Round Earth League

Round Earth League on Hiatus

2007-02-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

Round Earth League, in its present incarnation, is no longer an actively updated blog. You can leave comments, but don't expect quick replies. Dcarto still updates his own blog, so navigate over there to see what he has. Slomo has flown off the radar, probably doing something constructive, and me (wally)? I'm too active in other online communities to keep this one regularly updated.

That said, check out the links to other websites as these are still great sources of information. I may post here in the future, but on different topics. This started as a predominantly political blog frustrated like many with the direction of the country, but that landscape (thank goodness) has changed, so there are many other places to get opinions and information better than here on that score.

That's all,

Wally Out and wally4media very active elsewhere.

James Baker III on assignment to help George II clean up his mess in Iraq

2006-09-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Knowing when to call daddy's friends for help is priceless. Of course "dubya" is a slow learner, calling his daddy's friend James Baker III several years too late, in the process costing America half a trillion dollars.

Why didn't they do this sooner? I think it's because a lot of this war money is going to George W's friends. It's not like getting drunk and wrecking the lamborghini. Someone else has to pay for the mess, and it's going to be the American People. Maybe the war really is starting to sting the GOP politically and the money machine might be taken away from them if they don't do something? That can be quite the motivator.

At first I sighed with relief when I read this article, that maybe this administration is trying to figure out a way to end the war. Baker is not one of the usual incompetents. I wonder though, can Baker III be trusted now with having the interests of the American People in mind after doing this work? Or how about this?

Kansas' contribution to world culture

2006-09-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

An american geographer has shown that Kansas is flatter than a pancake. It was the setting of the movie "the day after" and Cousin Eddie. And now there's the Westboro Baptist Church. So many people want to put a wall on the Mexican border, maybe there should be a wall in front of whatever is making this.

Why bikes are cool

2006-08-18T00:29:00.000-07:00

Treehugger.com had a blog entry recently that asked people to send pictures of celebrities riding bikes. Hollywood "entertainment" usually portrays people who ride bikes as losers, but in reality some cool and very fashionable people use them all the time to get around in a pollution free way.

It's my own feeling that life is too short and precious not to ride a bicycle.

I really like this video blog by Daryl Hannah about bicycling, it about sums up all that is wonderful about urban riding. I never thought I would have this much in common with celebrity types, and these blogs make them seem like they are actually interesting people.

Burn fat not oil!

Michael Schiavo says the culture war ain't over 'til it's over

2006-07-31T22:17:00.000-07:00

A post today in the daily kos by Michael Schiavo, remember him, the husband from the media circus here in the Untied States. It's basically telling Joe Lieberman and people like him where they can shove it. I don't know much about his PAC but I like the concept and think this country needs a republicandectomy.

Before it's too late. It took the fall of France before Neville Chamberlain finally was removed from the job.

Mediterranean's worst environmental disaster

2006-07-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes your tax dollars are used to clean up after oil spills, and sometimes they are used to create them. That's what happened when Israel bombed a Lebanese power plant, creating the worst oil spill in the history of the Mediterranean Sea. 10,000 to 15,000 metric tons have spilled into the Mediterranean so far.

The American taxpayer generously supports Israel's military, which is sometimes used to drop internationally banned cluster bombs on civilians, and white phosphorus. Right now the Bush Administration is rushing more bombs to Israel so it can use them to attack dangerous future terrorists (Lebanese children).

Did Hizbollah really attack Israel?

2006-07-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

This Associated Press article, and there are others like it, say that the Israeli soldiers were actually in Lebanese territory when they were abducted. I'm going to have to check into this some more.

There's an election coming up in America, so it's war season.

How many times have countries wanted to go to war, so they make up that they're being attacked or threatened and then they can get the war going? Let's see, there's the USS Maine, and the Gleiwitz Incident. The annexation of Hawaii. The threat to American medical students in Grenada. Let's not forget the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, and now the fictional Weapons of Mass Destruction. How many can you count?

More on the Passion of the Creep

2006-07-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

This Anti-semitic Pottymouth Road Warrior thing is starting to really zing around the information ocean. This website has a link to the actual police report written when Gibson was apprehended for being a dangerous potential child-killer by driving while having drunk alcohol. If he owns half of Malibu like he says, he should be responsible enough to hire a driver. Who would Jesus run over on his way home from the bar?

The passion of the creep

2006-07-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Mel Gibson is pulled over in Malibu for driving drunk. Then he starts in with the anti-semitic remarks and threats against officers. You really have to read this. Did you ever doubt that's what this jerk is all about? It's a shame his mugshot won't be released because people should see what this man really is.

Pete Coors arrested for DUI

2006-07-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

Maybe he was drunk on dog piss, suffering withdrawals because there's no Chrustian Baseball during all-star break.

The Führer is always right

2006-07-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

This goon who said "the president is always right" did an amazing job of stating the guiding philosophy of Nazism called the Führerprinzip. The Führerprinzip is a simple philosophy that has one tenet: "The Führer is Always Right". No wonder Republicans are not bothered by the contradictions in their own beliefs.

Ha'aretz: Israel: Hezbollah plans to move abducted IDF soldiers to Iran

2006-07-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

Israel is saying that Hezbollah will be moving captive Israeli soldiers to Iran. This could mean an invasion of Iran (Israel/US?) is coming soon. From antiwar.com.

Sacramento public utility SMUD installs eight 3MW wind turbines

2006-07-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

Each of the eight turbines are 100 feet taller than the statue of liberty. They went online June 1, 2006.

These new turbines increase SMUD's wind energy capability from 16 MW to 39 MW.

There are some really beautiful pictures here taken by some UC Davis students of the new turbines.

If you live in the SMUD service area you might like to join their green energy program. The service costs less than they charge to read your meter, and you can buy 100% renewable power much more cheaply than becoming 100% renewable by installing solar panels on your house.

Advanced Micro Devices lowers power of Athlon chip from 89W to 65W.

2006-07-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

This report from treehugger.com says that their new Athlon processors are built for greater efficiency and they will be in stores soon. The new 65W design represents a 27% reduction in processor power consumption. From X-bit hardware news.

The last vacuum tube

2006-07-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

Many people no longer have tube radios in their living room, but still use vacuum tubes in their homes for lighting. This article in the Minnesota Star Tribune says that often Edison light bulbs are the last vacuum tubes left in people's homes. I thought that was interesting.

There's been a few breakthroughs since Edison bulbs were invented. Lighting by cheap compact fluorescent bulbs are usually more efficient by 4:1. And now they come in all kinds of interesting shapes, including the bulb at left that is the same shape as an old light bulb. This is useful if you have a lampshade that clips on top of an old school bulb.

And now the new LED lighting is much more efficient still than that. It's still expensive, but the price is dropping by 20% a year.

The LED bulb on the left is interesting because it constantly changes color. Try that with an incandescent bulb. It consumes only 3 watts and puts out a good amount of light for the energy used. One of the most interesting applications of LEDs will be turning the walls of a building into a large video screen. Bridges are being illuminated with colored lights in Philadelphia and New York that change colors and consume the same energy as a toaster and a hair dryer.

