Why Smithsonian Mag is Cool!

The Smithsonian Magazine always has something of interest. History, Biology, Culture, there's something for everyone. For me there are least two articles I want to sit down and devour right away and by the time the next issue comes I've read the entire thing.

This last month's the issue contained a great article on a lesser-known-to-the-layman, greater-to-the-music-world Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. I won't lie. While I do prefer old Jazz to the be-bop and elevator music varieties common today, beyond Ella Fitzgerald and Cole Porter my knowledge is pretty slim. Peterson is a wealth of musical history, crossing the generation gap of Jazz working with the golden age greats to some of today stars to headlining himself. The article covers his remarkable story including the performing return from stroke that left his left side completely immobilized in 1993.

But being a bit if living Jazz history, he is also a living bit of American history and he saw many changes. One of which he relates in a sotry about when he was traveling & performing with Dizzy Gillespie:

And I looked, and there was the famous sign: No Negroes. And the deal was, we all had duos or trios of friendship, so one of the Caucasian cats would say, ‘What do you want me to get you?’ And they’d go in, and they wouldn’t eat in there, they’d order and come back on the bus and eat with us. But Dizzy gets up and walks off the bus and goes in there. And we’re all saying, ‘Oh my God, that’s the last we’ll see of him.’ And he sits down at the counter—we could see this whole thing through the window. And the waitress goes over to him. And she says to him, ‘I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t serve Negroes in here.’ And Dizzy says, ‘I don’t blame you, I don’t eat ’em. I’ll have a steak.’ That was Dizzy exactly. And do you know what? He got served.”

Damn! I wish I had that much bravery, cleverness and class.

So read The Smith. You won't find stories like that anywhere else. ;)

Cures For The World’s Ills – Part I

Now I as I have made abundantly clearing previous entries, I have never been for the war in Iraq. Afghanistan, hell yes. They had fair warning and didn’t release bin laden. We had ever right to be in there and boot the Taliban out. The Iraq war was started on flimsy pretexts of WMD and “Protecting our Nations Security (against a nation so poorly armed it would have trouble defending itself, let alone launching an attack) and “freeing the Iraqi people”. Only now it looks like the Iraqis really didn’t want to be freed. At least, not by us.

But whether we all agree on if we should be there or not, the fact is we are there and we now have to deal with it. Given rising death toll of our troops something needs to be done fast.

First of all, it has been suggested (Kudos to Book Hound) that the best way to “build democracy” is not to have national elections first thing. These people have not lived in a democracy, they don’t know how it works, so they need to take baby steps. Let them get to know the system from the ground up. Instead of voting for a representative they do not know and probably do not trust, they should be voting for city/village council members. It’s hard to believe Abu the Barber is an American Imperialist Stooge if he’s been cutting your family’s hair for 30 years. From there you can do regional and then national elections, depending on how fast things come together.

Second: We need to remove the contractors from Iraq. Now. Iraq has engineers, architects and construction companies. The contractors are simply taking jobs from the Iraqi people leaving them with little income and no stake in what we rebuild. The average Iraqi household income has dropped by a third since the invasion. Not only that, but big contractors like Haliburton subcontract, subcontract and subcontract with each sub contractor taking a chunk off the top so millions of dollars are lost before anyone even sets foot in Iraq (not to mention there exorbitant salaries) There’s very little work being done for the taxpayer dollar.

The contractors were the first target of Iraqi resentment and that speaks volumes. Let the Iraqi’s decide how Iraq should be rebuilt. By removing the contractors and just giving the Iraqi the materials to rebuild, we give them a stake in their country again.

Third. Stop building permanent military bases. Now. The most obvious sign on American intent, can such a permanent military prescience mean anything but “We’re here as an occupying force?” Is it any wonder that the Iraqis are joining the insurgents and terrorist groups in droves?

Four: Relinquish control of the Iraq’s oil. Get the contractors out. Relinquish the veto we hold over the Oil ministry’s decisions. Oil is 95% of Iraq’s economy. By retaining control over that, we are keeping our boot firmly on their necks.

These four steps will show that we are there in good faith, that we are not there to turn their country into a satellite nation for our own gain. After everything that has happened, I don’t know if we will ever regain the Iraqi’s trust in our lifetime, but we can show that despite our mistake, we do want the best for them. Putting Iraqi’s back to work, giving them a stake in the democratic process and rebuilding their nation the insurgents will have less support and American troops can spend less time being at risk and more time training the Iraqi’s to defined themselves.

And maybe someday we can get out of there.

Thus spaketh the bossy Lioness....

Boom-shaka-laka-laka-boom.*



*Sorry Duncan!

Apology

I have been unjustly critical of the South of late, and while I tried to be “PC” about it I’m afraid some of that resentment came out in last weeks post.

I’m from New England and California. In the face of the homogenization this various regional dialects and cultures of the rest of the country are going through, the South has maintained the most slid grip on their regional individualism. However, that does make them something of an alien to me and probably to a lot of people. When I started getting into NASCAR last spring, in general I found a very friendly, open fan base. More open than I was used to in Cyberspace to be honest.

But into every life a little rain must fall and as in every group there are bad apples and I also ran into some of the most hypocritical, catty, childish, cowardly, mean-spirited, shallow, clique-y and occasionally flat-out stupid people I had ever encountered barring trolls.

