posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:28 PM Permalink
…really, not like last time. People in government, from the President on down will give celebratory speeches, lavish praise on our military, tout the wisdom of the decisions made, claim credit for bringing democracy to the Middle East, and falsely, and I believe, maliciously, claim that America will provide for the needs of the troops returning home after two, three, four, or five tours in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan when they are already seeking changes in definitions of various maladies such as PTSD, ignoring the unbelievably high suicide and homeless rates of returning veterans, and the government will again claim that the war in Afghanistan must continue despite the government malfeasance there and the fact that we are mostly just using Afghanistan as a launching site for the Hellfire missile-armed drones that are the precursor to the future combat systems that will lead to the video game wars of the future where video game-trained troops will sit ensconced in a cool dark room killing people afar without the need for any troops to engage the enemy up close.
Gulf War Syndrome, PTSD and Military Suicides: U.S. Government's Message to America’s Vets: "Drop Dead"
From 1991 to 2003, hundreds of thousands of our bravest men and women sought help from the Veterans Administration, from the Defense Department, from the White House, all to no avail. The official word was that Gulf War Syndrome did not exist. So they suffered in silence. Tens of thousands died from these conditions. Many lost their homes because of the high costs to pay for medical care themselves. Independent investigations, including those conducted by many of the Gulf War veterans themselves, showed multiple causes behind Gulf War Syndrome…
The current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are manifesting with an entirely new series of physical and mental illnesses and diseases. Some are being recognized, such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but many others are not. Hundreds of thousands of our veterans are living in destitution, are incarcerated, have attempted or committed suicide, and can no longer fit into a normal family life. And yet the government once again, as it did to previous Gulf War vets, turns its backs on them. This is an American tragedy…
American troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are sinking ever lower into the abyss of the lost and forgotten. Severe depression, confusion and an existential lack of purpose swarms across our armed forces and our government barely notices. We are witnessing annual illness increases in practically every category of physical, emotional and mental health: physical combat injuries, PTSD, brain trauma and depression, impaired immune systems, common and rare cancers, diabetes, reproductive disorders, a wide variety of inflammatory conditions among many other ailments. Over-extended and multiple deployments are shattering soldiers’ and veterans’ lives. The fabric of their social relationships is rapidly deteriorating. Divorce rates and broken homes are commonplace…
And upon their return to Kansas, away from America’s killing fields in the Middle East, there awaits an economy in collapse under the weight of astronomical federal debt and corporate greed, recessionary unemployment and rising homelessness, hungry children and rampant poverty, and now a new American culture every bit as disoriented and fearful about its future.
Welcome to America’s brave new world of global PTSD! [emphasis in original text. Bill]
Before the Vietnam War, the severe psychological conditions warriors’ and soldiers’ experienced on the battlefield went under a variety of names: war neurosis, combat fatigue, neurasthenia, shell shock and others. Today these psychological states have been tossed under the umbrella term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)…we are experiencing record numbers of servicemen and women returning emotionally and mentally impaired. During no other war, including Vietnam, are GIs as psychically damaged as those now serving and returning from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.…It appears odd that many vets being diagnosed for PTSD, depression and other mental impairments never experienced direct combat. Yet all deployed troops to Afghanistan and Iraq share one thing in common. They have all stood on Middle Eastern soil and breathed and lived in its highly toxic and chemically contaminated environment.
The Army’s top psychiatrist, Brig. General Loree Sutton told Congress that about 17 percent of our troops are on psychiatric medications. However, in later interviews she reduced her estimate substantially to 2-4 percent.… Other military officials tout other conflicting numbers giving a clear message that either the military is clueless about the seriousness of mental illness among our troops, or is having one hell of a time keeping their lies in order. As this investigation will outline, there is far greater reason to suspect intentional deception on the DoD’s behalf rather than assume the upper echelons of our military’s health institutions are simply fools unqualified in their roles to oversee the health and well being of our armed forces.
Of course the government has a vested interest in marginalizing the problems extant and those to come. I know, having lived through this personally.
After my cancers were ruled by the VA as being Agent Orange-caused I still had to fight tooth and nail for every increase in my disability status. While all my various doctors agreed and advised the VA of my disabilities the VA would send what I call a "hit doctor" to give me a two minute examination and then rule that I was not as disabled as was being reported. Doctors that had been treating me for years and that were intimately aware of my difficulties were ignored because of these hit doctors and I am as certain as I can be that returning veterans with any malady other than obvious problems, such a missing limbs, will face these same hit doctors over and over for years before receiving appropriate disability ratings that will not only include free medical care and medicines (I shudder to think how much my medications alone would cost), but monetary reimbursement for the destruction of their ability to hold a job, their need to support and maintain a family, and the obvious need for a home.
This pattern of denying aid and the seriousness of the problems has already commenced, as shown by this statement from the above text: "The Army’s top psychiatrist, Brig. General Loree Sutton told Congress that about 17 percent of our troops are on psychiatric medications. However, in later interviews she reduced her estimate substantially to 2-4 percent…" You don't really believe that a brigadier general and top psychiatrist looked at her studies and stats and "discovered" an error or information that would cause her to so drastically reduce her estimation of the problem, do you? No, somebody, somewhere that outranked this general gave her orders to reduce her estimates or, I would bet money, choose to retire.
The article continues:
Independent research places the military’s mental health figures much higher. The June 2010 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry published a study of 18,300 Army soldiers screened at 3 and 12 month intervals following deployment in Iraq. The study found that using “the least stringent definition” for PTSD, rates now range between 20 and 30 percent, and depression rates are at 11.5 and 16 percent.[2] Together this accounts for almost a third of our troops now suffering serious functional mental impairment.…
All attempts to conduct accurate analysis is compounded because “the Veterans Health Administration systematically delays and denies sick veterans medical care and masks it with bogus documentation,” according to an investigation conducted by Nora Eisenberg at City University of New York. In a leaked internal memo from the Deputy Undersecretary for Health Operations and Management, William Schoenhard, the VA is gaming the system thus “diminishing patient [veteran] access to treatment.”
And all this, so far, just discusses veterans that are seriously ill, physically and mentally, and I know for certain from my own travails with the VA that, with my body damn near destroyed and the fact I am condemned to suffer monstrous chronic neurological pain (24/7/365), the mental breakdown I suffered after TEN YEARS of fighting the system was, it seems, inevitable, and I feel so very sorry for the returning veterans who will have to battle a VA system already gearing up to find ways to deny benefits to those in need and who rightfully deserve those benefits.
