Security Clearances After The Navy Yard Shootings

 J. Robert "Machine Gun" Oppenheimer

Back in the old days, people needed security clearance so that the chances that they would pass secrets along to other countries would be considered to be small. Communist sympathizers and "pinkos" were suspect, along with various other "fifth columnists".

Now we need checks to make sure our fellow workers may not feel the urge in the future to shoot us!

These days, J. Robert Oppenheimer would not be checked for any communists in his past. He would be checked for strange visions of sub-atomic particles flying around and end-of-the-world stuff and imagining himself to be Shiva, the Destroyer !


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The Fed Sez:

The Federal Reserve has decided that the economy still sucks lemons.

The only difference between ourselves and Japan in the late 90's is the fact that the central bank in the USA had some vision of an effective procedure to prevent deflation.

All of this transfer of wealth to the wealthy is, surprise of surprises, not trickling down, nor is it being invested in any way that expands the economy.

I advise everyone to grab hold of something stable, and hold on for dear life...
The "Economy" as we once knew it is more like Breaking Bad.

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Films We'd Like To See

http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/

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Good Versus Bad Governance

Lorenzetti's Good Republic

Intro
Climate Change, Drought, Fire, Flood; all things which beset us and for which we cannot blame a bad government. What we can blame upon bad government is our social response to these evils.

Once again we come to the season of governmental discords, and view the possibility of a government shut-down.

We are teased with hope. We have just witnessed the USA not responding to a recalitrant foreign policy problem by force, by quite openly and clearly opting for peace, and freely accepting the help of other states in roles other than mere stooges in foreign wars.
That is unprecedented for the last 50 years or so.

Yet, even peace is attacked.

In a time when Peace is vilified, what is left for us, we who have no benefits from violence and wars?

Looking further, we see that we live in a time when government policies have shipped industry and jobs overseas in the name of globalization; we see a rapidly decreasing diversity of flora and fauna; we see a country such as Ecuador put it right to the international Capitalistic ethos and say:  

put your money where your mouths are! If a rain forest is essential for climate health, pay us the equivalent of income for not destroying a portion of ours for oil!

But the world's bluff was called. We cannot fund a rain forest.

The World is too much with us, and too much for us...

Chapter 1
In the 14th century, Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted a mural in Siena called The Allegory Of Good And Bad Government.

Andrew Zaleski ( http://evergreen.loyola.edu/brnygren/www/Honors/Compagni.htm ) compares the writings of Dino Compagni, The Chronicles of Florence, and the paintings of Lorenzetti as they relate to the life of Tuscany in the 13th and 14th centuries.

For Compagni, the universal aim of all Florentines should be the betterment of their city-state, characterized by sentiments expressed by Compagni at the beginning of Book I: “This city of Florence is very populous and its good climate promotes fecundity.  Its citizens are well-bred and its women lovely and adorned; its buildings are beautiful and filled with many useful crafts, more than any other city in Italy” (5).  The corruption, competition, and vice brought about through the factionalism and incessant squabbling and power jockeying is precisely what Compagni wishes to avoid, and a recurring trope in the Chronicle is this idea that the sinful behavior perpetrated by many Florentines, combined with abuse of laws, the selling of political positions ^(a)   , and ongoing war will result in the undoing of a city-state.

{ note (a) : observe that the "selling of political positions" may find its equally insidious equivalent today in the "selling of interest" done by lobbyists and interest groups. It is the "selling" that is the vice, not the buyer of the office that is the evil; the buyer may be otherwise virtuous.
Similarly in "nepotism", it is not the nephew, the nepos, who is a scourge upon the body politic, rather it is the removal of government from the realm of the rational and dumping it into the playground of individuals' whims and fancies.}

Lorenzetti’s portrayal of bad government and its effects offers striking parallels to the behavior decried by Compagni in his book.  In the Allegory of Bad Government, the three figures of avarice, pride, and vain glory hover above the head of the tyrannical ruler of this bad government, who looks equal parts repulsive and monstrous—devilish, even.  The connection, then, is that sinful virtue governs bad government, which results in a leader, or multiple leaders, hell-bent on power regardless of cost.  The very concepts of avarice, pride, and vain glory are the behaviors that Compagni finds in the various factions developing in Florentine.

Conversely, Lorenzetti’s Allegory of Good Government depicts a scene that falls right in step with Compagni’s preferred vision for Florence.  The figure of justice takes on a great significance in this painting: Wisdom sits above the head of Lady Justice, who sits atop Lady Concordia, who holds a level attached to by two cords from Justice...  in a representation of anti-factionalism.  Finally, a long procession of similarly dressed, similarly stationed men follows to the right of Concordia, supposedly in a representation of the common good; all the men look the same and all strive for a unified goal, instead of individual goals.

