Hey there! I've been gone for a couple of weeks now, due to a visit from my two daughters. I haven't been with them since Christmas '08 and wanted to devote every moment to them. I've been oblivious tothe whole town hall health care metting thing, but I am looking for the first one I can find to attend. Anyway, here's a letter going to the management of Northwest/Delta Airlines regarding the trip with my girls back to thier home in Ohio.
Dear Sir or Madame,
On August 10, 2009 I set out with my two daughters L****** (9 yrs. old) and E**** (5 yrs. old) to travel from White Plains, NY (HPN) to Cincinnati, OH (CVG) with a connection in DTW. They had been visiting me in Valhalla, NY and I was returning them to their mother in Lebanon, OH.
The first leg of our trip from HPN to Detroit Metro (DTW) aboard NW flight XXXX went fine. We arrived at DTW to make our connection to CVG aboard NW flight 2451. That is when all the trouble started. Before we got off the aircraft, the flight attendant announced that our gate for the connecting flight was at C36. After de-plane-ing I checked the video board and saw the gate had changed to C16. When we got to C16 the departure time had changed to 8:00 p.m. instead of the scheduled 7:15 p.m. Next the gate was changed again to gate B4. So my little troupers and me walked down to B4. I need a crutch to walk correctly so it took a bit of time. Arriving at B4 the departure time had changed again to 8:30 p.m. Now I had to get in touch with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to let them know my arrival was going to be delayed because I knew that their CVG facility closes at 10:00 p.m. and I didn’t want to get stranded at CVG without the ability to get a car to drive my minor children the 45 miles to their home in Lebanon.
After a brief stay at gate B4, NW once again changed the gate to gate B6. It was the next gate down, so to was not a big hassel to move. But when we got to gate B6, yet again the departure time had been pushed back to 9:00 p.m. So I had to make another round of calls to secure a car, and to notify my ex-wife of our ever changing arrival time. My poor daughters would now not be getting into their beds until way past midnight. After a brief stay at B6, NW announced again that the gate was changing and everyone on flight 2451 now how had to hike back to gate C14.
At C14, NW again delayed the departure time to 10:00 p.m. They also announced that the actual aircraft was at the gate, but the crew had timed out and a new crew was on the way to fly us all to CVG. At about 10:15 NW announced that flight 2451 to CVG was now cancelled, and the real fun was about to begin.
After approximately another 15 minutes, the NW representative announced that NW was arranging to hire a bus to drive the passengers of NW2451 from DTW to CVG that very evening. A 5+ hour drive, in the middle of the night. How very sensitive and caring of NW to provide their passengers with such accommodation! The NW representative then told us that first we had to walk down to Luggage Claim belt #3 and collect our checked baggage in order to bring it on the bus with us. He told us the bus would have a luggage compartment for our bags, and that he would meet us at Luggage Claim belt #3 at 11:45 p.m.
My little girls were totally exhausted at this point and the long walk with a daddy using a crutch wasn’t a memory they will enjoy. All the passengers of NW2451 got to Luggage Claim belt #3 and collected our bags. NW finally did something competent at DTW! The NW representative arrived at midnight, and told us the bus was about 30 minutes from arriving. We would be ON THE ROAD around 12:30 a.m., 8/11/09, to arrive at CVG with the days sunrise. BTW, I had my return flight to HPN scheduled for departure at 11:15 a.m. on 8/11/09, just to let you know.
It was shortly past 12:35 a.m. when the “bus” arrived to drive all of us to CVG. The passengers of NW2451 were expecting an over-the-road type coach bus, with baggage compartments and padded reclining seats. After all, NW was sending us on a 5+ hour ride, in the middle of the night, with no chance to get any sleep.
The vehicle that showed up to transport the passengers of NW 2451 to CVG was nothing anyone expected, not even the NW representative. Our “bus” was an around-the-town, see-the-sights-of-Detroit-in-three-hours tour bus. It had no luggage compartments, forcing the passengers to ride with their checked baggage on their laps, and the seats –oh the seats-, these were two-person common park benches made with wooden planks for seats and seat backs and wrought iron arm rests!!!! And NW expected us to sit for 5+ hours on these with our luggage on our laps. Who at NW thinks this was acceptable accommodation or service for the passengers of NW2451?
About twenty of us decided that enough was enough and we were no longer going to stand for anymore of this piss-poor treatment. We got off the bus and demanded the NW representative make us more acceptable arrangements. After telling us of his own embarrassment at what his company was providing, he went and got the “protestors” vouchers to spend what was left of the night at the Four-Points Sheraton. He also told us that there would be a proper coach at Baggage Claim belt #3 at 7:00 a.m. to drive us to CVG. He also got some booking agents to re-arrange our flight schedules upon our arrival at CVG. When it was my turn at the counter, the agent said the first available flight from CVG to HPN would leave CVG at 2:30 p.m. on 8/11/09 for DTW, with a connection in Detroit at leaving at 5:40 p.m. to HPN. When I asked if she could book me on a direct flight from CVG to HPN, I was told that I did not pay for a direct flight, so none was going to be offered. What rude, un-accommodating people and practices NW/Delta employs. NW/Delta was the cause of all this trouble and all your company was trying to do was to get rid of the “Interrupted Travel” passengers as cheaply as possible. This is no way to run an airline, and when your company fails, it will be because it deserves to.
Anyway, on with the record of events. A shuttle to the Sheraton arrived to take us to the hotel with our vouchers. BTW, no vouchers for food were provided, and none of us had eaten for at least 6-7 hours. Another consideration completely ignored by NW. Before we left DTW, we were told that the shuttles ran every 10 minutes and our bus in the morning would leave DTW at 7:00 a.m. So we got to the Sheraton, checked in, ordered cheeseburgers, went to our room, ate and went to sleep. It was 2:15 a.m., 8/11/09.
Our 6:00 a.m. wake-up call got my girls and I moving and we got to the lobby at 6:30 a.m. I asked the desk clerk when the next shuttle was leaving, and she said “they leave on the half-hour, the next one leaves at 7:00 a.m.” Just great! Now the three of us are in danger of missing the bus to CVG. When we got to Luggage Claim belt #3, there was no bus to be found, and no other passengers of NW2451 to be found. I returned to the counter where our re-booking took place 5 hours earlier, and no one at the counter knew anything about the morning bus. One woman who appeared to be in charge said she heard about the bus, but that it left at 1:00 a.m. She said she’d try and find out more information about what was going on. That was the last straw. I was no longer willing to let NW/Delta have any control over my daughters and myself. I asked the woman for a local phone book, which she provided and I called a car service. I made arrangements for a car to pick up my daughters and myself at DTW and drive us to CVG. I left the NW/Delta people to themselves.
The car arrived and my girls and I left DTW. I had the driver make a diversion to my girls’ home in Lebanon, OH then proceeded to CVG arriving at 12:30 p.m. to check in for my 2:30 p.m. flight to DTW then onto HPN.
When I got to the gate for my flight to DTW, once again the departure gate had changed. When I got to the new gate, the departure time had also changed. Here we go again. Now the flight was going to leave at 3:00 p.m. Then 3:30 p.m. Then 4:00 p.m. They finally boarded the plane at 4:30 p.m. and once on the plane the pilot announces that someone wants the plane to fly a new route to avoid some weather issue and it would be sometime before the new route was planned and approved and any extra fuel required was put onto the aircraft. When the clocked showed 5:00 p.m. and the plane was still on the ground, at the gate, I knew I had no chance of making my connecting flight at DTW. So I told the flight attendant that I wanted to get off this plane to make other arrangements to get back to my home in Valhalla, NY. I was no longer willing to trust NW/Delta to get me home. Once off the plane the NW gate agent told me that there were no other flights on any airline at CVG that would get me to HPN on 8/11/09. So I had him book me on another NW/Delta fight to DTW, then onto HPN leaving CVG at 6:40 a.m. on 8/12/09. So I went and got myself a room at the CVG airport Sheraton, where I had dinner in my room and spent the night.
On 8/12/09 I finally got on the flight to DTW, where upon arriving at my connecting gate, once again NW/Delta had changed the gate. This incompetence just would not stop! The flight to HPN eventually got off the ground and arrived at the gate at HPN about 30 minutes late. But at least I was no longer in the clutches of NW/Delta. And never will be again. NW/Delta has not lost just one customer. You have lost three, because I will not trust NW/Delta with my or my daughter’s good treatment any longer. Me and my daughter L****** are both SkyMiles members, but not for very long.
What I am requiring from NW/Delta is the following:
•Full re-imbursement for our complete flight (3 tickets) from HPN to CVG on the day of 8/10/09. Please don’t offer me any credits, or say that I don’t deserve re-imbursement for the HPN to DTW leg of the trip. That amount is $ 4XX.XX
•Full re-imbursement for the $15.00 checked baggage fee that I paid at HPN on 8/10/09
•Full re-imbursement for the car service from DTW to CVG on 8/11/09. That amount is $6XX.XX
•Full re-imbursement for my stay overnight at the Sheraton at CVG on 8/11/09. That amount is $1XX.XX
•This comes to a total re-imbursement of $XXXX.XX
I have included copies of all my receipts and “Interrupted Travel” documentation. Everything else I have said in this letter, you can check through your own records.
I have never had such a foul travel experience in my life. I would like to describe the service provided by NW/Delta in the most disparaging terms I can find, but I cannot. The reason I cannot is because NW/Delta did not provide ANY SERVICE to speak of. Service was non-existent. And I don’t blame the people that we dealt with face-to-face. The blame rightly falls on the decision makers behind the scenes, and the management that put these shoddy screw-the-customer policies in place.
I will not be deterred from collecting my re-imbursements either. My younger sister is an attorney here in New York, so I get my legal services for free. It won’t cost me a dime to get my money back. And the “best man” at my wedding, a friend for 30 years is a producer for Fox News Channel at their headquarters in Manhattan. FNC, especially the Fox and Friends morning show with Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade is always looking for human interest “filler” segments, and airline horror stories are particularly desirable and popular. And boy does this one fit the bill.- partially disabled man, travelling with two minor children gets totally screwed over by NW/Delta.
My contact information is as follows:
Domenick A. Colangelo Jr.
194 ******* Ave.
********, NY 10***
***-***-3659 (H)
***-***-8150 (M)
Email: dcolangelojr@******.com
I hope NW/Delta chooses to settle this matter quickly and completely without trying to wriggle out from under with the cheapest cost possible. If I do not receive everything that I feel is due me, which I have outlined above, I will not hesitate to make every effort to get this story into as many media outlets as possible (beginning with Fox and Friends) and earn for NW/Delta and it’s management (right up to the CEO) the kind of publicity no company wants. I await your response.
Signed,
___________________________
Domenick A. Colangelo, Jr.
Read more!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Cap and Trade, A Carbon Copy Precedent On Deadly Ground
A Washington mimics Hollywood’s Art Memo by Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)
“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”
We’ve heard the pontificating speeches of our Greenier in Chief and similar ones from the Hollywood Actor Steven Seagal before him in the movie “On Deadly Ground”
What was a panned movie rumored to be the end of an actor’s career is a starting play for a Presidency. Two heads on the same bad penny. However, being a bad actor in Washington is seldom punished.
On Deadly Ground is a 1994 environmental action-adventure film, co-produced, directed by and starring Steven Seagal. The film was a commercial disaster and is rumored to be the death knell for Steven Seagal’s career as a number one box office talent. The movie takes aim at oil companies depicting them as evil murderers out to pollute the world. Steven plays an ex Green Beret/ Navy Seal CIA part Eskimo superspy who just wants the nice quiet life of a specialist in putting out oil fires. Go figure, the evil Big Oil men however have other ideas and so we have action, murder and adventure on the Alaskan frontier. The movie held all the predictable liberal clichés against the Oil Companies but the real kicker was the three minute speech at the end in which Steven as Forest Taft rails against everything from corruption, to government ineptitude even suggesting we had cars capable of running on water and electricity for 50 years if only the Oil companies had not stopped it. He even took off the tinfoil hat. The eerie thing is that President Obama has given many parts of this same speech over and over again. The rhetoric is a carbon copy of the same tired propaganda that has been pushed on us since Jimmy Carter.
