CIA Gone Wild — H.P. Albarelli’s True Thriller
Reviewers say that H.P. Albarelli’s expose on the Central Intelligence Agency is “a ticking time bomb of a book” since, among other things, the CIA used people as innocent human ‘lab monkeys’ in LSD experiments…and worse. Taking on the CIA is not for the faint of heart. It takes toughness, tenacity, and an undisputed moral compass. It’s those core values that compelled Hank Albarelli Jr. to spend 10 years uncovering the dark truths in his formidable expose: A Terrible Mistake – The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments.
‘A Terrible Mistake – The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiment’ — A Best Seller
NEW YORK — Reviewers say that H.P. Albarelli’s expose on the Central Intelligence Agency is “a ticking time bomb of a book” since, among other things, the CIA used people as innocent human ‘lab monkeys’ in LSD experiments…and worse.
Taking on the CIA is not for the faint of heart. It takes toughness, tenacity, and an undisputed moral compass. It’s those core values that compelled Hank Albarelli Jr. to spend 10 years uncovering the dark truths in his formidable expose: A Terrible Mistake – The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments.
This book reveals a rogue government agency whose defining characteristic is dirty, scorched-earth policies carried out at any cost. It brings to light of day important new information from the 1950s heyday of Olson’s work, delving into military and CIA Cold War experimentation, information which Olson’s death was intended to bury. Unwitting citizens were the subjects of mind-control experiments which lead to the development of techniques still employed today at Black Sites around the world. Among the details revealed are efforts to weaponize LSD for battlefield use and unconscionable tests on innocent civilians, including children.
Albarelli takes the mystery out of the darkest corners in CIA’s history – and he relates the story with character, with conviction, and with the blinders off. This is a riveting read, his text, defiantly disturbing, his writing style passionately grounded in reality; the whole, mesmerizingly capable of big, smacking, rhetorical home runs.
The scenes in his book are filled with characters deep into intrigue, their identity always in flux, like floating human gelatin. And yet these people, some, we discover, still in power, have the ability to tear somebody in two like they were a slice of bread. The conclusions of his detective work fit together like sword and scabbard. The book reads like fiction, yet we are reminded over and over again that we are dealing with long-denied truths.
Albarelli has racked 10 years of rough mileage researching this book, culling over 100,000 pages of classified documents, his track record cratered with deliberate potholes created by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which was also investigating the case, was nothing less than an exercise in squaring off with subterfuge.
Albarelli gives his readers so much juicy information, a veritable tsunami of exposed secrets and incrementing evidence. He details a myriad of CIA drug experiments and exposes a large number of previously anonymous physicians and business officials who contracted with the agency. The experiments resulted in the deaths of a number of people, permanently destroying the minds of others and sending many more seeking medical help.
The human faces of evil come alive. We become acquainted with some of the Agency’s creepiest characters including: Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, head of the notorious MKULTRA program, whose mind control techniques included extensive use of LSD; the evil psychiatrist Dr. Harold Abramson; various Corsican mafia kingpins; and the ultimate spy, Pierre Lafitte who was not only ignominiously descended from the famous pirate captain, Jean Lafitte, he was also a paid CIA assassin, who just happened to be working as a bellman at the Statler Hotel the night Olson plunged to his death on a November night in 1953.
Frank Olson’s short descent from respected biochemist to an obituary footnote didn’t take long. But, there are no statute-of-limitations on murder.
In a letter to the Iconoclast, Albarelli wrote the following piece:
WRITING ABOUT THE UNSPEAKABLE
I don’t like having to write this article. I don’t like even thinking about it, but over the past few months its subject has come up repeatedly. Many television and radio hosts who have interviewed me about my new book, A TERRIBLE MISTAKE: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments, have, on their own, brought up the subject of AIDS and Fort Detrick and the connection between the two. Nearly the entire ten years I worked on the book, this subject consistently loomed in the background like some malevolent poltergeist, and was essentially considered unspeakable by practically everyone I interviewed. Now things are different.
Just a few days ago, one radio host, who had actually read my entire book, asked about the many trips various Fort Detrick bacteriologists and biochemists took throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and beyond to locations in Africa. Trips were to locations like the Belgian Congo and Burundi and French Equatorial Africa. A few media hosts have remarked about the thousands of rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees that Fort Detrick went through in their countless experiments during these same years; resulting in so many mutilated and dead primates that one former Army scientist, Dr. Henry Eigelsbach, told me that sometimes their bodies had to be “scooped up with a back-hoe and loaded into dump trucks” and then carted off for disposal and incineration.
Only yesterday, a very well informed radio host in California, Cary Harrison, at KPFK-FM, asked me about well-documented reports concerning the 1969 testimony of a high-level Pentagon biological warfare official before the U.S. House of Representatives.
Nobody in their right mind wants to think or believe that the American government had a hand in producing the dreadful disease AIDS, certainly not me. My father, as a dedicated and conscientious histologist, worked for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in the 1950s, and went on to devote his life to helping people in any way he could. He would have never done anything to hurt anyone, yet now there is strong evidence that other scientists with the U. S. Army may have done just that. Before his recent death, I asked my father about these reports. He sadly shook his head, and said, “I don’t know what’s happened to this country. I don’t understand it at all. It’s not the country I went to war for; it’s not the same country I was willing to die for.” My father was always a confident man. It distressed me to see him bewildered, but I too was bewildered. I didn’t at all like thinking about Fort Detrick and AIDS.
