J.L. Kunkle

I might have been a bit hard on Obama in the preceding posts, and I want to make it clear that though I may occasionally disagree with his methods, being an American I will continue to support his efforts in any way I can. It is to be hoped that lacking any means of feedback between the American citizenry and the Obama administration and/or Congress, that perhaps somebody in Washington cares enough to skim through blogs from time to time to gauge their own performance and perhaps make adjustments when necessary. A much more civilized discourse, I think, than bleating like sheep at townhall meetings: “Four legs good! Two legs bad!” (see George Orwell’s Animal Farm).

Pursuing this analogy further, and knowing who most of the other characters in Animal Farm represent in our current political climate, I think it is important right now to find out who is our current Napoleon. Here’s a hint: it is not Obama.

P.S. Why are congressmen and the President wasting so much time with townhall meetings anyway? Do they actually think these individual, limited access events are in any way indicative of the national mood? Even FDR knew enough to communicate through fireside chats on the radio, hoping for the greatest audience. This is intelligent use of broadcasting media, and now with the internet, they don't even need to go for prime time, just use official, non-partisan e-mails—keep the troops informed.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the lone man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, has been released from prison in Scotland. He has been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, and the Scottish correctional people or whomever the Scottish put in charge of rubber-stamping things, decided to take pity on him and allow him to spend his final days back in Libya with his peeps.

Here is why that was a bone-headed thing for Scotland to do:

By allowing Megrahi out of jail on his feet instead of in a box, the Scots have taken the bad feelings stemming from a heinous act upon themselves instead of where these feelings rightfully belong. By allowing him his dignity, they have affirmed that the right to grant leniency is not a power given to the victims of a crime, but an arbitrary decision based on some governmental, probably fiduciary expediency.

The 270 victims had their lives stolen from them in a fiery midair blast, their final seconds spent falling to earth in flames or in the town of Lockerbie, looking up at the sky just in time to be engulfed in falling wreckage. Not much dignity in that; yet the Scottish authorities feel justified in denying the full measure of justice granted by law to the families of the survivors. It was very arrogant of them to presuppose mercy without consulting all of the victims’ surviving families for approval.

A diagnosis of prostate cancer, whether deemed terminal or not, is still a situation subject to change, and now that Megrahi is free and back among loved ones, who’s to say that a ‘miraculous recovery’ for him is not now imminent? Megrahi was not merely a dying man, pathetic and sorrowful, repository of mercy at the hands of his fellow man; above all else he was a symbol of the inevitability of justice under the law. A mass-murderer held fully accountable for his crimes, and as such, any measure of pity granted to him was at cost to the credibility of so-called punishment by legal justice. It is amazing to me that the Scottish felt they were somehow empowered to go against the laws of justice and grant clemency where they were not in any way entitled to do so.

Megrahi was treated to a hero’s welcome when he deplaned in Tripoli, thereby granting legitimacy in the eleventh hour to the actions he was convicted of committing back in 1988. Way to go, Scotland!

I am more than a little disgusted that the donations I made to the Obama campaign last year were also donations to the Democratic National Committee. I realize of course that it was necessary to dislodge as many Republicans as possible in order to grant clear control to a party that was professing a progressive agenda, but it stands to reason that the campaign promises of the DNC’s candidate would reflect the platform of the DNC. Unfortunately, it seems that indeed it does—except that as opposed to Obama being the leader he was advertised to be, he seems content to take all his marching orders from the DNC no matter how inane and conflicted these orders may be.

So Obama won the presidency and the democrats gained the control they said they needed to bring about real change in Washington. Unfortunately, this control has been handled by the DNC in such a way as to fully validate the reputation Democrats have for being the biggest wastrels in Washington. They have the control, yet they insist on courting this myth of bipartisanship, riding it like a burning Kamikaze plane into the decks of an already burning ship of state. And as usual, Washington again falls into their adversarial role against the American citizenry. The lobbyists and special interests are still the strongest voices in Washington.

I still get e-mails from Organizing For America; people like Mitch Stewart, and occasionally I get requests for feedback on the President’s proposals. Inevitably, these communiques’ are sprinkled liberally with little blue ‘donate’ links. These links when followed all take your donation to the same place: not the OFA, but instead to the DNC. The feedback requests once completed bring you to a donation page, and sometimes the feedback requests are closed to further input by the time one gets to them. Obama & Co. made great strides regarding the positive political uses of the internet, but as with the rest of his presidency, progressive agenda is gradually devolving into status quo. Its not about progress, its all about maintenance of the marginally functional DNC (they are rated marginal only because the RNC rates a full dysfunctional classification).

It kinda figures that Washington still would only listen to people willing to pay.

At recent “townhall meetings” in AZ and NH, states where it is legal to carry a loaded firearm in public, local dimwits have been showing up to these political events bearing small sidearms. In two instances, these included CAR-15 assault rifles, locked and loaded.

Since assault rifles are not intended for deer or duck hunting, but intended for use on human targets, I can only deduce from this that said dimwits were bearing arms in an attempt to intimidate anyone who disagrees with them. Ostensibly to assert their by-god Constitutional rights to free speech and to bear arms (let my friend Mr. Blammo do the talking), the real reasoning here, if such a term could be used in reference to such moronic behavior, is to threaten anyone with political views that differ from theirs.

It is obvious to see that the potential for mayhem here is too great to be ignored. If gun owners show the remarkable lack of common sense to go to a political rally armed, then gun-control advocates (of which I am not one) have more “ammunition” in the debate to further their cause. In short, these same pro 2nd amendment jokers, through their obvious lack of judgment skills, are going to inspire congress to pass the very gun control laws that are so onerous to maintenance of liberty in America.

Guns are not for threatening violence, they are tools intended to implement violence. To any reasonable gun owner, they are tools to be kept in reserve and to only be displayed in times of great national distress; times where there is a clear and present danger to our freedoms. No matter how much the agenda-driven media blows the health care debate out of proportion, this is not the case in America right now.

I would like to make it very clear right now that I am not intimidated by these morons, either armed with words or with bullets. I think I am far from alone in feeling this way, and posers with assault rifles should take note that once visual intimidation fails, they might have to actually shoot somebody. I doubt these people will have the stomach for it.

It is only to be hoped that these gun-totin’ “patriots” took the precaution of having a gunsmith file down the front sight tip of their toys, so that when those of us with little tolerance for this nonsense shove them up their asses, it won’t hurt as much.

It has been months since my last post, and during that time I have chosen to observe that which has taken place since the election and let Obama have some time to unfuck some of the issues that plague this country. It is a monumental task, two wars, an economic collapse, unemployment numbers through the roof and a reputation abroad well-tainted by king George’s tomfooleries. I was confident he was up to the challenge.

But what I have observed during the last nine months and that I find to be most galling is that the pussy Democrats (of which Obama is apparently a member), seem to be quite non-plussed with the petty bickering of the powerless Republicans; and they are slavishly over-attentive to the Republican’s imbecilic objections so consistently raised to anything that might resemble true reform. They (the Democrats) are so obsessed with this myth of bi-partisanship that they are willing to ignore the voters who kicked the Republicans to the curb in ’08 in favor of allowing all attempts at getting things done to be metered and severely limited by these same, powerless Republicans. The tail is definitely wagging the dog here.