The only thing that is new is that now these individuals finally have a short window of uncontested power due to political serendipity. Despite the slim margin of victory ( 52% to 46%) the media has used its monopolistic influence to push drastic and radical changes exacerbating and creating one of the greatest economic crises since the FDR era. The democrats have been placing one bill after another indebting our country and reducing our standard of living to meet their utopian fantasies. The most recent bill is the boondoggle tax nightmare called Cap and Trade which the Obama Administration admits will skyrocket electricity costs.
How does this law work, essentially it is the worst of a tax and a regulation scheme. The government places a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases that a producer can emit to a “desired” limit. Producers will have to get a permit for the amount of pollution they emit. A producer that manages to somehow reduce emissions below their allowance will then have a permit that they can sell to other producers that cannot as yet meet the limitation. The sinister issue with this law is that the government is free to change the caps on different businesses thus allowing them to pick winners and losers. Given that the government is now a major stockholder in several banks, auto companies and General Electric due to the Fascist manipulation of the TARP funds they have incentive to do just that.
But the real question is this. Why? For what reason are we enacting an 800 billion dollar a year regressive tax that will trickle down to the consumers? The short answer is Global Warming. But what does that mean? How do we know this is even necessary? This is the issue that I wish to discuss in this article. The Science or the relative lack thereof is what we are concerned with at the present time.
I have spent some time over the last three years looking into what I could of this issue out of my own curiosity. What I can tell you is that the reports and data that are made available for the general public seem to focus on discussing the negative consequences that will inevitably arise from effects of increased carbon in the atmosphere. When the causes of the increase are discussed one is usually referred to a graph that shows a “Hockey Stick”. The last ten years plus the next projected 10 years show an increase in CO2 levels that is an increase made to appear at least 10 times the changes in the last 800,000 years. In some graphs the stick is left open ended to indicate no limit to the increase. This however does not reference the proof for this claim.
In my research initially I found reference to three experiments designed to illustrate the CO2 levels over time. These were the Antarctic Ice Cores, The Greenland Ice Cores and a study of the pores in leaves. The research I read two years back referred to the fact that the Antarctic Ice Core samples were considered the premium source of evidence. The tree leaf study was said to be varying too much because of seasonal changes and was considered the worst evidence. In researching this article today I did not find mention of this study, it may be that it is no longer considered valid so I will instead concentrate on the ice core samples which I could obtain support. Essentially the ice cores are measured to indicate the year the ice was created. This ice is then melted in a vacuum chamber and the resulting concentration of gases can evidence for you how much CO2 was concentrated in the atmosphere at the time.
Of note is the fact that the experiments between the Greenland Ice Cores and the Antarctic Ice cores do not really agree. The concentrations in Greenland are much higher and not just in the last 50 years. Scientists explain that this is due to the calcium carbonate which contaminates the ice. This residue is due to the large amount of volcanism in Greenland. The scientists state that when you carefully select ice cores in Greenland that are apart from the volcanic activity that they in fact agree but the articles never seem to state which parts of the glacier this is so I don’t know more than that.
The US Global Change Research Program is set up by congress to provide a report detailing the effects of climate change. Like the other research I found it references in detail the projected effects of increased CO2 in the report titled “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States” produced by this organization. On page 13 of the 196 page report is shown a graph indicating the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in parts per million (ppm) over 800,000 years including the infamous “Hockey” stick. The caption and legend in the graph explain that this research comes from the Antarctic ice cores. This report made by the Cambridge press was delivered to congress as evidence.
Fair enough, so Indy we have the proof, we have the report. Antarctica is in the South Pole, away from pollution therefore it is the superior evidence. Here’s my observations:
Antarctica is probably the coldest place on the planet. The coldest recorded temperature is -89⁰C in 1983. The south pole ranges from -115⁰F (-81.67⁰C) to -6⁰F (-21.1⁰C). The reason that Antarctica is so cold is due to several factors including the fact that it is landlocked and has a higher elevation. The key point is that the temperature falls below -78.5⁰C at times. This is the temperature at which CO2 condenses as a solid in normal atmosphere. We note that temperatures in Greenland while cold and considered Arctic do not seem to get low enough to condense CO2.
CO2 is heavier than water. It weighs 44g/mol as opposed to 18g/mol for H20. Water is also a very unique substance in that it is actually lighter in its solid form that its liquid form due to the ability of the atoms to form crystals. We note that like a miner panhandling for gold the heavier substances will tend to go to the bottom due to their weight. Antarctica is noted for whiteouts and storms where the wind picks up ice and moves it around.
So when we obtain an ice core form Antarctica the question becomes what effect on the amount of CO2 found dissolved in the ice is the fact that the CO2 for a time is frozen, moves below the ice and then later sublimates (turns to a gas) and escapes. Would we not expect to find that there would be elevated levels of CO2 in the upper levels of the ice cores. This is just my hypothesis because in what I have been able to read this issue does not seem to be discussed although the issue of calcium carbonate is discussed for the Greenland ice Cores. It is also possible that less CO2 could be found as a result although I can’t determine why this should be so via thought experiment. It is interesting to note that the modified Greenland studies eliminating the Calcium Carbonate are said to match Antarctic cores when Greenland does not get cold enough to freeze CO2. If Antarctic temperature is a factor then would we not have to gauge the temperature during the yearly cycles in order to get a true picture of the data from our ice core experiments? What is the result of this on the experiments and what if anything was done to account for it? Would this mean the CO2 increase is less than the “Hockey” stick projects? I am not sure but then again the articles are silent on the subject as well.
The next question I have for the scientists that I have found little information on and no one seems to answer is quite simple. If the levels of CO2 in our atmosphere at the present time are not optimum whether due to nature or the activities of man then what is Optimum. If I had a magic wand and could magically set the (ppm) of CO2 in our atmosphere what is the number that you suggest. You say we moved from 280 to 380. OK what number should it be? Do we even know? If not what numbers do we guess that it should be at? To my mind if I were going to force industry and ultimately the taxpayer to spend 800 billion dollars on a project to terraform mother earth this is the first question I would want answered before I began on that prospect. One thing I do know is that that this number must be somewhere below 5% of the atmosphere. That high a concentration is lethal to most plants and animals. Beyond that I have no idea nor has anything that I have read which discusses Climate Change ever even mention this line of reasoning. This I find curious.
I do know from watching the science channel that deep in the earth’s past at the dawn of the age of the reptiles that there was thought to be five times the level of CO2 in the atmosphere than today due to volcanism. It also is thought that the planet had twice the biomass (the amount of life on the planet). Given in recent history we are lectured on the population bomb by the same liberal interest groups, would increasing the amount of food we can grow not be a benefit.
I did find the following articles that found some benefits to elevated CO2:
Elevated carbon dioxide and ozone levels have surprising effects on northern hardwood forests
“Kubiske says he looks at the elevated CO2 issue a bit differently than most scientists. “Green plants and all they co-exist with have evolved over time. If you look at most of the green plants today, you find they have an excess capacity to take up carbon dioxide. That’s why they grow faster when you give them more CO2. Their physiology allows that; it evolved in the distant past, when CO2 was higher. So my response is, if green plants have excess capacity to make use of excess CO2, why not the whole system have this capacity? This isn’t the kind of thinking that has steered the scientific community, who has been looking for a more negative consequence of elevated CO2.”
Surprise: Earths’ Biosphere is Booming, Satellite Data Suggests CO2 the Cause
This article suggests that NASA satellite data show the earth has had an increase in biomass.
On Saturday June 7 an article appeared on the Financial post website labeled “In Praise of CO2” by Don Mills, Ontario. The article stated that GPP and NPP are on their way up. From the article:
“GPP is Gross Primary Production, a measure of the daily output of the global biosphere –the amount of new plant matter on land. NPP is Net Primary Production, an annual tally of the globe’s production. Biomass is booming. The planet is the greenest it’s been in decades, perhaps in centuries.”
I will reprint the text of the article for reference as it is no longer available on the website if I am able. It is interesting.
My greatest fear about what the liberals have done by politicizing this issue is the ultimate retardation of scientific progress in this area. They have latched on to this issue in order to justify their controlling policies as a method of back door socialism. In doing so they attack and do everything in their power to discredit and counter dissent. Anyone who questions is treated as an enemy because to them the political gain and not the science is what is important. When I read that scientists have uncovered some aspect of this issue that leads to a positive benefit to increased CO2 on some scale there is a reluctance that can be garnered from the tone. They begin with apologies or statements that the negative benefits outweigh the good or they are couched in the body of the article in scientific prose designed to put the lay person asleep before they get to the point. Scientists practically live off University Tenure and Government grants. They have a vested interest in not making public any finding that would thwart the political powers that be. True scientific progress cannot be made in a climate of fear.
If the politicians are perpetuating a fraud (knowingly or unknowingly) or are simply exaggerating the problem for political benefit it will eventually be found out. Granted from a political perspective it may be so far down the road that the reveal does not or cannot derail the policy as it becomes ingrained. How many of us remember the politicians or scientists who just 20 years ago told us man made pollution would put us in an ice age?
However, in the public mind things like CO2 levels will become that erroneous thought process that was debunked. Science in this area will then have no funding. This is unfortunate because the actual science behind this is crucial to the prospect of being able to engage in terraforming of other planets, most notably the planet Mars. Levels of CO2 and Water Vapor, what they mean and other such mysteries are a necessary understanding to have in order to be able to make an inhospitable planet livable. This issue should be researched for the purposes of science and politics should be kept out of it.
Alas the Democrat party will not allow that. They make ridiculous claims such as in 25 years if we do not do something earth will no longer support life as we know it. The rhetoric is eternally ramped because the more we shout and ooh and aw the less likely we are to pay attention to the man behind curtain.
Obama is showing us the true meaning of the phrase: “The more things change, the more things stay the same”
Read more!
“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”
We’ve heard the pontificating speeches of our Greenier in Chief and similar ones from the Hollywood Actor Steven Seagal before him in the movie “On Deadly Ground”
What was a panned movie rumored to be the end of an actor’s career is a starting play for a Presidency. Two heads on the same bad penny. However, being a bad actor in Washington is seldom punished.
On Deadly Ground is a 1994 environmental action-adventure film, co-produced, directed by and starring Steven Seagal. The film was a commercial disaster and is rumored to be the death knell for Steven Seagal’s career as a number one box office talent. The movie takes aim at oil companies depicting them as evil murderers out to pollute the world. Steven plays an ex Green Beret/ Navy Seal CIA part Eskimo superspy who just wants the nice quiet life of a specialist in putting out oil fires. Go figure, the evil Big Oil men however have other ideas and so we have action, murder and adventure on the Alaskan frontier. The movie held all the predictable liberal clichés against the Oil Companies but the real kicker was the three minute speech at the end in which Steven as Forest Taft rails against everything from corruption, to government ineptitude even suggesting we had cars capable of running on water and electricity for 50 years if only the Oil companies had not stopped it. He even took off the tinfoil hat. The eerie thing is that President Obama has given many parts of this same speech over and over again. The rhetoric is a carbon copy of the same tired propaganda that has been pushed on us since Jimmy Carter.
The only thing that is new is that now these individuals finally have a short window of uncontested power due to political serendipity. Despite the slim margin of victory ( 52% to 46%) the media has used its monopolistic influence to push drastic and radical changes exacerbating and creating one of the greatest economic crises since the FDR era. The democrats have been placing one bill after another indebting our country and reducing our standard of living to meet their utopian fantasies. The most recent bill is the boondoggle tax nightmare called Cap and Trade which the Obama Administration admits will skyrocket electricity costs.
How does this law work, essentially it is the worst of a tax and a regulation scheme. The government places a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases that a producer can emit to a “desired” limit. Producers will have to get a permit for the amount of pollution they emit. A producer that manages to somehow reduce emissions below their allowance will then have a permit that they can sell to other producers that cannot as yet meet the limitation. The sinister issue with this law is that the government is free to change the caps on different businesses thus allowing them to pick winners and losers. Given that the government is now a major stockholder in several banks, auto companies and General Electric due to the Fascist manipulation of the TARP funds they have incentive to do just that.
