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So, I had a conversation with Stinkapee. She wanted to know why the British had enslaved Black Africans, our ancestors and dragged them over here to work. I gave her a simple answer. I told her that they probably had Dursleys for parents.

I was talking to my counsellor when I realized that I was more accurate than I realized. The "parents" of the British, the influential people that Western historians would probably say came before the British were the Romans who invaded that tiny island way back when it was just a collection of warring tribes.

Does this sound familiar?

This is really raw and messy...
A set of cascading realizations
In tha gut...
roiling, gurgling.
Do you listen to your stomach?
I do.
This is difficult...
hee, hee, hee...
exciting, a new set of realizations and interrelationships to process and explore and gnash my teeth about.

I've got to document an email exchange I had with a Native woman who lives here in Toronto. She had been trying to make contact with me about talking, processing emotions using a radical anti-oppression framework.

Life, as indicated from the various postings here on this blog, has been chaotic, crazed, unintelligible, horrific too much of the time for me to be able to see or think clearly enough to support someone else's self-uncovering.

Not since reading Murakami's Wind-Up Bird and Garcia Marquez's One hundred Years of Solitude have I been so energized by a book till now. Marciano Guerrero'sThe Poison Pill is subtitled "Business (Gothic) Thriller," but it is more than that. The prose is rhythmic and easy flowing which might lead one to believe that it is simplistic. Because the author dispenses aesthetic, philosophical, and literary allusions with artistry and transparency, it doesnt detract from the main themes. For example, as a character is about to die, he refers to a knife as having balance, harmony, and radiance. According to James Joyce these terms are in sum Thomas Aquinas' model of beauty. I also like the name of a Dominican Doctor: Esculapio Gallo. Well, Socrates last words were: "I owe a rooster (Gallo) to Aesculapius"--meaning no pharmakon could save his life. It just happens that the doctor's patient is also doomed. By now you may be thinking this is a coincidence. Not at all. You will also find meaningful allusions to Borges, Poe, Vargas-Llosa, Dante, and other literary giants. One can also learn about business; but that is material for another review. And so is the coincidence of Ivon Bates (hero) and Norman Bates (Psycho) commiting the same heinous crime. But enough. Here are two other choice books...Happy reading.

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Over on Long Sunday, to much delight, fierce allegoric battle with the work of Carl Schmitt waxes, wages on. There where nothing less than "the political" itself would seem to be at stake, you are free to join the fray, at the very least in your silent skimming millions upon millions way. "If I were to write two lines and by chance they rhyme, that would be a blunder." -Wittgenstein, roughly, and a little jealous of musicians

I currently have a PTSD claim in action... Well the VA has it not much action has taken place. It has been 5 months and all I am hearing is "We are still gathering Medical records." I know that Iraq is nothing compared to the war in Nam. But sometimes you run across a soldier who experience there is very traumatic. I was only there for 8 months in 2003. My tent neighbor was shot and killed. His Nco told me crying when he got back to camp. Copt teal was a pretty close friend of mine until he got killed. Sgt fahrian one of the guys the volunteered to go over there with me is on permanent disability due to his encounter with an IED. I was shot at with small arms a few times. Had more than a few close calls with incoming rounds and my entire section was wiped out in one day by a mortar round. I think it was 12 people... I was naked taken a shower and the first or second round landed about 15-20 ft from me. I freaked, kneeled down started praying. I got my self together and got dressed. Walked over to the hanger and by the time I got to the other side all my friends in my s-3 section were screaming and bloody. I froze.... I'm still froze.... My trip home consisted of a space A flight with human remains. Are camp was pounded with mortars on almost a daily basis. We had no cover... Just Coleman tents that reached about 130-140 degrees everyday. I had some kind weird disease over there too. I don't recall the name but I was quarantined for like a week.