The other problems to obfuscate if possible:
The nation’s dire recession and lack of jobs is one significant contributor to rising homeless among veterans. As of March 2010, veterans from the OEF and OIF campaigns officially faced a 14.7 unemployment rate, 5 points above the Department of Labor’s estimated national average.[10] However, actual unemployment statistics repeatedly show almost a doubling of national unemployment after hidden populations of those no longer receiving benefits, unqualified to receive benefits, or people holding down minimum wage part-time jobs are accounted for; therefore we can realistically predict over a quarter of vets are now unemployed.…
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs estimates 131,000 veterans are homeless on any given night;[13] however, more independent analysis shows the figure can be as high as 300,000,[14] and upwards to 840,000 veterans will experience homelessness during the course of a year. But the actual number is certainly higher.…
Veterans Affairs claims 97 percent of homeless vets are men, however, a separate report from the National Coalition for the Homeless finds female vets with PTSD and traumatic brain injury more likely to become homeless.[16] Women are enrolling in VA programs in record numbers.…
Active duty GI and veteran suicides have skyrocketed so dramatically that even major news sources are compelled to report it. June 2010 witnessed the highest rate of active duty suicides on record, one per day.…
Veteran suicide rates are much higher and have reached 18 per day. This accounts for 20 percent of the nation’s annual 30,000 suicides.[21] One out of seven suicide attempts will be successful. But suicide prevention hotlines provide a more chilling scenario: 10,000 calls per month and 400 per month requiring immediate rescue efforts.[22]
Since only 5 of 18 veterans are under direct VA care, it is very likely more veterans are taking their lives than is being reported.…
It's fortunately becoming harder and harder for the government to deny and hide these problems, but that doesn't mean that it will stop looking for ways to deny benefits to a many as possible, using every possible means of delay, denial, refusing to acknowledge the problems, failing to provide the funds to pay for treatment or to pay a troop so disabled they can't work enough money to support themselves and their families.
I know. Been there, done that. And there often is a problem with soldiers being too recalcitrant to admit they have a problem as they fear it is a sign of weakness.
I felt the lumps growing in my lymph nodes, unknowingly allowed doctors to use the wrong method of testing for lymphomas (fine needle aspiration) that allowed me to deny I had a problem. But when the tumor under the left side of my jaw overnight sprouted three new lumps running down the side of my neck I realized that I not only had cancer, but it was beginning to metastasize and spread at an alarming rate. I couldn't deny it any longer.
But I had delayed it so long that my first oncologist told me in March that with "heroic measures" (his term) it might be possible for me to live 'til the end of the year.
My Warrior Woman immediately jumped up, took my face in her hands, nose-to-nose with fire in her eyes, and steel in her spine told me,"You can't die yet, motherfucker, 'cause I'm not done with you!" She successfully reignited my own usually extremely strong survival instinct and besides, you don't dare disappoint a Warrior Woman like her!
I immediately fired that doctor and, by good fortune, my next oncologist also happened to be the chief oncologist at the local VA Clinic and it was he that insisted I apply to the VA for what he determined were clearly cancers determined to be caused by Agent Orange exposure. (There is a list of about twelve to fourteen cancers known to be caused by Agent Orange. To my knowledge there has not been a comparable study conducted to HELP veterans, not to shortchange them and seek ways to avoid responsibility.)
My Warrior Woman and that doctor saved my life. I can only fervently hope that our returning veterans will be lucky to be surrounded by loved ones and doctors that care, but I weep for the thousands that will not have that support and help and to whom our government will actively seek to avoid its responsibility to provide treatments and money.
I'm sorry for the sheer length of this post, but this is a subject that is near and dear to me and that now dominates every aspect of my life. Nothing is, can be, nor ever will be the same for me and others like me again.
DO THE RIGHT THING, AMERICA'S CITIZENS, AND WRITE, CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS AND INSIST THAT OUR VETERANS RECEIVE THE CARE THEY DESERVE WITHOUT HAVING TO SUFFER THE DERISION OF POLITICIANS AS EXPOSED BY THEIR ACTIONS AND THEIR FLOWERY, UNTRUE LIES.
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:09 AM Permalink
While I, in most part, supported the whole wikileaks thing, the more I watched it, the more it started to seem like the whole thing was staged. I started to get the feeling that Assange was given a lot of money, nothing he released was really all that damning and all the posturing by the government was just a dog and pony show. Now, I think I know why:
US supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor has said the court is likely to have to rule on the issue of balancing national security and freedom of speech due to WikiLeaks posting a cache of US military records about the Afghan war.
Why the hell do these dumbass republicans think they are going…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:29 PM Permalink
…to do so well in the next elections? It's certainly not because they have done anything of merit. When Obama was elected president the republican party, top to bottom and back to the top again, swore an oath to become the party of "NO" and openly prayed for Obama to fail as president (IMO this had more to do with the color of his skin and not that he was a Democrat), and, then, ignoring the oaths of office they had taken they fought tooth-and-nail to try and insure that his administration did fail.
They have completely forgotten about their constituents. Democrats have dragged them kicking and screaming all the way to get what good legislation the Democrats proposed passed and now they are being so ignorant, asinine, utterly ridiculous and so obviously willing to put their personal agendas ahead of the needs, desires, and the very purpose for which they were elected - proposing and helping to get enacted legislation that isn't designed to be for "Rich People Only."
Country not in enough trouble financially? TAX BREAKS FOR THE RICH! That's the ticket! The same policies pursued by gwb and we all know how well that worked out!
Still insufficient medical care? Americans still suffering earlier deaths than the next 49 industrialized countries (You know, countries like Costa Rica), lower birth weight, higher infant mortality, more than 30% of our citizens growing morbidly obese, more citizens than ever homeless, and veterans returning from war with many, many different maladies? PROMISE TO REVOKE THE NEW HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION! CHANGE THE DEFINITIONS OF THINGS LIKE PTSD SO FEWER PEOPLE QUALIFY FOR TREATMENT! IGNORE HOMELESS VETERANS, THEY DON'T VOTE BECAUSE OF RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS!
Population growing too obese to join the military? AUTOMATE WAR WITH DRONES AND BETTER MISSILES SO THERE IS NO NEED FOR MORE SOLDIERS!
