Hyo Jin Moon

I've been struggling lately with so many things to post about and not knowing what to choose. Then 45 year old Hyo Jin Moon dies, and the decision is made.

Hyo Jin may not have lived an ideal life, but his position as the older brother of the True Family still effected the whole Unification movement to some positive degree. I'll be taking a week off from posting anything here as a sort of moment of silence for him.

I pray with all my heart for him to have a good afterlife, for him to become an even better person and better leader in the spirit world. I also pray for his family, that they can reamain close to him and be strong so they may be relieved of their grief.

Words of Hyo Jin Moon

Son of Unification Church founder dies
Published: March 18, 2008 at 12:21 PM

SEOUL, March 18 (UPI) -- Hyo Jin Moon, the oldest son of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, died of a heart attack in Seoul. He was 45.

The younger Moon, who died Monday, was born in South Korea and grew up in the New York area, a church statement said.

He ran Manhattan Center Studios, a New York multimedia facility used by musicians and orchestras for recordings and broadcast events. He was also the founder of MC Korea and MC Japan.

Moon was a musician, performer and multimedia executive producer, producing more than a dozen albums and creating a composition catalog numbering in the thousands. He continued to perform during concerts in Asia each spring up until his death.

Before running Manhattan Center Studios, Moon worked for a decade as first president of the World Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles.

Moon spoke regularly during Sunday meetings in upstate New York, drawing on his experiences for a particular topic. His last speech, "Commitment," was delivered March 9 before he left for South Korea on a business trip.

Moon is survived by his wife, Yun Ah Choi, and four children, and five children from a previous marriage.

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon is the founder of News World Communications Inc., a media company that owns UPI.



© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.

Nepal: Ani-poverty Initiative Launched

Through The Rising Nepal (via Google News) I've learned about a partnership between The Universal Peace Federation (UPF) - Nepal, Healing Touch, Pepsi Co., and The Chaudhary Group which takes a conservative and spiritual approach to ending poverty.

In the article below, they mention that the focus of the initiative is to enable microfinance institutions to rise up to serve the poor community. Wikipedia, has a really great article on it.

The basic idea is that poor communities don't have financial institutions in order to get loans or to save money and earn interest, and if they had some they might rise up to be not such poor communities.

A poor farmer with no land could improve his situation, for instance, if he could afford a loan to buy better irrigation equipment or more land. The poor guy might not even have proper title to the land he has because of his messed up government, so commercial financial institutions, in the interest of protecting themselves and their other customers, can't risk giving him the loan. Developing microfinance works to fix this problem, without just giving away money so that people still have their dignity and learn to help themselves better so that they grow not to need any help(or even grow enough to be able to help others, as the UPF would especially hope).

Here's something from Wikipedia that really sums it up well.

Key principles of microfinance

Key principles of microfinance were developed in 2004 by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and endorsed by the Group of Eight leaders at the G8 Summit on June 10th, 2004. Among the key principles, summarizing a century and a half of development practice, are the following:

• 1. Poor people need a variety of financial services, not just loans.
• 4. Microfinance can pay for itself, and must do so if it is to reach very large numbers of poor people.
• 5. Microfinance is about building permanent local financial institutions.
• 8. The job of government is to enable financial services, not to provide them.
• 10. The key bottleneck is the shortage of strong institutions and managers.^[3]

More generally, the Principles assert that “Microfinance means building financial systems that serve the poor.” Financial systems include strong financial institutions but also much more: more competitive financial markets, better government regulatory services and better complementary services (practitioner education, auditing, etc.)

I hope it all works out, and pray especially that nobody involved in this gets greedy and tries to take advantage of the poor in Nepal.

The Universal Peace Federation has an even more detailed article by Robert Kittel (A UPI Correspondent) on it which can be read here.

He sums it up like this:

The four-party alliance will create a nationwide movement to enable underprivileged sections of the population throughout Nepal to achieve economic self-sufficiency through a combination of micro-financing and in-kind product loans, coupled with basic business training and a grassroots support system.

Below is the article from Rising Nepal.

