hey folks!
First, some contest news.
I've agreed to feature the winner of
Abandoned Places, a contest being hosted by ~
otsego-amigo and *
Karakuji. The deadline for this contest is November 11, so get your urbex-loving asses over there and submit a photo!
Also I will be a judge in the
Big Cats contest being hosted by ~
leocbrito. The deadline is November 7 and there are some very nice entries already. What are you waiting for?
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Ok here's my soapbox issue today... and please remember I'm not trying to piss anyone off.
I've been watching with great interest the election campaign in the United States. My interest stems from the fact that the rest of the free world looks to America for solid leadership on global issues... not always because they are morally or even ideologically correct... but because they have the biggest gun... and
used to have the fattest wallet (they apparently still have the biggest credit card).
My main issue? ... Global warming.
I was greatly appalled by something I heard during the vice-presidential debate the other night. Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and Republican running mate of John McCain, managed to (between her cutesy winks and scripted lines) utter some of the most incredibly ignorant rhetoric ever to leave the mouth of a politician.
When asked about global warming and its causes she denied that man was playing a significant role. She went on to blame the cyclical effect of planetary climate swings.
Well I thought she had just blown it right there. Game over. But then as the news organizations replayed the debate, they showed a room full of Republicans actually BOOING Joe Biden (Palin's opponent) when he stated flat out that the problem was man-caused.
...eyes wide shut.
So my question is this:
If one doesn't believe that global warming is caused by man, then what is one's rationale or motivation for trying to curb emissions and take the world down the green path?In other words, does the Republican ticket take global warming seriously? Do they believe it can be solved? Do they even want to TRY to solve it!?
Maybe all they offer is lip service.
Food for thought, my American friends (at least those of you who care about solving global warming), to consider when you walk into the polling booth in November.
For more on this issue please check out this interesting and informative journal my dear friend =
jocarra wrote back in April:
A few notes on global warming...end rant.</sub>
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Well it sure is nice to be back and able to spend more time here at deviantART. I just want to say a HUGE thanks to all the people who have supported my photography, bought my prints, and added me to their watch lately.
Love Y'all!
Skinner
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'A Gift of Seasons - 2009'a brand new calendar featuring some of my better landscape-format prints suitable for the seasons. I hope you will consider it as a gift for a loved one perhaps... a gift of seasons. 
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`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
Theme
.
this journal 
But of course there are always the rules......
Please please please fave the journal!
Make another journal about this giveaway and provide a link of that journal in the comments (this will help spread the word about this giveaway)
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I was glad to see that we chose the right ticket for the White House; now what we need to do is hope that the American people don't see him as a messiah, that they instead embrace him as a leader and keep their momentum with the goal of change. I'm not sure Americans are ready to do that, to self-examine and realize that they have to change their ways on a number of fronts to accomplish all the things they claim they want to see done.
I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, only the lantern which will light our way.
Let's have a look at CO2 emission:
[link]
Okay...USA does indeed lead the emission wolfpack. But let's face it; it's a big country. So let's check CO2 emission per citizen. That would help a lot.
The world now has roughly 6.800 million people. USA has roughly 310 million. Rounded numbers oc.
[link]
That means, that USA represents 4,6% of the worlds population. Cute *lol*
A rough calculation says, that every single American emisses 4 times more CO2, than his/her fellow world citizen does. I think that THAT is a global issue.
So I am to accept that barely 5% of the worlds population, represents 25% of the global CO2 emission, that makes polar ice melt and flood my country? And also that they don't care? I don't think so
I think that any normal American would think: no way I will participate in that. I think that Americans WANTS to change that.
Now, who they will elect, is not up to me. I just have my hopes. And there's no way that CO2 emission doesn't affect the climate. It is proven already, so the Alaskan woman has to do another drug.
And I love your wallet/credit card analogy - so apt it made me chuckle
I am not saying we are not a big cause!! Certainly we are. (But what REALLY are the long term effects?)
Cutting timber and the new lands being cleared in the Amazon (the lungs of the world) is not a good thing. Even their dams backfired on them and are making methane!
The world has been more ice free in the past, it has also had big swings of freeze and thaw which caused huge flooding issues (new research).
I cannot believe that Palin will be taken seriously. I cannot take McCain seriously. I hope the other candidate is up to the crud which Washington can dish out!!
I don't know if you dabble in sciences for the layman or not, but Thunderbolts is a great forum, and you can check the Photo of the Day for an introduction.
It is a cutting edge theory place, and they may have more information on Global Warming Research and past Global cycles .. I have not been there over the summer.
My Brother is a Republican and while I don't understand it, I love him anyway.
I will also say that there are some republicans that are gluttons for punishment and abuse and once upon a time i could exploit that but meh.
What I am saying is that the Republicans that are in charge, who favor tax breaks for the wealthy and who believe that the environment will magically heal itself, that they can keep acting as they always have with no regard for the future, are the ones well off enough not to need to worry, because when the first opportunity to ditch the barren wasteland this little blue-green marble will become.... They will be the ones with money enough to get on the ship leaving us grunts to suffer in what they created, and fostered,
Its not a generalization against all republicans, but just my humble analysis of the situation.