The effects of good government as depicted by Lorenzetti again are another implicit connection to Compagni.  The artwork depicts a city with beautiful buildings, undifferentiated architecturally (demonstrating justice and equality); a school for children and shops for merchants are busy at work; various city figures are all taking part in different jobs to ensure the city runs smoothly; harvesting takes place in the fields, and livestock are abundant...

 

Lorenzetti's Countryside of the Bad Republic

Chapter 2
There is a film by Esther Podemski, The Peasant And The Priest, set in present-day Tuscany, and which examines the modern world as reflected in this area of Italy through the fresco of Lorenzetti.
This is an most admirable opportunity to combine one's conscious hopes and desires, the political means of attaining them, and a symbolic and artistic expression of those products of consciousness.

The troubles which we have today are only intractable to those impoverished in spirit and mind and imagination. By this study, I hope we gain further understanding, and we work to free ourselves from "No Exit" situations - such as war in Syria or how to live sanely with weapons - which are becoming more and more frequent in our lives: indeed, situations that defy resolution are becoming the normal.

There is a 3 minutes presentation on The Peasant And The Priest at
http://www.thepeasantandthepriest.com/

It will be well worth the time spent.
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An Adventure In Art (42)

 

Spring, Sofia

Judith Nakhnikian

Judith Nakhnikian, Paintings and Drawings, Eugene, Oregon

http://www.nakhnikian.com/

http://nakhnikian.blogspot.com/

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Starbuck's

Starbuck's apparently does not allow guns into their coffee stores.

Of course, gun toters resent this and are whining and demonstrating about it.
I own a car. I think Starbuck's should allow me to bring my car in, too.

Grow up.
I recall that cowpokes had to leave their guns at the door of the Longbranch Saloon.

This is all part of defining the limits within a weapon society, not some attack on gun toters.

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Educational Genocide And The Teaching Of Cursive Handwriting

 To Waste A Mind Is A Terrible Thing

(1)
Even people that cannot write in cursive, but solely use the print form of writing - what I think we used to call "using block letters" when I was a kid -  often have illegible writing.

So many people are not even being taught to write in block letters, much less cursive.

That's why the whole question of cursive sounds phoney: educators already are failing with the simpler form of writing, so the question about cursive is posed to make a diversion.

(2)
Cursive is faster and quicker.
If a person need to write, then cursive would free them up to
(a) save time, and
(b) get their ideas down faster, which is important if the ideas are new and still malleable in the mind.

To deprive children of a fast and efficient form of setting down their thoughts is yet what I consider another form of "educational genocide" being perpetrated in this country.
The decline of all education is a CRIME, for it deprives people of the ability to elucidate their thoughts and refine them and try to make them precise. Inferior education destroys minds and people.

This entire business of restricting Voting Rights is a form of marginalization which does not even begin to approach the horror of wiping out the thoughts of entire generations of peoples!

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Navy Yard Shooting As An Acceptable Statistic

The shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C....
are they an acceptable statistic, or are they not?

If these deaths are not acceptable, then how shall we, as a weaponized society, deal with guns and weapons, in order that such things do not happen with such frequency?

Nobody knows.

The NRA does not know. It has done its job in ensuring that all people will have their right to bear arms not infringed, and they have  secured the recall of politicians that sought to have controls upon gun ownership.

The case is as follows:

Either

(1) the killings at the Navy Yard are an acceptable statistic, and part of normal life in a weaponized society, or

(2) they are not acceptable. If they are not acceptable, then how do we address them?

Does anyone have any ideas that could be implemented?

If I were a politician and implemented some gun control, I would be recalled, and my controls be overturned. Therefore, nothing can be done by anyone at this time.

And it is this very impossibility of doing anything right now that forces us, willy-nilly, to accept the deaths as reasonable and normal feature of society.

How do we explain it otherwise? Are we to say that such killings are unacceptable, yet we as a society cannot find it within ourselves to amend the situation?

Are we that mad?
--

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Why Detroit Went Broke

A masterful story on Detroit by The Detroit Free Press.

This is how newspapers may survive: by great journalism that people must read.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130915/NEWS01/130801004/


The story also neatly and firmly skewers that subterranean racists who still believe that everything went to heck when Mr. Coleman Young was elected mayor of Detroit.
If those people have the guts, they should read the facts.

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I had a great admiration for Mr. Young, and I append a poem I wrote for his passing:

Coleman Young's Funeral

(On a Friend's Funeral)



The many colored uniforms
of autumn line the street,
as we zouaves ramble on,
bearing him to Elmwood;
a telephone directory
of names and tears of your family -
they'll meet you on the other side
as now you fly away!


