(thanks to http://gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2015-articles/16183-monsanto-wants-to-move-to-switzerland-why-is-obama-doing-it-favours from May 2015)
A public interest attorney and author has challenged Monsanto to find any inaccuracies in his new book on the risks of GM (genetically modified) foods and the deceit used in marketing them to world markets. If they don't, the logical conclusion is that their products risky and should be banned. The book (by Steven Druker) is titled “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public”.
(thanks to http://www.globalresearch.ca/altered-genes-twisted-truth-monsantos-silence-is-deafening/5469745)
And the response Steven Druker received from Monsanto was . . . Silence! Maybe Monsanto hopes that by ignoring Druker, he and his book will quickly fade from public memory. They have, however or late, been quite busy fighting lawsuits, trying to influence legislation by pouring money into campaigns, attacking critics, infiltrating public bodies, pouring more money into its PR spin machine, funding ‘travel expenses’ for pro-GM scientists, lobbying the EU to try to get GMOs into Europe, mounting a campaign against WHO-associated scientists, fighting a rear-guard action in Argentina, managing its profits courtesy of the massive subsidies given to US farmers, working with the Gates Foundation to uproot indigenous agriculture in Africa or cementing its grip in Ukraine on the back of the US-led coup there.
(and thanks to http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/obama_signs_monsanto_protection_ act_time_to_label_gmos/) Remember,t President Barack Obama signed H.R. 933, which contained the Monsanto Protection Act, into law. The President knowingly signed the act over the urgent pleas from over 250,000 Americans who asked that he veto it. But alas, he failed to live up to his oath to protect the American people and our constitution . . . and very few Obama fans, or critics for that matter (who find it more compelling to question his place of birth) now seem to remember. . .
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(from Wikipedia.com)
". . .Even at a young age, Carter was able to bring a new vocal style to jazz. The breathiness of her voice was a characteristic seldom seen before her appearance on the music scene. She also was well known for her passion for scat singing and her strong belief that the throwaway attitude that most jazz musicians approached it with was inappropriate and wasteful due to its spontaneity and basic inventiveness, seldom seen elsewhere.In 1977, (BETTY)Carter reached a new high in fame for herself, being lauded by critics, media, and fans for her talent, and even teaching a master class with her past mentor, Dizzy Gillespie, at Harvard. In the last decade of her life, Carter began to receive even wider acclaim and recognition. In 1987 she signed with Verve Records, who reissued most of her Bet-Car albums on CD for the first time and made them available to wider audiences. In 1988 she won a Grammy for her album Look What I Got! and sang in a guest appearance on The Cosby Show (episode "How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?"). In 1994 she performed at the White House and was a headliner at Verve's 50th anniversary celebration in Carnegie Hall. She was the subject of a 1994 short film by Dick Fontaine, Betty Carter: New All the Time. . .
. . .In 1997 she was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton. This award was one of thousands, but Carter considered this medal to be her most important that she received in her lifetime. . .
Carter continued to perform, tour, and record, as well as search for new talent until she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 1998. Betty Carter died on September 26, 1998, at the age of 69, and was later cremated.
Legacy
Carter often recruited young accompanists for performances and recordings, insisting that she "learned a lot from these young players, because they're raw and they come up with things that I would never think about doing."
1993 was Carter's biggest year of innovation, creating a program called Jazz Ahead, which took 20 students who were given the opportunity to spend an entire week training and composing with Carter, a program that still exists to this day and is hosted in The Kennedy Center.
Betty Carter is considered responsible for discovering great jazz talent, her list including such names as John Hicks, Curtis Lundy, Mulgrew Miller, Cyrus Chestnut, Dave Holland, Stephen Scott, Kenny Washington, Benny Green and more. . .