But the real question is this. Why? For what reason are we enacting an 800 billion dollar a year regressive tax that will trickle down to the consumers? The short answer is Global Warming. But what does that mean? How do we know this is even necessary? This is the issue that I wish to discuss in this article. The Science or the relative lack thereof is what we are concerned with at the present time.
I have spent some time over the last three years looking into what I could of this issue out of my own curiosity. What I can tell you is that the reports and data that are made available for the general public seem to focus on discussing the negative consequences that will inevitably arise from effects of increased carbon in the atmosphere. When the causes of the increase are discussed one is usually referred to a graph that shows a “Hockey Stick”. The last ten years plus the next projected 10 years show an increase in CO2 levels that is an increase made to appear at least 10 times the changes in the last 800,000 years. In some graphs the stick is left open ended to indicate no limit to the increase. This however does not reference the proof for this claim.
In my research initially I found reference to three experiments designed to illustrate the CO2 levels over time. These were the Antarctic Ice Cores, The Greenland Ice Cores and a study of the pores in leaves. The research I read two years back referred to the fact that the Antarctic Ice Core samples were considered the premium source of evidence. The tree leaf study was said to be varying too much because of seasonal changes and was considered the worst evidence. In researching this article today I did not find mention of this study, it may be that it is no longer considered valid so I will instead concentrate on the ice core samples which I could obtain support. Essentially the ice cores are measured to indicate the year the ice was created. This ice is then melted in a vacuum chamber and the resulting concentration of gases can evidence for you how much CO2 was concentrated in the atmosphere at the time.
Of note is the fact that the experiments between the Greenland Ice Cores and the Antarctic Ice cores do not really agree. The concentrations in Greenland are much higher and not just in the last 50 years. Scientists explain that this is due to the calcium carbonate which contaminates the ice. This residue is due to the large amount of volcanism in Greenland. The scientists state that when you carefully select ice cores in Greenland that are apart from the volcanic activity that they in fact agree but the articles never seem to state which parts of the glacier this is so I don’t know more than that.
The US Global Change Research Program is set up by congress to provide a report detailing the effects of climate change. Like the other research I found it references in detail the projected effects of increased CO2 in the report titled “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States” produced by this organization. On page 13 of the 196 page report is shown a graph indicating the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in parts per million (ppm) over 800,000 years including the infamous “Hockey” stick. The caption and legend in the graph explain that this research comes from the Antarctic ice cores. This report made by the Cambridge press was delivered to congress as evidence.
Fair enough, so Indy we have the proof, we have the report. Antarctica is in the South Pole, away from pollution therefore it is the superior evidence. Here’s my observations:
Antarctica is probably the coldest place on the planet. The coldest recorded temperature is -89⁰C in 1983. The south pole ranges from -115⁰F (-81.67⁰C) to -6⁰F (-21.1⁰C). The reason that Antarctica is so cold is due to several factors including the fact that it is landlocked and has a higher elevation. The key point is that the temperature falls below -78.5⁰C at times. This is the temperature at which CO2 condenses as a solid in normal atmosphere. We note that temperatures in Greenland while cold and considered Arctic do not seem to get low enough to condense CO2.
CO2 is heavier than water. It weighs 44g/mol as opposed to 18g/mol for H20. Water is also a very unique substance in that it is actually lighter in its solid form that its liquid form due to the ability of the atoms to form crystals. We note that like a miner panhandling for gold the heavier substances will tend to go to the bottom due to their weight. Antarctica is noted for whiteouts and storms where the wind picks up ice and moves it around.
So when we obtain an ice core form Antarctica the question becomes what effect on the amount of CO2 found dissolved in the ice is the fact that the CO2 for a time is frozen, moves below the ice and then later sublimates (turns to a gas) and escapes. Would we not expect to find that there would be elevated levels of CO2 in the upper levels of the ice cores. This is just my hypothesis because in what I have been able to read this issue does not seem to be discussed although the issue of calcium carbonate is discussed for the Greenland ice Cores. It is also possible that less CO2 could be found as a result although I can’t determine why this should be so via thought experiment. It is interesting to note that the modified Greenland studies eliminating the Calcium Carbonate are said to match Antarctic cores when Greenland does not get cold enough to freeze CO2. If Antarctic temperature is a factor then would we not have to gauge the temperature during the yearly cycles in order to get a true picture of the data from our ice core experiments? What is the result of this on the experiments and what if anything was done to account for it? Would this mean the CO2 increase is less than the “Hockey” stick projects? I am not sure but then again the articles are silent on the subject as well.
The next question I have for the scientists that I have found little information on and no one seems to answer is quite simple. If the levels of CO2 in our atmosphere at the present time are not optimum whether due to nature or the activities of man then what is Optimum. If I had a magic wand and could magically set the (ppm) of CO2 in our atmosphere what is the number that you suggest. You say we moved from 280 to 380. OK what number should it be? Do we even know? If not what numbers do we guess that it should be at? To my mind if I were going to force industry and ultimately the taxpayer to spend 800 billion dollars on a project to terraform mother earth this is the first question I would want answered before I began on that prospect. One thing I do know is that that this number must be somewhere below 5% of the atmosphere. That high a concentration is lethal to most plants and animals. Beyond that I have no idea nor has anything that I have read which discusses Climate Change ever even mention this line of reasoning. This I find curious.
I do know from watching the science channel that deep in the earth’s past at the dawn of the age of the reptiles that there was thought to be five times the level of CO2 in the atmosphere than today due to volcanism. It also is thought that the planet had twice the biomass (the amount of life on the planet). Given in recent history we are lectured on the population bomb by the same liberal interest groups, would increasing the amount of food we can grow not be a benefit.
I did find the following articles that found some benefits to elevated CO2:
Elevated carbon dioxide and ozone levels have surprising effects on northern hardwood forests
“Kubiske says he looks at the elevated CO2 issue a bit differently than most scientists. “Green plants and all they co-exist with have evolved over time. If you look at most of the green plants today, you find they have an excess capacity to take up carbon dioxide. That’s why they grow faster when you give them more CO2. Their physiology allows that; it evolved in the distant past, when CO2 was higher. So my response is, if green plants have excess capacity to make use of excess CO2, why not the whole system have this capacity? This isn’t the kind of thinking that has steered the scientific community, who has been looking for a more negative consequence of elevated CO2.”
Surprise: Earths’ Biosphere is Booming, Satellite Data Suggests CO2 the Cause
This article suggests that NASA satellite data show the earth has had an increase in biomass.
On Saturday June 7 an article appeared on the Financial post website labeled “In Praise of CO2” by Don Mills, Ontario. The article stated that GPP and NPP are on their way up. From the article:
“GPP is Gross Primary Production, a measure of the daily output of the global biosphere –the amount of new plant matter on land. NPP is Net Primary Production, an annual tally of the globe’s production. Biomass is booming. The planet is the greenest it’s been in decades, perhaps in centuries.”
I will reprint the text of the article for reference as it is no longer available on the website if I am able. It is interesting.
My greatest fear about what the liberals have done by politicizing this issue is the ultimate retardation of scientific progress in this area. They have latched on to this issue in order to justify their controlling policies as a method of back door socialism. In doing so they attack and do everything in their power to discredit and counter dissent. Anyone who questions is treated as an enemy because to them the political gain and not the science is what is important. When I read that scientists have uncovered some aspect of this issue that leads to a positive benefit to increased CO2 on some scale there is a reluctance that can be garnered from the tone. They begin with apologies or statements that the negative benefits outweigh the good or they are couched in the body of the article in scientific prose designed to put the lay person asleep before they get to the point. Scientists practically live off University Tenure and Government grants. They have a vested interest in not making public any finding that would thwart the political powers that be. True scientific progress cannot be made in a climate of fear.
If the politicians are perpetuating a fraud (knowingly or unknowingly) or are simply exaggerating the problem for political benefit it will eventually be found out. Granted from a political perspective it may be so far down the road that the reveal does not or cannot derail the policy as it becomes ingrained. How many of us remember the politicians or scientists who just 20 years ago told us man made pollution would put us in an ice age?
However, in the public mind things like CO2 levels will become that erroneous thought process that was debunked. Science in this area will then have no funding. This is unfortunate because the actual science behind this is crucial to the prospect of being able to engage in terraforming of other planets, most notably the planet Mars. Levels of CO2 and Water Vapor, what they mean and other such mysteries are a necessary understanding to have in order to be able to make an inhospitable planet livable. This issue should be researched for the purposes of science and politics should be kept out of it.
Alas the Democrat party will not allow that. They make ridiculous claims such as in 25 years if we do not do something earth will no longer support life as we know it. The rhetoric is eternally ramped because the more we shout and ooh and aw the less likely we are to pay attention to the man behind curtain.
Obama is showing us the true meaning of the phrase: “The more things change, the more things stay the same”
Read more!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Indulging Craziness
I'll bet this has happened to you. Some friend or relative is a little bit nuts -- maybe they just are, or maybe they have been burned by painful experiences. So they get very anxious about imaginary threats and outraged by imagined injustices. Maybe they're paranoid because they're smoking dope, or they drive drunk because they're young and stupid and think it's cool. Or maybe they're just jealous of people who look happier, or prettier, or have better toys. It's just ordinary human folly. And to keep the peace, we indulge their craziness.
That's our biggest mistake. That's why we are in such trouble as a people and a culture.
We have been taught to indulge craziness. It's supposed to show that we're "compassionate". Psychiatrists know this: If you let crazy folks set the rules, you have to get crazy right along with them. It doesn't matter if your client is crazy for good reasons. The cause doesn't matter one little bit. Good therapists are taught never to indulge craziness, because that just makes everything worse. Alcoholics Anonymous has long understood exactly the same thing. Real compassion doesn't mean joining people in the pits. That just means that you get two crazy people instead of just one. And then you get more and more, as the phony compassion spreads.
Our culture is now actively teaching racial paranoia to blacks, gender paranoia to women, and abuse paranoia to everybody with a beef. All those exaggerated fears and phony fits of rage have been cynically whipped up by the Left to grab more power. That's their Compassion Fascism. The rest of us go along, because we don't want to be bothered to stand up against it. But in the aggregate, over time, we have become a culture driven loopy by race, gender, and group paranoia. We have adopted the madness of the most race-obsessed people, and made them rich. Over time, they have worn down our sanity, so that our culture has literally gotten crazy.
Obama's first crazy-making person was probably his father substitute in Hawaii. By all accounts Frank Marshall was a race-obsessed black guy. It's not that he was wrong to feel angry, at the time. There were a ton of injustices against blacks. It's rather that he turned his pain into fanatical campaign of hatred, spreading it around to everybody else. That was Obama's first father figure in Hawaii.
Enter Henry Louis Gates, Al Sharpton, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Attorney General Eric Holder and Barack Obama: All of them built fame and wealth on paranoid race politics. Enter Ruth Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Barbara Boxer (I'm no lady, I'm a Senator!), and an endless Conga Line of victim feminists. Look what those folks have done to Sarah Palin -- a high-tech lynch mob, driven mad with envy of Palin's good looks, popularity and joie de vivre. In the universities raging feminists, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Queer Studies nabobs -- among others -- have exploited the career specialty of victimology. It's a standard way to get tenure and promotion -- by slander, rumor-mongering and intimidation. We've seen the faculty lynch mob at Duke U going after white lacrosse players. At Harvard, it's how the Left fired Larry Summers for daring to tell the truth.
Summers used to be a respectable economist, more or less, but now he is toeing the mendacious Obama line on the economy. Is it possible he was just burned at Harvard? Maybe Larry learned fear of the lynch mob at Harvard U, and Obama now has him under his thumb.
