When William F. Buckley was the Editor of THE NATIONAL REVIEW, he was able to pen some editorials of great eloquence that masked a flat logic that defended antilabor and antiunion positions that lacked sound reason or morality. With far less eloquence, current NATIONAL REVIEW Editor, Rich Lowry has offered a morally flat defense of the business practices of Wal-Mart while slamming the film, WAL-MART:THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICES.
It is by no coincidence that the documentary about Wal-Mart is being viewed in many churches accross the U.S., as there are many moral issues involved in the business practices of Wal-Mart.
The antiunion and antilabor viewpoints of the far right, and their mouthpiece publication, THE NATIONAL REVIEW, object to many of the moral and ethical labor reforms and improvements that American labor and unions have achieved, often with the strong support of progressive churches in America.
The American labor movement and labor unions have succeeded in laws against child labor, as well as either laws or labor contracts with individual companies that have achieved a eight hour work day, health insurance, pensions, paid sick leave, fair treatment for women, racial and ethnic minorities and for persons with disabilities, higher wages, overtime pay, job safety, paid holidays, job security, severance pay, paid vacations as well as family and medical leave. By contrast the antilabor and antiunion editoral by Rich Lowry, "Fear And Loathing At Wal-Mart" on December 6, 2005, offered justification for the largely nonunion, low wage efforts of Wal-Mart by justifying the ethics of the low prices they offer against the morality of the social harm that is caused by low paying jobs that often fail to provide decent living wages or provide basic benfits such as health care to their employees.
In the editoral, Rich Lowry claimed that only 5% of Wal-Mart employees receive Medicaid public health benefits. Yet in order to qualify for this very low income public health insurance, in Florida for example, a worker at WAl-Mart would have to have a income less than $1,737 per year with only less than $2,000 in titotal personal assets including their automobile, clothes or other personal items. The fact that even 5% of Wal-Mart employees receive this very low income public health insurance is proof of at least 5% of Wal-Mart employees living at a low income level barely above that of homeless persons. In total, 52% of all Wal-Mart employees do not have Wal-Mart provided health care benefits. And many of these persons rely on other state public health programs for persons with low incomes other than Medicaid. Those that can afford it with the low Wal-Mart wages, attempt to purchase private health insurance if they can afford. But other Wal-Mart employees go without any health insurance, either privately purchased or publicly funded. Yet the NATIONAL REVIEW editorial denigrates any critical or moral basis by the Wal-Mart film to falsely portray Wal-Mart as a "welfare queen".
And in it's defense of of Wal-Mart, Lowry seems to rely almost solely on the "benefits" to American consumers of low Wal-Mart prices. Yet the high moral and social cost of these low prices is ignored in the NATIONAL REVIEW's weak defense of Wal-Mart.
Lowry is willing to offer that "Wal-Mart jobs are poorly paid compared to unionized jobs", yet no mention that retailers such as Wal-Mart whose shelves are filled with high profit, low priced items often produced in China have come at the expense of up to 30 million higher paying often unionized jobs in America. In China, the official minimum wage is supposed to be 40 cents an hour. But many factories, including those owned by American entrepreneurs or contractors are often well known to instruct company managers on ways to avoid paying this wage, and many Chinese are actually paid as little as 24cents an hour in Chinese factories.
But many Chinese workers daily work in factory or workplace safety conditions that even India finds deplorable. The air is so polluted in 500 Chinese cities from lax air pollution laws regarding factories, that for children, simply breathing air has the same health damage consequences as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Many Chinese factory workers develop health conditions such as "brown lung" by breathing so many poorly contolled toxins that would be sharply limited in American workplaces. A toxic chemical spill in a Northern Chines city has left 2 million residents of this city without any source of clean running drinking water for two weeks now. And to fuel the energy and raw material needs of China's massive cheap export machine to flood the shelves of Wal-Mart and other American retailers with the low cost goods that the NATION REVIEW is quick to defend, China has the world's most dangerous mines. Last week 161 Chinese miners, with 42 still missing lost their lives in a coalmine collapse. One estimate is that as many as 20,000 miners lose their lives in China each year.
In some countries, the cost of low cost goods to supply WAl-Mart or other major American retailers is even higher. In some countries such as Vietnam, many children live in factories producing high profit low priced goods.
In some cases, the consumer does not even save money. Only corporate profits are enhanced by child labor. Nike was famous for charging $90 or more dollars for some shoes, produced in Vietnamese factories by children for pennies a day who were hit and beaten by company managers when they failed to produce or made production quality mistakes. While paying these low wages, NIKE paid millions of dollars to company CEOs and management and to sports figures such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods to promote these high profit, cheaply produced goods made by Vietnamese child labor. It was only after some very negative reporting by some of the moral wrong of child labor abuses that NIKE felt public pressure to reform these high profit abuses of child labor that some labor reforms by NIKE were finally made. But many other goods still flow onto American store shelves produced by child labor, or even by forced labor, by lesser known but equally terrible exploiters of child or forced labor from many foreign lands.