I'll admit the fact that the South is gathering of Red States came into play in that as well. (I am completely bamboozled as to why people would have voted for that man last year after everything that has happened.)

Yeek!

Nor did it help when I asked my Boss from West Virginia what it was like she said, “You’ll be fine as long as you keep you mouth shut.”

Double Yeek!

The more encounters I had with the people the more nervous I got because, you see, I’m moving there at the end of the year to attend college. All the colleges that give degrees in my field are in the South, so I was beginning to feel quite trapped and belligerent.

But I quick talk with some close friends (O.K.,my Sister & my Dad) pointed that I seemed rather determined to hate them. In short, I was bigoted. That was a pretty cold slap in the face. Instead of allotting the bitches their proper place in the social order (outside, in the dumpster), I had fixated on them and allowed them to color my entire perception of the South. Instead of walking into a new situation open-minded and ready to explore and learn and get to know people, I had closed myself off. Not to mention falsely impugning the character of people as group rather than taking them for the individuals they are.

I was wrong. Not everyone in the South is represented by those negative people, nor are even NASCAR fans represented by those negative people, nor are even the Red States represented by those people. There are a great deal of very nice, intelligent, friendly and giving folks in the South and in the NASCASR fan base. I apologize to them for any offense I have caused.

This n’ That….

Go PATS!

It would be fun to gloat, but truth is The Steelers did give it their all. They have a great defense (I think they got the only sack in the game) but the Pats simply had it all together. They are a great TEAM, but to bring it down to QB’s: In three years Rothlisberger is going to be kick-ass, but he just didn’t have the experience that Brady did to fully read the situations fast enough. Anyway the Steelers were honorable foes and I salute them while Congratulating the Patriots!

Now on to roast some bird!

The Telly Got Me!

Having yielded to the siren call of popular culture (O.K. NASCAR) I finally got an antenna for my T.V. and promptly became hooked on “Boston Legal”. What could be another “Law & Order” knock off is quite funny, filled with unique, irreverent and off-beat characters, while tackling some pretty serious topics in today’s society. I give you that it’s not realistic, it’s like M*A*S*H for Lawyers, but it’s entertaining as hell and occasionally makes you think.

Alan Shore’s “Llllllesbian” bit at the start of last night’s show had me on the floor and I particularly liked the last lines exchanged between Alan and Danny over a quiet, friendly drink.

"How do you handle that?" (referring to Danny's onsetting Alzheimers)"
"Well, first you look to God...and then...."
"Fox News?"
"Damn right"
"Damn Republicans."
"Damn Democrats."

:)

Our Place In The World

The ancient Maya believe that human beings were created to be the keepers of memory.

As time flies faster and faster in this hectic world of information overload it hard to keep track of it all. Not only do human events pass before our eyes, entire species are disappearing in front of us.

I am not so foolish to believe that we are “saving the earth” for the Earth’s sake. We could nuke ourselves tomorrow and a thousand years or so, nature will come back swinging. What we are saving is ourselves. Increased levels of cancer, allergies, asthma; it’s pretty obvious that we are creating an environment that is increasingly hostile to it’s creator. But what emotionally drives me more than that is the fact that my children or grandchildren will not know a world without some of the magnificent creatures living in their natural habitats, and in some species cases, without these magnificent creatures period.

I fully understand that some loss is due to natural process of geological evolutionary change, but even the most stolid corporate stooge cannot deny that mankind has seriously screwed up those natural process. Such as in the case of Global Warming, accelerating a natural warming trend that should have taken a thousand years or so into a matter of decades. Species that we hunt, fish or squeeze out of existence create gaps in the ecosystem which creates chaos as various populations lower in the food chain explode, impacting the entire ecosystem, often including ourselves. We’ve monkeyed with the natural order, and in so doing we made ourselves responsible for compensating for the problems we create.

I'm not "Funny Bunny" Tree Hugger. Nature can be unpredictable, deadly and seemingly cruel. "A real Bitch" as my Dad would say. But it is a balm to the soul to know that wild things roam the earth free from the touch of man. A delight to know we share the world with creatures we still do not fully understand. In recent human memory, we have lost the passenger pigeon, two species of Tiger, the Tasmanian wolf, the Buffalo, the Dogo and countless others. In Torah’s Genesis, God created man to be the caretaker of the Earth, not simply to have dominion over it, but if we as a species do not take up that mantle soon, we may only be the keepers of memory of such wondrous beasts such as the Cheetah, the Tigers, Snow Leopards, the Cougar, the Blue Whale, the Great White Shark, Sea Turtles, and many hundreds, possibly thousands of others who while perhaps less spectacular are equally worthy of our attention.

Shadow Divers

I finished reading Shadow Divers about a week ago and I feel myself torn between admiration for their acheivement & solidarity and incredulity at their...stupidity. It's an excellent book and shows not only the dangers, but the work that goes into identifying wrecks. I don't think an accademic institution could have identified it any faster. But three people died while a small group of private individuals tried to keep this wreck to themselves and solve the mystery so that they alone could lay claim to it. What they did was very brave, but the fact they did it on their own strikes me as being rather egotistical. Why wasn’t the state, who could have protected the site and notified an academic institution to mount a real excavation, contacted?

