Future Shock Then & Now: Change Or Die

Ever have one of those days where your head spins from the information you think you should know, how to get it, how to absorb it, how to process it and then, in terms of not only your blogging career but your life as well, what to do with it?

I am having one of those days.

Quite literally, I am feeling more than overwhelmed.

Back in my formative collegiate years, Alvin Toffler wrote a 1970 book that I skimmed briefly for a class, entitled Future Shock. In this book, Toffler postulates that change will occur so exponentially in the future that humans will find themselves challenged on every level: socially, psychologically and even physically. Toffler submits that humans have a finite capacity to digest change, and wonders to what end we seem to continuously push for said change.

An excellent article about the negative effects of change and information overload is here, from the Principia Cybernetica Web.

I know this about humans: we push just for the sake of pushing. Not because we want it, demand it or even need it. But because we can.

We marvel at our childrens' capacity to digest technology but even they will be challenged by the rate of change in their lifetimes.

Where will it stop? Where will it end? Can it end? Should it stop?

An excellent video on Glumbert.com entitled "Shift Happens."

It indicates:

If you’re 1 in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you.

In India, there are 1,100 people just like you.

The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQs is greater than the total population of North America.

In India, it’s the top 28%.

Translation for teachers: India and China have more honors kids than we have kids.

China will soon become the Number One English-speaking country in the world.

If you took every single job in the US today and shipped it to China, it would still have a labor surplus.

During the course of reading this post:

60 babies will be born in the US.
244 babies will be born in China.
351 babies will be born in India.

The US Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10 to 14 jobs – by age 38.

Also according to the USDL, 1 out of 4 workers today is working for a company for whom they have been employed less than one year.

More than 1 out of 2 are working for a company for whom they have worked less than 5 years.

According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, the top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004.

We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t yet been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.

Name this country:

- Richest in the world.
- Largest military
- Center of world business and finance
- Strongest education system
- World center of innovation and invention
- Currency the world standard of value
- Highest standard of living

England. In 1900.

The US is 20th in the world in broadband internet penetration (Luxembourg just passed us).

Nintendo invested more than $140 million dollars in research and development in 2002 alone.

The US federal government spent less than half as much on research and innovation in education.

1 of every 8 couples married in the US last year met online.

There are over 106 registered users of MySpace (as of September, 2006).

If MySpace were a country, it would be the 11th largest in the world, between Japan and Mexico.

The average MySpace page is visited 30 times a day.

There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month.

To whom were these questions addressed before Google (BG)?

The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.

There are about 540,000 words in the English language, about 5 times as many as during Shakespeare’s time.

More than 3,000 new books are published daily.

It is estimated that a week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.

It is estimate that 1.5 exabytes (1.5 X 10 to the 18th power) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year.

That’s estimated to be more than in the previous 5,000 years.

The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years.

For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their 3rd year of study.

It is predicted to double every 72 hours by the year 2010.

Third generation fiber optics have recently been tested by NEC and Alcatel that pushes 10 trillion bits per second down one strand of fiber.

That’s 1,900 CDs or 150 million simultaneous phone calls every second.

It’s currently tripling every 6 months and is expected to do so for at least the next 20 years.

The fiber is already there. They’re just improving the switches on the ends, which means the marginal costs of these improvements is effectively $0.

Predictions are that e-paper will be cheaper than real paper.

47 million laptops were shipped worldwide last year.

The $100 laptop project is expected to ship between 50 and 100 million a year to children in underdeveloped countries.

Predictions are that by 2013 a Supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain.

By 2023, when 1st Graders will be just 23 years old and beginning their (first) careers, it will only take a $1,000 computer to exceed the capabilities of the human brain.

And while technical predictions farther out than 15 years are difficult to make, predictions are that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.

I'm beat.

BZ

Healing

Wow. I spent all day yesterday shoveling snow. Yes, that's 8+ hours of digging out my car, digging a new parking spot across from the cabin, moving the car to that new spot, and then digging a path from the street to the gate, down the steps and then clearing the front deck.