Democrats take heed. The Democratic victory in ’08 was not a victory for the Democrats! It was an overwhelming rejection of Washington status quo. The Demopublicans and Republicrats need to pull their head out of their collective asses and respond to popular needs, even perhaps when the overall good of the country might require decisions not favorable with their home constituencies. We the voters have given the Washington clown posse long enough, and the Dems, if they don’t seize the reigns given to them by the American citizenry and make something happen, then there will be an anti-encumbency drive in the 2010 elections, not of politicians, but of parties. Both the Republicans and the Democrats are looking at a possible third-party resurgence that will leave them both wondering what happened in 2010. I’m thinking the Libertarians.

Partisans, you have been warned.

The smear tactics stemming from McCain’s campaign are so obviously the doing of master sleaze-monger Karl Rove that I am surprised that the so called “right-wing” wouldn’t be offended by what is clearly an affront to their intelligence. When I sense pandering taking place, it immediately puts my guard up, but the right-wingers seem willing to accept whatever off-topic nonsense the propagandists create and pose as real issues: Flag pins? Lipstick? Fist bumps? What about the economy? What about the war in Afghanistan? What about detailed descriptions of how their candidate will address these issues?

I have assiduously watched both McCain and Obama talk, and though John McCain is a great guy, he offers zero detail on how he is going to keep his election promises. I feel Obama has repeatedly provided these details, at least as much as he can before he is actually in the Oval Office. As I have already stated, McCain lost my vote the second he hired Rove as a consultant; this latest stunt of pulling a stepford wife from his pocket to place in the VP slot is extremely irresponsible and it is further evidence supporting my conclusion that Republicans don’t care about America, all they care about is winning elections at all costs.

Nice going, John.

I believe that the U. S. Republican Party has a goal of making themselves the sole party in American politics. In many national governments, the highest political offices are most often held by those most faithful to the ruling party, with powerless alternatives on the ballot to provide a veneer of democracy. Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Venezuela and China are some examples. In the more militant nations, you vote for one of the for-show parties at your own risk.

The Republicans look like they think this would be a fine thing, “as long as I’m the dictator” as King George said. There has been a systematic attack on the Democratic Party lately that I believe kicked into high gear during the Clinton administration. They seem to think that if there were no longer a Democratic party, there would no longer be checks to Republican policy. This is a goal I think that the Republicans feel is worth committing any obscenity to truth that is necessary to attain.

If this theory is true, it would seem to me that the best tactic by an ends-justify-means Republican Party would be (through misinformation and obfuscation) to get Palin/McCain into the White House, then arrange for the McCain part to have some sort of “accident”, leaving us with President Palin, a malleable fanatic closely resembling Dana Perino, Harriet Miers, and Judith Miller. Not physical resemblance, but more importantly, women that play the party line based only on orders from above. “It comes from the leaders (whoever that may be), so it must be good policy.” Four legs good, two legs ba-a-a-a-d.

The bandwagon argument is that the Dems would also like to be the only gang in Washington, but the main difference as I see it is that since the 2000 election, the Repubs have been actually going for it. They are actively seeking to permanently disable the Democratic Party, and it seems the Dems are powerless to stop it.

News outlets that thrive on conflict might want to beware. Once the Republicans win, just like any dictatorship, they will further consolidate their hold on the media, and true journalism in America will be lost.

My bile level is requiring more frequent purges. The current BS that I am having too much difficulty swallowing is the increasing role of media outlets in stirring up discord. Do peaceful people watch the news? No, I'd think they would rather watch entertainment or read a good book. Cable news, network news and web news outlets and any other mainstream news source are no longer interested in "Beware surveillance", they are only interested in audience size as a way of increasing revenue.

It works like this: create a divisive, speculative, and invariably spurious "wedge" issue (is Michelle Obama a terrorist) and then pretend to represent a fair and balanced interpretation for the ignorant masses. People emotionally involved in any real issue often mistake these phony issues as germane to the debate. The association with real issues makes viewers concerned/angry/fearful enough to watch, and the ratings climb.

The down side of this tendency is that advertising money is not the only gain from this behavior by the media, there is also palpable gain from the acquisition of hearts and minds, that is, propaganda. Everyone is so caught up in blue vs. red that they fail to see the facile way in which their opinions are being molded into divisiveness. The media seeks not resolution, only never ending conflict. No matter which side prevails each day, the media wins.

I have been perusing commentary in some blogs from time to time, and what I see is a division of two essential opinions: [1]. Change is immanent and the time for the return of intellect is at hand. [2]. The religious and cultural values of the so-called American middle class are in danger as never before. Now let's boil these down further: [1]. hope is to return [2]. fear is to return; i.e., hope vs. fear.

With news outlets that only benefit from conflict, is it any wonder that America cannot find any common ground from which to build a progressive consensus? Despite my frustration with conservative imbecility and liberal indecisiveness (conservative vs. liberal), I choose instead to adopt the first opinion, hope, because it holds within it the tolerance to encompass the second.

If America woke up tomorrow morning with 40+ more IQ points per capita, then maybe they would see that no opinion, however violently maintained is immune to possibility. It is possible that conservatives can lose obstinate ignorance, and it is also true that liberals could possibly grow some balls. One point of similarity that both sides hold is this: They both have an overarching mortal enemy that they cannot even see: the media.

In the beginning, the McCain campaign looked likely to be conducted in a gentlemanly fashion. This does not now appear to be the case. The latest affront to decency committed by the GOP is this new book about Barack Obama: "Obama Nation" (don't you just love puns?). The book's author, Jerome Corsi, poses as an investigative journalist and attempts to lend the veneer of plausibility to the blizzard of false claims directed at the person (not the policies) of Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle.

In his book, he cites spurious sources to back up his bizarre opinions, and most of his "sources" are other right-wing bloggers. In short, he is lead vocalist but he has backup singers and they are all singing the same tune. It is all about the appearance of legitimacy.

It is an interesting technique the smear mongers have developed:
[1]. Have some clown like Corsi, (of Swiftboat Veterans for Truth fame) write a book in which all the outrageous claims about Obama and his wife are analyzed with an eye towards creating doubt in the often confused mind of the American voter.
[2]. Get a GOP member highly placed in the publishing industry to publish it as a nonfiction book without regard for its journalistic accuracy.
[3]. Rich GOP members order many pallets of this book, which they will later return for a restock fee (If they even get shipped which is unlikely, often a purchase order will suffice for the NY Times). These hefty book orders trigger a New York Times bestseller classification.
[4]. The public thinks that many people have bought copies, mistaking the bestseller classification as an indication of actual relevance, so they buy copies too.
[5]. Doubt generated in the minds of the few that take the time to read it combine with the confused sheep mentality of the voting booth. Rumor has now become, for a brief time, fact; it will be disproved in its entirety AFTER the election.

It is quite ingenious really. Inexpensive, limited in its possibility of repercussion, and if the 2004 election is any example, very effective. Libel suits filed against the publisher or author will take months to get to court, and by that time the election is over; unreasonable doubt has swung indecision away from the target candidate, and back to the alternative: the most likely not-Bush that the GOP can find; in this case, John McCain.