On July 1, 1969, a high-ranking Pentagon biological warfare official, Dr. Donald MacArthur, appearing before the Defense Department Appropriations Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives, told the assembled elected officials that “dramatic progress being made in the field of molecular biology [by Army researchers at Fort Detrick and elsewhere] led [the Army] to investigate the relevance of this field of science to biological warfare. A small group of experts considered this matter and provided the following observations:
1. All biological agents up to the present time [1969] are representative of naturally occurring disease, and thus known by scientists throughout the world. They are easily available to qualified scientists for research, either for offensive or defensive purposes.
2. Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective microorganism, which could differ, in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon when we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease. [Emphasis added.]”
Dr. MacArthur ‘s testimony went on and he informed the subcommittee that a research program to explore the feasibility of developing such a disease, “a synthetic biological agent, an agent that does not naturally exist and for which no natural immunity could be acquired,” would take only about 5 years to complete, and would cost $10 million.
As readers may expect, the Army that year was given its fully requested appropriation. As to whether or not the new biological disease Dr. MacArthur spoke of went into production is unknown, but former Army scientists with Fort Detrick’s Special Operation Division (SOD), speaking under terms of anonymity, say the program had actually already begun several years prior to 1969 under a reformatted Project MK/NAOMI. That project was the ultra-secret joint CIA-SOD program that was organized in late 1950. One former SOD researcher said, “The idea of a man-made disease that the immune system couldn’t handle had been proposed much earlier in the late 1950s with a fair amount of field work conducted in the process.” When I attempted to interview other SOD researchers about the manufacturing of an AIDS-like virus at Fort Detrick people clammed up and shook their heads. Said one microbiologist, “I can’t discuss that. You know as well as I do that if I said anything at all about that it would be like putting a gun to my head.” Said another coyly, “We had ability to do practically anything we wanted to do back then; to create any diseases we wanted to, but what we did and did not do is not a subject I can discuss. Lets just say that nothing was beyond our reach.” Answers such as these provided me with little satisfaction or comfort. I became increasingly uneasy about the smugness of some of the replies. When some replies were made along with what I considered terribly racially-biased remarks, I often wished I had never brought the subject up.
ETHNIC WEAPONS
At about the same time as retro-virus work began, Army researchers at Fort Detrick began intensive research into what it dubbed “ethnic weapons.” These were chemical and biological weapons targeted at various and specific ethnic groups. When I first encountered the term in a conversation with a former colleague of Frank Olson and inquired as to what it meant, he explained, “Weapons aimed at selected ethnic groups. Like Blacks who are particularly susceptible to certain blood diseases, weapons like that for example.” Despite the vagueness of the explanation, I understood.
I was astonished to learn that the Army was conducting research in this area, and soon encountered another scientist who spoke about the subject. I asked where was this research conducted? Both Fort Detrick and Edgewood Arsenal, I was told, and on a few selected university campuses. Are human subjects involved? I asked. Servicemen and others, came the answer. Others? Selected people and groups in the field came the answer. I asked if experiments involved particular ethnic groups with other shared characteristics; for example, Caucasian homosexuals or Black homosexuals or homosexuals, in general? It could, certainly, was the reply.
“We know and understand that there are differences, innate differences, among certain groups of people due their ethnicity,” the former Army scientist said. “This presents certain vulnerabilities that can be exploited through the studied use of selected chemical and biological agents. Which in turn offers some really exciting possibilities… it’s not far fetched at all to think that we can selectively, and very affectively, attack targeted ethnic groups, inflicting measured damage ranging from incapacitation to death.”
The Army scientist I had interviewed drew my attention to an early 1970 paper written by Dr. Carl A. Larson. The paper, later the same year published by the United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, was simply titled, “Ethnic Weapons.” Larson was head of the Department of Human Genetics at the Institute of Genetics, University of Lund, Sweden. Widely published in medical journals in American and Europe, Larsen held a Licentiate degree from the Medical School of Lund University and was a licensed physician.
Dr. Larson’s paper proposes that differences in gene frequencies between ethnic groups serve as the basis for researching and developing an entirely new grouping of chemical and biological warfare agents—agents with the capabilities of incapacitating or killing a targeted population with ease thus sparing other groups within the targeted population. “For example, the Army scientist explained, “say we wanted to eliminate all those people of a certain ethnic group in a targeted city and we knew that this group was highly susceptible to a certain form of cancer. We would incorporate that cancer into a weapon and through special delivery mechanisms induce the disease into those people.”
Dr. Larson’s paper cites a number of examples of “enzymatic reactions” or “enzyme polymorphisms.” He writes, “Clearly a relative advantage in one environment granted carriers of a mutant gene can be entirely void in another environment…. Careful analyses of enzymatic reaction patterns to a series of drugs are underway, and we may soon have a grid where new observations of this kind can be pinpointed.”
Larson explains that also examined are the possibilities “of the poison-provoking enzyme production, an individual adaptation observed in several instances.” He then cites one poison, milk, explaining that among Europeans intolerance to lactose, or milk sugar, “occurs as a rare recessive trait” but that “milk intolerance in various groups of non-Europeans began to accumulate, it was remembered that malnourished children in east Africa get diarrhea when treated with dried skimmed milk. Then, the enzyme lactase was found to lose its activity in the intestinal mucosa of African infants over the first four years of life.” I found Larson’s discussion of milk quite provocative because I knew from my research into Frank Olson’s work at Fort Detrick that some of it had centered on milk, Asians, and microbiology. However, everyone I interviewed on the subject refused to give me specifics about this phase of Olson’s research.
Interestingly, Dr. Larson also briefly mentions the drug, or “incapacitant”, known as BZ “which before the present renaissance as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) caused epidemic outbursts of Saint Anthony’s fire in the Dark Ages. With ditran-like compounds, BZ shares the capacity to produce transient toxic psychosis, sometimes compared to schizophrenia.”