There's being adventerous, there's being crazy and then there's just being dumb. I think these guys crossed the line.

Keeping It Real

O.K...this one is probably going to tick some people off. ;)

In the 80’s “Greed was good” and in the 90’s “Apathy was good”, but here in the 00’s “Stupid is good.” Some where along the way our heroes went from being people in the space program to NBA players who can barely articulate while referring to themselves in the third person. According to much of the U.S. in multiple ethnicities, being uneducated & ignorant is “being down to earth”. Expressing oneself poorly with bad grammar and a 3rd grade vocabulary is “keeping it real”.

Oh is it?

There’s a reason “Ignorant “ sounds so much like “Ignore”. With the plethora of media sources, the internet, books, television documentaries, the only way to remain ignorant of what is happening in the world is to make a choice to ignore it. So if you are making decisions that are not based on facts, you are so far from “keeping it real” you might as well be dancing with fairies. You are so far from common or “horse” sense, Mr. Ed wants his tapes back.

For example, many people felt that college-bashing George W. Bush was more “down to earth” than the “New England College educated liberal” John Kerry and that Theresa Heinz Kerry “didn’t understand the real life of a working woman…” The only way they could make these attacks was by ignoring the fact that George W. Bush himself was raised in a very wealthy New England family, attending not just one, but two prestigious Ivy League schools. Laura Bush parents are wealthy people that managed to get her out of manslaughter charge when she was 17 (police records of the incident have been sealed). Think they really know what “real life” is like any more than the Kerry’s, or any other politico in D.C.? Think they know how big a chunk rent and groceries take out of the average paycheck? In short these attacks leveled at the democratic candidate could have easily been leveled at the other.

Granted, there are many Republicans and neo-conservatives in the world who do support the Bush administration and have actually rationale for their support, but a lot of people voted for Bush because he was “tough on terrorism”, feeling that he would “protect the nation safety”, except he didn’t fund the Office of Homeland Security, cut the budgets of the “first responders” , ie. the Police and Fire Departments, and has done nothing to beef up security along our borders. They voted for him because he felt was taking care of the problems in the Middle East, except that he has created for more problems than he has solved (and that’s ignoring our part in creating those problems in the first place). They say they voted for him because they “supported the troops”, when in fact he sent them to war so they could scrounge through garbage piles to armor their vehicles and attempted to cut their veterans benefits and the benefits to their families. Then there are those that voted for him just because he was a "Republican". They obviously haven't looked at what the traditional Republican party stood for and what the Neo-Conservatives in office have made it into. And I guess blatant lies and incompetence are "Republican" as well? These people can’t even seem to apply basic logical reasoning, it's Faith Based voting.

I’ve even had people defending “Bushisms” saying “That’s how Southerners talk!” I should hope not. There’s a big difference between colloquialism (conversational language) and not being able to formulate a sentence.

The sad thing was, the person who said that was a Southerner herself.

(An office mate of mine thinks it’s because Bush is faking the entire Texan/Cowboy thing. He’s reformulating the wealthy New England culture sentences in his head into rustic Texan slang and keeps messing it up. An intriguing theory.)

The truly sad thing is that people seem to be proud of this. They scorn people with college educations, that read the newspaper, that try to make rational decisions based on facts, and hold up their willful ignorance like it's a point of pride. Like ignorance defines what being "truly American" is. “We don’t have to pay attention to what’s been going on. We’re the 800 lb gorilla! We’re too powerful to care!” But it doesn’t. It’s a complete myth. Even with the South’s recent embracing of the “Redneck” image, one cannot turn away from the fact that the South has a long intellectual and artistic tradition to be proud of. Some of Americas greatest gifts to literature and theatre come from there. William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams , Truman Capote , Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Dashiell Hammett . Somehow I don’t think those authors and playwrights really thought the being ignorant was being “down home”, that they were any less “real” for their intelligence, creativity and eloquence.

Affluence is not a requirement for intelligence; College isn’t even a requirement for intelligence. My father’s family is a logging family from, well, what was before it was “discovered” by retirees and wealthy vacationers from MA and NJ, a miniscule town in Maine. Four townships in one high school with an average of 85 students per class. That’s how small it was. My Dad was the first of the family to attend college. But just because my Grand folks didn’t go to college that did not mean they didn’t read voraciously: Newspapers, novels (Grampa was a big Louis Lamoure fan) non-fiction books about Science and History (I remember stacks on stacks of Popular Mechanics, National Geographic and Reader Digests). They continued to learn and be aware through their entire lives while they ran the local greasy spoon and my Grandfather went out to the woodlot every fall to cut a couple cords for the barrel stove. (And did I mention the three rusted out cars and a truck behind our own house?)

Not learning about what’s happening in the world and why makes you quite the opposite of “real” and “down to earth”. It’s called “denial” or “You can’t handle the truth!” or “sticking you head in the sand”. Being ignorant does not make you any more “real”.

It’s one thing to think Larry the Cable guy is funny, it’s another actually to want to be him. You don’t need a college education to think. You don’t need money to continue reading and learning through your lifetime. Not having a college education does not define who you are nor does ignorance define any American sub-culture. One can be a Redneck and still use one’s head instead of dancing with GWB, Condi Rice, Mistleblossom and her little pixie friends.

