Eleven year-old Barack, traveling with his grandmother on a sightseeing tour of the West...

[bigtree]

from Michael Brune at HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brune/grand-canyon-mining_b_1206259.html


The Grand Canyon is one of the world's great wonders, and millions of people have shared the awe I felt. One of them was an 11-year-old boy called Barry, traveling with his grandmother on a sightseeing tour of the West much like the one my own family made.

Now, four decades later, President Barack Obama has helped ensure the Grand Canyon will continue to endure and inspire. The Department of the Interior has announced a 20-year ban on new hard rock mineral leasing and mining (primarily for uranium) in one million acres adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park. At stake is not only the canyon itself but also the safety of the water that the Colorado River supplies to 18 million people across the Southwest.

President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar deserve kudos for these protections (you can send them a message here). Let's hope this is just the beginning of what this administration can do for protecting both the Grand Canyon and other wild places. For instance, designating Arizona's North Kaibab Plateau as a new Grand Canyon Watershed National Monument would protect important sources of groundwater, preserve 22 sensitive species (many of which occur nowhere else in the world), as well as promote and protect the local tourism economy and jobs.

The Colorado River needed millions of years to carve out the Grand Canyon. Letting mining companies run rampant could ruin it in the geological blink of an eye. The good news is that protecting it can happen just as fast. Thank you and congratulations to the Obama administration for doing what's right.


read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brune/grand-canyon-mining_b_1206259.html

[joshcryer]

1. Nice post.

Don't go to Huff Post but I think you put the best bits in here.

[handmade34]

2. Yes! n/t

[inna]

3. Barry - cannot say this! forbidden word! edit before it's too late!

[MADem]

8. It's the right that loves to play with his name and use it to try to "make fun" of him.

They pull the "Barry" thing, like it is a taunt, and they love to emphasize the Hussein middle name to suggest that it means "Best Friend of Evil Saddam" instead of "Handsome."

When people get down to that level, it tells you they've got nothing.

"Barack" means "Blessed." You'd think the fundies would love that 'un!

The guy is blessed and handsome, by all accounts--the wingers will just have to get over it.

[joshcryer]

13. Exactly. I've seen that name used affectionately here.

It's how you use it, not simply using it! The right wing and detractors use it to denigrate, not as an affectionate term.

[joshcryer]

21. Obama even used it once in a call to Tim Kaine!

I posted the video down thread, and I agree with you.

He "stopped using it" as he wanted to "own" his real name, that's a sign of maturity in a country where people with weird names are denigrated for no rational reason.

[inna]

17. "Imagine that someone could make such a fuss over so plain a name."

I hardly can, except for the fact that it was in DU2 TOS.

At least people didn't get instantly banned for it, IIRC - *posts* would be deleted, not people (let alone, long-term (over the decade) and beloved posters, the way it happens on DU3).

[pinto]

26. It was a red flag on DU2 when used derogatorily. As it was at times, echoing teabagger stuff.

If you have a beef about recent actions, suggest you let Admin know and follow up from there.



(ed for spell)

[joshcryer]

27. Hateful, vile, use of the name was deleted, but I do not recall general...

...positive, affectionate use being banned.

The OP is clearly a positive use of the word.

Thus the outrage is misplaced.

[inna]

29. whose outrage, yours?

if not, is someone else having "the outrage"?

just curious. not really reading or posting much on DU3, at all, so... not terribly interested in your response, if any.

[inna]

30. LOL! OTOH, i'd love to see what all the deleted posts in this subthread said!

[joshcryer]

32. I feel for you that you've been clearly bullied and OT dicussion has spoiled the thread.

I apologize to you for my participation. (I won't delete my posts, however, because I do not fall for bullying.)

[inna]

33. absurd allegation

[NYC Liberal]

34. The problem is that it's most often used as a belittling insult by the right

(and even on the left when criticizing him).

Yes he went by Barry when he was younger, but he started asking people to call him Barack when he was in college I believe, or his early 20s.

Saying "a young Barry Obama" or "little Barry" when talking about Obama as a kid isn't insulting.

[stevedeshazer]

4. Somehow, the Righties will manage to make this look bad.

Count on it.

[bigtree]

9. is there no where they won't go

. . . anything they won't say to get elected?