Larson’s paper goes on, “Surrounded with clouds of secrecy, a systematic search for new incapacitating agents is going on in many laboratories. The general idea, as discussed in open literature, was originally that of minimum destruction.” Subtlety paying his respects to the Army’s earlier joint CIA top-secret drug experiment of 1951 in Pont St. Esprit, France, Larson’s paper states, “Psychochemicals would make it possible to paralyze temporarily entire population centers without damage to homes and other structures. In addition, with the small quantities required for full effect of modern incapacitating agents, logistics problems would be minute. The effective dose of BZ-type agents amounts to micrograms.”
Larson’s “Ethnic Weapons” paper concludes by stating that during the first half of 1969, “several laboratories reported factors engaged in passing over the genic message from DNA, the primary command post, to RNA which relays the chemical signal. The enzymatic process for RNA production has been known for some years, but now the factors have been revealed which regulate the initiation and specificity of enzyme production. Not only the factors have been found, but their inhibitors. Thus, the functions of life lie bare to attack.”
Larson’s paper makes no mention of field experiments in support of ethnic weapons but from other Army sources we know that the United States did conduct such experiments. In addition to the Pont St. Esprit experiment, cited above, others were conducted in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where the U.S. Navy launched a number of experiments at a vital naval supply depot. These surreptitious experiments, in the Navy’s own words, were aimed at “Negroes, whose incapacitation would seriously affect the operation of the supply system.” The Navy secretly employed an aerosol delivery mechanism whereby Asperillus fumigates was employed to simulate Coccidioides. Coccidioides immitis is a lethal fungus that causes valley fever. Fort Detrick and Edgewood Arsenal scientists studied the fungus for years in the 1950s and 1960s. Their experiments revealed that African Americans, as opposed to whites, were much more likely to die from exposure to valley fever.
In addition to Navy’s experiments, there were also a series of SOD experiments conducted in the early 1950s in Florida that specifically targeted African Americans in impoverished areas. In several neighborhoods outside of Miami, as well as at least one location nearby where Disneyworld is today, SOD scientists conducted a number of experiments using mosquitoes as vectors for various biological agents. Files concerning the operations, according to the Army, were destroyed in 1973. Additionally, at about the same time, Fort Detrick researchers working under the CIA’s MK/NAOMI project targeted a number of inner-city minority neighborhoods in Chicago and New Orleans with several aerosol attacks using chemicals thought to be harmless. Perhaps coincidentally, months following the urban experiments, a large number of elderly African American fell seriously ill and died. One former SOD biochemist, interviewed in his Maryland home in 1999, told me, “We weren’t all that sure of the supposed harmless agent used. I don’t even recall what it was. I’d be lying if I said anyone really was all that concerned about the targeted areas to begin with.”
In 1974 and 1975, Dr. Richard Hammerschlag, a biomedical researcher with nearly 20 years of experience with several west coast medical institutions, including City of Hope National Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente Health Research and Cancer Services, sounded a note of alarm about ethnic weapons research at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. After learning of the Army’s experiments with ethnic weapons, as well as learning that the CIA under its revamped MK/ULTRA program, now called MK/SEARCH, was also researching ethnic weapons, Hammerschlag had began warning other scientists of the serious dangers of such research.
At the Chemical Society gathering, Hammerschlag said, “South East Asians, for example, have a different genetic composition than do Caucasians. It’s therefore possible that these people are susceptible to diseases westerners are not, and we know that’s true. Its been learned that certain proteins exist in the blood of specific groups. These proteins occur in multiple forms and are called polymorphysims. We call them blood types, such as A, B, O, and RH. And they appear in different frequencies among different groups of people. For example, blood type B almost never appears in American Indians. But accounts for 30-40 percent of certain population in South East Asia and Southern India.”
Dr. Hammerschlag eventually approached Dr. Larson to speak about ethnic weapons. Larson, according to a 1983 report, told Hammerschlag that if the research continued the efforts could be “suicidal” for humankind. Larson sounded this warning over 25 years ago, and by most accounts the efforts he warned about have continued unabated.
H.P. Albarelli Jr. is the author of A TERRIBLE MISTAKE: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments [TrineDay Publishers, 2010].
The Bigger Your Lips, The Sexier You’ll Be To A Sucker Fish
Nothing says “sexy” faster than someone with a pair of giant lips, even if that person’s collagen injections have made their lips so enormously seductive that they can’t actually pronounce the word “sexy,” and must instead settle for calling themselves “shek-shee.” The point is, big lips are no longer just a cosmetic enhancement for people less fortunate than Mick Jagger and Angelina Jolie, whose lips are so large and incredibly sexy that they are prohibited by international law from bearing children together because, quote: “Said children could potentially upset the delicate balance between populations of humans and sucker fish.”
Nothing says “sexy” faster than someone with a pair of giant lips, even if that person’s collagen injections have made their lips so enormously seductive that they can’t actually pronounce the word “sexy,” and must instead settle for calling themselves “shek-shee.” The point is, big lips are no longer just a cosmetic enhancement for people less fortunate than Mick Jagger and Angelina Jolie, whose lips are so large and incredibly sexy that they are prohibited by international law from bearing children together because, quote: “Said children could potentially upset the delicate balance between populations of humans and sucker fish.”
