Dakota Today

** The Power of Prepositions

A couple of phrases or sentences indicating the power of prepositions..among other things.

We have all heard "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Another that a few politicians should also remember might be:

"Freedom of religion requires both freedom for religion and freedom from religion."

And, a few posts ago, I reported on the death of a high school teacher of mine.  Today, I heard
of the death of another high school friend and classmate:  Patrick W. Collins whose obituary in the Yankton, SD P&D is under the name  "Pat Collins".  He will be buried  at 3:00 p.m. MDT, Wednesday, July 2, at Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, SD.  Pat put in many years serving us in the US Military.

It was a small high school class at Wakonda, SD.  A death in the class means about a 4% drop in the original graduated population.

**Stay tuned and hang in there-- Doug Wiken

**Juvenile diabetes..Hughes Medical, Harvard, and Sanford Health

During last week, Sanford  Health announced it will be seeking a cure for type 1 diabetes as part of a $400 million donation from T. Denny Sanford.

Sanford health seeks cure for type 1 diabetes
Sanford project to focus on beta cell regeneration

Sanford Health leaders announced today the focus of the Sanford Project is curing type 1 diabetes via the body's natural ability to regenerate beta cells. Identified as the attack on one of the greatest health concerns of our time, Sanford Health is dedicating health research resources to cure type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes.

"The concept for the Sanford Project is to focus on a single, pressing healthcare issue and establish a world-class research team to achieve significant progress within a reasonable time period," said Sanford Health Executive Vice President Dave Link. "Through an extensive selection process which outlined specific candidate criteria, Sanford Health has chosen to attack type 1 diabetes by focusing on beta cell regeneration."

Type 1 diabetes currently affects nearly 3 million people in the United States. It is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. It often strikes during childhood, makes patients dependent on insulin for life and carries the constant threat of devastating complications. Regeneration research focuses on triggering the body to re-grow the insulin-producing beta cells that have been killed by the autoimmune response and to prevent destruction of the newly regenerated cells by the same autoimmune reaction.

"Beta cell regeneration is one of the fastest-growing and most intriguing areas of type 1 diabetes research," stated Ben Perryman, PhD, Sanford Health Vice President of Research. "Through the Sanford Project, our research team will hope to either spur the body to copy existing functioning beta cells or to coax the pancreas to create new ones. When people with the disease have regenerated beta cells, they can begin making their own insulin again. The intent of the Sanford Project will be to focus on bench-side research and closely integrating translational research opportunities with clinical treatment."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/jdrf-shs060608.php
http://snipurl.com/2em5m

Tonight on CBS 60 Minutes, there was a story on Hughes Foundation with $11 Billion in assets has put money into a Harvard researcher also working on juvenile diabetes.

Hughes investigator Doug Melton, at Harvard, is thinking about a cure for juvenile diabetes. He's working with stem cells from human embryos.

"And I can think, as I do, most every waking moment of the day, 'How am I gonna get those cells to become insulin-producing cells?' And the Hughes makes that possible," says Melton, who wouldn't have gotten a federal grant at all for his research.

In 2001, President Bush imposed his stem cell ban, in which he tried to balance the objections of opponents of abortion against the wishes of scientists to work with collections of stem cells,

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/13/60minutes/main629388_page3.shtml
http://snipurl.com/2em4x

There is more information at each story link above for both stories.  The race may be interesting.

*** Stay tuned even if you don't have and never want to have a credit card and have never even heard of Howard Hughes or confuse that with "Howard Huge"-- Doug Wiken

**No exit strategies..Bush and Hillary are alike

A Black preacher from Sioux City, Ia today on SD Public Radio made the case that essentially the gospel is colorless. Not his phrase, but he said it is the gospel for Blacks, Whites, Yellows, Reds, whatever. He also said that members of a church do not have an obligation to make a scene when a pastor such as himself says something a church member does not agree with. Church members are members of the church, not members of the preacher. Incidentally, George McGovern said essentially the same thing. He happens to be the son of a Methodist minister. McGovern also suggested the Rev. Wright issue was nonsense as a poltical issue. He also suggested that Hillary knew better than to present the gas tax "relief" as an issue. I suspect some of these pseudo issues used by the Clintons aggravated McGovern, but I really don't know.

Dave Kranz I think..noted that McGovern was just getting himself into alignment with his 10 grandchildren who all support Obama.

