Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Reality - Journey To The Moon

Polywell Fusion fan kunkmiester has suggested an interesting Reality TV Show.

Had this thought, mostly as an interesting way to get back to the moon. SpaceX is the big key in this though, since:

Dragon mission to ISS(close approximation to putting a crew capsule on a transfer vehicle) is $113M

Falcon 9X is $100-150M, figuring probably $120M for what I'm looking at

Base price of a Falcon 9 is $54M.

With modern tech, a lunar transfer vehicle with fuel should be well below the 9X's wieght to LEO. Crew goes up in a Dragon, lander gets in there, probably as a separate 9 launch.
Which is techno speak for how about a reality TV show whose goal is a return to the moon? There is more at the link. (note - I have added some links to the text for those of you who need to come up to speed on current technology)

I like the idea.

How To Tell A Has Been

George Will does a masterful job of proving his irrelevance. Via Crooks and Liars. (It figures)


The Crooks? The Liars? do have one thing pegged. Palin is spooking the Republican establishment.
The Republican establishment is really spooked at the idea that Sarah Palin might run for President in 2012 after she decided to take a long bus ride and George Will didn't waste any time by throwing a haymaker on ABC's This Week:
Will: There's no undecided vote in this country anymor eon Sarah Palin The threshold question, it's not usually asked, but it’s in everyone’s mind in a presidential election. ‘Should we give this person nuclear weapons?’ And the answer [Palin], answers itself.” That doesn't mean she can't be without political consequence.
When Republicans call into question another Republican's national security chops you know there's real animus goin' on. Conservatives and the media always give the edge to protecting the homeland to the GOP so this isn't some off the cuff quote. Conservative pundits and kingmakers are speaking out against her hard so maybe the RWNM will focus on the Conserva-bias being dished out against her instead of the usual mean MSM media.
Well isn't that interesting. It only makes me like her more.

This video is a very nice illustration of why Palin has cut loose from her bases and is now rampaging across the countryside.


John King at about 3:10 into the video complains that Greta Van Susteren has a lock on reporting Palin's tour and he can't even get a bus schedule. So what does that mean? Well they have to follow Palin's tour or miss out. All the other candidates? Sucking wind. Or hind tit. As you prefer.

The whole media industrial complex is complaining about Palin.
But Monday, two things became clear: She will not shy away from unscripted encounters, and she isn't going let anyone know in advance where she's going as she wends her way across the country this summer.
I guess the MSM is not as self important as it used to be. Dang. That has got to hurt.

Palin explains why she doesn't owe the media anything in the below video. About a minute and a half (plus a commercial) of very entertaining video.



The audio isn't real clear but you can get a transcript here.

I believe that what is going on here is disintermediation. The proper definition under the circumstances: gutting the liberal media. See Will, George above.

Palin looks good in leather. I'd like to see the man from Chicago ne (Hawaii) or his wife pull that off.


CBS (where I got the photo) had this to say:
Riding onto the scene on the back of a Harley-Davidson, Sarah Palin made a dramatic entrance Sunday at a much-anticipated appearance with the Rolling Thunder bike rally in Arlington, Virginia, an early stop on her recently-launched national bus tour.

The annual motorcycle ride, part of a two-day effort by the Rolling Thunder nonprofit organization, means to draw attention to American troops who have gone missing in combat and remain unaccounted for. Hundreds of participants ride in support of the cause yearly.

Palin did not give a speech during her appearance, but said, when asked about the significance of the event, that it was important to honor men and women in uniform.

The former Alaska governor was joined by her husband, Todd, and daughters Bristol and Piper, the whole family riding in on motorcycles. (Todd helmed a black and burgundy cycle with Piper on the back, and Bristol and the former vice presidential candidate each rode on the back of separate bikes.)
ABC begins its whine this way:
Sarah Palin launched her bus tour this Memorial Day weekend, not on a bus, but on the back of a Harley, with expected stops in Philadelphia, Gettysburg, and all the way through early primary state, New Hampshire.

Palin began her trip riding across the Potomac River from Virginia into the nation's capitol. During the first leg of her tour, she joined Rolling Thunder, an organization that aims to raise awareness about American military personnel who are missing in action, or prisoners of war.
She is not running. And according to the experts even if she is running she can't win. This is going to be one of the funnest election campaigns ever.

The Lost Angels Times is very bitter. And they are not even clingers.
Sarah Palin's much-publicized "One Nation" bus tour got off to a chaotic and rumbling start Sunday in Washington, with no bus in sight and the potential presidential candidate only occasionally popping into view.

The former Alaska governor, who has indicated she is still contemplating a run for the White House in 2012, showed up at a motorcycle rally for veterans in a Pentagon parking lot, clad in black leather, a black helmet and sunglasses. She arrived with her husband, Todd, and two of their three daughters in tow.

"We're here to honor our vets," Palin told NBC News.

Someone in the crowd asked whether she would run for president. "I don't know yet," Palin replied, according to Fox News. Amid the rumble of motorcycles, she was also asked whether all of her tour events would be so loud.

"Oh, it would be a blast if they were this loud, if they smelled this good," Palin said. "I love that smell of the emissions!"
How declasse. She loves the smell of motorcycle emissions. Boy I love that girl. Almost as much as I love the first mate. The first mate was just saying to me the other day that she misses our bike. If I'm ever in the money again honey we will get another one.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Pacing The Bus


What does the above Instapundit screen shot mean? Three Sarah Palin (www.SarahPac.com) ads for her bus tour. And she is asking for donations. For what purpose? The adverts don't say. But it is "free money" (fewer FERC restrictions) that could be used for anything since she is "not running" for office. Yet. Smart cookie. It is a political donation though:
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. www.sarahpac.com

Donations are political contributions and not deductible for income tax purposes.

Sarah PAC can accept up to $5,000 annually from individuals.

Paid for by SarahPAC

To donate by check please make checks payable to: “SarahPAC”

Mail checks to:
SarahPAC
P.O. Box 7711
Arlington, VA 22207
I can't wait until she announces.

And just to help you keep up: According to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, Palin was not invited to the Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally. Ed Morrissey of Hot Air claims she was invited.
After I read this story last night, I got in contact with Christine Colborne, who handles the media for Rolling Thunder. She explained that Shpak didn’t know that Palin had been indeed invited to ride at the event. The invitation came from a retired board member, Michael DiPaolo, who had connections in Alaska and got Palin to agree to attend.
Palin is almost as good as my "momma", the first mate. Nothing like a pair of DDs at your back and a tight grip on your waist while cruising at a useful speed. And of course there is nothing better than 40 or 120 HP between your legs to get everything throbin.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, May 30, 2011

Do Something Nice For A Serviceman Today



Help the living. Remember the dead.


Sunday, May 29, 2011

The White House Underground According To Ulsterman

It has been a while since I did an Ulsterman update so here is an interesting tit bit.

Q: Can you repeat what you told me before – how Richard Daley stepping down and Bill Daley coming to the White House, and then Rahm Emanuel becoming Chicago’s Mayer. How all of that relates back directly to Valerie Jarrett and Barack Obama. You connected those dots better than anyone else I’ve heard from, but you didn’t want to publish it before. Can we share that now? What you said regarding that?

A: I won’t allow you to publish it. I WANT you to publish it. And I want to qualify that by explaining to you that I am running without fear now. I am not alone here. This has become much bigger than me, or the group of us that were working prior to the Midterms We are in every good hands now, and this thing has a real possibility of seeing the kind of outcome I thought impossible just a few months ago. And don’t get hung up on people believing or not believing what we are discussing here. That is not the point of this. As I told you some time ago, the real motivation of this operation is letting those know who are watching that we are also watching, and that no amount of effort on their part is going to fully prevent the truth from getting out there. And I am being absolutely honest with you when I say that at no other time since we began this have I been so confident in our eventual success.