You see fear in the eyes of white guys around Obama. Brian Williams has his eyes cast down. Tim Geithner has this little head bow, looking at Obama with fear in his eyes while keeping his head bowed down. They look for all the world like Step ‘n Fetchit. That's all very amusing for purposes of racial revenge, but it means Obama is surrounded with lying commissars who fear to tell him the truth. Michelle is even scarier than hubby, and must be a terror in the White House. It was Michelle who got IG Walpin fired from her private playpen, Americorps. It's Michelle who is the child of the Chicago Machine, after all.
So this White House really does have Czars - Obama being Numero Uno -- and a Czarina -- Michelle, who supports the atmosphere of intimidation. If Obama seems badly out of touch with reality, the answer should be obvious: By spreading fear he guarantees that his commissars will lie to him. That's how the Roman Caesars drifted more and more out of touch as they gained more and more power. It's how Europe's monarchs managed to live in isolated splendor, totally in a glass bubble. It's how the Chinese and Japanese courts began to live out a Noh play.
Humans have a hard time facing reality. Power-hungry people drift into their own fantasy world by cutting off the truth-tellers. This is the most fantasy-driven administration in US history. That will be their downfall, as we are already beginning to see right in front of our eyes.
Read more!
That's our biggest mistake. That's why we are in such trouble as a people and a culture.
We have been taught to indulge craziness. It's supposed to show that we're "compassionate". Psychiatrists know this: If you let crazy folks set the rules, you have to get crazy right along with them. It doesn't matter if your client is crazy for good reasons. The cause doesn't matter one little bit. Good therapists are taught never to indulge craziness, because that just makes everything worse. Alcoholics Anonymous has long understood exactly the same thing. Real compassion doesn't mean joining people in the pits. That just means that you get two crazy people instead of just one. And then you get more and more, as the phony compassion spreads.
Our culture is now actively teaching racial paranoia to blacks, gender paranoia to women, and abuse paranoia to everybody with a beef. All those exaggerated fears and phony fits of rage have been cynically whipped up by the Left to grab more power. That's their Compassion Fascism. The rest of us go along, because we don't want to be bothered to stand up against it. But in the aggregate, over time, we have become a culture driven loopy by race, gender, and group paranoia. We have adopted the madness of the most race-obsessed people, and made them rich. Over time, they have worn down our sanity, so that our culture has literally gotten crazy.
Obama's first crazy-making person was probably his father substitute in Hawaii. By all accounts Frank Marshall was a race-obsessed black guy. It's not that he was wrong to feel angry, at the time. There were a ton of injustices against blacks. It's rather that he turned his pain into fanatical campaign of hatred, spreading it around to everybody else. That was Obama's first father figure in Hawaii.
Enter Henry Louis Gates, Al Sharpton, Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Attorney General Eric Holder and Barack Obama: All of them built fame and wealth on paranoid race politics. Enter Ruth Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Barbara Boxer (I'm no lady, I'm a Senator!), and an endless Conga Line of victim feminists. Look what those folks have done to Sarah Palin -- a high-tech lynch mob, driven mad with envy of Palin's good looks, popularity and joie de vivre. In the universities raging feminists, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Queer Studies nabobs -- among others -- have exploited the career specialty of victimology. It's a standard way to get tenure and promotion -- by slander, rumor-mongering and intimidation. We've seen the faculty lynch mob at Duke U going after white lacrosse players. At Harvard, it's how the Left fired Larry Summers for daring to tell the truth.
Summers used to be a respectable economist, more or less, but now he is toeing the mendacious Obama line on the economy. Is it possible he was just burned at Harvard? Maybe Larry learned fear of the lynch mob at Harvard U, and Obama now has him under his thumb.
You see fear in the eyes of white guys around Obama. Brian Williams has his eyes cast down. Tim Geithner has this little head bow, looking at Obama with fear in his eyes while keeping his head bowed down. They look for all the world like Step ‘n Fetchit. That's all very amusing for purposes of racial revenge, but it means Obama is surrounded with lying commissars who fear to tell him the truth. Michelle is even scarier than hubby, and must be a terror in the White House. It was Michelle who got IG Walpin fired from her private playpen, Americorps. It's Michelle who is the child of the Chicago Machine, after all.
So this White House really does have Czars - Obama being Numero Uno -- and a Czarina -- Michelle, who supports the atmosphere of intimidation. If Obama seems badly out of touch with reality, the answer should be obvious: By spreading fear he guarantees that his commissars will lie to him. That's how the Roman Caesars drifted more and more out of touch as they gained more and more power. It's how Europe's monarchs managed to live in isolated splendor, totally in a glass bubble. It's how the Chinese and Japanese courts began to live out a Noh play.
Humans have a hard time facing reality. Power-hungry people drift into their own fantasy world by cutting off the truth-tellers. This is the most fantasy-driven administration in US history. That will be their downfall, as we are already beginning to see right in front of our eyes.
Read more!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
“CHINA, HOW YOU GONNA KEEP THEM DOWN ON THE FARM” (A Parody in Song)
Visual Poetry by Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”
These verses are a Parody of the song How you gonna keep em down on the Farm inspired by the metaphor of my post comparing the situation in China with the Book, the Animal Farm.
Enjoy
Note: General Secretary pronounced (Gen’ral Sec’try in the song)
Verse 1:
Chorus(Repeat Twice):
Verse 2:
Read more!
These verses are a Parody of the song How you gonna keep em down on the Farm inspired by the metaphor of my post comparing the situation in China with the Book, the Animal Farm.
Enjoy
Note: General Secretary pronounced (Gen’ral Sec’try in the song)
Verse 1:
General Secretary I’ve been Thinking
Said the Bureau Chief
“Now the US is in our debt,
It’s no trouble to control the farm”
General Secretary, started barking
Wiping away the sweat
He pulled the aparatchik up close
And then Threatened with a grin
Chorus(Repeat Twice):
How we gonna keep em down on the farm
When the Freedom Bell Rings
How ya gonna keep em away from You Tube
Tweating Protests
All over the net
How will the State keep the people in fear
That’s the test you see
They’ll never carry your little red book
Who will give your half truths a second look
How will ya know Mao’s Thoughts are all they’ll hear
When the Freedom Bell Rings
Verse 2:
General Secretary, Your mistaken
Said the Bureau Chief
“Once a worker always a prole
And workers always pay the state’s toll”
“Oh Bureau Chief, I’m not fakin’
Tho’ you may think it strange;
But Liberty’s call plays the mischief
With the hammer of the state”
Read more!
“CHINA, HOW YOU GONNA KEEP THEM DOWN ON THE FARM”
By Individualist (TheIndividualist@comcast.net)“The Purpose of government is to limit the needs of its citizens from the involvement of the government.”
Over 150 Dead in riots in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in clashes between the government supported Han Chinese and the Turkish speaking Muslim minority the Uyghurs. Recently the Obama administration has released several Uyghurs to Bermuda. The question is what is going on in Western China and why has the American government not been more forthright in detailing what is going on. In reviewing the various facets of the story which I could sneak past the Great Firewall of China (Thanks Google – Don’t Be Evil), I realized that to truly understand this story we must go back to the simple basics found down on the Farm”.
The Animal Farm that is………………………………………………………………
The area known as the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of Communist China is located in North Western China. It is populated by Turkish speaking Muslims. Independence in this area is not some dream that is supported by wishful thinking anti-communist conservatives in the west. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty they have had different degrees of independence and self governance. In October of 1933 they declared independence and formed the Islamic Republic of East Turkestan which lasted one year. Again in 1944 they declared Independence as the Second East Turkestan Republic under the guidance of the Soviet Union but were retaken by China in 1949. China reclassified the area as an autonomous region in 1955.
Oddly enough the region is rich in oil and the economic opportunities have driven interest by the Chinese government. The government has encouraged migration to the area by Han Chinese. The population of Han Chinese has increased from 5% in 1940 to 40% as of 2008. The facts that I have garnered above come from my research at the websites of NPR and the Council of Foreign Relations. In analyzing the racial aspect of the situation we note several Easter eggs the Chinese government has hidden.
There is a great deal of racial tension among the groups and ethnic discrimination in China is a major problem that the Chinese government tries very had to hide from the west. Ethnic tension among the Uyghurs dates back to the 1750’s. In America we would call this attitude racism but since China is a utopia for leftists the terminology is altered somewhat to soften the impact. It can be inferred by an analysis that the actions of the Chinese government are meant to inflame racial tensions among the ethnic Muslims. In 2002, the Chinese government gave information that the separatist group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) was receiving aid from Al Qaeda. Since the communist government is known for falsifying information the exact nature of the claims is suspect. There is some conjecture that the ETIM does not have significant ties to the Bin Laden network but have had some contact. This explains our reluctance to return the Uyghurs captured in Afghanistan back to China and instead we have removed them to neutral countries. In 2006 we transferred Uyghurs captured to Albania and again in 2009 to Bermuda.
These then are the relevant facts of the case. What exactly is it that one should derive from them. For me I can’t help seeing many parallels between the governments, the people involved and the media outlets and the book by George Orwell, “Animal Farm”. I think that I will do my best to describe the metaphor by trying to point out who is who in the cast of characters.
Snowball
Rebiya Kadeer is an activist for the Uyghur people. Her story is one that in one sense is even more compelling than that of Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Bill Gates or Herman Cain, each n their own right a great American “Industrialist”. She started out in the Uyghur Autonomous region of China as a laundress and managed within communist China as an ethnic minority to become a millionaire. She was such an outstanding success that the Chinese government appointed her to the National Congress.
When she spoke out against the abuses of her people however they stripped her of her power and put her in jail for five years. Due to her humanitarian efforts she won several awards which forced the Chinese government to release her in 2005. She now works from a small office in Washington DC. The Chinese government has used its influence to threaten the Norwegian Nobel Committee to keep her from obtaining a Nobel Peace Prize. She is followed by the Chinese version of the CIA, An Chuan Ting and there has been one assassination attempt on her life in Virginia.
Her story is told in the book the Dragon Fighter.
Dragon Fighter
One Woman’s Epic Struggle for Peace with China
Rebiya Kadeer
with Alexandra Cavelius
Introduction by His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Kales Press, a W. W. Norton affiliate
ISBN-13: 978-0-99798456-1-1
Rebiya is a perfect example of the metaphor George Orwell was attempting to explain in the character of Snowball. Although he was a revolutionary in his own way Snowball was unknowingly for capitalism. He was the inspiration for the idea of the windmill on the farm. He was the one that wanted to use the capital of the animal’s labors to better their plight. This is something the industrialist, the small business owner, the inventor and the marketer of ideas does through free market capitalism. To me Capitalism is not a philosophy like Marxism, Fascism or Libertarianism. Capitalism exists no matter what form of government you employ. There will always be capital and any society will have to make use of that capital in order to continue. Whether it is handled by individuals or collectivist organizations, the laws that will dictate the results are best explained by Capitalism. Capitalism therefore to me is a science, a model in much the same way that gravity or quantum physics is a model for the associated aspects of the Universe. What we refer to as the philosophy of capitalism I think is better stated as Free Market Individualism. Something I wholly support. Thus like Snowball the ruling pigs in China had to force Rebiya off the farm because her ideas were troubling their endeavors to create a collectivist state to rule.
The Young Pigs and the Hens
In the book the Animal Farm any animal that was perceived as trying to stand up for themselves or questioning the ideas of Napoleon ended up being put to death. These included among others the Hens who started the Egg rebellion and the four young pigs who spoke against Napolean in the meetings before they were disbanded.
As in the book this story has its victims. Among these are the 165 dead in the riots and sadly Mrs. Kadeers youngest son, Alim Abdureyim who on July 1, 2006 confessed to political crimes authorities in China after being tortured. The torture began on June 25, 2006.
We are not sure as to his injuries, I have no knowledge that he is even alive and how do I find out. Ask the Chinese consolate? Why believe them? All I can do is pray that the angels watch over him. The NPR article states the the Chinese government has a 99% conviction rate because evidence of torture is not reason to throw out a confession under Chinese law.
Napoleon and the Rulings Pigs
In Animal Farm the pigs take the leadership role supervising the work and eventually moving into the manor house to take over as the de facto leaders of the farm, rewriting the rules to suit themselves and others. I understand that China is ruled by the Communist Party, that they are controlled by a Central Committee but what does that mean, exactly. To gain further insight I decided to go to the Constitution of China itself. In particular the 2,618 words (translated to English) and five pages dedicated to membership in the Communist party.
