No Abominoids Here

A Conspiracy...Not a 'Conspiracy Theory'

2012-01-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

On May 2, 2011, a fifty-four year old man was murdered on suspicion of wrong-doing in full view of several high government officials who had the ability to prevent it but conspired with others to permit it. Soon after, millions more were privy to endless re-runs of these perpetrators in the very act of sanctioning and viewing this murder. Nothing has been done by any court or law enforcement agency to cite these known collaborators to date.

The murder victim may have possessed specific information about planned actions against several vital interests. This killing then caused the loss of that information and might lead to additional destruction or death that could have been otherwise prevented.

If the planned death of an individual by force of arms was not simply a TV entertainment or casual diversion for the onlookers then the next logical conclusion is... 'Conspiracy'. The homicide and then secret disposal of the corpse appear to have been preferred to any possibility the victim be given voice. It deftly aborted any future Conspiracy Theorists by broadcasting the conspiracy 'live' and thereby defusing endless speculation or bothersome probing. A brilliant, if murderous, ploy!

Planners of future diabolical actions would be wise to televise as they unfold. Apparently an, 'Is it live or is it Memorex?", syndrome has rendered everyone within spitting distance of a television receiver incapable of thought. Murder has become 'justice'; if political, 'patriotism'. If in error, 'collateral damage'.

The modern world has been sold soap with ever increasing subtlety and efficiency for nearly a hundred years. Is it to be blood for the next hundred?

The 1% Are the Good Guys

2012-01-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

Yup! What constitutes the make-up of the so-called 99% OWs needs some serious 'splainin. To think singling out a township sized passel of money barons as pure evil lets the rest of us off the hook, is ludicrous. A Corporation is more than the CEO; a bank more than its President. Lots of somebodies do the dirty work for the dough and/or the prestige. So perhaps as few as 1% of the population should be included in the ranks of the Good Guys, the other 99% well...

As a Nation, we total roughly of 300 million souls as of the 2010 census. Quick math shows 1% to be about 3 million. For our purposes this figure will represent approximately the number who fill the ranks of the Good Guys. Check the following to see in which camp you might find yourself.

[ You may be among the 1% who are the good Good Guys if: ]

* you refuse a vote to a Congressperson who just promises more pork for your district.

* you question why we need 750 bases around the world.

*you will not engage in blood sports, fishing and hunting, for entertainment; just for food.

*you refuse a job with a 'fracking' company.

*you refuse to own shares in a company whose profits come from the oppression of workers.

*you support a charity that's not tax deductable.

*you will not purchase any sea food on the endangered species list.

*you reject contributing to the war effort by shopping.

*you refuse to sell the family farm to agribusiness or developers.

*you will expose your favorite pastor or coach upon evidence of immoral or illegal activities.

*you consider torture unAmerican.

*you think Google is God.

*you DON'T think Google is God.

[ You may NOT be among the Good Guys if:]

*you are a neo-con who wants to rule the world.

*you work for a company which manufactures land mines, hand grenades, a-bombs, etc.

*as a trucker you haul land mines, hand grenades, a-bombs, etc.

*you go to college primarily for job prospects and not to become educated.

* you manufacture drone planes when you know they are not intended for defense purposes.

* you mine uranium.

*you vote for politicians who promise you things rather than stand for things.

* you prefer companion animals to human beings.

* you consider global warming from a political rather than a humane perspective.

* you order a crop dust knowing workers are in the fields.

* you support oppressive regimes because of their oil, ideology or religion.

* you are a tease, female; or a lech, male.

* the idea of conservation annoys you; gas rationing makes you homicidal.

* you are a vulture capitalist or corporate raider.

*you have a net worth of one billion dollars and just want a teensy bit more.

Now you know what group you fall into. If you're a Good Guy, yeah! If you are unhappy with the result, what are you gonna do about it? Will you remain a camp follower or clean up your act and be part of the 1% ...the Good Guys.

The 3rd Base Syndrome Has Nearly Destroyed Mankind

2012-01-11T08:10:00.000-08:00

Wot's this then! How can a baseball game ruin anything? Well...3rd base, as many remember, is classic adolescent male jargon for the end stage in the seduction process. The thing that happens (maybe) after bases 1 and 2 are endured, for decorum mostly; then rushed past quickly. If that base, third, is reached then...ta da... you 'do it' ! Therein the rub. No pun. This pathetic angst of callow youth has worldwide ramifications. Generation upon generation has suffered the 3rd Base Syndrome.

It probably began soon after the last ice age; certainly with the advent of agriculture. Humans began to settle in bigger clusters and larger tribes when the supply of food was more assured. Food, that ultimate, primary, energy source. (You thought it was oil, gas, or atoms didn't you?) The struggle switched from power over the elements, the beasts and the uncertainty of the hunt, to power over others. Back from a desert-mountain top-forest glade spiritual quest, or accidental experience, comes the recently idled, permanently underemployed, ex-hunter. Piously he announces he had seen things, heard things, Big Things, stuff the rest of you lot don't know squat about. So call me Mr. Shaman now and get busy. Quit laying about luxuriating. Get quickly to 3rd base; then put on some clothes. Sweep out my cave and bring some food. I know stuff!

The goal of cultures, religions and tribes over millennia has been to reduce u s to unwitting strivers for 3rd base. Coital junkies, as it were. If we could be convinced that coition was as good as it gets, the only desirable goal; what obedient subjects we'd become. But to convince a species with acres of silky, bare skin, 24/7 access to love-making and now, lots more idle time, to forget all that preliminary stuff; go for the gold. 3rd base! This became the main job of every shaman, priest and pol and tyrant. Don't linger about; just do it. Then get back to work, prayer, the regiment, the kitchen or city hall. It's gotten so bad nowadays that on a clothing optional beach or a naturist resort one can see the location of 3rd base clearly, but the ever-present, judgmental voice says to stay on the bench. So we do. Thereby hangs a tail...oops, tale

The first to be disappointed and shortchanged were the women. It lasts to this day. The average maiden is tutored initially by the least able teacher of the amatory arts; a young male. Alas, poor maiden, our swain is under the spell of that old siren, 3rd base. And this is the norm in the more 'enlightened' climes. In other parts of the world a likely couple is pretzled together by the families. Often see each other for the first time at the wedding rites and then...viola! 3rd Base. A burkha hides the damage.

There is likely more kissing, caressing and affection in one hour of femme to femme love-making than in a year of typical hetero wham-bam. Does it not follow that a less frantic, more sensual approach to amatory pleasures would occur with a suitable femme as tutor for young women...and young men? What are the chances of this happening? Little to none in the present situation.

The twentieth century, despite wars, plagues and financial depressions saw the greatest increase in global population in history. Improved medicine, industrial output and transportation, the so-called Green Revolution, all played a role. But our old standby, can't overlook it...3rd base, is a giant in the reproduction numbers game. And the big numbers represent lots of customers, a huge market, so what incentive is there for the focus to shift away an old faithful control mechanism such as that?

3rd base, as a metaphor, is an admittedly transparent ploy to redress a variety of human woes caused by oppression and usurpation of power. But if we seek to sort out effective devices for human control and discard violence, religiosity, and starvation; libido manipulation leaps forward. It's effective, it's cheap and once in place, devilish hard to combat because everybody's an expert. It becomes proprietary, automatic, personally defensible and survives nicely through generations.

Each of us could stop the nonsense dead in it's track. Could that is, by spending a little quality time 'doing it'. Throw out the old paradigm of wham-bam and try warming it up by cooling it.
Slow, slow, catchy monkey is very good amatory advice.

The SIXPACK Colony Experiment

2012-01-07T05:38:00.000-08:00

a tale of the future

In the middle of the twenty-first century, roughly four decades after Ralph Nader's ' novel' suggestion, the super- rich decide the time has come to save the day (and what remains of civilization). The Euro has collapsed first, followed in short order by the dollar and the commissars in China are barely holding the renmimbi together. A handful of powerful, like-minded tycoons, who have survived with their fortunes largely intact, join forces and resolve to try to create something positive from the surrounding chaos. They call themselves The SixPack.

This group,although fiscally and politically very conservative, are socially quite progressive. Even, incredibly enough, radical. In fact, what they propose to do is illegal in every country; totally immoral in the eyes of every religion and could result in them being targeted for assassination if word got abroad of the undertaking.

The strongest rallying point amongst the SixPack members, all of whom are family oriented, is the carnage wreaked on the young during the long decline. Some had suffered personal loss as the shocking incidence of teen suicide was increasing, particularly among males. They began to wonder if the collapse of the internet and much of the power grid, which had enabled access to games playing, but now denied them, wasn't a factor.. The connection to suicide was baffling until one of the group came across a quote by a now obscure twentieth century writer. In 1987, Gore Vidal in an essay wrote," Since power not sex is true motor to human life, the powerless often prefer to die. That is why today's young do not eat goldfish. They kill themselves."With the illusion of power provided by video and online gaming gone, the disenfranchised young indeed felt powerless.

With the need for secrecy foremost, all six participants pledge whatever it takes of their personal fortunes, time and resources to assist the project to completion. Their combined assets are considerable: their resources worldwide in scope; their determination...total. So it begins.
Remarkably, very little altruism is involved as the leaders go about busily rearranging human history. These are hard-nosed guys making considered investments in both time and fortune and who, in most cases, won't live long enough to see the end results.That being said, what matters to them is, if they are successful, humankind is successful.

In order to have a chance for success location is paramount. The climate must be mild, the location remote from other habitation and the soil must be tilth. Selection of just the right habitat is a daunting task that would have been impossible prior to decades of diminishing social cohesion, natural resource depletion and planet-wide malaise. Of course these very circumstances are the reason this mind boggling adventure was even contemplated. Only the prospect of ever growing threats to mankind's very survival in any satisfactory form would have united these powerful individuals in this sort of endeavor.

A stroke of good fortune put them in possession of an island at a reasonable latitude and sufficient size to accommodate the plan. Their good fortune was at the cost of the former inhabitants who succumbed to a virulent strain of a smallpox type virus which was no longer a problem as the bug and the victims had perished together. The site was inspected by teams of tropical health and habitation experts for any foreseeable problems and given a clean ticket. With the results in hand the principals began construction of a comfortable and viable environment.

They began to lay down a cover story for the intended usage to satisfy workmen and suppliers who would naturally be curious. The raison d'etre put forth was that a quarantine facility was being equipped for future usage and would, quite naturally, be off limits to the public. It was necessary at every stage to have a cover story circulated casually in hopes that curiosity be thwarted as it arose.

One of the last installations, after fencing the approach to the waterfront, was the erection on the main pier and abutting the fence of a building to facilitate egress and exit from the settlement. Supplies could enter and in an emergency an occupant could be removed to receive medical treatment as it served as a clinic as well. A series of airlocks and UV installations served to prevent contamination from entering the facility from outsiders and to keep the residents from interacting with the outside world. Also in place was an elaborate network of closed circuit cameras throughout the colony that would only link to six monitors in the secure control of the principals. To avoid any taint of 'Big Brother', only the residents could activate the system if they so desired.
It was determined that once a year the system would be turned on for twenty four hours so the SixPack principals could view the colony.

The matter of recruitment was problematic. There was general agreement regarding the first applicants as to age, fifteen to twenty was the range; they would be females. It was deemed essential that the girls would be introduced first to domesticate the environment; a nesting process. Recruitment parameters were set and included firstly; orphans, of which there was no shortage worldwide since the troubles began. Excellent health was vital along with a more or less secular spiritual orientation. The organizers, at this junction, were forced to rely on trusted aides and associates to comb the world looking for recruits. Although denied a clear picture of the actual future awaiting the prospects, they could honestly promise something more rewarding and far safer than the candidates would otherwise enjoy.

When the desired number had been realized, the young women put through an extensive indoctrination at various locations, they were then transferred to the island and installed in what was to be a permanent home. The initial number decided on was sixty. Meanwhile the task force was busily occupied in securing a supply of very young, orphaned infants; a ratio of three girls to one boy was established. The infants were soon delivered over to the young women who had been anxiously awaiting their arrival. The hardest thing for these young people to accept was the ban on companion animals. It was hoped a focus away from pets and toward children and each other would be more productive.

After a suitable bonding and acclimation period the final element was introduced with the arrival from indoctrination of a cadre of twenty young males. These youth, as the females previously had done, underwent lengthy training in agriculture, construction, animal husbandry and other useful trades. This group of young males was at the heart of the experiment. The principals had decreed that most of the woes plaguing mankind from time immemorial may have been caused by universal male dominance. The ratio of male to females, including the infants, was chosen in an attempt to redress this phenomenon. Three to one, female to male, was the chosen number for the colony but, by lacking precedent, was plainly arbitrary.

What was not arbitrary, and was stressed repeatedly in the candidate selection process, was that one major requirement for both males and females is a demonstrable interest in erotic inclination toward both genders. Total rejection of such an inclination was a disqualifier. This was necessary to avoid lapsing into a male dominated erotic atmosphere. Specifically to avoid the 'third base' syndrome, or coital obsession, which had been rampant historically as a result of repressive religious and cultural taboo systems which directed erotic interest to one act above all others. Countless generations subject to this syndrome had become inept lovers and erotically uneducable because of carnality focused primarily on coitus and subsequent neglect of a multitude of erogenous possibilities. So to assist these young males in learning to sublimate the burgeoning urgencies of eros, a potential smorgasbord of opportunity and enlightenment in sensual arts was offered.

The candidates, during indoctrination, were made aware that in the colony they would be expected to, as Wiccans might say, be 'Sky Clad'. This is by no means a clothing optional situation as any garments worn would be solely for protection from the elements and would not, in any way, hide the nether areas from view. In effect, a reverse taboo attempting to offset eons of denial of the carnal, animal nature of humans. They were to understand that amorous activities were not to be hidden from others, nor from the young. In conjunction, it was affirmed that no one was to willfully, spitefully or pridefully hide from others, this region of the anatomy.That the key to reversing eons of repression and compulsive approach to amatory life was to be open, frank and honest about behaviors and appetites of humanity that heretofore had been used as a sinister lever to enact repression and control over individuals, tribes and cultures.

The SixPack principals now feel that they have removed most of the obvious barriers to the success of these brave young pioneers as they attempt to forge a new culture. Success or failure will not be known until, at the earliest, the next generation. If compulsion, along with power seeking, and possessiveness is removed from the mix, maybe, this drastic experiment will lead to a way of being not merely human, but truly humane.

'Out of Africa' is Only Half the Equation/

2011-12-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

Is 'Out of Sinai/Levant' the Other?

Recent reports by paleogeneticists, if the evidence proves out, could upset radically just about everything we hold dear regarding human Genesis .According to "Researchers led by Paabo, Richard E. Green of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and David Reich of Harvard Medical School compared the genetic material collected from the bones of three Neanderthals with that from five modern humans.Their findings, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, show a relationship between Neanderthals and modern people outside Africa, Paabo said."That suggests that interbreeding occurred in the Middle East, where both modern humans and Neanderthals lived thousands of years ago, he said." Associated Press

I've stressed the key words in the above; OUTSIDE AFRICA. This finding, aside from the mystification that interbreeding suggests, puts the origin of Neanderthal, somewhere, but not in Africa.

Since it is generally agreed by anthropologists that Neanderthals occupied an area from
the Levant to Britain for two hundred thousand years perhaps the search for Genesis should be focused on them rather than on 'Cro-Magnon' where science has been stuck for ages.

If Neanderthals are in our bloodline, and if their origin is not Africa, aren't we in effect back at Anthropology square one? Who were they and what did they evolve from and how have we missed all this?

The people now considered our direct ancestors reportedly left Africa about sixty thousand years ago. Contrast this with Neanderthal who, if he had ever lived in Africa, had lived elsewhere for two hundred thousand years. Hadn't we soon begin, rather than continue to dismiss Neanderthal as a heavy-brow, lumbering troglodyte, to study him instead, as gran-dad?

This flagrant oversimplification is aimed at stressing just one point: if Neanderthal was not 'Out of Africa', and his DNA is not found there; should we not look elsewhere for at least one half of our heritage? My guess would put origins in Sinai/Levant. The Ed. in Eden, maybe?

End of Evolution: a Retrospective

2011-11-29T03:01:00.000-08:00

November, 2099

The natural evolution of life on planet Earth began to come to an end on December 2, 1942 on a squash court in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The wizard who precipitated this event was the brilliant Italian physicist, Enrico Fermi.

One hundred years later the planet was de facto, bankrupt; thus no longer solvent. At that moment, the natural evolution of species was doomed to end and be replaced by worldwide genetic contamination as mankind could no longer afford to safely maintain or dispose of the countless machines and devices that had been produced since Professor Fermi released the genii by starting the first successful controlled nuclear chain reaction.

There had been opportunity for mankind to neuter the jinn from that day in 1942 until September 16, 1985, the day on which the USA went broke, ceased to be an Empire and could no longer afford to bear the costs and responsibility for the hideously dangerous forces it had released; assuming, which is exceedingly doubtful, it ever had intended to do so.

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century there were, according to Nuclear Power Today, updated in February, 2011:
"... now over 440 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries, 56 countries operate a total of about 250 research reactors and a further 180 nuclear reactors power some 140 ships and submarines. Over 60 further nuclear power reactors are under construction, while over 150 are firmly planned"

" The magnitude of the radiation generated in a nuclear power plant is almost beyond belief ... The original uranium fuel that is subject to the fission process becomes 1 billion times more radioactive in the reactor core. A thousand-megawatt nuclear power plant contains as much long-lived radiation as that produced by the explosion of 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs." Dr. Helen Caldicott

That huge number of nuclear appliances was dwarfed by the tally, courtesy of ICAN, of 23,300 nuclear warheads around the globe. Add to this the immense volume of nuclear waste which had always defied safe long term storage. This was the situation worldwide a scant three decades before the end of nature's sovereignty. In the year 2011 it was theoretically possible, with a huge expenditure of resources and treasure worldwide, to prevent the catastrophe looming just ahead. The possibility of such action was not open to discussion, let alone implementation. Nothing at all was done.

An example of the mind-set of most humans at that time is the launching of a missile towards Mars in November of 2011 containing scores of ounces of Plutonium regarded as the most lethal substance known. In what must have been the most maniacal piece of uber-hubris in decades that mission, curiously enough called 'Curiosity', was purported to seek signs of Life on that sphere but by sending forth a parcel of Death.

Mankind had prior warning of the consequences of uncontrolled nuclear fission with the experiences of Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 and Fukushima, Japan in 2011. Nevertheless, In the inevitable course of events, the tens of thousand of devices resultant after the early Chicago experiments were left unattended. Without the absolutely precise knowledge for their maintenance, combined with the enormous cost of this critical attention, they were gradually abandoned.

"Ionizing radiation—the kind that minerals, atom bombs and nuclear reactors emit—does one main thing to the human body: it weakens and breaks up DNA, either damaging cells enough to kill them or causing them to mutate in ways that may eventually lead to cancer.
... This ionizing radiation can damage DNA molecules directly, by breaking the bonds between atoms, or it can ionize water molecules and form free radicals, which are highly reactive and also disrupt the bonds of surrounding molecules, including DNA." POPSCI The Future Now

Google
mu·ta·tion/myo͞oˈtāSHən/

Noun:
The action or process of mutating.
The changing of the structure of a gene, resulting in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations...

Peter Dedon, a member of the Radiation Protection Committee at MIT, explains: “What happens is that the nucleus of radioactive elements undergoes decay and emits high-energy particles. If you stand in the way of those particles, they are going to interact with the cells of your body. You literally get a particle, an energy packet, moving through your cells and tissues.”

"What long-term effects can radiation have?
The effect of the radiation may not be to kill the cell, but to alter its DNA code in a way that leaves the cell alive but with an error in the DNA blueprint. The effect of this mutation will depend on the nature of the error and when it is read. Since this is a random process, such effects are now called stochastic. Two important stochastic effects of radiation are cancer, which results from mutations in nongerm cells (termed somatic cells), and heritable changes, which result from mutations in germ cells (eggs and sperm)."
... ACHRE Report

With all of civilization on the edge of abyss in the middle of the twenty-first century and trying desperately to feed and/or quell the remaining billions of frantic citizens, little effort or funding was directed toward confronting the pending nuclear dilemma. This oversight was critical because without constant attention these neglected devices ultimately began to alter life on the planet. Nature had little ability to cope with the radiation emanating from those thousands of impaired devices and storage facilities and the genetics of living organisms was affected in myriads of ways by the onslaught.

Those lethal ions spewing forth unchecked can bring illlness, death or failing both, blast apart DNA and change forever nature's prior mandate. Species are affected to varying degrees and for all time. Were any Martian organisms doomed as well by man's folly?

"Crow Jim" is Alive and Well/

2011-10-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

and Busily Rewriting History

Among the sundry American 'expats' thronging to Paris after WWI were a great many artists and musicians. The doughboys had returned to the States full of praise and in awe of Europe and especially France. America was an unhappy place for blacks in the twenties with the rise of the KKK and the overall reaction to the returning black soldiers who represented a new kind of black man, who had seen the world and was demanding more equality at home. The draconian attempt to keep blacks under white domination was known as the 'Jim Crow Laws.'

In the twenties the French were mad for 'Le Jazz Hot!' as they called the new American music. The clubs in Paris booked all the jazz musicians they could find but were color conscious to a fault. The ones selected as authentic were invariably black. No whites need apply. It was, as white clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow complained in his novel, Really the Blues, a kind of reverse discrimination he called 'Crow Jim'. So while Buck Clayton, Peanuts Holland and Lionel Hampton found work and acclaim, talented white jazzmen often were met with rejection because of their race.

It's one thing to have had this kind of discrimination in 1920's France; quite another in twenty-first century America. But it's here and it is an affront to all the excellent white jazzmen who have contributed so much to the art form. I can recall as far back as the early 1950s among some intellectuals, jazz aficionados and hangers-on in the jazz scene, and, woefully, that included a few black musicians, the snide insinuation that white jazzmen were not as good; "they didn't have soul."

The most egregious example of 'Crow Jim' is found in what will likely become the archetypical standard reference of twentieth century jazz history; the documentary miniseries by Ken Burns, Jazz. The ten part series aired in 2000. Criticisms of this effort at documenting the history of jazz were legion and were most scathingly addressed by Jeffrey St Clair:
"The series is narrated by a troika of neo-cons: Wynton Marsalis, the favorite trumpeter of the Lincoln Center patrons; writer Albert Murray, who chastised the militant elements of the civil rights and anti-war movements with his pal Ralph Ellison; and Stanley Crouch, the Ward Connerly of music critics."

It is both correct and proper to credit black jazz musicians as sole custodians and creators of jazz at its earliest beginnings. However, from the nineteen twenties until the present, to ignore the strong contributions of countless white jazzmen, is reprehensible. I doubt that was Burns intention. I suspect he assigned Messrs Marsalis, Murray and Crouch the selection of the principals for the narrative thread and tragically, this 'Crow Jim' hagiography has, for the past decade, become the visual history of jazz. .

I would like to challenge Messrs M. M. and C. to listen again to J.J. Johnson (black), on trombone and Kai Winding (white) , trombone, on The Great Kai & J.J. (Impulse) album and tell the world which trombone playing is the more authentic and which lacks 'soul'. This is a good test for us all, to lay to rest a patronizing, discriminatory and racist appraisal of musicianship by color rather than merit.

The same attitude that prompted the French, and more recently, these chromatographers when rewriting,the history of jazz, is specious. The 'Crow Jim' syndrome can also be found at times attacking both race...and gender. A case in point is the high-handed treatment offered one of the early black writers who in addition to being deemed politically incorrect for the times, was female. Our old avian trickster friend 'Jim' stooped down on Zora Neale Hurston like a bird of prey.

Hurston, a member in good? standing in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s, a graduate of Barnard, an anthropologist of some renown, and a published author, was a Republican. She was an opponent of the New Deal which was supported by the majority of her colleagues including Langston Hughes. Additionally she was skeptical of organized religion and had a penchant for feminine individualism.

”She was scathing about those who sought "freedoms" for those abroad, but denied it to people in their home countries: Roosevelt "can call names across an ocean" for his Four Freedoms, but he did not have “the courage to speak even softly at home.” Wikipedia

None of this went over well with the idealogues of the Harlem Renaissance although her gifts and renown equalled or surpassed most of the others. Her first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine published in 1934, was cited by Carl Sandburg as, "A bold and beautiful book, many a page priceless and unforgettable." "Though attacked by (Richard) Wright and virtually ignored by his literary heirs, Hurstons's ideas about language and craft undergird many of the most successful contributions to Afro-American literature that followed." Henry Lewis Gates, Jr

Lacking any support from her mostly male peers, Hurston, despite having published seven books, an autobiography and fifty shorter works, drifted into obscurity. But she continued to write and at one point worked as a maid to gather authentic material, anticipating by decades the novel, 'Help', by Kathryn Stockett, currently enjoying so much popular success.

Always outspoken she, years later when Truman dropped the A-bombs on Japan, Hurston called him "the Butcher of Asia." In 1960, Zora Neale Hurston died penniless in Florida and was buried in an unmarked grave perhaps with the local buzzards and crows for company.

The Maui Cargo Cult

2011-10-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

Stories About The Future - A submission for ADR

The Maui Cargo Cult
by Robert Magill

They gather at dawn on Koki Beach for the sunrise. As it peeks above the horizon solemn chanting begins. "Maserati, Donzi, Rolex, the Dakota...Maserati, Donzi, Rolex, the Dakota...Maserati...", is repeatedly intoned until the orb is fully risen.

The ritual, begun as a lark at parties in the Hamptons, has now become a credo since the Big X, as the exodus to the island is called. It has been over ten years that these fortunate unfortunates have been in residence. Leaving the mainland on whatever vessels could be commandeered, they at least had survived. Many others would have given all they had to trade places. Still, safety in itself cannot guarantee satisfaction or thankfulness as this wretched longing for the old ways demonstrates.

The phenomenon being experienced here is closest to the delusions of remote Islanders in another time who were convinced that the Americans who had provided them with so much in the past would return to re-provision them again. Any time now. Maybe today. Tomorrow, certainly. They waited anxiously at the water's edge and were known as a Cargo Cult. So now these once Masters of the Universe are slightly unhinged and are waiting for it all to return to them. They are the Maui Cargo Cult.

Among their number T.R. Straub is a standout character. Not content with a seven figure Wall Street largesse he had conspired to establish dodgy accounts in the Caymans and Canada until it all went down. The loss had more seriously affected him than the others.

If we listen to their mutterings and snatches of conversation a large dollop of self pity and more than a little delusion is evident. Ralph T., former hedge fund magnate, "The next time will be different."
His nearest companion who may or may not have been privy to his assurance, mutters, "This time it won't be lost."

T.R.'s voice rose to full volume to begin another chanting. This one, regarded by the others as a lapse into tongues, "CD' CMO'HBO'IBO'CDO'...' LBO' HMO," he repeated endlessly, chanting until near foaming. It was sad to behold; he was not joined by anyone. On the beaches and at the spas along the coast, from Kapalua to Kipahula, these Maui tribes gather each dawn. It is much the same on the other islands except for Molokai where an entirely different class of survivors is ensconced.

On the West coast of Maui, near Kapalua, another bunch is repeating the performance but instead of awaiting succor from the East and North America they cast their hopes Westward to China. The litany is near to being identical. Brokers and bankers, big men in their time imploring the fates, thusly," We were sold out. That's it. Those tribes on the other coast knew it was happening and never warned us. Unfair! Sold us out."

A well regarded financier from Boston, "It's true there was excess. Excess caused by everything happening too fast and by bad information and bad timing. Yes, the timing. When to plunge ahead and when to hold back. How much to bet but...nothing was said about risk!"

"Who knew? We were innocents. School was no help; not there to learn anyway. The MBA was for the networking, always the networking. Wonderful bunch there at school, we thought alike!", bleated a former Detroit captain of industry who guided the destiny and fortunes of many and now is wallowing in self-pity.