This isn't just some random ecological initiative by this administration. They know this is political dynamite which will go off in the republicans' face if they grab it and try and run with it. This will be a slam dunk for most Americans. These republican candidates are just reckless enough to take the bait.

[stevedeshazer]

12. That's a big 10-4.

No shame, these bastards.

[Wistful Vista]

5. My neighbor assured me the Grand Canyon was created by the The Flood about 6000 years ago

I shit you not, he actually believes that and the whole Noah's Ark tale. I asked him how kangaroos got from Turkey to Australia and he said "God put them there". How the fuck do you have a dialogue with a shithouse rat insane guy like that?......it just gives me the heebie jeebies.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

7. Does your friend know about other Bible references?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110403084841AAXv6aG

Here are ones on unicorns
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=unicorn&searchtype=all&version1=9&spanbegin=1&spanend=73

The ones on satyrs
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=satyr&searchtype=all&version1=9&spanbegin=1&spanend=73

The ones on cockatrices, mythological creatures with the body of a dragon or serpent, and the head and legs of a rooster
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=cockatrice&searchtype=all&version1=9&spanbegin=1&spanend=73

Dragons
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=dragon&searchtype=all&version1=9&spanbegin=1&spanend=73

A talking donkey
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%2022:28-30&version=KJV

A talking snake
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gen%203&version=KJV

[immoderate]

10. Nothing deters a true believer.

Whatever you hit them with causes them to dig in deeper.

--imm

[Wistful Vista]

15. I don't think he's bright enough to grasp the concept of absurdity. I've suggested

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com
http://www.godisimaginary.com
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/

among others, after I gave him those links he stuck a sign on his front gate that says
"Are you Ready for Jesus?". These vile people are a family of 'deacons' in the local
Baptist "church".

The horribly sad thing is this guy (who does not work, he 'rests' all day while his usually pregnant 'little woman' deals with the kiddies and goes off to her job) has acquired, over the last 3 years about a hundred different animals, dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, and
goats as babies...and they all mysteriously vanish as soon as they grow up out of the 'puppy' stage. We are convinced they take them out in the country and just kill them.
Their dogs run loose around the neighborhood, they make little or no effort to keep them in their large fenced yard and don't appear to have any regular feeding...the ones we have tried to give a little nourishment quickly vanish.

[tabasco]

19. Backing away slowly and saying "everything's cool man."

And then run like a mahfah when you're at a safe distance.

[JoePhilly]

28. Ask him how Noah and his family cleaned up the S**T of 2 Apatosauruses!!

Those weighted nearly 25 tons, each. Their dung must have been enormous.

You'd think God would have warned Noah about that!!

[girl gone mad]

11. We're not allowed to call him "Barry"!!!!!

Just a heads up.

Maybe you can still edit.

[joshcryer]

16. Where is that coming from?

It's really odd, I must've missed the drama where we can't call him Barry under any circumstances.

I saw this recent example where he was called Barry affectionately, and someone corrected the poster, I'm really bemused by this. I didn't know it was a "thing." I must not be paying attention, someone should send me the secret rule book on what we can and cannot say.

[catrose]

23. I thought it was his nickname as a child

seems fine to me in that context, describing an event in his childhood

[malaise]

24. At least he was called Barry in school

What explains Mitt for Willard?

[bigtree]

25. name of a guy

. . . with an affinity for rats.

[ClassWarrior]

14. Huzzah!! Thanks Mr. Prez!

NGU.

[Coyote_Bandit]

35. I thought the Grand Canyon was

DIRTY when I was there a few years ago. You could see the cloud of fog blowing over from Los Angles. It was windy on the rim and the trash from the vendors was blowing down into the canyon. Sad.

I did see the Condors flying around. Spectacular and breathtaking.

I doubt I'll ever want to go back. Seeing one of the world's great wonders being tainted by pollution isn't something I want to see.

[bigtree]

38. they got most of the air clean with the Clean Air Act

they believe it's from the cars and trucks . . . the ground litter you saw is sad.

[Greybnk48]

36. I hope everyone is signing the Sierra Club thank you letter.

The link is in the article.

[LeftinOH]

37. "Barry" is a preferable nickname to "Mitt", IMHO.

"Mitt" sounds like a name you'd give to a stray cat.