Stalking women, drought, voting fraud, and guns.

Ben Carson's view of women.  Stalking is not romantic.

How to understand and end California's drought.

Lion cub learning how to swim.

Dealing with the radiation fears about Fukushima.

Have self-compassion.

Kansas voting is manipulated.

President Obama is a class act.  Dealing with Native Americans.

Understanding China's economic slowdown.

Ideas for dealing with oceans filled with plastic.

Stating the obvious: The States With The Most Gun Laws See The Fewest Gun-Related Deaths

California would like to join!

The Lakota Indians, the tribe of legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have declared their independence from the United States Wednesday.

The Native American tribe, whose territory span five midwestern states, delivered a message to the US State Department earlier this week, announcing that they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties signed with the US government.

The Native Americans say the treaties have been repeatedly violated by the US government. There are 33 treaties that the Lakota tribe feels have been broken.

Around half of the Lakota nation is in the state of South Dakota. The rest of the territory rests in parts of the states of Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

Representatives of the self-proclaimed new Lakota country say they plan to issue their own passports and driving licenses. Residents would live there would be tax-free, provided that they renounce their US citizenship.

The Lakota Indians have gone through hard times in recent years as a culture. Lakota teen suicides are 150 percent above the United States average; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is very high.

Update 12/22: As Bryan of Why Now? noted in comments and Cernig of The Newshoggers posted, Russell Means loves to commandeer the spotlight and spoke without authority of the tribes.

I still think this is in reaction to Bush's explanation of sovereignty...

Paying compensation forever

Canada pays compensation to those Native Americans who suffered in abusive government run schools:

In a move hailed by one native leader as a "turning point in the history of our nation," Canada on Wednesday formalized a landmark compensation deal for an estimated 80,000 former residential school students.

The country's largest-ever class-action settlement came into effect, ending what Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine called a 150-year "journey of tears, hardship and pain — but also of tremendous struggle and accomplishment."

[snip]

Thousands of the former students say they endured sexual, physical and psychological abuse while attending the schools, which were run by churches and funded by the federal government from the 1870s until the mid-1970s.

The federal government-approved agreement will provide at least $1.9 billion to the former students who had attended 130 schools.

[snip]

Still, not all survivors have opted to take the lump sum. A group of about 200 people who endured very serious abuse and trauma have rejected the cash, choosing instead to take the federal government and religious organizations to court for running the institutions.

Many people who have said the financial compensation cannot heal their emotional wounds can seek support from a truth and reconciliation commission, which was set up as part of the settlement agreement process. It allows people to share their experiences in the schools and put them on the record.

So how many years are going to go by before we find ourselves paying compensation for suffering by these people: (found via Steve Bates at The Yellow Doggerel Democrat) :

The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.

Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will" and are part of waging war in what he called "the battlefield of the mind." Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the "House of Wisdom."

The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who "teach out of a moderate doctrine," Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers. Such schooling "tears apart" the arguments of al-Qaeda, such as "Let's kill innocents," and helps to "bring some of the edge off" the detainees, he said.

Detainees the age of 11? Should we ask if anyone running this House of Wisdom can actually speak the native language? How do they verify what is being taught to whom? And who the hell thinks that 'bending them back to our will' is a good thing? Who the hell is in charge of this horror? WTF??