CIA stopped looking for bin Laden... last year

2006-07-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

Following on the heels of dcarto's post about call monitoring months before 911... Apparently the search for bin Laden was abandoned last year:

WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

So bin Laden is no longer important? Does this mean the War on Terror is over and secret wiretaps are no longer necessary?

Lieberman bolts

2006-07-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Lieberman Plans Independent Bid if Primary Fails

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut said on Monday that he would run as an independent Democratic candidate if he loses the state Democratic primary next month. The announcement by Mr. Lieberman, a political moderate and longtime party leader seeking his fourth term, underscores the increasing vulnerability he feels over his support for the Iraq war.

According to Jane at Firedoglake, Lieberman offered this gem of a quote:

I have loyalties that are greater than those to my party.

An interesting question now is what the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) will do. As representatives of entrenched machine politics, they have been supportive of Lieberman up until this point. Now they are faced with a difficult choice: either abandon Lieberman (who has in essense abandoned the party) and support the said principles of the Democratic party, or continue to support Lieberman, in essense using money and energy collected from Democrats against their chosen candidate.

Firedoglake commenter zibgy writes an email to the DSCC:

I sincerely hope and expect that the DSCC does not provide one dime of support to this campaign — surely, the DSCC should be concerned with promotion of DEMOCRATS.

Prior to this announcement, Lieberman’s stands on issues such as the war, and his willingness to cozy up to the current White House administration, have alienated many Democrat voters such as myself. However, I would never have suggested the party withdraw funding from him — because for the past 18 years, he has clearly had the support of the party members of his state. Until today, I would not have thought he was capable of abandoning his party in such a disgusting and self-centered manner — not only overruling the will of his constituents, but also endangering prospects for both himself and Lamont in November.

Now that he has, however, determined that the will of the registered Democrat voters of his state should not actually determine or limit his personal political prospects, I expect the Democratic party to stand up and support the prerogatives of the Democratic party voters of Connecticut. Failure to do so will project a systematic disregard for the voices of the people that actually form the party you claim to represent and are supposed to be supporting in the upcoming election. Again, I certainly do not agree with all Democrats all the time, but what Joe Lieberman has done today goes far, far beyond that, betraying a fundamental lack of regard for the party and voters that have supported him for 18 years.

As is no surprise to many, the fundamental problem with today’s Democratic party is a basic lack of unity of vision and voice. If the DSCC fails to jettison Lieberman, as he has clearly abandoned his party (in the most tangible, concrete manner possible, with a clear statement that his priorities and loyalties are not to the Democratic party or its voters), I will never — ever — contribute directly to the Democratic party, and I will remember this stain (along with those who would be responsible for it, such as Senators Schumer and Reid) for a long time to come.

Close election in Mexico

2006-07-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

At this time the election in Mexico is too close to call, Mr. Calderon is ahead by a few percentage points but IFE says there is no way to determine the result yet.

Coal from the mountain west is "California's dirty secret"

2006-06-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

I know this is an old article from December, 2005, but I'd like to bring it to the blog's attention. If California is going to get serious about greenhouse emissions, it has to create a lot more sustainable power, right now. Increasingly the state is relying on coal power plants in the mountain west for its electric power, putting tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide into the environment, as well as mercury and radioactive particles. Natural gas production in North America may have "peaked", but it's still a lot better than coal.

It's a lot of people's impression that California is a green state, but we have a long way to go. The governor's initiatives to create a million solar panels is a step in the right direction, as well as things Mr. Angelides and Mr. Camejo said they would do. Luckily in my city of Sacramento they have a green energy program where you can buy green power at a lower price than they charge to read our meter. Three cheers for public utilities.

A victory for constitutional principles

2006-06-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

Promising news, and analysis from the Washington Post:

For five years, President Bush waged war as he saw fit. If intelligence officers needed to eavesdrop on overseas telephone calls without warrants, he authorized it. If the military wanted to hold terrorism suspects without trial, he let it.

Now the Supreme Court has struck at the core of his presidency and dismissed the notion that the president alone can determine how to defend the country. In rejecting Bush's military tribunals for terrorism suspects, the high court ruled that even a wartime commander in chief must govern within constitutional confines significantly tighter than this president has believed appropriate.

Ford Motor Co. bond rating lowered to B+ from BB-

2006-06-29T01:05:00.000-07:00

"The downgrade reflects our view that 2006 will be a more difficult year for Ford than previously anticipated," says Standard & Poor's credit analyst Robert Schulz.

This is just after news that the same was happening to General Motors. How are they able to borrow all that cash to throw at their customers to buy them gasoline to help them with the cost of a new gas guzzler? Shouldn't they be reinvesting it?

Tumor airlines flight 123 is now boarding

2006-06-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

A German entrepreneur plans an airline for smokers

Sustainability vs. Apocalypse

2006-06-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

I poked around the Long Now site that dcarto mentioned. It's very good. I also read the summary and discussion of the Sam Harris talk, and I think Harris is basically right - not all religions are equal.

However, I would argue a point about sustainability vs. apocalyptic thinking.

"End time thinking," Harris said, "is fundamentally hostile to creating a sustainable future."

I'll quote Ran Prieur (who is a bit controversial if you know him at all) talking about solar power:

This solar power breakthrough is supposed to be good news, but it's terrible. What they don't understand is that power, in the strict physics sense, corrupts absolutely. Human instinct tells us how to do good with the power of our own muscles, and beyond that, with the power of slaves and machines, we are morally adrift, and we will be seduced into domination, insulation, and extermination. Why do you think the Arawaks were nicer than the Spaniards? It's not genetic. It's because they lacked social arrangements to give one person the power of multiple people. Now, with oil, we're all more murderous than Cortez and so disconnected from our victims that we don't know it. The only way to redeem humanity is for us to run out of all external sources of energy. There are lots of ways of living worse than death, and solar powered cars are worse than nuclear bombs.

There is a fundamental issue of power asymmetry that now seems beyond correction. Some argue (and Ran is in that camp) that the only thing that can save us is a complete reboot.

I still think it's important to fight the good fight and promote sustainability and eco-consciousness, because we want to nurture that sort of consciousness for the long term, even after a reboot. And there is always a chance of a soft landing. The reason I write (admittedly from a somewhat dark perspective) is precisely to increase the probability of a gentle paradigm shift.

UPS unveils delivery van with 60-70% efficiency gain.

2006-06-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

From green car congress. UPS and the US EPA have unveiled a diesel-hydraulic series-hybrid "brown" delivery truck. Trucks using this system instead of a conventional transmission are more efficient by 60 to 70%, and reduce their CO2 by 40% compared to current fleet. It also uses regenerative braking. In my neck of the woods UPS vans also use natural gas.

Seminars about long-term thinking from the Long Now Foundation

2006-06-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Long Now foundation has a whole collection of seminars that look interesting, i'm listening to Sam Harris' lecture from this page. Sam Harris wants us to end the taboo on criticizing religious thinking, and considers it vital to the future of civilization.

