What I Learned From Girl Scout?

Today the Girl Scouts turn 100. What a girl can learn from being a girl scout? Here are things that a girl can learn for being a part of girl scout. This list is actually a post by Kristi Gustafson Barlette in honoring their birthday. She was once a member of girl scout, for more than a decade! You can read the original post here.

Here are 10 things you can learn from Girl Scout:

• You can make one heck of a moose Christmas ornament with a couple of  pom poms and a pipe cleaner.
• All sleeping bags are not created equal — a night in a tent will teach you that, pronto.
• A “tool” badge doesn’t make you a Tom Boy. In fact, it’s pretty bad ass.
• Mailing home letters stained with your homesick tears will not make you feel better during those first few nights of overnight camp. In fact, the letters will just serve as embarrassing ammunition when you start dating.
• You are never too young to “sell.” Rolling up and down the street delivering cookies  from my Radio Flyer wagon in elementary school led to join the town sale at Tremont Lumber in middle school to unload more than a thousand books each summer with my friend Iona. That transitioned to selling anything my parents didn’t have tied down in the Want Add Digest, then unloading my friend’s and family’s stuff on eBay, Craigslist and, eventually, Facebook.
• Having your mom as a troop leader is awesome 99 percent of the time. It’s only an issue, when you argue with her on the way to scouts over what you may or may not have “sold off.”
• I can totally rock a beanie.
• Fruit punch tastes 20 times more delicious when you call it “bug juice.”
• Always be prepared. Or, more specifically, always have an extra pair of underwear in your handbag, and your glove box.
• The world is your toilet — just make sure you are packing’ TP.

READ MORE - What I Learned From Girl Scout?

A Thousand Words–Another Eddie Murphy’s Squandered Movie

Eddie Murphy comedy 'A Thousand Words' is all sorts of bad | In last year's "Tower Heist," Eddie Murphy seemed energized and pumped and poised for a comeback. In "A Thousand Words," the actor smashes all those hopes to bits. Forget it. The dream is dead.

Why has this gifted comedian repeatedly squandered his talents on such crummy pictures? Even Adam Sandler hasn't amassed as many bad movies as Murphy has. ("Holy Man," "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," "The Haunted Mansion," "Imagine That" -- the list is endless).

Maybe he just doesn't read his scripts, much like his "Thousand Words" character Jack McCall, a fast-talking literary agent who doesn't read manuscripts. Jack just knows how to package books so they sell. The premise of the movie -- which was written by Steve Koren, who also wrote Sandler's "Jack and Jill" (just so you know what you're in for) -- is that Jack must learn to be a better person after a Bodhi tree sprouts in his back yard and loses a leaf with every single word he utters. When the tree's branches are bare, Jack will keel over dead.

The movie is a crass, soulless cash grab that has Murphy holding a Starbucks coffee cup in front of the camera while saying the line: "This coffee is incredible." It's also a racist, homophobic picture that makes fun of a gardener who speaks in a ridiculous accent ("Dee sprinkler ees dead, but I feex eet!") and a running gag about an overweight gay man trolling a hotel for casual sex. And oh yes, Ruby Dee is exploited as an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer's.

'A Thousand Words trailer

I am not making any of this up. Nicolas Cage served as a producer on "A Thousand Words," which makes me wonder whether he considered starring in the movie himself at some point. Yet even Cage -- the star of "Ghost Rider" and "The Wicker Man" -- eventually passed.

"A Thousand Words" was filmed in 2008 but held for release until now to capitalize on Murphy's scheduled gig as host of this year's Academy Awards. The actor bailed on the Oscars. We, unfortunately, are still stuck with this insufferable movie. Beware. By Rene Rodriguez, McClatchy Newspapers

READ MORE - A Thousand Words–Another Eddie Murphy’s Squandered Movie

The Problem With Invisible Children's

The Problem With Invisible Children's "Kony 2012" | by Michael Deibert

Recently, a new video produced by the American NGO Invisible Children focusing on Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been making the rounds. Having just returned from the Acholi region of Northern Uganda myself, where the LRA was born, I thought I might share some of my thoughts on the subject, for what it's worth.

I think it is easy for Invisible Children and other self-aggrandizing foreigners to make the entire story of the last 30 years of Northern Uganda about Joseph Kony, but there is a history of the relationship between the Acholi people from whom the LRA emerged and the central government in Kampala that is a little more complicated than that.