All during this time the snow was relentless. Then the worst of all possible circumstances occurred: it turned into the dreaded Sierra Cement. Shoveling Sierra Cement is just as it sounds: shoveling load after load of cement -- the snow has such a high water content that lifting each shovel-full is agony. It took me a full 6 hours just to clear the side deck under the metal roof. At this time each year, I could kill the asshat who decided to build my deck directly underneath the severe pitch of my roof which, naturally, sloughs off snow remarkably well. I turned the corner to find six feet of heavy snow covering the deck.

With me and my trusty Grain Hog (best snow shovel of them all), I created another 6' pile of snow on the lower property, having to move each shovel load over the railing and onto the sloping terrain below. The night came and the mercury fell. The Cement turned into blocks of ice that I had to hack away, bit by bit.

This was the worst time I have ever had clearing the deck; I've never seen the snow so heavy and agonizing to lift. I came into the house around 7 pm and every Goretex item was soaked. my feet were soaked, coat, socks, hat, everything. I tried to get warm in the bed but found myself shaking and teeth chattering. I hadn't realized how cold I'd gotten outside, as the snow had stopped and then turned to heavy, very wet sleet. I stood in a hot shower for a good half hour.

No politics today; today is recovery day: an Ibuprofen day, reading day and watching movies day. The DirecTV system is out due to the snow. I checked the weather and I'm supposed to have some varied snow flurries and rain. Good: no heavy snow.

Today I'm on a deck-shoveling moratorium.

BZ

Advice?

I can't believe it's over; I can recall that said of getting older: time simply rushes by in a fashion heretofore unexperienced. It is true of my honeymoon as well.

It seems like yesterday that we headed for Lake Tahoe in Fornicalia. And the past three days I spent fighting a snowstorm that lasted from Ashland, Oregon, south over the Siskiyou Pass into Fornicalia, into Mt. Shasta City, Dunsmuir, and then an attempt to slice off some time back home by traversing Highway 70 through the Feather River Canyon and into Portola, then to Truckee, then back down to my cabin on I-80. But chain controls got in the way as I had been driving a front wheel drive rental car with no chains in my possession. I had to retrace all my steps in order to avoid chain controls and added 7 hours to my trip home.

And when I got home, I had to sink up to my hips in snow to the front door, then dig my way back out to the car to unload.

So where did we go and what did we do?

First, my honey was kind enough to accept my proposal on Saturday, June 3rd, 2006, on the rocks of Mendocino whilst the ocean spat salt spume and rime all about us.

We were then married on Wednesday, February 14th of this year, at 3 PM at a secretive location near Lake Tahoe; we believed if it was good enough for my mother and father in 1942, it was good enough for us. From there we traveled to Petaluma for an overnight stay, and then on to the Timber Cove Lodge north of Jenner. But that's another story. Suffice to say we were massively underwhelmed with the quality of this place, but massive shocked with the bite it took out of our wallets -- i.e., $300 a night for two nights.

From there we navigated up I-5, past the glorious Mt. Shasta near Mt. Shasta City (which we visited on the way back -- two excellent book stores there!) and on into Oregon where our final destination was the city of Astoria, perched on the mouth of the Columbia River and the dividing line between Oregon and Washington states.

We visited the wondrous Astoria Column, watched as massive ships of all types navigated up the Columbia River through the carefully delineated channels under the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

In all, it was a glorious two weeks that I shall treasure every waking day.

______________________________

Any serious and necessary advice for a newlywed couple? What have you found works for you and/or does not work for you?

BZ

On My Honeymoon -- Hoo-Yeah!!

BZ

More "Global Warming Pimp-ism" Debunked -- By the British, No Less!

The British press (if nothing less than by The Economist) has bought, wholesale, into the entire Global Warming issue.

Or have they?

Myself and stalwart Canadian AB Freedom have done our best to show that there are two sides to the so-called Global Warming issue despite what the American or Canuck MainStreamMedia (MSM) would have you believe. One has but to look at a number of prior posts billeted by AB Freedom and myself regarding the issue.

A moment's worth of history: Canadian Maurice Strong essentially instigated the Western Civilization/economics-killing Kyoto Protocol so lovingly espoused by countries with nothing to lose and everything to gain by seeing the demise of the United States, Australia and other predominantly Caucasoid or First World nations.

Ever wonder about Strong, this Canadian asshat? Read all you want about his Socialist ways and demands here. There's much more to the story than simple "facts."