Main News Anti-poverty initiative launched [ 2008-3-13 ] Print By A Staff Reporter Kathmandu, Mar. 12: The Universal Peace Federation-Nepal, Healing Touch, Pepsi Co. and The Chaudhary Group Tuesday launched a joint initiative to uplift the existing standard of the poor in Nepal. The project's aim is to realise the motto of Project Healing Touch: "Make poverty history�. The project envisages micro-level support to increase the income-generating capacity and employment opportunities in areas with high levels of poverty and will be with the support of the both the corporate sector and civil society in India and Nepal. K.V Rajan, the former Indian Ambassador to Nepal, chairing the programme said that accumulation of wealth without being guided by social responsibility would not be justifiable. Nirvana Chaudhary, executive director of Chaudhary Group said that micro-finance was the most effective tool to alleviate poverty. The project aims at enabling those in the most vulnerable sections of society to earn a respectable living, be self- supporting, make a contribution to society, and live in dignity inspired by three of the fundamental pillars in the UPF philosophy as-that sustainable peace can only be built on the principle of living for the sake of others, that irrespective of religion, language, cultural or ethnic background we are essentially "One Family Under God,� and UPF's wholehearted support to fulfill the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The project will initially focus on families that have suffered as a result of conflict over the past decade. It will purposely select families that have been victims of violence from both sides of the conflict. It has been agreed that pilot projects would be immediately developed in Kathmandu, Biratnagar and Gorkha, and then expanded as quickly as possible to the entire nation. To ensure the success of the project, Pepsi Nepal said it would oversee commercial viability, monitor the projects, conduct on-site training, and further develop the corporate social responsibility concept in Nepal.

Another, entirely unrelated thing I wanted to mention, was sex. Basically, there's an article by Alan Farnham of Forbes describing how healthy it is to make love. For me, it really shows how important our sexual organs were to God when he designed them, and it seems to me that we were designed so well to make love to our spouse often and throughout our married lives.

Those poor Catholics (as well as others) are not only inciting their priests towards child molestation by not allowing them to marry, and not only are they simply and truly preventing God's plan from taking effect, but they are going against keeping their priests and nuns healthy.

Here's the article, which is not religious at all. Goodnight. I hope that, for your spiritual and physical health, you're lucky enough to have your spouse beside you tonight, or even during the day.

Goodnight.

Don't Raise Taxes!

First, we have something from the Heritage Foundation's email newsletter on taxes and the economy. The Heritage Foundation is, from what I understand so far, a political group focused on keeping alive Reagen conservatism. Honestly, I think I'm even a little more conservative than our past president Reagan, but I think his ideas were definitely a step in the right direction compared to most modern Republicans and Democrats.

Three myths about the Clinton tax hikes

Out on the campaign trail and in the halls of Congress, liberals are announcing plans to raise taxes—above and beyond the massive hike resulting from the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. They argue that tax hikes can benefit the economy. For evidence, they point to the economic growth in the 1990s after President Clinton’s 1993 tax hike.

» Take our poll: Did the Clinton tax increases boost the economy as liberals claim?

This is bad economics, Heritage tax expert J.D. Foster explains in a new analysis.

There are three myths at the center of the liberal argument for tax hikes.

• Myth 1: The economy recovered from recession because of the 1993 tax increase.
  
  Fact: “The tax increase probably slowed the economy compared to the growth it would have achieved” without the hikes, Foster writes. While the economy did grow after 1993, this was hardly due to the tax increases, since “much in the context of the 1990s was conducive to prosperity.”

• Myth 2: The late-1990s boom resulted from the 1993 tax cuts.
  
  Fact: The 1997 cuts to the capital gains tax rate, not the 1993 tax increases, sparked the strong growth of the late 1990s. After the prolonged recovery from the 1992 recession, Foster concludes “it was not a moment when one would expect growth to accelerate.”

• Myth 3: The 1990s show we can raise taxes today without economic consequence.
  
  Fact: The 1990s demonstrate that tax cuts, not tax hikes, are the key to economic growth. Congress should therefore, at a minimum, not allow the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to expire. They certainly shouldn’t pile more taxes onto an already struggling economy. “Taxes are now above their historical average as a share of the economy, and are rising,” Foster notes.

Second, we have a video of Carla Howell, Chairman for the Committee for Small Government, on her organization's movement to end the Massachusetts income tax.



I recommend taking a look at their website, smallgovernmentact.org, for more information.

Ron Paul Announces Grand March on Washington D.C.

In a video released tonight Ron Paul states, “We are at this point where we have to do something major…We have to make a grand stand, we have to stand firm and see where are numbers are…”

I'll write more on it later, perhaps tonight.

read more | digg story

March 1st, 2008
10:45 PM

So, I guess I didn't get to writing more about it that night. Here's a campaign update video witch that digg story refers to.



