look crummy and need a shave, but he is one smart cookie and was an academic before he entered Iranian politics.

Unfortunately he turned the tables and asked King leading questions about our American civil atrocities which even appeared worse than what we normally think of Iran! The interview was a disaster!

I suspect that Hillary would have been better able to handle Ahmadinejad, but certainly not Larry King! We should bear that in mind when we consider who is going to debate whom in the future! We do have some defenses, but King really was a fish out of water. It is obvious that a good interviewer is not necessarily a good debater!

King was not up to the challenge not only because he lacks the intellect of the President of Iran but he was also handicapped because he is Jewish. Normally he hides his religion or jokes about it, but in this case he became overly defensive of his religious beliefs and the Zionists of Israel who have always been hard for anyone to defend... I mean, the holocaust was a long time ago for most of us (not me, however) and did not happen in Palestine or present time Israel, but by a Catholic (Hitler was a staunch Catholic). Nor did it happen in the Middle East, but rather in northern Europe!