It wasn’t a very good week for religion. First we were introduced to pseudo-science teachers who brand their students with crucifixes, and now we have proof of the existence of the ’selfish’ gene. Initially introduced to us in 1976 by the famed biologist and author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, the idea of a ’selfish’ gene was one in which our genes carry an independent drive to survive and carry on into future generations.

In a study involving the reproductive behavior of honey bees, University of Western Ontario biology professor Graham Thompson, with help from the University of Sydney’s Peter Oxley, has discovered the location in which a genome harbors the ’selfish’ gene. As somewhat of an extension to the Honey Bee Genome Project of 2006, Thompson noticed the ’selfish’ behavior of the worker bee’s genetics as all of the females are sterile. This led him to the discovery which has been considered a key element in the process of evolution.

This new stamp of evolutionary proof not only adds to the resoundings of Charles Darwin’s works, but as Thompson says, “…provides a validation for a huge body of socio-biology.”

By Brian A. Burns

Back in 1999 John McCain lambasted the special interest groups who tried to secure offshore drilling contracts, saying he swore he would “…never lose sight of the fundamental principle that federal land management decisions affecting local communities must be made in cooperation with the Americans who call those communities home.” Now, with his proposal to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling, it appears he’d rather forego the health concerns of U.S. citizens so he could sell our environment for votes and campaign dollars. Meanwhile, the pots have shifted on McCain’s stovetop and our need for a new source of sustainable energy has been pushed to the back burner.

Even with George W. Bush admitting that offshore drilling would take years to produce any noticeable effect, John McCain’s plan to cure our energy crisis is to go ahead and drill. If we were to wait what most experts say would be close to 5 years for a price cut at the gas pumps, during which time we will still be relying on oil as our primary fuel source, we could be in serious trouble. When we consider the steady increase in population, which will undoubtedly have a large impact on reserves, and the rate at which our oil supply declines, it is easy to see why focusing on drilling offshore is coming only from the eyes of the profiteers. There is only so much oil we can reap from the Earth, and the gas companies have no intention of lowering their prices, but are increasing them instead on a day by day basis.

While it’s obvious that something as simple as the rebirth of the electric car would take a long time to overrun gas powered vehicles as our primary source of transportation, it is stupid to think we should run serious health risks by potentially poisoning our shorelines and nature preserves. The people are screaming for an alternative energy resource, and we want it yesterday. But with billions invested in their production equipment, and billions returned in profits the oil-giants refuse to change their focus, and will do anything they can to continue squashing alternatives to their cash-cattle until they have run completely dry.

With the same reluctance the Republicans have shown toward caring about the health and welfare of the American population, they are now scrambling to secure their personal investments before their time in absolute power runs out. Being nothing more than the Corporatist Party of kick-backs and cronyism, the non-conservative neo-Republicans have only ever cared about their foreign policy. Through 8 years Bush and his staff focused very little on domestic issues, to the point where he even turned a blind eye to the situation in New Orleans directly after Hurricane Katrina left bodies floating in the streets and women being raped at the Superdome. He had nothing to say when Dick Cheney ordered workers, who fought to restore power to hospitals, to divert their attention to restoring the oil supply from a downed pipeline that runs through Mississippi.

Republicans have a knack for losing focus on the American priority - whatever it may be at the time. In Iraq they sent the troops in without ever securing the border, then came back saying, “Hindsight is 20/20.” They repeated the adage after warnings from our climatologists told of the devastation that would befall New Orleans if and when a category 5 hurricane hit. “Hindsight is 20/20,” was repeated after the Iraqi population formed an insurgency, and even again when they realized that Bush Senior and his predecessor were responsible for arming the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mostly they tried passing the buck, but the beneath-the-breath-mumblings of ‘Hindsight is 20/20′ was heard after we found out that a week prior to 9/11 Condoleezza Rice was given a warning of imminent attack from Osama Bin Laden. From Kim Jong Il and “Bring it on!”, to Saddam Hussein and “They’ll greet us a liberators,” the Bush Administration seems to have less hindsight than a bat.

