Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Remembering the Goal 

One of the quotes you're likely to hear when doing your training for your pilot's License is

"It's better to be on the ground, wishing you were in the air, then in air, wishing you were on the ground."

Basically they're saying if there is a chance you're going to run into really piss poor weather, you should probably just stay on the ground. Most commercial airplanes can fly in almost any sort of weather. Modern airliners are equipped with radar to steer them away from storms, devices to help them rid the airplane of ice, and all sorts of instruments and amazing toys to help the crew navigate without reference to the ground. However, many smaller airplanes like the popular Cessna 172 are much more limited in regards to the weather they can fly in. Even if the aircraft is capable, the pilot requires training and a Transport Canada ride to fly on instruments alone.

Many pilots are very mission oriented. Whenever we leave an airport, we have a place where we are to arrive and do everything we can to get there. However, when flying around in smaller airplanes, navigating by reference to the ground, mother nature can really have a way of making a fool of the best laid plans. Each time I've run into weather it's a different scenario and just how far I went was based on a number of things including how well I know the area, what kind of weather I expected @ the destination, and what lies in between. There have been a number of times where I've had to turn around and head back to the airport of departure due to poor weather. One of my very first trips as a commercial pilot was to Oxford House, where I took some Manitoba Hydro personnel to do some repairs. On the return trip back to Thompson we ran into some very low cloud that forced me to turn around back to Oxford House. The Hydro guys were able catch a sched flight back to Thompson in an aircraft capable of the weather. I ended up spending the night at Oxford House General Store and not making it back to Thompson the next day.

There have also been times when I've had to divert to other airports off the route. Pikwitonei was my favorite airport for this as it is only 26 miles from Thompson and when the weather picked up it was a quick trip.

In aviation, such diversion are inevitable. As a pilot I hate telling passengers I can't get them to their destination today, but I would much rather that then scare the crap out of them or put a smoking hole in the ground. The ultimate diversion though would be land the aircraft off airport. I can only think of one time when I felt the weather was deteriorating @ such a rate that I was looking for fields and straight stretches of road on the ground to land the plane (I wasn't actually flying, somebody else was). Lucky for me an airport was nearby and the person flying elected to land there. As the pilot, it must be a hard decision to make when you're faced with putting it down on a highway somewhere. However, although forecasters do a pretty good job with letting us know what to expect when we're flying, sometimes mother nature can catch you off guard and you're forced to make difficult decisions. On Monday, just outside of Hope, BC, near Manning Park, a pilot training for his commercial license did the right thing when he put his 172, with two passengers, down on BC Highway #3. Ultimately, our goal as pilots is to get everyone on the ground safely (if we're having a good day, the plane still might be flyable as well :)) I commend the pilot involved with this incident, and I hope he does well with his career. - Lost Av8r

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:50 PM

"That's Texas, and that's Mexico." A friend and former river guide says she used to have to tell her passengers this throughout the day while canoeing or rafting the Rio Grande. Looking across the narrow and relatively shallow river, I have to remind myself the same thing. - MARLYS HERSEY
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:23 PM

Review 3: A short history of everything 

This book should be a must-read in every school. Bill Bryson describes the history of Science in such a compelling and funny way you wouldn't have imagined possible. For me, as for a lot of other people I guess, sciences always were something rather dull and grey. Apart from geeks and nerds who could possibly have any interest in such weird theories and concepts as the Big Bang, evolution, gravity, tectonic shifts, microbes, cellular structures and the like? Oh, how wrong I was!

Mr Bryson not only explains the scientific concepts in a very understandable way, he also tells us who the scientists behind these discoveries were, how they made them and especially how excentric a lot of the men were! They were certainly, in a sense, crazy compared to the regular people, but this 'craziness' was needed for their accomplishments. Or would you have told yourself: Well, let's just find a way to measure Earth!?

The book is a quest to understand everything that happened from the Big Bang to the rise of the civilization. It really is an eye-opening journey that reveals the world around us in a way that most of us probably haven't seen before. And for someone like me who likes to understand why things are or happen the way they do it was pure delight. Of course the book doesn't contain the answers on everything, some things are probably unknowable. But reading, and realizing, the marvels of Nature and Existence itself and Man's quest to decypher them is just overwhelming. We usually live our daily life and take more or less everything for granted when in fact we're part of something huge, incredible, mysterious, weird and despite all problems, beautiful. And this book helps you discover that.

Hm, I think I got a bit carried away there ... so here's now finally my rating: 9/10.

Some information about the author: Bill Bryson was born in Iowa in 1951 and now lives in Great Britain. He's the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, In A Sunburned Country, Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Bill Bryson's African Diary, and A Short History of Nearly Everything. - Daldianus

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:46 PM

LESS TO THE DOLLAR THAN MEETS THE EYE [excerpt] 

In the greater monetary scheme of things, of course, the dollar is still what investor Doug Casey calls "the unbacked liability of a bankrupt government." Gold, for its part, is no one else's promise to pay. It's yellow, inert, and a store of value that cannot be inflated away in Brussels, London or Washington. No short-term rally in the dollar can change that.

That brings us to the second reason to doubt the dollar bulls and remain firmly in gold - America's deficits are not getting any smaller. And there are more ominous events to consider, too.

The U.S. Treasury's latest report on International Capital Flows shows that since last August, the Japanese have reduced their holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds by $19.4 billion. Not a huge decline. But importantly, they are not increasing their buying of U.S. bonds. Across the Sea of Japan, and the Chinese have increased their holdings, but not by much, from $201.6 billion in August '04, to $223.5 billion in March '05.

The most notable increase in fact comes in London, or rather, the United Kingdom, including the offshore tax havens of Jersey and the Isle of Man. These holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds DOUBLED over the eight months to March. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, Caribbean Banking Centers - or what I call offshore U.S. hedge funds - have also increased their holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds. The Caribbean is to Wall Street what Britain's offshore havens are to the City of London. Since August, the U.S. hedge funds have increased their Treasury holdings by 44%.

But unlike the U.K.'s steady accumulation of U.S. Treasury debt, the Caribbean's holdings actually fell between August and December, down to $71.4 billion. Then, since December, US hedge funds have increased their offshore Treasury holdings by a whopping 92%.

Were the City and Wall Street funds out to support America's consumer spending habits? Not likely. In the great hunt for yield, 4% on a U.S. bond is better than zero percent in Japan. But here's the important fact for dollar bulls: hedge funds, unlike Japan or China, have no interest in a strong or a weak dollar. They are merely out to make money where they can.

And that's fine. But here's what investors cannot afford to forget: hedge funds will sell when a better trade comes along OR, when they are forced to liquidate.

The mainstays of the US bond market, China and Japan, aren't buying. Hedge funds are. But their support for the dollar, which has the effect of keeping interest rates down, is merely a trade, not a policy. When the hedge funds sell, or quit buying, who will pick up the slack? No one.

Interest rates will go up. Puff goes the American housing market. Down goes the dollar.

All of which is to say that there is a lot less support to the dollar than meets the eye. The dollar is simply GM in waiting. U.S. bonds are distressed debt owned increasingly by fund managers desperate to eke out a few basis points here and there. This is not the bedrock of a strong rally in a currency.

The dollar is a long-term sell. But if not the euro, what will it fall against next? Well, while the dollar rally story is shallow, the commodity bull story is still deep and rich.

When the dollar falls again - which it will - it will also fall against Asian currencies, especially in anticipation of a yuan revaluation by Bejing. It is possible, of course, that the dollar can remain stronger for longer than anyone expects. But the whole currency regime can come crashing down much more quickly than anyone expects as well.

It doesn't happen often. But it does happen, and when it does, it happens despite the fact that most people think the world will always work the way it works today.

Regards,

Dan Denning [Scroll down.]
for The Daily Reckoning

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:46 PM

Four Tennessee lawmakers and a former legislator were arrested Thursday on charges of taking bribes from FBI agents posing as representatives of a phony company.

The indictment also named two people who are not lawmakers: Charles Love, a lobbyist from Chattanooga and member of the local school board, and Barry Myers, a Memphian who was a candidate to temporarily replace Dixon in the Senate. Each is charged with being a "bag man," the person acting as a go-between for the lawmakers and the company. - Nashville Channel 4 News (via Jeremy) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:28 PM

“Who’s they’re?” * 

The other day I met the infamous who’s—in a major newspaper, of all places. Who’s doesn’t get around nearly as much as it’s does, but that makes it all the more scary when you do run into him. Who's and it's are close relatives, by the way, as they are both rooted in an inability to understand what the apostrophe is and what it does. I had got quite used to meeting it’s, even in supposedly professionally edited publications. But who’s? I had not seen who’s outside of e-mails and such that I had assumed had been written by particularly illiterate individuals—that is, until our fateful meeting yesterday.

When I think back, it seems I began to meet it’s in the early 1980s. I don’t recall having seen him in the ‘70s at all, or at any time before that. So what phenomenon of the early 1980s paralleled the birth of the new illiteracy, possibly pointing to its origin? I have no ready answer to that question, but that does seem to be the time when a large majority of American voters voted for Reagan. And Thatcher and Clark, both Conservatives, had just been elected in the UK and Canada, respectively. Hmm… And, before I go any further, I want to stress that I am not at all referring to dyslexic or intellectually challenged people. Such people can’t help making mistakes. I am talking about "normal" people who can learn the correct way of writing certain words, but who won’t. All I can say is that, in my experience, illiteracisms such as these words (what else can one call them?) do seem to be associated with a certain kind of mentality. It is the mentality that never tries to acquire a deep and clear understanding of the world around it. Rather, it lives with myths and legends handed down to it from its forebears, never bothering to get a clear understanding of even those myths and legends, let alone to question them.

As a public service, then, and hopeful that my meager endeavour may help usher in a new Age of Enlightenment…LOL…here is a list of some of these illiteracisms, along with corrections thereto:

1/ It’s: This abbreviation has two possible meanings, and those are its only possible meanings. You noticed I just wrote "its only possible meanings"? That is because it would have been wrong to say "it’s only possible meanings". Why? Because, as I said, it’s has two meanings, and two meanings only. It can be an abbreviation for “it is” or for “it has.” It has no other common meanings or usages.

2/ Who’s: Again, who’s can mean one of two things, and only two things: “who is” or “who has.” When you write “Who’s blog is this?” you actually mean to say “Whose blog is this?” Yes, whose, NOT who’s. Remember that.

3/ They’re / their / there (as well as your/you're): Here we run into a veritable forest of illiteracisms. It seems entire populations of English speaking people are unaware that these are three completely different words, as evidenced by the fact that they use them interchangeably on a daily basis (one of them is two words, by the way). I won’t go into the details of what each of them means, as it would probably be a futile effort. If an adult didn’t learn their differing meanings while he was still in school, it’s too late to begin now. I have to end this post on a pessimistic note. People who don’t know, and won’t find out, the difference between “they’re” and “their” will surely never learn to look beneath the lies that their governments tell them.

* The title of this post refers to the way some people would write "Who's there?" - Al S. E.

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:50 AM

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Why smart people defend bad ideas [excerpt] 

We all know someone that’s intelligent, but who occasionally defends obviously bad ideas. Why does this happen? How can smart people take up positions that defy any reasonable logic? Having spent many years working with smart people I’ve catalogued many of the ways this happens, and I have advice on what to do about it. I feel qualified to write this essay as I’m a recovering smart person myself and I’ve defended several very bad ideas. So if nothing else this essay serves as a kind of personal therapy session. However, I fully suspect you’ll get more than just entertainment value (“Look, Scott is stupider than we thought!”) out of what I have to say on this topic. - Scott Berkun (via Slashdot)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:09 AM

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Day 1: "D-Day" - Friday May 20, 2005 

7am: Alarm goes off. Of course, I hit snooze like 5 times. By the time I finally get up to get ready for work, it's about 7:45. Ooops! Anyway...I took a shower and as I was was rinsing my face, I noticed I kept getting water in my left eye. I just thought I was exhausted and was being lazy. So I started geting ready and brushed my teeth and, again, water was spraying out when I tried to rinse out my mouth. I finally realized something was wrong. I stood in front of the mirror and tried to close my mouth all the way and blow without letting air come out...and I couldn't do it. I then proceded to make random faces in the mirror (smile, blink, raise my eyebrows, open my mouth wide, flare my nostrils, etc). The left side of my face wasn't working. I panicked...I thought I had a stroke in the middle of the night. Or even worse...a brain tumor. My mind was going a million miles a second and the first thing I thought of was to go online and type in the symptoms to see what it could be. I went to WebMD and typed in something like "facial numbness" or something similar...and a link called "Understanding Bell's Palsy" came up as a result. I went there and all the symptoms sounded identical to what I was experiencing.

"Bell's palsy is a type of paralysis (or weakness) of the muscles in the face, thought to be due to inflammation of the seventh cranial nerve, also known as the facial nerve. While it can strike anyone, it seems to occur more frequently in people between the ages of 30 and 50, individuals recovering from viral infections and people with diabetes. Bell's palsy affects only one side of the face at a time, and only rarely recurs in the same individual.

Bell's palsy tends to come on very suddenly. You may go to bed one night with no noticeable symptoms, only to peer in the mirror the next morning and notice that your face appears to be drooping."

Call to the Doctor:
I immediately called my doctor and explained the symptoms and concerns to the receptionist. She sounded extremely concerned and said she would leave the doc an urgent message and he would call me back within the hour. In the meantime, I did more research online and was conviced I had Bell's Palsy. But I still had concerns that it could be something more serious. Because, until that search I did on WebMD...I had never ever heard of Bell's Palsy.

About an hour later, the head nurse at my doctors office called me. She said..."Kelly, don't panic. We know what it is. It's something called "Bell's Palsy"." I was somewhat relieved of course because I did some research before hand. My PCP decided it would be best if I went straight to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor to rule out any other possiblities. I called work back and told someone the doc said I had Bell's Palsy and a she said "I had that". I couldn't believe it because I had never met anyone with it or even heard of this condition. She told me her case was only temporary and that I shouldn't worry. That was good to hear.

Doctors Office:
Driving to the doctors was somewhat nerve racking. I felt like my condition was worsening and my left eye seemed to be affected then before. It was getting irritated and I felt like my face was drooping somewhat. I finally got there and had to fill out all kinds of paper work and about 10 minute after I finished it, the doctor saw me. My appointment lasted only 5 minutes. The doc took one look at me (in my ears, mouth, eyes, facial expressions, etc) and immediately diagnosed me with Bell's Palsy. He wrote a prescription for Prednisone (steroid) for 3 weeks. I started with 6 per day for 3 days, then 5 per day for 3 days, the 4 per day for 3 days, and so forth. I think I was so relieve I was dying of something...that I didn't even think to ask questions about side effects, how long the Bell's Palsy would last, if I could exercise, etc. The only thing I found out was that the Prednisone was supposed to keep the inflammation in the nerve from getting worse. So I went directly to the pharmacy and got the meds.

Breaking the News:
On my way home I called my closest friends and family to tell them about my day. Everyone was extremely concerned. I was still scared because I didn't know how long it would last or if it would ever go away. I was actually a little sad. I went into work for an hour or so to get my laptop for the weekend and told some co-workers. Luckily I have a good sense of humor. Making funny faces was making people laugh and in turn made me laugh (but only halfway because the left side didn't work). :)

Sleeping that night was difficult. I had a lot of thoughts running through my head and eye was irritated and I just felt weird and out of sorts. - Kelly Lea

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:56 PM

The Ancient Secret Art of MindPower
START NOW TO AWAKEN THE EXPLOSIVE POWERS THAT ARE SLUMBERING WITHIN YOU.
DISCOVER THE ANCIENT SECRETS THAT ENSURE TOTAL SELF-MASTERY.
DEVELOP THE COMPELLING POWER TO ATTRACT & INFLUENCE OTHERS AT WILL.
MASTER THE ART OF MAGNETIZING SUCCESS IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.
ACHIEVE EVERYTHING YOU YEARN FOR IN LOVE, LIFE AND BUSINESS.
- SEAN KARLSEAN

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:23 PM

Tom's 80th 

Sharing made simple by JussPress.com

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:07 PM

Abu Ghraib, Abu Gulag, and Abu Lies 

Abu: "The father of" in Arabic.

Gulag: The worst type of prison.

With the migration of torture from Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib evolved into Abu Gulag. With the protection of those responsible for the U.S. torture policy it has become Abu American lies.

In the late 1950s the Iraqi government commissioned an American consulting firm to design and build a modern prison in Baghdad. It was decided that the nearby agricultural area of "Abu Ghraib" was the best place to build the prison. We had our American designed "model" prison in the early 60’s.

Like many police forces in the world the Iraqi police forces had "detention" centers inside the police station where suspects are kept. It is at these police stations that interrogations are done. These interrogations were supposed to be supervised by interrogation judges from the ministry of justice. In most cases suspects continued to be the responsibility of the ministry of interior until the end of trials. Once sentenced to prison the criminal was handed over to the ministry of social affairs which is responsible for Abu Ghraib prison and others.

Iraq Security police and the Iraqi intelligence agency "Mukhabarat" and other security forces each has their own "detention" centers and interrogating judges independent from the ones at the local police stations or Abu Ghraib prison.

It is most likely that at these "detention" centers human rights are violated or "torture" is used to extract "confessions" to be "used" in the court to put "criminals" at Abu Ghraib prison. "Convicted" criminals, prisoners, very seldom were re-interrogated in the prison hence very seldom were "tortured" at Abu Ghraib prison. In most cases torture was done before the prisoner was sent to Abu Ghraib to serve a sentence issued by a court.

Under Saddam, the notoriety of Abu Ghraib prison was in fact due to the very large number of prisoners in death row rather than "torture." Since 1980 laws were introduced or amended to make more crimes punishable by capital punishment. Some laws were strange. Breaking into a house for stealing carries the death penalty if it is done at night while the same crime committed during the day carries a lesser penalty. Drug cases were also another example. Courts in Iraq were obliged to follow these laws.

The increased number of executions at Abu Ghraib was mostly attributed to the increased number of crimes punishable by death and due to the socio-economic crises that Iraq went through during Iraq-Iran war, 1991 Gulf War and the 13 years of economic sanctions.

In November 2002 Saddam surprised everyone by freeing all prisoners in prisons as well as those in detention centers and police stations. Criminals arrested that day were actually released, some without literally setting a foot in the police stations. That day I saw TV reports of journalists going through the empty Abu Ghraib prison. I also saw relatives of detainees waiting for family members at one of the known interrogation centers of the fearful Mukhabarat.

After the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 people looted what ever was left in Abu Ghraib prison, doors, window frames – anything they could put their hands on. It is fair to say that after one week of looting Abu Ghraib was not fit to be used for anything. Similarly police stations and their small detention cells and other interrogation centers were looted and burned. The Iraqi police force was dissolved and the American armed forces were the "only game in town." The American forces started arresting common criminals, people suspected of resistance activities, sometimes people suspected of nothing and they needed "detention centers" and "interrogation centers" outside their military camps. This forced them into using the Abu Ghraib prison after fixing it.

Under the American control Abu Ghraib was transformed from a prison to a "detention and interrogation" center. American forces lacking the language skill, the cultural understanding and sheer volume of detainees were frustrated by the lack of progress in getting the intelligence information they needed. This frustration led to the "migration" of interrogation methods developed in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. This was the beginning of the Abu Gulag prison. It is at that time that the father of the worst prisons was created in Iraq by the American forces.

Saddam’s Abu Ghraib was a jail of convicted criminals – at least there was an appearance that they were convicted in Saddam’s courts. The American Abu Gulag was a place where people were detained with no judicial orders and detainees were tortured to speedily extract information from them.

Three factors contributed to the atrocities at the American Abu Gulag. Firstly, America shielded its people of any legal responsibility under Iraqi law. This blanket immunity encouraged American forces and American civilian contractors to violate the law without being prosecuted in Iraq or answering for their atrocities. Secondly, U.S. officially "migrated," meaning approved, authorized, these inhuman interrogation techniques. Thirdly, the U.S. intimidated Arab media from even talking about such things. I provided information and photos to Arab media outlets and they would not touch it because of U.S. pressure. In August/September 2003 I approached Al-Arabia satellite station in Baghdad about a torture story. I was told by the station director in Baghdad that they have instructions from the American forces not to cover such subjects. I went to Al-Jazeera office and they agreed to send a reporter with me. I documented the torture story in the presence of an American lawyer, but Al-Jazeera was reluctant to broadcast the story. Eventually Dahr Jamail broke the story along with pictures and information I provided.

Torture and human rights abuses apparently were common even before the official "migration" of the interrogation rules. Now we know that the U.S. Navy seals had pictures of human rights violations in May 2003. I know that Amnesty International was handed different pictures of torture also in May 2003 when they were visiting Baghdad.

President Bush told the Iraqi people and the world that Iraqis will not be tortured again since he has deposed the dictator, Saddam who tortured his people. For one year we the Iraqi people tried hard to believe him. Then when the Abu Gulag pictures were made public we were told over and over that those responsible for what happened to our countrymen would be held accountable. But now, one year later, those who signed the decrees authorizing torture, and those like President Bush himself, who were told by human rights groups about the torture, have not been held accountable. We are now told that what was done was by few people taking the "law" into their own hands and were actually just "seven bad apples." But, we are not fools – we know an Abu Lie when we hear one. - Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar

Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar [send him mail] is an engineer living in what America calls "liberated' Iraq" but what he calls "occupied Baghdad." You can comment on this column by visiting Ghazwan’s blog spot on DemocracyRising.US. Copyright 2005 © Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar [See the Fair Use Notice, below.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:50 AM

International Diplomacy 

The recent China-Japan squabble has given a new type of diplomacy - girl power (or the skirt factor, or should I say F-cup bra power?) There is apparently this 11 year old girl Japanese budding actress Saaya, whose bikini photos (a F-cup bra, to be more specific) are making the Chinese sit up (literally, perhaps?) and take notice. A message with the photos says that the Chinese should stop Anti-Japanese things, otherwise "if you don't, I won't like you anymore." But if the Chinese do stop, then her breasts will "rise up". (I am unable to figure out how, but that is what the message says). - Raghav

 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:23 AM

Blog entry solves murder. 

20050522: Oh, this is eerie. As I was preparing the entry below, I took a look at the main page for Anime News Network, and found this:
Anime News Network Reader Murdered (2005-05-21 23:12:07)ANN would like to offer our sincerest sympathies to the family and friends of of Simon Sek Man Ng (19) and his sister, who were murdered in their home on May 12th. Simon wrote regularly in his online blog about studying Japanese, which he became interested in through anime. His final blog entry helped police arrest his assailant.
Here's what his final blog entry said:
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Today I missed my Japanese class again, since I have gotten a bad throat. I only went to the class once this week, so I am probably so far behind now. I will catch up in the summer tho so no worries hehe. Anyway today has been weird, at 3 some guy ringed the bell. I went down and recognized it was my sister's former boyfriend. He told me he wants to get his fishing poles back. I told him to wait downstair while I get them for him. While I was searching them, he is already in the house. He is still here right now, smoking, walking all around the house with his shoes on which btw I just washed the floor 2 days ago! Hopefully he will leave soon, oh yeah working on the jap report as we speak!
I've got shivers. This is spooky. It's one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" moments. Here's a news story about it. As reconstructed, he was killed just minutes after he posted that.
This is probably a first: the first time a victim's final blog entry was used to solve his murder. Frankly, that's a "first" I would have been willing to wait forever for. - Chizumatic (via Glenn)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:20 AM

A new twist on the idea of concealable weapons, the credit card-sized shotgun, is shown at Koscielski's Guns and Ammo, the only gun shop in Minneapolis. It's a two-shot weapon machined from a block of metal the height and width of a standard credit card, and about a half-inch thick. Each barrel fires seven standard steel BBs. It will retail for $100. Mark Koscielski, owner of Koscielski's Guns and Ammo said the guns are meant to be used only for close-range self-defense and wouldn't be effective as offensive weapons. (10/05/04 AP photo) - Strange News Photos
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:01 AM

Friday, May 27, 2005

Iraq slides into civil war 

It's with a heavy heart that I post this. Commondreams.org ran this article that argues that Iraq is most certainly slipping into civil war. Before the american invasion there were many pundits that predicted this particular outcome. Surely if the mainstream American media reported on what was actually happening in Iraq it would topple the neconservative's ideological fiction about spreading freedom and democracy. It seems as though they are spreading chaos, horror and perpetual violence.From the article:"Among the recent incidents of sectarian violence and apparent retaliation:Ten clerics, both Sunnis and Shias, have been killed over the past two weeks in and around Baghdad. Several of the clerics were abducted, and their bullet-riddled bodies were discovered days later. The corpses of 14 blindfolded and bound men were found May 8 in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, a Shia area dominated by al-Sadr's supporters. They had been shot execution-style and were believed to be members of a Sunni tribe abducted outside Baghdad. A week later, 13 bodies were discovered in a garbage-strewn lot in the same area. Those victims, who were also bound and executed, had the type of long beards typically worn by devout Sunnis.On May 14, corpses of 10 Iraqi soldiers, all Shias, were discovered in Ramadi, a Sunni-dominated city in western Iraq that has been a center of the insurgency. On May 15, 11 more bodies were found on an abandoned chicken farm south of Baghdad. Iraqi officials said they appeared to be Shia pilgrims who were ambushed by Sunni insurgents on the road between Baghdad and the Shia holy city of Najaf." - James

posted by George Thomas Kysor 4:00 PM

100th Time's a Charm? [excerpt] 

I just applied to my 100th job in the last year or so. How do I know? I have been keeping a list so that when people (read: my mother) claim that I haven't been trying, I can point to my list and say, "actually, I'm up to job #100." The sad part is that for probably at least 75 of the jobs, I have either been qualified or overqualified and still no bites.

What I want to know is that if the jews really control the media (and the law, and sports, and comedy) and we only compose something like 2% of the population, then why can't I get a job in any of those fields? I'm a jew. There have to be old jews dying every day that are leaving jobs open for the next generation. I want to reiterate: I am willing to start at the bottom and stay there.

I also want to know if the jewish mafia is still out there. You know, Ben (don't call me Bugsy) Siegel, Meyer Lansky, and the like. I like the Sopranos. I'd be willing to run numbers or something similarly old timey like that. Plus, I think that living in Vegas would do wonders for my skin. - Catheter Man

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:16 AM

ALAPAHA, Ga. -- Chris Griffin, 31, poses beside the half-ton wild hog he shot on Thursday, June 17, 2004. No one keeps official records on hog kills, but Georgia game officials say it is the largest they have ever heard of. (07/29/04 AP Photo/River Oak Plantation) - Strange News Photos
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:32 AM

ALTON, Ill. --Tim Pruitt, of Alton, Ill., holds a 124-pound blue catfish that he hooked on the Mississippi River near Alton. The fish is 58 inches long and 44 inches around. It took Pruitt more than a half-hour to drag the fish into his boat. It is the largest of its kind in state history, and is expected to be certified a world record by the International Game Fish Association. (05/25/05 AP Photo/Handout photo provided by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources) - Strange News Photos
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:43 AM

Non-Linearity in Hypertext 

Theorists of hypertext, such as Landow say we are accustomed to thinking about time as sequence, but time is also "a patterning of interrelated experienes reflectd upon as though it had a geography and could be mapped." This thought was sent to our class in an e-mail from Meg Roland. I also found in wikipedia that Derrida felt "deconstruction emphasises the way that presentism leaves us with no more than a chain of relations." I could see Landow's ideas, as well as Derrida's thoughts on deconstruction and non-linearity come alive in this (of course long) sentence from Proust. Notice how he weaves several experiences together (a chain of relations) to give us a picture (or map) of where he was at this time in his childhood:

"Lastly, continuing to trace from the inside to the outside these states simultaneously juxtaposed in my consciousness, and before reaching the real horizon that enveloped them, I find pleasures of another kind, the pleasure of being comfortably seated, of smelling the good scent of the air, of not being disturbed by a visit; and, when an hour rang in the bell tower of Saint-Hilaire, of seeing fall piece by piece what was already consumed of the afternoon, until I heard the last stroke, which allowed me to add up the total and after which the long silence that followed it seemed to commence in the blue sky that whole part that was still granted me for reading until the good dinner which Francoise was preparing and which would restore me from the hardships I had incurred, during the reading of the book, in pursuit of its hero." (pg 89) - Wacky World

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:06 AM

Thursday, May 26, 2005

A Pretext for War [excerpt] 

It would seem logical that if Bill Clinton could be subject to impeachment for an alleged deception over a minor consensual sexual affair, George W. Bush should be subject to the same treatment for launching a deadly and seemingly endless war based on lies, distortions and deceptions. If that doesn't qualify as a "high crime," I don't think anything does. The key problem is massive public apathy and extremely poor press coverage. I think the only way to prevent such wars in the future would be to make every citizen an equal shareholder in the war – not just the families of the 140,000 troops currently in Iraq. This would require legislation mandating a draft upon the deployment of a certain number of troops to a combat environment. Also, legislation forbidding deficit spending for a war should be enacted. The cost of a war would have to be paid as a surcharge on all taxpayers in the year the fighting takes place. In this way, nearly every citizen would have both a personal and financial stake in a war. If such were the case today, we would not be in this situation – and if we were, there would certainly be calls for impeachment. - James Bamford

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:00 AM

Emperor Norton 

Monarch of San Francisco
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:18 AM

My current fear 

Group work, group work and more group work. I seriously had no idea how was I going to spend the semester in the classes I was assigned to. It was not that I did not like my classmates. No, they were fairly nice people. I simply felt I was an alien in the classes. Everyone had their own groups of friends. No one bothered to know me at all. I was really worried. I feared that I would be left out if the time to form groups came. I was pressured. In addition, if I had a group, I wondered if I could fulfil their expectations. I was not intelligent in studies, could be lazy at times and to worsen things, I had an internet connection which went on and off all the time. THose things were a great blow to my confidence. I wished to be an independent learner but I simply could not be.