Labor Camps

2006-06-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

Republican gubernatorial candidate has called for creation of a forced labor camp for illegal immigrants:

Don Goldwater, nephew of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, caused an international stir this week when EFE, a Mexican news service, quoted him as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting."

The article described Goldwater's plan as a "concentration camp" for migrants.

Goldwater, a candidate for governor in Arizona, said in a statement Friday that his comments were taken out of context. He said he was calling for a work program for convicted nonviolent felons, similar to "tried and tested, effective and accepted practices" used by state and local jails

True, labor camps for immigrants may be no worse than using felons as slave labor. But as Miriam at No Capital comments, "A Final Solution... Perhaps not THE final solution". This brings to mind the conspiracy hysteria over "FEMA detention camps", which flared up a few months back when USACE expanded a contract by Haliburton subsidiary KBR to build facilities for "foreign-born refugees". I'm not going to reach for my tinfoil hat just yet, but it is very worrying that the idea of labor camps is now acceptable enough that a candidate for governor can openly espouse it.

The amazing peanut shelling machine, from the Full Belly Project

2006-06-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a really amazing idea comes along, such as this peanut shelling machine that can be built with local materials and built by local folks. The idea is amazing because it solves so many problems at once, how to control erosion, fix nitrogen in the soil, rotate crops, provide some diesel fuel, provide jobs, time for women to go to school, and fight hunger all at the same time?

There's a link to a video explaining the significance of this peanut shelling machine to farmers in Africa and Asia.

I haven't checked into the organization to see what its ratings are but I like what I see so far...

Buddha End of Days? Asian Rapture?

2006-06-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

Well, my goodness, does every religion have to have an "End of Days" because they are afraid of the "Left Behind" scenario when the supposed rapture comes, where "Brights" like Janene Garafolo are left wondering where all the empty shoes and Jews came from, why are we all naked, and what happened to everyone else?

I found this in a very informative site, the Shinto and Buddhism Corner, on traditional Japanese iconography and culture:

On the Miroku Bosatsu, or Maitreya Buddha he describes the tradition behind the figures:

"Statues of this deity are already prominent in Japan by the 7th century. By the 9th century, Miroku Bosatsu becomes extremely popular among believers of the Shingon Sect, a form of Esoteric Buddhism. The Shingon sect believes that the Miroku Bosatsu will ... appear on earth to save those unable to achieve enlightenment. Even today, Shingon followers are awaiting Miroku's return, scheduled to occur about 5.6 billion years from now."

According to Buddhist lore (well over 4000 years old), the Days of Dharma (Buddhist Law) are divided into three periods:

--First phase, which lasts 500 years. It symbolises the Turning of the Wheel of the Law (a metaphor for teaching the way to enlightenment); the first phase refers to the spread and acceptance of Buddhist teachings; sometimes known as the "Age of Correct Law."
--Second phase, which lasts 1,000 years; during this period the practice of the Law begins to deteriorate. Also called the "Age of Copied Law."
--Last phase, which lasts 3,000 years; during this period, the practice of the Law declines until no one follows the Buddhist tenets; also called the "Age of the Decline of the Law."

In the very last period, Buddhism will weaken and fade, but a new Buddha will then appear to once again "turn the wheel of the law." This Buddha is Maitreya (Miroku).

Technically speaking... I am unsure why the modern-day Shingon Sect believes Miroku Nyorai will appear 5.6 billion years in the future. According to the timeframe set forth in the Days of the Dharma, isn't that supposed to be around 4000 AD?

"To help you differentiate between the Nyorai and Bosatsu versions of Miroku, just remember that Bosatsu statues are typically ornate... This guideline doesn't always work, of course, but in often yields a correct assessment of the deity."

Here we have a classic example of Western concepts intruding their monotheistic word choice assumptions, resulting in a question completely inimical to the "Age of Correct Law." Buddhist "deities" cannot be compared to their far younger western counterparts, philosophically speaking. As an easy example to understand, Plato spoke of a chariot with two horses, one driven by reason, one by emotion, hard to keep in rein. He did not write there was a "deity" in a chariot with two horses that did this and that, above and beyond man, ruling man's fate as a separate being. He was giving a "thought experiment" for his readers. Buddhist iconography should properly be considered the same, just in sculptural form rather than words.

Likewise, Buddhists don't quibble about the exact chronological dates of the Days of the Dharma. Make a calendar to plan the event, and you miss the point. Apply the entire concept as a way to consider how life in the cosmos goes, moving in its cycle, and you get it.

Besides, whether its 4000 AD, or 5.6 billion years in the future, I don't think anybody reading this in 2006 will be around to see the "Buddha End of Days." I think that was the point: it was set so far in the future, nobody justify putting it into literal with a precise linear chronology. After millennia of Buddhist teachers writing the Dharma should never be considered in merely though nominal formation (or the artifical act of assigning names to that which cannot be named in mere language), you would think somebody would get that by now...

Oh well. "Age of Copied Law" or "Age of the Decline of the Law," you be the judge.

Still: This site is a great resource for Buddhist iconography and philosophy in Japan. As an adherent to Mahayana traditoins that value inclusive sycretism, I appreciate this person's labours greatly in provinding the information, with lots of interesting pictures that can be seen all over japan with few crusifixes in site...

Christian Fear and Cash

2006-06-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

I don't think the Radical Christian Right is about (religious) ideology or doctrine at all, but fear. And exploiting fear to raise cash, lots and lots of cash. I'm with Janene Garafolo on the Majority Report at Air America Radio on this one (tune in or check their blog whenever, its a favoured topic for a good Janene Rant). I think the Dominionists exploit the fears, anxieties, worries, alienation, and low self esteem of their members and converts, just to get cash and power. And the way they turn all that low self esteem into faithful, cash giving foot-soldiers is a simplistic message of hate. Before castigating "red neck hillbilly bigots," remember they are only the manipulated ones caught in a vicious spiral of self loathing that can only cope by striking out at others, and they have no idea about Pat Robertson's diamond mines in Africa, Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition promoting gambling casinos, or Tom Delay's patrons forcing abortions on sweat shop workers in Saipan.

When the basic ideal of these people, to replace a coherent and consistent legal code everyone can understand and judge based on reasonable and logical criteria with an inconsistent religious text, some how "literally interpreted," is it any wonder they have problems with the old proverb, "practice what you preach?" And when their favourite texts include the most inconsistent books of the Bible and even the wildly incoherent "Revelations," relegating Matthew to a footnote, no wonder they are perceived as the hypocritical fire and brimstone crowd. Civil society cannot make laws based on a tale of doomsday.

So the Cash Money, much of it from the Coors family, papers over the inconsistency in the dogma. The nature of one of the oldest and worst sins the church ever proscribed way back in the day before the church split between Orthodox and Catholic, Simony, is just too cynically played to make me think the leadership doesn't know what its doing. Just Dial 1-800-BIBLE-BS to get your own copy now, that number again always displayed on the bottom of your television screen. I paid just 99 cents for my reference copy of the Bible at a store in San Francisco's Mission district in a general goods store run by local Mexican immigrants, not needing to fund the Right Wing Political Machine. Just the act of buying a Bible horrified my atheist buddy who ran in fear like a vampire from a cross in an old movie.