Too many people slipping into poverty 'cause they can't find work and their benefits are expiring? LET THE BENEFITS EXPIRE SO THE LAZY BUMS GO FIND A JOB 'STEAD O' LIVING FABULOUSLY ON A GOVERNMENT CHECK!
A raped woman suffering horrible health risks if she carries full term? CHAIN THAT WOMAN TO A BED AND MAKE HER HAVE THAT BABY ANYWAY (TO INSURE THOSE RAPISTS GENES REMAIN IN THE GENE POOL)! (Oh, they want this one BADLY!)
The elderly finding it harder and harder not to slip into poverty? RAISE THE RETIREMENT AGE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY SO MORE OF THEM WILL DIE BEFORE COLLECTING BENEFITS!
And I could go on and on ad infinitum, but pretty much everyone knows the dark, evil, inner spirit that seems to motivate the GOP, neocons, republicans, teabaggers, conservatives, sick sycophants and/or any other appellation they choose.
They all stand for the same thing: TAKING AMERICA EVER DOWNWARD AND DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR ANYONE BUT THE ALREADY RICH.
Man, I am sure glad there's no such thing as global warming…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:05 PM Permalink
…'cause even though I've grown fairly used to the long Indian Summers we have out here in California, this year has been wild.
We had an unusually temperate summer (very few days over 100º), we have lately had some really whacky weather. It was fairly cool, breezy and nice for a week or two, then it went back up into triple digits. For about three days last week the temps were well over 100º outside and about ten degrees warmer inside (we have air conditioning in two rooms of the house but even just a few hours a day sends our power bill zooming from our average sub-$100 to between $350 to $400 for the month. So we made the conscious decision to just use 5 or 6 high velocity fans that keeps our PG&E bill under that $100 mark and just suffer the heat.
But anytime it's over 100º outside it's 108º-114º inside, which Is why I periodically fail to post any columns: Those temps shut down my mind while I vegetate through the heat.
Yesterday was good, today is great, and besides this I do plan posting today if something tickles my fancy, but I wanted to explain the main reason I sometimes don't appear here in print.
posted by The Vidiot @ 12:39 PM Permalink
There's this quaint little concept called "the fourth amendment"
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
I say it's a quaint concept because, over the years, it's been whittled away like a piece of balsa wood. Take these back-scatter scans that they want to install at the airports that they're now mounting in vans and scanning our homes and cars with:
Though Reiss admits that the systems “to a large degree will penetrate clothing,” he points to the lack of features in images of humans like the one shown at right, far less detail than is obtained from the airport scans. “From a privacy standpoint, I’m hard-pressed to see what the concern or objection could be,” he says.
Blanket searches are unreasonable, however 'evenhanded' they may be, in the traditional criminal law enforcement context. See, e.g., Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 91-2, 92 n.4 ('79) (invalidating a blanket patdown search of all patrons in a tavern, even though there was probable cause to search the bartender and the premises). The ill that the Fourth Amendment prevents is not merely the arbitrariness of police discretion to single out individuals for attention, but also the unwarranted domination and control of the citizenry through fear of baseless but 'evenhanded' general police searches.
THAT's what it's all about: Domination and control of the citizenry. They aren't going to find much of anything because there isn't much of anything to find. They know it. We know it. The whole charade is all about intimidating people, making people scared. Hell, there are things even I won't say over the phone, not because of anything nefarious, but because I don't want any senseless bells to go off down at NSA headquarters (And not that I think they're listening to me specifically. I mean, that's ridiculous, but they do have screening software for email and for phone lines that sets off alarms when certain combinations of words are used. Google Carnivore and Echelon and see what you find.)
Wow! If you haven't checked out the new iPod computer from Mac…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:41 PM Permalink
…especially if you are in the market for the easiest-to-use-interface of anything I've ever seen, you are really missing out on something. The minute I get the money saved I will be buying one of these, oh, yes, I will, I will, I will.
My sonny guy, the SFSU student, brought home the one he bought for school the other night and this thing does everything but sing, dance, and wash your car (though truth be known we never went outside so I can't really say that it won't wash your car. Knowing Apple there will soon be a car washing application coming to a Mac dealer near you!)
It's also just a bit intimidating as even I could use it with relative ease ( of course everything's easier when you have a relative that can explain stuff to you) and I am generally wary of anything this easy to use.
Jesse says the battery life is amazing, it is absolutely silent with its solid state hard drive, surprisingly light, and with the brightest easiest-to-read screen I have ever seen, bar none. 8-9 hours of battery! I'm lucky if I can get more than 4 1/2 hours of battery life, but, of course, I have lot more stuff drawing power on my MacBook
It's really easy to spin it around and watch the screen swap sizes, or freeze the screen in position while you use the absolutely flat representation of a keyboard that is so sensitive it records the lightest touch, but even a heavy-handed user like me can use it with no problem.
It's easy to download college textbooks into it so they are immediately handy yet don't add any weight to the old shoulder bag, which is really cool since they (jesse and fiance, Aubri) are so close to the campus it's only a 20-25 minute walk, so its light weight is really a boon.
I instantly liked it and as soon as I can save $500 to spare I intend to buy one. Its the very height of portability, far better and easier to pack around than this MacBook. I can hardly wait to get one.
One proviso: if you are a windows/ibm-type PC owner used to struggling with a half a million different miscellaneous and sundry problems, constantly fighting viruses and their consequences, DON'T BUY THIS, as it's ease of use, size, weight, battery-life, and applications all function the way they should and the lack of hourly crises and crashes will drive you buggy and stark raving mad the very first time you use it.
Many people have inquired of my Warrior Woman and me…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:23 PM Permalink
…how we have managed to remain together so long, over thirty-six years, thirty-seven next month, and remain so much in love and so happy.
My Warrior Woman was, still is, an old school filipina, wise far beyond her years. This would be representative of a conversation with someone inviting she and I to some get together or party:
Them: Do you think you and Bill can make it to the party? She: I don't know, I will have to ask my husband.
Then she would come tell me whether we were going or not or what excuse might be made, then return to the other party and tell them,"…(M)y husband has decided…" which accorded the feelings of all. She appeared to be the dutiful wife consulting husband and abiding by my decision (very important in the Philippines and wow! what an easy way to present a unified front!). I found it to be both charming and endearing.