Further, even the British are beginning to question the science behind the recent turn of events displayed by the Global Warming Pimps. GWPs? Oh yes -- those persons whose agenda disregards facts and whose motivations lie, fundamentally now, in the MONEY to be found in espousing this philosophy. Grants? Loans? Funding? Oh yes, gimme the CASH.

From the United Kingdom Times Online:

When politicians and journalists declare that the science of global warming is settled, they show a regrettable ignorance about how science works. We were treated to another dose of it recently when the experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued the Summary for Policymakers that puts the political spin on an unfinished scientific dossier on climate change due for publication in a few months’ time. They declared that most of the rise in temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to man-made greenhouse gases.

The small print explains “very likely” as meaning that the experts who made the judgment felt 90% sure about it. Older readers may recall a press conference at Harwell in 1958 when Sir John Cockcroft, Britain’s top nuclear physicist, said he was 90% certain that his lads had achieved controlled nuclear fusion. It turned out that he was wrong. More positively, a 10% uncertainty in any theory is a wide open breach for any latterday Galileo or Einstein to storm through with a better idea. That is how science really works.

But wait; there's more:

Enthusiasm for the global-warming scare also ensures that heatwaves make headlines, while contrary symptoms, such as this winter’s billion-dollar loss of Californian crops to unusual frost, are relegated to the business pages. The early arrival of migrant birds in spring provides colourful evidence for a recent warming of the northern lands. But did anyone tell you that in east Antarctica the Adélie penguins and Cape petrels are turning up at their spring nesting sites around nine days later than they did 50 years ago? While sea-ice has diminished in the Arctic since 1978, it has grown by 8% in the Southern Ocean.

Wow. That Global Warming stuff sure is simple, isn't it?

Not.

BZ

The Nature of Evil

Sundays occasionally render me in a contemplative recognition; such is no different at this moment, for I am wont to consider what I call the "nature of evil" which, for me, begs four master questions:

• Is there true Evil?


• Can persons actually be Evil?


• Can one, then, attempt to reason with Evil?


• Can Evil even recognize Reason?

I would care for your thoughts. This has a great deal to do with our current world and worldview philosophies, on many fronts and many levels, national and political.

I myself wholly believe in the existence and prosperance of Evil. I have viewed it, seen its wastes, smelled its stench in the night, known people who canonized its name, seen its carrion-strewn carcasses, looked it directly in the eye and understood when it wished to kill me.

A smattering of the innumerable cases I handled:

- A mother smothered her child by putting her head in a Ziploc bag; she left the child in her crib, called to schedule a nail appointment. The child, sick, kept her from a bowling appointment and a prior nail appointment. We found her stirring soup on a stove with a dead baby in the other room.

- A high schooler, angry at having been fired from a pizza job, returned with a gun and robbed the store, shooting his once-best friend because "he should have quit after I was fired, if he was my friend." In the interview, he was not to blame because "the doctors should have done a better job saving him."

- A couple had decided to split up; in the process of determining who received what, an argument ensued over who owned the batteries in the TV remote. One spouse shot the other in the neck and then removed the batteries from her dead hand. The pulsing arterial spray hit the white apartment wall from a distance of 5 feet away.

- As he had lost face and was losing control of the relationship because his wife was suddenly making more money than he, a former star collegiate football player from an incredibly successful and heavily-monied family (and an obsessive-compulsive neat/control freak) peaked one night when his son would not be quiet. He struck his 5-year-old on the head, caving in his skull and killing him. His pregnant wife walked in seconds later and observed the scene. She too was killed as was the fetus. To obviate his guilt he doused all the bodies with gasoline and lighted them all on fire, blaming an unknown and unseen assailant.

I ask you again:

-- Is there true Evil?

-- Can a person actually be Evil?

-- Can one, then, attempt to reason with Evil?

-- Can Evil even recognize reason?

Your thoughts?

BZ

The GOP In Reflection:

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States, passed away on June 5th of 2004. This past week, Tuesday, February 6th, would have been Reagan's 96th birthday.

And I still miss him. Perhaps I miss my youth; I was a young man with a beautiful young wife and my entire future ahead of me. Then and now, however, I realize that I never before or since felt as good about my country and as assured of its direction and the strength and goodness of our leadership than under Reagan's guiding hand.