They came running to tell me news -
I’d heard it on the vine –
radio novelties all day
of our cold jubilees.
On wings of song you will soon lie
amid Egyptian sarcophagi
between neo-classic temples…
marching round Jericho!

--

notes

Coleman Young  -  Mayor of Detroit,1974 to 1993

Elmwood - famous Detroit cemetery

zouave - soldiers, French and others, who wore colorful uniforms; three syllables pronounced zoo-AH-vee.

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Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Inside the "Star Trek" Inspired HQ of the NSA

In case you wonder how the Surveillance State spends the money which they take from us:


Inside the mind of NSA chief Gen Keith Alexander

A lavish Star Trek room he had built as part of his 'Information Dominance Center' is endlessly revealing
Glenn Greenwald
theguardian.com, Sunday 15 September 2013 08.14 EDT

It has been previously reported that the mentality of NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander is captured by his motto "Collect it All". It's a get-everything approach he pioneered first when aimed at an enemy population in the middle of a war zone in Iraq, one he has now imported onto US soil, aimed at the domestic population and everyone else.

But a perhaps even more disturbing and revealing vignette into the spy chief's mind comes from a new Foreign Policy article describing what the journal calls his "all-out, barely-legal drive to build the ultimate spy machine". The article describes how even his NSA peers see him as a "cowboy" willing to play fast and loose with legal limits in order to construct a system of ubiquitous surveillance. But the personality driving all of this - not just Alexander's but much of Washington's - is perhaps best captured by this one passage, highlighted by PBS' News Hour in a post entitled: "NSA director modeled war room after Star Trek's Enterprise". The room was christened as part of the "Information Dominance Center":

"When he was running the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, Alexander brought many of his future allies down to Fort Belvoir for a tour of his base of operations, a facility known as the Information Dominance Center. It had been designed by a Hollywood set designer to mimic the bridge of the starship Enterprise from Star Trek, complete with chrome panels, computer stations, a huge TV monitor on the forward wall, and doors that made a 'whoosh' sound when they slid open and closed. Lawmakers and other important officials took turns sitting in a leather 'captain's chair' in the center of the room and watched as Alexander, a lover of science-fiction movies, showed off his data tools on the big screen.

"'Everybody wanted to sit in the chair at least once to pretend he was Jean-Luc Picard,' says a retired officer in charge of VIP visits." ...

 and

The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/15/4732930/nsa-information-dominance-center-redesigned-as-starship-enterprise

...The data visualized and shown off at the Information Dominance Center seems to have been of varying usefulness. At one point, a former official recalls Alexander giving a briefing on how closely terrorists were connected via communications networks. "Later, we had a chance to review the information," he says. "It turns out that all [that] those guys were connected to were pizza shops." ...

Eisenhower was the last President to have the sense of self-assurance and knowledge to stand up to the Military-Industrial-Intelligence Complex.

Let us take back the country before it is too late.

--
photos:  The Guardian

The Wages Of Corruption

News Daily
http://www.newsdaily.com/europe/9121990965c41c9fc98a43dc29e5dc67/brazil-looks-to-break-from-us-centric-internet

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil plans to divorce itself from the U.S.-centric Internet over Washington's widespread online spying, a move that many experts fear will be a potentially dangerous first step toward politically fracturing a global network built with minimal interference by governments.
President Dilma Rousseff has ordered a series of measures aimed at greater Brazilian online independence and security following revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted her communications, hacked into the state-owned Petrobras oil company's network and spied on Brazilians who entrusted their personal data to U.S. tech companies such as Facebook and Google.

The wages of corruption.

The insane need to collect all data and to destroy privacy, whether by law or by transgression or overstepping the law, is a characteristic of a corrupt people.

Brazil knows what it is doing.

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Retrofuturism

Bonaverker

 

The Old Farmers' Co-op Observatory

Simon Stalenhag

Paintings

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Dark Matters

Dark Matter is posited to explain gravitational effects, while Dark Energy is posited to explain effects opposite to gravity; i.e., why things fly apart.

So we have Gravity, and as we study it, we study curvature of space that is the reason why objects of mass approach each other. It seems logical that an "anti-curvature" of space would explain why objects repel each other.

Dr. M. Wanas in Egypt has been working on this approach to develop an explanation of Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

--

correction:
originally this post had Dr. Wanas' name as "Wahad". The mistake has been corrected. I must have had "one" thing on my mind.

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Sustenance

 

A Sailboat Will Sail Whether It

Believes In The Ocean Or Not

We shall follow the Holy, whether we say that we believe in God or not.