Too bad, about John, I kinda liked the guy, but there is no way in hell I could vote for him now.

Tarpon Springs, FL - 1 May 2008, — Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the “D. C. Madam’, hung herself inside a small shed on her mother Blanch’s property in Florida. Assumably this final act of penitence was brought on by the humiliation of being caught servicing (at great profit) the sexual needs of Washington’s powerful and moral elites. Another prostitute, Brandy Britton, took the same out. It is interesting in a town built on pillars of morality, that a brothel would even survive, let alone prosper. I suppose that the less savory citizens there (lobbyists) save their corporate welfare checks for an expensive once-in-a-lifetime fling.

Not to be cliché, but these sudden attacks of humiliation and remorse that inevitably lead to suicide are very convenient for the elites. So much so that the outer reaches of plausibility are expanded and overwhelmed. That tired horse, “plausible denial” is once again being whipped to the task of covering up indiscretions made by the highest in the U. S. government and likely in the world as well. Only a government fully stocked with evangelical panderers could find this excuse for suicide plausible, but rather than question, we have the American propaganda outlet and the news organizations that derive their copy from them ready and willing to reinforce this errant spin without any further investigation of the matter. All context is irrelevant.

She apparently had a verifiable Bandini mountain of dirt on her client base; their likes and dislikes, their perversions of choice, oh, and also their NAMES. She implied that she would start naming names* rather than go to prison, but this implication has been spun into a retelling of the “Harlot Thais” morality play for girls. Let all sex workers take heed, if you want to service the Washington elites, make sure and keep your dirt safe, and you should spread it around for better fertility. Ms. Palfrey’s dirt might still be out there, but the fixers are fairly thorough. We shall see.

*"I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever." -Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

The USA and the world around us

e-mail sender: "This is really an intelligent, thought provoking analysis of world politics, demographics and future considerations. Herb Meyer served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council. In these positions, he managed production of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimates and other top-secret projections for the President and his national security advisers.

Meyer is widely credited with being the first senior U.S. Government official to forecast the Soviet Union’s collapse, for which he later was awarded the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Intelligence community’s highest honor. Formerly an associate editor of FORTUNE, he is also the author of several books."

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON? A GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING FOR CEOS

By: HERBERT MEYER

FOUR MAJOR TRANSFORMATIONS Currently, there are four major transformations that are shaping political, economic and world events. These transformations have profound implications for American business owners, our culture and our way of life.

1. The War in Iraq - There are three major monotheistic religions in the world: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In the 16th century, Judaism and Christianity reconciled with the modern world. The rabbis, priests and scholars found a way to settle up and pave the way forward. Religion remained at the center of life, church and state became separate. Rule of law, idea of economic liberty, individual rights, Human Rights - all these are defining points of modern Western civilization. These concepts started with the Greeks but didn’t take off until the 15th and 16th century when Judaism and Christianity found a way to reconcile with the modern world. When that happened, it unleashed the scientific revolution and the greatest outpouring of art, literature and music the world has ever known. Islam, which developed in the 7th century, counts millions of Moslems around the world who are normal people. However, there is a radical streak within Islam. When the radicals are in charge, Islam attacks Western civilization. Islam first attacked Western civilization in the 7th century, and later in the 16th and 17th centuries. By 1683, the Moslems (Turks from the Ottoman Empire) were literally at the gates of Vienna. It was in Vienna that the climatic battle between Islam and Western civilization took place. The West won and went forward. Islam lost and went backward. Interestingly, the date of that battle was September 11. Since then, Islam has not found a way to reconcile with the modern world.

Today, terrorism is the third attack on Western civilization by radical Islam. To deal with terrorism, the U.S. is doing two things. First, units of our armed forces are in 30 countries around the world hunting down terrorist groups and dealing with them. This gets very little publicity. Second we are taking military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are covered relentlessly by the media. People can argue about whether the war in Iraq is right or wrong. However, the underlying strategy behind the war is to use our military to remove the radicals from power and give the moderates a chance. Our hope is that, over time, the moderates will find a way to bring Islam forward into the 21st century. That’s what our involvement in Iraq andAfghanistan is all about.

The lesson of 9/11 is that we live in a world where a small number of people can kill a large number of people very quickly. They can use airplanes, bombs, anthrax, chemical weapons or dirty bombs. Even with a first-rate intelligence service (which the U.S. does not have), you can’t stop every attack. That means our tolerance for political horseplay has dropped to zero. No longer will we play games with terrorists or weapons of mass destructions.

Most of the instability and horseplay is coming from the Middle East.

That’s why we have thought that if we could knock out the radicals and give the moderates a chance to hold power; they might find a way to reconcile Islam with the modern world. So when looking at Afghanistan or Iraq, it’s important to look for any signs that they are modernizing. For example, a woman being brought into the workforce and colleges in Afghanistan is good. The Iraqis stumbling toward a constitution is good. People can argue about what the U.S. is doing and how we’re doing it, but anything that suggests Islam is finding its way forward is good.

2. The Emergence of China In the last 20 years, China has moved 250 million people from the farms and villages into the cities. Their plan is to move another 300 million in the next 20 years. When you put that many people into the cities, you have to find work for them. That’s why China is addicted to manufacturing; they have to put all the relocated people to work. When we decide to manufacture something in the U.S., it’s based on market needs and the opportunity to make a profit. In China, they make the decision because they want the jobs, which is a very different calculation.

While China is addicted to manufacturing, Americans are addicted to low prices. As a result, a unique kind of economic codependency has developed between the two countries. If we ever stop buying from China, they will explode politically. IfChina stops selling to us, our economy will take a huge hit because prices will jump. We are subsidizing their economic development; they are subsidizing our economic growth. Because of their huge growth in manufacturing, China is hungry for raw materials, which drive prices up worldwide. China is also thirsty for oil, which is one reason oil is now at $60 a barrel. By 2020, China will produce more cars than the U.S. China is also buying its way into the oil infrastructure around the world. They are doing it in the open market and paying fair market prices, but millions of barrels of oil that would have gone to theU.S. are now going to China. China’s quest to assure it has the oil it needs to fuel its economy is a major factor in world politics and economics. We have our Navy fleets protecting the sea lines, specifically the ability to get the tankers through. It won’t be long before the Chinese have an aircraft carrier sitting in the Persian Gulf as well. The question is, will their aircraft carrier be pointing in the same direction as ours or against us?

3. Shifting Demographics of Western Civilization - Most countries in the Western world have stopped breeding. For a civilization obsessed with sex, this is remarkable. Maintaining a steady population requires a birth rate of 2.1. In Western Europe, the birth rate currently stands at 1.5, or 30 percent below replacement. In 30 years there will be 70 to 80 million fewer Europeans than there are today.

The current birth rate in Germany is 1.3. Italy and Spain are even lower at 1.2. At that rate, the working age population declines by 30 percent in 20 years, which has a huge impact on the economy.

When you don’t have young workers to replace the older ones, you have to import them. The European countries are currently importing Moslems. Today, the Moslems comprise 10 percent of France and Germany, and the percentage is rising rapidly because they have higher birthrates.