Now getting back to your question about Richard Daley stepping down, Rahm stepping in, and Bill Daley’s entrance into the Obama administration, it is foolish for anyone to not think all of that is no connected to something far greater than simply political repositioning. You have already reported on the Jarrett-Richard Daley connection, so no need for me to get you up to speed on that. What you might not know is that Richard Daley had something of a falling out with Jarrett, and by default, the Obama’s prior to Obama becoming a U.S. Senator. Now when it comes to Chicago politics, the Daley machine owns all of it. Everything. This includes information – every kind of information, on anyone of political importance in and around Chicago. When Obama went “national” as a Senator, Jarrett’s influence went national right along with it, right. By then she was the primary guide for Barack Obama’s political career. Every decision went to her, through her, and ultimately had to be approved by her. Obama did nothing without her approval. This has largely continued to this day in the White House, though as I just indicated, Bill Daley is fighting to alter that arrangement. So what happens when the great keeper of Chicago secrets, Richard Daley, announces he is stepping down? A huge power vacuum that sent the Obama White House into panic mode. Daley had a working agreement with Obama and Jarrett to keep a lid on the “unsavory” details related to each of them. Details stemming from years working among the most powerful and corrupt forces in Chicago politics, including Daley himself. And while many dislike the man that is Richard Daley, none will dispute that when a deal is made, he holds to it. And he has held to his deal with Jarrett and Obama. Almost every avenue investigated against those two has been effectively shut down in Chicago. With Daley’s departure as mayor, that will no longer be so easily accomplished, and the figure now in control of that apparatus is none other than disgruntled former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Truth? Fantasy? Who knows? But interest in palace intrigue has been very long standing. As long as there have been palaces. So I'm passing along the gossip.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Man From Chicago ne (Hawaii)

People tell me ridicule is the best medicine for a bad politician. So I have decided I need a new way of referring to the Resident.

In honor of Donald Trump I have decided to refer to the Resident as often as possible as:

the man from Chicago ne (Hawaii)
Nice turn of phrase don't ya think? The man from Chicago ne (Hawaii). Pass it on.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

What's Not Up?

This may explain Obama's fondness for arugula. Arugula is an aphrodisiac. Well at least according to the story linked.

...this peppery plant has been documented as an aphrodisiac since the first century A.D.
Of course given the woman he is married to any man would need extra help. One bale or two?

And there is that old stand-by: Better Than Viagra.

China Is Going Nazi

First Egypt and now China.

There is a growing trend in the Chinese blogosphere to vocalize praises and expressions of support for Hitler. If Chinese authorities fail to address this problem, dangerous consequences may ensue.

The Rumor

A rumor is spreading virally throughout the Middle Kingdom that asserts that Austrian-born Hitler was raised by a family of Chinese expats living in Vienna. According to the rumors, a family named Zhang found young Adolf - born on April 20, 1889, when he fell on hard times as a young man in Vienna.

They took him in, sheltered him, fed him and paid for his tuition. As a result of this assistance, Hitler held eternal gratitude and admiration for the Chinese people. The rumor also asserts that Hitler secretly supported China in World War II, and that his ultimate ambition was to conquer the world in order to share power with China, with everything west of Pakistan to be administered by the Fuhrer, and everything east of Pakistan the province of the Chinese people.

This rumor apparently resonates deeply with the Chinese Internet generation. On May 10, 2011, a user of Kaixin, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook, posted a version of the rumor on his wall. The post attracted an enormous following, with more than 170,000 views and 40,000 comments.
Talk about your revisionist history. This has got to take the cake. Birthers and Truthers can't hold a candle to this one.
Hitler did not admire Chinese people. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Hitler regarded Chinese as an inferior race. Many Chinese bloggers are quick to point out that Hitler once said, "The Chinese people are not the same as the Huns and Tartars, who dressed in leather, they are a special race; they are a civilized race."

This quotation only stands for the proposition that Hitler considered the Chinese to be higher on the racial totem pole than Mongolians, but it says nothing about where they rank overall. In fact, Hitler believed that Aryans were the only "culture-creating race", while the Chinese and Japanese were merely "culture-bearing".

Hitler viewed the Chinese people as an inferior race, and actually blamed them for many of the world's problems. For more information, see The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 by Michael Burleigh.

Hitler did not support China in World War II. China's principal support in World War II came from the United States. In 1941, the American Air Force created a special squadron called the Flying Tigers (fei hu) to fly covert missions over East Asia to defend the Republic of China against Japanese incursions.
The article goes on to discuss the sorry state of history education in China and compares it to the similar sorry state of history teaching in Japan. Read the whole thing.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, May 27, 2011

Rockford Made The List

Of the ten most dangerous cities in America with populations above 100,000, Rockford, Illinois came in at number 9.

Rockford has unusually high violent crime rates for a city of its size. Most notably, the city has the fourth highest rate of aggravated assault in the country, with 10.5 cases for every 1,000 citizens in 2010. During the same period, 20 murders occurred, almost double the number in 2000. Quoted by the Rockford Register Star in 2007, Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers said that he believed the city’s “location worked against [it,]” as Rockford receives traffic from the drug markets in Madison, Chicago, and Milwaukee, resulting in heightened rates of violence.
Well back in the days of Alcohol Prohibition Rockford was known for alcohol manufacturing and as a hide out for Chicago criminals. Some things never change.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Is Egypt Double Crossing The Palestinians?

There is a new gang running Egypt and they have decided to open the Egypt/Gaza crossing to normal traffic.

Egypt will permanently open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza by the weekend.

The Egyptian border with Gaza will be opened daily beginning on May 28, the Egyptian state MENA news agency reported.

The decision is “part of Egyptian efforts to end divisions among Palestinians and to finalize their reconciliation.” Egypt brokered the recent reconciliation between the Fatah party, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Islamist Hamas organization.

The opening takes the steam out of Israel’s land and sea blockade of Gaza, which began after Hamas took over power in Gaza in 2007. The Egyptian border closed at the same time.

It is not clear if only people, or also goods, will be allowed to cross the Rafah border. Israel limits the kind of goods that enter Gaza in order to prevent weapons-making material from falling into the hands of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
Yes it is dangerous. But more for the Palestinians than the Israelis. First off the tunnel builders and the smugglers that use them will be out of business. That will cause hardship for some. But that is not the worst that could happen.

Let us suppose Hamas, which controls Gaza, arms to the teeth and then starts a war with the Israelis. What might the Israelis do in retaliation? The Gaza Strip is 3 1/2 to 7 1/2 miles wide and 25 miles long. The Israelis could start walking an artillery barrage from the north end of Gaza and working its way south. At 50 ft a minute they could cover a mile in about two hours. Which would give the residents barely enough time to evacuate. In a day they could clear about 1/2 the Strip. With the Egyptian border open the refugees from the barrage would have no trouble heading for Egypt. Three days of such a barrage would make Hamas and the citizens of Gaza Egypt's problem.

Would the Israelis do such a thing? Doubtful. But it is unwise to wage a war by calculating an enemy's intentions. It is wiser to calculate based on capabilities. Is Hamas wise? Surely you are joking.

Egypt Is Going Nazi

According to the Jerusalem Post the Nazis of Egypt are coming out into the open.

A group of Egyptian political activists have announced plans to set up a local version “of the Nazi party,” an Egyptian newspaper reported on Thursday.

Citing a leftist Egyptian news portal, the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily said that “the party’s founding deputy is a former military official,” and that the party would be aimed at bringing “together prominent figures from the Egyptian society.”

The report cited founding member Emad Abdel Sattar as saying that the unestablished party “believes in vesting all powers in the president after selecting him or her carefully,” and that “preparations are under way to choose the most competent person to represent the party.”

Almasry Alyoum added that an Egyptian Nazi party “operated secretly under former President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime prevented party leaders from carrying out their activities freely.”