In addition, I've found a few related links. The first is pretty much just a little news article from Restore The Republic titled WARNING: RON PAUL DC MARCH UPDATE. This first one I think is the most important for Paulites to read.

The second I found is a website called revolutionmarch.com which is a grassroots website to organize information pertaining to the march as well as the actual march.

From the website:

The purpose of our rally is to get many thousands of freedom loving people in one place so we can be heard. An event SO HUGE, that even the Main Stream Media can’t ignore it!

The last is a blogger blog, Revolution March, which seems to fulfill a similar purpose as revolutionmarch.com or even this very blog posting of mine. An interesting feature it has, which I haven't gotten a chance to check out, are two blogtalkradio recordings about the march. I have however registered an account so I can comment on them as soon as I listen to them.

For my final words on the whole subject, I want to urge people to not take this march as a stand for Ron Paul to be elected president, or to attack John McCain or any other politician. This march should be about the revolution as whole. This campaign may have shown there there is hope, that there are a lot more people reseptive to the message of true Liberty than Dr. Paul ever imagined. However, it has also show that we still have a lot of work to do. The primary focus of the campaign is no longer to get Dr. Paul into the White House, but to use th campaign as a vehicle to get the messege of Liberty to as many Americans as possible so we can really start to change this country around back closer to the way our founders might have imagined it.

Let's face it, even if we were able to pull off the miricle of getting Dr. Paul into the White House, he would hardly be able to make many of the changes we would hope without congressional support. We need to change not only the way the Republican Party thinks, but the way the whole country thinks. We need Paulites running for office in every branch of government, from city counsel to Senate.

Basically what I think we should be looking for as a result of this march and book bomb is either a much stronger and united Libertarian party or a changed Republican party, and through this, a stronger and better America. This revolution is not just about one great man, but a great idea for a great nation.

The Revolution: A Manifesto

In case you hadn't noticed by the ad I've got on the side here, I have officially become a part of the Ron Paul Revolution. I haven't had the funds to contribute, but I've been doing what I can to educate my parents and doing what I can to voice my support for him and his ideals on the web. This is part of it.

Apparently Dr. Paul will be releasing a book for the first time in twenty years. It's called The Revolution: A Manifesto. A grassroots organization called Ron Paul Book Bomb has sprouted up to promote it. They believe sincerely that this book could be THE book of our generation which will change the U.S. and the world, and so they're trying to get it on the best seller list of the NY Times, Amazon, and Barns & Noble to make sure as many people read it as possible. The organization is not directly affiliated with the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign or Grand Central Publishing, but instead is grassroots (or perhaps, motherboard) to the core (or kernel).

Below is a promotional video about it from YouTube. I warn you beforehand that it is a little long.



Books have changed things before, and I have faith in Congressmen Dr. Ron Paul's message enough that I think his words do have the potential to create big change. American's leadership role in the world via military might is over, and must now focus on changing the world through supreme, divine example. It is time for an end to war and a rise in absolute freedom. It is time for Sun Myung Moon, it is time for Ron Paul.

The revolution is now. The only question is, which side will you be on?

Possible Future Malaria Vaccine

It may be too late for the millions, or perhaps even billions of people throughout history who have been infected with Malaria. However, it looks like there might be some hope for the future generations in a research project being held in Tanzania, where Malaria is the nations #1 killer and my lovely wife is practicing Physical Therepy at a medical facility in Moshi, Kilimanjaro province.

I have Google News customized into different categories. You might guess that I have the election, the UPF, the Unification Church, and others as extra categories. Among these extra news search categories I've added I also have Tanzania so I can keep track of the goings on in the country which currently engulfs my girl. That's how I ended up finding the fallowing article on nationmedia.com from The East African.

Malaria vaccine undergoes clinical trials in Tanzania

By A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
The EastAfrican

Researchers at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Tanga Region are carrying out a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and immunological potential of a candidate malaria vaccine called MSP3-LSP.

Speaking to The EastAfrican in Dar es Salaam last week, the principal researcher for the trial, Dr John Lusingu, said the launch of the new vaccine would take place in Korogwe District.

The term MSP3-LSP stands for merozoite surface protein 3-long synthetic peptide. Similar tests were conducted successfully for healthy adults in Switzerland and Burkina Faso.

Dr Lusinga added that the two different dosages (15 and 30 microgrammes) of MSP3 are now being tested in a staggered process among child populations to further demonstrate its safety and any immediate or delayed adverse effects.