However, the Moslem populations are not being integrated into the cultures of their host countries, which is a political catastrophe. One reason Germany and France don’t support the Iraq war is they fear their Moslem populations will explode on them. By 2020, more than half of all births in the Netherlands will be non-European.

The huge design flaw in the post-modern secular state is that you need a traditional religious society birth rate to sustain it. The Europeans simply don’t wish to have children, so they are dying.

In Japan, the birthrate is 1.3. As a result, Japan will lose up to 60 million people over the next 30 years. Because Japan has a very different society than Europe, they refuse to import workers. Instead, they are just shutting down. Japan has already closed 2000 schools, and is closing them down at the rate of 300 per year. Japan is also aging very rapidly. By 2020, one out of every five Japanese will be at least 70 years old. Nobody has any idea about how to run an economy with those demographics.

Europe and Japan, which comprise two of the world’s major economic engines, aren’t merely in recession, they’re shutting down. This will have a huge impact on the world economy, and it is already beginning to happen.

Why are the birthrates so low? There is a direct correlation between abandonment of traditional religious society and a drop in birth rate, and Christianity in Europe is becoming irrelevant. The second reason is economic. When the birth rate drops below replacement, the population ages.

With fewer working people to support more retired people, it puts a crushing tax burden on the smaller group of working age people. As a result, young people delay marriage and having a family. Once this trend starts, the downward spiral only gets worse. These countries have abandoned all the traditions they formerly held in regards to having families and raising children.

The U.S. birth rate is 2.0, just below replacement. We have an increase in population because of immigration. When broken down by ethnicity, the Anglo birth rate is 1.6 (same as France) while the Hispanic birth rate is 2.7. In the U.S., the baby boomers are starting to retire in massive numbers. This will push the elder dependency ratio from 19 to 38 over the next 10 to 15 years. This is not as bad as Europe, but still represents the same kind of trend.

Western civilization seems to have forgotten what every primitive society understands - you need kids to have a healthy society. Children are huge consumers. Then they grow up to become taxpayers. That’s how a society works, but the post-modern secular state seems to have forgotten that. If U.S. birth rates of the past 20 to 30 years had been the same as post-World War II, there would be no Social Security or Medicare problems.

The world’s most effective birth control device is money. As society creates a middle class and women move into the workforce, birth rates drop. Having large families is incompatible with middle class living. The quickest way to drop the birth rate is through rapid economic development. After World War II, the U.S. instituted a $600 tax credit per child. The idea was to enable mom and dad to have four children without being troubled by taxes. This led to a baby boom of 22 million kids, which was a huge consumer market that turned into a huge tax base. However, to match that incentive in today’s dollars would cost $12,000 per child.

China and India do not have declining populations. However, in both countries, there is a preference for boys over girls, and we now have the technology to know which is which before they are born. In China and India, many families are aborting the girls. As a result, in each of these countries there are 70 million boys growing up who will never find wives.

When left alone nature produces 103 boys for every 100 girls. In some provinces, however, the ratio is 128 boys to every 100 girls.

The birth rate in Russia is so low that by 2050 their population will be smaller than that of Yemen. Russia has one-sixth of the earth’s land surface and much of its oil. You can’t control that much area with such a small population.

Immediately to the south, you have China with 70 million unmarried men are a real potential nightmare scenario for Russia.

4. Restructuring of American Business - The fourth major transformation involves a fundamental restructuring of American business. Today’s business environment is very complex and competitive. To succeed, you have to be the best, which means having the highest quality and lowest cost. Whatever your price point, you must have the best quality and lowest price. To be the best, you have to concentrate on one thing. You can’t be all things to all people and be the best.

A generation ago, IBM used to make every part of their computer. Now Intel makes the chips, Microsoft makes the software, and someone else makes the modems, hard drives, monitors, etc. IBM even outsources their call center.

Because IBM has all these companies supplying goods and services cheaper and better than they could do it themselves, they can make a better computer at a lower cost. This is called a fracturing of business. When one company can make a better product by relying on others to perform functions the business used to do itself, it creates a complex pyramid of companies that serve and support each other.

This fracturing of American business is now in its second generation.

The companies who supply IBM are now doing the same thing-outsourcing many of their core services and production process. As a result, they can make cheaper, better products. Over time, this pyramid continues to get bigger and bigger. Just when you think it can’t fracture again, it does. Even very small businesses can have a large pyramid of corporate entities that perform many of its important functions. One aspect of this trend is that companies end up with fewer employees and more independent contractors.

This trend has also created two new words in business; integrator and complementor. At the top of the pyramid, IBM is the integrator. As you go down the pyramid, Microsoft, Intel and the other companies that support IBM are the complementors. However, each of the complementors is itself an integrator for the complementors underneath it. This has several implications, the first of which is that we are now getting false readings on the economy. People who used to be employees are now independent contractors launching their own businesses. There are many people working whose work is not listed as a job. As a result, the economy is perking along better than the numbers are telling us.

Outsourcing also confused the numbers. Suppose a company like General Motors decides to outsource all its employee cafeteria functions to Marriott (which it did). It lays-off hundreds of cafeteria workers, who then get hired right back by Marriott. The only thing that has changed is that these people work for Marriott rather than GM. Yet, the headlines will scream that America has lost more manufacturing jobs. All that really happened is that these workers are now reclassified as service workers. So the old way of counting jobs contributes to false economic readings. As yet, we haven’t figured out how to make the numbers catch up with the changing realities of the business world.

Another implication of this massive restructuring is that because companies are getting rid of units and people that used to work for them, the entity is smaller. As the companies get smaller and more efficient, revenues are going down but profits are going up. As a result, the old notion that revenues are up and we’re doing great isn’t always the case anymore. Companies are getting smaller but are becoming more efficient and profitable in the process.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOUR TRANSFORMATIONS

1. The War in Iraq? In some ways, the war is going very well. Afghanistan and Iraq have the beginnings of a modern government, which is a huge step forward. The Saudis are starting to talk about some good things, while Egypt and Lebanonare beginning to move in a good direction.

A series of revolutions have taken place in countries like Ukraine and Georgia. There will be more of these revolutions for an interesting reason. In every revolution, there comes a point where the dictator turns to the general and says, Fire into the crowd. If the general fires into the crowd, it stops the revolution. If the general says No, the revolution continues.

Increasingly, the generals are saying No because their kids are in the crowd.

Thanks to TV and the Internet, the average 18-year old outside the U.S. is very savvy about what is going on in the world, especially in terms of popular culture. There is a huge global consciousness, and young people around the world want to be a part of it. It is increasingly apparent to them that the miserable government where they live is the only thing standing in their way. More and more, it is the well-educated kids, the children of the generals and the elite, who are leading the revolutions.

At the same time, not all is well with the war. The level of violence in Iraq is much worse and doesn’t appear to be improving. It’s possible that we’re asking too much of Islam all at one time. We’re trying to jolt them from the 7th century to the 21st century all at once, which may be further than they can go. They might make it and they might not. Nobody knows for sure. The point is we don’t know how the war will turn out. Anyone who says they know is just guessing.

The real place to watch is Iran. If they actually obtain nuclear weapons it will be a terrible situation. There are two ways to deal with it.

