If you’re like me, you are very happy that the new year has begun. All the Christmas stuff is out of sight for the next 10 months. Yeah. It will be back before we even know it.

FYI: for anybody who wants to make a “legitimate” comment to this site, you’ll have to register. The blog spammers caught up with me again. They are a ghastly bunch. They spew their horrible ads for awful stuff all over the comment pages. I do not want to see their advertising for porn sites, gambling venues or cheap phony meds on these pages. So, as a result, we all suffer.

Let’s hope together we can make a better world starting this very year.

Happy 2008!

We’ve just published the latest issue of Clever Magazine, www.clevermag.com, our first environmental issue. We asked for “good news” and we got some, but it’s not enough. As Al Gore pointed out in his Nobel speech, we must act quickly because “too late” is almost here.

In the meantime, the USA and China, the biggest polluters and the cause of the problem in the first place, are dithering. Unfortunately, the environmental crisis must be solved through political action. Individual efforts are not enough. That’s why the good news about individual efforts is not enough.

Both Bush administrations were firmly anti-environmentalist. The current Bush wants to turn back the clock to when we were even bigger polluters in the interest of oil men and run-away capitalism. It’s frustrating to watch our politicians doing nothing except blocking all bills and ideas that could help tackle this problem.

What On Earth will it take to start the US on the right direction? I’m thinking 2008 is the year that will bring us a change. We must ask all the presidential candidates what they intend to do about global warming and then choose accordingly.

Can the Earth wait that long?

The calendar says it’s still summer, right. I live in California, right? So why does it feel like winter this morning? The forecasters are telling us that there could be snow in the mountains. It feels like there will be snow on my lawn. Let’s blame it on global warming, which is probably the root cause of the sagging arctic jet stream which is what is bringing on this weather.

It’s amazing to me that the conservatives in our midst, and there are plenty of them, are still saying the evidence is not in yet regarding global warming. Or they are saying it’s just nature,  their shorthand for we cannot do anything to change it. Haven’t they have had their way long enough?

When you think about it for more than a second or two, the conservatives have stood in the way of every good thing humans have ever tried to do. They push their self-serving arguments to the max to keep any progressive changes from happening.  And then when they are finally cornered and bullied into making small changes that turn out to be very good policy, they take all the credit for it.

Today is another cold day in hell.

For all of you creepy souls out there who think you can infiltrate this blog with spam, forget about it. It isn’t going to happen this time. Move on. It’s time for you to be somebody else’s problem.

No spammers, get it?

This email just came thru from the National Resources Defense Council. Occasionally there is some good news!

 What follows is an email string from concerned people around the world, related to the Moonbear rescue efforts. If you are intrigued, please check out the Animals Asia website: www.animalsasia.org

I am so sorry to hear about Naji and write this e-mail in tears.  As you may remember, I visited Chengdu and got to see first hand the remarkable work that they do there.  As Cath said, Naji never knew anything but fun and freedom unlike most of the bears who have survived horrible torture. 

I was there before Naji was brought to the sanctuary but got to see Peanut and I am certain that there was no maliciousness towards him - very likely a rough-housing accident.  These bears are solitary souls in the wild and to see them play and cuddle together leads one to believe that perhaps their suffering was being rewarded with a lifestyle better than they would have known outside of the sanctuary.

While I mourn the loss of Naji I encourage you to continue your foster parent roles (perhaps for one of the babies coming out of Vietnam) as well as your role as educators.  There are some great sites on the web that you can link to and hopefully lead others to take on the fight for the Moon Bears.  Ongoing contests and fundraisers will only help others in the memory of one lucky little bear - the “Naji Fund”. 

You’ve done a great thing and while this is tragic, please do not let it stop you in your efforts to end the suffering.

I’m sadden by the news and my thoughts are with you both.

Sheri

Hi everyone

I’m afraid we have some very sad news for you all. A couple of days ago, our beloved Moon Bear cub “Naji” died suddenly. We are all devastated here at “Beary Cheap” & we know many of you will be upset by this terrible news. Rather than try & explain the circumstances, below is a copy of the email received from Jill Robinson at the Moon Bear Sanctuary in Chengdu, China.

Cindy & Derek

Dear everyone,I just don’t know where to even begin with one of the saddest messages I have ever written - and know this news will come as a terrible shock to you, as it has to everyone in

Chengdu. Naji died suddenly on Wednesday and, whilst no-one was there to see it happen, the lack of any associated noise and the wound itself looked to Cath and the vet team to be tragically “play gone wrong”. Naji was found just seconds after lunch with a wound in his lower abdomen which had caused him to bleed to death. He had been captured on video just minutes before playing with best friend Peanut in the enclosure outside.