John McCain is following in Bush’s footsteps to where one could swear he stole the president’s cowboy boots. While Barack Obama speaks of a progressive America with a progressive energy policy, John McCain is stuck in the mud trying to score points for his cronies, while overlooking the potential disaster of an oil spill along our coastlines, and the serious health issues that would accompany such a catastrophe. John McCain would gladly risk the lives of Americans to build oil platforms off our coasts for what he believes would produce enough to alleviate the headache we currently face at the pump. It sure would be a sad day if our coasts turned black with crude muck and we had to watch our food and water supplies turn to poison only to hear John McCain speak half-brained about hindsight being 20/20. And in 5 years from now, when the gas prices are at $9.80 a gallon, just when we would begin to feel the effect of having lifted the offshore drilling ban, I would imagine that we won’t find much headache relief in the price cut from $9.80 to $9.50 per gallon. So, to John McCain, thanks but no thanks. I’d rather we spend our tax dollars on contracts that will go directly toward finding a truly sustainable energy source.

Beyond the last ditch effort to retain total power in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe has announced that the democratic process of electing a ruler in his country is farcical at best, and now must resort to the threat of war.

After losing the March presidential election to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe embarked on a campaign of cheating and intimidation in hoping he could manipulate the people and the voting process to equal a victory, regardless of how blatant his methods were. After numerous atrocities seen first hand by much of the interested world, Mugabe has come to understand Morgan Tsvangirai’s resilience, and has now stated that he will wage war against any party that tries to take over power from his ruling Zanu PF party.

Click here to read about one man who can care less how many eyes are studying his tyranical behavior through the proverbial microscope.

By Brian A. Burns

Either George W. Bush is purposefully lying to save face, or he is stuck in the deep recesses of his mind where information is not welcome and where the sound of his own voice is music to his ears. At the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, Bush reiterated his dream of forcing non-westernized people to be ruled by western-minded leaders for the sake of business relationships and natural resource grabbing… though not in those words, of course.

Instead, he spoke of a “broader battle — the battle of ideas,” and said that the focus of U.S. foreign policy is to “advance a more hopeful and broader vision, especially in the Middle East.” Of course, these remarks come from a man who has repeatedly lied about the wishes of the people of the Middle East as being one which salivates over the thought of living the American life-style. He believes, or wants us to believe, that the Middle Eastern people are all living wretched lives, and are depressed and yearning to break free from tyranny. He believes only the armed gangs and oppressive rulers are happy, though the word being screamed at him by way of protests, citizen-insurgencies, and homemade bombs is one loud and clear ‘Get out of our country and take your western ideals with you!’.

The amount of implications that accompany the word “broad” are no less than broad - it would be very difficult to come up with a more vague term. But as the art of being vague is indeed a valuable asset to politicians, in light of Bush’s 8 years of utter failure in every measure, it would almost seem surreal if anyone were to extract any sort of positivity from his ambiguity. The world over sees him as somewhat of an evil-minded dolt, and have adopted a very cautious ear when listening to him spout his ideals.

Bush used the “broad” word again when he spoke of our relationship with Europe in which he described it as “…the broadest and most vibrant it’s ever been.” The word “broad” here is a poor use of an adjective, and thanks to him and his policies, “vibrant” seems to be an admittance to there being a lot of heat and friction between us.

The fact stands that not many people throughout the world can truly trust much of what comes from the thought processes of George W. Bush, and rightly so. Considering nearly all of what he predicted surrounding his invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the way in which he treated already fragile relationships with many of our allies; in which he basically rejected their opinions on his foreign policies and instead adopted the “go it alone” attitude, the only thing truly “broad” that Bush is handing over to the next president in terms of foreign relations, is the broad distrust our allies have acquired over the past 8 years, and the even broader problem he created for us in the Middle East.

Seemingly underestimated of their importance in our daily lives, truck drivers across Spain, who have been striking in protest over inflated gas prices, are wreaking havoc throughout the nation. They have blocked deliveries of food and fuel and supplies in general, and today all 18 of Spain’s auto factories will be forced to shut down due to lack of fuel and parts.

The people are becoming increasingly upset as they are being forced to stockpile food, are stuck in immense traffic-jams as the strikers are blocking roadways, and are being left without any way to fuel their vehicles. Yesterday the tensions between the truckers and the strike breakers grew violent and one of the strikers was killed, while another was believed to have been set on fire.

Click here to read why the only good thing to come out of the Middle East conflict is the realization that the people on our planet need an alternative to our fuel resources .