In my prior post I wrote, in response to a comment from Jenn:

Jenn: can I confess something? Until he passed away in 2004, in the back of my mind I was still comforted by his presence in my world. Of course I understood that he was stricken by Alzheimers and I read the occasional article about he and Nancy or perhaps the kids, and about his condition. Yet, the mere thought of him still living was still comforting. I found myself remarkably, absolutely stricken by his passing, almost like he was a member of my own family.

He was a politician; I never knew him and he never knew me. He had no idea I existed. Yet his death struck me almost as significantly as the passing of my own mother in 2002. How completely an oddity is that? -- and it has always bothered me in some shadowy fashion.

Every word is true. But further: not only do I miss the leadership of Ronald Reagan, I also miss the simpler times, the unity of the GOP. And it's gotten me to thinking even more.

Those of us on the Right side of the aisle are still looking, perhaps fruitlessly, for our next Ronald Reagan; likely we shall never find another and we should amend our minds to this.

But should we give up our Conservative values despite the fact that the GOP now appear to be a collective of seemingly-capitulist poll responders and wind sensors? If The Pledge did not occur would the GOP have taken any kind of a collective stance against the resolutions to condemn Bush's addition of troops in Iraq?

I was taken to task recently for my sense of what has happened to the Republican Party and that I am apparently not a blind cheerleader for same or an apologist for President Bush but, considering the recent past and the tenure of the times how can I be such? As I have written time and again I shall be the first in line to praise when it is deserved, and also present to point out faults when they occur (see this post about Palestine). Everything is not all wine and roses.

And we will NOT get where we need to be as a party, in a fashion to honor our Conservative roots, unless we are willing to recognize and acknowledge our faults and, moreover, discern and decide to CORRECT these faults and place ourselves on the proper track.

But what IS that proper track?

Have we actually lost our way and forgotten what it is that we who vote Republican embrace?

I thought: I have an idea of what the GOP should stand for. I believe I know what it is that I should stand for as a Conservative. But can I actually find something that clearly states and makes clear the GOP Platform?

What do we as Republicans stand for, anyway? Do we even know? Can I find our platform?

Trust me: I have the temerity to posit the very next obvious question: if we can't find and identify our platform, the basis for our very existence, we are in a whole very lot of trouble.

So I went on a journey through the internet. I knew I had to start with the Main GOP website first. What is the GOP website? It is here; GOP.com. At this site I found these three bullet points:

• Winning the war on terror;
• Keeping our economy strong;
• Building an innovation economy to compete in the world.

I didn't find our platform immediately. I had to look into "About The GOP" and then found it under "Party Platform." What is our party platform? Go here for the PDF file. In essence the 2004 platform bullets down to:

• Winning the war on terror;
• Ushering in an ownership era;
• Building an innovate, globally competitive economy;
• Strengthening our communities;
• Protecting our families;

And therein it ends. Am I missing something?

Whatever happened to the following:

• Smaller government?
• Fewer taxes?
• Adoption and abstinence?
• Affirmative civil rights access without set-asides or preference?
• "Marriage" is for heterosexual couples only; there can be otherwise "civil unions?"
• The best way to deter crime is to support current laws on the books and support a proper death penalty?
• School choice, vouchers, home schooling, voluntary prayer in school?
• No Kyoto Protocol; voluntary emissions and public compliance?
• Concerted efforts to locate and source energy sources on US soil?
• Private property ownership is fundamental to this nation?
• Continued sovereignty for the United States and self determinance absent the UN?
• Clear deliniation between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches; SCOTUS judges who know their jobs and are strict Constitutionalist constructionists?
• No further gun control limitations?
• Stand firm against WMD proliferation?
• Proactive fronts on the soil of OTHER nations against further events on OUR soil?
• Profiling, wiretapping, using common sense in recognition of our TRUE enemies?
• SURVIVAL OF THE UNITED STATES FIRST AND FOREMOST!
• A strong and expanded military capable of global land, sea and air mastery?
• LIMITED IMMIGRATION! Only lawful immigrants, controlled by THIS NATION, via tightly controlled borders both north and south?
• Move welfare recipients OFF the welfare rolls?
• Independence in all facets: energy, production, individual?
• Promotion of the good of Christian religious tenets?