As to me? I tell everyone there are only two things that must be done to have a successful marriage:
First, you must pretend to allow your wife her way on everything.
Second, actually let her have it.
Works for me. I'm the boss in this household. And I have her permission to say so.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:38 PM Permalink
…that this 'damned computer' is finally useful to her. She is not given to heavy, or even light, computer use as to her computers are only good for working (she has run the shipping & receiving department of the Target Store where she has worked for fourteen years). She's the only person in the store that truly uses and makes their computer system do everything but sing and dance while doing such good a job that she's had big-wigs from Minnesota, where Target's Headquarters is, come out here to try and find out her secrets to running one of the most efficient back rooms of ALL the stores, nationwide.
But she's never had any interest whatsoever in using the many MacIntosh computers I have had down through the years. 'Til now.
Our son and his fiance came home last week and Jesse advised her that he had made contact with her relatives in the Philippines, made a few adjustments to my computer, and we can now a have full audio/video connection to the Philippines, Davao Island, and Davao city (considered the seafood and fruit and vegetable capitol of the islands and with over 7,000 islands that's quite an accomplishment).
I got the biggest kick out of watching my Warrior Woman as she was visually reunited with her other son, Lito, our son's half-brother, his family, and most of all her grandson, Karlos, whom she had never seen except in still pictures.
He's such a little cutey, and extremely smart, winning every award it was possible to win at his grade level. We have had his father and momma, Odessa, open a college fund account in Karlo's name and we make monthly contributions to it. As is usual with a child his age he was missing his two front teeth and was just so precious my Warrior Woman, his grandmother, was reduced to tears of joy. And it was so nice for me to to finally be able to ascribe voices to the faces I have seen in so many pictures through the years.
We visited for hours as long streams of relatives and friends of WW's son were paraded into view to get a look at me, none of whom had ever met be before, and they all got to see that I am once again one of them thar 'long-haired hippies' which seem to amuse them to no end.
And for the first time I, too, was genuinely impressed that what would have been a twenty dollar or more audio only phone call was absolutely FREE using Mac's iChat and some bits and pieces of Google software to make the connection.
I could not help but note how seamless the connection was: absolutely stunning picture with zero pixillation and sound so clear they might as well have been sitting across the table from us. Now I understand why the phone companies want to gain control of this technology, so they can charge an arm and a leg for something like this. I think they finally realized they blew it when they laid fiberoptic cable all the way across the Pacific and then, for some insane reason, sold it to companies overseas for pennies on the dollar. That's why they have internet speeds ranging from sixteen to fifty times faster than we currently have available (although the cable broadband and DSL companies claim they will achieve speeds of 50 to 100 mb around the end of the year - yeah, I'll believe it when it's running my compute a light speed).
So, as I said, a good time was had by all, free, and my Warrior Woman finally sees that computers can be useful at home as well as at work. It was quite a revelation for her and the sheer joy on her face and in her voice gave me no end of pleasure and happiness for her.
So you readers out there, get the software or buy a computer with the software already installed to enable contact with friends and family and give yourself a special treat money cannot buy and no one can take way from you. It's immensely gratifying, lots of fun, as well just being an all 'round a good hoot. (And for the FBI and Homeland Security people who undoubtedly monitored this overseas contact I'd just like to say shame on you for eavesdropping on innocent people and encourage you find better things to do to actually protect America! You know, like finding and arresting terrorists and stuff like that).
And it's fantastic for recluses such as me, as I am always suffering so much pain that I cannot remain on my feet doing anything for more that a couple of hours. Then I have to sit or lay in an inclining position for a few hours to recover and regain a modicum of control over the pain.
What a blast, blast, blast! So do it! You can find people from all corners of the world to video chat with and you're sure to learn something new!
Chironex Fleckeri: Direct consequence of over fishing and portending things to come?…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 5:17 PM Permalink
…I'll bet hard money that if you turned to the nearest person, coworker, member of the board of a corporation, spouse or lover and said to them, "Gee, this Chironex Fleckeri situation could eventually kill off everything in our oceans and eliminate beach-going as formerly fun-filled vacation spot." You would receive a blank stare as people ran what you said through their brain processes and eventually came to the conclusion that the word 'chironex' must mean another oil company or Clorox has done something deleterious to our oceans.
If the person you turned to was Japanese and on vacation here they would nod knowingly and start talking about all the good fishing that had already been destroyed, the fish to be destroyed, fishing boats capsizing from the sheer weight of hundreds of tons of Chironex Fleckeri fouling their fishing nets, and the ever-smaller catch of edible fish. They would probably regale you with tales of Chironex Fleckeri over five feet wide weighing about a ton each that were enveloping more and more of the coast of Japan and have currently practically taken charge of almost 2/3 to 3/4 of the coastline causing nothing but grief.
And that now that they made a serious effort to kill them off they have genetically adapted so that the females now carry millions of eggs and the males are packing billions of little sperms.
By now anyone that has googled Chironex Fleckeri or those whose job it is to monitor the seas and what's happening in them know that I'm speaking of the Jellyfish invasion of Japan that is spreading out to what will soon be a global problem. Even those that are land-lovers will feel the sting of a reduction of another food source.
I'm not sure just how I feel about this yet because I believe it is a man-made problem, but at the same time I recognize how critical this situation has become and how dangerous the continued spread of these jellyfish could have an impact on our fishing fleets and our coastlines in the not-so-distant future.
It is my firmly held belief that Japan's overfishing, especially of plankton eating whales, is directly responsible for this invasion. These jellyfish feed upon the trillions of plankton floating in the Sea of Japan and flowing up from the China Sea. If the Japanese hadn't eliminated all those fish and whale plankton eaters there would obviously be many, many fewer plankton in the water for the jellyfish to eat (and here I think history would back me up as this never before happened in the Sea of Japan when it was full of whales and other fish living off the plentiful plankton). The over fishing itself is not the sole reason for the problem, but I do believe that, especially in the early stages, the over abundance of plankton allowed the jellyfish to invade.
Now the fishing net of boats are being destroyed as they are torn apart from the sheer weight of jellyfish that reach sizes over five feet across and a weight of one tons each. And, of course, they are joined by many of their jellyfish buddies (I understand they will have secret balloting next week on whether to form a union) like the box jellyfish, the most toxic creature on earth, it's poison killing a human being in seconds, not minutes or hours as with poisonous snakes.