Though we all know that true beauty stems from inside, as any cosmetics surgeon will tell you, no one will notice unless your lips are the size of tractor tires. Which is why a new product called City Lips is being heralded as the newest, easiest and safest way to give you the lips you always wanted, but never dreamed you could have. At least not without surgically implanting tire stems in them and inflating your lips to 350 psi. Until now, those of us unable to afford expensive collagen injections were forced to live with the embarrassment of having normal, everyday lips. But thanks to City Lips, you can avoid the hassle and expense of collagen injections by using their patented do-it-yourself lip enlargement process!
That’s right! Say goodbye to snobby surgeons telling you how much better you’d look with Julia Roberts lips when their own lips look like Phyllis Diller’s. With each purchase of City Lips you’ll receive one bottle of specially formulated “lip transformer” solution and a patented dual-action applicator. This applicator is a crucial part of City Lips’ groundbreaking, two-step process — which starts by applying the “lip transformer” with one side of the patented applicator and then, after turning the applicator over, whacking your lips with it as many times as possible for 10 minutes.
Okay, I made that last part up. But according to City Lips, their new product has been named “Best Over-the-Counter Lip Plumper” by Good Housekeeping, which, as you know, recently debunked the common misconception that you could increase the size of your lips by spraying them with Pledge (although it will keep them shiny and smelling lemony fresh).
I’d also like to point out that after three large margaritas, trying to say “Best Over-the-Counter Lip Plumper” will at least make your feel like your lips are really huge.
I bring this up because I’m concerned about the mixed message this sends to young women. On one hand, they’re seeing supermodels getting thinner and thinner. On the other hand, they’re seeing those same models trip over their own lips on the runway, with nothing to break their fall except for other stumbling models, who then land in a flailing heap of inflated lips and silicone.
No more. It’s time to quit pouting, pucker up, and accept each other’s lips just the way they are.
Unless pouting makes your lips look fuller, of course.
(You can write to Ned Hickson at nhickson@oregonfast.net, or at the Siuslaw News at P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR. 97439)
Oswald’s Miracle Marksmanship: Dallas 47 Years Later
Almost everyone in America today remembers exactly where they were at the moment when they first heard about 9-11. I was at the dentist. And almost everyone from the baby-boomer generation also remembers exactly where they were at the moment when they first heard that President Kennedy was shot. For the baby-boomer generation, Kennedy’s assassination was like what 9-11 is to Americans today — in the sense that things have never been the same since either event.
Almost everyone in America today remembers exactly where they were at the moment when they first heard about 9-11. I was at the dentist. And almost everyone from the baby-boomer generation also remembers exactly where they were at the moment when they first heard that President Kennedy was shot. For the baby-boomer generation, Kennedy’s assassination was like what 9-11 is to Americans today — in the sense that things have never been the same since either event.
In 1963 I was a junior in college, sitting in the front row of Professor James Pratt’s political science class and listening to his lecture on Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex. And who would have guessed back then that 47 years later I would finally actually get a chance to actually go visit Dallas, to actually go inside the Texas Book Depository and to actually stand right there on the Grassy Knoll, looking down on the exact spot where Kennedy was shot. Not me!
Here’s how it happened: I was down in Belize City and about to catch a plane home after having visited almost every Mayan ruin in a four-country radius (see <http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2010/04/archeology-at-its-best-mayan-ruins.html> for details), when it was announced over the loudspeaker that my flight was delayed. Rats. “Now I’ll never make my connection at DFW!”
”Not to worry,” said the gate person. “We’ll put you up at a hotel in Dallas and you can fly out to SFO the next day.” And American Airlines did just that, bless its heart. And that is how I actually got to spend a whole day in Dallas.
And what does one do when one goes to Dallas? Go to a Cowboys game? No! One visits the Grassy Knoll!
And gets to be amazed.
First I was amazed that, 47 years after Kennedy’s tragic death, the place where he was brutally assassinated was still a major tourist attraction. There were still tourists coming to that spot. And the sixth floor room where Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy is now a museum.
The second thing that amazed me was that I actually got to stand on the exact spot where Kennedy received his tragically-fatal shot to the head.
But the thing that amazed me most was that, after all this huge hype that’s been shoved down our throats for the past 47 years that Oswald, acting alone, killed Kennedy by firing just three shots, is really actually sort of hard to believe when you are actually there at the actual spot. Even the greenest kindergartner, standing where I stood 47 long years after the fatal event, could immediately see that, despite all the hype and the commission reports to the contrary, that it would have taken a miracle of marksmanship and accuracy for Oswald to have made those three direct hits. A freaking miracle!
Was Oswald that good of a marksman? Hardly. But if he was, then he must have been intensively well-trained by the best.
If, however, someone had made the shot that killed Kennedy from the Grassy Knoll, where eye-witnesses originally said that the shots came from, it would have been a relatively easy shot.
”But, Jane,” you might say, “if the shots had been fired from the Grassy Knoll, wouldn’t they have entered Kennedy’s body from a different angle and even injured Jackie as well?” Hmmm…
So I did some research. And according to autopsy photos at <http://www.celebritymorgue.com/jfk/jfk-autopsy.html,> we can clearly see that one bullet entered Kennedy’s head from the right — and one entered at the middle of his back. And a third one entered his neck from the FRONT. What’s with that? Oswald really did fire a miracle shot! Or else Kennedy was shot as he approached the Grassy Knoll, passed in front of it and was driven away from the shooter(s)?
I haven’t read all the voluminous literature regarding JFK and Oswald, but it seems to me from the perspective of a naive tourist just visiting the Grassy Knoll for a few minutes that If Oswald actually was the sole shooter, then he would have had to have started shooting Kennedy at least a half-football-field sooner than he did — if he was going to get in both his front and side shot.