Evidently it is not as simple as going down to the DMV, filling out the registration form and placing a check by the D as a communist in America would do. No you have to be 18, you have to show knowledge of Marxist Leninism with Mao Zedong thought, you must have the recommendation of two full members of the Communist party who are responsible for your work ethic and ensuring you think like a communist, you have to fill out an application which must be reviewed at a general meeting where it needs approval, and then you are a probationary member. After a year’s probation where you show you are worthy you will be accepted as a full member and even then you must “work on party programs” and pay dues. Geez even the Unions in this country don’t expect you to actually work.
Within the membership section it explains that all members must join a branch or a cell which shall be subordinate to higher party organizations which in turn take their marching orders from the Central Committees and the National Congress. While it does say that the election of delegates shall be held by a secret ballot (Hey at least that is better than card check), it does state that who gets to be on the list is subject to “full deliberation and discussion”. The thing I find hilarious is that the Article 11 of Chapter I Membership of the constitution gives specific instructions on how to handle those elections where there are more people on the ballot than are delegate slots available as if that is a rare occurrence. Of course if there is any issue with a lower party branch’s elections, the next ruling body has the authority to invalidate that election and take appropriate measure. Makes you rethink the purpose of the hammer and sickle.
The words in the Chinese constitution that provide the best metaphor for the Pigs in Animal Farm are from Article 2 of Chapter I Membership which is listed below:
Don’t seek material gain and of course you are then bestowed with material benefits. It must be a Zen thing I guess. To Hu Jintao I only have this to add. Would not the following have been easier than five pages of complicated rules and still have said the same thing:
“All Animals are Equal
Some Animals are more Equal than others” - George Orwell, Animal Farm
Squealer
In Animal Farm, Squealer represents the propaganda arm of the government. He is the Pig that has the gift of the blarney and will go out to tell the carefully crafted lies to the workers and people in order to cover up, spin and explain away the actions of the government. He is the huckster working the three card Monte deck who seems to be able to use his verbal sleight of hand in such a way that you only see the red queen when he wants you to see it. In our metaphor Squealer is represented by the Chinese government’s diplomatic mouth pieces.
It really is not important which marketing agent the Chinese use to spread their message so much as it is the message itself. In regard to this I have two examples
South African Article
The following article can be found on IOL a premiere news service in South Africa entitled “Racism still rife in US, says China”. It describes allegations made by the Chinese government concerning denouncing “widespread discrimination in the United States”. The Chinese seem to be lapping up each and every canard of the race mongers in our country that exacerbate white guilt at the least of provocation. The purpose of the article is to ridicule reports by the US decrying human rights violations in China. They make the following statement:
What is actually surreal about this statement is that black people are considered “Black Demons” by the Han Chinese. Despite what Al Sharpton would have us believe Racism and Discrimination is a wholly human condition and there is not one group of people in the world that at one time have not been guilty of it or haven fallen victim to the embrace of its way of thinking.
China calls for the probing of Human Rights abuses in the United States. I would ask this question of the Chinese government: If you are so concerned with Racial Harmony, why are you promoting unrest in Xinjiang and Tibet engaged at reducing the numbers of the cultural residents that currently reside there?
We also have an individual that responded in comments to NPR as Datang Immortal (Datang Immortal 4th) who seems to take the other tack:
Authors note: In statements Ms. Kadeer has called for Non-violent solutions to the problem which is one reason human rights groups give her humanitarian awards and she is a candidate for a Nobel Peace prize, her alleged support of terrorism by this Datang individual notwithstanding.
Now I am not certain whether this individual truly believes what he is saying or if the comments are manufactured by him. I will state that the comments are, making amends for the fact that English does not appear to be his first language, very lucid and probably very close to what someone who was repeating them for the sake of propaganda would say. Since it is the message I am concerned with here for my metaphor I will give Datang the benefit of the doubt but I will not treat his message with the same generosity.
So in Africa America is terrible and harming its African American citizens but in America “We have made great strides” and China just wants to learn from us. The message is formed to get the best response which seems to be “Hey, Leave us to torture our ne’er-do-wells in peace and tranquility”. Marxists are well known for their use of the oxymoron.
The Sheep
In the end of Animal Farm the pigs finally take down the commandments of Animalism and begin walking on two feet, the veil is finally lifted. The Animals begin to get angry but before they can react they are drowned out by a chorus from the Sheep, “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better … Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better”. This mantra drones on for 15 minutes until the animals become lulled into complacency. Perhaps more than any other part of the story this is the saddest part. We end up enslaved by the senseless.
The Chinese government seems to have been successful in getting some individuals to believe that any criticism by Americans of their government’s actions must be founded in racism.
Demonizing China
If the Chinese are putting lead into our toothpaste and children’s toys, speaking out against it is “racist” since many other countries and companies’ make mistakes. Never mind that a totalitarian government has no incentive to enact standards or pay the prisoners doing the manual labor a decent wage which might be factors, racism is to be the only consideration deemed politically correct.
Chinese Espionage
If a Chinese national working for the American government is accused of espionage then of course it must only be racism.
The Media on China
Here is a fellow that even thinks among other things that the outcry against the Olympics over the treatment of those dying in Tibet was just another example of the blue eyed devil’s hatred of those who don’t look like him.
Black and White Cat
Here is an interesting post from a blog called the Black and White Cat which does proffer the mythology of the Berkeley left that all interaction with missionaries is somehow tied to oppression. In expressing the sins of the recent past of the colonizing era of the European powers, the connection is somehow used to divine the true intent of our current leaders whose decisions must be enslaved to their upbringing. Specifically:
Now to be fair I think this individual is intelligent and thoughtful but the message is couched in dialectic that does not I believe allow one to see past its spinning logic to understand what is going on. I think this is the point. (As an aside I have been to Recife, Brazil which is some 90 miles from the Venezuelan border. The majority of the people that live there are “white” and came from the same European continent I did. The notion we have in this country that to be Latin is to be another race is laughable. Yet it persists as a myth in our culture.)
The individual states they do not know “Why” Venezuela is to be feared. Hugo Chavez has defrauded the Venezuelan voters twice to maintain his Presidency. The first time when protestors (students) marched against him he had thugs open fire on them from roof tops. He controls the press in that country and has been aiding FARC guerillas in destabilizing the Colombian government. He set up military bases in Bolivia which have angered Peru and inflamed tensions with Chile over access to the sea from land lost in a War in 1884. He recently threatened to invade Honduras and has publicly threatened Brazil and Mexico over trade agreements. He once told the Venezuelan people on his Radio Sunday show “Alo Presidente” that his political opposition refused to run a candidate against him in the election in a desperate attempt to make him “look” like a dictator. I for one don’t question why one would fear Venezuela at all. It is run by an egocentric paranoid tyrant.
These are communist dictators. They delve in the totalitarian socialism of Fascism and Leninist Marxism. They prey on the individual and use their collectivist philosophies to enslave. To get the message out one has to speak above the bleating of the sheep. We are inundated with the chants and slogans designed to deflect and obfuscate. Is China killing Tibetans? Should we support them? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Is Chavez a dictator threatening his neighbors? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we stop drug dealers who from crossing over from Mexico? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we allow North Korea to send missiles over Japan? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we buy Chinese products that have lead in them? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”.
The individuals that I have illustrated here have really done nothing wrong and I am not disputing their right to make those points. What I am trying to do is to illustrate the unconscious message whose underpinnings are supported. That is what is being manipulated. We have allowed ourselves to become so obsessed with Race that we see bogeymen hiding in children’s cartoons. We have come to the point that we question whether a black person is a racist against other black people because he lives “white”. Living “white” evidently is having more money than what Jesse Jackson thinks is allowed. These individuals are just repeating those parts of the cultural world view that is indoctrinated into us all when we watch the news and listen to entertainment. The guilt of being discriminatory will cause us to edit ourselves even with the actions of a communist dictatorship that kills its own people. It is this flaw the Squealers of the world are willing to exploit. In the end the Sheep are not just these people but all of us. This is how propaganda works. It is the art of editing the truth.
But there is Hope!
Furniture Tax Protest
From the BBC “Protesters in the south-eastern Chinese city of Nanking have overturned police cars and blocked roads over plans to more strictly enforce payment of taxes”. This event was about taxes on furniture in the Nanking a port city in central eastern China. We Americans can’t talk, we started a Revolution over the price of Tea from China.
I misremember the words but today I am thinking the song starts off with:
“China, how you gonna keep them down on the farm, after the freedom bell rings………”
Read more!
Over 150 Dead in riots in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in clashes between the government supported Han Chinese and the Turkish speaking Muslim minority the Uyghurs. Recently the Obama administration has released several Uyghurs to Bermuda. The question is what is going on in Western China and why has the American government not been more forthright in detailing what is going on. In reviewing the various facets of the story which I could sneak past the Great Firewall of China (Thanks Google – Don’t Be Evil), I realized that to truly understand this story we must go back to the simple basics found down on the Farm”.
The Animal Farm that is………………………………………………………………
The area known as the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of Communist China is located in North Western China. It is populated by Turkish speaking Muslims. Independence in this area is not some dream that is supported by wishful thinking anti-communist conservatives in the west. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty they have had different degrees of independence and self governance. In October of 1933 they declared independence and formed the Islamic Republic of East Turkestan which lasted one year. Again in 1944 they declared Independence as the Second East Turkestan Republic under the guidance of the Soviet Union but were retaken by China in 1949. China reclassified the area as an autonomous region in 1955.
Oddly enough the region is rich in oil and the economic opportunities have driven interest by the Chinese government. The government has encouraged migration to the area by Han Chinese. The population of Han Chinese has increased from 5% in 1940 to 40% as of 2008. The facts that I have garnered above come from my research at the websites of NPR and the Council of Foreign Relations. In analyzing the racial aspect of the situation we note several Easter eggs the Chinese government has hidden.
There is a great deal of racial tension among the groups and ethnic discrimination in China is a major problem that the Chinese government tries very had to hide from the west. Ethnic tension among the Uyghurs dates back to the 1750’s. In America we would call this attitude racism but since China is a utopia for leftists the terminology is altered somewhat to soften the impact. It can be inferred by an analysis that the actions of the Chinese government are meant to inflame racial tensions among the ethnic Muslims. In 2002, the Chinese government gave information that the separatist group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) was receiving aid from Al Qaeda. Since the communist government is known for falsifying information the exact nature of the claims is suspect. There is some conjecture that the ETIM does not have significant ties to the Bin Laden network but have had some contact. This explains our reluctance to return the Uyghurs captured in Afghanistan back to China and instead we have removed them to neutral countries. In 2006 we transferred Uyghurs captured to Albania and again in 2009 to Bermuda.
These then are the relevant facts of the case. What exactly is it that one should derive from them. For me I can’t help seeing many parallels between the governments, the people involved and the media outlets and the book by George Orwell, “Animal Farm”. I think that I will do my best to describe the metaphor by trying to point out who is who in the cast of characters.
Snowball
Rebiya Kadeer is an activist for the Uyghur people. Her story is one that in one sense is even more compelling than that of Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Bill Gates or Herman Cain, each n their own right a great American “Industrialist”. She started out in the Uyghur Autonomous region of China as a laundress and managed within communist China as an ethnic minority to become a millionaire. She was such an outstanding success that the Chinese government appointed her to the National Congress.
When she spoke out against the abuses of her people however they stripped her of her power and put her in jail for five years. Due to her humanitarian efforts she won several awards which forced the Chinese government to release her in 2005. She now works from a small office in Washington DC. The Chinese government has used its influence to threaten the Norwegian Nobel Committee to keep her from obtaining a Nobel Peace Prize. She is followed by the Chinese version of the CIA, An Chuan Ting and there has been one assassination attempt on her life in Virginia.
Her story is told in the book the Dragon Fighter.
