A New Ocean in the Arctic, and What It Will Mean

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Thursday October 04, 2012 · 8:57 AM PDT

2012/10/04 · 08:57

This article is actually by my son, Sam Yates. He is not a member of DailyKos. However, it is so important that I am posting it here for the community to read. From this point, all "I's" refer to him, not me.

A New Ocean in the Arctic and What It Means

by Sam Yates

I first typed up the bulk of this on some forums that I frequently visit, but the subject's important enough that I figured it out to have a wider audience--So here it goes.

Some of y'all--those who talk to me on a fairly regular basis, or those who have made contact of some sort or another with me during the past month or so--are probably aware that lately, I've had my britches in a bundle over the subject of global warming, largely because of the truly spectacular things that have been happening in the Arctic this year. These things are so spectacular, in fact, and so unnerving in their implications, that I think it behooves me to make at least some noise about 'em.

etenglish

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Friday November 12, 2010 · 3:22 PM PST

2010/11/12 · 15:22

Losing those who formed you...sibs, parents, quasi-parents...changes everything.

etenglish

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Saturday July 17, 2010 · 3:56 PM PDT

2010/07/17 · 15:56

People always are taken aback when I tell them I live without television and without air conditioning, even during the punishing summers of Tennessee. Why, they want to know? There's never really enough time to tell them, so I make something up about not liking the way my AC air smells. Or something.

etenglish

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Saturday June 06, 2009 · 9:16 AM PDT

2009/06/06 · 09:16

What is a woman? As an older woman teaching younger women, I want to know, both for myself and for these young people struggling to figure out who they are and what path they will take in life. Is a woman a "round" character, an individual, like a man? Is she a flat character, a role, like the mom in "Leave It to Beaver"? Or is she, most terrifying of all, a symbol of the order in society, who, if she steps outside her place, must be destroyed for the order of society to be maintained?

etenglish

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Sunday May 17, 2009 · 12:14 PM PDT

2009/05/17 · 12:14

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth on both the conservative side and the liberal side recently about whether we should just avert our eyes from the revolting spectacle of the Bush years and move on. Peggy Noonan suggests as much, and conservatives are trying hard to pretend nothing went wrong and there's nothing to see here, folks. But Frank Rich has it right when he says we just can't. We really are not going to be able to do it. The last time we buried a piece of history, it was called the Vietnam War, and as a result of trying to forget it ever happened, we're still fighting it in this country. It's the seed of the rabid hatred and distrust that are flowering in the extravagant diatribes of Rush Limbaugh and his clones.

etenglish

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Thursday September 25, 2008 · 5:15 AM PDT

2008/09/25 · 05:15

I had a friend who worked at the old Bell Telephone once, and he would refer to his work there as "sucking at the great udder of Ma Bell." The same image occurs to me now in relation to the Wall Street crisis. Only now the teat is on the other side.

etenglish

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Saturday September 20, 2008 · 6:34 AM PDT

2008/09/20 · 06:34

The race between Obama and McCain seems to have shifted, and a lot of that has to do with McCain's gaffe about the fundamentals of the economy, but Tina Fey deserves a huge amount of credit for turning this race because of her spot-on reduction of Sarah Palin to a caricature on Saturday Night Live.

etenglish

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Thursday August 07, 2008 · 8:40 PM PDT

2008/08/07 · 20:40

Nearly two weeks ago now, a man entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (TVUUC) in Knoxville, Tennessee. That day, children of the church were to present songs from the musical "Annie." In his guitar case, purchased especially for the occasion, the shooter carried a shotgun. His own personal bad fortune and the apparently careful reading he gave to such eminent authors as Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity, all of whom agree that liberals are the Great Satan, led him to believe that he should kill as many liberals as possible.

TVUUC sometimes seems a place of unfounded optimism. It is not a specifically Christian church, but it certainly follows Jesus' principles while it also accepts that many religions point toward what is immanent or divine. It can seem jejune. But on that day, two Unitarian Universalists became martyrs for their deeply felt principles, and others were wounded. Members of the congregation tackled and brought down the shooter, Jim David Adkisson, 59.

I went to the Sunday service the following week at TVUUC, having been a member for several years there and needing to be there again. The following is my take on the astonishing service that they held.

etenglish

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Sunday July 13, 2008 · 4:23 AM PDT

2008/07/13 · 04:23

Has there ever been a war whose purpose was so questioned and so questionable? Five years into the Iraq war, hundreds of thousands of lives lost, a country blasted to pieces, and we still can't get a straight answer as to why we're there.

I wish someone in the press corps would stand up and ask Dana Perino whether our threats regarding Iran are because we see our policy in Iraq crumbling and we have to save it at all costs?

etenglish

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Saturday June 28, 2008 · 7:10 PM PDT

2008/06/28 · 19:10

Just got back from Pixar’s new film, Wall-E, and am reflecting on the meanings that come through without words. In this gem of a movie, Earth is a giant trash-heap and one lonely little robot is programmed to compact the trash and pile it up. Enter Eve, a sleek robot sent by Axiom, an off-planet spaceship serving as a hiding-place for humans, to scout out whether there is life on the planet and the exiles can return.

etenglish

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Friday May 30, 2008 · 6:48 AM PDT

2008/05/30 · 06:48

Scott McClellan is taking it from all sides in the last few days. The Left sneer at him for being the Administration's tool for so long, and the Right sneer at him for deserting the ship. Well, as the
sister of a diehard Republican with whom I disagree on many public policy issues, I have come to realize
that many Republicans are not so much evil as they are heartbreakingly naive. Some of them really
do believe that the Market is an unseen and benign force. Some really do believe that the Captains of
Industry are good guys who mean well. Some really do believe that Democracy will cure anything. And many really can't deal with contradictions, nuance, or evil intentions because their minds just won't wrap around the concepts.

etenglish

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Sunday March 16, 2008 · 6:14 AM PDT

2008/03/16 · 06:14

Yesterday, under a gazebo in a public park in Knoxville, while rain was pouring outside and a cluster of maybe 40 people huddled inside, out of the lightning and thunder, there was an Iraq war demonstration. It wasn't much of a demonstration; most Knoxvillians don't care enough about events in the outside world to even be aware that there was a demonstration. And the weather was horrible.

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A New Ocean in the Arctic, and What It Will Mean

Loss

It's real out here

Woman--Individual, Role, and Symbol

Bush Years-- Vietnam Redux

Laissez-faire

Give Tina credit

Meditation on bravery

Dana, Does threatening to bomb Iran have anything to do with the failed Status of Forces agreement?

Almost Wordless Wall-E

McClellan agonistes

What would I do...if I were brave?