Click above title for the movie link (full-length) or rent it.
"Watch this. Get your friends to watch it. Talk about it. Argue about it. And then call someone." - George Clooney
Above is a nice summary of the movie by CNN.
NO END IN SIGHT, based on the Iraq War, was nominated for an Oscar this year for Best Documentary. Charles Ferguson, political science professor, createdthe documentary without a narrator or fancy story-telling but rather by a compilation of interviews with Iraq-War insiders. This is what makes the film so powerful, the fact that the story is being told first-hand from the inside. He gathered over 200 hours of footage and interviews with former Bush-administration officials, soldiers, journalists and academics who were working in the war in Baghdad or Washington.
After I watched this film I felt like sharing it with every American because it truly reinforced the importance of the Right to Vote. How disastrous the results can be, for our country and the world, when electing the wrong incapable candidate for President.
Watch it! Click the blog title above for the full-length movie link.
Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio's - The 11 th Hour Film "A Tale of Ancient Sunlight & Global Warming"
Well, by now we have all heard about Global Warming, but I have often wondered what I can do in my daily life to reduce it? Well here is an article I found with all the details. Collectively, we can make a difference!
Top 10 Things You Can Do to Reduce Global Warming
1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Do your part to reduce waste by choosing reusable products instead of disposables. Buying products with minimal packaging (including the economy size when that makes sense for you) will help to reduce waste. And whenever you can, recycle paper, plastic, newspaper, glass and aluminum cans. If there isn't a recycling program at your workplace, school, or in your community, ask about starting one. By recycling half of your household waste, you can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. zSB(3,3) Sponsored Links
2. Use Less Heat and Air Conditioning. Adding insulation to your walls and attic, and installing weather stripping or caulking around doors and windows can lower your heating costs more than 25 percent, by reducing the amount of energy you need to heat and cool your home. Turn down the heat while you’re sleeping at night or away during the day, and keep temperatures moderate at all times। Setting your thermostat just 2 degrees lower in winter and higher in summer could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.
3. Change a Light BulbWherever practical, replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Replacing just one 60-watt incandescent light bulb with a CFL will save you $30 over the life of the bulb. CFLs also last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, use two-thirds less energy, and give off 70 percent less heat. If every U।S. family replaced one regular light bulb with a CFL, it would eliminate 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gases, the same as taking 7.5 million cars off the road.
4. Drive Less and Drive Smart driving means fewer emissions. Besides saving gasoline, walking and biking are great forms of exercise. Explore your community’s mass transit system, and check out options for carpooling to work or school. When you do drive, make sure your car is running efficiently. For example, keeping your tires properly inflated can improve your gas mileage by more than 3 percent. Every gallon of gas you save not only helps your budget, it also keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. 5. Buy Energy-Efficient Products. When it's time to buy a new car, choose one that offers good gas mileage. Home appliances now come in a range of energy-efficient models, and compact florescent bulbs are designed to provide more natural-looking light while using far less energy than standard light bulbs. Avoid products that come with excess packaging, especially molded plastic and other packaging that can't be recycled। If you reduce your household garbage by 10 percent, you can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.
6. Use Less Hot Water. Set your water heater at 120 degrees to save energy, and wrap it in an insulating blanket if it is more than 5 years old. Buy low-flow showerheads to save hot water and about 350 pounds of carbon dioxide yearly. Wash your clothes in warm or cold water to reduce your use of hot water and the energy required to produce it. That change alone can save at least 500 pounds of carbon dioxide annually in most households. Use the energy-saving settings on your dishwasher and let the dishes air-dry।
7. Use the "Off" Switch. Save electricity and reduce global warming by turning off lights when you leave a room, and using only as much light as you need. And remember to turn off your television, video player, stereo and computer when you're not using them. It's also a good idea to turn off the water when you're not using it। While brushing your teeth, shampooing the dog or washing your car, turn off the water until you actually need it for rinsing. You'll reduce your water bill and help to conserve a vital resource.
8. Plant a Tree. If you have the means to plant a tree, start digging। During photosynthesis, trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. They are an integral part of the natural atmospheric exchange cycle here on Earth, but there are too few of them to fully counter the increases in carbon dioxide caused by automobile traffic, manufacturing and other human activities. A single tree will absorb approximately one ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime.
9. Get a Report Card from Your Utility Company. Many utility companies provide free home energy audits to help consumers identify areas in their homes that may not be energy efficient। In addition, many utility companies offer rebate programs to help pay for the cost of energy-efficient upgrades.
10. Encourage Others to Conserve. Share information about recycling and energy conservation with your friends, neighbors and co-workers, and take opportunities to encourage public officials to establish programs and policies that are good for the environment.
These 10 steps will take you a long way toward reducing your energy use and your monthly budget. And less energy use means less dependence on the fossil fuels that create greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming.