The newspaper said it could not verify the report, but said it found two Facebook pages that appeared recently under the title of “the Egyptian Nazi Party,” which have so far attracted 70 followers.
Of course this may just be a ruse to deflect attention from the real Nazis of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Underground links to the German Government began during the 1930s and were close during the Second World War, involving agitation against the British, Jewish immigration to Palestine, espionage and sabotage, as well as support for militant activities orchestrated by Haj Amin el-Hussaini in British Mandate Palestine, as a wide range of declassified documents from the British, American and Nazi German governmental archives, as well as from personal accounts and memoirs from that period, confirm. Reflecting this connection the Muslim Brotherhood also disseminated Hitler's Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion widely in Arab translations, helping to deepen and extend already existing hostile views about Jews and secular Western societies generally
I have written extensively about the Arab alliance with the Nazis in WW2. You can read more about it with copious links at Logistical Failure.

H/T Libertarian Republican

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Grapefruit

A dietary supliment may be able to improve the lives of diabetics and the overweight according to Dr. Yaakov Nahmias.

Israeli scientists may have discovered an effective new way to treat high cholesterol and diabetes naturally. Dr. Yaakov Nahmias from the Benin School of Engineering and Computer Science at Hebrew University and his colleagues have discovered that naringenin, a molecule in grapefruits that gives the fruit its bitter taste, can help to treat arteriosclerosis, hyper-metabolism, and even diabetes.

The study, which was recently published in the journal PLoS One, explains that when a highly-bioavailable "nano-complex" of naringenin is consumed just before a meal that is high in fat and sugar, it can reduce the development of bad cholesterol by roughly 42 percent, and actually increase insulin sensitivity by 64 percent.

Dr. Nahmias and his colleagues allege that naringenin in its natural form is not very easily absorbed by the body. So they developed what they say is an improved version on the substance, which is surrounded by a ring of sugar called cyclodextrin, and that is 11 times more bioavailable than naringenin that comes straight from a grapefruit.
And you know what? The supplement is an outgrowth of nanotechnology research.

Wikipedia calls the grapefruit diet a fad diet.
The grapefruit diet, also known as the Hollywood Diet and erroneously as the Mayo Clinic Diet, is a short-term fad diet that has existed in the United States since at least the 1930s.
Which just goes to show you how much they know.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Obama Is NOT Losing Jewish Support

Obama Is NOT Losing Jewish Support says DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Wasserman Schultz, the first Jewish woman to represent Florida in Congress, acknowledged that Obama’s speech had caused some damage with Jewish voters, but she repeated administration claims that the president’s statements didn’t differ from the policies of the last two presidents.

“If you looked at the Jewish community at large, if you polled the Jewish community at large, there are Jewish voters, Jewish Americans, who are expressing concern about the president’s policy,” she said. “But what he said, followed on by Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s speech to the joint session on Tuesday, was essentially what has been American policy since President Clinton. “
My take on this? Obama is losing Jewish support. And it is hurting the Democrats both financially and in terms of votes. In politics you do not make these kinds of statements unless you are hurting.

Palin Is Not Running - She Is Touring



Hill Buzz brings to my attention a curious fact about Sarah Palin. She has not announced for President. Instead she is taking a summer vacation. Touring America. Starting in Washington, DC.
Today, Sarah Palin announced a bus tour called The One Nation Tour, organized as a “soft launch” to her Presidential campaign that will allow her to test fundraising, messaging and audience response to her candidacy without the expense or paperwork of forming an exploratory committee or subjecting her prematurely to onerous McCain-Feingold (irony alert) campaign financing and reporting laws “to educate and energize Americans about our nation’s founding principles, in order to promote the Fundamental Restoration of America.”

That sound you just heard was Chris Matthew’s head exploding.

The second sound was a semi-conscious Mittens Romney impacting the chintz upholstery on his fainting couch.

We can’t tell you what that smell is, but it’s coming from the “opposition research” trolls in the basement of the White House.

Palin’s rockstar-style tourbus, decked out with traditional American iconography such as the Constitution and the Liberty Bell, will kick off the tour in Washington, D.C. and continue throughout historic sites in New England
As I said at She's In, Palin is running. And you know what? Her fans are even more fanatical than Ron Paul's. And she has something very important for American politics as shown by the recent standing ovation Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got in Congress the other day. She, unlike Ron Paul, loves Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, and her husband, Todd, met with Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, at their official residence in Jerusalem. Palin traveled to Israel after delivering a speech in India over the weekend.
The interesting question for me is, will she pick
Gary Johnson as her VP to shore up her Libertarian creds in the same way McCain picked Palin for the same purpose? That would be very ironic. And DELICIOUS!

And Johnson can move some lefties to the right. Willie Nelson likes him. And so does High Times magazine.

There is a long way to go until August 2012 and things can change, but I'm liking the way things are shaping up so far.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, May 26, 2011

How Is That New Civility Working Out For Ya?

Ed Schultz is taking himself off the air over remarks he made a couple of days ago.

Nearly 32 hours after his ill-conceived remarks about conservative talker Laura Ingraham, MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” host Ed Schultz appeared before his viewers to apologize for those remarks.

Schultz, who had called Ingraham a “right-wing slut,” first apologized to Ingraham and asked for her forgiveness, while explaining he would not be anchoring his program on Wednesday night.
The "new civility" is so bad that the lefties can't even stand themselves. Excellent. Because I can't stand them either.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

She's In

Well, that is my opinion. Who is she? Sarah Palin. And why do I think she is in? There is a movie coming out in June.

Shortly after Republicans swept last November to a historic victory in which Sarah Palin was credited with playing a central role, the former Alaska governor pulled aside her close aide, Rebecca Mansour, to discuss a hush-hush assignment: Reach out to conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon with a request. Ask him if he would make a series of videos extolling Palin's governorship and laying to rest lingering questions about her controversial decision to resign from office with a year-and-a-half left in her first term. It was this abdication, Palin knew, that had made her damaged goods in the eyes of some Republicans who once were eager to get behind her potential 2012 presidential campaign.

The response was more positive than Palin could have hoped for. He'd make a feature-length movie, Bannon told Mansour, and he insisted upon taking complete control and financing it himself -- to the tune of $1 million.

The fruits of that initial conversation are now complete. The result is a two-hour-long, sweeping epic, a rough cut of which Bannon screened privately for Sarah and Todd Palin last Wednesday in Arizona, where Alaska's most famous couple has been rumored to have purchased a new home.

The fruits of that initial conversation are now complete. The result is a two-hour-long, sweeping epic, a rough cut of which Bannon screened privately for Sarah and Todd Palin last Wednesday in Arizona, where Alaska's most famous couple has been rumored to have purchased a new home. When it premieres in Iowa next month, the film is poised to serve as a galvanizing prelude to Palin's prospective presidential campaign -- an unconventional reintroduction to the nation that she and her political team have spent months eagerly anticipating, even as Beltway Republicans have largely concluded that she won't run.
Iowa next month? Well that sure sounds like she is running. And Beltway Republicans? Yeah. I get it. It is "Massacare" Romney's turn. Like that will fire up the TEA Party. More like a blanket party for grass roots Republicans.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

What The Frack?

Fracking for natural gas is supposed to be very dangerous.
But is it? [pdf].

55. All technologies have environmental risks. Press coverage that talks about `toxic‘, `carcinogenic‘ and `radioactive‘ `chemicals‘ is meaningless. Vitamin A is toxic. A single cup of coffee contains more known carcinogens than the average American ingests from pesticide residues in a whole year. Bananas are radioactive. Dihydrogen monoxide is a chemical. The question that needs to be posed is always: how toxic, how carcinogenic, how radioactive?
And it has to be balanced against the gains.
76. Gas is a common feedstock for the chemical industry; so is ethane, a glut of which is now coming out of shale gas wells as a byproduct. Thus the shale gas revolution has already begun to draw chemical companies back to the Gulf of Mexico from the Persian Gulf, and hand them a competitive advantage. As well as being a fuel, gas and natural-gas liquids such as ethane are used in the manufacture of plastic, specialty chemicals, agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. Shale gas is therefore revitalising the chemical industry wherever it can be produced.