THE NATIONAL REVIEW editoral ignored all of these issues, instead looking to justify the practices of large high profit retailers such as Wal-Mart almost solely claiming a benefit to American consumers of low prices. Last year the U.S. trade deficit totalled more than $666 billion dollars. It is a full 54% higher than the total of U.S. exports, which means that more and more of American finances flow overseas each day. And China was able to take full economic advantage by undervaluing their currency, the yuen, by valuing this currency against the American dollar, which undervalues their products by a full 40% against competing American produced goods. Other responsible world nations value their currency by floating it on world currency markets. But the Chinese method of currency valuation was solely intended to help flood the American marketplace with their high profit goods made with terrible workplace safety and lax water and air pollution standards. Such unfair currency, wage, workplace safety and pollution standards have allowed China such a clear advantage that virtually every major American textile manufacturer has been driven to financial bankruptcy or to moving their operations to China in what is known as job "outsourcing".
The short sighted logic of THE NATIONAL REVIEW to cite low priced products as an advantage to American consumers has overlooked the high cost to exploited Chinese and foreign workers as well ignored the seeds of economic destruction for the wellbeing of the American standard of living as low wage service jobs quickly replace more and more former high paying American factory and labor jobs.
The NATIONAL REVIEW has failed to recognize that the argument is not entirely with Wal-Mart itself. It is the deep problems of globalization that is undermining the American standard of living, in which megacorporations such as Wal-Mart become vendors for cheaply produced goods that undermine America in a manner that is highly destructive and morally objectionable on many grounds.
Rabu, 07 Desember 2005
Selasa, 06 Desember 2005
Tom Delay And Saddam Hussein Get Their Day In Court
Today, two of the world's most ruthless politicians got their day in court. Both were the perfect portrait of total arrogance when faced with serious charges. For Delay, it was more of the samesmiling and smirking while facing felony charges. In the case of Saddam Hussein, it was a futher display of more arrogance when victims testified about the terrible human rights abuses of this ruthless dictator.
Regardless of the validity of the specific charges against both, the testimony of the witnesses, or other specifics, the lesson should still be clear. Both are arrogant men who abused the privilege to rule only to behave above the law, rather than respect the law, to destroy political opponents rather than gain their respect. This is not the very first time either has been accused of ruthless political dealings. Both have been the subject of concerns again, again and again.
Far more decent men gain the respect of others, including those who sometimes disagree with them on some matters. But men who behave in a awful manner and abuse the privilege to rule end up having a day in court.
Regardless of the validity of the specific charges against both, the testimony of the witnesses, or other specifics, the lesson should still be clear. Both are arrogant men who abused the privilege to rule only to behave above the law, rather than respect the law, to destroy political opponents rather than gain their respect. This is not the very first time either has been accused of ruthless political dealings. Both have been the subject of concerns again, again and again.
Far more decent men gain the respect of others, including those who sometimes disagree with them on some matters. But men who behave in a awful manner and abuse the privilege to rule end up having a day in court.
Senin, 05 Desember 2005
Little Known And Bizarre Military Intelligence Secrets
The recent revelation of the "Intelligence Operations" division of the U.S. military paying for favorable news in the Iraqi media of the American war effort in Iraq has highlighted yet another little known secret activity of military intelligence.
Military intelligence is involved in many little known and some very strange suspected areas of intelligence activity, study and weapons development.
One strange but little known program is the remote Predator drone aircraft program. From a military base in Nevada, these drone aircraft are operated by flight controllers and collect intelligence or even fire a small but deadly missile at important targets that U.S. forces cannot easily patrol. The explosion death of the number three Al Qaeda head may have been from one of these drone Predator crafts firing a missile. Using high speed satellite communications, these Predator drones patrol both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as conduct intelligence activity in Iran, Syria and Western Pakistan where Al Qaeda training bases still exist from the 1980's when the Reagan Administration's CIA spent millions on a covert war to create an Mujaheeden insurgency to battle the Soviet invasion. Osama Bin Laden was recruited to train Islamic fighters to battle the secular Soviet backed puppet government in Afghanistan. These bases still remain today in rough and mountainous areas of Pakistan, and are patrolled by U.S. Predator drones for Al Qaeda activity. In Iraq, these drones can fire a missile at insurgent targets or prevent roadside bombs from being set up.
Other military intelligence using satellite technology, is the program to weaponize space. One project known as Rods From The Gods, fires cylinders from a satellite at a rate equal to a machine gun firing millions of rounds a minute. In one version, the cylinders would have almost a nuclear weapons type blast effect on earth targets. Other little known military intelligence projects involve weapons tests on experimental weapons that use light or sound as weapons.
Iran has great interest in satellites. A Russian built rocket has placed one Iranian satellite in orbit. However, Iran is working on it's own kerosine powered rocket to launch it's own satellites. Once this is perfected, Iran could target American targets for the future development of nuclear warheads which could be put into orbit to attack U.S. targets. Within two to five years, Iran may be capable of an attack by a small number of number of nuclear warheads against American targets.