For a better explanation of this horror movie-style 'THE INVASION OF THE POISONOUS JELLYFISH' see this article titled 'KILLER JELLYFISH POPULATION EXPLOSION' (a great title by the way for the second of a long successive line of sequels):
Mauve stinger jellyfish normally found in Mediterranean waters are expanding their habitats globally (see right column) and threatening a science fiction-like invasion of the world's oceans. While jellyfish species such as the Black Nettle inflict extremely painful but not lethal stings, the giant version can kill humans almost instantly (see middle column).
They have become the curse of beach holidays, permeating every ocean on the globe, thriving in the arctic and the tropics. In an ever-changing world where other species struggle to endure, jellyfish populations are on the rise.
The box jellyfish and another equally poisonous species, Irukandji, are on the move. Liberal scientists are warning that their populations are exploding and will pose a monumental problem unless they are stopped...maybe by Bruce Willis or George Bush (this should fit in nicely with his Book of Revelaton biblical fantasies).
But it may not be so easy. An attempt by the Japanese government to protect fish stocks involved commandeering fishing boats to drag razor-sharp wire through the mass of jellyfish. Yikes! When scientists captured an enemy big female box jellyfish, they found it swollen with millions of eggs - far more than they would normally carry. And the males were carrying billions of sperm. Apparently, threatening the jellyfish unleashes a breeding frenzy. Scientist now believe these Chironex Fleckeri are genetically programmed to ensure their survival by producing more offspring than normal when under attack. Have you seen Alien lately?
The box jellyfish is the perfect killing machine, so packed with venom that the briefest of touches can bring agonising death within 180 seconds. Should it come under sustained attack it responds by sending its compatriots into a super-breeding frenzy in which millions of replacements are created, like Mormons. Now picture a 10 square mile, 35 foot deep mass of these things - damn, it's either science fiction or Biblical.
The jellyfish have a formidable array of genetic equipment to help them survive. Here's what our embattled Humammal species is up against:
• Four brains that operate competitively in the search for food. •A highly complex sensory capacity and the ability to distinguish colour. •The ability to live in inhospitable waters at a depth of up to 10,900 metros. •A total of 24 eyes with movable pupils giving each creature 360-degree surround vision. •Box jellyfish have 6-8 ft long tentacles. •Venom is released on contact from 4000,000,000 venomous fibres even after it is dead. •Despite decades of study scientists have been unable to unravel the mysteries of its complex venom but it is known to contain 20 different proteins. So it's good for your hair.
As it turns out, it is likely that the rapidly accelerating acidification of the oceans will only increase its appeal to the jellyfish.…
Until the past decade, the mauve stinger has rarely been spotted so far north in British or Irish waters, and scientists cite this as evidence of global warming. The swarm went on to other attacks in Scotland. [BTW, killing 100 million salmon being raised in pens. Bill]
It's fascinating to me to see scientists trying to attribute this problem to acidification of the oceans and global warming, which do undoubtedly plat an important role in this, instead of looking for at simpler fixes like stopping the killing of whales and other sea-bound fish and creatures that eat plankton, the main food source of these jellyfish.
So, unless we all start to develop a taste for pickled jellyfish, between this and the poisoning of the water with crude oil (Hey, I just got a great idea! We'll send BP and Exxon over to start deep-water drilling at the southern tip of Japan! At least that way an oil spill would do some limited public good.)
That's enough jellyfish edification for today, but please read the very well written and somewhat disturbing article to which I have provided a link.
Ciao, Bella ámi.
PLEASE NOTE: All the language contained in the blue quotation box are the words of the writer with the sole exception of the one comment i made between [brackets], so if anyone finds any of the commentary there offensive it is a waste of time to bomb me with thousands of compliants about words used in the article and made by its author.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 4:32 PM Permalink
…BILL'S SCHOOL OF JELLYFISH TRAINING AND CARE!
Courses will include:
•Care, feeding, and teaching your jellyfish new tricks!
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*How to use your jellyfish to stop intruders or uninvited guest from using your swimming pool!
*Extracting the deadly venom from your jellyfish! and,
*32 interesting new uses for the world's most potent venom!
*How to resolve really nasty divorce cases using your new jellyfish!
*How to entice all your enemies to a pool party at your house!
•And much, much more!
Simply have your credit card in hand and call 1-800-JELLYFISH so you can get started right away with your first jellyfish for a mere six payments equal payment of $1,000 each, totaling $6,000.00! Shipping and handling cost is merely $1,275!
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: Be among the first one thousand callers and receive an extra BOX JELLYFISH for FREE! Just pay the shipping charges of the nominal sum of $1,275.00!
BUT WAIT, THERE'S STILL MORE: With each jellyfish sold and those that are free for the first 1,000 callers, WE WILL SEND YOU AN ABSOLUTELY FREE 5,000 GALLON WATER TANK. All you pay is our low, low shipping charges as specified above! NOW WHAT WOULD YOU PAY?
BUT WAIT - THERE'S EVEN MORE! If you order the first jellyfish, pay the shipping and handling charges for the free box Jellyfish, and the 5,000 gallon tank, and we will throw in 5,000 gallons of seawater rich with plankton and small fish your jellies will love to eat absolutely free! Just pay the shipping and handling charges for ground shipment only, a meager $4,035!
So run, don't walk to the nearer telephone, be among the first i,000 callers to 1-800-JELLYFISH, and soon you'll be an accomplished jellyfish handler and trainer!
A SPECIAL THANKS to the Sailor for swapping the positions of this post and the one above to make it read more smoothly. I am sending him a free, yes, ABSOLUTELY FREE, Box Jellyfish for him to take sailing with him by way of thanks.
Who ya gonna call - Joe Sestak! A Virginia Senate seat aspirant…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:34 PM Permalink
…who, in an interview on MSNBC, told it like it is: even though we have won a superficial victory in Iraq and have, supposedly, withdrawn the last of our combat troops, the cost of this war, estimated to be between $900,000,000 to $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars) does not yet include the massive health dollars that will be needed to provide even adequate, not great, medical care for the soldiers returning from this illegal war with Iraq. He estimates that it will require ANOTHER trillion dollars or so to provide that care as 25% of combat soldiers returning are suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain damage, and various maladies America is not yet prepared to treat.