"One cannot embrace true vocal jazz without embracing Betty Carter. I think most singers develop along the lines of imitation, assimilation and hopefully innovation. Not many can boast having achieved the latter. None would argue that Betty did, and that she held the doors open for anyone who would enter." -Vanessa Rubin
"She was a great inspiration, and she always had her own individual approach to things. Betty wasn't interested in getting a hit record; she was more faithful to the tradition of the music for the sake of the best that you could possibly be. A lot of people would comment about how tough she was, but what I got out of that was her demand for excellence." -John Hicks (played piano with Carter 1966–1968, 1974–1980)
"She was like a big sister to me. I learned more about how to play the drums from Betty Carter than I have from some drummers! She was the epitome of a serious, strong jazz artist – strong woman. When you came off her bandstand, you'd be wringing your shirt out! You ain't gonna sit up there and look cute – she'd kick your ass more than a horn player. Betty was phenomenal!" -Greg Bandy (drums: 1973; 1980-'82). . ."
Pam and Harrison are the sports fans in the family and I would venture to say that their two favorite sports are baseball and football (the American one). I can understand the former much better than the latter. I would never go to sleep lulled by the mellifluous tones of the baseball broadcasters by choice but the other night. . . I did. Pam fell asleep as the Orioles and Rays began their extra innings. I slept fitfully but managed to make enough sense of the broadcast each time I awoke to know that it was still undecided. About 2:05 and 18 innings since the game began, I heard the bad news (for Baltimore fans). . . the Os lost.
(from http://www.peterga.com/baseball/quotes/the_game.htm)
Mark Twain
Baseball is the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive and push and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century.
W.P. Kinsella
It is the same game that Moonlight Graham played in 1905. It is a living part of history, like calico dresses, stone crockery, and threshing crews eating at outdoor tables. It continually reminds us of what was, like an Indian-head penny in a handful of new coins.
Bernard Malamud:
The whole history of baseball has the quality of mythology.
John Cheever
The poet or storyteller who feels that he is competing with a superb double play in the World Series is a lost man. One would not want as a reader a man who did not appreciate the finesse of a double play.
Roger Angell, "Agincourt and After," Five Seasons:
It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitative as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look -- I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -- caring deeply and passionately, really caring -- which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete -- the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazard flight of a distant ball -- seems a small price to pay for such a gift.
8 year-old Jewish boy, quoted in "The Children's God", (Psychology Today Dec. 1985)
I don't know if this is what you're asking. But I feel closest to God, like after I'm rounding second base after I hit a double.
James Thurber
The majority of American males put themselves to sleep by striking out the batting order of the New York Yankees.
Norman Cousins
At a Dodger baseball game in Los Angeles, I asked Will Durant if he was ninety-four or ninety-five. "Ninety-four," he said. "You don't think I'd be doing anything as foolish as this if I were ninety-five, do you?"
I know you heard some talk today
It wasn't right but now
She won't be gettin' in my way
'Cause she was telling lies they say
It wasn't right but now
I can look the other way
And do as I please
I'm down on my knees
I'm begging you please
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
With thousands of adoring fans
I tripped the light fantastic
Was nothing more than sleight of hand
Don't underestimate my worth
I tripped the light fantastic
I'm just an ordinary man
I worked very hard
For all that I've got
A killer I'm not
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Heroes run so slow
Just like the tide
Heroes want to take you
They want to take you for a
They want to take you for a
They want to take you for a ride
They're waiting here with baited breath
What is the actual story
They'll love him or they'll give him death
The verdict seems so clear to some
What is the actual story
He's dead before he's lost or won
The worst of his fears
A jury of peers
Can't turn back the years
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
Why does a hero run so slow
Like he's got no place to go
And he will never be a hero again
My brother-in-law came to the house last Sunday to watch a football game. He lives on the outskirts of the metropolitan area and is does not, as a result, have the games of our local NFL franchise available on his cable television broadcast schedule. Now this may sound like a very ordinary situation to you. Brother-in-law visits brother-in-law, the guys watch the game together with a few beers, maybe a pizza and pretzels, right?
Well most of it's right. The only wrong part of the picture is the 'guys' part, at least literally. You see, the two football fans that enjoyed the game together were my brother-in-law and my wife. My wife and my two younger sons are the only football fans in the family. Our eldest and myself would rather. . . be doing just about anything else. So as my wife and her brother were screaming at the television, I walked through the room. He said, "Ray, I guess you're not really interested in this game are you?" to which I responded, "You could tell, huh?" (not rudely, mind you.) To my brilliant remark he responded, "I guess you're the only normal one here."
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