Still another, "Yes, mistakes were made. But by others. Our people were innocent... mostly. That other bunch, they were so clever. Made billions didn't they, with all their high tech gadgets and puffed up real estate. They knew it was coming. The the smart ones pulled out years ago. Took the money and split, didn't they?"

One voice, more senior than the others, was filled with disdain, "Of course, we all thought that the old familiar devices we had in place would see us through; last a lot longer at the very least. Really seemed promising; two or three wars going...not biggies, but profitable. Always worked before. But the boys, and they were boys you know, bunch of jackass MBA's got playing around with serious money. Those kids, a lot of them from good families, old families too, turned out to be a frat-rats and nerdy jocks, and yet we let them handle the big dough. Jesus, they screwed it up, royally. Couldn't be fixed. So we had to shut it down. Whole damn country. Pity, way of life gone for good. Ah, me."

The Bostonian," If only we had been as successful as the Russians were when the USSR went belly up. Maybe then...you know it's difficult to determine if naivete or hubris had contributed most in rendering us nearly uneducable in a contemporary sense. Maybe it was bizarre form of social deprivation as the result of living in a...a Golden Ghetto, with a miniscule gene-pool, in a informational cull-de-sac, lost among our peers. Maybe..."

They pace for hours searching the horizon, as if waiting... hoping. It's their common lore, their very DNA calls out to them that the phantom ships will come back, laden, oh so heavily, and it all will be as it had once been. A time of plenty. Masters once more of the Universe. Wealth and power such as these scions once knew was their due. But time weighs heavily each day as they roam the shores, searching, dreaming.

At times the loss seems overwhelming but each lives with beautiful memories...of plenty. And the dreams, oh the dreams--Back in the Market, again. Another chance. One more big killing, just one. Sure to be different. Way different. Any way to game it? Hope so. Can't lose hope. Can't. Someday...'Maserati, Donzi, Rolex, the Dakota...Maserati, Donzi, Rolex, the Dakota...Maserati...--

On Molokai, once the site of a despised Leper Colony, and ignored by the Cargo Cultists as a warren of hippies and new-agers, life is radically different. Loss of the old way of life, while mourned, is not paramount with them. Time is regularly set aside to contemplate the loss and to examine what it means to each individual. The core of their collective lives is in the music and art they create.

The clan too, had a ritual but of a different order than the Maui Cult. At gatherings, sometimes at dawn, they would intone this Mantra: Being not Becoming, Being not Becoming, Being not Becoming...Om! ...and Again.
This was their way of focusing on moment-place-being and rejecting dreaming of future in lieu of the present. A rejection of the modern shibboleth that proscribes the reality of here and now as never sufficient unto itself. Always the future; seldom the present, never ever,right now.

Most of the clan formerly lived in the Pacific Northwest and had long lived without the need of every modern convenience. Happy in rough cabin or yurt, they had neither the means nor the inclination to transport tons of food stored in cans and pails, and charged with nitrogen for long life, as did the Cultists. Nor did they bring kilos of precious metals, gemstones and numerous weapons, as those Maui people had done. What they did bring, however, were survival skills and a sense of purpose and direction to their lives.

They did manage to bring copious amounts of paints and brushes and were adequately supplied with yards and yards of canvas in excellent condition from the classic sailing vessel that carried them to Molokai. Stretching and framing this bounty gave ample surfaces on which to create Visionary Art, the foundation of their spiritual lives and ethos.

Summer Dawn, a favorite among the artists, formerly lived at the Northern terminus of the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Living in close proximity to the Sliammon Band of First Nation peoples, she knew much of their ways. So it was this dynamic individual who, more often than not, was consulted for directions and guidance on a range of subjects.

"Summer," cried Zen Wren, " This fish is still raw!"
Summer cleaned her brush and left her canvas. "Sweet heart. You have the circle just right but the smoke is all over the place. Put up another screen to the windward. Remember? Wind is no friend to the smoke."
"I forgot. Sorry I interrupted you." she apologized.

An important staple was fish smoked the ancient way by racking each split carcass flesh side to the smoke source. Each was supported on a wooden rack spaced in a circle around a fire pit. In this fashion the surplus catch was preserved. They learned to do the same when a feral pig or Axis deer had provided them with a surplus of meat in need of preservation. Diet was balanced with macadamia, coconuts and for a treat, coffee and sugar.

Summer had no sooner picked up a brush than Thanta Rose, dusted over with flour, shoved a pot towards her. "I can't get this bloody mess to stick. Look at it," she cried. Summer peered at the contents. "How many eggs did you use?" "Oh God!", Thanta Rose was mortified.
"Bannock won't stick without," weighing the contents, "for this lot, at least three." Summer decided.They were using macadamia nuts as the flour, shredded coconut for substance, eggs of course, and bacon grease with what ever berries they could find, in the bush bread.
"Wait 'til the fish smoking is finished then heat up the fire for the bread," she said. "Back in the day the tribes just wrapped the dough around a stick and put it near the fire to bake."

"No way," said Thanta. "Way," said Summer.

The bread dough was pressed flat inside fry pans and the pans tilted against the hot coals. With enough sugar and salt in the mix it was quite tasty. Summer winced when she thought of what her teachers on the reservation would have made of this concoction. But bread was bread for all of that.

The clan had chosen to settle on the North Shore at Kalaupapa the site of the former leper Colony. They called the settlement Damien Village honoring the Belgian priest who had long tended the sick in the past. The clan had been well aware of the possibility of needing to leave North America before it all went critical. They, as had countless others, watched sadly as the disasters began piling one upon another.

The Gulf fishery loss from the oil gusher; the precipitous dropping of the Ogallala Aquifer level supporting dry land grain harvest in the American West were duly noticed but the failure of Salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest in particular, struck home for the locals. Chesapeake Bay and North Atlantic dwindling seafood harvest added to this but what proved to be the real crisis maker was the complete failure of the food delivery system. Unfortunately, Piggly Wiggly, Safeway or Gristides' fully stocked grocery shelves were treated as a given and the collapse was hidden from the public until it was too late. Local suppliers, long neglected, could not begin to fill the need. There was hunger.

Molokai was a logical choice as many of their number had past association with all of the islands in the chain. Summer Dawn had done live performance painting at Alchemeyez on the Big Island many times as had several of the other artists. Thus when it came to a final decision the Hawaiian Islands was the chosen destination and Molokai the chosen home site.

We have two disparate groups from a culture that had contained elements of its own destruction, striving to survive. Despite similar origins, at least in potentiality and proximity, the totality of their lives could not have been more different. Their fates? Unknown to us as to themselves. Clan or Cult... your choice?
end

OPUS COLLOCUS

2011-10-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

Opus Collocus
by Robert Magill

Look at yourself if you dare.
What strange combination of wild genes
Caused you to end up this way?
How in the world did an otherwise garden variety ape
Make fire, lose sexual restraint
And end up like you?
Naked, with anytime sex and pretty much
Unable to cope.

Now fire's a bit dicey to handle in a great furry overcoat
So not much happened with it
At first.
But one day some bundles of joy came along
Sans furry coats, they were starkers you see.
The game was on with the fire by then, but
All that bare skin!
My, my, what's to be?

If it had been only one or two that were weird
The hyenas would have gotten them sure.
Hairless most of the new bunch.
But babies are hard to come by, even strange ones
Really strange as ever could be. .
They were turned inside out more like rabbits or rats
No fur at all we could see.
What on Earth!

What to do? Can't feed the crop to the beasts.
Besides the mothers were frantic.
"It's so cute, in it's way! Don't harm it!" they say.
So the naked little babes grew into big
Naked adults.
We learned to handle fire by using an old gnu hide.
If you bought into the clothes for modesty fibs,
Nope: barbeque bibs.

And the hairless kids! They all became fire bugs.
You know how dangerous that stuff is!
Well, these devilish kids treat bonfire as a new game
Of child's play.
But then they need not worry of bursting into flame
Those fur-less little showoffs!
They don't go up in smoke if they get to close and roast
Like we do.

Those kids started eating all kinds of things that
They'd half burn up on sticks.
The very idea!
I will say many things are quite tasty done that way
But who knows where all this fire business
Will lead.
I for one like my food less done but that said, it's not really
That bad!

Those new kids gave us fits.
They had acres of lush, soft, silky epidermis and
Full time steamy amor.
No bothersome overcoats. Well just a token patch...
For auld lang syne.
Full time naked sex and the secret of fire would
Give any self respecting parent a
World of grief!

Both things together is a big, big pain.
And it doesn't get any easier. Slowly, very reluctantly
Began that
Which we long beards knew early on.
It's time to put on some cover-up to keep order
And peace in the cave.
One word of late does resonate, more often than not it is
NO!

So it began.
The business of the putting-on and the taking-off
Of surrogate overcoats.
Clothes, that is.
Big waste of time and energy
Weaving and skinning and sewing. The rules!
Oy vey. How much, how little, when, where
Ad nauseam.

My part in the story ends about now.
Only a few oldsters remain of the old kind and
That is the way it should be.
Our kid's, kid's, kids will follow the thread of time
'Til they too leave the stage.
But that's for them to tell of a proud history
If it is now in the main
Unknown.

Hello. I know something of my people to tell you.
We were great travelers and tellers' of stories
Of oceans and seas in our path and
Mountains at our back.
Rivers of sand lay below one path and terrible cold
At the other. I sewed. My hair was the color of rust and
My face of yak milk. I had three babes
Two lived.

Stories of a better place had us follow down the great river.
I grew old on the journey but my babes
Grew strong and long forgot
The old ways.
Others will tell the story of the people who lived long;
Long enough to see the time of the ice and
The good time and then the ice again
And still we lived.

Until. It happened first in the land near the sand.
A few at first. Then more. Still more all the time.
We were bewildered.
The new ones were like us but not of us.
We were fair, they were dark. We liked them.
They liked us.
The babes came in time and they were different.
We liked them.

When there were more of the new babes than us
Some grown ones moved away toward
The rising light.
At least so the ancient ones tell us.
Stories retold when important gatherings happen.
Not sad tales but still...we wonder
How they fare and should we go to the new light
As well.

After the last big ice went away a tale is told of
Another leaving of our people.
But now the path is toward the pale sun
That stays so long.
Fewer and fewer are the old type people seen now.
Higher we travel toward the lands
Where the ice once had been covering over
The grass.

We are mostly all the new people now.
Small bands remain of the old.
The large water is near and many leave
To live nearby.
Brave ones go out on the big water to follow the sun.
We see not one of the old type people
Just their empty caves. Alas. They lived here for
Most all of time.

What came next started after the last big ice time.
The hunters hunted and the gatherers
Gathered as always.
Then the gatherers became diggers and, eureka!
Agriculture. This was the real thing the future...
Civilization.
Full bellies and some leisure time courtesy
Of the women.

The women let their power slip away to those
Under-employed former hunters now goat
And camel wranglers.
Prophets and martyrs at every oasis hectoring
The unwary by day. Their hapless flocks by night.
Damning the unreachable. Stoning the backslider.
No longer under-employed now pious
Stewards of eternity.

Cobblers of many small truths
Into large lies.
Dazzlers of the easily moved, the
Desperate, the forsaken who yearn for larger truths
And only wee small lies.
Several of the biggest liars have recruited global hordes.
Meanwhile the Greeks learned
How to think.

Alas! They taught the Romans. Trust us said they and thence
A millenium of gore was born. Exit Samnites
Luisitani, too and Albans and Sabines
Can't forget the Argosians O no. Rue.
The Latins gone. Forgotten? Maybe, and the dear
Old Spartans brave but dead.
Still at end the Empire into history slid with
Scarcely a whimper.

Quiet now. That fitful scratching noise? Monks
On dry skins salvaging thought and deed. Blessed be those scribes
But rescuing those ancient desert ravings and small truths may
Not have been so wise.
Armed now with the Word they set abroad to
Recruit anew the holy army.
The desert message writ in gore and peace was never
Known again.

With the reign triumphant chattel was amassed unparalled. Firstly
All females, the sex into bondage. Infidels dutfully done in.
All treasure for taking.
All beasts into proclaimed stewardship cast
And for battle caught foe, alas
The chains.
Mere arrow, axe and mace blazon desert minions' zeal
For now.

Monastaries for the parochial few led in time
To University leaving the many to life's instruction
Also known as being
Uneducated.
The franchise expanded reluctantly to include "useful idiots".
Scholars and Gentlemen.
Now the desert minions would have champions
By legion.

In the Middle Kingdom dragons grew fearful for
Such awful noise had come.
Fire in tubes that drove them away
Never to be seen again.
Salute! Salute! Begone demons.
Strangers came to the Kingdom welcomed
But warned against knowing the recipe for
The Dragon weapon.

Theft. Deception. On camel's back the secret left
The trusting Kingdom.
Plodding toward the sand people early
In it's journey. Later to lodge with the baptised where
Piety seethed and enemies grew like
Mushrooms after horses.
Cannonading madly those angelical stewards
Of eternity.

The takings began.
Rare a yard of the globe unnoticed by the pious
As conquest or conversion fodder.
Each pagan household upended despite worth
Exceeding the usurper's own.
No matter that.
Monkish scratching etched the Word for all time.
All persons. Amen.

Pray tell how a humble ministry
To village and desert wanderer led to
Basilica
And Crystal Worship Palace? The least
Materialist soul of record
Spawned generations of rapacious zealots
Ransacking a planet for piety
And for gain.

Our progress, if such, is in the way of the inchworm
Which must need grasp with his front
Whilst dragging onward his
Rear parts. And again.
His vanguard end needs hind parts holding
For purchase only
Not to anchor the forward movement with
Sternest tradition.

Poor creature. Desert minions to the rear lag back
And myopia joins narrow wisdom
Going forward.
Perilous journey with parts joined nicely in tandem
But solo effort
Brings chaos and struggle. While destiny
Is revealed only by
The inch.

Vague as our fate remains, the desert minions
Doubt not the day of our birth.
Scouring monkish scribblings brings
The aha! moment.
With that instant writ firm, all later discovery brings scorn and threat.
Time, a bother and impediment, is throttled back
To fit the desert calendar exact, lest
Doubt emerge.

Machines employed and vile draughts brewed to
Stay new thought from ever tainting
The faithful.
Show the rack. Behold the fire and irons.
Enough? Why will they not convert nor
See our truth revealed and what glories await?
Imps and demons poison all
Who doubt!

Lure the peasant from his fold to kneel and
Labor all his days at parchment and wine press
And the bell ropes.
Equip with a tongue so old and forgotten that its drone
Would cower all rogue dissent.
Tell of lesser breeds who need succor
Or bondage and how the parchments
Command it.

The freed serf and vassal and bondsmen too
Gladly aped hard Roman and thinking Greek as well
In yolking others to their will.
Centuries of men in chains leave evidence of
Grand spectacle for their driven effort.
No onset of humane regret manumit those held so
Long 'til better power than human muscle made
Them free.

Oil of whale and then of ancient ferns and such
Flowing from deep pit caused water to
Boil and spit.
Drove the engines of the newly freed serfs and made
Leisure to devise torments fresh
For sundry foes.
Onward the Juggernaut of devout
Desert minions.

Conquest and mayhem and decades of war
And more again as quick as the
Stink clears.
On and dreadful on 'til this very day and again surely
Tomorrow.
Religion the beastly side our nature. Need to pray and
Urge to slay
Dwell together.

Whilst Barons feudal did John the King coerce to
Magna Carta sire a lusty bairn was
Whelped.
When gray of beard that babe had met
Another ancient one.
Whose da was born the very year
English pluck routed brave Frenchmen at
Agincourt.

Now that wee babe with long lived luck
In dotage knew another such who's own dear mother
Came alive the very day
Great Lear appeared upon the stage.
For just three mortal spans of years made
Creaking steps of times past appear
Less daunting. Six stout hearts carried us to
Elizabethan sphere.

Nearing now our present era aided by
These leaps in time to learn of a Bard's namesake
Babe who too grew eld.
And chanced to meet another crone of
Countless years who told
The singular precedent of one
Whose papa timely arrived when
Adams, John was President.

To be or not to be a King our
Republic's Princeling heir pondered, then agreed
To forsake the crown.
Majestically he searched in vain to find an American heart
Not depraved or corrupted. More darkness than light
Filled their souls and thus were unfit
For a Republic. Low born. Base.
Demos!

It was a Nation, that much is true and
A new Republic, too. Though some saw murder, theft
And jingo seeping through.
But winners write the tale that longest lasts.
There was a wilderness to tame
And treasures greater than ever known before
Lay at every patriot's door.
For the taking.

Tom J. came along when we needed a friend.
Eight years had he but old Adams, J. scarce half that
To rule. Good friend Tom fiddled and took all
The House commanded and kept all his bought help
In field, kitchen and manse.
Tom was no friend to woman or hired man who
Dared wish a ballot to cast, if you please. Was Tom J. truly
A friend... indeed?

Polish an oaf and he cleans up so nicely.
Put his hands on a throttle with caboose
Far behind.
Varlet now literate reading solemn at law while
Steamboat Willie flickers about on
A wall.
Brave and new the world is our oyster
Stew.

Republic gone. Lasted but scarce a half century! Egad.
Then on that slippery slope. Big chunk of neighbor Mexico.
Some idyllic pineapple isles
And next whatever Spain had worth the taking.
Hush! Be loath to utter aloud or even think
If loyal patriotic and discrete
That foulest of foul word that stink...
Empire.

Our RNA, our very genes demand we must always grow.
Go West Young Man and Eminent Domain and Westward Ho!
But no Nation unless some hidden fugue propels will endlessly
Grow the whole world over.
No wisdom voice to mock us as we willfully grow, but never do
Grow up.
Unlimited growth is a perfect tell but only by a metastasizing
Cancer cell.

The game is up. Every day, in every way it slides away and
We have no clue as to how it ever got that way.
We are not unique, never were. We are not all good
And wise and noble.
Only motion and noise and none to say Stop! Pause!
Between the human and the truly humane we are but a link
And a messy bit of unfinished celestial business
I think.

Farewell Noble Spirit of the Enlightenment

2011-09-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

Approaching the End of Patriarchy?

Have we, in the final analysis, simply cloaked prior eons of chaos, darkness and base instinct with a veneer of sophistication? Have a few bold, courageous new ideas about reality a few centuries back, augmented with enormous natural resource and energy sources, blinded us to those lurking reactive forces?

If again back in thrall to those lesser impulses, are we, at best then, a clumsy work in progress? A dubious link between the human and the truly humane and a messy bit of unfinished celestial business pretending all is well with us.

Dorinda Outram:

"Enlightenment was a desire for human affairs to be guided by rationality rather than by faith, superstition, or revelation; a belief in the power of human reason to change society and liberate the individual from the restraints of custom or arbitrary authority; all backed up by a world view increasingly validated by science rather than by religion or tradition."

In ever increasing areas of the world are not critical signs pointing to a rapid reversion to a earlier mode of existence? For a few centuries now, easing of daily existence, along with greater material resources, has been followed by vastly greater fecundity that permeates even remote areas. But lately the very planet seems to be complaining that for centuries we, it's self-proclaimed stewards, have not acted wisely. As the privileged species, it seems to say, our housekeeping is atrocious; the place is a mess. Clean it up!

We have degraded, polluted, over-populated and taken up vastly more than our share of all that exists here. It has never been worse and that is because never before have we been able to take so much, so quickly, for use in the present; denying it to the future. Our legacy to the heirs, writ clearly and proudly, is, "You shall have nothing if we can help it. We are spending your Planet; go somewhere else. Maybe we'll overlook and leave behind something useful, something that doesn't take powerful machines to bring forth; that's doubtful. You will, future persons, if you are lucky, become scavengers, salvagers and junkmen, because we will leave plenty of that."

Apparently it will not be outer space to which we will then go, as many have dreamed. Like moths to a bulb we have risen grandly to the heights but also like the moth we grow exhausted (and broke) and succumb to gravity. ( America has difficulty even delivering the daily mail lately.)

On some level, mostly subconscious at this point in time, Westerners know the game is up. That the powers that be are not leveling with us. The information sneaks in stealthily that everything is different from what we are told. That things will not be returning to what we've known in the past... ever.

All sorts are wild and bizarre statements and actions will be the new norm for the nonce. Without information free from spin and slant people will thrash around for guidance and direction. A lot of this will be frightening for many, certainly unpleasant, but not unexpected after several generations of disinformation serving as truth. Anything we are told these days, particularly on the very best authority, best forget it and keep digging around. Somewhere beyond the noise is the truth.

Carl Jung cautioned that if we did not soon find a universal understanding of what makes us human the future looked dim. That perhaps we will see a gradual collapse of our material way of life and enter into a time comparable to the Dark Ages. The failure to examine in depth the actual nature of reality as opposed to the arbitrary hunches and dogmas currently in vogue fail to ground mankind within nature and the scheme of things. In no regard are we meeting the future united, prepared and in agreement on what we really are and what we really need. If we couldn't fix things during good times, how on Earth will we do it now?

Part of our own dilemma stems from devotion to a aggressive, militant fundamentalism. For decades our principal activity has been the outfitting of legions of missionaries (armed to the teeth of course) setting out bravely to convert the unwashed, the unbelieving and the disrespectful, hopefully at a profit. With missions in hundreds of bases everywhere our brand of Americanism and Christian fundamentalism has alarmed the world. But as Professor Chomsky reminds us, it did all begin here. We do own it.

Noam Chomsky:" We must bear in mind that the US is a very fundamentalist society, perhaps more than any other society in the world - even more fundamentalist than Saudi Arabia or the Taliban. That's very surprising."

"Until 1950, there was no entry for fundamentalism in the Oxford English Dictionary; the derivative fundamentalist was added only in its second 1989 edition." Wikipedia

We also learn these inventions, spawned early in the Twentieth Century by fledgling Divines and Dons, at Princeton Theological Seminary, were social skirmishes whose time had come. The creators were ambitious and zealous: to defend orthodox Protestant Christianity against the perceived threat of Darwinism and liberal theology. Sound familiar?

"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."
John F. Kennedy

Naturally our militaristic minions around the world have not gone unnoticed by the locals. Religious zealotry begets more of the same and lately half the globe is seething with it. Thus far, the second - stringers, the so-called BRICs, have not caught the plague. Not yet. But then it's the fifties in China and we all know where that era led elsewhere. The Middle Kingdom version is sort of the equivalent of hundreds of Levittowns being thrown up against a background of Berlin in the nineties replete with construction cranes to the horizon. And, oh yes, a political regime resembling the hairy hand of McCarthyism we all enjoyed so much.

A Beijing Scenario:

It's the fifties in the Middle Kingdom and the cruisin' has begun. Picture this scene out of "Chinese Graffiti" where forty million single dudes in spanking new SUVs cruise endlessly trying to pick-up, get this, NO chicks! Now that they produce more cars than the US the bumper stickers could shout, "What's Good for Great Wall Motors is Good for China!" Fifty years of 'one childness' has produced a bumper crop of ...testosterone.

Good luck with that!

All in all, the old guys who run things in Beijing should look around the world, especially in the West, to see where all this 'progress' might lead. Instead of benefiting from seeing where we stumbled they seem determined to end up the same way, broke, confused and angry. Nobody ever learns, it's our charm as a species and may bury us yet.

Now males, and especially older males, have much to offer but they really should be regarded as useful idiots. Aside from certain mental qualities that enable them to stand slightly aside from life's realities and do interesting things abstractedly, like build stuff and blow up stuff, they should never, ever, be allowed near the sources of power.

Two things, and only two, are commanded by nature: reproduction of species and death. All else is option. Males are largely indifferent to the former but appear much devoted to the latter.Too often the violent demise of some other male is a consuming focus of male effort. Now males are all right as far as we go but we have gone way too far for way too long. A thousand generations is quite enough as we, all of us, are now quite noticeably...stuck. We are stuck in the here and now; stuck in today.

The Earth has endured a thousand generations of male domination. Human life may one day soon be forfeit as a result. An innate lack of future orientation sufficient to overcome exploitation of the planet for temporal gain suggests males are unfit for continued leadership. Recorded history and mythology are testimony to the propensity of the gender to build, destroy, and kill with blatant disregard for future aspect. The male mindset that has been governing the globe lacks a clear future inclination and could lead the species to extinction if allowed to continue unabated

What to do? Well, the distaff, on the other hand, at least live from month to future month much of their lives; a big improvement over the male day- to- day plodding vision. And on occasion the femmes live several months out ahead; nine months out to be exact. In this way the future can be somewhat sensed as existing beyond now and beyond a single generation.

Is this then, a different way of viewing existence, of living along a different time line, what the human race sorely lacks as a lodestar? Orientation and planning with emphasis on the future rather than the temporal. Something that many females possess but which has been trivialized and disregarded in favor of what could be interpreted as male theft of the future for a specious patriarchy today.

There is likely no community on the planet where reversal or even lessening of current gender domination could take place in any meaningful way. In fact billions of people are expressly forbidden by theology to even contemplate such a transition. An advocacy of this notion might lead to excommunication, stoning, beheading or at least a banishment to the nearest desert for the audacity. Most theologies consist of many small truths cobbled together as one big lie; male supremacy.

So an arrangement that could possibly save the species from itself will have to await a post apocalyptic time. Not an ounce of power will be willingly ceded until civilization crashes around us. Why then is the example of a society which managed to exist far longer than any other known, and with near equal female participation; the three thousand year track record of Ancient and Pharaonic Egypt ignored as pagan and effeminate? Because it's better to risk total cataclysm and perish than to have them running the show!

Perhaps It all started after the last ice age. The hunters hunted and the gatherers gathered. Then the gatherers became diggers and, eureka!, agriculture. Thank's ladies! This was the real deal: civilization. Not the hobby-shop, toy and gadget world the now underemployed hunter bunch dreamed up. No this was what made it all happen. Full bellies and some leisure time courtesy of the femmes. But the gals let their lead slip away and the hobby-shop became the world.

What kind of a future will they make for us if women regain the leadership? What it won't be is the hobby-shop, gadget and garage-band world;that city center/phallic oases guy's world, repete with extraordinary violence, it has been for generations. It will, early on, necessarily revert to the most basic of basics, growing stuff to eat, full tilt.

Restaurateur and Chef Jose Andreas of 'Julio' in Bethesda, Maryland was interviewed recently on NPR radio and made the most profound energy statement I have heard in years.

"But I think the most important is to remind everyone that the most important source of energy is not gas. The most important source of energy is food, because food is what keeps us - the humans - with energy. So we need to start thinking about food as the most important source of energy, because it's the energy that keeps moving us, the people - the people of America, the people of world.

... I hope that we're going to start taking seriously where our food comes from. Because right now I don't think we do. And we need to start making sure that our politicians understand that the most important thing is our food, period. And food should be un-negotiable..."

We may become a tribe of earnest junkmen recycling gadgets and gee-gaws; eternally recycling for employment. The ladies just trying their best to keep the babies warm and healthy. All the while finding and setting priorities, including the amatory arrangements. If it doesn't appear to make sense unto the seventh generation it don't git done! And that's not negotiable, pal

The Roman Empire slid into the backwater of history without a whimper. Will we, the 'can do' people, the inventors of damn near everything, the flyers to the moon; will we do the same thing? Very likely. Unless things change in a big hurry, an historical backwater is our likely destination,too.

With even a tiny clear glimpse of our future prospects America could wake out of it's trance and begin to prepare. Slowly, very slowly, in all probability. Committees, of course, endless committees, but that's okay. As long as they are realistic and not simply bent on returning to what cannot be sustained any longer. Hopefully the message that emerges from all this collective wisdom will be...

Stop! Stop everything!

We're broke. We're losing irreplaceable energy supplies rapidly. We're despised globally for bringing it all down on everybody's head by sheer hubris, endless war, and willful interference on a massive, Crusader like, scale for a century or so. It's up to us, alone, if we intend to survive as a viable entity.

Where to start? Sensible priorities might help. The time has come for National Triage. It can't all be saved. So what's important? Food, clothing, shelter, fuel and transportation. What? That old stuff? Yep, exactly. That's were it's at.

