This little video put a smile on my face... BRILLIANT!!! Just brilliant!!!

Former Representative Pete Hoekstra (R) who is running for the US Senate hired Lisa Chan to portray someone in China who was ostensibly thanking his opponent for sending jobs to China.  This ad caused quite an uproar, even garnering criticism from other Republicans. Not long after the ad was aired the actress issued this apology.

I am deeply sorry for any pain that the character I portrayed brought to my communities. As a recent college grad who has spent time working to improve communities and empower those without a voice, this role is not in any way representative of who I am. It was absolutely a mistake on my part and one that, over time, I hope can be forgiven. I feel horrible about my participation and I am determined to resolve my actions.
- Lisa Chan

I feel this is a pretty darned good example of an apology.

Most of us have heard that "The people have spoken" bit. In his victory speech last week, Rick Santorum offered this advice to President Obama.

You better start listening to the voice of the people.

The voice of WHICH people, Mr. Santorum? This "The People" terminology automatically disenfranchises half the country. It suggests only "The People" who share his views are real American citizens. We frequently hear this kind of language from John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and others in the Republican party.

First I want to offer my thanks to Physicist-retired and Pacific Northwest Blogger for their inspiration and encouragement to write this article. In PR's article PNWB provided a link to What NASA's Blue Marble Photo Reveals About Climate Change. The author of the Blue Marble article said a couple of things which ultimately became the inspiration for my comments in PR's article and this article.

Talking about unprecedented profits made by fossil-fuel companies the Blue Marble author said...

Telling the truth about climate change would require pulling away the biggest punchbowl in history, right when the party is in full swing. And that's why those of us battling for the future need to raise our game.

...and talking about why the fossil-fuel companies don't want to invest their huge profits in "new clean technology" he said...

...their value is largely based on fossil-fuel reserves that won't be burned if we ever take global warming seriously.

Don’t get me wrong… there is nothing wrong with being independent! Gather all the facts… consider the pros and cons… then make a thoughtful decision. That makes LOTS of sense! Hell, I am a flaming liberal, and I do my best to do that. But the situation today presents us with a set of facts that just don’t need a whole lot of consideration.

The Newsvine Photographers group has a header on the group front page featuring photos by group members. The header photos are changed from time to time and are dependent on NVP member submissions for their content. So ALL group members are encouraged to submit some of their favorite photos to be included in the header.

Mal saw Proud American's suggestion to create a coffee table book of photos by Newsvine Photographer group members. Well as it happens, Mal is working on making just such a book of his own photos. Mal's book is only about 1/4 completed so far, but Mal still thought it would be fun to share.

The following slide show has screen shots of some of the pages. In order to see it well it would be best to view it in full screen mode. To do this first start the slideshow by clicking on it. Then click the full screen button in the lower right corner of the slide show window. Also you can pause the slideshow by clicking the pause button in the lower left corner of the window... then you can view each pair of pages at your own pace.

The Newsvine Photographers are wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas with the new group header. For this header we have images contributed by etva, Dubbya R, hollykl, rottlady, Soovivers, and me, Mal. We also want to encourage other group members to participate in the Header Challenge by submitting images for any of the future headers.

The photos for each participant in the Christmas header are shown below.

Maybe Newsvine, and the Internet in general, is supposed to be entertainment, just some distraction from the many very real issues we face individually and societally. That's not exactly what it was designed for but, hey, with so many new people 'getting online', knowing exactly how to participate is going to be a guessing game until contact is made with the right people.  That's understandable.  It all needs to start somewhere.  Knowing that these people will eventually [hopefully] catch on and contribute more positively is what keeps the hope alive.  In the meantime, unfortunately, it leads to a lot of childish and pointless behavior that attempts to undermine everyone's efforts.

Mal packs up his travois and heads out to take some photos at Mount Rainier.

Recently Physicist-Retired published a seed about climate change in the small Himalayan country of Bhutan.  It is an excellent seed, so I suggest you read it, and PR is a wealth of information on the topic if your looking for that.  But... before you start ranting about whether or not there is or isn't any climate change, I want you to know that this article is NOT about climate change!!!  So if you want to talk about that please do it on PR's seed or some other place where that is the topic.

The reason I mentioned PR's article is that author of the original article said this...

The note around the dog's neck:

“Please take care of Mr. B. He is a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. Six years old. My parents got divorced and Mr. B was supposed to go to the pound. I think he has a better chance with you.  This is my birthday money for any of his care. He is used to kids, not other dogs.  He’s a good boy.  I know God will take care of Mr. B – Everyone loves him…especially me. Thank you.”

Sniffle.

Today, August 21st, is my third Viniversary... and as a way of celebrating the occasion I am going to republish a rewritten version of the very first article I wrote for the Vine. Before I do that I want to say a few things about my experiences on the Vine.

Many of you have seen my articles about Old Dog Haven, a sanctuary for old dogs that nobody seems to want to adopt, or my article about Sarge, the dog who taught me how sweet old dogs can be.  For about three years I have been donating to Old Dog Haven and occasionally helping out as a volunteer.  Enclosed in the thank you note ODH sent me for my last donation was a poem that very eloquently explains why the folks who run ODH do what they do.  This poem expresses my sentiments too...

foto-friday / NEWSVINE PHOTOGRAPHERS

Sniff... sniff... sniff...

This article is one of several articles about using HTML in a Newsvine article. If HTML is new to you, you may want to read some of the other articles, especially the introduction.

The new Newsvine article editor provides many features that make it very easy to format an article.  No knowledge of HTML is required to make use of those features, and for most articles those features are likely to be all that you will need.  But there are a few things that can only be done if you know a little bit about HTML.  So in this article, and a few others to follow, I will try to give you the basics of HTML and point out some of the more useful things you can do with it in a Newsvine article.

Finally!!! A President who is making changes I can believe in!!! He definitely has the right idea with this Mandatory Abortion Bill. I mean this is all so amazingly simple. We have a few too many folks in this country, and if there were just a few less of us that would solve so many problems. There are lots of things we can do to "thin things out"... so to speak... and most of them offer us huge cost savings to boot. Personally, I think Obama should look at mandatory sterilization... but I'm not going there right now...