And where was the Secret Service after the first shot was fired? Aren’t they spozed to throw themselves in front of the President at the first sign of trouble and protect him with their lives? Which brings up that old question of why weren’t Secret Service agents riding on the Cadillac’s rear bumper? Which they clearly were not. No wonder poor sweet Jackie got blood all over her pink suit and Caroline and John-John had to go fatherless!
”But, Jane,” you might remind me rather forcibly at this point, “all these are just conspiracy theories.” Yeah, well, tell that to the kindergartners — and us tourists at the Grassy Knoll.
Here’s a video I made of the scene of the crime: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCSYfVepAYY>.
PS: It also seems to me that lurking behind the scenes during every major war and disaster in America since 1930 (or even actually on the scene), there has always been a member of the Bush family — with the possible exception of Korea. Prescott Bush was there egging on Hitler. George H.W. Bush was a high-ranking CIA official when Kennedy was murdered, thus paving the way for Vietnam. Then there was the Gulf War, invented almost singlehandedly by George Senior. And 9-11? According to George W. Bush’s terrorism adviser, Richard Clarke, GWB was warned about the possibility of that tragic attack at least a month before it happened — and yet Bush did nothing.
And how about Iraq and Afghanistan? Was a Bush behind those wars too? Yep.
And just think for a moment about how all these past 80 years of American “wars” have been very, very good for the Bush family — causing their stock in the weapons trade to zoom up. Which leaves me wondering which Bush will get us into America’s next war — in order to give the next generation of young Bushes a leg up in the family business?
Professor Pratt and President Eisenhower were right back in the day. “Beware of the military-industrial complex.” And nothing’s changed since — except for the worse. And while misguided Teabaggers are currently fretting their little hearts out over our government’s relatively minor healthcare expenditures, munitions manufacturers like the Bush family are still happily hijacking what is left of our treasury — and our souls.
PPS: Oh crap. I’m so tired of hearing about how Teabaggers, the NRA and “Christian” militias are out buying deadly weapons, arming themselves and then complaining that they need even MORE assess to weapons. If those people all want unlimited access to guns and warfare so badly, then they need to move to the Democratic Republic of Congo ASAP. They’d be much, much happier in the DRC. There’s no gun control there. You can shoot at people indiscriminately and nobody can stop you. Teabaggers could even own their own tanks!
PPPS: The bastards who killed Kennedy may still be feeling all smug with themselves that they got clean away with it and that they will never be caught. But all too many Americans know what really happened back then. You think not? Just go to YouTube, enter a search for “Kennedy Assassination” and watch how many VIDEOS come up. 7,880 videos come up. That’s videos, not hits (one video alone had 3,157,243 hits). Type in “Kennedy assassination conspiracy” and over TEN THOUSAND more videos will pop up.
Now take a few hours and watch some of those videos yourself. “You can fool some of the people all of the time….” Despite the fact that the perps outwardly seem to be getting away with their cover-up, they are not. Not really. Even 47 years after this tragic event, people are still not letting this issue fade.
Perhaps there is hope for America yet.
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Here’s a home video taken in 2009, showing how tourists are still swarming the Grassy Knoll even now. According to this video, there was also a tree in the way of Oswald’s shot back in 1963. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ9M_ByrEWI&feature=related>
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More than three bullets were shot? This video says yes: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtFoPCKVp-8&feature=related>
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Here’s a video of an eye-witness who heard many shots. “The shots came from the [Grassy Knoll] and I saw a man running.” <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b0YcMYmweo&feature=related>
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Here’s the famous video of the Secret Service stand-down in Dallas: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY02Qkuc_f8>
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And here’s a photo of George H.W. Bush at the Texas Book Depository after the shooting: <http://www.freedomfightersforamerica.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/BushJfkBookDepoT.324104116.jpg>
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”Back and to the left….” Here’s that memorable scene from the Oliver Stone movie “JFK”: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBABFpAkJMM&feature=related>
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Want something good to read? Buy my book! “Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today’s Middle East,” available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. <http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1>
Also it looks like I’m going to be going on a book tour of the Southwest in June, heading out for Los Angeles, El Paso, Phoenix, Roswell and Austin so far. I will also be accompanied by my two capable literary assistants Ashley and Mena. Anyone having any suggestions for locating free or cheap lodging in those cities or bookstores that want me to give them a talk, please let me know.
Ideas For Improving The United States Public Education System
Improving public education seems to be a never-ending battle. For the majority of children and parents, who rely on it, public education continues to fail the needs and the learning outcomes of the children attempting to get a quality education. Believe me, I know first-hand. I almost dropped out of a public high school that had 6,000 kids enrolled. It was easy to get lost and to fall inside the cracks of the public education system. The sheer numbers [of students] make public education a difficult, if not impossible overwhelming effort.
Improving public education seems to be a never-ending battle.
For the majority of children and parents, who rely on it, public education continues to fail the needs and the learning outcomes of the children attempting to get a quality education. Believe me, I know first-hand. I almost dropped out of a public high school that had 6,000 kids enrolled. It was easy to get lost and to fall inside the cracks of the public education system. The sheer numbers [of students] make public education a difficult, if not impossible overwhelming effort.
However, I was luckier than most. After much “stumbling” I forced myself to continue my education and received my first Masters Degree from New York University, one of the top higher education facilities in the nation. I have two additional post graduate degrees. Against all odds, I became a public high school teacher and then a Middle School Principal. I then achieved the status of Program Director for the Alternative Education Division of the Board of Education in a major U.S. city. I also became a University Professor at several top universities and a community college. I was in significant overview of the entire scope of the educational process and I didn’t like what I saw.