Kony is a grotesque war criminal, to be sure, but the Ugandan government currently in power also came to power through the use of kadogo (child soldiers) and fought alongside militias employing child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, something that Invisible Children seem wilfully ignorant of.

The conflict in Acholi -- the ancestral homeland of the ethnic group who stretch across northern Uganda and southern Sudan -- has its roots in Uganda's history of dictatorship and political turmoil. A large number of soldiers serving in the government of dictator Milton Obote (who ruled Uganda from 1966 to 1971 and then again from 1980 to 1985) came from across northern Uganda, with the Acholis being particularly well represented, even though Obote himself hailed from the Lango ethnic group. When Obote was overthrown by his own military commanders, an ethnic Acholi, General Tito Okello, became president for six chaotic months until Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army took over. Museveni became president, and has since remained so, via elections -- some legitimate, some deeply flawed.

Upon taking power, the Museveni government launched a brutal search and destroy mission against former government soldiers throughout the north, which swept up many ordinary Acholi in its wake. Some Acholi began mobilizing to defend themselves, first under the banner of the Uganda People's Democratic Army (largely made up of former soldiers) and then the Holy Spirit Movement.

This movement, directed by Alice Auma, an Acholi who claimed to be acting on guidance from the spirit Lakwena, brought a mystical belief in their own invincibility that the soldiers of the Kampala-based government at first found terrifying: Holy Spirit Movement devotees walked headlong into blazing gunfire singing songs and holding stones they believed would turn into grenades. The movement succeeded in reaching Jinja, just 80 km from the capital Kampala, before being decimated by Museveni's forces.

Out of this slaughter was born the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, a distant relative of Alice Auma. Kony added an additional element of targeting civilian Acholi to his schismatic blend of Christianity, frequently kidnapping children and adolescents to serve in his rebel movement. The Museveni government responded by viewing all Acholi as potential collaborators, rounding them up into camps euphemistically called "protected villages", where they were vulnerable to disease and social ills, and had few ways to carry on their traditional farming.

The LRA's policy of targeting civilians (though not the Museveni government's draconian measures) eventually drew international condemnation and in 2005 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Joseph Kony and several other seniors LRA commanders for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Ironically, one of those commanders, Dominic Ongwen, was himself kidnapped by the LRA while still a small boy.

After peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government collapsed in 2007, the group decamped from its bases in southern Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

Following the end of negotiations, the Museveni government launched its Peace Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP), an effort to stabilize northern Uganda after years of war. Since then, according to the United Nations, 98 percent of internally displaced persons have moved on from the camps that once sheltered hundreds of thousands of frightened people.

Despite criticisms from the Acholi that the government's program has been insufficient, local initiatives and the work of some foreign organizations have helped restore a sense of normality and gradual progress to the region, with people returned to their homes and travel between once off-limits parts of the region now facilitated with relative ease.

Now a thousand miles from the cradle of their insurgency, the LRA would appear to have little hope of returning to Uganda, though their potential to wreak havoc on civilians remains little diminished. In Congo's Haut-Uele province, between December 2009 and January 2010, the LRA massacred 620 civilians and abducted more than 120 children.

In October 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he was sending 100 Special Forces soldiers to help the Ugandans hunt down Kony. By the end of the year, the Ugandan army confirmed that the troops had moved along with the Ugandan army to Obo in the Central African Republic and Nzara in South Sudan.

The problem with Invisible Children's whitewashing of the role of the government of Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni in the violence of Central Africa is that it gives Museveni and company a free pass, and added ammunition with which to bludgeon virtually any domestic opposition, such as Kizza Besigye and the Forum for Democratic Change.

By blindly supporting Uganda's current government and its military adventures beyond its borders, as Invisible Children suggests that people do, Invisible Children is in fact guaranteeing that there will be more violence, not less, in Central Africa.

I have seen the well-meaning foreigners do plenty of damage before, so that is why people understanding the context and the history of the region is important before they blunder blindly forward to "help" a people they don't understand.

U.S. President Bill Clinton professed that he was "helping" in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s and his help ended up with over 6 million people losing their lives.

The same mistake should not be repeated today.

Is it?

source: www.huffingtonpost.com

READ MORE - The Problem With Invisible Children's

Pot should be legal like alcohol - Pat Robertson

Marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government’s war on drugs has failed - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says.

The outspoken evangelical Christian and host of “The 700 Club’’ on the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network he founded said the war on drugs is costing taxpayers billions of dollars. He said people should not be sent to prison for marijuana possession.

The 81-year-old first became a self-proclaimed “hero of the hippie culture’’ in 2010 when he called for ending mandatory prison sentences for marijuana possession convictions.