But like in the Roman Polanski Film, does the crucifix not work on Jews? Maybe it does if it buys your Congressman, local or state representative's vote...

Christian Fanatical Hydra

2006-06-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

I find many independent thinkers, doubters of religion and those unsympathetic to Christianity to be very aware of the ideological dangers of religious fundamentalism manifested in the twin (multi?) headed hydra of Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism. However, we need to be aware that its not just a question of dogma, but an assault on the liberties of all free thinkers, whether Christian or not. Ironically, the groups in the front lines against these pernicious trends are Christians, and this merits a visit to www.talk2action.org. These are people quite familiar with Dominionists and their ilk, and fighting them every step of the way, well beyond the realm of theological, theoretical debate. Spending just 38 minutes listening to this free audio clip from the Air America Radio show "State of Belief" is highly informative.

it's a battle of one sect to invade all the others to capture concrete financial and communication infrastructure resources to enable the Dominionist movement to codify an intolerant, Ur-Fascist world view in the arena of public policy, government and legislation that could ultimately affect those that never went to church. (Thanks to Umberto Eco for giving us a working definition of Fascism -- Ur-Fascism). Ditching toleration and social justice in favour of an attack on sexual proclivities in a tabloid manner to foster a theological crisis within churches in order to snatch control of the church as an institution (money and all) is the very heart of Dominionist Modus Operandi. Homosexuals just the make easiest targets, but just as Hitler and the Nazi Party leveraged Jew hatred to control everybody, so too does the Dominionist agenda encompass everyone.

Buying the Pharm

2006-06-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a terrific article (a couple of months old) about how the checks and balances that exist in the pharmaceutical industry are being corrupted:

You may have heard of a little ongoing row about a Merck drug called Vioxx, which was pulled from the market in 2004 due to evidence that it caused serious heart problems in some users. According to the allegations, Merck aggressively marketed Vioxx as safe and effective for pain relief, while repressing knowledge that the drug raised the risk of heart attack. This week, another plaintiff won a multi-million-dollar jury award; 9650 more lawsuits nationwide are still pending.

What you may not know is that one of Merck’s most effective allies in marketing Vioxx was Marvin A. Konstam, a professor of medicine at Tufts University, chief of cardiology at Tufts-affiliated New England Medical Center (NEMC), and a paid consultant for Merck.

[...]

Drug and medical-device companies conceive, finance, manage, and even write projects. Then they enlist researchers with affiliations that are trusted as independent intellectual authorities [...] to put their names on the articles. When conducted in this manner, medical research is sometimes little more than marketing garbed in lab coats.

I don't want to diminish the enormous benefit of advanced pharmaceuticals our society enjoys. In fact, someone I love very much would not be alive and thriving today if it were not for cutting-edge cancer treatments. But the clinical trials and FDA approval process are what guarantee high-quality pharmaceutical products. When that gets corrupted, we're basically left with the 21st Century version of the circus quack selling snake oil.

I'm particularly disturbed by the spread of psychopharmaceuticals. I think SSRIs are a great short-term solution for people who are so depressed that they become essentially emotionally paralyzed and unable to make changes necessary to fix their lives. But they should not be a long-term solution for the majority, especially since the long-term effects of SSRI usage are unknown. If over 15% of the population suffers from depression, perhaps we're not talking about a physical disease, but rather a social problem that demands a policy solution rather than a medical one. Treating all depression as if it were a medical issue only serves to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies at the possible expense of long-term public health and to "medicalize" a sociological problem.

Are we third world yet?

2006-06-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

I'd be shocked by the statistics alone if I weren't seeing them all around me with my own eyes. According to this Economist article, American workers produce 30% more per hour now than they did ten years ago, while incomes for the median are stagnating. The median income rose 6% from 1995 to 2000, but they've only risen 1% since 2000. Now high housing, health and energy costs are kicking in and taking away even more of people's income than in past years when consumer prices were more stable.

This could even be acceptable if social mobility were high, but this article claims social mobility is actually higher in Europe than it is in the USA.

If you want to see something interesting, look at the census data for Carmel-By-The-Sea, California, at the house vacancy rates. The closer a house is to the ocean in Carmel, the more likely it is to be vacant. Could this be because if you make 20,000 times what an average worker makes that you can afford a thousand houses, while most people have to fight like hell to keep one?

Weeding out media trash

2006-06-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

There is a bill before congress which allows people to pay for only the channels they are willing to pay to watch on television, rather than throwing news for retards in with everyone's media "package".

Could this mean the end of the neofascist news fad? I know I have deleted CNN, MSNBC, Fox and other unjournalism already because i simply do not have time for disinformation. But even though I don't watch them and don't care what they want me to think, I pay for them, and that really pisses me off.

I really love dish network's public affairs channels, such as free speech tv and linktv, both of which are viewer supported, "unembedded" media channels. I also love UCTV, BBC's show Little Britain, and Giants Baseball.

Lamont in CT and Reclaiming Democracy

2006-06-19T06:01:00.000-07:00

Excellent post by Slomo on "Reclaiming Democracy", focusing on Ned Lamont's race in the Democratic Primary againt incumbent "Holy Joe Lieberman." If you don't know about this race, check it out here on this blog, Slomo gives a good outline of what's going on. Everytime I see Lamont's growing poll numbers, I am amazed.

And why all the uproar and complaints from the D.C. "former" big-wigs? Somebody within the party just wants to challenge the local incumbent U.S. Senator in the primary to decide the nominee for the Democratic Party, isn't that the way democracy is supposed to work? In fact, our particular system of democratic elections? And the biggest sin of all: Lamont's grassroots organising is terribly successful, and Lieberman saying things showing he is out of touch with the people of the state he's supposed to represent.

But what about "party loyalty," winning elections, and all that? Three good reasons to buck "party loyalty" this time around and support Lamont:

1) Joe Lieberman's voting record in the past, and how he intends to vote on certain issues. For this we could get a Republican. This is what I call "party disloyalty in service to the Bush Administration and the Republican Majority."
2) Ned Lamont's pledge to support Lieberman even if Lieberman wins the primary. This is what one calls "party loyalty in service of the greater cause." If Lamont loses, I am confident the sheer number of new, insurgent Democrats in races around the nation who will probably be the likely new members of Congress if Democrats take back a majority. These newcomers will then start posing challenges to established incumbents, even if some newcomers like Lamont lose (in close races). This will make things more uncomfortable for Democrats like Lieberman who have grown far too comfortable while many in the country suffer, and they will push those incumbents to abandon "unpositions" on the war like Hillary Clinton, or Senate Democrat's failure to get behind Senator Feingold's Censure Resolution. This could be true in November, or true in the near future: if these challengers truly were just a "a small minority" of people creating "terror" for Poor Holy Joe, I don't think he would be quite so scared, now would he?
3) And this is the KICKER -- Lieberman's refusal to commit to support the winner of the CT primary and possible running as an independent, effectively making the chances of a Republican win better by splitting the center-left side of the ticket, in addition to just throwing confusion at Democratic voters of good will. Why doesn't Lieberman just "run on the issues of substance" instead of throwing out veiled threats to Democratic voters? This is a campaign strategy for the party faithful in a primary? Sounds just down right low ball and desperate to me. Somebody within the party just wants to challenge the local incumbent U.S. Senator in the primary to decide the nominee for the Democratic Party, is that so bad, so extreme, so "undemocratic" of progressive activists?