During the Reagan Administration, and still currently continuing are efforts of military intelligence to develop missile defense systems. Since these violate existing antiballistic missile treaties, the Russian military has recently developed a hypersonic missile that is the world's fastest that cannot be shot down by the existing antimissile defenses. This is creating a new arms race of weapons that are not vulnerable to antimissile defenses.
But in the area of suspected intelligence operations come some of the most strange examples of military intelligence operations documented and known.
During the Vietnam War, young looking military intelligence officers were susposedly used to infiltrate high schools, colleges and antiwar organizations to collect intelligence on antiwar, antimilitary and other efforts that may have hurt support for the Vietnam War. Today, the antiwar efforts may be compromised by paid military infiltrations to disrupt these organizations to prevent the antiIraq War efforts from gaining much strength. The military may have found that internal sabotage of antiwar organizations is the most effective way to combat efforts that could hurt prowar efforts by the military.
But a far stranger form of military intelligence involves the use of strange psychic phenomenon such as Remote Viewing. Under the directorship of Gen. Stubblebine and Gen. Dozier, a program known as Stargate involved research by Dr. David Morehouse, a highly decorated U.S. Army Special Operations officer to study psychic efforts to use Remote Viewing to visualize first Soviet military operations. Today some organizations such as PSI Tech have 14 members who use this psychic phenomenon to study terrorists and possible terrorist attacks.
The Soviets have spent even more time and effort on Remote Viewing and other strange psychic phenomenon for military intelligence research purposes. In one claimed secret study, a Soviet university professor could conjure up a fist in his mind and smash a sheet metal plate leaving a giant fist imprint on it. In other research, Kirlian photography was used in research by Soviet Dr. Mikhail Gaiken to illustrate 700 rays of energy that seem to come the acupuncture points in the body that Chinese medicine has long documented. Other Soviet efforts involved the use of Pavlitan generators to store or use psychic energy for unbelievably strange experiments. Named after the Czech inventor, the Pavlitan generators were purportedly able to use psychic enrgy to instant strike flies dead, cause plants to grow at astonishing rates or to clean up pollution from dirty water. In 20 highly secretive Soviet military intelligence sites, KGB head, Yuri Andropov spent 500 million rubles on psychic research on weapons applications. In some telepathy experiments, subjests in a hypnotic trance could be awakened by remote telepathy hundreds of miles away. And other other effors to use telepathy as a weapon had some astonishing results that have been reported since the fall of the Iron Curtain.
But by far, the most strange military intelligence exists in area of UFO research by both the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. While the U.S. is known to have a highly secretive military intelligence research site in the area in which the claimed Area 51 UFO crash occured, far more bizarre Soviet efforts to research UFO s exist since the days of Josef Stalin. Stalin authorized a bizarre plan to shoot down UFOS to conduct research into their propulsion and weapons systems to develop the world's most advanced weapons. There are documented U.S. spy plane photos of Soviet military sites solely intended to study UFOs. And at least one highly respected Soviet Cosmonaut has claimed that Soviet MIG fighter planes have challenged UFOs to shoot them down for weapons research purposes. In one instance, a Soviet MIG jet was shot by a light ray that caused it to glow for nearly two weeks until the glow slowly disappeared. In a Soviet aircraft hangar, no good explanation could be found for this strange glow.
But in the weirdest case, in September 1989, it was claimed that in the Russian city of Voronezh, a UFO landed in downtown Zavodsk Square in the daylight, and several ten foot humanoids left the craft along with some four foot robots. At the same exact time in Hungary, another craft landed at an airbase and the robots fored ray guns at MIG aircrafts and when the 10 foot humanoids were fired at by airbase guards they avoided death by disappearing. It is claimed that hundreds of witnesses exist to these events, which to say the least are extremely strange. But in other cases, 300 to 900 foot UFOs have claimed to have been witnessed by many in the former Iron Curtain states, far more than here in the U.S. In the U.S. only former President Jimmy Carter has claimed to have seen a UFO, with Ronald Reagan a stronger believer in their existence. But George Bush, a former CIA director was noted for strong efforts to classify as much information as possible about UFO sightings or research by the U.S. military.
How much of some of the more strange events are true or not is certainly open to debate. But the fact is clear, there is some highly unusual activity that military intelligence of nations is responsible for, so any new revelations of military intelligence that is unusual should not really be all that surprising to an open mind.
Military intelligence is involved in many little known and some very strange suspected areas of intelligence activity, study and weapons development.
One strange but little known program is the remote Predator drone aircraft program. From a military base in Nevada, these drone aircraft are operated by flight controllers and collect intelligence or even fire a small but deadly missile at important targets that U.S. forces cannot easily patrol. The explosion death of the number three Al Qaeda head may have been from one of these drone Predator crafts firing a missile. Using high speed satellite communications, these Predator drones patrol both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as conduct intelligence activity in Iran, Syria and Western Pakistan where Al Qaeda training bases still exist from the 1980's when the Reagan Administration's CIA spent millions on a covert war to create an Mujaheeden insurgency to battle the Soviet invasion. Osama Bin Laden was recruited to train Islamic fighters to battle the secular Soviet backed puppet government in Afghanistan. These bases still remain today in rough and mountainous areas of Pakistan, and are patrolled by U.S. Predator drones for Al Qaeda activity. In Iraq, these drones can fire a missile at insurgent targets or prevent roadside bombs from being set up.