Dragon Fighter
One Woman’s Epic Struggle for Peace with China
Rebiya Kadeer
with Alexandra Cavelius
Introduction by His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Kales Press, a W. W. Norton affiliate
ISBN-13: 978-0-99798456-1-1
Rebiya is a perfect example of the metaphor George Orwell was attempting to explain in the character of Snowball. Although he was a revolutionary in his own way Snowball was unknowingly for capitalism. He was the inspiration for the idea of the windmill on the farm. He was the one that wanted to use the capital of the animal’s labors to better their plight. This is something the industrialist, the small business owner, the inventor and the marketer of ideas does through free market capitalism. To me Capitalism is not a philosophy like Marxism, Fascism or Libertarianism. Capitalism exists no matter what form of government you employ. There will always be capital and any society will have to make use of that capital in order to continue. Whether it is handled by individuals or collectivist organizations, the laws that will dictate the results are best explained by Capitalism. Capitalism therefore to me is a science, a model in much the same way that gravity or quantum physics is a model for the associated aspects of the Universe. What we refer to as the philosophy of capitalism I think is better stated as Free Market Individualism. Something I wholly support. Thus like Snowball the ruling pigs in China had to force Rebiya off the farm because her ideas were troubling their endeavors to create a collectivist state to rule.
The Young Pigs and the Hens
In the book the Animal Farm any animal that was perceived as trying to stand up for themselves or questioning the ideas of Napoleon ended up being put to death. These included among others the Hens who started the Egg rebellion and the four young pigs who spoke against Napolean in the meetings before they were disbanded.
As in the book this story has its victims. Among these are the 165 dead in the riots and sadly Mrs. Kadeers youngest son, Alim Abdureyim who on July 1, 2006 confessed to political crimes authorities in China after being tortured. The torture began on June 25, 2006.
We are not sure as to his injuries, I have no knowledge that he is even alive and how do I find out. Ask the Chinese consolate? Why believe them? All I can do is pray that the angels watch over him. The NPR article states the the Chinese government has a 99% conviction rate because evidence of torture is not reason to throw out a confession under Chinese law.
Napoleon and the Rulings Pigs
In Animal Farm the pigs take the leadership role supervising the work and eventually moving into the manor house to take over as the de facto leaders of the farm, rewriting the rules to suit themselves and others. I understand that China is ruled by the Communist Party, that they are controlled by a Central Committee but what does that mean, exactly. To gain further insight I decided to go to the Constitution of China itself. In particular the 2,618 words (translated to English) and five pages dedicated to membership in the Communist party.
Evidently it is not as simple as going down to the DMV, filling out the registration form and placing a check by the D as a communist in America would do. No you have to be 18, you have to show knowledge of Marxist Leninism with Mao Zedong thought, you must have the recommendation of two full members of the Communist party who are responsible for your work ethic and ensuring you think like a communist, you have to fill out an application which must be reviewed at a general meeting where it needs approval, and then you are a probationary member. After a year’s probation where you show you are worthy you will be accepted as a full member and even then you must “work on party programs” and pay dues. Geez even the Unions in this country don’t expect you to actually work.
Within the membership section it explains that all members must join a branch or a cell which shall be subordinate to higher party organizations which in turn take their marching orders from the Central Committees and the National Congress. While it does say that the election of delegates shall be held by a secret ballot (Hey at least that is better than card check), it does state that who gets to be on the list is subject to “full deliberation and discussion”. The thing I find hilarious is that the Article 11 of Chapter I Membership of the constitution gives specific instructions on how to handle those elections where there are more people on the ballot than are delegate slots available as if that is a rare occurrence. Of course if there is any issue with a lower party branch’s elections, the next ruling body has the authority to invalidate that election and take appropriate measure. Makes you rethink the purpose of the hammer and sickle.
The words in the Chinese constitution that provide the best metaphor for the Pigs in Animal Farm are from Article 2 of Chapter I Membership which is listed below:
Members of the Communist Party of China are at all times ordinary members of the working people. Communist Party members must not seek personal gain or privileges, although the relevant laws and policies provide them with personal benefits and job-related functions and powers.
Don’t seek material gain and of course you are then bestowed with material benefits. It must be a Zen thing I guess. To Hu Jintao I only have this to add. Would not the following have been easier than five pages of complicated rules and still have said the same thing:
“All Animals are Equal
Some Animals are more Equal than others” - George Orwell, Animal Farm
Squealer
In Animal Farm, Squealer represents the propaganda arm of the government. He is the Pig that has the gift of the blarney and will go out to tell the carefully crafted lies to the workers and people in order to cover up, spin and explain away the actions of the government. He is the huckster working the three card Monte deck who seems to be able to use his verbal sleight of hand in such a way that you only see the red queen when he wants you to see it. In our metaphor Squealer is represented by the Chinese government’s diplomatic mouth pieces.
It really is not important which marketing agent the Chinese use to spread their message so much as it is the message itself. In regard to this I have two examples
South African Article
The following article can be found on IOL a premiere news service in South Africa entitled “Racism still rife in US, says China”. It describes allegations made by the Chinese government concerning denouncing “widespread discrimination in the United States”. The Chinese seem to be lapping up each and every canard of the race mongers in our country that exacerbate white guilt at the least of provocation. The purpose of the article is to ridicule reports by the US decrying human rights violations in China. They make the following statement:
Blacks are given heavier criminal penalties, arrested more frequently and are more likely to be targeted for hate crimes, the report said.
What is actually surreal about this statement is that black people are considered “Black Demons” by the Han Chinese. Despite what Al Sharpton would have us believe Racism and Discrimination is a wholly human condition and there is not one group of people in the world that at one time have not been guilty of it or haven fallen victim to the embrace of its way of thinking.
China calls for the probing of Human Rights abuses in the United States. I would ask this question of the Chinese government: If you are so concerned with Racial Harmony, why are you promoting unrest in Xinjiang and Tibet engaged at reducing the numbers of the cultural residents that currently reside there?
We also have an individual that responded in comments to NPR as Datang Immortal (Datang Immortal 4th) who seems to take the other tack:
The racial issues in the US had made remarkable progress in the last 50 years, but it come at a cost. and China want to learn from America's success in racial integration. But there are certain people in the name of preserving minority culture were actually fueling the racial divide, and brain wash the Uighur that they are not Chinese. What if someone educate American kid, you are not American, you are African, you are Hispanic, you are Japanese? we all know this is wrong, but if you think this is wrong to America, how this could be right to China?
Shame on NPR, worse than communist propaganda, you are fueling racial divide here ! Rebiya Kadeer Terrorist, supporting East Turkestan Islamic Movement a terrorist organization listed by US, China and Russia, that's why she's arrested. before that China promoted her to great success.
Authors note: In statements Ms. Kadeer has called for Non-violent solutions to the problem which is one reason human rights groups give her humanitarian awards and she is a candidate for a Nobel Peace prize, her alleged support of terrorism by this Datang individual notwithstanding.
Now I am not certain whether this individual truly believes what he is saying or if the comments are manufactured by him. I will state that the comments are, making amends for the fact that English does not appear to be his first language, very lucid and probably very close to what someone who was repeating them for the sake of propaganda would say. Since it is the message I am concerned with here for my metaphor I will give Datang the benefit of the doubt but I will not treat his message with the same generosity.
So in Africa America is terrible and harming its African American citizens but in America “We have made great strides” and China just wants to learn from us. The message is formed to get the best response which seems to be “Hey, Leave us to torture our ne’er-do-wells in peace and tranquility”. Marxists are well known for their use of the oxymoron.
The Sheep
In the end of Animal Farm the pigs finally take down the commandments of Animalism and begin walking on two feet, the veil is finally lifted. The Animals begin to get angry but before they can react they are drowned out by a chorus from the Sheep, “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better … Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better”. This mantra drones on for 15 minutes until the animals become lulled into complacency. Perhaps more than any other part of the story this is the saddest part. We end up enslaved by the senseless.
The Chinese government seems to have been successful in getting some individuals to believe that any criticism by Americans of their government’s actions must be founded in racism.
Demonizing China
If the Chinese are putting lead into our toothpaste and children’s toys, speaking out against it is “racist” since many other countries and companies’ make mistakes. Never mind that a totalitarian government has no incentive to enact standards or pay the prisoners doing the manual labor a decent wage which might be factors, racism is to be the only consideration deemed politically correct.
Chinese Espionage
If a Chinese national working for the American government is accused of espionage then of course it must only be racism.
The Media on China
Here is a fellow that even thinks among other things that the outcry against the Olympics over the treatment of those dying in Tibet was just another example of the blue eyed devil’s hatred of those who don’t look like him.
Black and White Cat
Here is an interesting post from a blog called the Black and White Cat which does proffer the mythology of the Berkeley left that all interaction with missionaries is somehow tied to oppression. In expressing the sins of the recent past of the colonizing era of the European powers, the connection is somehow used to divine the true intent of our current leaders whose decisions must be enslaved to their upbringing. Specifically:
“Non-white countries, on the other hand, might sometimes be feared - eg. China, Iran, Bolivia, Venezuela - but they also have to be saved. I’m not really sure why we’re supposed to be afraid of Bolivia and Venezuela, but it seems that we are.”
Now to be fair I think this individual is intelligent and thoughtful but the message is couched in dialectic that does not I believe allow one to see past its spinning logic to understand what is going on. I think this is the point. (As an aside I have been to Recife, Brazil which is some 90 miles from the Venezuelan border. The majority of the people that live there are “white” and came from the same European continent I did. The notion we have in this country that to be Latin is to be another race is laughable. Yet it persists as a myth in our culture.)
The individual states they do not know “Why” Venezuela is to be feared. Hugo Chavez has defrauded the Venezuelan voters twice to maintain his Presidency. The first time when protestors (students) marched against him he had thugs open fire on them from roof tops. He controls the press in that country and has been aiding FARC guerillas in destabilizing the Colombian government. He set up military bases in Bolivia which have angered Peru and inflamed tensions with Chile over access to the sea from land lost in a War in 1884. He recently threatened to invade Honduras and has publicly threatened Brazil and Mexico over trade agreements. He once told the Venezuelan people on his Radio Sunday show “Alo Presidente” that his political opposition refused to run a candidate against him in the election in a desperate attempt to make him “look” like a dictator. I for one don’t question why one would fear Venezuela at all. It is run by an egocentric paranoid tyrant.
These are communist dictators. They delve in the totalitarian socialism of Fascism and Leninist Marxism. They prey on the individual and use their collectivist philosophies to enslave. To get the message out one has to speak above the bleating of the sheep. We are inundated with the chants and slogans designed to deflect and obfuscate. Is China killing Tibetans? Should we support them? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Is Chavez a dictator threatening his neighbors? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we stop drug dealers who from crossing over from Mexico? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we allow North Korea to send missiles over Japan? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”. Should we buy Chinese products that have lead in them? “America Racist! Minorities Good!”.
The individuals that I have illustrated here have really done nothing wrong and I am not disputing their right to make those points. What I am trying to do is to illustrate the unconscious message whose underpinnings are supported. That is what is being manipulated. We have allowed ourselves to become so obsessed with Race that we see bogeymen hiding in children’s cartoons. We have come to the point that we question whether a black person is a racist against other black people because he lives “white”. Living “white” evidently is having more money than what Jesse Jackson thinks is allowed. These individuals are just repeating those parts of the cultural world view that is indoctrinated into us all when we watch the news and listen to entertainment. The guilt of being discriminatory will cause us to edit ourselves even with the actions of a communist dictatorship that kills its own people. It is this flaw the Squealers of the world are willing to exploit. In the end the Sheep are not just these people but all of us. This is how propaganda works. It is the art of editing the truth.
But there is Hope!
Furniture Tax Protest
From the BBC “Protesters in the south-eastern Chinese city of Nanking have overturned police cars and blocked roads over plans to more strictly enforce payment of taxes”. This event was about taxes on furniture in the Nanking a port city in central eastern China. We Americans can’t talk, we started a Revolution over the price of Tea from China.
I misremember the words but today I am thinking the song starts off with:
“China, how you gonna keep them down on the farm, after the freedom bell rings………”
Read more!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Christopher Columbus - Crazed Killer?