I.... I really missed my secondary school classmates. They were the ones who lifted up my spirit and saw me through the tests and exams. But after leaving them, I gradually lost all motivation and competitiveness. I went to places where we used to hang out and tried all ways to recover what were lost but were in vain. I could not.... I just could not.

Now, I lived my life as a slacker for about two years. THough I still passed the modules with average grades, I was not happy at all. It was not the grades that I was concerned but the correct attitude to study and focus. I am a souless being without them.

This is my last chance left to achieve good grades that may aid in getting the IP.Can I do it? I am not confident. Help me people out there. If you can read my blog, please express your views and help me. I really need support. - incognito

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:00 AM

My theory on men 

Here is what I have deduced over many years of research and observing the opposite sex to myself: men are extremely simple creatures. Men have 4 basic needs: 1.) Eating 2.) Sleeping 3.) Sex and 4.) Shitting. When they are not actually engaging in one of these needs they are doing something that will help them meet one of them. Now some of you may say...what about computer games/video games? This is considered leisure and as many often reach a canatonic state while participating in these activities it will be considered a sub-need of sleep. As far as men that are career obsessed: career equals money which equals time to eat, sleep, fuck and shit. To make a man happy the simple key is to help him meet one or all of these needs on a daily basis. Any more and you're just overwhelming the poor simple bastard. :) - Muggsie

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:13 AM

John Piña Craven says we can have unlimited energy 

The key to Craven's cool world is converting the ocean's thermal energy. The first step: Sink a pipe at least 3,000 feet deep and start pumping up seawater. The end result: an environmentally sustainable, virtually inexhaustible supply of electricity, freshwater for drinking and irrigation, even air-conditioning. Here's how it works:
Refrigeration:
Cold seawater circulates through a closed loop of pipes that replace the coolant and compressor found in conventional air-conditioning units.
Irrigation:
Pipes carrying cold water run beneath fields of crops, sweating freshwater to irrigate plants and chilling their roots, promoting faster crop cycles.
Desalination:
Cold seawater passes through Craven's "skytowers," which contain closely packed radiator-like networks of pipes. The frigid pipes sweat in the tropical heat, producing? freshwater condensate.
Power Generation:
Pipes draw warm water from the ocean surface and cold water from the seabed. The warm water enters a vacuum chamber and is evaporated into steam that drives an electricity-producing turbine. The cold water condenses the steam back into water for drinking and irrigation. - Carl Hoffman [A 3-part article.] © Copyright© 1993-2005 The Condé Nast Publications Inc. © Copyright 2005, Lycos, Inc. [See the Fair Use Notice, below.] (via Slashdot)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:28 AM

EuroYank Blog 

Free full-length movies online:
Night of the Living Dead
Alfred Hitchcock's Charade
Sherlock Holmes - Dressed To Kill
Eve of Destruction
Shutup Popeye
And lots of videos and other great stuff!

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:16 AM

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

OKC BOMBING FALLOUT 

The FBI says it has located 340 documents related to the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, documents that could reveal damaging information about what the agency and its informants knew about the mass murder plot, reports the McCurtain Daily Gazette.

According to the report in the McCurtain County, Okla., paper, the documents address the monitoring of the bombing by FBI informants, Alabama attorney Morris Dees and Dees' organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center.


Writes reporter J.D. Cash in the Gazette: "If proven true, the ramifications of such disclosures would be far-reaching. Not only could the discovery of these documents lead to additional arrests and prosecutions in the OKC bombing case, but evidence of a cover-up of a sting operation involving the FBI and a private charity could ruin a number of careers of highly placed individuals."

The documents are part of an extensive filing made in federal court in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday. A court order was obtained by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information suit against the Oklahoma City FBI office, the Gazette reported. Trentadue has been seeking evidence in the untimely death of his brother, whose body was found beaten and slashed while the inmate awaited a parole violation hearing.

Trentadue believes his brother was tortured and killed by government agents who mistakenly thought he was involved with executed killer Timothy McVeigh and others in a string of bank robberies and the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

After learning the FBI was involved in a sting operation with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Trentadue, the Gazette reports, sought a copy of two teletypes from former FBI Director Louis Freeh that discussed the undercover operation "that proved the FBI knew in advance McVeigh's plans for bombing a federal building."

The FBI initially denied it had the teletypes, but after Trentadue produced redacted copies of them, he went to court to force the FBI to cough up copies of their original un-redacted versions.

On May 5, U.S. District Court Judge Dale A. Kimball ordered the FBI to turn over un-redacted copies of two teletypes sent by Freeh to a select group of FBI field offices, including the OKBOMB task force in Oklahoma City. Kimball's order also included instructions to perform an extensive search for other records involving McVeigh, his alleged co-conspirators and informants working for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The paper reported that, according to a Jan. 4, 1996, teletype, Freeh disclosed the Southern Poverty Law Center had an informant at the white supremacist Elohim City compound when McVeigh called the facility requesting assistance with his plans. The teletype said the call was made on April 17, 1995 – 48 hours before a truck bomb destroyed the Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 persons and injuring 500 more.


For years, the FBI has repeatedly denied the agency had any prior knowledge of the bomb plot.

The FBI now says it has found 340 documents that could also link the SPLC to McVeigh, Elohim City and members of the Aryan Republican Army.

On Monday, the FBI proposed several alternatives to turning over the documents listed in Kimball's order, saying it did not have time to comply with the judge's order to turn over the material Trentadue is seeking by June 15.

Said an agency representative: "In the past, the backlog in the FOIPA Section has been exacerbated by the high volume of administrative appeals that will require review and response by the FBI's FOIPA Section personnel. … At the present time, the FBI is involved in over 150 pending lawsuits in various federal district and appellate courts throughout the United States."

The agency further argued that revealing the elements of its intelligence-gathering operation at Elohim City would not be in the best interests of the nation. - © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com [See the Fair Use Notice, below.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:49 PM

Rites of Passage 

Disclaimer – this post is probably the closest I’ve come to a ‘journal entry’, so if you prefer to read something less sappy, go here.


We measure our lives by milestones and we try to make our milestones memorable. And there are different kinds of milestones. Some are dates, some are events, some are so private you don’t realise their existence until you’ve passed a few more. And thus we grow, from infants to children to adults and beyond, and when we look back, the milestones stand twinkling in the darkness. You’ve passed one when…


When you are walking past a roadside cricket match and the ball rolls up to you and the nearest fielder appeals to you, Uncle, can you please throw the ball back?
When at the restaurant, at the end of the meal, your father doesn’t reach for the leather jacket hiding the bill or for his wallet, but waits smiling, for you to do the honours.
When at the railway ticket counter you have to say ‘three full, one half Ghatkopar’ instead of ‘two full, two half…’
When your mother doesn’t look shocked when you answer yes to her query if there is ‘someone’.
When your father goes through the wine list and looks at you, what about you?
When your great-aunts ask you to stay put and listen to their gossip, because ‘you have to know stuff now’.
When you are listening to uncles discussing sales management issues and you realise that the uncle you thought was a hotshot wouldn’t have been selected by you for your team.
When cousins who wouldn’t play with you fifteen years ago ask you if there are any vacancies in your organisation.
When oily marriage brokers come up to you and ask you whose child you are and where are you working.
When the usher at the theatre showing an explicitly ‘adult’ movie doesn’t look at you suspiciously, neither do you try to sidle in furtively.
When your father takes time out to explain labour issues at the factory and nods at your comments.
When your mother asks the both of you to quit your man-talk and come eat.
When they don’t say anything when you express the wish to go for a walk in the night alone.
When a colleague talks disparagingly about the ‘new kids’ and you smile and nod.
When it suddenly dawns upon you that the best days of your life still lie ahead of you. - Rhyncus

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:18 PM

Amnesty International's 2005 Annual Report on Human Rights
video. (Or video search: 2005 human rights.)(Or go here for text and video.) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 4:01 PM

GreenZap info: Listen to this interview. (via Paul)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:27 PM

The First Time You Made Love [excerpt] 

I'm sure everyone has fond (or not so fond) memories of that special time and place in your life when you lost your virginity. My husband still gets angry eyes when I mention my high school sweetheart's name (Brent). I suppose I should feel bad about not saving myself for my wedding night, but I don't. (Even now I would hate to think anyone gets married so they can fulfill their sexual urges.)

It was a very special time in my youth and I cherish those memories. Yes, we were young...17. But it was after the advent of the Pill (and I had enough sense to be on it) and before AIDS, so you can see what a magical time in history it was. And your chance of avoiding those other pesky sexually transmitted diseases from another 17 year old virgin was very good.

When I think about it now, I'm surprised we knew what to do. But I guess because we'd been dating since the 9th grade (this had to be the longest foreplay in history) we'd climbed every mountain except one...or would that be a valley? So it was a natural progression. Anyway, I remember it being very nice, well as nice as it can be in your twin bed, hurrying before your Mom gets home from work. But, you know, after a while, the whole "where and when will we do it next and will we get caught" adrenaline rush becomes just as addictive as the sex itself. And once you start...well...there is NO turning back. Not that we ever even considered it.

I guess the most "daring" place we "did it" was in the practice room in the High School band room. Second was out in a field at my grandparents ranch. Of course there were the standard car back seats and my room...(only child, both parents worked.)

There was one thing I hadn't counted on. You see, we were in love...had been for a long time. And we had expressed that love in every way possible. So when I went away to college and he stayed home, and found someone else, well, it was almost like getting a divorce...only my support system didn't understand that. There was no hand-holding and help to get back on my feet like you would get during a real divorce.

It really, really hurt.

But anyway, I digress. Anyone brave enough to tell about their first time? Come on...you can post anonymous if you want. - Karyn Lyndon

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:01 PM

It happened again! 

Current music: The Red Violin - Anna's Theme

As many of you know, I'm an avid musician and lover of movies. A few years ago while watching Mission Impossible II, I started to recognize the musical score in the background. After the movie was over, I went back to that scene (thanks to the ease of DVD chapters), closed my eyes and listened to the music again. I instantly knew that the theme was virtually identical to the main theme of the movie The House of Spirits…the only difference? Three freakin' notes. So I grabbed my copy of the House of Spirits soundtrack, threw it into my CD player and listened to main theme. I was right. There was only a three note difference. I felt frustrated and angry that the composer, the venerable Hans Zimmer, had recycled his own music.

Well, it happened again the other night. Doug and I were cuddled up on the couch...sigh...watching National Treasure, and it was probably only one minute into the movie when I sat up and made some lewd comment about how the musical score was a rip-off of one of the themes in Armageddon. After the movie was over, we watched the credits until the composer’s name came up…it read Trevor Rabin. I got up and looked at my DVD collection, pulled out my copy Armageddon and alas, it was the same composer.

So here's my comment...As a composer myself (who quite seriously considered becoming a professional movie composer) I understand the temptation to repeat themes in various pieces. Sometimes that one theme of music can tie two sections together perfectly. But we composers should resist this temptation and create something new and something unique every time. I can justify repeating a bar or two, but a whole freakin' piece with only one or two notes difference? That's just cheap. If I were a movie executive, I'd want to make sure that the person I'm hiring to compose my score gives me something original. Yes, I understand that famous film composers are busy and are often working on more than one project at a time, but come on...cheating is cheating is cheating. - Stacey Young

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:01 AM

A base for the corruption of democracy 

As the honeymoon period of the much-hyped 30 January elections in Iraq comes to an end amid the explosions of car bombs and continuous US military action, the harsh reality that these elections have failed to produce a government capable of governing, let alone govern in a fashion that resembles any notion of what a democracy should look like, comes crashing home.


The purple finger revolution of January 2005 has proved only one thing: that the US media is capable of building something out of nothing.

Any informed observer of Iraq could have predicted the failure of the elections to produce any viable result; Iraq as a nation state was simply too deeply fractured for a process sponsored by an illegitimate military occupier to succeed.

But one doesn't need to be an expert on Iraq to have figured this out.

The simple fact is that one cannot construct something viable when the foundation one seeks to build on is a corrupt one.

A corrupt foundation guarantees one thing only - that what is sought to be built will eventually collapse because of its own inherent weakness.

The United States claims to be trying to help Iraq build a functioning and viable democracy, but the foundation of any such government will by necessity be based on the nature of American involvement in Iraq.

This involvement has been disingenuous, dishonest, and dishonourable from the start.

This is the main reason I have given in the past as to why America lost the war the moment we crossed the border into Iraq in March 2003.

Nothing the US military did, or does, after that event matters, since the foundation the Bush administration laid for its activity was a corrupt one, based upon the lie of weapons of mass destruction, bullet-proof Iraqi connections with al-Qaida, and the falsehood of American diplomacy vis-a-vis the United Nations.

The Bush administration continues to proclaim that the war with Iraq was an inevitable result of Saddam Hussein's record of non-compliance with Iraq's UN-mandated obligation to disarm.

The Bush administration continues to mock international law by claiming that UN Security Council resolution 1441, passed in November 2002, legitimised its decision to invade.

But there are two problems with this line of thought. First, resolution 1441 did not authorise military action; every nation except the United States believed a second resolution was required before military action could be undertaken (even Great Britain took this stance, before Bush's loyal poodle, Tony Blair, had his Attorney General draft a new legal finding on the eve of war).

Second, and most important, Iraq did not violate resolution 1441. The record is clear - Iraq permitted unfettered access to all sites required by the UN weapons inspectors, and the declaration submitted by Iraq in December 2002 (which was dismissed by Colin Powell and Condi Rice as consisting of nothing but lies) was in fact the truth.

To date not a single fact of substance contained in the Iraqi declaration has been shown false, unlike the totality of the presentation made by Colin Powell before the Security Council on 5 February 2003.

There were no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) left in Iraq, something the CIA reluctantly admits today.

In fact, there had been no WMD in Iraq since the summer of 1991, something the Iraqis had said all along.

Far from being justified by a record of Iraqi non-compliance, the decision to invade Iraq was a foregone conclusion reached by a US president we now know was willing to “fix intelligence around policy” to achieve his ends.

The elections held in the US in November 2004, and the recent elections in the UK in May 2005, underscore the sad reality that the citizens of these two great democracies have accepted the notion that the ends justify the means.

The accepted notion among many Americans and British is that the US-led invasion rid the world of a tyrannical dictator, and as such should be embraced, warts and all.

This, of course, is absurd thinking, especially for citizens who claim to embrace the notion of rule by law.

The constitution of the United States of America sets forth values and ideals that define America as a nation, and Americans as a people.

British law does the same for the people of the UK. Both systems espouse the inviolable notion of due process. In a people governed by the rule of law, due process is the means by which ends are achieved. This cannot be compromised if the underlying values and ideals being espoused are to remain viable.

Democracy as practiced in the United States and Great Britain is far from perfect. However, as long as democracy is practiced with an unbending adherence to the principles of the rule of law, this far from perfect system will remain among the best man has ever had.

But it requires an unyielding embrace of the notion of the means achieving the ends, and a complete rejection of any notion of the ends justifying the means, ever.

In fact, any citizen of the United States or Great Britain (or any democracy governed by the rule of law, for that matter) who accepts an argument based on the ends justifying the means should think long and hard about their commitment to the country they have sworn allegiance to, since their principles are more in line with the sort of fascist and totalitarian regimes that plagued the world in the middle of the last century, and not with those espoused by United States and the UK which fought to rid the world of such blights.

Today, both the US and the UK have wavered from the principled stands taken during the second world war.

Far from being liberators, both nations have the status of illegal occupiers. Far from being in the company of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, George Bush and Tony Blair are in league with Adolf Hitler when he fabricated an excuse to invade Poland in 1939, and Saddam Hussein when he violated international law and invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Both Bush and Blair claim to be trying to build a better Iraq today, a free and democratic Iraq governed by the rule of law.

But the fact is, because the foundation of US-UK involvement in Iraq is not the rule of law, but rather the wanton disregard for the rule of law, Iraq has not become the desired breeding ground of democracy, but rather a breeding ground for the corruption of democracy.

The best chance for bringing a semblance of normality to Iraq where notions of liberty and justice for all might one day hold sway is for the United States and Great Britain to withdraw, completely, from that troubled land, bringing down the fatally compromised and structurally unsound perversion of democracy that is being imposed on the Iraqi people today.

The participants in the purple finger revolution will find a way to build a new government in Iraq, with a solid foundation and lasting future.

Instead of interfering in this labour, the citizens of the US and the UK would do well to reflect on their own respective shortcomings, and turn their attention to shoring up the foundations of their own democracies, both of which have suffered much damage due to the ongoing debacle in Iraq. - Scott Ritter

Scott Ritter is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, serving from 1991-1998. He is the author of Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of America's Intelligence Conspiracy (IB Tauris, to be published in the summer of 2005).

© 2003 - 2005 Aljazeera.Net [See the Fair Use Notice, below.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:40 AM

camcif
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:01 AM

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

On-blog video clips: 

Click here for an example of an on-blog video. JussPress will store up to ten 2-minute video clips and provide the HTML code for on-blog video - for free!

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:19 PM

and all that other crap I should have mentioned... 

It's been six years that the first papers were filed to start the divorce processes.
I knew going into court where I stood and how much child support and custody I would have. I was scared, but I was going to be okay.

A week before our court hearing my 'exhusband' got a phone call and was informed that his brother had killed himself. This drew us together long enough to get his affairs in order to go to the funeral and still be back for the court hearing. I stayed with him and made sure that everything was going to be fine.

Going into court we actually rode together. We sat in my attorney's office and talked about what the courts were going to award each parent and what each attorney was going to ask for. I was scared because I KNEW where I stood. I was going to get most of the custody and a shit load of child support. My ex, who had done nothing...didn't want the divorce in the first place...who had just lost his brother, was going to be handing over pretty much everything he had spent his life working for. When he was handed the support judgment he looked at me as if I was Satan. I asked if we could have a moment alone and we went into the conference center and he looked at me with tears in his eyes and he said, "I can't do this."
and then pretty much made it sound like he would do exactly what his brother had done.

I went back into the office and I sat down with the two attorneys and I said, "He gets 50% custody and I don't want alimony...and take the amount of child support and cut it in half."
My attorney turned about 100 shades of red. His attorney grinned from ear to ear.

My attorney told me, "Someday Kristine...you are going to regret this and you're going to call me crying because you just made the biggest mistake of your whole life!"

That day has happened more times than I care to admit. I never called her though, but I called her this morning.

After the beginning phases of the divorce we hit this road block. Both his attorney and my attorney were fed up with us. Dan and I got along fine. We just had this sticking point we couldn't get past. The house...and the 401k. Both had several hundred thousand dollars in it. I wanted either one or other. Dan wanted both.
I wanted his insurance, he wanted me as a tax right off. It seemed like a good idea to not finish the divorce so both of us could essentially 'use' the other.

He lost his job and I had no insurance so I began pushing for him to finish the divorce. The more I pushed for him to do it, the more reasons he came up to NOT finish it. "The attorney is too much...The court was closed when I went up there...."
and I am so lazy that I didn't push hard enough.

Then I met Shaun. I decided it was time to really just start taking care of these things. I needed to get my taxes done, get my own care in my name, get Dan's name off this house, and ...Embarrassingly I admit this....finish my divorce.

And here is where the Xanax part of my life comes into effect....I opened Dan's mail from the IRS yesterday. I don't normally do this, but as of late I have been getting a lot of letters for him. This CAN'T be good.

I won't go into the details of how truly fucked I am right now. I am truly fucked because I was lazy and didn't finish what I should have finished YEARS ago. I might lose EVERYTHING I own because I didn't follow through on things I was told to follow up on.

So here is my crash test dummy comment of the day, "If someone tells you to do something because you will look back and regret the living shit out of it later...just do it. Don't worry about how the other person's life will turn out because you never know what is going to happen."

I was so scared that my ex would lose everything if I just didn't give in a little. Now he has nothing to lose, and I might lose everything. - Kristine

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:03 PM

The "American War" and the "liberation" of Saigon 

I spent April in Vietnam. While I'm there, my brother emails to let me know it's the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Right. Gotcha. Anyhow, wrote back that had it not been for all the parades, flags, special celebrations and the four-day holiday, I may not have known about it since CNN's saturated coverage of the anniversary was occassionally censored.

THINGS I SAW IN HANOI:
•A legless man in a wheelchair in traffic
•Women selling cuts of beef off of their bicycle seats
•A boy stirring peanuts in a wok on the street (every morning)
•People with photos of Ho Chi Minh on their desks (alongside family photos)
•Cockfights
•Theme to Gone With the Wind playing on the radio
•Drinking tea from teeny tiny teacups
•People lugging around ginormous scales that belted out tunes when you weighed yourself on them
•An overabundance of blue plastic chairs
•Dung Hair Salon
•The biggest roach I've ever seen in my life (about the size of my hand)
•A drain placed at the highest point, so you have to kick the water up into it
•A man sitting on the sidewalk cutting lenses for glasses with a pair of scissors
•Barbers set up on the sidewalk
•Pedicurists/Manicurists set up on the sidewalk
•A motorbike guiding a cow
•Dead, skinned dogs in a large basket on a motorbike
•Dead, plucked chickens in a basket on a bicycle
•Live chickens in a basket on a motorbike
•Assortment of refrigerators/tvs/stereos/microwaves carried on motorbikes
•A 6 ft. bookcase carried on the back of a motorbike
•A large accident involving six motorbikes, but no chickens - Patti McCracken

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:33 AM

Day to day life of Polly the Private Investigator 

5/6/05
Okay okay! All of you people that have been badgering me to start a blog documenting my days in the field, here you GO. Beginning May 15, I will have my wireless set up and will provide live updates while on surveillance. For now, I'll just recap my days.

Oh, I will be as honest and truthful as I can without revealing sensitive details about my clients and subjects. Okay, here goes.... [Scroll down and work your way up the blog.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:36 AM

A Review of Superman 

I have long known that the original Superman (as well as its sequel) is a “perfect” movie (perfect casting, perfect directing, perfect music, perfect dialogue, etc.). Recently I was bored out of my mind and rented it. And I was stunned by how much wisdom it contained.

Everyone knows that Mario Puzo wrote The Godfather. But most people don’t realize that he also wrote the screenplays for Superman (and its sequel). I have a pet theory (based on no further facts, so don’t yell at me if you can prove it wrong) that Puzo was horrified at how his sober analysis of the nature of the Mafia was completely missed, and that mob violence and vulgarity was in fact glorified by subsequent imitators. I believe that Puzo felt guilty for his pivotal role in creating this sad replacement for the Cowboys & Indians genre and attempted to rehabilitate himself by creating something noble which could not possibly be so perverted.

With this parallel in mind, let us take a whirlwind trip through Superman . Due to the reader’s assumed familiarity with the plot, this review will focus on subtleties which most people—including me until this most recent viewing—probably missed.

* * *


The movie opens with the introduction of the Superman character in the original comic book. The year is 1938, and we are informed of the Daily Planet’s dedication to truth and integrity in news reporting. One wonders whether the creator of the character Superman was doing the only thing he could to inspire hope in an era when truth and, indeed, human civilization, were losing ground to the forces of evil.

The next scene is the planet Krypton. Superman’s father, Jor-El (played by Marlon Brando…) is prosecuting three criminals charged with treason. (Notice that the Kryptonians have symbols on their chests—an insignia to designate family? In any event, this is a clever “explanation” for the bold “S” on Superman’s costume, since obviously there is no reason for Kryptonians to have the same alphabet as English-speaking Earthlings, nor would they call one of their normal boys “Superman.”) With Jor-El’s vote, the criminals are convicted and sentenced to the Phantom Zone. General Zod, their leader, offers Jor-El a high place if he will only join his insurrection, but of course Jor-El refuses such temptation.

The next scene shows Jor-El being ridiculed and scolded for his warnings of Krypton’s imminent demise. He asks the Council if he has ever been anything but reasonable in the past, but they denounce him for causing needless worry among the population. He agrees that he and his wife will remain on Krypton. (Notice this leaves open the possibility for his son’s escape.)

As Jor-El loads his young son, Kal-El, into a rocket ship, he explains to his wife that he is sending their infant son to the planet Earth. His wife objects that the Earthlings are a “primitive” people. Jor-El responds that this will give Kal-El the advantage he needs to survive. His wife continues to stress how isolated and different their son will be in such a world. Jor-El gently reminds her of what extraordinary powers he will have.

* * *


The rocket crashes in a rural Midwestern prairie. An older couple stops their truck to deal with a flat tire. They see the young boy—naked and unashamed—in the ship. The woman, Martha Clark Kent, “knows” that this is a gift from Heaven, an answer to her prayers for a child. The father is more skeptical. This curiosity changes to amazement when, as the jack slips and the truck falls, the young boy lifts up the rear end, effortlessly. (I used to think Superman saved his foster father’s life in this scene, but after further review it appears that Martha Kent pulled her husband away before he would have been crushed.)

We are then shown how badly the teenaged Clark Kent is treated by his schoolmates, in particular Brad, a star football player. He complains to his father that he is never included, even though (in pickup games) he can score a touchdown “every time” he gets the ball. The father smiles knowingly and says (not an exact quote), “Son, when we first found you, we were afraid people would come and take you away….But a man gets older and his fears pass away….Son, I do know this: You were put here for a reason. And it wasn’t to score touchdowns.”

After his father dies of a heart attack, Clark is crushed. (“All those powers…and I couldn’t even save him.” Recall that Michael Corleone saved his father once [from gangsters outside the hospital],but couldn’t, despite his cunning, save him from a heart attack, either.) Clark takes a crystal from his ship and goes to the North Pole, where it constructs Superman’s headquarters, the Fortress of Solitude.

In the Fortress, the recorded Jor-El explains Kal-El’s origins and instructs him in all of Krypton’s knowledge. Listen carefully to his teachings (use Rewind if you have to). He says, “It is forbidden for you to interfere with human history. Rather let your leadership stir others to.” (If even Superman, with his incredible powers and advanced knowledge, is not allowed to force other people to livem orally, then human intellectuals are certainly not.) And then Jor-Elutters what are perhaps the most profound commands ever given in a secular age:

“Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and power are needed. And always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason, above all—their capacity for good—I have sent them you, my only son.”

After these moving words, Jor-El disappears, and we see, for the first time, Christopher Reeve in his wonderful costume. Now that he knows his purpose, the confused Clark has been replaced by the confident Superman. It is clear that the forces of evil are in for an unpleasant surprise.

* * *


We next see Clark Kent in his first day at the Daily Planet. (Notice that Lois Lane, although a great reporter, has trouble with spelling. This is because she is too hurried and inattentive to details. This no doubt explains why she can’t make the connection between Clark Kent and Superman.) Perry White explains to Clark that a “good reporter doesn’t get great stories, a good reporter makes them great.” (Jimmy Olsen finishes the chief’s sentence, showing that White must say this a lot.)

Clark asks his new boss if half of his salary can be forwarded to a certain address. The cynical Lois “knowingly” asks if it’s for his bookie, then sarcastically wonders that maybe it’s really for his gray-haired mother. The “naïve” and honest Clark corrects her on the color of his mother’s hair (for whom the money is in fact intended).

We then see Otis, Lex Luther’s bumbling yet charming henchman. (Notice he can’t even steal from a blind vendor.) Otis is returning to Luther’s hideout underneath a train station, unaware that detectives are trailing him. (Notice that the trains are heading for such destinations as Buffalo and Syracuse, meaning of course that “Metropolis” is New York City.)