And for those that still think that being a moron is the way to be “Real”... “Here’s your sign...”

P.S. And for those guys that think that being meatheaded is part of being manly and macho? The ultimate Alpha Male. This guy went to Iraq and kept signing autographs during a motar attack.

Favorite Ships & Shipwrecks

I realize I’ve been pretty heavy for the last week. So despite the current Rice/Boxer smack down headlines going on yesterday and today in the Senate (you have to have integrity to impugn in the first place Condi…) I thought I would take a breather and put up some fun stuff.

Ships. The following are, for various reasons, some (just some) of my favorite ships and shipwrecks throughout history.

Hey, if the nation can salivate over every gory detail of the Scott Petersen trial, I can have favorite shipwrecks! ;) Ships are vital to history not only in exploring a single event, but in the snap shot of daily life they provide. Each shipwreck is literally a time capsule of how people lived on the sea, their technological development, who they were trading with, who they were fighting with, what gods they prayed to, etc. Shipwrecks like Yassi Ada, the Hamilton and the Elizabeth and Mary are literally a snapshots in time.

Though I have to admit for myself, a lot of it is about the ships…..and here are a couple I think are pretty cool.

The Athlit Ram – approx. 200 B.C. (Or “B.C.E.” for those of keeping up with current P.C. academic trends)

The Athlit Ram and some support timbers found inside is all that is left of a Greek war ship that wrecked off the coast of Israel. It’s 7 feet long, weighs over 1,000 lbs and is made of a single cast of bronze. That not much, but it’s pretty fuckin’ wicked looking isn’t it?

For the uninitiated, the ram of a Greek warship goes on the bow, just under the water (see these examples). The favored tactic of the time was to ram into your opponent and sink them.

The Gokstad – 895 A.D.

The Gokstad is not a wreck, but was used as a funereal vessel holding the body and funeral goods of what was probably a chieftain or king.

While it doesn’t look it to the untrained eye, the Gokstad is the height of technological achievement and craftsmanship of her time. Well nigh perfect in construction; she was sleek, light, strong enough to handle around 20 tons of crew & cargo, yet with enough flex to take a pounding in heavy seas. I’ve seen resources refer to her both as an example of a smaller langskip (long ship, used for war) or karfi or karve (a smaller war ship/trading vessel), she is probably something in between.

And she is simply beautiful. Sleek, simple, elegant. If Mother Nature herself had decided to grow a sailing ship, she would have created the Gokstad.

Gokstad Image

(I know from this shot it looks like a big canoe, but this puppy is over 76 feet long, 6 feet high from keel to gunwale, and 17 feet across.)

Yes, I love this ship.

The Mary Rose - 1545

The Mary Rose is the perfect example of British industriousness, pride and too much of a good thing. The Flag Ship of Henry VIII, she had many innovations that directly led to the ships of the line made famous in the Napoleonic eras. However, her last refit added another deck to enable her to carry even more guns, added 700 tons of top-heavy weight. As she maneuvered into battle, she heeled over suddenly. Water flowed into the opened gun ports and the ship capsized and sank...right in front of the French Fleet. (You can bet Francios I was giggling up his sleeve about that one for weeks).

The tragedy is that the boarding nets were up. Boarding nets are strung taut over the all the decks of the ship to prevent boarding parties from gaining access to the interior of the ship. Sadly they also block the crew from getting out in a time of emergency. Less than 40 of her over 450 crewmen escaped.

The Mary Rose is important to History for the vast number of artifacts, from cannon, hand weapons & navigational equipment to personal belongings & human remains, still in her when she was excavated.

The Agamemnon – 1808

The wreck of the Lord Nelson’s favorite ship, the HMS Agamemnon, was discovered in Maldonado Bay off Uruguay in 1993. Apparently there isn’t much left of the ship itself, but it’s still nice to know such an important piece of Naval History has been found.

The H.L. Hunley - 1864

While not the first submarine or even the first submarine used in battle, the Hunley not only has a microcosm of personal mysteries, it has a mystique of the valiant, heroic, bull-headed and certifiably insane ;) Confederate about it. The thing had killed two crews before it’s final successful mission against the Union blockade of Charleston, sinking the U.S.S. Housataonic and then disappearing.

What is even more remarkable is that once the sub was brought up, it was quickly discovered that even history had underestimated her. The replica in display in Mobile is actually quite wrong. The outter construction is much finer, flush riveted and more streamlined, and the ballast system is quite sophisticated considering the time.

The Hunley is still under wraps for excavation, analysis and conservation, but the big mystery is apparently solved. The Hunley apparently was not able to back away from the Housatonic fast enough and the shockwave of the explosion cracked open her hull in a couple places, possibly stunning her crew so that she was already sinking before they could react. They were all found at their stations and had apparently made no attempt to escape. They were finally laid to rest last April in Charleston.

In the meantime, check out these sonar images from the Inner Space Excavation team: Look kinda creepy don’t they? Pretty cool stuff...

Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

I think I’m coming down with something and not feeling very cohesive, so I hope this all makes sense.

