tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64854450461811053592024-02-19T02:27:33.553-08:00Histryonics
A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-72649430437160579722019-03-31T15:00:00.000-07:002019-03-31T16:19:33.821-07:00The Legend of Vlad Dracula<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>The Legend of Vlad Dracula...</u></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">[Or, Political Reform in the 15th Century]</span></b></div>
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There really was a historical character whose rather morbid exploits led to the creation of that astonishing literary icon: <i>Count Dracula</i>. He was known as Vlad Dracula, or as the locals tagged him, Vlad the Impaler. He ruled the territories that now constitute greater-Romania and the adjoining Transylvanian regions in the 15th century. He was born in 1431, the same year that Joan of Arc was barbecued at the stake in Rouen, France; a coincidence of history that was thematic of the whole Renaissance movement -- the end of the old, kind of stale medieval period and a lot of uncertainty about the fall elections. Seems like a familiar theme nowadays. The Christian Right was just finishing up <i>The Crusades,</i> which really meant they were busy killing a bunch of folks who worshipped God in some other neighborhood and once dead would no longer need the houses with the 3-car garages. Later that century, Christopher Columbus would globalize that concept and steal whole continents.<br />
Like the Cold War of a much later century, Europe was politically and secularly divided between east and west, and military dominance had reached kind of an impasse for the moment. That meant that maintaining <i><b>your</b></i> imperial thrown, or for that matter your head, now a matter of politically inspired familiar alliances. Which meant you had to marry so and so's ugly daughter or give up your own in order to keep breathing. This 'politics of alliances' culminated almost 500-years later in the carnage of World War I, the rupture occurring in Dracul's own back yard: the Balkans. Every divorce has its loser, but this one killed over 20-million bystanders and probably more than a few lawyers.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vlad, the Impaler</td></tr>
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Trying to explain the Balkans is almost as difficult as figuring out that new Smart-Phone. A lot has to do with geography and illegal immigration -- a hot-topic around America today, only these migrants tended to bring large, angry and underpaid armies with them. And no, they weren't there to keep the lawns mowed or Safeway stocked with fresh lettuce and mushy tomatoes.<br />
The Balkans were and are historically a cultural and religious border between two very large humanoid groups that spent a lot of time arguing semantics around their own cloistered campfires -- unless of course they found themselves in agreement; which meant it necessary to pick a fight somewhere else. What's the point of having a military/industrial complex without a disagreeable enemy -- imagined or otherwise? Next thing you know the peasants would hollering about that minimum-wage thing again.<br />
The east, in Vlad's time, consisted of the Ottoman Empire, founded by a guy named Othman, who sort of wandered in one day from Turkmenistan and never left. The West was the usual hodgepodge of Italians, French, Poles, Brits, Spaniards, a few confused Germanic tribes, some Russians and The Vatican, which at the time was suffering from a bad case of too many Popes on the Pot. The Crusades had sort of run out of steam by the late 1400's. Trade was the new big deal on the block and the best way for a venture capitalist to make a buck was to stomp on a neighbor and swipe his stuff. That's why they call it a 'hostile takeover' nowadays. A lawyer is nothing more than a Viking with a briefcase full of sentences that would drive Plato nuts, and a large axe that covered most of the fine print.</div>
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The Ottomans (I think these were the bad guys, but I'm not sure.), first crossed the Dardanelle's Straights, which separate Europe from Asia, in 1353, summoned by a couple of Byzantine emperors who were having trouble with some Bulgarians. The Turks (or Ottomans), killed most of the Bulgarians, but decided to hang around just the same. Something about Turkmenistan being a 'dry' county and, well, the folks in the Balkans knew how to press a grape. Oh, this expedition also marked the demise of the eastern branch of the Holy Roman Empire and the introduction of a new fashion style: balloon pants and the fez. </div>
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Enter the object of this dysfunctional tale: Dracul, whose real name was Vlad -- (now pay attention here because it gets even more confusing.) Now Dracul (a teenager at this time), and his gang were Wallachians (aka Romanians), and this new gang, the Turks, were kind of messing up real estate prices around Bucharest, and stealing all the more attractive women. To keep the Wallachians in line, Dracul was snatched and handed over as chattel to the Turkish Sultan and pirated away to Constantinople where he was <i>forced</i> to live in the Sultan's harem. Talk about a teenager in heaven. </div>
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During this same period the Germans (called Saxons), moved in from the west. Basically, the Hungarians were supposed to be in charge, but a Mongol guy named Batu Khan showed up in 1241 and rearranged the furniture again. That's why the Wallachians and the Romanians ended up being pushed into Transylvania, which at the time was definitely the wrong side of the tracks, even if you didn't have any trains. And to be honest, I don't even know why any of this matters other than why Transylvania earned such a bad reputation in the local press.</div>
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Now, we sort of established that Dracul's real name was Vlad, later to be embellished further due to some behavioral issues, so we're assuming he probably had a rap sheet in some other village. The head of this unpleasant dynasty was Vlad's father, Prince Mircea who dies in 1418 of something other than high cholesterol. Mircea seemed to have more illegitimate sons than true heirs, so family relations were anything but cordial. This paternity fight evolved into the Dracul/Danesti feud, which was a little like the Oakland Raiders taking on the Stanford Cricket team. To help the feud move along, Vlad, now an over-sexed adult wandered between Turkey and Poland for a while trying to find a king stupid enough to sponsor his quest for the throne of Wallachia. During this period he managed to get inducted into the <i>Order of the Dragon,</i> the Transylvanian version of an Elk's Club. He was then accepted as 'Dracul' by the <i>boyars </i>(local real-estate<i> </i>agents). Roughly translated, <i>boyar</i> means, "I repossess your house." That meant that Dracul's future son would be named Dracula (son of repossessor), but the connotation of this name caused a lot of misunderstandings. People didn't realize that 'repossession' was really a euphemism for losing your head -- not your house. Did save a lot of money on court costs though.</div>
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So moving along, the Elks had a big party, everybody got drunk and they elected Vlad the Prince of Wallachia. His campaign had been centered around getting the Turks to stop stealing women for their harems, as well as the usual stuff about lower taxes and better camel trails. The former activity had really hurt the dating situation around the capitol, not to mention creating some very unhappy sheep ranchers who were missing their best ewes. However, this would prove to be a highly challenging proposition for Vlad, as Wallachia was still under the control of the Turks. So I guess that meant that the new 'repossessor' was currently 'dispossessed' by the previous 'repossessors.' At least I think so. </div>
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Once Vlad got the nod (voting hadn't been invented yet), he moved into his new fortress, <i>Sinhisoara </i>to keep a closer eye on his Turkish rivals. Mostly he spent his time pumping iron and hanging out (pun intended), on his balcony, which overlooked the <i>Councilmen's Square to the Jeweler's Dojon, </i>which was where the Turks tended to hang people on a pretty regular basis. It was also said that he took night courses in Italian, French and of all things: the humanities. Seemed to this writer that it was a little like holding an AA Meeting in a no-host bar, but,...well hell, it was the 15th century after all.</div>
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As his power solidified, he actually signed into an alliance with the Turks, partly because of the<i> Dragon Oath</i> that he had signed bound him to protect Christians, Germans, small dogs and a couple of Hungarians -- not to mention that well-heeded advice about "keeping your enemies closer." Even so, there was still that issue with all the missing women.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mehmed II</td></tr>
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By 1440, Vlad had had enough of the Turks. Plus the locals were getting a little testy about his seemingly vacillating loyalties. On top of that the barley crop had failed causing the price of ale to skyrocket. Unfortunately, history was in the middle of another re-run as the Turks decided to swipe Vlad's two sons and this time no quiet soiree in the local harem was on the agenda. Radu, by far the more handsome of the two had also caught Mehmed's eye -- heir-apparent to the Turkish throne and well known for her beauty and well...charms. Vlad wasn't about to get into another <i>Christian Crusade </i>with his only sons in captivity by his <i>Muslim</i> overlords.... </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Time Out!</span></b><br />
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<b>{Seems I neglected a certain historical reality: Prior to the Mongols showing up in the 1200's to rearrange the furniture...a whole bunch of Arabs did the same in the 700's, shortly after the death of the prophet Mohammed. They figured it was about time for a new religion since Christianity had taken up sectarian violence as some sort of Holy mantra all their own. In fact it could be said that the Christians invented the <i>Jihad,</i> only they kind of spun the language a bit and called it a Holy Crusade. In reality, it was just a real-estate hunt with some Biblical overtones. In time, the Muslim invaders either wandered off or assimilated, but Islam itself remained.}</b></div>
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<b> Okay, back to the story: </b><b> </b><br />
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….However, this didn't stop the Polish King and The Vatican's representative from stirring up some new shit anyway, which culminated at the <i>Battle of Varna </i>-- where both these instigators surrendered their heads. Ah, no they didn't find the heads. You see it was like a game show -- you <i>really, really </i>didn't want to find the head. A lot like the 'Bankrupt' slot on the <i>Wheel of Fortune. </i>Pat and Vanna are sympathetic, but the sponsor would rather see you dead than take home that Mustang.</div>
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To confuse matters further...or maybe deflect is a better word, Vlad senior got into a bit of a spat with a guy named John Hunyadi (he later invented the Korean car), and that ended the senior Vlad's political career in a swamp outside the village of Danesti. Vlad Jr., or Dracula (Son of the Repossessor), didn't get the news until some months later (a Post Office thing.) He was freed by the Turks to assume the throne, but another Vlad -- Vladislaus II, who happened to own the Hungarian Army had other ideas. Vlad...uh Dracula fled south and hung out with the Turks for a while before going to Moldavia under the protection of Prince Bogdan II. However, the Prince's brother killed him. (Not Dracula, but the other guy.) I guess the main thing to remember about this paragraph is that political reform in the 15th-century always included some headless thing, and that there are way too many Vlads in Romania. </div>
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The climax to all this political intrigue culminated with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Sultan Mehmed II had already overrun most of the Balkans leaving the great Byzantine city an island of Christianity in what had become a Moslem world. Europe and Asia were about to have a nasty divorce and all the children, legitimate and otherwise were planning to rid themselves of the last vestiges of adult supervision.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fall of Constantinople</td></tr>
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On one side was Valdislaus II, John Hunyadi, Vlad Dracula and Ladislas V Posthmus, the latter stuck with a really bad choice of names. They were joined by King Frederick III of Germany, who was busy dealing with Bohemian heretics and far too distracted to invade anyplace. Henry VI of England and France's King Charles VII were naturally upset over this turn of affairs, as well as some folks at the Kremlin. A few Popes were also pretty pissed, especially over the loss of Byzantium, but it was still a case of too many Popes claiming title to the big chair in the Vatican. The visiting team was led by the Turkish Sultan who was busy padding his portfolio by sacking Constantinople -- and stealing all the women as usual. I think we all know by now how the Romanians felt about that kind of nonsense. But in the end, they all agreed to make it a religious war since fighting over women was seen to be below their class.</div>
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Vlad and a bunch of his cohorts got together up in Transylvania and instituted a draft. They also cut a few contracts for cannons, spears, swords, large rocks and other war-type stuff. Most of the army was comprised of peasants, whose battle song went something like, "There goes <i>Monday Night Football </i>again." A 'coalition' problem also surfaced in that Vlad and his co-conspirators trusted each other less than they trusted the Turks. All these machinations and subterfuge culminated in the <i>Battle at Belgrade, </i>in which the Turks got whooped and the unfortunate Sultan got stabbed in the butt for his efforts. He retaliated by stabbing most of his generals in the same vicinity and topped it off with a good old-fashioned mass execution. Vlad also took the opportunity to kill Vladislaus II and poor old John Hunyadi caught some plague and dropped dead shortly thereafter. That left Vlad as the unrivaled Prince of Wallachia, though nobody was quite sure what that really meant.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Battle of Belgrade</td></tr>
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A couple of things happened next: Halley's Comet made an appearance, even though the astronomer that discovered it wasn't scheduled to be born until 1636. It was considered a good omen since it also made an appearance when William the Conqueror flattened the Saxons in 1066, and once again when Attila the Hun got slapped around on the plains of Catalonia. Since most of these great leaders probably never took a history class, the real 'omen' more than likely lay in the fact that the comet didn't land on their collective heads.<br />
Secondly, Vlad managed to mend a few fences with his cousin, who just happened to be Stephen the Great. The Sultan's wound in the...uh, buttocks healed nicely, but he was he was highly suspicious of Vlad's intentions in the west. Plus he was a little short on generals since he'd dispatched the last bunch after the debacle at Belgrade.</div>
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Even so, Vlad had his own problems at home. Power was shared between the <i>boyars </i>and the princes, the latter kind of Johnny-come-laters in the scheme of things. The <i>boyars </i>were a strange mish-mash that can best be described as a combination of a Congressional Appropriations Committee, private interest-group lobbyists, the <i>Mafia</i>, and a local chapter of the NRA. Throw in a little KKK ideology and you get the drift. Princes had an average life-expectancy of two-years at best, so it wasn't a job you'd apply for on a regular basis unless you had a pretty large ego or a bunch of friends with large swords. Vlad was gifted with both.</div>
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Before finding some kind of final solution to the Turk problem, the young Dracula needed to clear up some issues on the home turf. So he invited the most recalcitrant <i>boyars </i>up to the castle for Easter dinner and just before dessert was scheduled to be served, had them all impaled on large stakes. The bus-boy wasn't thrilled about the mess, but the message was certainly received. From that day on, Dracula was known around the neighborhood as Vlad the Impaler. Later he created his own battalion of <i>impalers par excellence, </i>which in reality were paid mercenaries who would engage in any sort barbarity as long as Vlad's check didn't bounce.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3qmu28rpTJletJZ4J7WTWyv66_pI249iSIRLR4tXRFe0rvF8mblHDWnbRprJ5YZqxYjKc-2GJikvA6X2eInKnVBbbg8LeTuRM50jwCWIdNQshblsHER20k9W3HJa_sLmbT59LcEMrdkG/s1600/vladimpaling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="577" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3qmu28rpTJletJZ4J7WTWyv66_pI249iSIRLR4tXRFe0rvF8mblHDWnbRprJ5YZqxYjKc-2GJikvA6X2eInKnVBbbg8LeTuRM50jwCWIdNQshblsHER20k9W3HJa_sLmbT59LcEMrdkG/s200/vladimpaling.jpg" width="128" /></a> That caused things to get a little testy around the Royal Court -- as in nobody was too willing to answer the RSVP thingy. Evidently the word didn't quite get around to an Italian delegation who showed up the palace to cut a deal on pasta and marinara sauce. They happily removed their hats and hoods in his presence, but kept their skullcaps on as was their custom. Vlad stated that, "In all fairness, I want to strengthen and recognize your customs." They thanked him profusely and asserted their loyalty. Then Vlad pulled some large iron nails out of a sack and proceeded to have their skullcaps nailed to their heads. "Believe me," he said as the hammers did their work, "this is the manner in which I will strengthen your customs." <br />
Vlad's propensity for creative diplomacy even put Ivan the Terrible's reputation in doubt. Collected figures from the time indicate that Vlad probably impaled between 40-100,000 victims in an effort to consolidate his power. These figures don't include those poor slobs captured from the Turkish Army. Even Robespierre's guillotine only managed 25,000 to clean up the corruption around Paris. But Vlad didn't just impale people. He also enjoyed blinding, decapitating...the removal of human accessories like noses, ears, sexual organs and limbs. He strangled, hanged, burned, boiled, skinned, roasted, hacked ("like cabbages," he was known to boast), nailed, buried alive and stabbed. However, his all-time favorite was impalement. His courtyard and the town square were adorned with large stakes, purposely left somewhat dull to prolong the fun. Victims were thrown off balconies, released through trap-doors or simply tossed on top of the stakes. Sexual indiscretions were punished in even more macabre ways (if that was even possible.) Cannibalism was not uncommon either.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ly3JEgwXXnc2x96GiUSUDyW9T92ppOp1DPj7RocKWUPANwb_dTI4QNf76OUKlOwjVLq5czF_-LA11Ab1u8w0RuTaIpX0rTSrj4HInKzlyfKRypvQO_QDZG3j-RnHrDBdUgW_wMQkfxCQ/s1600/vladimpaling2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="830" data-original-width="1195" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ly3JEgwXXnc2x96GiUSUDyW9T92ppOp1DPj7RocKWUPANwb_dTI4QNf76OUKlOwjVLq5czF_-LA11Ab1u8w0RuTaIpX0rTSrj4HInKzlyfKRypvQO_QDZG3j-RnHrDBdUgW_wMQkfxCQ/s400/vladimpaling2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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A Turkish chronicler of the time: "In front of the wooden fortress where he had his residence, he set up at a distance of six leagues, two rows of fence with impaled Hungarians, Moldavians and Wallachians. In addition, since the neighboring area was forested, innumerable people were hanging from each tree branch, and he ordered that if anyone should take one of the hanging victims down, they would hang in his place."<br />
In all fairness to Vlad, some other guys and gals were just as bad. Louis XI, the Spider King had a predilection for hanging young boys from trees; Ferdinand of Naples had his victims mummified and displayed in his sitting room during negotiations with foreign leaders, and Pope Alexander VI and his illegitimate son, Cesare Borgia were well-known for their own degrees of extreme cruelty.<br />
Vlad Dracula's ultimate downfall began with the rising influence of Vlad Senior's oldest bastard son who was out stirring up the Saxons living in western Wallachia, while concurrently fomenting a new trade war by flooding the country with cheap wine and Chinese knock-offs. Vlad responded by sacking a few Saxon towns and repeating the 'cabbage-hacking' thing. When his 'captains' weren't successful in taking over some Saxon villages, he had <i>them </i>impaled. Over six-hundred German merchants were rounded up, tossed into giant cauldrons and boiled alive. And you thought the IRS is a little tough.<br />
Most executions seemed to coincide with dinner. Vlad would have a little steak <i>tar-tar </i>and a baked potato while his henchmen were busily hacking off the limbs of most of his guests. Tradition has it that Vlad liked to dip his bread in human blood, hence Bram Stoker's (author if the fictional Dracula character), later fascination with vampirism as an overriding narrative on Transylvanian dating customs.<br />
Vlad continued his raiding and burning of Saxon towns and churches because he was convinced that some guy named Dan III was scheming with the Hapsburg clan to bump him off and take over Romania. However, the plan backfired and Vlad had Dan's head removed and well...impaled all the upstart's followers.<br />
That takes us back to Mehmed II -- you remember, the fat Sultan with the butt wound? Just when things were beginning to settle down, he decides to declare an Islamic Holy War against these Wallachian infidels and tosses in the bonus that if his troops died in battle, they all got a free trip to heaven. The Christians couldn't match this offer, only offering stand-by status with a possible upgrade at some later time. Mehmed upped the ante by throwing in "lovely maidens that would serve tasty drinks" in his version of Paradise. Should have been no contest, but....<br />
...Pope Pius II convened a Grand Council at the Cathedral of Mantua in September of 1459, trying to inspire the few collected leaders present to "take up the cross" once more against these other 'infidels.' Yeah, lot of name-calling going on. The two-hour speech was so intense that the Pope damn near died afterward, and those present sort of yawned and went home. Most of these Western European leaders were far too busy picking each other's pockets or sacking each other's castles to bother with a bunch of no-name Turks in another county. Besides, in a mere forty-years Columbus would aggravate the whole situation by bumping into Haiti and inventing the New World, which would prove to be less reasonable than the Old one.<br />
But, back to the current war. Once Vlad made a few incursions on the east side of the Danube, Mehmed took off the gloves. He cleaned up a few messes around Asia Minor and then personally led his massive army out of Constantinople. Vlad was on the phone trying to drum up some support, most notably from the Hungarians and the Vatican. After all, he was defending Christianity's eastern gate. The Sultan's entourage was estimated at about 250,000 well-dressed soldiers accompanied by about 150 cannons. Vlad's forces were numbered at about 30,000, many of them indentured peasants, who not too happy about the Vegas odds on the undertaking. Vlad had a few early successes, but he quickly retreated, engaging in a scorched-earth policy in order to deny the Turks access to the better restaurants. Adding insult was the fact that Vlad's cute younger brother Radu, was leading a contingent of Turks. Yeah, he fell for the old 'maiden and tasty drink' thing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4nklGkLRX_suk2BI3McqUoT86CiXDVYWYNP0Q-6u2IAexQHQuZIGBINmPurR0Si3vuReVsZ28f2jqRtIM62OmXQKLcZANFdv6ctmKQhz7LCNjvQtOn00Odm55v9MhkpkhIxeahO6NdA3M/s1600/vladscastle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="450" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4nklGkLRX_suk2BI3McqUoT86CiXDVYWYNP0Q-6u2IAexQHQuZIGBINmPurR0Si3vuReVsZ28f2jqRtIM62OmXQKLcZANFdv6ctmKQhz7LCNjvQtOn00Odm55v9MhkpkhIxeahO6NdA3M/s320/vladscastle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vlad Dracula's digs in Trigoviste</td></tr>
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Vlad retreated to the Capitol, Tirgoviste and prepared for a long siege. The road to his stronghold was adorned with a huge semi-circle, picket-style fence decorated with impaled Turkish soldiers, most rotting and subject to the privations of ravens and other carrion-eaters. The smell of rotting flesh was so overwhelming that Mehmed called it a day. Didn't help though. Vlad's cousin, Stephen the Great, turned his back on family values in order to preserve his own monarchy in Moldavia. Mehmet limped back to Constantinople and both sides hired a few 'spin doctors' to cook the books on just who carried the day.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix6UH7Q9ZnjIxNnMkpu0qKQjUD3WbB3AuoXKWn6jTVuCvX2l8sODVLQazdIhmk7Ru8UHWMNGzj5bWQ6KSYkgN9BaSnNOYbEb-5_zl1WcfJHYwhcmuX1DF6o39C-nX6cmveWlRimPR_jxUK/s1600/janjiskra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="225" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix6UH7Q9ZnjIxNnMkpu0qKQjUD3WbB3AuoXKWn6jTVuCvX2l8sODVLQazdIhmk7Ru8UHWMNGzj5bWQ6KSYkgN9BaSnNOYbEb-5_zl1WcfJHYwhcmuX1DF6o39C-nX6cmveWlRimPR_jxUK/s200/janjiskra.jpg" width="98" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jan Jiskra</td></tr>
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Given the ease in international tensions, Vlad was once again under public scrutiny over his questionable hobbies. Sure, he was an equal-opportunity impaler, but face it, people were having a tough time getting health insurance around Transylvania. On top of that, Vlad's brother Radu was courting the reform vote, offering lower taxes, better prices for camels and something called "death by natural causes," a totally new concept in Transylvanian society. Plus, he was much cuter, a political advantage that became apparent much later in the Kennedy/Nixon debates. Vlad's base consisted of the paid mercenaries, the King of Hungary, who was completely inept on a good day, and whatever Pope who happened to be occupying the "Pot." Most of his army had wandered off to catch up on <i>Monday Night Football </i>and re-runs of <i>I Love Lucy. </i>To make matters worse, Vlad was running a little short on gold <i>ducats </i>which meant that all those checks that were supposedly in the mail never got cashed. Even his mistress decided that she would "rather have her body rot and be eaten by the fish of the Arges than be led into captivity by the Turks." Evidently that was a no-confidence vote as shortly thereafter she jumped off a cliff. Given all the rumblings around the capitol, Vlad had all his horses shod backwards to confuse his many enemies and split for Hungary.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCkDg2vZo6qVkkQK-dYsUyGL8ECb6b4bjp5Auq6YFcgM7CO9MF3PRXhvD9aURRMPKQfTyUcIMA6_dNqwXdN2evapAfjo4g0RKu9IVIlugKDxiSe0l9rvp8Kt9KgnxreQgJBhLxtTPdbso/s1600/radu.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCkDg2vZo6qVkkQK-dYsUyGL8ECb6b4bjp5Auq6YFcgM7CO9MF3PRXhvD9aURRMPKQfTyUcIMA6_dNqwXdN2evapAfjo4g0RKu9IVIlugKDxiSe0l9rvp8Kt9KgnxreQgJBhLxtTPdbso/s200/radu.png" width="140" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Radu the Handsome?</td></tr>
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Turned out that Mathias, the King of Hungary wasn't quite as dumb as Vlad had assumed. He figured that given Vlad's current circumstances (meaning everybody in Europe AND Asia wanted him dead), that it was the perfect opportunity to snatch Romania. He promised Vlad a "holy crusade" (which meant he could kind of<i> borrow</i> the Hungarian Army), and sent him merrily back to Wallachia with a token force led by a Slovak-Hussite mercenary named Jan Jiskra. The main army (which was mostly on paper), was to follow. While still in Hungarian territory, Jiskra took Vlad prisoner instead and tossed him in a nearby dungeon. However, a bunch of European king-types were not amused, since they figured that Vlad was probably the only guy nasty enough to keep the Islamic Turks at bay and the local women from ending up in some Potentate's harem. Yeah, back to the woman-stealing thing. King Mathias needed a legitimate reason for keeping Vlad incarcerated, so he put together some phony paperwork that implicated Vlad in an "impaling for profit" scheme orchestrated by the Turkish Sultan. It also marked the first time in history that anyone was specifically charged with "crimes against humanity," a catch-phrase for genocide still in use today. Vlad's attorney argued that his clients activities had absolutely nothing to do with "race, religion, ethnicity or sexual preference," but were simply a hobby he developed as a prisoner in a Turkish harem. Okay, so it was highly questionable 'insanity defense,' even though insanity hadn't been invented as yet either. Vlad's only supporter, Pope Pius II was skeptical, but noted that the<i> Dragon Oath</i> negated this feeble conspiracy about the Sultan. In any event, the tribunal wanted him gone anyway, so they gave him a 10-12 year stint in a Hungarian prison where he became the object of much curiosity for his weird behavior. Kind of like the bearded lady in a local circus.<br />
Even in prison, Vlad pursued his hobby. He impaled mice, birds; pieces of wood, if nothing else could be found. Meanwhile, Radu, now embellished with the moniker "The Handsome," was increasingly being pinched between the Hungarian King, aka, the Hapsburg Empire. 'hole-in-the-butt Mehmed' and Stephen the Great in Moldovia. Radu was good looking, but basically a wimp. Stephen slapped him around a bit, swiped his wife, married his daughter and ran off with the Wallachian treasury. A short time later Radu died of syphilis. Not sure why that is relevant here, but I guess 'safe-sex' was still in the conceptual stage of development as well.<br />
Mathias (the Hungarian guy), sent Vlad to a 12-step program for rehab; the idea being to restore him as the Prince of Wallachia. However, he had to marry Mathias's ugly cousin and convert to Catholicism. Everybody also agreed to dismiss all the atrocities against the Saxons as little more than 'fake news.' Mehmed meanwhile, invaded Bosnia. Pope Pius II croaked, so the new Pope, Sixtus IV renewed the call for a Christian Crusade. Vlad and Stephen the Great kissed and made up and together thumped the Turks at Srebrencia. The down-side was that Vlad was back to hacking off limbs and throwing people on stakes again. The <i>papal legate </i>got wind of this relapse and decided the best thing to do was to declare Vlad a Protestant. Adding to this mess, Stephen the Great died in 1479, his only heir his cousin, one Elizabeth Bathory, known as the "Blood Countess." Turned out she really was a vampire in a kind of a roundabout way. She reputedly butchered over 650 girls during her lifetime in order to bathe and shower in their blood. It was a cosmetic thing I suppose -- like Oil of Olay, only a lot messier.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj-3p4RwKazIMhUDr_5BwWlEuv08zXmAbl3YHtp-ge4Gz3ML0vHv8-G_MeRJbAJ2kIaVMZxOUbYph3gaO2s7ZM_G4PECUYlCQAjwVzrAS0WlZHS0CJi1wSLrmhwrbLGY9px98YRlaz1nls/s1600/bathory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj-3p4RwKazIMhUDr_5BwWlEuv08zXmAbl3YHtp-ge4Gz3ML0vHv8-G_MeRJbAJ2kIaVMZxOUbYph3gaO2s7ZM_G4PECUYlCQAjwVzrAS0WlZHS0CJi1wSLrmhwrbLGY9px98YRlaz1nls/s200/bathory.jpg" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dear Elizabeth Bathory</td></tr>
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<i></i> Prior to Stephen's death, he and Vlad once more went to war with the Turks with a rag-tag army of locals and actually managed to win the thing. Both sides lost about 30,000 soldiers, but Wallachia was once again a 'Turk-free zone.' A few dissident <i>boyars </i>were still floating about and it is unclear whether Stephen eventually turned on his cousin, who, given the previous episodes of mass murder was a questionable candidate for the thrown...or, that maybe Transylvania's Tourist Board decided the country needed a public relations makeover. Either way, about two-months after the successful campaign, Vlad was found headless and mangled in a swamp. He was only forty-five, which was pretty old by Balkan standards. Some centuries later, Romanian archeologists think they have found his carcass buried at the island monastery of Lake Snagov, though the whereabouts of his head remain a mystery.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggwQl6rj7ocOd81ljlxPjY8pxedlD306VyEjUJiMlitLbKPCF9jtdeXUZwDzpqu2Z9jiSlrmTGz3QZVj881ej5SIeKjXIfkK6fKhC9oS0C1UbQofTXzDP3_K9JgDYO28uVWzKqXWGpJ1V9/s1600/vladgrave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="600" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggwQl6rj7ocOd81ljlxPjY8pxedlD306VyEjUJiMlitLbKPCF9jtdeXUZwDzpqu2Z9jiSlrmTGz3QZVj881ej5SIeKjXIfkK6fKhC9oS0C1UbQofTXzDP3_K9JgDYO28uVWzKqXWGpJ1V9/s320/vladgrave.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guess he had at least one fan...</td></tr>
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The moral of this story is that none exists. Bram Stoker grabbed a bit bizarre history, embellished it a bunch, incorporated vampirism (a bat thing) and came up with a best-seller that Hollywood couldn't resist. Dracula did exist as a historical figure, but if he sucked down any blood, he no doubt used a straw. And the Balkans are still a mess because everybody's still trying to figure out who stole all the women.<br />
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I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. </div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-15339775005596763572015-06-08T07:08:00.001-07:002019-02-14T16:55:34.305-08:00Exit Interview...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9gwXXqB2KX9JRFN5NsXi5iyTEENedvf2lHGVDZKnjjZ6_Z6OPQDtn6jEGRkkm4zeqjKLPLqbR_HjwS86HF8oiPudu-HWW3lxA7Wwf71BLjT-ZVrmca2fTBHrp1xquKCmsxLW6n2aZxGQ/s1600/higgs+boson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9gwXXqB2KX9JRFN5NsXi5iyTEENedvf2lHGVDZKnjjZ6_Z6OPQDtn6jEGRkkm4zeqjKLPLqbR_HjwS86HF8oiPudu-HWW3lxA7Wwf71BLjT-ZVrmca2fTBHrp1xquKCmsxLW6n2aZxGQ/s200/higgs+boson.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Gog L. Mitey<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Vicinity 1124</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Ethereal, Kanvas<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Orion 7.46</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Whatever, Whenever</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dear Humans;</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After many centuries and much consternation, I am writing to inform all of you that I am resigning as your benevolent...well, actually I'm not sure what anymore. I was simply a passing stranger at a difficult time in your history, and somehow I managed to instill in your primitive culture an assumption of some grandiose position I held in your feeble existence. Was hardly warranted. Yes, I am plagued by eternal life, I gather wisdom like some collect bad habits, but when you are vaporous and ethereal; unable to perish like some aging cow, boredom becomes a daily, tortuous condition. And perhaps sadly, I surrendered to your continued accolades over my vast stores of wisdom and knowledge. The short version: I kind of liked the attention.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However, it has led to so many misunderstandings, strange interpretations and fierce competition over whose voice the real Gog L. Mitey speaks for; further, whose side I might be on? And unfortunately, once you humans invented politicians and television, it all became too much to endure. Nothing but endless squabbling and all these hysterical messages about failing body parts, barristers who bear false sincerity, and all this penis gratification nonsense for old men with fat bellies and imagined ferocity -- so tedious for an entity like myself, who has no body, much less falling parts...Or was it failing parts? Kind of thought that issue went away after I provided you with a cure for that leprosy thing, but then, you humans seem to like problems, for every time I solved one sticky issue, strange affliction, or mindless conflict...you wandered off to find another one. Quite baffling behaviour considering that <i><u>you</u></i> have a tendency to just expire and leave me to clean up another mess. Should be Gog the Janitor. Except you'd probably get that name wrong too! </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Well, I've had enough. But before I go, I want to clarify a few matters. First off, all of us Etherals are named Gog. Some earlier Gogs who stumbled in here tried a few subtle messages from the heavens, mostly because you humans were always looking skyward for some explanation for your misery. Somehow you always assumed that some monstrous external entity was responsible for your sorry state. A Devil? An Angry Gog fighting with some other Gog for your soul? Ha! Who would want to possess such a pathetic item. I would rather collect a jarful of farts. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But, I digress. You see, being ethereal, up/down, left/right, good/evil, man/woman -- all have no meaning. There is no absolute nor opposite in a vapor. I cannot take sides, because I have none, cannot hate because that would require joy...can never judge because I know no comparisons. I listen, I whisper, I have the patience of death itself, yet even after centuries of quiet counsel here, I am unable to decipher your incredible sense of pointless resolve. You struggle, you suffer to die, and some other human takes your place on a path that leads...well, to the somewhere and nowhere that defines your existence. You believe that some means will justify an end that you celebrate as the end to all ends...a final cleansing for your dirty little world perhaps. And what? You're coming to live with me? Sit glowing at the feet of one who has no feet? Bask in the shadow of one who claims no image? A fascinating strategy indeed! However, you are not welcome here, for there is no here, here. Or over there. There is only the Ether. Which is everywhere and nowhere, but never here. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">From the very beginning you worshipped such things as the Sun, the Moon...thunder and lightning -- made <i><u>them </u></i>into gogs...like Ra and Osiris. Later, some less savage types; who called themselves the Hellenic's; well, they took it a step further and declared that the new gogs wandered about the clouds and stars or lived in the depths of the vast oceans: Jupiter, Zeus, Mars & Neptune. And Aphrodite -- a she-gog that was kinda cute in a fleshy sort of way. The male gogs made war, fooled about with humans and lesser gogs, while the she-gogs cleaned up the mess. It was a trend that would last for centuries. However, even though you folks worshiped these insincere things, fought for their pleasure, then slaved away to build gaudy temples to honor these awful surrogates, in the end they laughed loudly at your mortal flaws. And you seemed to enjoy this bashing immensely! I was baffled and tried for many days to chuckle at this contradiction, but I simply could not master this skill.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So I tried a different tack. I 'empowered' a few individuals with a few new and enlightening thoughts. At least I thought I had. Was very careful choosing the thoughts I would project. Then I'd take some human, like a simple carpenter's son, and whisper a few good ideas in his sleep. Seemed to be taking hold as some humans actually stopped fighting long enough to listen. But others enjoyed fighting so much that they simply expired my messenger. I kept trying, but when other messengers expired, you humans went to staring at the sky again and mumbling that it was all gog's will. They even made books and said I spoke these words. Later, you made awful statues of me with a beard and then worshipped these images. Well, I don't have a beard, or a sex, or even fingers to grasp a pen. I only have thoughts that endlessly annoy me. So, no, I did not write the <i>Bible</i>, or the <i>Quran , </i>or <i>The Vidas </i>and I never met that Moses fellow. I did see his fictitious Commandments and mused, "Well good luck on that plan Mr. Moses!" And yes, it helped me finally learn how to laugh. A grand achievement for a vaporous figment with no lips. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I did have better luck with this little fat fellow that was very talkative...uh, Bood Ha was his name. He never answered the questions of his followers, instead merely passing along a few of my thoughts and leaving his students to figure out the answers. Same with a curious fellow named Confusion. Only offered his listeners little parodies of my logic...never really answered any questions, for all such answers were personal and private -- not universal. There were no tests and no one could pass or fail. Much better than the other messengers, who were always telling people that I was going to send them to somewhere unpleasant. Place called Hell as I remember it. But to me, the other place you invented seemed just about as bad. For me anyway. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So, as people seemed to be getting a little brighter, I introduced Sciences. Thought maybe humans would stop killing each other if I invented Curiosity. Ha! While I was dreaming up some fun topics for you to explore...kind of wean you off this heavens-staring thing, you invented something called religion. Worse yet, you claimed that all of your silly actions were part of Gog's Plan! And then, you came up with 148 different versions of Gog's Plan -- even though I don't have any plans -- only thoughts. So, more fighting, with each of all your various sides either blaming me or claiming some idiocy about me leading you to victory! And all these broken voices lying in the mud and blood of battle, weakly sending their voices skyward..."Save me Gog, save <i>me ! </i> I am dying...." </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As if a vapor has the arms to lift these broken bones skyward, or the capacity to heal such an atrocity. I could not even close my eyes or turn my back, as I don't visualize with light, hear with ears, nor have a back to turn. For you see, I am merely a whisper that is only heard when all else is still. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Alas. My science became heresy, my ideas just built grand citadels for the armies to devour with newer and ever more lethal devices. Death became common and endless; all sides claiming me as the patron saint of a some cause I never knew, never embraced, could never condone. And my Ether became crowded with the frantic cries of fading voices...so many that the vapor itself became clouded, like a window trying to hold back the moisture from a warm, summer rain. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the end, my only success was seen if I practiced a benign neglect... in places where some humans celebrated the animals around them, the earth they slept upon. Sure, they created gogs to worship and pray to, yet their gogs perished in the hard winters and could be reborn with a forgiving spring. They were malleable, they bled, they suffered as all life does to move forward to renewal, or that inevitable end. But they too were swept away, for in the final game, this planet was merely a platform for the creation and worship of the self. As if it was supposed be just that: a convenience of the moment. My presence, just an illusion -- rarely heard and never seen until desperation was knocking at the door. A purpose of no purpose...foot prints never really meant to be found. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But before I go, I will share one last truth. Yes, there are many, many intelligent forms of life in this vast common space you call the universe. They have wandered by this dirty little outpost from time to time and concluded that they do not want to meet you. They view you as little more than angry insects devouring each other as fast as you have consumed your own small planet. They have considered destroying this eyesore, but they respect all life forms -- even those they deem toxic. Given that you exist on the ragged outskirts of your galaxy, they see little likelihood of your disease spreading. Besides, your planet is dying. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Think I'll wander off now. Catch a comet's tail to perhaps a more enlightened world, a place where silence is coveted, thought allowed to freely roam, and the Ether not tainted by the stench and decay of this never-ending meal of fear, hate and ignorance. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Good Luck...Yer Gonna Need It;</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Gog L. Mitey</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "papyrus"; font-size: 14.0pt;">PS -- You are NOT Gog's children! Most children grow up...eventually. </span></b><br />
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-71585117328492758102015-05-08T17:17:00.001-07:002015-05-13T10:22:06.591-07:00Revolution Road...well, Maybe.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><i>So, When?</i></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Been doing a little reading of late, as opposed to being further numbed by the relentless oratory and visually myopic slime vomited from the world's greatest propaganda machine: network television, in all its insidious, mindless and vulgar manifestations. From author Chis Hedges:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b>"Get back into your cages, they are telling us. Return to watching the lies, absurdities, trivia, celebrity gossip and political theater we feed you in twenty-four-hour cycles on television. Invest your emotional energy in the vast system of popular entertainment. Run up your credit card debt. Pay your loans. Be thankful for the scraps we toss. Chant back to us our platitudes about democracy, greatness and freedom. Vote in our rigged corporate elections. Send your young men and women to fight and die in useless, unwinnable wars that provide huge profits for corporations. Stand by mutely as our legislators plunge us into a society without basic social services while Wall Street speculators loot and pillage."</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1929? Might be, if not for the reference to television. And of course, this time around, the middle-class are doing a metaphorical roof jump instead of the stockbrokers. Or, being gunned down in the streets as the newest version of some <b style="font-style: italic;">'Final Solution.' </b>Too severe? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe, but then again, maybe not. I tend to seek recall from my early post-radical days. My sister had introduced me to Frank Zappa and his Mothers of Invention. Oh, and something new called LSD. I did a lot of reading and far too much acid. On one rather extended LSD and amphetamine binge, I read: <b><i>"War and Peace,"</i></b> Steinbeck's, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>"The Grapes of Wrath," "Animal </b></i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i>Farm" </i></b>and Kenneth Patchen's allegorical tale, <i><b>"The Journal of Albion </b></i><b><i>Moonlight" </i></b>-- while drinking bottle after bottle of <i>Coca-Cola.</i> After a short hospital stay to restart my kidneys, I ended up at the Selective Service's version of a send-off party to Vietnam, where I pissed a cupful of blood and something that looked like rancid egg-whites. The guy in the next urinal was wearing a nice black bra and matching panties. Never did get his name...probably for a good reason.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Next day, I decided to become a radical...and that amphetamines were probably not a good way to extend my literary awareness. The rest is a long, rambling story that could probably fill a novel -- oh wait, it did. But eventually I became old and rather lame. You know how it goes, uh...played with one too many horses, animals that I always appreciated far more than humans, even if they were a little hard on me at times.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 'Farmer's Almanac...for Lunatics.'</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So here we are, a half century later, and I'm having a new twinge of a very old of <i>deja vu </i>kind of moment<i>. </i>Only difference being that LSD is probably not going to offer me much clarity this time. Instead of one nasty war, we have two or six or how ever many you like. Voting is suppressed, or more accurately, a waste of a nice afternoon. Instead of just rumors of concentration camps (big deal in the 1960's), we actually have one at Guantanamo, along with sundry-dozens of private prisons, inner city-sacrifice zones -- such as Cleveland, Detroit, Camden and Baltimore <i>ad nauseum. </i>Oh...and agricultural labor camps where we casually accept slave-labor in exchange for cheap, chemically-infested tomatoes. And instead of spraying Agent Orange on Godless communists in some distant land, we just engineer it into the food we eat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, the Stock Market is making record gains, which is supposed to make everybody feel good, especially while we're endlessly scouting the neighborhood for the nearest food bank. And for the first time in our recent history, poverty has been eliminated from the ranks of the <i>Fortune 5oo.</i> I could go on, but...I'd need a kind of medication that I can't afford right now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do I have some point here? Hmm. Not sure, other than I keep wondering why it takes white people so long to get pissed off in this country? Maybe it's because we've been told so often that we're "exceptional," and as such, we feel obliged to be on our best behavior. And of course, if we burned down the nearest Wal-Mart, where in the hell could we get cheap toilet paper? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mostly, I was wondering what happened to this budding weed known as the<b> Occupy Movement?</b> At first, I was rather pleased to see people openly urinating in the streets again, and somewhat enthused about their non-violent approach; an idea we tried to emulate in another era of unrest, until the clubs, tear gas and occasional murder caused us to re-evaluate the idea of passive resistance. Of course in those days we still had a free and antagonistic press -- not the corporate pimps and clowns that dominate the airwaves today. Or the hired thugs in the Blogosphere that shit lies and never seem to change their underwear. Even so, I tried to extrapolate <i>our </i>movement over time and consider its relevancy in this, the age of social media. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">First, I took a look at What Kevin Zeese had to say. He was one of the founders of the Occupy Movement. "We do have a grand strategy," he said. "Non-violent movements shift power by attacking the columns that hold the power structure in place. Those columns are the military, police, media, business, workers, youth...Every time we deal with the police, we have that in mind. The goal is not to hit them...and weaken them. The goal is to pull people from those columns to our side. We want the police to know that we understand they're not the 1 percent."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, seems to me that the police work for whoever the other 99% might be; this large body that is simultaneously both inclusive and exclusive, but equally addicted to avoiding those questions that demand attention in real time. The 1% don't bother with questions, mostly because they haven't as yet noticed any problems with their private and sequestered lives or the narrative they espouse -- <i><b>no, control.</b></i> So I'm going to adjust the arithmetic: 1% at the top is horn-locked with the 1% at the bottom. The rest of the country is waiting to see what Dr. Oz has to say about it. This might work in Occupy's favor, little like that old adage: "The rich get richer and the poor more numerous." Ha...democracy in<i> inaction!</i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 'Occupy Movement' as depicted by<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Zeese goes on to explain that what they wanted to create in this movement was a 'horizontal hierarchy' -- not a vertical one in the corporate sense. But of course what they got was the street dregs, dope fiends and other homeless folks that had already fallen hard from America's fleet of social dump trucks. And the press (if you can still call it that!), was more than willing to exploit that angle. You could say it was a PR disaster where for once, the truth didn't free you...just complicated things immensely, mostly because today's media uses crayons, and only colors inside the designated lines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I looked a little further. It seemed that the <i>Movement</i> was borrowing from the ideology of Czechoslovakia's Vaclav Havel, who advocated "living within the truth." Hedges paraphrased the concept: "This attempt to 'live within the truth brings with it ostracism and retribution. But punishment is imposed in bankrupt systems because of the necessity for compliance, not out of any real conviction. And the real crime committed is not the crime of speaking out or defying the rules, but the crime of exposing the charade."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hmm. Brings me back to this insatiable need for 'law and order' and the fact that the free press is having lunch in the boardroom -- while the masses eat off the $1 menu. It seems to me, having a little media experience myself, that in order to appreciate a free and open press, you just might need a free and unencumbered mind. So, I delved back into history and fiction. First, I re-read George Orwell's<b><i> "1984."</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i>"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself."</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ah, so fear does garner votes; for all the unnatural reasons. Seems that's how Stalin enjoyed such a long run in Moscow. Nobody voted in the conventional sense, just as nobody seems to vote here -- either conventionally or otherwise. Too busy watching serial alligator killers or <i><b>"House of Cards" </b></i> -- a fine example of the truth masquerading as satire...or is it the other way around? Too bad Shakespeare's long dead. she might have been able to shed some light on it. Yeah, I said, 'she.' Another theory for another day. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpOuAs1kzAIc5BGQza4KhuNyR3LAg-c00GrJHBYoIOmoWcoPxhVWTL-nFaLYkPhUOotRXCLYpVN_JaTmB4UmgpLnrPL-U9_GD_r51EbMz6i6Q6rGnw6zkJaIZJEQbaaXdxvsu_Chn8Qs7x/s1600/emp2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpOuAs1kzAIc5BGQza4KhuNyR3LAg-c00GrJHBYoIOmoWcoPxhVWTL-nFaLYkPhUOotRXCLYpVN_JaTmB4UmgpLnrPL-U9_GD_r51EbMz6i6Q6rGnw6zkJaIZJEQbaaXdxvsu_Chn8Qs7x/s1600/emp2.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also rattled the bones of Karl Marx and noted anarchist, Mikhail Bakunin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Marx said, concerning proletariat revolutions are: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i>"...[They] constantly criticize themselves, constantly interrupt themselves in their own course, return to the apparently accomplished, in order to begin anew; they deride with cruel thoroughness the half-measures, weaknesses, and paltriness of their first attempts, seem to throw down their opponents only so the latter may draw new strength from the earth and rise before them again more gigantic than ever, recoil constantly from the indefinite colossalness of their own goals -- until a situation is created which makes all turning back impossible, and the conditions themselves call out:"</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>"Hier ist die Rose, hier tanze."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>[Here is the Rose; dance here.]</i></b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mikhail Bukunin</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karl Marx</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But...and a big but. While Marx easily "recognized the self-destructive machine that was unfettered capitalism, he viewed the poor as a conservative force...made irrelevant by the growth of capitalistic forces and caustically referred to them as "a sack of potatoes."" [Hedges.] Here, I somehow visualized Wal-Mart, where the amorphous masses pick up their bribes from the 'company store;' or in the case of a decaying and corrupt Rome, where you were given "bread and games" as an exchange for supporting the corruption of the state. How else do you explain why the abused do their shopping at the abusers store? Fear, or something else?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mikhail Bukunin figured it differently. He saw "in the uncivilized, disinherited, and illiterate, a pool of revolutionists who would join the working class and turn on the elites who profited from their misery and enslavement." [Hedges] </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tend to like the anarchist's approach better, but do imagine it might take a little longer to start the fire. Of course, these revolutionists occupied a different era -- a time when voices, eyes and body language transmitted much more than the written word could. In this age of 14-word logic, the mass assimilation and distribution of disinformation, and passive-aggressive pandering traveling at the speed of light, any semblance of truth or fact might be difficult or impossible to find -- Ah, but you see, that's the whole idea: confusion and misdirection. In the old days, the revolutionist's first task was to take over the radio stations; to silence the self-anointed propaganda machine of the state and deliver their alternative message. Today, we have the sanitizers and thought police at the NSA, as well as a half-dozen other agencies and news corporations who control access to virtually all forms of communication here -- from the news, to what constitutes entertainment, those lines fuzzier than ever. This, along with virtually every electronic device on the planet. Privacy? Ha. Orwell had it right all along. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then again, there's Bob Dylan, whose mystery and lyrics painted a different landscape that perhaps many of us felt, but could never completely articulate:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>"Something is happening here,</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>But you don't know what it is;</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Do you, Mister Jones?"</i></b></span></div>
"Ballad of the Thin Man."</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Here's a primer on how revolutions get started: </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>* discontent that affects nearly all social classes;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>* widespread feelings of entrapment and despair;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>* unfilled expectations;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>* a united solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>* a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>*an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>* a steady loss of will within the power elite itself together with defections from the inner circle -- a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support;</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>* a financial crisis.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Crane Brinton, <i>"Anatomy of a Revolution."</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well, we have elements of 7 out of 8 as it is, but of course, there are always other issues: the propaganda machine in this country, the love of law and order...or as the addict explains: 'the bad known is always more comfortable than the unknown.' So we accept the little crumbs, keep staring at the horizon and assume tomorrow will be better, when yesterday was just another repeat of many other yesterdays. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Funny. When I was back east last year in a vain attempt to get my long-overdue hip repaired, I killed a lot of time with my 12-year old protege of sorts, Vincent. A very serious Star Trek fan and future Starship commander, I do believe I watched every episode ever made. Even learned a few words of Vulcan.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVPx6ZJtyXh_l05or6-p29qW9PH2lqNVtqUKzeFHJnoA8tWZxToJjjFcQRr9wZBG4puZ8y7p43ytyn_iJCKa72YqrP3BsuhkzOJrSKueHItrY2B3HEE410IHX5vqne9RZlOZq_PJUj6W8/s1600/borg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVPx6ZJtyXh_l05or6-p29qW9PH2lqNVtqUKzeFHJnoA8tWZxToJjjFcQRr9wZBG4puZ8y7p43ytyn_iJCKa72YqrP3BsuhkzOJrSKueHItrY2B3HEE410IHX5vqne9RZlOZq_PJUj6W8/s320/borg.jpg" width="308" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the end, I concluded that America had become this planet's Borg -- all-consuming, infinitely powerful...insatiable really, until virtually every resource on this planet is stripped away and stored in some unseen vault. The rest, sadly cast to the cosmic winds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As Bernie Sanders has often said, 'we need a revolution of thought in this land,' It is either that, or we're likely going to experience the other version, which just might be the closing chapter on this experiment called America. It is <i>the</i> inevitable outcome when the ambitions and dreams of ordinary people are sacrificed for the gains of the few. Same lesson, new century, a lot at stake. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>We went off to battle this monster called the Borg -- </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Only to discover that the Borg was really us. </i></b></span></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-53512024306343021192014-11-14T14:08:00.000-08:002014-11-18T10:02:04.112-08:00Home is where the....<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>Empathy Test</u></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitjEzm7aCIj1KGUMKN0K4qK1a-r5nHCwb0Jo1vfIdqxB3CI-a6Q94vEAuJtTUm0O-11RssQ1z-a60lu2b13rDV5xbOgVuhHnOWZDqmU1w68-fcEOv0pghBGo0WBDFHG8JQwhDSONs_nsOU/s1600/afghanchildren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitjEzm7aCIj1KGUMKN0K4qK1a-r5nHCwb0Jo1vfIdqxB3CI-a6Q94vEAuJtTUm0O-11RssQ1z-a60lu2b13rDV5xbOgVuhHnOWZDqmU1w68-fcEOv0pghBGo0WBDFHG8JQwhDSONs_nsOU/s1600/afghanchildren.jpg" height="219" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The United Nations has determined that as of today, there are approximately 45-million refugees wandering our planet. About a third of these people were set adrift by US-led military actions throughout the Levant. Approximately 7-million once called Syria home; a percentage of <i><b>those</b></i> once called Palestine home. Oddly, the plight of these folks seems to gain little traction, much less empathy here in the US, and that is actually rather shocking considering that we are a nation founded by...yeah, refugees -- human refuge discarded or driven from our own traditional homelands. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Even more puzzling? How we evolved into one of the most racist, bigoted nations on the planet; only South Africa running a close second -- that distinction made because they, unlike us, never denied it. Now, before you shit your pants in moral outrage, consider a few minor notions. We embraced slavery longer and fought its demise more bitterly than any so-called civilized country on Earth. We made ourselves into the White-Protestant mecca of the west...desperately resisting the incursion of any and all groups who would attempt to land on our shores later -- seeking the very same freedom and opportunity we sacrificed life and limb for when we first trespassed on this land -- a land long claimed by others. The truth here is that history is rarely kind in its relentless push forward and all dynasties <b><i>will</i></b> fall -- some more tragically than others; yet no lesson was learned, no forgiveness sought and apparently no remorse found -- for our actions today both reveal and reinforce our insatiable arrogance toward the greater world, in that it continues to be "our way or the highway." In effect, we demand and try to export a system of democracy and fair-play that we have chronically failed to practice ourselves.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUtfYOmk8RMjchjkLVmOC_RsS9VHnjLpwfAyHCl3cBT8U_slY1XsNlV_VXHFs__K7ZoirT0mgc0G1uuqQ40nRlB7wgNTuo9N8ZepUjxffPRVQI-lw4VjLezFAwCObppoceuTkitU3e6xl/s1600/keepout.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUtfYOmk8RMjchjkLVmOC_RsS9VHnjLpwfAyHCl3cBT8U_slY1XsNlV_VXHFs__K7ZoirT0mgc0G1uuqQ40nRlB7wgNTuo9N8ZepUjxffPRVQI-lw4VjLezFAwCObppoceuTkitU3e6xl/s1600/keepout.png" height="143" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjJHuDMswZzzAML70nox9RQlnj80f-qi7WUUhZohyFomnrx95cQg7OMYQJP7y_19syfilnpZ758zOKZLPjgk7nqx0MzqzA55RcDdi6KJtan7Fwkr2QgX970Ec_MueFtdRsO6tJ6Awo5v1/s1600/liberty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjJHuDMswZzzAML70nox9RQlnj80f-qi7WUUhZohyFomnrx95cQg7OMYQJP7y_19syfilnpZ758zOKZLPjgk7nqx0MzqzA55RcDdi6KJtan7Fwkr2QgX970Ec_MueFtdRsO6tJ6Awo5v1/s1600/liberty.jpg" height="200" width="151" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I remember this grand statue that the French presented us in 1886 and that we decided to plant in New York harbor; somewhat ironically, pointing it out to sea and the lands beyond. The French thought they knew us pretty well, that we shared some great egalitarian principles, that just maybe this new America could and would create a Camelot in the vastness of the new west -- a dream that the world desperately needed. And in brief moments over the next century and a half, we did occasionally shine that light. Yet all too often we turned our backs to the fundamentals of our heritage and sat in clear-eyed apathy as the dark side of our collective soul killed the messengers. Yeah, we hold those names in reverence today, yet fail to fully reconcile why they had to die. If a great conspiracy did exist, we all own it equally.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2mAolAAnn3SQlSYOrMuoyyhFcvN2hKo0t1j_AMU4C5wra_HfsBnCkW1AA1P6c4SLZ32EqUITOL3E_GiWmANecg1vAmL_Np0sRvxDF7WTw_W4RVFjr1NZpFPvLscHZl7CnpbeMWLXUl-w-/s1600/liberty2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2mAolAAnn3SQlSYOrMuoyyhFcvN2hKo0t1j_AMU4C5wra_HfsBnCkW1AA1P6c4SLZ32EqUITOL3E_GiWmANecg1vAmL_Np0sRvxDF7WTw_W4RVFjr1NZpFPvLscHZl7CnpbeMWLXUl-w-/s1600/liberty2.jpg" height="163" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> I recently read an extremely well-written piece about a young Palestinian refugee couple living in Syria. Palestinian? Yes. Already refugees from one home and now faced with losing their second chance. For all intents, they seemed like any young couple you would meet on the streets of America. Educated, ambitious...ready to embrace what life might be able to offer them. Living was difficult in their town south of Damascus, but they had found a sense of community there and a degree of optimism about their always uncertain future. Then ISIS came into their neighborhood and once again they were forced to flee...but this time, there was nowhere left to go.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u>The State of Jefferson</u></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now, bear with me for a minute. In this tale, you, the reader gets a rare opportunity to become a refugee in your own town. And it all starts when a faction in northern California and southern Oregon decides to secede from the Union. By all standards, these folks are fairly liberated in their thinking. Small farmers, entrepreneurs, survivalists...folks married to the land. Many of them are boomers, ex-hippies -- those that once fought for this illusive palace known as Camelot. Mostly they want to be left alone, to pursue what their version of the Constitution guaranteed: that 'pursuit of happiness' thing. Yet more and more the country that they loved was becoming a plutocracy -- ruled by an oligarchy completely disconnected from the people, whose toil and blood had made freedom and by extension, all that wealth possible. And to the north and south, xenophobic bands of Christian extremists were re-defining the new moral boundaries in the very land born through the fires of religious persecution elsewhere, and almost three centuries in the past. So the Jeffersonian's closed the borders, burned all the Wal-Marts and Home Depots and declared their independence. Oh...uh, the Wal-Mart and home Depot were abandoned anyway. The local residents had boycotted these places from the beginning, choosing to support community businesses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The year? 2017. America had a new President; a fundamentalist Christian who firmly believed that Moses got it right the first time and no government legislation could possibly say it any better. But now, in what was referred to in the media as the "Oregon Spring," the new President was being challenged -- no, openly defied. And his followers were demanding immediate, decisive action against these socialistic, un-American pinko's and ouliers. Well, actually farmers, retirees and fisherpeople mostly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So he called in the National Guard to open the blockade and restore order. Which given the realty of the situation could have been carried out by 4 or 5 journalists with baseball bats. The blockade was symbolic, and the new Oregon Militia's weapons of choice were little more than potato guns, pitchforks and squirt guns loaded with green paint. But to his surprise, the commander in Salem refused. He simply said, "There is no disorder and I will not demand that my people go up against their neighbors. Hell, half of them are sympathizers anyway." Rebuffed, the President fired the Oregon commander and called in the Idaho Guard, a state he had carried in the election by an overwhelming majority. They in turn seized the military assets held at the Oregon depots and joined forces with the fundamentalists that had already gathered in force at the newly established borders of Jefferson, claiming that they had a mandate from God, though they didn't really say how they acquired it. It was a short, one-sided fight and the dire news spread rapidly down the coast, spreading alarm among the residents of this small fishing town...many of whom were elderly and unable or unwilling to defend themselves from the government they once cherished. Then suddenly, the internet went dead. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the next few days, rumors sparked of a vast force heading up Highway 101 from the south. By now, most of the village had armed itself with what weapons could be found, as nobody seemed to know if it was serious. The rumors were running rampant -- real information scarce. The fishing fleet had put their boats in the water, offering a ride for anybody with the $500 or a case of liquor to join them. Helicopters were over-flying the town regularly. Some folks had tried to escape north, only to be rebuffed in the hills near Coos Bay. Many were arrested. Those that made it back related stories of incredible violence and savagery by the 'liberating' forces (as they were called in the media), but few believed these tales -- after all, this was still America, wasn't it? But then, the free press, that beacon of democracy had been sold to the highest bidder more than a decade earlier. So now the Jeffersonian's were labeled a sect and painted on Fox News as the new Branch-Davidians of the north. The next day, the power was cut off, causing the one sewage treatment plant to fail. All land lines had ceased working and sometime during the night, the remaining cell tower was blown up. People were suddenly alone, in the dark...wondering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Food was beginning to get scarce. The one market in town had been pretty much sacked by the third day of the siege. Fuel was gone the next day. Some people had wandered into the hills, others huddled in groups, while at the south end of town, a determined group had built a barricade across 101...directly adjacent to the Battle Rock monument, the worst form of irony being played out by the most unlikely of combatants. During the night, both the Lutheran and Catholic churches mysteriously burned to the ground. A growing distrust was enveloping this community -- a place where people prided themselves on stepping up, not away from trouble. The enemy seemed to be nowhere and everywhere. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then on a Friday, the smell. Diesel fumes and the distant clatter of track-treads on asphalt. At noon, a sole artillery shot flew over the town, landing in what was the school playground. Then the loudspeaker with the ultimatum -- the blunt words of most ultimatums: surrender or...blah, blah. Conform, find God in your heart, accept the new order of things. Death was in the message somewhere, but that was the least ambiguous part of the message. Mostly nobody said anything in response, just eyes meeting eyes in a kind of tragic disbelief.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Many people wandered off, choosing to collect what few belongings they could carry, and in small bands melted into the hills. A few of these folks were walking backwards at first, taking a last look at what was home, hearth...community. All seemingly gone in the blink of an eye...a few wondering loudly how this could happen in a free country, or why so many people chose not to vote. Others stayed in their homes, too frail to make the trek; too resigned to fight the inevitable. A few turned their guns on themselves. Those that got away wandered northeast, some thinking that Montana might be safe or maybe Canada. Most longed for news, any news that might explain how such a thing could happen in America. But all they could hear in the failing light was a cacophony of gun fire; at first rapid and intense; just as suddenly random, then silent. They walked on through the night, following the stars to a destination they did not know, a welcome they might not receive. This night, they became refugees in their own land. Just another number among those 45-million other numbers who no longer have anywhere to call home. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> I require no lesson on empathy in this matter. You see, my own mother was a refugee. In the vernacular of the day, she was a war bride. She also went from girlhood to womanhood in the vortex of a world war. Did she love my father? Maybe. Did she need to escape the aftermath? Absolutely. Was she welcome here? No. Yet the hatred for this child of war here was somehow easier for her to endure than the suffocating depravity that marked her entire childhood. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don't have an answer here. It took me most of my life to understand her story...one refugee among millions. And now we have millions upon those millions. It has to stop. Somehow. </span></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-84315827234150008902014-09-20T14:01:00.002-07:002014-09-23T11:11:12.247-07:00Lessons from the Grave.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Patton Got Quite a Bit Right...Sort of.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">General George S. Patton had an insatiable appetite for history. He knew quite well that the 'present' could never be comprehended, nor addressed, without a very humble and necessary nod to the past. In many ways, for this man anyway -- cause and effect had deep and ancient roots. But like most warriors, he abhorred politics, all the while being forced to acquiesce to the crooked trail they often traveled.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So not surprisingly, he was eventually fired, a fate shared by other generals who question the intents; maybe the intelligence of those who dictate foreign policy. Among his sins: proposing to re-arm the Germans and push the Soviets out of eastern Europe. Perhaps a militarily sound idea, given the incredible view some find in our kind of myopic hindsight, but difficult to sell to a country exhausted by 5 years of war. And of course, that thorny issue of the Soviet Union being a somewhat unpredictable and highly tenuous ally. A marriage that was doomed at the altar -- if not for the greater evil emanating out of Berlin. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Intermission:</span></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><i>Now just for the fun of it, or really, so that maybe you have the slightest idea what I'm babbling on about, I'd like you to do a simple word juxtaposition. Every time I say 'Germany,' I want you to instead imagine, 'Iraq.' </i></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">VE Day (Victory in Europe) was just possibly the greatest mass exhalation of the century. But when the champagne went dry and the hangover showed up, so did the truth. Europe was in ruins, the population devastated by years of all-out war -- national economies non-existent. And there was that little matter of The Holocaust, an atrocity that spread far beyond the Jewish community -- albeit, they bore the brunt of this genocidal storm. But there was more. Call it 'collective shock' if you like. The real grinding issue behind these 10-million deaths was that this 'final solution' was perpetrated by a Christian, educated, acculturated state right smack in the heart of Europe. State-sanctioned murder on a scale never before seen. Difficult to swallow, harder still to comprehend. Yet it also spawned the concept of a World Court; accountability broadened to include this rather ambiguous term: "crimes against humanity" -- gross violations by...well, humanity. And we're still struggling with that distinction today. The courts also established the precedent that "following orders" would no longer constitute a defense for the actions of an individual in uniform. Perhaps an unreasonable demand for when the shit really hits the fan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So at the time, given the emotion of the day, it seemed like a good idea to round up all these Nazi's and hang the bunch. Hence, the formation of the Nuremberg Tribunals, named after the city of their birth. Vengeance first, housekeeping later. Except that there were a few issues lurking in the background -- particularly the opening salvos of what would become the new Cold War; not to mention the lingering issue of how all these Nazis got to be Nazis in the first place. So let's flashback to 1918. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">First order of business when Baghdad fell: Round up all of Saddam's lackeys, have a quick trial and a quicker hanging. Only instead, let's have the Iraqis administer the justice. You know, kind of loyalty test.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But back to Berlin. Germany loses the first 'big one' -- WW I. Only they didn't really lose. They were still occupying territory in France and elsewhere. Strange predicament for a 'loser' to find themselves in and certainly not lost within the German psyche. Next came the Treaty cobbled together by the allies in Versailles -- one of many aimed at preventing Germany from ever militarizing itself again. Massive financial reparations, the loss of territory in Germany's industrial sector...sanctions on a scale never before seen. Which meant that rebuilding even the basic elements of state function were nearly impossible. The result? Massive unemployment, runaway inflation, two revolutions and the rise of communist and nationalistic sentiment. And of course, credibility for that little Austrian corporal who really knew how to work an audience.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">American policy in Iraq: Capture and hang the bad guys, dissolve the Iraqi army, the police, the security forces and pretty much anybody else. Remove all Baathist party members from government and administrative posts. Create 50-70% unemployment, massive public suspicions by arresting thousands, re-fuel sectarian differences and fail to even get the electricity turned on. Everybody's a terrorist, so turn the Army into judge, jury and prosecutor. As Patton observed, as military governor of Bavaria...the army is NOT qualified (or trusted) to police a civilian population. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>[Note: As I have talked about before, my own grandfather was in the German <i>Luftwaffe </i>-- by default a member of the Nazi Party. What does that mean to me? Very little actually as the ideology was only useful to those with the political power to wield it. And as all soldiers know, once the bullets start flying, politics no longer have a meaning.] </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The result of post-World War I decisions? World War II.</b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Berlin or Baghdad?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph Goebbels--<br />
Hitler's social architect.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now Patton wasn't alone in having an eye to history, or put another way, having the vision to understand that Europe's century of wars was rooted far more in economics than mere power politics. At the end of the day, the ordinary man sees the meager food on his children's plates, not the grand ideals of the would-be demigod. But he will hear the message. And therein lies the vast power of the greatest propaganda machine ever seen...until maybe today. Hitler was the sword of action, but Goebbels painted the canvas. Both men opened the door a crack on what could be a better world for the average German. This after 20-years of turmoil and hopelessness. Who could resist such a moment? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Plans. What plans? The US went back to Iraq and later, Afghanistan on with wings of vengeance. Blood for blood. Hell, Americans were demanding it. Never mind that Bush Sr. created this monster called Al Queda, Bush Jr. was going to set 'these' people right. Saddam Hussein may have been a bad ass in many, many ways, but his forced removal was destined to create a political vacuum that would only be filled by incredible chaos. The lesson of Tito's Yugoslavia evidently not on that weeks homework assignment. Not only was there no coherent plan on going in, none existed to get out. </span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Enter General George C. Marshall, chief architect of the plan for post-war Europe that bears his name. And in many ways, the last shining example of American foreign policy since.</span><br />
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<b>"The reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was drafted on June 5, 1947. It offered the same aid to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc" title="Eastern Bloc">its allies</a>, but they did not accept it, as to do so would be to allow a degree of US control over the Communist economies. Secretary Marshall became convinced that Stalin had absolutely no interest in helping restore economic health in Western Europe. President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3, 1948, granting $5 billion in aid to 16 European nations. During the four years that the plan was operational, US donated $13 billion in economic and technical assistance to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined in the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_for_European_Economic_Co-operation" title="Organization for European Economic Co-operation">Organization for European Economic Co-operation</a>.</b><br />
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<b>In 2013, the equivalent sum reflecting currency inflation since 1948 totalled roughly $148 billion. The $13 billion was in the context of a US GDP of $258 billion in 1948, and was on top of $13 billion in American aid to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Plan that is counted separately from the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was replaced by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Security_Act" title="Mutual Security Act">Mutual Security Plan</a> at the end of 1951.</b><br />
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<b>The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery. The plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models, reducing artificial trade barriers, and instilling a sense of hope and self-reliance."<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Plan was costly and brilliant, but not as altruistic as one might assume. If you peeked under the sheets, a second motivation existed: containing the Soviet Union by strengthening the economies of western Europe, and by extension, hopefully preventing a World War III. Which given the escalating antagonism between the two new 'superpowers,' seemed almost inevitable -- except for one minor matter: the A-bomb. And by a necessary default: NATO. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back to Patton for a moment. VE Day also marked the transition of Germany from a military problem to an administrative one; a task not normally found in an army's playbook. This situation was also frustrated by the sudden and overbearing encroachment of US and allied political will -- ambition if you like that term better, including those chartered to open the Nuremberg Tribunals -- amid the extreme media buzz surrounding this open-court spectacle. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Note: The first round of trials focused on party members themselves, military commanders (questionable) and somewhat surprising perhaps: members of Nazi Germany's judiciary -- the very judges responsible for sanctioning a widespread genocide against civilian, non-combatants. And awaiting trial were German industrialists the likes of Krupp and Bayer who were to be tried for supplying the German war machine. Notable steel, munitions and the very gas used to exterminate millions. But hold on...Patton and others said, "I don't think so."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Politicians in Washington and elsewhere were also convinced that the German people needed <i>"denazification,"</i> as if the citizenry as a whole were infested with an incurable political virus. Something that sounds almost laughable...until you consider that the very same thinking permeated the think-tanks that sprouted up around Langley shortly after Baghdad threw in the towel.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yes. Second order of business was to de-Baathisize Iraqi politics. Just as in Germany, every German was a fanatical Nazi and every Iraqi was automatically a terrorist. So, they were rounded up, tortured...locked away in numerous Gulags until they either confessed or ratted out some other poor slob. How's the saying go: "Win the hearts and minds..." Bunch of that going on in Guantanamo these days. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Prior to Patton's dismissal and eventual death in Europe -- before even the implementation of the first economic tenets under the Marshall Plan, the buzz-word of administrative policy in <strike>Iraq </strike>Germany surrounded this rather vague, yet powerful notion of <i>denazification.</i> Patton, among others, refused to play along, citing the impossibility, in his opinion, of making any constructive progress in returning some state of normalcy to the country without the direct involvement of the German people. This included everything from traffic control to garbage, food distribution, utility reconstruction...even answering the phones. And the German citizenry needed the work, not only to survive, but to gain confidence that life could indeed return to normal. And the US and its allies had an obligation (and certainly a political motivation), to convince the populace that the occupation was NOT about punishing the German people, but to create a more constructive world for all of Europe. You could say, the political antithesis of what would soon become life for those trapped behind the Soviet Union's new and ominous Iron Curtain. A wall that proved impervious for the next 40 years.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">*Addendum: While Patton didn't live to see his philosophy bear fruit; meaning quite frankly that the Germans needed to be empowered to dictate the course of their nation, it quickly became obvious that repeating the spoiled lessons of retribution was not going to have positive results. This lesson completely ignored by US policy-makers toward a defeated Iraq -- <b><i>defeated</i></b> not even an accurate term for it. Iraqi's army was mostly composed of internal mercenaries -- soldiers whose loyalty </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">rarely exceeded their weekly paycheck. For the leadership clique, it was merely a conflict perpetrated by the need for a domestic deflection from the real issue: a leader who led through brutality and fear, and would eventually lead the country to ruin.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Back in Berlin, industry leaders, like the Krupps, didn't spend long in prison -- the nature of German loyalty was such that workers would not work under <i><b>foreign</b></i> supervision. And too, unlike Iraq, the Germans held no real resentment toward the Allied Forces -- a clear distinction being drawn between the acts of government and the guy on the street. It was a necessary 'stretch' if a new Germany was to be allowed to rejoin the club of nations. <i><b>That.</b></i>..is how you can build trust out of the ashes of conflict. </span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Oh...those WMD's. Turned out to be diaper factory disguised as a...diaper factory.</b></span></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-68922596814827896682014-06-14T13:21:00.004-07:002014-06-14T13:23:51.001-07:00Decoding India's Caste System...And Maybe Our Own.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Just Another Word for Structured Inequality?</u></span></b><br />
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"The <b>caste system in India</b> is a system of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_stratification" title="Social stratification">social stratification</a>, which is now also used as a basis for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action" title="Affirmative action">affirmative action</a> Historically, it separated communities into thousands of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endogamy" title="Endogamy">endogamous</a> hereditary groups called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C4%81ti" title="Jāti">Jātis</a> which is synonymous with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste" title="Caste">caste</a> in contemporary usage. The Jātis were grouped by the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmanical_Hinduism" title="Brahmanical Hinduism">Brahminical texts</a> into four categories or <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_(Hinduism)" title="Varna (Hinduism)">varnas</a></i>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmin" title="Brahmin">Brahmins</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshatriya" title="Kshatriya">Kshatriyas</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaishya" title="Vaishya">Vaishyas</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shudra" title="Shudra">Shudras</a>. Certain groups, now known as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit" title="Dalit">Dalits</a>", were excluded from the varna system altogether, ostracized by all other castes and treated as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untouchability" title="Untouchability">untouchables</a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>.</u></span> Strongly identified with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism" title="Hinduism">Hinduism</a>, the caste system has been carried over to other religions on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_subcontinent" title="Indian subcontinent">Indian subcontinent</a>, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism" title="Buddhism">Buddhism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity">Christianity</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam" title="Islam">Islam</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhism" title="Sikhism">Sikhism</a>.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>"</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Endogamy: Marrying within your group, clan, caste.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Exogamy: Marrying outside your group, clan, caste.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Almost every statement of a general nature made by anyone about Indian castes may be contradicted." D.D. Kosambi, 1944. Yep. That about covers it. Indian scholars themselves cannot agree, much less the greater population. And outsiders tend to view the caste system as some kind of static phenomenon, taking the viewpoint of India as "stereotypical [and] tradition-bound." Yet it appears to operate more radically...more fluidly if you like, according to the greater or lesser fortunes of the state and society in general. Meaning really, that Indians themselves frequently alter the definition to fit the situation at hand. Gosh....imagine if that happened here? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This caste system goes back a long ways (maybe 5000 years), and is remarkably similar to early Roman social/class/spiritual belief structures of that time, only in India's case, wrapped tightly to the scriptures of Hinduism. Yet even here, vast disagreement exists on origin and purpose, further complicated by our friends the British, who remodeled India's caste system (colonial period) as an aid to both administering the <i>British Raj</i> and as a tool for social control. But...and a big 'but' here; these systems were highly practical where basic survival was a daily challenge to establishing static, permanent communities. A little like the goals of the 'socialist state,' whereby each person had a purpose (caste), in the greater community. However, once money (gold, whatever), replaced value as the currency of the realm -- versus individual contribution, the system became abusive and cooperation for the common good went obsolete. Ha...maybe Lenin should have spent a little quality time in Bombay. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtd_iBPYiC_2w1f2s3bissw3cbvVSmhXcAaYIp5QnGae-ZKsc6x7f548rRPa8kvYGKfgXk8GJvslctcBsQZCISWCTSLOsi3LQSLd7DEUAtF8yeaMh0KefTx1Chls6A-9nNVp_aUgUjkLFL/s1600/caste1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtd_iBPYiC_2w1f2s3bissw3cbvVSmhXcAaYIp5QnGae-ZKsc6x7f548rRPa8kvYGKfgXk8GJvslctcBsQZCISWCTSLOsi3LQSLd7DEUAtF8yeaMh0KefTx1Chls6A-9nNVp_aUgUjkLFL/s1600/caste1.jpg" height="269" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Basically, the castes are split 3 ways -- ranked accordingly from the old Brahman texts:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>1st. Judicial and priestly.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>2nd. Military and war.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>3rd. Production, agriculture, crafts and commerce. However, others argue that the origins as defined in Krishna add one more:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>4th. The 'untouchables.' ('Untouchables dealt with sewage and dead animals...including people.)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Course, as usual, Britain's meddling had backfired by the 1920's, actually forcing the <i>Raj</i> to introduce many 'affirmative-action' type programs, most aimed at elevating the social/economic status of the more oppressed groups; especially the<i> Dalits.</i> (We're hearing a lot about this group lately.) But it was also a tool of division, used frequently in American foreign policy-making, particularly during the Cold War years. By putting minority populations in a position of power, the resulting group-to-group antagonism deflected attention from the real enemy: the colonialist and imperialistic powers. Course, eventually the locals caught on anyway. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">However, below is one interpretation of how this system was/is </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">structured:</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<li>Strict segmentation of society, with the various groups being rigidly defined and membership of them determined by birth.</li>
<li>A hierarchical system that defines a ranking place for all of the castes</li>
<li>Limited choice of occupation, which is enforced within a caste as well as by other castes. A caste might follow more than one traditional occupation but its members would nonetheless be constrained to that range</li>
<li>The general practice of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endogamy" title="Endogamy">endogamy</a>, although in some situations <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergamy" title="Hypergamy">hypergamy</a> is acceptable. Endogamy applies to the various sub-groups within a caste itself, preventing marriage between the sub-groups and sometimes imposing an additional geographical constraint, that one can only marry a person from the same <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra" title="Gotra">gotra</a> and the same place</li>
<li>Restrictions on dietary and social interactions that defines who could consume what and accept from whom. As with marriage arrangements, these restrictions apply at sub-caste level, not merely at the caste level</li>
<li>Physical segregation in, for example, villages. This is accompanied by limitations on movement and access, including to religious and educational areas and to basic facilities such as supplies of water. Again, this segregation applies at sub-caste level as well as at the higher level</li>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Big Picture</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Safe to say that the British really mucked up Indian culture and traditions. Aside from manipulating the caste system, they also socially re-engineered the entire region via population transfers; i.e., separating Hindu from Muslim in one of history's largest forced migrations, which resulted in the formation of two new nations in the process: Pakistan and East Pakistan, later re-named Bangladesh. And following independence, all three were subjected to Soviet and US imperialism, all in the name of the new Cold War politics. And yes, this plays heavily into the vacillating geo-political tensions and perceived loyalties throughout this region: India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed, both mutually suspicious, both facing immense internal pressures; Pakistan, as close to a failed state as a country can get and still claim marginal functionality. And yes, this plays into the equation, particularly with US foreign policy, the case for human rights usurped in favor of...well, it's getting tough to tell anymore. Billions in American corporate interests re-arranging Indian society, Pakistan holding the keys to Afghanistan's back door, the current Indian prime minister on the State Department's 'dislike' list. Nothing as simple as it might seem. Yet the macro picture must be considered along with the micro, because in the case of these two countries, the stakes are higher than most.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, to be fair, the British did conduct an extensive and thorough ethnographic analysis of the entire region; material still in extensive use today. Sure, it also served equally as a tool of manipulation, but for an area as large and diverse as the Indian sub-continent, the demographic research has proved invaluable over time.<b><i> [Side-note: One of Britain's contributions to the developing world was rail systems. In India, this transportation network was extensive. Yet here, on the trains, Indian's ignored the caste system completely, choosing transportation over cultural prejudices. A lesson learned much later in the US.] </i></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So how does religion/spirituality play into the caste system? Good question and to be frank, one I can't really answer logically, at least not in a western-trained mind. However, a clue or two might be found in the words of two pivotal characters in India's fight for independence. First, Dr. B.R. Ambedker, India's first Prime Minister following independence. He was also an 'untouchable.' </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. B.R. Ambedkar</td></tr>
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"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar" title="B. R. Ambedkar">Ambedkar</a>, was born in a caste that was classified as untouchable, became a leader of human rights in India, a prolific writer, and a key person in drafting modern India's constitution in the 1940's . Ambedkar wrote extensively on discrimination, trauma and tragic effects of the caste system in India."<br />
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"Ambedkar described the Untouchables as belonging to the same religion and culture, yet shunned and ostracised by the community they lived in. The Untouchables, observed Ambedkar, recognised the sacred as well as the secular laws of India, but they derived no benefit from this. They lived on the outskirts of a village. Segregated from the rest, bound down to a code of behaviour, they lived a life appropriate to a servile state. According to this code, an Untouchable could not do anything that raised him or her above his or her appointed station in life. The caste system stamped an individual as untouchable from birth. Thereafter, observed Ambedkar, his social status was fixed, and his economic condition was permanently set. The tragic part was that the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslims" title="Muslims">Mahomedans</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism_in_India" title="Zoroastrianism in India">Parsis</a> and <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christians" title="Christians">Christians</a> shunned and avoided the Untouchables, as well as the Hindus. Ambedkar acknowledged that the caste system wasn't universally absolute in his time; it was true, he wrote, that some Untouchables had risen in Indian society above their usually low status, but the majority had limited mobility, or none, during Britain's colonial rule. According to Ambedkar, the caste system was irrational. Ambedkar listed these evils of the caste system: it isolated people, infused a sense of inferiority into lower-caste individuals, and divided humanity. The caste system was not merely a social problem, he argued: it traumatised India's people, its economy, and the discourse between its people, preventing India from developing and sharing knowledge, and wrecking its ability to create and enjoy the fruits of freedom. The philosophy supporting the social stratification system in India had discouraged critical thinking and cooperative effort, encouraging instead treatises that were full of absurd conceits, quaint fancies, and chaotic speculations. The lack of social mobility, notes Ambedkar, had prevented India from developing technology which can aid man in his effort to make a bare living, and a life better than that of the brute. Ambedkar stated that the resultant absence of scientific and technical progress, combined with all the transcendentalism and submission to one's fate, perpetrated famines, desolated the land, and degraded the consciousness from respecting the civic rights of every fellow human being. According to Ambedkar, castes divided people, only to disintegrate and cause myriad divisions which isolated people and caused confusion. Even the upper caste, the Brahmin, divided itself and disintegrated. The curse of caste, according to Ambedkar, split the Brahmin priest class into well over 1400 sub-castes. This is supported by census data collected by colonial ethnographers in British India."<br />
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<b>Worth noting here that Ambedkar took his beliefs so seriously that he converted to Buddhism -- bringing many Dalit followers into the Buddhist faith.</b><br />
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<b>And of course, the words of Mahatma Gandhi:</b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mahatma Gandhi</td></tr>
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In his younger years, <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi" title="Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi">Gandhi</a>, disagreed with some of Ambedkar's observations, rationale and interpretations about the caste system in India. "Caste," he claimed, has "saved Hinduism from disintegration. But like every other institution it has suffered from excrescences." He considered the four divisions of Varnas to be fundamental, natural and essential. The innumerable subcastes or Jātis he considered to be a hindrance. He advocated to fuse all the Jātis into a more global division of Varnas. In the 1930s, Gandhi began to advocate for the idea of heredity in caste to be rejected, arguing that "Assumption of superiority by any person over any other is a sin against God and man. Thus caste, in so far as it connotes distinctions in status, is an evil."<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Many scholars argue that the caste system is inherently embedded in Hindu religious practices, particularly the teachings of <i>samsara, dharma</i> and<i> karma, </i>yet as<i> </i>mirrored by the British colonial<i> </i>use of caste as a social engineering tool, is it not too far afield to assume that the Indians themselves are not just as culpable? After all, according to ancient texts, no <i>untouchable </i>could possibly gain a leadership position in India, yet three have become Prime Minister. Further, what are the current conflicts, including this pogrom against the Dalits -- particularly the women -- really about? To this author, as limited as my knowledge is...doesn't smell of religious or sectarian fault lines, but rather another glaring example of a rising social inequality throughout the world -- the same blame-game we play in America whenever and wherever immigration enters the conversation. Those with the least power, the limited voice always make the best targets in tough times. And the <i>times</i> promise to get tougher.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here it gets a little sticky. When British rule ended in the 1940's, the literacy rate throughout India stood at 12%. Today is stands at 74% (2011); excellent progress considering the obstacles, but still 10 points below world averages. There is also a gender-gap disparity of about 20% -- men over women. And too, a geographic void between rural and urban populations, aggravated by this caste system. A system that finds greater credence in rural areas, where folklore, superstition and the role of subsidence agriculture have traditionally played a greater role in societies. [More on the ag. issue later.]<b><span style="font-size: large;">*</span></b> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQczf-kAFG1WvsxO_ZGOHgjRzHug0mv7pui8nvg17gMVzf6INusb-YZJCBihyjCFuMwY1o83Mdt4Vq8uHiQ97I-moAY03HOgSTb0f1thJ7J-9ox-UDguoOVHEhWqzF__RIKSFrSULPerZg/s1600/economicindia.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQczf-kAFG1WvsxO_ZGOHgjRzHug0mv7pui8nvg17gMVzf6INusb-YZJCBihyjCFuMwY1o83Mdt4Vq8uHiQ97I-moAY03HOgSTb0f1thJ7J-9ox-UDguoOVHEhWqzF__RIKSFrSULPerZg/s1600/economicindia.png" height="320" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Dark green indicates highest growth]</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Movement on educational improvements in these rural areas is frequently hamstrung by these discriminatory beliefs, causing both low enrollment and an extremely high (52%), drop-out rate. (2005 figures) India too, is a land of strong stereotypes, particularly surrounding gender, contributing greatly to the wider gap between educational opportunities afforded men over women.<span style="font-size: large;">**</span> And if that's not enough, the old traditions of family-based agriculture in India tend to value brawn over brains -- a common theme in much of the developing world. Flawed? Perhaps not. But the alternative has proven to be even more disruptive to Indian society.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3FBwyCJ3xFRJpJrCGq25lRATEQoTpVwIfgwx_mjuQsA_73jHs4BIBGNtyRm-iE326T71ETRfYTppD3HzNjU8Q1J2GUvBlrAYtg-v-cTRYS1UI5_8386-mcohlpVdtapL0Ch-giUkEi10S/s1600/literacyindia.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3FBwyCJ3xFRJpJrCGq25lRATEQoTpVwIfgwx_mjuQsA_73jHs4BIBGNtyRm-iE326T71ETRfYTppD3HzNjU8Q1J2GUvBlrAYtg-v-cTRYS1UI5_8386-mcohlpVdtapL0Ch-giUkEi10S/s1600/literacyindia.png" height="320" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Orange indicates lowest literacy rates]</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyone else notice a disturbing parallel? Yes, as one of our past president's once exclaimed, "It's the economy, stupid!" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Two things are at play here. The first deals with the massive schism between rural and urban life in India. In urban areas, the PhD has all but replaced the caste system. Much can be said on this matter, but technology-export from the US and Europe has played a huge role in the upward mobility of those in the south of India. Certainly not the case elsewhere, and as I said earlier, literacy rates weigh-in heavily in this social system, for they use the old tenets of ancient Hinduism as a doctrine against the upward mobility of those 'sanctioned' as inferior. But then, nothing new or remarkable here really. Take away the tools of education, the access to knowledge and the drones will labor on. We sort of invented the concept clear back in the 1920's. Only today, we call it the corporation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Convergence:</span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMoc7Tura8O1P-stmnVwVKeuAJl2NDxFZZD_a-fgM3dsnj-ekJcre4VK7l0tqD59yWGa4184gjkLFV-e05GvV-jCbJ-GVtjRSKehBFwWxzXeU4QgI964Klq2XdkLW7E-0_gJ2sqUKC5QM/s1600/droughtindia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMoc7Tura8O1P-stmnVwVKeuAJl2NDxFZZD_a-fgM3dsnj-ekJcre4VK7l0tqD59yWGa4184gjkLFV-e05GvV-jCbJ-GVtjRSKehBFwWxzXeU4QgI964Klq2XdkLW7E-0_gJ2sqUKC5QM/s1600/droughtindia.jpg" height="320" width="290" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>*</b></span>Talked about this issue in some previous blog postings. Stole the term from Christian Parenti's book, <b>[<i>Tropic of Chaos</i>].</b> It is basically when multiple issues 'converge' in one spot and metastasize from many small and seemingly unrelated diseases, into one very large and potentially fatal tumor. Again, note the two maps above -- then the drought map shown here: On a macro level, much of the tension between India, Pakistan AND Afghanistan is rooted in water issues; aka, Khashmir. Glacial run-off feeds the rivers of all three. As <b>Parenti </b>says, <i><b>"Without the river (Indus), Pakistan's stock of groundwater and impounded reserves would only last a month. No river, no country. And atop the river sits the enemy, India: Huge, economically dynamic, politically democratic, internationally respected and atomically armed." </b></i> Add one more element: the monsoons have been disrupted for a decade or more and the glacial fields are retreating -- drastically in most cases. And as I noted in previous blogs, the impact of <i>neoliberalism </i>on agricultural production in the Global South has virtually destroyed traditional farming in these regions, along with arable land. [See Convergence, Parts I-III]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What does <i><b>that</b></i> have to with caste? Simple. Caste is no longer a religious/cultural issue in India, but instead an economic one wrapped in the arms of marginal literacy, a rising urban opulence (fueled by the tech-servicing industry), dwindling basic resources and now, climate -- which in turn fuels migration from the land to the cities, where these ancient and obsolete traditions find new credence as the 'have-nots' rub hard against those that 'have.' And the government is reluctant to address the problem:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>[Parenti]:</b> <b><i>"As India's weather patterns have become more disjointed, so too have its economic policies shifted rightward to effectively abandon the peasant farming class and create greater inequality." </i></b> The result? <i><b>"The Maoist fire burns not only due to drought but also because of free-market government policy." </b></i> Yes, in northern India and Nepal, drought has caused a re-awakening of both the far-left and the fundamentalist right. (Hold that thought for a moment or two.) And yes, the statistics bear out the correlation between drought/privation and the rise of insurgency activities throughout the world, such reactions about as basic and primal as they come. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1gygfQkykjIwy5rRHQ8Oxvico8jnVCG0P2T6UA3u4J3dX_QTbIf9YKL1a1PMTrl-5b3o9aGTgGx0T99L-OlLJ6nDSUp9FHCI2ciemj23XJrDUiudTPDMcOddJZiONbXODWu6CREYmCrAj/s1600/maslow1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1gygfQkykjIwy5rRHQ8Oxvico8jnVCG0P2T6UA3u4J3dX_QTbIf9YKL1a1PMTrl-5b3o9aGTgGx0T99L-OlLJ6nDSUp9FHCI2ciemj23XJrDUiudTPDMcOddJZiONbXODWu6CREYmCrAj/s1600/maslow1.jpg" height="264" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maslow's Hierarchy</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I bring up Maslow's little pyramid because throughout the developing world, the top three take some pretty heavy trudging to even come close to fruition. That same trend is occurring in this country, though for the most part, we remain well-insulated. Well, some of us anyway. However, in this current convergence of multiple issues, the foundation -- the most basic premises of life are under almost relentless siege. And that brings me to a rather startling conclusion:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Religious Fundamentalism </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What happens when civilization, however we choose to define it, begins to unravel? Regression. Without a tangible or definable future, we always look back to the past -- the times of security, safety...the bountiful harvest of nostalgia. We yearn for it, as the questions were so much more basic, the answers seemingly so simple. God, family, dinner. Not chaos, deprivation and violence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Fundamentalist ideas grow out of fear and uncertainty and serve to fuel radical, yet simplistic solutions. And because we created a world that chooses money over value, today's societies fracture along the fault-lines of economic mobility. Take that to the most basic levels: sustenance over starvation; the earth itself collapses under the strain. And it is an equal opportunity plague. It honors no borders, claims no favorites. India or America...little difference in this ongoing struggle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Caste? It is no longer just a tradition of the Hindu world...it is a global fact of life. </span></div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"></span>**</b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gender stereotyping is <i><b>NOT</b></i> confined to women's roles within India society. Men too, find their identity wrapped around outside expectations in the community, duly noted in the burgeoning number of suicides among male Indian farmers over the last decade or more. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Mere thoughts here...on a very, very complicated world. </b></span></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-13980054053591704752014-06-04T11:25:00.002-07:002014-06-04T15:42:05.304-07:00The Convergence....Part III<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Migration:</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvtcpdohq8Se7dqR2BGvsot_9rTdvHMn6q8WyOhHdYh5k0TpQNnVakyTCLK_GyjKPJIdXptZFinG-KUCkOPRDwm4LrBOjc0EBSEwORkyZvq6WA-LrOvC6rrvihupvDBnkZhhyphenhyphenZpAhi6KDu/s1600/border2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvtcpdohq8Se7dqR2BGvsot_9rTdvHMn6q8WyOhHdYh5k0TpQNnVakyTCLK_GyjKPJIdXptZFinG-KUCkOPRDwm4LrBOjc0EBSEwORkyZvq6WA-LrOvC6rrvihupvDBnkZhhyphenhyphenZpAhi6KDu/s1600/border2.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">An inevitable fact of history. War, famine, drought, persecution, jobs...all put people on the move. And when populations migrate, they rub against other populations, such friction creating the seeds of resentment, fear and very often violence. Yet these great herds of humans will not accede to the artificial barriers of states, nations or tribes, because survival itself demands otherwise. Yes, the zebra will go to water knowing full well that the lion haunts the shoreline. It is inevitable; it is the core nature of life itself.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZLJZE244BDgCiPt7H8mZml6or6CxvFbu7ionWlWFNw8drl90So9N3lCwswkvXZZZNyST4xoPPX_sMjZ_rHX_bG3WgIyCADkujFCkbdLux7pBF0qhahAmC0bBlkMdenZpM19T1gJOKrrg/s1600/chaos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZLJZE244BDgCiPt7H8mZml6or6CxvFbu7ionWlWFNw8drl90So9N3lCwswkvXZZZNyST4xoPPX_sMjZ_rHX_bG3WgIyCADkujFCkbdLux7pBF0qhahAmC0bBlkMdenZpM19T1gJOKrrg/s1600/chaos.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Who made this thing we call the Global South? Better yet, why was this new geography created out of what had managed to marginally co-exist for centuries? One could say that it was a resource hunt, an imperial land grab, the first of many prolonged proxy wars, the arrogance brought forth by the crown of authority -- a doctrine sanctified by some benevolent god? Monotheism as a sword of salvation for a pagan world? Or, simply greed, ideology, power. The sustenance of the </span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">empire.</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The countries of Africa, South America, much of Asia and by extension, even the rancorous states of America, are little more than the jagged lines of a surveyors map. Most are not nations by strict definition, but a cobbled-together conglomerate of tribes whose only common denominator is the misfortune of being conquered by this or that European power. And of course, once colonialism ended, imperialism and hegemony showed up on the block, under the new banner of Cold War dogmatism. New promises wrapped up in the same shallow assurances; ultimately, the same sorry trail of deceits and lies. And as always in the underdeveloped south...the real force of the natural world at work; too often ignored as somebody else's problem. Until now. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqmOc8o1GlGr0tn4Tj8Xl8KdZIXYkTSs2xh2ED7wr4HeqJzEx0bf4PP-imeTjntleplGNz2Hxrbgv2NUFvo5W8_rfVDZLfMeHdZO4oE4jVbEMCgIs09jVRjeek0KAHKAoxBD05rN6umlQc/s1600/chaos2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqmOc8o1GlGr0tn4Tj8Xl8KdZIXYkTSs2xh2ED7wr4HeqJzEx0bf4PP-imeTjntleplGNz2Hxrbgv2NUFvo5W8_rfVDZLfMeHdZO4oE4jVbEMCgIs09jVRjeek0KAHKAoxBD05rN6umlQc/s1600/chaos2.png" height="111" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>[Parenti}:</b> <i>"Britain's 2006 Stern Review estimated that between 200 and 250 million people would be uprooted by climate change. That is 10 times the current number of refugees in the world. Let that sink in for a moment. Bangladeshi academic Atiq Rahman had it correct when he warned, "Millions of people will be moving. No amount of nuclear submarines will be able to stop that." Another report estimated there are 214 million international migrants in the world today. "If this number continues to grow at the same pace as during the last 20 years, international migrants could number 405 million by 2050."" </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some scholars put the figure at over 1 billion. Don't believe it? While climate change denial remains a popular political ploy in the north, particularly in the US, military planners in Europe, the US -- even Australia, have been developing strategic-level contingency plans since the late 1980's. They see the future as little more than insurgency versus counterinsurgency -- at the core: food, water and climate change. Already, in places like Brazil, northern India and the <i>Staans,</i> even northern Mexico, continued droughts and flash floods have people migrating to urban centers. In Brazil's largest city, Rio,these wanderers literally creating a state within a state. And Mexico? Estimates indicate that 2/3 of those attempting to enter the US illegally (legally apparently not an option), are farmers and pastoralists from the northeastern region -- victims of the same continuing weather cycle plaguing Texas, Oklahoma and much of the lower midwest. The north's solution to a problem they basically created? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9YthshnZq6Iq23GSHhHn2Wr9ZWj9K20Y0RQAnGkGSTIcOcqOCQ9PKaJy4AAhUfb6_cABIlWIpLdmrr6DLnch2uSm64P54bZr7mfYUeYB1-alnS7aiFvzN8wIDrs8nPOwc1xxJyoZCdQbg/s1600/border1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9YthshnZq6Iq23GSHhHn2Wr9ZWj9K20Y0RQAnGkGSTIcOcqOCQ9PKaJy4AAhUfb6_cABIlWIpLdmrr6DLnch2uSm64P54bZr7mfYUeYB1-alnS7aiFvzN8wIDrs8nPOwc1xxJyoZCdQbg/s1600/border1.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <b><span style="font-size: large;">The Armed Lifeboat:</span></b></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>[Parenti]:</b> "However, another type of political adaptation is already underway, one that might be called the politics of <b>the</b> <b>armed</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b> lifeboat:</b> responding to climate change by arming, excluding, forgetting, repressing, policing and killing. One can imagine a green authoritarianism emerging in rich countries, while the climate crisis pushes the Third World into chaos...." "This sort of "climate fascism," is politics based on exclusion, segregation, and repression, is horrific and bound to fail. There must be another path. The struggling states of the Global South cannot collapse without eventually taking wealthy economies down with them. If climate change is allowed to destroy whole economies and nations, no amount of walls, guns, barbed wire, armed aerial drones, or permanently deployed mercenaries will be able to save one half of the plant from the other." </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A little hysterical? <i> </i>Actually it isn't. Check the US/Mexican border. It is <i>NOT</i> about cartels and random terror merchants. Then ask yourself why we have private <i>gulags</i> in operation in the American southwest -- mostly filled with poor farmers. And why does a country founded on migration fill the talk-show airways with xenophobic hate: all aimed at the migrant?</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexis de Tocqueville</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>[Parenti]:</b> "A central trope in this embittered carnival is the specter of immigration. Xenophobia and smug nationalism are old American traditions. Tocqueville found it back in 1835: "Nothing is more annoying in the ordinary intercourse of life than this irritable patriotism of the Americans. A foreigner will gladly agree to praise much in their country, but he would like to be allowed to criticize something, and [in] that he is absolutely refused.""</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And as this author has often said, "Patriotism is the last vestige of the scoundrel." Why? Simple. For a country founded on the notion of rejecting oppression in all its shapes and forms -- who then spent ten-years composing flowering prose and grand ideals; further, called that document law, and then abruptly became the new English Lord to the rest of the world. And if one criticizes this grand hypocrisy, as either domestic or foreigner, they are quickly condemned as an <i>unAmerican</i> heretic of the first order. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>[Parenti]:</b> <i>"Border militarization, the paramilitary immigrant roundups, the largely privatized ICE detention network -- it is all human rights abomination. But it is also politics as ideological spectacle. When the government treats innocent brown people as criminals, it lends respectability to racism. Native-born people, particularly white people, get the message and feel invited to catharsis via tribal solidarity, especially during hard times." </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Please read that paragraph twice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Violence: </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Much is written, debated and speculated about Third World violence, this notion of terrorism (invented by us);* gangsterism, narcoism...religious fundamentalism, sectarianism and on and on. Yet oddly perhaps, a paradox exists in defining the root cause(s) for it. Very often, shared calamity is confronted by a broader cooperation found in a shared experience -- a rallying of the troops to confront a common enemy, be it man or nature. But in this new arena of mass migration,what is more often occurring is the 'have nots' being pressed hard against the 'haves.' The slums of Rio, in Brazil, overlook the great hotels and white-sand beaches of luxury. Hispanics longingly stare across the vast fences of the US/Mexican border; opportunity almost palpable on the breeze. Indians from the northeast wander south in search of a new life only to be confronted by the new palaces built in the shadow of technology-servicing's new oasis. The inequality is the grinding truth of this current age. And as the migration accelerates, the state withdraws -- by choice, by frustration, by a simple lack of resources to cope with an overwhelming tide of people on the move. And social cohesion breaks down on both sides...leading all down the path of blame. Ordinary people now little more than the enemy within.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>(*Believe Cornwallis used the term to describe the behavior of colonial militias during the American Rebellion.) </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>[Parenti}:</b> <i>"Civilization is in crisis, though the effects are not yet fully felt. The metabolism of the world economy is fundamentally out of synch with that of nature. And that is a mortal threat to both." </i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And the author's sentiment is neither new, nor radical. Karl Marx noticed this 'metabolic rift' with nature as well: "Capitalistic production collects the population together in great centres, and causes the urban population to achieve an ever-growing preponderance. This has two results. On one hand it concentrates the historical motive force of society; on the other hand, it disturbs the metabolic interaction between man and the earth, i.e., it prevents the return to the soil of its constituent elements consumed by man in the form of food and clothing." But of course Marxism too failed, for almost simultaneously, it clashed with both industrialization and the inherent ambitions of man.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So once again, we face a test of wills over the future direction we choose to take on an issue that is shared by all. Does that will exist? Probably not. </span><br />
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<b>Agree or disagree...the book deserves a read. More than that, it deserves some careful thought by those of us with nowhere left to go.</b><br />
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<span class="dropinitial" style="float: left; font-size: 3em; line-height: 1em; text-indent: 0em;">A</span>FTER the torchlight red on sweaty faces<br /> After the frosty silence in the gardens<br /> After the agony in stony places<br /> The shouting and the crying<br /> Prison and palace and reverberation<br /> Of thunder of spring over distant mountains<br /> He who was living is now dead<br /> We who were living are now dying<br /> With a little patience.<br />
---T.S. Eliot, <b><i>The Wasteland <span style="display: inline-block; width: 1em;"> </span></i></b><span id="line330" style="color: seagreen; float: right; font-size: smaller;">330</span></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-24074701923772471812014-06-01T14:43:00.000-07:002014-06-01T14:43:06.485-07:00Convergence...The Green Revolution, Part II<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><u>The Green Revolution</u>:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Notes on Christian Parenti's, "Tropic of Chaos." First though, a few thoughts on definitions. Parenti refers frequently to what is known as economic <i>neoliberalism.</i> What is it? Well, try this:</span></div>
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<b>Neoliberalism</b> <b>is an extreme form of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_liberalism" title="Economic liberalism">economic liberalism</a> whose advocates support for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_liberalization" title="Economic liberalization">economic liberalizations</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade" title="Free trade">free trade</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_market" title="Open market">open markets</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization" title="Privatization">privatization</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation" title="Deregulation">deregulation</a>, and shrinking the size of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sector" title="Public sector">public sector</a> to allow the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_sector" title="Private sector">private sector</a> to take on a more active role in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy" title="Economy">economy</a>.<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Okay, two things here. First off is the unsavory habit in this country of hijacking certain words as all-encompassing descriptors. <b><i>Liberal</i></b>, or for that matter, <b><i>conservative</i></b> are prime examples. Bad news. They are not always nouns. Both words act as quantifier or relevator [sic] to some other 'thing.' As in: "I enjoy a <i><b>liberal</b></i> amount of Whiskey in my Irish Coffee, yet I am <i><b>conservative</b></i> about how many I consume." Or, "In America, we live in a <i><b>liberal</b> </i>democracy." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The second issue is how neoliberalist policy is executed in the agricultural sector, particularly in the developing world where existing systems are often based on sustenance farming, NOT as an extension of the corporate sector. And it is here, in this arena, that <i>The Green Revolution</i> was born. And no, in this case, <i><b>Green</b></i> was <i>NOT</i> about sustainability, though it did have roots in the the philosophy of a kind of nationalized self-sufficiency in food stocks. But it quickly morphed into an entirely different sort of animal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The theory has most often been attributed to Walt W. Rostow's 1960 theorem: "The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto." Aha! What a title indeed. Still, it was in line with American foreign policy of the day, in 'containing' communism, rather than going to war over it, though that took a turn for the worse in October of 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But of course, that was a different sort of 'global warming' altogether.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWD_dfa57q3Ve0nFBXrVQszxteisR2cLxY_olP7thgnLaOWYtaqbU438UX8C1MVxnv_mvuDWeup9MtX3eN1101SOJoECuCbd4vfCjJQtTy10E9jP-rHpWlYKFvI85YFqHQv6GdshBarhA/s1600/chaos2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWD_dfa57q3Ve0nFBXrVQszxteisR2cLxY_olP7thgnLaOWYtaqbU438UX8C1MVxnv_mvuDWeup9MtX3eN1101SOJoECuCbd4vfCjJQtTy10E9jP-rHpWlYKFvI85YFqHQv6GdshBarhA/s1600/chaos2.png" height="111" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Theory turned to action when William Gand, head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) first embraced the 'industrialization' of agriculture through the use of high-yield variety seeds, synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides and extensive groundwater-dependent irrigation systems. And of course the World Bank jumped on board since this was seen as another avenue of debt-mitigation for borrower countries, as well as a cash crop to accelerate growth in the industrial sector. Feeding locals wasn't really the idea, but creating an export market certainly was. Which is how in many areas of the Global South, <i>King Cotton</i> replaced indigenous food crops. However, this high-intensity approach to agriculture created one more nasty little bug: increased output yielded increased debt. And do remember, global climate change was just an amusing thought in 1970. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And too, as in Part I, increased yields were immediately followed by rather drastic downturns in production, requiring more scarce capital to even approach <i>status quo </i>production levels. And as liberalization approached neoliberalization -- and climate issues showed up in real time -- these new economic policies were shifting capital resources (investment in logistics and infrastructure like irrigation) away from public-sector venues to private, for-profit corporate structures. Added to this was deregulation throughout these agrarian systems as agriculture evolved into <i>agri-bizz.</i> American farmers have had plenty of experience with this phenomena, but have also managed to stay afloat, in many cases by generous government subsidies, increased demand by overseas markets and plain old political clout. All three missing in the Global South. [Parenti}: <i style="font-weight: bold;"> "This shift....removed from agriculture many legal protections and government subsidies -- including public credit and public investment in irrigation. In response to the relative withdrawal of the state, farmer's took on more expenses themselves and, in turn, had to raise capital wherever they could -- that meant from moneylenders. The more farmers turned to private moneylenders, the more they were under pressure to grow more cotton. And the more cotton they grew, the lower the prices sank." </i>And as Parenti alluded to earlier in his book, cotton wasn't edible and the moneylenders controlled the seed crop in order to insure collateral.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But let's back up a minute. Enter Rachel Carson, circa 1960. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBgvK1W7qf2mn1r_c5DI7KhHiphcIBEJuPRotqKFD1dpO5JPlSjX0XDw-dG9zWTEJQFHJYdA480BgDP4OseBywgSeeVHfZBwVAIkPy_JUUeLbv-TuD9M2GyjO6xV0oRkGSR364hjadTJC/s1600/carson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBgvK1W7qf2mn1r_c5DI7KhHiphcIBEJuPRotqKFD1dpO5JPlSjX0XDw-dG9zWTEJQFHJYdA480BgDP4OseBywgSeeVHfZBwVAIkPy_JUUeLbv-TuD9M2GyjO6xV0oRkGSR364hjadTJC/s1600/carson.jpg" height="320" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rachel Carson</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"Silent Spring."</b></span></div>
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In the late 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was <i>Silent Spring</i> (1962), which brought environmental concerns to the American public. <i>Silent Spring</i> was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, but it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, led to a nationwide ban on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT" title="DDT">DDT</a> for agricultural uses, and inspired an environmental movement that led to the creation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency" title="United States Environmental Protection Agency">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Course, DDT didn't disappear. It just moved out of sight -- into the developing world. Carson's book was the opening salvo in the environmental wars that have been waged over the ensuing decades -- some battles won, many others lost. Perhaps overlooked in this assessment is that most victories took place in the developed world: the US and western Europe up until the 1991 dissolution of the USSR, which among other things, showcased the horrific environmental damage wrought by unregulated state-driven industry. In fact, East Germany was so degraded and polluted that Bonn didn't want it back. They rightly assumed that detoxifying East Germany would likely bankrupt the West German government.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But of course, Carson's premonitions found no voice in the Global South, which quickly became a dumping ground for anything outlawed, banned or considered dangerous to human health or water resources here. And now, some fifty years later...many of these issues have simply escalated in their level of urgency, to the point where water itself is on the endangered list. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One theme resounds throughout this book: what Parenti refers to as "mitigation and adaptation." Which means first cutting carbon-dioxide emissions, then adapting agriculture to the new realities. And while I remain pessimistic about the first, I readily embrace the second, for the Earth itself is subject to the strict rules of evolution -- meaning the wheel always rolls forward -- action and reaction. Mitigating now will not return us to any previous level. That is wishful thinking at its most ludicrous extreme. However, serious action now (mitigation) will reduce the level of adaptation needed later. A bad compromise perhaps, but the only one available.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There is shadow under this red rock,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And I will show you something different from either</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Your shadow at morning striding beside you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I will show you fear in a handful of dust.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> ___T.S. Eliot, <i><b>The Wasteland</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Part III:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Migration, Violence and the Armed Lifeboat</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Didn't work for the Han Chinese, so why do we think it will work here....?</b></span><br />
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-3969534659377378892014-05-29T15:38:00.000-07:002014-06-01T07:37:52.254-07:00Convergence....in the Tropic of Chaos-- Part I<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Out of the stony rubbish? Son of man,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You cannot say, or guess, for you know only</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And the dry stone no sound of water.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> ---T.S. Eliot, <b>The Wasteland</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Climate Change and the Politics of Violence</u></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></span></b>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirohPEbr8y4QugfAhu4K69e_V0AU5m3NP-LAuUJ7TWTXlF-Nm42hsFKWG7kadzn-QUIjKJ8p-1aSfWAPZBSv0jFQDmzeZaeXGoP9qlugNwEyjD9IMIWshGi9mDne3hOZ3BVPuW8uY4WjH3/s1600/chaos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirohPEbr8y4QugfAhu4K69e_V0AU5m3NP-LAuUJ7TWTXlF-Nm42hsFKWG7kadzn-QUIjKJ8p-1aSfWAPZBSv0jFQDmzeZaeXGoP9qlugNwEyjD9IMIWshGi9mDne3hOZ3BVPuW8uY4WjH3/s1600/chaos.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a>No, this is not a book review, but rather a meeting of similar minds on a topic that is often posited as a one-issue notion on impending doom. Well, the doom seems real enough, but it is also become trigger for incredible degrees of violence, both regional and internationally. Christian Parenti (a journalist) has connected a few extremely uncomfortable dots, along with the greater relationship to our 20th century role in the history in what we euphemistically call the 'developing world.' It is well-cited, written in a journalistic/academic fashion -- more importantly it contains many primary sources; semi-literate farmers and pastoralists in those regions now living daily with the opening salvo of a planet under siege. Their voice is valuable because they know nothing of science, have never even heard of 'global warming,' yet they all readily acknowledge that something is terribly wrong. This is 'boots on the ground' reporting.</div>
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But first off, a little lesson about Cold War politics <i>vis a vis</i> <b>The Great Game: </b> </div>
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<b>From Parenti: </b> <i> "The Cold War sowed instability throughout the Third World; its myriad proxy wars left a legacy of armed groups, cheap weapons, smuggling networks and corrupted officialdoms in developing countries. Neoliberal economic policies -- radical privatization and economic deregulation enforced by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank -- have pushed many economies in the Third World -- or, if you prefer, the Global south -- into permanent crisis and extreme inequality. In these societies, the state has often been reduced to a hollow shell, devoid of the institutional capacity it needs to guide economic development or address social crises."</i></div>
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<i>"Sometimes these forces have worked together simultaneously; at other times they have been quite distinct. For example, Somalia was destroyed by Cold War military interventions. It became a classic proxy battleground.. Though it underwent some limited economic liberalization, its use as a pawn on the chessboard of global political struggle caused its collapse. The same holds true for Afghanistan, which was, and still is, a failed state. It never underwent structural adjustment but was a proxy battleground. On the other hand, Mexico,the north of which is now experiencing a profound violent crisis, was not a frontline state during the Cold War, but it was subject to radical economic liberalization"</i></div>
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<i>"Between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer lies what I call the <b>Tropic of Chaos,</b> a belt of economically and politically battered post-colonial states girding the planet's mid-latitudes. In this band, around the tropics, climate change is beginning to hit hard. The societies in this belt are also heavily dependent on agriculture and fishing, thus very vulnerable to shifts in weather patterns. This region was also on the front lines of the Cold War and of neoliberal economic restructuring. As a result, in this belt we find clustered most of the failed and semifailed states of the developing world."</i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, 'failed states.' </span></b></div>
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<i> <b>From this other author:</b> "The end of the first round of the Nuremberg
trials marked the opening salvo of the Cold War, and for the next 40 years
America supported a host of despots, dictators and barn burners for the sole
purpose of stacking the UN against the Soviet Union and China. All this human energy consumed over an
ideological debate mutually reinforced by over 50,000 nuclear devices. Agreeing to disagree had never been explored
with this much at stake. A living,
breathing hell restrained only by words – the interpretation of a single
sentence in a difficult conversation.
Diplomacy with a loaded gun.
Percussion and repercussion crammed into a single chamber."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> "And so began
the “Great Game.” The pimps of
Washington, Moscow and later, Beijing began the arduous task of buying the
prettiest girls in the countryside. Some
were from Africa, others from Central and South America – the best were to be found in the Middle East
and southern Asia. Even comely girls
were welcome if the address was right.
Location, location, location. All
they had to do was like us…for now anyway."<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> "We gave them
gifts. Bridges without roads, airports
without planes, great reservoirs without pumps, pipes or water. We even picked new enemies for them, started
their wars, sold them the guns. If they
lost, we walked away. If they won, we
sent them a bill. The payback was
simple. Plough your sorghum, raise beef – we’ll buy it at under market value, sell it
to a third party. Maybe sell it back to
you. What? Can’t afford it? Well, go back to eating sorghum. Oh.
Plowed under, huh? Well, how
about a nice bridge?"<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> Turned out the
old girl wasn’t as pretty as everybody thought and most bridges, pipelines and
air strips weren’t edible." <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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And then the climate begins to collapse. The decades of the Cold War 'sowed', in Parenti's words, <i>"instability throughout the Third World...." -</i>- worse yet, a glut of small arms that have fed the forces of insurrection, both large and small throughout these regions. Ethnic rivalries? Tribal wars? Opposing political ideologies at work here? These are popular notions in western media circles, but the answer is much closer to home: economics, or quite frankly, the price of bread and the water to wash it down with it. Especially that water. </div>
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So the IMF, World Bank and USAID enlist...yeah, you guessed it: Monsanto. For you see, this economic neoliberalism wasn't designed to lift the masses from their sustenance existence, but rather (as pointed out above), to enlist them in the joys to be had by adopting western ideals as a bulwark against this egalitarian monster known as socialism. Trouble was, most of these farmers, pastoralists and fishermen weren't nearly as interested in politics as they were about feeding their dependents...and perhaps, just staying alive another day. </div>
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<i><b>From Parenti: [India]:</b> "The farmers of Telangana all grow genetically modified<b> Bacillus thuringiensis </b>(Bt) cotton, a product of the agricultural giant Monsanto. The new cotton became available a few years back. Although advertised as not needing pesticides, it does. At first it boosted output and incomes, but after a few years, incomes fell and the new cotton became a curse. Its roots penetrate deep into the soil, sucking up all the nutrients. Before long the farmers need large amounts of artificial fertilizer -- and that means taking loans. Scholars call this the "vicious cycle of chemical agriculture.""</i></div>
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<i>""We know that after three or four years, the land will be dead," said Linga Reddy Sama, whose family are Hindu migrants rather than of the local tribal Gond people. The farmers in these villages know they are mining the soil, extracting and exporting its nutrition in the form of cheap cotton. While their crops decline, their debts increase. And in the worst of cases, farmers are killing themselves. This is the catastrophic convergence at the local scale of specific crops and actual families."</i></div>
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So...the ideas was....? The idea was to import the American approach to agriculture as a way to boost production within India. The trouble is that this neoliberal approach failed to take into account that Indian farmers lacked the technical sophistication for it -- not to mention the supporting infrastructure, including adequate access to water resources. This added huge expenses for the farmers and with no regulatory policy in place, they quickly depleted available sources. <b>[Parenti]:</b><i> "These private coping strategies require private capital -- often at exorbitant rates. Now, when crops fail or wells run dry, which is becoming more common due to climate change, farmers cannot repay their debts. By the late 1990's, many farmers had run out of options -- they were too far in arrears to borrow more, too broke to produce crops. For thousands, the only escape from this debt trap came in the form of suicide. -- often by swallowing pesticides. According to data from the National Crime Records bureau, 150,000 Indian farmers killed themselves between 1997 and 2005." </i></div>
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Why cotton?<i> <b>[Parenti];</b> "Soon cotton became one of the main crops. Now the issue was no longer food security but instead victory and profit on the international commodity markets."</i></div>
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And as sick as it sounds...cotton wasn't edible. The money lenders controlled the crop choices and the seeds. And even as the value of cotton yields dropped dramatically, they viewed the crop as collateral on the farmer's debt to them. Yeah....we taught them well.</div>
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<b>In Part II -- What you don't really want to know about "The Green Revolution."</b></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-46253391670476806732014-04-28T08:04:00.003-07:002014-04-29T08:32:11.250-07:00Somewhere outside Paris...I think.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>Can-Can!</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You could say it is history. Art, music, dance...a frenzied celebration of life itself -- yet this irrepressible spectacle came to me in a dream...a very, very surreal trip through my subconscious. And the song refuses to go quietly away. But first, what is this all about:</span></div>
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The <i>cancan</i> first appeared in the working-class ballrooms of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse" title="Montparnasse">Montparnasse</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris" title="Paris">Paris</a> in around 1830. It was a more lively version of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galop" title="Galop">galop</a>, a dance in quick <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_signature" title="Time signature">2/4 time</a>, which often featured as the final figure in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrille" title="Quadrille">quadrille</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEEB_staff2010_2-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can-can#cite_note-FOOTNOTEEB_staff2010-2">[2]</a></sup> The cancan was, therefore, originally a dance for couples, who indulged in high kicks and other gestures with arms and legs. It is thought that they were influenced by the antics of a popular entertainer of the 1820s, Charles Mazurier, who was well known for his acrobatic performances, which included the <a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grand_%C3%A9cart&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Grand écart (page does not exist)">grand écart</a> or <a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jump_split&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Jump split (page does not exist)">jump splits</a>—later a popular feature of the cancan. At this time, and throughout most of the 19th century in France, the dance was also known as the <i>chahut</i>. Both words are French, <i>cancan</i> meaning "tittle-tattle" or "scandal", hence a scandalous dance, while <i>chahut</i> meant "noise" or "uproar." The dance did cause something of a scandal, and for a while, there were attempts to repress it. Occasionally people dancing the cancan were arrested but it was never officially banned, as is sometimes claimed. Throughout the 1830s, it was often groups of men, particularly students, who caused the most outrage by dancing the cancan at public dance-halls.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Ah, but the dream...</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A bombed-out theatre...one wall missing, exposing a landscape of ruin draped in a cloak of black smoke. The smell of cordite in the stale air of another aftermath -- an image cast in the black and white starkness of a time worth forgetting. Some seats remain, occupied tonight by Hitler, Fat Goering and few lesser, though equally vicious SS men. To Hitler's left...two empty seats; the third occupied by a pouting little man: Napoleon Bonaparte, hand thrust down his pants, as if searching for some thing remembered, but lost.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On stage are the dancers, 24 in all, donned in petticoats and skirts, their faces painted with the grotesque false-smiles of a suicidal clown. To their left, the band...men in tattered and muddy tuxedos...clothes that seem to have been worn by bigger men. They all look like John Cleese tonight, but their eyes are empty, as if all life had scurried out the back of their heads. Above them stands a small man in a black military uniform. He has on small round glasses and holds two brass cymbals that dwarf his physical stature. He feigns some critical importance -- the leader of this orchestra, yet he only sees the backs of these men...or perhaps what used to be men. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are many horns in this ensemble. Kettle and bass drums...accordions, lots of accordions and three great tubas. And quite abruptly, the small audience demands this show to start. And so it begins...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKBMSTt0IL2X5lvdLAfyBYyLw0E6XSUwSsHABinlLQPRtNg_HSCM4IbQ8kgvYVxf-xFH1UvoNFtIjySFylnK7mEtQF6VVM1WFs6_gczwf-9RT9xmPiKwGpLEtTtRHlgqF8CzCpBh_6aAP1/s1600/can3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKBMSTt0IL2X5lvdLAfyBYyLw0E6XSUwSsHABinlLQPRtNg_HSCM4IbQ8kgvYVxf-xFH1UvoNFtIjySFylnK7mEtQF6VVM1WFs6_gczwf-9RT9xmPiKwGpLEtTtRHlgqF8CzCpBh_6aAP1/s1600/can3.jpg" height="248" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The cymbals crash and the short, familiar song begins...la, la, la la la, boom, boom, oompa, la, la, la, la la la....boom. The performance begins slowly, perhaps reluctantly, the feet light, the legs kick low...the arms like the wings of a long-crippled swan. But then the cadence seems to shift...sublimely, though quietly intent...as if a gentle thief had tip-toed into this darkened room to awaken the suffocated child trapped inside each of these reluctant dancers. Women denied, girls who never played...lives set aflame by the vulgar ambitions of the these morbid puppeteers in the front-row seats. Men who assume...yes assume. Much it would seem of late. And suddenly, the blood forces its way back into the bodies of these women, determined -- no, demanding to nourish anew: the muscle, sinew and bone necessary to carry this dance forward. To resist, to deny...to say, "No more..." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And like the sweeping sickness born by some invisible plague, the infection spreads. With each new stanza, the volume rises, the notes fly faster, the feet hit the ground harder. The stage begins to exhale the decades-old dust from the floorboards, milling around the dancer's heads in great, grey clouds -- the cymbals crash...boom! The band is on its feet; chairs and music stands kicked to the ground. The women stomp their feet -- so hard that Hitler bounces in his chair. A wry smile adorns Napoleon's lips. Sweat rolls down the face of the bandleader...he is losing control. Yet the dance goes on...la, la, la....la la la...boom! Fat Goering can no longer resist. He is on his feet, clumsily shaking his enormous belly and stamping his feet to the rhythm...up and down the row he goes...the Fuhrer looks furious...the band gets louder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pigs fly, cows hum along...Hitler rocks back and forth in his chair, in the rhythm of tormented anguish...his bandleader has fallen off the stage. Yet, the musicians play on, for they know this song well now. Napoleon wears a broad smile...he has perhaps finally conquered something. So he stands, nods to the dancers and quietly walks out -- through the great hole in the wall; into the rubble of a sunlit day. On stage, color is creeping back into the room....subtly, like a spring flower about to experience that first summer. Blue, then bright white and finally a deep red. La, la la la....la, la, la...boom. And the dance goes on... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> So, that was my night...whew! Must have been that Thai peanut sauce. Oh, Akroyd and Belushi were stage-right and the drummers were actually Maori warriors. And rumor has it that Stalin was in the back of the theatre drunk. Now if can just get this song out of head! </span></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-81556470725396191072014-04-24T13:13:00.002-07:002014-04-24T13:13:23.684-07:00Time to abolish gang violence...no, not those gangs!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">No, Not These Folks...</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">No, not these folks either...though they</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">These folks actually.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I suppose what I am saying here is an end to <i>nationalism</i> as a viable system on a planet under siege.</span> <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Do I seriously assume that such thinking is viable? No. We seem to covet these stolen identities as being sacred to who or what we are, regardless of the fact that we all share a common history, a single planet and one gene pool. We bleed red, we are all dependent on the same sustenance...we all share the impermanence of life. And apparently, that is never quite enough for some.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And yes, I'm well aware of the Bilderberg Conspiracy. One of many that takes a wrong assumption, seasons it with hysteria and then serves it up with a glass of Holy Water. But more on that in a minute. The first question is 'just what is a gang?'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Well, for one thing, they are nothing new. They primarily grow to fruition in those sections of a society that have/feel/are marginalized. Meaning, they are trying to establish a home away from home. Sometimes by choice, more often driven to a new land by economic hardship, violence, prejudice -- aka, forced dislocation. And in most cases, the welcome mat was yanked long before their arrival....most often by the last bunch that showed up; trying to escape the same famine, violence and hate. But then, how quickly we tend forget our own migratory history once we have regained the comfort of the hearth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gangs are merely tribes. They look out for their own as all tribal systems do. They seek comfort in familiarity of customs, language, food...even music. They seek to protect their own in a hostile environment; to find food and shelter -- make a living in an economy and society that is determined to block any form of social mobility. And they are determined to defend their community -- violently, if necessary. And very often, crime becomes the only job left to them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now before you blow a righteous gasket, consider your own 'historical gang' in time: </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiH7q2g1zrsizVymQpLAFdxTQmowvBczQXEgjhZRmw4ftx0MPcwMbBvH9CzjlsGkTRZLgWCTlb9Xg2YHBAEH375CabNnbWn4dFZlPsvXqA9Ibt51EW5engEkMCqtn6YXttVotnMkANSqh1/s1600/gangs1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiH7q2g1zrsizVymQpLAFdxTQmowvBczQXEgjhZRmw4ftx0MPcwMbBvH9CzjlsGkTRZLgWCTlb9Xg2YHBAEH375CabNnbWn4dFZlPsvXqA9Ibt51EW5engEkMCqtn6YXttVotnMkANSqh1/s1600/gangs1.jpg" height="153" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yep....New York's Irish immigrants facing down the indignation of white Protestant Americans; folks that didn't exactly come to America through the front door either. And just like them, the eastern Europeans, the Italians, the Chinese, Russians...<i>ad nauseum. </i>Denied access to the mainstream (respectable) avenues of commerce, they created opportunity through the lucrative channels of gambling, bookmaking, bootlegging, drugs...in effect, supplying the less glamorous amenities to those very white Protestants who vigorously campaigned for their deportation. Hypocritical? Well sure...this is America after all. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So then, what is a nation? First off, realize that a nation and a country are not the same animal. Africa if full of countries that share no common internal sense of nationality. The same is true for much of central Asia, South America...even large nation/countries like Russia and China. Almost all were created by external forces and have actually existed on paper for less than 200 years. Hardly the stuff to create a sense that some kind of mutual identity holds even an ounce of validity. Even America itself is little more than a country in the miserable throes of puberty -- an experimental democracy that has yet to endure the test of real time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, on to conspiracies. <b>The Bilderberg Group:</b></span><br />
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<i><b>In 2001, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Healey" title="Denis Healey">Denis Healey</a>, a Bilderberg group founder and, for 30 years, a steering committee member, said: "To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. "There will always be people who believe in conspiracies, but things happen in a much more incoherent fashion... When people say this is a secret government of the world, I say that if we were a secret government of the world we should be bloody ashamed of ourselves."</b></i></div>
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<i><b>In a 1994 report Right Woos Left, published by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Research_Associates" title="Political Research Associates">Political Research Associates</a>, investigative journalist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Berlet" title="Chip Berlet">Chip Berlet</a> argued that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_populism" title="Right-wing populism">right-wing populist</a> conspiracy theories about the Bilderberg group date back as early as 1964 and can be found in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly" title="Phyllis Schlafly">Phyllis Schlafly</a>'s self-published book A Choice, Not an Echo,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-38"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group#cite_note-38">[38]</a></sup> which promoted a conspiracy theory in which the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)">Republican Party</a> was secretly controlled by elitist intellectuals dominated by members of the Bilderberger group, whose <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism" title="Neoliberalism">internationalist</a> policies would pave the way for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_communism" title="World communism">world communism</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-39"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group#cite_note-39">[39]</a></sup> Paradoxically, in August 2010 former Cuban president <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro" title="Fidel Castro">Fidel Castro</a> wrote a controversial article for the Cuban Communist Party newspaper <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granma_(newspaper)" title="Granma (newspaper)">Granma</a> in which he cited <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Estulin" title="Daniel Estulin">Daniel Estulin</a>’s 2006 book The Secrets of the Bilderberg Club,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-40"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group#cite_note-40">[40]</a></sup> which, as quoted by Castro, describes "sinister cliques and the Bilderberg lobbyists" manipulating the public "to install a world government that knows no borders and is not accountable to anyone but its own self".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Weissert_2010_35-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group#cite_note-Weissert_2010-35">[35]</a></sup></b></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As Shakespeare once lamented, "much adieu about nothing." This was a group that was formed originally in Europe. To understand their thinking, you must understand Europe in the context of the last century. A hundred revolutions, two world wars, the rise of Bolshevism, fascism and mass genocide...and at the heart of the matter, nationalism. But not the kind associated with the false and selective pride found in a long history, but the kind that says, "We're better," or maybe, "It's all your fu**** fault!" And of course, that's when the cemeteries get pressed for space.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Later came the reluctant acceptance of the European Union, albeit primarily an economic tool to address the domestic and international commerce issues inherent in small states suddenly tossed head-first into a newly globalized economy. But the consolidation also occurred during a period when the world witnessed the first of many, global environmental insults: Chernobyl. The first salvo in the continuing dissolution of national boundaries as a viable defense against a neighbor's transgressions -- intentional or otherwise. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0uqMNTabHZkJkC-ForxPADq58DFl3LLMWPTQ-rGSD_kdqz66S6lIBYVUBuWabzQBIxqqOR1m5Kp0ZNMfZDp7RNglLKzPMm5-R3NazQjQ3Vrrn7doNYJDHrBz5G8Qobp3FZYgMGHBqiKps/s1600/chernobyl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0uqMNTabHZkJkC-ForxPADq58DFl3LLMWPTQ-rGSD_kdqz66S6lIBYVUBuWabzQBIxqqOR1m5Kp0ZNMfZDp7RNglLKzPMm5-R3NazQjQ3Vrrn7doNYJDHrBz5G8Qobp3FZYgMGHBqiKps/s1600/chernobyl.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Or perhaps worse yet: the collapse of the Soviet Union. Little known or publicized here was the collapse of the SU's borders, meaning that a steady stream of commodities, including radioactive materials simply left the country for parts known and unknown. Industrial sites, poorly maintained in better times, were simply abandoned as newly unpaid workers simply walked off. East Germany was so contaminated by chemical and industrial wastes that even Bonn didn't want it back, despite the German public's outcry to reunify the German state. And of course even now, in this new century, the issues of climate, resources (basic as food and water), over-population, competition for energy sources; even arable land have completely broken down the old notions that, "it is somebody else's problem." Today, "somebody else's problem" now has the ability to destabilize the geo-political landscape of entire regions -- perhaps even an entire continent. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp9v4xSuDGvgiCVxcMiE2XS-nw295s5oPMLgmTk62BrUJdU7X8UutIFmJfVza9WSiuNNOVtSAW8q-En5QeXg3Gky37M_Mfxml9ZWDwwP0gBInE2Gymn18BXjobr33oI0Yz3dflQ-Rar7YE/s1600/russian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp9v4xSuDGvgiCVxcMiE2XS-nw295s5oPMLgmTk62BrUJdU7X8UutIFmJfVza9WSiuNNOVtSAW8q-En5QeXg3Gky37M_Mfxml9ZWDwwP0gBInE2Gymn18BXjobr33oI0Yz3dflQ-Rar7YE/s1600/russian.jpg" height="111" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The bottom line is that the environment is everybody's problem; concurrently every body's responsibility. One planet, one mutual future as a viable specie, or perhaps another as merely a random curiosity left behind on a dead planet. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I sometimes hear the familiar retort: "Hell, I'll be dead anyway, so who gives a shit?" Course, that is half true. No, not the 'dead' part' -- the 'who gives a shit part?' And I guess that might ultimately be the epitaph to our brief stay in the Milky Way. "They just didn't give a shit." Hmm. </span></div>
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<br />A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-33826860064916502512013-12-21T12:41:00.003-08:002013-12-22T05:00:00.306-08:00Holy Bananas!!!!<br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><u>Once a radical...always a radical</u>:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I suppose I was first radicalized about 1965. In many ways it was simply the next move of a practicing non-conformist, a refugee from the 1950's love affair with television and the blatant denial of all things unpleasant. And too, by that sad point in history, the optimism; the warm hope of a young soul had been replaced by the stark realization that America will kill the messengers of any such broader ideals: Kennedy, King...another Kennedy; Gandhi, Jesus...the list is endless, the decision final. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbVrKqTFHA_ygloDqblePaFCWjOtedDo4fmW001HBJJVFlA3In2_F2Rh-rV_f4PIsAUlLiTjRKI8lHlOtA4U7gWb9mgoMkDAGGqJ8AWIxONOr2AjfFytGp1RBoAA_Jsov1wm-t6dB097X1/s1600/diss046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbVrKqTFHA_ygloDqblePaFCWjOtedDo4fmW001HBJJVFlA3In2_F2Rh-rV_f4PIsAUlLiTjRKI8lHlOtA4U7gWb9mgoMkDAGGqJ8AWIxONOr2AjfFytGp1RBoAA_Jsov1wm-t6dB097X1/s200/diss046.jpg" width="149" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then came 1968. The draft notice, the week of rage that was Chicago. Rome dismantling the republicanism that was the peoples' senate. Kill the messenger was back with a vengeance, for the storm troopers of Chicago targeted the media -- the journalists assigned the Constitutional mandate to uphold a free press -- a press that was already under a new, and relentless siege. From that point on, I could never look at the American flag quite the same. And while time passed, a grudging conformity returned to my life...business goes on -- those moments, those feelings, never really escaped the shadowy outskirts of my conscience. In effect, I never surrendered -- instead, burying my soul in the comfort of a deep and enduring cynicism for all things now deemed the truth, or perhaps rooted in the nature of humans. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In my last posting I stated that, "authors and independent film makers are now the last bastion of America's free and open press." Perhaps that was a little naïve...a little narrow. Technology and globalization have now made media suppression a truly planetary-wide pursuit, particularly by those entities that appear to have a lot to hide. And so much easier it would seem. How else to explain the zealousness of one corporation's efforts to destroy one man and his short film about banana production in Nicaragua. No, it is not about bananas. It is about free speech as a threat to multi-national corporations of all stripes. Perhaps too, this relentless injection of the dilatory beast known as self-serving propaganda. And in the end, the ultimate destruction of choice itself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Enter Swedish journalist and film maker, Fredrik Gertten.</strong></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQJsx_hrQ1G5auM_FvEkHyX_q03sMpCNvHndZHKxBVeAxwwTgXpSVeO-owmngKO2AbUGXsJSokd_pdYVkMIFxp6Red4bT20IKQZxMyS643FXuhdfcP8XzY3WPTrda6MSzCCyS85asnKYMt/s1600/bananas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQJsx_hrQ1G5auM_FvEkHyX_q03sMpCNvHndZHKxBVeAxwwTgXpSVeO-owmngKO2AbUGXsJSokd_pdYVkMIFxp6Red4bT20IKQZxMyS643FXuhdfcP8XzY3WPTrda6MSzCCyS85asnKYMt/s200/bananas.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>His crime: </strong>Exposing the harm being wrought on Nicaraguan farm workers by the use of a banned pesticide. <strong>The who?</strong> Dole Corporation, a multi-national and one of the largest food producers in the world. A controversial film? Not really. Just another example of farm workers being poisoned by a bunch of greedy shits in the US. For corporations like Dole, just another day at the office. So why such a reaction? The film was scheduled to preview at an LA film festival around 2007. But even prior to that, Dole began sending letters, e-mails...all very threatening to Gertten and his producers, culminating in a 'cease and desist' order claiming that a fraud was being perpetrated against Dole's sterling image, and accusing the producers of malice, defamation of the company's character (a seeming oxymoron), etc. etc.. They also went after the film festival in a similar tone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So anyway, we all know that corporations like Dole have more lawyers than Lima beans, so a whole bus load of legal machinations followed: eventually resulting in the film being withdrawn (via intimidation), from the festival, but screened at a private venue elsewhere in LA. Issue finally resolved? Hardly. Dole then went ahead and sued Gertten and his production staff anyway, folks who were hardly in a position to financially defend themselves. Not because they were guilty as implied, but because they could not financially defend such an attack. They could lose everything, including the roof over their heads. So, after some deliberation, Gertten and his production company, to the surprise of everyone -- including Dole -- filed a counter-suit. Then more legal nonsense, foot dragging in the courts...blah, blah.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then something interesting happened. The Swedish Parliament, with a little prodding, entered the fray. Because the real issue wasn't a few dead Nicaraguans -- Dole had made that perfectly clear -- instead, the Swedish MP's viewed the suit as a pervasive attack on free speech, something that Scandinavians take very seriously. So much so that they held a private screening in Parliament. And the publicity was generating a wide-spread boycott of Dole products throughout Europe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Long and short: Dole withdrew its suit in Sweden with all kinds of caveats, addendum's...obtuse disclaimers, except that wasn't quite enough for Gertten and his people. The film was still effectively banned in the US. So, more court time, more delays and frivolous motions that still had to be heard by the courts. But eventually the case came before a judge in LA -- after viewing the film, ended the charade right there. He found that the film had absolutely nothing in common with Dole's complaints...further, awarded Gertten and his production team $200,000 in damages. Course, we're not sure where that left the Nicaraguans, other than somewhat grateful to Gertten for not only bringing their plight to the attention of the world, but having the perseverance to fight for his and their truth. </span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFrF9IizyTIb5F3mIndIEfZ_CZRfSKd2lhagqSNUMh3A4grWrDiXz1H_1g2l2-IkUfVWRoaD4AAjkZfk-1PaeGQq8ZE3kAvkPu8ukFHn7R8czx_kmaaTYe7sVeWkciWJwVSvg3hBSakTiU/s1600/ajnz128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFrF9IizyTIb5F3mIndIEfZ_CZRfSKd2lhagqSNUMh3A4grWrDiXz1H_1g2l2-IkUfVWRoaD4AAjkZfk-1PaeGQq8ZE3kAvkPu8ukFHn7R8czx_kmaaTYe7sVeWkciWJwVSvg3hBSakTiU/s200/ajnz128.jpg" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, back to this old radical.</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Aside from playing with horses all my life, I have also been a writer, author, journalist...born I suppose in the age of the 'new journalism' espoused by the likes of PJ O'Rourke, Hunter Thompson and others...who felt that objectivity in journalism was a little too much to expect if some level of compassion and humanity was to remain in the story. Made sense to me. However, two incidents occurred in my waning years of working in the print media -- both exemplifying what I would call the death of unbiased reporting in America...maybe even the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The first was about 1993. I was working for a newspaper in California while concurrently pursuing some renewed academic studies. I was doing a story on Stanford's LifeFlight...the hospital's helicopter transport system for critical or inaccesible cases. Spent two-weeks flying with some of most incredible and motivated people I had ever met. I had decided to approach the story in the 'new journalism' approach as there was simply too much emotion in the story to just wrap it in the cloak of <em>who, what, where and how. </em>Hell, people died, we were constantly at risk flying under all sorts of conditions, both in the air and on the ground; the energy of these great professionals defined in sweat and tears -- not ink on a page. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The editors tried three times to re-define <em><strong>my</strong></em> story. See, prior to going to press, I own it, not the newspaper. They were determined to eliminate the word <em>death</em> from the copy -- like telling a war correspondent to report <em>only</em> the glory of those that prevailed in the conflict.</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You see, the advertising department was concerned over the potential reaction to the story by the Stanford University Medical Center -- a major advertising client of the newspaper. At the third editorial board meeting, the issue was forced. I refused again; they killed the whole story. I packed my shit the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The second issue arose around 1990. I worked for a well-known (and missed), trade journal dedicated to a certain, specialized area in the horse world. You might say we were the industry 'outliers' and in many ways cherished our niche. But a story emerged that was (or should have been), of great interest to our readers and the industry as a whole. Sadly, it was a 'dirty story' where the heroes and villains were hard to define clearly. We had to go up against a major, foreign multi-national corporation, one that happened to be one of our major advertisers. That created a moral dilemma for us, that in turn wrapped in a potential for a kind of economic suicide. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">We sat on the story a bit, tried to find a way to take the high road without being murdered along the way. Like the film maker, Gertten -- when coercion failed, the threats began. And continued until they went from possible to a done deal. And in the end...the loyalties to our readers, the industry -- was never reciprocated. We were just one more publication deemed DOA. I never wrote in the print media again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">And that is why I say that authors, film makers; some bloggers perhaps -- these folks now represent what is left of journalistic standards and integrity in this country. News is relegated to the sewers of entertainment, corporations run the government and virtually own the very regulatory agencies once charged to temper the excesses of profit-seeking and greed. The kind of heroin that big business can never seem to kick. Education too is under siege -- the dumbing-down of America running at full throttle. And much to my chagrin...my numbing fear perhaps, is that very soon we may lose "that last angry man." The one guy that stands between our claim to humanity and the animalistic extinction we just might deserve. We've been adrift for decades on this vile, dying ocean of blind ambition -- a wandering disease that is no longer welcome on any distant shore. A despondent shark, awash with the realization that he has finally eaten the last fish on the planet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>No, it is not just about bananas anymore.</strong> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHmIat_XlhGJ7ic4pOJl2hFbLt9EmCjlzcihrKzna6wpi-wNr20gZ5x139H7YppOdDuDue8UG64H5Xt7wy6uudmrrNFEW-AYGD-OyLz-uMSWXUuWAJ9l8zBxYNAsDhZ0CtwYyPlfPVoSN/s1600/eternal+knot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHmIat_XlhGJ7ic4pOJl2hFbLt9EmCjlzcihrKzna6wpi-wNr20gZ5x139H7YppOdDuDue8UG64H5Xt7wy6uudmrrNFEW-AYGD-OyLz-uMSWXUuWAJ9l8zBxYNAsDhZ0CtwYyPlfPVoSN/s320/eternal+knot.jpg" width="304" /></a></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-44589991509107312182013-12-20T12:06:00.002-08:002013-12-30T12:14:30.757-08:00A Dyslexic Math-Hater Looks at the Economy: <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhASv28vPYqb04cQ7bu3PiB-7A4xe2lV37x-Y8kawiFrflNJ0pmzpYCQDxOksU1XhYpYHy367jQ-qOfOO8ap7Ra4NWshhDOxYjk51NHYQBfxU71cyIfh2__qjgBGlZo7SFRH9aAzUceHJcP/s1600/rome-falls-picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhASv28vPYqb04cQ7bu3PiB-7A4xe2lV37x-Y8kawiFrflNJ0pmzpYCQDxOksU1XhYpYHy367jQ-qOfOO8ap7Ra4NWshhDOxYjk51NHYQBfxU71cyIfh2__qjgBGlZo7SFRH9aAzUceHJcP/s640/rome-falls-picture.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><u>Now I Get It</u>!</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><u>Too Bad For Me...and You.</u></span></strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVv8XzBiCzi2g8NJDUXrHbcd9w1XEh7r09qF3jgYSxdHSUkcViU1CIvdUiDjJPpNTpKSN3UbypQxv72tc7NnDuJ0Eb5w8xA91zufbP1oyB64kWW3mrCDCEMRop6zrsL9nShyphenhyphenWHuBKhZXLF/s1600/money.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVv8XzBiCzi2g8NJDUXrHbcd9w1XEh7r09qF3jgYSxdHSUkcViU1CIvdUiDjJPpNTpKSN3UbypQxv72tc7NnDuJ0Eb5w8xA91zufbP1oyB64kWW3mrCDCEMRop6zrsL9nShyphenhyphenWHuBKhZXLF/s320/money.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Once I had <em>temporarily</em> moved to Wisconsin, I decided to give up conventional television. So I bought a Roku box and spent some time catching up on documentaries...things with intelligent content and no Christmas commercials, alligator assassins or Big Pharma's insatiable appetite to sell me drugs with more side-effects than a morning commute in Los Angeles. Out of this initial experiment I have come to the conclusion that the real <em>free press</em> in this country has been relegated to authors and independent film makers. That in itself, is a sad -- no, horrific realization for a nation that was once willing to die for the sanctity of a few fundamental truths.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><u>The American Economic Model</u>:</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">First off, America itself was founded as the world's first capitalistic state. An experiment really in a full-circle mercantile-based society.</span></strong></div>
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Ok...so I wondered: "What the hell is really going on in this current, chronic and evidently doomed economic model we have embraced where we have gone to speaking in terms of millions, billions and on to trillions -- which for most Americans is like staring at a 55-gallon drum of moldy Cole-slaw. Uh, huh...we're trying to understand a $5.00 pork chop while Congress is arguing about the exact definition of bankruptcy. </div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">So...here we go. I suggest you crack a new bottle of Bourbon about now.</span></strong></div>
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I first tried to connect the dots in the relationship between the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury Department and just exactly how these machinations relate to the continuing US deficit, the astronomical American debt and the wandering ghost known as the trade deficit. Was I sorry I asked? Yes and no.</div>
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Believe it or not, the current mess actually all started in August of 1971, when then US President, Richard Nixon dissolved the gold exchange on American currency and simply floated the dollar on world markets via good faith and air. Which means that the dollar was now backed by a wink and a smile. That seemed okay as the dollar still represented the strongest and most accepted currency in the world, and as such was quickly embraced as the standard for judging the value of every other nation's currency. What followed in the US was a period of extreme inflation, created in many ways by the world-wide manipulation of foreign national currencies in a false parity on the dollar. So if a Japanese yen is suddenly worth a US dollar, then what does that do to the value of that dollar? Better yet, what does it do to the cost of a Japanese-made Toyota? Hmm. So like today's situation with China...there are suddenly two versions of the Chinese yuan. One used at home at true value to pay the worker -- the other one floated on world markets as <em>faux</em> true-value currency. The Jekyll and Hyde of world trade. So the Chinese worker is paid shit -- the American consumer buying Chinese products then gets to make up the difference in value. Great plan.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbzRsDKX_viLvjr-bibYi4iz9WkAx-llDdbiNsN90iRkES8bFqovos3GJ4HSlAAkFBv5QDcgSt75HEHocNOz2K9tV4qoSLZhIxGLRl313n_lRIoW8cTTh-se14NwReezAVlOmgQYfUxiGs/s1600/gold+bars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbzRsDKX_viLvjr-bibYi4iz9WkAx-llDdbiNsN90iRkES8bFqovos3GJ4HSlAAkFBv5QDcgSt75HEHocNOz2K9tV4qoSLZhIxGLRl313n_lRIoW8cTTh-se14NwReezAVlOmgQYfUxiGs/s200/gold+bars.jpg" width="200" /></a>However, let's back up to 1945 to the little berg of Breten Wood, Vermont. World War II was closing -- the culmination of the world's most massive economic misstep. Sure, some other junk was involved, but both German and Japanese nationalism and expansionist desires, as well as the rise of Bolshevism, were driven by the horses of resource scarcity, economic inequality and money. Since America was now the new economic 'Bull o' the Woods,' and most other nations were broke, destroyed or conquered it was decided that world peace was easier to maintain with gold than guns -- establishing both the gold standard and the US dollar as the currency of the realm -- in that all other currencies were based on the value of <em>that</em> dollar. That is where the $35.00 an ounce thing came from. Worked kinda okay in the decades that followed as the world enjoyed relative, if unreliable peace, sustained economic growth and something resembling <em>income equality</em>. Remember that last one, please. </div>
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Now, back to Richard Nixon. The Breten Wood Conference created what was known as a <em>gold</em> <em>exchange. </em>In this framework, gold could be lent or exchanged between nations to balance the books, carry-over short-term downfalls...get the Crown Jewels dry-cleaned...whatever. Except that two things happened in America. We got into the Vietnam War and the price of Kennedy's desire to check out the moon. The bills started coming due and the US was suddenly running a deficit. The thing about these massive piles of gold in the exchange is that the gold never went anywhere. They didn't unload Fort Knox and send it to the Pentagon to trade corn for bombs. The gold stayed and other nations just got a check. Because of the growing US deficit brought about by trying to save the Vietnamese from a worse fate than...us I guess, these checks began to bounce. That placed a very negative cloud over the assumed <em>confidence</em> the world had held in the US dollar. <strong><em>Confidence. </em></strong>Finish that first bottle of Bourbon and write the word <em>confidence</em> on your hand. It will be really important later.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-Ap9XiPtpJJB2PWIGstaIBg0rtsmW3wzlUaThR7QPSMvk9bbOfHMPWP-mxJBXTiCQQwVRC-ljMnUSqC2EOoeJQLjtK-_nF63hlZcq-EQSUdb0UnbLNybyhhgGoIerF6SZCNpJTtj4_M8/s1600/french-flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-Ap9XiPtpJJB2PWIGstaIBg0rtsmW3wzlUaThR7QPSMvk9bbOfHMPWP-mxJBXTiCQQwVRC-ljMnUSqC2EOoeJQLjtK-_nF63hlZcq-EQSUdb0UnbLNybyhhgGoIerF6SZCNpJTtj4_M8/s200/french-flag.jpg" width="200" /></a>The more I study the French, the more I realize that this is a nation where Momma didn't raise no dummies. On top of that, they had a pretty good idea where American intervention in Vietnam was was headed. So along about 1970, France started an international stampede by simply informing the US Treasury that we'd like the gold...not another check. Turned out we were a little short on the stuff, so Nixon said, "Hold on boys..." He then abruptly withdrew the US from the gold exchange, claimed the dollar was sound as ever and ushered in the era of what is known as <em>Fiat Currency. </em>Dollars backed by...well, nothing. The real nail in the coffin was that an active gold exchange required discipline...subsequently, under this new <em>Fiat </em>system, discipline went out the window. What followed was rapid <em><strong>inflation</strong></em> in the US -- a disease that spread around the world; aggravated to a great extent by these folks:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYEA8087J9fOR86MCT0Nj35dq-0Tf8izpYFAd4HZFZMX98pAUAN5xKmPIzG7m9lb7iDs_JfeyJI4isZGKhs-VtuWSiNy87-EJgLp8qes2mRXVpQMal4G7GxEAukIz3cJg4XWtIJ9oVPqb0/s1600/_Saudi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYEA8087J9fOR86MCT0Nj35dq-0Tf8izpYFAd4HZFZMX98pAUAN5xKmPIzG7m9lb7iDs_JfeyJI4isZGKhs-VtuWSiNy87-EJgLp8qes2mRXVpQMal4G7GxEAukIz3cJg4XWtIJ9oVPqb0/s200/_Saudi.jpg" width="132" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Economics 101:</strong> Try to understand that <em>currency</em> is <strong>NOT</strong> <em>money</em>; rather merely a <em>medium of</em> <em>exchange </em>and further, that governments have an inherent (invented) <em><strong>right</strong></em> to declare something as <em><strong>value.</strong></em></span></div>
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Basically that means if Afghanistan decides to use sheep testicles against the US dollar...better find some sheep. </div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><u>The Federal Reserve</u>:</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong> <strong>Yes, this thing is a monster. </strong> Around 2009, Arthur Greenspan, head of the Federal Reserve was called before a Congressional hearing to answer a few nagging questions. The gist was: "Yo, Arthur! What's goin' on my man?" Greenspan had, for quite some time been known as the <em>guru</em> of free-market capitalism. However, in this particular case he managed to confess that "a flaw may exist in my [economic] ideology." Really? By then about 40,000,000 home owners across America had regrettably already reached a very similar conclusion. But the mortgage collapse was a different can of worms altogether. That comes under the banner of America's insatiable desire for a 'free lunch.' We engage in this orgy of denial about every 10 years or so. Remember the dot-com thing? The savings and loan thing? Yep.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><u>What Does This Monster Eat</u>?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is what</span> </span><span style="font-size: small;">the Federal Reserve does: it prints money for the US Treasury. It also plays with interest rates, monitors the flow of capital going into and out of the economy...you know, plays God. Worked pretty good when US currency was backed by a tangible -- gold. Doesn't work so good when the currency is backed up by little more than good faith...and as I mentioned, suddenly develops a clear lack of discipline, particularly when Congress is running for re-election or a standing president needs a pat on the back or a scape-goat for something as minor as the complete collapse of the American banking system, mostly because we didn't quite figure out how to pay for two drawn-out, murderous wars that failed to have either an exit plan or a defined purpose. <em>Hello Vietnam!</em></span></div>
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So now we have amassed a huge...no monumental debt. Forget the trade deficit for a second because that's already in the <em>Gulag of Lost Causes.</em> The US Treasury tells the Fed that we need more cash. So much cash that the FED keeps running out ink and paper. This cash is then converted to Federal Bonds, which are auctioned off in <em>open</em> world markets. They are back by the US government; aka, the Treasury under the assumption that the "US is too big to fail." Yes, take a time-out here to swallow your tongue. The cliché's just get funnier. So, who's buying? Who's got any money left? Oh, the Chinese. And why do they have money?</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Time Out</u>!</span></strong> </div>
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Anyone remember the mid-1960's -- I mean the other 60's where American business concluded that the Japanese could build our junk cheaper than we could. Following the 1973 oil embargo this really took off because when you export the manufacturing of your widget, you also export the technology. Ta, da! <em><strong>The Datsun!</strong></em> And here we thought the Japanese were dumb just because they lost the big war. Well, they won the 'car war' by a long stretch and America's memory; better yet, its hindsight, is always a bit myopic. Enter Boeing, GE, Microsoft <em>ad nausea</em>, and now the Chinese manufacture everything that we once did...and probably do it better. It is estimated that 96% of everything you'll find in a Wal-Mart is Chinese-made. Including that cheap toilet paper Americans so love to buy. What we did export during this period was <strong><em>toxic assets</em></strong>, which managed to bankrupt half of Europe and take down at least three governments. And meanwhile our wars of vengeance are now in their 10th year -- twice as long as it took to fight all of World War II. Price tag: Ha, remember that 55-gallon drum of moldy Cole-Slaw...it is now 1,000,000 barrels and climbing.</div>
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Back to why China has so much money...oh, it's our money actually. Two-thirds of what we buy comes from China, so we pay the mark-up and the disparity created by the yuan/yuan shell game. American government does nothing because China also buys the vast majority of those US Treasury bonds that go to sustain all this foreign interventionism -- those trillions that make up the United States debt. And since we sold our technological souls to the Chinese, it would appear completely impossible -- absurd would be a better word, to ever, ever resolve the existing trade deficit. Except through war. Lovely thought. And this brings us to:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0sHw0wVC-CeIbU06Oyijj8iQcnWnUv5JcZi2oETG0WyLa3hdisGaYXOwLRJfpv4xHQHgovB6vA4hTEhFxNaLjiQBR6XL1RS9XbG5ck9PqN5olsOwzFfsHi7CgavPwmvRE6JXplT9hqu5C/s1600/ponzi2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0sHw0wVC-CeIbU06Oyijj8iQcnWnUv5JcZi2oETG0WyLa3hdisGaYXOwLRJfpv4xHQHgovB6vA4hTEhFxNaLjiQBR6XL1RS9XbG5ck9PqN5olsOwzFfsHi7CgavPwmvRE6JXplT9hqu5C/s200/ponzi2.jpg" width="146" /></a>Yep, that's Charles Ponzi. See, what the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury are conducting is really the world's greatest <em><strong>Ponzi Scheme</strong></em>...this of course with the backing of America's multi-national corporations, who pay absolutely no taxes and are already comfortably ensconced with their billions...overseas. </div>
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See, the nature of a Ponzi Scheme is quite simple: you pay old investors (at the top) by recruiting lots of investors at the bottom. Of course, when you run out of investors and/or their capital at the bottom, the scheme collapses and the originators are in Jamaica working on their tan.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">However...America's version is a little different. </span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"> If America uses these funds (the Treasury bonds sold on open markets), </span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: large;">to pay off internal debt, </span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">then how do they then pay back the bonds? </span></strong></div>
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Could be the rat in Greenspan's cheese box because this economic scenario is 100% fatal. Not 50% or 62% or 27% -- 100% percent doomed. The bond is the Ponzi in the Scheme. And it is all floated by a little word I shared earlier:<strong><em> confidence. You see, if you borrow a dollar to pay off a previously borrowed dollar + the accrued interest -- then where are you going to get that second dollar...or second trillion dollars?</em></strong></div>
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If the average American...meaning the 95% occupying the expanding discomfort of this critically wounded economy are a little shell-shocked, what in the hell is the rest of world thinking? What are the Chinese thinking? They have a new middle-class of 300,000,000 souls who have discovered that expectations and hope DO exist. If we collapse, they collapse....and that should be a very sobering thought, particularly in a world that is already tipping from the ravages of climate change, resource depletion and geo-political instability. </div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Logically Then, We Have/Had a Trade Deficit</u></span></strong> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-Wd20NAXEzefPat9Hock0h4euOT-ufdPuuqS-MvmsDjjAPs384W1FD4c7Y76tUFuXmZhMHuT7krOSmsVSb0zO3mxdZ-dfjhG96KpmK__laY3Oe5tPt3QEtxy8BZv9ML95tkMHGKtdwwL/s1600/worms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-Wd20NAXEzefPat9Hock0h4euOT-ufdPuuqS-MvmsDjjAPs384W1FD4c7Y76tUFuXmZhMHuT7krOSmsVSb0zO3mxdZ-dfjhG96KpmK__laY3Oe5tPt3QEtxy8BZv9ML95tkMHGKtdwwL/s200/worms.jpg" width="200" /></a>How does this figure into our very crowded can of worms? And why do foreign governments (particularly the Chinese), keep buying our rapidly degrading bonds? Ah...they buy these bonds in order to keep their<em> OWN</em> currency value <em>LOW</em>, thereby remaining attractive for US manufacturers to continue to use <em>their </em>resources and labor, who are paid via this devalued currency...the yuan/yuan thing. <em><strong>AND...this is further exasperated by the fact that American corporations have off-shored millions of jobs, along with the extended economy these jobs create...and the money and profits stay off-shore, hence we are accumulating debt concurrently with a massive loss of tax revenues. Kind of like the guy who bought pickles for a dollar and sold them for 50 cents. "I don't make much money, but I sure as hell sell a lot of pickles!" </strong></em>Yeah, sounds sustainable all right. <em><strong> </strong></em></div>
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On the horizon? Quite likely a bout of hyper-inflation following the implosion of our 40-year love affair with <em>Fiat Currency</em> and all it has wrought. It is the one model that remains predictable over time. It was the core issue in the conflagration that was World War II. Revolutions swept Europe, governments fell, communism raised its ugly and unrealistic head. Not since 1929, has income inequality reached the levels in the US as is seen today. We are a nation of consumers that can no longer afford to consume. We have created a rock that can only roll down hill. My grandparents went through this in post-war Germany. Then, as now, the solution seemed to lie down the avenues of anarchy and war. The structural problems were so deep, the despair so high, the <strong><em>confidence</em></strong> so eroded...that simple word once again. And the dollar is no longer immune to such an assault. But given the rancorous nature of our current leadership...any affirmative action; really even the acknowledgement that such an immense problem exists...seems unlikely as long as all fingers remain pointed elsewhere. We've ridden the brink longer and harder than any ground can support. </div>
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Laugh if you like...but when I was closing out my grandfather's estate in Germany, I found dozens of these stuffed around the windows for insulation. This is what happens when confidence is lost in a country's currency...that perception of value.</div>
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<strong>*Addendum:</strong></div>
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<a href="https://fbcdn-photos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1549491_10201253166751503_121270839_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="photo_img img" src="https://fbcdn-photos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1549491_10201253166751503_121270839_a.jpg" title="" /></a>Got to thinking...yeah, bad idea at my age, but after trying to understand, explore -- perhaps locate a sane and logical point of reference to the current (chronic) system we refer to as the 'US economy,' I actually discovered an unexpected bonus that incompetency can sometimes generate. Yes, hyper-inflation.<br />
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But first off, an important point: Most Americans do not know or understand that the Federal Reserve is NOT a government agency of some kind. It is a private cartel formed by the nation's most powerful central banks. As such, it is kind of like having your own private loan shark -- in this case, the US Treasury...aka, your tax dollars at work; or maybe at play. So when some politician coins a new phrase, like "too big to fail," they aren't far from the truth for a change. Unrealistic truth perhaps, but then reality hasn't been too popular for decades anyway.<br />
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So as I was alluding to the other day, the US economy is currently operated like a giant Ponzi Scheme, with the Federal Reserve simply printing more and more money that the US sells around the world as Treasury bonds, many of which seem to end up in China. The only reason these fools buy the things can be summed up in one word: <strong>confidence.</strong> Because today, the dollar is backed up by...I don't know -- polyester farms?<br />
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Oh, my point? Well, when the dollar finally loses face value...inevitable it would seem; inflation follows. As the truth spreads and <strong>confidence</strong> erodes further, you get hyper-inflation. I had in friend in Brazil (1990's) who owned a restaurant and explained that he had to raise his drink prices on Monday, food on Tuesday -- then drinks again on Wednesday, <em>ad nauseum. </em>And within a year or so this nonsense, Brazil's government collapsed. Kind of a riotous 'no-confidence' vote. You mess with the price of necessities and people will emerge from their complacent slumber.<br />
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I think it is a great way to straighten out this mess. Hyper-inflation is very egalitarian, non-partisan (after the blame game goes stale) and every single American gets to enjoy the mess equally. Gas prices might be a bearable annoyance for many, but basic necessities never, ever are. So, let the games begin. Think I'll stock up on peanut butter. Right now, it looks better than gold. <br />
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<strong>Now go ahead and finish that second bottle of Bourbon. You've earned it!</strong></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-56465297926845668202013-11-25T07:03:00.001-08:002014-12-09T07:49:00.859-08:00Observations...the personal kind.<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong>Afterthoughts on:</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Ken Burns’ 7-part series: “The War.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
freely admit to having a life-long fascination – morbid perhaps – with the
machinations of the world-wide convulsions that tragically and inevitably led
to World War II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Why?” A question you
might honestly ask if born of another time, perhaps another place – a separate
experience of the heart and mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet
the answer lies deeper and travels much further than one war among history’s
many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The experience, the absolute
horror remains locked within the deepest realms of human perception for
decades; perhaps centuries, as a generational warning to those who assume that
peace begins at the moment such atrocities end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It lingers on the senses, in
the rarely visited chambers of what we call our soul, at the ragged outskirts
of our intellectual capacity, like some lesion that can only scar, but never
completely heal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And quite benignly, we
pass the disease on to our children and our children’s children in a
never-ending cycle of an oddly perverse affirmation of right and wrong, good
and evil…our god or all gods; as if such evil, such loss of our claim to
humanity is external and distant from a crime we all readily committed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
no, it is not a matter of nations, of tribes, of religions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is much deeper, a much more personal and
banal human defection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As in my family,
all loyalties were severed under the screaming banners of nationalism; of
borders, of a casual dismissal really, where any god’s message of compassion
was redefined – usurped – brokered for the comfort and sanity found in the
sweet embrace of our uniquely western definition of good and evil – black and
white.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The duality that excludes by a
necessary force, all shades of gray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
it is here, at this point of reckoning that we would much rather welcome this
orphan of madness into our home and hearth than to admit that the beast is, and
always was, a child of our creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
we nurture it, educate it in the vile contradictions of our sense of
righteousness and godliness and assume, as we too assumed, that God will sort
out the filth from the flowers later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the centuries ceaselessly roll on…and on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
imagine that I discovered this notion of god around the age of cognizance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every night I prayed to this ghost and every
morning I confirmed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">his</i> disinterest
in my existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the now-distant war
doggedly waged on in the sanctuary of home…the familiar, the comfortable; more
and more the trenches and bulwarks of a spirit under relentless siege.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the child quit praying to this great and
disinterested god, for there was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no</i>
benevolent force in this, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my </i>private
and purely human world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so it
remained, for no compromise could be found, no peace to be negotiated, far too
little strength left to battle the antithesis of a flawed doctrine; so embraced
by so many…yet wrapped in the impenetrable veneer of a necessary contradiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
often believed that the conduct of war required either the highest pillar of
morality or absolutely none at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
too turned out be a convenient dismissal of a nagging rationale – in a wholly
western mind – a denial of my own capacity for moral tyranny under the guise
that I could actually distinguish any moral right from a litany of perceived
wrongs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the definition would remain
as private property – locked behind those barbed fences of the well-being I had
already chose to vigorously defend – at most, if not all costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">However,
later in this life I became a somewhat mediocre observer of the Buddhist
philosophy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not the religion, which like
many others merely masks a political agenda in the clothes of social salvation;
rather as a way to reconcile a long-simmering internal conflict over the
necessity of a god – any such god one wishes to celebrate on a loftier, perhaps
more altruistic plain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I need a moral
compass?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not really.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would an invisible friend lessen or maybe
just antagonize my existing antipathy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most
likely, particularly the latter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
already knew well the ramifications of keeping my integrity upright – felt the
shallow pangs of the fool – where naiveté and self-delusion erode the high and
troubled road of selflessness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
still, in those times where the heart becomes the trampled invalid of honest
intentions, I would still seek out the balance desired in karmic reckoning; the
currency of my realm, a metaphysical tribunal reserved for those gifted with an
enduring and infinite amount of patience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And while masquerading this ploy as humility –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>chivalry perhaps, the darkness of night would
reaffirm the lingering distrust that stood like a sentry guarding what was left
of my fragile sanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A difficult choice in a
culture where the hyenas of validation swallow the prey whole and merely
defecate the left-over ideals in a shallow, unmarked grave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
know well that one life-time will not be sufficient to unravel this puzzling
enigma known as the animal-human – nor this enduring propensity to continue this
cancerous cycle of madness that has infected a millennium or more of human
development; somehow driven along this well-trodden path -- destined (or
doomed), to finally attain enlightenment, or perhaps more realistically, the
deserved extinction of a hopelessly flawed specie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will the great gods weep at our passing or
simply perish with the dementia of time itself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That I do not know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet in spite
of this greater ignorance of purpose, I have come to accept that the dominoes of
apocalypse are highly personal in nature and that just maybe, the true language
of enlightenment – the unbridled horses of true human happiness can be found in
one simple word:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“No.”</span></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-15022890141477279192013-10-27T17:52:00.000-07:002013-10-27T17:52:35.355-07:00A Perfect Combination....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What could be better? History <em>AND</em> horses</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">...all in one book!</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Available at most retail outlets and some questionable bars...</span></strong> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDEd7wm0sjvvW935vkKarVBVaITPQ6Q9FKIu1JLbjTAptgu9TMnluo-iLGLniLiiA5qjvCXJFxLB9menWrzuDkIH4VczLRVd20kS-DG9qF7b8B3Z8hHz7HUj6WMIzIAmzLAog2rFYC_X5Y/s1600/bookclub.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDEd7wm0sjvvW935vkKarVBVaITPQ6Q9FKIu1JLbjTAptgu9TMnluo-iLGLniLiiA5qjvCXJFxLB9menWrzuDkIH4VczLRVd20kS-DG9qF7b8B3Z8hHz7HUj6WMIzIAmzLAog2rFYC_X5Y/s400/bookclub.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Everybody's reading it...</span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipoYSXY1UlvkQRVDC_xkQYgQxVxg7SfHFKDai1CF0GMtgffM4rHMyHuJMLWrrr9TVLpoinoP_R_Ix4-QSVZjQXeTIzAAPi9Zs08W8_EK_JaLag406tzL8sSLPIF9woF9Y57KyTT9aooP4l/s1600/back+cover+final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipoYSXY1UlvkQRVDC_xkQYgQxVxg7SfHFKDai1CF0GMtgffM4rHMyHuJMLWrrr9TVLpoinoP_R_Ix4-QSVZjQXeTIzAAPi9Zs08W8_EK_JaLag406tzL8sSLPIF9woF9Y57KyTT9aooP4l/s320/back+cover+final.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And a minor apocalyptic distraction or two...</span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyM6J1wZG1CNIlhNoPyYPVBWwIg3fbmpdK5jchiF6Nqe2EprNjIHCNciQnDKfL2RS0aq5ND7cXEtnGg-x-x00xnQezMitoXzX71VqhrRoI0BkFwnDfaPgjUgx-H_kguL_po464uDY9xTAJ/s1600/United_Federation.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyM6J1wZG1CNIlhNoPyYPVBWwIg3fbmpdK5jchiF6Nqe2EprNjIHCNciQnDKfL2RS0aq5ND7cXEtnGg-x-x00xnQezMitoXzX71VqhrRoI0BkFwnDfaPgjUgx-H_kguL_po464uDY9xTAJ/s200/United_Federation.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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Approved for Humans by</div>
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The United Federation of Planets, 2013</div>
A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-28622075592178401242013-09-19T14:09:00.003-07:002013-09-19T14:09:48.826-07:00Terrorists...hmm<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong><em>Who is Calling Who, What?</em></strong></span></div>
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Musing on one of many distasteful and openly racist postings that seem to find so much traction around social media these days. This one the comparison between arming Islamic extremists versus efforts at gun control in this country -- another case of the logic train derailing on that frequent curve of righteous distraction. And in these propaganda debates, history is discarded in favor of a subtle kind of perversion. See, America invented terrorism in the semi-modern world. We kind of broke that civilized protocol where everybody dresses up like a wealthy pimp and shoots at each other until somebody finally gives up. Instead, we hid behind trees, assassinated officers (to disrupt command and control), stole stuff, blew things up randomly and generally refused to play fair. Assuming that war and revolution has anything to do with fairness anyway. Conflict is about attrition -- however you can deliver it to the enemy. And if you are a marginalized group on an uneven playing field, the rules are for the other guy. He can afford them. And throughout this unpleasantness, the French were more than willing to help us kill more Englishmen. All the less bodies and guns they'd have to deal with sooner or later. Big difference? The French remained friends and allies.<br />
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<span class="fbUnderline"><strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">And the parallel universe:</span></strong></span></div>
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Fast forward. 1980's or so. The Soviet Union decides to winter in Afghanistan. Bad idea, but one worth repeating by us. See, nuclear weapons made it difficult for US to kill Russians so we hired, then armed the local Mujahideen. You know these guys...uh, think we call them Taliban now. They had been marginalized, suffering badly on that uneven playing field so we suggested that a little terrorism might be just the right medicine to send the Soviets packing. So we kind of Fed-Xed them all kinds of fun stuff. And we <strong>promised...</strong>well, we're not very good at that, but we did say that if you guys kill enough Russians, we'll get you schools, electricity, doctors...cable TV. So they did. In fact, they killed so many and so terrorized the Soviet Army that they said, "The hell with this." And they went home. Trouble was, so did we. Oh, the presents? We conveniently forgot about that. You know, we had an election, so that meant we sent the gifts elsewhere. So the slightly miffed Mujahideen changed their name to Taliban and overthrew the Kabul government with that nice hardware we sent them. And they became sympathizers with all the other folks in the Islamic world that had also received those IOU promises we handed out over the 50 years or so we spent entrenched in our little Cold War with the Soviet Union. That didn't sit well with the new guy in our White House...another case of foreign policy via Alzheimer's, so we invaded Afghanistan to make things...sorry, but it is here I get completely lost. Win the hearts and minds? No, we tried that once before with uneven results. Finally build those schools and power plants? Well, no. Oh. We had a grudge about that whole 9/11 thing. The 'thing' we failed to fully understand in the first place. Those 50 years of insincerity and unkept promises we kind of failed to live up to? Even bother to remember or even reconcile. Hmm. So if they are terrorists, where exactly does that make <strong><em>us? </em></strong> <br />
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-56898115213121828322013-09-11T14:56:00.000-07:002013-09-21T18:56:05.417-07:00We've met before....<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><em>On a Street...It Seemed to be Raining</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong><em> Ashes that Day...</em></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong>"I saw you in Sarajevo...uh, 1942. Near the train station. I mean, what was left of it"</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><strong>"Yes, I remember. But I had seen you earlier that day. As Napoleon's cavalry finally took Innsbruck."</strong></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">"Yes, it was cold that day...bitterly so."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">"Which day...they were all so very cold as I remember."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">"I meant to stop, but it seemed like I should go on."</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">"We all died that day anyway...despite your efforts to make it otherwise."</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Why is that do you suppose? These recurring connections over time, history...often in those moments when the world or the person is gripped in some emotional maelstrom of unending conflict. Where the smoke clears briefly from a distant, yet highly personal battle, and suddenly there is this person you know, or are demanded to know by some unknown force, standing silently in front of the burned-out buildings that were once a city, a town...a place of refuge...lost. No, not reincarnation, meddling aliens, nor a previous life; certainly not the unconscious wanderings of a time traveler. Something else....But what?</span></div>
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<strong><em>The </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project" title="Human Genome Project"><strong><em>Human Genome Project</em></strong></a><strong><em> produced the first complete sequences of individual human genomes. As of 2012, thousands of human genomes have been completely sequenced, and many more have been mapped at lower levels of resolution. The resulting data are used worldwide in </em></strong><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomedical_science" title="Biomedical science"><strong><em>biomedical science</em></strong></a><strong><em>, </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_anthropology" title="Biological anthropology"><strong><em>anthropology</em></strong></a><strong><em>, </em></strong><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_DNA" title="Forensic DNA"><strong><em>forensics</em></strong></a><strong><em> and other branches of science. There is a widely held expectation that genomic studies will lead to advances in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and to new insights in many fields of biology, including </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution" title="Human evolution"><strong><em>human evolution</em></strong></a>. [Wiki]</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Is it possible that there is much more to a strand of DNA than one could possibly imagine? And I muse on that notion a lot because for some reason -- some demand I fail to comprehend, they wander in and out of my life. Over my years, I have visited with many ghosts -- most benevolent by intent, as if they too are suddenly lost on a vaguely familiar field. I've stood on foreign ground and seen my own footprints in the dust; shed blood on countless battlefields not of my choosing. Questioned deeply whether my sanity is intact -- or merely infected with a deep desire to dwell in some other century, some other place that the heart craves, but the boots can never find. I could ask God, but then I don't believe in God, nor do I choose to seek a moral compass that I already possess; no, earned along the low and high roads of a strictly personal history -- further, that all good and all evil lives within the bounds of my being and accountable only to the artificiality of conscience. I seek no redemption elsewhere. It is here. It is now. But it has also been now; elsewhere.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Science scratches away at this mystery...though it is very much like searching a colony of ants for one leader among billions. I have blue eyes. It was said once that I was of Nordic/Germanic descent. I am also considered an American. Yet I claim no nationality because I became a human long before there were maps, boundaries...borders. And today, it has been revised -- that I was of the Neanderthals...those blue eyes carried over the millennia...the physical baggage of antiquity. Ancient, primal, perhaps a decent sort of savage in an era where perhaps decency ended in early death. Before there were nations, before there was humanity as a whole of something much smaller. Another animal, a predator...one that still knows the arts of predation 200,000 years later. And what is the <em><strong>why</strong></em> and <em><strong>how</strong></em> of such an unnecessary skill...to crouch in silent waiting at Safeway...then leap upon an unsuspecting can of corn? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And how to explain my affinity for the horse? Ah...a relative was a horse breeder, stable owner, leader of a armed rebellion in the late 1700's. My great-great grandfather was a blacksmith who came over from Norway in the 1800's. My grandfather kept a silver-capped horse's hoof -- simply engraved with the name <strong><em>Oluf.</em></strong> Why did I know it, covet it...keep it with me when all else was lost in those storms within a difficult mind? Why perhaps, did I become a horseman, a farrier... a lover of fast horses long before I knew these people even existed? <em>Coincidence?</em> Possibly. But then, how did the horses know me, accept me as easily as they did? Just maybe, we too, had crossed similar paths, fought distant battles...perished together on some blood-soaked field long forgotten. We left our bones to mark our passing, but perhaps the core of what we were, what we saw...the sounds and scents of distant eras traveled forward in the intricate pathways of our singularly unique fingerprint -- that DNA. </span> </div>
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<strong><span class="hw">gene</span>
<span class="pron">(j<img align="absbottom" src="http://img.tfd.com/hm/GIF/emacr.gif" />n)</span></strong></div>
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<i><strong>n.</strong></i></div>
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<strong> A hereditary unit consisting of a sequence of DNA that occupies a specific location on a chromosome and determines a particular characteristic in an organism. Genes undergo mutation when their DNA sequence changes.</strong></div>
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<strong>[German <tt>Gen</tt>, from <tt>gen-</tt>, <i>begetting, in Greek words</i> (such as <tt>genos</tt>, <i>race, offspring</i>); see <tt> gen<img align="absbottom" src="http://img.tfd.com/hm/GIF/schwa.gif" />-</tt> in Indo-European roots.]</strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Dreams. We all dream. Mine are in color, sometimes black and white...in the deep Rem sleep of early morning, when the mind attempts vainly to put the day's files in some kind of rational order...I often dream in languages or subjects I know nothing about. Yet I do. And upon awakening, I do not. And most have a veil of anxiety wrapped about them...a distant fear unresolved or simply carried forth into another era, seeking perhaps the same solution for a millennial of unresolved conflicts. The workings of a mind both brilliant and complex...yet truly ancient in origin, still living primal by a necessary kind of hindsight. But oddly kinder, more compassionate perhaps than what daylight affords me. Two paths of sub-consciousness in conflict -- the day and night of mere human existence -- the antithesis and agony of owning this stray dog of conscience...that follows at a distance, holds no true loyalties, yet still tolerates the fleas upon his back. But then he is so much like this world. For the wrong choice, the wrong road to cross...he dies. And so do the fleas. But never in a dream, for in dreams we merely cover the ground between the many deaths that mark our passing. </span> <br />
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<strong><em>A gene is a long stretch of the staircase. It contains a particular sequence of A’s, C’s, T’s, and G’s. The sequence is the code for the specific protein the gene is “for”. (A simplification, but fine for today.) A DNA molecule contains millions of bases — steps of the staircase — a gene may contain thousands of them.</em></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And perhaps much, much more. It is estimated that a huge portion of DNA has no known or recognizable purpose...much like a blank spot on an unfinished canvas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I tend to believe that one day science will discover that among the thousand's of different functions, the human genome may also have the capacity to record individual human experiences over the many centuries...if specific genetic lines are never completely severed. Just as we have barely uncovered the contents and purposes of individual chromosomes; <em><strong>the ants among the colony</strong></em> -- we have also failed to understand the purpose of that 2/3 of the brain we leave unused. Maybe we don't want to know, maybe such knowledge would be the final breach between science and religion -- man as merely another animal, beholding to no other power than survival. But I know for me...when my awareness is at its peak; heightened by circumstances, danger, the gentle touch of a passing ghost...that stranger on a corner; a face filtered through the passing blackness of a sudden, startling realization...is no longer the stranger I believed them to be. And neither am I.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><em>For Those Who Know There is Always More...</em></strong></span></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;"></span></em></strong> </div>
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<u>Collages</u>: A. Juell (2nd grade art class revisited) and a tip of the hat to: John Royce's, <span itemprop="name"><strong>"The Legend of the Great Horse"</strong> trilogy. </span><br />
<span itemprop="name">Found at <strong>TheGreatHorse.com.</strong> Imagination is a gift shared by all. </span> <br />
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<strong><em>In many </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species" title="Species"><strong><em>species</em></strong></a><strong><em>, only a small fraction of the total sequence of the </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome" title="Genome"><strong><em>genome</em></strong></a><strong><em> encodes protein. For example, only about 1.5% of the human genome consists of protein-coding </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exon" title="Exon"><strong><em>exons</em></strong></a><strong><em>, with over 50% of human DNA consisting of non-coding </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeated_sequence_(DNA)" title="Repeated sequence (DNA)"><strong><em>repetitive sequences</em></strong></a><strong><em>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-90"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dna#cite_note-90">[90]</a></sup> The reasons for the presence of so much </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noncoding_DNA" title="Noncoding DNA"><strong><em>noncoding DNA</em></strong></a><strong><em> in eukaryotic genomes and the extraordinary differences in </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome_size" title="Genome size"><strong><em>genome size</em></strong></a><strong><em>, or </em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-value" title="C-value"><em>C-value</em></a><em>, among species represent a long-standing puzzle known as the "</em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-value_enigma" title="C-value enigma"><strong><em>C-value enigma</em></strong></a><strong><em>".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-91"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dna#cite_note-91">[91]</a></sup> However, some DNA sequences that do not code protein may still encode functional </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-coding_RNA" title="Non-coding RNA"><strong><em>non-coding RNA</em></strong></a><strong><em> molecules, which are involved in the </em></strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_gene_expression" title="Regulation of gene expression"><strong><em>regulation of gene expression</em></strong></a><strong><em>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-92"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dna#cite_note-92">[92]</a></sup></em></strong><br />
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<strong><em><sup><span style="font-size: large;">C-value enigma? Hmm......</span></sup></em></strong></div>
A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-81143398444481788322013-09-04T12:20:00.001-07:002013-09-10T13:56:46.647-07:00Syria...a Symptom of a Far Greater Disease<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">I </span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Within Syria</strong></span> </div>
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A fascinating week, though by no means a description the Syrian people would share or appreciate. In the background are the falling dominoes of perhaps the more progressive, educated tiers in the ever-developing world. Countries that have in some ways embraced the Western economic model at a time when the model has fallen into the hands of the brigands and raiders...and the rolling rock that is a one-sided globalization where personal initiative and the labor of the individual has been degraded far beyond the cost of doing business. Yes, behind all the zealous voices, the religious sectarianism, the old grudges, lies a world economic system that has become the spoiler of personal ambition...an unseen, heavily veiled stealer of dreams. If you look carefully; behind the angry eyes, the clenched fists...the man in the street brandishing that weapon could be you. This is what happens when an emerging middle class cannot meet the aspirations they hold for their children. And fueling them are the religious and cultural fanatics that are more than willing to plow that anger into violence. And yes, Hitler was not an anomaly by any means. They sprout like daffodils in the spring when the ambitions of the individual are sacrificed for a the seat on the throne.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">II</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"> Outside Syria </span></strong> <strong><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></strong></div>
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Britain says no, Israel says 'no thanks,' Turkey is highly distracted on the home front -- The Arab League late to the game and impotent it would seem. France with perhaps the will, but not the stamina to go it alone. Russia's Putin, still stuck in the Cold War. And the American President, reluctant as he should be -- credit due for at least recognizing the failures of this option in the recent and ongoing suffering delivered by the policies of previous administrations who chose the gun over the voice of reason -- granting that most of the world has given up on reason anyway. But then the caveat appears: toss it to Congress, the same group that has fought loudly and bitterly to defeat every proposal this president has put on the table, while simultaneously screaming to the rafters about the abuse of power by the executive branch...a trend that has really gone on for the last 40 years -- the result of a Congress more interested in self-serving politics than doing the job they were hired to do.<br />
I imagine that was a very unexpected move by the President, but in many ways, one that a democratic republic has always demanded, often ignored and suffered equally by those very inaction's. I seriously doubt that most presidents do not consider the ramifications of setting the armed forces loose when the avenues of diplomacy fail. Particularly in these third-party, distant divorces left over from an era of colonial and imperialistic ambitions -- of which the western and old eastern rivalries actually set in motion decades, even centuries ago. But then history in this country seems to last about 20 years before it is revised, re-packaged or simply forgotten...along with the untended graves -- the collateral damage of the faces and lives that once walked an earth they simply called home.<br />
So now Congress gets to share the mirror that peers into the soul -- the regions the eyes seek to deceive. The rare chance to place their finger on the trigger of righteous indignation...to smote the animal that carries the disease of all humankind. Yes, the enemy is us and the children will pay the price, continue the game...fill the graves reserved for all the bystanders in the long and violent history of this planet. So jump in the sandbox, you boys and girls of Congress. It is familiar ground after all. Only this time instead of merely paralyzing the nation and lining your pockets, you get to take it full circle: your vote now represents the errant bullet behind the mask of a purely partisan will. So enjoy the moment...you haven't earned it, but you sure as hell deserve it.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>III</strong></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Pragmatism vs. Idealism</span></strong></div>
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And that is perhaps the conundrum of today's rather <em>unbalanced</em> balance of power. Sure, smote the despot, ride that white horse, but then what? The question for the interventionist to ponder -- before the righteous fist first strikes is, "Is who has a stake here?" As in the case of North Korea's last round of belligerence, the answer was China. The PRC, as the major supplier of goods (oil and food), has the leverage to step all over North Korea's Jung. A conflict on the Korean peninsula could have disastrous consequences for China/US relations -- compromising an already tenuous economic relationship, i.e., bad for business. </div>
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In Syria's case, the only real outside influence lies in Moscow; a case where some of the obsolete Cold War alliances could still prove useful. America has no friends, no traction and certainly no business in another middle eastern country, where the regional balance of power has already been irreversibly damaged by the same kind of meddling proposed here. It is a domestic dispute and as any cop will tell you -- when the police show up -- all parties turn on them. Much of the unrest, unhappiness, animosity...however you call it -- has deep roots in the history of colonialism and imperialism shoved down the regions throat for over a century. And there are deep economic strains driving the unrest. Sadly, this is a process of adjustment, a leveling of a false reality and it is and will be costly -- in lives, in dislocations, in resources. And it will take a generation to remake the face of all these countries. They need time, compassion, aid...not another gun in the room. </div>
A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-31306708223322465102013-08-29T10:11:00.000-07:002013-09-14T05:32:20.650-07:00World Health...and Closer to Home.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Personal History...Not the Other Kind:</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><u>America's Medical/Industrial Complex</u></span></strong></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4n5ay0PTUU690FK5N_1MIL0AnI1ECdcJ0S9_xnL45oPXWTA1bUhqq5I3gHP4vH8kFI1PYoulRX6lAzalgvz29ivbwmqm4I9chc7jSZEaBkUxu8u9ZPO0uPXbXjWtVS_3nU8KwK5on8ykm/s1600/Lyndon65.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4n5ay0PTUU690FK5N_1MIL0AnI1ECdcJ0S9_xnL45oPXWTA1bUhqq5I3gHP4vH8kFI1PYoulRX6lAzalgvz29ivbwmqm4I9chc7jSZEaBkUxu8u9ZPO0uPXbXjWtVS_3nU8KwK5on8ykm/s320/Lyndon65.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Lyndon Johnson signing the Title IX amendment<br />
to Medicare, July 1965.</td></tr>
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"In 1965, Congress created Medicare under Title XVIII of the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Act_of_1965" title="Social Security Act of 1965">Social Security Act</a> to provide health insurance to people age 65 and older, regardless of income or medical history. Before Medicare's creation, only half of older adults had health insurance, with coverage often unavailable or unaffordable to the other half, because older adults had half as much income as younger people and paid nearly three times as much for health insurance. Medicare also spurred the racial integration of thousands of waiting rooms, hospital floors, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician" title="Physician">physician</a> practices by making payments to health care providers conditional on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desegregation" title="Desegregation">desegregation</a>." Wikipedia<br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"><strong>Health Care in America should really be named after Christopher Columbus, for it is indeed, a voyage of discovery. And not the overly pleasant kind, for in this business, the Earth <em>is</em> flat and you <em>can</em> sail off the edge. In my lifetime, that has occurred three times...working on my fourth as I speak. You know the drill: mystery 'caps,' pre-existing conditions, trying to ascertain which deductible level will still allow you to eat...though being either sick or in the deeper valleys of economic depression might make food less than palatable -- if still affordable. And of course, if you happen to be self-employed, engaged in something more strenuous than day-trading commodities, you are bound to have a long list of pre-existing, unplanned and future conditions. I believe the last time I applied for a health insurance policy (while I was still playing with horses), the company finally agreed that they could insure my left ear and most of my right leg -- below the knee. Medical records are a lot like a parolee's rap sheet -- they follow you everywhere.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"><strong>And yes, I'm still whining about that new ball-joint I need on the left hip. But now it has turned into something else -- a fool's crusade maybe; <em>Don Quixote</em> confronting another malevolent windmill. And in the background is the happy/unhappy news that I might qualify for Medicare in October. Well, not so fast. Sure, the selfish shit in me says, "Whoopee!" The other part, you know the one I mean: the conscience, the pragmatist, the childless man that still tries to consider the costs to <em>all</em> the children down the road -- a path that seems to be collecting more potholes by the hour. That little portion of my soul. Which is beginning to make me think that kids <em>should</em> be allowed to vote. Because every idiotic thing us adults dream up...they are going to pay for sooner or later.</strong> </span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Let me run the numbers -- on second thought, you already know them because we are all living them. The demographics alone argue against anything short of insolvency -- sooner, than later. And no, Medicare is not an entitlement. Free congressional health care however is. Medicare is the nation's largest insurance company, one that works for us -- the taxpayers -- not a group of stockholders that wouldn't know a spleen from cantaloupe. And for a quasi-government agency with more paperwork than the IRS, they do manage to do a remarkable, if not impossible job. So why not take it one step further. Give this shark the teeth to swim with all the sharks. Yes, let Medicare go toe to toe against all the insurance conglomerates, corporate medicine peddlers and the rest of the Medical/Industrial Complex...including the pharmaceutical companies. And at the same time...force the FDA to re-instate the ban on advertising prescription drugs directly to the consumer. Just like veterinary medicine, more and more the 'doctor' is prescribing via patient pressure, not the parameters of medicine...and right behind them, those 1.5 million attorneys that ply (plow) America's courtrooms. And yes, there are twice as many lawyers in this country as doctors. Another demographic you might want to chew on.</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">"Agh!!" You scream. Sounds like nationalizing health care! Well, guess what? With the aging population, the economy incapable of producing real jobs (as in full-time, living wage type) -- not just brokering the efforts of others or simply exporting them; the young in this country will be incapable of supporting the health care needs of the old, through the conventional sources: income-generated taxes. Math 101: what goes in must pay for what goes out. (An idea grown stale in this society.) And since we are so good at 'bailing out' the corporate sector, how about bailing out the elderly? Yes, rhetorical question, but it will come to that point in very short order. And if you would like an analogy (I do!), look to China. Mao's one-child policy was good as a short-term remedial action for a social/state burden almost unimaginable here; now, decades later with a hot economy, an exploding middle-class and severe labor shortages due to that one-child policy, men cannot find wives and the elderly are left with no children to support them in old age. Fair comparison? Yes and no. The lesson is that nothing stays the same and both government and the private sector must develop the agility to change with a shifting social dynamic, while embracing the type of forward-thinking that extends beyond next week, the next election cycle or Congresses constant need for 'vacations.'</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">So along comes a few Republican senators spouting the notion that Medicare is broken and the solution is a voucher system. Well gosh, wouldn't the insurance cartels just love that idea! But actually, I like the voucher system -- trouble is the Republicans have got it all wrong. But first, a brief opposing argument -- no, not by me...by: </span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;">Kenneth Davis, President & CEO, Mt. Sinai Medical Center. Exerted from his blog, 10/08/12.</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em>"Turning Medicare into a voucher-based system is not a solution for our seniors or what ails our health care system in this country. With over 100,000 visits to Mount Sinai last year by Medicare beneficiaries, I am acutely aware and concerned about the changes that are being proposed to the Medicare system. The voucher model -- which essentially gives seniors a check and sends them off into the private marketplace -- is based on the notion</em></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><em>that competition, facilitated by a free market, will bring down the cost of health care. Putting private insurers into the ring with traditional Medicare, it is presumed, will change the trajectory of overall health care costs, and solve our cost crisis. Unfortunately, the answer is not so simple.</em></span></span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em>There are three major reasons why private insurance simply cannot -- and should not -- compete with traditional Medicare. First, private insurance is fundamentally more expensive than the Medicare program. Private plans have significant overhead costs that the Medicare system does not, including stockholder profits, administrative costs, and marketing expenses. Medicare does not have these additional costs. Further, while reforms are still needed, the fact remains that the single payer Medicare system is extremely efficient. Indeed, 97 cents of every Medicare dollar goes to medical care. In contrast, only 80 cents on every dollar goes to medical care in the individual insurance market, where seniors would be taking their vouchers. Prior to the new health care reform law, the number was even lower. </em></span></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em>The second major problem with the voucher-based system, and perhaps most concerning, is that it hurts those seniors who are already hurting the most. We must recognize that the voucher system is a fixed benefit plan. It is designed to control the government's contribution to Medicare. If health care costs continue to grow -- driven by numerous factors including the aging of the baby boom generation -- Medicare costs will inevitably grow at a rate taxpayers cannot afford. However simply setting the share that the government will pay through a fixed benefit voucher is one of the least humane ways to save the system. With this approach, the fixed voucher will simply "buy" less and less in the private marketplace. </em></span></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><em>As a result, the wealthy will supplement their vouchers to buy adequate insurance, while the average senior living on social security and perhaps a modest pension will likely not have the resources to purchase today's level of coverage. Lower-income seniors will find themselves with unaffordable copays and the inability to afford comprehensive health care. At Mount Sinai, we will see the effect first hand. Our hospital is located between the most and least affluent communities in New York City, and while many patients from the Upper East Side may be able to budget for these increased costs, those visiting us from lower-income neighborhoods will not be able to afford the care. This simply is not right. Medicare was never intended to provide two levels of care. Medicare was created to provide reliable, affordable, comprehensive care for our grandparents and parents after retirement. It was a safety net for all. Under a voucher system, that safety net may only catch a handful of seniors -- it is no longer provides piece of mind that we will all have healthcare in our golden years. With so many of our seniors already trying to make ends meet on Medicare and Social Security, we should not be dumping our debt on the most vulnerable." </em></span></span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Now sure, Medical Directors of large medical institutions have their own fish to fry in this conglomerate we so euphemistically call 'health care,' but his point mirrors many other opinions both inside and outside the medical loop. And contrary to political musings (from both sides of the aisle), Medicare is NOT broken, but certainly headed for a funding crisis...a condition that will accelerate as more and more Americans reach retirement age. And let's see...can health care options possibly get more confusing? Particularly for a vulnerable population? Just more fish food for those emaciated sharks out there in fine-print land. If I can't figure it out, a 70-year old guy with cataracts certainly can't either. And of course, it is here where the lawyers and bean-counters thrive, for the details of health-care are written <em>for and by the lawyers.</em> Why? Because America is the land of litigation and the house that punitive damages built. Everybody screws up. Life is tenuous at best. 100 years ago, appendicitis was 100% fatal. If I shod every horse like it was a lawsuit waiting to happen -- well, there would be lot more barefoot horses walking around. Both patients and medical professionals need to sober up -- quit hard-selling expectations to yourself or others and lock out this public-sector pandering by the various drug peddlers and spare parts sales people that undermine the doctor/patient relationship. Look around. Every new 'miracle drug' advertised is followed by 6 commercials for class-action lawsuits generated by 'side-effects' already printed on the box. The doctor knows, the patient knows...so you sue when you get what was already a given risk to your health? </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>However, as I stated earlier, a limited voucher system could produce some interesting fall-out in the marketplace. Returning to my hip for a moment. Now here in this country, a hip replacement would run between $80-120,000.00 -- truth is nobody really knows. It would take 3 lawyers a week to answer that simple question. France or Belgium, $13-15,000. all-inclusive. No mystery charges, no 'whoops' stuff. Further, no lawyering up if things don't go well. Which is fine -- waking up every morning is risky. Oh...forgot, the $80-120,000 is only 80% of whatever the list price actually is, so I would have to pony up the rest. So, why not negotiate? Medicare can give me (or anyone else that wants to go shopping), a voucher for $15,000 and I'll go to France. Save Uncle Sam $100,000 in the process and probably receive better care than here. (Noting that health care quality is ranked #1 and #3 in those European countries -- #34 in America; CDC Estimates.) </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>But you see, this is NOT the kind of free enterprise and market competition these voucher exponents want. They want instead for Americans to compete for the insurance, not the product. Meanwhile, the insurance executives, the lawyers and the drug companies continue to run the show...not the doctors, the health care professionals and certainly not the patients. </strong> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>The idea is fairly simple. A hip joint is a lot like buying tires for the SUV. You don't buy the first set that comes along, or the set the car dealer or the bank that holds the note demands. No, you shop around because it is <em>your</em> damn hip...SUV, I mean. And instead of an absurd bill (like the one on the right), you are not billed for renting an operating room, or every Band-Aid and enema you did or did not get. Some hospitals must have at least a half-dozen nurses just manning the cash registers...you know, like check-out time at Safeway. </strong></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">The theory is fairly simple overall. If medicine is going to be a business (course, there is already something wrong here), then truly make it an open, free-market system where competition is lively, real and unhampered by this cartel of private insurers. Make the hospitals, the incorporated medical centers...even the doctors, compete for the customer. Medicine may be considered a higher calling by some, but if we are going to define it here as <em>for-profit</em> -- well, then it is just another service-sector endeavor that may or may not kill you. </span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Another area of abuse is centered around the 'compartmentalization' of medicine. As journalist Elisabeth Rosen [New York Times], pointed out and the above medical statement shows, medicine in this country is conducted by many disconnected segments. As a Belgium hospital administrator pointed out: "How can you can charge an operating room fee? Where else would we operate?" Good question. And oddly, it is the doctor that is charged for that and passed on to the consumer. Unless the doctor happens to be a 'rock star cardiologist' - a term I didn't coin, but the CEO of a well-known American hospital did. Side deals...professional courtesy based on profit margins, the idea of a doctor's reputation being a selling point for a hospital that needs to fill beds. You know...like billable hours. In reality, today's doctors are more like corporate plumbers. They only show up to 'fix' the pipes. The rest of the medical process has been sub-contracted out to a myriad of independents who in many cases operate no differently than the local 7-11. </span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">How this came to be is a story of how Wal-Mart came to be. There is money in selling crap to humans and there is money in selling health care repairs -- not prevention. No profit in telling somebody to eat more Kale...unless you happen to be a Kale farmer. The motivation was two-fold: profit and risk sharing. But the result was added expense to the consumer and a huge replication of services tied directly to the price of real estate...i.e., geography = money.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">As an example: I lived for about ten years on the peninsula below San Francisco. Normally, a somewhat affluent area mixed with a large immigrant population; Asian, Hispanic. Within 20-miles of my residence, I counted 6 major hospitals, including Stanford Medical Center and the regional County Hospital. All offering the same services, same so-called specialties -- many owned by (ha, ha.) overriding corporate entities spouting religious affiliations or non-profit status. Sure, some mystery foundation may be non-profit, but the hospital certainly is not. So instead of focusing on medicine, all these institutions are engaged in a mad-cap competition for customers...to fill beds, to keep the operating theaters running 24/7, <em>ad nauseum</em>. And yet, in the spirit of this false-competition, prices rise -- they do not fall. And they love Medicare! Because they have a lock on it. Guaranteed profits at our children's expense.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">So why not globalize medicine? Take the experiment one more step into the unknown. Medicare, as an agency of the Federal Government (and a <em>faux</em> non-profit) has the power to level the playing field. With the government's backing, they can be the 'big stick' in negotiating reasonable costs. And Congress? Go around this body of herd-bound steers and force the change through a public plebiscite. Or simply send the recalcitrant 'my party or my life' bunch to the unemployment line. Better yet, abolish their free health-care ride altogether. Let them swim with the sharks before they allowed to dictate policy to the other fish. Free rides do not create free thinking or any form of affirmative action. Never has.</span></strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYTFDV7z9K0P0kedHGhEFJ6jim-PgIgrIf6Hv4N_x-WnhxuRSUMnBJhtgj9svwTbMQtzTUdTefRZXOs3qE686f6TiuIl5Tb6K43w4LYGyjJvD2TzPQygXNmvnAq2WlZPsio7vG3qXrgQE/s1600/ch1021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYTFDV7z9K0P0kedHGhEFJ6jim-PgIgrIf6Hv4N_x-WnhxuRSUMnBJhtgj9svwTbMQtzTUdTefRZXOs3qE686f6TiuIl5Tb6K43w4LYGyjJvD2TzPQygXNmvnAq2WlZPsio7vG3qXrgQE/s320/ch1021.jpg" width="320" /></a><strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Love this photo. Mostly because I was younger, more dashing...yeah, yeah. China, just post-Tiannemenn. Before the great capitalist surge in the world's most populous state. You notice it doesn't say "GREAT," just good. And no, I am not advocating blatant socialism -- merely saying that all democracies (and other fairly benevolent forms of government), must have a social conscience as an adjunct to their political lip-service. Particularly here, where we tend to wave it around like a gym sock that doesn't smell. At least to some of us.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Of course, everybody will scream about government control, blah, blah, blah. Sure, less would be better, but sadly governments were and are formed, maintained and accepted because humans are incapable of being accountable to themselves or other humans, animals, bushes...pretty much everything below our overblown status on this planet. So we bitch about the constraints placed upon our ability to run amuck; conversely, refuse to be a part of constructive change because opinion is more fun than logic. Why people spend hours on Facebook and have never even read something as fundamental as "The Federalist Papers." (One critique of perhaps many that formed the basic tenets of this nation's troubled founding.)</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Lastly, a little patient responsibility. Learn how to say, "No!" Be a consumer, not a lemming. Turn down ridiculous tests, learn to negotiate personally on fees, shop around or as many have done, take your business overseas and leave your lawyer at home. Most indicators have actually shown a greater quality in health services, extremely competitive prices and fewer risks. Sure, a procedure can go badly in Belgium...so can a favorite recipe you've made a 100 times. As I said, life is risky. And poverty makes it even more so. We have a fundamental right to medical care. But not at the price of everything else. </span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;"><em>And no, I don't necessarily know what in the hell I'm talking about. However, I have worked inside and outside the Medical/Industrial Complex and have personally (and painfully) experienced, as many others have, just how cruel and how financially devastating the current system can be.</em> </span></strong> </div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-31594215027473164912013-07-16T10:27:00.001-07:002013-12-16T07:01:55.925-08:00Iraq and Afghanistan: Losses and...Well, Losses.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">The Mathematics of a Zero-Gain Equation...and Other Fallacies:</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><em>Iraq and Afghanistan</em></span></strong> </div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">In March 2002 –
before the Iraq War – at a news conference held at </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagram_Air_Base" title="Bagram Air Base"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Bagram Air Base</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">, Afghanistan, U.S. General </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Franks" title="Tommy Franks"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Tommy Franks</span></span></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"> had said, "we don't do body counts."</span></span></span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><em><u>Oh...well let me elaborate for you, Tommy</u>:</em></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><em><u>Gains</u>:</em></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;">Saddam Hussein: Dead.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;">Osama bin Laden: Dead. After an extended holiday with one of our 'new' friends.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;">America has been saved millions in rent by housing our entire Armed Forces overseas. Hmm.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;">The CIA was finally able to perfect waterboarding.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;">Naked gymnastics by suspected terrorists now Olympic venue.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;">Gasoline is cheaper...</span></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">The Iraqi and Afghan people are all now happily living in the bosom of democracy and busily shopping at Wal-Mart...uh, I better stop here.</span></strong></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong><em><u>Losses</u>:</em></strong></span></span></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><strong>孔子說:<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“</span>如果一個人尋求報復,他們必須先挖兩個墳墓。<span style="font-family: Calibri;">”<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "Matura MT Script Capitals"; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>Confucius
say: “If one seeks revenge, they must first dig two graves.”<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><strong>Hope you have a few minutes...</strong></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Civilian Casualties of the Conflict in Iraq Since 2003</u>:</span></b> </span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;">(Beginning with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq" title="2003 invasion of Iraq">2003 invasion of Iraq</a>, and continuing with the ensuing <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-invasion_Iraq,_2003%E2%80%93present" title="Post-invasion Iraq, 2003–present">occupation and insurgency</a>) have come in many forms, and the accuracy of the information available on different types of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War" title="Iraq War">Iraq War</a> casualties varies greatly.</span></div>
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The table below summarizes various estimates of the Iraqi casualty figures:<br />
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<tr><th class="unsortable">Source</th><th class="headerSort" data-sort-type="number" title="Sort ascending">Casualties</th><th class="unsortable">Time period</th></tr>
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<tr valign="top"><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Press" title="Associated Press">Associated Press</a></b></td><td><b>110,600</b> violent deaths</td><td>March 2003 to April 2009</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td><b><a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Costs_of_War_Project&action=edit&redlink=1" saprocessedanchor="true" title="Costs of War Project (page does not exist)">Costs of War Project</a></b></td><td><b>176,000–189,000</b> violent deaths including <b>134,000</b> civilians<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup></td><td>March 2003 to February 2013</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Body_Count_project" title="Iraq Body Count project">Iraq Body Count project</a></b></td><td><b>112,667–123,284</b> civilian deaths from violence. <b>174,000</b> civilian and combatant deaths<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-iraqbodycountlogs_4-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-iraqbodycountlogs-4">[4]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-6">[6]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-7">[7]</a></sup></td><td>March 2003 to March 2013</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Family_Health_Survey" title="Iraq Family Health Survey">Iraq Family Health Survey</a></b></td><td><b>151,000</b> violent deaths</td><td>March 2003 to June 2006</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_surveys_of_Iraq_War_casualties" title="Lancet surveys of Iraq War casualties"><i>Lancet</i> survey</a></b></td><td><b>601,027</b> violent deaths out of <b>654,965</b> excess deaths</td><td>March 2003 to June 2006</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORB_survey_of_Iraq_War_casualties" title="ORB survey of Iraq War casualties">Opinion Research Business survey</a></b></td><td><b>1,033,000</b> deaths as a result of the conflict</td><td>March 2003 to August 2007</td></tr>
<tr valign="top"><td><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks" title="WikiLeaks">WikiLeaks</a>. Classified <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War_Logs" title="Iraq War Logs">Iraq War Logs</a></b><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-iraqbodycountlogs_4-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-iraqbodycountlogs-4">[4]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-guardianlogs3_8-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-guardianlogs3-8">[8]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-guardianlogs_9-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-guardianlogs-9">[9]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-aljazeeralogs2_10-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-aljazeeralogs2-10">[10]</a></sup></td><td><b>109,032</b> deaths including 66,081 civilian deaths.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-spiegel_11-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-spiegel-11">[11]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-guardianlogs2_12-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-guardianlogs2-12">[12]</a></sup></td><td>January 2004 to December 2009</td></tr>
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<strong><em>Remember too, that this conflict created 5 million orphans -- 1/2 the children of Iraq.</em></strong><br />
<strong><em>1.8 million refugees in neighboring countries,</em></strong><br />
<strong><em>1.6 million displaced internally.</em></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><strong><em>And according to classified documents (via Wikileaks): 176,382 injuries to civilians.</em></strong></span></div>
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<strong><em>16,28</em></strong></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><strong><em>3 Iraqi police and military personnel killed.</em></strong></span><strong><em></em></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><strong><em> However, the Iraqi human Rights Ministry places this figure at closer to 250,000 civilian injuries.</em></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: xx-small; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><strong></strong></o:p></span><u> <strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Civilian </span></strong> </u><strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><u>Casualties of the Conflict in Afghanistan Since 2001</u>:</span></strong><br />
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The decade-long <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)" title="War in Afghanistan (2001–present)">War in Afghanistan (2001–present)</a> has caused the deaths of thousands of Afghan civilians directly from insurgent and foreign military action, as well as the deaths of possibly tens of thousands of Afghan civilians indirectly as a consequence of displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, and crime resulting from the war. The war, launched by the United States as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Enduring_Freedom" title="Operation Enduring Freedom">Operation Enduring Freedom</a>" in 2001, began with an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)#Initial_air_campaigns" title="War in Afghanistan (2001–present)">initial air campaign</a> that almost immediately prompted concerns over the number of Afghan civilians being killed<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-US_admits_lethal_blunders_1-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)#cite_note-US_admits_lethal_blunders-1">[1]</a></sup> as well as <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_invasion_of_Afghanistan" title="Protests against the invasion of Afghanistan">international protests</a>. With civilian deaths from air strikes rising again in recent years,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Afghanistan:_Civilian_Deaths_From_Airstrikes_2-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)#cite_note-Afghanistan:_Civilian_Deaths_From_Airstrikes-2">[2]</a></sup> the number of Afghan civilians being killed by foreign military operations has led to mounting tension between the foreign countries and the government of Afghanistan. In May 2007, President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai" title="Hamid Karzai">Hamid Karzai</a> summoned foreign military commanders to warn them of the consequences of further Afghan civilian deaths.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup> The civilian losses are a continuation of the extremely high civilian losses experienced during the <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Afghan_war" title="Soviet Afghan war">Soviet Afghan war</a> in the 1980s, and the three periods of civil war following it: <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war_in_Afghanistan_(1989%E2%80%931992)" title="Civil war in Afghanistan (1989–1992)">1989–1992</a>, <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war_in_Afghanistan_(1992%E2%80%931996)" title="Civil war in Afghanistan (1992–1996)">1992–1996</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war_in_Afghanistan_(1996%E2%80%932001)" title="Civil war in Afghanistan (1996–2001)">1996–2001</a>. [Wikipedia -- some figures leaked via Wikileaks.com]<br />
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2001: 4700, though it is estimated that 20,000+ were killed in initial air strikes.</div>
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2002: 1200+</div>
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2003: 3600</div>
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2004: unknown/unreported</div>
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2005: 478 direct, indirect unknown</div>
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2006: 768 direct, though <em><strong>Associated Press </strong></em>estimated: 4000; <em><strong>Human Rights Watch</strong></em>: 4400.</div>
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2007: 629 direct. <em><strong>UN Assistance Mission Afghanistan</strong></em>: 1523 direct. Indirect unknown.</div>
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2008: 3917 killed, 6800 wounded...120,000 displaced.</div>
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2009: 2412</div>
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2010: 2777</div>
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2011: 1462...and on and on and on...nor do we know for sure on those deaths resulting from disease, starvation...or those that fled the country. Nor do we have an idea on infant mortality rates generated by a continuing conflict.</div>
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<li><small>*Note: In UNAMA/AIHRC methodology, whenever it remains uncertain whether a victim is a civilian after they have assessed the facts available to them, UNAMA/AIHRC does not count that victim as a possible civilian casualty. The number of such victims is not provided.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Afghanistan_Annual_Report_on_Protection_of_Civilians_in_Armed_Conflict.2C_2010_26-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)#cite_note-Afghanistan_Annual_Report_on_Protection_of_Civilians_in_Armed_Conflict.2C_2010-26">[26]</a></sup></small></li>
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<strong><em>Truth is nobody really knows Tommy...which works out well for the Public Relations Department, the American conscience and all the memoirs soon to be written about the highly successful process of forced nation building at the point of a gun. And oh, all sources admit to these figures being gross 'underestimates.' And too, these were not wars, just conflicts -- though the non-combatants might argue against that notion.</em></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><u>Geo-political Consequences/Iraq</u>:</span></strong></div>
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And there are many. The removal of Saddam Hussein from a leadership position in Iraq merely succeeded in placing Iran as the dominant power in the region -- a country with extremely hostile intentions toward both Israel and the United States. Further, Iran supports a Persian majority, hence of the <em>Shia</em> sect of Islam. The country also has nuclear ambitions, as well as a long standing animosity toward Iraq -- not to mention centuries of animosity toward Islam's other major sect: the Sunni Arabs, the history of which I have covered elsewhere in this blog. Currently, Iran's more overt ambitions are hemmed-in geographically by US and Coalition military forces on two sides -- that about to end without a definitive plan for maintaining stability in the region. </div>
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<strong><em>[Note: Was an all-out invasion of Iraq necessary? Most likely not. In 1986, then President Ronald Reagan, telegraphed Libya's Moammar Qaddafi a far more subtle version of the American Big Stick...in the form of a midnight raid which also targeted his bedroom. It amounted to behavior modification from afar. Hussein, a man of ego, possessions...palaces, automobile collections, women...stuff. One US aircraft carrier could have waged a war of attrition on the Iraqi leader from the relative safety of the Persian Gulf, giving the guy a chance to reflect on just how much he cared to lose personally. But then that might not have been enough blood to quench the American desire for revenge.]</em></strong> </div>
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Who else got hurt in the geo-politics of American adventurism? Saudi Arabia for one You see, our expanding presence in the region, particularly on the Arabian peninsula is what created the need for an Osama bin Laden. He was nurtured as a political mercenary by the Saudi Royal Family -- an entity that rules only by the good graces of the Wahhabi majority -- the Bedouins of the vast deserts of the peninsula. They are fundamentalist in their thinking, isolationist by intent and bent on preserving their culture and </div>
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lifestyle...and they had already met the west; experienced our true intentions through British colonial abuses in the region a century earlier. For them, oil was one thing, American soldiers quite another. So in effect, bin Laden was the backdoor pipeline to the Wahhabi -- reassuring this fundamentalist majority that the Royal Family was playing two cards in the great game of world politics.</div>
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However, his message fell on very eager ears and the Wahhabist movement globalized -- attractive to Islamic groups worldwide who felt marginalized, ignored...faces pressed to the hard, cold pavement of repression by greater powers, both foreign and domestic, Osama bin Laden the <em>de-facto</em> <em><strong>Caliphate</strong></em> of a resurgent Islam. And in such cases, negotiation via violence is a legitimate tool on an uneven playing field. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5NCusyF8XIuPSDfcjnGWVTZw1ArCrZNgXzfFCiiqIXWcdwhE9pEq3bj5ssiu59ZGCMVRqGSSCcD-NQAUOLWpDgYSjbuz1FHL7zSt121Qr02-tG0QLq5GdTbI9XX6u8ktZKWOcDvTZQGUy/s1600/_Saudi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5NCusyF8XIuPSDfcjnGWVTZw1ArCrZNgXzfFCiiqIXWcdwhE9pEq3bj5ssiu59ZGCMVRqGSSCcD-NQAUOLWpDgYSjbuz1FHL7zSt121Qr02-tG0QLq5GdTbI9XX6u8ktZKWOcDvTZQGUy/s200/_Saudi.jpg" width="132" /></a> And while his audience cheered over the 9/11 debacle -- bin Laden had really sealed his own ultimate fate -- for he had grown more powerful than the Saudi government itself...a greater threat to the Royal Family's ability to maintain power in the Kingdom than the entire United States military combined. And so they cut him loose. Except sadly, his grass-roots message remained. So who really initiated this round of <em>Jihad?</em> Well, get out your textbooks and re-visit a century or more of colonialism, imperialism, hegemony -- <strong><em>The Great Game</em></strong> of a never-ending Cold War...foreign-aid masked as political will, the outright theft of resources and a blatant carving up of the developing world into fences, boundaries and nations that shared no commonality whatsoever. The real estate that viciously cut through the heart of traditional, social, cultural, tribal and family structures. And the long fist of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the international corporate raiders, who were more than happy to trade a groups future sustenance...their children's lives for a buck. And many Americans still wonder: "Why the World Trade Center?" Wonder no more.<br />
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<strong><em>[Note: Osama bin Laden experienced the same dichotomy while helping to train al Qaeda fighters in Libya. It quickly became apparent to Qaddafi that not only was bin Laden a potential threat to his power base in Tripoli, but was attracting the <u>wrong</u> kind of attention from a very edgy west. There too, bin Laden found himself expelled from the host country.] </em></strong><br />
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What happens when all US forces exit the region? Unknown. Iran could once again move against Iraq -- most likely with impunity. And what if Iran does develop a deliverable nuclear device? That scenario is a given really. Israel has been green-lighted by every US administration since Jimmy Carter to take out Iran's capabilities. Then what? As it currently stands, Saudi Arabia is on the verge of going nuclear itself, if Iran should play such a card. And it certainly has the resources. It is the same scenario that led to the China/India/Pakistan domino, all embracing the nuclear card as a deterrent from aggression by a neighbor. And yet, in today's human algebra, war itself -- all-out war is obsolete, for this kind of conflict would be the final measure of man's presence on this planet. So with no regional power to influence Iranian policies, intentions or ambitions...if they proceed on their current course, they will be hit hard. And that will have many, unknown ramifications for the region. Little else is really on the table. And even this action would further cement the solidarity of the Islamic world...dropping sectarian rivalries in favor of confronting a common enemy: The West.</div>
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<strong><em>What is a terrorist? When American militia went from destroying tea stocks to assassinating British officers from behind trees...the King of England called our ancestors 'terrorists of the first order.' Perhaps so. However, an armed rebellion (this was not a war), is 'negotiation via violence.' It is a legitimate tool when all other avenues have been exhausted. A fair comparison here? No. Merely an observation on semantics -- according to which side of the violence you happen to experience. And do remember that the American militia was not in uniform and not recognized by the British. They were considered civilians and the British reciprocated by killing other civilians. None of this right -- however, all of this is painfully predictable.</em></strong> </div>
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Saudi Arabia has also lost a tremendous amount of credibility in their own world -- the Islamic world. Conflicts in Syria, Egypt...even Turkey could benefit greatly from a moderate Islamic ally...one with almost inexhaustible resources and access <br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If two invasions of Iraq could be considered a preposterous undertaking, then entering Afghanistan would seem to be a case of incurable insanity. <em>An enigma wrapped in a</em>...yep. And don't forget that the Taliban of today are the <em>Mujaheddin</em> of yesterday. The same folks that we promised schools, electricity, hospitals, machinery, water systems, food...if they'd kill a few Russians for us. Well, they did and we rewarded them by abandoning a people and a country in ruin. So now they kill us. Anyone notice the irony here besides me? </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW8momZED03d_p42czc6EAhMe2JaNDkiRMpo8OPOQgV7j-9cDdaUMJ3njfzcXv3c71QV6a7KulAiwD0IN98WUXWd0vdfkn1f4NEXpke12jHlcp7vdBFv4KfLIKU7ZJCx8Ew_imwUTeqgjx/s1600/afghanistan-ethnic-map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW8momZED03d_p42czc6EAhMe2JaNDkiRMpo8OPOQgV7j-9cDdaUMJ3njfzcXv3c71QV6a7KulAiwD0IN98WUXWd0vdfkn1f4NEXpke12jHlcp7vdBFv4KfLIKU7ZJCx8Ew_imwUTeqgjx/s320/afghanistan-ethnic-map.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is just possibly nowhere on earth that is so ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse than Afghanistan. Unless you consider the United States over the last couple of decades -- diverse being the gentler of most available descriptors. And it is tribal, geographically isolated, technologically three-steps removed from the stone age, sports 80% illiteracy -- viewing that as a positive; and is violently opposed to outside interference in its internal affairs. And us (US) in our incredible wisdom, chose to invade this bottomless pit of rocks, sand and intolerance in spite of the fact that the entire Soviet Army was sent home like whipped dogs only fifteen or so years earlier. Boy, now there is a case of runaway optimism by folks that should seriously know better. But then, both Afghanistan and Iraq were nothing more than broad-based political conflicts bent on appeasing the domestic discomfort caused by the events of 9/11. A blood feud really. As if killing more people was the answer to less people being killed. And of course in the overall picture, these acts of violence -- <em><strong>perpetrated by</strong></em> <em><strong>bin</strong></em> <strong><em>Laden</em></strong> <em><strong>and others</strong></em> -- clearly accomplished their goals: they undermined the very core of American security, cost this country at least a trillion dollars or more, and undermined our own democratic principles; further, they allowed us to sanctify an unending assortment of basic human rights' violations -- causes which we once championed -- all under the collective banner of...no, not national security; not reciprocity; just a simple case of orchestrated fear. Children fall for this kind of nonsense...you know, story-telling around a campfire on a dark night. Yes, enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world 3-times over and we cower under our blankets because we never had the guts to simply ask the Islamic world what it really wanted from us. We might have been surprised by the answers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><u>Nation Building</u>: </span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just possibly the biggest pile of bullshit ever dumped on an audience. No, not the Afghan people; Americans. Like it or not, democracy is <strong><em>NOT</em></strong> exportable -- particularly to groups or cultures whose societies are tribal in nature, and who do not claim nor embrace a level of literacy commensurate to the task. It is a dysfunctional approach to introduce -- rather force -- a system of governing on those who have no hope of understanding or implementing its complex workings. It is arrogance administered at the point of a gun. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nation building, if actually a serious intent, would require a 30-year investment in time, energy, education, infrastructure repair, technology...basically, growing a whole new generation of Afghans with the tools and abilities to accomplish such a formidable task. And it would have to include women. The truth is that the Taliban, and fundamentalist groups like them, fear literacy more than they fear the combined military power of the Coalition Forces sent against them. They retain power only through ignorance, superstition and a singular flawed interpretation of Islamic doctrine. Break the cycle of ignorance, open the doors of communication and learning -- you break the Taliban. But you must be willing to play the long game -- something the American people fail to have the stomach for. And too, we change leadership every 4-8 years, discounting any and all international agreements in favor of this chronic need for pandering to the home audience...most of whom seem more interested in Jerry Springer's <em>dog and pony show</em> than a world-wide decimation of hope and optimism in our own time -- issues that have finally crossed all borders and infected all cultures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>'The world is often divided between science (physical knowledge)
and religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When education (access to
knowledge) is denied,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fundamental
religious theology becomes the prevalent voice, the broken compass of a
society; this as both the offense and defense against the fear<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and uncertainty found in life itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Religion becomes the staple of
hope…knowledge, the tool of a truly free will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
The first</span> merely holds fear at bay, the second exposes it to the naked light of
day.'</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Afghanistan? Was thinking of some place closer to home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And we must not forget the warriors who are left to execute
the will of the nation-state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are
the swords dispatched to enforce the gains sought by others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi117QklKdQ-WNn84-97Zz2xxhW8v_1a1wTjzEuUuzGPdk-C8tE1eyE1XtxdEnww1E3eqzL4WhVR9ExhLKdQrDYQGXhdOZqPzwQAbhyphenhyphengb2FtA9mkDiOhjv1Oe_MiE75vib9nIla9U2llCEF/s1600/soldier2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi117QklKdQ-WNn84-97Zz2xxhW8v_1a1wTjzEuUuzGPdk-C8tE1eyE1XtxdEnww1E3eqzL4WhVR9ExhLKdQrDYQGXhdOZqPzwQAbhyphenhyphengb2FtA9mkDiOhjv1Oe_MiE75vib9nIla9U2llCEF/s320/soldier2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em><strong>Yes. The moral paradox. The chronic disease of an acute illness that has infected mankind since the earliest days of personal cognition. And death is merely one outcome of many.</strong></em><br />
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We ask soldiers to do the unthinkable...for nation, for God, for some insatiable political appetite not of their own making. Yet after that first shot, soldiers fight for themselves, for the person next to them. And we sit back, unable to comprehend the insanity produced through this collective violence. Because we fail to realize what war requires of a person: either the highest manner of morality...or none at all. It is the nature of a soul under siege.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEK8mUptVYrKxZAz-ySkfrnk0xbYP2ckCkIjgapsQIDVBsUWda0a4gGFOgM5M7DpYh2n0_YP8vs1XPCkWBNwSN9VxOGYggBfa6uPmO0bTeOGJHthbk3GcN2vOPwXmjHCmUdQlFgiNEKL7F/s1600/afghan1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEK8mUptVYrKxZAz-ySkfrnk0xbYP2ckCkIjgapsQIDVBsUWda0a4gGFOgM5M7DpYh2n0_YP8vs1XPCkWBNwSN9VxOGYggBfa6uPmO0bTeOGJHthbk3GcN2vOPwXmjHCmUdQlFgiNEKL7F/s320/afghan1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>Afghanistan Deaths: Coalition: 3231 -- US: 2220</strong></div>
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<strong>Iraq Deaths: Coalition: 4777 -- US: 4486</strong></div>
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<strong>*2012 figures</strong></div>
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<strong>Wounded: 22,700 of which 2.2% were major amputations.</strong></div>
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More frightening are the statistics coming out of the US Department of Veterans Affairs: Estimates that 20,000 US troops "not classified as wounded," have been found with signs of brain injuries. 30% of those troops after their 3rd deployment were found to have serious mental health problems. And 1/3 of the 103,788 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (2001-2005) were diagnosed with mental illness or a psycho-social disorder, 56% suffering from more than one condition. (From: US Department of Veterans Affairs: Testifying before Congress.)<br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><u>America's Collateral Damage</u>: <u>An Economy in Ruins</u></span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh25sZ2te6crMJNt43WVuFui82eloxnon5F_GGOXPEw_LZwezVTilbrCP3qUbxNpKOgWtcunwDz7t6pjHQikivXSAWjLMMy-pnMEbXvGg8jUtKu7iun1WlwihzNdh5hBiKkqeZktpg1M433/s1600/money.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh25sZ2te6crMJNt43WVuFui82eloxnon5F_GGOXPEw_LZwezVTilbrCP3qUbxNpKOgWtcunwDz7t6pjHQikivXSAWjLMMy-pnMEbXvGg8jUtKu7iun1WlwihzNdh5hBiKkqeZktpg1M433/s320/money.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Appropriations:</span></span></b></div>
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<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2003 Supplemental: Operation Iraqi
Freedom: Passed April 2003; Total $78.5 billion, $54.4 billion Iraq War<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2004 Supplemental: Iraq and
Afghanistan Ongoing Operations/Reconstruction: Passed November 2003; Total
$87.5 billion, $70.6 billion Iraq War<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2004 DoD Budget Amendment: $25
billion Emergency Reserve Fund (Iraq Freedom Fund): Passed July 2004,
Total $25 billion, $21.5 billion (<i>estimated</i>) Iraq War<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2005 Emergency Supplemental:
Operations in the War on Terror; Activities in Afghanistan; Tsunami
Relief: Passed April 2005, Total $82 billion, $58 billion (<i>estimated</i>)
Iraq War<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2006 Department of Defense
appropriations: Total $50 billion, $40 billion (<i>estimated</i>) Iraq
War.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2006 Emergency Supplemental:
Operations Global War on Terror; Activities in Iraq & Afghanistan:
Passed February 2006, Total $72.4 billion, $60 billion (<i>estimated</i>)
Iraq War<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2007 Department of Defense
appropriations: $70 billion(<i>estimated</i>) for Iraq War-related costs</span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-4"><sup><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">[4]</span></span></sup></a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-5"><sup><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">[5]</span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2007 Emergency Supplemental
(proposed) $100 billion<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2008 Bush administration has
proposed around $190 billion for the Iraq War and Afghanistan</span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-6"><sup><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">[6]</span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2009 Obama administration has
proposed around $130 billion in additional funding for the Iraq War and
Afghanistan.</span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-7"><sup><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">[7]</span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FY2011 Obama administration proposes
around $159.3 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.</span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War#cite_note-8"><sup><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">[8]</span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is unclear why
no breakdowns are offered on the basis of each war<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The <b>Iraq
Relief and Reconstruction Fund</b> (<b>IRRF</b>) was established by the US
Congress on November 6, 2003. It allocated $18.4 billion to rebuild Iraq's
infrastructure, damaged from years of neglect, sanctions, and war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As of March 29,
2006, approximately $16.3 billion, or 89%, had been obligated and $11.4 billion
had been expended. The fund has come under some criticism due to the slowness
with which the allocated money has been disbursed, largely because of the
time-consuming US procurement process.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Truth is, nobody knows. Best guesstimate: $3.4 trillion + another $1 trillion servicing the debt. Not to mention the billions that never quite made the <em>official</em> ledger. Hard to imagine what could have been done in this country over those same 10 years. Fund universal access to Healthcare maybe? Yeah, rhetorical question...all I'm left with here.</strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><strong><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Reconstruction and the 'Exit Plan.'</span></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Basically, no and no. For Iraq, most reconstruction surrounded oil facilities and military needs. NGO's did the heavy lifting, more often than not in a dangerous and volatile environment. Sectarian violence continues while the 'new' Iraqi Army is left ill-equipped to deal with either domestic or international security in the region. And as bad storekeepers we were kind enough to leave sufficient (and modern) munitions lying about to propagate a continuation of violence for years to come. No, nothing even approaching the common sense investment found in World War II's great <em>Marshall Plan.</em></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">For Afghanistan, the picture is even more bleak. Karzai has his castle in Kabul, but as the last American soldier trudges out the gate, this leader...our guy -- his life expectancy will take a sudden turn for the worse. Yes, a repeat of the last hours of Saigon...so many decades ago, so poignant in its message of a failed foreign policy...but obviously worth repeating.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Around 2011, <em>Mother Jones</em> published a rather intriguing survey conducted in Afghanistan...posing the question of what Afghans themselves wanted from us. At the head of the list? No, not peace. Electricity. Second was communication, education...the free access to knowledge. What we promised and withdrew from the <em>Mujaheddin </em>a long time and a few American presidents ago. After 10 years, we leave them in the same state of ruination, the same world of intolerance and suppression; the same bleak vision for their aspirations as humans. More friends tossed on the rubbish pile of our misguided, intemperate political will. And yes, once again, the women and children are left to endure the consequences...to pick up the pieces of what might be left of life. As a nation, as a people...we should be ashamed. But hell, it's not <em>our</em> problem...is it?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvFEN71oFGfsN6gNuMt_GhXn17fZGYTJOe4gBAPgX1P01Qgvj4oOymu4A880aGvn-53k6noK7QmdwHJyeVfk8XjJ_AATy4oP8WEanbxFRsJrswuBNVhpmFGyLbryr-H9QymXBjzlpiALS/s1600/afghanchildren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvFEN71oFGfsN6gNuMt_GhXn17fZGYTJOe4gBAPgX1P01Qgvj4oOymu4A880aGvn-53k6noK7QmdwHJyeVfk8XjJ_AATy4oP8WEanbxFRsJrswuBNVhpmFGyLbryr-H9QymXBjzlpiALS/s320/afghanchildren.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">The real face of war...</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;"></span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;"></span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">*Addendum:</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;"></span></em></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The entire operation in Iraq went south about 30-days before it even began. No one had bothered to ask the most basic of questions: "What do we do if we win?" Those running the game; Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld (The Three Mosquitos), had never been on the ground in Iraq. Neither had Bremer or any other key players. General Sanduski...bathed in experience in Bosnia was largely ignored when he stated that at least 300,000 troops would be needed. Not to win this pissing contest, but to 'manage' and 'administer' the political vacuum that would occur in the wake of Saddam's forced departure. Rumsfeld overruled him and would only agree to 160,000 initial forces.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Of greater note was the fact that 2/3rds of the Iraqi population (as well as key elements of the Iraqi military), were in support of the US action. Within thirty days of our occupation, those 2/3rds had decided that killing Americans would be far more productive to their immediate future. Why? Because Bremer (and Rumsfeld) -- refused to listen to those with experience in Iraq; folks who knew the culture, the animosities and importantly, the aspirations of the Iraqi people. So he ordered the disbanding of the entire Iraqi military, even in light of the Iraqi command's willingness to put multiple (and existing) divisions to work on policing, logistics and infrastructure repair. America's notion? All Muslims are terrorists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So the US Army was charged with policing the country -- a job they had no experience (or even a plan), to work with...not to mention the sensitivity needed to maintain any kind of civil order. And with the Iraqi Army unemployed -- meaning, unable to support their families -- they too turned on the occupiers...that's us. Further complicating the issue, almost all rebuilding projects (a source of employment; more importantly self-worth), was handed over to the likes of Hallaburton [sic] and others, who already had a history of profiteering through corruption. So within weeks of the occupation, the entire country fell into distrust, outright hatred and anarchy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And a bunch of marginally educated high school drop-outs with a little too much testosterone became the new police force in Iraq...egged on by a CIA that Rumsfeld and others had turned loose on the land. In the end our actions made Saddam Hussein look like a three-legged poodle. And why? Because a bunch of creative malcontents hit us on 9/11. An attack that was remarkably light in comparison to what 50-years of US Cold War policy had reaped on the developing world. We made enemies...tons of them, and like Custer on Little Big Horn, one day your behavior will come home to roost. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So read those casualty lists as something far more ominous than just lives lost. Add in the 2-3 million still dislocated in both conflicts. Think about your own abilities at memory, your own capacity for vengeance. And wonder no more. </span></div>
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<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Annual_Report_on_Protection_of_Civilians_in_Armed_Conflict.2C_2008_p._13_graph_2._14-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)#cite_note-Annual_Report_on_Protection_of_Civilians_in_Armed_Conflict.2C_2008_p._13_graph_2.-14">]</a></sup><br />
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<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-The_Matrix_of_Death:_.28Im.29Precision_of_U.S_Bombing_and_the_.28Under.29Valuation_of_an_Afghan_Life_9-2"></sup><br />
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-36589384285000010802013-06-23T10:14:00.001-07:002013-06-29T06:43:07.349-07:00Dear Mr. Biden....<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<em><b><span style="font-family: "Agency FB","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">One American’s Tale – From Dreamer to Beggar--<o:p></o:p></span></b></em></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<em><b><span style="font-family: "Agency FB","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Health UnCare in America<o:p></o:p></span></b></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuO7Rk4yy2AlCQnmnYGSH4_S6GDFN6XZz5bv8tFMWNOEn5Gyfz3g08V7HLh0hrmNBUxxeMCiKiT1Or6LyZ3HAvVceObBb2VD4YvqFbydq_U-0aL-OgYddxrYMH3EQUJhqEh6XTDlRHAE3Q/s1600/kidpony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuO7Rk4yy2AlCQnmnYGSH4_S6GDFN6XZz5bv8tFMWNOEn5Gyfz3g08V7HLh0hrmNBUxxeMCiKiT1Or6LyZ3HAvVceObBb2VD4YvqFbydq_U-0aL-OgYddxrYMH3EQUJhqEh6XTDlRHAE3Q/s320/kidpony.jpg" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Children Have Dreams...</strong><br />
<strong>Adults Should Too...</strong></td></tr>
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<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><br />
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<em><b>“The middle-class is where
optimism lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The truly poor have
given up and the wealthy have no need of it.”<o:p></o:p></b></em></div>
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<em><b><o:p> </o:p></b></em></div>
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><br />
<br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Mr. Joseph Biden, Vice-President<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The White House<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Washington DC, 20501<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<br />
<em><b><o:p> </o:p></b></em><br />
<br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>June 23, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Dear Mr. Biden;<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Yes, I voted for your ticket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And yes, I expected little in return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Haven’t for many a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We elect
leaders on ideals and then watch in dismay as the partisan brigands of both
parties render the office impotent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I,
like millions, perhaps billions of other Americans hired you folks to do a
job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You have failed terribly at that
task – worse yet, we, as a people have proven to be unworthy custodians of the
principles sanctified by the founders of this democratic republic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So if one is to point a finger, establish the
crime, let it start with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For I too
let the </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Republic </span></em><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">down,
for I traded my political activism -- born of the 60’s -- for the comfort of my
parent’s middle-class lifestyle. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
earned, not bought. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a story of
doing the right thing in America, only to discover the obsolescence of that
grand ideal.<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<br />
<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></em><em><b>"On the dole:" </b></em><em><b><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>The term originated in the UK about
1919. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Referred to those folks collecting
'unemployment' payments. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not welfare,
general assistance, disability, aid to dependent children, food stamps, heating
subsidies...rusty nail soup or coffee boiled in a paper bag. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unemployment.</b></em><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Strike I<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<br />
I began working at age 13, some fifty-odd years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Left home at 16 to work in Alaska. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never looked back -- only forward. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Managed farms, shod horses...can tell you how much
a railroad-tie or a bale of alfalfa weighs by just looking at it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because I've picked up 3 or 4000 of them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can also tell you how much a horse weighs, one
foot at a time, 10 or 15 times on a good day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the most part, I was self-taught, self-motivated…believed
strongly that my efforts would bear not riches, but fruit<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then, I can also show you my radiographs,
the last MRI and recount line for line the skepticism on my doctor's face. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then...I don't see my doctor anymore. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, my health insurance...all that was
affordable around 1985...had a mystery cap. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fine print casually revealed once the
spinal surgeon has finished his work. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
basically the hospital took what little hope I had left, along with pretty much
everything else I had managed to build over 25-years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bitter? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then, I did have a bunch of Percodans to
blur those few conscious moments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as
a caveat, while I was still bed-ridden, the insurance company cancelled my policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two months later my wife was diagnosed with
cervical cancer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was told by a very
nice social worker that the best thing I could do was divorce her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That way she could file for public assistance
and the possibility of treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Didn’t
matter really.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most marriages cannot
survive those kind of stresses anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
gee, we had just closed escrow on our own little farm…nice place, that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Dream </i>I heard so much about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wonder who lives there now?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Strike II<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></b></div>
<strong>Fast forward: </strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Got
off the pity-pot, went back to school, earned a couple degrees, went bankrupt
again in the process and finally insane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My other field, feature writing for newspapers and periodicals – my
great fall-back craft, well…publishing managed to tank-out via corporate
buy-outs, the internet and the sorry fact that honest journalism could no
longer sell newspapers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Age-discrimination
also became fashionable in America, self-esteem expendable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I took time out to become a drunk, failed
at that...reclaimed my clarity; and since my legs weren’t much good for walking
anymore -- went to driving large buses full of angry <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">former</i> middle-class people forced to work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> shop at Wal-Mart. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
yeah, along the way I ended up in the bug house a couple of times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The police kind of frown on people who wait
for a southbound train without a ticket, baggage or any clothes on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, life rolled on...sort of, the ever-weary
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Phoenix</i> -- the hopeless optimist, one
of America’s many myopic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don Quixote’s</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, I actually listened to Kennedy’s
speeches, believed in the ethic of hard work, a compassionate heart and the
ultimate rewards of doing the right thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yeah, just another naïve slob headed to the packing house.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
Of course, I never could acquire affordable health insurance after that. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not because I was insane...hell they insure maniacs
if they can pay the premiums. But my employers were often small companies,
often family operated, and when you are employed in that $10-20 an hour range
of income...well, you can't afford the premiums <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i> the doctors. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I had no
medical care for 20 years...like so many Americans that work hard and cross
their fingers that nothing happens -- wildly assuming that some magic bullet will
show up down the road. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it usually
does. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is called death or ruination.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Strike III<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></b></div>
So in 2009, my body starting phoning my brain...you know, like when your laptop
sends you an 'error message.' <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Already
had a spine full of popcorn and assorted ruptured discs, disinterested nerves
and faulty wiring. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Previous surgery had
compromised my feet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My right knee had
been destroyed a few times leaving the leg crooked. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Left wrist broken three times. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pain was a regular routine, not something you
bothered to question <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i> cure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then suddenly, I began losing the nerves in
my hands, my feet…it crept up to my knees and elbows. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The company I worked for had just been bought
out by a large corporation the previous year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Being big, they could negotiate for affordable benefits for their
employees. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By splitting the costs, we
both won a little. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Healthier employees
meant less absenteeism, hence more profitable operations. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I was insured...for just long enough to
find out that my body was failing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See,
I could no longer find the brake-peddle...which my 40 or so passengers would
probably not appreciate...if they knew. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trouble was, I did. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I stopped. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turned in my medical card on my commercial
licenses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could not, in any form of
good conscience, risk others...even as I watched my personal sense of security
(and my stupid male pride), abandon the room.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<o:p> </o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Strike IV<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
First, it was treated as job related. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I was thrown into the arena of 'workmen's
compensation' which operates health care like a runaway puppy mill. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They profit only if the problem is
work-related, which means they will not explore systemic causes...subsequently,
the patient's concerns, opinions, doubts...well, they remain secondary to the
need of conducting eight-weeks of physical therapy on a diagnosis that failed
the diagnostic model. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, in the
interim, the situation progresses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Refuse the diagnosis or treatment, you are
deemed fit for work. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can't
work...termination for non-performance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, you have one appeal for a second
opinion...after 8 weeks of costly and unproductive nonsense billed to the
states Workmen's Compensation program. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eight weeks later...finally a second look. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bottom line: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>unchecked metabolic problem, vascular anomaly
that would have killed me within a month and peripheral nerve damage that was
both aggressive, progressive and not fixable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hmm. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then the fear sets in...along with the
wishful thinking.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
The job vanishes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, they are
happy to inform you that you can continue your health insurance for 3 months by
paying the entire premium yourself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With what? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>State Disability will kick in...eventually,
and after a good fight. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it might amount
to half of your previous income. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rent,
utilities remain the same, Safeway isn't offering free dinners...and you need
surgery...sooner, not later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh...and an
additional matter gets disclosed: vascular necrosis of the left hip, four
fractures. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, maybe later on that one
because if I'm already dead...well, you get it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So do they.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The mysterious ‘they’ that seem to run this show.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Helpful friends tell you to apply for a Cobra extension. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ah...great. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, I see. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a fifty-something male, it is higher than
my rent. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And since my State Disability
is based on a $15 an hour income versus $60-80k? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can do the math. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thirty days later, I am officially terminated
and my health insurance is cancelled. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh
yeah...I'm still dwelling on the 30-day death sentence on the other
matter...and sure, I'm rational...kinda, sorta. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I'm paying for these life-saving
medications out of pocket. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, out of
savings and the food budget. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the State
Disability folks are gambling on me dropping dead before they need to make a
decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even if they do, it is
merely a one-year reprieve. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Resources
become strained because at $15 an hour the rainy day savings fund is based on
your tax refund. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Year-end bonus -- the
only one the middle-class sees anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Finally, I find a county health-care program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yearly membership fee, lots of co-pays and while
standing in the insufferably long lines at the County Hospital, you notice that
English is the fifth...maybe sixth language of choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I resent it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Is my resentment legitimate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, my mother was a
war bride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A damn foreigner as we unholy
patriots like to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contradicting the
minor matter of this nation being founded by immigrants, and all that rosy
bullshit printed on the Statue of Liberty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Except that today, it is about race, not just ethnicity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the sorry truth is that now, today, this
country cannot afford the generosity of its expansionist past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And unlike my mother escaping the vulgar
intentions of ordinary people in Nazi Germany -- <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>these 'tired and weary' folks cannot outrun
their skin color, their language or the fact that they make a convenient target
for problems not of their making. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
they too are in for a surprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
great dream left this place a long time ago.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
Oh...almost forgot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In order to gain access to this county program, I was forced to give up
my primary care doctor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That, after her
thoroughness, her dedication to her profession...caring a little more than
most...caught the problem that should have killed me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I owe her my life and reward that good
work by being forced to fire her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ah,
but it does get worse.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Strike V<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></b></div>
It takes six months to arrange the surgery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Try waking up every morning for six long months and being surprised that
you are alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, the other
problems progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>State Disability
(California) runs one year -- at that point it is then up to the Feds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you think the state process is tedious,
the Federal version will turn suicide into a business plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, the idea seems to be centered on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">promoting death over duty.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, try to remember that for the past year
you have been trying to live on $1200 a month. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You learn things about shopping that would
appall your own mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And because you
are sick, a little old...you need to eat healthy and well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But 'healthy and well’ is expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is why most of America's major health
issues can be traced to the $1 menu at McDonalds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most caloric bang for the buck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pun intended.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
So...you figure with Federal Disability you can focus on maybe trying to get
better...you were almost on the street, but outran the bullet this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guess again. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They calculate your Social Security Disability
based on the fact you were still on State Disability when they finally
determined you were finished working for the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That happened on the last month under State
benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, they send you $737 a month…period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You protest, you holler....no human can be
found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is now 4 months later. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The phone is off, the vehicle is unlicensed,
the auto insurance lapsed, your 'life-saving' meds have run out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heat is next...then the roof. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your meager savings are long gone and if you
still had any bad habits, you couldn't afford them anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh...and since the Feds took over the
disability, the county threw you off their health care program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As in, "don't slam the gate on your
way...."<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
Right away you assume that maybe MediCare, MedicAid...something might be
out there. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sorry. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The age game. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You get the miserly disability payments, but
no access to health care. Today, most physicians/clinics won't even deal with
MedicAid. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The system is broken,
reimbursements very, very slow and the paperwork abominable. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 62-years of age...I'm too young for
MediCare and even with a declared disability, I would have to wait 18 months to
qualify.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I retire outright, 3 years
to wait. And in the middle of this, I
moved from California to Oregon to cut my living costs – living here like a
king in a trailer that is probably smaller than a Senator’s bathroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This necessary in light of the fact that I no
longer have access to medical care in the sunnier south – which was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my</i> home. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that leaves the emergency room...which is
exactly the kind of health care that is bankrupting most hospitals. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is 150 miles away....and well, the car
is unlicensed, uninsured and probably shouldn't drive when you are having one
of those near-death moments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>911?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Phone’s off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br />
Now, just so this doesn't sound overly whiney -- yeah, some of this is my
responsibility. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should have been
greedier, more selfish...invested better. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forgot.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason we have Social Security is
because the last time people invested in their own future, the Wall Street
brigands did a little exclusive piracy with their retirement. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gee, how quickly we forget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But yes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are all responsible for our lives, worse
yet, our sense of hope. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the hard
reality is that my life is not too much different than many others. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ups, downs, happiness, death, bills, bad and
good decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I completely agree
that it is not the government's responsibility to take care of me or anybody
else. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is the government's
responsibility to maintain a system sufficiently so that <em><b>we</b></em>
just might have that ability ourselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
is the core value of any democratic system and a social conscience is not only mandatory,
but a fundamental right of the governed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Otherwise, these lofty ideals, the banner held
high, the doctrine we claim to champion on this restless planet, ring hollow
and cold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And like so many other Americans
today, I am simply tossed in the garbage like a used diaper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p><o:p><strong><span style="font-size: large;"> *********</span></strong></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
wrote Social Security Disability a letter the other day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said, “Why don’t you just send me a check
for $100,000 and we’ll call it a day.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My thinking?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two things really.
The first is that I can get a hip transplant in France for $15,000 – all
inclusive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>France is ranked #1 in the
world for the quality of their healthcare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The US is #34 behind Morocco and Costa Rica.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And because the attorneys and bean-counters
run medicine in this country, no hospital could even provide me with a quote, a
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">guesstimate</i> or even a wild
premonition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My vet can tell me that it
will cost me $150 to neuter my cat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
can’t our hospitals do that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, it is a service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But never mind, it is a rhetorical question
anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was just musing over the idea
of ever walking again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seemed like it
might be a good place to start the conversation.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2N5nRg-syKaaaUA9WAFOfyY6TMTCVJj0Fpc4DhE8NwMPG1LotwvGIe5MuRdJJU4hvxsJhtxjg7hxE36WB181GxDQJuWpKbyBrHfmkXHsyTyi1KujDPeXyoWs3RFAawcM9pg4PRR-r2rNy/s1600/acoffee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2N5nRg-syKaaaUA9WAFOfyY6TMTCVJj0Fpc4DhE8NwMPG1LotwvGIe5MuRdJJU4hvxsJhtxjg7hxE36WB181GxDQJuWpKbyBrHfmkXHsyTyi1KujDPeXyoWs3RFAawcM9pg4PRR-r2rNy/s320/acoffee.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"What, soup again?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Secondly,
I’d use the remaining money to begin anew…this time with two legs instead of
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See, it is going to cost the
taxpayers that much money no matter which way you juggle the numbers, and
probably substantially more to leave me permanently nailed inside this economic
box.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is nothing more than forced,
institutionalized poverty with no available options….no road back to
productivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just more cynicism
followed by an unremarkable death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is the new <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gulag</i> for America’s
middle-class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where I live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where millions of other Americans
live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this, Mr. Biden,<em><strong> is</strong></em> your constituency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Best
wishes;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Andy
Juell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p> </o:p><o:p> </o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">cc: Kathleen Sebelius, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Director,DHHS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-54975058912093731292013-06-12T07:21:00.000-07:002013-06-12T07:21:09.699-07:00Little Background on Turkey to Consider...<br />
<h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<o:p></o:p> </h1>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Turkey: A Primer on 20th Century Political Evolution</span></strong></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><strong><em> [Originally published at Demokracy.com, I was looking at political models for Afghanistan and Iraq that might bring stability out of chaos. Turkey has long been an example of stability with a substantial degree of democracy in the Islamic world...though not without some difficult choices. This is how it got to the present...a present that is currently in jeopardy. Published at the start of President Obama's first term.]</em></strong></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Perhaps the
biggest disappointment to come out of eight years of American intervention in
Afghanistan is the apparent inability of the Afghans themselves to decide what
they want to be when they grow up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure,
that sounds like an average dose of lip service in this climate unless you
consider the UN definition of “a failed state.” Afghanistan currently ranks
seventh on the Failed State Index (FSI), a sort of Unfortunate 500 for
dysfunctional nations.<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somalia and its happy band of pirates is
number one. For the purpose of perspective – out of a total of 177 UN
recognized countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Previous US
administrations somehow came upon the idea that the American model of a
democratically elected government in a highly secular and tribal chunk of real
estate was just the thing “to bring peace and stability to the region.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where have we heard this wistful speech
before?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably somewhere between
“winning the hearts and minds,” and if all else fails we’ll carpet bomb the
daylights out of them until they come to their senses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does a country with a little more than
250 years of civility conclude that one system fits all, that it is the right
system or if it is even that useful of a system?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More importantly, is it exportable?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The US has spent more time in Afghanistan than
was invested in all of World War II and Korea combined. To date, the Afghan
government has made little progress toward establishing anything close to a
stable government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The country continues
along the same path of sectional violence, the US led coalition now morphed
into the role of neighborhood cop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
great unifying tactic if it wasn’t for the body count.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The State Department meanwhile, pushes the
importance of elections and parliamentary process, which totally ignores the
traditional power structures of Afghan society; those that encompass family
ties, community obligation and whichever interpretation of Islam that gets
practiced in the neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All eyes
are told to look to the West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps a
better answer lies much closer to home:<o:p></o:p></div>
<o:p> </o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVHC_Y8ODItgtTiIR80izLnWVGBOZVlu6NrmvDOyQSiKTjjbTRjYT4QKqrkUYgC1l19_ehtSMTvSj4wkeVfBCe8PuITkuTH9_pW-5HpWWobiZnrBxoakcMqK9pxirVvjamCKSxqCPkGAVl/s1600/mustafa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVHC_Y8ODItgtTiIR80izLnWVGBOZVlu6NrmvDOyQSiKTjjbTRjYT4QKqrkUYgC1l19_ehtSMTvSj4wkeVfBCe8PuITkuTH9_pW-5HpWWobiZnrBxoakcMqK9pxirVvjamCKSxqCPkGAVl/s320/mustafa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Today the
Turkish nation is called to defend its capacity for civilization, its right to
life and independence – its entire future.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, 1920.<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kemal (Ataturk
was added later – something like ‘Father of the Turks’) had just made a pretty
remarkable set of announcements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
included:<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">¨</span></span>The
end of the Ottoman Empire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, it was
almost dead before World War I anyway.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">¨</span></span>The
abolishment of the Caliphate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Political
authority under Islam.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">¨</span></span>The
formation of the secular Republic of Turkey.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">¨</span></span>The
unacceptable state surrounding British occupation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">¨</span></span>And
the need for the Armenians in the east and the Greeks in the west to relocate
elsewhere. There was no place for Orthodox Christianity in the new Republic.<o:p></o:p></div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>About the man:</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mustafa Kemal was born in Salonika (now part
of Greece) in 1881.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of his early
history has been revised so often that most versions lack credibility. Raised
in the Moslem faith, a product of military schools, he later served with great
distinction as a Lt. Colonel and division commander at the battle of Gallipoli,
orchestrating one of the greater defeats the allied forces suffered in the
First World War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A great fan of the west
and particularly The Enlightenment (having been assigned to Paris and the
Balkans at varying points), he also fully embraced the potential power of the
media, using newspapers (often his own creations) extensively in his
nationalist pursuits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Above all, he
believed that the only way to save Turkey from complete partition by the allied
powers was to establish a modern, secular republic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his words, “Islam and civilization are a
contradiction in terms.”<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">T</span>he background:
</strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things were going badly on the
western front for the British and French in World War I.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Russia was taken out by both the Nationalist
and Bolshevik revolutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Britain’s
attack at Gallipoli, (Australian and New Zealand forces, ANZAC) was aimed at
knocking the Ottoman Empire out of the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead it turned into a rout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Britain then tried to turn the Arabs (with T.E. Lawrence’s deft
assistance) against the Turks, promising them an Arab state for their trouble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naturally that was a lie, the one apparent
constant in British colonial policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Allies won the war, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned by the Treaty of Sevres
creating what today are known as Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi
Arabia, Yemen and of course, Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Sultan was left in Istanbul as a British puppet and Kemal fled to Ankara with
plans to turn Anatolia into his new republic. He was able to deceive the
British and the Arab world just long enough to consolidate his forces in Anatolia,
a process pushed along by his creation of opposing media outlets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Arab world believed he was fighting to
preserve the Sultan and the Caliphate, the British assumed that his services
were already on the colonial payroll.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
the time the British realized his intentions, they were already outgunned,
out-manned and out maneuvered. In 1923, they signed the Treaty of Lausanne
ending hostilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Republic of
Turkey was born.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrTbevtlqo9duwX6ylWZt0d8A-N2OBCH_yekQlm2q4q2IM8vDZqyEI8BxCiR_H7k4-NEVKZEgsn0UoqmPZmVGrck7-ZS3g24TdO6VZV1iao5d1AnnT2cO-S2NZxwz-CDg_S0KgoUT3kNd/s1600/mturkey.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrTbevtlqo9duwX6ylWZt0d8A-N2OBCH_yekQlm2q4q2IM8vDZqyEI8BxCiR_H7k4-NEVKZEgsn0UoqmPZmVGrck7-ZS3g24TdO6VZV1iao5d1AnnT2cO-S2NZxwz-CDg_S0KgoUT3kNd/s320/mturkey.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The geo-political ramifications are immense if political<br />
instability continues in Turkey. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p>Much of the
internal struggle dividing Islam and adding fuel to sectarian violence seems to
surround the Caliphate, which is best described as both a person and a thing.<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the chief splits in Islam, the chasm
separating Sunni and Shi’a communities is based on the interpretation of
Mohammed’s successor as sole authority on Islamic law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each side accuses the other of being usurpers
in a centuries long dispute over who has the right to read the mind of a dead
prophet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many political and social
issues in Islam today fail to achieve any real clarity while the two camps continue
to hold on to conflicting interpretations of religious doctrine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is further complicated (or exasperated)
by the very notion of Islamic Law, a shadowy domain where the words of the
prophet Mohammad somehow hold credence with something as innocuous as the local
traffic code. By all accounts it is an archaic system, one reminiscent of The
Inquisition, but accepted in many quarters of the Moslem world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judging its validity is not the point,
accepting its existence is, for the idea of belief is not validated by the
structural framework of a society, though it is that very framework that
accelerates the rift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kemal argued that
Islamic Law was part of the “nomadic Bedouin custom,” totally unsuitable in the
development of a complex, modern society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is difficult to argue against given the global interaction of
nations today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Countries like Egypt and
Israel have both found it necessary to operate parallel courts to accommodate
issues of marriage and personal conduct, but not civil law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Religious law as the fundamental tenet of a
nation is little more than locking the door and keeping the key.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All social, educational and political
exchange stops. No common ground is allowed to exist on this dogmatic, unilateral
dead-end street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>America was founded on
the premise of religious persecution elsewhere, that in turn, sanctioned by the
state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The road to modernity through
democratic ideals couldn’t traverse the murky ground of theological
interpretation. Noted historians, Will and Ariel Durant once stated that “the
Bible is a great book, a great tale, but if you had to live by it, you’d go
crazy.”<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then again, modernity may be our point, not <i>the</i>
point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Constantinople
(Istanbul) had been the official seat of the Caliphate since about 1514.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last recognized Caliph was Abd al Majid
II who with his family was exiled to Paris following the establishment of the
Republic of Turkey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kemal found this
action necessary in order to create an Islamic republic based on civil law, not
theology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was naturally viewed as
an extreme form of heresy, particularly in the Sunni Arab world, complicated
further by the establishment of language laws that reverted Arabic to second
class status in both government and religious proceedings, though some laws were
moderated later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In itself, this was an
offshoot of his policies on nationalization, but it also played into his desire
to create a literate, inclusive society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Again, in opposition to fundamentalism which he saw as “a way of
promoting intellectual stagnation” by authorizing religion to define social
progress, including the very function of government itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oddly, the Caliphate seemed to end
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Saudi Arabia did not attempt to
re-establish it at Mecca, undoubtedly since it would threaten their position as
an absolute monarchy, and it was only briefly claimed by the Taliban following
the Soviet departure from Afghanistan.<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Kemal was
brilliant in many ways, but he was no saint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His orchestration of the Armenian exodus was as brutal as any forced
deportation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stacked the military
with believers in his own cause and seemed more than willing to arbitrate
disputes at the gallows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within Turkey
he was seen as both savior and despot; in the fundamentalist world, a <i>Doenmeh</i>
(a closet Jew), an alcoholic, a homosexual, a womanizer and a heretic – personal attacks that continue long after his
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The real truth is as clouded as
the newspapers Kemal himself used to create.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet today, Turkey remains a somewhat stable republic in the middle of one
of the most volatile regions on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not perfect, but functional.<o:p></o:p></div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
The opportunity
for a more progressive society in Afghanistan was probably lost shortly after
the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. In the vacuum that followed, the same Mujahedeen
we once funded became the Taliban we now hunt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead of rebuilding schools and infrastructure, promoting education
and a sense of inclusion, we simply walked away, leaving the task largely to
under funded NGO’s and a lot of wishful thinking.<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The Taliban, falsely claiming the right to the Caliphate sought to force an
Islamic state on the people of Afghanistan as an alternative to both communist
autocracy and western indifference – two models of what they saw as a similar
dysfunction. We supplied much of the fodder for the Taliban position by
reinforcing beliefs that Islam alone that would see to the needs of the Afghan
people, faith having been the sole unifying factor over ten years of Soviet
occupation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Education should have been
the tool of choice to defeat a return to fundamentalism, not merely the
establishment of a western leaning central government, manufactured primarily
as a base for US influence in the region. No one seemed interested in the
greater investment in literacy, the real slayer of despotism, secular or
political, and the one indispensable ingredient in democracy. Afghanistan
claims a 28% literacy rate among men, women an even more dismal 12%; Turkey,
87% overall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Taliban know this and
they fear a literate populous far more than anything our armories can ever
produce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can’t export a system if
nobody can understand the instructions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Turkey’s example
may be a harsh one by American standards, but it allowed the time necessary to
go from a shooting war to the process of nation building in a realistic time
frame. That element of time is probably what has always hampered American
foreign policy, the impatience inherent in the very system we seek to
sell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any parent will tell you that it takes
twenty years or so to educate and develop a child into an adult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Americans tire of foreign intrigue as quickly
as they tire of presidents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This lack of
continuity is not only a result of the fickle nature of American politics in
general, but the bad decisions orchestrated by a system in constant flux.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t even bother to apologize since the
person that set the policy is never around to finish it anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Kemal died in 1938 from chronic liver
disease, he left behind a far more literate society than he inherited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right or wrong in his methodology, he did
bequeath them the tools necessary for choice, the one thing the fundamentalist
camp can never accept.<o:p></o:p></div>
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> T</span>he question for
Americans is whether we can endure a long-haul assignment, one that begins with
security and ends with an informed society, one that just might decide that our
model isn’t their model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the risk
of intervention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If US policy is
confined to simply destroying the Taliban, then we’ve already lost this
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If something else is on the table,
this would be a pretty good time for a new President and a revamped State
Department to explain just what that might be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> See
Foreign Policy, Fund for Peace or CIA World Factbook.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> See
Ataturk.com. or lamppostproductions.com (The former is highly biased.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> ibid, or
Islamicity.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Khlafah.com., or Ahmadiyya Muslim Caliphs. Also, alIslam.org.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="file:///D:/Turkey3final.doc#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Believe
it or not:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interview with Johnny Carson,
circa 1976.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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Lamppostproductions.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Non-government agencies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-7157538225766311032013-06-02T15:29:00.001-07:002013-06-02T19:24:44.157-07:00Coming soon...<br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"The Littlest RaceHorse"</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Late October, 1962.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The US and the Soviet Union stand toe to toe, poised to unleash their nuclear arsenals over the deployment of offensive missiles in Cuba – a mere 90 miles off the coast of Florida.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the Cold War, suddenly too hot to touch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apprehension flows relentlessly down the irrational corridors of chaos and panic – personal choices driven by the political realities of a world gone mad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A pair of kids, suddenly cast adrift by the week’s escalating events, find themselves forced on a journey not of their own choosing – while the adults around them ponder the longest week of their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forced to finally choose between the past and perhaps a very different future…one that seemed to share an improbable link to a young Thoroughbred horse halfway across the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lives that were stolen on a Thursday – and returned the following week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Irreversibly changed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And some 2000 miles away, one Bobby Lee Hancock and his common-law wife, Fennel McCartney. A farmer, a horse breeder – a man grown hard by difficult times and unforgiving choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on that farm, a young Thoroughbred colt, seemingly doomed by the peculiarities of his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">own </i>birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or so the old customs had always dictated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Fen, I’m a farmer ya know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shoulda hit that damn thing in the head with a hammer when it was born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hell, next thing you’ll havin’ me raisin’ rats and corn weevils!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that damn Kennedy’s gonna get us killed maybe…or worse!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But the young President had already moved beyond the brink of a final apocalypse – opening a second, perhaps more volatile door by questioning the very core of American values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Civil rights, the desires and ambitions of the country’s largest minority – women; and the wider responsibilities inherent to leading the world’s greatest democracy through an era restless for change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 1950’s were the calm between very different storms – one engulfing the world, the second threatening the nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But often, that‘change’ was personal and highly private as well, especially for children caught in a sudden and seemingly unrelenting tempest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And just as often, the salvation, perhaps life’s balance itself comes with four legs and a tail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just a horse?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong><u>Cover Art</u>:</strong></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWMnsKQ32OrvgxBLD9ONlF27JBAS2tVgbjkNdfiS2Xvmuf-vkXt9BSU_8SX3evRx_wzUtdvv5w3Z71slCbsIVd7sRBhSfyM1OFfdV1eEilwwiqPJZA9H87XVqE_Zd-n7sQkb0uRe6x0Ocr/s1600/coverF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWMnsKQ32OrvgxBLD9ONlF27JBAS2tVgbjkNdfiS2Xvmuf-vkXt9BSU_8SX3evRx_wzUtdvv5w3Z71slCbsIVd7sRBhSfyM1OFfdV1eEilwwiqPJZA9H87XVqE_Zd-n7sQkb0uRe6x0Ocr/s200/coverF.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 22pt;"><strong>© <span style="font-size: small;">Azaliya via Shutterstock.com<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzekt1fR0gYwFt_cdSZwW2LSPGp3dQrw1QnkIg6V9gXOEX6OT2G8PBwZNgCrAIs952aB-jR1-9katQ_S72JyUMQkuATbI6Z-sdnwokuWAMPlJID4Q-4K7nQ0xXwl42IugOL90BCgNmVe4B/s1600/back+cover+final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzekt1fR0gYwFt_cdSZwW2LSPGp3dQrw1QnkIg6V9gXOEX6OT2G8PBwZNgCrAIs952aB-jR1-9katQ_S72JyUMQkuATbI6Z-sdnwokuWAMPlJID4Q-4K7nQ0xXwl42IugOL90BCgNmVe4B/s200/back+cover+final.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 22pt;">© <span style="font-size: small;">Sandra Mesrine, La Chambre Noire Studio Photography</span></span></b></div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-54494455144292833722013-05-08T13:16:00.000-07:002013-05-09T06:48:01.916-07:00History of Aluminum...and the Light-Weight Shoe.<em></em><br />
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<strong>Chapter 1</strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Pierre Lorillard IV -- </span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"> A Sporting Man...and More:</span></strong></div>
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Born in Westchester, New York, he was the son of Pierre Lorillard III (1196-1867) and Catherine Griswold. In 1760, his great-grandfather and namesake, founded P. Lorillard and Company in New York City to process tobacco, cigars and snuff. Today, Lorillard Tobacco Company is the oldest tobacco company in the US.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCfLJ5fF1pC1Vo__bcMdGPCyEc2GBLt1X2HMgMMunogYXBhQcvphvkC4kTmaT3__CMNGjbSdKSl775jNUf7iHwZQAPS9YGdNe3gDFavPeqTQbwKgFMPenaEzeKQz0uGINzRF9HnKxq84Gn/s1600/lorillard.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCfLJ5fF1pC1Vo__bcMdGPCyEc2GBLt1X2HMgMMunogYXBhQcvphvkC4kTmaT3__CMNGjbSdKSl775jNUf7iHwZQAPS9YGdNe3gDFavPeqTQbwKgFMPenaEzeKQz0uGINzRF9HnKxq84Gn/s400/lorillard.gif" width="275" /></a>In the early 1880's Lorillard helped make Newport, Rhode Island, a yachting center with his schooner <em>Vesta </em>and a steam yacht, <em>Radha.</em> He owned a summer estate in Newport called "The Breakers," which he sold to Cornelius Vanderbilt II in 1885 in order to establish his newly developed estate, "The Tuxedo Club," at what became known as Tuxedo Park in Orange County, New York. Lorillard had inherited 13,000 acres around Tuxedo Lake, which he developed in conjunction with William Waldorf Astor and other wealthy associates into a luxury retreat. The name of the lake shares one of Lorillard's many innovations -- the Tuxedo jacket -- first introduced at one the Tuxedo Club's numerous and extravagant balls. <br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Aluminum -- </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">A Short History:</span></strong></div>
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The metal was first produced by Danish physicist Hans Christian Orsted in about 1825, however historically the ancient Greeks and Romans used alum salts as both a dying mordant and an astringent powder for wounds. A Frenchman, Guyton de Morveau first coined the name alumine in 1761 -- the discovery of a metal base within the alum powder occurring about 1808 by Humphry Davy, this base metal coined <em>alumium</em>...later aluminum. However...</div>
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Nobody knew where it came from or for that matter how to extract it in quantity. Many experiments took place during the 1820-30's -- some scientists believing the new metal to be a purified form of potassium. It was about this time that Pierre Berthier made the discovery that aluminum hung out in bauxite deposits, which comprised about 7% of the earth's crust. Great news if you could figure out a way to separate the materials. Frenchman Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville (that's a $3.00 name to be sure), improved on Wohler's early work, but the process was expensive and time consuming. However, Deville had also considered using electrolysis on aluminum oxide that was then dissolved in cryolite. However, perfecting that process would come much later.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-xwm434cnJ7WLSJ7x_2f62klumlsy8G6PLEPwZrf2bhfWLUTtbqxEl1ZJpKpwBf2P4KOKUhCXrYiWnAlNjDl9AQ1BxeUGN-nNT5Svu8d5m20hNO5JGmjfy1nQ3LKZvk5MzCjhDtkLSJ3/s1600/french-flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0-xwm434cnJ7WLSJ7x_2f62klumlsy8G6PLEPwZrf2bhfWLUTtbqxEl1ZJpKpwBf2P4KOKUhCXrYiWnAlNjDl9AQ1BxeUGN-nNT5Svu8d5m20hNO5JGmjfy1nQ3LKZvk5MzCjhDtkLSJ3/s320/french-flag.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those darn French again!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr63rsF0_UVjRXMKezaYugOjCfCgiuzf-IqWKJHePPfjM8R6IIt1jPysLitjJJhOonvUTXQLgUN2NDSND6fkmxzw76fDgcxy-I5OeH2wZTLZIypwLLPxZqgWbywtHlCrxX_dhU0wo2IJzd/s1600/alum2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr63rsF0_UVjRXMKezaYugOjCfCgiuzf-IqWKJHePPfjM8R6IIt1jPysLitjJJhOonvUTXQLgUN2NDSND6fkmxzw76fDgcxy-I5OeH2wZTLZIypwLLPxZqgWbywtHlCrxX_dhU0wo2IJzd/s200/alum2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aluminum Ingots</td></tr>
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<em><u>Ex<strong>position Universelle of 1855:</strong></u></em></div>
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Aluminum bars were first exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1855. These world expos as they were known were extremely popular during the Industrial Revolution as both a celebration of science and industry; as well as a showcase for a new sense of nationalism sweeping over Europe. The latter would of course, have disastrous consequences later, through the militaristic union of science with political objectives, but in 1855 these expos were still considered trade-fairs of pretty massive proportions. During the 1855 version, "Napoleon III was reputed to have given a banquet where the most honoured guests were given aluminum utensils, while the others made do with gold." And Napoleon <em>was</em> the financial backer of Deville, the man who also discovered a method for extracting platinum. However, Napoleon's real interest wasn't in making fancy dining utensils -- he was looking for lightweight armor for his army. Still, these aluminum utensils were displayed at the <em>Universelle</em> right next to the French Crown Jewels.</div>
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But aluminum (in the 1850's) remained extremely difficult and expensive to extract from its mother ores. Even so, the popularity of aluminum had extended all the way across the pond to the Americas, where the material was selected for the 100oz capstone of the Washington Monument (1884), at a time when a single ounce of aluminum cost the daily wage of a common worker on the project. The capstone was the largest single piece of aluminum cast at the time -- aluminum matching the market-price of silver: $32lb [$750lb by today's standards.] So, how did they mange to produce it in bulk?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6o8noi9sp1meFp7V-LUAEOPsPtB1lklXIfsF6Hm_S2pIBg7jD1Jod-Z3NMAd83UYE9sNWMAuo1zNhcZJiJFow3LO_XrBFRYdCVZqHpRTguH1xuSAHoYsBPSjUWV8ebylpBOVvWWLfoFyo/s1600/french+and+american+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6o8noi9sp1meFp7V-LUAEOPsPtB1lklXIfsF6Hm_S2pIBg7jD1Jod-Z3NMAd83UYE9sNWMAuo1zNhcZJiJFow3LO_XrBFRYdCVZqHpRTguH1xuSAHoYsBPSjUWV8ebylpBOVvWWLfoFyo/s1600/french+and+american+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6o8noi9sp1meFp7V-LUAEOPsPtB1lklXIfsF6Hm_S2pIBg7jD1Jod-Z3NMAd83UYE9sNWMAuo1zNhcZJiJFow3LO_XrBFRYdCVZqHpRTguH1xuSAHoYsBPSjUWV8ebylpBOVvWWLfoFyo/s1600/french+and+american+flag.jpg" /></a> .Along came Charles Martin Hall (Ohio) and Paul Heroult (France), who independently developed what would come to be known as the Hall-Heroult Process of electrolysis in aluminum production -- a system allowing for ore extraction that was far cheaper than all existing technology at the time and is basically the same process used to this day. Charles Hall patented his process in the US in 1886, under the company name, Pittsburgh Reduction Company -- known today as ALCOA. But of equal, perhaps larger importance was that none of this would have been possible without Thomas Edison's invention of the dynamo, allowing both sufficient and consistent electrical power for the processing of bauxite.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg75DlDo7yOjNhbDw3NOTXvXgIUqJMh_mM4UU_mPIEkFvrfo_1IoVQLFfbGDN4ReJcDl7rXGFavHozeJiuvobLQQkuFo9w2fCtq3e1-Cu7RYOkjHH4Yg9pnDcR3b0Netd1BKJbIzzLI9N2e/s1600/Fotos-Hall-Heroult.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg75DlDo7yOjNhbDw3NOTXvXgIUqJMh_mM4UU_mPIEkFvrfo_1IoVQLFfbGDN4ReJcDl7rXGFavHozeJiuvobLQQkuFo9w2fCtq3e1-Cu7RYOkjHH4Yg9pnDcR3b0Netd1BKJbIzzLI9N2e/s1600/Fotos-Hall-Heroult.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg75DlDo7yOjNhbDw3NOTXvXgIUqJMh_mM4UU_mPIEkFvrfo_1IoVQLFfbGDN4ReJcDl7rXGFavHozeJiuvobLQQkuFo9w2fCtq3e1-Cu7RYOkjHH4Yg9pnDcR3b0Netd1BKJbIzzLI9N2e/s200/Fotos-Hall-Heroult.png" width="200" /></a>So how did Pierre Lorillard IV fit into this equation? Lorillard was a tobacconist, but he was also a racing man, frequently taking his stable of runners to Europe, particularly England. It is highly likely that Lorillard attended these European expos as he was very much interested in technology, having invented and adapted machinery and techniques in his own factories. However, it appears unlikely that he first saw the aluminum metal at the <em>Paris Universelle</em> in 1855 -- Lorillard being a mere 22-years of age at the time. However, the <em>Universelle</em> of 1878 is a different matter and Lorillard's initial interest in this new metal was fundamental to his business, not his sport: wrappers for his cigarette packages, which were traditionally wrapped in lead foil: expensive and ultimately pretty toxic.<br />
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But it is here that the story gets complicated. It is known that Lorillard returned from one of his English campaigns, most likely the 1881 venture where his home bred, Iroquois won the Epsom Derby under the skillful handling of Fred Archer. Insult to injury -- Iroquois also annexed the St. Leger. Lorillard had homes in both Paris and London and it had been reported that he returned to New York with an ingot of this 'new' metal. But he didn't just make cigarette wrappers out of it.</div>
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<strong>"The first horse to wear aluminum shoes was Pierre Lorillard's Wanda, a foal of 1882 and a brilliant filly who won 12 of 24 starts. She was also second eight times. Wanda had graceful action and trainer Matt Byrnes was encouraged to try lighter shoes on her. Lorillard had the plates crafted by Tiffany's, the Fifth Avenue jewelers, and Wanda wore them in most of her races." <em>LA Times.</em></strong></div>
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However, W.S. Vosburgh, one of America's greatest turf writers and historians, said it much better in his biography of Pierre Lorillard, <em><strong>"Cherry and Black:"</strong></em></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdSHjsimiWbM5gpPQy-0b0BBk_gb20kEaFs9jPgP6z2HTi2X5z1KauJdjY7fgbjeHVbJKLNbsnqyxfmKTjPKyBBEQjLK6dKl9ZjODOk_o8h-XC0ai7i3nNxnsP72pKkvygl5GK6275gnkN/s1600/wanda123.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdSHjsimiWbM5gpPQy-0b0BBk_gb20kEaFs9jPgP6z2HTi2X5z1KauJdjY7fgbjeHVbJKLNbsnqyxfmKTjPKyBBEQjLK6dKl9ZjODOk_o8h-XC0ai7i3nNxnsP72pKkvygl5GK6275gnkN/s640/wanda123.jpg" width="196" /></a><strong>"She had a rather 'tucked-up' appearance in the flanks, and stood high on the leg; some would have called her ungainly, but this was due to her 'dip-ing' a trifle as it came out of her shoulders -- a feature that never adds to beauty in a horse. Seen in action, she was another being -- it was smooth, wire-hung and frictionless. She seemed scarcely to touch the ground -- as Matt Byrnes [the trainer] put it, "She acts as if the ground wasn't good enough for her," -- and her stride, very long and elastic, was never known to shorten under stress of pace. She was the first horse Mr. Lorillard tried with aluminum plates made by Tiffany and Co.. They suited her light action, but when he tried [them] on Drake Carter, they were an utter failure."</strong><br />
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<strong>Chapter 2</strong><br />
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And so, aluminum disappeared as a material for horse shoes (plates) until the 1930's, though by 1895, the light-weight metal was being used as a building material as far away as Sydney, Australia. Part of the problem was price, for like gold, platinum and later, titanium -- these metals were subject to fluctuations in the metal's market. But there was a bigger issue brooding in the late 1800's and at the dawn of the new century. [See, this site's entry on <em>Guilds</em>.] That was wrapped tightly around the obsolescence of the horse as a tool of transport; more importantly, the ruinous loss of self-worth felt by the artisans (including blacksmiths and farriers), being swallowed -- then discarded on the rubbish pile of an almost rabid industrialization.<br />
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Though some aluminum racing plates were being manufactured in England, it wasn't until 1928 that a small start-up in Baltimore, Maryland -- The Victory Racing Plate Company -- working in conjunction with ALCOA, created America's first racing plate of its own. And in the spirit of later American entrepreneurs -- it all started with a tinkerer in a garage. According to David Erb (of The Victory Racing Plate Company):<br />
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"It all started with a horse named Signola." Seems most good stories do. Leonard Liepman was a successful Baltimore attorney, who also raced a small string of runners at Woodbine. He had seen some of the other horses being fitted with aluminum shoes -- these from England -- tried them on his horse Signola with phenomenal results. However, the shoes appeared to have a one-race life expectancy. That sent Liepman on a serious R and D hunt which almost bankrupted the young entrepreneur. In stepped George Palmbaum, one of Liepman's numerous clients, found the concept intriguing and invested. Yet even so, numerous setbacks plagued the development of the shoe, both in finding a suitable alloy of aluminum and the much trickier part: incorporating steel inserts for traction and wear.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Victory -- the original</td></tr>
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The technical problems were eventually resolved, but Liebman was up against a tougher obstacle, one that he might not have anticipated -- the culture of blacksmiths (platers) who held long memories of the devastation wrought upon their trade just two decades earlier. In fact, it was technology itself that had banished many of the surviving horseshoers to the nation's racetracks in the first place. Instead of viewing these new manufactured shoes as a profit-maker, they saw them as a threat -- assuming (illogically of course), that these pre-made shoes would allow grooms, trainers, hot walkers...the bartender down the street -- all could start plating runners. A re-make of the very scenario that first destroyed the European craft guilds and eventually the skilled artisans in America. And oddly perhaps, this mentality among farriers still thrives today in the ongoing debate over hand-made versus manufactured shoes. And like the 1920's, it isn't about money, it is about the perception of self-worth in a changing age.</div>
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Even in light of such resistance, Liepman continued to pound the asphalt at the nation's tracks, adopting a number of marketing strategies -- finally adopting the stratagem that pharmaceutical companies have found so useful today: skip the middleman, whether it be doctor or plater. Many trainers believed in the old adage, "an ounce on the hoof equaled a pound on the back." And some top trainers, like Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons and Hersch Jacob bought into the cliche. And horses like Omaha (1935 Triple Crown), Seabiscuit in his famous match race with War Admiral -- well, that sealed the fate of this new shoe. <br />
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<em><strong>But then, along came World War II. Aluminum was a strategic material, like iron and rubber and subject to strict rationing outside of military applications. On top of these restrictions, many of the nations tracks closed for the duration of the war. On the west coast, some race track barns were converted to internment camps for housing American citizens of Japanese descent. And since this blog never abandons historical fact for the more convenient realm of revisionism, it is a sad statement on the integrity of those Americans who continue to embrace the US Constitution selectively -- yes, I am referring to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba...a truly American-style Gulag, built on little more than the twin pillars of arrogance and fear -- a far cry from the accountability needed to acknowledge a continued animosity of our own making... </strong></em> </div>
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<em><strong>But that issue aside,</strong></em> the story of the aluminum shoe continues. In the post-war years, The Victory Racing Plate Company saw its first serious competition by the west coast upstart, Thoro'Bred Racing Plate Company which started production about 1949. As often happens, military campaigns have a huge impact on research and technology and following such conflicts, the science tends to trickle down to civilian applications. Much was learned during the war years on aluminum alloys, hardening techniques, heat treating and fatigue properties. All of these breakthroughs not only found their way into the construction of a new era of jet aircraft, but into the aluminum racing shoe as well. But it would not be until the 1960's that the horse itself would once again find a broader purpose in America -- an animal of recreation and sport. And aluminum would once again play a role.</div>
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Around 1975, a farrier and innovator from Belltown, NJ invented and began marketing the most misunderstood shoe in America. His name was Walt Koepisch, the company: Dutchtown Forge. The shoe was a 3/8 x 1" aluminum shoe -- wide-web and extremely lightweight. The design was the culmination of numerous discussions with farriers at the top eastern show barns -- including the man at the anvil for the USET: Seamus Brady. The shoe was based on a simple principle: flotation, not necessarily support. The first problem surrounded footing. Most major shows were held indoors or on outdoor courses that were primarily sand-based. Nice on the horses legs, but deep -- this causing too much down time on the hoof entering and exiting this type of surface. By adding to the exertion required to exit this deeper ground, the stride was adversely affected, i.e., too much knee action. As Walt put it:</div>
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<strong>"How to improve heel flotation [or support] is very important to some show horses because the main reason for their existence is for the horse's ability to move with a balanced, fluid and pretty frame. Judges are horsemen and horsemen like good-moving, pretty horses, and if judging the class has anything to do with movement [hunters], the better mover will have the edge....Most any show horse that does not depend on a stopwatch or measuring stick will benefit from better movement. Even so, the jumpers and speed horses can be helped through an improvement in balance and timing." <em>Anvil Magazine, Sept., 2000. </em> </strong> </div>
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So the real issue was never the weight of the shoe directly -- only the idea of greatly increasing the flotation aspect, the heightened ability of the horse to get on and off the ground in the speediest and most conducive manner. Less effort, smoother action, whether hunter <em>OR</em> jumper. And as a bonus, substantial reduction of weight carried. And for a Thoroughbred (the show horse of the 1970's and 80's), a critical element, something that is rarely an issue with today's Warmbloods.</div>
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Even so, the shoe became a panacea for all ails well into the 1980's, with many imitators and countless versions. Walt's shoes were originally extruded and bent from bar -- later versions produced through various methods of casting. Hardness and abrasion qualities naturally varied according to manufacturing specifications, but most were in the range of H1-H3 -- HX-8, being standard military grade, forging variances in military versions being two narrow for crude forging applications, complicated by the percentage of magnesium found in these products. Magnesium is both highly flammable and produces its own accelerator during combustion. Which means if you light it on fire, the best thing to do is bury it and move to another town.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old friends...Robert Ridland and Benoit</td></tr>
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Aluminum shoes continue to be a very popular and versatile shoe, even if not completely understood. This idea of flotation versus support is more of a case of "proof in the pudding" than actual science, but has endured over a thirty years of hands-on evaluation. As a side-note, some years ago titanium appeared to be the new 'aluminum shoe' around the jump rings. Sadly, titanium bars (sheared from plate), were simply too difficult to forge -- impossible to drill and tap. A little later a titanium shoe was produced using a powder-metallurgy process that was far more user-friendly. [This author did numerous stories on this particular shoe -- even for Popular Science.] However, the developers missed Walt Koepisch's critical points on flotation. The end product was a 1/4 x 3/4 standard type of shoe...the benefits of this pricey item: negligible. A lesson in how one can engineer the most perfect shoe in the world and somehow entirely and completely miss that there is a horse involved; further, that the horse has a job to do. </div>
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6485445046181105359.post-54349613324507898352013-04-21T13:46:00.000-07:002016-03-22T08:13:57.615-07:00Lessons in Life...From the Moscow Circus. <div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>The Djigits of Central Asia -- Knights of Islam</u></span><br />
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<strong>[Note concerning the week's events.]</strong> Probably not the best week to be visiting central Asia, but then I really do not have issues, antagonisms, unfounded fears, grudges; any need to resent the entire Islamic world. I actually do not give theology much thought outside the historical context of religion in the world's many cultures...and clashes. Yes, a metaphysical marriage exists -- a powerful one, but since I do not believe in any version of God, nor the man-made interpretation of the many perceived doctrines of <em>Gods,</em> I tend to disregard most mortal translations -- of any stripe. However, given that premise, I do have a few highly personal issues with some of the more radical adherents of Islam, or for that matter, any sectarian group or belief system that supports a linkage between a message of compassion and the violence of random, politically motivated acts.</div>
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For you see, this broader sectarian zealousness did kill a friend of mine in the WTC debacle...a Muslim I might add. One of the very disciples of the same Islam directing the actions of the man sitting in the cockpit. My friend was a man that had spent his rather abbreviated life practicing what much of the Quran teaches...and as I am told, the Bible mirrors in its own message of love, compassion, and quite sadly, the coercive message of absolutism. Adherents of both faiths know well how these sacred words can get lost, misappropriated; perhaps struck redundant in a blinding moment of anger or hurt. Messages twisted and perverted by political agendas; personal gain. But the truth for me is that I live in history. That means I look for answers in the origins of the question. And no, it doesn't make senseless violence (from whatever distant camp), any more palatable. Yes, I grieve for lost lives, but I will refuse to accept the rationalizations pouring from the ecclesiastical palaces who shout of a righteous dogma while their loyal congregations merely tithe with the coin of the realm -- unwilling to convert those gentle words into deliberate and singular action. And for those who attempt to usurp this broader message in order to legitimize the right and wrong of the thing...there is none to be found. There is only the hope of ending a cycle -- one person at a time saying, "Enough."]</div>
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<span style="font-family: "matura mt script capitals"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kikuyu proverb<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong>So...now a story of other people, other times. One that sadly holds parallels beyond the mere love of horses.</strong><br />
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: large;">Only 1000 Years to Get from</span></em></strong> <span style="font-size: large;"><strong><em>Here To There...</em></strong></span></div>
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<strong>The Long, Slow Road from Violence...to a Grand Entertainment: </strong></div>
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The wonderful thing about horses is how, over history, they have helped shape the geo-political landscape of the world we know today. Kings, princess and moguls often get most of the credit -- scorn as well, perhaps but the great earth-shakers of our past -- with their vast and terrible armies -- would not have wandered far without the greatest single tool in their arsenal: the horse. And while these armies spread carnage and bloodshed to the far corners of an emerging civilization, they also left in their wake, the science, religion, technology, art and philosophy of distant and unknown lands. The cultural pollination of an entire planet.<br />
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In 1988, and again in 1989, I was granted the rather incredible opportunity to spend a couple of weeks with the Moscow Circus while it was touring in the United States...courtesy of a thaw in the relations between the Soviet Union and the United States -- Mikhail Gorbachev's diplomatic overture he coined <em>Perestroika.</em> Out of this rare opportunity, I produced a number of articles, including pieces for both <em>EQUUS</em> magazine and <em>The Chronicle of the Horse</em>, both quoted here. My initial assumption was that I would be visiting the Russian version of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show...only with trapeze artists, bears and the occasional clown. I also had no idea that this story would introduce me to the Islamic world -- a history marked by rapid expansion, great cultural influence, harsh defeats and always: the faith. </div>
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<strong>[Note: Original articles in bold; not always in context here.</strong></div>
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<strong> Current annotations will be <em>*italicized</em>.]</strong></div>
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<strong>It has often been said that when it comes to horsemen, the common ground is wherever a horse happens to be standing. Similarities in the relationship between man and horse, be they Soviet or American, cross cultural barriers as easily as modern man crosses a continent. The 1988-89 American tour of the Moscow Circus, featuring equestrian acts overseen by trainer Tamerlan Nugzarov, proved that with the horse as diplomat, there is little room for politics. The Russian performances, based on horsemanship of the first order, spoke in a language as understandable to Texans as to Soviet citizens. </strong><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tamerlan, like many of these Djigit riders come from the vast <br />
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<strong>Nugzarov is a fourth-generation horseman. Raised in soviet Georgia, near the Caucasus Mountains, he has trained horses and horsemen for nearly 30 years. "I learned everything from my father," Nugzarov says, "just as he learned everything from his."</strong><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tamerlan Nugzarov, a Soviet Artist of the State</td></tr>
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<strong>Perhaps that fact alone separates the ideologies of two very different worlds. While Americans pursue the future with a zealous passion, many Soviets find solace and a proper place in time by following the well-established trail set by their ancestors. And the road to the circus, much like the one that leads to American rodeo, is based on the culture and history of the people.</strong><br />
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<em>*Important to remember that in 1987 (regardless of a warming in relations), security was tight -- mostly due to the ongoing concern over possible defections -- a thorny issue on both sides. I was always accompanied by a woman identified as a 'cultural affairs officer.' Definition: KGB with jewelry. In the two sessions I had with the Moscow Circus, the first was while the Soviet Union still existed, the second following the collapse. </em><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmRdyGd_T6H7Plkv4iwJYnTblHa2y_Olq6KBeDxpLj_88FYvrNIzwZ7DEr2ND_ZtnVitokt7pxqdTv5wy1gdThG7oUQwpclTjR-SYrlIyZJ7yqO7UedAajU1eYPBdtk_Cwfmx8YMPZ3HXr/s1600/russia.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmRdyGd_T6H7Plkv4iwJYnTblHa2y_Olq6KBeDxpLj_88FYvrNIzwZ7DEr2ND_ZtnVitokt7pxqdTv5wy1gdThG7oUQwpclTjR-SYrlIyZJ7yqO7UedAajU1eYPBdtk_Cwfmx8YMPZ3HXr/s200/russia.png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLiaFXYVBPKpXzpvmroRpk57L8mOAjcrv9FpHwTwZf9CtD8lFfLaz93xEfng8KlV7CdUSAjoOYNP48l-vzvTqsstRBCN1cWdnsSLyDFMqjv_PaOb6K4CoPlfCM7_-k6VbYtp3L8OeCuIa/s1600/soviet.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLiaFXYVBPKpXzpvmroRpk57L8mOAjcrv9FpHwTwZf9CtD8lFfLaz93xEfng8KlV7CdUSAjoOYNP48l-vzvTqsstRBCN1cWdnsSLyDFMqjv_PaOb6K4CoPlfCM7_-k6VbYtp3L8OeCuIa/s200/soviet.png" width="200" /></a><strong>Horses have always played a major role in the Moscow Circus, which was making its first tour of America in more than 10 years. This year's troupe, like the previous tours, is a condensed representation of the more than 137 separate circuses that comprise the Moscow Circus. Unlike its American counterparts, the <em>Soyuzgocirck</em>, as it is called in Russia, is a cultural institution, entertaining more than 70 million Soviet citizens a year and employing over 24,000 people. And in the hearts of the citizenry, it is of equal stature with the best of theatre and opera.</strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOzKKh7Qat_NI9aI8DkMT9XTU6Nh-Xv080ug3QJvFsujCc0LjglUI5-sj2Zz5S2rMcExU4vPwK2s_ewokRgE8VqDwi8hTseq-b2grI7FEZe2FyeVYIkfxlUTfXzVBn_kgCFWQVdogMQRYC/s1600/caucasus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOzKKh7Qat_NI9aI8DkMT9XTU6Nh-Xv080ug3QJvFsujCc0LjglUI5-sj2Zz5S2rMcExU4vPwK2s_ewokRgE8VqDwi8hTseq-b2grI7FEZe2FyeVYIkfxlUTfXzVBn_kgCFWQVdogMQRYC/s200/caucasus.jpg" width="200" /></a><em>*Central Asia </em><em>has always been extremely tribal in nature, to the point that one could easily assume that the inhabitants hated just about everybody. In purely geo-political terms these tribes never recognized any form of national boundary up until the forced consolidation within the USSR. The various tribes and confederations extended into China, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Balkans and much of southern and eastern Russia. Of note, these groups were often lumped together historically as Cossacks, though that distinction is far from accurate. The entire region has a long history as a migratory and trade route, often coveted by foreign powers for the immense fertility found throughout its immense and diverse geography. This created the vast cultural diversity of the region and perhaps the fierce independence of the inhabitants.</em><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ3EnHkY09V45PhBv9dxStEPprubeDjT80Ucb4DYT384H3SgpA2KUpUGULVRs4sya0kUvOFOq01z3RZhTvINYcUBLzOq49An98d4DzqPJdePqzquOs0xFmYSZdYeQrDrtx7ftxkDk1a9ax/s1600/drago.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ3EnHkY09V45PhBv9dxStEPprubeDjT80Ucb4DYT384H3SgpA2KUpUGULVRs4sya0kUvOFOq01z3RZhTvINYcUBLzOq49An98d4DzqPJdePqzquOs0xFmYSZdYeQrDrtx7ftxkDk1a9ax/s320/drago.jpg" width="320" /></a><em> That spirit was quite evident well into the 20th century when these groups fought a long and protracted action against the Bolshevik forces during the Russian Revolution. And contrary to popular mythology, many of these regional groups actually joined elements of the German Army in World War II (XVth SS Cossack Cavalry) -- not so much 'for' Germany, as 'against' the Soviet Union. This resistance continued throughout the 20th century, through the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond. Uzbek, Kyrzig and Chechen nationalism -- as well as many other ethnic minorities continue to agitate, sometimes violently, for greater autonomy or complete independence from Moscow -- and concurrently, an appeal to the eastern powers in Beijing, as many of these ethnic groups (as in the case of Inner and Outer Mongolia), are separated over the many arbitrary border disputes by the greater powers. More on this as we try to recount a story that becomes more complicated by the day. </em><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Djigits of Another Era</td></tr>
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</em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOXjQFnWBZcpucuFf0WjkCLFS5O7NFwLS8El5db3t245HA7uZklIiJlpKNqQVPJ8fTnVmgNVHktlkjPp3xl9YLs0-C2BQRvTjMxoHoF3_sgerGxF8FAFcRjA4faUcVHu1Uw0aVNn-NVoPf/s1600/kazakh.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOXjQFnWBZcpucuFf0WjkCLFS5O7NFwLS8El5db3t245HA7uZklIiJlpKNqQVPJ8fTnVmgNVHktlkjPp3xl9YLs0-C2BQRvTjMxoHoF3_sgerGxF8FAFcRjA4faUcVHu1Uw0aVNn-NVoPf/s200/kazakh.gif" width="200" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ulpIp9cmPfMuioiFm7d4yhxrDPn2PdfT7_LyxGaJi88OU4-qUatJUILdZeG9GKg7UgUs_3q4WzSeUb5eeESC7jL35yqqHqvAhCJGMlMn7PlY_593G8wKrs2f6i0P-U84-fLGniX5umyZ/s1600/kg.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ulpIp9cmPfMuioiFm7d4yhxrDPn2PdfT7_LyxGaJi88OU4-qUatJUILdZeG9GKg7UgUs_3q4WzSeUb5eeESC7jL35yqqHqvAhCJGMlMn7PlY_593G8wKrs2f6i0P-U84-fLGniX5umyZ/s200/kg.gif" width="200" /></a><em><strong>*To quote:</strong> "In the dramatic history of the Uzbeks, the Lakai were inveterate scene stealer's. Today's Lakai are proud of their historic roles as horsemen, fighters and brigands. Though few in number and poor in resources, they never hesitated to challenge greater powers. Emirs, tsars and commissars attempted to annihilate them, foreign travelers maligned them. Their neighbors, with good reason, disliked them." Oh, and as a side-note, many migrated into northern Afghanistan over the last century -- many joining the ranks of the Mujaheddin....aka, the Taliban, fighters with very different roots, bound in the common denominator of removing outside interference in their homelands. A seductive appeal in a largely illiterate population. </em> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ZDQqXRqU2hnMWAsklG-yZtrRHK-0juCL8H5CS_i-jT9B4a8RK50OmOdAieZR5uO1VS9rnlPHxggHhNBkc2ezyVk7QLb1WiDA9qyI7Jj9DRH9a8QDh8mKDepWgKcJy8-etwwfnxBeubDS/s1600/turk.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ZDQqXRqU2hnMWAsklG-yZtrRHK-0juCL8H5CS_i-jT9B4a8RK50OmOdAieZR5uO1VS9rnlPHxggHhNBkc2ezyVk7QLb1WiDA9qyI7Jj9DRH9a8QDh8mKDepWgKcJy8-etwwfnxBeubDS/s200/turk.gif" width="200" /></a><strong>"The riders train themselves." Nugzarov continues. "The tricks they think up themselves. What is good is that the state provides them with everything. It pays for rehearsal, for training, for everything. At home we have rehearsals every day for three hours. It is simple. Practice is much better than theory."</strong><br />
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<em>*Here is where we both have an an attack of naivete and play the party line for Ms. KGB. Later, in private, over a cup of tea, we discussed the difficulties and challenges of maintaining the horses -- life itself in the Soviet state. One that appeared to be crumbling under its own weight as we spoke. We both smiled...a silent kind of agreement and let the conversation wander to the acts themselves... the horses and those small details in the performance that the audience never knows about. After all, it is show business to those folks in the stands.</em><br />
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<em><strong>[Flags of the 'stan's.' From the Indo-Iranian (Persian) word, stanam, or staan; it denotes the "land or country of"...a nod really to the tribal origins of its inhabitants.] </strong></em><br />
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<strong>Nugzarov's act incorporates a little elementary dressage, a good deal of trick riding and just enough sword play to keep it interesting. The horse's gallop in a 30-meter (44-foot) ring, with banked surfaces, coated in rubber -- and the dimensions are important. As Nugzarov explains it, "There are 11 to 13 <em>gallopades</em> [strides] to the circle. The horse is moving very quickly, so it seems to the audience that there is great speed. Actually, they are fooling the audience, and if the circle were bigger, it would seem much slower. But of course, the smaller circle is much more difficult."</strong><br />
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<strong>The rubber surface is meant to cushion the horses and flexes in any direction when a leg rotates on it. Nugzarov admits to some problems with ankles and shoulders on the horses, but after five months of touring, and more than a few [equine] teenagers in the group, all seemed sound and performing well. Nugzarov said, "The horses cross-canter, mostly because of the diameter of the circle, but also to accomodate the riders rolling under them."</strong><br />
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<strong>The horses are all picked out personally by Nugzarov as 2-year olds. "We buy the horses and begin training them and strengenthing their muscles. They begin training at 3. A horse is strong enough at this age. At 2 they just do ground work. I choose them by their height, by their strength, and by their muscles."</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQGHw2xYhvH5AnCVMs7clf3gvF0bblkALfpokRCLq68WYyV0bJOIi5NfPZocDm0SPQfiGpnd3tKuNJ92eIm-nZD7oCddjwnskNXm6PQiuTC3845Wjg4_GIcsyHp0RzuDQ861OOIU_VCVm/s1600/moscow1112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQGHw2xYhvH5AnCVMs7clf3gvF0bblkALfpokRCLq68WYyV0bJOIi5NfPZocDm0SPQfiGpnd3tKuNJ92eIm-nZD7oCddjwnskNXm6PQiuTC3845Wjg4_GIcsyHp0RzuDQ861OOIU_VCVm/s200/moscow1112.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdxqwYoOiNLvPze2ghAG3p470cO6dPLYpMIzg7CxfF7L8xk5aqMqVXWpu-hVZkAbiNn1Tc2CFG2d1uibMXNiZX_WXi52G2i9Qkm2Tlk5YxvTkriFaD29_lDK-LKXR4wv9tdBaj0hxZ8lo4/s1600/moscow2113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdxqwYoOiNLvPze2ghAG3p470cO6dPLYpMIzg7CxfF7L8xk5aqMqVXWpu-hVZkAbiNn1Tc2CFG2d1uibMXNiZX_WXi52G2i9Qkm2Tlk5YxvTkriFaD29_lDK-LKXR4wv9tdBaj0hxZ8lo4/s200/moscow2113.jpg" width="200" /></a><strong>The horses all work to the left, because as Nugzarov states, "this is how they are still in their mothers. From the beginning, it is natural for them to turn to the left." However, the horses are sometimes rehearsed going to the right, and at home they are ridden outside, often on the streets or in the fields.</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ZDQqXRqU2hnMWAsklG-yZtrRHK-0juCL8H5CS_i-jT9B4a8RK50OmOdAieZR5uO1VS9rnlPHxggHhNBkc2ezyVk7QLb1WiDA9qyI7Jj9DRH9a8QDh8mKDepWgKcJy8-etwwfnxBeubDS/s1600/turk.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong></strong></a><strong> </strong><em>The horses:</em><strong> Because of deeply rooted cultural beliefs, as well as a training philosophy, Nugzarov works only with stallions. "Nature protests against castration, and the horse loses his fire," he says. "It is not the right way. The audience feels that the horse is not as beautiful or as real."</strong><br />
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<strong>It may be a measure of of his ability and his patience that eight stallions can live and work in the confines necessitated by a long tour. The horses live in over sized tie stalls, each within easy reach of the next horse. Most tour facilities require that the horses warm up backstage in the equine version of afternoon gridlock. Cooling out requires the same degree of tolerance, and the eight stallions tend to regard each other as companions rather than rivals.</strong><br />
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<em>*I actually rode one backstage in the warm-up phase of the act. Their behavior was exemplary -- not what one would expect. And as a nod to the horse's needs, they always performed last -- giving the grooms and trainers full use of the facilities for cooling them out. The horses were kept barefoot, maintained quite well. One 'trainer' (I note this as they do not refer to themselves as riders -- only trainers), also handled the farrier work. His tools were typical of Soviet manufacturing: abominable; his rasp had no teeth left. In the spirit of good foreign relations....he left with GE nippers, Victoria knives, a box of Bellota rasps and a hoof stand -- a tool he had never even seen. Ms. KBG was a little chagrined...later I brought her flowers and Ghiardelli chocolates. The interviews improved after that. If anyone actually believes that the average Russian was ever brainwashed...fully indoctrinated to the party line...a good little communist -- think again. When faced with no tangible options, you 'go along to get along.' Nugzarov's chief concern was finding enough rubles to keep his horses, his troupe and their families intact. Oh later, Ms. KGB passed me a note in broken English: "Can you get this panties, hoses I think...black maybe...I will pay you okay." Super power diplomacy does have its moments. </em><br />
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<strong>The horses used for the dressage portion of the act </strong><em>[cadre noir]</em><strong> are half Arabian and half English import. For the most part, they resemble a small Warmblood with an Arab head. The vaulting horses are mostly Akhal-Tekes, a breed of horse that is as old as the Russian culture itself. At about 16-hands, they are the largest horses in the act and are well-known for their unique bronze color. Also in the act are a Hanoverian, a Budyonny -- a relatively new Russian breed, developed as a cavalry mount -- <em>AND</em> an American Quarter Horse that joined the circus during its 1978 tour. During that tour, a Denver attorney presented Nugzarov with a Western saddle and bridle. Ten years later, he still rides with the saddle in his act -- though it has been battered by the years of hard riding, he steadfastly refuses to replace it.</strong> <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This ain't no Russian horse...</td></tr>
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<em>*Ah yes, the mystery horse from Texas. Seems someone swapped a couple of equine passports and one of the troupe's Akhal-Tekes failed to go back to Russia. (An equine defection.) Akhal-Tekes are coveted in much of the world as endurance horses. Unfortunately, due to their origins in central Asia, most are EIA reactive -- meaning they cannot pass a Coggin's Test. Hence, they can't be imported even though they are not exhibiting the disease or capable of transmitting it. However, once out of ear-shot of Ms. KGB, Nugzarov confessed to a little horse trading -- Texas style. And yeah, a Dallas lawyer was in the middle of it. The rest, as they say is, "Classified." </em><br />
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<strong>In other circles, where performers use horses as Nugzarov and his riders do, the animal might come to be regarded as nothing more than ceremonial accompaniments. But Nugzarov allows no <em>prima donnas</em>. Each rider (trainer) must also wrap legs, clean stalls and tack, warm up and cool out the horses and participate in three hours of rehearsal daily.</strong><br />
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<strong>Of course there are also some risks. "Yes, there have been injuries," Nugzarov says, "but they have not been major. After all," he adds with a hint of Russian fatalism, "the hardest injuries are those to the soul." </strong><em> </em><br />
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<strong><u>Backstage...Not Very Different from Your Average Horseshow...Schooling Time</u>!</strong></div>
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<strong>And after each performance, all the horses get their own head of cabbage as a reward. No, not carrots or apples...a cabbage. Russia, ya know.</strong></div>
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</a><em>Needless to say, the horse has always played a major role in the region, a part of the world where cultures mingled, clashed, integrated, sought or had nationhood forced upon them -- all with dissimilar results. Over time, the term Cossack (Kazahk), has often been used homogeneously to describe the horsemen of the Caucasus region. More accurately, the term is Djigit, for it is more a matter of equestrian tradition, than ethnicity, though in certain regions, the Cossack title has been claimed and accepted in the regional nomenclature over the course of time.</em></div>
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<em>Much of this 'mixing' of cultures was the result of the Arab invasions (8th century), the Mongol incursions of the 1200's -- the eviction of the Persian (Iranian) influence -- another factor in the continuing sectarian split between the Sunni and Shi'a factions within Islam; later Turkic influences of the Ottoman Empire. And of course, the consolidation efforts of Tsarist Russia itself...a model that the new USSR was happy to adopt.</em><br />
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<em>Yet throughout their turbulent history, the horsemen of the 'staans' remained true to their roots in horsemanship and their fierce sense of unbridled independence -- often bartered for at a terrible price. Quite often these horsemen became mercenaries for the greater powers surrounding them -- hired guns to the tsars, sultans and khans, i.e. knights; in much the same sense of the Christian Templars -- for the word Cossack has always meant, "free people," and for a couple of centuries they actually succeeded in the bargain, defending the borders of the land, the needed social stability for a greater state; above all, the faith.</em><br />
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<em>But oddly, a single event in a distant and unknown land sealed their fate in the 19th century: the American Civil War. Yes. King cotton. The north had been cut off from cotton stocks in the south and had turned to Russia for its needs. The Tsarist government, short on cash and tired of Uzbek recalcitrance --invaded the south, taking over the southern cotton producing provinces. They never left. And 5 decades later, the Bolsheviks followed suit -- suffered greatly at the hands of the Cossack cavalries, but eventually prevailed -- mostly due to political infighting among the Cossack's themselves. And the repressive policies that followed ( over a1/2 million or more of the federated Cossack peoples -- murdered), the imperialist attitude of enforced monoculture demanded by Moscow, collectivization of agriculture and the greatest insult of all: the forced abolishment of Islamic traditions -- all leaving a deep and lasting scar, a resentment that continues to this day.</em><br />
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<strong>After-thoughts and Analogies as </strong><strong>History Travels Over Time: </strong></div>
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<em><u></u><u></u><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUXIzI7fQipTpLPbEULOg2XkUlr4f5th4Q5PjmMQUbfuSpnkygmWukLhyphenhyphenQL54KzZXh_-57X2C2_nfaEQxkNXLZq6mbIJo9RQ47wAl-nvIYjqFM7T42ZH76XcVOGtnKce4RZOo3e-Y5ruu1/s1600/afghanistan-ethnic-map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUXIzI7fQipTpLPbEULOg2XkUlr4f5th4Q5PjmMQUbfuSpnkygmWukLhyphenhyphenQL54KzZXh_-57X2C2_nfaEQxkNXLZq6mbIJo9RQ47wAl-nvIYjqFM7T42ZH76XcVOGtnKce4RZOo3e-Y5ruu1/s320/afghanistan-ethnic-map.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ethnicity in Afghanistan. Parallels Abound.</u></td></tr>
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</em>I have often wondered if Presidents, Secretarys' of State, Defense...Senators, Congressional types...ever seriously look at the histories and cultures of the peoples they choose to meddle with, depose, bomb...dis-enfranchise? And the same question for all the tail-wagging pimps in mainstream journalism who posture some passionate loyalty to the truth, but sell it for a dime to the board of directors -- the whores upstairs that spin current events into a political fairy tale of their own choosing. At a profit.<br />
They say the Cossacks were brigands and mercenaries, who only owed a loyalty to themselves, their lifestyle and beliefs; the land beneath their horse's hooves. And that they defiantly defended that 'turf' by any means necessary -- from deception to violence. Mostly they just wanted to be left the hell alone in the world <em>they</em> had created.<br />
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And today? What of these <em>Mujaheddin,</em> the Taliban<em>....al Qaeda?</em> The Chechen nationalists, Uyghurs in northwestern China -- Uzbek's, Armenians, Palestinians in the West Bank...just about everybody in the old Yugoslavia? The Oglala Sioux, the Apache and Comanche perhaps? A fair comparison I think. Tribes and groups thrown together by colonial and imperial desires by those with the power to dictate the terms of life to entire populations of other human beings. And we wonder at the resentment...or in the arrogance of our pride, don't bother to notice -- instead, quick to condemn the violence on its face, on some vague moral ground. Never considering what these maligned groups have experienced over the last century or more of a forced and incredibly brutal occupation. When the playing field is hopelessly skewed...negotiation via violence is all that is left. </div>
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That was the question that should have been put to Osama bin Laden two decades ago. What do you really want? I doubt anyone bothered to ask. And the Taliban? We already burned them once before. And the Saudis? They have always been forced to tip-toe between the Wahhabist movement (a belief that bin Laden claimed, but did not practice), and the international political reality around them. You don't get the money without the strings. This House of Saud had always reigned by approval -- not necessarily decree, when it comes to the wishes of the Wahhabi majority. So in effect, like many members of our own American Congress, what sells in Washington, might not fly too well around Kansas City. Riyadh isn't much different. Thin ice and getter thinner every day. And for the most part, bin Laden was the Saudi's mercenary, their diplomat in the courts of the desert...a fellow who could keep the peace with the Wahhabist's or let the Bedouin tribes burn the royal palace to the ground. In Libya too, he held the cards to keep Qaddafi in power, but...like the Cossack mercenaries of old, his fundamentalist army, his global Wahhabist movement was now viewed as more powerful than the political states themselves. And his violent actions, the orchestrated attacks -- playing to <em>his</em> audience, threatened the kind of retaliation that no regime could survive, oil or not. So he had to go. But the damage was already done, any notion of moderation, swept from the table in this well-orchestrated <em>Jihad</em>...the origins of which, like the Cossacks perhaps -- largely forgotten. But then, the world's media pundits are happy to fuel the flames, while academic assessments go unnoticed:<br />
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<strong>The </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_terrorism" title="Islamic terrorism"><strong>militant Islam</strong></a><strong> of </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden" title="Osama bin Laden"><strong>Osama bin Laden</strong></a><strong> did not have its origins in the teachings of Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab and was not representative of Wahhabi Islam as it is practiced in contemporary Saudi Arabia, yet for the media it came to define Wahhabi Islam during the later years of bin Laden's lifetime. However "unrepresentative" bin Laden's global </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad" title="Jihad"><strong>jihad</strong></a><strong> was of Islam in general and Wahhabi Islam in particular, its prominence in headline news took Wahhabi Islam across the spectrum from revival and reform to global jihad.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-62"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabi#cite_note-62">62]</a></sup></strong></div>
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And to think...all of these intricate winding paths started over a conversation about the history of one man, his job in life and the horses that share <em>his </em>journey. More Presidents and Senators should take in a quiet afternoon at the circus. Just might learn a thing or two in the process. <br />
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A.Juellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17253229138894791694noreply@blogger.com0