We then meet Lex Luther (played fabulously by Gene Hackman). Notice that Luther, though certainly evil, is a perfect gentleman. (E.g. he always refers to his companion as Miss Tessmacher. We also see, a little later, that Luther, though the smartest human alive, is ashamed of his baldness and so wears a toupee.) We learn that it was Luther’s cynical father who taught him his distrust of the common man. Otis (just like Jimmy Olsen) is obviously familiar with his boss’ lectures.

(This is actually an interesting point. One the one hand, we have Perry White, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen. Their foils are Lex Luther, Miss Tessmacher, and Otis. Space does not permit me to do so, but the interested reader is encouraged to consider how similar these pairs are. The biggest similarity, of course, is that all absurdly underrate Kal-El whenever he is in their presence; the former underrate Clark Kent, while the latter underrate Superman.)

* * *


Superman makes his debut when Lois is in a helicopter mishap. (Notice that Clark first picks up litter before changing.) As Superman grabs the falling Lois, we hear a female onlooker proclaim, “I just cannot believe it. He got her.” (As if that’s an appropriate thing to say when a guy dressed in a strange costume flies up the side of a building and grabs a falling woman!) Then the copter soon follows, heading straight down for the hovering pair. Seeing this, the crowd panics. (As if someone who can fly is not capable of taking care of a falling helicopter!) Through it all, Superman just smiles. (Especially when Lois exclaims, “You’ve got me?? Who’s got you?!?!”)

Superman performs random acts of kindness, including rescuing a little girl’s kitten from a tree. (The girl tells her mother, who slaps her and scolds her for “lying.”)

A few scenes later, Lois is waiting for Superman on her balcony. Their rendezvous was for 8, yet it is 8:05 and he has still not shown up. Lois concludes (incorrectly) that he isn’t coming.

During his interview with Lois, Superman says, “I’m here to fight for truth and justice and the American way.” Lois thinks he’s crazy. “You’re gonna end up fighting every elected official in the country.”

The movie then embarks upon a particularly mushy flying scene, which my brother and I always Fast Forward. However, I should note that Lois—the wonderful journalist—thinks in poetry when she’s not even trying to be a wordsmith. It is clear that Lois thinks he’s too good for her, and in some sense he thinks she’s too good for him.

* * *


We then switch to Luther’s hideout, where he’s reading Lois’ expose on the new visitor to Earth. Luther concludes, “It’s too good to be true.” Miss Tessmacher, reading the same article, agrees with this conclusion. “He’s 6’4’’, black hair, blue eyes, doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, and tells the truth.”

(This description reminds me of an interview with Margot Kidder in which she pitied the physical training that Reeve went through for the role. She said that he was “the most gorgeous creature ever.” Not that I’m jealous or anything.)

Luther explains to his minions how he knows that kryptonite will hurt Superman. “Deductive reasoning, that’s the name of the game.” (During this lecture, watch Otis “follow” Luther’s thoughts. He’s hilarious.)

Luther then engages in a plot to reprogram Navy missiles to facilitate the greatest real estate swindle in human history. (Yes, the sexually frustrated military commander is played by Larry Hagman. Also, notice that Otis has a black eye after blundering in his task and suffering Luther’s off-screen wrath.)

Superman is led to Luther’s lair by an ingenious lie. (Notice Luther’s outrageous outfit when meeting his nemesis for the first time.) Luther explains to Superman his plot to use a nuclear missile to sink the entire west coast, rendering the previously worthless land (bought up by Luther) immensely valuable. (After the missiles launch, we learn from the military personnel that they can’t be shot down, since they have a new avoidance system. Is this Puzo’s warning about the dangers of overzealous defense spending?)

Superman rejects Luther’s plan as the work of a diseased mind. (Thus, at this point, Superman is still naïve; he can’t fathom that someone with the intelligence required to actually implement such a scheme would take the time to plan it.)

Luther then tricks Superman into exposing himself to the kryptonite. Luther places it around Superman’s neck, smugly proclaiming, “Mind over muscle.”

Superman asks, “You don’t even care where the other missile is going, do you?”

Luther responds that he knows exactly where it’s headed: Hackensack, New Jersey. Miss Tessmacher interjects, “Lex, my mother lives in Hackensack.” Luther looks at his watch and wryly shakes his head no. (That’s my brother’s favorite part.)

With the missiles headed towards their targets, and Superman incapacitated by kryptonite, all seems lost.

* * *


Miss Tessmacher rescues Superman, but in order to save her mother, not millions of innocent people. It is clear that she is attracted to Superman but, like Lois, feels he is too good for her. Thus, Superman’s initial underestimation of Luther (which will not be repeated at the end of Superman II) is not fatal, not because of his super powers, but because of his integrity. It is this that inspires Miss Tessmacher to save him.

As Superman races to contain the damage wrought by the nuclear explosion, notice how efficient he is in deploying his powers. (E.g. he first fixes the San Andreas fault, he first turns off the power at the dam, and he uses boulders to stop the flood. These are all indirect uses of his powers. His primary weapon is his knowledge of how the world works.)

As Superman brings Luther and Otis to prison, he says to the warden, “These men should be safe here with you now, until they can get a fair trial.”

The warden says, “This country is safe again, Superman, thanks to you!”

Superman responds, “No sir, don’t thank me, Warden. We’re all part of the same team. ’Night.”

What a fantastic ending.

(At the end of the credits, notice the message, “Next Year: Superman II.”)

* * *


Unfortunately, I think that, once again, Puzo’s message was overlooked. People dismissed Superman as pure fantasy, unrelated to the “real world” where “everyone knows” truth and justice will never win. Sure, if you could fly and leap tall buildings in a single bound, adherenceto the principles you learned as a child would lead to success…

But that’s not Puzo’s moral, I don’t think. Do you know who today’s Superman is, the person who—once he stops worrying about the insults of people like Brad from the football team—can accomplish “superhuman” feats and vanquish evildoers?

That person is you. - Robert P. Murphy

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:04 AM

How To Fix Your Computer 

Lacking any scientific data, here are some wildly speculative claims based on nothing but scattered experience and observation: 73.4 percent of personal computers have adware/spyware running on them. Of those, 59.2 percent have hijacked browsers, 39.4 percent have dramatically reduced functionality as a result of adware, while fully 19% have been rendered utterly useless.

Yes, the data is made up entirely, and yet it seems to fit with what I've seen from computers in the barbershop, friends’ houses, immediate and extended family members, business associates, friends of friends, etc. If viruses were the threat from two years ago, it seems that adware is the issue of 2004–2005.

The costs are huge. It has affected millions of people and their web experience. People have spent thousands on computers only to find that they don't seem to live up to their promise. Most users have no clue about what to do about it, believing that only geeks can fix computers. This is really pathetic, even catastrophic.

In every case of computer malfunction that I've seen in the last six months, however, there is one solution that seems to resolve every existing problem and infallibly prevent all future problems (of the current sort).

For now, let's cut the blah blah and get to the download (XP users only): Microsoft Beta Antispyware. Or you can go here and pick the top download. There is a reason it is the top. It is the single most important software package to come out in a long time. It is absolutely essential for any computer user today. It will protect your investment against the most egregious threat on the internet today.

It will ask you whether you want to "validate" your copy of Windows. You can if you want to. But you don't have to. If you are running a bootleg copy or just don't want to bother turning your machine upside down to find out the validation number (a huge pain in the neck), you can blast right past that validation and get the program with no reduction in functionality. It's free.

This program will scan your entire computer and zap any and all adware. Just follow the instructions. Also, it will continue to run in the background and keep all adware at bay. It will update itself on its own. Meanwhile, you can remove any other anti-adware programs on your computer (Ad-Adware, Spybot, HiJackThis!, etc.). None come anywhere near the functionality of this MS program.

Even if you don't think you need it, it is smart to download it anyway. It is amazing that most users, and even many among the geek class, don't know about this. It is a fantastic piece of machinery, super advanced in every way. It is a quick download and a fast fix that solves most every problem. It is long past time for Microsoft to add it to its list of high priority updates. Word is that MS will make it part of the next edition of XP. Good, but there's no time to wait.

A few anecdotes. A friend of mine snagged a great laptop from Dell recently, but it became completely unusable in the course of one month. This program fixed everything that was wrong. The same happened at the local barbershop. So too with extended family’s computers. Students at work at the Mises Institute solved all their problems with this download.

How do you know if this nasty stuff it is on your machine? Sometimes your homepage changes. Sometimes you find that a strange search engine is your new default. You get the sense that something is running on your machine but you don't know what. You get regular popups even when you are not using your computer. You get strange error messages that you can't make heads nor tails out of.

If adware/spyware is on you machine, it doesn't suggest that you have done anything wrong. It doesn't mean that you have been using unsavory sites or going where you shouldn't. It does not mean that you are an idiot or that you don't know not to click on dumb pop ups. You can get this stuff through normal use.

The problem results from Microsoft itself, particular the myriad security holes in Internet Explorer, that big blue E on your desktop that most people think means: The Internet. More precisely, the problem is due to a class of commercial leaches who found holes in Internet Explorer and exploited them. Microsoft is at fault to the same extent that a homeowner without locks on the doors is responsible for robberies. As an institution, Microsoft underestimated the power of malice.

With MS Antispyware, however, we have a company finally coming up with the solution to a problem that it had created (more or less), which is all to the good if way too late. The program itself wasn't even MS's invention. It was created by a 2000 startup called Giant Software. MS acquired it in 2004 and unrolled its improved version of this masterpiece earlier this year. Word has spread slowly. I found out about it from the alert David Veksler.

If MS were somehow charging for this program, there might be some plausibility to the theory that MS is making bad software in order to profit from the fixes. But actually the whole theory that MS is the devil is just absurd. It has always been on the cutting edge in terms of end-user friendly environments, and that has often meant death from a thousand cuts. Of course, if MS could have stopped adware before it started, it would have done so.

MS has no more incentive to shut down computers than Honda has incentive to make cars that stop running. The world is an imperfect place, and innovation often comes at the price of imperfection. In any case, bygones can be bygones with this program. Its existence is a proof that the market is snappy and working, if only a bit behind schedule.

Now, this program prevents your use of Internet Explorer from disabling your machine. But if you want to get to the root of the problem, you have to address the problem of IE itself. That is where the Firefox comes in – another download that every savvy Windows user needs. But that is another subject for another day.

Right now, there are computers to save from certainly calamity. - Jeffrey Tucker Copyright © 2005 LewRockwell.com [See the Fair Use Notice, below.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:14 AM

Monday, May 23, 2005

The Unsolvable Math Problem [excerpt] 

George Bernard Dantzig, then a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, arrived late for a statistics class one day and found two problems written on the board. Not knowing they were examples of "unsolvable" statistics problems, he jotted them down and solved them as a homework assignment. (The equations Dantzig tackled are perhaps more accurately described not as unsolvable problems, but as unproved statistical theorems for which he worked out proofs.) He recounted his feat in a 1986 interview for College Mathematics Journal, and his published solutions can be found in the journal articles cited in the Sources section below.

George Dantzig was himself the son of a mathematician, and he received degrees from Maryland and the University of Michigan before completing his doctorate from the UC Berkeley in 1946. He later worked for the Air Force, joined the RAND Corporation as a research mathematician in 1952, became professor of operations research at Berkeley in 1960, and joined the faculty of Stanford University in 1966, where he taught and published as a professor of operations research until the 1990s. In 1975, Dr. Dantzig was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Gerald Ford .

George Dantzig passed away at his Stanford home at age 90 on 13 May 2005. -
Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2005 [See the Fair Use Notice, below.] (via Slashdot)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:06 AM

Three hours waiting in line surrounded by all sorts of nutjob Star Wars geeks... yeah, this was ripe for a video. (via Slashdot) Q: What's the difference between a line of costumed Star Wars fans entering the premiere of EpIII and a line of costumed cardinals entering the conclave to pick the new pope? A: The Star Wars line has a higher concentration of virgins. - sssmashy [/. post#12609913]

 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:13 AM

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Recollections and Reflections 

A while back, during the period that I do not update this humble blog, an old friend decided that he was to be married. To truly realize the gravity of this event, and to realize how old our friendship really is, it is to be declared here that I've know this guy even before I got to know the world. In some ways, being friends with him somehow shaped me in the sense of how I view the world today. He is one of my most trusted confidantes, and one of my oldest allies. We might not have gotten along sometimes, but minor squabbles like that comes with the territory of such friendship.

And so it came to be that, a while back, an old friend had decided to take a bride and build his life and future and everything else around her. We were all very happy for him. To say that we were all extremely happy for him is an understatement. There are times when words can do no justice in expressing certain things. Like how overwhelming and proud it is to attend your childhood friend's wedding.

Of course, there would be voices that would say that twenty three is too young to get married. I do not think any age is too young for marriage (alright, maybe the age of eight is too young. But you know what I mean). If you fall in love, then you fall in love. If you decide on matrimony, then you will marry. It is as simple as that. But let us leave that at that, because I am trying to recount the wedding of my childhood friend, and weddings are joyous and happy affairs far removed from the cynical world.

The wedding was wonderful, and that is an understatement. Everyone was there. The old guys came out of the woodwork and celebrated. For a while, old rivalries and misunderstandings were forgotten. For a while, the world could wait as my old friend witnessed the next phase of his life beginning. It was the wedding day of one of Us, and everything, from the guests to the decor to the grinning groom to the shy smile of the bride, was as it should be.

And as I witnessed the marriage of my old friend blossom, and as I see them sometimes walking hand-in-hand together in the afternoons after work these days, I realize that my old friend had found what it is that he lives for. He has found direction and he has found salvation and he is truly happy. I feel happy for him, I truly do. I know that their marriage will last forever, and they will have wonderful children (all of whom will be rather afraid of me, because I do not get along well with children).

As I write this and as I try to recollect all the events that had transpired prior, during and after the wedding, I too had come to the realization that at the end of the day, this is what we live for. A wedding, a marriage, a family. At the end of it all, these are the only things that matter.

Thank you. - Shahriman Latif

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:25 PM

How to get $100 off a vacuum 

I went into World Wide Appliances today ("A Retravision store like you've never seen before!", excepting it's the same as any other appliance shop) looking at Dyson vacuums to buy cos mine died a sad death after 15 years of solid vacuuming.

Anyway, the guy couldn't help but fall all over me trying to make a sale, and I noticed that he kept looking at my cleavage.

I was umming and ahhing about buying it, and was about to walk away, when he took a very VERY long look at my cleavage again and offered me $100 off the top model because "Me being a very nice {cleavage look again} person and all", making it cheaper than the model below, and far cheaper than any other stores offers.

Next time I go buy an appliance store I shall again wear the amazingly low v-necked mega cleavage purple top. The cost of it ($14) has made it value for money by far.

I didn't even wear it on purpose, but fancy that! - Squishi

posted by George Thomas Kysor 6:16 PM

Our own U.S. Army devised a plan commissioned by Congress to bring down the WTC using commercial airliners and box cutters as weapons. Alex Jones talks with Greg Szymanski of the American Free Press.
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:54 PM

The video where then Mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani admits to Peter Jennings that he got a warning that the South Tower was about to collapse.
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:32 PM

William E. Colby died April 28, 1996: 

Noreen N. Gosch [From page 283 of her book.] 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:44 AM

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Concept art from Episode III hints at the wonder within the trilogy. All images © & ™ Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. [See the Fair Use Notice, below.] Digital work by ILM. Artwork by Ryan Church.
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 6:06 PM

HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT BLOG 

If you are an adult, and you want to help your teenager academically, start a blog site of your own. Learn how to do this. Then teach your child how to do it.

If I still had teenagers at home, I would require them to create a blog site. As to what kind, it would not matter. The best way to improve your ability to write is to write.

A wise student would not use the site as a "dear diary" site, which is what most teenage blog sites seem to be. I would explain to my children that their site could become a tool for impressing college admissions committees. This requires an academic focus: some narrow niche in which a student develops real expertise.

Maybe the site could be a current events site. It could be a hobby site. It could be a research site. The point is, the self-discipline required to design and maintain a blog site pays off over years of effort. A blogger’s writing skills improve.

Did you know that colleges offer credit for students’ high school specialized projects that prove that the student knows something of value at a college level? These are called "portfolio" courses. I know of one 18-year-old who earned his bachelor’s degree from an accredited college in six months for $5,000 by doing nothing but taking CLEP exams ($50 each) and writing portfolio course manuals. He got into the college graduates’ job market three and a half years early: figure $40,000 a year extra income. I have written a manual on how to do this: seven loopholes. One of the loopholes that I recommend is the one he used, which I discuss in detail. Families can save anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 (after tax money) if their children adopt one or more of these loopholes. - Gary North

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:59 PM

Video (via Gary North) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:26 PM

Organic Trade Association video (via JAMES TARANTO)  

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:45 AM

Drink Review-Lambrusco 

Shortly after reading an enchanting article by Toby Cecchini in The New York Times Style Magazine from 2004, I was on a mission to find and sample the very subject of the piece, lambrusco.

The author's words were inspiring.

"With my first taste, all became clear. The spritz in the dry red wine was shocking. The astounding freshness of the fruit and the teeth-grinding tannins were like nothing I had ever tasted. The sensation was most accurately captured by my wife, who exclaimed, 'It's like yummy red-wine soda!'"

And, in a large land with a tiny possibility of finding something so unusual, my quest began. Actually, it was a short quest as there are only two large liquor chains in this city of 250,000: Brown Jug and Liquor & More. Between the two, Brown Jug had the most alcohol selections and even carried such rarities up here as black Sambuca and Chartruese ($55.00 a bottle!). An impressive wine selection, too, alas not a lambrusco in the cellar.

I had nearly given up hope until L and I snuck a peak in the tiny liquor store in Fred Meyer-Diamond. There, Lambrusco! Then, a horrifying discovery. It was made by Riunite. It could not be tantamount to any of the ten varities the author tippled whilst in Venice. Yet, curiosity and a price tag under seven dollars made me purchase the bottle.

Unlike Cecchini, the experience did not make me an instant convert. I remembered the Riunite jingle from the 1980's, "Riunite on ice. So nice." This lambrusco wasn't so nice. It was too sweet and reminiscent of Bartles & James wine coolers that I swigged many of as a teenager. Riunite's core market for its lambrusco may in fact be teenage girls and college coeds. It has an undeniable "I am, like, soooo drunk" component to it and is a shaky step up from Boone's and Cisco.

My recommendation for those interested in quaffing a lambrusco is to wait until you're in a quaint tavern in Venice or a fine Italian establishment on the east coast.

Or, if you're a female under twenty-one, twist the cap off a bottle of Riunite tonight! Par-tay! - kimasho

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:18 AM

Friday, May 20, 2005

Alzheimer's Clinical Trials 

There's a new experimental drug that's showing promise in the battle against Alzheimer's.
It's different than what's currently available on the market. It's a drug that treats the disease, rather than the symptoms.
This is a national clinical trial that hopes to enroll 750 patients. If you have a loved one you think might qualify for this study, call (401) 435-8950 or visit the Rhode Island Mood and Memory Research Institute at www.rimmri.com.
To find out more about Flurizan, go to the manufacturer's website at www.myriad.com. (via NBC4 [Southern California] News)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 4:31 PM

Japan's experiment in monetary policy... 

[...explained in] an article by Richard Duncan:

In early 2002, America's system of imperial finance faced a challenge. The U.S. seemed to be sinking into Japanese-style deflation. The NASDAQ had lost 70% of its value. The homeland economy was in recession. The Fed was alarmed. It knew how to fight inflation; it could raise interest rates over 100% if it wanted to. But it knew no easy remedy for deflation. The Bank of Japan had tried the usual elixirs. Overnight money was free in Japan. Two-year loans could be had at 1/10th of 1% interest rate. Plus, the government had put into action so many public works programs that nearly half the country was already under concrete.

But the Bank of Alan Greenspan had a solution. Fed Governor Ben Bernanke proposed "global cooperation" in a November speech. Then, in May of 2003, he went to Japan urging concerted action. The Fed was prepared to sacrifice the solvency of American consumers, he told the Japanese. Tax cuts and low interest rates could still induce them to buy things they didn't need with money they didn't have. But Japan had to help hold down U.S. interest rates - by buying up dollars and dollar-denominated assets, notably U.S. Treasury bonds.

What happened next, according to Mr. Duncan:

"In 2003 and the first quarter of 2004, Japan carried out a remarkable experiment in monetary policy - remarkable in the impact it had on the global economy and equally remarkable in that it went almost entirely unnoticed in the financial press. Over those 15 months, monetary authorities in Japan created ¥35 trillion. To put that into perspective, ¥35 trillion is approximately 1% of the world's annual economic output. It is roughly the size of Japan's annual tax revenue base or nearly as large as the loan book of UFJ, one of Japan's four largest banks. ¥35 trillion amounts to the equivalent of $2,500 for every person in Japan and, in fact, would amount to $50 per person if distributed equally among the entire population of the planet. In short, it was money creation on a scale never before attempted during peacetime."

Why did the Japanese create so much money? Because they needed to buy from their citizens the dollars they had accumulated by selling things to Americans. Had they not done so, their currency would have gone up - making their products less competitive on the U.S. market. Had they not done so, the dollar would have fallen much further against other currencies. Had they not done so, the Japanese would not have had the dollars to buy U.S. Treasury bonds. And had they not bought so many of them U.S. interest rates would have risen...consumers would have had less money to spend...and probably the whole world would have had an economic crisis.

"Intentionally or otherwise," Duncan continues, "by creating and lending the equivalent of $320 billion to the United States, the Bank of Japan and the Japanese Ministry of Finance counteracted a private sector run on the dollar and, at the same time, financed the U.S. tax cuts that reflated the global economy, all this while holding U.S. long bond yields down near historically low levels.

"In 2004, the global economy grew at the fastest rate in 30 years. Money creation by the Bank of Japan on an unprecedented scale was perhaps the most important factor responsible for that growth. In fact, ¥35 trillion could have made the difference between global reflation and global deflation. How odd that it went unnoticed." - The Daily Reckoning

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:59 PM

No Way Jim, Uh-Uh, Don't Blame Me 

I can't believe the number of people who were upset with me, because I said we all share some of the responsibility for Bush's War on terrorism.

Many people said they knew all along the war was wrong, so they have no blood on their hands. Others said because they didn't vote for George, they couldn't be held responsible, but those on the Religious Right are.

Some people wrote that the blood on their hands and on Bush's hands was a badge of honor to cherish. Others said all the blood was on Osama's hands, because he started the war.

Others blame the American Soldiers and said they should have refused to fight.

I know George Bush takes responsibility and that is one of the only things I respect him for. George has said on the record, with a note of pride, that he is a War President.

People who sit on the sidelines and say they didn't vote for George or that they knew all along this War was wrong and therefore they take no blame are cowards. Those that put the blame on the Troops are worse.

Very few in America have risked anything in trying to stop the killing we are doing in the Middle East. Our news media have done everything they could to shield the American public from the realities of war. Most Americans can live their lives like this War isn't even happening. Out of sight, out of mind.

I have to wonder what these people will say on Judgment Day. All Americans have benefited from our War economy. Millions of us make money, either directly or indirectly from our government killing people in foreign lands.

Lots of Americans have their jobs, because we have a War going on. Yes, we all know about the Merchants of Death, who make billions off the Military Industrial Complex and they are nice to have around to blame, but it takes millions and millions of Americans to supply our War machine.

We as Americans have a collective guilt in the killing of babies in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reports differ, but they all say we have killed tens of thousands of innocent people in Bush's War on Terror. To the rest of the world it is America's War on Terror and we are all Americans. If we felt that what our government was doing was wrong, then the world thinks we wouldn't have re-elected George Bush.

Sorry to say this, but every American is now painted with the same brush by the rest of the world. Maybe when the time comes, you will be able to honestly tell Jesus that you had nothing to do with America's killing and that no way did you benefit from all the death and destruction the United States Armed Forces reined down on the world. I hope you can, I know I can't. I live here in America, better than almost anyone else lives on this planet. I was blessed to be born here. I thank God every day I am not living on two dollars a day like billions of humans are. If like me, you live the good life, in the United States, then you too are benefiting from our nation's killing. So, for me, I have to ask for God's forgiveness and keep trying to stop Washington's madness. Maybe you can say, "not me."

I wish I could - James Glaser

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:30 PM

Flyer 

So we've put together a flyer that draws on themes from the Revenge of the Sith story to explain the very real threat to democracy posed by the nuclear option. Any chance you can take half an hour tonight or tomorrow to pass out some of these flyers to folks in line at your local theater? - MovOn Pac (via Drudge)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:27 AM

TV political ad 

This week, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith opens in theaters nation-wide. And weirdly enough, the plot of what will undoubtedly be one of the biggest films in movie history revolves around a scheming senator who, seduced by visions of absolute power, transforms a democratic republic into an empire. - MovOn Pac (via Drudge)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:00 AM

The Pythagorean Theorem Explained in a slide show by Pat Brummet. (via Jorge)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:16 AM

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Road Rage In Los Angeles 

Secretly, everyone wants to believe that the shootings have been motivated by violations, however slight, of automotive honor. That would leave the rest of us on our best behavior, which is pretty much where we already are.

What we really fear is that they are genuinely unmotivated. If that is true, then suddenly we all live in a very different neighborhood. - Verlyn Klinkenborg (via pyrus)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:08 PM

Longhorn 5048 Disappoints 

Microsoft insider Paul Thurott has posted a review of Windows Longhorn Build 5048 on his WinSuperSite. His negative rating (1/5 stars) about the latest semi-public version of Microsoft's upcoming OS might be a bit shocking at first, but then becomes very understandable after reading his complete report. Make sure not to miss a single word, as the text provides a mass of interesting facts about the latest developments and the achieved results so far. - Cyrano

posted by George Thomas Kysor 4:31 PM

From a lawsuit filed by four British former inmates at Gitmo:
78. On various occasions, Plaintiffs' efforts to pray were banned or interrupted. Plaintiffs were never given prayer mats and did not initially receive copies of the Koran. Korans were provided to them after approximately a month. On one occasion, a guard in Plaintiff Ahmed's cellblock noticed a copy of the Koran on the floor and kicked it. On another occasion, a guard threw a copy of the Koran in a toilet bucket. Detainees, including Plaintiffs, were also at times prevented from calling out the call to prayer, with American soldiers either silencing the person who was issuing the prayer call or playing loud music to drown out the call to prayer. This was part of a continuing pattern of disrespect and contempt for Plaintiffs' religious beliefs and practices. (via Andrew Sullivan)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 4:06 PM

Yes, that is an alligator. Yes, those are butterflies on its head. Yes, I took this picture with my camera from a raft 15 feet away. - Michael Wang
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:35 PM

The thighbone's connected to the hipbone... 

We begin in the beginning.

Each day we read the news and try to make sense of it. We connect the thighbone of bond yields... to the hipbone of Asian purchases of U.S. bonds...to the vertebra of credit expansion. And then we stand back and wonder: what kind of monster is this? It has such a strange, Frankensteinian look to it.

The world's richest, most powerful country depends on the savings of the world's poorest. The world's most dynamic, flexible economy offers its money at negative real interest rates...and is afraid to "normalize" them for fear the whole thing will collapse. Americans buy what they cannot really afford...and the Chinese build factories to produce what their principal customers don't have the money to buy. And the whole world economy advances - apparently - only so long as house prices in America continue to rise at three to five times nominal inflation and an infinite multiple of household income, which went backwards in 2004.

Whatever it may be, this is no ordinary expansion. It has a hunchback and two clubfeet. Jobs that ought to exist don't. Income that should be helping consumers to spend isn't there. Savings that are vitally important to economic growth have disappeared.

We look at the body parts - the Dow, the latest employment numbers, CPI rates, and so forth - every day. But most of what we read is "noise" - meaningless distractions. The news items only makes sense when we connect them to the spine. The best way to understand America's tortured economic predicament is to look upon it as a system of imperial finance. America is an odd and reluctant empire. Its body parts fit together, but only in an absurd and comic way; it's the imperial backbone that gives it shape.

Only an empire can run such a trade deficit for many years. Only an empire can maintain so many expensive outposts all over the world. Only imperial money will be accepted by so many people in so many different places.

As to whether it is a good idea to have an empire...we have no opinion. We figure there is not much we can do about it anyway. We can't do anything about the weather either. Still, it doesn't hurt to look out the window before you go on a picnic.

An empire sets the trends in fashion, arts, style and manners - but it neglects engineering, science, and homeland-bound industries. An empire depends on the periphery states for its savings, its consumer goods...and eventually, its soldiers and administrators. As an empire matures, its center weakens and its backbone bends under the weight. Eventually it either passes off its imperial burden to a friendly power to which it becomes beholden - as England did to America between 1917 and 1950 - or its back breaks. When it breaks, we don't know. How it breaks, we don't know either.