The first is a military strike, which will be very difficult. The Iranians have dispersed their nuclear development facilities and put them underground. The U.S. has nuclear weapons that can go under the earth and take out those facilities, but we don’t want to do that. The other way is to separate the radical mullahs from the government, which is the most likely course of action.

Seventy percent of the Iranian population is under 30. They are Moslem but not Arab. They are mostly pro-Western. Many experts think the U.S. should have dealt with Iran before going to war with Iraq. The problem isn’t so much the weapons; it’s the people who control them. If Iran has a moderate government, the weapons become less of a concern.

We don’t know if we will win the war in Iraq. We could lose or win. What we’re looking for is any indicator that Islam is moving into the 21st century and stabilizing.

2. China? It may be that pushing 500 million people from farms and villages into cities is too much too soon. Although it gets almost no publicity, China is experiencing hundreds of demonstrations around the country, which is unprecedented. These are not students in Tiananmen Square. These are average citizens who are angry with the government for building chemical plants and polluting the water they drink and the air they breathe.

The Chinese are a smart and industrious people. They may be able to pull it off and become a very successful economic and military superpower. If so, we will have to learn to live with it. If they want to share the responsibility of keeping the world’s oil lanes open, that’s a good thing.

They currently have eight new nuclear electric power generators under way and 45 on the books to build. Soon, they will leave the U.S. way behind in their ability to generate nuclear power.

What can go wrong with China? For one, you can’t move 550 million people into the cities without major problems. Two, China really wants Taiwan, not so much for economic reasons, they just want it. The Chinese know that their system of communism can’t survive much longer in the 21st century. The last thing they want to do before they morph into some sort of more capitalistic government is to take over Taiwan. We may wake up one morning and find they have launched an attack on Taiwan. If so, it will be a mess, both economically and militarily. The U.S. has committed to the military defense of Taiwan. If China attacks Taiwan, will we really go to war against them?

If the Chinese generals believe the answer is no, they may attack. If we don’t defend Taiwan, every treaty the U.S. has will be worthless. Hopefully, China won’t do anything stupid.

3. Demographics? Europe and Japan are dying because their populations are aging and shrinking. These trends can be reversed if the young people start breeding. However, the birth rates in these areas are so low it will take two generations to turn things around. No economic model exists that permits 50 years to turn things around. Some countries are beginning to offer incentives for people to have bigger families. For example, Italy is offering tax breaks for having children. However, it’s a lifestyle issue versus a tiny amount of money. Europeans aren’t willing to give up their comfortable lifestyles in order to have more children.

In general, everyone in Europe just wants it to last a while longer. Europeans have a real talent for living. They don’t want to work very hard. The average European worker gets 400 more hours of vacation time per year than Americans. They don’t want to work and they don’t want to make any of the changes needed to revive their economies.

The summer after 9/11, France lost 15,000 people in a heat wave. In August, the country basically shuts down when everyone goes on vacation. That year, a severe heat wave struck and 15,000 elderly people living in nursing homes and hospitals died. Their children didn’t even leave the beaches to come back and take care of the bodies. Institutions had to scramble to find enough refrigeration units to hold the bodies until people came to claim them.

This loss of life was five times bigger than 9/11 in America, yet it didn’t trigger any change in French society. When birth rates are so low, it creates a tremendous tax burden on the young. Under those circumstances, keeping mom and dad alive is not an attractive option. That’s why euthanasia is becoming so popular in most European countries. The only country that doesn’t permit (and even encourage) euthanasia is Germany, because of all the baggage from World War II.

The European economy is beginning to fracture. The Euro is down. Countries like Italy are starting to talk about pulling out of the European Union because it is killing them. When things get bad economically in Europe, they tend to get very nasty politically. The canary in the mine is anti-Semitism. When it goes up, it means trouble is coming. Current levels of anti-Semitism are higher than ever. Germany won’t launch another war, but Europe will likely get shabbier, more dangerous and less pleasant to live in.

Japan has a birth rate of 1.3 and has no intention of bringing in immigrants. By 2020, one out of every five Japanese will be 70 years old. Property values in Japan have dropped every year for the past 14 years. The country is simply shutting down.

In the U.S. we also have an aging population. Boomers are starting to retire at a massive rate. These retirements will have several major impacts: Possible massive sell-off of large four-bedroom houses and a movement to condos. An enormous drain on the treasury. Boomers vote and they want their benefits, even if it means putting a crushing tax burden on their kids to get them. Social Security will be a huge problem. As this generation ages, it will start to drain the system. We are the only country in the world where there are no age limits on medical procedures an enormous drain on the health care system. This will also increase the tax burden on the young, which will cause them to delay marriage and having families, which will drive down the birth rate even further.

Although scary, these demographics also present enormous opportunities for products and services tailored to aging populations. There will be tremendous demand for caring for older people, especially those who don’t need nursing homes but need some level of care. Some people will have a business where they take care of three or four people in their homes. The demand for that type of service and for products to physically care for aging people will be huge.

Make sure the demographics of your business are attuned to where the action is. For example, you don’t want to be a baby food company in Europe or Japan. Demographics are much underrated as an indicator of where the opportunities are. Businesses need customers. Go where the customers are.

4. Restructuring of American Business? The restructuring of American business means we are coming to the end of the age of the employer and employee. With all this fracturing of businesses into different and smaller units, employers can’t guarantee jobs anymore because they don’t know what their companies will look like next year. Everyone is on their way to becoming an independent contractor. The new workforce contract will be, a show-up at my office five days a week and do what I want you to do, but you handle your own insurance, benefits, health care and everything else.

Husbands and wives are becoming economic units. They take different jobs and work different shifts depending on where they are in their careers and families. They make tradeoffs to put together a compensation package to take care of the family. This used to happen only with highly educated professionals with high incomes. Now it is happening at the level of the factory floor worker. Couples at all levels are designing their compensation packages based on their individual needs. The only way this can work is if everything is portable and flexible, which requires a huge shift in the American economy.

The U.S. is in the process of building the world’s first 21st century model economy. The only other countries doing this areU.K. and Australia. The model is fast, flexible, highly productive and unstable in that it is always fracturing and re-fracturing. This will increase the economic gap between the U.S. and everybody else, especially Europe and Japan.

At the same time, the military gap is increasing. Other than China, we are the only country that is continuing to put money into their military. Plus, we are the only military getting on-the-ground military experience through our war in Iraq. We know which high-tech weapons are working and which ones aren’t. There is almost no one who can take us on economically or militarily. There has never been a superpower in this position before.

On the one hand, this makes the U.S. a magnet for bright and ambitious people. It also makes us a target. We are becoming one of the last holdouts of the traditional Judeo-Christian culture. There is no better place in the world to be in business and raise children. The U.S. is by far the best place to have an idea, form a business and put it into the marketplace. We take it for granted, but it isn’t as available in other countries of the world.

Ultimately, it’s an issue of culture. The only people who can hurt us are ourselves, by losing our culture. If we give up our Judeo-Christian culture, we become just like the Europeans. The culture war is the whole ballgame. If we lose it, there isn’t another America to pull us out.