Other military intelligence using satellite technology, is the program to weaponize space. One project known as Rods From The Gods, fires cylinders from a satellite at a rate equal to a machine gun firing millions of rounds a minute. In one version, the cylinders would have almost a nuclear weapons type blast effect on earth targets. Other little known military intelligence projects involve weapons tests on experimental weapons that use light or sound as weapons.
Iran has great interest in satellites. A Russian built rocket has placed one Iranian satellite in orbit. However, Iran is working on it's own kerosine powered rocket to launch it's own satellites. Once this is perfected, Iran could target American targets for the future development of nuclear warheads which could be put into orbit to attack U.S. targets. Within two to five years, Iran may be capable of an attack by a small number of number of nuclear warheads against American targets.
During the Reagan Administration, and still currently continuing are efforts of military intelligence to develop missile defense systems. Since these violate existing antiballistic missile treaties, the Russian military has recently developed a hypersonic missile that is the world's fastest that cannot be shot down by the existing antimissile defenses. This is creating a new arms race of weapons that are not vulnerable to antimissile defenses.
But in the area of suspected intelligence operations come some of the most strange examples of military intelligence operations documented and known.
During the Vietnam War, young looking military intelligence officers were susposedly used to infiltrate high schools, colleges and antiwar organizations to collect intelligence on antiwar, antimilitary and other efforts that may have hurt support for the Vietnam War. Today, the antiwar efforts may be compromised by paid military infiltrations to disrupt these organizations to prevent the antiIraq War efforts from gaining much strength. The military may have found that internal sabotage of antiwar organizations is the most effective way to combat efforts that could hurt prowar efforts by the military.
But a far stranger form of military intelligence involves the use of strange psychic phenomenon such as Remote Viewing. Under the directorship of Gen. Stubblebine and Gen. Dozier, a program known as Stargate involved research by Dr. David Morehouse, a highly decorated U.S. Army Special Operations officer to study psychic efforts to use Remote Viewing to visualize first Soviet military operations. Today some organizations such as PSI Tech have 14 members who use this psychic phenomenon to study terrorists and possible terrorist attacks.
The Soviets have spent even more time and effort on Remote Viewing and other strange psychic phenomenon for military intelligence research purposes. In one claimed secret study, a Soviet university professor could conjure up a fist in his mind and smash a sheet metal plate leaving a giant fist imprint on it. In other research, Kirlian photography was used in research by Soviet Dr. Mikhail Gaiken to illustrate 700 rays of energy that seem to come the acupuncture points in the body that Chinese medicine has long documented. Other Soviet efforts involved the use of Pavlitan generators to store or use psychic energy for unbelievably strange experiments. Named after the Czech inventor, the Pavlitan generators were purportedly able to use psychic enrgy to instant strike flies dead, cause plants to grow at astonishing rates or to clean up pollution from dirty water. In 20 highly secretive Soviet military intelligence sites, KGB head, Yuri Andropov spent 500 million rubles on psychic research on weapons applications. In some telepathy experiments, subjests in a hypnotic trance could be awakened by remote telepathy hundreds of miles away. And other other effors to use telepathy as a weapon had some astonishing results that have been reported since the fall of the Iron Curtain.
But by far, the most strange military intelligence exists in area of UFO research by both the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. While the U.S. is known to have a highly secretive military intelligence research site in the area in which the claimed Area 51 UFO crash occured, far more bizarre Soviet efforts to research UFO s exist since the days of Josef Stalin. Stalin authorized a bizarre plan to shoot down UFOS to conduct research into their propulsion and weapons systems to develop the world's most advanced weapons. There are documented U.S. spy plane photos of Soviet military sites solely intended to study UFOs. And at least one highly respected Soviet Cosmonaut has claimed that Soviet MIG fighter planes have challenged UFOs to shoot them down for weapons research purposes. In one instance, a Soviet MIG jet was shot by a light ray that caused it to glow for nearly two weeks until the glow slowly disappeared. In a Soviet aircraft hangar, no good explanation could be found for this strange glow.
But in the weirdest case, in September 1989, it was claimed that in the Russian city of Voronezh, a UFO landed in downtown Zavodsk Square in the daylight, and several ten foot humanoids left the craft along with some four foot robots. At the same exact time in Hungary, another craft landed at an airbase and the robots fored ray guns at MIG aircrafts and when the 10 foot humanoids were fired at by airbase guards they avoided death by disappearing. It is claimed that hundreds of witnesses exist to these events, which to say the least are extremely strange. But in other cases, 300 to 900 foot UFOs have claimed to have been witnessed by many in the former Iron Curtain states, far more than here in the U.S. In the U.S. only former President Jimmy Carter has claimed to have seen a UFO, with Ronald Reagan a stronger believer in their existence. But George Bush, a former CIA director was noted for strong efforts to classify as much information as possible about UFO sightings or research by the U.S. military.