In late September of last year, I came upon a post by Cernig (An Argument for a Coalition of the Left) in which he argues for some an American political movement, using Poland's Solidarity Union as a template. Over the next several days, he further fleshed out the concept (Dinosaur Democrats; American Solidarity - Time To Stand Up). Suffice it to say, I rather liked the idea (and expanded on some of my initial thoughts near the end of the first week of October). Other bloggers around the same time really dug the idea: Comments from Left Field, Shakespeare's Sister, P!, etc. We have an American Solidarity blogroll that weighs in at about a dozen bloggers from that initial spark. Not exactly huge, but memes take time to spread.

http://fatoldjewishguywholivesintheprojects.blogspot.com/2005/11/enough-with-broken-windows-already_29.html

November 29, 2005

Enough With The Broken Windows Already!

READ STARASIA'S NIGHTMARE

Back in the bad old days, not so long ago, Nicholas Scopetta, Rudolf Giuliani's child welfare honcho, declared : "I would like the caseworkers to err on the side of protecting the children,'' meaning, as spoken by many a child welfare supervisor, "when in doubt yank'em out." A panic wave of child removals (baby snatching) ensued, as Scopetta "got tough" under the lash of tabloid hysteria.

Climate Change is the biggest challenge facing the world today. Civilization has developed in what is now recognised and an unusually stable climatic period. We may be about to change all that. The climate change when initially responding to changes in greenhouse gases does so in a fairly predictable manner, and the consequences of this alone will be devastating. More abrupt changes are however possible when the climate system changes state i.e ocean circulation patters change. The climate system has been described as a drunk: leave it alone and it is likely to gently wobble around but push it and you increase the likelihood that it will collapse. We are performing this experiment by releasing vast quantities of greenhouse gases, preeminent of which is carbon dioxide. The harder we push and the more sudden the jolt, the more likely the climate system is to change dramatically. Many people think we should stop pushing!Govornments have responsibility to act, but so do individuals, what can we do? Many things: restrict the distance we travel, use energy efficient cars, and, importantly, reduce use of fossil fuel derived energy for running our homes.In the domestic setting is it more cost effective to reduce energy usage or produce your own green energy? Unfortunately this question doesn't have a simple answer.Case A When the 'domestic setting' is a yet to be built house there is great potential to save all the energy associated with heating. However the cost of several renewable energies is also reduced at this stage.Case B When the 'domestic setting' is an already built house built up to modern building regulation standards the opportunities for energy efficiency improvements are significant but poor when compared to the opportunities for renwables.Case C When the 'domestic setting' is an old house with little in the way of insulation there are often several cheap energy efficiency measures which are worth looking at.Case A: The DetailsThe physical structure of a house has an impact on two main energy requirements, energy for heating (or cooling) spaces and energy for lighting. Energy for heat is by far the most significant of these requirements in most situations.

• In order to keep a property at a suitable temperature the design should consider the proportion of windows on the northern and the southern side of the building, it is advisable to glaze the southern side with 70% of the total glazing when in a cold environment. This maximises 'solar gain' and minimises energy losses.
• In hot areas it may be worthwhile considering 'thermal mass' i.e rock/concrete as a significant structural element it living areas. Thermal mass stores heat but also takes a long time to warm up: during the night the living areas have time to cool down so during the day much of the heat in the air is removed warming up the mass again. If any of you have ever been in a castle before then you will know they tend to remain just cool, roughly the same temperature at mid day as at mid night.

• More traditional methods of insulation have two important factors: thermal conductivity and air tightness. In new houses both of these are important but air-tightness is a particular feature of top-end eco-homes . Reducing the number of air changes per hour down to very low levels has enabled the design of buildings that need no heating, or only very occasional heating, even as far north as Norway and Sweden! One of the best ways to achieve this air tightness is through use of structurally integrated panels (SIP). This building method involves using a layer of insulating material sandwiched between two pieces of composite board and allows very tight sealing of these components to give a more or less air tight 3D jigsaw. These building if done correctly actually need a ventilation system to be included to remove stale air! This ventilation system can be fitted with a heat exchanger so that around 75% of the warmth in outgoing air is used to heats the incoming air.