McGovern also said he had discussed his decision with Bill Clinton this morning after agonizing over his decision most of the night. He expressed gratitude to Bill Clinton for attending the dedication of the McGovern Center here in SD and again it was noted that both Bill and Hillary had run McGovern's campaign in Texas. I do not think this was an easy decision for McGovern, but he does have a bit too much experience with bitterly divided conventions to be ignored because he was smeared into defeat by the Nixon soap salesmen.

Even so, at this stage, I am not at all certain what effect if any endorsements or support from party celebrities and "super" delegates will have on anything until the convention.

McGovern said both Hillary and Obama are good candidates, smart and able, etc. But, he noted the near mathematical impossibility of Hillary winning and noted that at this stage, her dropping out will not be seen as her being forced out prematurely by party hacks.

Republican pollster on TOTN (Glenn Bolger?) today was blathering on about how the Democratic "split" was helping McCain so much. Well, when was the last time you heard anything from McCain, Obama, or Hillary?.

There is news, old news, and no news. McCain is right now "no news".

It is up to both Hillary and Obama to keep making news or start making news about really serious issues that make it impossible (as Obama said) for McCain to be the third term of this Bush Administration. Speaking of Bush administrations, the PBS history programs and George H.W. Bush make him look like an angel compared to his son. I suspect the unfortunate comparison between the Bush dynasty father and son, may also impact the Clinton Dynasty..Husband and wife. Perhaps it is time we forgot about giving relatives of presidents some kind of status unwarranted by actual qualifications.

A comment made last night by a talking head..don't remember which, went something like "Bush and Hillary are alike..neither of them has an exit strategy."

Well, so much for news related to the Democratic Presidential primary. The votes are in, but Hillary has not declared herself out. She is cooking her own goose.

***Stay tuned for something..oh perhaps of dandelion photos-- Doug Wiken

**Rev. Wright does a pretty good job

I have been reading a lot of froth about the Rev. Wright who happens to be ..wink, wink, nod..Barrack Obama's local minister. So far not much of what I have seen him say that is in the context of more of what he says has been particularly terrible unless Democrats are deeply worried about losing Dick Cheney's vote in the general election.

The controversialists in the press are wringing their hands about the Rev. Wright's terrible impact on the Obama campaign. The "ain't it awful" crowd is just too concerned and upset about this to take it seriously. The Rev. Wright pretty well summed up a lot of my white guy's bitterness about Bush, Inc.

And, while we are talking about strange things said by ministers that we could just get oh so terribly upset about, perhaps we should remember what Jerry Falwell said about 9-11 and then apologized for ..of course, it might not be nice to kick a man of the clothe around now that he has croaked, but take a look at the link below:
Jerry Falwell Apologizes for his 9-11 comments I suspect other rightwing ministers white or otherwise have said equally stupid things about 9-11, etc.

Of course, the Rev. Wright controversy pales into insignificance compared to the horror that are photos of Miley Vanilla..er Cyrus, otherwise known as Hannah Montana...never to be confused with Patsy Montana...that apparently grace the pages of Vanity Fair which might better be called Vanity Fare.

Oh, and apparently Ken Blanchard wants to know how many of the angels dancing on the head of a pin are blessed or damned and what monumental difference that makes in the world of partisan sniping.

***Stay tuned..maybe John Edwards can be the compromise candidate-- Doug Wiken

**Marquess of Queensberry rules for blogging and website??

PP at the SDWC is having some fun at the expense of Steve Sibson. Pat Powers has bought sibbyonline.com and is auctioning it off for the benefit of charity for a few things that apparently appall the easily appalled Steve Sibson.

Those who care about truth, should buy the site for Sibby so he can spread more..well you know. Nothing like a little a little intramural Republican cat fight with hair-pulling and crotch-kneeing to liven up the blosphere.

Liberals owe it to themselves to help Sibby. We should help buy the site from PP so he can contribute and then give the site to Steve so he has another place to distribute his..er..ah truth.

More seriously, while PP is having fun with this, I don't really view it as an area of conflict we bloggers want to venture into. If there were Marquess of Queensberry rules for blogging and websites, buying or squatting on websites with names of "opponents" to poke them in the eye would probably be banned and penalized.