All we know, dear reader, is that it is a spine that invites a shiver. - The Daily Reckoning

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:15 PM

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

20 Reasons We'd Be Richer in a Free Society 

All too often, proponents of libertarianism and anarchism resign themselves to the notion that living individually as an anarchist carries all the benefits anarchism has to offer. If you disagree with a law, they say, simply break it; if you believe something is right, they advise, do it; if you believe something is wrong, they tell me, simply refrain from it. How could anything be easier? All this talk of revolution or reform, they say, is futile and exhausting--why can't you just live free and forget about changing the world?

Because I am too greedy. I can only imagine what a truly free society would be like, but I highly suspect (as do we all, I'd imagine) that it would be an unprecedented improvement on the human condition. I can imagine it based on how much richer we would be were the government (and to some extent, the collectivist tendency in society in general) to cease its sapping of our wealth from us.

Originally meaning to collect five ways we profit from the chains of oppression being lifted, I inadvertently hammered out twenty. These are all based on the premise of a free society that includes complete personal and economic freedom, justice, civil equality, and a defensive military policy. The central belief at play here: freeing people decreases the amount of effort needed to produce wealth and plenty, and thus the standard of living increases.

1. No Taxes. With the government gone and its useful services shifted to the private sector, the age of taxation will be at an end. No estate tax to tear up family homes and businesses after a patriarch's death, no property tax to milk landowners of their livelihood even if they don’t happen to turn a large enough profit, no sales tax to stifle commerce, no tariffs, no state or local tax, no FICA, no social security, and best of all, no income tax to invade our privacy. Most people are unaware just how often the government sneaks a tax into the market. Most companies pay taxes on the raw materials, the manufacture, the distribution, and the sales of their products. Then they pay excise taxes afterwards. It would be conservative to guess that the products available on the market would cost half as much each. Businesses can use their tax rebate to invest further in their industries, driving down prices and creating jobs. No skin off our backs if they just keep it to buy yachts (which still works its way back to the little guy), nor if they cram it all into banks, which would then increase in loaning power. Though corporations and the rich pay the largest percentage of the taxes, their products or services would cost less in taxation's absence.

2. Deregulation of Business. No more licensing; no more anti-trust law; safety and ergonomic concerns handled by private consumer advocacy groups; growth uninhibited, trust unchecked, all in the absence of government favors equals a mass of private businesses competing to stay afloat by satisfying their consumer base. And the entrepreneurial spirit would get a booster shot when the stacks and stacks of restrictions against her disappear in a puff of smoke. Think of the harm licensing alone has done to the fields of medicine, of law, of taxi driving! Every time someone refrained from offering car rides in exchange for money for fear of prosecution, licensing harmed the economy. Every time someone didn't start a small business because the paperwork is too consuming, licensing harmed the economy. Imagine being able to start a business in a day, or run any two or ten businesses out of your home. How could the corporate giants survive when no one needs permission to start their own business? Probably the main reason this item is so important is because business regulation is the robber baron’s chief weapon for accumulating wealth. Take it away, and mere economies of scale won’t be enough for the rich to survive in the rising sea of middle class.

3. No More Lobbying. The actual governing body would be gone. Why, then, would we need to spend any money on elections? On political campaigns? On maintaining government buildings? On lobbying? Forget McCain-Feingold, this puts an end to finance reform debates by eliminating the payoff for contributions. This applies not only in the strict sense of lobbying, but also for campaign finance and whatever else the rich might spend on government favors. Special interests will have to spend their soft money elsewhere: on research, public relations, advertising, or (gasp!) jobs and manufacturing! This was money that was previously going directly into the pockets of politicians. What we know is that corporations were willing to give enough money in direct proportion to either how necessary the presence of government made contributions, or how much less the corporations wanted to depend on the support of the consumer. Contributions as a social factor would therefore hardly be missed. This would mark, in certain sense, the end of politics.

4. Global Nonintervention. Whatever form private or voluntary defense might take (if any at all), its very market model wouldn’t allow for very much international intervention. Our boys would come home and only be dispatched to protect the borders, possibly remaining in their hometowns in peacetime. Slash the military budget to one-fiftieth its current size, and rely on the U.S.'s economic dominance of the world to only increase, at least until other nations wise up and mimic our policies. But that’s not where the big savings come in: as a neutral and defensive nation, our chances of being involved in a war drop to nearly nil. Look at neutral Switzerland, known for its stable banks throughout the world, thanks in no small part to their unwillingness to fight in the world wars. Plus, no one lives in fear of the draft. There’s nothing like the security of peace to stimulate free enterprise. If we have the most peaceful and protected nation on the Earth, the rush to get here will be even greater- and the rush to emulate us equally great. And the economic nonintervention means that foreign aid must go private or cease: no U.N. or NATO dues to shell out, no health-care for Ugandans, no technology grants for Pacific Islanders. Foreign nations, unable to drain our wealth as they once did, are faced with either differentiating from us or mimicking our policies. They’ll either learn to take care of themselves, developing capitalist hubs of their own, or continue to provide cheap labor for the free global market. The labor, however, isn’t really so cheap: considering tariffs and foreign government regulations, as well as the tendency of third world dictators to nationalize successful business ventures, investors have an incentive to spread freedom worldwide.

5. Revamped Protection Industry. The police state, once it becomes run for profit, will dismantle itself into a service aimed at protecting the vulnerable. Incompetent protection will rapidly be replaced by legal experts and sharpshooters. Poor neighborhoods and minorities, once the targets of government profiling and harassment, can expect an end to police brutality when their relationship to cops changes from “civilian” to “client.” Property that’s insured by physical protection is an overall greater investment, since its odds of being damaged or stolen drop. A company that funds its own physical protection can have a greater assurance that their property will be secured, and price its products accordingly. This system might employ more officers than our current system, it might employ less. Either way, protection is a field into which anyone could enter, and the five items below should help to expand freedom and drop the price of patrols even further.

6. End of the Drug War. This should be four topics in itself. First, the prisons and courts would be emptied of all those casual drug users that weren’t hurting anyone, leaving more room for the violent criminals and thieves. And the prisons are chock-full of drug offenders. If the justice system would focus on real crimes, I'd sleep better at night. Second, those peaceful users (among other victimless criminals, see #10) are free to go home and reenter the world, often having acquired some marketable business skills during their arduous journeys. Even if they haven’t, that means more free citizens, meaning more opportunities to increase the nation’s production. Third, 50% of all crime is drug trade related, so with decriminalization goes the need for 50% of the police force, and a large chunk of court costs, to boot. This will contribute further to the “security of peace” factor mentioned above, since gang warfare and the like will have evaporated. Authorities who once based most of their distrust of the general population on suspicion of drug ties would have far less reason to suspect anyone of anything. Finally, when it comes to black market drugs, the quality is low and the risk and price are high. An element so high-risk is detrimental to the wealth of any society, as its citizens spend lumps of cash to buy sub-par, potentially fatal, highly addictive substances. Such would level out with legalization, as reputable companies would manufacture, market and sell these drugs to peaceful customers at prices based on cost of production alone, diluting the health risk and reducing addictiveness more with every new development. Drug addiction itself would be safe, not much more severe than alcoholism, and the same people as before would be doing it, making for overall less death and drug-induced crime.

7. Right to Bear Arms. The 50% mentioned above aside, most of the money that goes into the public police system is still a waste, as cops usually arrive ten minutes after the perpetrator has left the scene of the crime. And what’s more, an even better means of deterring crime is already on the books (history books) and doesn’t cost a penny! All together now: the 2nd Amendment. Though often treated as the red-headed stepchild of the Bill of Rights family, there was a time not long ago when “shall not be infringed” meant “shall not be infringed.” Criminals didn’t have any way to know which household or pedestrian had a gun and which didn’t--they all could! A citizen of a gun-bearing nation doesn’t even have to pack heat: she could be a free rider, as it were. Scared criminals mean quiet streets. And that means peace. As mentioned above in #’s 4, 5 and 6, peace allows prosperity. Peace drives down liability, which in turn drives down production and insurance costs. But more directly, there will simply be less vandalism and theft, due to the fear in the criminal element. With the elimination of criminal life as an option, the poor will simply have to get actual, productive jobs, which increases the overall product output.

8. Unraveling of the Legal Labyrinth. Between victimless crime trials, unfortunate legal loopholes, and warehouses full of contradictory procedure, the legal system has degenerated into a machine for incubating lawyers. It’s overcrowded, packed with overlong trials with overcomplicated repercussions. The necessary complexity of law is harsh enough without having to deal with the mess that has formed an entire industry of waste. Stripping away tax laws, victimless crime laws, business regulation and property ambivalence leads to millions, likely billions saved every year. And the phrase “ignorance of the law is no excuse” will once again have meaning, when the entire body of basic law can be taught to children in elementary school, starting with the Non-Aggression Principle. Companies will spend less on legal defense, unless of course they’re currently enjoying government-sponsored immunity. And visualize freed justice: when judges have to be fair or lose business, when both the defendant and plaintiff pay equal amounts for services, when the intimacy between legal representation and money is shattered, justice is truly blind. The best result of this? Imagine a nation where being a lawyer doesn’t really pay well! All that money spent on lawyers by big corporations would now rest in the hands of the new middle class industrialists.

9. Restitution. Gosh, what if criminals actually bore their own cost on society? People can be even more secure in their possessions when every trial is a civil trial, meaning every transgression results in reparation. Instead of holding people in prison as punishment, they actually get to work to pay back those that they wronged. The prison system (or labor camps, or neither) won’t create new criminals out of one-time offenders when it’s run privately and for a profit. You pay your debt to your victim and go free. Could someone live in a prison and work enough to support that prison, as well as pay off his victims eventually? In other words, could someone live off of only a small fraction of the fruits of his labor? I think we already know, from firsthand experience, that one can.

10. Introduction of Previously Illegal Industries. Imagine a cocaine corner store, a prostitute’s union, a pharmacy/casino, all the Cuban cigars you can smoke, insider trading... the list is too long to be dictated here. Rest assured, the jobs created by whole new industries (even regionally new, as with gambling or lotteries) would be plentiful, keeping the poor off the street. When one’s spending options broaden, the value of the dollar is greater. Still, I’m tempted to consider this a minor addition to the economy. But don’t get me started on the advent of fusion power.

11. Deregulation of Employment. An exciting prospect. As things are now, society sees employment as somewhat of a right. Businessmen are coerced into hiring a certain number of people for a specified number of hours for a specified amount of money, with all these tacked-on regulations on top of it. The opposite wasn’t too pleasant, either: unionization could get you thrown in jail or hung during the days of big business protection law. With laissez-faire employment and union policy, the very freedom to unite would be enough for employers to keep employment fair. A union could be formed in a day. The other complication here is that some advocates of the right to work don’t want fair, they want 100% employment, all above minimum wage, with a cute little blend of races for flavor. In a free society, employment and payment are based on my value brought to the market. If racists and slave-drivers want to employ all Aryans or pay a nickel a day, they can feel free, but they shouldn’t be too shocked when their employees all move to less hostile work environments. This may prove to be one of the more important item on the list, especially considering the likelihood that the constant labor shortage in a free market would mean that unions might disappear forever.

12. Privatization of Charity. Corporate welfare, regular welfare, farming subsidies, public schooling, food stamps, social security… poof! The government is hereby banned from the Robin Hood business. Those truly unfortunate folks who haven’t the option of working to earn a living won’t have to share the generosity of the nation with moochers anymore. The lazy will have to get jobs or beg. If we’re to become merely ten times as rich as we are now, the average person lives the standard of living of someone with $300,000. The minimum it takes to survive with a small home, food, water, clothes, and medicine, I’d theorize, is roughly $5,000 per year. Let’s also assume that a huge number, say one-tenth, of all people in a society are incapable of earning any money on their own and must live off of charity. This means that the average person would need to give $500, in other words 1/600 their annual income, to charity. This would be the equivalent of giving $50 now, which through clothing and soup-can donations, as well as quarters or meals to folks on the street, many of us already do in a year. In reality, much more than 9/10 the population is capable of work, and people are far more charitable than that. But more to the point, the privatization of charity marks the very essence of a free society, namely the complete destruction of the welfare state. The downtrodden in a free society must live with their hands perpetually covering their ears to believe they can’t find work, since a laissez-faire society would have a perpetual labor shortage. The Communist Manifesto declares “to each according to his need, from each according to his ability.” In other words, give as much as you’re capable, get as much as we decide you deserve. In such a system the biggest slice of cheese goes to the person who proves the most needy. The spirit of competition amongst men doesn’t disappear; people simply compete to be the neediest, and even worse, compete to be the least productive. In such a system, the productive class holds on by a thread, allowed to exist at all by the courtesy of the state. In a free society, the roles are reversed. And the more people are working, even if it’s only a little bit, the higher the overall productive output.

13. Liberal Research and Experimentation. The other candidate for the most potent result of a freed society is the new dynamic that would be present in the world of science and research. We as a world community can already see how technology soars in the scientifically liberal U.S. versus more regulated nations. Now imagine they had no bars against their research! Sans patent protection, anyone is free to improve on someone else’s discovery. And with the more even distribution of wealth, most ambitious people would already have enough money to fund their own research. Rather than a handful of well-funded corporate and university laboratories acting as gatekeepers, we’d have a nation of middle-class amateur scientists and innovators. Safer drugs, cheaper technology, limb and organ harvesting, faster computers, more integrated communication technology, cancer cures, cloning and genetic engineering, satellite cities, rocket engines, nanotechnology, risky surgical procedures... all more likely in an open forum of experimentation. The technology sector creates wealth at an exponential rate, as well, and obsolete technology becomes available for integration into the poor community. As technology develops faster and faster, obsolescence will occur equally rapidly, providing the middle class and poor with more and more goods within their purchasing power.

14. Freed Education. We’ll hear a collective hiss when the tubes pop loose from their fixations on the crania of the nation’s children. Once freed, education will follow a free-market model of diversification: kids can go to other schools, experimental schools, get schooled at home--an actual market dynamic that eventually lead to increased competition, and as a result, pumps out a productive class of students no public school could ever boast. The gifted could be showered with stimulation, and the very science of finding the gifted and talented could be sharpened. The specifically talented could learn of their talents early on, so that they could pursue that talent to its fullest extent. As for the average student, they could benefit from education being cheaper and more liberal (in the classical sense), without pro-state propaganda. But teaching children only about the field in which they are talented would be problematic, especially if that field becomes obsolete in the future; hence, a market for a well-rounded (and exciting) education. Colleges, already eager for students with specific talents and well-rounded educations, could provide general education with its measuring stick of achievement; the question then becomes, "Which school prepares kids for college the best?" The fact that parents aren’t required to send their children to school would lead to even more competition through higher quality. If private schooling actually does improve our overall education, and successfully focuses on the cultivation of talent, then obviously we would be that much more productive.

15. No Public Property. When all the land in the country becomes part of the real estate market, the supply of land available for purchase will skyrocket. City and county public property, which has suffered the tragedy of the commons, will enjoy a rapid 180 when private business takes over. And as for the miles of state and federal land (one third of all US land is federally owned, who knows how much is owned by the state, county, and city governments), its privatization will send the overall value of land down a bit, which is good for the middle class and poor; when the government owns half the property available, only the rich can afford the rest. Not only that, more land means more opportunity for development. Or to take a more environmental approach, all of the leftists of the world could homestead as much of the parkland as they can get to (or have it given as a gift to leftist groups from the departing EPA) and make it a private park. This could give them a quick lesson in the tragedy of the commons if they chose not to charge admission at first! Not only that, even if industry did get to the protected lands, none of their pollution could ever be allowed to seep onto our land. No government means no imminent domain, so no one will be authorizing damage to property by polluting companies. And if our nature preserves actually began to dissipate, the value of the remaining nature supply would rise in proportion. The last acre of rainforest (God forbid) would likely be the most valuable land on Earth, especially if a court of law concludes a connection between the rainforests and the world oxygen supply or temperature or whatever.

16. No Competition From “Government Industries.” The idea of a government industry would be dead. No more highway-builders. No more Postal Service. No more city garbage. No state lottery. In a free society, anything that the government attempts to market against the private market model would quickly perish, dragging the last vestiges of government down with it (so what?). In areas where the government provides services, it also drafts laws that prevent private business from interfering in the market too much. Plus, government businesses are usually subsidized by taxes. Thus, with the elimination of government business from every market, a more profit-driven system, and therefore a more efficient and effective system, would replace it. Many of these previous government industries were monopolies with a huge impact on our way of life, such as the energy industry, waste disposal, street-building, and certain communications, so when these high-impact industries go private, the industries themselves, and ultimately the consumers, will benefit.

17. Opened Borders. Productivity comes in, the lazy move to Europe. Talk about increasing the overall productive output: besides the positive effects of global expansion, the opportunists of the world will be scrambling to get in even more than they do now! And let them come! When hardworking, gifted and talented foreigners come in, they put the unproductive out of work, or at least into lower-paying jobs. And citizens in a free society enjoy global free trade: regardless of a foreign government’s policy, anyone in this country can trade with any foreigner. No, this isn’t the U.S. stealing value from the world to use for itself--these are people who could not have had their full values realized in their home countries due to regulation or oppression. The world benefits from the productive being free. Plus, historical precedent shows us how open economies have helped to extinguish racism: in markets where blacks, whites, Asians, Jews, Arabs, gays, handicapped all trade freely, tolerance abounds, as he who is most colorblind walks home with the winnings. This works in tandem with #4 in freeing the world, in the same way deregulation works in tandem with the end of welfare. Imagine where the great empire of China would be today if only they hadn’t ceased their explorations of and trade with the world 500 years ago!

18. Private Currency. With the complete separation of economy and state comes not only the end of the Federal Reserve, but the end of government currency altogether. And the most likely replacement for fiat currency would be old reliable gold, though other forms of currency might prove more practical. Gold is valued pretty much everywhere, so whatever private currency is backed by it would be reinforced by the world economy. The reliability of the gold supply, silver supply, oil supply, wheat supply, or lumber supply would effectively curb inflation, as the annual increase in the gold supply is miniscule compared to that of fiat money. In fact, it might be better to base a currency on bundles of commodities rather than gold, since a strict gold standard could lead to deflation, as the nation’s production capacity grows faster than the gold supply (that would mean that gold savings would actually increase in value over time, encouraging people to save their earnings rather than spend it). And as the prospect of gold-duplicating technology looms closer and closer (a common caveat against the gold standard in these technophobic times), the market could be gradually weaned off of gold altogether, since people aren’t required by any governing body to trade with this commodity more than that one. Perhaps we could maintain several different standards of currency, to diminish the risk of devaluation. Such is the advantage of a laissez-faire coin base. And the more stable a coin base, the more willing people might be in investing in it, increasing its value immediately. A similar dynamic will be at work with standards of measurement and language: neither will be forced on anyone, so both are open to evolution.

19. Absolute Right to Homestead. Considering how much real estate out there we have yet to take advantage of, the privatization of public property will be small potatoes in a few more decades. Consider private space exploration: though flighty, I’ll admit, I shouldn’t have to waste words explaining. The governments of the US and Russia like to keep their duopoly on space travel to themselves, thank you kindly. But private space exploration means more minerals to mine; more real estate, here and “abroad”; more places for the rich to go on vacation; more land to colonize; and to throw another bone to the environmentalists out there, another chance to save those spotted owls, since mankind’s expansion into the solar system means more prestige and nostalgia for the natural treasure of our home planet. At the very least we can mine rock off the moon for souvenirs, as even the government has proven capable. And think of the effects possible in our lifetime: prospecting (with probes and telescopes), construction of the rocket engines, manufacture of the space travel equipment, maybe even expanded media programming based on acute public interest (NASA was a hell of a fundraiser in the 60’s and 70’s). Furthermore, real estate doesn’t have to move up; we could just as easily drill into the earth, perhaps constructing whole subterranean cities cradled in the bedrock. What about life on, in, or under the ocean? The technology we had 100 years ago could accommodate a boat community or artificial island. Look at our offshore drilling facilities. Don’t forget the miles and miles of wasteland in Antarctica, South America, North America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and even Europe. And homesteading rights have political benefits: if I’m an environmentalists and I find fault in oil companies polluting the land around them, I can build a home next to one of their rigs and sue them for every trespass they happen to make.

20. Stability. This last is hardest to prove, but listed nonetheless. And while most of the rest of the items on this list require only a repeal of certain government practices, this item along with item #3 require the guarantee of somewhat permanent repeal of government coercion. With the intricate network of financing going on in a free economy, in the absence of government safety nets, coupled with basic supply and demand and an uninflatable exchange medium, the chances of a regional or national crisis should drop considerably. The “private safety net” would manifest in a society that’s more invested, more insured, more considerate of the dangers and probability of disaster, and more advanced in the area of tort law, be it in the form of health insurance, life insurance, disaster insurance, liability insurance, consumer unions, labor unions, whatever. The effect would be multiplicative. Companies, faced with a smaller portion of their budget dedicated to cushioning emergencies and disasters, could afford to charge less for products and services. California would never come near having rolling blackouts with the market seething with opportunistic fervor to sign on to new customers and build power plants as fast as possible. The stock market could never crash without the money supply being artificially inflated. Even if this is an exaggeration (which it may well be, considering we’ve never seen a fully free society in history), at the very least the nation’s ability to contain crisis once it starts will be much greater, thanks to the real-time reactions of the dynamic market. And we are richer for it because, as a rule, the full value lost in most crises can never be truly recovered--pretty fundamental to economics--making stability a welcome proposition. The old proverb states: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound off cure.” Who knows how much richer the nation and world would be if it could heartily slough off and survive its earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, stock market crashes, recessions, World Wars (even the repercussions of neutrality), the Depression, the energy crises...the whole Cold War?

Before you tell me again that I should be content living free in an unfree world, try to consider just how much you are asking me to give up. - Ray Daugherty

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:30 PM

A Long and Short Year 

It seems hard for me to believe that Charmaine died a year ago this Sunday. Some days when I am working outside, I could believe she is in the house and at any moment she will be walking out with a cup of coffee for me and I will take a break. It doesn't happen and I have a time of sadness. Other times I will feel like she is there with me and I feel good all over.

About the only blessing that I can think of with her death, is that she was ready to die. She chose to go into the Hospice Program and she had no doubt about where she was going after she left her body and that gave her a lot of peace. I can feel good about that too, but some how I still feel cheated, because she isn't here with me.

I was cleaning out Charmaine's favorite flower garden today and I can remember her talking to those flowers and how mad she would get if the deer got in there. One year she used a couple spools of fishing line and fenced in the whole thing. It looked dreadful, but every flower bloomed out. Last year I never touched that garden and the flowers looked the best they ever did and the deer left it alone.

Last spring, I never did get the yard cleaned up and last fall I was trying to learn how to walk again after my accident, so this spring there were a couple years of yard debris to get rid of. It is starting to get dry here and I thought I better call the DNR and see if it would be all right if I burned leaves in a container. I was told, "Absolutely not" and the forester told me that they had planes up looking for smoke and if they saw mine and called him, he would have to ticket me. I told him I understood.

So, I am bagging the leaves in some huge paper bags the hardware store sells and putting them behind the workshop and will probably add them to the compost pile as I put in green grass clippings and cuttings from the garden.

We haven't had a spring rain yet and it is close to bone dry, but the weeds are flourishing. If the ground was soggy from rain they would be easy to pull and now is the time to do that, but as it is, they just break off at ground level. I think I will hook up the hose and soak each garden and try and make every flower garden look good. Every time I take on a job like that, I realize just how much work Charmaine did around here.

Sometimes I feel weird working on these gardens, but then I think about how really nice it is too. Watching things grow is nice, but actually I like working with the plants, taking into consideration scale, color, and setting. Some call for full sun and some like shade. Some plants want acidic soil and others alkaline. If you do it right, a garden can turn into a sculpture. Parts of mine are looking pretty good after several years of working on them, but I don't have one yet that I think looks just right and maybe I never will. That is OK though and is the reason gardening can become so addictive.

Tonight after dinner I was outside looking at the lake and a Bald Eagle came floating across the sky right above me and he came into view and passed out of sight without flapping his wings even one time. He looked majestic. There were lots of changes this week. All of a sudden there are ducks all over the lake and in the water filled ditches. The loons are out doing their mating calls and the deer are thick along the roadside. I haven't heard the frogs yet, but then I haven't seen any bugs yet either.

Farmers are in their fields, Gardeners are tilling soil and planting will start real soon. Charmaine would walk through the fresh tilled garden every day and when the soil felt just right to her, we planted. It has to be warm enough and moist enough to get the best seed germination. Too cold or too wet and the seeds rot. To hot and to dry and the seeds stay dormant. I will try my hand or I should say my feet at it this year.

I was thinking Sunday I would visit Charmaine's grave and I would if I could, but she donated her body to a medical school. In a couple of years I will get back her ashes and I will be putting them in the Raspberry Patch. It sits out in the sun, is away from the road, and near the woods. I will have to come up with some sort of plaque that will tell people something about her and I have been working on the words, but I don't have them just right yet.

Every May 8th I go swimming and I checked the water today and it is cold. I started this when I was living up on the Big Fork River on a year that was very warm. The river was low and the water was warm because the sun would hit the sand on the bottom and that would warm up the water. That year it was easy, some years are very brisk, in fact last year there was still some ice on the shore and my dip in was quick. I think I did it last year because Charmaine had died that morning and I needed a shock to get me going and that cold water did the trick. If she was watching, she was laughing at me about then, like she had on other years. - James Glaser

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:23 PM

I'm So Cuddly 

Me & Mom riding the 7antour beside the two Spiderboys
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 2:20 PM

Beth & Mariam's Fanfiction

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:18 PM

The Audition that wasn't an Audition 

More like an interview really.

I had an "audition" yesterday for a very artsy short film. It seems kind of cool. Very visual, low on dialogue, but with random characters mingling together. And you just know that there's some sort of social commentary in there somewhere. The director just wanted to meet people who might be interested. No prepared pieces or anything. Heck, he didn't even keep my resume and headshot. He said he wasn't keeping anything from anyone.

He went on for a bit about how he hadn't done anything video art since graduating from school and was happy that he had gotten a grant from SAW Video for new artists. Heh, I was kinda happy too until he said it wasn't paid work for the actors.

*Experience, experience, experience* I keep chanting in my head.

Since getting an agent I am now 3 for 2 - 3 auditions found on my own, 2 through my agent. She better catch up :p - Nancy Kenny

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:59 PM

What a world.. What a world! 

Imagine little Johnny, he's a very hyperactive child. From a young age he is taking medication for ADHD. This allows him to study hard and go to a good college, where he meets Susie. He finds her a very bright, vibrant, and happy person and falls in love. Susie is all these things because her parents have had her on Prozac ever since Jr. High when she told them she had suicidal thoughts.

Johnny (John, now) and Susie have a wonderful wedding. Her dad, the lifetime alcoholic, is drunk, her mom pretends not to notice. His mom is sneaking out behind the kitchen for a cigarette every 20 minutes, his dad is oblivious.

They decide they are ready for kids. John is stressed out from work, too busy to eat right or exercise and is discouraged by Susie's lack of sex drive from being on Prozac and so he's unable to perform so he starts using Viagra to give himself a boost, but that still doesn't solve the problem, so Susie begins taking drugs for fertility treatments.

They eventually have a wonderful son, Johnny Jr. who they will always cherish. When he experiments with Marijuana in college, they get upset with him and don't understand where he learned that using drugs is ok.

Today's Irony brought to you by the Letter T and the Number 3. - tim

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:48 PM

To calculate its rent-versus-ownership comparison, Torto Wheaton examines the housing and rental trends in twenty-one U.S. cities. The research firm compares the cost of
renting the average-price apartments to the cost of buying the median-price homes, financed with a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage. Even though the average apartments and the median houses are not directly comparable, the analysis does illustrate how the relationship between renting and owning
changes over time.

In San Francisco, for example, the monthly cost of renting an apartment is just 45% of the monthly cost of buying a home, down from 67% in 2001. And in Miami, rental costs are 63% of the cost of homeownership, down from 89% in 2001. - The Rude Awakening, May 17, 2005
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:22 AM

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Video: Galloway v The US Senate 

George Galloway, British MP, bluntly confronted the Republican chairman of the committee, Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota on 05/17/05 and challenged the attorney to back up claims the MP profited handsomely from the now defunct oil-for-food program. Some of his harshest remarks concerned Coleman's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. (via Information Clearing House)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:43 PM

The Dead and the Undead... 

She stood in the crowded room as her drove of minions stood around her...A huddling mass trying to draw closer to her aura of evil. The lights flashed against her fangs as her cruel lips curled into a grimace. It was meant to be a smile but it wouldn't reach her cold, lifeless eyes It was a leer- the leer of the undead before a feeding...

The above was not a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer- it was just Condi Rice in Iraq a day ago. At home, we fondly refer to her as The Vampire. She's such a contrast to Bush- he simply looks stupid. She, on the other hand, looks utterly evil.