I believe that this statement (loosely rewritten, but, I believe, substantially accurate) made by the Democratic candidate for the Virginia Senate Seat was also very bold in pointing out that Iraq was not a war of necessity and has caused a depletion of forces now and in the future, whom will need to be trained and equipped to handle any new threat that arises. He correctly notes that the Afghanistan War was necessary but that bush dropped the ball entirely when he diverted our limited resources to Iraq for a mythical weapons of mass destruction hunt (Old Boy Scouts will remember going out on 'snipe hunts' every bit as real as the search for WMDs.
Of course then the newsreader had to go to Douglas Feith, one of the lead former White House sycophants that broke every record, official or not, for blowing smoke up bush's ass with his entire head up there as well. This is not as easy as it sounds so I do wish to give him credit for performance of such an unsavory act eight years running.
And, just as expected, Feith defended bush with one of those tired, exhausted, dead-by-the-side-of-the-road-and-half-eaten-by-vultures-such-as-dick-cheney arguments that the pResident had weighed the possibility of Saddam having nuclear weapons, Saddam's propensity for attacking his neighbors (with weapons made by or in America' name and freely supplied to him, or supplied free to him, I can never keep that straight in my mind), read all the 'almost unanimous' intelligence reports, and decided that the middle east was a much more dangerous place than it would be without Saddam, thereby making it a matter of vital national security for America to attack Iraq. (My hands hurt too much today to spend much time researching and finding it again, but I have read credible reports that Saddam wrote bush a letter saying that for $1,000,000,000 [a billion bucks] and allowing Saddam to exit Iraq to a country from which he and his family could not be extradited, he would leave voluntarily. So for a paltry billions dollars we could have taken over Iraq in a bloodless coup, had control of all that oil, which was why we went there to begin with, and done it without the loss of a single life on either side, without utterly destroying the country, without creating one of the greatest displacements of a civilization ever, and without creating human suffering on such a grand scale: millions dead, millions more driven from their ancestral lands. All so mas macho bush could kill the guy who tried to kill his daddy, president during the first Gulf War.
Doesn't anyone besides me find this to be reprehensible and the ultimate in vile, evil, conduct?
Anywho, the people of Virginia would be well-served by having Joe Sestak as their Senator, a retired three star general and a man who knows whereof he speaks when it comes to war; that's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it.
It also reaffirmed, to me anyway, that everyone who sycophantically sucked ass in the bush maladministration are sill too embarrassed, or stupid, to recognize what a waste of skin they are. Unbelievable jerkoffs and the remnants of the most corrupt and lawbreaking administration the world has ever seen.
We could have made it just fine without them, thank you very much.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:17 PM Permalink
…the entire country is drowning in insurmountable debt (you don't honestly believe we will ever be able or want to pay off all that debt do you?)
…the housing market keeps spiraling downward because
…millions bought into the bush/republican mantra of, "Home ownership! Home ownership!"
…while they knew all the politicians on both sides were being bought and sold to Big Banks like Monopoly pieces
…that led to the banking crisis as the kiting of worthless securities based on real estate blew up in their faces
…leading to massive job loss as companies expedited their move to tax havens and cheaper labor overseas
…exacerbating the dire unemployment here in America and
…the inevitable purse-string tightening that meant no more small loans from banks and usurious credit rates (You can't honestly, or with a straight face, say that the only people loaning money to the 'common man' at interest rates of 125%-400% aren't practicing usury, with no worries that congress will reign them in anytime soon.)
…with Big Oil buying up and sure to shutdown or block 'green' methods of producing power (which would provide jobs for the good ole U.S.A.)
…record numbers of home foreclosures
…record numbers of bankruptcies being filed
…record number of homeless
…record numbers of people without even basic health care
…people forced to chose between taking vital medication or skipping it to open a new can of cat food for supper
…one illegal war finally slowing down
…while the 'hot war' in Afghanistan keeps endlessly killing American soldiers and depleting even further the equipment needed to train future armies
…which, speaking of the military, is allowing more waivers from crooks, burglars, drug dealers, and other criminals allowing them to enlist and placing them smack dab in the heroin and opium markets in Afghanistan
…more cities than ever are going belly-up, including NYC, with a current debt of over $7,000 per man, woman, and child
…and the biggest thing of concern to many of our politicians, from both sides of the aisle, is whether or not the placement of a Mosque near Ground Zero constitutes a critical danger to the citizens of New York and will be the planning center for more harrowing attacks on America.
Yeah, Yeah, that's the ticket…I think I get it now.
Are shark attacks rising dramatically? An interview with a Great White Shark…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:27 PM Permalink
…at an undisclosed location (latitude 36.288563, longitude-124.046631) somewhere in the deep, deep area of the Pacific off the coast of Monterey, California, smack dab in the long and well-known path of great white sharks that seem to spend a lot of time "just cruisin'" along the California/Oregon/Washington/Canadian coastlines, I rendezvoused with one of the leaders of the shark movement, a Great White that shall remain anonymous:
Me: Tell me Fred, why are the number of shark attacks rising so dramatically around the world?
Fred: Have you taken a look at our oceans lately? Just the regular mundane poisoning of our seas has poisoned all the fish that had been staples of our diet, driving us ever closer toward the coastlines to feed.
Me: Why is it then, Mr. Great White, that even though the number of attacks keep rising steadily the number of fatalities from shark attacks is actually going down?
Fred: You're kidding me, right? Have you ever tasted a human? Y-u-u-u-u-c-c-k! You humans contain so much fat that eating your mushy, tasteless flesh has become a desperate act of survival for us sharks. If I didn't feel like a thermometer ever time I ate a blue or yellow fin tuna I would be eating them everyday and never touch a human again.
Me: And the drop in fatalities reflects that view?
Fred: Well, that and the conservation steps that the shark community are taking to insure a steady food supply.
Me: Conservation steps? What do you mean?
It was agreed by treaty at our last meeting of the Worldwide Shark Organization that if you took only one limb, or one big bite from the meatier portions of a human body, you would be saving the rest of the human body. Our studies have shown that so-called "shark attack survivors" will almost invariably return to the water to show that they have conquered their fear, thus providing a steady source of food for future attacks.
Me: A Worldwide Shark organization? Treaties? Studies? You can't be serious!