How much of some of the more strange events are true or not is certainly open to debate. But the fact is clear, there is some highly unusual activity that military intelligence of nations is responsible for, so any new revelations of military intelligence that is unusual should not really be all that surprising to an open mind.
Minggu, 04 Desember 2005
Strange But True #2
In a big surprise to U.S. Border Control agents, it was recently discovered that their uniforms are actually manufactured in Mexico. The manufacturer, VF Solutions from Nashville, no doubt profits from the low $1.50 an hour wages in Mexico. But it also raises the hypocrisy issue of many Americans on immigration issues. Racist sentiments often play into anti-immigrant sentiments. Yet, when a labor cost savings can be realized, then American manufacturers or even consumers welcome the cost savings. Many legal immigrants from Mexico or other South American states often find their first work in food services related employment before stepping up to better jobs in the U.S. economy.
The recent corruption scandal involving a Republican Congressman from California accepting defense contractor bribes, raises the question whether other defense contractor corruption has existed before. Well, yes. Past scandals involved one defense contractor and a diesel glow plug wire that sells at autoparts stores for about $20, was sold to the Pentagon at about $400 each. The company even claimed the product was it's own, when in fact it was actually manufactured by Bosche and identical to the autoparts store version. Another scandal involved a $400 charge for one inch pieces of metal with two holes drilled in it. And of course many here, remember the no-bids contracts for reconstruction from Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, in Iraq. No only has much of the work not been completed, but the Pentagon was billed large fees for cases of soda pop and other items that have nothing to do with the reconstruction projects in Iraq.
How does China manage those great prices on some items? Well besides cutting corners on environmental rules, in which the air is so polluted in 500 Chinese cities that it's the same as a child smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, only paying as little as 24 cents an hour labor, undervalueing their currency theYuen by an additional 40% below our American dollar by fixing it's value against our dollar, rather floating it on world currency markets and Chinese workers suffering from workplace safety problems. Besides factories, the world's most unsafe workplaces are the mines are in China. Last week 161 Chinese miners lost their lives in a coalmine disaster, with 42 still missing as of this morning. With such a national thirst for energy to drive China's factories, safety standards in Chinese mines are very lax, and contribute to very tragic accidents such as in the Chinese coalmine.
Liz Sheridan, the character actress who played the next door neighbor on ALF and Jerry Seinfield's mother on Seinfeld was the former girlfriend of James Dean. James Dean has now been dead for 50 years, killed in a September 30, 1955 car crash. For all his popularity, and for all the legend surrounding James Dean, he only starred in just three films, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, GIANT and EAST OF EDEN.
Speaking of ALF, few know much about the problems of Max Wright, who played the likable long-suffering father, Willie on ALF. Max Wright had an arrest for drunken driving in 2000, but landed himself in far worst scandal when on August 5, 2005, the National Enquirer photographed Wright in a crackhouse lighting a crackpipe with homeless gay men.
In Oregon, State Representative Kelley Wirth, D-Corvallis, finally resigned and was replaced by a former schooolboard member. It won't be hard to fill the shoes of Wirth. Wirth resigned after being arrested on meth possession, following a police investigation into an attempted murder plot against her where a girlfriend of a Oregon Capitol janitor she was having an affair with attemped to run her down with an automobile and severely injured Wirth's legs. There was an apparent argument at the janitor's house, despite a sexual harrassment allegation against Wirth by the janitor, and this argument helped to promote the murder attempt on Wirth's life. Before leaving office, Wirth was involved in a new controversy when she dramaticly increased the salaries of her legislative staff, nearly draining the funds appropriated to an expense account. Wirth even put her mother on this payroll. But after another round of public pressure forced Wirth to back down. Kelley Wirth was interestingly the only member of the legislature to vote against toughening state laws regarding substances that could be made into meth drugs. For all her fault's, at least Kelley Wirth is not a hypocrite.
There you have it, installment two of Strange But True. All Strange. All True. Strange But True.
The recent corruption scandal involving a Republican Congressman from California accepting defense contractor bribes, raises the question whether other defense contractor corruption has existed before. Well, yes. Past scandals involved one defense contractor and a diesel glow plug wire that sells at autoparts stores for about $20, was sold to the Pentagon at about $400 each. The company even claimed the product was it's own, when in fact it was actually manufactured by Bosche and identical to the autoparts store version. Another scandal involved a $400 charge for one inch pieces of metal with two holes drilled in it. And of course many here, remember the no-bids contracts for reconstruction from Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, in Iraq. No only has much of the work not been completed, but the Pentagon was billed large fees for cases of soda pop and other items that have nothing to do with the reconstruction projects in Iraq.