Well, we can handle all that, we already do. Sure, but on credit, yours, mine and the government's; at the sufferance of others. Those days are ending rapidly. As a debtor nation and debtor society the barbarians can arrive at the gates any day in the form of creditors demanding payback. On that day it's all over. Backwater time for sure.

How do we keep the wolf at bay? Maybe by living for the future for a change. The future to a farmer means planting now for harvest later. It doesn't mean waiting by the dock for dinner to arrive from farmers thousands of miles away. It also means less crop planting dedicated to cow and hog (and automobile) gullets and more stuff that goes straight to human nourishment.

The future also would appreciate us saving a little something prior to its arrival. Like fossil fuel? If we made our own jeans, bath towels, footwear, etc.etc. ourselves (we did once, remember?) we could save a little petrol for the future. Might come in handy, who knows? We could use what we manage to save now to keep the lights on, the food cold and the house warm, down the road. And put a little aside to carry us comfortably around instead of needing to walk everywhere.

As we rapidly edge toward the end of a surfeit of cheap and plentiful energy based on the consumption of irreplaceable fossil fuel, a bitter ' historical' reality begins to present itself for our consideration.

For three centuries we have developed a growing dependence on highly concentrated forms of what is basically solar energy, sunlight, to ease our burdens and grow our societies. Before the general use of coal and later, petroleum, we were limited to hydro, wind, firewood and, if the hunting was good, whale oil, to help us. But what formed the basis of our walking around energy usage was horse,and human, muscle power.

Human power, beyond the personal and familial, was augmented by hired help and/or owned help. History is rife with doleful accounts of the later. In fact it was only in the 20th century that chattel slavery was finally abolished worldwide. Legal human slavery existed in the lifetime of a few elderly people still alive today.

How fantastic is a scenario predicated on the gradual lead-up to a condition of want and coercion that would lead one or more societies to consider reverting to that 'peculiar institution'? And if conditions had so deteriorated as to make the unthinkable attractive who would take the first step?

David Suzuki said "We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options."

A resilient globe, Earth, having managed to absorb constant assaults on its integrity for eons is now beginning to show vulnerability. Human populations were not sufficiently numerous nor technologically advanced enough in the past to cause grievous planetary harm. This is no longer true. Every day we come closer to the point of no return and nowhere is seen the remedy for reversing possible terminal decline.

We are not unique, never were. We are not all good and wise and noble. Too many pictures, too many reports have surfaced of too many nasty deeds done in our name all over the place for too, damn long. Too much money sticking to the hands of too few of us and too many lies about why that is. Folks are not as ready as they once were to drink the cool-aid or believe the half-truths and absolute fictions ever so slyly promulgated; about why things need to be this way.

"Nothing will see us through the age we're entering but high consciousness, and that comes hard. We don't have a good, modern myth yet, and we need one."

Robert Johnson

None among us living or dead is really fit to be called humane. The best and noblest among us is but a passive enabler of a species given to denial of future entitlement in favor of present utility. Notice the ones in those pictures with swollen bellies and flies on their eyes are never the mothers. We husband the breeders; forfeit the young...the future.

Nukes=No Future

2011-09-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

Nukes= No Future
Face Book

http://goo.gl/n1yrb

A Proclamation: Ex Cathedra

2011-09-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

Stories About The Future - A submission for ADR

A Proclamation: Ex Cathedra
by Robert Magill

"It's better than just sitting here in the dark freezing", he grumped.
"We're not freezing. Don't be such a...", Margot sounded.
"Wuss", another.
"You're not gonna fall for that stupid billboard, are you?", Jeffery was incredulous.
"Or those crappy fliers?", she said.
Blake looked anew at the yellowish document he was holding. It was on low quality newsprint; all that was available recently. Still he was taken by the simplicity of the message and the threat of change in his life it proffered.

Your Planet Needs You to Volunteer
A Call For Volunteers

It went on to say more detailed information was forthcoming soon and that it would be an opportunity of a lifetime. Blake had spent his few short years avoiding volunteering for much of anything but the alleged source of the call both intrigued and annoyed him.

"Your Planet! Who would have the gall to even dream up such a scam...the chutzpah", he said to no one and everyone, " that gets me." Margo pulled her blanket layers more tightly around her. "Blake, you've got to be kidding. Anybody can see it's a come-on. Somebody want's something from us."

Jeffery, who was finishing up the last of his ration roared out with a mouthful. "Let's get off it, Ok. Enough!"

The four who were sharing the flat had little in common except the day-to- day idleness that was endemic all around. All their individual and collective energies were devoted to bare existence. The malaise these twenty-somethings were experiencing was nothing unusual in the latter part of the twenty-first century.

They had grown up constantly reminded to be thankful they lived in a part of the world where people could still have hope for better times and not the really wretched areas elsewhere. It was difficult to feel fortunate with winter setting in and knowing it was going to be another long grind until spring.

Since power had been off most of the day and never was on after nine PM they soon drifted off into fitful dozing.

Clark was slightly older than the others and woke with the pale October dawn. With effort he arose clutching his blankets about his tall, somewhat gangly, frame. They were all slightly gaunt now as rations were minimal. He made an effort to not even think about eating this early. When he had shaken off sleep remnants and wandered closer to the front of the flat, which may have been a squat (the guy who collected the modest rent seemed dicey, maybe not even entitled to it) but he kept a little heat on and they had to be content.

"Oh my lord, another one!" In the door jamb was another of the bills Blake had exclaimed over.

Your Planet Needs You to Volunteer
A Call For Volunteers
Your Planet is annoyed that a great many of you have for several centuries demonstrated a lack of the wise stewardship demanded of a privileged species. Your housekeeping is atrocious, the place is a mess.

Your Planet is concerned you have degraded, polluted, over-populated and used-up more than your share of all that exists here.

Your Planet is greatly annoyed your actions have heated up the place to such a degree the New Ice Age planned to cool things off and rearrange the landscape may have been delayed.

"What crapola!, he shouted, having read this much. This was loud enough to awaken Margot and a sullen Jeffery. "What are you raving about. God it's cold", she complained.
"Here, dig this", handing over the form. They read on.

In order to expedite the ensuing decline of modern civilization and prevent an unseemly last minute rush to annihilation: an appeal is hereby issued as follows;

_ Volunteer now because an orderly "Planetary Die-off" to sustainable numbers is
desirable to avoid overtaxing existing funerary facilities: therefore;

*All First World inhabitants are requested to volunteer early as your impact on
Planet Earth is the most dire and your passing will no doubt be histrionic and
trying for the rest of mankind. Your Planet knows who you are.

They cried in unison at this point. "First World! What is this shit? We live in a slum and eat MRE's and K-rations when we can get them." First World, ha!"

The rancor woke up Blake who grabbed the notice and devoured it greedily. He was much taken by this indictment of the only world he had ever known and reacted accordingly. "This is meant for all of us. It's not a joke. This is real."

"Real your ass", hissed Jeffery, taking the missile and shredding it."Get ready guys, forget this nonsense. We have to get down early to the dispensary if we want to eat tonight. They run out early this time of year."

The four bundled up against the late fall chill and left the flat. On the boulevard opposite the food dispensary a tattered old billboard featured a huge new poster that had appeared during the night. It was a repeat of the headlines contained in the two fliers but added much more. A small crowd had gathered around and they were stunned as they read the additional dictat.

In order to expedite the ensuing decline of modern civilization and prevent an unseemly last minute rush to annihilation: an appeal is hereby issued as follows;

_ Volunteer now because an orderly "Planetary Die-off" to sustainable numbers is
desirable to avoid overtaxing existing funerary facilities: therefore;

*All First World inhabitants are requested to volunteer early as your impact on
Planet Earth is the most dire and your passing will no doubt be histrionic and
trying for the rest of mankind. Your Planet knows who you are.

Exemptions:
1. Old Order (Horse & Buggy) Amish. Not part of modern life, therefore
exempt.
2. Vegans (closeted, or mum about it) who live above anticipated
flood zones worldwide and have demonstrable funerary skills.
3. Organic farmers who live in yurts, make their own clothing and use
plow horses. (No cattle, hogs or other slaughter animals permitted).

"Jesus, it's like the draft used to be in the war days. They have exemptions and we're not included", protested Blake,"That's not fair."

"Blake, you are a flake, it's a hoax. Don't you get it? It's not Big Brother, it's Big Scammer!", Jeffery pronounced with some heat but, nevertheless, some anxiety.

The crowd moved into the food line with muttering and resignation. "What does it mean", from someone. "Can't you read. It's God's will.", we're all goners, now." "Bull! Bull! Bull!", from a doubter.

The friends talked among themselves as they withstood the long wait for their food dole. Their normally dour mood was much augmented by the pronouncements on the poster. With the rations in hand they wandered about the area aimlessly until fatigue and ennui reluctantly propelled them homeward.

Arriving at the flat they were astounded to see another of the odious papers affixed to the front door. The four stared without touching the notice.

Final Notice: PROCLAMATION: Ex Cathedra

Your Planet Will Consider Additional Exemptions for Early Volunteers if They Meet These Requirements:

_Volunteer cowboys and hog wranglers needed in great numbers to supervise the
decline of those populations to practically nil, as quickly and humanely as possible.
Your Planet is choking on their effluence

_Volunteer Urban Futurists to supervise and expedite gradual evacuation of urban centers (first priority to those in flood plains) to densities not to exceed that of, example only, Peoria, Illinois.

_ Volunteer Flotillas to sail the globe rescuing military personnel abandoned at 750 bases when the government defaults and flees. (Contribution of personal
watercraft appreciated.)

_ Volunteer engineers and technicians: mechanical, electrical and especially nuclear to disable, dismantle and permanently mothball all nuclear devices and machines.
Without the resources needed to keep these applications adequately serviced and
maintained they are too dangerous to allow to exist.
Your Planet is made extremely nervous by these devices.

_Volunteer Secular (requirement, there will be a test) Missionaries to Third World (and possibly Second World) societies to prepare them for the shock of the demise of the First World and its bounty.
( For example: See Cargo Cult mentality.)
Additional Exemption:
1. Temporary delay of "Die-off"in under-developed world;
pending satisfactory results from First World "transitions".
Automatic revocation for Planetary Insult ( i.e. behaving like First World). Your Planet will be watching closely.

They tore off the paper, carried it inside and began to inventory their collective and solitary skills in light of the exemption possibilities. Hope flickered.

end

In the Shadow of Mount Trashmore

2011-09-11T04:30:00.000-07:00

' INVASION OF THE SPACE BATS ' entry

In the Shadow of Mount Trashmore
by Robert Magill

"Five"
"Five"
"Seven"
"Way too many. Way, way too many", from an angry voice.
"That's nonsense. Make it twenty", another.
"You're bitter!', someone cried.
The meeting, one of several held to determine the final ratio, had been proceeding well enough until the call for floor suggestions. Now the rancor and dispute threatened to overshadow whatever progress had been enjoyed thus far.

"We need a break. This subject is draining us all.", Myra suggested in an effort to diffuse the rising heat this topic had engendered. She was senior enough to convince the women to pause and a dash from the circle to the toilets resulted.

No one was thrilled at the meeting theme and it had been put off numerous times. Circumstances had made it no longer possible to delay further. What was finally decided now would have lasting repercussions for generations. It could not be taken lightly.
After a short interval they began to gather again and hands were raised for attention. No leader was designated so by default certain speakers had arisen from the ranks. Among these was a slender, rather intense youngster who had impressed the gathering earlier. She was singled out from the throng of hands waving wildly.

"Miriam, go ahead please." Myra said at last.
"I'm younger than most of you so I feel what is decided here could affect me longer and I frankly am scared and nervous at this point. I haven't tried to have children yet and the prospect of what I fear may be a disgusting situation terrifies me,", she confessed.
"You'll love it, honey!, someone opined.
"Can it, we have to make a decision", rang out.
"They won't call you a slut or a whore like they did in my grandmother's day, kiddo", said an older woman.
"You're not the only one affected, missy", another hissed, before Myra could regain some order.

Myra turned to Miriam and smiled slightly to show her sympathy for what was not just the fears of the younger members but had affected them all.
"Agreement was unanimous at all earlier points as you know. I don't have to tell you I know this is one of the most difficult parts of the entire project. But it's crucial. So let's get it done", she said. "We're down to a choice between five or seven. How about a show of hands? Seven"
A great many hands went up but it was obvious it would not carry. "Five." It carried and except for a few disgruntled looks those gathered seemed relieved a decision had been made at long last.
"That'll show them we mean it. Smug bastards needed this to happen", was voiced.

Rising with notes in hand from her place on Myra's left Catherine waited while the murmurring subsided before commencing. In her precise shy tone she began. "A Manifesto. The Hopeful Remnants hereby agree", at this point several women yelled out at once,
"Not yet decided"
"I hate that name!"
"It's stupid. Change it!"
Myra interrupted the hubbub and pleaded,"If we can't continue, all our efforts will have been for nothing. Let Catherine go on...please."
Catherine began again. "The Hopeful Remnants hereby agree we will seek to limit the number of male citizens to one for each five females effective at once."
"Hear, hear"
"At last an end to it all"
"Sic semper tyrannosaurus!", blurted a wag which prompted a few snickers and much relief.

She went on. "Because we, The Hopeful Remnants, having concluded that past male leadership failed to perceive the objective environment was deteriorating beyond all hope of recovery and having persisted in causing ever more chaos and violence globally, we hereby unanimously agree that sort of coercive leadership shall never be permitted again. The state we have found ourselves in, though desperate is not hopeless ...unless we allow that gender to rule the world as it once did."
"No chance in hell!"
"Over my dead tush they will!"
"Men are swine!", was shouted.
"We rule now. Woop. Woop!"

Catherine continued hesitantly. "The great loss we suffered by this flagrant denial of looming fossil fuel shortages and the impossiblity of their replacement with anything that could provide for the sustainability of such a bloated life style led to the massive failure of all systems. The mostly male leadership knew this would occur to a certainty but chose to ignore for political or monetary gain doomsday looming on the horizon. The result of this tragic waste of basic energy resources is that no important manufactory has been possible for us since early in the twenty-second century. We have been fortunate to live near what used to be known by early residents as Mount Trashmore,"
"No big male bobble heads on our mountain!", was quipped.
... she smiles, then continues," and that huge old landfill keeps us reasonably well provisioned. It is a treasure trove for us as is quarrying in abandoned cities and towns for others who...

"It helps that our soil is tilth and easily worked", rang out.
"Keep the guys digging out old Trashmore..."
"...and out of our fields, our crops and our hair!"
"Unless it's comb-out time, kids. Ha."

"...are not fortunate enough to live in such a bucolic setting and have sustainable agriculture. In addition, it has long been our overriding effort to encourage a practice which, so far, seems to regularly produce more female than male babies and, is done without causing harm, and which, furthermore, serves to replace the mate exclusivity and more sinister practices that had favored male offspring. History is rife with female infanticide, one-child only rules and oppressive dowry requirements. Multiple partnering of several males with one female, as a prevailing social norm, was extremely rare historically. It is a tenet of our clan lore that the dominance of males throughout history was partially the result of insistence on singularity in couplings thus shunning competition.This bias may have gone far in accomplishing male dominion, both numerical and social, where it might not otherwise have flourished. Plus, grouped lovemaking is our way of avoiding favoritism, which although it still exists with us, usually does not lead to extreme possessiveness. By removing stigma and coercion from human sexual behavior. a more harmonious libido has fore-sworn most sexual compulsion while adding untrammeled eroticism to our daily fare."
"Untrammeled, that's us!"
"Yeeah!"
"You go ladies!"
"Hush!", Myra felt compelled to caution again.

"Our burgeoning bisexuality coexisting with a benign matriarchy has had an added benefit, the numbers of offspring always being a concern with us; a form of birth control. As we've discovered studying Bonobo ape populations, a surplus of sex can result in fewer offspring. This has the desired effects of strengthening bonds, providing pleasure and discouraging rivalries.
Most importantly, it reflects the latent sensual nature of contemporary females who have grown to maturity with an instinctive knowledge of self-worth and desire without the need for male approbation." Catherine lowered her notes and summed up with,"That's what we have so far, people. I'll be happy to add whatever additions or amendments we come up with."

Myra announced the end of the formal session and small groups gathered to compare the findings.
She was immediately approached by several of the younger members who excitedly peppered her with questions.

"I just don't get it."
"Neither do I", echoed Miriam rushing up. "What about us. Don't we count as individuals...or anything?"

"Believe me I know what you're going through ladies. I was your age once, you know. We've all been through it", explained Myra. " Something in our makeup cries out for it at a certain time in our lives. So the urge for exclusivity...they called it romance back in the day, is compelling."

"But I feel so complete, so special with him", it was Miriam on the verge of tears.

"I know my dear. It hurts so. But it will pass, and soon. That was one of the most insidious weapons...your vulnerability at this time of life, they used against us to keep the power", Myra said with compassion. "Films and books, Romance Novels, they were called, reeked of this.
An onslaught of sentimentality which kept young women forever longing for the one and only who would fill their hearts...and minds. It bred chronic discontent and impatience with anything less than what some writer's sentimental dreaming's had provoked within them."

Angie, who had hitherto remained silent tossed her hair back and issued a challenge."Do what you want. Listen to her if you haven't the guts to question. I want to know what the hell the shape of my Carlos' thingee got to do with all of this?"

That outburst caused a lot of giggles but got everyone's rapt attention.

"It's not just your guy's thingee, sweetie, it's all the guys...all males. Remember your anatomy lessions?"
"Gross!"
"Well some of it may have been. I can't quote it exactly but...it touched on how natural selection equipped men to handle other men impregnating their sexual partners and"

"Organ shape!"
"...you do remember that. Unforgettable, eh? I think it said 'the coronal ridge offers a special removal service to expunge foreign sperm'. Scientific American, that's what was quoted, I'm positive. In an old, old archive. To our bright gal researchers that was the clue. What was intended by nature but suborned for eons in favor of exclusivity in mating and control of women as chattel."
"We'd still be if they had their way", Miriam interjected.
"True! True! True", came back
"Are they even educable? I don't think so."

Myra continued, "Years ago, the clan's senior women were stunned by the idea of this organ being something so unique; and by the singular investment nature had made in sculpting it. And how, mankind so, how can I put it, so beneficently gifted by nature, had ignored until now the obviously intended usage. Awed by such prescience in nature, this information then gradually morphed into our clan lore and practice and remains so today .Not solely to prevent rivals from copulatory success but to alter the male to female ratio radically, maybe permanently."

"But Carlos and I just want to be in love", Angie pleaded.

"Of course you do. Be in love, make love, with Carlos or Miriam or anyone you choose. You miss the point, dear. Look, it's taken almost two centuries to get the ratio of women to men to where it is now. Between one and a half and two, to one, our favor. That's good but not nearly good enough. Still it's a lot better than about 50-50 as it was in the bad old days. And the paternity decision doesn't affect you or any of us unless..."

"We want to have a baby.", muttered Angie.
"...exactly. Then you must have multiple partners. Carlos will understand. Guys do...usually. Once in a while there's a cropper but hey...it's rough on some people. Especially if they have a tendency to be possessive."

"So how do we know this actually works? That it's not just a statistical thing...a freak of nature. We've only been doing it this way for a really short time", said another.
Myra, wearily,"We don't. But so far it seems solid. And so far we are able to keep them from getting the upper hand over us, though they try hard enough!"
"Do they ever! It's like a disease they all have", was advanced by another.
"The guys seem stuck, stuck in the here and now. Women have a more developed sense of time or something" offered Corrine, one of the new comers to the little group.
"Yeah, our future is always a month away, and another month, on and on", Angie griped.
"Well, if you're pregnant the future is many months down the road, nine, to be exact", put in Miriam.

"Myra, I know a lot of it has to do wih the way it's shaped, the head and all. But what really happens, you know, when you do it with a bunch of guys?", Angie was still puzzled.
"Well, when the male thrusts forcefully the other men's semen is sort of pulled up by the glans and away from your cervix so his seed has a better change", she replied.
"So how does that make girl babies?"
"Good question, kiddo. What seems to happen is this technique somehow favors girl seed and not the sperm for making boys. How? Who knows. But history was written by men and directed by men, so maybe sex selection was a part of the plan from way back. There has to have been a darn good reason for nature to take the trouble to perfect a device like the human male organ if it was not expected to be used as a scoop and without multiple partners expected to be regularly involved, what's there to scoop. What other use could have been intended? You tell me.", Myra sighed, beginning to wilt from the effort.

"All this makes me feel like part of an experiment and not very important part either", Angie complained bitterly. " A cross between a brood mare and a test tube. Is there any purpose to it all...to life?"

"Just two things, my sweet. Just two. and we've touched on one. Granted our task is difficult. The planet is not the oasis it once was. We know our hold is tenuous but we carry on. As for the reasons to exist, reproducing yourself is one; dying, the other. Everything else is an option. No, I'm wrong. There's a third. To keep the men from running amok and screwing up the planet again.
Let's break it off now, girls. Holding love and light to you all."

Myra left them and took a position in the center and to remind the gathering of the next stage.

"People. Keep in mind the next Plenary theme is a doozy. Got to face it though. If we intend, as we certainly do, to take charge of our lives and the destiny of the clan...and all the members. Female and male. We have to reach down and summon the courage to begin the discussion. So, as hard as it will be, ladies, next time we meet the agenda will be Death and Dying. How our clan is handling things, what improvements are needed and what is lacking. Big, big issues. That's about it for this afternoon, folks. Thanks for all your help. Blessed be. Oh, I don't have to tell you...keep it to yourselves. We don't need any company!"
end

Better dead than fem?

2011-09-06T04:40:00.000-07:00

A resilient globe, Earth, having managed to absorb constant assaults on its integrity for eons is now beginning to show vulnerability. Human populations were not sufficiently numerous nor technologically advanced enough in the past to cause grievous planetary harm. This is no longer true. Every day we come closer to the point of no return and nowhere is seen the remedy for reversing possible terminal decline.

Two things, and only two, are commanded by nature: reproduction of species and death. All else is option. Males are largely indifferent to the former but appear much devoted to the latter.Too often the violent demise of some other male is a consuming focus of male effort. Now males are all right as far as we go but we have gone way too far for way too long. A thousand generations is quite enough as we, all of us, are now quite noticeably...stuck. We are stuck in the here and now; stuck in today.

The Earth has endured a thousand generations of male domination. Human life may one day soon be forfeit as a result. An innate lack of future orientation sufficient to overcome exploitation of the planet for temporal gain suggests males are unfit for continued leadership. Recorded history and mythology are testimony to the propensity of the gender to build, destroy, and kill with blatant disregard for future aspect. The male mindset that has been governing the globe lacks a clear future inclination and could lead the species to extinction if allowed to continue unabated

What to do? Well, the distaff, on the other hand, at least live from month to future month much of their lives; a big improvement over the male day- to- day plodding vision. And on occasion the femmes live several months out ahead; nine months out to be exact. In this way the future can be somewhat sensed as existing beyond now and beyond a single generation.

Is this then, a different way of viewing existence, of living along a different time line, what the human race sorely lacks? Orientation and planning with emphasis on the future rather than the temporal. Something that most females possess but which has been trivialized and disregarded in favor of what could be interpreted as male theft of the future for a specious patriarchy today.

There is likely no community on the planet where reversal or even lessening of current gender domination could take place in any meaningful way. In fact billions of people are expressly forbidden by theology to even contemplate such a transition. An advocacy of this notion might lead to excommunication, stoning, beheading or at least a banishment to the nearest desert for the audacity.

So an arrangement that could possibly save the species from itself will have to await a post apocalyptic time. Not an ounce of power will be willingly ceded until civilization crashes around us. The example of a society which thrived far longer than any other known, with near equal female participation, the three thousand year track record of Ancient and Pharaonic Egypt is ignored as pagan and effeminate. Better to risk total cataclysm than to have them running the show.

Our American Taliban

2011-08-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

or/ There's Bed-Buggery Aboard

Our holier-than-holy folk had been lagging behind in the race for big-time global religious zealotry; i.e. the 'Piety Derby', but no more. Our neo-Taliban will equal or surpass theirs any day now. Maybe the others are way out in front in discipline, doctrine and enforcement but we are catching up rapidly due to our superior technology and True Grit.
Taliban Flag

Wikipedia

As the Taliban's Attorney General Maulvi Jalil-ullah Maulvizada put it:

" The Holy Koran cannot adjust itself to other people's requirements, people should adjust themselves to the requirements of the Holy Koran."

Well, OK. That's not bad, not bad at all. But how about this?

Proposed "citizen's flag"
Wikipedia

..."The Bible contains everything that they need to know in order to obtain salvation and to live a Christian life, and there are no deficiencies in Scripture that need to be filled with by tradition, pronouncements of the Pope, new revelations, or present-day development of doctrine." Wikipedia

The march to piety begins and ends in the bedrooms of the believers. But it's not always easy doing it for the home team. Check this out:

"Islam has forbidden celibacy, monasticism and castration for such purpose. The Prophet made this clear when he told those companions who were considering acetic forms of life: "I pray and I sleep; I fast and I break my fast; and I marry women. Whoever turns away from my way of life is not from me. " The Prophet not only encouraged marriage but he encouraged those women who are child-bearing. He stated: "Marry the loving child-bearing women, for I shall have the largest numbers among the Prophets on the day of Resurrection." by Ahmed and Ibn Hibban

Is this direct challenge to go unanswered. Will our holy-folk fail to take up the cudgel and let the big numbers go to the other side? Not a chance of that happening! Let the breeding game begin. The Prophet may be in the lead but look who's got Eros bow in hand now: Go neo-Taliban!

Quiverfull ~ is the idea that truly godly families will “trust the Lord” with their family planning. Children are viewed as unmitigated blessings (“As arrows in the hand of the mighty man, so are the children of ones youth, happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them”) and as such, the couple is willing to have as many children as the Lord chooses to bless them with. Artificial or chemical birth control such as the Pill or IUDs are equated with abortion ~ the sin of murdering your own offspring. “Natural” birth control such as Natural Family Planning is not actually “natural” because a couple must abstain at the very time of the month when the woman is naturally more desirous of physical intimacy. All methods of “conception control” is considered a lack of trust in God to provide for the “children of the righteous.” NLQ Stories

What of the children in this contest? Are they to be just useful idiots? Aha, here's a clue:

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy: 'Children are tools to achieve God's will,' the Taliban commander told me.

"In a country where the average family size is seven people and the daily wage is as low as £1 a day, many families choose to send their children to Islamic religious schools, where they are given free food and shelter. Now increasingly, the Taliban are recruiting from these schools and paying the families a monthly stipend in return."

"They first call us to the mosques, and preach to us. Then they take us to a madrassa and they teach us things from the Koran," said Hazrat Ali.

" ...Qari Abdullah, a Taliban commander in charge of child recruitment, told me children are an essential element of Jihad. "If you're fighting, then God provides you with the means [to win]. Kids themselves are tools to achieve God's will. And whatever comes your way, you sacrifice it." Children as young as five and six years old are being recruited from poor families, he said....There are 80 million children in Pakistan. More than a quarter of them live below the poverty line. "THE INDEPENDENT

That's a lot of future zealots for the opposition. What can be done to even the playing field? How about this?

Initiative 957 was filed by the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance.

..."Under the initiative, marriage would be limited to men and women who are able to have children. Couples would be required to prove they can have children in order to get a marriage license, and if they did not have children within three years, their marriage would be subject to annulment.

All other marriages would be defined as “unrecognized” and people in those marriages would be ineligible to receive any marriage benefits." ...

...Deep Something

So how do the two camps come down on the distaff gender, you may wonder. Few surprises here. Consider:

As the Taliban's Attorney General Maulvi Jalil-ullah Maulvizada put it:

"Let us state what sort of education the UN wants. This is a big infidel policy which gives such obscene freedom to women which would lead to adultery and herald the destruction of Islam. In any Islamic country where adultery becomes common, that country is destroyed and enters the domination of the infidels because their men become like women and women cannot defend themselves. Anyone who talks to us should do so within Islam's framework."

