The Righteous & the Wicked

The Righteous: Gloria Steinem, Casey Kasem, Mos Def and gang. Didn’t know that feminist Steinem, pop DJ Kasem and hip-hopper Mos Def belonged to the same gang? Then you haven’t yet heard (or read) A Statement of Conscience, the essential anti-Bush, anti-war on terrorism declaration. June 6 was dubbed a day of resistance and the message of the resistance is this: "[We] call on the people of the U.S. to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world."

Hail the return of non-violent idealism. And hail any cause that can unite Alice Walker and Ed Asner, even if that cause uses the names of famous people to protest the use of their names in another cause (the war on terrorism). To clarify: "President Bush has declared: ‘you’re either with us or against us.’ Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people ... We say NOT IN OUR NAME."

For the full text of the Statement and more on the NOIN cause, visit: http://www.notinourname.net.

The Wicked: Weather Modification Inc. Can anything called Weather Modification Inc. be good? What sounds like the horrid instrument of Dr. Evil’s latest attempt to annihilate the world is actually the purportedly friendly tool of your insurance companies to save themselves money. WM Inc. serves Alberta’s insurance purveyors by "seeding" clouds, a process whereby an airplane drops silver iodide particles on storm clouds to diffuse the water and lessen or prevent the creation of hailstones. The goal of such activity is to reduce the damage caused by hail storms and the number of insurance claims filed as a result. Sound unnatural? Alberta farmers seem to think so. Some eastern Albertan farmers hold weather modifiers responsible for further disrupting the natural water cycles and dehydrating their already parched land.

WM Inc. says that such claims are "preposterous" and maintains that the only side effect of their seeding is the amount being saved by their customers the insurance salespeople: $50 million per year.