-From: Larry West on About.com
So, now you know a few simple ways you can contribute to caring for our earth. Was the "reducing garbage" one a surprise to you? It was for me. I did not realize garbage and landfills (where all our garbage ends up) released high carbon emissions. So, I will definitely be more conscious of what I throw in the garbage and think twice before ordering or serving myself food I can't finish that ends up in the garbage. Plus, I will stop going to restaurants that serve obnoxiously large amounts of food ("All you can eat" Buffets, NexxtCafé, etc.) I will also turn off my AC/heater when I leave the house and when I get home I might just open the windows and not use it at all for one week. Lets see how that goes!
What efforts will you make to reduce Global Warming tomorrow?? Let us know in the comment box.
Further explanation on how we can advance counter-terror.
The struggle against Islamic-based terrorism will be not simply a military campaign but a battle for public opinion in the Islamic world, among our allies, and in the United States. Osama bin Laden understands that he cannot defeat or even incapacitate the United States in a conventional war. What he and his allies can do is inflict enough pain to provoke a reaction of the sort we've seen in Iraq-- a botched and ill-advised U.S. military incursion into a Muslim country, which in turn spurs on insurgencies based on religious sentiment and nationalist pride, which in turn necessitates a lengthy and difficult U.S. occupation, which in turn leads to an escalating death toll on the part of U.S. troops and the local civilian population. All of this fans anti-American sentiment among Muslims, increases the pool of potential terrorists recruits.
That's the plan for Bin Laden for winning the war from a cave, and so far, at least, we are playing to script. To change the script, we'll need to make sure that any exercises of American military power helps rather than hinders our broader goals: to incapacitate the destructive potential of terrorists networks and win this global battle of ideas.
After spending this Easter weekend in Rome I have been thinking alot about religion and extremists who use religion to poetically justify their extreme ideas.
Above, I have a link to my favorite speech regarding east and west by Queen Rania, at the California Women's Conference, emphasizing a sentiment I feel we all, as Americans, need to embrace in order to battle the current trends of terrorism.
I feel our first step to truly battle terrorism from the mid-east is to eliminate the stereotypes and discrimination towards Muslims here in the west.
It is often said that the KKK is to Christianity what Islamic Extremists is to Muslims. They have almost the same correlation. So, if you are Christian hopefully by considering that it might further open your perspective to this situation. Here are some estimated facts.
There are 200 Million Christians in America.
and 5 Million KKK members in the United States (In the 1920's). Today there are a 3,500 thousand KKK members.(or Christian Extremists)
There are 1.5 Billion Muslims in the world.
and 2,000 thousand Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq.
There are 44 Million people in Colombia
16,000 thousand FARC terrorists.
Colombia has a higher ratio of terrorists in their country than Al Qaeda does in Iraq. Colombians are not as foreign to us here in the West therefore we rightfully do not make stereotypes of them. We acknowledge their beautiful community fairly and we do not identify them by the few terrorists present in their region. We feel true sentiment and anguish when we see Colombia's people suffer as a result of terrorism. I wish we could find this same sincere sentiment for Iraqis and all Arab countries half-way around the world from us who are suffering due to the mis-managed war our president began. That same great sentiment we find for our courageous troops.
As a Christian Moderate, myself I do not want those in the east to assume all Christians have the same ideals as the Christian extremists in the KKK. And I think it is our duty not to make the same assumptions about those religions foreign to us.
I often hear on some cable news station, like Fox news, careless comments such as, "THEY are terrorists over there, in Iraq" or "THOSE people." They have to be more careful with their wording if not they are just promoting prejudices. (They should rather be politically correct and refer to Al Qaeda as Religious Islamic-Based Extremists.) Comments like this are isolating billions of Muslims who are not terrorists and are just placing them in the same pool as Al Qaeda. Put, yourself in their shoes, wouldn't that make you very, very upset? If we continue making these stereotypes we will only fan the flames of Anti-Americanism in the East.
"It is not the exremists that define a religion it is the moderates." - Queen Rania
We, the moderates in the Christian and Muslim religions must build a relationship so we can unite to eliminate terrorism. There is no other solution, Americans can not do it alone. East and West needs to join forces, Muslims and Christians need to join hands as Global Citizens in the pursuit of peace in our world. So, we need to reach-out to the Arab community and prove to them that we do not identify all followers of Islam by the actions of a few. We and the Media need to stop making generalizations and let's prove to extremist leaders, like Osama bin Laden, that they're wrong and that the West is a free democracy that promotes peace and human rights worldwide. We are in a "global war of ideas" and I feel like America might just be losing after the actions of the current White House administration. That is why all americans need to desperately take positive actions like this, no matter how small, to counteract the violence we have caused in the arab region in the past decade. There is no way to "win" this war in Iraq, but there is a way to "win" this "global war of ideas" and it begins with human compassion and education on the subject.
"Let's be a global citizen, understanding that others are like you then you want for others what you want for yourself" -Queen Rania
Video by Tariq
Examples of Americans and Iraqis working together:
