It seemed like the “in” joke for speakers at the Republican National Convention this evening was “Community Organizer”. Sarah Palin used it to poke fun of Barack Obama’s experience during her acceptance speech this evening. Rudy Giuliani (who miraculously kept his mention of 9/11 down to one instance!) used the “Community Organizer” dig with gusto to attack Obama’s experience and bolster Palin’s so-called “Executive” experience (another catch prhase for the evening).

It should come as no surprise that the Republicans are opposed to community organization. If they are going to keep their base, they have to disable the grass roots apparatus that can get past the media they own and get the word out to the working poor that they are voting against their own economic interest each time they vote Republican. (For an excellent analysis of this, please read Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant. An excellent book.)

It should also come as no surprise that in the run up to the Republican Convention, the police were rounding up and arresting activists and protesters and suspected protesters. Employing classic intimidation methods to discourage potential protests, they rounded people up, charged them with nothing, and released them without returning personal items such as journals, computers, and even a child’s shoes.

Take that community organizers! Nyah!

NLG Attorney explains the series of raids

Organizers gather in the street after being ejected during police searches

Journalist Amy Goodman caught up by overzealous police and arrested while covering protests

And, finally, police confiscate the bus/home and personal belongings of a group of sustainable living hippies… including the dangerous child’s shoes! (But let them keep their dogs and chickens, apparently underestimating and overlooking the potential risk of biological warfare via avian flu.)

Language? Sentience?

What is it that makes us human? While we acknowledge that we are animals, vertebrates, mammals, what is it that separates us from the other animals? What sets us apart? Is it unique to us?

I don’t know the answers. And this video doesn’t answer them. But it raises those questions and so many more. The narrator is a little hokey, and I wish I’d been able to hear more from Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh, but it’s worth your time.

On his July 20 broadcast of Larry King Live, the CNN personality featured Robert Hastings, author of “UFOs and Nukes“, along with three retired Air Force personnel claiming that Unidentified Flying Objects had a keen interest in our burgeoning nuclear capacity. Among their claims are that UFOs caused missile malfunctions at Malmstrom Air Force base in 1967, and were even caught on film by Bob Jacobs during the filming of missile tests at Vandenberg Air Force base, but the films were confiscated by the CIA. You can watch a full YouTube version of the video by clicking on our “Video of the Week” link, or see the shorter version on the official CNN site by clicking here.

This isn’t the first time Larry King has used his show as a forum for discussing the UFO phenomenon. In November of 2007, for example, his program focused on the topic with a show entitled “UFOs: Are They for Real?”

(Part 1 of this episode linked here via YouTube)

However, while a part of me wants to applaud King for the courage to discuss UFOs in a public forum, my problem with King’s program, and most other treatments of the UFO phenomenon available on US television and across the width and breadth of the internet, is an extremely narrow focus on the Extra Terrestrial Hypothesis (ETH). Proponents of the ETH generally support the idea that UFOs are physical vehicles piloted, or remotely controlled, by intelligent beings assumed to be from another planet. Read more »

Interviews with American soldiers from Iraq.