“I just think it’s shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of a controlled substance,’’ Robertson said on his show March 1. “The whole thing is crazy. We’ve said, `Well, we’re conservatives, we’re tough on crime.’ That’s baloney.’’

Robertson’s support for legalizing pot appeared in a New York Times (http://nyti.ms/zMys8R) story published Thursday. His spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press that Robertson supports legalization with regulation. Robertson was not made available for an interview.

“I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol,’’ Robertson was quoted by the newspaper as saying. “If people can go into a liquor store and buy a bottle of alcohol and drink it at home legally, then why do we say that the use of this other substance is somehow criminal?’’

Robertson said he “absolutely’’ supports ballot measures in Colorado and Washington state that would allow people older than 21 to possess a small amount of marijuana and allow for commercial pot sales. Both measures, if passed by voters, would place the states at odds with federal law, which bans marijuana use of all kinds.

While he supports the measures, Robertson said he would not campaign for them and was “not encouraging people to use narcotics in any way, shape or form.’’

“I’m not a crusader,’’ he said. “I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded.’’

In a statement Thursday, Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said Robertson’s “clearly stated and well-reasoned comments throw a curve ball into the growing debate over legalizing marijuana.’’

“Defenders of marijuana prohibition … must be wondering if it’s only a matter of time before theirs proves to be a lost cause,’’ he said. http://articles.boston.com

But some broad surveys show evangelicals generally don’t agree with him. A Pew survey about American views on marijuana legalization from 2010 showed that while 41 percent of Americans overall support it, 25 percent of white evangelicals do. Forty-two percent of Catholics and mainline Protestant support legalization.

The news this week was met by evangelical magazine Christianity Today with this headline: “Pat Robertson Thinks It’s High Time To Legalize Marijuana.”

Well-known evangelical blogger Brett McCracken, managing editor of Biola Magazine at Biola University, said young evangelicals “laugh at Robertson,” as a caricature of an evangelist and wouldn’t see him as a role model, even if their cohort would be expected to be more open to legalizing drugs.

Views on the use of medical marijuana among American evangelicals, however, are varied. source – image credit: http://www.washingtonpost.com

READ MORE - Pot should be legal like alcohol - Pat Robertson

Who is Sandra Fluke?

Who is Sandra Fluke? | Sandra Fluke’s professional background in domestic violence and human trafficking began with Sanctuary for Families in New York City. There, she launched the agency’s pilot Program Evaluation Initiative. While at Sanctuary, she co-founded the New York Statewide Coalition for Fair Access to Family Court, which after a twenty-year stalemate, successfully advocated for legislation granting access to civil orders of protection for unmarried victims of domestic violence, including LGBTQ victims and teens. Sandra was also a member of the Manhattan Borough President’s Taskforce on Domestic Violence and numerous other New York City and New York State coalitions that successfully advocated for policy improvements impacting victims of domestic violence.

As the 2010 recipient of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Fran Kandel Public Interest Grant, she researched, wrote, and produced an instructional film on how to apply for a domestic violence restraining order in pro per. She has also interned with the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking; Polaris Project; Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County; Break the Cycle; the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project; NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund; Crime Victim and Sexual Assault Services; and the Human Services Coalition of Tompkins County.

Through Georgetown’s clinic programs, Sandra has conducted proposed legislation based on fact-finding in Kenya regarding child trafficking for domestic work, and has represented victims of domestic violence in protection order cases. Sandra is the Development Editor of the Journal of Gender and the Law, and served as the President of Law Students for Reproductive Justice, and the Vice President of the Women’s Legal Alliance. In her first year, she also co-founded a campus committee addressing human trafficking. Cornell University awarded her a B. S. in Policy Analysis & Management, as well as Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies in 2003. source: www.law.georgetown.edu

The Georgetown law student who drew an apology from Rush Limbaugh this weekend after the conservative radio host called her a “slut” on his show said that his public apology wasn’t sufficient during an appearance Monday on ABC’s The View.

“I don’t think that a statement like this issued, saying that his choice of words was not the best, changes anything, and especially when that statement is issued when he’s under significant pressure from his sponsors who have begun to pull their support,” said Sandra Fluke, 30-year-old student.

Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” on his show last week after hearing her testify to Congress arguing that her university’s health insurance should cover contraception for female students.

On Saturday, he wrote an apology after several sponsors pulled their advertising from his program in response to the Fluke comments.