77. Much environmental criticism of modern high-output farming argues that it is unsustainable because it depends of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, which is manufactured from air and natural gas. Some have argued that famine will result when the gas, and therefore the fertiliser, runs out. It is now clear that the gas will not run out and will probably remain low-cost, so highoutput farming using fertiliser is indeed sustainable and affordable for the foreseeable future. This ensures not only food availability, but less pressure to convert wild lands to agriculture.
There are nearly 100 bullet points in the report and an introduction by Freeman Dyson. Read the whole thing.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

2055 Years

“The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” -- Cicero , 55 B.C.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Logistical Failure

According to Debka - not always the most reliable source - the Palestinians have shot their wad and all they have to show for it is a messy clean up job.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has run into blank walls in his ploy for using a unity pact between his Fatah and the extremist Hamas as the fulcrum for a diplomatic offensive against Israel to climax in UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September.

Since his unity pact with Hamas was signed on May 4 Jordan's King Abdullah has refused to receive him or any of his messengers. Sunday, May 22, when Abbas asked for an urgent interview, the king told his office to stop transferring any more of these requests.
Debka says the King has a couple of problems with Abbas and his Fatah gang. They forgot to notify him of their plan to join with Hamas. Which is a ludicrous statement. Abbas has been trying for "national unity" for the last few years. It has been an on again, off again, deal. Evidently for the time being it is on again. The King would also like to dump his Palestinian refugees. Either on Israel - not going to happen - or on the Palestinians. And in their "right of return" craze they made no attempt to include their pawns brothers in Jordan. My guess is that is the King's real beef.
The Muslim Brotherhood and its Hamas offshoot are the most powerful force opposing the throne in the Hashemite Kingdom. Enhancing Hamas' hand in the Palestinian stakes has major ramifications for Jordan's domestic political equilibrium.

Abdullah's boycott of the Palestinian leader covers the cutoff of Jordanian intelligence ties with Palestinian counterparts.

Abbas had been counting on meeting the king in Amman Sunday to receive a briefing on his talks with US President Barack Obama at the White House on May 18, the day before Obama unveiled his Middle East policy. Abdullah not only denied him that interview but asked US officials not to share the content of his conversation with Obama with any Palestinian. Abbas thus lost a vital source of information on US administration plans.
Ah yes. The Muslim Brotherhood. Nice bunch of fellers. If you like unreformed Nazis.
In the 1920's there was a young Egyptian named al Bana. And al Bana formed this nationalist group called the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Bana was a devout admirer of Adolph Hitler and wrote to him frequently. So persistent was he in his admiration of the new Nazi Party that in the 1930's, al-Bana and the Muslim Brotherhood became a secret arm of Nazi intelligence.

The Arab Nazis had much in common with the new Nazi doctrines. They hated Jews; they hated democracy; and they hated the Western culture. It became the official policy of the Third Reich to secretly develop the Muslim Brotherhood as the fifth Parliament, an army inside Egypt.

When war broke out, the Muslim Brotherhood promised in writing that they would rise up and help General Rommell and make sure that no English or American soldier was left alive in Cairo or Alexandria.

The Muslim Brotherhood began to expand in scope and influence during World War II. They even had a Palestinian section headed by the grand Mufti of Jerusalem, one of the great bigots of all time.
I have written an article or two about the Mufti including Palestinian Role in the Holocaust. Charming fellow. If you like Nazi sympathizers.

Back to Debka.
After being outmaneuvered in the Arab arena, the Palestinian leader's plans to internationalize the Palestinian-Israel dispute and confront Israel with a Palestinian state with 1967 borders ran into another impediment – in Moscow.

In a bid to outmaneuver Washington's role as sponsor of the peace process, Abbas turned to Russia in deference to its veto power at the UN Security Council. He offered to transfer negotiations on the next phase of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation to Moscow.

Abbas duly arrived in the Russian capital Friday, May 20, for the first session along with delegations from Hamas, the Democratic and Popular "Fronts" and the Palestinian al-Shaab communist party.

But to his dismay, the Russians stalled the opening session, debkafile's Moscow sources reveal, demanding that all the Palestinian factions represented must first accept the three standing stipulations of the Middle East Quartet (US, Russia, EU and the UN), namely recognize Israel, abjure violence and accept previous international commitments. Hamas stood by its adamant refusal to accept any of those conditions.
Russia, a nominally western country has more to gain from ties with Israel, with all its Russian immigrants, than from any alliance with the failed state of Palestine. Israel has technology. Some of the best in the world. The Palestinians have what? Problems. Lots of problems. And their problems are tied up with Egypt's problems. Basket cases all. Which causes us to ask - besides the Nazi stupidity - what has caused the failure in the Muslim countries of the Middle East? Spengler has the answer.
Development economists have known for years that a disaster was in the works. A 2009 World Bank report on Arab food security warned, "Arab countries are very vulnerable to fluctuations in international commodity markets because they are heavily dependent on imported food. Arab countries are the largest importers of cereal in the world. Most import at least 50 percent of the food calories they consume." The trouble is that the Arab regimes made things worse rather than better.

Egypt's rulers of the past 60 years intentionally transformed what once was the breadbasket of the Mediterranean into a starvation trap. They did so through tragedy, not oversight. Keeping a large part of one's people illiterate on subsistence farms is the surest method of social control.

Crop yields in Egypt are a fifth of the best American levels, and by design, for no Egyptian government wished to add more displaced peasants to the 17 million people now crowded into Cairo. Syrian President Basher al-Assad made a few tentative steps in this direction, and got a 100,000 landless farmers living in tent cities around Damascus (Food and Syria's failure Asia Times Online March 29, 2011).

Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Mubarak did not invent the system. Post-revolutionary Russia imprisoned its peasants on collective farms; as the Mexican historian Enrique Krauze showed (in his 1992 book TextosHereticos), post-revolutionary Mexico emulated the Stalinist model of social control and imposed its own system of collective farms during the 1930s.

Mexico eventually dumped a fifth of its population on its northern neighbor, mainly rural people from the impoverished south. The remaining Mexican poor provided an inexhaustible source of foot-soldiers for the drug cartels with which the Mexican government is fighting a low-intensity civil war.

Egypt, the most populous Arab country, postponed these problems for three generations. It is governable only by military rule, de facto or de jure, because the military is the only institution that can take peasants straight from the farm and assimilate them into a disciplined social structure.
The huge jump in American food productivity in the early 20th Century led America into a great Depression. Just as the huge jump in industrial productivity caused by the microprocessor revolution has led to our current economic problems. The application of the microprocessor to education will in many ways prolong the misery. Why pay $40 dollars or more an hour for an education when you can go online and get one for free. Other than the time invested. All those $100,000 a year tenured professors are going the way of the buggy whip makers. This was predicted in Buckminster Fuller's 1971 book Education Automation.

Continuing with Spengler:
In place of the orderly corruption over which Mubarak presided, there is a scramble on the part of half-organized political groups to get control of the country's shrinking supply of basic goods. Civic violence likely will claim more lives than hunger.

Refugees from Libya and Tunisia have swamped the refugee camps on the closest Italian island, and hundreds have drowned in small boats attempting to cross the Mediterranean. By the end of this year, tourists on the Greek islands may see thousands of small boats carrying hungry Egyptians seeking help. Europe's sympathy for the Arab side may vanish under an inundation of refugees.

Events are most likely to overtake diplomacy. The sort of economic and demographic imbalances implied by the projections shown above reflect back into the present. Chaos in Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries probably will pre-empt the present focus on Israel and the Palestinians. It would not be surprising if the Palestinians were to mount another Intifada, or Egypt and Syria were to initiate one last war against Israel. It might be their last opportunity.