A couple months ago I read a post that in essence read something like “The Muslims hate and want to kill us because we rich and happy and free…”

The ignorance of this statement was beyond appalling, but I took it as a hiccup, the lowest end of the political intelligence spectrum. Until I had to spend some time at the dog park this weekend explaining what Iraq has gone through in the last 100 years at the hands of western powers.

*pinches bridge of nose* oi!

O.k….I guess if you asked the average Iraq about the American Civil war they would probably be equally as clueless.

Granted I am not an expert by any means. In fact to better understand the situation I will be taking a History of the Middle East course this coming semester. But here is something for you to keep in mind before you just write the Middle East off as a tar pit of hatred: We had a hand in creating that tar pit.

History of The Middle East

First of all, western interference started in the Middle East in 1095 when the first crusade was launched. Up until that time Jerusalem was an open city; Muslims, Jews and Christians living practically side by side sharing the Holy city quietly. But Pope Urban got a lot of people stirred up using everything from spin doctoring to outright false information (of course, that would never happen now…). Now he may have been a true believer (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) but in reality the “War to Take Back the Holy Land” was a grab at the control of rich shipping routes to the East that had the ancillary benefit of redirecting the aggression of the unlanded younger sons of the Nobility. Elder brother getting everything? No problem! Go to the Holy Land and set yourself up as King of Damascus!

(And they Europeans were not nice about it. They won the first Crusade through terror and horror. One of the first people on record to skin their captives alive and roast them on spits in front of the city walls where their own families could see? Frankish Crusaders.)

Now before you go scoffing at people being upset about something that happened over a thousand years ago, go look up how long the conflict has been going on between the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. How long the Serbs and Croats have been duking it out in their area? Go down to Georgia sometime and say the name “William Tecumseh Sherman” and see what kind of reaction you will get.

Now imagine how the South would feel if the North had kept coming and coming….

Over and over as the Muslims organized and took back bits of their lands, the Catholic Europeans would wage war on them again and again to regain control. The Crusades were an almost continuous series of wars that went on for over two centuries.

And then after that they were sacked by Mongols. Then conquered by Ottoman Turks who were Muslims, but not of the same ethnic decent of other groups in the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire is the reason that the Middle East; once a store house and font of knowledge, the people who invented Algebra saved and studied the work of Greek philosophers, creators some of the largest colleges in the Medieval world, fell behind the West in technological development.

After the Ottoman Empire fell in WWI, the European powers did to the Middle East wheat they had done to China; carved it up into colonies. France took the Syrian peninsula while Britain took everything else, including Iraq, setting up a puppet king.

After WWII, France and Britain were forced to formally leave the Middle East countries to rule themselves, but (stop me if you heard this one too.) not before creating treaty’s that guaranteed that they would maintain some control over the region.

Then in 1948, the most influential event in modern politics in the Middle East took place: With United Nations approval and American and British support, Zionist settlers in Jordan declared themselves to be the “State of Israel” and drove out 800,000 Palestinians from their homes (some Palestinians still have their house keys to the homes that Jewish families are living in now). Then they proceeded to occupy 50% more territory than the U.N. had allotted to them. Israel has continued to cause problems. Zionist settlers will cross the border to settle in the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza strip and claim them for Israel, in violation of all treaties. They attempted to take the Suez canal in 1956. They have not rehoused Palestinian refugees as directed by the U.N., families living in camps for decades. They have literally dozens of U.N. resolutions against them.

And they remain the largest receiver of U.S. foreign aid , including military, ten years after aid to them was supposed to be phased out.

And we don’t lift a finger top stop them. We censure Palestinian suicide bombers, but don’t say word boo when Israeli tanks roll through Palestinian refugee camps blowing away women and children and using our money to do it.

That’s why al Queda bombed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Not because we are “rich and happy and free” but because we are the mainstay of Israel.

I’m not saying that the Palestinians, nor any of the Muslim Middle East, has handled Israel with honor. They have not. Nobody's hands are clean in that conflict. Nor am I saying Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. It very much does, especially given what has happened to the Jews in Europe for over a thousand years. What I am saying is "This is how they see us". The Muslims in the Middle East cannot help but view our involvement in the Middle East as biased towards and in support of the Israelis. Everything we do in the Middle East is tainted by that alliance. To Muslim eyes in the Middle East, Iraq is considered part and parcel of the American/Israeli agenda. It’s no surprise to them at all that Britain and America, the two largest supporters of Israel, are also the two primary allies in the Conquest of Iraq.

Then there is Iraq’s history itself. Want to know what happened to the puppet government Britain set up? It fell to a coup. Which resulted in political instability which broke out occasionally in Civil War. The Ba’ath party rose to power with guess-who’s-help? Yep. The Good Ol’ U.S. of A. The fact that the Ba-‘ath party was a secular party we felt we could deal with them easier than an Islamic Government. (In fact, Donald Rumsfeld was working to help out Saddam against the Islamic Theocracy of Iran in 1980’s including, it is rumored, giving Hussein the chemical weapons he used against the Iran and later the Kurds.)

So basically what the Iraqis are watching is the coming of the Crusaders and the Brits wrapped up in one package. We say we come to “free them” but out actions show that what we are really there to do is exploit their oil reserves. We are setting up a government, but one with treaties that tie them firmly to our hip.