Even a rat has a way out of a bad situation.
That means I don't beleive that the by and large Republican vote I am casting is going to end in the destruction of the environment. I am under the impression that, while not as focused on that issue as many Democrats, the leaders I vote for do have a genuine interest in that issue as well.
Again, I may be completely wrong in this assumption and I could very well be doing the 'wrong' thing. However, I chose to act on my beleifes of what these leaders will do. It wasn't out of money grubbing, I am no big company, nor am I mentally challenged. Neither are a vast majority of my "party." We, like you, take our beleifes and act upon them, especially when we step into the voting booth. I do not resent you for acting out the way you beleive you should, and indeed I think you play an intrigal part of society when you act in such a way.
What I plead for people to understand is that members of the party opposite them are not retarded, are generally not evil people, and actually DO care about many of the same issues. It tends to be the way we each are depicted (AKA: cameras focused on radicals) that give the opposite party a bad view on each other.
We are not stupid, neither are you. We're all just doing the best we can with what we're given.
However, The leaders of your party hold on to beliefs that fly in the face of ,
1) Progression
2) Common decency
3) Any Sense of fair play
I also find Higher Tier members of your party to be Hypocritical. I find. This is not guilt by association, as you prove to be a worthy intellectual adversary, however.
I find that the republican party as a whole Tramples on the founding principles of this nation at will to satisfy its own agendas, wants, needs, and greed.
Whether they are financial, personal, religious, but For the most part, as with human nature it comes back to wealth and power.
One example is The Republican Vice presidential Nominee Alaskan Gov. Palin. How dare she Demand privacy for her Daughter in the situation she is in (being an unwed, pregnant teen) When She fundamentally believes and deionizes millions of American women who make the same choice as her daughter?
Is forcing her to marry the boy the right thing for her political career, or the right thing for her daughter? She is in opposition of a woman's right to exercise her reproductive rights.
Another Example is Our current president Lied to the American people REPEATEDLY to get us into an unpopular war. He went against Many voices in American Government, as well as the Global community's voices on charged he KNEW to be false. This administration first tried to silence the truth, and then blatantly embraced years later once the damage was done.
Yet I see no one trying to impeach him - yet The previous president, had an extra marital affair - A PRIVATE MATTER between him, his wife and the third party. and for that reason he was investigated, and impeachment proceeding were put into place because he denied having sex with her.
That brings me to scientific Research. There are diseases that can be cured. But those in power( on both sides granted but statistically, look at the affiliations of the higher ups in those pharmaceutical companies, you'll find a disturbing trend of their political concerns... )
block research because it is not cost effective, but the real reason is the money question. if the disease is cured, then there is no need to treat it.
I won't even go there with human rights, I am a proud member of the Gay/ Bisexual community , and I find republican policies disgusting.
The financial picture for the nation is scary when you think that the next president, just 20 years ago was personally involved in the Savings and Loan fiasco that Nearly shut the United states down, and had it sold the Japan.
All of this gets me back to the issue at hand, the environment. Those Upper tier Republicans could see the polar ice caps melting, but if there is money to be made ignoring the situation and denying its cause, They would do it.
The oil and Auto industries have had a symbiotic relationship for years, but there were hybrid cars long before now, back in the 60's to be exact. they rest in an unmarked area of the Nevada dessert.
Truth is We have seen this kind of behavior before It was called the Regan/Bush Years. and With this repeat performance, We are worse off now than we were on December 31st 1999
But again that is my opinion. you have a right to yours.
Sorry for the long rant
With the health care, people on either side admit to corruption in that arena, and people on either side of the political divide work their asses off every day to root it out.
As for the gay/bi issue (and undoubtedly the most inflamatory issue, in this debate at the least) those generally on the Republican side beleive that the issue has moral consequences. Now hear me out before snapping back too quickly on this one. It is simply a fact that to many people the issue is moral. To the point those of your community, if I am not mistaken, also take this as a moral issue as well, specifically one of human rights. That repression and segregation is an intolerable act of cruelty and backwards thinking. But always always ALWAYS remember that someone on the other side is just as deeply concerned about the issue as you are.
My point that I am labouriously (and undoubtedly paiting a target on myself as I do so) is that no matter how strongly you feel utterly and thoughroughly convinved that you are right about an issue or topic, there is another person who feels just as convinced and right as you do, but on the opposite side. Some of those issues allow for opposing views to live together, others have a definet right or wrong side that we simply cannot see as of now. HOWEVER, until on those points people are willing to coinceed the point that it is POSSIBLE that they are wrong, which every single human on Earth has the capacity to be, there can never be a true debate, only mindless bickering.
That is what first sparked my interest in this journal. Skinner's photos and work are astonishing, and he is an authority in that field, no doubt about it. However, as is the case in many of these instances when a great artist posts such a journal, many people will jump along because they can post eloquently. More than anything I think I felt the need to point out that even people as thoughtful and well-intended as Skinner have just as much capacity to be mistaken as I do, as does Obama, as McCain, or freaking Ghandi.