• Preventing the usual types of heat loss through thermal conduction is relatively inexpensive whatever system of building is used. There are a wide variety of alternative insulation techniques such as using straw bales, wool or recycled news paper. All of these materials however require careful consideration and there use requires consideration at an early stage of the design process. In the UK the traditional form of insulation is mineral wool, increasingly a layer of sprayed cellulose is used, this having similar thermal properties. These materials if applied to sufficient depth (>300mm for a low carbon home) do provide a good level on insulation, this thickness insulation is however not possible in all areas of buildings. Several high performance alternatives exist, including foil backed PU, this can be used at a thickness of 100mm to give the same insulating properties as 250mm mineral wool. Particular attention has to be paid to dormer windows which are often poorly insulated due to the lack of space. A specific warning should be given with regards multi-foil insulation (typically 20mm thick with numerous layer of foil) don't use it! The national physical laboratory just revealed its performance is about a qaurter what is claimed! Use foil faced PU instead

. This table gives the performance of insulating materials per thickness. Materials father to the left have lower energy losses per square meter of exposed surface at a given thickness. These are generic types of materials but catalogues usually give the proprietary names along with the material type, for example kingspan as both foil faced PU and PF products.

• The main types of renewables which can be installed at reduced cost during the construction phase are photovoltaics(PV) and ground heat. The reduced cost of installing PV is due to the fact that PV tiles can be used instead of regular tiles or slates. For this reason there is some gain from PVs as you need less regular building materials. Ground heat (as apposed to geothermal) is an increasingly common way of getting cool but not cold water out of the ground. During the winter at mid latitudes water used in households has to be heated from around 0 degrees celcius up to usable temperature. Ground heat utilises the fact that below about 1m in depth the ground is at a just about constant temperature all year round and therefore water has to be heated less. This system needs quite a bit of room and installation under the floor of buldings is ideal.

Case B: The DetailsModifications of buildings are expensive, alterations therefore have to have significant advantages over the status quo for them to be viable when compared to micro-generation. The main modifications which can be easily carried out on new buildings are 1.The fitting of a condensing boiler.2. Draught proofing 3.Increased loft insulation and 4. improved glazing (perticularly softwood argon filled low-emmisive glass double glazing).Because of the limitations of affordable modifications in this case i will take this opportunity to give a rough guide to micro-generation. The suitability of these power sources varies enormously with site but one or other of them will be practicle for most sites.

• Solar Panels (provide hot water). The average UK emmits around 5tonnes of co2 per year. Of this around 27% is due to heating water. A typical solar panel system may aim to provide 60-70% of this hot water requirement. 100% of the hot water requirements in the summer but no more than about 25% in the winter. carbon resuctions are therefore 5 tonnes*0.27*0.65, giving an anuual saving of around 0.9 tonnes of carbon a year. The price of solar heating varies but is typically in the range of 2500-3500 pounds, in the UK grants of 400 pounds are available for these systems so the cost to the consumer is from 2100 pounds. Solar is currently the most affordable small scale renewable. In spain it has just become compulsory to install solar pannels on all new buildings, the carbon saving produced by this plan will be huge, bearing in mind the hundreds of thousands of new homes built each year. Two UK suppliers are Solar Twin and Genersys.

• Small Scale Wind (feeds directly into power supply, or used to heat water). Wind turbines intended for domestic use typically have a maximum rated value of 0.6 KW to 1.5 KW. The average UK home uses 3300KWh electricity a year (and a greater amount of gass for heating needs). Over a year these systems will generally generate as little as 800KWh and as much as 2500KWh, these values may however be radically imporved upon given an ideal location. Wind power on the west coast of scotland for example is likely to be by far the most affordable small scale renewable. The small units are designed to feed directly in to the power supply of the house, they provide the base load and less electricty is drawn from the grid. Larger units often have an optional heating element so the all the energy captured is utilised even if more energy is produced than immediately required by the household. Costs are fairly high, but significant grants are available.Two very competative systems are the 1Kw windsave and the 1.5 Kw Swift . Windsave have an agreement with scottish power that they will carry out installation. Another manufacturer that supplies 0.6 to 5kw turbines is proven energy.