But I rate the probably of another war at well under 50%. The internal problems of Egypt and Syria are more likely to make war too difficult to wage.
We are living in interesting times. To learn more about the demographic collapse of the Muslim nations and the demographic rise of Israel read the whole Spengler article. Very much worth your while to get a glimpse of the future. Let me give you the short version. Why are Israeli women producing about 3.0 children each on average? Because they have hope for the future. Why are the Muslim nations undergoing demographic collapse? Hopelessness. And food shortages are only part of the problem.

What is the take away? Socialism doesn't work. Not international socialism. Not national socialism. Since Israel dropped socialism as the main organizing principle of its economy it has been on a tear.

The Israelis would be glad to help the Arabs if the Arabs would let them. Every nation that has expelled the Jews (France are you listening?) has eventually gone on to ruin. Those countries that embrace the Jews (and who more than Israel?) have prospered. The Bible is full of stories about human nature, government, and power relations among people and nations. Very good stories which illustrate basic facts about humans. I'm not much for Bible prophecy though. Except this one has been coming true for at least the last 2,000 years. This promise was made to Abraham:
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
If there is anything to that prophecy (and it seems to have been working for quite some time) the Europeans and the Moslems had better watch out.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Netanyahu Takes Obama's Cookie



You can skip strait to the good stuff which begins about 7 minutes in.

In related news Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat said: If '67 lines are an illusion, peace is an illusion. I think he got that one right. The Hamas Charter calls for the extermination of the Israeli Jews. To start with.

But all that is not the main sticking point. This is:
And the third issue that rankled Netanyahu had to do with Hamas. While Obama said the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation raised “profound and legitimate questions for Israel,” for Netanyahu this was simply not a strong enough statement. The PMO saw Obama as “wishy-washy” on Hamas, and at the very least wanted to hear Obama reiterate the Quartet’s three conditions for engagement with Hamas as part of a PA unity government: forswearing terrorism, recognizing Israel and accepting previous agreements.
Netanyahu makes the point that 'Peace based on illusions will crash on the rocks'.
Netanyahu said he would work with Obama to seek a secure peace for Israel, but also warned that Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas would have to choose between a new unity pact with the militant group Hamas or peace with Israel.
This will not end well.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Are You On A List?

A couple of videos about how we are slowly losing our liberties. Except in the past few years the trend has accelerated. The title of this post refers to this video which was suggested by JPFO:



The below video was suggested by Eric of Classical Values.



Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, May 23, 2011

Israel's Dilema

Rep. Eric Cantor had this to say.

It is not morally equivalent when the offenses of terrorists are equated with the defenses of Israel.

The following story illustrates Israel's dilemma.

A Palestinian woman from Gaza arrives at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba for lifesaving skin treatment for burns over half her body. After the conclusion of her extensive treatment, the woman is invited back for follow-up visits to the outpatient clinic. One day she is caught at the border crossing wearing a suicide belt. Her intention? To blow herself up at the same clinic that saved her life.

What kind of culture leads one to do that?

Sadly, it is a culture infused with resentment and hatred.

It is this culture that underlies the Palestinians' and the broader Arab world's refusal to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.

This is the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It is not about the '67 lines.
A clash of cultures. So which culture does Obama prefer? I suspect it is not American culture.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Devil Worship

I was discussing the drug war as it relates to the Baptist/Bootlegger coalition and made this point:

It is supremely ironic how "the truly God fearing" are so susceptible to Devils. All the Government has to do is to make a big enough image of a Devil and the Baptists fall right in line. The Government makes a big voodoo doll and the Baptists worship it. The worship is disguised as a fight so the Baptists are blinded by their own worship of the Devil.

The real Devil of course is not the Drugs. It is the Government. Clever Devils doncha think?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

I Heard The Roar

There was a TORNADO WARNING for Rockford, Illinois that expired a few minutes ago. As I was heading to the basement I stuck my head out the door and heard the roar. It kind of sounded like continuous thunder. Scared the hell out of me. And I don't scare easy. All has passed now - everybody in the family has checked in and we are all fine. I'm still waiting for further reports to see if there was any major damage in the area. There are lots of leaves and a few tree branches down in my neighborhood. Nothing too serious here.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Gun Control



Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in the alley, raped and strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to the police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

Inspired by Why The Constitution Matters: Woman Shoots, Kills Would-Be Rapist

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Manchurian Candidate

A commenter at Watts Up With That asks:

Is Al Gore the fabled Manchurian Candidate?
No. The Manchurian Candidate’s real name is Teh Won.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Eating Children

Spengler says :

Revolutions eat their children, but in the Arab revolution, no-one is going to eat anything.
We are in for quite a ride in the next year or two.

H/T Instapundit

Jews For Sarah

This has got to be totally ironic - in a very good way. Commenter accordingtohoyt who is our very own (Classical Values) Sarah had this to say about the linked article which discusses Obama's betrayal of the Jews:

I’m almost at the point where I can think about this without foaming at the mouth. I can’t even imagine why anyone sane (let alone anyone Jewish) wouldn’t see this as the grossest of betrayals!
It is not all of us Sarah. There is a group called Jews For Sarah. This is their mission statement:
Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin is an independent group of academic, religious and political leaders, dedicated to promoting consideration of Gov. Sarah Palin’s political positions in the wider American Jewish community.

We find Ms. Palin’s policy positions on Israel, Iran, national security, fiscal responsibility, energy, and social policy – as well as her record on these issues as governor of Alaska and candidate for Vice President of the United States – to be serious, substantive and politically mainstream.

Though not at present a candidate for any political office, Gov. Palin’s track record in public office has been exemplary, and has withstood the test of the most demanding scrutiny of investigative news media. Gov. Palin’s ongoing contribution to the public discourse in America is welcome.
Let me add that our Sarah's contribution to the public discourse in America is most welcome too. My thanks to both ladies for their contribution to life in America. It wouldn't be the same without you.

So will Palin be running? Well no one can know for sure. But this is what she said recently: “I Do Have the Fire in My Belly”. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

And who would I like to see as her running mate? Gary Johnson. And Herman Cain wouldn't be bad either.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Obama Burns Israel


Thanks to Hill Buzz for the above video.



"All the Jews that voted for Obama need to have their heads examined." Says Rev. Manning in November 2008. Thanks to Patriot Action Network for that video.

Israel is not taking Obama's Middle East Speech well.
When reached via cell phone immediately after President Obama’s speech urging a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev sounded as though he had been slapped in the face.

Netanyahu swiftly rejected Obama's call for Israel to pull back to the borders that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Roughly translated from Hebrew, a statement from the Prime Minister’s office said that they appreciated Obama's commitment to peace, but called the pullback to the 1967 borders "indefensible," and said that the Palestinians were less than an honest partner in the peace process.
Obama not honest? Really? Who could have expected that from a guy with the middle name Hussein?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, May 20, 2011

Be Careful Out There

The Economist has an article up which is basically a long apologia for Dominique Strauss-Kahn based on the superior European attitudes towards sex. As those of you who read here often may know I'm somewhat of a libertine by American standards. None the less I thought a warning for our European friends was in order. Not about culture but about dangers in the real world. And for those of you ready to scream at me at the drop of a hat let me say here and now that my remarks were somewhat tongue in cheek. I was tweaking the Economist author.

Are you Economist folks aware that the maid in question may have had AIDS? But I will pander to your European superior attitudes on sex:

AIDS is why it is unwise to rape strangers.
Cross Posted at Classical Values

Face Of A Tyrant

Clarence Dupnik Pima County Sheriff

You can read the full report at: Is this how we repay our veterans?

The motherfuckers in this story are not just Law ENFORCERS. It is the American people who want to hurt people who have bad personal habits. What kind of fucked up shit is that? Especially when you consider that it is easier for kids to get an illegal drug than a legal beer.

Brutus says: Choose this day whom you will serve.”: An Open Letter to American Law Enforcement.
Respect for duly constituted authority and social trust are essential ingredients of civilization. These elements represent the basic glue of society.

