As a former academic, I was never fond of poping a quiz. Still some people require a gentle reminder of who said what.

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He stradles fine lines and in the process he is alienating himself from the support of the Democratic base. He thinks he is the one we have been waiting for and yet is unelectable. He is quite the orator who tells enraptured crowds about change without ever defining what that means. He levels broad charges against his opponents of unfair treatment and yet engages in behaivour unbecoming a Democrat. He is a duplicitous politician who tells the public one thing but tells his billionaire bakcers in private something else. Who is this man?

Not someone whom I can support. Not after all that has been said and done, not now, not ever.

Today marks the 126th anniversary of the death of Charles Darwin (12 Feb 1809 -19 Apr 1882), the English naturalist whose theory of evolution remains the most singular advancement in the thought of mankind. To Darwin, we owe much. And few of mankind’s thinkers is more reviled. The lunacy of Ben Stein and his Expelled propaganda is only the last example.

I became a Darwinist sometime around the age of 14 though the seeds of my Darwinism were planted earlier in childhood. You see growing up in the Andean highlands and valleys of my native Colombia is a fertile ground for the tree of evolution to take hold. Darwinism explains the beauty and wonder of Colombia. No country on Earth a more perfect example though in truth every square centimetre of this planet is covered by the clarity and honesty of Darwinism.

In looking back on my life, it was on a day when I was ten and on which I nearly lost my life that my most cherished views began to take shape. We are the sum of our own experiences and in truth on that day sometime in the summer of 1971, my experiences took a turn deep into the natural world. My uncle Luis Bueno Figueroa was an amazing man for so many reasons but one of them is that he helped found a group of medical professionals in Colombia who for a week at a time left the comfort of their homes for the joy of forgotten Colombia, the rural areas that never received any government attention.

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Polls from the Netherlands are confirming what two close Dutch friends were telling me when they came to San Francisco for a visit, the Netherlands is headed for a right-turn and the issue is the growing discomfort over Islamic migrants in Holland.

The NIS News Service is reporting today that Dutch gays are increasingly moving away from progressive parties in favour of more conservative parties, ones that take a harder tact on migration issues. The centre-right party of Proud of the Netherlands (TON) is now capturing perhaps a third of the Dutch gay vote.

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on Bill Moyers’ PBS Journal next Friday, April 25th according to No Quarter USA.

So Bill, please ask the Reverend Wright why it is acceptable to utter the following in a sermon:

This “sermon” was delivered at the Chicago Trinity Church on January 13, 2008. If I am his enemy because I am well-off and white, that is his choice. Frankly his own ignorance is his biggest obstacle not my “wealth” and “colour of skin.”

For more information and programming schedules, please visit: Bill Moyers’ PBS Journal

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It boggles the mind the rather silly pronouncements that come out of the Turkish capital these days. He who was once the “sick man of Europe” and desires to be the “new man of Europe” still has a lot to learn about to what it means to hold core Western values. To be European requires holding these values. One does not invade and occupy the northern third of Cyprus for 34 years keeping afloat an illegal regime. One does not deny the misdeeds of past Turkish regimes that have commited acts of genocide against the Armenians and the Kurds. Repression of Kurdish culture and the occupation of northern Cyprus remain part of the divide between the European Union and Ankara.

What this morning irks me about Ankara is a free speech issue. (more…)

The Iranian News Agency Fars is reporting that a group of Iranian scientists have discovered an “herbal cure” for HIV/AIDS after seven long years of arduous work. I am sure it was the work of Allah. Iran risks being put in the category of the former Soviet Union whose propaganda department claimed the Russian inventors had invented the automobile during the reign of Catherine the Great.

The news release is here: Iran Introduces AIDS Cure.

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