These tables give a good guide to the amounts of energy that can be harnesed from affordable ammounts of wind power, 1-3Kw of gnerating capacity will generate from a qauter to a significant excess of power, depending largely on location.

• Photovoltaic (PV) is a new and still rapdily developing technology which faces significant economic problems in the UK but which has great potential in warm climates. A typical instalation would consist of two modules and produce a maximum of 2KW of power. A 2KWp system in the uk will produce atleast 1500KWhr (about half the average household consumption) and would save around 0.65Kg of carbon dioxide emmisions a year. In the lifetime of a solar cell (atleast 25 years) the saving would be more than 16 tonnes of carbon, from around 37'500 KWhr of electricity. Factors currently encouraging the uptake of PV include govornment grants of around 3500 pounds per KWp of installed capacity and the dramatic increases of oil prices (from 60 dollars a barrel when i started researching this article to around 70 now!). Like large scale wind which has reduced its prices per KWhr dramatically since the 1980s it is expexted that innovation and market scaling will cut prices drastically in the long term.

Case C: The DetailsIn old houses with poor insulation, and, of a design which dosent consider energy needs, the gains that can be made from energy efficency and renewables are largest of all. In this case i will focus on renovation.The cheapest gains are likely to come from improvements in energy efficency but investment in renwables is also required to reduce the carbon footprint of these buildings to sustainable levels.

• Energy efficency of households can be improved by changeing the appliances and heating systems being used. Use of A rated white goods and energy efficeint light bulbs are the first steps to be taken.
• More significant investment and savings can be made by using a A rated condensing boiler.
• In terms of reducing the requirement for heating the two biggest and least expensive gains can be made by increasing loft insulation and adding insulation to cavity walls. There are numerous types of cavity wall insulation that can be applied without major disruption to the house. Injected resins and foam beads are commonly used.
• Many old houses are single glazed and good qaulity double glazing achieves a U-Value of around 1.4 to 1.6 which compares favourably to 5.0 for single glazing. Secondary glazing, when appropriately fitted can be a cheaper option that results in similar improvements in energy efficiency.
• Somewhat suprisingly one of the best value investments in old houding stock is the purchase of a good central heating system which is easy to use and programable. Being able to set individual rooms at the desired temperature and at the desired times has been found to reduce the total amount of heating used drastically.
• Finally a bit of simple DIY is often very usefull, draught stripping and other improvments to air tightness can make an enormous difference to old houses.

As an example of what can be achieved Kirklees Metropolitain Council managed to upgrade 19 houses built in 1946 to a SAP (Standars Assesment Procedure) rating of 76 from 35 by simply installing a well insulated and efficient heating system with 3-4 sqaure meters of solar panels. This resulted in avergage yearly savings of 1.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide.To conclude: there are many renewable energy options and they tend to be locations specific. Basic imporvements in energy efficency of old housing should however be the first consideration. The reason for bothering is Climate Change, many of the measures will have long terms of payback but increases in comfort levels are also important. According to the latest science we each have about half a tonne of carbon dioxide to emmit a year! The earth can remove around 3 billion tones from the atmosphere and there are six billion people on the plannet and rising. So the message is get on to it, do your bit renewables and energy efficency measures will be needed (if you still want your tv/pc/washing machine/dvd player/dish washer etc...) The tables below show how much the average UK household emits (various types of housing).

Corss posted from "A Logical Voice"

The Times has this useful timeline looking at who knew what and when on hurricane Katrina:

Saturday, August 27

At 10am, the National Hurricane Centre issues a hurricane warning for the "southeastern coast of Louisiana... including metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain." Forecasters predict that the storm will make landfall a fraction to the east of New Orleans on either Monday or Tuesday.

I have taken this piece of the timeline specifically, as it is important to note that this hurricane warning specifically mentioned the southeastern coast of Louisiana. 

 

This is one of my weekly climate change related stories taken from "Climate Change Action" and all the documents used in its composition can be found at "Climate Change Resources" The reason for me looking at biofuels is simple: it is a divisive issue, even amongst environmentalists. I don't like sitting on the fence, so it was time to get reading.

