Thursday, August 29, 2013

Syria - Thoughts


Well, Syria is not the only mess around here.  

The use of poison gas is indeed a crossing of a VERY Red Line, and it MUST be punished.  No question about that.  But.    

First of all there must be PROOF that there was indeed the use of this weapon, not just “almost certainty”.   Second, there must also be proof how it was done:  1) Was it done by Assad?  2) Was it one of Assad’s generals acting without authority? 3) Was it done by the rebels?   Third, it must be punished by whom?  The response MUST be made with the authority of the people of the world.  

Granted that 1) the authority of the UN will probably be missing because of Russia and China, therefore 2)  it must carry the weight of most of the developed nations of Europe and Asia, and 3) the unanimous support of the leaders of America’s administration AND congress AND both major political parties in America. None of that now exists.  Even the president’s party is divided.

Such an attack coming from outside the region of the Middle-east may well “destabilize” an already disintegrating collection of failing nation states that see their competitive religions being threatened by “infidels”, i.e. each other.  

If there indeed was a poison gas attack, and it is not responded to decisively, there will be more to come.  If there is retaliation – and it is done by one nation only – and there is not internal support within the government of that nation – then the result could be a world catastrophe resulting in one of the greatest wars of human history with profound release of poison gas and almost certainly nuclear weapons once Iran and Israel feel they are threatened by invasion. 

The planetary survivors of such a war would be genetically altered, and their children would be even more so. The pollution from a war of that nature would be incomprehensible and its affect on all growing things would create a new form of evolution.  

The answer?  Government.  The sitting down with your enemy and talking frankly about your common problems – yes, each other –  and then beginning to make plans together. 
Nothing easy about it.  It’s stupid and dumb.  It’s time-consuming and wasteful.  But.

The planet Earth will still be here.  It will continue its orbit and there will be sunrises and moonsets, and rain and snow will fall, and it will create and evolve with its new creatures.  It doesn’t need people.  It doesn’t need governments.  It doesn’t need religions.  It doesn’t need heavens or hells or gods or devils.  It will still be here after the people kill each other.  It can handle the nuclear radiation, it won’t mind the poison gas.  Plants that need poison gas will begin to grow and start consuming that gas.  

What about it? Government IS a pain in the ass.  Agreed.  But there are a million billion planets in the universe.  Here is a chance to make a difference and be somebody.

Government.  

Think about it.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Andy Wells – an Open Letter on Weather and Education


This is my response to your e-mail of August 19, 2013, "Good news/Bad News"
Mother Nature  These problems may have occurred only once in a thousand years but that was then, now we live in a world racked by weather patterns created by man’s continued pollution of the planet’s water, air and land.  Our weather has gotten bad and it is going to get a lot worse.  It is not “Mother Nature run amok”, it is mankind running without regulation.  It’s like a football game with no referees, the benches have already emptied, now the stands are emptying.  It is going to be a BIG deal.  And it is not going to be over in our lifetime.  We need to be ready for serious changes in the weather and we need to make serious changes in our government.
Government’s Role.  The State Department of Environment and Natural  Resources should have Boots on the Ground capabilities for these types of environmental issues to evaluate the problems while they are happening, to determine procedures and recommend immediate actions.  And they need the ability to enforce those decisions.  This would be a good piece of legislation for you and other representatives to prepare and implement.
Common  Sense:   You mentioned that phrase 3 times in your email and referenced it another time with your “emergency” comment.  We don’t need “common sense” to deal with these problems.  That’s what CAUSED them.  We need Expert Knowledge.  We need planning for the future while the event is still in progress, not just patchwork done here and there according to one’s abilities and finances. 
NCAE.  You called it a “union” three times in your email.  It’s not a union.  You really ought to know that.  Surely you DO know that.  Your use of the word “union” implies – to me and perhaps others – a attempt to denigrate NCAE.  The North Carolina Association of Educators represents the teachers and administrators who are now preparing our children and grand-children for a world that is already far different from the one you and I encountered when we were children. 
Budget:  Budgets are usually developed from the ground up by the agencies who know what they will need, not by elected bureaucrats, and they utilize as a starting point a Continuation Budget from last year.   The budget the Republican Legislature gave its citizens has already forced North Carolina Education into a major retrenchment.  You did NOT raise the education budget by $400 million – you cut the heart out of it – and if you don’t understand THAT then you have no business preparing or even talking about budgets.  Certainly, your comments about that reveal a total lack of understanding of how budgets are prepared.  

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Anthony's Wiener Does the Right Thing


Anthony's wiener was sterilized today with a shot of sodium nitrite, and he changed his name to Carlos Dangler.

"Its all over."  He said, "You can vote for me now and I won't send you any more photographs.

NOTE:  For more informations about Anthony's wiener,  see the blog post of June 6, 2011:

http://theprettypenny.blogspot.com/2011/06/anthony-weiner.html

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Bradley Manning was Abandoned


Bradley Manning was evidently all alone on his army post.  He evidently needed no supervision even though he was only a PFC, the lowest rank in the Army.  It was reported that he leaked 700,000 secret documents to WikiLeaks.  He obviously had no supervision, because he shouldn’t have even have had access to 700,000 documents of ANYthing, much less highly classified information.  Where were his supervisors?

Where were Bradley Manning’s supervisors while he was leaking ANY information?  Where were his supervisors when he leaked the FIRST item?  Why didn’t they do anything then?  Where were his supervisors when he leaked the first 10 documents?  Where were his supervisors’ supervisors?  Where were they when he leaked all over them and the entire US Army?  Where were they when he was on trial? Why weren’t they sitting there with him?   And where are they now as he begins serving 35 years in prison?  

Bradley Manning done wrong.  Yes he did.  He deserves to be punished.  But so do his supervisors.  What Manning did was really a minor thing, what his supervisors and their supervisors and THEIR supervisors did is  a major thing, and his punishment – all alone – is an indictment of the entire American Armed Forces system.