So how are the ladies seen here at home? Is the model superior to that of the foe? Yes, way to go! Hats off to our womanly-women.

Conservapedia defines femininity as:

"Femininity is the set of principles which form a womanly personality, many of which can be traced to the female reproductive role. While men often master their masculine traits well into adulthood and continually test the masculinity of their associates, femininity is something many women feel is rooted in their early development and is adjusted by picking up societal cues. Feminine characteristics are expressed through female gender roles.

Femininity builds a woman's esteem by enhancing her own interpersonal relationships rather than building confidence through the task-orientation of masculinity. Traditionally feminine traits include being emotional, demure, affectionate, sympathetic, sensitive, soft-spoken, warm, tender, childlike, gentle, pretty, willowy, submissive, understanding and compassionate."

Yeah, yeah, all of that is important but what about the mores? How is bad behavior controlled and evil brought to task?

"Under the Taliban regime, Sharia law was interpreted to forbid a wide variety of previously lawful activities in Afghanistan. One Taliban list of prohibitions included: pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards. They also got rid of employment, education, and sports for all women, dancing, clapping during sports events, kite flying, and characterizations of living things, no matter if they were drawings, paintings, photographs, stuffed animals, or dolls. Men had to have a fist size beard at the bottom of their chin. Conversely, they had to wear their head hair short. Men had to wear a head covering. " Wikipedia

Awesome! Oh my, tough act to follow. Well, give it your best shot. It's daunting, pilgrims.

However, you must always be careful to pose in a dignified manner – sitting at your desk, for example, or standing on the Capitol steps. Your facial expression should be one of pensive sobriety, as if you’re contemplating how to repeal Obamacare and save this great nation from ruin.

For female members, a conservative dress or suit is fine for photographs; taupe is always safe. For men, the preferred attire is a navy blue coat jacket, a club necktie, and of course your American flag lapel pin (with the stripes positioned horizontally, Rep. Quayle!).

Obviously, all body piercings and tattoos should remain out of sight.

One final point, and I can’t stress this strongly enough: Republican House members should never, ever use their cell phones to photograph themselves shirtless, no matter how “hot” they think they look.

In the event that such a revealing picture does exist, you are absolutely forbidden from emailing it to somebody you just met online. No exceptions! ...McClatchy Truth to Power

Sorry, folks, you're not even in the ball game. That's limp. Not one word about pool tables, chess, masks, lobster, or nail polish. What about firecrackers? Jeez. oops. Jeepers. Unless the pace picks up in a hurry, there's no contest. What a shame to lose the race by default. Come on now. Ban something!

The Big O

2011-08-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Most communities had short notice of a storm's approach in 1928. A radio message from a ship at sea; reports of devastation where it made windfall in Puerto Rico or elsewhere. That's about it. Thousands of farm hands and residents in south central Florida had no clue of the Category 5 hurricane bearing down on them.

Prime farmland surrounding Lake Okeechobee was the draw that had populated this low lying area in the Sunshine State. The sun was not shining that day in September. Okeechobee, seventh largest fresh water lake in the US is half the size of Rhode Island. Despite is vast acreage, because it is extremely shallow, average depth is only 9 feet, only a small levee protected its southern end.

Although warnings were given early in the day, the storm failed to arrive on schedule and residents returned home. Without warning this monster storm struck the area. People dove for shelter as best they were able. It would prove to be of no avail. Drenching rains overfilled the rivers and tributaries dumping into the lake. A merciless wind surge whipped the vast basin and at once, swept over the inadequate berm. Hundreds of square miles were inundated and everything in its path was swept along.

In some spots the water was 20 feet deep and people and countless animals drowned in the deluge. Many clung to whatever flotation presented. This safety net proved illusionary and often deadly. If a survivor managed to stay afloat and was carried to high ground half drowned and in the stygian darkness, the sense of relief was short lived. Collapsing ashore they soon discovered that snakes and alligators had arrived earlier. More than 2500 perished.

Sam, Sam, Wake up Sam! Save us!

2011-08-19T05:11:00.000-07:00

Promptly at 4 PM on April 9 ,1865 at Appomattox Courthouse the bucolic American Giant, known fondly as Sam, went for a short nap that lasted for 136 years. After four long years preserving the Union, Sam needed a rest. He stretched out across the countryside with his head among the old original colonies; his rump placed conveniently at the headwaters of the Mississippi (for the drainage you see, clever Giant), and his legs sprawled westward ho! across the prairies with his heels planted in L.A. and toes dangling almost to the Mexico line.

Sam, like Gulliver before him, is plagued with Lilliputians but these cheeky, diminutive pests are known here as the 'Minions'. While Sam nods off, these Minions wreak havoc in his name. They are always careful to do their mischief abroad so as not to awaken the Giant. And mischief it is. Greedy little buggers, these Minions, can't seem to get enough little island getaways around the globe. Been collecting them since the War with Spain. And power hungry!; those nettlesome gits have been showing the flag around the world for two hundred years. What started in Tripoli on tiny warships has metastasized to hundreds upon hundreds of flagposts everywhere on Earth.

All things end and so did our exclusive export of mischief abroad. Abruptly. Our sleeping beauty was jarred out of almost a century and a half of slumber by a frightful racket almost under his left year. Sam had been using Central Park as a pillow for ages but on September 11, 2001 he was rudely awakened by the noise and smoke. The trusty Minions rushed to assure him all was well.
"Go back to sleep, Sam", the Minions cooed. "We can handle it. We have ways". Sam should have stayed awake but old habits, and all that. No sooner had the old guy dozed off again; the bombing and invasions began in earnest.

We're into the tenth year now. Sam's still out cold. The Minions are running amok.
The place is a mess. Everybody hates the Minions and the country is broke from their excesses. What will it take to rouse him from his slumber and begin to take charge again? Sam, Sam, Wake up Sam! We need you, again.
ibid

Yet Another Bleak Doomer Scenario

2011-08-06T06:09:00.000-07:00

Are we destined to be the last generation of Americans to enjoy the life style we have been taught to expect and demand? The past five generations of Americans have, in the main,experienced an American Dream of comfortable retirement, adequate medical attention and the creature comforts that add years to life spans. Is it all coming to an end?

Will our decline, assuming it's already happening, continue as a gradual lowering to Second World status and, perhaps, then slowly diminish to an even lower permanent standard? This could, early on, mimic in many ways the collapse experience of Russia from the USSR to what it now has become. Russia pulled this off rather handily, possibly because life under the Commissars promised little and the Russkies had reduced expectations. Have we, on the other hand, grown to expect way too much from life, for way too long, to land gracefully?

Among us are many who hope to avoid diminishing circumstances by investing in more durable symbols of wealth. Dr. Tom Burnett addresses that notion thusly:

"You may think you are going to get rich investing in silver and gold - or you may think you can protect your wealth by owning it - or you may think that people will stop accepting paper money and no one will be able to buy anything without it. All of that is nonsense.
The same people who stole the equity in your home and your retirement and have been shipping 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month overseas since 1999 are also stealing the last hope of individuals, ounce by ounce, by packaging gold and silver as something that will hold it's value and selling it to people as a hedge against loss. That's nonsense as well."

Burnett goes on to say:

"Here is the secret to the entire affair. This is what no one will tell you and what you won't believe even after I tell you. Precious metal dealers are in business to MAKE MONEY FOR THEMSELVES - not to provide for your future. If one of them thought for a New York minute that the actual VALUE (not the PRICE- there is a huge difference) was going to triple in a year or five years, they wouldn't sell it. EVER. They'd keep it. No one would sell a huge guaranteed profit if they could make more by doing nothing.
The mere fact they are willing to sell it to you means that your cash is more valuable than their metal."

If we remain in a gradual slide, perhaps early symptoms might show up in spasmodic delays in shipments of goods and food stuffs; perhaps, even, the total absence of commodities always available in the past. Certain roads or bridges may be in permanent detour because the funds are not available for repairs. One of these days, if you haven't made payment in advance for protection (shades of Ben Franklin), the local (private) fire company will arrive in time to watch your house burn down. And the Black Ops. minions, now warring for Uncle Sam, will war for you if you pay them enough.

This bleak doomer scenario gets much worse. If we don't have the resources, the energy or the expertise to continue to monitor tens of thousands of nuclear devices and installations and their waste products in perpetuity, survival for anyone will be dicey, at best. Either they are dealt with timely, while we are able, or they will deal with us someday. They are capable of our annihilation any old time, and time is on their side.

Are We Just Happy Campers or Tickled to Death?

2011-07-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

Anticipating Disney, IMax, Nascar and Reality TV by decades, a very perceptive New England wife and mother observed the following:

"Wherever there is a class that is to be made content to be plundered of its rights, there is an abundance of fiddling and dancing, and amusements, public and private, are in great requisition. It may also be set down, I think, as a general axiom, that people feel the need of amusements less and less, precisely in proportion as they have solid reasons for being happy."
...Harriet Beecher Stowe. 'Oldtown Folks' 1869

But in America today our rights are not being plundered as much as they are dribbled away or signed away, almost daily. Every Presidential diktat and Court decision seemingly adulterates or reverses values which were hard earned and once considered sacred by dint of having been fought and bled for in the past. The ceaseless erosion of our "unique in all the world" tenet is scarcely noticed by Americans who are in a relentless quest for diversion at any cost.

The latter is provided us pell-mell by a media so enamored of fame,power and earnings that it is wed to the establishment and daily utter hosannas. A wholly corporatist amalgam that echoes resoundingly from on high. Every new arrival in modern communications is sooner or later co-opted by government decree or corporate fiat. When done in this fashion over generations, it becomes a snap to go to war without permission; cast half the population into penury and spy on fellow citizens at will, without raising a whimper.

While the nineteenth century to us may be quaint and stodgy seeming, and fiddling and dancing seem tame amusements; the analogy is apt. Mrs. Stowe's general axiom regarding the search for amusement taking the place of happiness is O so telling in our world. What would that brilliant, perceptive Yankee author make of Prozac, Viagra, 3-D and Brazilian Body Waxing our, somewhat less than solid, attempts at being happy? Or would she understand intuitively that one manifestation of unhappiness does, indeed, lead to increasingly bizarre others?
Would she then, with wisdom and kindness, offer her sympathy and hope we would soon see the true cost of rights plundered and liberty in default?

Where's Geppetto?

2011-07-01T03:43:00.001-07:00

We know he's out there somewhere, lurking, doing his Wizard of Oz thing, while his poor puppet is desperately trying to become a real boy. We can all vouch for the affable puppet. We know he'd be a clean-cut boy and make us proud. He would never go near that awful Pleasure Island on the Potomac and would shun the lame fox and half-blind cat, those Ivy League money guys, completely, if he could. They're the ones who made him spend all that money he doesn't have. He'll make a top notch real boy someday and never be an ass, 'er, a donkey that is.

Our hope filled marionette just loves the big white house you put him in. But he's a little worried because the lease is up soon and he's not sure it will be renewed for another four years. Our plea, mauling the famous words of that late, adored,
senior marionette is, "Mr. Geppetto, Mr. Geppetto, cut down those strings!".

We know because of you he's prone to fabricating stories and creating tales but he wants to give up telling lies...honest. That mendacious Jiminy Cricket has stopped whispering in his ear and gone back to Chicago. We're sure he'll be brave and truthful if you just cut those strings.

The Blue, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Fairy has been measuring his nose every day and swears it has stopped growing. She is ready to do the job of boy making, if you'll only snip away those cords.

Now, Geppetto, there has been a little backsliding recently; some puppetizing. The one about a war not being a war without feet on the ground. We know, we know that was you. And how things are getting better and better; strictly Geppetto the Puppeteer, not our guy. You went too far in having him pump all that oil out of the ground. Ya' gotta' give the kid a break. Quit pulling his strings...turn him loose!

Let him be all that he can be...or is maybe he already is. Ah woe.

Sandbagged at the DMV

2011-06-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

An episode at the office of the Dept. of Motor Vehicles during an eye exam for driving license renewal reminded be of an incident a few years ago. That situation, which happened at the airport in Merida, Mexico, was eerily reminiscent.

We were traveling with an elderly friend who was relocating to her house in Merida where she lived much of the year. Our friend was nearly blind and had a helper dog with her. In addition she had the most incredible collection of household and personal baggage imaginable, most of which barely qualified for import and certainly would be subject to careful inspection.

It was the last flight into Merida and we were the last passengers to arrive at the customs desk. This array prompted hurried conversations amongst the agents, glances at watches were frequent and some rolling of eyes. At that time, customs inspection in Merida was something of a lottery.
Upon presenting, one was instructed to push a large button and a green light meant pass through: a red meant close inspection of baggage.

Now a gambler who knew the system could do well betting on the winning color by the circumstances. Little old blind lady, guide dog, mountain of luggage, last flight, last passenger; bet the farm! We passed through post haste and were on our way.

Well, that same gambler could do well at the Department of Motor Vehicles. In our city, which has in some surveys has the greatest number of senior citizens in the entire country, an enterprising gambler could make a smart living . By observing the apparent age of each candidate for driving license renewal he could with total certainty predict the outcome of the vision test.

Granted in a community like ours the great numbers of elderly drivers is cause for concern. But...
if a person sees clearly enough to pass an eye test why should that not be sufficient to preclude license restricted to wearing eyeglasses? The test appears to be rigged for older drivers to assure failure.

One is required to look closely into a device (which may not have been sanitized in this century)
and follow verbal instructions. The screen in view has a series of lines as in found in other vision tests. There the comparison ends. One sees a cluster of four lines, clearly labeled 1 2 3 4. A gap, and another series of lines, three or perhaps four. Another gap, another series. The verbal instruction is to read line 5. Of course line 5 does not follow line 4 in the first line. Oh No, line five is buried in the third clutch of lines.

So the applicant starts off flustered and a bit shaken. I took the test not wearing my eyeglasses since I did not have an eyeglass need restriction on my current license. Well, I located the covert line 5 and it was totally unreadable. I could make out the lines preceding and following the dread #5, so I told the clerk it was looked Chinese to me.

"Put on your glasses and try again', says she. I did, and viola! , crystal clear...I aced it. " You will have a glasses restriction on your license". "Sandbagged" at the DMV! Is it a set-up? As in Mexico, I'm convinced there is a Pass/Fail Button somewhere at the DMV and I got the red light!

While waiting for my new license to be created I was able to listen to the testing of an elderly man at the next booth. He was struggling with the damn #5 line too! On the face of it, this is no big deal for me. I wear glasses all the time and have since I was in my teens. What I object to is the "Orwellian" process they seem to be using to further a given end. Sure, get the geezers who can't see off the road, but if you can pass the eye test even at one hundred; no need for license restriction. It's only fair.

Anybody know a hustler who wants to spend time making bets at the DMV?

2211 A.D. The Remnants

2011-06-27T04:53:00.000-07:00

(a fable)

Only at the front is there any brightness and that is from pale moonlight. Further back in the sleeping part beyond the small night fire, it is always Stygian. Without firelight all movement is guided by touch and hearing.

By custom, grudges and jealousies are left at the front so the night might be devoted to slumber for the young and for the others, often, ardor. The group of twenty- some adults plus numerous young, have close ties; a clan-ship. Serious rancor is rare, not unknown but considered exotic. Puzzling. No act of violence exists in clan memory; rather it is the source of legends, of horror stories.

The clans, who refer to themselves as "Hopeful Remnants", choose to live, when possible,in the vicinity of a former midden or landfill provided the soil nearby is tilth and water source satisfactory. Mining old landfills is a treasure trove for the inhabitants as is quarrying in abandoned cities and towns.

The group is typical in this rare bucolic region which has been re-settled and kept mainly agricultural, together with extensive re-cycling projects of course; for many years. No important manufactory has been possible since early in the twenty-second century. However, extensive re-cycle and refurbishment operations have kept the modest materiel needs of the residents fulfilled.

A unique gender ratio has been operant for generations with a constant five or six to one distaff ascendency in effect. This ratio has enabled tranquility never attained in the past and resulted in a more realistic morality, including a pan-eroticism, not experienced by the human race prior to, what has come to be known as, the "Great Declension ".

An item gleaned from a page of an ancient 'scientific american' somehow survived, was copied and circulated among the clans, and is a great boon containing, among a wealth of other arcana, the following:
"So how did natural selection equip men to solve the adaptive problem of other men impregnating their sexual partners? The answer, according to Gallup(George G. Jr.), is their penises were sculpted in such a way that the organ would effectively displace the semen of competitors from their partner’s vagina, a well-synchronized effect facilitated by the “upsuck” of thrusting during intercourse. Specifically, the coronal ridge offers a special removal service by expunging foreign sperm. According to this analysis, the effect of thrusting would be to draw other men’s sperm away from the cervix and back around the glans, thus “scooping out” the semen deposited by a sexual rival."

The clans, upon learning this, were stunned by the idea of this organ being something so unique; and by the singular investment nature had made in sculpting it. And how, mankind so beneficently gifted by nature, had ignored until the present the obviously intended usage. Awed by such prescience in nature, this information then gradually morphed into clan lore and practice. Not, as the article suggested, solely to prevent rivals from copulatory success but to alter the male to female ratio radically, perhaps permanently.

It has long been an effort of the clans to encourage an activity which would produce more females than males and, if do-able, to replace the old possessiveness and mate exclusivity that possibly favored male offspring. Multiple partnering of several males with one female, as a prevailing social norm, was extremely rare historically. It is a tenet of clan lore that the dominance of males throughout history was the result of insistence on singularity in couplings thus shunning competition.This bias may have gone far in accomplishing male dominion, both numerical and social, where it might not otherwise have flourished. Plus, grouped lovemaking is a way of avoiding favoritism, although it still exists, but usually does not lead to possessiveness.

Lengthy trial and error and hints from historical accounts convinced the 'Remnants' that masculine dominance and the resultant militant aggressions and material excesses, stemmed from, among other things, flawed notions regarding gender. This explains for them a large part of why the entire human race had nearly perished during the "Declension". These mistakes, it is vowed, are not be repeated.

By removing stigma and coercion from human sexual behavior a more harmonious libido has fore sworn most sexual compulsion while adding untrammeled eroticism to the daily fare. De facto bisexuality coexisting with a benign matriarchy has had an added benefit, the numbers of offspring always being a concern here; a form of birth control. Oddly enough, as they've discovered, a surplus of sex can result in fewer offspring.

An interesting note is the rivalry this has established for paternity among the masculine substrate as all interested are welcome to any conjugal episode.One male and one female coupling is a rarity. This rivalry manifests in extraordinary displays of amatory technique to insure paternity. Colloquially, this is known by wags as 'bilge pumping'. Great effort is expended in first displacing any lingering rival seed before it sprouts and then in supplanting it. Conjugal activity is seldom private and is open to all. These heroic displays are really not necessary to accomplish fatherhood as the seed for females usually dominates given the opportunity.

Within these guidelines again, they consider this singular organ design as finally being used as nature had intended millennia ago. A plowing up of rival seed from the furrow as it were but rarely indulging in the solo plowing that had long been the norm. All of this procreational activity is somewhat proscribed and, more often than not, kept selective. Many other forms of friendship and bonding through sensuality are practiced and encouraged within the group.

A strong valency was found to exist within the female members to heightened awareness and a higher regard for peers arising from absence of dominance posturing from the males. The clan females now seek each other for Hoka-Hoka, a.k.a. GiGi's Dance. Censurably dismissed in the past as mere female 'scissoring', now 'tribbing' and similar activities have become cherished practices among most females and is encouraged by the clan..

This has the desired effects of strengthening bonds, providing pleasure and discouraging rivalries.
Most importantly, it reflects the latent sensual nature of contemporary females who have grown to maturity with an instinctive knowledge of self-worth and desire without the need for male approbation.

Among the issues not successfully addressed however, two are significant and until the now have defied resolution. All amorous activity is thus far nocturnal and communal. The inability to overcome self-consciousness precludes comfortable, overt , daytime liaisons almost completely.The assumption is that many more generations must pass until racial memory is cleared of all old taboos. Secondly, although no overt censorship is attempted in regards the young, they have so far been excluded from participation. Of course the communal sleeping arrangements preclude privacy, except that offered by the extreme darkness in the quarters. There are few secrets.

In leaving this small band and the other "Hopeful Remnants" to their unknown destiny, we too can hope that the wisdom they have gathered and put into practice will enable them to thrive and hopefully evolve into a truly humane species never before seen on the planet.

Double-Speak Squared

2011-06-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

"We know there are known knowns: there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns: that is to say we know there are things we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know." —Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Department briefing, Feb. 12, 2002

We don't ignore there are the not ignored we don't ignore: there are things we don't ignore we don't ignore. We also don't ignore there are the not ignored, ignored: that is to say we don't ignore there are things we don't ignore we ignore. But there are also the ignored, ignored - the ones we ignore we ignore."- The POTUS Manifesto. 2009-2011

CASTING CALL: "Hell's A' Poppin' " (Revival) /

2011-05-31T06:06:00.001-07:00

A.K.A. "2012 A.D., A Fantasy"

GENERAL NOTICE (Subject to change)

NOW Auditioning: Extras and Supers ONLY. After you are seen, please leave by the Street Exit.
Kindly be quiet and orderly; the Media is no longer interested in you. Use care
exiting the stage as the scenery and props have been in storage for four years.
Note: Moth-ball aroma is not life threatening. Thanks in advance for coming in. As always, " Don't call us, we'll call you."

ADVISORY

PRINCIPALS Auditions: POTUS Coming soon. Notice will be given.

Note: There is to be an Audition audience as well as a Dress Rehearsal audience in attendance. Be presentable and prepared; working script in hand. (The play is the same so any old script will do nicely).

Note: The final script will have provisions for some minor ad libbing but the acts, scenes and ending will be the same as usual. Of course, high drama and sincerity count, but keep the emoting and scenery gnawing to a minimum, please. Two lead characters will be cast as usual; POTUS and V-POTUS. The actors may differ from the last selection but be assured the roles are identical.

DIRECTORS NOTE:
Four years ago permission was granted to have the notion of "Change" expressed by the principal lead. Be advised this is no longer operative as it has confused the audience. In the future slogan selection will be confined to one with a remote plausibility of enactment.

***Professional support courtesy of Equity, SAG and AFTRA. PRINCIPALS are not union members.

Requiem for Fukushima et al

2011-05-20T03:44:00.000-07:00

Go West at Zion's View

The hill is leached
Shriveled
It lays supplicant
to the sun.

Smalled men came here
Landless
They had big arms
but no regard.

Cropping on carbon lodes
Despoilers
Shucking living valleys
heaping raw dregs.

Despite ever blackening lights
Quarrying
Myopic dung beetles
at their greed.

Machines are boning out coal mountain
Strangely
Seeking ancient veins
scrapping choicer flesh.

Jiffy lakes of aberrant hue
Chimerical
Sully spring freshets
Coddle acid brew.

Lately monster devastation calls
Holicidal
Man's haughty genes
green the overburden.

ibid

Be Afraid: Be Very, Very Afraid

2011-05-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

A syndicate of counterfeiters is flooding the world with funny money. It's identical with real money but millions around the world are yearning to reject it. Still it comes rolling off the presses by the ton.

This gang can be so violent that many people are afraid to cross them and continue to accept the phony swag. It's sort of like the old 'protection racket'. Very simple. Here's how it works. You take our fake money, shut up about it and we won't kill you. Classy, eh?

Everybody just dreams of the day they can tell the big bosses "we don't want your stinkin' loot." Stick it! But that day hasn't arrived yet, sadly. And the big bosses get meaner and meaner all the time. Nobody's safe...and I mean nobody. The bosses changed the deal and got a license to kill. How 'bout them, apples. Right out of James Bond. Take our fake cash or else. Wacky guy in the MiddleEast tried to get everybody to use real money and every day they bomb his house. One day they'll nail him.

Now this counterfeiting ring has been at it since the early seventies. Started off slow, just passing enough of the phony stuff to get people used to it. Bit by bit the flow increased until it was like the Nile in floodtime. Oceans of the bogus stuff. Worlds drowning in it but on and on it comes.

In the old day you could get the law to put a stop to this criminal stuff. Interpol, or somebody. No more. Not since the big hoods got the license to kill. Now they branched into another dirty little racket; extortion. You got something they want, they make a deal; we get it or we kill you.
Wow, if the old mobs only had that special license: alas, they had to earn it the hard way.

Or course, what good is a license without the goons to go with it. Goons!, that's ancient stuff. They got high tech hit-men. Guys half human and half machine. Really, can't tell where one part leaves off and the other begins.

Bolt the door, Marge! There's something out there!

What Will Homer Simpson Do?

2011-04-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

If his workplace should suffer something similar to the Fukushima disaster; what will Homer Simpson do? Would he do as the extremely heroic, three hundred or so, atomic workers in Japan have done which is basically sacrifice their lives? Have they such an have a overreaching sense of responsibility or is it a genuine concern for community that prompts them to stay on? Japanese culture and American culture may have different basic attitudes that need examination in advance of disaster.

If a meltdown was happening now at Indian Point, NY, or Turkey Point, FL or the Diablo Canyon reactor in California, what would Homer Simpson do? Granted, Homer Simpson is imaginary (sort of ) but he is our everyman, also imaginary (sort of ), so in that sense Homer reflects our national character, our collective psyche.

What will Homer Simpson do? Will his union pull him out stating hazardous working conditions?
Will his insurance carrier threaten cancellation if Homer remains in harm's way? Or will our court-of- last-resort, the National Guard in space suits, with bayonets leveled, keep Homer working?
Will the corporate CEO with his top staff jet in, roll up their selves and pitch in? Perhaps several bus loads of shareholders, anxious about their investments and just a little guilt-ridden will arrive to help. (Perhaps Bart Simpson ( he's not imaginary! ) will sneak past the cordon to "help the old man get out before he's toast, d'oh!")

Should re-licensing agreements for nuclear facilities include Homer Simpson profiles to predict who will stay in an emergency and who will bolt?

So, what will Homer Simpson do? Will he stay or will he run? I would. Would you? Stay tuned.

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

2011-04-28T04:22:00.000-07:00

Top-notch Second-Raters Rule!

2011-04-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

America could very well be the very last nation to experience major uprising and rebellion. The reason we as a nation will not resort to revolution is because we are so terribly well adjusted to our society. Unfortunately our society may be in fact, insane.

Aldous Huxley had this to say in Brave New World Revisited;
"The really hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal."

The noted philosopher-psychiatrist, Dr. Erich Fromm : "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as neurotics do."

So then, if we are so crazy, how come we can manage three wars, survive a devastating financial crises and have next to zero, civil disturbance?

This is because our totally sane, top-notch second-raters, who are charged with nudging along the ship-of-state have learned two lessions in the past half century. These may be the only things learned, but they have served well. These master-minds of the national inertia we call progress determined there was to be no repeat of the sixties. i.e.

Firstly: Never under any circumstances risk repeating the chaotic sixties by re-instituting the military draft. Even if this requires recycling and rehabilitating one single, albeit well-armed, regiment, forever. What Nixon (blessed be) wisely took from us; let no Selective Service System reinstall.

Secondly: Never promise any minority group anything at all... ever. LBJ cost us several cities
nearly toasted, countless riots, and a decade of unrest because of empty promises never intended to be fulfilled. No more promises.

Thirdly: Ignore totally Jefferson's plea, "No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one will ever be." Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, September 9, 1792. Strive always to keep the Major Media in as few Corporate hands as possible. Insure that a free press remain an archaic remnant never to been seen here again.

With these major impediments to tranquility removed from the national scene, rest assured the streets will remain serene. All will be well. Ours is a well trained constituency who have responded faithfully to suggestions from our leading media to behave well and consume nicely. And so we shall. We have no choice, for deviant behavior is anathema; is Un-American in fact.

Follow the Money

2011-04-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

To the Shores of Tripoli Our old friend "Deep Throat" provided a road map to so many of the major puzzles of our era with those infamous words. "Follow the money" indeed, this time to a continent sized pile of gold. Forget the oil barons, small change. Look instead to the real players in this nasty little war.