Oh no. I didn't see those bullet points on our own website.

WHY WERE THESE THINGS MISSING?

And why are we even remotely attempting to be all things to all persons despite the history of this tactic resulting in abysmal failure?

So what does the GOP need to succeed?

Would it surprise you to learn that it needs to do no more than embrace the basics of its creation? -- i.e. the points I've enumerated above?




For those Bush and GOP Apologists: where am I wrong?


BZ

Happy Belated Birthday, Mr. President

Sir: it was an honor to have been a citizen of the United States under your leadership.

Rest in peace and may God provide you with the comfort and ease you so deserve.

BZ

P.S.

Artist Chris Hopkins offers this poster here.

Canadian Scientist: Global Warming Is Bunk

Thought all Canadians were warm, fuzzy, Kyoto Protocol socialists (a Canadian, after all, instigated the Kyoto Protocol process)? Not so. Just ask AB Freedom. Or, ask this scientist:

Dr. Tim Ball, Chairman of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project (www.nrsp.com), is a Victoria-based environmental consultant and former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg. In Monday's digital version of the Canada Free Press he writes that "Global warming is not due to human contribution of carbon dioxide."

Go here to read his article.

Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn't exist. And I am not the only one trying to make people open up their eyes and see the truth. But few listen, despite the fact that I was the first Canadian Ph.D. in Climatology and I have an extensive background in climatology, especially the reconstruction of past climates and the impact of climate change on human history and the human condition. Few listen, even though I have a Ph.D, (Doctor of Science) from the University of London, England and was a climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg. For some reason (actually for many), the World is not listening. Here is why.

Dr. Ball then goes on:

Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification. For example, Environment Canada brags about spending $3.7 billion in the last five years dealing with climate change almost all on propaganda trying to defend an indefensible scientific position while at the same time closing weather stations and failing to meet legislated pollution targets.

He then writes about the reasons the Global Warming Pimps (as I so adroitly term them) rule the day:

No doubt passive acceptance yields less stress, fewer personal attacks and makes career progress easier. What I have experienced in my personal life during the last years makes me understand why most people choose not to speak out; job security and fear of reprisals. Even in University, where free speech and challenge to prevailing wisdoms are supposedly encouraged, academics remain silent.

I once received a three page letter that my lawyer defined as libellous, from an academic colleague, saying I had no right to say what I was saying, especially in public lectures. Sadly, my experience is that universities are the most dogmatic and oppressive places in our society. This becomes progressively worse as they receive more and more funding from governments that demand a particular viewpoint.

Here's the real issue at hand, which Dr. Ball readily addresses:

Meanwhile, politicians are being listened to, even though most of them have no knowledge or understanding of science, especially the science of climate and climate change. Hence, they are in no position to question a policy on climate change when it threatens the entire planet. Moreover, using fear and creating hysteria makes it very difficult to make calm rational decisions about issues needing attention.

A small interjection here: I am not scientist nor proclaim to be a Global Warming scholar. But I am intelligent enough to question the issue when I read and understand the sources of the GW hate and discontent. As Dr. Ball indicates, when SCIENTISTS cannot find it within themselves to do nothing but trod the politically correct line, then I must question most everything relating to the "science" of Global Warming.

Some more "insight" into the political efforts: the Calgary Herald wrote that Minister of the Environment of Canada, Christine Stewart, said: "No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits. Climate change [provides] the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world."

"Justice and equality." Translated: the Socialist redistribution of wealth and the collapse of Western Civilizations, or "okay, so even if we're full of crap it's all about pushing through our political agendas anyway, and Science and Truth be damned."

Patrick Moore, the man who essentially started Green Peace in 1977 and now fronts Greenspirit, said "The Amazon is actually the least endangered forest in the world." Moore continued: "This is where I really have a problem with modern-day environmentalism. It confuses opinion with what we know to be true, and disguises what are really political agendas with environmental rhetoric. The fact of the matter is: There is a larger percentage of the Amazon rain forest intact than there are most other forests in this world."

Other interesting quotes:

"Scientists who want to attract attention to themselves, who want to attract great funding to themselves, have to (find a) way to scare the public . . . and this you can achieve only by making things bigger and more dangerous than they really are."