Finally, after 10 years mixed of joy and frustration, it was a sad day when I finally left teaching because of politics and burnout, trying to teach in a system whose politics and lack of reality-based focus that fights teachers and good administrators every step of the way in providing a quality education for our children. I left public education to enter business as a Director of Information Services, upon which I achieved respect and made a lot of money, but I always missed working with children.
After so many years, public education still needs help, even more so in today’s world. There have been many leaders who have tried to “fix” it, but all have failed for one reason or another. I have a simpler solution for success. It will save a ton of tax dollars and will achieve better learning outcomes. It will provide the public education the majority of our children need in order to succeed in life. It will be less complicated, more logical and it will work for all of them.
• Teach children the basic needs in learning and life: reading, writing, math along with some basic science and core history. Do it so learning is fun. Stop viewing success as passing state examinations and stop fiddling with textbooks riddled with inaccuracies and special interest judgments and commentaries
• Reduce class sizes in half
• Then give them one elective period where they can pursue whatever topic they, their parents and/or educators want
• Teach them better communication and life training skills that actually are important in daily living, e.g., like maintaining a checking account, writing a business letter, interview skills and job resume writing, and to learn the process before proceeding on any objective or endeavor.
• There is no need to teach religious thought, political philosophy or any of that other tripe that have little to do with REAL learning in public education
• Teach kids to learn for learning’s sake, how to research any topic and to enjoy the learning process. Extend that focus on process because teaching kids to identify and learn the process of each and all things in life is the gateway to success. Once you see the process, you know the steps you need to take to succeed in that effort with hard work
• Increase teacher salaries and benefits, which will ensure a competitive, more professional and higher quality pedagogical staff.
Our schools have become just another business and a volatile political football field. Get politics out of the schools and classrooms. Our classrooms currently are labs for babysitting our children until 3 PM. Reduce class sizes. Instead of 30 or 40 kids to a class, make it 15 kids in a class. The quality of education and learning just doubled. It’s a mathematical and commonsense fact.
If we provide the above solutions, our kids will get much more out of education and of life and we can stop trying to run public education like an industrial assembly-line plant. We have to modify education to fit our children, not force our children to fit into education.
“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain
However, public education continues to fail children and parents. Public education is failing communities all across the nation.
It is why I have been home schooling my son since he was old enough for nursery school. It is hard enough to raise children these days, but those “educators” in the State Board of Education (SBOE) ‘pie in the sky building’, far removed from actual education, continue to determine policy and curriculum for all children in public education. They don’t know what they are doing and they are doing it wrong. That’s as honest as I can be about it.
It is enough that people like this exist in large numbers across the nation, but to subject ALL children to such beliefs and some obscure paths to falsely determined success should be illegal and is a wake-up call to all thinking people. I advocate that people contact their House and Senate representatives and inform them of their anger, disapproval and disappointment of how the SBOE is functioning and how it wants to impede providing honest, factual and appropriate knowledge for all children.
Perhaps as part of the wake-up call, people may need to start filing class action lawsuits against the SBOE in all states, maybe even against various school districts, but it is the SBOE that charts out the direction, courses and learning materials for all state public school districts, pushed by various wealthy and powerful special interests.
We need to change this overall process at the top soon, before we raise a group of misled, incompetent, information biased idiots and misfits who eventually will manage our nation’s education and business sectors.
I believe the current trends of top-down school management will ensure that there will be larger numbers of thinking parents who will opt to home school their children, as I have done. It is not an easy job and fortunately I have the time, desire and experience in doing so.
I also believe that the SBOE hierarchy and its wealthy special interests will continue to push public education and knowledge base further into the Dark Ages.
Note that I am NOT advocating some ultra “liberal” education for children. I believe in moderation as well as common-sense orientation to life in general, but I also believe we need to provide factual data and true direction to our children with an open and creative mind. That’s real education.
That simply does not occur in most states. I teach my son to love learning and how to get the REAL facts for anything he will need in his lifetime. I also teach him the necessary daily life knowledge he will need in the real world of living and business.
As a parent, former public school teacher, school administrator, university professor, business executive and a THINKING person, I am appalled by what has happened to our education system and the direction that it will have to endure as long as these narrow-minded, falsely opinionated, often delusional and irresponsible people manage education in this state. It may not be all of them, but it sure is most of them. The lack of success of public education proves it.
A lot of people are not going to like what I say in this commentary, but it’s the truth.
These days it is almost everything people can do to get jobs, keep them and work at them most of their daily lives. Some unfortunate folks must work more than one job to survive. People don’t have the “luxury” to sit down at a dinner table. It is often physically, energetically and emotionally impossible.
I know that my family does not “sit down” at the dinner table to eat together and discuss things. My wife and I don’t really eat a dinner. We all eat very light meals often throughout the day. We do eat together formally at least once per week. But we are close in other ways every day and we take the time daily to communicate and interact.
It doesn’t matter how families do it, but they do need to make the time for close interaction. It is desperately needed. We need to communicate with each other. It is an important part of living.
My son is 13 years old now and we have a very close relationship as father and son. We also are close in that I am his educator and mentor, although he continues to teach me a lot. In addition, we are each other’s best friend and I would not trade that for anything in the world. But family is everything to me. I would give up everything I have or what I like to do for myself to keep close with my family. Other people may have other priorities but that is mine.
However, in this world that we have created of difficult everyday living, it is a very hard time for parents and children. Not everyone has the time or inclination to deal with raising a family in the ways that others are able to. I’m not defending it, just confirming the reality.
Education starts and continues with the parents, but it is very helpful for dedicated, honest, knowledgeable and sincere “other” people to help in that education. We hope it is found in the classroom, but that is not often the case. It is a hard time for educators.