Why no one in this government could see that this operation was simply a replay of the same British tune, with most likely the same results, I do not know. Supposedly, our President has a History Degree from Harvard of all places. I guess a Harvard Degree doesn’t mean as much as it used to.

If history has shown us anything, it is that you cannot give people peace, you cannot make them have freedom. They have to fight for it. The Serbs and Croats were fighting for nigh on 500 years before the Communist Party rolled in and made them become one nation. But as soon as the Party fell and Yugoslavia splintered back into is component countries, they went right back to killing each other with gay abandon. And you cannot just give people freedom. The blacks in this country were freed in 1865, but it wasn’t until 1955 that they realized what Jim Crow had given them was not freedom and got up to fight for it.

People have to fight for it for both peace and freedom to realize what it means. They have to get sick of fighting each other, burn their hatred out until there is nothing left but the question, “Is there a better way?”. They have fight for their freedom in order to fully appreciate what the freedom is.

So even if the Iraq conflict was about freedom, which it obviously is not, it still wouldn’t work anyway. They have to find their own way, and that is all they are asking us to do: Leave them alone to find their own way.

(Unfortunatally, I do understand that simply pulling out would be irresponsible. We created this mess and it is our responsibility to try to clean it up. But we need stop building permenant military bases, get the contractors out of Iraq so that the Iraquis can have their jobs back & rebuild a stable economic base on which to create a stable govenrment and reliquish the final veto we maintain over the decisions of the Iraqui Oil Minstry. We need to make it clear to that Iraquis that we do not have long term plans on them.)

The Energy Revolution

Outside Magazine is not just a rag for rock jocks and rugged fashionista wannabes. It also contains some pretty heavy duty journalism from reporters in the field in places like Darfur, Kasmir, and Afghanistan. They also frequently also dabble in politics, taking on environmental issues with integrity and objectivity. During the 2000 election Outside Magazine produced an issue in which the principal stories were to compare the two candidates records on environmental issues.

In the February 2005 issue, the wind surfing, kite sailing, hockey playing Senator John Kerry addresses the Outside community directly.

The spearhead of this editorial is in the final three paragraphs:

“This fight is as critical as it is symbolic. Roads, pipelines, and other developments would irreversibly damage this national treasure. President Bush and pro-drilling forces cite special-interest junk science to argue that they can limit the damage by drilling in only 2,000 acres. But oil is scattered throughout the refuge, so drilling in 2,000 acres could mean 40 separate 50-acre footprints. Even they know the line they're selling is bunk.

We can counter this by telling the truth about our energy future. We import 2.5 million barrels of oil from the politically toxic Middle East every day, and our consumption of foreign oil has risen to 55 percent. I don't want fragile and often unfriendly regimes to hold America's energy security in their hands, but we need to remind a country weary of conflict in the Middle East that drilling in the Arctic won't make a dent in our oil dependence. The U.S. Geological Survey has concluded that there are only 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in ANWR.* That amounts to just a six-month supply for the U.S. Irreversibly damaging a truly wild place is an unacceptable price to pay for such a small payoff.

We can't drill our way to energy independence. We have to invent our way there, by harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit that made our country great. We can conserve energy and make our cars run farther on a gallon of gas. We can increase our investment in clean-energy products and create hundreds of thousands of jobs along the way. What we can't do is buy into the myth that America's energy future lies under the snow of ANWR.”

When people hear the amounts like “billions of barrels of oil” equated to 6 months or, if one takes the most hopeful numbers, 14 months, they are incredulous. “Only 6 months. Preposterous, we couldn’t possibly go through that in 6 months."

Oh yes we do. It’s not just cars people.** It’s heating homes and places of work. It’s providing fuel for trains, planes, automobiles for mass transportation. It’s providing fuels for our entire military. Think about it. Yeah, we do burn over ten million of barrels a day in oil.

How long do we think we can keep this up? It takes the planet a few eons to renew this resource; I really don’t think she can keep up with the demand.

Jared Diamond of Guns, Germs and Steel has written a new book called Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

I have not read the book yet myself, it just came out. But here is an excerpt of the Editorial Review:

“Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster.”

At the moment this country is not just disregarding the coming disaster when the oil reserves dwindle, we are in complete sticking-our-fingers-in-our-ears-and-screaming-“LALALALALALALA!” denial.

Add to that argument the second point of Kerry’s editorial: That our dependence on oil has created a dependence on the sometimes hostile countries in the Middle East. They have us by the political short hairs and if they want to start telling us to jump, we have no choice but to ask “How high?”***

Destroying 8% of one of our largest wildlife reserves by drilling up a years supply of oil is not going to solve this problem. In two years the oil is gone, the caribou heards are decimated, the bears & wolves, falcons * snow geese are gone. The area may recover in time for our great-grandchildren, if they're lucky. And we will still be tied to foreign countries' apron strings because we need their oil.

Much of America and American politics at the moment is devoted to finding our way back to some mythic glory years in which America was an economic powerhouse and American citizens all lived in nuclear families in their own homes and went to church in their own cars (though how they plan to do this while sending jobs overseas and not stabilizing a price-ballooning housing market is beyond me).****

Oh yeah, and they were all white too.

But the sad truth is that time is linear. It’s a law of nature. We do not get to go back. We do not get to stop. Time moves forward and either we can move forward with it or get run over by other societies who understand that concept better than we.