Your belief and your statement of belief is meaningless.

The Ocean of the Holy sustains us, whether we believe or not.

How disingenuous it is for believers to commit unbelievers to hell for their unbelief, since God sustains us all.

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Out Of Touch WIth Reality

 

The Cake Walk of War

Great article on how the war and death mongerers might be better off if they re-established some connection with the reality of life for the vast majority of the populace which is afflicted by their decisions.

Asia Times:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-03-130913.html

...Surely a certain decadent nadir has been reached when their foremost concern involves the veracity and sanctity of the imparted message. You'd think the Red Line was pinned down on Iwo Jima with a two-day supply of water. No matter, a command is sent down from some high-up place: "Summon the kids (well, our kids anyway). The message must be preserved at all costs!" A contemptible equivalency has been struck: Losing a limb, ours, is a reasonable price to avert losing face, theirs. Never mind that the Red Line isn't a cornered battalion, but merely a botched metaphor wrapped in a rhetorical gaffe. It happens also to be the exoteric casus belli.

This quote is revealing: " ... to communicate with [the Iranians] we have to be very clear, very forthright." - White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough

You'd think if America wanted to send a very clear, forthright message to the Chilean people, there are better ways to do it than bombing Nigeria. How about Antarctica? It's closer and less populous.

I would submit that Iran is, far and away, the most forthright target to send the Iranians a forthright message. These non sequiturs are compelled by veiled objectives. Then too, had we wanted to push Iraq decisively into the Iranian orbit, there were far less costly and bloody ways to go about it than Gulf War 2. Maybe my brain is not cut out for all this strategy stuff, but from this low chair, McDonough's argument suffers all at once from logical indirection, geographic inexactitude and disingenuous message-talk. We're also back to hopelessly mixed metaphors of sending bulletins with bombs, communicating with shrapnel etc, when Mr McDonough should know that messages don't kill people. Bullets kill people...

Good sketch of the madness of later empires.

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The Rise Of The Robots

 Typical ultra-fast extreme events caused by mobs of computer algorithms operating faster than humans

Typical ultrafast extreme events caused by mobs of computer algorithms operating faster than humans can react.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-09-sudden-global-ecology-interacting-robots.html#jCp

In this blog we have written of the future flash crashes of financial markets awaiting us, and the fact that, despite the obvious danger of the lack of human control, nothing is being seriously done to slow these systems down and return them to human control.

There is an obvious danger in being so beguiled by technology and the speed by which new things can be contrived and new revenue streams can be constrained to enrich the wealth holders. The danger is that no one is in a position to say, "No."

There is no one in a position to urge a slow approach, and to make sure that our creations do not turn against us... at least, not too horribly.

And turn they will.

It is in the nature of things.

Follow the link and read the article over and over until we understand the Brave New World that is being unleashed upon us.
http://phys.org/news/2013-09-sudden-global-ecology-interacting-robots.html

Recently, the global financial market experienced a series of computer glitches that abruptly brought operations to a halt. One reason for these "flash freezes" may be the sudden emergence of mobs of ultrafast robots, which trade on the global markets and operate at speeds beyond human capability, thus overwhelming the system. The appearance of this "ultrafast machine ecology" is documented in a new study published on September 11 in Nature Scientific Reports. 

The findings suggest that for time scales less than one second, the financial world makes a sudden transition into a cyber jungle inhabited by packs of aggressive trading algorithms. "These algorithms can operate so fast that humans are unable to participate in real time, and instead, an ultrafast ecology of robots rises up to take control," explains Neil Johnson, professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami (UM), and corresponding author of the study.  

"Our findings show that, in this new world of ultrafast robot algorithms, the behavior of the market undergoes a fundamental and abrupt transition to another world where conventional market theories no longer apply," Johnson says...

Machines and algorithms can taken over and control our lives; they do not need to be what we consider intelligent:  they merely have to be a couple steps ahead of us!

--

Recently, the global financial market experienced a series of computer glitches that abruptly brought operations to a halt. One reason for these "flash freezes" may be the sudden emergence of mobs of ultrafast robots, which trade on the global markets and operate at speeds beyond human capability, thus overwhelming the system. The appearance of this "ultrafast machine ecology" is documented in a new study published on September 11 in Nature Scientific Reports.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-09-sudden-global-ecology-interacting-robots.html#jCp

Recently, the global financial market experienced a series of computer glitches that abruptly brought operations to a halt. One reason for these "flash freezes" may be the sudden emergence of mobs of ultrafast robots, which trade on the global markets and operate at speeds beyond human capability, thus overwhelming the system. The appearance of this "ultrafast machine ecology" is documented in a new study published on September 11 in Nature Scientific Reports.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-09-sudden-global-ecology-interacting-robots.html#jCp

Year of Death, Year of Miracles

That is 2013.