Respect for duly constituted authority is, as every cop knows, at an all-time low. There are two general reasons for this, one systemic and the other so personal that if you look yourselves honestly in the mirror you can see it.
Read the whole God Damned thing.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, May 19, 2011

They Have Climate All Rapped Up



H/T Insane Clown Posse @ Bunyipitude and Insane Clown Posse II @ Bunyipitude

FDA To Study Cannabis For PTSD



The video is not directly applicable to the subject at hand. It does feature one of the premier researchers in the field, Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, who's work I discussed in a 2006 article PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System.

So what about the FDA?
PTSD is an extremely difficult medical condition to treat, and it currently effects around 7.8 percent of Americans. It is caused by exposure to dangerous and highly stressful situations, which can result in lasting symptoms that include disturbing flashbacks, distressful emotions, panic attacks, and nightmares.

On April 28th the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted MAPS' protocol design for their study of cannabis as a treatment for symptoms of PTSD in war veterans. This approval from the FDA represents another important step forward in PTSD research, although there is still a major hurdle to overcome before the research can actually begin. The FDA stated that MAPS’ current protocol successfully addresses all of their concerns, as long as the researchers can obtain cannabis for the study.
There is one slight problem. They have to get the marijuana from the government. And the government doesn't like to give pot to researchers who might undermine the drug war. There is a lot of money and a lot of jobs riding on the continuation of the drug war.

There is an interesting statistic in the above article excerpt. The statistic? About 7.8% of all Americans have PTSD. What is 7.8% of 310 million? About 24 million. That is right in line with government estimates that there are 30 million regular pot users in America. As I have been saying for years. The drug war is how we in America punish the traumatized. Like war veterans.
But the pot-versus-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder study is not happening yet.

According to California-based MAPS, the notoriously finicky National Institute on Drug Abuse -- apparently the only place to get legal weed for a federally approved study -- has to agree to sell some pot to researchers.

Sounds to us like MAPS isn't optimistic. It calls NIDA "a very different agency with explicitly political motivations and a monopoly on marijuana for research."

The study would ponder whether cannabis "can help reduce PTSD symptoms in fifty veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."
There is anecdotal evidence from Omaha in the efficacy of pot for PTSD.
The focus, they say, is marijuana's medical abilities and why anyone who's sick should be free to use it.

"I don't need to medicate with pharmaceutical drugs that make me feel nauseous or sick. It alleviates all of my symptoms of PTSD," says Diana Wulf.
I guess I should explain how we got tens of millions of pot users when we only have a few million veterans of combat. Child abuse.

That is not the only drug used to treat PTSD according to Oprah Magazine MDMA more commonly known by its street name Ecstasy can also be useful.
On a February day in 2005, Sarah is reclining on a futon beneath a skylight, with Michael and Ann Mithoefer seated on either side of her. A half-hour earlier, Sarah swallowed a yellow capsule containing 125 milligrams of MDMA, and relaxing instrumental music plays softly as she waits, eyes closed, for the drug to take hold. The first signs are ripples of nausea—she thinks she might throw up, yet she also senses her body relaxing. The usual ringing in her ears vanishes. "That constant hyperawareness of my environment—it was receding," she says now.

At this point, she heard "the grinding of a pen." The sound of the nib bearing down on the page was magnified, "like it was hurting the paper, beating and pounding on it," Sarah recalls. In the alternate reality of MDMA, she says, "I thought Michael was drawing circles around me, making fun of me, laughing at me. I felt the anger rising in my body. I opened my eyes and—he was just sitting there, taking notes."

It was an epiphany. "That's the moment when I discovered that my perception and reality were not always the same," Sarah recalls. She'd assumed that her caretaker was jeering at her, that she was an object of scorn and derision—a painful conditioned response imprinted by an abusive childhood. Sarah always had an intellectual grasp of how her early years had shaped her, "but this was physiological," she recalls. "That's when I knew I had to repair the connections, the chemicals that had gotten all screwed up when I was a kid."
So what about all the horror stories we hear about long term MDMA use? Bunk according to a study funded by one agency of our very own government.
New research suggests that the drug Ecstasy -- used on its own -- does not have residual effects on brain performance, according to a study published this week in the journal Addiction.

The Santa Cruz-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
[MAPS -ed] contributed $15,000 for an initial 2004 study on Ecstasy use. That work led to a $1.8 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse that was spearheaded by John Halpern of Harvard Medical School.

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has been conducting research on potential use of Ecstasy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and researchers said the new study likely would prompt more research and understanding of the drug.
So will we ever treat drugs rationally? Not as long as there is so much money in it. There are tens of billions maybe hundreds of billions to be made from exploiting the traumatized. Best yet we have convinced most of them and the vast majority of Americans that it is their own fault. Drugs are bad don't you know? Well I don't know it. What i know is that some people chronically take pain relievers for chronic pain. A pain in the brain so there are rarely any wounds to validate the pain. So we don't have armies of traumatized people in America. We have dirty drug fiends who deserve what ever punishments that can be meted out to them.

Here is one doctors take on all that.
No recruit ever considered that basic training would be easy, and in a time of war, they quickly discover that combat is a far cry from Hollywood’s portrayal. Reality is what it is. Dr. Phil Leveque knows this to be true. He served in the US Army and lived through World War II- and bears the scars within to this day.

“We were psychologically and physically stretched beyond normal limits and many recruits died. A bunch more were permanently psychologically damaged and the end result was PTSD even during training.”

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder which can occur after witnessing or experiencing even one traumatic event, especially when it involves injury or death, or the threat thereof, so being in a war takes that trauma to new levels. It is important to note that PTSD can be, and usually is, a long term/lifetime problem.

A recent report estimated that up to 40% of the Middle East veterans would be victims of combination of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Maybe more.

As a regular general practice physician and later as a marijuana doctor, Dr. Leveque saw the devastating results of the effects on veterans for generations.

Frequently, during the post-trauma time, with no better idea at hand, Dr. Leveque says that many PTSD patients discover that alcohol “drowns ones sorrows”.

Also during this post-trauma time, some caregiver will say to himself,”let’s treat this patient’s PTSD” and here come a mélange of medications. The various and numerous treatments leave very much to be desired; in fact their treatments have far more failures than successes.

“Those same pseudo-doctors and paper-pushers decry the use of marijuana,” says Dr. Leveque. “The veterans use it preferentially, to the zombifying and/or addicting drugs prescribed wholesale by those ’caregivers’, who then blame the victim for using a medication which works: Marijuana.” Dr. Leveque was convinced that there was a better way. And in the state of Oregon, it was so.

“I was asked by a healthcare professional at the Portland VA Hospital if I would help PTSD Veteran Victims to get permits to use legalized medical marijuana. I already had some Veteran patients from WWII, Korea and Vietnam, so I obliged.

“Within two weeks I had more than 50 Nam Vets requesting my help. As part of their medical history I asked what previous medicines they had been given or prescribed.

“There were two main types: strong pain killers (like Oxycontin, Morphine and every related pain killer), and anti-depressants.

“I was flabbergasted to read the anti-depressant list of many patients; Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, Lexapro, on through the whole list of about 12; but nothing shocked me like the dangers they admit to! The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) says they can cause very bad adverse side effects including anxiety, depression, addiction, severe withdrawal, homicidal rage and suicide.”

It makes one wonder why they should be given to a psychologically fragile PTSD patient.
I wrote an article on why the pharmaceutical companies might be anti-pot back in 2002 in my article Addiction or Self Medication? In it I said:
It turns out that anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in the United States. They are worth $46 billion a year to the pharmaceutical industry. You don't suppose this fact has any thing to do with the pharmaceutical industries being in the forefront of the Drug Free America campaign do you? Of course not. They are just trying to keep you from being addicted to natural products at the cost of 1/10th of a cent per dose when they are more than willing to sell you an FDA and doctor approved, pharmacy sold product that will do the job for a dollar a dose. They have only your best interests at heart. Just ask their accountants.
I have been looking around and what do you know? The above video might be relevant after all according to this article on the forthcoming MAPS study.
The study also calls for veterans to smoke weed with differing levels of active cannabinoids THC and CBD to determine if one, the other, or a balance of both proves more effective. Veterans will also either smoke or vaporize the plant to better test effects from different administrations of the drug.