Even dedicated qualified teachers are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of students they have every day. Even if they put in all the hours of preparation to provide a quality education, they do so at the risk of not providing their own families with the same needs. In addition, they are underpaid and have inadequate health benefits and retirement packages. Teachers also are forced to be police officers in the class room, to maintain a peaceful environment to facilitate learning. Furthermore, teachers are not provided with the quality materials, textbooks, Xerox facilities, access to teaching methods, etc.
In addition, many top teachers leave the system due to burnout and/or they get better pay in the business sector. I know this for a fact, as I explained above. I left education to make more money in the business sector and because I felt as if I were on some sort of never-ending treadmill, spinning my wheels trying to educate and discipline children often without the active support from the school administrators and parents.
Teaching is a very difficult skill and profession. Not everyone who has a certain knowledge or skill can teach it well to others. Not every teacher is a good teacher. In fact, I will go further to say that most teachers are not top quality teachers, much the same as most parents are not top quality parents, or in the same parallel as most people who play golf are not top golfers.
It is a particular skill to be a great teacher. You cannot learn to be one because it is an innate skill and personality, but everyone can learn to be a better teacher.
We should be honoring great teachers as we do great football or basketball teams and players and we pay them accordingly. Unfortunately, teachers are seldom respected or honored. Once upon a time, the community viewed teachers differently. They were respected because of their importance to the community’s present and future goals and objectives. Frequently, teachers were invited into people’s homes for dinner and to chat.
Our society doesn’t do that so we push top teachers out of the education system in search of better opportunities, more respect and better pay. State and school district politics often interfere with the process of educating our children. Every year or two, someone at the top of the ladder arrives at a new panacea that will save public education. It seldom helps.
Bottom-line is that the public education system needs a complete overhaul. That is not going to happen for many reasons.
Think about it.
If our leaders REALLY wanted to improve public education, they would have done so already. It seems they are being paid not to, in various ways.
Legislators and business leaders are not the ones to resolve the major educational issues and problems. They simply do not have the experience and background even if they truly wanted to. However, they still could get the right people to make the changes that public education needs to be successful. Our legislators tried to change public education with many committees, but they always fail. They fail because of political power-plays and special interest impedance.
Think about it further.
If public education became successful, everyone would want their kids to go to public schools. What would happen to private schools? They would not do as well or make as much profit. A lot of people also are invested in Charter Schools for that same reason.
In addition, quite a few of our legislators and business leaders sit on the Boards of private and charter schools. There is a reason why they sit there and why they want public education to fail. They may not want public education to fail completely, just enough so private and charter schools are more successful.
There are powerful and wealthy people out there that want public education to fail. But they don’t want it to fail completely because they want a place to house young children during the week. They want big baby-sitting structures but they want the majority of kids to remain, perhaps not uneducated, but certainly less educated than the kids who attend private and/or charter schools.
There is a lot of politics at the national, state and local levels that interfere with providing a quality public education to the majority of children. Still, there are simple things that we could do to increase the teaching quality and learning outcomes we currently have available.
To reiterate, doing the following will improve public education:
• Teach children the basic needs in learning and life: reading, writing, math along with some basic science and core history. Do it so learning is fun. Stop viewing success as passing state examinations and stop fiddling with textbooks riddled with inaccuracies and special interest judgments and commentaries
• Reduce class sizes in half
• Then give them one elective period where they can pursue whatever topic they, their parents and/or educators want
• Teach them better communication and life training skills that actually are important in daily living, e.g., like maintaining a checking account, writing a business letter, interview skills and job resume writing, and to learn the complete process before proceeding on any objective or endeavor
• There is no need to teach religious thought, political philosophy or any of that other tripe that have little to do with REAL learning in public education
• Teach kids to learn for learning’s sake, how to research any topic and to view and enjoy the learning process. Extend that focus on process because teaching kids to identify and learn the process of each and all things in life is the gateway to success. Once you see the process, you know the steps you need to take to succeed in that effort with hard work
• Increase teacher salaries and benefits, which will ensure a competitive, more professional and higher quality pedagogical staff.
In closing, we may never get public education on a par with private schools, but we can do a lot to improve them and it doesn’t take a lot of effort or money to do so. In fact, doing what I describe above may actually save a lot of tax dollars, which may cut property taxes as an additional perk. It will also change the priorities and improve educational outcomes. However, we need the right people to create the change but as long as the powerful, wealthy special interests willingly hold back public education, it will remain difficult to achieve quality changes leading to more positive and better directed learning outcomes for our children.
If “it takes a community to raise a child” we are doing a very crummy job of it. We can and should do better.
30 Years Ago This Week…
As my son, Pete, approaches his 30th birthday, I can’t help but wonder, “What have we wrought upon our progeny?”
As my son, Pete, approaches his 30th birthday, I can’t help but wonder, “What have we wrought upon our progeny?”
Pete’s an intelligent young man, able to comprehend more than he might think he can.
I’m ashamed to admit this, but oftentimes he is far more astute than I give him credit for.
Not one to march to the beat of the drummer of conventional thought, it took the lad several years longer than most to earn a Bachelor Degree. (Okay, it took him 10…)
Not that he would have been any further ahead by flying through university in the usual four or five years.
I saw the young college graduates who were several years older than Pete (GenXers, if you prefer) get hired for jobs at ridiculous incomes of $35K, $45K, and more, even though they had absolutely zero experience.
Then, too, the GenXers would scoff at any job that didn’t offer full benefits and perks – gimmes to which their predecessors who had worked slavishly for decades were still not “entitled”.
More often than not, young women were given first consideration.