Since the beginning I have always been sympathetic to Lamont, liked his positions on the issues and the style his grassroots based campaign, and shocked at Lieberman's positions on the issues and dismissive attitude towards local party activists. However, several months ago, I have always had doubts about Lamont's ability to win in a contest against Holy Joe, a well funded incumbent of three terms, well entrenched in the D.C. elite.

But just take a look at the latest polls! Lamont's campaign is gathering steam and catching fire fast! To see the kind of progress this campaign has made in just a few months gives me hope. For all of Lieberman's posturing as the "sensible Democrat truly representing the state" as opposed to a group of fanatical activists out the mainstream, it seems, as they say, the "Emperor Holy Joe" has no clothes on.

When the discussion gets down to "Democrat vs. Republican," the Republicans has swung so badly to the far right that even a moderate Democrat is welcome, but I think the real mood of the country is more "anti-incumbent" rather than "anti-Republican" per se. I think this is probably factoring into the Lamont campaign as much as the progressive stream.

Good. I think this is must one more example of a well needed fire that needs lighting under the ass of the DCCC and the DLC ensconced as they are in D.C., representing some pretty failed strategies out of the past, both for winning elections, and getting substantial change accomplished for the better.

Death and Organs on Wheels: Scientific Efficiency

2006-06-19T03:12:00.000-07:00

Does AOL provide "access to information" to China via the internet? If they do, maybe AOL feels a little better now after giving the Chinese government the tools to restrict freedom of travel on the internet, as here it gives us a look at a pretty horrific Chinese "product," with a list price and surrounded by advertising:

The Chinese Death Van, a mobile execution chamber on wheels, now featured on an AOL site, found courtesy of PopOcculture and and Slomo of Memetix

According to the man who developed the product:

"I'm most proud of the bed. It's very humane, like an ambulance, says Kang. He points to the power-driven metal stretcher that glides out at an incline. "It's too brutal to haul a person aboard," he says. "This makes it convenient for the criminal and the guards."

I'm guessing, but I don't think many of the "criminals" find the whole experience like taking a hassle free tour in the bahamas or riding modernized public transportation without bother. It's amazing the article neglected the old gangster expression, "you're taking a one way ride."

Slomo of Memetix asks a pretty good question, "why are they mobile?" and the official answer gives us part of the reason:

"Makers of death vans say they save money for poor localities that would otherwise have to pay to construct execution facilities in prisons or court buildings. The vans ensure that prisoners sentenced to death can be executed locally, closer to communities where they broke the law."

But why are they really mobile? Here, Amnesty International gets closer in their comment on the Death Mobile:

"Injections leave the whole body intact and require participation of doctors. Organs can 'be extracted in a speedier and more effective way than if the prisoner is shot,' says Mark Allison, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong. 'We have gathered strong evidence suggesting the involvement of (Chinese) police, courts and hospitals in the organ trade.'"

The vans are mobile to enable organ harvesting for transplants, a "cash crop" for China. Often the recipient of the organs are in Asian countries, either in developing or developed nations, though one would expect the wealthy have better access to the organs of a convict executed "just in time," in this "organs on demand" business. In Asia, many people have even more difficulty finding organ donors than in the west. Some of the trade is open, much of it is "semi-transparent," and much is under the table. China is also a large country with underdeveloped infrastructure, so a mobile execution chamber opens up possibilities of ensuring "freshness" despite the limits of distance, availability of people ready to be executed, and the timing factors of when the organs are necessary. Again, "Executions Providing Organs On Demand."

It is the ultimate horror of a country that has embraced dialectical materialism run mad: atheism as the mandatory "religion," utilitarianism devoid of humanistic consideration, efficiency of market adaption and control mechanisms, science minus ethics, and machine logic without soul. When the Chinese lady was screaming at Bush and President Hu when Hu visited the White House recently, this is one of the things she was screaming about. The entire concept of the Death Van is Nazi perfection, no wonder it took a Post Modern Communist regime to perfect it.

So when Slomo of Memetix correctly writes with more irony than perhaps he realizes, "This isn't like spaying your cat or getting screened for STDs." He is actually right on target: in the Peoples Republic of China, the Death Mobile and the organ trade is just like spaying your cat or getting screened for STDs. Human life losing all meaning in a vehicle modeled after both a bus and an ambulance. The irony is horrific. (He also takes note of the number on AOL that approve in the U.S., a number not lending itself to hope)

Of course, being highly sensitive to being involved with the trade, the Chinese government denies involvement, and to prove it they offer nothing in the way of documentation, refuse to give outsiders (or even family members) access to the bodies of executed prisoners:

"No wonder this has added to suspicions about what happens afterward: Corpses are typically driven to a crematorium and burned before relatives or independent witnesses can view them."

Many people, rightfully horrified, want to take action any way they can. One respondent at PopOcculture saw the vans being reported in Germany and stopped buying Chinese goods. This is, pardon me, a rather naive strategy, although there is more heart there then in an entire fleet of Death Vans. If you look around your home or office, you will not see Chinese brand names on any of your things, because it is not made completely in China. The parts made in China are the components. The computer and cell phone we are now using probably have components made in China inside. It's also difficult to distinguish which clothing items were made in China -- the label or brand may be non Chinese, but it was probably made in a factory in China.

I would suggest finding some way rather of getting at or protesting AOL and other internet services that sell to China, as they actively set up the internet there to ban freedom of information, which makes the practices relating to the Death Vans and the organ trade more possible, facilitating a lack of transparency and accountability. There is also the option of supporting those groups that run servers running overseas that provide information in Chinese over the internet to people in China, somehow bypassing the government's information control settings.

One reply was less charitable on the Pop Occulture Blog:

"but they are only executing each other though."

This is probably something like what Hitler or some other Nazi said when Stalin was conducting the purges in the Soviet Union. Actually, Chinese are not killing Chinese. Chinese leaders have given the green light to the bureaucracy that controls its prison systems to execute people who control very little. Actually, we have relatively little information as to who among the executed are actual criminals, and who are political prisoners. Also, many of the criminals are probably not just murderers. I would look up who might qualify to be executed (small time bribery? homosexual? some loosely defined form of 'trouble making'?) Here is one indication, which hardly alleviates the horror:

"Sixty-eight different crimes - more than half non-violent offenses such as tax evasion and drug smuggling - are punishable by death in China. That means the death vans are likely to keep rolling."

"Oh, the humanity..."

Reclaiming Democracy

2006-06-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

So much of what takes place in the theater of national politics is truly depressing; consequently, I cling to political stories that are inspiring and uplifting. One such story is Ned Lamont's campaign for U.S. Senate in Connecticut. Lamont is running against Joe ("Holy Joe") Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary.