The last two weeks have been violent. The number of explosions in Baghdad alone is frightening. There have also been several assassinations- bodies being found here and there. It's somewhat disturbing to know that corpses are turning up in the most unexpected places. Many people will tell you it's not wise to eat river fish anymore because they have been nourished on the human remains being dumped into the river. That thought alone has given me more than one sleepless night. It is almost as if Baghdad has turned into a giant graveyard.

The latest corpses were those of some Sunni and Shia clerics- several of them well-known. People are being patient and there is a general consensus that these killings are being done to provoke civil war. Also worrisome is the fact that we are hearing of people being rounded up by security forces (Iraqi) and then being found dead days later- apparently when the new Iraqi government recently decided to reinstate the death penalty, they had something else in mind.

But back to the explosions. One of the larger blasts was in an area called Ma'moun, which is a middle class area located in west Baghdad. It's a relatively calm residential area with shops that provide the basics and a bit more. It happened in the morning, as the shops were opening up for their daily business and it occurred right in front of a butchers shop. Immediately after, we heard that a man living in a house in front of the blast site was hauled off by the Americans because it was said that after the bomb went off, he sniped an Iraqi National Guardsman.

I didn't think much about the story- nothing about it stood out: an explosion and a sniper- hardly an anomaly. The interesting news started circulating a couple of days later. People from the area claim that the man was taken away not because he shot anyone, but because he knew too much about the bomb. Rumor has it that he saw an American patrol passing through the area and pausing at the bomb site minutes before the explosion. Soon after they drove away, the bomb went off and chaos ensued. He ran out of his house screaming to the neighbors and bystanders that the Americans had either planted the bomb or seen the bomb and done nothing about it. He was promptly taken away.

The bombs are mysterious. Some of them explode in the midst of National Guard and near American troops or Iraqi Police and others explode near mosques, churches, and shops or in the middle of sougs. One thing that surprises us about the news reports of these bombs is that they are inevitably linked to suicide bombers. The reality is that some of these bombs are not suicide bombs- they are car bombs that are either being remotely detonated or maybe time bombs. All we know is that the techniques differ and apparently so do the intentions. Some will tell you they are resistance. Some say Chalabi and his thugs are responsible for a number of them. Others blame Iran and the SCIRI militia Badir.

In any case, they are terrifying. If you're close enough, the first sound is a that of an earsplitting blast and the sounds that follow are of a rain of glass, shrapnel and other sharp things. Then the wails begin- the shrill mechanical wails of an occasional ambulance combined with the wail of car alarms from neighboring vehicles? and finally the wail of people trying to sort out their dead and dying from the debris.

The day before yesterday, a bomb fell on Mustansiriya University- Khalid of Secrets in Baghdad blogs about it.

We've been watching the protests about the Newsweek article with interest. I'm not surprised at the turnout at these protests- the thousands of Muslims angry at the desecration of the Quran. What did surprise me was the collective shock that seems to have struck the Islamic world like a slap in the face. How is this shocking? It's terrible and disturbing in the extreme- but how is it shocking? After what happened in Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi prisons how is this astonishing? American jailers in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown little respect for human life and dignity- why should they be expected to respect a holy book?

Juan Cole has some good links about the topic.

Now Newsweek have retracted the story- obviously under pressure from the White House. Is it true? Probably? We've seen enough blatant disregard and disrespect for Islam in Iraq the last two years to make this story sound very plausible. On a daily basis, mosques are raided, clerics are dragged away with bags over their heads? Several months ago the world witnessed the execution of an unarmed Iraqi prisoner inside a mosque. Is this latest so very surprising?

Detainees coming back after weeks or months in prison talk of being forced to eat pork, not being allowed to pray, being exposed to dogs, having Islam insulted and generally being treated like animals trapped in a small cage. At the end of the day, it's not about words or holy books or pork or dogs or any of that. It's about what these things symbolize on a personal level. It is infuriating to see objects that we hold sacred degraded and debased by foreigners who felt the need to travel thousands of kilometers to do this. That's not to say that all troops disrespect Islam- some of them seem to genuinely want to understand our beliefs. It does seem like the people in charge have decided to make degradation and humiliation a policy.

By doing such things, this war is taken to another level- it is no longer a war against terror or terrorists- it is, quite simply, a war against Islam and even secular Muslims are being forced to take sides. - Riverbend

posted by George Thomas Kysor 6:08 PM

Getting grown-ups back into their bodies 

There’s an old joke that I’ve heard attributed, in one form or another, to numerous religious groups. It goes: “Why do Baptists (or Methodists, or Mennonites, or Jews, or whatever) prohibit premarital sex? Because it could lead to dancing.” The implication, obviously, is that the group’s taboo against dancing is so strong that it overshadows the moral principle that gave rise to it in the first place; dancing becomes not just a potential path to evil but an evil in and of itself. One of the theological views that sometimes motivates this position is that the body (or “flesh”) is inherently sinful or corrupt, and must be ruthlessly subjugated to the purer values of the spirit. This was certainly the view of the religious tradition in which I grew up. Any activity that even suggested carnal pleasure outside strictly delimited boundaries was an immoral concession to humanity’s fallen nature.

Although this sort of thinking may be an extreme example, it’s indicative of a broader and older cultural trend, which some people refer to as the “mind-body split.” Whether you trace this trend back to Cartesian dualism, the early days of Christianity, or some other source, it amounts to a belief that the body is somehow an ontologically separate entity from the mind (or “soul,” or “spirit”). Perhaps the two are even in competition or conflict with each other. Even if, as adults, we recognize that by implicitly accepting this split we’ve become disintegrated and unbalanced, it’s difficult to reprogram ourselves to recover that sense of being a single, unified whole. A practice called InterPlay exists to encourage that process by helping people to rediscover and express one of their most basic, primal needs: play.

Play Time
Children, of course, have no trouble playing, and kids seem to engage in play with their whole beings—what InterPlayers refer to as “mindful presence.” That, in a nutshell, is what InterPlay seeks to restore to adults who have lost all sense of how easy it is to have fun. As we grow older, we tend to take ourselves more and more seriously. Although that is useful in some respects, InterPlay is a reminder that we never outgrow the need for play.

What does InterPlay mean by “play”? Not the things adults usually mean—sports, board games, gambling, and so on. In a sense, play can be anything that’s enjoyable, but some of the specific activities that make up InterPlay are deep breathing, telling stories, singing, stillness, hand movements, and yes, dancing—all done with a relaxed (and often goofy) attitude. InterPlayers realize that the people who most need to learn how to play sometimes have mental blocks about the very idea of dance, or perhaps even resistance to more basic notions like movement or touch. So their practices are carefully designed to put participants at ease and ensure that everyone feels safe as they learn gradually to “let go.” You may think you’re making a fool of yourself, but so is everyone else; the freedom for each person to be equally silly without judgments or comparisons is part of InterPlay’s basic philosophy.

InterPlayers learn to identify judgments they may have unconsciously made about themselves and release them. Since other participants are not judging you, you learn to silence your inner critic as well. So taking part in InterPlay activities is something like a cross between group therapy and improv comedy. InterPlay teaches participants to become more spontaneous and creative, to better handle stress, change, and uncertainty, and to be more effective collaborators.

Playground as Church
Although many InterPlayers become involved out of a desire to free themselves of certain religious baggage, the practice itself has no religious (or anti-religious) agenda. Instead, it espouses the viewpoint that spirituality is a subset of play, and that to the extent we can discover our true selves, we become better equipped to experience deeper levels of reality. Those who feel a spiritual path must be one of great seriousness and asceticism are challenged to think about spirituality in a more relaxed, light-hearted way.

InterPlay creators Cynthia Winton-Henry and Phil Porter met while attending seminary in Berkeley, California in the late 1970s. They have collaborated ever since. After developing the basic philosophy of InterPlay, they formed a nonprofit organization called Body Wisdom to provide a structure for teaching InterPlay and training other leaders. InterPlay groups have sprung up all over the world; the activities are also taught in such diverse settings as corporations, churches, hospitals, and prisons. Body Wisdom’s new headquarters, called InterPlayce, opened in downtown Oakland, California in 2004.

I have several friends who practice InterPlay, including one who’s on Body Wisdom’s board of directors. Although I myself am not an InterPlayer, I’ve noticed that simply by interacting with people who are, I’ve gotten sucked into the wonderful vortex of playfulness that they embody. And that’s exactly what InterPlay is all about: spreading the benign contagion of play. — JK

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:34 PM

The Political Economy of Fear [excerpt] 

"Were we ever to stop being afraid of the government itself and to cast off the phoney fears it has fostered, the government would shrivel and die, and the host would disappear for the tens of millions of parasites in the United States—not to speak of the vast number of others in the rest of the world--who now feed directly and indirectly off the public's wealth and energies. On that glorious day, everyone who had been living at public expense would have to get an honest job, and the rest of us, recognizing government as the false god it has always been, could set about assuaging our remaining fears in more productive and morally defensible ways." - Robert Higgs

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:06 AM

Monday, May 16, 2005

Something new in the San Francisco Bay Area 

The promise of the Internet was simple, but incredibly powerful: to be a medium through which we could connect and collaborate, for mutual benefit... At Bayosphere, we're going to create a community fueled by that notion. We will reflect -- and reflect on -- the news, needs and ideas of the San Francisco Bay Area and especially the technology sphere that is the prime economic driver of the area... - Dan Gilmor (via Slashdot)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:12 AM

Computer Simulation of the Relativistic Bike Ride 

Traveling at nearly the speed of light. Movies copyright Marc Borchers. (via Slashdot) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:12 AM

Sunday, May 15, 2005

War Council 

War President by Joe Wezorek. Mosaic of President Bush comprised of 960 portraits of military service people killed in Iraq as of April 2004. (via Simbaud) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:33 PM

A three-part BBC video documentary 

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:23 PM

Friends Flash 

First click here, then click on a person and you will be redirected to their blog.
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 2:29 PM

Maui Surfing
Born and raised in Italy, I became an engineer and worked 11 years in the IT industry. Sick of that, in 2001 I wanted to take a year off and spend it in Maui, the best windsurfing spot in the world. Not only I'm still here (in Maui), but I got into surfing. And the stoke is flying high. Life is too short to work 8 hours a day... - cammar

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:15 PM

HOT GIRLS READ THIS... 

I knew there was something else I wanted to add after posting/reading last weekends novel. It was something me & my buddy realized after watchin that "sweet 16" show on MTV.

If you are a HOT GIRL & want to live a lavish life. Like money, cars, gucci this, etc... Buy a frigin plane ticket to california. I mean this would be the ideal place for gold diggers. Now doubt. Cause have the guys out here are computer nerds or rich old dudes - who pretty much drop money to be with a hot girl. Like the whole Anna Nicole Smith - Old (now dead) Dude.

I mean a lot of girls (even not so good looking ones) expect this sugar daddy crap. And there is quite the abundant amount of lonely successful nerds. I mean you see it everywhere.

So truthfully, if you are a hot girl & looking to get smothered in cash - california is the place to find that rich husband. (And then if you do... maybe me & you can hookup, drug the husband & run off with his money - lol. Okay maybe not.) Okay, but seriously if you really do it - maybe you can buy me a car or something for giving you the idea ;) - The Chocolate Rocket!

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:35 PM

High School Monarchy 

Work was slow tonight. I started on a new book, Dan Brown's Digital Fortress, about the National Security Agency and an unbreakable code. The main plot revolves around the characters David Becker, a professor of languages and Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful cryptographer. Working for the NSA, Susan is one of America's top programmers. I respect that. In fact, I'm acquainted with one of Wisconsin's hottest woman programmers. ;)

More than midway past my shift, I took a lunch break to stop in at the Masonic Temple where East High was hosting Prom 2005. Diana and Austin were both nominated for Prom Court. I went to take pictures. Waiting around, I recognized my old counselor and Spanish teacher and of course they still remember me though it's been years since I've last seen them. A few of my sister's friends saw me and came by to say hi. They grow up fast. I still remember taking pictures for them on the sidelines of little league soccer and basketball games. Now, these kids are only a year from graduation and on the footstep of adulthood.

At half past the hour, the court procession was announced and each couple made their way to the stage. My dad and I stood out of the way to grab a good picture. When it came time to announce this year's class King and Queen, dad had to be told how all this works--how the kids nominate and elect the chosen. In a crowd of screaming teenagers, Austin was proclaimed Prom King. Moments later, an even bigger uproar came to the stage when Diana was elected Prom Queen. My dad, most likely unsure of what was taking place, calls mom and tells her that Diana was made Queen.

Before leaving the dance hall, I ran into my old Spanish teacher. We spoke about what I was doing at the University and where my life was going. Despite the things I told her, I question the reality of it all. There's still plenty of time to figure all that out later. Tonight was Diana and Austin's night to shine. - Fei

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:38 AM

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Why.... 

I don't understand why I do the things I do. I let those around me pull me under and yet I stand by and just let it happen. My only sanity is my Son...my family...and the greatest man I have ever met, Jak. I have never really truly experienced love like I am now. I thought I was in love so many times, but I realized after so much hate and torment of these men that it was what you would call a momentary love. Momentary loves that are there to guide you through the path which will one day lead you to the one that truly holds the key to your so surrounded heart.
Last night I just sat at the computer and cried as I read the words from my son's father. "You are a horrible mother and don't love your son because of what all you have done to break us apart." I can't help but to think of that one line over and over again. I am a horrible mother? How would he know. He really has nothing to do with his son. I don't love my son? Far from truthful there...I love my son more than anything in this world. I would die protecting him from any harm that would come his way. Lastly... I didn't break that relationship. I was hurt so many times verbally and then it turned physically. No human being should be treated like that...controlled by the imagination of a madman that sees things always happening to him and not what he does to others.

I'm scared. I am scared of him coming back and doing something that will not be able to be erased back. Why... Why should I have to live in fear. Why... - Mindless Chants

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:16 PM

Friday, May 13, 2005

The Rude Awakening
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:53 PM

I Can Quit Whenever I Want. 

Last night as I turned on my computer I heard a sound that would turn the bravest of computer geeks a deadly pale. My hard drive was going, "whiiiirr-click..whiiiirr-click..whiiiirr-click..." And instead of booting up it just continued making the, "whiiiirr-click" sound.

So, me being the savvy computer user that I am (not), I decided to open up the box to see what was wrong (As if I could ever fix something that was going, "whiiiirr-click.") I began to sweat.

The box was filled with a small society of dust bunnies that were having urban sprawl issues (shudder). So I decided to clean the whole thing out, and check all the components to make sure everything was plugged in properly (About the only thing that one can do when their computer begins making a "whiiiirr-click" sound is to check and make sure everything is plugged in properly). My mouth was going dry.

Everything looked fine: The wires were plugged in where wires should be, the little led lights were blinking away like they should, and the fans were humming away to themselves and quite happily keeping everything cool. The only problem was the hard drive making all that darn racket, and stubbornly refusing to completely boot up! My heart began beating faster.

So I took the hard drive out of that computer and tried installing it into my other computer as a slave. As I worked I nervously hummed the tune to "master and servant" by Depeche Mode (Well, I thought it was perfectly appropriate, don't you?). Well, because both of my computers are older Gateways, and because Gateways basically suck, I couldn't even get my second computer to acknowledge that I had hooked up the other hard drive to it. And it was still making that horrible, "whiiiirr-click" sound. By this time I had begun breaking out into a cold sweat. It had already been a full hour since I arrived home and I had not connected to the internet yet.

I abandoned any hope of fixing the problem with the first computer and decided instead to direct my attention to the second. Now, this second computer (Did I mention it was a Gateway?) was one that a friend of mine had given me when he decided to get a brand-spaking-new Dell server. It was not too old, but I decided to use it for the kids anyway. Besides, having a second computer in the house was kind of nice. I didn't have to worry about the kids bugging me all the time to pry myself from the computer so they could play a game. But this one had never been connected to the internet. So I sat down, rolled up my sleeves, and mentally prepared myself for the unexpected.

I hooked up the broadband modem and ran the program to get it all installed properly....It didn't work: "Cannot connect to modem." I tried it again. Same problem. So I called technical support at Qwest. The guy ran me through a bunch of hoops to see what was wrong. His final conclusion was, "The TCIP stack is corrupt." I began to feel a little farfalen (A yiddish word that means "doomed"). What was a "TCIP stack" and how had it gotten corrupt? And most importantly, could I bribe a corrupt TCIP stack into working for me? These were questions that had to be answered. He told me that he didn't have any answers. He was just a guy working the phones for a little above minimum. Basically, all he knew was that I had to re-install the system files on my operating system. Great. there goes another hour. By this time my withdrawal symptoms were in full-affect. I just had to connect to the internet.

So with renewed resolve and determination I set forth to re-installing the system files on my second computer. And guess what? An hour later I finally got it all done. And after re-installing a couple of programs and updating a couple more, I was finally able to get my fix for the night....And it only took me from around 8:30 pm to 1:30 am to get it all done.

I've gotta' get a new hobby.... - Ovedya

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:33 PM

Micro Robot video (via FREE PRESS INTERNATIONAL: BRAVE NEW WORLD NEWS, don't miss this phenomenal blog!)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:51 PM

gratitude transcends species 

He had just saved her from a fire in her house, rescuing her by carrying her out of the house into her front yard, while he continued to fight the fire. She is pregnant. The firefighter was afraid of her at first, because he had never been around a Doberman before. When he finally got done putting the fire out, he sat down to catch his breath and rest. A photographer from the Charlotte, North Carolina newspaper, The Observer, noticed this red Doberman in the distance looking at the fireman. He saw her walking straight toward the fireman and wondered what she was going to do. As he raised his camera, she came up to the tired man who had saved her life and the lives of her babies, and kissed him, when the photographer snapped this photograph. - Steve Quayle (via GREG ERICSON)

 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:57 AM

Safety- Airplane vs. Helicopter 

I made the comment earlier that helicopters are safer than airplanes. That's a statement that takes most people, particularly the fixed-wing drivers, by surprise!

I'll tell you why I think it's true, but first let me remind you that I fly both. My last logbook entry puts me over the mark of having two full years of flight time under my belt! That's hard for me to imagine......two full years being supported by air flowing over a wing!

The lion's share of that time is in something with a rotary-wing. But about 1,000 of those hours are in airplanes, both single, and twin engine.

"But what if the rotor falls off?" That's one I hear a lot, from folks that know almost nothing about aviating. The truth is, the likelihood of the rotor falling off a helicopter is about the same as pulling the wing off an airplane......not very.

Consider this: An airplane cannot, while it is flying and under control, go slower than it's stall speed. And that is important! In an emergency landing, when the airplane wheels touch the ground, they will be traveling at or above the airplane's stall speed. Depending on the airplane, that will be 50 m.p.h. or above........ maybe considerably above! The airplane I have logged most of my time in stalled at 60, so I normally approached at about 65. Run into something stationary at that speed, and you're gonna know it!

If the engine begins to make interesting noises on an airplane, the pilot will grab the map and start looking for the nearest airport. Should the front fan quit turning, he'll be lookin' for the longest piece of flat, unobstructed real estate he can find!

Now, do this for me. Imagine again that you are at altitude in a helicopter. Point your finger straight beneath you. That's where you can land if the helicopter's engine begins to stutter!

And should everything get really quiet around you, the helicopter can "autorotate".......like the Maple seed we talked about in an earlier post, only as we approach the ground, we can slow the helicopter to a stop, and also apply "pitch" or angle of attack to the main rotor to slow our vertical speed.

Done properly, an autorotation can be done to an area the size of a tennis court.

So emergencies, and for that matter, marginal weather, are a lot less stressful in the helicopter!

If I need to get from point "A" to point "B" quickly, my weapon of choice will be the airplane, because of speed, and cost.

But if I want to fly for relaxation and fun, give me the helicopter ANY DAY! - Greybeard

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:12 AM

Moving Out 

I live in a 102 year old Brahmin house with a 83 year old lady. Everyone calls here 'Maami' for aunt.

It is a beautiful house right in the heart of the city. It has a central skylight, an elongated hall, three bedrooms in the ground floor with the archetypical small windows. It has a pooja room at the back with an open small for plants, hanging clothes, an old old well et al. It is quite beautiful and although I can hear a lot of vehicles and dust from the city. Nothing really penetrates. I could as easily imagine that if I step out there will be green wetlands or a huge temple . j'adore. Also, as the maami, who I call 'patti' for grandma, points out. It has a western style shitpot!

As far as Patti goes, she is kindest brahmin woman I have met . She is a religious councillor. She matches horoscopes for marriage or advises a single person based on his/her horoscope. She is also a sanyasini, has given up eating normal vegetarian food. She eats only porridge. She doesnt wear footwear and has the simplest of clothes. You can donate as much as you like for her counsel and she will use it all for temple reconstructions or to feed visitors like me.

I have not heard a single word uttered in anger at her place . There is no greed, no jealousy, no rape. We listen to religious tapes. I am almost an atheist.

Isnt is wonderful that the most religious are often the easiest to live with. - Archana

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:57 AM

Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona [excerpt] 

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned.
More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration. - Jerry Seper (via Drudge)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:26 AM

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Beauty queen brighter than nuclear physicist [excerpt] 

Iris Mulej, a former Miss Universe contestant, was found to have an IQ of 156 by scientists working for the programme makers.
She had to take a series of logic tests looking at spatial awareness, mathematical equations and problem solving ability.
The test result forced Slovenia TV, the state broadcaster, to cancel its programme involving the model who left school at 16 to pursue a modelling career.
A spokesman for Bronz Model Management that represents Iris, 22, said: "They couldn't really do a programme making fun of dumb models when she turned out to be smarter than anyone else on the programme. (via Rachel Croucher)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:56 PM

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

A quick tale 18: Two people 

She could not believe that these two people could ever have been intimate. Two old people who had very little to say to each other. Who had grown into strangers they barely recognised. With nothing but anger and discontentment left between them. She could not see how the couple could have made love. One sultry summer night many years ago. And yet there was undeniable proof in front of her. Staring from the mirror. - ammani

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:46 PM

Marriages Are Made 

My cousin Elena
is to be married
The formalities
have been completed:
her family history examined
for T.B. and madness
her father declared solvent
her eyes examined for squints
her teeth for cavities
her stools for the possible
non-Brahmin worm.
She's not quite tall enough
and not quite full enough
(children will take care of that)
Her complexion it was decided
would compensate, being just about
the right shade
of rightness
to do justice to
Francisco X. Noronha Prabhu
good son of Mother Church.

-- Eunice deSouza (via ammani)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:33 PM

All the Cool Kids Have Gills 

WARNING: If you are not a geek/Lord of the Rings fan, ignore this post!!!

 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:16 PM

The Rude Awakening
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:35 AM

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Phil Jayhan interviews John Decamp about his book: Part 1, Part 2. 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:49 AM

Ex-FBI translator plans appeal to Supreme Court 

An FBI contract employee who was fired after alleging national security breaches within the bureau's translation service plans to appeal to the Supreme Court to lift a gag order that she has been under for almost three years.

Sibel Edmonds lost her latest court battle on Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court's ruling that dismissed her lawsuit against the Justice Department. Edmonds alleges there were security breaches, mismanagement and possible espionage within the FBI's translation service in late 2001 and early 2002. She says the information she knows would lead to criminal prosecutions if aggressively pursued.

"We are going to the Supreme Court, that's for sure," Edmonds said Monday.

Edmonds, who worked under contract in the FBI's Washington field office, sued the Justice Department after being fired in 2002. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed her lawsuit last summer after former Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to withhold information to safeguard national security.

District Judge Reggie Walton said information about Edmonds' case would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States if publicly disclosed.

The Justice Department's inspector general issued a summary report in January concluding that the FBI failed to properly investigate charges made by Edmonds. The report also concluded that the FBI fired Edmonds mainly for bringing forth the accusations.

The appeals court heard Edmonds' case last month, but closed its proceedings to the public, despite motions to open the courtroom filed by several news media organizations.

Edmonds said her lawyers were questioned for only 10 minutes before being instructed by the judge to leave the courtroom. Lawyers for the government remained inside the room. About 20 minutes later, Edmonds said she and her lawyers were informed that the hearing was over. Edmonds and her legal team are seeking a transcript of the proceedings.

"We don't know what the government argued," Edmonds said.

During the hearing, Chief Judge Douglas Ginsberg asked if Edmonds' complaint could be resolved through an administrative hearing within the FBI. The next day, government lawyers told the court that the state secrets privilege did not give Edmonds the ability to pursue an administrative hearing, arguing that the case cannot be litigated without reference to privileged information.

The appeals court did not provide any comment with its ruling last week. Instead, the court said it sided with reasons given by the lower court.

Although Edmonds is running out of legal options, she is still pursuing her case by other means. She said she has a petition signed by more than 10,000 people asking Congress to hold public hearings on her situation. She plans to submit the petition next month.

Additionally, Edmonds has spearheaded the formation of a national security whistleblower's coalition that will seek legislation to enable national security whistleblowers to sue government managers who retaliate against them or block investigations.

If Congress does not take action, Edmonds said, the coalition will run newspaper ads publicizing the names of individual managers who are alleged to have committed wrongdoing, along with their positions and salaries. - Chris Strohm

In related news, the Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed a hearing scheduled for this Wednesday on the FBI's translation program. A committee spokesman said the hearing was postponed due to a business meeting on asbestos issues. (via Citizens for Legitimate Government)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:14 AM

Report Backs Up Navy Whistle-Blower 

A Navy whistle-blower uncovered critical welding problems on an aircraft carrier that could have caused aircraft to crash and kill or injure pilots and sailors, according to an Office of Special Counsel report released yesterday.

The report, a summary of whistle-blower Kristin Shott's concerns and the Navy's investigation of them, said welding defects in the catapult hydraulic piping systems on the USS Kitty Hawk were similar to those found in 2002 aboard five other aircraft carriers. The catapults are used in launching aircraft from the ship. Shott, a civilian welder at Naval Air Depot North Island in San Diego, identified problems with all the ships in multiple disclosures she filed with the special counsel after her managers did not look into her concerns.

Members of the military "depend on the integrity and safety of their equipment in ongoing operations around the world," Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch said in a statement yesterday. "Ms. Schott's decision to blow the whistle averted a potential catastrophic loss of life and equipment."

The OSC receives and evaluates reports of problems from whistle-blowers and can refer such reports to federal agencies for investigation. The office also is supposed to protect whistle-blowers from retaliation in the workplace and safeguard the federal merit system.

Bloch's critics say that under his leadership the OSC has not aggressively pursued whistle-blower claims and has dismissed cases arbitrarily. Bloch, who began a five-year term as head of OSC in January 2004, maintains that at his direction the agency whittled down pending whistle-blower claims from nearly 700 cases to 100.

He inherited Shott's case from his predecessor, Elaine Kaplan.

After confirming Shott's warnings, the Navy repaired the Kitty Hawk's catapults in November 2004, the report said. The cost of the repairs was not listed, but a related OSC report in 2003 said it cost $468,000 to fix the faulty welding on the other five aircraft carriers.

The earlier investigation found that four civilian supervisors and one naval officer had been negligent in their duties. Three supervisors were orally admonished, one was suspended for three days, and the officer was issued a "non-punitive letter of caution." The new investigation determined that the same people were responsible for the problems on the Kitty Hawk, but officials did not seek new disciplinary action

Investigators found no evidence to support Shott's claims that Navy artisans in a variety of trades are unqualified to perform their duties.

In an interview yesterday, Shott, who first raised her concerns in 1998, said she was pleased the Navy had fixed the problems. But the manager she believes was most responsible has received no punishment, she said. Shott said she has been reassigned to more mundane work welding cargo containers, taking her away from her expertise in submarines, airplanes and aircraft carriers.

Shott, a 22-year federal employee, said she would never consider speaking up about wrongdoing again.

"Heavens no," she said. "The pain and the stress that one goes through and that my family has gone through? No, never again." - Christopher Lee © 2005 The Washington Post Company [See the Fair Use Policy, below.] (via Citizens for Legitimate Government)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:02 AM

Fake Terror - Ricin Ring That Never Was 

Colin Powell does not need more humiliation over the manifold errors in his February 2003 presentation to the UN. But yesterday a London jury brought down another section of the case he made for war - that Iraq and Osama bin Laden were supporting and directing terrorist poison cells throughout Europe, including a London ricin ring.

Yesterday's verdicts on five defendants and the dropping of charges against four others make clear there was no ricin ring. Nor did the "ricin ring" make or have ricin. Not that the government shared that news with us. Until today, the public record for the past three fear-inducing years has been that ricin was found in the Wood Green flat occupied by some of yesterday's acquitted defendants. It wasn't.