Fred: Of course I'm serious! Haven't you heard of the hugh floating body of trash that is as big as your state of Texas? I'm ocean-bound, obviously, but if Texas is as big as that floating muck of plastic, cans, sewage, and detritus dumped by your cruise ships and ocean liners, I know that it's a hugh state. And don't you think we sharks keep up with current events of ocean-wide importance?
Me: Like what?
Oh you human! Now I know you're pulling my fins. Hello? The Gulf of Mexico oil spill? Don't you people recognize the threat this poses to us? Don't you listen to the news?
Me; Sure I do, but that begs the question: How do you follow the news?
Fred: Man, you're dumber than a seahorse. I have row after row of sensors all down the length of my body and you don't realize that we sharks can eavesdrop on your radio communications? Anyway, all of us have been listening to the reports that tend to indicate that balls of oil/tar are washing up on your east coast. Aren't you? Doesn't that tell you that millions and millions of gallons of oil went right past the southern tip of Florida only to get snagged and carried northward by the Atlantic Gulf stream? That's why you have fish dying as their major food source, plankton and the smaller fish that feed on the plankton dying, the larger fish that fed on them starving to death, and it just keeps going right up the food chain, which is why we sharks are coming closer to shore than ever. But even the alpha predators like us realize that there must be a concerted and coordinated movement to keep shark attacks on humans at a manageable limit. Enough to feed, but not enough to scare the food out of the water.
Me: Fred, I really appreciate you taking the time today to clear up these important issues, but even a mere man such as me can see that you are getting hungry, and I don't like the way you're staring at my legs.
Fred: No, no, I thank you. It's about time there was some communication between species. May I tempt you to a swim? The water is s-o-o-o nice this time of year.
Me: Uh… thanks but no thanks, I have to get back to the bigger boat.
I'll gladly escort you back to that larger boat, OK?
I don't have any really good reasons for not writing lately…
posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:09 AM Permalink
…unless seeing a son and his affianced off to university (SFSU) where 120,000 applicants did what applicants do and applied for entry, 1,200 were admitted, getting them an apartment within short walking distance to the campus, obtaining a $100,000 personal liability renter's insurance policy for them (I guess Daly City on the SF peninsula must be extremely slippery for reasons I cannot ascertain as I haven't physically been there yet, probably has something to do with the Pacific on one side and on the other San Francisco Bay, where seventy-three men went sailing, I think the Sailor must have been one of them), getting a DSL installed, and doin' my very best to help load up their treasury counts for anything.
My son fixed our Macs so we can use the "iChat" feature to video conference with each other (that somehow sounds mildly obscene, like,"Boy! Did he video conference her! Did you see dat?") on important matters like keeping his Mom, my Warrior Woman, from cryin' her eyes out 'cause she hasn't seen him or talked to him in the last thirty minutes or so.
My hands remain problematic as well, most often the left hand especially, hurts like hell and seriously cramps my style (as if I had any). This cramping and pain prevented me from being of much help when it came to loading and unloading cars, and transporting the stuff myself to Daly City, a mere hoot 'n' holler from San Francisco, but enough of a hoot to make insurance and stuff a lot cheaper in San Mateo County vs San Francisco County. Fortunately my son and fiancé had help from a very good friend who happened to be a whiz at packing stuff into cars (I take great pride in being an excellent packer myself, but this girl, damn!).
A logical extension of all this personal stuff taking precedence was that for the last two or three weeks or more I haven't watched anything more than very brief snippets of MSM horse crap so I find myself at a disadvantage as to what is going on in the world, who's bad-mouthing whom, how many lies both old and new are being spread by breathless, panting, shiny red-lipped newsreaders (and that's just the men), and what current crises there are besides the Oilcano and whether or not in the land of the free and the home of the brave a mosque may be either built and opened or just opened in an existing structure, either of which would signal the end of civilization and the certain destruction of the planet Earth, itself.
I mean, hellfire and damnation, I can't think of a single thing that outweighs this crisis. Oh, sure, we've got lots of people dying from a lack of basic health insurance provided by the government, lots and lots of children going uneducated because so many teachers are being laid off and schools closed, thousands and thousands of homeless veterans and the highest suicide rates among veterans ever seen before, and the only other issue that even comes close is whether or not you can pack heat when going to church.
But, oh your god (he's not mine so he must belong to someone out there), a small, minuscule, tiny, microscopic number of citizens in New York (a hundred? two hundred? a thousand?) , Muslims, want to build a mosque in the same neighborhood as Ground Zero, surrounded by several million New York citizens with the right to bear arms and a police force with a proven proclivity for using their firearms (why they pump forty or fifty rounds into unarmed people!), and yet these New Yorkers are afraid and/or insulted that what, .0000000000000001%, of the population wish to pursue their religion in a location near to Ground Zero.
Hell, I can almost agree, and would agree, if they also closed down, locked the doors, and boarded up the windows of all the Catholic, Protestant, Methodist, Calvinist, and Latter Day Saints churches and all the churches and named religions not included here (I'm not on that tier in my head, so for a while there is much information missing from me), 'cause otherwise it's just plain old bigotry, racism, baseless prejudice, a denial of equal rights, and makes a mockery of our Constitution.
And don't go giving me that shit about it being muslims that attacked the WTC as it has been show, at least to my satisfaction, that all the attackers were foreign, mostly by far Saudi Arabians, and not muslims that could legitimately assert all the rights and privileges of citizens and lawful resident aliens. And the hijackers even gave us plenty of clues as what they were up to what with the fly but don't land training and all the intelligence and FBI warnings ignored by bush, cheney, condi rice, and the other clowns of the bush maladministration. bush's vacations and planning to engineer a war with Iraq took his attention away from real security threats.
Oh, well. I just wanted to let everyone know why I was gone for so long and that I'm back now.
AT&T said that policy makers can help by "protecting wireless broadband networks from onerous new net neutrality regulations", which it claims is "vital to the continued growth of the industry". Or in other words, net neutrality will limit the profits it can extract from wireless services.
There is no "off" switch for the internet in America. But even that reactionary fantasy misses a critical point: the encrypted "insurance" file which was posted earlier this month by Wikileaks pre-emptively negates any draconian, linear response that the state might consider: unlock the file with a key (or keys) that could easily be tweeted, emailed, or otherwise shared by Assange and colleagues, and the next Big Dump would be laid bare for all to read.