This brave little bear had integrated so well into the natural enclosure of House 6 with disabled bears like Freedom, Prince, Douglas, the cubs, and all the other bears who welcomed this ball of naughtiness into the fold. After weeks of joyous play, Peanut is apparently wandering around listlessly looking for his friend and no-one on site can believe that he’s gone.I wasn’t there as am in the UK in the middle of our Roadshow but, over the past few hours since he died, the emails have been flooding in from our Chinese and Western staff just stunned and broken that something so unforeseen and premature has happened to our beloved Naji.One thought from Angela has comforted a lot of people - that Uncle Andrew is caring for him now - but I think it’s going to be a long, long time before anyone in Chengdu can come to terms with his death and, again, I am so, so sorry to be passing on this news.I’d like to leave you with Cath’s conclusion after a harrowing Post Mortem by our brave vet team who never in their wildest dreams expected to see him on the table, together with her beautiful poem, just for Naji, which was translated and read out at his funeral by a heartbroken team.On the afternoon of Wednesday 27th June Naji’s life was cut tragically short. An accident during play resulted in a deep wound to a main artery causing fatal blood loss. There was no sign that there was a deliberate attack. Needless to say, the loss of our lively, mischievous baby has left us all deeply shocked. There is some comfort in the fact that his passing would have been quick.  Thank you for all you gave in your short time with us Naji. RIP.——-Dear Naji,

During your life you knew love from the start
And when you arrived captured everyone’s heart.
So bold, full of mischief, naughty and fun,
You loved to play in the warmth of the sun.
You had good friends, both human and bear,
Who cherished your joy in a life free of care.
You brought us all laughter, you made us all smile
As you embraced your new life in your own Naji style.
Yet today we find ourselves saying goodbye.
Hearts heavy with grief, we can only ask why.
Your spirit too free to remain with us here,
Your soul so precious, forever held dear.
Your life was a happy one; you knew not the pain
Or the suffering of so many bears that remain
In their tortuous world. Tell them they’re not alone.
Hope will come again, one day they will come home.
So as you must go, then go with our love.
You live on in our hearts as we look up above.
Evermore in our thoughts, you left us too soon,
But your spirit shines on by the light of the moon.

Cath xxx 
RIP little Naji - we all loved you, Jillx

So I was listening to NPR the other day. They were talking about events leading up to the Iraq war — again. As usual, that Nigerian scam came up, you know, the one that the Bush administration fell for. Some phony Nigerian diplomat wanted millions of dollars to provide information, evidence even, about the Iraqi WMD program. Both Bush and Tony Blair bought into it. Why, because they are schmucks, right? I cannot help but wonder how many times they have fallen for those other Nigerian schemes. Does Bush reply every time he gets the email about the 14 million he’ll get to act as the go between for that Nigerian who wants some money laundered? Perhaps that’s what Bush’ll use for his vacation home in Albania. And, I’ve just gotta bet that a whole bunch of CIA agents are waiting for their Nigerian checks too.

It’s so hard to believe that Melinda Doolittle got booted off of American Idol last night. As we all know, she was simply the best singer on stage throughout the entire run of the show. What are these young kids thinking! They turn these shows into popularity contests, or deliberately try to undermine the point of the show by voting for the worst instead of the best. At least Blake and Jordin are good performers. We won’t have another Taylor Hicks, no matter which one ends up as the idol. My two cents is on Blake.

I was totally shocked and disappointed in the outcome of the latest Survivor last Sunday night. This was one of the more boring Survivors, with the exception of Yaoman. He carried the show from the start and certainly deserved to win. Who would have thought that Dreamz would turn into such a scumbag, after all his yammering on about what a good person he was. He was eager and willing to sell his soul for a truck. That proves just how much his integrity is worth — nothing. And now he’ll always be known as the easy sellout and a total jerk.

Now we can look forward to the outcome of Dancing with the Stars. The 3 finalists are all very good, so I won’t be heartbroken no matter who wins. It would be great to see a woman win it for a change. Hint, Hint!

Got to thinking about the Far Right again, I try not to, but at times like this that’s difficult. Things that are okay with the Far Right:
Lying to the American public about the reason for going to war
Looting the National Treasury and dropping the country into an enormous debt
High-jacking national elections
Placing unqualified people into office
…the list goes on and on;
It seems like the only thing that really doesn’t sit well with the Far Right is getting too frisky with interns.

Clicked past a recent NASCAR race the other day and once again I was astounded by it — the crowds, the fuss, but most of all, the waste. Here were are, talking about the price of gasoline and trying to figure out how to reduce our so-called “gas addiction”, while these racers are racing round and round an oval track, going nowhere, while burning up barrels and barrels of this priceless, non-renewal, resource — to say nothing about the barrels and barrels of gas burned by the audience to get to that race. And add to that, what about the cost of all the trucks, trailers and so forth that litter the infield — the vehicles that travel with this NASCAR spectacle.

 We will never get serious about our gas, pollution, an global warming problems until we seriously consider the detremental effects of this extremely wasteful pastime.