The mountain labored, and brought forth a stone.

The Copenhagen Conference on Climate control gathered together leaders from
almost every country in the world, large, small, developed, and developing. They
spent days coming to agreement that global warming represented a mortal danger to
all living species, man foremost. The major polluters, The U.S., China, India and Brazil faced off against the undeveloped countries by demanding they share in the burdens which would arise from reducing industrial and agricultural production
of atmospheric carbon. Those countries resisted, citing their urgent need for developement to feed their people, and demanded aid from the advanced economies, and exemption from any time limits
However, those were not the principal roadblocks to
real progress. The adamant refusal by China of any timeline and inspection regime,
as well as the uncertainty that the US Congress would even approve limits on carbon
dioxide production doomed the prospect for any meaningful agreement.

A final push by President Obama and the supreme leaders of India and Brazil finally led to an agreement that was an exercise in how to avoid hard choices.
The big four accepted the GOAL of limiting emmisions to an amount which would raise the temperature of the atmosphere by no more that 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit). That is enough to inundate many island countries such as Samoa, the Maldives and many others. It would also play havoc with the U.S. coastal areas.
I liken that to feeding someone just enough poison to allow him to remain alive
but not as a functioning being.

The slim hope that the awareness of the problem now occupies the attention of the world, and thus will lead to further progress toward solutions, is the most optimistic assessment that can be made of what took place in Copenhagen. A thin reed
to rely on by a world that is poisoning itself.

Nobility in Science, Futility in Politics

My morning newspaper carried a story stunning in its implications for the survival
of mankind, and another dismally disappointing for the survival of our nation.

The first described a breakthrough medical procedure, performed on a gravely wounded
serviceman. His pancreas had been damaged to the point of non-function and had to be
removed. The surgeons removed it, sent the tissue to a lab in Miami. There some cells were isolated, salvaged, preserved and returned to the surgeons who transplated them into the patient's liver. The cells underwent mitosis and began producing insulin, acting as pancreas once more. The entire procedure was performed without removing the patient from the operating room. An example of the sublime heights to which the mind of man can rise.

The same newspaper contained the story of the failed efforts to pass and fund stimulus legislation directed at producing jobs in a decimated economy. The poisonous partisanship on display in the halls of congress, with Repubs promising to stall debate and progress until the next session, and Dem's surrendering principle to get some kind of bill, any kind, demonstrated the juvenile character of the people we elected to govern. Do they really reflect the electorate that put them in office? I refuse to believe so.

The Great Deceivers

Along with a number of vestigial organs which evolution has done away with was a basic necessity in our manipulative media era, the personal FRAUD DETECTOR.

The internet has eliminated an editor’s control over what
information and misinformation can be disseminated, by anyone, with
any motive, including malice aforethought. Unsubstantiated rumor can
be bolstered by citing fictitious authorities and distributed as fact. Scholarly
sounding tracts, based on zero evidence, are given titles which sound so
ominous that they must be read for survival. DIRE WARNINGS have
become the de rigueur choice of unscrupulous writers whose purpose is to
control behavior, not inform.

Before the extinction of our Fraud Detector, when the quantity of propaganda was more limited, and when the news media was more
honest, the individual reader had the time and self interest to examine
information that was being provided, and use reason and experience
to evaluate it. Now the propaganda is of such volume, and strident, urgent
tone that the reader is overwhelmed. His reason is subordinated to
emotion. He becomes the tool of the writer.

If it were only some individuals being deceived and misled, the harm to the nation would be limited. But when huge numbers of people are fooled, the consequences to the nation can be disastrous. We can be led into an unnecessary war, or to financial collapse. Group to group hate can be fomented to divide and conquer us from within. Our fears can be used to lead us into unwise choices of leaders.

So, lets use good old American ingenuity to reinvent the Fraud Detector for Individuals.
It could become part of the Green Revolution---for people.

Take the broom to the gloom!

Events in the country, and everywhere in the world, have cast a pall of gloom
over what is meant to be a season of love, hope and good will to all. The media in
all forms has fed us a steady stream of violence and despair, all of it real. This blog has also been, with only a few exceptions, a catalogue of ills, which I regret,
but wouldn't change. So in keeping with the season let me remind myself and my
loyal readers of some positives to celebrate.

In the face of an unprecedented worldwide recession America survives, and a compassionate people and government have mobilized to pull ourselves from the brink.
A raucous and angry debate over health care reform indicates that there is still
dynamism in our democracy. Community and individual acts of charity have rescued
many from extreme hardship. We are a nation which gives of our treasure to
people in many less fortunate lands, despite our own national needs.

When frightened or bitter zealots produce hate tracts or commit acts of violence
or vandalism against people with whom they disagree, or look for someone or group
to blame for their condition, voices of reason and amity arise to give the lie,
and to urge harmony in place of rancor. There is a foundation of mutual altruism
which undergirds our national diversity. Thankfully the bad times haven't eroded that.

But the most hopeful sign is many of us realize the danger bad times pose for our
democratic system, and have avoided extreme measures which would threaten it.
America, the land of immigrants, the melting pot of humanity, the once light unto
the nations, still holds its light up to the world. We are a work in progress,
but our eyes are on the stars. We shall overcome, and thrive once again.
,

VIETNAMISTAN

Our war in Afghanistan is not only unwinnable, but there is no definition for
Victory that would be realistic. Afghanistan is not a country. It is a space
inhabited by scattered primitive tribes whose only 21st century skill is producing heroin. We have imposed as a central authority a RICO criminal enterprise under
Karzai. To change the tribal structure would take decades. There is no infrastructure that defines nationhood. The overwhelming majority of inhabitants are illiterate. A national identity is beyond their capacity to accept or understand.

We are perceived as one more in a long line of alien invaders. As long as we continue to pour in money for development, which developes only the foreign bank accounts of the Karzai mafia, the tribes will tolerate us. They will not assist us against the Taliban, who live among them.
They know from experience that we will eventually
become exhausted with the thankless tasks we have undertaken. When we finally leave
they know the Taliban will exact revenge against anyone who cooperated with us.

Pres. Obama's compromise tactics may calm some of the right wing zealots but only
delay the ultimate denouement of the problem. During that interval more precious
lives will be lost, more treasure will be squandered, and the deteriorating
economy at home will be further weakened. It took the educated colonists
200 years to build our nation, against only natures obstacles. How long would it
take us to build a nation in Afghanistan? Get the hell out of there now.