I'm not sure if Wikileaks is everything it's made out to be. I mean, Assange has come out called the 9/11 truth movement a bunch of nuts. And one can look at everything he's done as a clever, managed set of steps to first gain credibility then hand the government reason to do what it's always wanted to do which is shut down the 'net. He could just as easily be a government sponsored entity just as much as he's an annoying gadfly.
But the fact that the government is rattling that cage, or at least saying they can rattle that cage, is frightening. And now that most people I know get their faxes through an internet interface, well, even using the fax machines will be impossible.
posted by The Vidiot @ 5:21 PM Permalink
Unless these things happen all the time and they're just now reporting them because of the BP thing, then we are totally and utterly screwed.
First tar balls In NJ and New York.
Then several species of sharks found swimming in shallow waters from NJ up to Massachusetts.
Now massive fish kills in the North East stretching from NJ to NY and Massachusetts and in all locations life long residents say they have never seen anything like this.
President Barack Obama's national security advisor has voiced concern about Americans growing weary of the war in Afghanistan, despite what he called apparent "elements of success."
Asked in an interview whether US engagement in Afghanistan risked the same loss of support that undermined the war in Vietnam, James Jones replied that such a prospect was "very worrisome."
There's a few of 'em:
First, the administration reps are idiots if they really think that we think they care what we think.
Second, the AFP are idiots if they really think that we think they their polls are for real.
Third, and finally, anybody who reads such a thing and doesn't question any of it is a complete and utter idiot.
I was watching "Futurama" last night and it was this whole thing about how these creationists were going on about how evolution was just a theory and how the doctor was trying to convince them all that they were idiots until finally, when they denied the absolute proof that man did evolve from apes and they STILL believed in creationism, he said very quietly, yet resolutely, "I don't even want to live on this planet anymore."
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:17 AM Permalink
But hey, it's summer. Who wants to do anything? Especially when it's been hot as Hades for so long here in NYC. More regular posting will happen after labor day. Sure, there will be a few posts here and there, but full angst won't really kick in until everybody is back at their desks in DC and doing stupid things that will piss us all off.
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:30 AM Permalink
The media is going on and on about how BIG the fine against BP is for their LAST massive accident is. "$50 million!" they're all saying, at the top of their lungs.
However, BPs profits last year totaled $14 Billion. That makes that fine somewhere in the neighborhood of, oh, .35% of their PROFITS. That's one-third of one percent!
Excerpt: Connecticut police say they arrested a man at a management company after he mentioned the shooting rampage across the state that killed nine people and said he understood the killer's mindset.
Fifty-eight-year-old Francis Laskowski of Derby was charged with breach of peace Wednesday after making the comments while working at Fusco Management Co. in New Haven.
I don' get it. I thought we had free speech in this country..... bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I'm sorry. Sometimes I just crack myself up.
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:51 AM Permalink
How bad the lies are has yet to be determined. However, the recent 'succesful capping' of the well has left me feeling uneasy. Like, why the hell was it so damned easy? Well, there might be a VERY good reason it was easy. The reason it was so easy was they weren't capping the well we've all been watching, but rather, they capped a well that wasn't really leaking. Watch the following video. (Seems legit enough AND I've been seeing references to the possibility over the last week or so from multiple multiple sources.) Keep in mind, it's an election year folks. All sorts of things are being said and manipulated.
posted by Bill Arnett @ 3:34 PM Permalink
…since no one seems to be much of a thinker these days (although I think I think and therefor I think I am). Fr'instance, take a look at this and examine it using the normal standards that words mean what the common man understands them to mean or as a dictionary defines them and, second, that within the context of legal documents the presumption is that the writer stated exactly what he or she intended.
Bearing this in mind, I would kindly refer the reader to two provisions of the United States Constitution that, at least to me, seem to comport with the idea of "citizen legislators" who would serve a brief term in the House or Senate then return to their home states to again become an inhabitant of that state, and thus eligible to, at a future date, again run for a Constitutional Office.
I know that much derision and scorn will likely be heaped upon me for having the audacity to point out these simple words and the logically simple result of those words.
Section 2, Clause 2: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Section 3, Clause 3:No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.
Keeping in mind the standards that ordinary words denote their ordinary meaning and that the writer(s) of a legal document have stated exactly what they wish to state, It seems perfectly clear that upon election a Representative or Senator is no longer an inhabitant of the state from which he or she was chosen and therefore cannot run again for office from or for that state until such time as he or she has returned to their state as ordinary citizens and reestablished their status as an inhabitant of that state.
This comports with the expressed ideal of "citizen legislators" who serve their term and then must return to their state for whatever period of time that state has ruled sufficient to establish inhabitancy. This cessation of inhabitancy upon election would seem, perforce, to render unnecessary any need for "term limits" as the non-inhabitant officeholder would have to leave their elected position and reestablish their inhabitancy in a state to again be eligible to run for office, allowing for the constant refreshing of the Legislative bodies since only an inhabitant of a state may run for public office and that inhabitancy is removed, destroyed, eliminated, rendered null, and no longer exists after election.
This simple interpretation of the plain words used would also eliminate the domineering influence of Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Corporations, and Big Anything or Anyone wealthy enough to buy a politician with their money, influence, lobbyists, power or any other inducement.
The republicans have long demanded "strict interpretation" judges that would decide issues within the four corners of that most precious and inspiring document ever written, to date, by mere men whom, though they be flawed and subject to the same influences, corruption, and corruptors, nonetheless wrote a document to eliminate Kings, those who would be King by the gathering of sycophants and the use of the wealth and influence of those who would corrupt government for their own end.
I say: LET'S DO IT and end forever the titular fiefdoms and corrupt bases of power that are inevitably constructed by men who have come to view it as their right to remain in the Legislative Branch for thirty or forty years and accumulate Midas-like wealth from their patronage to the wealthy desiring ever greater wealth and the benefits of that wealth that is, in turn, shared with the patron.
How is it that every single member of the Senate is a multi-millionaire when leaving office if not when entering it? (A superfluous and rhetorical question.)
Let's think for a change about what our Constitution actually says. I welcome challenges based upon the terms of the Constitution itself, not those based on illogic, or just stating I am wrong without some basis in fact bearing in mind what this document says. Calling my names, stating, "Our current system is the way it has always been done…", etc. will receive no recognition nor bear any weight as a valid argument.
Ciao, bella âmi.
Please Note: I modified the first paragraph to hopefully promote a better understanding of what I meant to say.
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385)
A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.