" It seems that the rebels might actually be under the overall supervision of the international banking industry, rather than the oil majors". Alexander Cockburn

If you thought you had seen about every perversity imaginable in the business of killing for profit dig this:

CNBC senior editor John Carney asked, “Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power? It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era.” and this; “According to a Russian article titled “Bombing of Lybia – Punishment for Ghaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar,” Gadaffi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar. Gadaffi suggested establishing a united African continent, with its 200 million people using this single currency".

"The initiative was viewed negatively by the USA and the European Union, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy calling Libya a threat to the financial security of mankind; but Gaddafi was not swayed and continued his push for the creation of a united Africa." Ellen Brown

The unmitigated gall of this guy! Well, he's got to go. So three flat broke, but well armed bandit gangs, CNN vetted and found admirable, let loose the usual barrage of first, demonization and then rocketry we have come to expect; demand?. What did Muammar Gadaffi do that was so terrible, you ask. Well first of all:

"WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC GOLD DINAR?

A.D. 700 - A.D. 1924: From the very beginning, Muslims used a gold coin called a Gold Dinar as their form of money. The Gold Dinar remained the official Islamic currency until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1924... when it disappeared for 77 years. But on Nov. 7, 2001 -- less than two months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 -- the Islamic Dinar was officially re-launched by the Islamic Mint in West Malaysia and is now available to the public. Although a beautiful coin, the Gold Dinar could pose a serious threat to the U.S. economy! " By Craig R. Smith, CEO SATC

So that's the deal. And furthermore he needs to learn respect for his betters. So down he comes and his stinkin' Central Bank as well. Nobody tells our capos no. Nobody.

"One major problem for globalist banking cartels is that in order to do business with Libya, they must go through the Libyan Central Bank and its national currency, a place where they have absolutely zero dominion or power-broking ability. Hence, taking down the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) may not appear in the speeches of Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy but this is certainly at the top of the globalist agenda for absorbing Libya into its hive of compliant nations". Market Oracle, Eric Encina

So Quadaffi is to be toast and truth and freedom are to triumph again!

Quoth the Raving

2011-04-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

18th Century: Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.

BenFranklin

21st Century: Without improvement, achievement and success, such words as continual growth and progress have no meaning.

Zero Gravitas

Can a Goy be 'Goldstoned'?

2011-04-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

Probably not, but I've received a touch of it .

The treatment Judge Richard Goldstone received since the release of his committee report on possible IDF atrocities during the 2009-2010 "Cast Lead" Gaza operation was to the nth degree harsher than mine, but even a small dose of hateful tribalism is an attention getter .

"The UN commission which appointed him to head the inquiry into the allegations of war crimes committed during the operation was acting on a seemingly logical but actually foolish calculation. Appointing to the job a good Jew, and an avowed Zionist to boot, would disarm, it was thought, any allegation of anti-Israeli bias."...Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom

Anti-Semitism and inhumanity are both evil and despicable regardless of source. As is, to my mind, militant boosterism of any and all actions of a favorite 'cause' no matter how inhumane and biased it may have become. This is particularly so when truth and civility are among it's victims.

Uri Avnery: "The full fury of the Jewish ghetto against traitors from its midst was turned on him. Jews objected to his attending his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. His friends turned away from him, He was ostracized by all the people he valued."

To be sure, I have not been shunned by my friends nor ostracized as Judge Goldstone was for his efforts. But then I have not recanted, nor confessed I was wrong either. We all must answer for our actions or lack there of; so be it. Goldstone apparently searched his soul and changed his mind. I have not.

For me it was a comment I posted on Slate defending Christopher Hitchens from a vicious attack by Masada 2000 that prompted my banishment. The post in question went up, as all my previous posts had, stayed for several hours...then vanished. Assuming a tech glitch, I reposted...up it went; then soon gone. So it went. Since then nothing I submit ever appears. Alas and alackaday.

As a result of criticism aimed at the Masada 2000 organization, http://www.masada2000.org/list-A.html, the most virulent anti-semitic organization since Herr Doctor Joseph Goebbels went out of business, all of my postings to Slate have subsequently been barred.

If you are not familiar with this, Masada 2000, screed, be warned. Their second lede reads:

'Entering a Toxic Waste Zone'

and so it is. In spades.

The situation all through the Levant will fester and boil, more people will die and the distress will continue indefinitely until...and only until, concerned Americans have the courage to risk all wrath and avow, enough is enough and order it... resolved. Look for yourself. View that wretched Masada 2000 site again, or if you have not already done so, do so now; then declare, finally, that things have gone too far. It must begin in America; the Middle East is certifiably bonkers at this point. Hopefully, a trace of sanity can still be found here. Can it?

"Obama is a Hottie With a Smoking Little Body"

2011-03-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

When searching for the earliest incarnation of Barack Obama, Franklin Pierce 14th president of the United States, came closest.

wikipedia

Please note that General Pierce is the hottest U.S. president of yore. Lauren Titus

Beach+Bodies

Obama is "A Hottie with a Smoking Little Body". Luann Haley

However, we shouldn't overlook the competition.

ABC News

That Vladimir Putin is one tough guy. He hunts! He builds fires! He captains his boat through river rapids! He rides his noble steed shirtless! Alexander Marquardt

Vladimir Putin is the most popular leader in the world today. Mike Whitney

Enough wanderings abroad! Back to the homefires. Every incoming president inherits from a predecessor. Franklin Pierce and Barack Obama followed two of the easiest acts in the Presidential pantheon...Milliard Fillmore and George W. Bush!

In Franklin Pierce's case, this didn't seem to help much!

Philip B. Kunhardt and Peter W. Kunhardt ... wrote in The American President that Pierce was "a good man who didn't understand his own shortcomings. ... He was one of the most popular men in New Hampshire, polite and thoughtful, easy and good at the political game, charming and fine and handsome. However, he has been criticized as timid and unable to cope with a changing America."

Nor did it help Barack Obama who mumbled:

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Barack Obama

Very little in the following account is unique to Franklin Pierce's presidency:

"The policy of my Administration," said the new president, "will not be deterred by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion. Indeed, it is not to be disguised that our attitude as a nation and our position on the globe render the acquisition of certain possessions not within our jurisdiction eminently important for our protection". wikipedia

After 150 years we are still prowling about the planet looking after certain possessions and seeking protection:

"As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains." Obama Inaugural address

"Pierce's affable personality and lack of strongly held positions helped him prevail over (Winfield) Scott, (also a popular war hero)... reducing the campaign to a contest between the personalities of the two candidates." wikipedia.

"Barack Obama's popularity over John McCain is due mainly to his congenial personality, Americans saw the 46-year-old senator as likable and inspirational, and believed he could understand and relate to problems faced by the average person." The Jakarta Post

"Having lost public confidence, Pierce failed to receive the nomination by his party for a second term. Pierce's hiring of a full-time bodyguard - the first president to do so -, is testament to his ruined reputation". wikipedia

We'll leave to history the saga of Obama's bid for a second term. At any rate, the Secret Service will do at no cost that which the unfortunate Pierce had to provide himself.

"As has so frequently been the case throughout his presidency, it seems Obama has been torn between an ideological commitment on the one hand and his perceived practical responsibilities on the other".
Kier Willett Faster Times

It has been put about recently, by otherwise astute observers, that apparently when Barack Obama took office he was told in no uncertain terms that :

. the economy was so fragile, so close to self-destruction, that anything drastic he might attempt was sure to bring it all down.

. any action to restrict, hinder or diminish the operation of the Forever War establishment was verboten.

. establishmentarians run the show in a pinch, and not the Executive.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An incoming US President who does not immediately resign his office after having received eyes-only briefings of what's really going on is hopelessly co-opted or delusional. ibid

Kansas Isn't in Kansas Any More

2011-03-09T12:40:00.000-08:00

..."I expect what we're looking at is going to be much more serious than any past crisis, partly because America has already evaporated, like the morning haze on a hot summer's day. You're not in Kansas anymore. Kansas isn't in Kansas any more." Doug Casey

After the morning haze cleared all that remains where America once spread from sea to sea was a lengthy farewell note that ended with a plea to "forward my damage deposit c/o General Delivery/Second World". This could very well be a temporary forwarding address for if the mortgage is ever called in, who knows where the mail will go?

And it's so ironic to think the whole thing started with soap; well actually, the selling of soap. But not just peddling the stuff the old fashioned way, oh no, hawking soap became a new art form! Not exactly fine art but fine enough to conquer the world in a century. I wonder if any of those old 20th century advertising pioneers every dreamed their new offspring had such latent power?

Unlike Professor Oppenheimer in the desert after the first a-blast muttering we were like "Shiva, destroyer of worlds"; surely nobody at Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn and the other pioneer ad mavens had an inkling they would really destroy a world. If it had all stopped with pushing soap it would have been OK but the technique was too good. The temptation to sell ideas and ideology in the same way as soap was very compelling to other players. Players with agendas that most often favored a few at the expense of all others. It turned out to be so effective over generations that millions have seemingly been rendered incapable of independent thought or action by this method.

We're nearing the anniversary of the day March 15, 1891 when George Batton launched the George Batten Company in New York. Other pioneering icons contributed their bit, of course. Such stalwarts as Young & Rubicam and Lord &Thomas added to it, the technique, but BBD&O was supreme. Slowly it built up: first, just print, with billboards and later movie screens added to it; the advent of radio caught the wave nationally and softened us up for that killer of independent thought...TV. Now the web?; could go either way. Lots of potential for redressing our zombification but corporate at the core and therefore subject to government whimsy and worse. Alas, no saving grace there.

So two hundred years after the founding, most of the ideas and tenets that made our nation unique in the world have been discarded or co-opted. We thrash about aimlessly and begin to resemble other former republics as they drifted into despotism. We look about frantically for something which doesn't exist anymore and we have no clue as to how it all slid away. There seems to be no one still capable of shouting, STOP!, THINK!, what are we doing and why are we doing what we do? Why do we have sinister things happening all around the world that we don't approve of and that we didn't authorize?

Terrible things are happening by default every day, at home and abroad, and no one is in charge. There is only motion and noise but no focused action to reverse any of it. Every day, in every way it slides away and we appear powerless to retrieve that which has been lost.

You're not in the USA any more. The USA is not in the USA any more.

Becoming Over Being. Becoming Over Being. Om! (repeat)

2011-02-26T03:50:00.000-08:00

America's Mantra (with obeisance): Becoming Over Being. Becoming Over Being. Becoming Over Being. Om!

This is the American shibboleth that proscribes the reality of here and now as never sufficient unto itself. Always the future; seldom the present, never ever,right now. And accordingly we invariably equate our becoming to the elixer, the grail, the greener-grass promise of growth. Perpetual growth, as in the state of forever growing but never being quite being grown(up?).

Other cultures, it is true, predicate the future in terms suggestive of our idea of growth but we seem to have a lot more invested in the very essence of growth. Wall Street and it's coterie of talking heads use the word as a verb, a noun, an adjective, almost as benediction. As does official Washington. No president would consider a State of the Union address without growth this, growth that and then more of the same. Nor should we expect any absence of this utterance to go unnoticed. Markets would surely crash, panic and woe would abound; we'd have an unknown future to behold without the soothing balm of growth.

Maybe it's in our genes; our very RNA as Americans. A look at the past reminds one why 'Go West Young Man', Eminent Domain and 'Westward Ho'! are so us. Always a new place to go if the old place grows stale or the soil goes sour or if the sheriff proves troublesome without realizing a pathology, perhaps fugue, is manifesting itself. These frontier behaviors of ours may well be ancestor to our contemporary mania for unlimited growth and our low esteem for present reality.

Other, older, more settled cultures don't exhibit this pathology, but instead have a provincial predisposition to be suspicious of all beyond the shire or county of residence. In fact, in our insistence on modernity and progress we unwittingly reveal our own nature as "provincials" in that we also fail to look beyond the moment. The great bastion of our provincialism is our Mecca, the Big Apple, Gotham,a.k.a. New York City. Its minions regard the five boros as the known world and Manhattan Island from the Nineties to the Battery as the shining City on the Hill. "Beyond this place, there be dragons!".

Unfortunately, our homely provincialism casts a worldwide shadow. Cloistered in their towers monkish growth mongers in finance and academe cobble-together and promulgate a world that is always in the act of becoming and never just is. Sort of ironic that United Nations Headquarters was established in such a village.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unlimited growth makes perfect sense if you are a metastasizing cancer cell but not for a viable nation. ibid

Technology: The Last Refuge of Scoundrels

2011-02-23T15:11:00.000-08:00

Patriotism, has long been, as Samuel Johnson notably opined, the traditional last refuge of scoundrels. Nowadays, a new refuge for the breed has become extremely popular: Technology.
Having about exhausted the hectoring effect of the old standby, **patriotism**, this new kid has been brought up from the minors and groomed for stardom.

And what a brilliant choice it has turned out to be! Look here, doesn't everybody just love technology; Bigscreen,wideangled,megapixel,supersized,hybrid,jetpropelled,catscanned and defibrillated? Give us more of it! And they will; for a price. And the price may well be dehumanization, not bargained for but hidden in the fine print.

The latest candidate for the Bollix Prize in desperation technology is in itself a clone of a bad idea. This tidbit describes the twisted grandfather of today's horror show. Note:

"...as the war went on the Germans put more and more faith in technology, launching rocket bombs at a time when they could serve no purpose but the creation of a spirit of vengeance, illustrating how blind to total reality one may become...
Ideas Have Consequences by Richard M. Weaver

wikipedia
Nazi Buzz Bomb

Seven decades later another desperate state reaches for a technology fix that will only serve to guarantee undying animosity throughout a strategically sensitive region.

Drone Plane
wikipedia
Much as the Nazis did earlier, we station civilians in remote outposts who attack targets by guess, hunch or rumor and are as likely to kill innocents as not. Monitoring unmanned drone planes by remote control removes the operator from reality and responsibility. Reports come to us from former bomber pilots expressing remorse over the impersonal aspect of their efforts in regard to civilian casualties. At least these airmen were usually in harms way during the sorties they flew. Not so our minions in air-conditioned comfort in Las Vegas, blithely blasting whole families to oblivion, concerned mainly with promotions, chicks and off duty casino play.

Operative Unit

military.com

As the cost of our overseas adventures increases dramatically, pressure also increases to get whatever new technology is available that will give the best return for the (borrowed?) money. As a result our guys begin to resemble Star Wars Troopers and present about as much of the human aspect as their cinematic predecessors.

Alas, the enemy they encounter operates at about as low-tech level as is humanly possible, and is exceedingly hard to detect despite the GeeWhiz gadgets abounding. I mean, a twenty year old local girl jihadist wearing a cummerbund stuffed with C-4 explosive; what chance does a Star Warrior have? They won't fight fair.

And why do they hate us?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe it's Crazy Glue: Redux

2011-02-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."
John F. Kennedy

We are slowly coming to the realization that the glue that holds it all together is drying up and losing it's grip. For over two hundred anxious years we have told ourselves that we, among nations, are unique. That elsewhere lies the "old-country",the great unwashed, those "lesser breeds without the law", and the hopelessly out-of-date

.This glue helped us to tame a wilderness, destroy one people and enslave another, fight our innumerable wars for property and/or money and made us rich. But it seems to be drying up folks, starting to let go and peel away at the edges...slowly, now faster.

The American Myth is the glue that binds us when all else is failing. But if we no longer believe the stories and legends, the sensed rightness of all that we are and do, does that mean they delaminate and fail? Or will new myths pop up to replace the old? Happened elsewhere, lots of time. Early Japanese Shinto v. Buddhist traditions, Fourth Century Rome, Berlin 1930's, come to mind. Got to keep those stories coming because, alas, No Myth...No Nation.

Now it's been a hundred years of ever improving propaganda from print, to radio, to movies,-TV and lately the web that have provided generations of slick liars and earnest boosters a high podium to dissemble and reinforce the American mythology. All terribly effective; sell soap, and sell the stories of nationhood with the same voice.But they oversold it, folks, big time. Got caught up in their own success and went over the top. And now, finally, people are slowly, ever so slowly, waking up to the Big Lie.

We are not unique, never were. We are not all good and wise and noble. Too many pictures, too many reports have surfaced of too many nasty deeds done in our name all over the place for too, damn long. Too much money sticking to the hands of too few of us and too many lies about why that is. Folks are not as ready as they once were to drink the cool-aid or believe the half-truths and absolute fictions ever so slyly promulgated; about why things need to be this way.

On some level, mostly subconscious at this point in time, Americans know the game is up. That the powers that be are not leveling with us. The information sneaks in stealthily that everything is different from what we are told. That things will not be returning to what we've known in the past... ever. All sorts are wild and bizarre statements and actions will be the new norm for the nonce.

Without information free from spin and slant people will thrash around for guidance and direction. A lot of this will be frightening for many, certainly unpleasant, but not unexpected after several generations of disinformation serving as truth. Anything we are told these days, particularly on the very best authority, best forget it and keep digging around. Somewhere beyond the noise is the truth.

So suck it up, friends, a new day is here and what hope there is will come from our own wise instincts of what's best for us.

" Nothing will see us through the age we're entering but high consciousness, and that comes hard. We don't have a good, modern myth yet, and we need one.
"Robert Johnson

Democracy: The Pall Over Freedom That ...

2011-01-14T04:58:00.000-08:00

Makes dancing, whoring, drinking, and hanging with riff-raff, less joyous and more de'classe'.

This very thing, democracy, we vend mercilessly to a mostly reluctant world was used by the Founding Fathers to 'calm' the free spirit in the 'lesser' classes after the Revolution.

So why is that a bad thing? Maybe there was way too much of that stuff happening at one time but we're past all that! So what's the point?

The point is how we got to be the way we are now and could we have been a different, happier, freer people if we had not been fobbed-off into a fantasy world of self-improvement and civic discipline called democracy.

The common folk were anathema to the new masters, the Founders; their life styles held in low esteem. There were few exceptions among the Fathers to this class bias and in some cases they exhibited downright loathing. For example:

Alexander Hamilton found Americans "vicious" and "vile".

Samuel Adams, "a torrent of vice".

John Adams: "Indeed, there is one enemy who is more formidable than famine, pestilence and the sword". His comment on the fitness of the average American. "I mean the corruptness which is prevalent in so many American hearts, a depravity that is more inconsistent with our republican governments than light is with darkness".

The rulers feared sex slightly more than drink as a distraction from their vision of docile, productive, well-behaved subjects. This from the staunchest friend of the common people amongst the Founders, Thomas Jefferson, on why the common man should be discouraged from visiting Europe: where,'' he is led by the strongest of all human passions, into a spirit for female intrigue,...or a passion for whores..."

It would appear then, the Founders actually feared and despised the concept of democracy but used it as a device to subtly control the masses, or rather to encourage them to self control, sans a large degree of personal freedom. Of course, they themselves would have no part of it... this democracy business. Fit only for the rabble, you see.

After the Revolution and during nation-building every barrier to the voting franchise they could devise was erected to exclude the people. Gender, males only; Race, white males only; Property ownership; all were requirements for the privilege of the ballot. John Jay infamously quipped,"Those who own the country ought to govern it." Thus, every opportunity to approach or influence the seat of power was kept from the common people.

This elitist spirit prevails even today in the bizarre Electoral College barrier between us and our direct vote for the Chief Executive.

Just a few years after the end of a bloody war waged partially in response to onerous taxation by the English Crown, the new elites resorted to the same tactic. A tax was levied on the production of alcohol to make it harder for the masses to obtain it cheaply, and thus, discourage drinking. The Patriots had reacted to the Crown levies with rebellion as did the farmers who made the whiskey. The result: more bloodshed, as the militia was called to force the taxation on the new (small 'p') patriots.

For a definitive, in depth, study of the history of the choice we've been offered between personal freedom or democracy, see, A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell. Professor Russell has gone past the bounds hagiographers seldom dare cross in examining the covert motives of the Founders and what we may have lost as a result.

I Once Knew a Man Who Knew a Man...

2011-01-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

"I once new a man whose father was born when Jefferson was president of the United States."

This interesting, if somewhat prosaic statement, actually holds a wealth of historical promise. In fact, the man I knew, c. 1940, was my great-grandfather at about age 90. His father was born in 1803 during Thomas Jefferson's first term. Looking at the past in this manner demonstrates that three individual lifetimes link someone living in 2011 to almost the entire time span of our Republic.

I consider this simple chronological approach to history as using what might be regarded as giant steps through the wilderness of days keeping the past from us. Consider:

That 1803 man might have known a woman who also had known an elderly grand-parent and that person's parent was born when Shakespeare was writing King Lear and MacBeth in 1605 . Thus the addition of only three more human existences gets us back to the Golden Age of the Elizabethan Era. So now we have just six people and the continuity covers almost five hundred years of Western history.

Add three more long lived ancestors; it's 1415 and the English forces are victorious over the French at the Battle of Agincourt.

Just three more and, viola!...it's 1215 and Magna Carta!

In summary:
Three human lives starting with the author's own in 2011 covers US history back to the founding fathers.

Six lives takes us to Shakespeare.

Nine to Agincourt.

and twelve lifetimes...the Magna Carta. The beginning of much we hold dear in the history of the West.

I've only touched upon our own Western History. Scholars and history buffs everywhere might use the same technique to retreive their own ages from what appears as a dauntingly remote and arcane past.

The Winner, Still #1,is...Wow! Check Out #10,OMG

2011-01-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

As most of us know or are not terribly surprised to learn, Christianity is number 1 in religious adherence worldwide and, although somewhat reluctantly these days, many do acknowledge Islam to be #2. So how come next to nobody knows what number 3 is? See chart for the big surprise and then ask yourself how 1.1 billion people can be ignored or denied equal standing when referencing religious adherence.

Thanks to Adherence.com for doing the accounting while keeping in mind all numbers are approximate. If the ranking of the Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist folks at #3 is a surprise; what rounds out the big ten at #10, is astounding. Slightly ahead of Spiritism and Judaism, is, what on Earth!, Juche, official religion on North Korea; 19 million admirers and growing; so who knew?

Charts from Adherence.com

1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
2. Islam: 1.5 billion
3. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism: 900 million
5. Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
6. Buddhism: 376 million
7. primal-indigenous: 300 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million

10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 15 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 7 million

14. Jainism: 4.2 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo: 2 million
19. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
20. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
21. Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
22. Scientology: 500 thousand

Tribute to a Gutsy Guy: Julian Assange

2010-12-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

{Re-posted as a reminder the Web is hosted by Corporate Spiders eager to not displease bureaucrats, politicos or the military. The illusion of freedom and privacy is chimerical. A fatwa has been issued on the head of Julian Assange, dead or alive.}

Guardian photo

firetown
Internet Shut Down as Egypt Braces for Huge Protests http://nblo.gs/dzqLJ

firetown
Search Warrants Executed in the United States as Part of Ongoing Cyber Investigation http://nblo.gs/dzqLK

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Internet / The SoapBox
We communicate via the web at the sufferance of the system. When we are no threat, perceived or actual, we are allowed to continue our harmless pursuit. The instant this usage is perceived as a threat to the elite; it ends. So keep on blogging; keep on ranting and raving, keep uttering anything that comes to mind, you are harmless by definition.

The much touted use of the net as a force majestueuse in the recent Presidential contest was pure chimera. If it really threatened to be anywhere near decisive, it would have ceased to be. Make no mistake, a culture that can fight 2 1/2 wars without provocation and with borrowed money, can pull the plug on all we hold sacred in a thrice if sufficiently challenged.

Societies love to be admired as generous and tolerant if the cost is small. The web today is no more than a soapbox was in Hyde Park, or Washington Square in the past. A leather lunged orator could bray to the crowd or to the wind as long as able but only as allowed by elites. Stray for an instant from the permissible and a minion of the law would call you down. And perhaps kick apart the soapbox for good measure. See Google v. China for splintered soapboxes.

So what is different today? Have people become nicer, friendlier, less murderous with the advent of the web? Not noticeably so, maybe a little worse. What is the corpse count by violent death in the couple of decades since Al G. or somebody set all those internet electrons in motion?

If you seek independence anywhere in web-land remember the Web is all Corporate and Corporate is all Government; ad nauseam. Wikipedia

Posted by Robert Magill at 11:25 AM

The View From Inside Juggernaut/ or

2010-11-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

Watching Passively as Americanism Crushes the Infidel.

It matters scarcely a whit how one views our America these days, as we are now mere ballast inside a beast; the War Forever juggernaut. Each of us a solitary cell connected to other bits of the larger organism. If our particular cell has an eye...still, we cannot see clearly. A brain...we cannot think clearly. A heart...well, you know. Our dim view of reality is limited to opaqueness in the walls of the beast. Only if our little cell is attached to where the ego grows fat do we still, in roaring hubris, pretend to be of consequence..

Rest assured, it is pretense. Michael Vlahos of the United States Naval War College estimates the total defense community now approaches 30 million. If you are not part of the warrior class, its constituents and minions, riding on the juggernaut, nothing you say or do really counts for much. You ride inside as ballast to weight the beast and add to its power to trample. If you are part of that warrior class, but you have not "seen the elephant" as the boys said during the civil war (been in recent combat, that is) you have little voice and don't get to steer. Since Richard Nixon signed away Selective Service in favor of a standing army and thus quelling the Viet Nam war resistance movement, power and treasure has flowed nonstop to the military.

Now it is almost total. If the treasury has one dollar left or enough ink to print one, it is spoken for: to buy things that go boom. Not for food, nor clothing, not for shelter...only to defend the homeland against...whatever, whomever, wherever. Somebody will think of something that threatens us. They're good at that. The rest of us, the "shoppers", as we are dismissed in military circles, are out of the loop. Others know what is best for us. Recent executive power has been broadened to include the option of killing anyone who could be a threat to the implementation of this power... anyone. They will decide who is the threat.

Alas, our pious Americanism has bound us to the canon so completely we are unable to save ourselves from a War Forever machine which now qualifies as a dictatorship. There is no escape. The possibility of our defection through expatriation has been nullified with a pen stoke. The entire world is seen by the powers as potentially hostile and your presence anywhere abroad could be construed as hostile to the machine. A machine that always craves kinetic release frowns on any deviation from the credo. You are with us or, de facto, against us: ergo; enemy.

{juggernaut is a term used in the English language to describe a literal or metaphorical force regarded as unstoppable. It is often applied to a large machine or collectively to a team or group of people working together, or a growing political movement led by a charismatic leader, and often bears association with crushing or being physically destructive.}
Wikipedia

Memories of Ole' King Koal

2010-09-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Trenton Chamber of Commerce Photo

Prior to and during WW II in Trenton, NJ, where I grew up, (State capitol, 100-150 thousand people), everybody burned coal. Once a month or thereabouts, the truck would pull up, and down a chute tumble several tons of black, shiny, anthracite coal. It even had a brand name, "Blue Coal", and sponsored a favorite radio drama,"The Shadow", (The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, the Shadow knows, heh, heh, heh).

Houses, factories, railroads, the local utility Public Service GAS & Electric, (accent on the gas part, a by- product of coal burning), before the Big Inch pipeline connected the northeast to the Texas natural gas fields and took the business away, they all burned coal. Some hard coal, some soft coal but lots and lots of it.

Now, it's true that on certain days in the winter, when conditions were just right, a stinky pall settled over the area. Like the smog in L. A., perhaps. What didn't add to the mix was any great amount of auto exhaust. No cars to speak of then. Depression on, remember? And later, wartime restrictions on passenger cars.

In my working class street, all of the men were employed at blue collar or white collar jobs. All, with the exception of my family and one or two others, did so without cars. People; women, kids and working men, walked, or rode the bus! Every day, for every purpose.

TRENTON MAKES, THE WORLD TAKES; reads the sign on the bridge over the Delaware river, leading to neighboring Pennsylvania. The sign is still there they tell me, but the world no longer takes since Trenton no longer makes. The jobs have vanished. Nada, all gone. EXCEPT, government jobs. State capital, remember?