Many have diead; many close to me have passed on.

Yet, many have cheated death and survive.

And I have seen an American President decide not to unilaterally bomb a country, and I have seen a popular uprising in Egypt against political Islamic rule!

I mean, do you have any idea how strange this year is?

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Shut Down Now

If you are a Tea Party member, and you wish to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act, why don't you just leave now?

Just go away and perform your own shut down.

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Lost In Space Trivia

 Stay, illusion! If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, Speak to me:

Which episodes of the TV series Lost In Space had a guest appearance by Michael Rennie?

Which one had Sir John Gielgud? And Maggie Smith? And Maurice Evans? And Sid Caesar? Paul Ford?

Which episode had an uncredited cameo by Nat Hiken?

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Gun Advice

Do not say "Gun Controls".

Say "Responsible Gun Ownership"

Make the distinction between responsible gun ownership and irresponsible, and let it sink into the skulls of the numb.

I mean, no one wants "irresponsible" gun ownership. At that point, a "rational" system may begin to be devised.

Note:   I have emphasized "rational" because there are very few regulatory systems that can actually be characterized as "rational".

You know what I mean. At a certain point, the government gets to charge fees and taxes and set up guidelines... sort of like motorcycle helmet laws, which here in Michigan change every 5 years or so....

Here in Michigan, the concept of "rationality" is sometimes cyclical, sometimes counter-cyclical. Sometimes it disappears altogether... like the enormous number of "Four Corners" across the state where there are absolutely no signs with street names on.

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Finanzkrise !!

In the German business newspaper Handelblatt, there is an article on Hank Paulson's warning of the possiblity of a new financial crisis.
http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/henry-m-paulson-ex-us-finanzminister-warnt-vor-neuer-finanzkrise/8770078.html

Then we see elsewhere, and referring to Mr. Paulson:
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Hank_%22World_Should_Prepare_For_New_Financial_Crisis%22_Paulson_Versus_Jim_%220%25_Chance%22_Gorman/28763/0/38/38/Y/M.html

James 'not Jim' Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, told Charlie Rose last week that "the probability of [it] happening again in our lifetime is as close to zero as I could imagine."
Gorman's reasoning is consensus:

“The way these firms are managed, the amount of capital that they have, the amount of liquidity that they have, the changes in their business mix -- it’s dramatic.”

Paulson's vew:

5 yrs after the financial crisis, the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac reform has made no progress and the market of shadow banks hasn’t been addressed, Paulson writes, according to a preview of the commentary
Paulson calls the too-big-to-fail phenomenon “unacceptable” and proposes more stringent capital and liquidity requirements in order to minimize the advantages enjoyed by larger financial institutions: Handelsblatt

(1) Mr. Gorman apparently does not believe the "crisis" can come from another direction. It is not clear whether Mr. Paulson does, for he does not address that issue.

(2) It is true that Wall Street reform has not been effective.
Given that the actions of Wall Street are so incredibly important upon the lives of so many people, it would seem reasonable to hold decision makers on Wall Street to higher standards.

What we presently have is a Plato's Republic type of system where the "philosopher-kings" garner benefits, but need not inconvenience themselves in their pursuits of pleasures, indulgences, power, and greed.

An Aristocracy which does not deliver the goods ends on the guillotine, as History teaches.

--

Blown Up All Out Of Proportion

I went on record as saying that if the USA went to war in Syria, it would be a very bad thing. In fact, a very, very, very bad thing. I intimated that it would be an important step in the advent of the "four horsemen" of Karma and retribution, and all of this sort of crashed in on me when I happened to see AP photos of the so-called Syrian Free Army, and some of which obviously were mercenaries, who were not even Muslim, or observant Muslim, mercenaries at that.

It was like seeing the Abomination of Desolation standing in the holy place.

Well, that was surely an overblown bit of oratory, right?

Looking back, I did not like doing it, because such feelings and intuitions I tend to keep private, and I do not like exposing so much of myself.

However, look at what it took to divert the dogs of war!

We have witnessed what for all the world reminds me of a Frank Capra film on politics and war, where a bright-eyed, idealistic hero propounds a heroically improbable and honest and simple way to make things better, while all the older and wiser and more powerful smile and shake their heads...

... and he pulls it off! Thanks to the miracle of cinema and Frank Capra!

It's like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, but in a Purple Rose Of Cairo theater, where James Stewart has stepped down off the silver screen. He is followed by Claude Rains as Sen. Lindsay Graham and Edward Arnold as Sen. John McCain. William Demarest comes next as General Martin Dempsey, who had sent a letter to Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee describing military intervention in Syria "a fool's errand". (For which opinion - in real life, not film - the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was termed "disingenuous" by Sen. McCain.)