The trial is being run by a team of NIMR-Tanga researchers at the Kwashemshi Vaccination Centre in Korogwe district, said Dr Lusinga.

The study, which was approved by the Tanzania National Health Research Ethics Review Committee and the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority, involves 45 healthy, randomly selected children aged one to two years.

Dr Lusinga said the researcher has divided children into two groups comprising 23 and 22 children respectively. In the first group, 15 children are receiving a lower dose (15 microgrammes) of the test vaccine MSP3, while the remaining eight (control group) are receiving Hepatitis B vaccine.

According to Dr Lusingu, in the second group, 15 children are receiving a higher dose (30 microgrammes) of MSP3 and the remaining 7 (control group) are also receiving a Hepatitis B vaccine.

Immunisations in the two groups are staggered. In the second group, they are administered two weeks later after a thorough safety evaluation of the outcome of vaccination with the lower dose.

Each child will receive a total of three immunisations.

“Malaria accounts for 80 per cent of deaths among children below five in Tanzania.

We are very proud to be part of a process aimed at finding lasting solutions against Tanzania’s biggest killer,” Dr Lusinga said.

Dr Lusingu has assured the public that children will be closely monitored during the entire study period of 13 months.

The African Malaria Network Trust (Amanet) is sponsoring the study. In September last year, the Dar es Salaam based non-governmental organisation donated $50,000 to the National Institute for Medical Research for a project that will run for three years.

The Health Research Ethics (HRE) project, which the money will fund, aims at strengthening ethical practices in health research in Tanzania.

The project will also involve activities aimed at improving the ethical review committees at NIMR centres and stations.

According to Amanet managing trustee, Prof Wen Kilama, the HRE project will also enable the committees to conduct meetings regularly and review proposals using agreed standard operating procedures.

“Through this streamlining and empowerment of institutional research ethics committees, NIMR will be addressing the overall problem of a rising workload of proposals waiting to be reviewed, and at the same time ensure that the safety and wellbeing of human health research participants are protected,” said Prof Kilama.

Prof Kilama added that, besides funding for this trial, Amanet has contributed extensively in capacity strengthening, trial site development and training at NIMR-Tanga.

The mechanisms mediating protection in humans were analysed by clinical experiments of passive protection in patients, and the main mechanism, which was employed to screen the ca. 5300 proteins of the malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum), identified MSP3 as the main target.

Click here for an informative PDF of the subject of malaria vaccines.

Click here for a more detailed article on this particular study.

This is Fipher posting from Vineyard Haven, MA, & hoping for you the keep healthy.

NAACP President: Ron Paul Is Not A Racist

Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years, unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.

I truly hope that this can be spread around so this rumor of Dr. Paul being a racists can be fully squashed. I don't agree with him 100% on all the issues, but I cannot imagine anyone who believes so strongly in individual liberty could possibly be at all racist. Racism and Libertarianism are completely counter to won another. If you read up on Libertarianism, I'm sure you will agree.

Click here for an article by Ron Paul about racism and the government's role in it.

read more | digg story

"Yet it is the Federal government more than anything else that divides us along race, class, religion, and gender lines.  The Federal government, through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails in our society." - Rep. Ron Paul, MD, December 24th, 2002

Global Warming, or Global Fraud?

Thanks go to my father, James G. Osborn, for bringing this video to my attention, and finally to yours.

First, some background information. Professor Robert M. Carter is a research professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, Australia, and a founding member of the Australian Environment Foundation. He is considered an experienced marine geologist, environmental scientist, paleontologist, and stratigrapher. Here's his personal website.

Biologist Dr. Jennifer Marohasy is a senior fellow and director of the environment unit at the conservative Australian think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs. Check out her Sourcewatch profile here.

Here it is, thank goodness for YouTube. This is the first of four videos. I won't post the rest, but you can see the others on YouTube itself here in the related videos section. Just to give you a little warning, he's an Australian Scientists, so because of his accent and the terminology he's sometimes hard to understand. However, at least in the first video, I think you'll get it pretty easily. The last video is also pretty easy to understand.



See also: List of scientists opposing global warming consensus.

On a different topic, I also recommend checking out the YouChoose'08 section of YouTube. It's really a great place to check out all the candidates. Within this section, I especially like the CNN/YouTube Debate Section.

Candidates I like the best, in order, are John McCain, Ron Paul, Barack Obama, and Christopher Dodd. In case you don't now John McCain and Ron Paul are Republicans, while Barack Obama and Christopher Dodd are Democrats.