In 1492 a genocidal maniac named Christopher Columbus persuaded a mob of crazed killers to climb into small, crappy little boats without GPS, LORAN, radar, electricity, proper sanitation, a health spa, free ice cream, 21 bars and lounges, a fog horn, all you can eat shrimp, two heated pools, plasma screen T.V.'s, a ball room with 37 piece orchestra featuring "Tony Orlando and Dawn", a Bingo Hall, a "Disco", a 24 hour buffet featuring an ice sculpture of Oprah, room service, a rock climbing wall, beach volleyball, premium suites facing the ocean, a sauna, a sushi bar, a masseuse, a guy dressed like Mickey Mouse, a shopping mall with duty free merchandise, a wait staff, Wi-Fi, life boats, a desalinization unit, and last but not least, a complete lack of laundry facilities, and blindly sail westward; a journey of thousands of miles into the great unknown.
Read more!
Apparently, according to modern liberal sociologists and historians, their true purpose was to wipe the indigenous people occupying the land they "found" from the face the earth. We all know the false story of Columbus, we learned it in school, back in the "bad old pre-P.C. days". You know, he sailed over to get some spice, establish a Spanish colony, hopefully find some gold, then sail back. But do we know the "real truth" behind Columbus' journey?
Here's the liberal establishment's version of the "real truth". In reality it was a mission planned to inflict utter destruction on all living organisms, flora and fauna on the continents of North America and South America. Obviously their aim was to subjugate or kill any humans or animals that got in their way. Here's part of a popular little ditty that helps to propagate the lies of the day and mask Columbus' true intentions:
"In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He had three ships and left from Spain; He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain. He sailed by night; he sailed by day; He used the stars to find his way... Columbus sailed on to find some gold To bring back home, as he'd been told. He made the trip again and again, Trading gold to bring to Spain. The first American? No, not quite. But Columbus was brave, and he was bright."
Now, is that a load of crap or what?
The land Columbus invaded, raped, and pillaged was pristine, it was unspoiled, it was bucolic...hell it was basically unoccupied!
North America is a land mass covering approximately 9,450,000 square miles. NINE and a HALF MILLION SQUARE MILES!
Here is an estimate of the population of North America in 1492:
"The population of North America prior to the first sustained European contact in 1492 CE is a matter of active debate. Various estimates of the Native population of the continental U.S. and Canada range from 1.8 to over 12 million. Over the next four centuries, their numbers were reduced to about 237,000 as Natives were almost wiped out."
Here are some modern scholarly opinions about the aftermath of European incursion into North America:
"The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world." David E. Stannard.
"This violent corruption needn't define us.... We can say, yes, this happened, and we are ashamed. We repudiate the greed. We recognize and condemn the evil. And we see how the harm has been perpetuated. But, five hundred years later, we intend to mean something else in the world." Barry Lopez.
"By then [1891] the native population had been reduced to 2.5% of its original numbers and 97.5% of the aboriginal land base had been expropriated....Hundreds upon hundreds of native tribes with unique languages, learning, customs, and cultures had simply been erased from the face of the earth, most often without even the pretense of justice or law." Peter Montague
Well, that's their opinion. What was the opinion of a world class thinker concerning the "occupation" of the "New World" in the time of the settlement of North America?
Here's what John Locke had to say about the issue in his Second Treatise of Civil Government 1690;
Sec. 34. "God gave the world to men in common; but since he gave it them for their benefit, and the greatest conveniences of life they were capable to draw from it, it cannot be supposed he meant it should always remain common and uncultivated"
Sec. 40. "Nor is it so strange, as perhaps before consideration it may appear, that the property of labour should be able to over-balance the community of land: for it is labour indeed that puts the difference of value on every thing; and let any one consider what the difference is between an acre of land planted with tobacco or sugar, sown with wheat or barley, and an acre of the same land lying in common, without any husbandry upon it, and he will find, that the improvement of labour makes the far greater part of the value."
Sec. 41. "There cannot be a clearer demonstration of any thing, than several nations of the Americans are of this, who are rich in land, and poor in all the comforts of life; whom nature having furnished as liberally as any other people, with the materials of plenty, i.e. a fruitful soil, apt to produce in abundance, what might serve for food, raiment, and delight; yet for want of improving it by labour, have not one hundredth part of the conveniences we enjoy: and a king of a large and fruitful territory there, feeds, lodges, and is clad worse than a day-labourer in England.
Do we really think that Europeans wanted to wipe out the inhabitants of the New World? Christianize them against their will and appropriate any wealth they found lying around perhaps, but wipe them out? According to modern "scholarly" propaganda that is what many school children are being led to believe.
Obviously the European invaders knew they were carrying micro-organisms that the indigenous people had no natural defenses to, right? I mean, come on, Columbus must have know that, right? Ask a college sociology or history professor, they'll tell you it was intentional genocide. Jewish Holocaust? That was nothing; these Europeans were on the rampage. No wonder "white guilt" helped get an under qualified guy from Harvard that had a cup of coffee in the U.S. Senate elected, right?
A new narrative is emerging, telling us of a of Pre-Columbian America that perhaps wasn't the "Fantasy Island" that some would lead you to believe, here is a sample;
"...it was the introduction of Old World diseases, especially smallpox and measles, that claimed the majority of the native inhabitants of the hemisphere.
Because the suffering and mortality occasioned by these epidemics was so great, one can easily understand why native writers looked back on the past as a time relatively free of disease, and ultimately as a time when peoples' lives were longer and happier. While this tendency to romanticize life in the Americas before 1492 may be understandable, it does not make it so...." The Great Killers in Precolumbian America. A Hemispheric Perspective
Suzanne Austin Alchon
Because the suffering and mortality occasioned by these epidemics was so great, one can easily understand why native writers looked back on the past as a time relatively free of disease, and ultimately as a time when peoples' lives were longer and happier. While this tendency to romanticize life in the Americas before 1492 may be understandable, it does not make it so...." The Great Killers in Precolumbian America. A Hemispheric Perspective
Suzanne Austin Alchon
In reality, disparate civilizations collided with catastrophic consequences for the indigenous people of North and South America, that's a fact. Likewise misrepresenting the world the Pre-Columbian people inhabited as bucolic and peaceful is dishonest and ridiculous. The New World was a violent and sometimes sick place, the arrival of the Europeans just added to the stew already filled with death and disease. Let's just be honest about it.
Read more!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
JULY 22, 2011 OBAMACARE
July 22, 2011, two years from today. It's a lovely summer day in Bridgeport, Connecticut, an old "factory town" that has seen its factories shut down and move overseas and its middle class move away. In some ways it's a town that has seen its better days. But things have improved since the 70's and 80's and Bridgeport is coming back in this new year of 2011, life here has been better lately. Like in all of New England as in too much of the country, the citizens of Bridgeport have bought into "hope and change" and helped elect a little known, or "too little is known about" junior Senator from Illinois to become the 44th President of the United States of America. "Life would be even better" after that heady day in November, 2008 they said. Optimism would flourish and after real change "took hold in America" and "after the world loved us again" all would be well. Obama had "audacity", and the citizens of Bridgeport believed him when he promised a tax cut for 95% of the citizens of the U.S. and health care reform resulting in "coverage for all".
As Teddy Kennedy, New England liberal's favorite drunken embarrassment of a son said;
"But quality care shouldn't depend on your financial resources, or the type of job you have, or the medical condition you face. Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to.
This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American…will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." Newsweek: July 18, 2009
Of course Teddy didn't have thoughts of "health care for all" or even arrogant self righteousousness brimming in his whiskey addled mind the night of July 18, 1969. He was busy "allegedly" covering up what should have been, at the very least, a charge of manslaughter for driving a car off a bridge and drowning an innocent young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne. Instead, he "allegedly tried to save her" then neglected to call anybody like say, the police, but instead called Kennedy insiders while he was most likely "allegedly" sobering up in a near by hotel and trying to establish a suitable alibi. But I digress.
Eleanor Bigsby is a widow, though only sixty two. Bob Bigsby Sr., her loving husband of forty two years passed away in the late nineties from lung cancer, the scourge of the cigarette smoker. Bob was a tough guy, a factory guy and a Korean War vet who thought of himself as invincible; he wasn't. Eleanor's two children, Bob Jr. and Cassie check in on Mom often and Eleanor has managed her finances wisely and frugally since Bob's passing. Eleanor had begun feeling poorly the last few days and Cassie had been stopping by and keeping her older brother advised.
Finally after three days of feeling "not quite up to snuff" Cassie insisted that her Mother call her doctor and set up an appointment. Eleanor assured her daughter that she would "get right on it". Later that day Eleanor called Cassie and asked her to come over and help her make an appointment. In the year since "Obama-care" had become the "law of the land" neither of them had been sick and neither were aware of the changes beyond the casual mention of "Obama-care" on the local T.V. news. A manual had arrived from the Federal Government the year before, and Cassie went to fetch it. Mom kept it under the phonebook, it rivaled the Bridgeport phonebook in size. Cassie was shocked. After much searching and page flipping they located the "authorized procedure for seeking medical treatment" on page 782. paragraph 3 Sec.(b). Cassie called her mother's doctor. He had just retired. Cassie returned to the "manual" and found the procedure to locate and secure another doctor and an appointment. After two hours on the phone Cassie worked her way through the maze of bureaucracy and red tape to get the name of a local physician. After 40 minutes on hold she was given an appointment date and time when her ailing mother could be seen. Ya, they could "see" her in SIX MONTHS, on December 18, 2011. Is this, she wondered, is the"Hope and Change" for which they had all voted?
Cassie called Bob Jr. and they decided that Mom couldn't wait six months to be seen by a doctor. So they put their mother in the car and drive her to St. Vincent's Medical Center, a local Bridgeport Catholic Hospital run by the Daughters of Charity. Or rather it had been run by the Daughters of Charity. It seems under the auspices"Obama-care" religious orders were "incompatible with the vision of the Administration and it's sub-departments and therefore a violation of the strict separation of Church and State Sec. 6-66, subsection 35; paragraph 2 part (d)". They looked at each other and thought, well regardless, Mom needs to see a doctor. Eleanor's children checked her into "Vincent's Government Health Center"that afternoon.
Several hours pass before Eleanor is assigned a bed on the 6th floor of "Vincent's G.H.C." Finally settled in, Eleanor and her adult kids wait for a doctor come in and give her an examination. The wait has been torture but waiting isn't new when it comes to "things medical" they suppose, so they remain "patient" and chat despite Mom's discomfort and pain.
Finally a short, thin man in a lab coat, not a typical white lab coat, but a medium brown lab coat with a red armband enters the room. He has a gaunt face and pencil thin moustache. His slicked back, dark black hair gives him the look of an actor from a thirties era film, a bit of an odd look for 21st century American Eleanor thinks, but she keeps it to herself, besides she feels too bad to quibble about details. "I'm Paul Joesph Goebbels III, I'm from your Collaborative Referral and Assessment Program, you can vill me Paul Joesph, how are you?" "Well, um...Paul, uh... Joesph, not to well I'm afraid" said Eleanor as she manages a pained smile. "OK then, let's get started" "Do you..." "Are you a doctor?", Eleanor interrupts. " No, I assess your situation then I consult with the doctors about your case, I'm you Assessor" says Goebbels with an sharp air of authority that Eleanor and her kids find eerily unsettling.
Goebbels begins his assessment; "Do you smoke?" he asks. "Well, not in many years. I stopped when the kids came along." He shoots her a glance over his clipboard. "Do you drink?" "Not much, a beer here and there". "Did your husband smoke?" "Yes he did, he died of..." "Mom, can I talk to you?"interrupts Bob Jr. "Is there a problem, Sir?" barks Goebbels in Bob's direction. Bob, a solid guy at six feet one and 210 pounds stands up and takes a step toward Goebbels. "I advise that you stand down, Sir" Goebbels barks as he takes a whistle from his pocket. He gives it two loud, sharp blasts. In burst three "security personnel" with strangely vintage looking Luger handguns drawn. Bob steps back, a odd look on his face. "Who are these guys?" "They are from the Civilian National Security Force" says Goebbels calmly as he wheels about and orders "Take him away, SCHNELL!" In an instant Bob Jr. is dragged out of the room and down the hall, his loud protestations ignored. Bob had forgotten about Obama’s pledge to build a separate security force. He is harshly reminded of that old campaign promise from three years ago, but "nobody keeps that kind of campaign promise" he thinks to himself as he sits handcuffed in the hospital brig, chained to a wall.