“My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir,” Limbaugh wrote in a released statement. “I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.”

Fluke said she has not heard from Limbaugh personally, but added that she’s not hoping to speak with him.

“The statements he’s made about me over the air are personal enough, so I’d rather not have a personal phone call with him,” Fluke said.

On his program on Friday, two days after he sparked the furor, Limbaugh repeatedly told his listeners that Fluke has “so much sex she can’t afford it.” President Obama called Fluke to offer his support that day, and Limbaugh mocked the president for placing the call. source: http://www.classichitsandoldies.com

Sandra Fluke Opening Statement (C-SPAN)

READ MORE - Who is Sandra Fluke?

Solar Flare 2012: Massive Solar Storm Headed For Earth

Solar Flare 2012 | One of the most powerful solar storms in the last five years was unleashed yesterday after a massive solar flare erupted from the sun. Space weather scientists are closely watching the sun’s activity as the storm could interfere with satellite communication and power grids.

Joseph Kunches, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said:

“Space weather has gotten very interesting over the last 24 hours… When the shock arrives, the expectation is for heightened geomagnetic storm activity and the potential for heightened solar radiation… There is the potential for induced currents in power grids… Power grid operators have all been alerted. It could start to cause some unwanted induced currents.”

NASA captured a video of the solar flare (below) as it erupted and hurled a “big blob of magnetized material” toward the earth. The AR1429 sunspot region shout off a solar flare on Sunday and two more yesterday. The AR1429 region is currently pointing almost directly at earth which means that the coronal mass ejection could have a big impact on earth.

Harlan Spence, an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, told SPACE.com:

“The sun is waking up at a time in the month when Earth is coming into harm’s way. Think of these CMEs somewhat like a bullet that is shot from the sun in more or less a straight line. When the sunspot is right in the middle of the sun, something launched from there is more or less directed right at Earth. It’s kind of like how getting sideswiped by a car is different than a head-on collision. Even still, being sideswiped by a big CME can be quite dramatic.”

The New York Times reports that the coronal mass ejection will hit earth at about 1:30 a.m on Thursday morning. source: inquisitr.com

READ MORE - Solar Flare 2012: Massive Solar Storm Headed For Earth

Jessica Simpson Naked Elle Cover

Jessica Simpson Naked Elle Cover | As AOL Music reported just last month (Feb. 2011), Jessica Simpson was spotted buying pink gear at a posh baby boutique in Los Angeles -- fueling rumors she was having a girl. Well, speculate no more! Simpson spills in the new issue of Elle Magazine that she will, in fact, be welcoming a little lady when she gives birth in the upcoming weeks.

But Jess' gender revelation isn't the most shocking thing about her Elle cover story. That honor goes to the cover itself, which features a naked Simpson posing in a similar fashion to Demi Moore's now-infamous Vanity Fair cover.

The always candid star opened up in the article about impending motherhood and even gave details about the "nontraditional" name she and her fiancé, Eric Johnson, had decided upon for their little one. "It's nothing shocking and nothing you'll have to add to the dictionary," explained Jessica. "Still, when people hear it, they'll know ... why."
As she counts down the days until her baby arrives, Jessica is looking forward to enjoying time with her new little one ... and maybe a stiff drink post-birth. "Givin' up my Scotch? My Macallan 18? That was hard for me!" admits Jess. "Though now, being pregnant, you crave other things. A big thing of water sounds great!"

Jessica Simpson bares all in Elle photo shoot. Following in the (bare) footsteps of Demi Moore and others, Jessica Simpson appears on the cover of Elle, a fashion magazine, wearing nothing.

But all she wants to talk about, instead, are clothes.
While revealing the baby she is having with fiancé Eric Johnson is going to be a girl, she made it clear "I swear, I will croak if she asks me for a pair of Nikes instead of Christian Louboutins!

"Eric (a former NFL player) is so athletic -- we're gonna have this athletic girl and I won't even be able to take her shopping, 'cause all she's gonna want is sports bras and Nikes!"

As for her baby girl's name, Simpson was a little cryptic.
"It's nothing shocking and nothing you'll have to add to the dictionary. Still, when people hear it, they'll ... know."

What about this:

Do you know who Jessica Simpson is? Well, she’s having a baby. That’s right! She had unprotected sex and her assorted ovaries and whatnot worked sufficiently well enough to harvest a tiny, shitting human! And yes, we’re supposed to care because it is still regarded as ‘a little miracle’. hecklerspray

READ MORE - Jessica Simpson Naked Elle Cover