Beg Your Pardon

“I believe at its heart, America is a nation of second chances. And I believe these folks deserve their second chance,” the president said in a video message.

So, how can he do that? Executive clemency. It’s one of the most unlimited powers granted to the president in the Constitution. The president is given the ability to pardon or commute sentences for “offenses against the United States,” which means at the federal level.

Commutation won’t wipe the slate clean for someone convicted of a federal felony. It simple reduces the length of the sentence that he or she is currently serving.

A pardon, on the other hand, is presidential forgiveness. It’s generally granted after someone has finished serving time. An offender can apply for a pardon five years after he or she has been released. When people are pardoned, they have their civil rights — such as the right to vote, serve on a jury or own a firearm — restored. This does not mean, however, that their records are erased or expunged.

Supporters of National Security Agency data leaker Edward Snowden launched a campaign Wednesday urging President Obama to pardon Snowden from a possible 30-year prison sentence. Snowden has been exiled in Russia since making off with a trove of NSA files in 2013, and he spoke from there via video link to his supporters Wednesday. The campaign coincides with the release of an Oliver Stone biopic titled, Snowden.

What do you think?  Should Snowden receive an official pardon?  Read the petition, and the Presiden'ts response here.

Explain your answer.

Where would you rather live?

According to Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, the answer may surprise you.

What happens when Man tries to play 'God' and control nature,  even for good reasons?

In short, the romantic view of the natural world as a blissful Eden is only held by people who have no actual experience of nature. People who live in nature are not romantic about it at all. They may hold spiritual beliefs about the world around them, they may have a sense of the unity of nature or the aliveness of all things, but they still kill the animals and uproot the plants in order to eat, to live. If they don't, they will die.

Would you survive Naked and Afraid?

And if you, even now, put yourself in nature even for a matter of days, you will quickly be disabused of all your romantic fantasies. Take a trek through the jungles of Borneo, and in short order you will have festering sores on your skin, you'll have bugs all over your body, biting in your hair, crawling up your nose and into your ears, you'll have infections and sickness and if you're not with somebody who knows what they're doing, you'll quickly starve to death. But chances are that even in the jungles of Borneo you won't experience nature so directly, because you will have covered your entire body with DEET and you will be doing everything you can to keep those bugs off you.

What is your Primitive Survival Rating?

The truth is, almost nobody wants to experience real nature. What people want is to spend a week or two in a cabin in the woods, with screens on the windows. They want a simplified life for a while, without all their stuff. Or a nice river rafting trip for a few days, with somebody else doing the cooking. Nobody wants to go back to nature in any real way, and nobody does. It's all talk-and as the years go on, and the world population grows increasingly urban, it's uninformed talk. Farmers know what they're talking about. City people don't. It's all fantasy.

Is Global Warming fantasy too?

I'm Not a Scientist but....

Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe gears up to chair the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee despite literally writing the book on global warming denial.

Do you have to be a Scientist to understand or even accept the effect we can have on the planet?

During this time of year, Oklahomans are accustomed to searching the skies for signs of tornadoes. Today, they're just as wary of the hazards coming from the ground beneath their feet. Tornado alley is now earthquake alley. Oklahoma is the most earthquake prone state in the continental US. What's more astonishing is that nearly all of Oklahoma's earthquakes are man-made. They are being triggered by the biggest and most important industry in the state: oil and gas production but it's not from fracking, which is what most people think. Before 2009, there were, on average, two earthquakes a year in Oklahoma that were magnitude 3 or greater. Last year, there were 907.

That's right, 907.

1) What are the positive and negative externalities of drilling for oil in Oklahoma?

2) Where does protecting the public safety rank when compared to protecting the economy/ jobs?

3) How do we here in Oxford have an effect on the earthquakes in Oklahoma every time we fill up our gas tank?

Nerd Prom

Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.  -Mark Twain

The WHCA's annual dinner, aka 'Nerd Prom,' began in 1920, and has become a Washington, D.C. tradition. It is usually attended by the President and Vice President.[1] Fifteen presidents have attended at least one WHCA dinner, beginning with Calvin Coolidge in 1924.[1] The dinner is traditionally held on the evening of the last Saturday in April at theWashington Hilton.

Until 1962, the dinner was open only to men, even though WHCA's membership included women. At the urging of Helen Thomas, President John F. Kennedy refused to attend the dinner unless the ban on women was dropped.[4]

Prior to World War II, the annual dinner featured singing between courses, a homemade movie and an hour-long, post-dinner show with big-name performers.[1] Since 1983, however, the featured speaker has usually been a comedian, with the dinner taking on the form of a roast of the President and his administration.

The Dinner is a scholarship benefit for gifted students in college journalism programs.

May the 4th Be With You!

Happy Star Wars Day Nerds!

Every year on May 4, Star Wars fans everywhere celebrate their love for the franchise by using a greeting straight from a galaxy far, far away: "May the fourth be with you." 

And while the term is simply a play on words deriving from the one of the saga's most famous phrases "May the Force be with you," it turns out, the Star Warsfandom weren't the first ones to coin the popular saying.

You can blame Margaret Thatcher and those 'cheeky' Brits.

What is the Hidden Meaning of Star Wars?

Transgender Bathrooms

Suggesting that protecting the right of transgender women to use the correct public restroom will endanger “real women” by opening the door for male sexual predators to sneak in under the disguise of trans is fearmongering at its worst. This myth, we should repeat ad nauseum, has been proved false—there are no known cases of a man going through the elaborate process of pretending to be trans in order to assault women in the restroom. But unfortunately, facts had no place in the creation of this misleading and offensive ad.

How have Transgender Activists repeatedly 'debunked' the 'bathroom predator' myth?

What was Target's response?

How did Stephen Colbert join other celebs like Bruce Springsteen in speaking out in opposition to laws passed in North Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas?

What does our Governor think?   And the other  Presidential candidates?

Obituary

He was one of the best-selling artists of all time, and showed the way to a transcendent new future for pop music, influencing artists as diverse as Madonna, Bruno Mars and Pharrell.

Read the rest of Prince's Obituary.

An obituary acknowledges the loss of our loved one, expresses the pain of their loss and the joy that their presence among us brought.

According to James Loewen in his book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Sasha and Zamani are two aspects of time as expressed in some Eastern and Central African cultures. Sasha are spirits known by someone still alive, while Zamani are spirits not known by anyone currently alive. The recently departed whose time overlapped with people still here are the Sasha, the living dead. They are not wholly dead, for they live on in the memories of the living ... when the last person knowing an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the Sasha for the Zamani, the dead. As generalized ancestors, the Zamani are not forgotten but revered.

Your assignment:  write your own Obituary.  Follow the steps outlined in the linked article.  Assume you live to be at least 80 years old.  What will you have accomplished?  Who will you leave behind?  What will your legacy be?