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." B.H. Obama July 2, 2008 Colorado Springs, CO.
Eleanor and Cassie are horrified and both begin to complain and demand an explanation. "This is America! Where are you taking my son?" demands Eleanor as Cassie starts to quietly cry. "What kind of care is this?" she asks imploringly. "I voted for CHANGE Sir, this is not change!" " "It's not?" says Goebbels as he continues to write notes on the pad he carries on his clipboard. "What kind of change did you expect, hmmm?" "Well, you know change...Bush, he was,... he was...you know, Iraq and stuff!" "Well, it's CHANGE YOU GOT, YA?" sneers the Assessor. "But Bush was kind and he helped Africa and he was only tough on our enemies, I thought, right?" Besides, she continues "Leno and Letterman said he was dumb, and wrong...and you know Texans, they like to fight..." her voice trailing off in despair and pain.
Goebbels then declares "I believe I am done with you, ya?" He clicks his heels and turns to leave. "What about my assessment?" ask Eleanor, "When do I see a doctor?" Goebbels turns slowly, a wry sarcastic look coming over his face, his thin lips curled into a cruel smile...."Doctor?, see a DOCTOR?" A deep, evil laugh erupts from what seems like his bowels, the very bowels of HELL..."You VILL SEE NO DOCTOR!" "You have lived a life that I deem unworthy of living. There will be NO medical intervention, ya?" "You may not buy the right to see a doctor, ya?" "Furthermore the database will identify you and you vill not be admitted in any U.S. medical facility!" "Do you understand me?" "You have smoked, you have been a drinker, you have not met the standards set forth by C.R.A.P. and the Obama Administration!" "Please get dressed and leave this facility AT ONCE!"
In stunned silence Eleanor and Cassie return to home. "But I believed in Obama..." "He said everything was broken...it was all Bush's fault, and the Republicans...all the comedians and news guys like that Stewart and ya know, Saturday Night Live,...they said Palin was stupid and a whore...what happened?" Eleanor thought some more, then said "But I had my doctor, he would see the next day or that week...if I was sick like I am now he would see me right away...what happened?" "My taxes are higher, I thought it would be OK because I would get universal health care and we wouldn't invade, you know, the Arabs or whatever...people in the world would like us better...Obama, he said that..he did." "I know Mom, me too." " I mean John Stewart has the news every night, he said that Republicans were all stupid, not smart as he is..." she says her voice trailing off...
Two days later Eleanor Bigsby received a letter from the C.R.A.P./Obama-Regime Administrator for National Health Disbursement. It was actually a bill for her assessment, it read:
"Dear Comrade Mrs. Bigsby, a sum of $500 a month in addition to your 'contribution through federal mandate' will be appropriated from your retirement income. It will be DEDUCTED as a means of penalty for your use of tobacco and alcohol. There is NO APPEAL. Failure to comply will result in a mandatory hearing before the Civilian National Security Force."
Eleanor thought of her son Bob who was summarily sentenced to three months hard labor for his run-in with the "Assessor". She laid down the letter and began to cry..."Where is the America I grew up in?" "What happened to my country...?" Sorry Eleanor, it "CHANGED"...
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As Teddy Kennedy, New England liberal's favorite drunken embarrassment of a son said;
"But quality care shouldn't depend on your financial resources, or the type of job you have, or the medical condition you face. Every American should be able to get the same treatment that U.S. senators are entitled to.
This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American…will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." Newsweek: July 18, 2009
Of course Teddy didn't have thoughts of "health care for all" or even arrogant self righteousousness brimming in his whiskey addled mind the night of July 18, 1969. He was busy "allegedly" covering up what should have been, at the very least, a charge of manslaughter for driving a car off a bridge and drowning an innocent young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne. Instead, he "allegedly tried to save her" then neglected to call anybody like say, the police, but instead called Kennedy insiders while he was most likely "allegedly" sobering up in a near by hotel and trying to establish a suitable alibi. But I digress.
Eleanor Bigsby is a widow, though only sixty two. Bob Bigsby Sr., her loving husband of forty two years passed away in the late nineties from lung cancer, the scourge of the cigarette smoker. Bob was a tough guy, a factory guy and a Korean War vet who thought of himself as invincible; he wasn't. Eleanor's two children, Bob Jr. and Cassie check in on Mom often and Eleanor has managed her finances wisely and frugally since Bob's passing. Eleanor had begun feeling poorly the last few days and Cassie had been stopping by and keeping her older brother advised.
Finally after three days of feeling "not quite up to snuff" Cassie insisted that her Mother call her doctor and set up an appointment. Eleanor assured her daughter that she would "get right on it". Later that day Eleanor called Cassie and asked her to come over and help her make an appointment. In the year since "Obama-care" had become the "law of the land" neither of them had been sick and neither were aware of the changes beyond the casual mention of "Obama-care" on the local T.V. news. A manual had arrived from the Federal Government the year before, and Cassie went to fetch it. Mom kept it under the phonebook, it rivaled the Bridgeport phonebook in size. Cassie was shocked. After much searching and page flipping they located the "authorized procedure for seeking medical treatment" on page 782. paragraph 3 Sec.(b). Cassie called her mother's doctor. He had just retired. Cassie returned to the "manual" and found the procedure to locate and secure another doctor and an appointment. After two hours on the phone Cassie worked her way through the maze of bureaucracy and red tape to get the name of a local physician. After 40 minutes on hold she was given an appointment date and time when her ailing mother could be seen. Ya, they could "see" her in SIX MONTHS, on December 18, 2011. Is this, she wondered, is the"Hope and Change" for which they had all voted?
Cassie called Bob Jr. and they decided that Mom couldn't wait six months to be seen by a doctor. So they put their mother in the car and drive her to St. Vincent's Medical Center, a local Bridgeport Catholic Hospital run by the Daughters of Charity. Or rather it had been run by the Daughters of Charity. It seems under the auspices"Obama-care" religious orders were "incompatible with the vision of the Administration and it's sub-departments and therefore a violation of the strict separation of Church and State Sec. 6-66, subsection 35; paragraph 2 part (d)". They looked at each other and thought, well regardless, Mom needs to see a doctor. Eleanor's children checked her into "Vincent's Government Health Center"that afternoon.
Several hours pass before Eleanor is assigned a bed on the 6th floor of "Vincent's G.H.C." Finally settled in, Eleanor and her adult kids wait for a doctor come in and give her an examination. The wait has been torture but waiting isn't new when it comes to "things medical" they suppose, so they remain "patient" and chat despite Mom's discomfort and pain.
Finally a short, thin man in a lab coat, not a typical white lab coat, but a medium brown lab coat with a red armband enters the room. He has a gaunt face and pencil thin moustache. His slicked back, dark black hair gives him the look of an actor from a thirties era film, a bit of an odd look for 21st century American Eleanor thinks, but she keeps it to herself, besides she feels too bad to quibble about details. "I'm Paul Joesph Goebbels III, I'm from your Collaborative Referral and Assessment Program, you can vill me Paul Joesph, how are you?" "Well, um...Paul, uh... Joesph, not to well I'm afraid" said Eleanor as she manages a pained smile. "OK then, let's get started" "Do you..." "Are you a doctor?", Eleanor interrupts. " No, I assess your situation then I consult with the doctors about your case, I'm you Assessor" says Goebbels with an sharp air of authority that Eleanor and her kids find eerily unsettling.
Goebbels begins his assessment; "Do you smoke?" he asks. "Well, not in many years. I stopped when the kids came along." He shoots her a glance over his clipboard. "Do you drink?" "Not much, a beer here and there". "Did your husband smoke?" "Yes he did, he died of..." "Mom, can I talk to you?"interrupts Bob Jr. "Is there a problem, Sir?" barks Goebbels in Bob's direction. Bob, a solid guy at six feet one and 210 pounds stands up and takes a step toward Goebbels. "I advise that you stand down, Sir" Goebbels barks as he takes a whistle from his pocket. He gives it two loud, sharp blasts. In burst three "security personnel" with strangely vintage looking Luger handguns drawn. Bob steps back, a odd look on his face. "Who are these guys?" "They are from the Civilian National Security Force" says Goebbels calmly as he wheels about and orders "Take him away, SCHNELL!" In an instant Bob Jr. is dragged out of the room and down the hall, his loud protestations ignored. Bob had forgotten about Obama’s pledge to build a separate security force. He is harshly reminded of that old campaign promise from three years ago, but "nobody keeps that kind of campaign promise" he thinks to himself as he sits handcuffed in the hospital brig, chained to a wall.
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." B.H. Obama July 2, 2008 Colorado Springs, CO.
Eleanor and Cassie are horrified and both begin to complain and demand an explanation. "This is America! Where are you taking my son?" demands Eleanor as Cassie starts to quietly cry. "What kind of care is this?" she asks imploringly. "I voted for CHANGE Sir, this is not change!" " "It's not?" says Goebbels as he continues to write notes on the pad he carries on his clipboard. "What kind of change did you expect, hmmm?" "Well, you know change...Bush, he was,... he was...you know, Iraq and stuff!" "Well, it's CHANGE YOU GOT, YA?" sneers the Assessor. "But Bush was kind and he helped Africa and he was only tough on our enemies, I thought, right?" Besides, she continues "Leno and Letterman said he was dumb, and wrong...and you know Texans, they like to fight..." her voice trailing off in despair and pain.
Goebbels then declares "I believe I am done with you, ya?" He clicks his heels and turns to leave. "What about my assessment?" ask Eleanor, "When do I see a doctor?" Goebbels turns slowly, a wry sarcastic look coming over his face, his thin lips curled into a cruel smile...."Doctor?, see a DOCTOR?" A deep, evil laugh erupts from what seems like his bowels, the very bowels of HELL..."You VILL SEE NO DOCTOR!" "You have lived a life that I deem unworthy of living. There will be NO medical intervention, ya?" "You may not buy the right to see a doctor, ya?" "Furthermore the database will identify you and you vill not be admitted in any U.S. medical facility!" "Do you understand me?" "You have smoked, you have been a drinker, you have not met the standards set forth by C.R.A.P. and the Obama Administration!" "Please get dressed and leave this facility AT ONCE!"
In stunned silence Eleanor and Cassie return to home. "But I believed in Obama..." "He said everything was broken...it was all Bush's fault, and the Republicans...all the comedians and news guys like that Stewart and ya know, Saturday Night Live,...they said Palin was stupid and a whore...what happened?" Eleanor thought some more, then said "But I had my doctor, he would see the next day or that week...if I was sick like I am now he would see me right away...what happened?" "My taxes are higher, I thought it would be OK because I would get universal health care and we wouldn't invade, you know, the Arabs or whatever...people in the world would like us better...Obama, he said that..he did." "I know Mom, me too." " I mean John Stewart has the news every night, he said that Republicans were all stupid, not smart as he is..." she says her voice trailing off...
Two days later Eleanor Bigsby received a letter from the C.R.A.P./Obama-Regime Administrator for National Health Disbursement. It was actually a bill for her assessment, it read:
"Dear Comrade Mrs. Bigsby, a sum of $500 a month in addition to your 'contribution through federal mandate' will be appropriated from your retirement income. It will be DEDUCTED as a means of penalty for your use of tobacco and alcohol. There is NO APPEAL. Failure to comply will result in a mandatory hearing before the Civilian National Security Force."
Eleanor thought of her son Bob who was summarily sentenced to three months hard labor for his run-in with the "Assessor". She laid down the letter and began to cry..."Where is the America I grew up in?" "What happened to my country...?" Sorry Eleanor, it "CHANGED"...
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