The third plank of the al-Qaida-Iraq poison theory was the link between what Powell labelled the "UK poison cell" and training camps in Afghanistan. The evidence the government wanted to use to connect the defendants to Afghanistan and al-Qaida was never put to the jury. That was because last autumn a trial within a trial was secretly taking place. This was a private contest between a group of scientists from the Porton Down military research centre and myself. The issue was: where had the information on poisons and chemicals come from?

The information - five pages in Arabic, containing amateur instructions for making ricin, cyanide and botulinum, and a list of chemicals used in explosives - was at the heart of the case. The notes had been made by Kamel Bourgass, the sole convicted defendant. His co-defendants believed that he had copied the information from the internet. The prosecution claimed it had come from Afghanistan.

I was asked to look for the original source on the internet. This meant exploring Islamist websites that publish Bin Laden and his sympathisers, and plumbing the most prolific source of information on how to do harm: the writings of the American survivalist right and the gun lobby.

The experience of being an expert witness on these issues has made me feel a great deal safer on the streets of London. These were the internal documents of the supposed al-Qaida cell planning the "big one" in Britain. But the recipes were untested and unoriginal, borrowed from US sources. Moreover, ricin is not a weapon of mass destruction. It is a poison which has only ever been used for one-on-one killings and attempted killings.

If this was the measure of the destructive wrath that Bin Laden's followers were about to wreak on London, it was impotent. Yet it was the discovery of a copy of Bourgass's notes in Thetford in 2002 that inspired the wave of horror stories and government announcements and preparations for poison gas attacks.

It is true that when the team from Porton Down entered the Wood Green flat in January 2003, their field equipment registered the presence of ricin. But these were high sensitivity field detectors, for use where a false negative result could be fatal. A few days later in the lab, Dr Martin Pearce, head of the Biological Weapons Identification Group, found that there was no ricin. But when this result was passed to London, the message reportedly said the opposite.

The planned government case on links to Afghanistan was based only on papers that a freelance journalist working for the Times had scooped up after the US invasion of Kabul. Some were in Arabic, some in Russian. They were far more detailed than Bourgass's notes. Nevertheless, claimed Porton Down chemistry chief Dr Chris Timperley, they showed a "common origin and progression" in the methods, thus linking the London group of north Africans to Afghanistan and Bin Laden.

The weakness of Timperley's case was that neither he nor the intelligence services had examined any other documents that could have been the source. We were told Porton Down and its intelligence advisers had never previously heard of the "Mujahideen Poisons Handbook, containing recipes for ricin and much more". The document, written by veterans of the 1980s Afghan war, has been on the net since 1998.

All the information roads led west, not to Kabul but to California and the US midwest. The recipes for ricin now seen on the internet were invented 20 years ago by survivalist Kurt Saxon. He advertises videos and books on the internet. Before the ricin ring trial started, I phoned him in Arizona. For $110, he sent me a fistful of CDs and videos on how to make bombs, missiles, booby traps - and ricin. We handed a copy of the ricin video to the police.

When, in October, I showed that the chemical lists found in London were an exact copy of pages on an internet site in Palo Alto, California, the prosecution gave up on the Kabul and al-Qaida link claims. But it seems this information was not shared with the then home secretary, David Blunkett, who was still whipping up fear two weeks later. "Al-Qaida and the international network is seen to be, and will be demonstrated through the courts over months to come, actually on our doorstep and threatening our lives," he said on November 14.

The most ironic twist was an attempt to introduce an "al-Qaida manual" into the case. The manual - called the Manual of the Afghan Jihad - had been found on a raid in Manchester in 2000. It was given to the FBI to produce in the 2001 New York trial for the first attack on the World Trade Centre. But it wasn't an al-Qaida manual. The name was invented by the US department of justice in 2001, and the contents were rushed on to the net to aid a presentation to the Senate by the then attorney general, John Ashcroft, supporting the US Patriot Act.

To show that the Jihad manual was written in the 1980s and the period of the US-supported war against the Soviet occupation was easy. The ricin recipe it contained was a direct translation from a 1988 US book called the Poisoner's Handbook, by Maxwell Hutchkinson.

We have all been victims of this mass deception. I do not doubt that Bourgass would have contemplated causing harm if he was competent to do so. But he was an Islamist yobbo on his own, not an Al Qaida-trained superterrorist. An Asbo might be appropriate. - Duncan Campbell
_____

Duncan Campbell is an investigative writer and a scientific expert witness on computers and telecommunications. He is author of War Plan UK and is not the Guardian journalist of the same name. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 [See the Fair Use Notice, below.] (via What Really Happened)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:15 AM

The free Worm the World game by Symantec.(via Slashdot) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:17 AM

Internet Attack Called Broad and Long Lasting by Investigators 

The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco Systems network in which an intruder seized programming instructions for many of the computers that control the flow of the Internet.

Now federal officials and computer security investigators have acknowledged that the Cisco break-in last year was only part of a more extensive operation - involving a single intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe - in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated.

Investigators in the United States and Europe say they have spent almost a year pursuing the case involving attacks on computer systems serving the American military, NASA and research laboratories.

The break-ins exploited security holes on those systems that the authorities say have now been plugged, and beyond the Cisco theft, it is not clear how much data was taken or destroyed. Still, the case illustrates the ease with which Internet-connected computers - even those of sophisticated corporate and government networks - can be penetrated, and also the difficulty in tracing those responsible.

Government investigators and other computer experts sometimes watched helplessly while monitoring the activity, unable to secure some systems as quickly as others were found compromised.

The case remains under investigation. But attention is focused on a 16-year-old in Uppsala, Sweden, who was charged in March with breaking into university computers in his hometown. Investigators in the American break-ins ultimately traced the intrusions back to the Uppsala university network.

The F.B.I. and the Swedish police said they were working together on the case, and one F.B.I. official said efforts in Britain and other countries were aimed at identifying accomplices. "As a result of recent actions" by law enforcement, an F.B.I. statement said, "the criminal activity appears to have stopped."

The Swedish authorities are examining computer equipment confiscated from the teenager, who was released to his parents' care. The matter is being treated as a juvenile case.

Investigators who described the break-ins did so on condition that they not be identified, saying that their continuing efforts could be jeopardized if their names, or in some cases their organizations, were disclosed.

Computer experts said the break-ins did not represent a fundamentally new kind of attack. Rather, they said, the primary intruder was particularly clever in the way he organized a system for automating the theft of computer log-ins and passwords, conducting attacks through a complicated maze of computers connected to the Internet in as many as seven countries.

The intrusions were first publicly reported in April 2004 when several of the nation's supercomputer laboratories acknowledged break-ins into computers connected to the TeraGrid, a high-speed data network serving those labs, which conduct unclassified research into a range of scientific problems.

The theft of the Cisco software was discovered last May when a small team of security specialists at the supercomputer laboratories, trying to investigate the intrusions there, watched electronically as passwords to Cisco's computers were compromised.

After discovering the passwords' theft, the security officials notified Cisco officials of the potential threat. But the company's software was taken almost immediately, before the company could respond.

Shortly after being stolen last May, a portion of the Cisco programming instructions appeared on a Russian Web site. With such information, sophisticated intruders would potentially be able to compromise security on router computers of Cisco customers running the affected programs.

There is no evidence that such use has occurred. "Cisco believes that the improper publication of this information does not create increased risk to customers' networks," the company said last week.

The crucial element in the password thefts that provided access at Cisco and elsewhere was the intruder's use of a corrupted version of a standard software program, SSH. The program is used in many computer research centers for a variety of tasks, ranging from administration of remote computers to data transfer over the Internet.

The intruder probed computers for vulnerabilities that allowed the installation of the corrupted program, known as a Trojan horse, in place of the legitimate program.

In many cases the corrupted program is distributed from a single computer and shared by tens or hundreds of users at a computing site, effectively making it possible for someone unleashing it to reel in large numbers of log-ins and passwords as they are entered.

Once passwords to the remote systems were obtained, an intruder could log in and use a variety of software "tool kits" to upgrade his privileges - known as gaining root access. That makes it possible to steal information and steal more passwords.

The operation took advantage of the vulnerability of Internet-connected computers whose security software had not been brought up to date.

In the Cisco case, the passwords to Cisco computers were sent from a compromised computer by a legitimate user unaware of the Trojan horse. The intruder captured the passwords and then used them to enter Cisco's computers and steal the programming instructions, according to the security investigators.

A security expert involved in the investigation speculated that the Cisco programming instructions were stolen as part of an effort to establish the intruder's credibility in online chat rooms he frequented.

Last May, the security investigators were able to install surveillance software on the University of Minnesota computer network when they discovered that an intruder was using it as a staging base for hundreds of Internet attacks. During a two-day period they watched as the intruder tried to break into more than 100 locations on the Internet and was successful in gaining root access to more than 50.

When possible, they alerted organizations that were victims of attacks, which would then shut out the intruder and patch their systems.

As the attacks were first noted in April 2004, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, found that her own computer had been invaded. The researcher, Wren Montgomery, began to receive taunting e-mail messages from someone going by the name Stakkato - now believed by the authorities to have been the primary intruder - who also boasted of breaking in to computers at military installations.

"Patuxent River totally closed their networks," he wrote in a message sent that month, referring to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. "They freaked out when I said I stole F-18 blueprints."

A Navy spokesman at Patuxent River, James Darcy, said Monday said that "if there was some sort of attempted breach on those addresses, it was not significant enough of an action to have generated a report."

Monte Marlin, a spokeswoman for the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, whose computers Stakkato also claimed to have breached, confirmed Monday that there had been "unauthorized access" but said, "The only information obtained was weather forecast information."

The messages also claimed an intrusion into seven computers serving NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. A computer security expert investigating the case confirmed that computers at several NASA sites, including the propulsion laboratory, had been breached. A spokesman said the laboratory did not comment on computer breaches.

Ms. Montgomery, a graduate student in geophysics, said that in a fit of anger, Stakkato had erased her computer file directory and had destroyed a year and a half of her e-mail stored on a university computer.

She guessed that she might have provoked him by referring to him as a "quaint hacker" in a communication with system administrators, which he monitored.

"It was inconvenient," she said of the loss of her e-mail, "and it's the thing that seems to happen when you have malicious teenage hackers running around with no sense of ethics." - JOHN MARKOFF and LOWELL BERGMAN Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company [See the Fair Use Notice, below.] (via Drudge)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:17 AM

Monday, May 09, 2005

first love 

my father filled out my college applications
left to my own devices
or lack thereof
i would never have gone

Dickinson College accepted me
a small liberal arts school
near Harrisburg Pennsylvania
which was still aglow
from three mile island

my freshman year –1981 –
Betty Barnes, my environmental science professor,
took those willing to go
on a field trip to TMI
needless to say
i did not go

Betty Barnes was a hoot and a half
Fannie Flagg funny with the accent and all
she could not believe
I had never seen a live farm aminals before
as I announced loudly
HOLY SHIT - LOOK PIGS
to the entire class one afternoon
on a non-lethal field trip

“Miss O’ Donnell. I cannot believe you have never seen a live pig before.”
well i said - you ever ride a subway?
she laughed
i lived to make her laugh
i am totally a teacher-mother suck up
always have been - always will be

for the final in her class
we had to write an essay
explaining water levels
in local lakes
based on sediment measurements

instead, i wrote a two page piece
about a middle eastern war lord
who traveled by camel
thru the mountains of pennsylvania
and finally stopped to give
his thirsty pack
a nice big drink
hence the low water level

three days later
Betty Barnes called me into her office
she was trying not to laugh
examining me
like a fungus she had never seen
“Miss O’Donnell,” she said
“I cannot give you an F. Despite the fact that you learned absolutely nothing in my class the whole term. But your essay was so unique – so insane yet creative – that I will give you an D-.”

“excellent, “ I said “a doggie dash.”
i was relieved
i thought for sure I would fail
i loved Betty Barnes
she died of cancer some years later
i worried it was because of the field trip

i first spoke to Chrissie in Betty Barnes’s class
i had seen her the day before in anthropology
she had red sweat pants and a white sweat shirt
no zipper – with a hood
it had that worn out preppy non-flea-market look to it
she had a blond ponytail,
sky blue eyes
and a Snyder’s hard pretzel in her hand
she was beautiful
she looked like she’d walked out of a J. Crew catalog

i saw her and knew immediately
I would love her
there was nothing sexual about it
not then
a full five months later, though,
I would be throwing up every time she was near me
then - I would say - it became sexual in my mind
or at least the option of it did

I puked
go figure
I would vomit almost every morning
the other girls on my hall were convinced
I was pregnant
no – just gay
and for the first time
sexually awake

i did not sleep well in college
what with the murdered Beatle
Three Mile Island
and Chrissie three flights up

i lay awake many nights
the Carlisle skies were clear
out my curtainless windows
sometimes I saw the milky way
where galaxies were cradled
i saw mars - where no man had walked
i saw the man in the moon
dark matter
Betty Barnes had told us
the universe appeared to be full of dark matter
a substance that defied measurement or capture
the space between the stars was crammed with this stuff
but no one knew exactly what it was
not photons or electrons not carbon or zinc
some mysterious galactic batter out there
it comforted me

before there were human beings there were stars
stars are made of carbon and oxygen and helium
when stars die
they shrink and explode
and it was out of these explosions
that the human form came to be
we are comprised of stellar detritus
the professor said
stellar detritus - we are dirt and shine

chrissie was all about that, a possibility
she was an unnamed
yet-to-be-discovered life form
for me anyway

there was an empty seat in her row
I took it
I had to pass her to get there
I said something funny and she laughed

we had lunch together that day, at the cafeteria
we talked - words were easy between us
she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen
i was mesmerized

after classes we’d go back to her room
she told me her mother was Norwegian,
her dad a professor at a swanky university.
she got excellent grades and I never saw her study
i sometimes studied - my grades sucked

i started to count the hours as to when I would see her again
to experience the hours away from her as just filler
we started sleeping in the same bed,
staying up all night, talking -
just talking
there was nothing sexual going on
yet the word got out – we were lezzies

it upset chris
her mother, who was very cool
and nordically beautiful
asked us “are you lovers?”
we both said no
as we were not
and she said “so why are you so worried?”

but the talk increased
one night - I gave Chris a backrub
we had the light on
i touched her shoulders, her spine,
the small of her back,
where we hold out hurts.
“chrissie,” I said in a voice all named and raw
my voice
she never answered me

when I returned to Dickinson after the New Year
chrissie was sick.
she’d grown, terribly thin
i could see the planking of bone on her face
the strings stretched taut in her neck
the fanning of ribs, like the piping of bird bone in a wing

“chrissie what happened?”

she refused to discuss it
nothing had happened
she could not talk about it
and so we drifted apart

no more sleep-overs
no more nights of quarters and beers
her life revolved around the food in the cafeteria –
the stuff she would not taste

the year ended
i packed up my rented car –
told the girls on my floor I’d be right back
chris watched me drive away
she knew I wasn’t coming back
i’ve never been good at goodbyes

chris ended up going to Norway –
where she worked out her food issues
she married a man she loves and has two babies
sometimes still
i see a woman with a long blond braid
I think it’s chrissie
still
after all these years
and I experience it all over again
the salt-water spray in the lungs feeling
of first love

six years ago
after a decade of not having spoken a word to her
i got a letter out of the Nordic blue
she told me, she wanted to talk about our freshman year
sorry for any pain or confusion she had caused
i wrote her back
told her i’d loved her purely –more purely than i ever had before
that she changed my life
by loving me back
it was what it was

now that my show is over
there’s so much i want to do and try
i want to shape my future
in a way I can be proud of
i want to raise my children in the light.
and I want to revisit the past
so I can see who I was and am becoming

next year, kel and I
are going to visit chrissie and her family in Norway
seems poetic to me
my first love meeting my last and final - ro [Over 500 comments!]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:47 PM

Indigo Maze 

...I did this sketch for my lovely Friend Stevey-BEEEE, an intellectually stimulating marketing manager with possibly the sharpest portfolio of practical and intellectual skill sets.

He is a Gemini with a difference he actually works hard at his craftsmanship, so is one of those rippling, trickling, inconspicuous petrol-blue-green stream-like characters, quietly winding down lanes. Sometimes appearing invisible to the eye, until the light catches his silkiness. Other times animated as he sparkles like a small dragonfly, and rivets your attention to a mercurial concept, or has grasped with immediacy the intensity you were projecting.

He represents the most perfectly formed Gemini I have ever met, (without the shallow, senseless spite or duplicity) someone whose mind is so keen, and sharp that he can outmanoeuvre any tactical move with the finesse of a magician, immaterial power (mind) over material power (matter).

I have known him over 11 years, during that period I have never once felt betrayed, or lacked comfort from his ability to respond to a call for clarification.

He showed me the power of applying 'spiritual tools,' to focus mental weaknesses, therefore transformation. There was a time when we wrote possibly thousands of words to each other weekly, his interjections were fast, (he is with MENSA, no surprise there) and therefore provided fantastic intellectual stimuli.

I learnt to touch type as a response to keep up with his parry. He reminds me of Hollywood?s early star Ronald Coleman, in fact he has the same comforting moustache, the gentle, and thoughtful, fine keen mind, is very much akin the aforesaid.

Stevey was someone one could whisper to, you know, those real deep quiet conversations that are full of intrigue, company political awareness, and giggling fits to punctuate the delicious silliness of it all! Apply perfect lipstick, sharpen claws, and then ask him what one could get away with?

Who were the key players? what was the strength of their alliances, and with whom? What were their areas of contention? What were their buzzwords, that would hook them? What were their perceived desires? or discreet ambitions, who were their challengers?...Where did power or final decision-making emanate? Where were the minefields? Who were the loose canons? Who could be relied upon to be 'tarred & feathered' by the others closing ranks? Who had the best sense of humour? ha ha ha

He would raise an eyebrow, and then grin, 'What do you wish to achieve?'

Then sheepishly and after a little prodding, by me, pleading my case for why I wanted this (it had to be honourable, it had to be worth the prize, the costs had to be evaluated).

He made me work for each request for a plan, he expected me to think things through, and most importantly 'why did I want it so much?!' ... He would go quiet. Look into space, and then tap me on the arm, 'I have it, and try this'...

I would smile ear to ear; I love a watertight plan!

He would supply me with the most effective (ethical) planned route to get my points across, the most diplomatic means by which to get my agenda presented, or the (most gently persuasive) approach on the key personalities (some of who were quite likely to be volatile, exciting, and power hungry) who ran the business.

I felt I were a character from the political satire, 'Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister'...

I had a fantastic respect for all capable and competent players in a fun cat-mouse, game, where we could all have a giggle once I got my policy in effect. I didn?t always win, (although my 'win/cost' score improved with each plan) because the Directors were often one step ahead of me when it came to being manipulated by a young slip of a girl, but I certainly had fun trying!


I did suspect that Stevey was good-naturedly playing both sides, going to my charismatic leader, and suggesting he went along with this new key objective I had in mind, and to let it run its course, and enjoy the player's (his subordinates discomfort), and advising him which areas to allow me to win... Who knows... he is after all a Gemini ha ha ha

[Imagined dialogue:
SB (Stevey-BEE) says, 'Sapphire wants this... policy on such and such to be passed/approved'
CL (Charismatic Leader) replies,'What will it cost, me, who is her prey? How long will her scheme take to implement? Is it worth it, how do we benefit?'].
SB states, 'until she is bored, has it in writing, has stopped laughing...'
CL, 'Go ahead, warn everyone, no on second thoughts don't!'

One thing I never do is ask/seek/pray/yearn for guidance and then act foolhardy, and dismiss it, RESULT: then fail, of course, and try to cover my tracks because I was too stupid/naive'/lazy/arogant or incompetent to take the best advice/tactic/strategy on offer.

If I have ever agreed that the idea presented to me was the best I had heard or found, therefore, I had agreed with and therefore acknowledged, I would never undermine myself, self-sabotage or endanger my own plan by fumbling along as I was without it, if it failed so be it!

If you are in the game, any game, always aim to be a masterful strategist, better than a fool awaiting another cliff-side fall.

Those that do, I have found are rarely rewarded by a sustained desired result, what often happens is that they replay that same broken record to their ruin. Aside from losing credibility, and having to relearn their life lessons again and again... NOT FOR ME, no fear, once is enough!

Many a time, was I the cat that had the cream, or had feathers showing from my lips?

When I did, Steve was the one who wiped my mouth, or picked out the feathers from my teeth like a dentist, so that it wasn?t too obvious, patted me on the head, or laughed good-naturedly when my plans backfired, and now here I was, the failure, with a headache, toothache, or general ego-ache!

He would get me a coffee, share an old fashioned biscuit, (he always had a biscuit tin) and mop my brow with gentle reassurances.

This drawing, is the only one I have scanned, it was sketched during a company presentation, riddled with slide after slide of boring statistics, delivered by the Elder-men, Directors who relied on these to indicate business performance and productivity, as do all highly numerate individuals.

By the way, I have since left that company, which was my favourite and suffered worst boredom at the hands of those Directors who are often intellectually challenged, emotionally stymied, or have absolutely no idea whatsoever, how to carry through a presentation or company brief successfully. Where the statistical presentation should be banned because they show no indication of caring for the key most important resource, ?intellectual power? i.e. PEOPLE! Thus companies failing to improve performance quality? usually do so because they drove their flashy company cars on fumes: number-crunching, downward-cost-plunging strategies that lack resourcefulness.

However, in those happier times, working with Stevey, I yawned? then I doodled? now I used to doodle these all over the place, and leave them lying around at work, but mainly during meetings or presentations where I was in an audience, straight jacketed to attend. On this particular occasion Steve found mine and when I saw his interest, I said, ?wait a jiffy?? and added his name into it.

I grinned and said, ?Hey Friend, here, to remember me by!?

About an hour later he sent it to me scanned and showcased with lighting, ?neat!? There is someone who can deliver!

If there is one quality that will arrest my attention next to gentle, sweet kindness, it is brilliance, when that person is willing to share their tools, their skills and teach you what they know... what a gift!

When that person by the Grace of God was kissed by an angel, and therefore applies themselves with humility in the face of dire straits; to share with you diamond cut angles to any plan that are always ethical and sound then I am in awe. I am in awe of Stevey-Bee. - Sapphire-x
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:05 PM

Something new in the blogosphere. (via Jeff Jarvis) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:21 AM

Lesson From a Total Defeat for the US 

The war in Vietnam that ended 30 years ago with a complete triumph for the Communists was the longest, most expensive and divisive American war in its history, involving over a half-million U.S. forces at one point-plus Australian, South Korean, and other troops.

If we use conventional military criteria, the Americans should have been victorious. They used 15 million tons of munitions (as much as they employed in World War Two), had a vast military superiority over their enemies by any standard one employs, and still they were defeated.

The Saigon army commanded by Nguyen van Thieu also was far stronger than their adversaries. At the beginning of 1975 they had over three times as much artillery, twice as many tanks and armored cars, 1400 aircraft and a virtual monopoly of the air. They had a two-to-one superiority of combat troops – roughly 700,000 to 320,000. The Communist leadership in early 1975 expected the war to last as much as a decade longer. I was in South Vietnam at the end of 1973 and in Hanoi all of April 1975 until the last four days of the war, when I was in Hue and Danang in the south. I am certain the Communists were almost as surprised as the Americans that victory was to be theirs so quickly and easily; I told them from late 1973 onward to expect an end to the war by the Saigon regime capsizing without a serious fight – much as the Kuomintang had in China after 1947. As a future Politburo member later confessed, they regarded my prediction as "crazy." They were completely unprepared to run the entire nation, and their chaotic, inconsistent economic policies since 1975 have shown it.

The Americans and Communists alike shared a common myopia regarding wars. What happens in the political, social, and economic spheres are far more decisive than military equations. That was true in China in the late 1940s, in Vietnam in 1975, and it is also the case in Iraq today.

South Vietnam was an artificially urbanized society whose only economic basis was American aid. The value of that aid declined when the oil price increases that began with the war in the Middle East in 1973 caused a rampant inflation, at which point the motorized army and society the Americans had created became an onerous liability.

South Vietnam had always been corrupt since the U.S. arbitrarily created it in 1955 despite the Geneva Accords provision that there should be an election to reunify what was historically and ethnically one nation. Thieu, who was a Catholic in a dominantly Buddhist country, retained the loyalty of his generals and bureaucracy by allowing them to enrich themselves at the expense of the people. The average Vietnamese, whether they were for or against the Communists, had no loyalty whatsoever to the Thieu regime that was robbing them. After 1973, soldiers' salaries declined with inflation and they began living off the land. The urban middle class was increasingly alienated; the Thieu regime's popularity fell with it. It admitted there were 32,000 political prisoners in its jails, but other estimates were far higher.

By the beginning of 1975 the regime in South Vietnam was beginning to disintegrate by every relevant criterion: economically and politically, and therefore militarily. The Saigon army abandoned the battlefield well before the final Communist offensive in March 1975. Moreover, with the Watergate scandal, the Nixon Administration was on the defensive after 1973, both with the American public and Congress, and after Nixon's forced resignation the new American President, Gerald Ford, was simply in no position to help the economically and politically bankrupt Thieu regime. The American army, at this point, was too demoralized to reenter the war. Washington correctly assumed that its diplomatic strategy had won Moscow and Peking to its side by threatening to swing its power to the enemy of whatever nation would not support its Vietnam strategy – triangular diplomacy.

But it was irrelevant what Hanoi's former allies did – and essentially they did what the Americans wanted by cutting military aid to the Vietnamese Communists. The basic problem was in Saigon: the regime was falling apart for reasons having nothing to do with military equipment. The Communists were stunned by their fast, total victory over the nominally superior Saigon army, which refused to fight and immediately disintegrated.

Thus ended the most significant American foreign effort since 1945. There are so many obvious parallels with their futile projects in Iraq and Afghanistan today, and the lessons are so clear, that we have to conclude that successive administrations in Washington have no capacity whatsoever to learn from past errors. Total defeat in Vietnam 30 years ago should have been a warning to the U.S.: wars are too complicated for any nation, even the most powerful, to undertake without grave risk. They are not simply military exercises in which equipment and firepower is decisive, but political, ideological, and economic challenges also. The events of South Vietnam 30 years ago should have proven that. It did not. - Gabriel Kolko Copyright © 2005 Gabriel Kolko [See the Fair Use Notice, below.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:21 AM

MEET THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

The DRUDGE REPORT has learned that ABC has picked up COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, a drama following the challenges facing the first female President of the United States.
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:57 AM

counter strike!! 

video loop 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:03 AM

Sunday, May 08, 2005

where do lollipops come from? 

THE NATURE OF REALITY IN RELATION TO
the transcendental metaphysic of a vanishing lollipop

The nature of reality is a lot like eating a lollipop. First, for there to be a lollipop there must first have been no lollipop. That is, lollipops are not typically common fixtures of which human babies come sweeping out of the womb with: they do, however, commonly have arms, legs, and other such appendages.

“Oh little baby, where’s your lollipop?”

This being the case, if one has in one’s possession either the actual physical “form”
of a lollipop, OR, if one has merely the symbolic “form” of a lollipop in one’s mind
where it once did not exist, in both cases the lollipop as such arises into one’s world which necessarily means the lollipop is in a place where it once did not exist.

Now that I’ve established that in order for a lollipop to be present in one’s
consciousness it must first have not been there, the question arises: HOW does a lollipop become present in one’s consciousness in the first place? Perhaps that question can be granted a reasonable measure of philosophical immunity. For while the answer
may be interesting for its own sake, that is not the goal of this inquiry, and within the confines of this paper it suffices to say that any lollipopological investigation need only show how the order of events come to pass, and not by what forces those events ‘come into being.’

“What a beautiful lollipop,” the self might exclaim, upon seeing it. And if it is a wise self that exclaims such a statement regarding lollipops, that wise self will realize that since this lollipop exists, and lollipops are not normally a common feature or essence of the humans, then it follows that the lollipop was not always there, and things that are not always there are things which can, and usually do,
disappear. Therefore if this is a wise self it will lick the lollipop and enjoy it while it lasts (unless it is a diabetic wise self, in which case the diabetic wise self will be forced to forego the near-erotic pleasures of a lollipop).

Mmm…Slurp. The high-fructose-corn-syrup-alogical order of the phenomenological
appearance of a lollipop takes the following shape:

1.) no lollipop exists
2.) a lollipop exists
3.) the lollipop vanishes

What happens if one desires attaining a delicious lollipop and happens upon
these three steps lollipops logically take? That is, it seems to be the case that if a human wants a lollipop, they must first desire that no lollipop exists (since lollipops only exist when they do not exist). If they do not desire a lollipop, it seems logical that such a non-desiring human would desire a lollipop (because lollipops do not exist when they exist).

Psychologically, a child who finishes their lollipop might expect another one to
appear because when lollipops do not exist they can start to exist again. However, a
child may become tired of their lollipop, and therefore the lollipop may grow into a
nuisance which the child wants to have vanish; though, ironically, the pure hatred of a lollipop may make it seem larger than it is, and will be harder to crush out of existence.

The nature of reality in relation to the transcendental metaphysic of a vanishing… - Skinner

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:26 PM

Fainting Goats 

Video (via Eric J.) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:33 PM

'It’s the Ideology, Stupid' 

Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine. Candice E. Jackson, World Ahead Publishing, Los Angeles, California, 291 pages, $25.95.

Before writing this review, I must disclose to the readers that Candice E. Jackson has been one of my writing partners these past two years. Furthermore, she has been a key person in my life, as she and I communicate often, and although she is 24 years my junior, we are good friends. Thus, I did not read this book with an unbiased view of its author.

When Candice gave me a copy of her new book, Their Lives, a few weeks ago, I had doubts about whether or not it would be ethical on my part to review it for anyone, and told her so. She understood, and had not sought a review from me. After our conversation, I thought of a plan. I would read the book on the plane going home (I was in San Francisco for a conference), and then decide if in good conscience I could review it in print, even after she put my name in the acknowledgements. Since I am reviewing it, you know my decision.

Their Lives is a wonderful and thoughtful piece of work, and I congratulate Candice for her efforts, as she had taken upon herself to engage in a very difficult piece of mental maneuvering. She has written a book that deals with the lives of various women who had encounters with Bill Clinton, sexual and otherwise, who were put through a personal hell not because they sought to attack him – which they did not – but rather because Bill and Hillary Clinton and their acolytes recognized that these women were a threat to both of their political futures. Thus, we have the orthodox-feminist Clintons using rather Neanderthal means to personally attack women in a manner that would have consumed the editorial page writers and columnists of the New York Times had Clinton been a conservative Republican. Instead, the press and their leftist allies not only swallowed this nonsense, but even became part of the attack machine.

So far, it would sound as though I am describing yet another "conservative" attack on the Clintons. After all, Ann Coulter (who Lew Rockwell once described as the "Madame DeFarge" of the Republicans) has said pretty much the same thing, so what’s the point of having another "right-wing" exposé of Bill Clinton’s enormous sexual appetites?

Jackson, however, does not follow in that particular genre. Instead, she attempts something much more difficult, an attempt to tie the Clinton’s antics to their ideology; to put it another way, she is not shocked that the country’s 42nd president turned out to be an out-and-out misogynist. It’s the ideology, stupid.

Furthermore, Candice attempts to weave a libertarian ideal of feminism in her work, and then tie the entire unwieldy package together. That she succeeds at all is proof that this is not a bad piece of work, not a bad piece of work at all. And to highlight her inter-personal skills, Jackson has managed to gain the confidence of certain women who previously had shunned all attempts by writers and journalists to interview them. Thus, Kathleen Willey Schwicker, who first was introduced to the nation in 1998 on "60 Minutes" as the middle-aged woman claimed to have been groped by Clinton in an Oval-Office encounter, could write:

Candice E. Jackson’s rendition of my story is the most accurate portrayal of my experience with Bill Clinton that has yet been published. I appreciate her painstaking attempt to express the true nightmare Bill and Hillary put me through. (back cover)

To put it another way, Candice was not out to write sensational (and undocumented) things, but rather to get the facts of the case. Not every woman about whom she wrote would talk to her. For example, while Candice talked on numerous occasions to the parents of the infamous Monica Lewinsky (though not on the record), the loopy White House intern whose sexual affair with the president ultimately touched off a year that began with speculation and ended with the impeachment (but not removal) of President Clinton would not talk to the author. My sense is that her refusal to talk was Lewinsky’s loss.

The women that Candice covers in her book are Elizabeth Ward Gracen, Sally Perdue, Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey (Schwicker), Lewinsky, and Juanita Broaddrick, who convincingly argued that then-Arkansas Attorney General William Jefferson Clinton raped her in a hotel room in 1978. She ends with a brief discussion of the possibilities of a Hillary Clinton presidency – that in 2005 does not seem particularly remote as the 2008 election approaches.

In the first chapter, the reader quickly finds that Candice does not view Clinton’s sexual antics as mere frat boy mischievousness. She writes:

"Unfortunately for the many women mistreated by him, Clinton’s interactions with women spanning his political career place him outside the category "philanderer" and into much more serious categories like "sex addict," "sex offender," and 'misogynist.'

"I don’t use these terms lightly…Philandering may be about men who "love" women too much, but sexual abuse, sex addiction, and misogyny have nothing to do with love and everything to do with power and control, often based on a view of women as objects." (p. 8)

She further writes:

"From Clinton’s brief affairs with Elizabeth Ward Gracen and Sally Perdue as governor of Arkansas, to his decade-long recurring affair with Gennifer Flowers, to his alleged unwanted advances thrust upon Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey, to his confessed sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office and – if you find her story as credible as do I – his vicious assault on Juanita Broaddrick, Bill Clinton constantly views women as playthings. He has used his ever-expanding positions of power to seduce, entice, cajole, pressure, abuse, smear, and destroy women unfortunate enough to be caught in his gaze." (p. 11)

So far, however, I have described something that could just as easily have been written by Coulter, Laura Ingraham, or even Rush Limbaugh. But Coulter, Ingraham and Limbaugh are conservatives. Furthermore, they are Republicans, and they write and speak from a point of view that is aimed at empowering the Republicans at the expense of Democrats.

Candice takes a different route, however. The problem is not that Clinton belongs to the wrong party, but rather that he has a wrong view of the state. She writes:

"…aspects of liberalism that contributed to such mistreatment include: using any political means to achieve a worthy political goal; relying on intermediaries to enforce political demands; judging the message based on the presumed motives of the messenger; elevating groupism over individualism; trusting in government as super-parent; succumbing to government seduction; and most critically, perpetuating the use of force to achieve moral values. Exploring the stories of the seven women in this book will connect the dots between Clinton’s misogyny and his political liberalism." (p. 14)

Such protestations will win her no friends on the left – but modern "conservatives" and their neo-conservative allies also would object to this declaration. After all, in this post-9/11 age, conservatives tell us that we are not safe unless federal agents wearing latex gloves search wheelchair-bound elderly ladies and young children before they board airlines, and that there should be no bounds on the state’s abilities to eavesdrop on any of our conversations.

(For that matter, in his first speech after being appointed head of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean insisted that the Democrats should receive the credit for the creation of the Transportation Security Administration [TSA, or "Thousands Standing Around"] and the Department of Homeland Security. No doubt, rats proudly took the credit for spreading the Bubonic Plague during the Middle Ages. In this case, the rats wear the buttons of both political parties.)

While Jackson’s logic appeals to libertarians and others who see the power of the state as a menace, it is going to be a hard sell elsewhere. Leftists and Democrats are going to say that the dots she lays out simply don’t connect. Moreover, they are liable to point out that conservatives were promoting a double standard when it came to condemnation of Clinton’s peccadilloes, and that none of it should matter, anyway. Impeachment was about sex, which was not a high enough standard for the Republicans to use in their attempt to remove Clinton from office.

Strangely enough – or perhaps because Candice wishes to be logical and consistent – she takes the position that Clinton’s behavior did not warrant impeachment. First, as she points out, while Clinton’s advances toward Paula Jones were crude and reckless, they did not fit the legal definition of sexual harassment. Thus, the whole string of wild events that began with the sexual harassment suit that Jones filed against Clinton might have been avoided had someone actually read the law. Of course, we would not have heard about Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, and, of course, Monica Lewinsky and Candice would not have had a book, but what has happened has happened.

The book seems to have three main purposes. The first is to re-introduce us to the women whose encounters with Clinton became front-page news, and Candice does a good-to-very good job in dealing with them. It is a credit to her that these women were willing to put themselves on the record again after having endured personal attacks directed against them from the highest political office on the face of the earth. Kathleen Willey was broke, widowed, and did not have the resources to deal with the threats and violence directed against her. Broaddrick found herself on the receiving end of an IRS audit. (Use of the IRS against his political enemies – or people who might pose a problem for him – was a reoccurring weapon wielded by Clinton.)

Her second purpose, as noted earlier, is to connect the tenets of modern liberalism to Clinton’s behavior. This connection is harder to make, as one has to tie an ideology to personal behavior that seems to contradict the doctrines of that way of thinking. After all, leftist feminists such as Gloria Steinem were aghast at the comments Clarence Thomas allegedly made to Anita Hill, comments that they tied directly to his particular ideology.

But, one forgets that Steinem also declared many years ago that "the personal is political," and she lives her life accordingly. Thus, her actions fit squarely into Jackson’s description of the current tenets of liberalism:

In modern liberalism, political goals justify any political means to achieve them. For example, leftists uphold the goal of nondiscrimination based on race or gender, and feel completely justified using any and all political means to try to accomplish that goal. The impact of their chosen means on individual people, and the burdens they impose on real people in pursuit of their objective, can be conveniently ignored or dismissed as small prices to pay in pursuit of a worthy cause. Anyone who objects to the means selected to achieve the goal is attacked as heartless and a terrible person who wants racial and gender discrimination to continue. (p. 23, emphasis author’s)

Like the defenders of Lenin and Stalin who declared that the creation of an "omelet" requires "the breaking of eggs," Clinton’s backers were willing to use any means possible to destroy people who stood in the way of their being able to obtain and use political power. We know from the impeachment brouhaha of seven years ago some of the tactics the Clintons used; Candice uncovers even more. Therefore, in the end, the Clintonites are left with the "defense" that they had to attack women in order to preserve women’s rights, a "we had to destroy Vietnam in order to save it" mentality.

The third purpose of Their Lives is to lay out a libertarian feminist alternative, an ideology based upon respect for the individual. While she does not quote Wendy McElroy, her work certainly is along the same lines as the woman who has given us very thoughtful analysis and ifeminism. Space does not permit me to go through all of her ideas, but let me say that she makes a cogent case. Furthermore, the concepts that she presents are workable in a free society, as they ultimately are built upon the principles of liberty, property, free speech, and mutual respect.

My review deals lastly with her own revelations of a rape that she suffered many years ago, it being included in the chapter on Juanita Broaddrick. Candice does not write from the point of view of "I was raped; therefore, Bill Clinton should burn in Hell." Instead, she recounts the experience, how she dealt with it – and gives insight into why Broaddrick did not run to the authorities immediately after the rape occurred. (For one thing, Clinton was the Arkansas AG at the time, which would have meant that he ultimately would have had to be prosecuting himself, which seems highly unlikely. One can only imagine Broaddrick’s fate had she actually reported the incident to the police right after it happened. Instead, we are left with the immortal Clinton line, "You better get some ice on that.")

It is not easy reading the words of a friend who has gone through such an experience. Other women in my life have had similar experiences, and rape is a crime that too often goes unpunished. Certainly, the future and now past President of the United States got away with it – and was able to marshal his attack machine to go after Broaddrick, although not all feminists were willing to go on board with this one.

(It is one thing to go after a Paula Jones or even a Kathleen Willey. Juanita Broaddrick was too believable and too credible a witness for the Clinton feminists to slice-and-dice the way they had done with the others.)

In the end, we are left with a different picture of Bill Clinton than his supporters try to give us. We have seen too many people who advocate "women’s rights" who were all-too-happy to see women attacked and their lives destroyed because their stories got in the way of feminist ideology – and the political vehicles needed to put that ideology into law. Indeed, Their Lives is not another anti-Clinton screed. It is thoughtful, well-written, and speaks to the heart, and I will say that I am very proud to be a friend and working partner of the very special woman who wrote it. - William L. Anderson Copyright © 2005 LewRockwell.com [See the Fair Use Notice, below.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:46 AM

The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions 

Professor Griffin covers topics he says have been inadequately answered by the commission. These include questions surrounding the attack on the Pentagon, the way in which the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and the behavior of President Bush and his Secret Service detail following notification that a second plane had hit the WTC. - A video broadcast On C-Span 2 - Thursday, April 28, 2005
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:41 AM

Saturday, May 07, 2005

The Federal Monopoly 

In most teaching about the American Civil War, the pupil “learns” that there was a necessary association between slavery and secession. The war ended happily, he is told, because slavery was destroyed and the Union was saved.

But there was no inevitable connection between slavery and secession. In fact, the first secessionists were Northern abolitionists who wanted no part of a Union that tolerated slavery. They just didn’t acquire enough influence to persuade their fellow Northerners to declare their independence.

Suppose they had. Suppose New England had pulled out of the Union in indignation over slavery. Suppose the remaining states had declared war in order to save the Union, and after a bitter five-year struggle, costing nearly a million lives, New England had been conquered.

Then what? History might record that the victorious Union took a fierce revenge by occupying, looting, and setting up puppet governments in New England for several years; furthermore, that it also amended the Constitution not only to protect slavery in the South, but to extend the right to own slaves to every state and all U.S. territories.

In that case, “saving the Union” might not seem such a wonderful thing. It would have come at the price of saving slavery. The causes of Union and slavery would have been synonymous for later generations.

A more chilling thought is that the Union victory over New England might not only have saved slavery, but conferred moral legitimacy on it. Abolitionism might be associated with those nasty rebels who tried to destroy the Union, and slavery with the cause of patriotism! To the victor belong the spoils — including, to a great extent, the moral sense of the population.

Both sides in the actual Civil War were engaged in subjugation. The South was protecting chattel slavery; the North was denying the right of secession on which this country was founded.

At the time the Constitution was adopted, several states, including Virginia and New York, ratified it on the express condition that they might withdraw from the Union at any time they deemed it in their interest to do so. This was in keeping with the Declaration of Independence, which says that people have both the “right” and the “duty” to “alter or abolish” a government destructive of their rights.

Nobody at the time challenged these states’ claim to a right of secession. Not only did the Declaration support them; as a practical matter, nothing could stop them. The federal government was too weak.

The Civil War established that the federal government had grown strong enough to prevent and punish any independence movement. From then on, no state could secede for any reason, no matter how tyrannous the federal government might become.

The military ratio has widened enormously: today the states still have rifles, but the federal government has a nuclear arsenal. Nobody talks about secession (at least not very loud).

This is what makes it possible for the federal government to dictate to the states. If the Union were still voluntary, the Supreme Court wouldn’t dare, for example, to strike down the abortion laws of all 50 states, because many of those states would have seceded immediately after such an outrageous usurpation of their power.

Ah, but we no longer speak of federal “usurpation” — and why not? Because the powerful can change even our moral sense, unless we are extremely vigilant. So most of the country has accepted as legitimate the court’s claim to authority over state abortion laws.

As Andrew Jackson once said of Chief Justice Marshall, “John Marshall has made his decision — now let him enforce it!” Translation: The power to interpret the law is meaningless without the power to enforce it. If only the federal government can enforce the Constitution, only the federal government can interpret it.

So, as a practical matter, there is no longer any such thing as a federal “usurpation” of power. Nobody can enforce the Constitution against the federal government, so why bother trying? Which makes the Constitution pretty useless for the purpose of limiting that government.

When you look back on a famous victory in any war of the past, don’t be too sure the right side won. - Joseph Sobran (Originally published by the Universal Press Syndicate, June 9, 1998) Copyright © 2005 by The Vere Company [See the Fair Use Notice, below.] (via Lew Rockwell)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:30 PM

Cosmos 1 

A solar sail is a spacecraft without an engine - it is pushed along directly by light particles from the Sun, reflecting off giant mirror-like sails. Because it carries no fuel and keeps accelerating over almost unlimited distances, it is the only technology now in existence that can one day take us to the stars.

Cosmos 1 has 8 triangular sails, each 15 meters (50 feet) in length, configured around the spacecraft's body at the center. The sails will be deployed by inflatable tubes once the spacecraft is in orbit.

The spacecraft will be launched from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. It will be carried into orbit on board a Volna rocket - a converted ICBM left over from the old Soviet arsenal. The actual launch date will be announced during the week of May 16.

Cosmos 1 will orbit the Earth at an altitude of over 800 kilometers. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing -- the pressure of light particles from the Sun upon its luminous sails.
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:34 AM

See and hear the potophone (via Bob)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:32 AM

Alcohol industry gives big donations 

At the Texas Capitol, booze means big money. Beer, wine and liquor manufacturers, distributors and retailers will pay lobbyists up to $4 million to sway legislators in 2005, according to state report totals compiled by The Associated Press.

"We think the current Texas alcohol code is antiquated and is in need of modernization," said Nate Hurst, public and government relations manager for Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, whose principals gave more than $100,000 to key Texas officials.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst got most from industry: $152,735.

Of those contributions identified by The Associated Press, industry donations last year were more than $330,000 combined to Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick and four legislators overseeing alcohol bills.

Dewhurst received the most. His $152,735 from alcohol-related interests amounted to slightly less than 3 percent of his total. Spokesmen for the three top leaders said the donations will not affect their decisions this session. Suzii Paynter, lobbyist for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said the "whiny baby" alcohol industry has deep connections at the Capitol.

"They have a lot of friends but not really an argument against a tax," said Paynter, whose group is pushing for higher alcohol taxes.

Alcohol manufacturers, distributors and retailers have more than 90 hired and trade association lobbyists this year, according to Texas Ethics Commission lists.

Anheuser-Busch listed six Texas lobbyists for 2005, earning total payments from $125,000 to $279,997.

The two chief sponsors of the sunset legislation that will determine how the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission operates in the future — Republican Rep. Peggy Hamric and Democratic Sen. John Whitmire, both of Houston — received alcohol industry donations of $5,250 and $14,500, respectively, last year.

Democratic Rep. Kino Flores of Palmview and Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston, chairmen of committees overseeing the alcohol commission's sunset legislation, received at least $12,300 and $12,500, respectively.

Ellis said campaign donations don't influence his actions as a senator.

Perry received at least $97,532 in alcohol industry and retail contributions last year. Craddick received at least $36,250.

Of Perry's contributions, $15,257 came in airfare provided by John Nau III, president and chief executive of Silver Eagle Distributors LP of Houston. It's one of the nation's largest Anheuser-Busch distributors.

Nau accompanied Perry and a group of donors and advisers on a trip to the Bahamas last year, supposedly to discuss school finance. The Texas Ethics Commission told Perry that it was reviewing the trip as a possible violation, but the agency has not issued a finding against him.

Other big donors to Capitol leaders were principals of Wal-Mart and H-E-B Grocery Co.

The two retail giants are lobbying to change the state's longstanding cash payment law that forces retailers to pay beer distributors the day of delivery with cash, check or electronic transfer. No credit is allowed, as it is with other merchandise.


Who's giving?

Campaign contributions made in 2004 by key individuals or groups with ties to the alcohol industry. The figures include contributions to Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick and four lawmakers who oversee major alcohol legislation this session: Democratic Sens. Rodney Ellis and John Whitmire of Houston, Democratic Rep. Kino Flores of Palmview and Republican Rep. Peggy Hamric of Houston.
Contributor Amount
Alice Walton, Wal-Mart heiress $75,000
John T. Walton, a Wal-Mart director $50,000
Charles Butt, H-E-B Grocery Co. $49,000
Hillco Partners, lobbying firm whose clients include Wal-Mart, Sam's Clubs, H-E-B Grocery and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States $41,500
John Nau III, Silver Eagle Distributors LP $41,257
Beer Alliance of Texas $18,500
Licensed Beverage Distributors $9,800
Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas $8,000
Wal-Mart political action committee $4,500
Distilled Spirits Council of the United States $4,000
Texas Retailers Association $3,500
Sources: Texas Ethics Commission, data compiled by The Associated Press - BUD [I have asked for Wal-Mart's comments which will by posted here if and when I recieve any. - gethky]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:23 AM

Friday, May 06, 2005

Apocalypse Soon [excerpt] 

On any given day, as we go about our business, the president is prepared to make a decision within 20 minutes that could launch one of the most devastating weapons in the world. To declare war requires an act of congress, but to launch a nuclear holocaust requires 20 minutes’ deliberation by the president and his advisors. But that is what we have lived with for 40 years. With very few changes, this system remains largely intact, including the “football,” the president’s constant companion. - Robert S. McNamara

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:46 PM

Treasury Secretary John Snow recently announced that the total unfunded liabilities of the United States government total $80 trillion. Ouch! That's a debt load equivalent to about six times our current GDP. It is almost twice as much as the value of all goods and services produced everywhere in the world last year. And it is more money than has been earned by every American cumulatively since the Mayflower landed here 500 years ago. - Stephen Moore

 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 1:48 PM

Secret Worlds: The Universe Within 

View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons. - ScienceOptics (via Lew Rockwell)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:03 PM

US Offers Grants to Help Oppose Iran's Clerics 

Guy Dinmore, The Financial Times: "The Bush administration has put the democratisation of Iran out to tender--offering money to groups and individuals inside the Islamic republic--in what officials describe as the start of a long-term effort to pay for opposition to the ruling clerics." READ MORE

The Department of State website includes the following statement: "Project activity should take place abroad. U.S.-based or exchange projects are strongly discouraged."

It appears to me that the groups that can best assist the Iranian people in their quest for democracy and human rights in Iran are excluded.

Those inside of Iran cannot apply for these funds and expect to remain free for long. I can't imagine many legitimate groups inside the country applying. It would be more likely that the Iranian government would create their own groups inside of Iran to apply for the funds.

Am I missing something here? - DoctorZin

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:26 AM

What about Me? 

Spring seems to be the season for showers and I don't mean of the wet and wonderful kind. I am referring to the wedding and baby downpour. Urgh.

I am single and by my calculation I have spent more than two thousand dollars (my hard earned money) on gifts for these events. Back in college the gifts were a little cheaper but now that I've clearly passed over into the "adult world" the gifts come with higher price tags.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind spending money of gifts for the people I love and care about but there are a few things that I find very unfair. For instance, for the bride or mom-to-be, if there are multiple showers why do we feel obligated to buy a gift for each event PLUS give a gift at the wedding or the birth? Not cool. Then there are those showers that I get invited to for people I don't know all too well. I will never see that gift or person again after the wedding/baby. I am not made of money and I get nothing in return...

That is the heart of the issue. Why are the single people left out in the cold? We deserve a shower too!!! In fact, we might just need it more than the newlyweds or new parents. We live off a single income and nearly break the bank every spring buying useless gifts for people that may or may not be in our lives ten years down the road. This needs to change.

I propose an "All about Me" Shower. Here are the rules. Only single people are invited and you have to buy YOURSELF a gift for around $50 (or whatever you usually spend on other showers). Bring that gift to the party and we will show it off to one another. Oh, I guess married people or people with kids can come but ONLY if they bring a gift for the lot of us. There will be NO stupid pin the tail on the groom or don't say the word "baby" games, just adult conversation and yummy cocktails. The only game-like event at this party will be to help one another register for gifts at real stores. There will also be a discussion on how to host your own house warming party, birthday party, or any party using the registry list we have just created.

Most of us are single by choice and we should not feel punished for that choice any longer. We deserve showers too. It's high time you married and baby people start gifting us! So, repeat after me: What do we want? EQUAL RIGHTS! When do we want it? NOW!!! - Keymaster

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:55 AM

Thursday, May 05, 2005

The secret Downing Street memo 

SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY

DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02

cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell

IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 23 JULY [2002]

Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.

This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.

John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment. Saddam's regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public was probably narrowly based.

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

CDS said that military planners would brief CENTCOM on 1-2 August, Rumsfeld on 3 August and Bush on 4 August.

The two broad US options were:

(a) Generated Start. A slow build-up of 250,000 US troops, a short (72 hour) air campaign, then a move up to Baghdad from the south. Lead time of 90 days (30 days preparation plus 60 days deployment to Kuwait).

(b) Running Start. Use forces already in theatre (3 x 6,000), continuous air campaign, initiated by an Iraqi casus belli. Total lead time of 60 days with the air campaign beginning even earlier. A hazardous option.

The US saw the UK (and Kuwait) as essential, with basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus critical for either option. Turkey and other Gulf states were also important, but less vital. The three main options for UK involvement were:

(i) Basing in Diego Garcia and Cyprus, plus three SF squadrons.

(ii) As above, with maritime and air assets in addition.

(iii) As above, plus a land contribution of up to 40,000, perhaps with a discrete role in Northern Iraq entering from Turkey, tying down two Iraqi divisions.

The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun "spikes of activity" to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections.

The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.

The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult. The situation might of course change.


The Prime Minister said that it would make a big difference politically and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors. Regime change and WMD were linked in the sense that it was the regime that was producing the WMD. There were different strategies for dealing with Libya and Iran. If the political context were right, people would support regime change. The two key issues were whether the military plan worked and whether we had the political strategy to give the military plan the space to work.

On the first, CDS said that we did not know yet if the US battleplan was workable. The military were continuing to ask lots of questions.

For instance, what were the consequences, if Saddam used WMD on day one, or if Baghdad did not collapse and urban warfighting began? You said that Saddam could also use his WMD on Kuwait. Or on Israel, added the Defence Secretary.

The Foreign Secretary thought the US would not go ahead with a military plan unless convinced that it was a winning strategy. On this, US and UK interests converged. But on the political strategy, there could be US/UK differences. Despite US resistance, we should explore discreetly the ultimatum. Saddam would continue to play hard-ball with the UN.

John Scarlett assessed that Saddam would allow the inspectors back in only when he thought the threat of military action was real.

The Defence Secretary said that if the Prime Minister wanted UK military involvement, he would need to decide this early. He cautioned that many in the US did not think it worth going down the ultimatum route. It would be important for the Prime Minister to set out the political context to Bush.

Conclusions:

(a) We should work on the assumption that the UK would take part in any military action. But we needed a fuller picture of US planning before we could take any firm decisions. CDS should tell the US military that we were considering a range of options.

(b) The Prime Minister would revert on the question of whether funds could be spent in preparation for this operation.

(c) CDS would send the Prime Minister full details of the proposed military campaign and possible UK contributions by the end of the week.


(d) The Foreign Secretary would send the Prime Minister the background on the UN inspectors, and discreetly work up the ultimatum to Saddam.

He would also send the Prime Minister advice on the positions of countries in the region especially Turkey, and of the key EU member states.

(e) John Scarlett would send the Prime Minister a full intelligence update.

(f) We must not ignore the legal issues: the Attorney-General would consider legal advice with FCO/MOD legal advisers.

(I have written separately to commission this follow-up work.)

MATTHEW RYCROFT

(Rycroft was a Downing Street foreign policy aide)

[I have added emphasis. - gethky] (via Proof Bush Fixed the Facts)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 6:45 PM

Boom time. Boom place. Boom. Boom. Ka-boom! [excerpt] 

There was a time; believe it or not, when people thought the only way to make money was by producing things you could sell. The idea...and I'm reciting this from memory...was that you made things for $x and sold them for $x + 30%. It was pretty simple in theory, but hard to do in practice - especially when there always seemed to be someone in Asia willing to sell them for $x - 30%. The only way American manufacturers could possibly keep up was by investing massive amounts of money in research, new equipment and new training so that they could make things better and cheaper than they made them in Asia. But that involved all the old-fashioned virtues - thrift, saving, self-discipline, hard work, perseverance - who was going to put up with that? So manufacturing declined in the United States, and wages stagnated. Manufacturing made up more than half the U.S. economy in '65. It fell to 39% in '88. And by 2004, for every $1 of GDP in the United States only 9 cents came from making things. Per hour worked, in real terms, Americans barely earn more than they did 30 years ago. Last year, their earnings actually went down. - The Daily Reckoning

posted by George Thomas Kysor 6:02 PM

The Rude Awakening 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 5:44 PM

Three-year-old Xuan Minh, believed to have genetic defects from Agent Orange - BBC News (via Lew Rockwell) 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:35 AM

My arthritis story. The begining of me as I know me. - Anne

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:22 AM

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Saved by the carrots 

These last few days have been explosive- quite literally. It started about 4 days ago and it hasn't let up since. They say there were around 14 car bombs in Baghdad alone a couple of days ago- although we only heard 6 from our area. Cars are making me very nervous lately. All cars look suspicious- small ones and large ones. Old cars and new cars. Cars with drivers and cars parked in front of restaurants and shops. They all have a sinister look to them these days.

The worst day for us was the day before yesterday. We were sitting in the living room with an aunt and her 16-year-old son and listening patiently as she scolded the household for *still* having our rugs spread. In Iraq, people don't keep their carpeting all year round. We begin removing the carpeting around April and it doesn't come back until around October. We don't have wall to wall carpeting here like abroad. Instead, we have lovely rugs that we usually spread in the middle of the room. The best kinds are made in Iran, specifically in Tabriz or Kashan. They are often large, heavy and intricately designed. Tabriz and Kashan rugs are very expensive and few families actually have them any more. Most people who do have Tabriz rugs in Baghdad got them through an inheritance.