-- Petr Chylek(Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia), commenting on reports by other researchers that Greenland's glaciers are melting. (Halifax Chronicle-Herald, August 22, 2001)

"Researchers pound the global-warming drum because they know there is politics and, therefore, money behind it. . . I've been critical of global warming and am persona non grata."

-- Dr. William Gray (Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado and leading expert of hurricane prediction), in an interview for the Denver Rocky Mountain News, November 28, 1999.

"Every scientist" subscribes to Global Warming? Go to http://www.oism.org for a petition signed by blocks of scientists questioning the science behind GW. Surveys of climatologists show similar skepticism.

Also: the IPCC did not prove that human activities are causing global warming. Alarmists frequently quote the executive summaries of reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations organization, to support their predictions. But here is what the IPCC’s latest report, Climate Change 2001, actually says about predicting the future climate:

The Earth’s atmosphere-ocean dynamics is chaotic: its evolution is sensitive to small perturbations in initial conditions. This sensitivity limits our ability to predict the detailed evolution of weather; inevitable errors and uncertainties in the starting conditions of a weather forecast amplify through the forecast. As well as uncertainty in initial conditions, such predictions are also degraded by errors and uncertainties in our ability to represent accurately the significant climate processes.”

So am I doing my best to DISPROVE Global Warming? Not necessarily; what I am indicating is that the statistics and information we have gathered evidently proves that weather patterns are changing. But that's about all we can yet apparently prove.

But be leery when you hear or read of people speaking of "Global Warming" in terms of concretes and absolutes.

Where there is money there is agenda. And vice versa.

BZ

Presidential Hopefuls

We have apparently become recently enamored of potential female Presidential candidates.

Of these candidates, for whom would you vote?

BZ

Bush: What the HELL Are You Thinking??

Just when I want to support President Bush, he does something insane like this (thanks to Little Green Footballs):

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States will expand assistance to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to include about 8,500 members of his national security forces and possibly 1,000 Fatah fighters based in Jordan, U.S. documents show.

Providing non-lethal equipment and training to units of Abbas’s National Security Forces, and possibly the Jordan-based Badr Brigade could increase Washington’s role in the power struggle between Abbas’s Fatah faction and the governing Hamas movement.

U.S. assistance has largely been limited until now to around 4,000 members of Abbas’s presidential guard. But documents obtained by Reuters on Saturday showed that the U.S. government’s $86.4 million security assistance program could cover at least 13,500 troops loyal to Abbas.

The National Security Forces (NSF) is the largest security force under Abbas’s control and is viewed by many Palestinians to be the equivalent of an army, though it is poorly trained and equipped compared to the smaller presidential guard.

Under the U.S. security program, $76.4 million will fund “projects to transform and strengthen elements of the Palestinian Authority’s security structure, specifically the National Security Forces and Presidential Guard in an effort to improve public order and fight terror in the West Bank and Gaza,” the documents said.

“These projects have been developed in coordination with the office of the PA president (Abbas), and the overall plan enjoys the support of the government of Israel,” said the documents, marked “sensitive but unclassified.”

What? What? What??!

Hand me that balpeen hammer, I need to smack my forehead!

Well shoot, no one wants a strong Israel (including the Israeli government), so why the hell should we?

My God. What is happening on this planet?

BZ

The Goal? The Complete Disassembly of the United States

One would have to have had one's head literally in the sand to have not read or heard about the massive media push this past week to convince the world that global warming is indeed here and that Man is solely responsible. Like the recent global warming in Chicago.

I'll write up front: global warming may perhaps be occurring; I am not completely convinced. Weather patterns have been changing, yes. But the most important question has not been satisfactorily answered, as far as I am concerned, and that is this:

Is the possibility of "global warming" conclusively Man-Made, or is it a cycle that the earth experiences despite the presence of homo sapiens?

The recent issue with domestic weather reports clearly demonstrates an agenda that is motivated by "political correctness" and, more importantly, by money via the Global Warming Pimps. See my post here on this.

Furthermore, when the push for global warming oddly enough happens to correspond with perceived dissatisfactions of the United States by a number of nations with obvious agendas on any number of topics, then I am even more leery of this massive push for sanctions against the United States.