In only four years the number of Americans who either have no health insurance or are under-insured jumped 60 percent. A report by The Commonwealth Fund showed that 42 percent of Americans cannot gain access to much needed medical care because they are either without health insurance, or their out of pocket medical expenses in proportion to their income is far too high.

The majority of insured Americans are currently being covered by employer-sponsored health plans, and the rates for family coverage within those plans raised more than 90 percent since the year 2000. Perhaps the most disturbing information came from Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. She noted, “At least 25 percent of employers terminate employment the day you become disabled.”

Click here to read why the lobbyists for the healthcare industry and those they mingle with in our government make it so difficult to live the American dream since they make it so difficult to simply “live”.

Yesterday at the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, researchers reported some staggering numbers - the ratio of bacteria in our bodies to our human cells is 10 to 1. One scientist was able to estimate approximately 500 different species of bacteria living on our skin alone. This has led other researchers to tackle individual body parts to study possible correlations with their ailments. One is studying the bacteria in the human digestive tract to see if there may be a relationship to Crohn’s disease, while another is studying the bacteria residing in the digestive tract to see if there’s a correlation to obesity.

Click here to read about those we unknowingly play host to, and their ecosystem within us.

Robert Mugabe once said, “So Blair, keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.” And after 38 years of wielding absolute power it is obvious that he is not ready to give up his Zimbabwe. The atrocities against humanity taking place in the midst of the run-off election in the south-eastern African nation continued today when Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader and winner of the popular vote back in the March presidential election, was arrested along with 14 of his officials. It seems that Mugabe has nothing to hide when demonstrating his authority over anyone who dares speak of opposition. Likewise, it appears that Tsvangirai has nothing to hide as he returned to his homeland with the knowledge of Mugabe’s plan to assassinate him. With his arrest, one can only assume that it’s a flexing of muscles to instill fear in the opposition, and how easy it is to achieve when the eyes of the world are watching elsewhere.

Click here to read about the political circus that makes Bush’s stolen election look rather simple.

By Brian A. Burns

Hillary Clinton announced today that she will be slowing down enough to allow Barack Obama to take the checkered flag in the race for the Democratic presidential nominee. Although many believe it is high time for our nation to have a female president, and though most of us always believed the first would be Hillary, this may be the best move on her part for the betterment of our nation. At least at this point in time.

We have all come to learn what the game “presidential election” is all about. There are no rules it seems, and the populous generally votes for the candidate who “smears” the best. We have noticed over the past eight years that the Republicans have pitched most of their funds into the “smear” position, with the rest being poured into players who are experts in the “power hide” spot. They spit out their attacks, which mostly have nothing to do with a candidate’s qualifications, against issues like the clothes they once wore, the church they once attended, the food they prefer, or their hairstyle in the 70’s, while using legal loopholes to hide their candidate’s resume. If in fact they cannot hide it very well, and all types of faults are issued to the public through the press, they ramp up their personal attacks to the level of ‘ludicrous’, and hope their constituents will bite.

I’ve met many a Republican who have said the Democrats play dirty in election campaigns. These were not unintelligent people, but people who’ve fallen into the cell of misinformation. They’ve been told that every media outlet lies except for Fox News, and so they refuse to listen to anything else, and their views of the truth become awfully clouded. Because they’re headline junkies they’ve grown to believe in the slogan “fair and balanced” but have nothing to compare it to. They wouldn’t know how unfair and unbalanced the Fox televised tabloid truly is, because they’ve grown too lazy to research a potential president’s qualifications through any other network or source of information. Consequently, they’ve adapted well and they have no problem blocking out the trash-attacks coming from their candidate. It doesn’t matter to them because it must not be bad - “Republicans don’t play dirty.” They have grown a keen ear to what the Democrat is saying. Although what goes in one ear enters their mixer-minds, gets churned around, and comes out with a different meaning entirely. If they heard the Independent candidate say, “We have to fix the problems with this nation,” the Neo-Con spits back, “He hates America.”

With Barack Obama driving the Democratic car, the Republicans will have to dig far deeper to find trash to sling. And if priests and pastors would learn to mind their own business they would have even less to catapult. Perhaps the most ingenious move on Obama’s part was to publish the book about his life. In that simple move Obama threw his garbage onto the table for everyone to pick through. He basically said, “Here’s what I’ve done, go ahead and slam me if you want to. I’ve already acknowledged it, and have moved beyond it.” This gives him the opportunity to step away to watch Karl Rove and his band of thugs dive through the scant dump.