**Stay tuned when all else fails--- Doug Wiken

**Liberate the Founders..Tippet and Waldman

The quote below is a very small part of the transcripts of the "Speaking of Faith" radio program with
Krista Tippet. She interviewed Steven Walman who has written a book on the faith of the founding fathers and the use and abuse of their positions by modern liberals and conservatives. Take a look at the link
following the quote for more information on this issue and the title of the book

Mr. Waldman: Most of the founding fathers would say that the Moral Majority was probably right about that — that it's perfectly fine to have more infusions of religious rhetoric and language and certainly invocations of God and an awareness of God's desires for America, that there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that was in the greatest tradition of early American history. And they probably would look at some of the fights and thought well it's perfectly fine to have God invoked in service of America's goals and dreams. I think the mistake in that is thinking that God would care — that the most important thing for religious vibrancy is whether or not some politician mentions God in his speech. I don't think there is harm in a politician mentioning God in his speech, I just don't really get the idea that it is really important to how most Americans actually practice their faith and determine whether they are good Christians or good Jews or good Muslims. So I end up with a position that I guess is a little bit idiosyncratic, which is that a lot of this stuff ought to be allowed, but that we shouldn't be fighting about it so much and that we should be, um, really placing less importance on whether or not religion is invoked in the public square Ms. Tippett: And what should we be placing importance on Mr. Waldman: We should be placing importance on living a good life according to the dictates of our faith. The founders would say that's the most important determinant of religious success — is whether or not religion makes you a good person. And for the most part, despite the fact that we have all these debates over the war on Christmas and there's lawsuits and there's, you know, fights on TV. You know, for most Americans, the question of the strength of their faith is not actually determined by Bill O'Reilly or the ACLU. It's determined by whether they treat their neighbors well and whether their prayers are heart felt and whether they lead a good life and follow the dictates of their faith.

New Window LINK to Speaking of Faith-- Waldman Transcript

More information on Steven Walman and his beliefnet.com follows:

Steven Waldman has now written a book, Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America. It's a journalistic and historical investigation of the volatile, gradual formation of a new kind of relationship between religion and state in the U.S. in the 18th and 19th centuries. Waldman explores a world before "red states" and "blue states." Religious diversity meant different forms of Protestantism.

New Window LINK to Beliefnet Author

You can dig around those sites. Your mileage may vary as they say. In the meantime, you may want to think a bit about a comment made by "Blind Orange Julius" at Mt. Blogmore suggesting that those attacking Obama because of the belief and opinions of his Rev. Wright must have their heads exploding since they barely got done attacking Obama for being Moslem instead of Christian. Using religion as a hammer to batter opponents and build houses of cards supporting those with common beliefs is not new. It was happening in the days the founders were cogitating and advocating the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Modern media has changed the impact of these attacks, uses and misuses of religion, etc. The current attempts to poison support for Obama using guilt by association fits the pattern. I guess I'm OK with that kind of guilt by association but only if the attackers on the Republican side will agree to their own guilt for associating with the war positions of the Texas Twit, George Bush, the minor.

Well, I'm sure if you read the Walman transcript, you may find all kinds of other perspectives on this.

Which will all also be reasons for not blurring the separation between church and state.

**Stay tuned, the day after Sunday is Monday and we will be back to news as usual-- Doug Wiken

**The Soft Face of Islam

Commercial TV, that is ABC and CBS here, were after a relatively few minutes of news this morning all religion and humbug. Public TV is in the midst of fundraising and by now is showing "specials" for third or fourth special time. Turned on public radio and got the Sunday morning version of religion separable from government there.

Krista Tippets and Speaking of Faith was rebroadcasting an interview with Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of North America. See Speaking of Faith link below:

New Window LINK to Speaking of Faith
There you can find this for March 6, 2008:

March 6, 2008
Ingrid Mattson is the first woman and first convert to lead the Islamic Society of North America. She's recently published a book on the Qur'an, and she's helped launch a groundbreaking partnership with the Union for Reform Judaism — pairing mosques and synagogues in major cities around the U.S. We probe her unusual perspective and vision in a tumultuous age for Islam in the West and around the world.

There is a Link there as well:
New Window LINK to Speaking of Faith with Ingrid Mattson

I listened to this blather as well as I could. Even the calm, reassuring voices for religion are unsettling in their lunacy and separation from the real world as they float in their visions of Edens and paradise.

Mattson obviously is trying to put a soft face on Islam which is a daunting task after we see the violence in the world perpetrated in the name of that religion and the desire to spread it to infidels of all varieties and colors and by any means including chopping off heads and hands.

One point she made was on the importance in many religions of women wearing something on their heads in the presence of God. Damned if I can figure out that one. If their god is anything like the Christian God, he/she/it is presented as omnipotent and omnipresent. A god that can see all and know all is not even going to even see a headscarf or a stocking cap or a veil. This is just so much religious claptrap voiced in a calm "reasoned" way by a pleasant spokesperson and not much more believable than comedians in the annual joke day at Lake Woebegone discussing the nakedness of all those "raptured right out of their clothes".