REBUTTAL:

The main thing I came away with on this article is (bear with me) the fundamental two-facedness of the power elites, of which I consider the author of this article a member.

When it is time to out-source to get the so-called "highest quality at the lowest cost" then a multinational economy is a good thing. When it comes to erasing the popular control offered by nationalistic beliefs, they sing an entirely different tune. You are either multi-national or you are not.

Yes, the Muslims can be throwbacks to the stone age, but:

[1]. It is not the west's responsibility to elevate another Judeo-christain belief to the present in order to even the playing field. It is evolution's nature to eradicate those patterns that do not expand the fittest and to destroy those patterns that don't. If Muslims will act like criminals, than they will be prosecuted on an individual basis. Uniting them under one banner, "Islam" is just generalizing the problem and throwing out the baby with the bath.

[2]. Perhaps the underlying problem is not Islam or a lapse of Judeo-christianity, it is more likely Judeo-christianity itself. It is a belief system that tends to downplay the inter-connectedness of things. Science continues to disprove and trivialize beliefs that like Islam, stem from the 7th century. The writer makes an inadequate case for Judeo-christianity over secularism; the concepts of beginnings and ends, clanism and the eternal struggle are incredibly misplaced in a world as interdependent as this one.

I do agree that China is now competing with the U.S. for natural resources, but American sunlight and wind power are in no way competing with China's at this time. The struggle here is on behalf of the oil companies.

We are either a world state or we are not. If we are, then nationalistic fervor has no place. If not, then the human world is overdue for a substantial downsizing at the hands of evolution.

Your thoughts?

Looking at the deaths and casualties that have piled up during the extended (some might posit "neverending") war in Iraq I feel that my pet goat is lucky he is less than adequately intelligent. I have dealt with stupid people before and their inability to assemble cohesive concepts from observed phenomena protects their fragile psyches from dwelling on the sometimes horrific results of their inept decision making.

It is true, ignorance truly is bliss.

So instead of elective plastic surgery, wouldn't it be better if people elected to have frontal lobotomies instead? At least then they would have a valid excuse for their behavior.

Count me in.

I am sick and fucking tired of the apparently hopeless addiction this age (not world) has to Abrahamic religions.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Three philosophies that have experienced such frequent schisms through the centuries that their common ancestry has been all but completely obscured in BS. That's the colossal joke, they are all elementally forms of Judaism; but try to tell a Christian or a Muslim he is actually Jewish; a Christian will blush and a Muslim will try to hurt you.

The Abrahamic illusion of the beginning and the end of the world are a prime example. Beliefs so prevalent in western thought that science is replete with them. As an example I would cite the "big bang theory". this universe stems from a single big bang at some far distant past that is so distant as to have no actual relation to any human-conceived perception of reality. Did it ever occur to any of these supposedly detached scientific observers that the concept of beginnings and endings is just that; a concept? We believe there is a beginning and end because our parents on back through millennia believed. Our place in all this is so miniscule that any idea about beginnings and ends is moot. Compared to a billion years, a human life is much, much less than a spark.

No further thought required, the idiocracy has begun.

These crusading ninnies with their Christendoms and Caliphates will without cease bash each other into bloody tatters content in their personal belief that their god (the same god) will have a place for them in heaven after they die and will reserve a warm spot in hell for their enemies. This is dangerous thinking because it makes them reckless with the lives of all us other poor dumb bastards stuck riding this globe to infinity.

The rationale that it is necessary to take the war against terrorism overseas (Iraq)to keep the terrorists from coming to America is patently immoral. I hear it most from Christian conservatives.

The cowardly, middle-aged, fat and stupid American conservative believes that it can obtain security by throwing young men and women and money in a seemingly desperate attempt to keep the enemy away.

Do I propose a solution?

Nope, but growing some 'nads might be a good start.

Two news stories that caught my attention today:

One, that Turkey is champing at the bit to invade northern Iraq to quell PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) rebellion. The Turkish military brass are already mobilized in their southern region, and well placed to continue on over the border into Iraq. The U.S. has consistently tried to discourage this type of behavior by their ally, but with U.S. forces stretched so thin in the region, the timing might be right for a little land (and oil) grab by Turkey, pre-empting any thoughts of an independent nation for the Kurds.

Two, the CFO of pet food manufacturer Menu Foods accidentally sold half of his shares in Menu three weeks prior to the news getting out about family pets dying of kidney failures, apparently a result of them eating pet food and treats made from contaminated wheat products that Menu purchased from a Chinese supplier. He supposedly had no knowledge of these events because he "would not have known about them because of the size of the company," according to Menu apologist Sam Bornstein. Was he too busy on the golf course, perhaps?

The veneer of bullshit has become so transparent that one wonders why the takers even bother to try to conceal it.

Farewell to Kurt Vonnegut, who made his transition today; aged 84 years.

My son told me of an experiment that was assisted by an aquaintance involved in primate research. The study was to determine a primate's ability to comprehend physical symbols. The experiment was to give tokens to rhesus monkeys to reward them for positive behavior. Whenever the monkeys performed as requested, they would receive a token which they could then redeem for a treat.

The monkeys quickly got the hang of this abstraction from tokens, which they can't eat, into treats, which they can. - in other words, Money.

In the next phase of the experiment, they introduced tokens into the monkey's cages without first requiring a positive behavior. The monkey's response was perhaps predictable, the stronger monkeys would batter the weaker ones and take the tokens from them. Some of the female monkeys would have sex with these stronger monkeys and would receive a token good for a treat in return.

The scientists managed to introduce robbery and prostitution into the primates' social structure in a very short period of time.

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Historically, these same behaviors became evident as exercised by the tribes of Isreal while Moses was talking to a burning bush on Mt. Sinai.

It is amazing to me how pragmatic the invisible hand can be. Is there ever an end in which the money-grubbing becomes too much? A place where even the most obtuse capitalist starts seeing the self-destructiveness of this avaricious behavior?

The northwest passage to the orient has ever been a Ciabola to the merchant class. To cut so many miles off of established trade routes, ahh, the profits! Enough to make an Emperor blush.

This planet (earth) is made up of many checks and balances. These checks and balances are like vast machinery awaiting sufficient force applied to the appropriate lever to begin functioning.

The most obvious example is the hydrologic cycle, liquid to gas to solid, or water to evaporation to ice. Ice formed is white, water is dark, evaporation is grades of clarity. Water falls from the sky, rain. If the temperature is warm enough it quickly returns to the gaseous evaporative state. If cold enough, the water freezes into ice.

Longwave solar radiation excites the water molecules enticing them to evaporate. The longwave radiation rebounds off of the frozen ice in what is known as the albedo effect. Polar ice is very white with a strong albedo effect. Dark water has almost no albedo.

The radiation striking the water is absorbed, the radiation striking the ice is reflected. Therefore, the water absorbs heat at the same time as the ice rejects it. The ice is floating on the surface of the water, where currents gradually melt it away. Reduction in ozone resistance to longwave solar radiation makes water molecules more active, creating more heat, melting more ice. The mechanism is now in operation.

Whatever agent has caused it, the water is now warmer. The warmer water causes the ice to melt faster, the ocean gets warmer with more unfiltered solar radiation, the ice diminishes, further reducing albedo effect, causing more absorption of solar radiation, and so it goes.