This is a true example of people reclaiming democracy, attempting to oust a senator who has long ago ceased to represent his constituency. If you want details, Duncan Black (in his usual snarky style) has been covering the story. Suffice to say, Joe is toast.

In the Connecticut State Democratic Convention, Lamont took 33% of the vote, easily meeting the 15% threshold necessary for a ballot spot. This was particularly humiliating for Lieberman, a three-term incumbent. Lieberman refuses to commit to supporting the winner of the 2006 primary. There is well-founded rumor that he may decide to bolt the Democratic Party and run as an independent if he doesn't win. On the other hand, Lamont has made a (strategic) commitment to support the winner.

Even if Joe ends up winning the seat, it will be a costly battle in terms of legitimacy. This is a strong signal that Democrats are starting, once again, to demand representation from their party.

The money quote from the Lieberman camp:

John F. Droney Jr., a former Connecticut Democratic chairman ... said Sen. Joe Lieberman should bolt the Democratic Party and run as an independent.

"I think to be terrorized through the summer by an extremely small group of the Democratic Party, much less the voting population, is total insanity for a person who is a three-term senator," Droney said.

"Information Inter-dependence" and Why These Links

2006-06-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

Blogger Slomo of Memetix in New England has nicely phrased a principle in reply to one of my posts I applied when I picked out the links you see on the right hand side, and I think his comment deserves to come out of a "reply corner" and onto the main content page:

"I like the idea of information interdependence...

The principle of Occam's Razor applies here: the simplest explanation that fits the data is probably the one that's true. Unfortunately, it is often the case that people will accept a simpler explanation even though it fails to fit the data. It is also often the case that the dominant narrative (that promoted by corporate media) fails miserably in its explanatory power, yet we accept it because we are ignorant of competing narratives. We need to be aware of all the data, and a rich supply of possible narratives that might explain them. But we should also not be too attached to a particular narrative before we've heard them all. This is how I try to approach the world (though not always successful!)"

With this blog, I did not do what most bloggers and websites do, which is simply place the link name without explanation of what it is -- I think to break out of the "liberal echo chamber" concerned citizens "in the know" should be considerate of people of good will necessary to fight the ugly tides that have put America into the state it is in now, but have not had the time to get to all the good sites out there. I also think working, busy people are due some explanation as to why these are good links that deserve their attention and limited time available.

Of course, nobody can digest all that's out there on the web, so please consider these links to be three things: First, guides to sites of reliable and useful information that can be considered trustworthy and substantial, and Two, a pretty good way of getting across what perspective this blog and contributors represent, and Three, sites that represent "a rich supply of possible narratives that might explain" the data we should be aware of as responsible and civic minded citizens. Of course, these are not the last links to be added to the sidebar at right, but it's a pretty good start. And from those linked pages, there is even a richer supply of valuable information everybody should be aware of, given time.

Of course we could just blow off keeping informed as at least one step in being active, but then we get the government we deserve, and I think the present one is not the one we deserve. And society has a whole, besides just the arena of electoral politics, could be better, and that takes more than just one person working on the cultural and social infrastructure.

Or is that just me?

Information Independence vs. Information Anarchy

2006-06-18T05:31:00.000-07:00

Blogger Slomo of Memetix in New England is someone I found out about from dcarto in California (I am in Tokyo), and he's begun posting again. And again, the power of the web to connect people is demonstrated. Slomo starts with a comment about "Information Independance." Being someone who knows well how having just a few corporations control media can skew debate, and can articulate the situation well himself to doubters, his re-entry to public discourse in the blogosphere is welcome.

As for "Information Independence," it sounds like an absolutely essential component for a functional democracy where citizens take responsibility to stay informed, then make sure power stays in the hands of citizens, not corporations and their paid lackeys, the political hacks often elected to office. Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of the Daily Kos would no doubt agree, as he expressly writes and speaks time and again as he does in this article of the Nation about

"....making sure progressives learn to use the tools of this new media landscape. That's where the new-century media wars will be fought and won. Not in a corporate boardroom."

But what about "Information Anarchy" on a mass scale as the sheer number of possible information sources on the internet proliferate on an incredible scale, with lots of voices all saying something different? It seems to me "Information Apathy" can occur on a mass scale, and this has been expressed to me on a number of occasions by quite a few people. One need spend only a few hours on the internet to find thousands of threads without much common purpose. So when corporate media, being concentrated, organized and well funded, keeps up its barage of the same few simple messages, its easy for the apathetic creep to set in, and people, busy with work and tired, even the most intelligent, just switch on the tube and take in the latest message from "our sponsor."

So what to do? I think I need to go back to the original quote:

"....making sure progressives learn to use the tools of this new media landscape. That's where the new-century media wars will be fought and won. Not in a corporate boardroom."

Basically, using tools, fight a war, progressive causes, and winning. Anyone who has visited the Daily Kos will know that it's not about spreading information so people can feel secure in their own individual identities and personality quirks. It's about everyone keeping well informed with actual *fact* based information, ensuring a participatory system where involved citizens can perserve, defend and run a country that treasures people with individual identities, personality quirks, again using hard information, but also the tools of organizing in larger and larger groups to make that a reality. This is why the Daily Kos is such a stand out on the internet: it has a variety of contributors and information, but all carefully organized and directed with a specific objective in mind, and that objective is not identity posturing via consumer escapism, which is what the corporate boardrooms do so well, provided you limit yourself to the increasingly limited corporate menu.

Many people of good will tend to have reservations about being getting themselves organised with others in large numbers, as they fear it will trample or somehow have an ill effect on their individual sense of identity. Yet the lack of organisation can have precisely the opposite effect: concentrations of power with no good will move in and dominate the agenda, limit the menus, and start stuffing people right into default menus, and those that don't like it get penalised in al manner of ways, large and petty. People can run to the blue states leaving others in red states to fend for themselves, turn to exclusive peer groups, or just lock themselves indoors in isolation. The strategy here is as old as the hills, and Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., both tireless organisers of mass collective action just called it for what it is; "divide and conquer."

Groups really do need to be inclusive and tolerant, yet still have a "nonsense meter" when issues over "preservation of my personal sense of identity" become more important than fact based knowledge and getting worthwhile objectives accomplished. It makes me nervous when corporate hating Anarchists and Corporate Loving Libertarians, both determined to preserve their individuality sense of identity at any cost end up in the same ideological bed... I have no problem with the sex part, it's just that the rich get exclusive access to the orgasm, and both the Anarchist snd Libertarisns wonder why all those terribly ignorant religious fanatics grabbed control... And, as an old lefty bartender friend once said, "Oh I can't stand those anarchists. They're the first ones to complain when the bus breaks down."

Still, I remain hopeful. On the internet and now even on the radio, there is indeed what is called "the liberal echo chamber," preaching to the converted. With so many blogs around, perhaps we should call it the "liberal echo maze," but it seems that certain very large chambers of that maze are becoming larger by the minute, and attracting more attention than print newpapers published in the larger American cities, and these sites are gaining momentum. As a simple example, well over half of the links on my sidebar did not exist 4 years ago, and condering their size and topic areas, that is indeed something impressive.