Mattson notes that she and others in Islamic world are working on the position of women in their religion and society. Let's see here. Over 2000 years of this religion and they are finally getting around to thinking that perhaps women are actually humans as well as are males. Some Christian sects aren't much better or perhaps even worse in this regard, but it might seem this would have been settled say about a 1000 years ago if any real god had any influence on these organizations painting themselves as right hands of anygods showing a presence on earth and human residents.

Mattson is pushing the idea that Islam is capable of peace and is not necessarily committed to a violent apocalyptic end of society and the world. The clue phone should be ringing in somebody's head somewhere if this is even a position that needs to be advocated or defended

Mattson apparently concluded with an observation much like this: "Truth of Islam is in the smiling faces of believers and their best values as well as in the truth in the prostrate position and the slimness of those fasting."

Why has the US ever allowed a single believer of Islam into the United States? They are as much a pox on the face of the earth as any other mind-numbing collection of the deluded superstitious ..no matter what is the smiling face presented in the softer side of their apologists whatever creed, color, age, or sex.

It has been noted that one current problem with media "news" is that they try to present a "balanced" view no matter how unbalanced are some perspectives. If they have on an advocate for children's rights, they apparently think they have an obligation to present a spokesperson for child pornography. Well, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it does suggest the nature of the problem with presenting superstition, dreams, and myth as somehow equal to science and reality.

**Stay tuned even if you are convinced you are heaven-bound or doomed to eternal damnation..or are ambivalent on your prospects-- Doug Wiken

**Sue the Federal Government for failing to control borders

Cottonwood, Minnesota is reaping the wonders of diversity and a porous border. An illegal alien driving so fast through a stop sign that when she hit railroad tracks went airborne apparently. Flew through the air and crashed into the side of a schoolbus high enough up on the bus that it rolled on its side tipping unto a pickup truck coming from the opposite direction. Four young children were killed and a dozen or so injured..some seriously.

Aliens and immigrants are now expressing concern that this might generate backlash. My guess is the parents of the dead children hope so.

The illegal alien started off with no drivers license, an invalid ID listing her as "Allanis Morales" or something close to that which was actually a person in Guatemala. Latest is that her actual name is not completely Hispanic apparently, but rather "Olga Marino Franco". It took days for the US government to come up with that.

Were she male, she might as well have been Asama Bin Laden for all the US government knew. All the Bush blather about protecting "the Homeland" from terrorism is pure unadulterated bullshit as long as our borders our open and millions of illegal aliens remain in the US.

How many cheap heads of lettuce and tomatoes will the parents of these children have to buy to make up for the loss of their children? Is a porous border that allows the rich who are too lazy to take care of their own homes cheap illegal alien help worth the problems that porous border policy has caused just for two or three families?

It all reminded a Sioux Falls family of their husband and father who was killed by another illegal alien who arrogantly disregarded stop signs and speed limits. Arrogant disregard for our borders is followed with arrogant disregard for our driving laws and language. I guess "STOP" is not in the vocabulary of illegal aliens.

The families of those children killed or injured should be allowed to bring suit against the US government for falling to control our borders as is the Bush and other administrations constitutional obligation. It is time our area senators and representatives took responsibility for the failure of our government to protect our borders and payup for the damages to US citizens and for the unfunded education and health mandates coupled with rights for the invading hordes.

In the meantime, CBS news continues to tell some truth about the roots of the invasion of illegal aliens. Twenty or thirty years ago CBS 60 Minutes learned that the primary opposition to stopping the invading hordes came from the Catholic Church. Last night CBS or one of the other news programs noted that the US Catholic Church has lost 23 million members in the last years, but those lost members have been largely replaced by Hispanics. Mexico provides a near never ending source of the superstitious and ignorant who can be cannon and canon fodder for the US Catholic Church. It is just one more area besides abortion issues where that church blurs the boundaries between church and state even as it demands the protections afforded by that same separation. Disregard for that constitutional separation is a danger to that same church and to all religions. The backlash will not be simply against illegal aliens.

That meddling also messes up government and politics. In the end, innocent kids end up dead in Minnesota, and Sioux Falls police find hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegal drugs in the company of a dozen or so people with Hispanic surnames. Where is the conservative outrage about these unfunded mandates?