The choice is not simply starkly clear, there is no choice. We must find embrace alternative means of powering our cars, heating our homes and workplaces, flying our planes (though I imagine that one will take more time) and so on. In the meantime, write to your Senators and Congressman or Congresswoman to block drilling in the ANWR.

This country achieved greatness because it embraced the Industrial Revolution. To remain great we must embrace the Energy Revolution.



* This is the low end of the estimate. You can read the summary of the U.S. Geological Survey here at USGS.gov

** How Much Gasoline Does America Use?

*** The oil company execs and their pet Government officals may enjoy that sort of thing ("Oo baby! Harder!"), but we won't.

**** The joke is that if you talk to those that lived through those years, they were not “Leave It To Beaver”. “Good old days? *snort*” would be my Grandfather's typical response.

Dear Republicans, Would you please take your party back now? Please?

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
-Dick Cheney August 26, 2002

Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.
-George W. Bush September 12, 2002

If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.
-Ari Fleischer December 2, 2002

We know for a fact that there are weapons there.
-Ari Fleischer January 9, 2003

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
-George W. Bush January 28, 2003

We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.
-Colin Powell February 5, 2003

We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.
-George Bush February 8, 2003

So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? I think our judgment has to be clearly not.
-Colin Powell March 8, 2003

Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.
-George Bush March 18, 2003

We are asked to accept Saddam decided to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd.
-Tony Blair, Prime Minister 18 March, 2003

Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.
-Ari Fleisher March 21, 2003

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.
-Gen. Tommy Franks March 22, 2003

I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.
-Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board , March 23, 2003

One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.
-Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark March 22, 2003

We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad.
-Donald Rumsfeld March 30, 2003

Saddam's removal is necessary to eradicate the threat from his weapons of mass destruction
-Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary 2 April, 2003

Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.
-Neocon scholar Robert Kagan April 9, 2003

I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found.
-Ari Fleischer April 10, 2003

We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.
-George Bush April 24, 2003

Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction, I suggest they wait a bit.
-Tony Blair 28 April, 2003

There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.
-Donald Rumsfeld April 25, 2003

We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so.
-George Bush May 3, 2003

I am confident that we will find evidence that makes it clear he had weapons of mass destruction.
-Colin Powell May 4, 2003

I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program.
-George W. Bush May 6, 2003

Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found.
-Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps May 21, 2003

Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.
-Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff May 26, 2003

White House Calls Off Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction.

‘Nuff said.

How To Argue

Now as evidenced by today's entry, as time goes on I am bound to say some things people disagree with. That’s fine. Disagree with me. It’s not only your right, it’s my belief that an untested viewpoint is like an untested hypothesis; it sounds nifty but it ain't worth a damn. (I think that is actually a paraphrase of a famous quote of someone’s.) The true value of debate is not to win, but to share ideas and learn from one another.

However, it has been my experience that there are some internet communities out there that need to learn 3 basic rules of debating. This will be old hat to most of you and to some of you this very useful info as you go through life, especially life on the internet.

Rule 1: Back up your argument with as much facts as possible, preferably facts from unbiased sources. Obviously, if one if debating faith, everyone relies on doctrine and belief rather than hard scientific fact (I think everyone here is mature and respectful enough to steer away from the irresolvable and inflammatory argument of “Which is the One True Faith”) or when debating feelings, you rely on personal experience that may not be universal to your audience. But with other topics, the argument “Because I said so!” means you have no argument.

Rule Number 2 is absolutely iron clad: Do not engage in ad hominem or personal attacks while engaging in intellectual debate. You may not respect the postion, but respect the person. They have reasoning they feel is just as valid as yours. Do not attempt to belittle or smear your opponent’s character or background or attempt to claim any kind of moral high ground. If you cannot back up your argument with logic, you have no argument. Attacking one’s debating opponent personally usually indicates that you have run out of logical support for your position. In short; that you are arguing from a weak standpoint. It also can indicate a strong insecurity in one’s position. To many on the internet, adding a “And by the way, you suck!” (or any permutations thereof) onto your post is simply a metaphorical away of rolling belly up and exposing your throat. Not a recommended course of action.

--->On a TOS-ish note, I will delete posts in the comments thread that engage in personal attacks as soon as I see them. In the mean time, everyone who sees you engaging in such juvenile behavior will eat you for lunch if they so desire.<---

But the most important thing to remember, and I need to be reminded of this myself occasionally, is Rule 3: Not to take these kind debates too seriously. This is not RL, it's the internet. Words on a screen from someone you will probably never meet do not impact or threaten you or your lifestyle in anyway. So relax. If you find yourself personally offended and steamed by someone's differing opinion, it's time to walk away. Have a beer, take a walk, play a VG, surf over to a site that makes you laugh. Chill. Come back when you have your head screwed back on straight and can be the best representative for your side of the issue.

Have fun!

Untangling a Hairy Electoral Mess

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) have declared open season on the 2004 election.

Results of 2004 election challenged.

Obviously given the number of incidents involving lost absentee ballots, discarded voter registrations and of course, two manufacturers of the new electronic voting machines being rather large GOP contributors and the machines vulnerability to being hacked (not to mention all this on top of the massive disenfranchisement of black voters in Florida in the 2000 election) it is obvious there are some serious issues with our current voting process.