Perhaps the desire for fact based information, to organise and come together to share it to make real change happen to benefit the entire community is not just something worked at for its own sake, but is galvanised when faced by an enemy that represents an enormous threat.

If that is the case, we may actually have to thank Mr. Bush and Company for providing that enemy so terrible it demands a somewhat more coordinated response. Unfortunately, we will be picking up the pieces of a pretty damaged country taken over during the era of our complancency.

Power: Independence or Interdependence?

2006-06-18T02:34:00.000-07:00

Dcarto posts on his own blog that this famous picture of Gandhi leading the Salt March inspired him to think about independence and what it means to him, (especially with regard to energy independece) and I think the thought is on the right track, but there needs to be a realisation about something never more true than now: modern man is an independent creature, but more interdependent than ever before, limited by an infrastructure of power built up by large scale corporations and government (in that order).

The picture of Gandhi signifies great things, and a great movement: but Gandhi would tell you if he had been the only person to walk all the way to the sea and make the salt, the entire event would have been a big waste of time. He carefully staged it to maximise participants, by passing though as many villages along the way as possible in order to gather participants, which gained the event the attention it did, making it a major, transformative moment in history. Gandhi, the foxy rascal, wasn't there to make salt. Just take a look at the photograph here. Eventually, there were thousands at the sea. He was there to galvanise the population of India into taking *collective* action to protest and break the British monopoly on salt. And he then followed up by going to the UK, where *collective* and *large scale* support emerged from the British working class to enthusiastically embrace him, because he gave them the hope necessary to combat the dangerous apathy and alienation that formed a part of their materially poor existence and disconnection with important decision making, working as they did on wages that were barely subsistence. Gandhi came to tell them they were not the beneficiaries of the British Empire's wealth, and so should not be feeling patriotic as they had about Britain "owning" India. Rather, they should rise up and realize they were the comrades of the people of India, and had never been their real masters.

Martin Luther King, Jr. also said he loved to ask white prison guards how little they were paid as King and the guards stood around in jail after King was arrested for demonstrating. "I don't mind going to jail, I do my best converting in jail..." he used to say often. Again, he was making the point that we as a society are "interconnected, bound by links of mutual causality," where all individuals, of all colours, are affected by the community as a whole.

The feeling of hope that comes from collective action and the spread of knowledge can break the power of big government and big capitol, and these are the last two that make the basic infrastructure decisions that really make the biggest impact on the shape of our society.

People don't have to be quiet and hide their individuality, or change their identity or conform to some other type of behaviour recommended by others. But when they persist in doing so in isolation, rather than joining with like minded people, there will be no voice rasied that has a multifaceted, diverse, but powerful impact against the mass market conformity we are sliding into; then we can really change society for the better and allow for more individual freedom, as long as people realise the true nature of power and importance of community.

In brief, Gandhi first arrived to India, found a badly divided independence movement consisting of factions splitting hairs about ideology and effecting no change, and he made the point that unity of purpose and action was essential in standing up to the British Empire, and in that way, all Indians, whether Hindu or Muslim, were completely interdependent, not independent. It was the policy and strategy of the British Empire, on the other hand, to constantly favour one group over the other, using just an elite few, using the time honoured strategy of "divide and conquer," to make sure that Indians *as an entire nation* could not fight to attain national independence, not individual anarchy. When Gandhi cured the independence movement of chronic, pointless and anarchic infighting, then it became a real threat to the power of the British Empire.

Granted, on the issue of the energy crisis and global warming, and it is a crisis, we must all change our individual behaviour to create a sustainable future. Individuals that persist in buying SUVs and drive two blocks from home to buy a burger at a drive through window must change their behaviour as multitudes of people all living this way creates a collective problem for everyone. But Congressman Barney Frank made a great comment on the Bill Mahr Show in response to British actor and activist Sir Ian McKellen about expecting everyone to give up on cars and only ride bicycles: many people can only afford to buy homes in suburbs consisting of track housing with no real "community" centers, and can only find jobs in cities 1-2 hours drive away from home. These people have been trapped by bad urban planning and large scale developers, representing political and financial power far beyond a single individual. These citizens have done nothing wrong, but only tried to live an honest, productive life, given the menu of choices open to them, a menu written by government and corporate power.

To think an atomised population of individuals can topple large scale, unified and tightly organised political machines and corporate cartels that make all the basic infrastructure decisions of our cities is simply not a "sustainable" idea. Over 50% of the U. S. population still doubts global warming (unlike other countries) simply because ExxonMobil, the oil giant, has funded professional "skeptics" to cloud the debate with muddy and disreputable "science," and corporate media continues to give them a platform (see links on the right side bar)

Therein lies the "secret weapon" of irresponsible large scale property developers and ExxonMobil: self doubt, atomisation and alienation leads to despair, and most resolve this feeling into apathy as a way of coping emotionally. Apathy leads to inaction, which clears the way for big corporate power to do whatever it wants as fanatical right wing groups unite and organise the way progressives once did, and should do (are doing) again.

Individual change, as dcarto rightly points out, is the starting point for more far reaching change. I think Gandhi definitely made that point. But Gandhi, and the man that applied his method in the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr., were clear that the next step is to come together with people of like mind, exchange ideas, and then organise, organise, organise, and then take mass direct action together.

As a simple illustration, in line with dcarto's point of responsibly changing his own lifestyle as a responsible member of the community. Let's look at hybrid or other alternative energy type cars: we should choose to buy these instead of buying yet another gas driven car. Then we actively recommend these cars to friends, family, and over the internet to as many was we can. We even directly contact and challenge American automakers as consumers -- to produce these types of automobiles (look them up on the web and ask about their hybrid product line, then send them a link to a Toyota hybrid advertisement). Maybe even ask them why they are not producing these cars before again cutting worker wages and benefits as they fail in competition to Toyota (producer of the hybrid Prius). Then as the movement builds, these captains and powerhouses of private industry, finally getting the clue that we understand the market better than they do (corporations are rather slow, you know), will begin to bow to rising consumer demand, and then we have significant change.

Interdependence is a reality. "Think Globally, Act Locally" is not such a bad strategy. As the U.S.A. is the biggest, major carbon emitting country, the other countries of the world may act, but they will only get really serious when we demand our government ratify and enact the protocols of Kyoto. Even if other countries do enact the Kyoto protocols, it will not make a difference unless the U.S. does as well, since we emit so much pollution.

Remember, politicians are like products, and they know it: find out who your Congress person is, look up their website, and e-mail them -- with a "cc" to several friends on your personal mailing list -- with this question: "Why has Congress not ratified the Kyoto Treaty"? If they fail to give you a satisfactory answer, and just send one of those "answer with no answer" replies, just reply (and with the "cc" to your friends, and a quick comment by you to your friends about the answer you got) and say, "I can not vote for you until you address this issue, and I will urge my friends to do the same." Then urge your friends to do the same.