It should come as no shock that many nations overtly dislike President Bush. He is a man of faith, from Texas, simply spoken, who wears cowboy boots, has the love and support of his military. He is not a member of the Elite Left, has not historically excoriated the military, did not protest the Vietnam war, and has no problem with making a decision no matter the thoughts of those around him or other nations.

The Left, nations above and below the US, those of Europe and our clear enemies have looked and are looking for any hook, any crack, any flaw, in order to bring us down.

I have not yet even addressed the issue of Islam, a religion primarily consisting of those who would adore seeing the absolute dismantling of civilization, modernity and, more importantly, all of Western Civilization. Sharia Law? Yes. Convert or die? Absolutely. We are Islam, we are Borg. You shall be assimilated or killed. The mindlessness of Islamists.

With this in mind, the Kyoto Protocol was signed and ratified by 166 nations, and signed but not ratified by the United States or Australia.

One glaring omission is the mandate to make huge developing countries such as China, India and Brazil come into compliance with Kyoto. They are conspicuously exempt. Imagine that.

And though they have signed, both Canada and Japan have no idea how they'll be able to comply with the mandate that greenhouse gases and emissions be reduced by 5.2% by the year 2012.

When some scientists lay the blame for the greatest threat of emissions squarely on methane gases from cow belches and farts, each cow allegedly emitting 200 to 400 quarts of methane per day, well, your veracity runs from 100 to 0 with me in nothing flat.

Allow me to make what I call the Logical Extension with regard to America and the Kyoto Protocol:

The Left, much of Europe and certainly our enemies are all about Socialism at best and the redistribution of wealth. Make no mistake: our wealth, as a nation. Your wealth. My wealth. And trust me: I am not a yearly 6-figure guy. But I know, beyond the faintest shadow of any doubt, who best has the proper idea on how to spend the money I make: ME. And no one else.

The Kyoto Protocol is one clear way to ensure the United States "gets its come-uppance." I'll dissolve it even further: Losers hate Winners. And the United States is a Winner by most all possible measures -- engendering a global host of enemies for that fact alone -- not to mention the self-loathing aspect of those nations whose most intimate butts have been saved by the United States.

France, are you getting this?

Apparently not, for the wondrous Jack Chirac has threatened the United States with a carbon tax on American products via the European Union:

But he warned that if the United States did not sign the agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that have not signed the Kyoto treaty could be imposed to try to force compliance. The European Union is the largest export market for American goods.

“A carbon tax is inevitable,” Mr. Chirac said. “If it is European, and I believe it will be European, then it will all the same have a certain influence because it means that all the countries that do not accept the minimum obligations will be obliged to pay.”

Trade lawyers have been divided over the legality of a carbon tax, with some saying it would run counter to international trade rules. But Mr. Chirac said other European countries would back it. “I believe we will have all of the European Union,” he said.

Trust me when I write that this is all about the destruction of the United States as a World Power. US companies already have to compete with Third and Fourth World nations with regard to bare bones labor costs; couple this with the billions and billions of dollars required to comply with Kyoto and the entire changing of the American lifestyle -- you'd best get used to embracing your Schwinn.

More than at any other time in my life, the United States is under fire from every angle, from most every nation.

And yet we spend-spend-spend your tax dollars on those nations who seek our complete and utter annihilation.

How much more can we take? How much longer can we continue to pay nations to take us down? How much longer can we continue to hit ourselves on the head with a large hammer?

Not much longer, I think.

And, oh yes, the Giveaway Party is now in power. Goody.

BZ

New to the BZ "Usual Suspects" List

Wow. I haven't done this in quite some time. But last post, when Jenn of the Jungle commented, I visited her blog. I read a few posts on "Screw Politically Correct BS" and, within approximately 35.2 seconds, determined that I needed to add her to the BZ "Usual Suspects" list at right.

Jenn, from California (my home state, though I spell it Fornicalia for reasons I find clear and compelling), writes in her disclaimer:

This blog contains my own personal opinions. You can agree with them or not. I don't care. Death threats will result in your being banned for all eternity. Period. Other than that, go to town. This blog is not endorsed by anyone, just my fish, Hardy. And he is thinking of running for president in 2008.

Gosh. I like that. A lot.