All the decent paying work in factories, foundries, needle trades, or the railroad no longer exist. You work for the government, go on the dole, or eke out a two job existence.. Not much else remains that would support a family of working class people.
How did this terrible thing happen, we all ask?

Well.

At the end of WW ll, Washington was in a panic. The boys were coming home. What'll we do with them? There's no work except war work, and the girls, and the others are doing that. Oh my! Depression again. Can't have that.

Got it. Send the boys to school, anyway the ones who can read and write and... get the gals back in the kitchen. But how? They've all gotten so...independent these days. Put them in brand new houses at next to nothing down. Even less for vets. But where? Suburbs of course, nothing out there but corn fields. Get them to leave the city and drive back and forth to work and then, of course! ...sell them new cars! Eureka! But people love the city, grew up there, friends and families are there, how will we do that? They don't want to leave.

No problem. Scare 'em out! Tell them during the war while you were away fighting for the country, they moved in and took all the jobs and you know what that means.
No, ...what?

Your sister!

Okay, I'm ready to go. But how do I get back to my job in the city? The roads out there are all tiny country lanes and are jammed up all the time.

No problem! Since the commies are going to bomb us any day now we have planned smooth and wide super roads all over the place to move our strictly defensive guided missile launchers from place to place quickly. You can use these great new highways, free!.

Best of all, your new house on its own private grass patch will be state of the builders' art. Latest in all the new kitchen appliances and best, best of all, your furnace will run on natural gas or will burn oil. No more shoveling that messy coal and putting the ashes out on the curb. Welcome to the bold new world of Levittown! And in no time we'll move your job into another corn field so you won't have to go to the city at all.

And it worked. For awhile. While we, the USA, still had all the money and made and sold all our good stuff to the rest of the world. If you weren't able to buy our stuff and you were among the losers of WW II, well we'll give you the money to rebuild, then you could buy all our stuff. However, if you were our friend during the war but you were godless and didn't play our game, well, tough, nothing for you.

And it worked. For awhile. But then our new friends learned how we made our stuff and they made it cheaper, and often better. Well, that won't do. Too many cheap towels and sweaters on the market from our old enemies, oops new friends, okay close up the knitting mills in the old industrial North and ship the work down to the New South. Cheaper land, big tax dodges, lower wages. Great, that's done.

And it worked. For awhile. But soon the folks in Dixie wanted more. Fuggettaboutit! Lots of peons looking for jobs. Let's move further south.

And it worked. For awhile. They, those ingrates, wanted more. Let's move West, really far west. The good commies are really our friends now and they work for rice and noodles. Let's go West to the Far East!

And it worked. For awhile. Now, bigger ingrates, and they want it all! Instead of doing what we do and buying everything in sight, they save their money! Isn't that cheating?

In the beginning everything was peachy. They made stuff and made it cheaply and pretty good, too. The ships sped across the seas on tons of really cheap oil, and all was well. But things started to change a bit. Running all those big ships made sense when fuel was a giveaway but it got more expensive. Much more.
And people at home were going in hock to pay for all the new stuff because they hadn't saved enough to pay for it.

No problem! In the new world they won't need money. That's old style. All they need is lots of cheap credit and a computer to shop in the virtual world we have created for them. But ...that will require plenty of smart people who work cheap to take orders for the stuff, and we don't have enough. No problem. People in India speak English, sort of, work for a pittance so they get the job. And diction lessons as well.

And it worked. For awhile. In no time all, this coming and going became just going. A one way street of money...ours. So what! Our credit is AAA, well...AA anyway. What's the big fuss? We're good customers. So charge it! I'll have another hamburger and I will pay you Tuesday! Oops that's not right. That's what Wimpy said in the comic strip. Not what our Masters of the Universe would ever say. But maybe that's how it sounded to those too-clever-by-far commies, 'er, our good trading partners. Just because they saved their money, (the chumps), they are beginning to make noises saying we are not paying them enough interest on the money they lend us to buy all their stuff because our wonderful, spotless currency has gotten a tad faded. Hey, it was our money to begin with. And so what? More hamburgers please, I will pay you Tuesday...maybe.

Now, talk about gall, they say they will give us more money but in exchange they want our holy institutions, the very icons that separate us from the rest of the worlds' unwashed, our glorious cathedrals of commerce and culture, our banks. What insolence! What's with those people?

Okay spoil-sports, you can have the banks. They're empty. Ha Ha!

Now with the oil looking to become more expensive than say...water, everybody's getting worried. What to do? Can't burn coal. Too messy. Ah, we'll build more nukes! What... don't you remember Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, all that waste we can't take care of, half-lives out to forever?

Not to worry. Mankind is very clever and somebody will think of something. When the first nuclear plant was going up in India, they didn't even have a crane to hoist the containment vessel up into place. Well, they built a great big bamboo scaffolding and a bunch of guys with ropes dragged it up. See!
Somebody always thinks of something.

Remember, we don't need no stinking coal to boil our water when we got ...nucular!

"Peace! Bah. There's no money in it." ...Uncle Sam

2010-09-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

"My job doesn't make me a war monger, does it?"... Joe Everybody

The stacatto series of Money Panics of the nineteen thirties AKA, the Great Depression, which sounds a bit classier than Panic! Panic! Panic!, ended December 7, 1941 by Japanese airmen shouting Tora!Tora!Tora!, and, presto, War began decades of prosperity for us all.

We have done other things in the ensuing decades to make money, but we always fall back on old reliable Casus Belli . Make some money. Have a war. Make some more. Have another war. It's what we do because it works.

We sold some cars; used to sell a lot more until those other former war-mongers oops, Japan and Germany got into the act and ruined it. We made lots of airplanes, mostly war planes of course. Plus big machines and little machines of all kinds. Well, we actually gave that up years ago. Sent that work to the farm team, AKA the rest of the world, to manufacture, along with the needle trade, electronics, computers, wow! damn near everything when you think about it.

Not the ordnance, oh no, we still make most all of the stuff that goes boom. Let the farm-team buy that stuff from us, thank you very much. That's about all we have to sell these days, anyway.

There is one problem, however. All our war stuff and the boom-boom action that accompanies it, costs money. Runs at a loss. So we finally have had an old fashioned Money Panic! lately. Don't anybody call it that, though. Call it recession (will that be one dip or two, like ice cream) or retrenchment, 'depression lite', anything but Money Panic! But then, why-oh-why won't the banks lend out money anymore? Oh, so that's what happens when bankers hit the Panic button.

Yeah,yeah, but it's the fat-cats who are the war profiteers, not us. Well, the billionaires are not on the production line turning out fighters jets, or grenades or drone consoles, etc, etc. Somebody else is making a buck from the war machine, no es verdad? "Hey Man, only doing my job, man.", a million voices ring out, kinda miffed.

Our culture is as homely and normal seeming as apple pie and mother's milk to us, yet the US is the biggest war profiteer since the old Romans and we don't even realize it anymore. Just something we do (have always done?), in the lifetime of most of us, Yes. The sheer genius of the whole deal is ...we do it now with borrowed money. How's that for hubris! And delusion.

How the Anti-war Community Came to Love War/ or

2010-09-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

Finesse those mothers!
2010 Master Plan

The earnest but essentially futile effort by the anti-war community over decades, even centuries, suggest a new approach is in order. Nothing is working. By using spoil-sport methods and banding about the dread Peace word, the message has fallen on deaf ears. What has been consistently overlooked is the propensity for young men to be so convinced of personal immortality they cannot hear anything to the contrary.
This elementary fact of life has enabled every army in history to exist.

I blame it all on agriculture. The women started it. For going on 12,000 years the chronically under-employed hunter class has been festering. Looking for something or someone to stalk. Ah, the thrill of the chase! Hard to give up.

So to accomplish its purpose the peace movement must begin to glorify war; the uniforms, the comradery and feats of daring-do. We must speak constantly of the nobility of armed effort in behalf of ones country and family, ones friends and loved ones; we all know the language. But this talk must not come from the usual suspects. It must be noised about enthusiastically, nay zealously, by the anti-war community

This 180 turn will not go unnoticed by the old guard supporters of the status quo.Resentment will quickly follow astonishment as a rush to defend turf is sure to ensue. After all, who are the true believers here, and what are these usurpers up to anyway? When the cacophony builds and the jingoism crescendo reaches critical mass, and it will, the time will be ripe for the next step which is...

Compromise!
Yes! That's the key. The anti-war folks agree to go back to the old stance if...the establishment agrees to a tiny change in the Military Code. If they do this one thing, both sides return to the old position. Not such a big change, really, mostly tweeking a number, that's all. Will they agree?

Do this and we have detente.
Just change the minimum age for entry into any of the armed services to thirty-five...and reinstate the draft ! That's all. Then loose the dogs-of- war to your hearts content and the movement will shut up. That we promise, (mission accomplished).

From Tarsus to Texas in Two Millennia

2010-08-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

The Ground Zero Flap has Historical Roots

2010-08-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

To the Shores of Tripoli, et al, et al ( Revisited)

With amazing regularity we have begun each new century of our existence as a nation by warring with Muslims. At the start of the nineteenth century, the fledgling United States, still unable to pay the debts incurred during the Revolutionary War, equipped a small fleet, manned by marines, to do battle with Barbary Pirates operating from North Africa. This was our first overseas military venture but would, of course, not be the last. The results were inconclusive but served to impress old Europe that the new kid was a player and to show the flag around.

It took another couple of decades to rout these bandits from those waters where they had preyed on shipping for years. Routed they were but it cost us dearly. It was not until 1815 that our involvement ended; the due bill showed up in 1819 with our very first Money Panic. The banks stopped lending to pay off war debts, the Louisiana acquisition and to get the international bankers off our backs. Starting to sound familiar?

Of course throughout the nineteenth century we had lots of wars with all kinds of people but right on schedule, at the turn of the Twentieth Century, we're back fighting Muslims again. This time it was the Moros. For a scary film depicting, not very accurately, and with typical Hollywood slanting of the bad guys as 'others' and therefore, demonic, see "The Real Glory". Gary Cooper, David Niven and Broderick Crawford star.The Moros, who are Muslim and live in the southernmost islands of the Philippines, resisted the American occupation of their homeland. The U.S. Army tried out a new tactic of training native Filipinos to take over the burden of putting down the insurrection so the Army could withdraw. These surrogates, of course, were Christian and had little in common with the Moros. Does that sound familiar?

In the course of the film, the Moro leader Alipang is captured. In order to break his will and cause him to suffer for his effrontery, the Troopers forcibly wrap Alipang in the skin of a slaughtered pig. This is a grievous insult to a Muslim and perhaps anticipates Gitmo and Abu Ghraib behavior. Nearly 100 thousand men, women and children were slaughtered in the Moro fracas; which falls just short of war crime numbers.

In 1907 the due bill was presented. It was known as the Banker's Panic and its legacy is the dread Federal Reserve Bank. Thus began a new Century which featured wars with just about everybody on the planet. We all know the history of the late, lamented, 20th Century with a total of about a quarter billion casualties to its discredit.That speeds us to a new marker, Y2K, The Age of Aquarius, Century of Hope, the beginning of the great 21st Century.

Okay, we're at it again with the Muslims. Now its Af-Pak-Men-istan that has our attention. The scenario is the same. We send in the troops and then attempt to train surrogates to do the clean up work but always pick the least likely candidates for the job. And, oh yes, the due bill. Depression, called... Recovery!

Makes us all feel better, doesn't it?If we somehow manage to survive until 2100, which seems highly improbable these days, and someone will stake us the cost of another war, odds are it will be with Muslims. It's our heritage.

Professor Chomsky Tells All...

2010-07-22T04:35:00.000-07:00

We Started it.

Did Noam Chomsky give away the game in a Al-AlamTV interview on June 22?

Noam Chomsky:" We must bear in mind that the US is a very fundamentalist society, perhaps more than any other society in the world - even more fundamentalist than Saudi Arabia or the Taliban. That's very surprising."

What's all this? Is he nuts?

Well, a quick trip to Wikipedia might provide the answer.
"Until 1950, there was no entry for fundamentalism in the Oxford English Dictionary [5]; the derivative fundamentalist was added only in its second 1989 edition." Wikipedia

We also learn these inventions, spawned early in the Twentieth Century by fledgling Divines and Dons, at Princeton Theological Seminary, were social nemesesa skirmishes whose time had come. The creators were ambitious and zealous: to defend orthodox Protestant Christianity against the perceived threat of Darwinism and liberal theology. Sound familiar?

Wikipedia again:"The term has since been generalized to mean strong adherence to any set of beliefs in the face of criticism or unpopularity, but has by and large retained religious connotations."

And

"Fundamentalism is commonly used as a pejorative term, particularly when combined with other epithets (as in the phrase "Muslim fundamentalists" and "right-wing/left-wing fundamentalists").[7][8] Richard Dawkins has used the term to characterize religious advocates as clinging to a stubborn, entrenched position that defies reasoned argument or contradictory evidence.[9] Others in turn, such as Christian theologian Alister McGrath, have used the term fundamentalism to characterize atheism as dogmatic."

Yeah, yeah, but those other guys are really evil. We are peace loving and kind. A visit to the infamous "20th Century Corpse Derby" at http://bit.ly/15ebTB might dissuade this notion.

So then, if we invented it, do we own it?

Are the Brass Asleep at Slate/

2010-07-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

While Mice Play Editor?
From Slate:
Your Tax Dollars at Work—in West Bank SettlementsWhy is the U.S. Treasury Department subsidizing zealots who oppose our foreign-policy objectives?
Christopher Hitchens
Jul 12, 2010

Hitchens, a regular columnist for Slate, in this lengthy article wrote:
..."The U.S. Treasury Department passively allows tax breaks to vicious and fanatical groups whose activity, if conducted by Israelis, would be illegal under Israeli law! (It's more than a decade since Israel banned tax deductions for groups that devote themselves to the creation of unrecognized "outposts" on the West Bank.) This, in effect, constitutes an official American subsidy to outlaw zealot groups whose aim is to destroy any chance of accomplishing what is this country's declared foreign-policy objective.
Nor is that the most objectionable part of the sordid story. Take a glance at the rhetoric of the groups that are flouting local and international law. According to a Tennessee-based charity named HaYovel, which aims to fuse the efforts of Christian and Jewish fundamentalists in a settlement on disputed land in Samaria, the aim of its tax-exempt donations is to prepare for "the soon coming jubilee in Yeshua, messiah." I don't know about you, but I would prefer them to be using their own money, not mine, if they insist on rehearsing for the apocalypse on other people's property. Or try a few lines from the Rev. Hagee's brimstone rhetoric, claiming that "Israel exists because of a covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 3,500 years ago—and that covenant still stands."

This brought to mind the inclusion of Hitchens in an extremely nasty, posssibly dangerous website. What follows is a mind blogging sequence that should alert responsible factions at Slate that all is not well. I posted the following comment:

"Dr. Goebbels would be staggered by how faithfully his virulent racist propaganda is being used today. As hard as he tried to make Jews look subhuman by selecting photos of people with microcephalia and odd looking others, as examples of 'Jewish vermin'; he has been outdone.
Now the authors of Jewish S.H.I.T List, translation: Self-Hating/or Israel-Threatening, have alphabetized a thousand-named screed, complete with the least flattering, to put it mildly, ad hominem assaults imaginable, on their victims.

Christopher Hitchens is listed along with Susan Sontag, Noam Chomsky, Nat Hentoff; on and on. The most striking aspect of this entire project is the use of the ugliest photos available, coupled with the vilest descriptions these fanatics could muster to hurl, assuming tribal authorship, at their own people.

Go at your own risk to:
http://www.masada2000.org/list-HIJ.html "

The comment was duly posted and appeared at once. A few minutes later it disappeared! Posted again; there it was. Not for long though. Four times this happened.

"This post was pulled four times. Explanation please...Slate." , was my plea. To no avail, down it came again. Busy mice, those. Finally on the sixth and last attempt it stayed up and remains so, I trust, not having checked for several minutes.

If you don't care to wallow in the muck at ' masada 2000', who could blame you. At least glance at the what was done to Eric Hobsbawn, distinguished historian and author of " Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism ."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From http://www.masada2000.org/list-HIJ.html

"Hobsbawm, Eric J. (Prof.) Take a look at that face. It's the face of a evil, twisted Self-Hating Israel-Threatening Jew

Professor Eric J. (forJudenrat ) Hobsbawm is ashamed to be Jewish. He should also be ashamed for screwing a married woman and producing a bastard son, Jason... who opted to live with the married woman! The luckiest thing his parents ever did was to die before he turned thirteen. Too bad they didn't die BEFORE they created this monster!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Judenrat", classic Goebbels! They have no shame or originality.

Addendum: The posted comment was taken off sometime this afternoon, July 19.
It was dutifully reposted. Maybe it's the brass who are the mice,hmm.
If so, Slate has come a long way down since Michael Kinsley's time.

Addendum: It's gone.

Theft plus Murder Plus Chauvinism = Nationhood

2010-07-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

There must be exceptions but unless we delve deeply into the arcana of history; they escape. Certainly the West reeks of this. Alas, we are no exception. Like misbegotten gains in commerce or finance, if the loot survives unto another generation, it's clean. All is forgiven; perhaps vaguely remembered. Probably not.

With us the list is painfully long, and actually quite recent. Only historians and history buffs of a certain bent, the late sorely missed, Howard Zinn, and iconoclasts such as Gore Vidal, keep accurate score. Sure, everyone knows the Indians and certainly the Blacks were treated murderously; those are givens. How about the dead Frenchmen, anybody remember them; do they count? Those Red-Coats, living targets weren't they; dead, murdered?, land stolen? Depends on how you look at it.

It goes on; a lot of blood and then we have California, et al,et al. We didn't exactly steal Dixie but we did make them give it back after it was stolen from us who stole it from... well you know. Hark! Do I hear the bleat of the dread jingo bird splitting the air at this point?
No, then you are still with me.

Let's go someplace warm and grow pineapples. Beautiful...a paradise. Good harbor for a coaling station. Let's have it for our very own. Sorry, Queen Liliʻuokalani. In fact let's have a string of little islands in all of the oceans. Spain has a bunch. Not for long.

But none of that stuff is 20th century. Colonialism is passe, we say. Okay world, give 'em up and don't do it anymore. And they did. With the exception of one sad spot in the Levant; but this is a family show. We won't go there.

Old habits die...not at all! Only the style changes a bit. Now we don't colonize, too gauche. But the itch is still there; sort of prurient but in a good way. (Heaven forbid). How to scratch it? Got it, send in the Marines... all over the planet. Not to take anything, you understand. But, as they say in New Jersey, just to be "connected".

GRUB: the Real Energy Dilemma

2010-07-05T04:48:00.000-07:00

Restaurateur and Chef Jose Andreas of 'Julio' in Bethesda, Maryland was interviewed recently on NPR radio and made the most profound energy statement I have heard in years.

"But I think the most important is to remind everyone that the most important source of energy is not gas. The most important source of energy is food, because food is what keeps us - the humans - with energy. So we need to start thinking about food as the most important source of energy, because it's the energy that keeps moving us, the people - the people of America, the people of world.
... I hope that we're going to start taking seriously where our food comes from. Because right now I don't think we do. And we need to start making sure that our politicians understand that the most important thing is our food, period. And food should be un-negotiable..."

This basic fact of life has escaped the attention of nearly all the pundits and talking heads. I am neither but I am equally guilty. How simple his message. How profound. And how far we have all drifted from reality. David Suzuki said "We must reinvent a future free of blinders so that we can choose from real options." That ever so true, now.

I have read and written endlessly about Peak Oil, pro and con; King Koal, mostly con but currently indispensable, Solar, Wind, Tidal, Global Warming, the list is endless. Never, until today, has that simple concept of food as THE single most vital form of energy blasted through the noise and chaos attending the energy discussion.

The page six chatter we are given about the Gulf fishery loss from the oil gusher; the precipitous dropping of the Ogallala Aquifer level supporting dry land grain harvest in the American West, the failure of Salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest, or Chesapeake Bay and North Atlantic dwindling seafood harvest, is not sufficient to remind us these failures are the real deal in the energy picture. Unfortunately, Piggly Wiggly, Safeway or Gristides' fully stocked grocery shelves are a treated as a given and marginalized from the principal debate.

We seem to be riddled with tertiary technophilia, the lot of us. Always looking for the most complicated solution to the complicated solutions that started the mess in the first place. Too many generations raised on concrete perhaps. A hundred years of happy motoring doesn't help any. Maybe we, most of us, have become voyeuristic samplers, viewers of reality, not participants any longer.

Thus our worldly-wise take on basic reality, "Oh that's just food", has damaged our sure instinct of what matters most i.e., chow, victuals, staff of life, loaves and fishes, breakfast of champions...our daily grub. Why this matters the most, by far, gets a very low priority in the current dialogue.

Chef Andreas again: "In Spain, only two, three years ago, we had the same thing in the northern part of Spain, in Galicia, the same thing. It's the biggest producer of seafood in Spain, one of the biggest producers in Europe. We had an entire ship that broke in half. Oh, my God, was a disaster again. But this keeps happening, keep happening, keep happening. And I think, like, my God, we need to start fixing and finding solutions to make sure that this never happens again."

Neanderthal: the First Caucasian?

2010-05-28T06:10:00.001-07:00

or ...Rethinking Damn Near Everything

Let's start by tearing up the current playbook of Anthropology. The following reports by paleogeneticists, if the evidence proves out, could put the lie to just about everything we hold sacred regarding human Genesis.

According to "Researchers led by Paabo, Richard E. Green of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and David Reich of Harvard Medical School compared the genetic material collected from the bones of three Neanderthals with that from five modern humans.
Their findings, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, show a relationship between Neanderthals and modern people outside Africa, Paabo said.
"That suggests that interbreeding occurred in the Middle East, where both modern humans and Neanderthals lived thousands of years ago, he said." Associated Press

It is generally agreed that a large group of early humans left from Africa about sixty thousand years ago. We'll call them the Beta People. When they reached Sinai or the Levant; they met another group, the Alpha People, already in long time residence. Precisely nine months later another group was born. We will call them the Crypto People.

(depiction)

mnfu.world

Alpha Person (A.K.A. Neanderthal)

(depiction)

Beta Persons (A.K.A. Cro-Magnon) With Crypto young.

Crystalinks

The Alpha People had been living for perhaps 250 thousand years in the area from the Levant to Western Siberia, north to Southern Germany and East as far as the British Isles. These two groups apparently began to coexist and exchange DNA.

Perhaps as many as five thousand years later, from roughly Afganistan, a group split off from the main, settled South Asia and finally ended up in Oceana. Much later, a second large contingent skirted below the Urals Eastward; settled throughout Central Asia and ultimately, the Americas. Lastly, a third group continued to drift slowly throughout Europe, settling East of the Urals. All of these groups carried the Alpha (Neanderthal) DNA markers.

In time the later group began to occupy areas inhabited solely by Alpha People and as they continued to fill the area, the indigenous Alpha People melted away and eventually, 30 thousand years ago, disappeared from history. Does this indicate total assimilation, annihilation or were other, still to be uncovered factors, responsible?

In the succeeding eons the European contingent surely experienced an Alpha presence for infinitely longer periods than did the groups who struck out earlier. Therefore:

...the Neanderthals more like modern Europeans, with light skin and hair colour and language abilities..." said Dr Carles Lalueza-Fox, a molecular biologist at the University of Barcelona, in a commentary in Science.

So considering the recent finding of interbreeding between the Alphas and Betas and considering also the geographical area where the potential for cross-breeding lasted longest, should we not conclude that Neanderthal was indeed the First Caucasian?

"While many people think of Neanderthals as very primitive, they had tools for things like hunting and sewing, controlled fire, lived in shelters and buried their dead. We have met Neanderthal and he is us — at least a little. The most detailed look yet at the Neanderthal genome helps answer one of the most debated questions in anthropology: Did Neanderthals and modern humans mate?
The answer is yes, there is at least some cave man biology in most of us. Between 1 percent and 4 percent of genes in people from Europe and Asia trace back to Neanderthals." Associated Press

Question: Much is being made of the slight, 1 to 4%, Alpha (Neanderthal) DNA remaining with us today, as suggesting very little interbreeding occurred. Rather, should we not assume the progeny of this endless mating had a lot more than 4% Alpha DNA originally? And should we not conclude that after all the Alphas became extinct (or were assimilated) the next 30 thousand years of breeding sans Alphas, explains the low remaining Alpha DNA numbers in modern populations? Are we not, then, descendents and heirs of the Crypto children?

That big, not so dumb Troglodyte Alpha, standing in front of his cave throwing stones at the Hyenas, was he not your great-grand pere, at considerable remove?

Menstrual Synchrony or Does the Bunny Ranch Ever Close?

2010-05-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

"The McClintock effect, also known as menstrual synchrony or the dormitory effect, is a theory that proposes that the menstrual cycles of women who live together (such as in prisons, convents, bordellos, or dormitories) tend to become synchronized over time." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Menstrual synchrony seems to be noticeably absent in brothels. Bunny Ranches are open 24/7 year round and each lady is furloughed for one week each month. They don't find it necessary to bring in fresh replacements for a certain week, which would happen if they cycled together.

Therefore, cloistered women and segregated female dormitories may experience this phenomenon because of the absence of men which, of course, is not a problem at the Ranch. Perhaps any large community of women lacking a male presence would have the same result. We don't know yet.

"It is thought to be analogous to the Whitten effect, which is the synchronization of the estrous cycle and has been noted in small animals such as mice and guinea pigs. In contrast to the Whitten effect, which is driven by male pheromones, the McClintock effect is postulated to have only female pheromonal involvement."

"The phenomenon, sometimes referred to as the "social regulation of ovulation," was first formally studied by psychologist Martha McClintock, who reported her findings in Nature in 1971.[1] Another study experimented with 20 lesbian couples had results which showed that more than half of the couples tested had the same synchronization within a two day period of each other." [4]"From Wikipedia

The literature on synchronized female cycling is sketchy, at best. Since Martha McClintock published her initial report in 1972, followed up in 1998, little has been added to the body of knowledge on the subject.

"A prospective study by McClintock in 1998 was claimed to support her earlier findings by showing that underarm (or axillary) materials (collected from female donors), when wiped under the noses of (other) women, influenced cycle length.[2] Odors taken on the day that donors ovulated (and the next two days) delayed ovulation and hence lengthened the total cycle of the recipients. These phase-advancing and phase-delaying effects may show human axillary compounds regulate biological rhythms."[3] Wikipedia

Perhaps the human axillary compounds that most regulate female biological rhythms are of the male persuasion. Any savvy chicken farmer has the answer. If you want more eggs, keep a rooster somewhere in the neighborhood.

Also, we are told that Eunuchs were chosen to guard Harems to protect the serraglio residents from any male attention in the Sultan's absence. Maybe that's not the real reason that un-manned males were chosen. Maybe it was to keep the gals in sync for birth control and amatory purposes by removing all traces of the male aspect .

Consider: a bevy of wives and concubines all cycling pell-mell . What a strain that would put on our grandee! Synchronicity would solve the twin dilemmas of wanted/unwanted increases in the nursery and prevent any possible frustration in the amorous proclivity of the Pasha. Maybe he also looked forward to furlough week.

Sasquatch means, "We missed one, get him!"

2010-05-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

At last, proof. We are a special breed under the sun, a fallen angel, and we are made in the image of...Neanderthal! Is that where our finer impulse, our better nature comes from? Not from above or our native stock; our homicidal, genocidal, holicidal, selves?

So here's the deal. According to "Researchers led by Paabo, Richard E. Green of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and David Reich of Harvard Medical School compared the genetic material collected from the bones of three Neanderthals with that from five modern humans.
Their findings, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, show a relationship between Neanderthals and modern people outside Africa, Paabo said.
That suggests that interbreeding occurred in the Middle East, where both modern humans and Neanderthals lived thousands of years ago, he said." Associated Press

Keep in mind when our lot straggled out of Africa sixty, or so, thousand years ago, we were newcomers. People were already living in the greater world and had been for tens of thousands of years. So they met. Probably in the Sinai; certainly in the Levant, there's evidence for that. We don't know what was said, or even if they had speech.