Global warming is not that hard to understand. Did human beings cause it?

Does it matter who caused it?

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Religion and science can each provide all the plausible denial one would need to deny anything. Holocaust revisionists can scientifically prove that the holocaust was made up by Zionist jews, scientists with strong religious beliefs can prove that the world has only been in existence 8,000 years. Both scenarios superficially plausible, but very unlikely.

When dealing with a precision device such as the planet earth, is it so hard to see that if there is a dumbshit at the controls, despite all inherent checks and balances, the course of the planet can go astray?

We humans are that dumbshit.

Is it arrogant for a human to claim that tiny little people can cause a fundamental change in the world climate? Hm, Is it arrogant for tiny little people to claim, based on an old testament, that God created the earth for the dominion of man? Sounds to me like man is dominating the planet, just as the Abrahamic God wanted it.

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So the fabled Northwest Passage is due to become a year-round trade route within the next 25 years (science currently feels it will take fifty years, but let's just see.) Investors with an eye towards long-term growth potential are snapping up previously barren, icebound coastline all along Canada's northernmost shorelines, and likely along the northernmost shores of Siberia as well. In a warmer global climate, this will be the latitude in which the merchants will be able to bypass the Panama Canal and the Red Sea, saving both time and money.

Though rising sea levels will reduce land mass substantially, the human race will still have access to cheap imports. A sound investment.

Now that George W. Bush has been relegated to lame duck status, are his policies, i.e. social security reform, still viable? The Republican controlled congress must sense that the straight party line is becoming increasingly unpopular, so will they ease up on the more controversial issues that have a real possibility of inflicting long-term damage, like the overturn of Roe vs. Wade and the continuation of the Iraq war?

Or perhaps, sensing that the Bullshit has gotten way out of hand and the possibility of a shift back to Democrat (not democracy) is eminent, Should it make them more cautious as they wend their precarious way towards the end of My pet goat's (MPG) term, one of the more destructive presidencies this country has ever been forced to endure?

I am frequently hearing the Iraq war referred to in conversation as "George Bush's war". This is scarcely odd because an unjust war based on lies, even if Plato said that the philosopher kings sometimes must lie to the common man, is still an unjust war. Considering the fact that Plato and Jesus Christ, two men who held righteousness in high regard, are the main figures on which MPG seems to base his administration's philosophy, this state of paradox begins to form a bit of a conundrum for the "Bushies".

The Supreme Court is about to become staffed with the most creative majority since the Dred Scott decision thanks to the fortuitous timing of the Bush presidency, and Allan Greenspan is also due to retire on MPG'S watch. The republicans have been given the key to dominion over the American government, and realizing this, maybe the power has gone a little to their little, bullet-shaped heads.

(more beer)

The world circumstance brought about by America's odd foreign policies are getting harder and harder to justify. How can you help but blame dependence on oil? We have made the American way of life available to the world, as long as the world can provide the oil that that way of life requires. The manufacture of goods, the delivery of goods, the promotion of goods, the electricity to operate goods, there is literally nothing that does not in some way depend on oil. How the hell did this happen?

A Korean reseach team has managed to implant adult DNA into fertilized human eggs with the DNA removed. The egg has grown to create a mass of undifferentiated cells with DNA that is identical to the adult's. The purpose for this research is to hopefully create cells for therapies that won't stimulate an immune response in the patient.

If the combined DNA of a fertilized egg constitutes a human soul, then an unfertilized egg, containing only the DNA of the female, does not. If this were otherwise it would make a murderer out of every woman experiencing menses. To artificially insemenate an egg containing implanted DNA would represent asexual reproduction, therefore the resulting human life would not be dead because of the many identical copies of the DNA.

Or is the soul implanted in the egg by an angel?

The possibility I see is this: If I could have my DNA implanted within an undifferentiated cell that eventually forms another me, the animus that created my consciousness should be transferred to the new, identical organism.

My soul is a combination of predestined closure of DNA sequences that are influenced by the environment in which I circulate. If consciousness is imprinted on a molecular level, My hypothalumus was created in a pattern established by my unique DNA, therefore, barring mutations, the hypothalamus formed in the new me would be identical. The addressing function that the hypothalamus provides would be identical on a cellular level. In short, if all the machinery is exactly the same, how could the soul be different?

A civilian killed by military action during declared wartime is collateral damage.

Murder in cold blood is when a person is deliberately killed in peacetime.

Therefore:

A civilian deliberately killed after the declared end of a war has been murdered in cold blood.

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Any civilians killed in Iraq after Bush declared the end of the war weren't killed in wartime.

U.S. soldiers on the ground since the declared end of the war are doing as commanded from the boardroom and combatting the enemy. Because of this, their self-defensive actions during hostility provoked by invasion were deliberate.

Therefore:

The culpability for any deaths of innocent civilians in Iraq falls on the commanders, both military and civilian, who initiated the conflict.

As responsibilities increase, as indicated by the number of keys on my keyring, I get increasingly introspective about the tendency that time has to accelerate as one ages. Its a temporal anomaly that time is subject to perception; a day to me now seemed like a month back when I was 10 years old. I'd like to see Einstein have a crack at solving that one.

True freedom is not the same as absolute freedom. The saying goes, if you love something set it free, yadda yadda. One releases expectation, setting it adrift on a sea of possibility; ready for whatever may come. If you can't have at least one chance at true freedom in your life, it has been an empty life indeed. All the variables and all the probabilities are there, and you can only live this way by being indifferent to the coin toss.

It is wonderful how subtle a descent into negativity can be and how swiftly this negativity can be dispelled. All it takes is a decision to do so.

Human language is a dangerous thing. It can inspire to great heights like JFK and the space program, Ghandi and non-violent rebellion, but it can also inspire hate, war, and genocide.

There is one language that does not suffer misinterpretation and that all nations and cultures can learn to speak equally. Many people have already done so. This is the language that is vital to all human endeavors from before the pyramids of Egypt to far beyond the loftiest predictions of the technological future.

I think that those who speak this language will attain and maintain world dominance, and as skill with the use of this language increases, not only the understanding of concrete concepts (of course), but also increasing will be an understanding of the more ephemeral concepts such as emotion, the ebb and flood of history, and the ability to accurately predict the future. Isaac Asimov theorized this possibility in his “Foundation Trilogy”.

This is the language of mathematics. This language has ever been incomprehensible to me, and this is possibly due to the workings of my mind.

All I know is that this is a binary universe.

I read a gloomy article in the CSM about a new UN report on the damage that is being done to the planet earth by its chronic human infestation. The report said that 25% of the earth’s surface is now being used for agriculture, and 60% of this agriculture is done in an unsustainable manner. Species extinctions are on the rise, cod fisheries are depleted, and Paul Wolfowitz wants to chair the world bank. Heady stuff.

I found information about the new synthetic (cultured) diamonds manufactured by Gamesis and Apollo Diamonds. These cultured diamonds are identical to the real thing. Same on the crystal shape, same on the Moh’s hardness scale, identical in appearance to where even master gemologists cannot tell the difference.