How does China manage those great prices on some items? Well besides cutting corners on environmental rules, in which the air is so polluted in 500 Chinese cities that it's the same as a child smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, only paying as little as 24 cents an hour labor, undervalueing their currency theYuen by an additional 40% below our American dollar by fixing it's value against our dollar, rather floating it on world currency markets and Chinese workers suffering from workplace safety problems. Besides factories, the world's most unsafe workplaces are the mines are in China. Last week 161 Chinese miners lost their lives in a coalmine disaster, with 42 still missing as of this morning. With such a national thirst for energy to drive China's factories, safety standards in Chinese mines are very lax, and contribute to very tragic accidents such as in the Chinese coalmine.
Liz Sheridan, the character actress who played the next door neighbor on ALF and Jerry Seinfield's mother on Seinfeld was the former girlfriend of James Dean. James Dean has now been dead for 50 years, killed in a September 30, 1955 car crash. For all his popularity, and for all the legend surrounding James Dean, he only starred in just three films, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, GIANT and EAST OF EDEN.
Speaking of ALF, few know much about the problems of Max Wright, who played the likable long-suffering father, Willie on ALF. Max Wright had an arrest for drunken driving in 2000, but landed himself in far worst scandal when on August 5, 2005, the National Enquirer photographed Wright in a crackhouse lighting a crackpipe with homeless gay men.
In Oregon, State Representative Kelley Wirth, D-Corvallis, finally resigned and was replaced by a former schooolboard member. It won't be hard to fill the shoes of Wirth. Wirth resigned after being arrested on meth possession, following a police investigation into an attempted murder plot against her where a girlfriend of a Oregon Capitol janitor she was having an affair with attemped to run her down with an automobile and severely injured Wirth's legs. There was an apparent argument at the janitor's house, despite a sexual harrassment allegation against Wirth by the janitor, and this argument helped to promote the murder attempt on Wirth's life. Before leaving office, Wirth was involved in a new controversy when she dramaticly increased the salaries of her legislative staff, nearly draining the funds appropriated to an expense account. Wirth even put her mother on this payroll. But after another round of public pressure forced Wirth to back down. Kelley Wirth was interestingly the only member of the legislature to vote against toughening state laws regarding substances that could be made into meth drugs. For all her fault's, at least Kelley Wirth is not a hypocrite.
There you have it, installment two of Strange But True. All Strange. All True. Strange But True.
Sabtu, 03 Desember 2005
The Cold Reality Of Warfare
For political purposes, to salvage his collapsing public approval standing, and to offer the traditional consistency standards that all American Presidents have to offer on foreign policy matters, Mr. Bush has undergone daily efforts to promote his administration's goals in Iraq and on the economy. However, with the death of 10 Marines in Iraq to a boobytrap, and the deaths of 11 more Iraqi soldiers to a roadside bomb, the cold reality of war once again sets in.
It doesn't matter how well any President will try to defend a war like Viernam, like LBJ and Nixon did, or that Bush is in Iraq, in any insurgent war, these forces will always alter their strategy to up American casualties, in an attempt to drive America out. This is the frustration that the administration must feel. No matter what propaganda face is put on the war effort, or claims of Iraqi soldier improvements, the insurgents will one up these efforts.
At first the administration was way too slow to armor the Humvees, which became a sort of police patrol vehicle in Iraq. And this lack of armor foreced many National Guard units to use sandbags and pieces of plywood to create what they called "plwood coffins" with their Humvees. But now insurgent forces are using a stronger Hezbollah designed explosive that can cut right through this armor. And Thursday's death of 10 Marines came from a new bombmaking idea, in which four shells were tied together to create a bobbytrap that could spray shrapnel over an entire football field size area.
And the kidnapping of some Christian peaceworkers by insurgents means that even Westerners who support a withdrawal of American forces are seen as a target of insurgent forces to further their ultimate political and military goals.
The cold reality of warfare is that no matter what a far superior military like the U.S. can do in the way of aircraft or high tech warfare, a low tech insurgency will attempt to match those efforts in very low tech ways. Insurgents have no airforce, helicopters, navy or tanks, but in a crude way will attempt to match the efforts. The combat means will not even match in the same battle field capability, but in the psychological effect to create terror and to break the will of the American public.
After Vietnam, many in America were very reluctant to enter another long running insurgent war. During the Reagan Administration many thought America should not be afraid to flex it's military muscles again. But a huge miscalculation of the political right, necoconservatives and others, was that the high tech weapons of the this age could defeat any low tech insurgency. But once again, just like in Vietnam, a determined low tech force has proven they can tie down America in a long running insurgent war. These insurgents believe that the U.S. will soon stop fighting and simply go home. And they are right. No American will to continue to fight this sort of war really exists. There just is no appetite for this type of war among many Americans.
The cold and hard reality of war is that an enemy will match the U.S. as well as they can. And any use of America ground forces, is an invitation for the insurgents to follow the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese example, and to continue to battle the U.S. until the American will is broken and then the U.S. will simply go home and hand a victory to the insurgents. Instead of securing peace, this only encourages other insurgents that this type of conflict can be won. The French and American defeat in Vietnam. The Soviet defeat in Afghanistan. And the problems in Iraq, all serve to establish this as a reality of history to inspire insurgents everywhere.