But we do know what Columbus remembered of his encounter with the Arawak Indians on a beach in the New World.
"They loved their neighbors as themselves and that their speech was the sweetest and gentlest in all the world. They would always speak with a smile." Not an auspicious beginning as they were almost extinct in eight years. Whereas it took our gang almost thirty thousand years to do the job in what was arguably the first genocide. Look.

The arrow in the first panel points to the probable departure point when leaving Africa.
Contact was inevitable soon after. The remaining panels show (the dark gray blob) our progress over eons and the light gray, the retreat of the Neanderthals. As you will observe in the last panel the' home boys' cease to exist at all. The universal legends of a lingering foe in secluded places, the yeti, bigfoot,m'ghira. etc. may be racial memories of an ancient pogrom. Thus Sasquatch could mean, "We missed one, get him!"

by Currat, Mathias; Excoffier, Laurent (December 2004)

"While many people think of Neanderthals as very primitive, they had tools for things like hunting and sewing, controlled fire, lived in shelters and buried their dead. We have met Neanderthal and he is us — at least a little. The most detailed look yet at the Neanderthal genome helps answer one of the most debated questions in anthropology: Did Neanderthals and modern humans mate?
The answer is yes, there is at least some cave man biology in most of us. Between 1 percent and 4 percent of genes in people from Europe and Asia trace back to Neanderthals." Associated Press

That the Levant was the scene of all the trysting seems logical. One gang spread out from there to occupy South Asia and then Oceana using one route. Another bunch headed off to Central Asia and ultimately across to the Western Hemisphere. A third migration veered West into Europe. All groups carried the DNA markers for Neanderthal heritage.

rosalieee.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/human-m...

If that tiny 4% represents the best of our blood, the fairest of the fair, our highest nature; then the sorry other part explains, well...human history.

The China Clipper...of Eagle Wings

2010-05-02T03:18:00.000-07:00

A growing consensus among those who study these things is that China will surely go the route of the West, overbuild, overextend and then blow-up. That their central planners have a fear of citizen revolt and therefore use unsustainable GNP growth as a safety fuse. But...

China, by the time Nixon went back home, knew that those Western liberal consumer types would buy all the stuff they could manufacture. In an historical heartbeat, the Middle Kingdom left the third world wilderness, made stuff, sold stuff and saved the profits. Now, it is assumed, the Commissars, deathly afraid of the folks, build city after endless empty city simply as make-work for the minions. Crap! Such a conclusion is pure West-centric jingoism.

This is what we are told.

" 1. China Blows Up
Andrew Lawrence proposed the Skyscraper Index in the aftermath of the 1998 Asian Contagion. His theory says that the world's tallest buildings have risen on the eve of economic downturns. That is, countries that put up the world's tallest buildings enter an economic downturn shortly thereafter.

There is a lot of evidence to back him up: 1907 panic in the U.S. was marked by the Singer Building; the Great Depression followed the Empire State Building; the Asian currency crisis of 1998 - the Petronas Twin Towers.

The world's tallest building at present is the Burj Dubai, which will officially open on January 4, 2010. As you know, real estate prices in Dubai have been cut in half and their biggest company, Dubai World, just defaulted on $50 billion.

The next tallest building being built is The Shanghai Tower in China - expected to be 2,073 feet tall to be completed in 2014. " WEALTH DAILY

and

"It seems that China is not playing by the same rules as the rest of the world when it comes to real estate development, China with its $2.3 trillion US dollar foreign reserves has the financial resources to spend without the restrictions of debt financing. It does not have to go out and borrow money to fund its developments.

In China economic growth is not an option, it is a government “strategy and target.” The Chinese Government seems to push these targets with a “cost is not a problem” approach. Developments in China do not appear to be restricted by either their financial or environmental cost."
.By Kris Cyganiak

So

EXIT THE DRAGON

"Ghost towns, theme parks and enough empty Beijing offices to fill 35,612 tennis courts: Revealed – what's REALLY driving the Chinese property boom... and why you're staking your financial future on bogus demand.

Chenggong – where there's no one home... Construction of this city in Yunnan province started in 2003. Seven years later this shiny new metropolis teems with pristine high-rise apartment blocks, marble tiled government buildings, state of the art high schools, a large university campus, and a CBD filled with shops, banks and municipal offices. It's got everything except for the one major ingredient a thriving city needs: people! " DailyReckoning

Brand China was a going concern when our folks were painting themselves blue and worshipping a big tree. Consider; the Soviet imploded and that new regime started about the same time China shifted into gear. Any comparison there? Aside from raw material and fossil fuels exports ,what have the Ruskies done financially in the same time frame? For that matter, what have we done except write checks 'pay to the order' of Beijing?

Maybe, when, not if, the Geenback and its pal, the Euro, fall off a cliff, China will go to The People's Plan B, 'B'... for Bye-Bye. " So long foreign devils, you should have saved your money. Now 'China for Chinese' is the new logo of Great Wall Motors Company! Let's see. One billion three of us, billion or so Indians, lots of other Asians...there's Russia, Brazil. All Chinese PhDs come back home now. Business is good. Plenty of brand new houses for everyone. Bye-Bye, broke-ass Nixon people."

The 'loyal opposition', Gone, gone with the wind

2010-04-12T04:50:00.000-07:00

"The day of respect for the 'loyal opposition' has gone with the day of the gentleman class".
Richard M Weaver," Ideas Have Consequences"

This conclusion, written in the salad days of 1948, looks spookily omniscient six decades forward. Whatever societal rancor and ill will prompted Professor Weaver's jeremiad then, has mushroomed unbelievably since.

As I read Weaver, the somewhat archaic concept of a 'gentleman class' he is referencing is secular heir to a 'philosopher class'; a category of extreme rarity today. Indeed, since the passing of Emerson the philosopher ranks have been rather slim but, in the day, Weaver himself might have qualified as one. No known 'gentleman' exists in all of official Washington with the possible exception of one or two closeted specimens.

But that's okay as we've told ourselves historically; we are a 'can do' people. So we don't need bother with that other stuff like civility and productive discourse and such truck. Nah, we do it our way and it works. Or rather it used to do so. No more, I'm afraid. Nothing works well now. The total lack of respect or even common decency for the opposition, so visible in the halls of Congress, is projected by media onto a national screen. So much so that the public, never much given to thoughtful disagreement, lurches from one misplaced sentiment to the next. Lost, somewhere, is the ability to discern if a given decision or action is personally beneficial or not. This is true even when it could result in great loss or dire consequence.

Decades of assault first by radio and films, later by television and now the web, have sown massive confusion in the population. So much so, that a constant rise in literacy has been offset by an equal rise in credulity. The extensively, but narrowly educated consumer of goods and services, has morphed into a serf-like font of near medieval gullibility.

A goodly amount of national time has been spent polishing oafs to resemble a respectable middle class. This is no regard a 'gentleman class' effort, since as Nietzsche observed, the middle class would be moderate, even in virtue. With little chance of discovering philosophers lurking about any day soon, our best hope is an outburst of civility throughout the land. This might presage the arrival of a bevy of gentleman types arising Phoenix-like from the ashes of a burnt-out elite class and be an inspiration to us; the lumpen remainder.

Generations of pundits, preachers and educators can take credit for this melaise. A system based largely on treating constituents as mere consumers of material goods and arranging all of society around that maxim, has brought down the house on our heads.

Frontier Loss Angst; Grow Up, Folks

2010-04-07T05:10:00.000-07:00

In 1893, three years after the superintendent of the Census announced that the western frontier was closed, Frederick Jackson Turner, a historian from the University of Wisconsin, advanced a thesis that the conquest of the western frontier had given American society its special character.
...Digital History

It didn't take long for that 'special character' to get really, really restless. No more frontier! A continent already totally subdivided and full up, drat.
That means we have to stay put! Make do! But we have always moved on. Abandoned homesteads. Conquered wilderness. Slain enemies! What will we do, we can't live this way? No more Westward Ho! No John Wayne?

. As the Western United States was gradually becoming less of a frontier and more of a part of America, many believed that overseas expansion was vital to maintaining the American spirit.
The publication of Alfred T. Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History in 1890, which advocated three factors crucial to The United States' ascension to the position of "world power": the construction of a canal in South America (later influencing the decision for the construction of the Panama Canal), expansion of the U.S. naval power, and the establishment of a trade/military post in the Pacific, so as to stimulate trade with China. This publication had a strong influence on the idea that a strong navy stimulated trade, and influenced policy makers such as Theodore Roosevelt and other proponents of a large navy
Wikipedia

Let's look around, surely there's a frontier to conquer, somewhere. Didn't take very long, five years to be exact, and then...
Ah, Cuba. Always had our eye on that little gem. We can beat Spain, that's an 'old country', backward, not 'go getters' like us. And so it began. And continues still.
Part of our 'special character' to always expand, to grow... to metastasize? Seems that way. We can't help it. Think: Puerto Rico-Guam-American Samoa-Marianas-US Virgin Isles-Alaska-Hawaii, it goes on. Jack Kennedy touted a 'New Frontier', space, nah, not the same. Administrations come and go; some liberal, most not. Doesn't seem to matter. It's genetic, DNA American style.

Don't you see? That's our charm. Mark Twain spoke of ' The Innocents Abroad', that's us. Willfully innocent? Perhaps. Probably not. Jury not in yet. But a full Century of thrashing about the globe longing, oh so plaintively, for our 'lost cause', our liebestraume, is quite enough. Stay home, folks. Make do. Live simply; within borders, for a welcome change. The world thanks you in advance.

.

It's the < . > stupid!

2010-04-03T05:10:00.000-07:00

And yet it moves, in the words of Galileo, "Eppur si muove"

Stare at it 'till you're cross-eyed; won't see it happen. Gang team; and keep at it 24/7...nothing. Still, it moves. During these last glorious thirty plus years , it has had a constant rightward valency; will it last? Maybe it's starting to get itchy. Wants a change of direction. Beginning to drift?

Want to test it? See it in action, so to speak. Get a copy of your local daily of say 1970 and todays edition. Look them over. Check the price of a loaf of bread, for example. 1970 about $ .25, right? Now, today, $2.50. What happened? Look at a dozen eggs,1970 $.25 now $2.50. How can it be, you ask excitedly, what's going on.
The house I sold in 1968 for $10000. it's, OMG, $100000, they were giving stuff away in those days! Wait, this old pay stub. The gross pay, one week, $80. I make $800 now. Oh, oh.

Relax, nothing's changed. Well one thing has. It's possible to control a screaming jet, a cruise liner, even a two year old's temper tantrum but one small thing cannot be controlled. You can try as you will, nothing works. Even a parenthesis ( ), for containment, no help, a hat pin through the heart, nah, a splash of white-away only creates an illusion of control.

To maul shamelessly the words of Baroness Orczy in her classic "The Scarlet Pimpernel", 'They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere; is he in heaven or is he in hell, that damned elusive decimal point!'

There's your culprit; that sinister imp, that impudent little wretch, that damned spot. No mistake about it. Ignore John Maynard Keynes, the entire Austrian School of Economics, even the dread Chicago Gang, they know not what they are talking through their spread-sheets about. They are missing the point. But every lowly merchant in the third world knows about the point, and has one; sort of a family icon. Keeps it always handy. Currency changes; today up-tomorrow down, out from under the apron comes... the magic decimal point. Nothing changes except the point! Life goes on. All is well. No worry.

That's the third world. With us it's different. All in the control, we say. Got the printing press, no problem. We make the money. That's our freakin' point. And so we nod off, get complacent, forget to keep watching that 'damned elusive' decimal point, who cares, until, whoa! it moved. "Did you see that? Did you?". Nobody saw it for sure, but it moved. Not all that far. Just a nudge...to the right.

There it stays. For ages and ages. Is this the new reality? Will it last forever? Wait, did you see something? Oh, no, unless my eyes are getting crossed again, it leaned a little...to the left. Gad! What next?

The Internet / The SoapBox

2010-04-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

We communicate via the web at the sufferance of the system. Because we are no threat, perceived or actual, we are allowed to continue our harmless pursuit. The instant this usage is perceived as a threat to the elite; it ends. So keep on blogging; keep on ranting and raving, keep uttering anything that comes to mind, you are harmless by definition.

The much touted use of the net as a force majestueuse in the recent Presidential contest was pure chimera. If it really threatened to be anywhere near decisive, it would have ceased to be. Make no mistake, a culture that can fight 2 1/2 wars without provocation and with borrowed money, can pull the plug on all we hold sacred in a thrice if sufficiently challenged.

Societies love to be admired as generous and tolerant if the cost is small. The web today is no more than a soapbox was in Hyde Park, or Washington Square in the past. A leather lunged orator could bray to the crowd or to the wind as long as able but only as allowed by elites. Stray for an instant from the permissible and a minion of the law would call you down. And perhaps kick apart the soapbox for good measure. See Google v. China for splintered soapboxes.

So what is different today? Have people become nicer, friendlier, less murderous with the advent of the web? Not noticeably so, maybe a little worse. What is the corpse count by violent death in the couple of decades since Al G. or somebody set all those electrons in motion?

If you seek independence anywhere in web-land remember the Web is all Corporate and Corporate is all Government; ad nauseam.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wuss?

2010-04-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

What the world desperately needs is a concerted effort to demystify the aura of invincibility and the untouchable posturing of Corporations; small and large. Especially the latter; which scare the crap out of damn near everybody. Our perceptions are somewhat garbled as regards the very nature of the Corporate beast.

" Despite not being natural persons, corporations are recognized by the law to have rights and responsibilities like actual people. Corporations can exercise human rights against real individuals and the state, and they may be responsible for human rights violations." Wikipedia.

First of all, Corporate status is granted by a State. Not by a deity. And as such is subject to revocation for cause. So because little old Delaware is the birthplace of many rumbling behemoths and awesome brand names is not to say in time it could not become the equivalent of an corporate elephant graveyard; again, for cause.

But for Corporations to be brought down to size the myths surrounding them must first be downsized. We could start by reminding ourselves that basically we're dealing with just a bunch of guys, yeah and gals too. That's it. A bunch of folks who have managed to convince themselves and the rest of us they are something special and unique on the planet. Bull! It's legalese that created them, protects them and can banish them; always of course, for cause.

"In Oz, a Curtain conceals the wizard... In Corp., a Charter conceals the human." Twitter.

We only learn near the close of the Oz tale of the Wizard, a wizened little man, who has been manipulating reality as his own private game. Much the same is occurring in Corporations as human beings veiled behind 'The Charter' promote personal interests. Though the top brass are the usual objects of scorn, all involved, down to the lowest minions, profit from the illusion of being impregnable.

Even if the Corporate beast is more wuss than wolf, it can still be a formidable entity. This is especially true if not properly house-broken, overfed a diet of hubris and power and allowed a long leash. Properly controlled Corporations can become satisfactory neighbors.

Proper control necessitates removing the 'Person' status granted by a distracted Court generations ago. The recent benediction of the' Supremes' is more of the same nonsense. Personhood without accompanying mortality is a monstrous entity. How wonderful if we actual persons could exist without the probability of a ten-ton truck or nasty plague germ clouding our future prospects. Shouldn't Corporations share the same ultimate risk? They're persons, right?

Mary Shelly's rueful Dr. Frankenstein was compelled to journey to the ends of the Earth seeking to destroy the creature he had endowed with Personhood. Hopefully we will soon do better dealing with our strange new 'persons'.

Nigerian Web Scam or April Fool's Gag?

2010-03-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

A large impressive looking letter was received at our house addressed to Resident so naturally being the resident, we knew it was for us. It looked official enough bearing the message "Your Response Is Required By Law", which is what DMV always says. So we opened it.

It purported to be from the U.S. Census Bureau but the instructions, albeit with less garbled syntax, read like a Nigerian internet scam. The cover letter pleaded with us, keep in mind the date being March 15, 2010 to ..."complete and mail back the enclosed census form today". With pen firmly in hand I consulted the packet enclosed ready to begin as instructed.

Question 1. "How many people were living in this house,...on April 1, 2010?

Four pages later. "Thank you for completing your official 2010 Census form"

Needless to say, not being gifted with fore-sight I put down my pen and put aside the material to await April 1.

Well, a week later a postcard arrived. We knew right off we were the residents being sought out. This was from the big guy himself, Robert M. Grove Director U.S. Census Bureau. The director seemed concerned we hadn't as yet returned the completed survey. He said among other things,"If you have not responded, please provide your information as soon as possible". The card was dated March 22, 2010.

Those Nigerians in DC never give up. Their syntax is much improved but they still believe in occult powers apparently. I wonder if before April 1 arrives we'll get a personal visit wondering why our response is tardy?

Even Paul Craig Roberts Has Given Up

2010-03-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today, his column in the outstanding online political newsletter, CounterPunch, was catalogued with a simple 'Good-bye'. Roberts, after a long career as a journo and in government, apparently gave up trying to caution us as to where we are being inexorably led and wrote in finale,"I am signing off". I use the term 'led 'advisably because it is probable that unconsciously or deliberately the powerful are attempting just that. Ultimately, they are pursuing a foolish course likely to destroy what remains of our way-of-life. Unfortunately, they accomplish this quite easily these days; more so with Roberts silent.

It's baffling to see why this rush to chaos is occurring since if they bring society down the result will not be any more advantageous to the perpetrators than the rest of us. I suspect what is happening is by keeping the power gene pool much too small a kind of mental inbreeding infests the elite particularly as regards ideas having consequences. What may seem a neat idea to an insider group may not play as well in the real world. It may, in fact, backfire and make life just as miserable for the commissars.

Paul Craig Roberts' political and philosophical voice will be missed; indeed, sorely. He has had a distinguished career matched by few others. In addition to having been a Business Week columnist, a former Wall Street Journal editor; he was also Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Until...he dared criticize the establishment at which point the mainstream media deemed him persona non gratis and he was banished off to blogland. The elite cannot abide one of their own getting uppity and spilling the beans, getting anywhere near...the truth. Apostate, begone with ya'!

In Robert's words, "Today I cannot publish in, or appear on, the American “mainstream media.” So after gallantly focusing his long experience, his first hand knowledge, on the shortcomings and venality of what our Nation has become, he is now silent. Perhaps exhausted by preaching solely to a sympathetic and conversant, but wholly powerless audience, he tired of his lonely voice.

Or maybe he realized the internet is simply the modern equivalent of the soapbox and just stepped down.

Note: Sometime after this posting Roberts began publishing again and continues to do so at CounterPunch and elsewhere.

A 'Peculiar Institution' Revisited?

2010-03-20T04:46:00.000-07:00

As we rapidly edge toward the end of a surfeit of cheap and plentiful energy based on the consumption of irreplaceable fossil fuel, a bitter ' historical' reality begins to present itself for our consideration.

For three centuries we have developed a growing dependence on highly concentrated forms of what is basically solar energy, sunlight, to ease our burdens and grow our societies. Before the general use of coal and later, petroleum, we were limited to hydro, wind, firewood and, if the hunting was good, whale oil, to help us. But what formed the basis of our walking around energy usage was horse,and human, muscle power.

Human power, beyond the personal and familial, was augmented by hired help and/or owned help. History is rife with doleful accounts of the later. In fact it was only in the 20th century that chattel slavery was finally abolished worldwide. Legal human slavery existed in the lifetime of a few elderly people still alive today.

How fantastic is a scenario predicated on the gradual lead-up to a condition of want and coercion that would lead one or more societies to consider reverting to that 'peculiar institution'? And if conditions had so deteriorated as to make the unthinkable attractive who would take the first step?

This list shows a few of the principal players in the enslavement of humans in modern society and the year that people were finally freed from such bondage. Judging by the dates, this is really not such ancient history after all.

China 1906

Zanzibar 1897

Brazil 1888

Cuba 1886

U.S. 1865

Russia 1861

Romania 1850

French colonies 1848.
British Colonies 1834

Mexico 1829

England and Scotland 1777

Care to make a guess at the year and the place it all begins again?

Let's All do as the Romans Did...Nothing!

2010-03-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing at all. The Roman Empire slid into the backwater of history without a whimper. Will we, the 'can do' people, the inventors of damn near everything, the flyers to the moon; will we do the same thing? Very likely. Unless things change in a big hurry, a historical backwater is our likely destination,too.

With even a tiny clear glimpse of our future prospects America could wake out of it's trance and begin to prepare. Slowly, very slowly, in all probability. Committees, of course, endless committees, but that's okay. As long as they are realistic and not simply bent on returning to what cannot be sustained any longer. Hopefully the message that emerges from all this collective wisdom will be...

Stop! Stop everything!

We're broke. We're losing irreplaceable energy supplies rapidly. We're despised globally for bringing it all down on everybody's head by sheer hubris, endless war, and willful interference on a massive, Roman like, scale for a century or so. It's up to us, alone, if we intend to survive as a viable entity.

Where to start? Sensible priorities might help. The time has come for National Triage. It can't all be saved. So what's important? Food, clothing, shelter, fuel and transportation. What? That old stuff? Yep, exactly. That's were it's at.

Well, we can handle all that, we already do. Sure, but on credit, yours, mine and the government's; at the sufferance of others. Those days are ending rapidly. As a debtor nation and debtor society the barbarians can arrive at the gates any day in the form of creditors demanding payback. On that day it's all over. Backwater time for sure.

How do we keep those hordes at bay? Maybe by living for the future for a change. The future to a farmer means planting now for harvest later. It doesn't mean waiting by the dock for dinner to arrive from farmers thousands of miles away. It also means less crop planting dedicated to cow and hog (and automobile) gullets while planting more stuff that goes straight to human nourishment.

The future also would appreciate us saving a little something prior to its arrival. Like fossil fuel? If we made our own jeans, bath towels, footwear, etc.etc. ourselves (we did once, remember?) we could save a little petro for the future. Might come in handy, who knows? We could use what we manage to save now to keep the lights on, the food cold and the house warm, down the road. And put a little aside to carry us comfortably around instead of needing to walk everywhere.

But I have my car, you say. Sorry. It didn't make the cut. Fortunately we had the foresight to provide a world class public transportation network that provides trains, trolleys and busses everywhere imaginable. The future is secure. Empire is no more but the country continues onward; sort of.

If we don't make the call and plan ahead; if we continue with the nonsense that it's going to be alright, that somebody will come up with a fix, fuggedabout us. Backwater! Freezing in the dark and puzzled along with the rest of the Western world. The East? Well, what happened the last time it all fell apart in the West?

After the Deluge: One Nation Divisable

2010-03-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

A doomsday global warming scenario such as is being wafted about currently
would forever change the parameters of our country if accurate. With predictions of a sea rise of up to 15 meters we could expect to find ALL of our coastal habitations and a great many interior areas that adjoin rivers rendered uninhabitable.

If a significant area of the Greenland Ice Sheet or the Antarctic Ice Cap were to dislodge into the sea the rise of sea level would be catastrophic. In addition to the necessity of millions to seek higher ground almost all of our refineries, fuel storage, power transmission facilities and seaports, would be lost. A way of life would vanish permanently.

This is what we have long considered a familiar and comfortable picture of our homeland, from sea to shining sea.:

With all of our coastline and the Mississippi River Basin uninhabitable or only marginally livable we would have to be content with the landlocked or higher altitude areas shown below. The new United States of America would be united by boat only, except Hawaii, which would no longer exist.

USA West USA East

maps by Google

With access to portable fossil fuels, petroleum and natural gas, and, of course, living space, gone with the waves, countless displaced denizens of the former continent- sized nation will roam about seeking residence and succor. Relocation of the seats of power and culture will be of primary importance only to the suddenly displaced elites.

Our candidate for the site of the de facto US government in exile is chosen because of its reasonably secure location. If the Treasury Dept. is underwater and the Fed. gone forever, no way will exist to maintain security except by, eureka, ...the Mormons! A glance at 19th century history will remind the elites that only the Latter Day Saints can provide the muscle and will to keep the hordes out of Deseret, the future US Capitol city.

Without fuel our car culture era will be over and the hot new industry will be horse and mule breeding and training. These activities have been, of course, long abandoned generally except by a certain few, among these the horse-and-buggy Amish, who will be the men-of-the hour.

Post deluge, the new US Capitol site could well be Salt Lake City, Utah, where militant Mormons will protect and nourish gentle Amish farmers and keep out undesirables:

photos by Panoramio by howstuffworks.com

by InsideCatholic.com

OK, Government is now ensconced in the former Beehive State ( which it might come to resemble despite all efforts). Since culture and power were never known to exist together in the 'old" Federal District, we will separate them now in advance of the need. The question asked is:

Denver, Colorado. Is the 'mile high city' destined to become the new Big Apple?

photos by Panoramio

Note: The railroad platform shown deserted above is expected to remain this way in our brave new, but necessarily Spartan, center of high culture.

Note: In the event the sudden onrush of fresh water released by the icecap melt is sufficient to stifle the flow of either or both the Gulf Stream and Japan Current the above choices are withdrawn. If this occurs the ice age sure to follow necessitates moving both centers much further South.

The State of Zacatecas, Mexico has been suggested. Any further recommendations?

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Heat, Mr. President, but not from fission

2010-02-25T05:35:00.000-08:00

If the President can separate himself from the influence of his Exelon connected advisors he would do well to consider spending that $8.33 billion loan guarantee on greener and immensely safer technology than nuclear facilities.

Why is he even contemplating this action considering that nukes are so risky no insurance company will cover them; that they generate huge amounts of toxic waste no technology can safely store, and that they have caused 950,00 additional cancer deaths since the Chernobyl debacle?

A better use for these funds exists that offers safety and a much greener approach to helping with our energy needs. This technology has been shunted aside by the power industry until now.

A heat exchanger is a device built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another. The medium may be separated by a solid wall, so that they never mix, or they may be in direct contact.
Wikipedia.

The following by the CEO of one of Britain's leading energy producers is instructive:

"At the moment the area where we waste the most energy is in heat," he said. "We waste more heat from power stations than we use in our buildings."Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).Dr David Clarke, chief executive of ET.

As is this article:

If You Can’t Stand the Heat….Capture It!
By Atlanta Fifty Forward

"When power plants generate electricity, a lot of heat simply goes up the chimney, so to speak. Estimates are that for every three units of fuel — like coal, natural gas or oil — that are burned to make electricity, two are lost in the process, most of it as waste heat that just drifts away. Likewise, many manufacturing operations such as steel mills produce waste heat.

Ten years ago, an Indiana steel mill began capturing heat above its coke ovens to make electricity. That operation, along with other energy recycling processes employed at the plant, creates about 250 megawatts of power every day, about half of the plant’s needs for electricity. In the process, the company says it has reduced CO2 emissions by 1.3 million tons a year.
What would happen if more companies and electric utilities captured heat and used it to make electricity? It’s a common practice in Europe. Denmark generates close to 55 percent of its electricity this way. In the Netherlands and Finland, the figure is closer to 40 percent, and in Germany it is 35 percent. But, energy recycling in the U.S. accounts for only 8 percent of the nation’s electrical power, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Recent EPA and Department of Energy studies suggest U.S. industries waste enough heat to generate an estimated 200,000 megawatts of power — nearly 20 percent of what this nation uses. That’s enough electricity to replace up to 400 coal-fired power plants.
So what’s the problem?
State and federal laws often prohibit companies like the Indiana steel mill from selling excess power, and few electric utilities have chosen to install energy recycling equipment at older power plants because under New Source Review, they will then be subject to newer, stricter environmental regulations.
We recycle beverage cans. Wouldn’t it make even more sense to recycle energy, to use the waste heat that goes up the chimney to produce electricity and, in the process, save millions of tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere?"

The day of protecting power companies from competition must end soon and laws prohibiting industry from selling off excess power should be repealed. Newer and stricter environmental regs. may be necessary to require power companies to recycle their own waste heat energy. If the government has money to invest, put it where it can do the least harm...not where the risk is greatest. A risk that only increases for countless generations into the future. Nukes of any kind are a risky and short-sighted legacy and should not be encouraged.