If you still need hope, know this: there is a huge movement by municipalities around the country to honour the Kyoto protocols. (This link goes to Seattle's webpage devoted to helping other local governments join all the others that have done the same). Find out if your city has, and send an email to the city leaders that made it happen saying, "even if voter turnout is only 10% next time, you will have my vote because of this." (Don't forget that "cc" to your friends!)

If your city has not, email the city leaders, mention cities that have (or just Seattle's link above), and ask them when they will do the same as the others. Then up we go to the state level. Just imagine if the California state government, with a GDP smaller than only the entire EU and four other countries, decided to follow the Kyoto protocols, even if the U.S. government continues to dither and dally. With local elections coming up in November, sounds like a good question to start emailing the candidates about, and if they reply in either the negative or answer ambiguously, just email back and say, "over 100 municipalities in the U.S. are honouring the Kyoto protocols and say its great for their economy. When you decide to follow their example, then you can count on my vote." (and be sure and "cc" your friends in the email, to make sure they more than one person is paying attention).

Interdependence my friends, is a reality. Let's make it work for us. Otherwise, apathy can breed anarchy, and power loves nothing more than a vacuum. And don't feel intimidated by corporate power, because that is exactly what they want -- if law courts are going to insist that a single large corporation should be considered as an individual person, as in one human, then they have just the same rights and responsibilities as we do, and they have been far too free with the "rights" and not too down with the "responsibilities" of citizenship; they have a responsibility to our community.

I absolutely oppose individuals abdicating their responsibilities as citizens out of apathy, especially as we send others to die in our place off in Iraq, but I also absolutely demand that corporate conglomerates assume their responsibilities to us, the community, of which they are a member. One old Hindu guy on the beach by himself will not make a difference. It was all the people that marched with him that made Gandhi's Salt March a pivotal moment in history. You don't have to be Gandhi, but just wonder about the people in the picture with him, and wonder who they were, as individuals, and why they joined up to take interdependent, collective mass action to change an Imperial, corporate power structure that was just not working well for them.

Ten Steps To End America’s Fossil-Fuel Addiction

2006-06-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

All over the internets this morning, popular science offers ten steps to end America's fossil fuel addiction. If energy prices don't go down soon, people may be motivated to change their lives and stop using petroleum products forever.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/energy/

Oil Refining and the Effect on Pricing

2006-06-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

Luz de Korum of San Francisco, CA, writes "Where Does Oil Come From, Daddy?" at http://sosemiprecio.us and explains which countries produce what percent of the world's oil supply. He ended the article with an extremely good question, which has a lot to do with the haggle over the price of oil these days, and the subsequent excuses give by oil producers and oil companies as we spiral down our energy crisis:

"Why exactly refining boosts total oil production, well, I'll have to poke around some more to see what that is about."

However, this great question should be rephrased: "Why refining LIMITS total oil DISTRIBUTION, well, I'll have to poke around some more to see what that is about."

Oil is pumped out of the ground as crude, but you can't pour crude into a car or energy plant without refining, turning it into a form that engines can handle. Basically, the icky chemicals that will gum up your engine have to be separated from the icky chemicals that make your engine run (not exactly a strictly scientific explanation, but you get the point). The oil has to go to a number a places before it finally reaches your car or local utility, a process called "the supply chain." At each link in the chain, including transportation across the ocean or whatever, at the refinery, etc., somebody charges a handling fee. These fees stack up at each stage, the top gets the lion's share, the various middlemen do pretty good, and the bottom pays out the ass.

So here's the big excuse I think one encounters when researching why oil prices keep going higher: OPEC and ExxonMobil etc. , claim that even if they pump more oil from the ground, they don't have the capacity to refine the oil at the rate of demand right now. They say, "maybe enough crude, but not enough refineries to move it down the supply chain."

Where many people cry foul is that huge corporate conglomerates like ExxonMobil or SHELL or whoever actually have direct control over most links in the supply chain themselves, and are capable, and do, take their own refineries off line at opportune times to jack up the price of oil. The giant California energy crisis of a few years back (remember that?) was actually caused by out of state suppliers of energy unfairly manipulating the prices they charged local California utilities, not in-state utilities unable to keep up with demand, although the reverse was claimed at the time. Well you know what happened in the end, Ken Lay of Enron was just judged guilty, Gray Davis was recalled after asking Bush to cap prices which Bush should have done but refused, and Cheney shot some guy in a drunken stupor.

So, maybe a bit off topic, but still on energy prices,
The best comment I heard was in an interview with a professor of economics who studies the energy industry. "Supply and Demand, let the Market Decide!" is all well and good, but when the market is dominated by monopolies, your basic Adam Smith economic analysis just does not work (As corporations are measured, by amount of capitalization, ExxonMobil is the largest in the world). By the way, Mexico and Canada are in fact the U.S.A.'s largest suppliers of oil, but OPEC will always affect prices by virtue of how much oil they supply to the world. One commentator called Saudi Arabia "The World Bank of Oil." With such a large market share of total global oil production, they basically set the lead for everyone else, and why not. If Saudi Arabia can get rich off everyone including the U.S., why not Mexico and Canada?

Many think OPEC controls us because we buy from them; but understand that they have to have a customer to sell to, which means they need us as much as we need them, so long as we run our economy on oil. China is the "Augustus Gloop" of the oil market these days, no doubt. China will therefore be a power because all want to sell to them, especially since, they, unlike us, have a gigantic money reserve (based largely in U.S. bonds we sell to them putting us in greater debt) and an ambitious economic development plan in place. People may think that Bush and Cheney are the Kings of Oil, but Iran and China see them as a big joke--> basically, two naked junkies that just got their teeth knocked in by the local street gang. Prices will still go up as China continues to consume rapid quantities in its race to develop at a furious pace, unless a crisis in supply happens.

Speaking of which, Saudi Arabia refuses any access to anyone (anyone) to information about how long they will be able to continue pumping oil at the current rate, and how much remains. One very reliable expert once employed as a consultant by the oil companies, thinks Saudi oil production could peak as early as 2012. Now why would they want to keep that a secret? Maybe because the "World Bank of Oil" has less in their vaults than its telling... Therein lies the genius of private industry: you concentrate on inflating short term prices, so by the time there's a run on the bank and your company goes belly up, you can retire with a big fat wad of cash.

So by now you may be thinking about some kind of Apollo Project for alternative energy. Here's my Apollo project: you put the U.S. automotive companies in the same room with the oil and power companies, and you tell them this: "You could combine your expertise and capital and either start implementing the alternative energy technologies you have already developed, maybe get some tax breaks based on how much you put out, still make giant profits, and remake the world from U.S. shores without outsourcing jobs, or you could do as you are doing now and we tax the fucking shit out your asses."

If just about any viable energy alternative you've heard about were to go into production, the U.S. manufacturing sector (within our borders) would roar back into force, unionized workers (rather than part time waiters) would have more money for shopping, and American innovations (transistors and hybrid cars) would be something we shipped to the world, not something we idiotically tossed away to the Japanese for free. Both the trade deficit and the government deficit would come down, and surprise, unlike the idiocy of "trickle down" economics, you give millions of regular folks money to spend at home rather than a tiny few mega investors money to spend abroad. Guess which one translates into a healthy economy?