I think it would be pretty obvious to a chimpanzee that they are not going to get GWB out of the White House through this, but are rather looking to reform the a vulnerable electoral system to prevent any question of validity in the future. To quote the article:

“Boxer and Tubbs Jones had no illusions that their action would overturn the election results. Their aim was to open a dialogue on election reform. In a letter to Tubbs Jones, Boxer wrote, “I have concluded that objecting to the electoral votes from Ohio is the only immediate way to bring these issues to light . . . to let the American people know the facts surrounding Ohio’s election.”
In her remarks to the Senate, Boxer said, “Let me simply say to my colleagues: I have great respect for all of you. But I think it is key, whether it is Republicans or Democrats, that we understand that the centerpiece of this country is democracy, and the centerpiece of democracy is ensuring the right to vote.
“I ask you, my friends from both sides of the aisle, when we get busy working within the next few weeks, let us not turn away from the things that happened in Ohio. Our people are dying all over the world. A lot of them are from my state. For what reason? To bring democracy to the far corners of the globe. Let us fix it here, and let us do it the first thing out.””

Schweeeet.

However, that doesn’t stop the neo-cons from making a straw man out of the issue: World Net Daily

Someone missed the point. But then actually functioning freedom and democracy for American citizens has never been high on the neo-con agenda.

(Please note I said "neo-con", not "Republican". The Bush adminstration is not a Republican one.)

Nor are they completely alone in this as the neo-cons would claim. Their protest was based on the findings in Representative John Conyers'(D-MI) Report to the Judiciary Committee “Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio”.

Link PDF File of Report

Link to House Committee of Judiciary, Democratic Members (for those that don’t have Acrobat)

On a lighter note, books currently being read:

The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson

Quote of the day:

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.
--Jules Henri Poincare

Relief

Well, the rain had stopped when I awoke this morning and the on shore breezes returned to blow away the clouds to reveal the last of the night stars peeking out before dawn. After almost three weeks the skies over L.A. & the South Bay are clear and things here in So Cal are finally drying out.

But not before some pretty heavy damage and some tragedy.: Massive Mudslide in Ventura County

Prayer to all those who have lost loved ones in these storms.

Driving into work this morning I heard of a great organization on KROQ's Kevin & Bean show for Asian Tsunami relief. A gentlemen from Sri Lanka who had previously emigrated to the U.S. and was back visiting family during the Tsunami called in to the radio show to speak about his experiences, the situation in Sri Lanka and to point out an excellent charity already at work.: Sri Lanka Sumithrayo

I did some poking around online and found this organization’s principal intent is to be the premier non-profit counseling center in a nation whose suicide rates peaked to 8,500 in 1995.But give the horrific tragedy that took place, the they redirected their efforts to building temporary, and perhaps later permanent housing for displaced Tsunami victims. Because their infrastructure is already provided for by pre-existing contribution from the government and such, and they have been getting a wave of volunteers, all donation to the housing fund go directly into buying materials (as well as feeding volunteers and the like).

Two other groups who will continue to need assistance are the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders. Because of the devastated infrastructure and sanitation systems, rotting corpses of both people and animals where rescuers cannot get to them them, lack of a proper food and the over burdened hospitals, it is expected that tens of thousands more people may die of disease in the wake of this disaster. These two organizations will be hard at work for many, many months.

I’m not knocking the Red Cross’s invaluable work or that of the much less-publicized, but just as hard working, Salvation Army. I’m just pointing out other groups doing good work that might need your help.

If anyone knows of any other worthy organizations at work that could use some support, please feel free to post them in the comments section.

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to KiplingKat’s, or to some of you RHYLL’s, weblog. Thank you for stopping by. For along time I resisted getting a blog because, hey, who cares what I have to say? But I’ve been such persistent poster on various message boards it’s pretty obvious that I care what I have to say anyway, and if what I say entertains or sparks an interest in someone else, well bully for me!

So after tiring of playing in other people’s playgrounds, I decided it was time. I'm a total noob at this, so I ask for your patience. My hope is this blog will provide a sort of nexus of all my various interests exposing those that come to it for one subject matter to things they might find interesting in other topics.

So some information where I am coming from might interest some: I’m a woman approaching my mid thirties. I was born and raised in a rural New England and moved to the greater Los Angeles area with my family while in my teens. I attend college part time at night for my AA in History and will be moving onto a four year to study Maritime History and Archeology at the end of Fall semester 2005. I am single, have multiple pets, and work in cube.

I am have political leanings both to the left and to the right: My primary political concerns are the Environment, Freedom of Speech and Education, but I also believe in the 2nd Amendment. I am Pro-Choice and believe in the Death Penalty (under extreme cases). I believe that capitalism has proven itself to be the most durable and socially permeable economic system, but strongly believe that laizze’ faire capitalism would only lead to this country’ ruin. I would like to see Big Business getting out of Government and Government getting out of people private lives. And so on and so forth and such. More on that at other times.

I enjoy SciFi, Tolkien, classical fiction and my sport of choice is NASCAR :), so you can expect some entries about the races once the season starts.

So welcome to Kip's Commentary. I look forward to chatting with you and hope I can provide some entertainment, information and maybe together we can find some insight.