Portland's Naked Bike Ride!

Evidently pics are banned on Twitter & Facebook! WTH? I used "tasteful" pics!

I Dream of Mars (republished)

I dream of Mars. Since I was a young boy reading science fiction, I have dreamed of going to, and living on Mars. Fueled by books and movies, news reports of space probes, my interest in Mars has never wavered.

My first career choice was Astronaut. I went to college originally in Aerospace Engineering for two years at the University of Colorado, Boulder. However, in my freshman year my vision degraded below acceptable Air Force Standards and I changed majors, but my interest in space and Mars, has remained high.

Many books have been written about Mars from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Greg Bear, and I have read most of them over the years. Here is a brief list of books,  which I consider the most interesting.


The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
The War of the Worlds - H G Wells
A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Moving Mars - Greg Bear
Mars - Ben Bova
Return to Mars - Ben Bova
Red Mars - Kim Stanly Robinson
Mars Life - Ben Bova
Mars Crossing - Geoffrey A. Landis
The Day the Martians Came - Frederik Pohl
The Empress of Mars - Kage Baker
Blood Red Sphere - Lawrence Barker

And of course dozens of others, read by me in the last 50 years!

Mid Eastern Muslim Brotherhood

 by: Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys

It is claimed that the Arab Muslim Brotherhood is deliberately holding back on its religious message for the moment, in the middle of a people-driven revolt that is purportedly not being determined by either Islam or politics.

The organization proclaimed its support for opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Mohamed ElBaradei, a secularist with Western democratic principles, as a transitional president, if the Mubarak government was put out of office.

Esam Shosha, a movement member said "The revolution does not belong to any one group. We are one country. It's not just about the Brotherhood, at least not now; it's about all Egyptians."

"They don't want to appear as if they're using this revolt to seize power. What they want is free and fair elections to allow them to take power transparently," an analyst at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Wahid Abdul Magid, said.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the world's most influential Islamist movement and the oldest and largest Islamic political group. Their goal however, is to also penetrate and take over other Muslim organizations in order to unite all Muslims to the general aims of the brotherhood.

The organization's beliefs are moderate when compared with many of the world's more militant Muslim organizations. However, it rejects the idea that a woman, or a Christian could be president of a Muslim country and would lean the nation's laws toward more rigorous Islamic codes. It would certainly ban alcohol and topless beaches at the resort of Sharm el Sheik. The organization also prohibits dancing and other such pastimes.

Hassan al-Banna, Islamic scholar and Sufi schoolteacher, who believed in reclaiming Islam's manifest destiny, an empire stretching from Spain to Indonesia, founded the organization in 1928.

The organization's goal is to instill the Sunnah and Quarn as the 'sole reference point for ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual and community and state'. It generally opposes violence to achieve its aims, though division has been created within the group, through its stance on no violence.

The Egyptian government accused the group of a campaign of killings in Egypt after World War II, as the organization strongly opposed Western colonialism. The Muslim Brotherhood was banned in Egypt, with members being arrested, in spite of the membership being kept a secret. The brotherhood was involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and assisted in the overthrow of secular Ba'athist dictators in Syria.

Al Qaeda has censored the brotherhood and charged them with 'betraying the cause of Islam and abandoning the 'jihad' in preference to forming political parties and supporting modern state institutions'. While studying at university, Osama bin Laden claimed he was influenced by the religious and political beliefs of many professors, who had strong connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.


About The Author

Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys and her husband are CEO's and founders of YouMe Support Foundation, providing high school education grants for children who are without hope. You can help in this really great project by taking a few minutes to check out the Sponsor a Student program at (http://youmesupport.org). It will change the life of some really needy kids in the South Pacific.

Terrorism 101?

My undergraduate degree is in Political Science.  As far back as 1970, I have held a dim view of the world and the direction global politics was heading.  The recent terror attempt on Christmas Day 2009, got me rethinking some of my previous opinions.

I remember very well when 9/11 happened.  I worked for a major Financial Services company in their Detroit office.  What initially appeared to be a horrific accident, soon evolved into an act of terrorism.  When the first tower fell, I knew the US was at WAR....with someone!

Everything went into lock down....schools, offices, etc.  Fights were immediately cancelled, with rumors of at least 7 planes possibly hijacked.  The quick action of the FAA probably saved thousands of lives, because surely more flights in Chicago and the west coast had hijackers on board.........hijackers that simply left the planes when they landed.

Terror? Sure it was.  There is constant "chatter" and rumors of Islamic Nazis hitting the US again.  But ask your self, what would you fear more.....a dirty nuke in NYC, or two or three dozen suicide bombers blowing up crowded Churches on Sunday, malls, elementary schools, athletic events or a crowded town center, all over the USA,  over the course of two or three weeks?

I suggest the latter would bring more terror!  It would also be easier to accomplish.  The real question is why it hasn't happened yet.

Re posting, again, from 1-4-10

Is 2013 Your Lucky Number? Or is Your Number Up?

The apocalypse didn't happen per se, but B. Obama got reelected.  North Korea is reacting badly to UN sanctions and is threatening a Nuclear test & more heavy rocket tests. Syria is still killing people and their chemical weapons may be loose.

America's run-away debt and failure to balance a budget or even have a budget, echos through world financial systems. Unions, both public and corporate continue to demand more money, more free benefits, then wonder why jobs are shipped overseas.

The Obama Administration is totally reactive instead of being pro-active. The Socialist agenda continues to make everything "FAIR"! Income equality and social equality are the buzzwords.

Health concerns rise from Flu, whooping cough, etc; abnormal weather is world wide; gang shootings in major US cities almost equal deaths in the Middle East.  Chaos reigns throughout...can sanity & order even be restored? Are there some that perhaps even thrive on the chaos?

Perhaps Doomsday was merely postponed...only time will tell.