OTHER NEWS

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GODDESS SACKED FOR VISITING U.S.

BBC - A 10-year-old girl who is worshipped as a living goddess in Nepal
has been stripped of her title for defying tradition and visiting the
US. Sajani Shakya was one of the three most-revered Kumaris, who are
honored by Hindus and Buddhists alike. Chosen after undergoing tests at
the age of two, she had been expected to bless devotees and attend
festivals until she reached puberty. But she provoked the ire of temple
elders by traveling to the US. Elders said the visit had tainted her
purity, adding that they would now begin the search for a successor. . .
A Kumari is chosen between the ages of two and four, always from the
same Buddhist clan. Tradition holds that she must hold 32 attributes,
including thighs like those of a deer and a neck like a conch shell. She
lives a confined life, only coming out of her palace three or four times
a year until she reaches puberty when another Kumari must be found.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6264014.stm

[She visited an elementary school in Washington DC. Afterwards, the
principal noted that she had a number of students who thought they were
goddesses but they had never met a real one before]

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INDICATORS
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CHILDREN OF UNMARRIEDS SOAR

USA TODAY - A Pew Research Center survey [says] nyounger adults are
driving higher rates of out-of-wedlock births and living together
without marriage.
Using U.S. Census data and the responses from a telephone survey of
2,020 adults conducted last spring, Feb. 16-March 14 Pew reports show
that the rate of non-marital childbearing has ballooned to 36.8% of all
births in 2005, from 5.3% in 1960. As recently as the early 1990s, only
about a third of these non-marital births were to cohabiting women; now
it's about half of all out-of-wedlock births. Nearly half of adults
(47%) in their 30s and 40s have lived in a cohabiting relationship;
among those ages 30-49, about one-third have. . .

Teenage unwed mothers, who were often racial and ethnic minorities, made
up most non-marital births in earlier decades. Today, experts say, it is
white women in their 20s and 30s, who often live with the baby's father.
The Pew study reports that the percentage of births to unmarried white
mothers rose from 2.3% in 1960 to 35.8% in 2004.

Other Pew study findings show:

- Divorce is preferable to staying in an unhappy marriage; 61% of the
divorced and 57% of the never divorced agree.

- 41% today say children are "very important" to a successful marriage,
down from 65% reported in a 1990 survey.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-01-pew-study_N.htm?csp=34

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BREVITAS
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OUTLYING PRECINCTS

GOOMBAH99, SLASHDOT -  John Edwards, the presidential candidate and
lawyer, is standing out from the pack by showing himself to be a bit
tech savvy. In 2003 he was a guest host on Lawrence Lessig's Blog,
giving his view on the imbalance between property right protection and
the good of public access. As of this week he has become the first
presidential candidate to support 'open source code' for election
systems in addition to voter verified paper records. . . 'Currently,
software used in election systems remains the proprietary property of
vendors. This situation has created a continual problem when anomalous
results have been reported and independent experts are denied the
ability to review how the systems work. A growing body of critics oppose
this privatization of the voting system.'

http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/30/0622212&from=rss

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THE MIX

CNN - According to a CNN/Opinion Research poll, 56 percent of Americans
believe that gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation
even if they wanted to do so -- the first time that a majority has held
that belief regarding homosexuality since CNN first posed the question
nearly 10 years ago. . . Six years ago, 45 percent of Americans
responding to a CNN/USA/Gallup Poll said gays and lesbians could not
change their sexual orientation. And in 1998, the number was 36 percent,
according to a CNN/Time poll.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/personal/06/29/poll.reaction/
index.html?eref=rss_topstories


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ARTS

NY TIMES - [Lawrence] Lessig has become the standard-bearer for those
who see copyright law as too protective of original creators and too
stifling of the artists who follow them. . . Mr. Lessig argues that the
founders had a balanced view of commerce and creation, allowing Congress
to impose copyrights "for limited times." Gradually, that view has lost
out to the mantra of intellectual property, as in "this is my creation
and you can't have it."  One particular law, the Sonny Bono Copyright
Term Extension Act of 1998, became Mr. Lessig's cause. By mandating that
copyrights last the lifetime of a creator plus 70 years, the act stifles
creation, he argues, particularly on the Internet where reading a book
or listening to music invariably involves creating a "copy" beforehand.
. . Mr. Lessig made his case against the Sonny Bono Act before the
Supreme Court in 2002, in Eldred v. Ashcroft. While his side lost, in a
7-to-2 vote, the experience was tantalizing because some of the justices
who ruled against him conceded that long copyright terms were bad
policy, if still constitutional.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/business/media/02link.html

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MEDIA

SO THE GOOD GUYS got rid of Don Imus with great exhalations of self -
righteousness. And what did this blow for decency produce? Imus'
replacement by right winger Joe Scarborough. Scarborough has already
made fun of people from Poland, but we haven't heard any cries of
outrage. Scarborough is also the guy who, six years ago when he was a
Republican congressman from Florida, had a 28 year old woman staffer
found dead in his office of unknown causes, the story itself dying
faster than one of Scarborough's bad jokes. The lesson here is that in
today's media climate, a Don Imus may have been as good as you're going
to get, especially on MSNBC. Imus deserved to be suspended, scolded and
have had a black and woman added to the show who could have given him as
good as he gave. But Imus was a rare creature, one who had strong
connections in both unreconstructed corners of America and in its better
self. Yes, there was the bad, but there were a lot more good moments
than there will be with Scarborough.

ONE MORE paper has done away with its stand alone book review section:
the San Diego Union Triune.

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HEALTH

COMPARING U.S. HEALTHCARE
http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf

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DEVOLUTION

CLARKE CANFIELD, ASSOCIATED PRESS - While Americans are preparing for
the Fourth of July this week, residents on Chebeague Island will
celebrate their own independence day today when the island becomes the
nation's newest town. After 186 years as part of the town of Cumberland,
Chebeague Island is going it alone. Islanders say independence will help
the island remain a viable, working-class community instead of becoming
a seasonal playground for the wealthy. . . Chebeague Island is one of
only 15 year-round island communities left in Maine, down from more than
300 in the late 1800s.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/01/maine_
island_shows_its_independence/


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DRUG BUSTS

JOSEPH BIDEN - The current sentencing disparity between the two forms of
cocaine is based on false notions and old logic.  The bottom line is
that there is no scientific justification for any disparity.  Crack and
powder are simply two forms of the same drug, and each form produces
identical effects.  I will soon be introducing legislation that
eliminates the sentencing disparity completely, fixing this injustice
once and for all.

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LABOR

For the second time in two weeks, workers at The Walter Reed Army
Medical Center have been denied an opportunity to decide if they want to
join a union.  WRAMC Garrison Commander Col. Peter Garibaldi once again
unilaterally cancelled a scheduled union vote. More than 150 WRAMC
employees work for IAP Worldwide Services, a private government
contractor. The workers hold jobs previously held by government workers
prior to IAP taking control of operations at WRAMC on Feb. 2 of this
year. Meanwhile, IAP also summarily fired Paul Hough, an outspoken union
supporter. The International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 99, a
DC based labor union seeking to represent the workers, has filed an
Unfair Labor Practice Charge with the National Labor Relations Board and
is considering other options.

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