With Hillary Clinton’s dump already being mountain-sized, it would’ve been a nightmare of mud slinging. And since the Democrats have a problem with fighting fire with fire, there’s no doubt that she would pay closer attention to the mud-that-matters, as opposed to the mud-that-hurts. With either Democrat we would expect to see an election run where they point out John McCain’s support for failed ideas, and his willingness to continue sending our troops to die overseas in the Cheney/Bush oil war, and his inability to face domestic issues with any honesty or integrity. The Republican’s instead will lie and tell the population that Barack Obama is a Muslim - because that seems to work in frightening Christian and especially Jewish extremists. They’ll go back to the photo of Obama dressed in the traditional clothes of Kenya and lie about him wanting to dress in Muslim fashion. Of course, they’ll bring up his middle name and call him the enemy. Beyond the lies they’ll be relying on the racist redneck vote - those who are psychologically entrenched in the 1800’s.

For now, at least, we can sleep better knowing the Democratic candidate has packed lightly, and isn’t dragging along a mountain of trash that would be used against them. It’s a good thing for all of us that Hillary has run out of gas, especially for us who vote independently of party lines, because the last thing a swing-voter wants is the continuous ringing of the telephone with some person on the other end talking about how evil Hillary is for finding compassion enough to keep her marriage alive after her husband’s sexual misdemeanor.

By Brian A. Burns

In scrambling for every deal he could cut before being booted from the Vice Presidency, Dick Cheney yesterday scoffed at the idea of suspending the gas tax, calling it “a false notion”. Though many of us understand that the idea would do little in giving relief from the skyrocketed fuel prices, to say that it’s better to do nothing is only a tell-tale sign of how little he still seems to care about the welfare of the American population.

Billions of dollars from our earnings have gone into securing overseas contracts for Halliburton, which he chaired until only months before taking over the position of Vice President of the United States. Prior to that time, in 1998 when he was the acting CEO of Halliburton, he secured over 28 million dollars in business dealings with Saddam Hussein, and billions of dollars in government contracts and taxpayer-insured loans for his corporation. Once in office it took only two weeks for him to create the “Energy Task Force” - a group that met and discussed ways of securing oil contracts in countries throughout the world. It was a highly secretive operation which eventually led to a congressional investigation. From this it was uncovered that Cheney and his staff were creating documents, maps, and charts of oil fields, pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals and development projects in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The lists they created were titled, “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oil Contracts as of March 5, 2001.” There is no doubt that much of the meddling that went into gaining support for the Iraq invasion was directed by him. But, perhaps the most treasonous act came when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Then, Dick Cheney diverted relief efforts aimed at restoring power to hospitals to repair a broken oil pipeline running through Mississippi.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Dick Cheney used the Vice Presidency for only his own welfare, all the while promoting the Afghanistan and Iraqi invasions that have cost thousands of lives, and billions of dollars and that have also helped tank our nation’s economy. Trading lives for riches, why would he care when the people are mere strangers? Americans? Who cares. When you’re as high on the corporate pyramid as he was, and involved in the business of securing natural resources, you tend to have people all over the world to befriend and exploit - American or Iraqi, it makes no difference to Dick Cheney.

For Dick, George W. Bush’s legacy, which will be the knowledge that he was the worst president in the history of our nation, will not blemish the Cheney name whatsoever. Usually, the president takes the blame while their “right-hand man” disappears in between the lines of our history books. In this case Cheney is disappearing with fat pockets clinking with our money, and a whole lot of blood on his hands.

He is a man who at a different time in our nation’s history, might’ve been swinging from the gallows, and when one considers his acts against America’s best interests, his willingness to popularize a war in which our troops are dying for his profit, he should be dropped to hang. But he always had too many Americans backing him, whose pride and anti-progressive sentiments muffled their hearing when we ranted why he and his worthless cowboy-puppet shouldn’t be elected to ruin our nation. It’s a shame that “I told you so” has no medicinal quality for the eight years of suffering through heightened stress levels and heartburn. It’s a shame that if Cheney were to hang because of his treasonous acts, he is so coated in oil that his neck would most likely slip right through the noose.