Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

My 3D-model and graphic posted on Wikipedia over two years ago and now being published and broadcast all around the world are generally not being credited. I am especially unhappy with AFP news agency (Agence France-Presse) which is giving credit to everyone else besides "Truthdowser". The Daily Telegraph has managed to do so, why can't AFP?

Will the Real Truthdowser Please Stand Up

Just a note to point out that the "Truthdowser" of Wikipedia is a lot more objective than the "Truthdowser" of this blog.

Why? Because to quote Wikipedia:

"Neutral point of view (NPOV) is a fundamental Wikimedia principle and a cornerstone of Wikipedia."

Regrets that the blog has gone silent so long. I've needed a break and have been working on other things. Also the Obama "Hope" meme got me to calm down some... for a while anyway.

Now, back to other objective, and not so objective pursuits...

Best Regards, Truthdowser, Third rock from the sun (Sol), Orion Spur of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion. ~ Abraham Maslow

Who Owns America?

One quote sums up what has been happening to our Democracy... and I borrow it from "Atrios" of the website/blog "Eschaton".

"Conservative" Neocon enablers, who like to accuse reasonable Americans of being some sort of radical socialists, please pay attention...

"profits are (being) privatized and losses are (being) socialized"

Atrios uses this to describe how the American taxpayers are now bailing-out greedy private speculators who are in trouble and are also helping to bring down our economy. In this example; Bear Sterns.

History is not going to be kind to how utterly stupid we have been.

Eschaton article

screaming evidence the plutocracy controls everything...(...or at least tries to. )

Fellow Americans: do you still think we live in a free country? Get real.

BBC News "International Whistle-blower website blocked in the United States"

"Bank Julius Bär secures a permanent injunction against the domain registrar for Wikileaks, making the website unavailable." -- Wikinews, February 18

Harvard Law School's David Ardia has stated that the shutdown represents "prior restraint in the most extreme fashion".
References
Wikileaks.org

Wikipedia entry on Wikileaks

Julius Baer Group, Zurich Switzerland (the plaintiff against the Whistle-blower site)

"Is our children learning... geography?"

I did a screen capture this morning of Wolf Blitzer's "Late Edition" while Wolf was interviewing Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad. His CNN graphic places Pakistan on the African continent! No wonder U.S. foreign policy is such a mess.


("Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" --Pres. George W. Bush, Jan. 11, 2000)

"Humour Intelligence" Required

You've probably heard about the importance of "Emotional Intelligence".... well, today I'm presuming to add the significance of something I'm calling "Humour Intelligence". (A quick "googling" didn't bring up that phrase.)

From the article in Wikipedia on Humour... "It has been postulated that the laughter/feel-good element of humour is a biological function that helps one deal with the new, expanded point of view."

....and then an insightful quote found at the website of George Monbiot, the author for whom right-wing fomenters apparently revived the "Librul Moonbat" epithet...

"Tell people something they know already and
they will thank you for it...
Tell them something new and they will hate you for it."

My theory is that those who follow "conservative", authoritarian, mean, war-mongering types have low "humour intelligences", and so when told of something new, they hate you for it. This makes them blind to the appeal of "new" ideas like progressive humanism for instance, instead behaving nastily in reaction.

So I propose rather than sending the kiddies to Sunday-school, that they attend classes in Humour-Intelligence. Among many aspects of this program one could imagine, it must of course be reinforced with strict performance requirements and frequent testing.

We could call it "Left's Kid Pushed Ahead".
(Just don't ask me to support funding for it...)

Nod to Marc Maron (of Air America Radio) (870 AM locally) for inspiration, like his "Guerilla Standup Videos" although these don't reveal his political brilliance so much. (scroll down to video clips.)

Gerald Bracey on "No Child Left Behind" via the Huffington Post.

(Christmas/Winter Solstice/Yule humor card artwork by Yours Truly)

Congratulations America!

Seems there has been something of an awakening today. It's been a hellish six years. NOW CAN WE GET ON WITH STUFF, please?
Best, Truthdowser     (NASA photo of STS-66, tweaked by me.)