Senators McCain and Graham

When it takes an almost miracle to change things, I do not think the original warning was overblown bombast; not a bit.
I think I was right.
Thank God for the President and the spirit of Frank Capra and Mr. Smith...

--

Yes, Mr. Secretary

I believe there used to be a wonderful BBC comedy titled "Yes, Minister", starring Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington. It was based on the interplay between the government minister, played by Eddington, and his Permanent Secretary, played by Nigel Hawthorne.

There was comedic conflict between the two, but I don't recall that the Minister (a position equivalent to a Cabinet Secretary in the USA) was portrayed as being in a bit over his head, nor even a bit charmingly daft. The story did not seem to depend on the Minister mucking around and Sir Humphrey, his Permanent Secretary, cleaning up the mess.

This brings us to the US Secretary (equivalent to a British Minister) of State.

If the mere off-hand remark of turning weapons over to international control was abruptly and speedily snatched up by Russia, why did the Secretary previously present it previously as as a viable and serious means of avoiding war... ?

To be sure, it happened so fast that I get the impression that the original question and Mr. Kerry's reply were a set-up to allow Russia to assist.
If not, then we are ruled by a Confederacy of Dunces.

--

An Adventure In Art (41)

 

Farmers' Market

Jill Stefani Wagner
Jill Stefani Wagner Painting Journal
http://www.jillwagnerart.com/artblog/

--

If Miley Cyrus Were A Non-Traditional Stage Play

It was as recent as no more than 6 years ago that I was introduced to the world of Hannah Montana - of whom I had never heard previously, yet she was quite a deal among the young set.

I was correcting papers at the time...

So, there is some discussion about Miley Cyrus' new video... and I swear I had heard a song about it before:


Naked on a wrecking ball,
knocking that building down!
Naked on a wrecking ball,
whoop! About to slip down!
Naked on a wrecking ball,
knocking that building down!
Naked on a wrecking ball,
whoop! About to slip down!
Five o'clock in the morning,
I'm already up and gone;
Lord, I am so tired!
How long can this go on?


I know I would be tired from sitting on a wrecking ball, even were I attired in full evening dress.

--

Interesting Differences Of Opinion

 

L' Shanah Tovah !

Pope Francis had a prayer vigil last Saturday for peace in Syria. This was the day after the end of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

Before the beginning of Rosh Hashanah (literally "head" or "top of the year"), the following had occurred:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/06/jewish-leaders-petition-congress-syria

High-profile US rabbis and Jewish leaders are petitioning Congress to authorise President Barack Obama to use military strikes in response to Syria's use of chemical weapons.

Addressed to congressional leaders and signed on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the petition evokes memories of the Holocaust and urges leaders to act to "save thousands of lives" and to deter future atrocities in "Syria and elsewhere".

It says: "As a people who themselves once faced the horrors of genocide and survived, we had hoped that we would never again open our newspapers to images of mass graves filled with suffocated young children. Now that we have seen such images coming from Syria, we call upon you to act."

Conventional bombs and missiles and air strikes kill children, too.

I am too surprised to say anything about these "leaders".

--

How Can They Say These Things With A Straight Face?

A U.N. team spent four days late last month investigating the Aug. 21 incident. The samples it collected from the site and alleged victims of the attack are currently being examined at the chemical weapons organization’s labs in Europe. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the United States to delay any strike until after the results of that investigation are known. But U.S. officials have dismissed the U.N. probe, saying it won’t tell them anything they don’t already know.

 http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/05/201268/russia-releases-100-page-report.html#.UjDFeH9C6i0

U.S. officials did the exact same thing and said these same statements about the UN inspectors in Iraq in 2003 as they looked for weapons of mass destruction and found none.

Do U.S. officials hear any far away laughter when they say such things?

--

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/05/201268/russia-releases-100-page-report.html#storylink=cpy

Why A Weaponized Society?

It has a long history, but part of the history of guns is a function of the over-reaching of governments, such as our own governmental units - federal, state, and local  -  have shown:

The Sultans of SWAT
http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-sultans-of-swat.html

 A small organic farm in Arlington, Texas, was the target of a massive police action last week that included aerial surveillance, a SWAT raid and a 10-hour search.

Members of the local police raiding party had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm. But farm owners and residents who live on the property told a Dallas-Ft. Worth NBC station that the real reason for the law enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. The police seized "17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, 14 tomatillo plants ... native grasses and sunflowers," after holding residents inside at gunpoint for at least a half-hour, property owner Shellie Smith said in a statement. The raid lasted about 10 hours, she said...

 Such over-reaching is part and parcel of the NSA's programs of surveillance.

The perceived need for guns is a result of a long, complex history of many players. Unfortunately, our own government is far from being free from the indictment of infringement against the rights of the people.

Not until all players in a society can be trusted may guns be abolished.

That is not going to happen any time soon.

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Palmer Looks At : Michelle Bachmann

(Film photo; that's Windows on the left and Palmer to his right. At this point of the film John Carpenter's The Thing, Palmer has just spotted Norris' head... yadda-yadda-yadda...)

Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/10/michele-bachmann-hillary-clinton_n_3902525.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

When it comes to the prospect of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2016, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) appears to be relying on higher powers to step in.
In a Monday interview with right-wing radio host Jan Markell, Bachmann was asked whether she was "one of those who just assumes" that Hillary Clinton will be "coronated."

I don’t at all because I look at the story of David and Goliath," Bachmann said, according to audio posted by Right Wing Watch. "All David needed was one smooth stone to fell the giant. It wasn’t the stone, it wasn’t David, it was the strong right arm of a Holy God.”

Bachmann then extrapolated that story to 2016, saying that it's "up to us" to communicate with Him.
“If we repent, if we cry out to God, we have no idea what the Lord God will do for us in 2016," Bachmann said.

 Firstly, I do not like the word "coronated"; it is too much like something Samuel Johnson used in place ( - or should I say "in lieue of"" - ) the far simpler "crowned". That is how we learned things back when I went to school, the simple noun, such as "crown", and then followed by various Latin and Greek forms to use as adjectives and derivatives for which the English was lacking.

For example, as an adjective for "crown", we would use "coronal" and for the act of placing a crown, "coronation", to serve for possible English equivalents, such as "crown-ish" or "crownlike" or "crownly" in the first instance, and "crown-placing" in the second.

Secondly, perhaps Ms. Bachmann could use the services of her husband, who is known for his abilities to straighten out the natural proclivities of various humans, or so he claims.

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Colorado Recall

Two state senators in Colorado have been recalled, due to their support of gun control regulations.

I think this is a high point for the NRA, but it is the high point, and it will be downhill from now on for them. The reason for this is the fact that we are recognizing that - for better or ill - we are a weaponized society, and that is pretty much our fate, given our history and customs of long standing.

Therefore, we will fully accept our position as such, and we shall have to create a lawful weaponized society which does not lapse too often into anarchy and disaster.

The NRA, with its history and customs, is not suited for that next step.
Its fight is over.

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Thanks, Russia

Thank you, Russia, for sparing us from (1) a first step into a new war, and (2) an embarrassing vote that well may have rendered our President inconsequential for the next 2 years.

(I still consider it a fact that every President since Eisenhower has been manipulated by the military-industrial complex, which since 9/11, has become the military-industrial-intelligence complex.

To achieve their ends, the will destroy the political process if they have to.

I like Mr. Obama. We should be able to keep him around as a viable President until the end of his second term.)

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The President's Speech

Mr. Obama's speechwas very interesting.

If Mr. George W. Bush had flip-flopped like this, all those Democrats would have been ripping on him for botching the issue...


... and we would have been spared that 4 trillion dollar mistake, commonly referred to as the War in Iraq.

Anyway, I shall henceforth write very little about Syria.

The majority of the people are aware of what is involved, and I really hate beating readers over the head with that which they are already aware of. 

--

Wind Farm Mortality

 A Cuisinart For Four and Twenty - Or More - Blackbirds

Wind farms, although green with respect to energy, are red and bloody with respect to the local flying population.

Hiding “Avian Mortality”: Where ‘Green’ is Red (Part I: Altamont Pass)

by Jim Wiegand
September 4, 2013

“The wind industry is hiding over 90% of the bird and bat mortality caused by their turbines. This statement is supported by the industry’s own data and reasonable adjustments for its manipulations.”

“The wind industry is … producing faulty, misleading and even fraudulent documents to hide the serious and growing mortality. This situation has continued for years but has been shielded by state and federal agencies and other supporters of wind power.”

A “green energy” wildlife genocide is depopulating wildlife habitats across the world where vital species once found refuge. Industrial wind turbines have invaded these habitats and are devastating bird and bat species.

http://www.masterresource.org/2013/09/hiding-avian-mortality-altamont-pass/#more-27387


Bats control insects, and birds often are pollinators...

I believe that the case has been made that the only successful large-scale energy resource is and will be solar. I shall look it up. I have a reference somewhere. Read the above in the meantime.

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The White House Creeps Into War

"Mission Creep" has already started in the matter of Syria. Soon we shall be invading if the military-industrial-surveillance (MIS) complex has their way.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-plans-3-days-attack-syria-092116189.html

The scale and purpose of the operation against Syria has not changed in recent weeks, although US forces would adjust as needed, a defense official told AFP.

"We will continue to review our targeting and targeting options as the Syrian government adapts over time," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"We are working to the same objective that President (Barack) Obama has outlined," he insisted, responding to a report in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.

The strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in retaliation for what the US says is the regime's use of chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb, could last longer than a day, officials have said.

The Los Angeles Times had reported Sunday the Pentagon was readying more intense and longer attacks on Syria than originally planned, set to last three days.

War planners now aim to unleash a heavy barrage of missile strikes to be followed swiftly by additional attacks on targets that may have been missed or remain standing after the initial launch, the Times cited officials as saying.
Two US officers told the newspaper that the White House asked for an expanded target list to include "many more" than the initial list of around 50 targets.

Once more, there is no such thing as a limited strike.
The MIS complex knows this, and so should the President. However, the White House thinks that they can build a model war, like a ship in a bottle, and put it on display for the rest of the world.

The addled dreams of technocrats.

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Vote On Syria

If Congress does not overwhelmingly support President Obama on a Syrian "strike" -  (whatever that word may mean and entail) - then he will be a "lame duck" for the next 2 1/2 years.

That is a long time for a nation to twist in the wind.

It is ironic, too, that a man who ran against the George W. Bush legacy may become the instrument of Karma, as we continue to pay for the crimes committed.

--

An Adevnture In Art (40)

Radish, Anyone?

Jean M. Canavan

Jean M. Canavan

http://www.jeancanavan.com/

-

A Visit

Ayden, Austin, and Aloysius (pronounced a-LOY-shus for those of you who are Irishly handicapped) are coming tomorrow!
May God have mercy!

--

Africa

It is surprising how little I have written about Africa.

I do have a theme song about Africa, but that is relatively recent... actually, it is absolutely recent.

My lack of writing upon Africa surprises me, seeing that I have a number of people of African descent in the extended family.  I know people... very, very close people... not small-small... very close... who own land on Victoria Island, and are going there for their retirement. (Sigh! Must I explain where Victoria Island is!? It is in Africa.)

Africa is so much ... like, my left hand... not exactly my right hand, but my other indispensable hand, that it seems like everyone should... like, take it for granted.

--

Syria? Remember Libya...

When NATO First in Libya Struck



When NATO first in Libya struck,
I felt my soul’s exuberance -
saw the Colonel’s intransigence!
The rebels in their pickup truck
watching oil flames rise to the sky,
the world drank champagne in Dubai!

The price of gasoline will rise
and so will price of wheat and bread;
news flash mixed with video games,
while Bouazizi greets the flames,
with Fatimid speed now widely spread
before the Almoravid eyes!

Now history no longer shocks,
seen from the world’s tallest building:
a mere tempest in an X-Box!
Immune in Andalusia,
await Isabella’s wedding!
Street vendor, martyr, gloria!

Does anyone recall the day
when the Khaleef Omar would spend -
full half the world beneath his sway! –
with needle, thread, his own shirts mend?
beyond the pyre of dogma’s fires
the sun sets not, but now expires!

What shall we do upon that day
when we find out, to our dismay,
that furrows dug no longer fruit,
and weapons aimed no longer shoot?
how that extinction will we tend
if God’s blessing no longer wend?

----------

notes:

My consternation watching violence. Everything is on cable TV and seems unreal from my perspective of my youth.


The Rhyme scheme constantly changes.

Bouazizi – Muhammad Bouazizi, the street vendor in Tunisia whose self-immolation started the Middle East uprisings.

Fatimid – a dynasty originally in Egypt and an offspring established the dynasty in Spain. The speed is the speed of a blessing or good luck, because the Fatimids in Spain endured and those in Egypt did not.

Almoravid - a old North African dynasty.

Andalusia - the final Muslim kingdom in Spain at the late 15th century.

Isabella’s wedding – to Ferdinand. She was Columbus patron. The royal couple defeated the last Muslim kingdom in Spain and also expelled the Jews from Spain.

khaleef - standing for “khaleefa”, which means “successor”. Usually spelled “caliph”. ‘Umar or Omar was a khaleefa of strict probity and displayed no ostentation nor love of money or power. He also mended his own garments.

world’s tallest building – Burj Khaleefa in Dubai. Tower of Babylon type thing. Dubai is used as an emblem of pointless and soulless wealth.

wend – “expected”; past participle of “ween”, to expect. Used by Chaucer and now considered archaic.