Sodium bicarbonate in the form of baking soda: cheap medicine for maintaining a favorable acid-base balance in human metabolism. So many things can throw this balance off, that it's silly not to have some baking soda on hand--for any home or field hospital. The article recommends that we stock up with some 25-30 pounds of the stuff. There are some other good ideas in here too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/urizenus-sklar/understanding-conspiracy-_b_793463.html
Understanding Conspiracy: The Political Philosophy of Julian Assange
by Urizenus Sklar

thanks to skyojos for leading me to this

en·thy·meme   [en-thuh-meem]
–noun, Logic.
= a syllogism or other argument in which a premise or the conclusion is unexpressed

There's fear and consternation on the conservative side that this bill, introduced by Rockefeller, will give Obama the power to shut down the internet. On the other hand, the goal of the bill is to address security threats and provide all US internet users with a higher level of security for our data. So the question is, are there national borders in the internet, and do we want our country to protect them for us?
( links as food for thoughtCollapse )

I don't know if you watched this testimony of a young pastor who got harassed and beaten by border patrol. They said a dog alerted on his car, and told him he was under arrest. He refused to get out of the car because they wouldn't tell him what he was being arrested for, and he did not believe that the dog had alerted on his car. For the record, there was nothing illegal in the car. This three minute blip below is some footage he shot from inside the car, and then a big of the border patrol footage shot from over head as they are hauling him out of the vehicle. If you're not already following this story, the original report is more informative. This story illustrates how dearly individuals may pay for demanding to be treated according to law, instead of bowing down to police who are operating out of their scope.

Nice NYT article here. As the Obama "transition team" (containing a few Clintonites) is working their way through the Whitehouse, preparing for the incoming staff, they are sworn to secrecy. "But few can contain their amazement, chiefly at the sheer increase in the size of the defense and national-security apparatus." Seems like the innards of the Whitehouse has been revamped in the style of a star ship. The Situation Room has secure video connections to US military commanders around the world, putting the "decider" in chief squarely into the military mindset and timeframe. So much for diplomacy, eh? The Department of Homeland Security, the sprawling new department which seems intent upon watching US has mushroomed into something quite large. I am relieved to hear that the new head of that Dept will be Janet Napolitano of Arizona. I liked her as Attorney General of AZ. She was straightforward, realistic, and fearless. Progressives in AZ have hopes that she will go far. Janet pledged to obstruct Shrub's Real ID (national driver's license) program, and now she is in charge of it. If we do end up with a national license and ID, it will be more reasonable because of her.

I don't think the TV guy has much of a clue, but maybe you do.
Thanks to rinku for keeping me up to date.

Pelosi has told Shrub we should boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in China to protest their poor human rights record. Merckel (Germany) and Sarcozy (France) are already planning to boycott.
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Interesting discussion here of the REAL ID act, issued yesterday by the DHS. National level ID cards slated for every citizen starting in May 2008!! They work fast, and I have not heard this discussed before today. How can this Department just issue edicts like this? What is our congress doing? Why haven't I heard about this?

A post by a man I read carefully.

Here's the text of the document:
nprm.realid.pdf