***Stay tuned and it won't be broadcast with Spanish language subtext or for "Latin Eyes"--- Doug Wiken

**"Are you smarter" LTE by Jack H. Mueller

Usually the Mitchell Daily Republic Letters to the Editor page is filled with stuff fellow blogger Steve Sibson would likely drool over...including his own letters. Today there was a surprise. Jack H. Mueller of Chamberlain probably rattled a few dozen cages with his LTE titled "An adult version of "Are You Smarter". Below is my typed copy of the letter. I talked to Jack H. Mueller this afternoon and got his permission before my cellphone battery died. One of these days, another discussion on the wonder and wonderful pain that cellphones are. In the meantime, enjoy a good letter to the editor.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Are you smarter than a sixth grader" is surely an educational and fund game. How about an adult version with questions like these"
Q: Is the earth 6,000 years old or billions?
A. Billions.

Q: According to the Center for Public Integrity how many times did the Bush Administration lie about Iraq between 9-11 and the invasion"
A: 935.

Q: When the New Testament was translated into Greek, instead of a "young girl<" Mary, Mother of Jesus was mistakenly described as what?
A: A virgin.

Q: Why did the U.S. propaganda machine dump on France?
A: Because French oil companies drilled the wells in the former Kurdistan area, and they had a good thinkg going without getting sucked into the Americans' attempt at conquest.

Q: Why does President Bush use the term "surge" instead of "blitskrieg or "Iron Fist of Occupation"?
A: Because it sounds nice and the American public is as ignorant as it is blind.

Q: Why do people praise Ronald Reagan for "lowering taxes"?
A: Because they don't remember that the result was increased state, county and local taxes. [As well as a horrendous national debt].

Q: How much did they try to cut the SD Highway Patrol budget?
A: $2 Million.

Q: How much is the occupation of Iraq costing us?
A: $12 Billion per month.

Q: How much did President Bush just announce that he is giving to Israel?
A: $30 Billion.

Q: If the oil corporation heads that met secretly with President Bush before the invasion were "waterboarded" to extract the truth, would it hurt them?"
A: No, according to proponents of water boarding in the Bush Administration.

Q: After cheerleading the invasion, how much of its broadcast time did Fox News devote to the war during the first quarter of 2007?
A: Four percent.
Q: During the same period, how much time did Fox devote to Anna Nicole Smith?
A: 10 percent.

by Jack H. Mueller, Chamberlain, SD.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Spelling and typing errors which may be in the above are mine and not Mueller's or those of the Mitchell Daily Republic. And, I suppose we could toss in a few more that seem timely:

Q: How much is Bush proposing to cut from funding for SD Public Broadcasting?
A: Estimate appears to be around $700,000.

Q: How much has been spent on the Bush war in Iraq?
A: $3 Trillion? $7 Trillion... Do you actually grasp how much money there is in a $trillion?

Q: How many people died in the terrorist attack on the WTC on 9/11?
A: Around 3,000.

Q: How many US military personnel have been killed in Bush's revenge against the wrong country (Iraq)?
A: Now over 4,000.

Well, I better quit. This could be a game that went on for months if we started pulling stuff out of Gene Lyon"s on the right wing cabal attack on the Clinton's and the multiple bungling of the Bush administration.

** Stay tuned ..at least there were nearly the same number of answers as questions in this post-- Doug Wiken

**The SD Legislature Statistics vs. Anecdotes

A previous post suggests the lunacy of the SD Legislature in pushing for nearly unlimited gun possession on SD campuses. The legislature apparently basis the idea on isolated events in other states and anecdotal testimony filled with supposition and assumptions.

What the legislature ignores is more significant than a random event here or there. It is statistics that have been collected from a large number of events. One of these might be deaths from accidental gunfire. Another might be statistics on whole colleges and states concerning depression and attempted suicides by college students.

This kind of "logic" was used for many years as an excuse by the SD legislature to fail to put in any kind of meaningful mandatory seatbelt use laws. There were statistics and data from several countries, from test labs, from experience, etc. etc. that strongly suggested if not completely proved the wisdom of such legislation. But for years, the legislature resisted this partly based on anecdotal stories of rare crash events with miracles of random physics saving somebody "because the weren't wearing seatbelts". Or, the perhaps one in a million crash where somebody drowned after going of a bridge or into a canal wearing seatbelts.

I expect all of us temper our views on issues by our experience, but legislators and governors have an obligation to look at valid data and statistics that provide a larger view which may not fit either conventional or unconventional opinion or narrow odd experiences.

The legislature supporting campus guntotting posses is a prime indicator of failing legislative processes and thought..or undue influence by special interest lobbies who really don't give a rat's rear about good public policy as long as their wheel is greased and their ox is not gored. We deserve better thinking, better realism, and better idealism from our government.

***Stay tuned, there will probably be more nonsense in the name of policy to come before the legislature folds up for another year--- Doug Wiken