Grego

Over 11,000 U.S. and Afghan troops encircled an area in southern Afghanistan called Marjah to defeat a just few hundred Taliban fighters. (more…)

With all the chatter in the media about Congress spending $500 Billion for this and $500 billion for that, we thought it worthwhile to put all that cash in perspective. I have held a few $20 bills in my hand, so I can imagine what a few hundred dollars would look like, or perhaps even one thousand dollars. But a million dollars? A billion dollars?

This is $10,000 in $100 bills.

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Can you choose your color today, or must others still do that for you? Can anyone of us with mixed heritage be predominantly called by just one name? What does that say about the heritage you choose (or is chosen for you), and the heritage not chosen? It appears to me that regardless of your standing in society, regardless of your accomplishments or natural talents, you must choose a color – or one will be chosen for you.

I wonder at that. In some ways, our nation has come a long way since Patricia ‘Pinky’ Johnson, in its day a very controversial film about a young black woman who passes for white.
“Pinky” was a slang term for light-skinned black Americans. We trust the term as used here is not offensive to anyone today as we are using same only as historical reference. (more…)

Senator Edward Kennedy (1932-2009)
[Photo Credit: AP]

In regards to civil rights, health, and the economic well-being of the average American, few elected officials anywhere have accomplished as much. (more…)

“Throw in a few billion here and a few billion there, and before you know it, you are talking about real money…” . I don’t recall who first coined that phrase, (I think it was in the late ’80s), but when I first heard it, it was Millions not Billions! (more…)

Without much of a fuss made by the media, if even reported at all, last month Afghanistan’s new Shiite Personal Status Law was put into effect. The law grants Shiite men the legal right to starve their wives if their sexual demands are not met. These sexual demands are not defined or limited by the law. The law also requires Shiite women to obtain permission from their husbands to even leave their home. Parental custody is solely the father’s or, in his absence, the paternal grandfather. Incredibly, the law also allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying “blood money” to a girl who was injured when he raped her. That payment, of course, is offered to the father, paternal grandfather or the brothers of the raped girl. (more…)

Henry Louis Gates, James Crowley and Barack Obama (“the boys”) hoisted some cold suds on the South Lawn of the White House today in a carefully orchestrated event for the whole world to experience. This was, as the White House called it, a “teachable moment” on race in America. We couldn’t be happier for them, you know, the boys – for they have suffered so much. (more…)

The Creative Steps Day Care, a Philadelphia-area day care center, said Thursday, that members of a private swim club the organization had paid to attend, made racist comments about the center’s children to the point of bringing some of the young children to tears. Not to be outdone by its racist members, the swim club then quickly canceled the swimming privileges of all the children – from the day care center! (more…)

In physics, the principle of relativity is the requirement that the laws of physics in the observable world have the same form in all admissible frames of reference.

Now observe this photo of two little girls standing on the balcony of their home in Rafah, Gaza Strip – their observable world.
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Sex continues to unravel many political careers, so much so that I submit we are painfully bored by the news unless it details news ‘off the beaten trail’. For example, I submit for your consideration Larry Craig, the Idaho senator whose “wide stance” whilst using the public toilet led to what he characterizes as a “miss understanding” of his intentions to an undercover Idaho State Trooper. The latest tryst exposed for our entertainment is the republican governor from South Carolina, Mr Mark (don’t cry for me Argentina) Sanford. (more…)

Could this be the best complaint letter ever? This letter recently received by the Virgin Atlantic customer complaints team is currently being hailed on news blogs everywhere. Surface Earth joins the fun to share with our friends and readers. This is the funniest customer complaint letter ever I have ever seen. How about you?
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I have been giving this question some thought since my daughter shared with me an article from LiveScience.com entitled “Life As We Know It Nearly Created in Lab”.

The hand of man has willfully, purposefully, altered the genome of crops and animals for thousands of years to suit its purposes. In our recent life time, we have witnessed artificial intelligence, our mechanical devices wondering barren fields of other worlds, two even leaving our vast solar system entirely, and the artificial cloning of mammals. We can freeze human embryos for decades, and thereby my son and my great-grandson can be delivered by the same unrelated woman at the same time. Let’s pause for a moment to appreciate just how bizarre and “unnatural” that really is. (more…)