It doesn't matter how well any President will try to defend a war like Viernam, like LBJ and Nixon did, or that Bush is in Iraq, in any insurgent war, these forces will always alter their strategy to up American casualties, in an attempt to drive America out. This is the frustration that the administration must feel. No matter what propaganda face is put on the war effort, or claims of Iraqi soldier improvements, the insurgents will one up these efforts.
At first the administration was way too slow to armor the Humvees, which became a sort of police patrol vehicle in Iraq. And this lack of armor foreced many National Guard units to use sandbags and pieces of plywood to create what they called "plwood coffins" with their Humvees. But now insurgent forces are using a stronger Hezbollah designed explosive that can cut right through this armor. And Thursday's death of 10 Marines came from a new bombmaking idea, in which four shells were tied together to create a bobbytrap that could spray shrapnel over an entire football field size area.
And the kidnapping of some Christian peaceworkers by insurgents means that even Westerners who support a withdrawal of American forces are seen as a target of insurgent forces to further their ultimate political and military goals.
The cold reality of warfare is that no matter what a far superior military like the U.S. can do in the way of aircraft or high tech warfare, a low tech insurgency will attempt to match those efforts in very low tech ways. Insurgents have no airforce, helicopters, navy or tanks, but in a crude way will attempt to match the efforts. The combat means will not even match in the same battle field capability, but in the psychological effect to create terror and to break the will of the American public.
After Vietnam, many in America were very reluctant to enter another long running insurgent war. During the Reagan Administration many thought America should not be afraid to flex it's military muscles again. But a huge miscalculation of the political right, necoconservatives and others, was that the high tech weapons of the this age could defeat any low tech insurgency. But once again, just like in Vietnam, a determined low tech force has proven they can tie down America in a long running insurgent war. These insurgents believe that the U.S. will soon stop fighting and simply go home. And they are right. No American will to continue to fight this sort of war really exists. There just is no appetite for this type of war among many Americans.
The cold and hard reality of war is that an enemy will match the U.S. as well as they can. And any use of America ground forces, is an invitation for the insurgents to follow the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese example, and to continue to battle the U.S. until the American will is broken and then the U.S. will simply go home and hand a victory to the insurgents. Instead of securing peace, this only encourages other insurgents that this type of conflict can be won. The French and American defeat in Vietnam. The Soviet defeat in Afghanistan. And the problems in Iraq, all serve to establish this as a reality of history to inspire insurgents everywhere.
Jumat, 02 Desember 2005
The "Real" Meaning Of Christmas
The Christmas holiday is a fun holiday to enjoy. It often brings out the very best in persons. Giving to others. Sharing. Concern for the poor. Some countries such as Japan, in which only a mere 1% of persons are Christian have one of the biggest Christmas holiday celebrations. Yet in this country, this purely secular holiday from derived from pagan traditions is yearly made into a political struggle by the religious right who falsely claim this day celebrates the birthday of Christ, which of course it never did.
The early Pilgrims who settled America outlawed this pagan holiday practice. In fact, as late as 1870 anyone in Boston who took this pagan day off could be fired from work. It was only very late in the nineteenth century in Alabama that this pagan derived secular holiday became officially recognized. Alabama was also an area with many Southern Baptists, a church that was founded by cotton and tobacco industry interests who establish a religion to justify slavery in America. It is not surprising that many present day Southern Baptist leaders such as Rev. Pat Robertson seek to mislead their followers into making Christmas a political cause by falsely claiming that it is the birthday of Jesus. The Southern Baptist faith was founded on misleading and abusing Scripture to support slavery, so misuse for other political causes is no great leap for this church. And despite the claims of Southern Baptist, or other modern Christian leaders, the truth is in fact that no good evidence exists whatsoever that Jesus was born on this date. The truth is the December 25, date only has a significance to pagan followers, and not Christians.
Around 90 AD, a pagan cult known as a mystery religion celebrating the pagan god, Mithra, began to flourish in the Roman controlled MidEast. This god was supposed born on December 25, which was seen as the winter solistice, or a date on which was the shortest of the year, with the least amount of sunlight. After that date, the days began to get longer, and since many pagan religions were based on sun worship, an increase in sunlight was seen as a rebirth of the sun. From this pagan history, it is absolutely absurd for some Christians to falsely contend that December 25, is the birthday of Jesus or even any true form of a Christian holiday.
The Scriptures even forbid holidays honoring God other than the Sabbath. Yet those who claim to be Christian often ignore this as well.
Instead of simply enjoying this holiday as a day off from work, or a reason to give to others, many in the Christian right are beginning their yearly attempts to make this into another political cause to promote more of their false propaganda, which is unScriptural, based on manmade beliefs and causes, and was nothing in common with God's true lessons from Scripture.