Sensing their empire slipping, DeBeers has supposedly developed a “black box” that will be able to detect the difference. This device when released will be too expensive for jewelers and will be installed in gemology labs instead. People who want to know if it is a real diamond or a cultured one will likely have to go to the lab to have their gems certified. My question is, if the cultured gem is identical, what difference does it make if it is real or not? (Only devaluation of all currency that is based on the highly expensive natural diamonds.) I wonder if DeBeers labs are going to have a giant wizard of oz type set-up: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”.)

All this has led to the naturally flawed diamonds having a higher value than the perfect cultured ones. Living proof of the veracity of Gresham's law. As Johnny Hart said in his comic strip "B.C.", would diamonds be as valuable if they looked like raisins?

Perhaps more.

Socrates speaks in Plato’s “Republic” about four forms of government that must interact in a perpetual synchronicity like a huge, human machine.

First there is the timocracy, or government by strength. This form survives by absorbing its neighbors; it must keep growing by continuously swallowing its competitors’ resources. The values of this society favor the strong, those who are most skilled in warfare.

The increase in quality of life brought about by the consumption of resources leads to a gradual shift in values from admiration of the warrior to admiration of money; resources; the spoils of war. This obsession with money shifts values to favor and admire those who are most skilled at accumulating wealth. This leads to government by the wealthy; or oligarchy.

The wealthy continue to accumulate wealth until the obsession with material gain leads to complete polarization between rich and poor. The majority is the poor and this leads to the hungry poor attacking the rich, and the rich, in order to protect themselves from the poor, must exert more and more forms of control until most freedom is lost and everything is subject to governmental restriction.

This last form of government is called a tyranny: The controlling government continues to tighten its grip on the population but finds out, too late, that a class of persons toughened by the conditions created in this social environment arises from the populace, seizes the government and commences a rule by timocracy.

And so it goes.

Do I believe this? No, but it does make me think. Right now from this post 9-11 viewpoint, America seems to be evolving from the oligarchy phase to the tyranny phase. From an American's viewpoint, the world political climate indicates that America is moving from timocracy into oligarchy.

In this worldview, true democracy might be impossible.

The inescapable tendency of the human to practice hypocrisy.

Medicine - healthy people don't need to be treated with the expensive stuff, therefore sick people are good for the bottom line while healthy people are not.

Journalism and mass media - all the news that the owners want to print or broadcast, all the ideas that the owners want their audiences to believe, (like the belief that a boob job will enhance one's self-esteem, or that a candidate is not lying). Propaganda is great for profits.

Justice system - rich guys get their day in court, often with media coverage, all others must plea bargain.

Elected officials - special interest cash and PACs pre-empting ethics through loopholes. If it isn't codified, it isn't illegal.

Some of these items have been fucked up at the same time as they have been vastly improved:

Medicine has advanced human life expectancy (how long we live and the quality of said life).

Journalism by ENG and satellite reporting, the mini-camcorder and camera cell phone.

Elections can potentially revert to true democratic form via the internet.

The justice system can potentially embrace digital justice to correct the snarls created by a postoral and archaic system of trials.

Interactive television as mass media can potentially change television from mindless pandering to actual relevance.

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The technologist believes these scientific solutions hold the key to humankind's salvation, and he or she may be right, but with the unabashed profit motive of corporate personhood, technological advances tend to take the back seat to happy stockholders.

Oil interests and automobile manufacturers are an example; Through use of lobbying and special interest cash paid to corrupt politicians (they know who they are), they misappropriate taxpayer funds away from the taxpayer's highest interests, and they influence passage of restrictive laws, thus driving down competition in alternate energy and environmental technologies. Because of this tendency, the pace of possible realization of environmental reforms are sporadic and unpredictable, therefore too slow.

Automobile manufacturers and Oil Refiners do not need until 2020 to implement reforms of their technology, they just need to tell their stockholders to back off for awhile.

Fat chance.

As this planet’s human population expands to engulf all landmass, human social structure is going to be required to evolve into another form. The human expansion is very similar to a yeast culture in that it consumes all available food, and in the process, gradually poisons itself with its own excrement.

There are many alternative natural models that can be used, and if any large, successful organism population can be studied with an eye as to what its success consist of, and whether this fits within the range of human social norms, then the human mammal might be able to avoid extinction.

Following the social patterns of lemmings, or of a swarm of locusts, while posessing many facets identical to human sociality, would not be favorable for obvious reasons. There are other social structures that allow for sustained growth with sustained supply. avoiding the excremental phase of human social development. I would suggest that a more favorable model exists within the beehive.

The human tendency to prefer male offspring before female that results in population imbalances can translate in to the drone segments of hive society. The female continues to do most of the work and the male will experience a corresponding drop in status until the social preference for males will become a preference for females.

Male population will diminish as a result. OR the females will all become queens and the majority of males will lose the ability and even the desire to reproduce, thereby forming a neutral-gender third sex.

I would call these creatures femans.

People think what they are instructed to think; presumably by someone more in tune with reality than they are. The study of the media in conjunction with the study of history (not necessarily modern history) with regard to the human animal tends to reveal many common threads that even predate the invention of newspapers, the first form of mass communications I know of. There were signal fires and drums previous to this, but these two media were limited in their ability to communicate abstract concepts.

Propaganda and news; it is usually impossible to tell the difference. This might be due to that fact that I am American and have been created and conditioned to be a consumer. The main “agenda” in a consumer society is to summon a desire that would otherwise be ignored by those within the target area, and offer an easy means of fulfilling that desire.

Did advertising learn from government? Did government learn from advertising? This chicken-or-egg argument, though pointless in the grand scheme, does lead to reflection on the best, proper uses of propaganda. When a medium of communication is being abused, does it negate the benefits of it?

Seeing a message that you are led gradually to think is news when in fact it is an advertisement has become more commonplace. This tendency has been increasing steadily in this world, especially since the 1970s.

The last hope for unbiased mass communications is the internet; so how can corporate entities take control of the internet?

Bandwidth?

The phrase "E. Pluribus Unum" that is stamped or printed on to American money is latin for "Of the many, one.". It is commonly interpreted to mean that American citizens are united in their society, goals and aspirations.

The U.S. supreme court was founded by President James Madison for the power elites of colonial America as a condition to their continued support of the brand new constitution. This august body has since been called upon throughout American history to interpret new laws and decide whether these new laws are in keeping with the spirit of the constitution, the sacred opinion. The court was created as a check to the power of the mob to unite and nationalize private holdings. The court has always been made up of power elites and the appointment, which made by the president, and approved by Congress, is for life.

It is a system that was specifically designed to protect the huddled masses from themselves, and to protect the power structure of the upper class already in place in the new nation. Then as now, the working class has a tendency to try to organize itself in this country so that it can collectively bargain for better hours, better compensation, safer workplaces and any other issues of concern, like child labor. Occasionally this has led to strikes that have required federal intervention to break. The government in America is supposedly the people; it is, after-all, a democracy. These strikes are sometimes very violent, consisting of soldiers of the national guard shooting the strikers

The phrase "Of the many, one", though it does sound protective of the rights of the private citizen to constitutional guarantees, is actually a reference to the American practice through capitalism of funneling the combined efforts of the working class, (the many) through the control of the power elites (the one).