"By segmentary I mean that it is cellular, composed of many different groups.... By polycentric I mean that it has many different leaders or centers of direction.... By networked I mean that the segments and the leaders are integrated into reticulated systems or networks through various structural, personal, and ideological ties. Networks are usually unbounded and expanding.... This acronym [SPIN] helps us picture this organization as a fluid, dynamic, expanding one, spinning out into mainstream society." (Gerlach 1987: 115, based on Gerlach & Hine 1970)

The Chinese government has announced plans to police web forums, chat rooms and blogs alongside other websites.

Websites in China have long been required to be officially registered.  The authorities are now determined that blogs should also be brought under state control.

Press advocacy group Reporters without Borders said the initiative would "enable those in power to control online news and information much more effectively". 

Private bloggers must register the full identity of the person responsible for the sites, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said.  Commercial publishers and advertisers can face fines of up to one million yuan (£66,000) if they fail to register.  All blogs and websites must be registered by 30 June.

Propaganda requires the skillful use of language to illicit emotional responses. All propagandists know the amount of power that can be summoned up by emotionally charged messages. They understand that they must have a way to dampen and control what could become unfocused or out of control. Propagandists use euphemisms for this control. Euphemisms are word tools that use indirect, misleading, or soft adjectives to describe something. They make easier to think and talk about unpleasant subjects. They help us avoid reality and numb our emotions by adding abstractions to descriptions. Euphemisms are used to channel unpleasant realities into almost harmless non-issues. Because many euphemisms tend to be both wordy and abstract, many people who use them believe that there is an air of intellectualism attached to them.

The first and one of the most effective tools of the propaganda trade is in the category of word games. “Name calling” is a powerful tool. A skillfully attached bad name can sometimes have nation changing consequences. If a negative emotional response can be attached or linked to a person or an idea in the form of a bad name, there is almost an unbreakable non-logical, non-intuitive association. It is almost impossible to remove the bad name attachment if it has been skillfully propagated. Skillful propaganda involves sustained repetition in the media. There must also be repetition that includes both the bad name and the events or circumstances that supposedly precipitated its creation. Once the link between the event or circumstance is established, the negative emotional association becomes part of the name itself. From that point forward it is only necessary to use the bad name and the negative emotional response is automatically activated. Repetition in the media then spreads the name to the point where it self-replicates itself through conversations and debates between ordinary citizens.

Propaganda
is designed to actively spread a philosophy or a point of view. What
separates propaganda from “normal” communication is the way the message
attempts to shape opinion. As opposed to “normal” communication,
propaganda is designed to induce an emotional response. This emotional
response becomes attached to the message. These emotionally charged
messages are designed to suggest non-logical or non-intuitive
relationships between concepts. Most adults have learned through life
experiences, education, cultural norms, and spiritual insight an
intuitive sense of right and wrong. As we grow older this intuitive
sense grows in us. It enables us (if we listen) to have an inner guide
to decision making and coping with the world around us. As we get
older, this intuitive sense can manifest itself to become wisdom. The

After the last election, millions of us stood in disbelief of the
reelection of George Bush. This combined with defeats in the House and
the Senate handed the entire government to the GOP. How could this
happen? This makes no sense? How could a president and his party not
only survive the errors of the last four years but actually strengthen
their grip on America? The Bush administration has in the last four
years created enough problems to bring any two administrations down.
Yet millions of Americans support this president and conservative power
structure he represents! Can they not see the forest for the trees? Are
they blind to the lies, the half-truths, and the deceptions? Do they
not understand that instead of being in a “war,” we are really in an
“occupation” of a foreign country? Do they not remember that this
President and his party sold themselves as being fiscally responsible?
Are the American people blind to the truth?

Hello,  I need help in getting Veterans benefits approved.  In spite of statement from ph.D psychologist stating I have PTSD I still get denied.  Can anyone help me??  jrgbg@aol.com

Crossposted from Comments From Left Field.

(This entire post is clipped directly from DemocracyNOW.)

A U.S. military contractor in Iraq is at the center of a controversy over
how American-forces disbursed and accounted for hundreds of millions of
dollars in Iraq.