Doblin said he was surprised that the FDA approved the study. He did not think the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) had the appropriate CBD-rich pot for the study, and that would force the FDA to reject it. NIDA controls the one federally legal pot farm in the nation, which is based in Mississippi and provides government-grown pot to a handful of federal patients, as well as researchers approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

But if history is any guide, NIDA will ultimately block the FDA-approved study from ever happening, said Doblin. NIDA must approve all research on pot, and their political goal is to ensure it never becomes legal, he said. NIDA states on its web site that it believes smoked marijuana is not a medicine, despite more than three thousand years of recorded medicinal use.
We have a government that is actively working against the American people and for the cartels - legal and illegal. So what else is new?

What can be done about all this? Gary Johnson for President. And guess what? Willie Nelson endorses Johnson. I think that speaks for itself. But how about a few words from the article?
Ron Paul has classified marijuana as a states' rights issue; Johnson, on the other hand, calls for outright legalization.
I like Ron Paul on quite a few issues but he is so last century. A man once ahead of his time who is now falling behind the times. Good. Because I'm tired of a drug war that finances criminals at home and terrorists abroad. Not to mention punishing the traumatized.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

GM Takes A Great Leap Forward

Government Motors celebrates the Chinese Communist Party. Really.

In late 2010, General Motors agreed to sponsor a propaganda film celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP made film titled (translated to English) “The Birth of a Party” or “The Great Achievement of Founding the Party" is set to premiere all over the Communist nation on June 15 reported China AutoWeb last September.
You can't make this stuff up.

H/T Drudge

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Domestic Terrorists



May I suggest a visit to the YouTube page this video came from to watch more videos? Also the Forclosure Diaries home page.

The video was suggested in the comments to You Have Got to be KIDDING - Nancy Jacobini's Home was Broken Into AGAIN.

The question is: why would the banks be doing this? I have a theory (gleaned from the comments at "Nancy Jacobini..."). Suppose through Credit Default Swaps (CDS)and other financial instruments the banks get paid several times the value of the property when they foreclose? What is the incentive to accept home owner payments? The incentive is to reject mortgage payments because the property is worth more in default than with an "owner" actually living in it.

With ordinary insurance once one company pays the others are off the hook. You can't collect several times the value insured. But CDSes are more opaque than real insurance. Thus the banks can get away with this sort of fraud.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, May 16, 2011

Some Of Us Can Add

I was reading Ulsterman looking for dirt on Obama (more on that later) when I came across this interesting comment about the Osama bin Laden raid.

justavet
Posted May 14, 2011 at 10:12 am

ULSTERMAN- LOVE THE INSIDER INFO- ASK HIM ABOUT THIS. SOME OF CAN ADD.

LOAD OF CRAP. The operation “as propagandaized”(?) was impossible for even my military brethren to carry out. Look at the reports.

After the (super secret) UH60L Blackhawk went down they all boarded the other (super secret) Blackhawk Helo. Let’s look at some facts about the Blackhawk:

General characteristics of UH60L Blackhawk Helicopter.

Crew: 2 pilots (flight crew) with 2 crew chiefs/gunners
Capacity: 2,640 lb of cargo internally, including 14 troops or 6 stretchers
Fuselage width: 7 ft 9 inches.

According to WHITEHOUSE reports the second Helo would have to have loaded 4 current crew plus 4 from downed Helo plus 24 or 25 SEAL’s that is a total of 32. Figuring an average weight of 200 pounds per trooper weight 6,400 pounds. Add to that gear plus dead body equals another 3,500 pounds plus dog/ 80 pounds plus collected intel/ 100 pounds. total 10,080 pounds in a Helo that has space for 14 and internal cargo capability for 2,640.

Can you say B as in B and S as in S?
That was bothering me (and that “helicopter” thing that looked more like a big drone - but I'm not up on helo design, those might have been stealth modifications) but I didn’t look up the UH60 specs.
The UH-60 features a four-blade main and tail rotors and is powered by two General Electric T700 turboshaft engines. It has a long, low profile shape to meet the Army's requirement for transporting aboard a C-130 Hercules. It can carry 11 troops with equipment, lift 2,600 lb (1,170 kg) of cargo internally or 9,000 lb (4,050 kg) of cargo (for UH-60L/M) externally by sling
Let us look a bit further - 11 troops with equipment. And yet the raid was reported to have 24 sailors involved.
The operation was carried out by a 24-man platoon from the Naval Special Warfare Developmental group - known as DEVGRU - based out of Dam Neck, Va. It's a group specifically dedicated to high-risk counterterrorism operations and assigned to the Joint Special Ops Command at Ft. Bragg. (It's predecessor was the storied "SEAL Team Six".)
Well maybe not all sailors. But us Navy guys have such reputations as wusses (always getting beat up by Marines) that I thought a little exaggeration was warranted. In case you had wondered about interservice rivalry. Sailors are smarter than Marines. And a few sailors are tougher. OK. Mostly kidding. Semper Fi Mac.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Fukushima 16 May 2011

The two videos below take about 25 minutes total to watch. You shouldn't miss either of them. There is evidence that unit #3 has undergone recriticality recently. Recriticality at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Japanese Researcher Says Nuclear Chain Reaction May Have Reignited Long After Tsunami Disabled the Plant


And just to give you the warm fuzzies - let us look at what high levels of I-131 60 days after the accident means. So how about some numbahs. Half life of I-131 = 8 days (and a smidge)

60/8 = 7.5

27.5 = 181

So by now levels of I-131 should be roughly 200 times less than they were on March 11th. High levels at this point in time? Re-criticality. Very bad news.

Reactor Core at Japan Nuke Plant More Severely Damaged Than Originally Thought



Video: Worse Than Chernobyl

IAEA Reports

Video: Information Control

Myths Of Three Mile Island I

Myths Of Three Mile Island II

IAEA: "Contaminated Water from #Fukushima to Reach US West Coast Next Year"
Oh that's lovely.

But no need to worry, the IAEA tells us, the level of radioactive materials will be so low there will be no effect on human health. Sorry, fish. I guess they are nuclear scientists and not biologists who know the term "bioconcentration".

Also, the IAEA fully endorses TEPCO's "roadmap" as "well-thought, good plan". No kidding. I guess they do not have a certificate in project management either, if they can praise the roadmap without any detailed timeline, budgeting, man-power allocations, task dependency, etc.

Radiation levels in the unit 2 torus are over double from two days ago
How hazardous is 130 Sv/hr? At that dose rate, just under 3 minutes of exposure (whole body) results in certain death within a few months time.

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor 3 Getting Hotter Than Reactor 1

Ventilation system activated in the unit 1 reactor building
The system primarily targets free I-131 in the air within the reactor building, though i don't understand why it wouldn't remove other varieties of isotopes as well. In any case, they are touting a possible 96.666 reduction in free air Iodine if the system performs as expected.
Of course at this late date the presence of I-131 in the air is some more evidence of Recriticality.

TEPCO hopes workers enter Reactor #1 building for cooling

Protesters demand stoppage of Hamaoka plant

Tsuruga Nuke Plant to Stop the Reactor No.2 on May 7
After the highly elevated levels of radioactive xenon-133 and iodine-133 were detected in the cooling water from the Reactor Pressure Vessel of the Reactor 2 on May 2 (see my post on May 2), Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) has decided to shut down the Reactor 2 at Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture in order to identify which fuel rods are leaking the radioactive materials.