We have ordinary Persian rugs (which we suspect aren't really Persian at all). They aren't expensive or even particularly impressive, but they give the living room that Eastern look many Iraqi houses seem to have- no matter how Western the furniture is. The patterns and colors are repeated all over the rugs in a sort of symmetrical fashion. If you really focus on them though, you can often see a story being told by the flowers, geometrical shapes and sometimes birds or butterflies. When we were younger, E. and I would sit and stare at them, trying to 'read' the colors and designs- Having them on the ground is almost like having a woolly blog for the floor.

So my aunt sat there, telling us we should have had the rugs cleaned and packed away long ago- like the beginning of April. And she was right. The proper thing would be to give the rugs a good cleaning and roll them up for storage in their corner in the hallway upstairs, to stand tall and firm for almost 7 months, like sentinels of the second floor. The reason we hadn't gotten around to doing this yet was quite simple- the water situation in our area didn't allow for washing the rugs in April and so we had procrastinated the rug situation, until one week became two weeks and two weeks melted into three... and now we were in the first days of May and the rugs faced us almost disapprovingly on the floor.

Within 20 minutes, the aunt decided she was going to stay and help us remove said rugs the next day. We would go upstairs to clean the roof of the house very thoroughly. We would drag the rugs to the roof the next day and one by one, beat them thoroughly to get out the excess dust, then wipe down the larger ones with my aunts secret rug-cleaning mix and wash the smaller ones and set them out to dry on the hot roof.

Her son couldn't spend the night however, and he decided to return home the same day. It was around maybe 1 pm when he walked out the door, planning to walk the two kilometers home. He listened to my aunt as she gave him instructions about heating lunch for his father, studying, washing fruit before eating it, picking up carrots on the way home, watching out for suspicious cars and people and calling as soon as he walked through the door so she could relax. He shook his head in the affirmative, waved goodbye and walked out the gate towards the main street.

Three minutes later, an explosion rocked the house. The windows rattled momentarily and a door slammed somewhere upstairs. I was clutching a corner of the living room rug where I had pulled it back to assure my aunt that there were no bugs living under it.

"Car bomb." E. said grimly, running outside to see where it had come from. I looked at my aunt apprehensively and she sat, pale, her hands shaking as she adjusted the head scarf she wore, preparing to go outside.

"F. just went out the door..." she said, breathlessly referring to her son. I dropped the handful of carpeting and ran outside to follow E. My heart was beating wildly as I tried to decide the direction of the explosion. I sensed my aunt not far behind me.

"Do you see him?" She called out weakly. I was in the middle of the street by then and some of the neighbors were standing around outside.

"Where did it come from?" I called across the street to one of the neighborhood children.

"The main street." He answered back, pointing in the direction my cousin had gone.

"Did it come from the main street?" My aunt cried out from the gate.

"No." I lied, searching for E. "No- it came from the other side." I was trying to decide whether I should go ahead and run out to the main street where it seemed more and more people were gathering, when I saw E. rounding the corner, an arm casually draped around my cousin who seemed to be talking excitedly. I turned to smile encouragingly at my aunt who was sagging with relief at the gate.

"He's fine." She said. "He's fine."

"I was near the explosion!" F. said excitedly as he neared the house. My aunt grabbed him by the shoulders and began inspecting him- his face, his neck, his arms.

"I'm fine mother..." he shrugged her off as she began a long prayer of thanks interspersed with irrational scolding about how he should be more careful.

"Did anyone get hurt?" I asked E., dreading the answer. E. nodded and held up three fingers.

"I think three people were killed and there are some waiting for the cars to take them to the hospital."

Back in the house, E. and I decided he'd go back and see if he could help. We gathered up some gauze, medical tape, antiseptic and a couple of bottles of cold water. I turned back to my cousin after E. had left. He was excited and tense, eyes wide with disbelief. His voice was shaking slightly as he spoke and his lower lip trembled.

"I was just going to cross the street but I remembered I should buy the carrots" He spoke rapidly, "So I stopped by that guy who sells vegetables and just as I was buying them- a big BOOM and a car exploded and the one next to it began to burn... If I hadn't stopped for the carrots..." The cousin began waving his arms around in the air and I leaned back to avoid one in the face.

My aunt gasped, stopping in the living room, "The carrots saved you!" She cried out, holding a hand to her heart. My cousin looked at her incredulously and the color slowly began to return to his face. "Carrots." He murmured, throwing himself down on the sofa and grabbing one of the cushions, "Carrots saved me."

E. came home an hour later, tired and disheveled. Two people had died- the third would probably survive- but at least a dozen others were wounded. Every time I look at my cousin, I wonder- gratefully- how it was that we were so lucky. - Riverbend (May 2, 2005)

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:41 PM

Mermaids

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:26 PM

NEWS PHOTO 

Pool of blood in Iraq 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 3:07 PM

people would rather die than think [excerpt] 

Most of what you see in the news is noise. It is not only useless; it is harmful...in that it distracts you from thinking about things that are important to you. Of course, that's why the news is so popular; it is a diversion, an entertainment, and a distraction. You might as well watch television or take up train spotting.

Any kind of diversion is better than actual thinking. On the evidence, people would rather die than think. Wars begin on flimsy pretexts. Often people hesitate before getting involved in them. But once engaged, some primitive instinct takes over. The noise of war becomes all-important. People are deafened by it; they give up thinking altogether. The next thing you know, they are walking across a no man's land, while thousands of enemy soldiers try to kill them. All they can do is to focus on the war itself...and how they're going to win it...or at least, survive it. Hardly anyone is capable of turning off the news and posing the essential question: Why are we bothering to fight at all? What is so important that it's worth dying for? And pity the poor man who asks the question! He is promptly arrested and hung as a traitor.

In retrospect, it wasn't worth dying in hardly a single one of America's many wars. Never did foreign invaders seriously menace the country. Pancho Villa crossed the border into New Mexico and killed a few people. But his raid was more like a bank robbery than an invasion. In 1812, the British sailed up the Patuxent and Potomac rivers - burning houses along the way and setting fire to the capitol. But they never posed a major threat to the rest of the nation. Even the bombing of Pearl Harbor - though clearly an act of war - could not have been followed up by an invasion; the Japanese didn't have the means. The only time the country was really threatened was when Lincoln's Yankee troops entered Virginia. Of course, every southern boy with a pulse knew what he had to do; get his rifle out and go challenge the invader. But even then, he probably would have been better off ignoring the whole affair; it ended badly for nearly everyone. - The Daily Reckoning

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:48 PM

My Son the Terrorist 

I was getting ready to board a plane to take me from the dreary snow of late April in Michigan to sunny Florida. I serpentined my way through the line for the baggage check in. At the counter I began using a touch screen monitor to process boarding passes for my wife, myself and my three sons. I entered the information correctly, but the process seemed to simply stall. I chalked it up to a computer snafu and began all over again. Once again I reached a dead end without explanation.

Noticing my plight, the airline agent smiled at me with that smile. You know, that smile that says "Here stupid, let me do that for you, before the 87 people in line behind you have you for lunch." I watched as she entered the exact same information I had entered twice previously. It did not respond for her either. She walked back behind the counter where she and another employee examined another computer screen and exchanged words.

Approaching me, the agent asked if I had a son named John. I replied affirmatively. She asked for his birth date which I quickly provided. She asked what city he was born in. Again I was prompt with my answer. The smile on her face disappeared as she informed me that my seven-year-old son was on the government’s no-fly list.

Hey, I know he had a couple of time outs in kindergarten, but the no-fly list? There I stood, in painful recognition of the fact that despite the best efforts of my wife and myself we had raised a terrorist right under our noses.

Rolling her eyes, the perplexed agent confided that she had previously had a two-year-old show up on the list. Yes, kids are truly getting worse at much younger ages. Despite his confirmation as a terrorist suspect and a threat to national security, my son was given a boarding pass, a pair of plastic wings, three airplane collecting cards and sent along with us to board the plane. Hey, what about my safety not to mention the safety of the nation? How could they force a plane full of unsuspecting adults to fly in the company of a known terrorist? Discreetly, the embarrassed agent advised me to check in with an agent upon my return flight rather than experiencing the futility of another e-check in.

Somehow the flight made its uneventful way to Florida with my son aboard. I must admit I was watching him much closer thanks to the government’s tip. In five days of sunshine, shell collecting and swimming, I somehow managed to be lulled into a false sense of security about my son. At one point he asked me, "Daddy, what does no-fly mean?" (Oh yeah, play innocent with me!)

On our return, I went to the agent at the counter and explained the situation. He appeared not the least bit interested and sent us on our way through the usual myriad of airport screening and on to our gate. As my son boarded the plane, I felt the urge to blurt out his status as a terrorist to permit others to save themselves. The next thing I knew, the pilots had invited my son into the cockpit for a nickel tour. He looked around with the wonderment of a child. (Oh sure. Like you haven’t already practiced hours on a simulator!)

I guess it wasn’t in the works that day. Perhaps my son had not been given his secret command to attack. He chewed bubble gum, drew pictures in his journal and looked endlessly out the window. The perfect operative! Who would even suspect him?

Maybe Tom Ridge, George Tenet or the thousands of federal agents in scores of federal agencies know more than I about my son’s secret life at age seven. I feel so much safer now. Don’t you? - John M. Peters Copyright © 2005 LewRockwell.com [See the Fair Use Notice, below.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:23 AM

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Rep. Levin Releases Reports Suppressed By Bush Administration Confirming Systematic Denial of Internationally Recognized Workers’ Rights in CAFTA Countries.

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:26 PM

Calls of the Clay-colored Robin 

The Clay-colored Robin (Turdus grayi) is the national bird of Costa Rica, and one of the most widespread (112K). I don't think there was any major area without this bird. The local name is "Yig" and the song signals the beginning of the rainy (and therefore, the planting) season. Here's one of his calls. And Another. This I call the "Mono-Duet", a double call in which the bird uses both syrinxes to make slightly different sounds - it took me a while to figure out that this wasn't two birds duetting. Click here for a spectrogram of this call, showing both syrinxes operating. In this sample they use this "mono-duet" as a mobbing call as they harrass a pair of Spectacled Owls that are too close in the river bottom at El Gavilan, near Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui 6/20/99. (366K) - The Sights and Sounds of Costa Rica

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:29 AM

Remembering the Rubicon [excerpt] 

The Rubicon is a small stream in northern Italy just south of the city of Ravenna. During the prime of the Roman Republic, roughly the last two centuries B.C., it served as a northern boundary protecting the heartland of Italy and the city of Rome from its own imperial armies. An ancient Roman law made it treason for any general to cross the Rubicon and enter Italy proper with a standing army. In 49 B.C., Julius Caesar, Rome’s most brilliant and successful general, stopped with his army at the Rubicon, contemplated what he was about to do, and then plunged south. The Republic exploded in civil war, Caesar became dictator and then in 44 B.C. was assassinated in the Roman Senate by politicians who saw themselves as ridding the Republic of a tyrant. However, Caesar’s death generated even more civil war, which ended only in 27 B.C. when his grand nephew, Octavian, took the title Augustus Caesar, abolished the Republic and established a military dictatorship with himself as “emperor” for life. Thus ended the great Roman experiment with democracy. Ever since, the phrase “to cross the Rubicon” has been a metaphor for starting on a course of action from which there is no turning back. It refers to the taking of an irrevocable step.

I believe that on November 2, 2004, the United States crossed its own Rubicon. Until last year’s presidential election, ordinary citizens could claim that our foreign policy, including the invasion of Iraq, was George Bush’s doing and that we had not voted for him. In 2000, Bush lost the popular vote and was appointed president by the Supreme Court. In 2004, he garnered 3.5 million more votes than John Kerry. The result is that Bush’s war changed into America’s war and his conduct of international relations became our own.

This is important because it raises the question of whether restoring sanity and prudence to American foreign policy is still possible. During the Watergate scandal of the early ’70s, the president’s chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, once reproved White House counsel John Dean for speaking too frankly to Congress about the felonies President Nixon had ordered. “John,” he said, “once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s very hard to get it back in.” This homely warning by a former advertising executive who was to spend 18 months in prison for his own role in Watergate fairly accurately describes the situation of the United States after the reelection of George W. Bush. - Chalmers Johnson Copyright © 2005 In These Times [See the Fair Use Policy, below.]

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:40 AM

Looking back to the future at Disneyland. 

House of the Future (via Disneyland's 1957 all-plastic house)
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 7:54 AM

Monday, May 02, 2005

watch Laura Bush, comedianne. [Click on (or search) "White House Correspondents Dinner (04/30/2005)" and advance to 1:15.]
 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 8:32 PM

Court Sides With Sexual Predators [excerpt] 

The Missouri Supreme Court made a ruling this past week that is insane and truly without rational explanation. Its embarrassing for sure, but much more importantly it puts our children in harms way. What they did is reverse a Missouri law section 566.083.1(1) RSMo 2000 by a 4 to 3 vote. It came about in an appeal hearing for a former St. Louis public school counselor (James Beine) who was convicted of exposing himself on several different occasions to elementary children. Aside from the school exposure crime, Beine has a conviction that was overturned on child pornography. That case had an alleged improper search warrant. Seems like we are scoring about 150% on protection of Child Sexual Predator rights.

Here is the full report out of the case and why the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the ruling from the Missouri Government website

My summary is as follows:

Opinion Summary: In his job as a counselor at the Patrick Henry Elementary School in St. Louis, Missouri, James Beine often entered restrooms designated for males to prevent disruptive behavior by students. Three male students under the age of 14 asserted that, in the spring of 2001, Beine exposed himself to them while using a urinal next to them in the restroom near the school's gym. At the time, no restrooms were designated expressly for students only, and adults sometimes used the large public restrooms frequented by the students. Beine was indicted on three counts of sexual misconduct involving a child by indecent exposure, in violation of section 566.083.1(1), RSMo 2000, although a fourth charge involving one of the three boys was added later. Following a trial, the jury found Beine guilty on all four counts and recommended that he be sentenced to four years in prison on each count. The court accepted the jury's recommendation, sentencing Beine to one concurrent and three consecutive terms, for a total of 12 years imprisonment. Beine appeals.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.Court en banc holds: (1) The evidence is insufficient to convict Beine of any of the charges, as the state has failed to point to substantial evidence in support of the essential elements of the offenses charged. To convict Beine of the charges, the state was required to prove that Beine exposed his genitals in a manner that would cause a reasonable adult to believe that such conduct was likely to cause affront or alarm to a child under the age of 14. Here, there is no question that Beine knowingly exposed his genitals to persons under the age of 14, which often is necessary in a men's restroom. There was no direct evidence, however, of how a reasonable adult would react to Beine's behavior. The evidence that, on two occasions, Beine stood at a distance from the urinal while urinating in the presence of the boys reasonably cannot be construed as likely to cause affront or alarm. The state simply has not proved criminal conduct under the applicable statute, and the judgment on all counts must be reversed.
So there is no doubt that Beine exposed himself on several occasions to children under 14 years old, but the Court says the exposure is within a reasonable fashion. Exposure within reasonable fashion?

Mr. Beine admitted to a fellow inmate that he knowingly exposed himself to boys and he admitted to be drawn to these two boys for what ever reason. He also told his fellow inmate that whenever the boys would use the bathroom and no other adults were around, he would go in and expose himself to the boys.

The children testified that Mr. Beine urinated beside them at a distance of three to four feet in an arc! Why would anyone stand back that far from the urinal other than to expose themselves to someone else.

On another occasion Beine turned towards the boys while they were using the sink and exposed himself again to them. If he had enough time to finish, then he had enough time to zip up prior to turning and facing the children.

The Principle Mr. Washington stated that there was no written policy that prohibited adults from using the children's bathroom "but it would not have been considered appropriate for the adult staff members to have used the children's restroom when the children were using them, although adults staff might use these restrooms on occasion if no children were present.

One of the boys C.M. stated that Beine was in the bathroom almost any time that his class used it.

OK, so this guy urinated four feet from the urinal in front of the kids, turned to them and exposed himself, was always in the bathroom when they were there even though the Principle states that was not appropriate, admitted to be drawn to these boys, and planned his presence when they were in the bathroom. Sounds to me that it fits within the intent of the law that any REASONABLE person would determine that this man intentionally exposed himself to these children repeatedly and did in fact cause affront or alarm to a child under age 14. - Steve Priest

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:52 PM

For The Swallows 

Below is a Letter to Strieber's Unknown Country from August 2003. It is now the 2nd of May 2005, and I can suggest that you observe carefully how the weather "feels" in your body and not simply how you feel about the weather. Because, the same thing is happening in 2005 as of today. The sky was clear in Southern Germany, the sun was incredibly hot. As the sun was setting the same "heat trap" effect began as in 2003. The heat increases and the body begins to sweat. As the sun moves below the horizon the heat density increases. It is bizzare!

Once more the number of Swallows seems to have decreased. By May there was always a good flock of Swallows in the sky. This year I have seen two Swallows who have appeared. These small signs signal big changes in our climate. Today the Swallows, tomorrow mankind! - MindShield

posted by George Thomas Kysor 12:37 PM

A Hidden Jewel, This Grammar School 

Hidden in plain sight on Schuyler Avenue in Stamford, Connecticut, is a most remarkable, traditional school. I make that assessment from experience since I have had the opportunity to teach in, and do observations in, more schools than I could ever count: as an itinerant teacher for the hearing impaired in Iowa and Colorado, sometimes driving 400 miles a week to work with students in numerous schools, in many districts; as a student at Manchester University, England, where we spent every Thursday visiting schools around England; and as a teacher who has taught in four states.

Furthermore, real grammar schools with traditional grammar school expectations have mostly disappeared; replaced by blah-gray training centers of progressive, meltdown education. I was therefore so pleased to discover that a gem such as Sacred Heart School still exists; but I was disappointed to note that parents in the Stamford area seem unaware of this treasure that their city holds. Were David that age, I would consider relocating in order to enroll him at that school. Had I not recently relocated my family to Alabama, and just purchased a house, I would be very tempted to move to Connecticut in order to teach at that school.

Sacred Heart might be described as an inner city school, but I found nothing about it, other than its mid-town location (which should make it so convenient for working parents), to fit that label. I teach in a defacto-segregated school in rural Alabama that too often fits the mental images, as well as the expectations, of how a poor, unsafe school in a poor, unsafe neighborhood would look; how its children would behave and perform. At the rural school we are advised not to work alone late or on weekends. At Sacred Heart, I not only felt totally safe, I felt my spirits, discouraged after long years of fighting the unraveling of public schooling, lift – with hope, with encouragement, with a sense of, "Yes! This is how schools should look and feel and function!"

The entire building is immaculately maintained, and the children and staff are just wonderful. I don't think that I have ever been so impressed. Manners have been gently but firmly instilled so the boys wait, letting the girls enter rooms first; guests are greeted warmly. The children wear uniforms – handsome scholarly uniforms on the non-gym days; then the cutest blue jogging suits, with short-sleeved polo shirts under the long-sleeved tops, for gym days. The halls are quiet and respect is shown to all, at all times. Oh, that such behavior were taught and enforced in the too-often chaotic public schools. It has been many years since I have been able to teach with my door open.



The spotless surroundings are immediately noticeable. To the left of the entry stairway is the beautiful library. The library looks and smells just like school libraries should look and smell. I love a library that is a library with computers assigned to separate quarters. Although I use the computer many hours a day, books are my greatest passion and they should be quartered in rooms like the one at Sacred Heart School. The library suited me – to a T, and I longed to spend hours in there, rereading my favorite books of childhood. I did draw a small chair to the shelves holding the picture books. I wanted to see which books were there, and borrow a couple to use as examples when I spoke to the staff.

The classrooms are huge, light and airy. What a change from the dark, depressing place where I presently spend so many hours a day. The sun streams in and heightens the sense of hope and expectation. I was energized by each room I entered. In addition to the classrooms being so inviting, the teachers were always busy teaching. I like to see teachers teach instead of expecting children to poorly manage cooperative learning groups. Never did I want my young son, with his youthful and limited experiences, attempting to educate peers while a teacher roamed the room observing instead of providing instruction.



Not only were the teachers always teaching, they were enjoying their days as much as the children were. I heard no voices raised in criticism or sternness; no children talking out-of-turn. Instruction was a pleasant exchange between individuals, young and old, eager to participate in the learning process. Huge smiles awaited me as I entered the classrooms then a chorus of children's voices greeted me with genuine pleasure, "Welcome Mrs. Taylor! God bless you, Mrs. Taylor!" I wanted to stop the merry-go-round that Life too often becomes, so that I might stay there and be part of that staff. I ache to teach in that school! I asked if ever there were discipline problems for the principal, Mr. Steve Terenzio, to handle. He said that occasionally…a child would fail to turn in homework assignments.

The school has so many things that would encourage parents to enroll their children there…if they realized the wealth behind those red brick walls. Sacred Heart has a real gymnasium, which few elementary schools seem to have these days. It has an after-school enrichment program for children who must wait until parents can pick them up after work. The school has a staff composed of individuals representing various faiths and denominations. It has computers and computer classrooms. It has Latin classes. It has…

I applaud all of the above, but must say that what I found most impressive about this school is the fact that it offers excellent role models and expects high academic achievement. I expected that the staff would set the expectations and be role models. What I did not expect were the lessons that the immigrant children taught me. Those wonderful, happy children have an aura of hope – hope that is missing in too many schools in America. The children speak beautiful Standard English that will be an asset for life, and will support their scholarship, as well as their climb from poverty to productivity. They will grow up to be economically successful Americans! Too many public school children will grow up skill-less, goal-less and clue-less.

I was enthralled by those children and wished that my son could share their classes and experience their hope and their motivation. THAT would be an education in and of itself. I spoke with children whose parents speak broken English, at best. It soon became obvious to me that the parents value education and stress it in their homes. The parents work hard to pay the tuition in order to give their children the chances that true education offers – preparation towards becoming anything they choose to be in life. Those parents are investing their lives so that their children might thrive – while most American parents won't even invest an evening to attend an open house, parent-teacher meeting, or sports events in which their children play. I observed the dynamics of such home values working side-by-side with an educational system that highly values scholarship and excellence. This confirmed my belief that without parents who seek out such schools in which to enroll their children; without parents who then support the efforts being put forth by the children, staff and leadership, school reform will never get off the ground in this nation.

We have much to learn from motivated, hardworking parents who focus so completely on providing their children with futures. Our children should be there beside those children to experience that kind of dedication to scholarship and preparation for life; to have such strong and fine role models to show them the way. To keep our children from such new Americans is to cheat our children. Our children need to attend schools such as Sacred Heart in order to appreciate the challenges that our own ancestors faced upon their arrival in America and to appreciate the opportunity to be honestly and thoroughly schooled.

With sadness I left Stamford to return to my school which is so lacking in hope; so lacking in goals; filled with children who barely speak English and who cannot even answer the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Their families live in the immediate present, failing to help children think ahead and set goals for breaking out of poverty. Every time that I hear an elementary child express that their goal is to be a pimp or a drug dealer, my heart bleeds for the potential that will be lost; the ultimate cost to America. I want to gather them up and send them to Sacred Heart School where Mr. Terenzio and his fine staff can provide them with role models of all ages; with good educations; with the goal of stepping up from poverty and no-hope, into a world of choices, chances and security.

Tradition is back, at least in this school. I see this as such a positive step in education. The concept of the grammar school is back. Scholarship is back. In this day and age, one must search to find this winning combination, but parents who live in or near Stamford, CT, do not have to look far. If people discount this wonderful school simply because it is located near the city center, or because it welcomes immigrant children, then such people are very shortsighted. Such parents will cheat their own children out of the opportunity of a lifetime.



There is room for many more children at this wonderful school. I was so saddened to see rooms and furniture that were designed to welcome children with open arms, going unused.

May the wisdom of the ages be with any parents who might consider this rare opportunity for their children – a fantastic voyage back to the future – a journey that will offer experiences and rewards that cannot even be imagined in public schools, nor in many private and parochial schools, for that matter. To well-educate our children we need to either do it ourselves, or enroll them in schools committed the using the best practices of the past to prepare children for bright, successful futures. Children deserve every chance to develop their minds, receive an excellent education, and be encouraged to reach for the sky.

Contact information: Mr. Steve Terenzio, Principal, Sacred Heart School, 1 Schuyler St., Stamford, CT, 06902, 1-203-323-4844. DO tell him that I sent you! - Linda Schrock Taylor

posted by George Thomas Kysor 10:22 AM

A Letter to a friend.. here's hoping he see's it some day 

Dear Charlie,
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about you. You were my best friend for over a year and you touched my life in ways you cannot even imagine. You seen me when to everybody else I was invisable. We wasted away a whole summer together and I learned more about life in those three months than I could have ever imagined. But i Really feel I let you down somewhere a long the way. I feel guilty about it constantly. I find myself wondering if there was something I could have done to save you from yourself, and the hideous black world that enveloped you. Chuck is dead to me. Charlie however is still alive.. but resembalance to Chuck is hard to find. I lost Chuck the night I saw him flying high.. screaming foul words at innocent people. Thats the night he died to me.
Was there something I could have done to save you from the drugs? Could I have stopped it? Or was it an endless battle i was doomed to lose from the begining?
I love you. I love you with all my heart and soul. I am here for you forever. No matter what. I know you're not going to read this. Its been almost 3 years since I last saw you. But you're with me every day. In my thoughts and in my prayers. God bless you Charlie. I miss you.

Love Forever,
Rhonda

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:41 AM

Sunday, May 01, 2005

amphadimines and jelly-beans 

In the begining of what is supposed to be the peak of my sexual prime, I'm with a man that masturbates all the time instead of having sex with me; because "it's easier." (insert a thick layer of sarcasim here) That makes me feel so desired and sexy. It does tons for my self esteem and makes me feel like a definate winner for sure.
I don't know what else to do about this I've tried several ideas that I thought would be quite helpful in this situation but they don't seem to be working. We've talked about this and it never seems to really go anywhere. I fear that I must come to the conclusion that he just, simply, doesn't really want me in "that way." Any one flipping through the blog site that would like to comment on this, please feel free. Before you do, though, this is what he's working with in the bedroom so I can't really blame him for the lack of desire.
On another note, the apartment is a disaster and I think that instead of being up typing out this stupid post that I should be doing the dishes or scrubbing the toilet. At least, I think that would make me feel better than this is.
In my quest to find new music that I like, I have found that I like this.

I need to get out more, maybe find a hobby. - imhumorous

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:55 PM

almost over 

today was the second to last day of the conference. again, it was fun. i sat under the sun and just relaxed with some friends (jonathon, joey, loren, yuko, some woman i didn't know...). all yall montréalers can start the jealousy...NOW. :D they had a pizza lunch which was just yummy. i think tommy's can do with a few lessons.
now, one thing i realised about LA is that there always are all these helicopters flying around. i think i saw three fky by within a ten minute time-span. and they were also flying really low, too.
still no celebrity sightings. well, unless you count that one whom we thought might have been paris hilton. but, there were no chihuahuas involved. we couldn't make sure.
at the end of the day, we had a party at this prof's house. it was in bel air, i believe. really big. really posh. super fabulous! it was one of those places that were so nicely appointed with the artwork (paintings, wood carvings and sculptures) and the exotic floral arrangements on the tables. (paul, you would have creamed yourself five times in succession!)
THM: you can become rich on a professor's salary!
after all that, i'm so knackered. it's really all that jet lag and doing the whole conference thing. if you don't know what it's like, let me tell you:
conferences are a thinly veiled excuse to travel. you go write a paper, not because you're actually doing research and are contributing to the advancement of the knowledge within the field. noooo....you go write a paper so that you'd have something to present in a conference, which is usually held in a place that is far far away. because of conferences, i've been able to go to paris, venice and honolulu.
with that in mind, you might think that these academic conferences are really covert vacations. but, nope, they're not. they're work disguised as vacations. sitting in and listening to talks is tiring! especially if you have to prepare for your own and then go off and listen to fourteen more. per day!
so, i'm knackered. but, i had fun.
one last thing: i think my (female) supervisor finally realised how goofy i can get because, at the party, i started walking funny while holding an empty beer bottle in my hand. before you jump to conclusions, i was not drunk! my right leg was numb. i had been sitting on the ground and my leg had fallen asleep. when i got up, i was unable to feel where my right leg was stepping. this gave me the appearance of walking drunkenly. and i had an empty beer bottle in my hand. that's my story and i'm sticking to it!
by the way, should i worry that my former supervisor at my old university and my current supervisor at my current university are good friends and that i saw them sitting together chatting at the party? ;) - rapatú

posted by George Thomas Kysor 11:35 PM

Johnny Gosch A Song by Donna Chapel 

posted by George Thomas Kysor 9:21 PM