Nukes=No Future

2010-02-16T14:09:00.001-08:00

Nukes = No Future
At least after the old Romans packed it in and left the field our hapless ancestors had a pretty good chance of surviving. Granted things were not great for a while, say 500 years. But on the bright side. The old boys left some decent roads (nobody had anything much that rolled on wheels but at least they had a dry place to walk the goats) and if they were in need of some stones for refurbishing the hut or to lob at a foe, well, lots of that by quarrying out the old arenas.If there was any knowledge of hydraulics left behind, plenty of good watercourses were still standing. (They stand to this day!)So most of the abandoned technology was useful or at least benign.Not so with our detritus.

When the current experiment in modern living goes the way of the Maya, the Pharaohs and the rest of those benighted souls our rubbish will kill the folks dead. The more odiferous ruins will be avoided instinctively; the chemical plants, refineries and that foul smelling ilk. Distance will provide a buffer they can live with. Trial and error should teach the folks to avoid most of the obvious ordnance middens over time.

What worries me to distraction is the tens of thousand of nuclear devices and applications which will surely be abandoned when the Homer Simpsons of the future leave off ministering as the tide rises and the sun sets on our way of life. For without the expertise and TLC of the Homers all the nukes will someday go fizz

.If you happen at the time to live in a small island place like say, Japan, you will have no chance at all (About one nuke site about every couple of miles, is it?). Even a larger area, France maybe, better mend fences with the neighbors because that is where they will all be living when les nukes go les critical. The folks won't even know what's hitting them.So if we want to do the kids' kids' kids a big favor we will stop building any more of the bloody things

. At the first hint of a general systemic failure in technical sustainability, we must spend whatever it takes to dismantle, decommission and stash away as best we know how every single nuclear machine on the planet. Nothing less will even begin to redeem the lack of foresight in a reckless, feckless tribe like ours.

Is Mankind Worth Saving?

2010-02-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

The easy answer from the POV of the Planet Earth and all the other non-human inhabitants therein is a resounding, HELL NO! That would probably be the answer from the nearer portions of our solar system if able to respond. But we won't accept the easy answer. No indeed, that would be unfair. But ridding itself of the planet's single most diabolical scourge would have immediate healing effect upon all of Earth's systems and foster relief to its sundry other occupants. True, but we won't write off the species so easily. We will instead search diligently for redeeming qualities, from a planetary view point, of course.

Scanning...

Still scanning...

A hit!
**Good intentions offered in defense...rejected.

Scanning resumed..

Another hit!
**Chosen status and great piety declared as defense...rejected.

Scanning again (ever smaller potential for finding redeeming qualities anticipated)...

Hit!
** We make a lot of really great things...rejected.

Hit!
**Many very nice people live here...rejected. ' Very nice individuals' is not a species.

Scanning halted... History lesson.
A. Corpse count. 20th century. Violent human deaths. 250,000,000.
B. Extinction of neighboring species, human caused. Thousands, growing daily.
C. Irreparable damage to planet's substance. Ongoing.
D. Loss of estrus is no excuse for littering every inch of the planet with your
spawn.
E. Attempting to colonize space, bad idea. Look what happened here on Earth.

Scanning not resumed...

No remaining valid arguments for retaining human occupancy on planet Earth. Species deemed uneducable, hubris ridden, bloody minded. Danger to all life if
permitted to exist. Species is canceled. Extinction recommended.

SPECIAL NOTICE: APPEALS accepted up to, but not following, the next outrage perpetrated against the planet by that aforementioned species/or until extinction; whichever comes first.

signed: GAIA

Cain v. Abel: A Chronicle of the First Holocaust?

2010-02-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

Racial memory can be vague and often skewed to reflect current attitudes or premises but ultimately its essence will not be denied. Many versions of this ancient saga of the brothers have appeared in the past and continue to this day. Most of the better known early versions such as in Genesis and the Koran agree on a few salient points. Cain was an agronomist and Abel an animal herder. They had sisters and the same mother and father. Cain slew Abel, married his sister and became an outcast. Considering the size of the remaining family we must also assume Cain becoming the father of a sizable portion of mankind.

The dominant archetype has been long been fratricide but a close follower is the conflict between agriculturists and herdsmen. A dispute over women also presents in several of the myths. This tale and its often repeated versions make it second only to the Adam and Eve myth among the revealed religions' earliest memories. The symbolism is clear enough regardless of the particular back stories. Evil has been done and good is the victim.

Assuming Cain, victorious, and the progenitor of most (all?) of mankind, does that not narrow human history unduly if these few archetypes are taken as the entire story? This devotes a lot of psychic or mystical energy in what is in effect an historical bottleneck. Usually when the mythology constricts the reality this severely, the real story has been fudged; the underlying reality too awesome to examine closer. After all, if one of only two brothers known to exist, has slain the other, this is most assuredly symbolic memory of some monstrous past event.

What may be hidden behind this small told tale of a truly dysfunctional family (and the first family, at that!) is what may have been the first Holocaust...genocide of epic proportions. The ancient recorders of this sad tale perhaps tapped into racial memories that did indeed include fratricide, male rivalry for females and conflict over territory but of a scope and duration occurring over an unimaginable span of time and resulting in an entire population having been totally annihilated.

At the onset, our own ancestors moved into the middle east from earlier homelands and encountered another group who had been established there for ages. There is no way of being certain where the two groups first met, perhaps in the Sinai, probably in the area of present day Israel. Also unknown are the results of these early meetings. Much can be deduced from the ultimate outcome of this intrusion by our group into the domain of these first inhabitants. The outcome was very likely omnicide that led in time to the total extinction of those inhabitants.

We weren't there and the evidence doesn't exist which would prove this theory conclusively. But knowledge of our violent history makes a fairly convincing case that the mythology prompting the tale of Cain and Abel reflects a tribal memory of a great wrong done an entire 'people' of which Abel is but symbolic. The term, people, is advised even though we are referring to an extinct species whose presence is known to us only through paleontology. But exist they did, and for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of our kind.

Evidence establishes their suzerainty over all of Europe from Germany to Gibralter and as far East as Afganistan and south to Israel as noted. They had occupied this vast territory for 150 thousand years before the newcomers began to intrude. When the newcomers appeared on the scene the inhabitants began to retreat. This was a slow process by modern standards but it happened so relentlessly that in thirty thousand years the inhabitants were pushed to the brink of/and over into, extinction.

They might have been our cousins although this is not necessarily the case. But they, Homo neanderthalensis , the Neanderthals, did share 99.5% of DNA with us, Cro-Magnon, A.K.A. modern man. How different were we? More to the point, how alike?
They; big brained, tool users, hunters of big game, and judging from grave sites, aware of human mortality.

A recurring theme in the Cain and Abel myth found in the Koran and in Armenian, Polish and Turkish tales, is the presence of a black bird. After the slaying a raven, symbol of darkness, sinister but wise in folklore, demonstrates how to dig a grave for Abel. A metaphor for Neanderthal practices observed by our ancestors, scorned at the time but later adopted. Perhaps? Included in the legend often enough to have credence is the Palestinian fable in which the raven also instructs Cain how to kill using a stone to crush Abel's skull.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
" The little bird was still very young and could not fly. The fall killed it. Adam and Eve looked at the dead bird and saw that it was a raven. Soon the old raven flew by, and when he saw that his young one was dead, he scratched a hole in the ground with his feet, and laid it inside. Then he scratched the hole full and flew away. Adam and Eve observed all this and followed the raven's example. They made a hole in the earth, laid Abel's corpse in it, and covered it with earth. This was the first human grave."
The First Grave
Source: Otto Knoop, "Das erste Grab," Ostmärkische Sagen, Märchen und Erzählungen (Lissa: Oskar Eulitz' Verlag, 1909), no. 73, p. 149. Translated by D. L. Ashliman. © 2000.
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Neanderthal: Often regarded as an historical footnote when hagiographers recite the ascent of mankind. Much has been learned about these early inhabitants of the Eurasian invirons that would have not been known to the early scribes. What they did portray in the Cain and Abel tale may have been a racial memory of Neanderthal and what was done to him by our ancestors. Perhaps early man could not abide the competition Neanderthal represented as another aware creature who would be entitled to share the planet's treasures. Our tribe has great difficulty in tolerating competition. This propensity may have caused the total demise of an equally aware species that became the nagging specter of the first mass murder of innocents-the genocide- that inspired the story of Cain and Abel.

Where Have All the People Gone?

2010-02-04T07:55:00.000-08:00

The cousins were singularly adventurous. They ventured where none of their kind had been known to roam before and made it their own. Despite incredibly severe climate change and the presence of dangerous beasts, they prevailed. For as much as 150,000 years, they owned the territory. As far south and east as modern day Israel, to the edge of the Himalayas and on up to Ukraine; this marked the most eastward boundary of their suzerainty. All of Europe from Germany to Gibraltar knew their presence.

The cousins were fierce hunters stalking mammoth as readily as great bison and bear. On the coasts seafood may have helped round out the diet and they gathered in whatever other bounty they encountered. The evidence from grave sites indicated they were well aware of human mortality and honored their dead. These were big brain, aware individuals who were strong and agile, made tools and had mastered fire. Technically they are called Homo neanderthalensis but we will use the family name, Neanderthal. Of course, technically again, they were not really cousins but...with 99. 5 % identical DNA, they were almost the kissin' kind.

So what happened to them? Where are they now? Aha! About 60 thousand years ago, they had some unexpected and uninvited company. At first the visitors were small in numbers and there is even evidence that in several sites in the vicinity of Qafzeh Cave in Israel, the same area was inhabited by the cousins and the visitors alternately. But that was early on. Like Europeans to the New World; the visitors just kept on acoming.

These visitors from Out of Africa are called homo sapiens, Cro-Magnon, modern humans or finally...just plain, us. We, or rather, our ancient ancestors were the visitors. Over the next thirty or forty thousand years Neanderthals were pushed further and further from their homelands into remote enclaves and finally about 24 thousand years ago, into extinction. All gone, en toto.

The dramatic impact of the arrival of "modern man" is shown in the following maps.
The first panel shows the range of Neanderthal when Cro-Magnon left Africa, crossing the Sinai about 60 thousand years ago. The light gray area denotes Neanderthal occupation and subsequent panels trace their removal as the rather ominous dark gray metastases. The numbers represent the passage of Cro-Magnon generations. The fifth and next to last panel shows the remaining tiny enclaves in Iberia and elsewhere prior to the last panel showing they had been rendered extinct.

by Currat, Mathias; Excoffier, Laurent (December 2004

Now why and how this happened is subject to much theory consisting primarily in repetition of the same reasoning. As in:
"Neanderthals appear to have had psychological traits that worked well in their early history but finally placed them at a long-term disadvantage with regards to modern humans. Neanderthal mind was sufficiently different from that of Homo sapiens to have been "alien" in the sense of thinking differently from that of modern humans, despite the obvious fact that Neanderthals were highly intelligent, with a brain as large or larger than our own. This theory is supported by what Neanderthals possessed, and just as importantly, by what they lacked, in cultural attributes and manufactured artifacts. Essentially, the Neanderthals lost out because their behaviors and tools eventually became second rate." As weather worsened about 30,000 years ago, it would have taken only one or two thousand years of inferior Neanderthal skills to cause them to go extinct, in light of better Cro-Magnon performance in all these areas."
Jordan, P. (2001) Neanderthal: Neanderthal Man and the Story of Human Origins. The History Press

Hagiography showing Cro-Magnon superiority to Neanderthals appears almost universal so this will be left to others to perpetuate. This is quite understandable as partisanship, but is suspect as good science because these theories tend to overlook or ignore what we do know of human beings. To attempt to understand what befell Neanderthal without consulting our own recorded history is specious if not futile. Mankind has an unbroken record of mayhem and slaughter by all known accounts.

To attribute the demise of the Neanderthal populations to their own failures and shortcomings is disingenuous in the extreme. Comparisions of maps of surviving populations of indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere would show vast areas totally denuded of original inhabitants. Maps would show the remainders shoved into obscure regions where they had been driven by aggressors beginning in the fifteenth century.

We are an intolerant species who cannot brook competition in any form and will main or slay all who intrude. This has been demonstrated time and again throughout our past and continues to this day. Any notion of fairplay or leeway having been extended to our Neanderthal cousins is unwarranted. Without much doubt, we caused their demise. To view our ancient predecessors as simple cavemen or bucolic Troglodytes flatters the memory of what we were and what we still remain: the Murder Apes.

Don't Rally 'round the Bogus Flag, Boys

2010-01-30T16:50:00.000-08:00

During a recent altercation among teens in Sarasota, Fl. a young white boy who was displaying an alleged Confederate flag was shot and wounded by a black youth who took offense at this. The use of the word alleged is accurate because the flag at issue is a creation of the 20th century and was not a product of the Confederacy despite its current widespread useage.

This "Confederate Flag" is a 20th Century invention combining the actual Battle Flag's colors with a Confederate Navy Jack.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This flag with the Stars and Bars was flown over the first Capitol of the Confederacy on March 4, 1861.

Why is a 20th century artifice being used to invoke a 19th century historical event? If the intent is to honor the memory of the sacrifices endured back then, why is the symbol chosen a bogus Battle Flag and not an actual Confederate banner? Many consider such usage inflammatory and since several genuine alternatives exist perhaps another choice should be considered.

Symbolism often is a substitute for reality or to mask actual intention. But symbols are powerful shortcuts in conveying emotions and values. Compare the effect on a ship at sea during the 18th century viewing an approaching ship flying this banner

1707 Royal Navy White Ensign

or this one. The Jolly Roger!

Both flags were flown separately, or at times, simultaneously by the notorious pirate known as Edward England. Having lured his victims in close by the waving of the bogus Royal Navy flag; the running up of the skull and crossbones then signaled his true intent. Born Edward Seegar, in Ireland, England was marooned with two others when his crew mutinied and he died in Madagascar in 1720.

The symbol of the Jolly Roger is alive and well, however. On a bottle of poison or the prow of a vessel prowling the seas around Somalia looking for prey, the symbol lives on, its power intact.

These symbols, many of them q uite ancient, have been reduced to obscurity and redundancy

by this one!

Sam, Sam, Wake up Sam!

2010-01-29T05:58:00.000-08:00

Promptly at 4 PM on April 9 ,1865 at Appomattox Courthouse the bucolic American Giant, known fondly as Sam, went for a short nap that lasted for 136 years. After four long years preserving the Union, Sam needed a rest. He stretched out across the countryside with his head among the old original colonies; his rump placed conveniently at the headwaters of the Mississippi (for the drainage you see, clever Giant), and his legs sprawled westward ho! across the prairies with his heels planted in L.A. and toes dangling almost to the Mexico line.

Sam, like Gulliver before him, is plagued with Lilliputians but these cheeky, diminutive pests are known here as the 'Minions. While Sam nods off, these Minions wreak havoc in his name. They are always careful to do their mischief abroad so as not to awaken the Giant. And mischief it is. Greedy little buggers, these Minions, can't seem to get enough little island getaways around the globe. Been collecting them since the War with Spain. And power hungry!; those nettlesome gits have been showing the flag around the world for two hundred years. What started in Tripoli on tiny warships has metastasized to hundreds upon hundreds of flagposts everywhere on Earth.

All things end and so did the export of mischief abroad. Abruptly. Our sleeping beauty was jarred out of almost a century and a half of slumber by a frightful racket under his left year. Sam had been using Central Park as a pillow for ages but on September 11, 2001 he was rudely awakened by the noise and smoke. The trusty Minions rushed to assure him all was well.
"Go back to sleep, Sam", the Minions cooed. "We can handle it. We have ways". Sam should have stayed awake but old habits, and all that. No sooner had the old guy dozed off again; the bombing and invasions began in earnest.

It's starting the tenth year now. Sam's still out cold. The Minions are running amok.
The place is a mess. Everybody hates the Minions and the country is broke from their excesses. What will it take to rouse him from his slumber and begin to take charge again? Sam, Sam, Wake up Sam!

What Ails China...?

2010-01-21T04:21:00.000-08:00

Or...take off those funny hats, the party's over.

China anticipates having a surplus of millions of single men unable to find women because of the imbalance caused by gender preference. Fifty years of a one child per family policy has produced a bumper crop of...testosterone.
Good luck with that.

It's a fifties rerun in the Middle Kingdom and the cruisin' has begun. Picture this scene out of "Chinese Graffiti" where forty million single dudes in spanking new SUVs cruise endlessly trying to pick-up, get this, NO chicks! Now that they produce more cars than the US the bumper stickers could shout, "What's Good for Great Wall Motors is Good for China!".

The menu may soon include, after a too many Saturday nights of striking-out, a midnight road trip to Macao or maybe Hanoi, wherever joy, or at least, relief, may be freely purchased. "Donkey Show" to follow! Sensing the regime's Confucian bent, and allergy to civil unrest, it may soon send observers to Nevada to see first hand how "Bunny Ranches" can be made to flourish in the Gobi Desert.

All in all, the old guys who run things in Beijing should look around the world, especially here, to see where all this 'progress' might lead. Instead of benefiting from seeing where we stumbled they seem determined to end up the same way, broke and confused. Nobody ever learns, it's our charm as a species and may bury us yet.

Our Future, if there is one, is Female

2009-12-24T07:10:00.000-08:00

Much of the developed world seems to be echoing the words of the irrepressible Kelly McGillis, "I'm done with the man thing." All over the place women, young women, are girding their loins, so to speak, and not beating about the bush. The wonders revealed by Gillette Atra(R) and Brazilian Body Waxing are out front and in your face. They say, " We're bold and we're beautiful, boys and girls. Take a good look, people, this is it; the mystery is over. Everything else may be a mess but not us. We listened to you, and where did it get us? Eros is our avatar now." It all started after the last ice age. The hunters hunted and the gatherers gathered. Then the gatherers became diggers and, eureka!, agriculture. This was the real deal: civilization. Not the hobby-shop, toy and gadget world the now underemployed hunter bunch dreamed up. No this was what made it all happen. Full bellies and some leisure time courtesy of the femmes. But the gals let their lead slip away and the hobby-shop became the world.

Not this time. Oh, no. With the coming ice age the ladies will not let it happen again.
Ice age? Are you nuts? It's G.W., remember? Everybody went to Scandinavia and froze their butts to argue about Global Warming. Right. But that's the warm up bout, the preliminary, the main event is to follow: Ice Age. Bundle up, folks.

What's all this got to do with Kelly McGillis and girding of loins, anyhow? Just that the boys (and men) are stuck in a time warp, and the girls know it. And they won't stay in their shadows any longer. When was the last time you saw any young women wearing the scare-crow, clown costumed, little-boy-lost look, the guys are sporting these days? The last time the girls dressed to look like the guys was during the 60's. Remember? Patched jeans, hairy legs, no war paint, kinda scruffy and slightly venereal. Big mistake. Not gonna happen today. Not with these gals. Let the guys look weird, that's their trip.

So what kind of a future will they make for us, these modern gals? What it won't be is the hobby-shop, gadget and garage-band world, the guy's world, it has been for generations. It will, early on, revert to the most basic of basics, growing stuff to eat, big time. And recycling the gadgets and gee-gaws; eternally recycling for employment. The ladies just trying their best to keep the babies warm and healthy. All the while finding and setting priorities, including the amatory arrangements. If it doesn't appear to make sense unto the seventh generation it don't git done! And that's not negotiable, pal.

Your Kid is a Deviant

2009-12-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's true. The little muckers have grown up to be with few exceptions, deviants; they may even classify as criminals! "What's this", you exclaim indignantly. "Not my kid."

Well, let's check it out. Deviant behavior: departing from some accepted standard of what is normal. Whoa! That's not fair. Fair or not, that's the definition of deviant. Shall we look at some examples?

School: Cheating; and financing it too, no less!. We're not talking about grade school or even high school where attendance is mandatory and subject to the weight of law and therefore cheating conceivably could be seen as an act of defiance of authority. No, cheating at college level. Very common, very strange. To willingly pay for something, maybe even for years afterward(student loans),and then to corrupt the purchase, elective education, by cribbing and not really learning. FAIL! And a process done without (usually, hopefully) parental or societal guidance or approbation. Verdict: Deviant.

Music: Gangsta rap! Enjoyed while costumed to resemble an inmate of State Prison and employing graffiti as hieroglyphics. Celebration through hip-hop of every known antisocial action and many that are only imagined as yet. Most of the content of the lyrics fly well under the radar of the squares and are unknown and invisible to the larger society.But at least break dancing is not disco, yeah! Verdict: Deviant.

With me so far? Okay, on to a biggie.

Sex: Where to start? Certainly not with the 60's toddler steps known as The Sexual Revolution. That 'Revolution' is as much 'today' as is the Roaring Twenties. FAIL! No, these kids are writing a new text on sex. Almost universal participation. Not a cult phenomenon like the last one, limited to hip participants who consciously strove for
shucking of middle class values. No, these are the middle class kids next door and upstairs. They are totally pixelated. In the way some primitives think cameras steal souls, pixelated kiddies think cameras steal reality. Not one in a hundred teens or young adults seems aware or concerned that posting intimate peeks at private stuff can become a personal liability later on in life. That others, not like minded, or being entrusted with enforcing morality or legality, can make life miserable.

The youth culture is so co-opted by viewing and being viewed by peers that only more and bolder counts. Since little is left unexplored in the eros zone the competition for novelty is strong. A passing observer (sic) is advised to wear a wet suit and stay upwind of the action. How Jane or Jill can ever be convinced that it is really okay to say no, even once in a while, is problematic. What inducement can be offered to any modern youngster to someday enter a monogamous long time situation is also problematic. But despite the fact that celebrity trumps all today, kids must learn that notoriety is still not celebrity and smutty pix are still smut and not art. Verdict: Deviant.

Young people are more often than not convinced of personal immortality. This is cool. It keeps military barracks and prison cells maxed out and hospital ER's busy late at night. It requires high schools to have baby sitters available. It's difficult to see how society expects to reconcile deviant behaviors that don't meet its approval but are widespread and pervasive with the norms expected and required.

We know what the 60's behavior led to (no, not Disco); societal backlash. Heaven knows what the next tsunami of repression will resemble. The local Taliban may be gathering scourges and goads for future use and gleefully awaiting their employment.

Launch It or Lump It

2009-12-11T04:56:00.000-08:00

YOU are to decide the fate of mankind. Or at least predict which of the world's players would set off Armageddon if threatened with annihilation. The Premise:

The antagonists are equally armed with atomic weapons and delivery systems. An adversary has launched a deadly missile salvo ensuring total destruction. The dilemma:

If you retaliate the aggressor will be destroyed but his allies will all participate and the planet is toast. If you don't retaliate the aggressor survives, you are toast but life goes on.

YOUR TASK is to predict from the following which nations would forego retaliation to save the rest of mankind. Based on past performance one prediction has been made.
You do the rest.

The List:

Russia launches...US receives...Retaliation ?... Yes.X.. No...

US launches ... Russia receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

Iran launches...Israel receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

Israel launches...Iran receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

China launches...Tibet receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

Tibet launches...China receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

Japan launches...China receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

China launches...Japan receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

India launches...Pakistan receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

Pakistan launches...India receives...Retaliation?... Yes... No...

Okay. You have the scorecard. These are the players. All of humanity awaits your
decisions. Go!

Europe: DNA Cul-de-sac?

2009-12-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

Or: What's with all these white people?

In tracing the route of humans leaving the ancestral home in Africa scientists have decided that aboriginal Australia was the south easternmost terminus for migration.
It was simply impossible to go much further. That indigenous population has provided a strong genetic marker showing unbroken links back to the home population in southern Africa. In a sense this renders Australia a genetic cul-de sac.

Is this not true of Europe as well? Human populations, with an Eastward valance, occupied and settled all of Asia and, much later, North and South America. Others of this identical population drifted westward to occupy Europe. Over the course of thousands of years these folks in the wild,wild west beyond the Ural mountains just stayed put and somehow... got whiter.

Nowhere else did this profound pigmental erasure occur, so what's up with that? How come that group got white while the rest of mankind kept its dusky hues? I suggest there was a specific and lengthy selection process set in motion tens of thousands of years ago. But why, you ask? Why would a people deliberately set out, and largely succeed, in becoming white? Albino envy perhaps? Albino reverence maybe? Albino congress, could be. Wikipedia: Albinism is hereditary;... Most forms of albinism are the result of the biological inheritance of genetically recessive genes passed from both parents of an individual, though some rare forms are inherited from only one parent. There are other genetic mutations which are proven to be associated with albinism

Albinism, which historically has evoked alarm, fear or loathing may at one time in the deep past have caused awe and envy sufficient to launch a cult of admirers. History is rife with equally dumb things having been done. If so, this could explain a unique population of blue-eyed, or at least light-eyed, flaxen-haired gits with a conspicuous all-over pallor.

If we go to the texts we will be treated to a variety of solemn declarations for how some people got to be white and others didn't. Wikipedia: Lighter skin colors may have been advantageous at higher latitudes since they allow greater penetration of the sun's UV radiation, a requirement for vitamin D synthesis. This may have led to selection for lightly pigmented skin...human eye is quite large and thus produces enough pigment to lend opacity to the eye, often colouring the iris pale blue

So why didn't far eastern populations living even further north, above the Arctic Circle in fact, for as about as long as Europeans, turn white,too? None of the popular assumptions regarding pigmentation appear to tell the story. So we'll go with the favoring and selection of albinism until convinced otherwise. Visualize the folks holed up in their sheltering caves with those of the albino persuasion: troglodyte true believers patiently breeding away their dark hued heritage one night at a time.

Whiteness, as such, remained a regional quirk until one day it was unleashed upon the rest of the world. Under the Ostrogoths,Crusaders, Explorers and Conquistadors brown people felt the sword; as happens to this day whenever darker skin is encountered. All in all, that white skin was perfect for stripping naked, painting your self blue and going on the warpath. Still is.

(Authors Note) Recent DNA findings by paleogeneticists has presented new evidence regarding the ancestry of our species. See "Neanderthal: the First Caucasian?"
http://noabominoidshere.blogspot.com/2010/05/neanderthal-first-caucasian.html
for an update. Robert Magill, Sarasota, FL

English: A Timorous Language, Late to Develop

2009-12-07T07:58:00.000-08:00

It doesn't matter if the text is great, soaring literature, simple descriptive prose or erotic pleading; English is a language lacking many vital words. It is impossible, at times, to write a simple declarative sentence without one of these supportive devices:
A. Slangy, street talk
B. Some old pagan linguist guy
C. Hieroglyphics
...because the English words simply don't exist. Haven't been invented to this day! This is what happens when we attempt to use English as our venue.

A. From Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth

"What I'm saying, Doctor, is that I don't seem to stick my (thing we have no English word for yet) up these girls, as much as I stick it up their backgrounds – as though through (action we have no English word for yet) I will discover America." .... "Enough being a nice Jewish boy, publicly pleasing my parents while privately pulling my (thing we have no English word for yet)!" cried Portnoy from his analyst's couch.

OR

B. From Thesaurus

Noun 1. (action we have no English word for yet) - the act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman; the man's (thing we have no English word for yet) is inserted into the woman's(thing we have no English word for yet) and excited until orgasm and ejaculation occur.

OR

C. /%&*@^$#~!!

So you see, that's the deal. It matters little if your desired usage of certain words is lofty or lesser, they don't exist in our language and we must go elsewhere. You might think after all these centuries the words would have been invented. After all, the old pagan linguist guys did it; made up the words they needed. What's wrong here? Are we English speakers so prissy, so timid, we fear to create the words we lack?

And don't tell me the words are still couched in Latin so the professions can dialogue accurately. That's nonsense. My doctor speaks perfectly good English until he, too, runs out of English words.
You can pilot a jet into any airport on Earth using the English language but you can't (action we have no English word for yet) until the last (thing we have no English word for yet) is too
big to (action we have no English word for yet) !