Further, in her profile, Jenn lists two great movies in her "favorites:" Patton and Red Dawn. My attention had thus been completely acquired. Eclectic musical tastes similar to mine included Rage Against The Machine, Eagles, Tool and Metallica. Zowie! I conclusively knew she had to be added to the blogroll when, under "interests," she listed "pissing off liberals." I fairly swooned.

I think her blog masthead, which I have included here, says it all.

Ladles and Gentle Ben, I would highly recommend giving Jenn's blog Screw Politically Correct B.S. an immediate and continuing view.

Jenn: welcome aboard!

BZ

Emboldened To Be Insulting, Fatuous and Imbecilic

William Arkin, in his column Early Warning, "On National And Homeland Security," has written two posts for the Washington Post which have, shall we say, ahem, indicated his clear dim-wittedness, disrespect and incapability to understand the basic freedoms bestowed upon every citizen of these United States.

He wrote two posts; please see both and in this order: post one, and then post two.

Hugh Hewitt took Mr. Arkin to task and wrote "The Washington Post's William Arkin has penned two poisonous columns revealing his contempt for the American military," and "The Post now faces a business decision: Does it continue to employ as its 'national security and homeland security' expert a military-hater with zero credibility, or does it give him the boot?"

Know what? I'll clip some excerpts here and you can decide. But please; don't simply take my word for it -- read both posts and draw your own conclusions.

From the first column:

The Troops Also Need to Support the American People
I've been mulling over an NBC Nightly News report from Iraq last Friday in which a number of soldiers expressed frustration with opposition to war in the United States.

I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army. But I also hope that military commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to them why it wasn't for them to disapprove of the American people.

These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President's handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and their respect.

Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.

It only gets more insulting and degrading:

So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?

But it is the United States, and the recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

Allow me a moment here if you will, whilst I try to come down from 210/190. I really will make a concerted attempt to minimize the poo-poo-nasty words but I fear some may ultimately slip and snake their way through to sunlight.

First, because they are soldiers, Mr. Arkin would apparently have us believe they have become and should forever be mute; that is to say, shut the fuck up, take the bullets and IEDs for us and keep their damned opinions to themselves. In essence Arkin says: "I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion except when it conflicts with my beliefs -- then it's incumbent upon commanders to discipline their troops for disagreeing with a segment of the American People" -- and clearly not all the American People.

First Big Question: would Arkin have even wasted his time with this article in terms of j'accuse had the soldiers expressed opinions congruent with his own? Huh -- I suspect not.

First Answer From BZ: you hypocrite.

Also, if soldiers are so well paid, so well cared-for, why are some families below the American poverty level? "Vast social support systems?" Ever been to a VA hospital? Good luck. Belonging to the American Military is not an assumed "walk in the park" by any stretch of the imagination.

And "ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them"? What in the fuck do you mean by this, Mr. Arkin? That we shouldn't take care of our own troops? That we might ship iPods and books and candies and PDAs and clean underwear and letters from strangers to the men and women that fight for us is a bad thing?

Check out the photo to the right, Mr. Arkin. My, that's an appealing way to sleep, don't you think? Ah, so comfy! And so easy to let your mind relax from another dull day of dodging RPGs, 7.62 rounds, Semtex, AK-47s and the like. Ah, so simple to be the average American soldier in Iraq. Stress? What stress?

Stress is apparently, for Mr. Arkin, having to decide when to drive to his market for a new bottle of wine for his dinner guests. Red? White? Merlot? I am so perplexed; I can't take it! Where's my Paxil, dammit?!

And best yet, Mr. Arkin has just labeled all our good soldiers as nothing more than mercenaries.

Mercenaries.

The next column he writes (see this link again, post two) consists of his attempting to ameliorate and make light of the fact he called our soldiers "mercenaries."

And then, because it's a blog, here's a comment from some inarticulate shitstick belittling not only our freedoms, but this nation's soldiers having died for his ability to write:

Sieg Heil To The Glorious Military For They Brought Us Forth Our Freedoms. BFD!
Posted by: Sieg Heil February 1, 2007 10:31 PM

Ah yes, there's a good American.

And Mr. Arkin, you too are a good American, just like Sieg Heil above.

You despicable bastard.

BZ