Musings of a Liberal Texan

Factoidal Musings That Stinks Nitrate Pollution Groundwater is frequently contaminated by factory farm pollution, generally in the form of nitrates. Nitrate pollution, which can cause serious human health problems, seeps out of manure lagoons and into community sources of drinking water. About 13% of the domestic drinking-water wells in the Midwest contain unsafe levels of nitrates. > Read More There are many ways that groundwater, in particular, may be contaminated with nitrates from factory farms including: lagoon seepages, lagoon spills or leaks and the misapplication of manure onto the land. > Read More In 2001, the EPA forced five hog factory farms to supply bottled water for local residents because activities at the farms had contaminated the local drinking-water. > Read More In some instances, groundwater below fields that were sprayed with liquid manure was five times greater than levels which would be safe for humans. > Read More Half of the lagoons tested ...

The Reality of Darfur Anderson Cooper There are some things you see, some things you hear that simply are unspeakable. In a hospital in the eastern Congo city of Goma, we met a little girl. She never said a word to us, she could barely look us in the eyes. When she did, her eyes told the story."She never says anything to men," one of the hospital counselors explained, and then she told us why.The little girl was raped. Gang-raped. It was allegedly done by soldiers engaged in a complicated regional war that has claimed millions of lives. The war officially ended in 2003, but outbreaks of violence and rape continue. The girl is now five years old. She was raped when she was three. I wish I could tell you this was an extraordinary event. I wish I could tell you she was the only child attacked. The hospital was full of rape victims, and the doctor had seen other small children victimized. Because the rapes are so violent, women often develop fistulas -- ruptures in their vaginas ...