The early Pilgrims who settled America outlawed this pagan holiday practice. In fact, as late as 1870 anyone in Boston who took this pagan day off could be fired from work. It was only very late in the nineteenth century in Alabama that this pagan derived secular holiday became officially recognized. Alabama was also an area with many Southern Baptists, a church that was founded by cotton and tobacco industry interests who establish a religion to justify slavery in America. It is not surprising that many present day Southern Baptist leaders such as Rev. Pat Robertson seek to mislead their followers into making Christmas a political cause by falsely claiming that it is the birthday of Jesus. The Southern Baptist faith was founded on misleading and abusing Scripture to support slavery, so misuse for other political causes is no great leap for this church. And despite the claims of Southern Baptist, or other modern Christian leaders, the truth is in fact that no good evidence exists whatsoever that Jesus was born on this date. The truth is the December 25, date only has a significance to pagan followers, and not Christians.
Around 90 AD, a pagan cult known as a mystery religion celebrating the pagan god, Mithra, began to flourish in the Roman controlled MidEast. This god was supposed born on December 25, which was seen as the winter solistice, or a date on which was the shortest of the year, with the least amount of sunlight. After that date, the days began to get longer, and since many pagan religions were based on sun worship, an increase in sunlight was seen as a rebirth of the sun. From this pagan history, it is absolutely absurd for some Christians to falsely contend that December 25, is the birthday of Jesus or even any true form of a Christian holiday.
The Scriptures even forbid holidays honoring God other than the Sabbath. Yet those who claim to be Christian often ignore this as well.
Instead of simply enjoying this holiday as a day off from work, or a reason to give to others, many in the Christian right are beginning their yearly attempts to make this into another political cause to promote more of their false propaganda, which is unScriptural, based on manmade beliefs and causes, and was nothing in common with God's true lessons from Scripture.
Kamis, 01 Desember 2005
Marc Bolan's Archnemesis, Gary Glitter Back In Trouble Again
In the 1970's glitter rockers Marc Bolan and Gary Glitter used to slug it out on the British pop charts. Both put out a series of great singles. Bolan's T.Rex issued "Ride A White Swan", "Get It On", "Jeepster", "The Groover", "Telegram Sam" and more. Gary Glitter issued "Rock And Roll Part Two", "Do You Wanna Touch", "I Didn't Know I Loved You Until I Saw You Rock And Roll" and many more. Marc Bolan could never really put his finger on it, but he never liked Gary Glitter very much.
Marc Bolan's feelings about Gary Glitter have come true again. Once again Gary Glitter finds himself in jail. In Vietnam, Gary Glitter was arrested at the airport after an investigation into Glitter having sexual relations with girls under the age of 13. A few years ago Glitter spent four months in a British prison for storing thousands of images of young girls on his computer.
For Gary Glitter, who is now 61, it is a further tarnishing of his image again.
Music fans want to be able to remember Marc Bolan and Gary Glitter for the great legacy of recordings they produced. But both had personal lives that brought both to ruin. Bolan's life devolved into a series of excesses that ended only days before his 30th birthday when he was killed in car accident. After leaving his wife, June, due to an affair with a backup singer, Gloria Jones, Bolan's life ended with Gloria Jones at the wheel of the car as she lost control and hit a tree. For Gary Glitter, the tarnishing crash came with his first arrest on disgusting charges involving young girls. Now his reputation is again tarnished by the new allegations in Vietnam.
Sometimes it's far better to remember musicians for the great legacy of songs they have created. I'm a big fan of both the Marc Bolan and the Gary Glitter songs. "Rock And Roll Part Two" is played at virtually every major sporting event. It's a great, great rock anthem. And "Get It On" is a great, great rock standard. But the sordid personal lives of both performers have put a stop to any new music. Fans are only left with the good memories of the past. Music from the better days for both musicians.
Marc Bolan's feelings about Gary Glitter have come true again. Once again Gary Glitter finds himself in jail. In Vietnam, Gary Glitter was arrested at the airport after an investigation into Glitter having sexual relations with girls under the age of 13. A few years ago Glitter spent four months in a British prison for storing thousands of images of young girls on his computer.
For Gary Glitter, who is now 61, it is a further tarnishing of his image again.
Music fans want to be able to remember Marc Bolan and Gary Glitter for the great legacy of recordings they produced. But both had personal lives that brought both to ruin. Bolan's life devolved into a series of excesses that ended only days before his 30th birthday when he was killed in car accident. After leaving his wife, June, due to an affair with a backup singer, Gloria Jones, Bolan's life ended with Gloria Jones at the wheel of the car as she lost control and hit a tree. For Gary Glitter, the tarnishing crash came with his first arrest on disgusting charges involving young girls. Now his reputation is again tarnished by the new allegations in Vietnam.
Sometimes it's far better to remember musicians for the great legacy of songs they have created. I'm a big fan of both the Marc Bolan and the Gary Glitter songs. "Rock And Roll Part Two" is played at virtually every major sporting event. It's a great, great rock anthem. And "Get It On" is a great, great rock standard. But the sordid personal lives of both performers have put a stop to any new music. Fans are only left with the good memories of the past. Music from the better days for both musicians.
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