The firm, Custer Battles is being charged in a
lawsuit of defrauding the Coalition Provisional Authority of tens of
millions of dollars during work in Iraq, which included securing
Baghdad International Airport.

Two former employees sued the company last year under the False Claims Act, seeking to recover
damages on behalf of the US government. They allege that Custer Battles
repeatedly billed the occupation authorities for nonexistent services
or at grossly inflated prices. A few months after they filed the suit,
the Justice Department declined to intervene on the whistle-blowers'
behalf.

Because the case is the first to be unsealed involving
the charges of fraud in the multibillion-dollar Iraqi reconstruction
effort, it could set precedents.

Following is an interview from DemocracyNOW with Robert O'Harrow, Jr. who is author of the frightening new book about the security/industrial complex No Place to Hide. Once again, a must see interview from Amy Goodman. Enjoy!

Robert
O'Harrow, Jr. , reporter for The Washington Post and is an associate of
the Center for Investigative Reporting. He was a Pulitzer Prize
finalist for articles on privacy and technology and a recipient of the
2003 Carnegie Mellon Cyber Security Reporting Award. NoPlaceToHide.net

My friends at ChilOut (Children Out of Detention) have given me sickening news of the human right's violations related to Australia's Immigration policy, and those damned detention centres where refugees, Asylum seekers and now a German tourist that had a psychotic episode and breached her visa conditions. No person should be treated like this.

"We are a nation of travellers. This could befall any of our children; travelling in a strange land, they could suffer a psychotic episode, breach their visa conditions and let us pray they would receive more sympathetic and humane treatment than we are meting out to Anna, No.BX8311, presently incarcerated in a RED ONE isolation cell in Baxter. Under our existing flawed law, unless the person detained, signs a form giving permission for a lawyer to act on their behalf, NO-ONE can help. There is no mechanism to assist someone in detention who is not mentally capable of acting in their own best interests. Anna, a young German - speaking girl, has been locked up in Baxter since the 29th November. She is locked in an isolation cell for 18 hours per day. She is allowed out into the open air for 6 hours per day. Such is her terror of being put back into this cell that it takes 6 guards in full riot gear to manhandle her back into the room and close the heavy door. We have reports from witnesses that the guards are enjoying this aspect of Anna's behaviour. (Two children are presently detained in Baxter – is this the sort of thing we should allow impressionable young minds to be exposed to?) Detainees have repeatedly expressed concern about this young girl. They believe that she is mentally ill. Her unpredictable and bizarre behaviour, lack of communication and distress continue to worry fellow detainees. She exhibits psychotic symptoms, screaming and talking to herself at times and screams in terror often for long periods especially when locked in the cell. Visitors who have attempted to engage with her say that she does not make eye contact and avoids interaction. Detainees have attempted to get her trust but have been unable to get her to see anyone. Anna has refused to sign a form requesting legal help so no-one is allowed to assist or assess her. We are worried that she may not be mentally competent to act in her best interests. However under the Migration Act no one is allowed to act on her behalf unless she requests this in writing. Now the German consulate say that they do not believe that she is a German citizen. They do not know who she is and have been unable to get information on her from police sources in Germany but say that she is not German! This leaves her to the fate of DIMIA and GSL. Anna is alone in Baxter. She is clearly mentally ill and needs care not incarceration and brute physical force. She is not going to recover by being locked up in an isolation cell for 18 hours a day. DIMIA may be using this method to attempt to get information from her. They say that they are focussed on finding out who she is. We would like to see DIMIA focus on providing her with the psychiatric care which she so obviously needs and show some concern for her terror and distress. All attempts to allow independent medical or psychiatric care, or asking the minister’s office to intervene have failed after 7 weeks of constant calls. Please email/ fax your local member (ChilOut's Page for Elected Representatives and don’t forget your State’s Senators – of every persuasion) asking that Anna be immediately transferred to a psychiatric hospital and given the help she needs. How can a compassionate country treat any human being like this? This is another example of the need to reform the Migration Act. This degree of human suffering cannot be what its original drafters intended."