Here's proof that the composition of recent venting is quite radioactive indeed

Radiation levels fluctuate in Fukushima schools
The ministry's latest measurements on Friday and Saturday showed radioactivity under the safety limit at these schools as well.
Only one problem. They raised the limit for children to equal the previous limit for Nuke Plant workers. Bastards.

Professor Kunihiko Takeda: "Teachers, Wake Up and Protect Children from Radiation!"

Gov't to ask Chubu Electric to stop Hamaoka nuclear power plant
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday the Japanese government has asked Chubu Electric Power Co. to suspend all its nuclear reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power station, citing experts' forecast of a major earthquake that could hit the region.
This is tough because Japan is already short of electricity from tsunami damage.

Robot Expo at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Now Sweden's Brokk Is Coming

Reactor 3 RPV was recently measuring at 314.5°C - above its design specification of 300°C

Radioactive cesium detected in tea leaves

550 Bq/kg of Cs-137 detected in Tea Leaves in Kanagawa Prefecture south of Tokyo

#Fukushima Crisis? What Crisis? EPA Stops Special Monitoring of Radiation in the US. This is a very bad idea.

Tepco must be disappointed after the ventilation effort in unit 1 fails to significantly reduce exposures

Industry Minister: need to review Fukushima plant recovery road map.

Now, Radioactive Sewage Sludge from #Fukushima City
Fukushima I Nuke Plant has been one big "dirty bomb".

After Koriyama City's sewage treatment center was tested positive for high level of radioactive cesium in the sewage sludge and slag and the sludge had been already sold (my post here and here), Fukushima Prefecture ordered the testing in other 19 similar treatment centers in Fukushima. 18 out of 19 centers were found to have high concentration of radioactive cesium.

Daily life in Miyagi Prefecture is now subjected to ocean tides
The vast majority of natural disasters are events people can recover from, and are even helpful for regional economies in afflicted areas. The problems facing Miyagi, however, are more serious and longer-lasting than what people typically face for a couple of reasons - newly found radioactivity present in the environment, and the incredible sinking of land surface area that allows water from the ocean to flow right into town.

#Fukushima Prefecture Has 62 Sewage Treatment Facilities
In the letter, the governor of Fukushima shows much concern for the disruption of the sewage treatment in Fukushima, and demands that the national government come up with a safe way to treat radioactive sludge as soon as possible. He says it is absolutely necessary to be able to continue to process the sewage, radioactive or not. His concern seems to be about treatment, and safety for the treatment facility workers.
That is going to be tough. They have a choice between a radiation disaster and a public health (disease) disaster.

That sludge radioactivity problem in Japan is apparently ongoing; more highly radioactive amounts were recently detected in Gunma Prefecture
First back in March, it was Koto Ward that shipped out sludge just buzzing with radioactivity at 170,000 Bq/kg. Then in that same month, two other Tokyo Wards reported intense radioactivity coming from incinerator ash in the range of 100,000 to 140,000 Bq/kg.

This past Friday, a water sanitation facility in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture detected radioactive Cesium at levels of 41,000 Bq/kg coming from incinerator ash that the water facility had collected earlier that week. Monitoring is ongoing.

Radioactive substance detected in incinerator ashes in Tokyo
A highly radioactive substance was detected in incinerator ashes at a sewage plant in eastern Tokyo in late March, shortly after the start of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, metropolitan government sources said Friday.
Some news travels really slow.

PM Kan's Hamaoka Nuke Plant Shut Down Request Was Made Under Pressure from the US

All Hamaoka reactors shut down

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Videos of Spent Fuel Pools (Reactors 3 and 4)

TEPCO to cover No.1 reactor building. So they cover the top with a Chernobyl style "coffin" and yet the bottom is leaking radioactive water like a sieve. I suppose you do what you can. Or more likely what you are willing to do. When government is involved it generally isn't enough. Unless you are connected. Then it will be too much. Which for those on the receiving end will be just enough.

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO To Put Cover Over Reactor 1 in June

Japanese Government Wants to Hold Trilateral Summit Opening Ceremony in #Fukushima City. I have no sympathy for the world "leaders". But what about all the folks in the entourage? Some of who have no choice. If they want to keep their jobs.

A third worker dies at Japan's troubled nuclear plant - Cause unknown

More on the Worker's Death: It Took 2 Hours to Get to the Hospital

Missing water located in the Unit 1 reactor basement

Holey Moley
The WSJ online reports that "substantial damage to the fuel cores at two additional reactors of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex has taken place", "further complicating the already daunting task of bringing them to a safe shutdown while avoiding the release of high levels of radioactivity".

It also mentions that "the pressure vessel a cylindrical steel container that holds nuclear fuel, "is likely to be damaged and leaking water at units Nos. 2 and 3", and that "there could be far less cooling water in the pressure vessels of Nos. 2 and 3, indicating there are holes at the bottom of these vessels, with thousands of tons of water pumped into these reactors mostly leaking out".

Units 1,2 and 3 may all be in the same boat.

What is 400 tons of seawater doing in the cooling system at the Hamaoka nuclear plant? So maybe the shutdown wasn't political after all. Maybe the plant was in trouble.

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Radiation on 2nd Floor of Reactor 1 Exceeded 1,000 Millisieverts/Hour
When 7 TEPCO employees and 2 NISA employees entered the Reactor 1 reactor building on early hours of May 9 (JST), the act that released mere 500 million becquerels of radioactive iodine and cesium into the atmosphere, they measured the radiation level on the ground floor which was 600 to 700 millisieverts/hour at the highest spot.

Then on May 10, someone went upstairs to the 2nd floor for the first time since March 11, and measured the radiation there. It was so high that the Geiger counter couldn't accurately measure.

And TEPCO thinks the totally melted blob of fuel rods (uranium, plutonium) + cladding (zirconium alloy) + control rods (boron, cadmium, silver, indium) + stainless steel pipes + whatever was inside the Reactor Pressure Vessel = "corium" is being safely cooled at the bottom of the RPV.
I wonder what they mean by "safely"? I wonder what they mean by "cooled"?

Rapid meltdown occurred in No.1 reactor
Tokyo Electric Power Company says most of the fuel rods in the No.1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel within 16 hours of the earthquake on March 11th.

The plant operator revealed its findings on Sunday.

TEPCO said it analyzed the data and calculated a timeline for developments in the No. 1 reactor on the assumption that it lost its cooling system as soon as the tsunami hit.

The firm said that about four and half hours after the quake the level of water in the pressure vessel fell below the top of fuel rods and that parts of them began melting.

The temperature of the rods is believed to have reached 2,800 degrees Celsius at this stage, and the meltdown advanced rapidly.
And they are just telling us now?

TEPCO Stating the Obvious After 2 Month: Reactor 1 Meltdown Occurred Within 16 Hours of March 11 Earthquake

Core meltdown analysis [pdf]

From TEPCO Presser on May 12 Part 3: "Probably the Same Situation in Reactors 2 and 3"
The water gauges for the Reactors 2 and 3 are not to be trusted, said TEPCO's Matsumoto in the press conference on May 12 (I watched the live-recorded video) when the company officially acknowledged the meltdown of the Reactor 1.

If the water gauges for the Reactors 2 and 3 have been overstating the water levels, just like in the Reactor 1, it is very likely that all three reactors have hardly any water inside the Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPV), and the reactor cores are likely to have been melted.

Fantasy Island
Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, says it will revise the method it is using to cool down the No.1 reactor, whose fuel rods are believed to have melted. But TEPCO says it is still aiming to achieve a stable cold shutdown of the reactor by July as planned.

The meltdown is believed to have created holes in the pressure vessel protecting the reactor core and damaged the containment vessel. As a result, highly radioactive water may be leaking from the containment vessel to the basement of the reactor building.

This situation is making it virtually impossible to fill the containment vessel with water as planned, forcing TEPCO to come up with an alternate method of cooling the reactor.
Do you believe the timetable? I don't.

Cross Posted at Classical Values