Across the board, whether male or female, those who were more pleasant to behold were automatically moved to the short list – abilities, personalities, and smarts be damned.
Pete’s a pretty solid worker, when the job isn’t so mundane as to be rote.
He can think on his feet, usually.
When turned loose on clientele, Pete can commiserate knowledgeably and pleasantly.
So, why can’t he find a reasonably fulfilling, somewhat-lucrative full-time position?
Simple. Such jobs no longer exist.
For the past five years, he’s been putting up with surly customers and even surlier managers at the local outlet of a well-known department store chain. Take the Christmas season out of the equation, and he averages 10-12 hours per week.
On a good week, if he’s lucky the store will schedule him for 20-25 hours; most weeks they throw him a bone of four or five hours.
A self-taught guitarist, unabashed at getting up – alone – in front of an audience to play and sing, (something I could never imagine myself doing), he tends to ignore those particular talents because there’s no money in it.
(Truthfully, most venues allow only for payment of drinks and tips, and the good folks around here are unsophisticated in the nth degree regarding tipping practices.)
He can’t make more money as a performer because he’s not in the musicians’ union. He can’t get into the musicians’ union because he doesn’t have enough of the proper experience. He doesn’t have enough of the proper experience because he can’t get good gigs because he’s not in the musicians’ union.
‘Round and ‘round goes the carousel. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Pete’s also a good actor, and, when working with a knowledgeable director, has proven himself an excellent actor.
But, as with music, the merry-go-round is essentially the same.
When he does inquire about jobs, the firms don’t even bother to respond. He gets more calls and mail from the organizations that want their student loan money back.
It’s kind of difficult to repay those loans when one’s income is far below the poverty line, yet these ersatz “banks” keep up the pressure as though the economy has not seen any sort of downswing. (Thankfully, President Obama has recently changed the repayment rules to favor the student loan recipient, not the provider.)
Oh, I know what you’re thinking: “Why doesn’t your son enlist?” “There are plenty of new construction jobs he could look into.”
I spent seven years in the Army, and can safely say that Pete’s not the soldierly type.
As for construction, Pete tried that for a short time, and it’s something he’s just not cut out to do. Besides, one doesn’t get a good construction job without being recommended to the union by someone, and it takes experience to get a recommendation… once again, the merry-go-round.
He even applied to the local school as a substitute teacher – paid the State of Illinois $50 for a license to teach – but the district, for the first time in its history, was not taking new applicants.
So, not being able to meld his talents into viable, productive avenues of endeavor, Pete goes through periods where he shuns those things that he’s good at, and loves doing.
By now you’re probably thinking that I’m making excuses for the lad because he’s my son. That is hardly the case.
I wish that he had had some of the opportunities that I was able to experience before turning 30, but most of those roads have been blocked off in a world that has become ever more angry, mean, and dangerous.
I relate Pete’s tale (abridged, to be sure) because he’s not alone in the boat. In today’s economy, millions of young men and women, many of whom are well-educated, cannot get a solid foothold on life.
To anyone who would blame Barack Obama for the current situation, remember that he came along years after we were deeply entrenched in this disastrous mess.
Pete is capable of doing far more than act or sing, but the opportunities are just not there, and the concept of “it’s not what you know but who you know” is currently in overdrive.
The market may open up in another five or 10 years, but what do our floundering progeny do while their talents lie wasted in dormancy in the meantime?
Oh, well… Happy Birthday, my Son. We’ll muddle through somehow, together.
Shalom.
(Jerry Tenuto is an erstwhile Philosopher and sometime Educator. A veteran with seven years of service in the U.S. Army, he holds a BS and MA in Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Depending upon your taste in political stew, you can either blame or thank Jerry for his weekly “Out Of The Blue” feature in The Lone Star Iconoclast. Visit his blog Blue State View at illinoiscentral.blogspot.com)
Daniel Estulin Authors SHADOW MASTERS
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — “The True Story of the Bilderberg Group,” Daniel Estulin’s first book, sold over 3.2 million copies — in 79 countries, 49 languages, five continents. His latest is “Shadow Masters.”
How Governments And Their Intelligence Agencies Are Working With International Drug Dealers And Terrorists For Mutual Benefit And Profit
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — “The True Story of the Bilderberg Group,” Daniel Estulin’s first book, sold over 3.2 million copies — in 79 countries, 49 languages, five continents. His latest is “Shadow Masters.”
Estulin is an award-winning international journalist who thrives on controversy. He is considered the pre-eminent historian of the global elite, a scholar of remarkable breadth and erudition and one of the world’s most outspoken public intellectuals. Estulin doesn’t mince words and he doesn’t hold back when naming names, like David Rockefeller, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush, and identifying the cauldrons of chaos they have created. He exposes these and other “Shadow Masters” among the secret global power elite as the coolly vicious orchestrators of wars, terrorism, and grand-scale theft. Estulin also details the mind-boggling sums of money they reap from the proceeds of drug trafficking.
Served by minions with recognizable names like Oliver North, the Shadow Masters further their agendas using public monies and government resources around the world as if they personally owned them, notes Estulin. Meanwhile, banks launder hundreds of billions of narco-dollars yearly. And perpetrators meet annually and off the record to discuss how to move their agendas forward.
These Shadow Masters are well represented in Daniel Estulin’s first book, “The True Story of the Bilderberg Group,” currently being made into a $100-million motion picture by Halcyon. Now, in page after page of “Shadow Masters,” Estulin provides equally egregious revelations.
Major actions of the last two decades are revealed as “move/countermove” in a grisly game of geopolitics, set against the background of a crumbling Soviet Union, a nascent Russia, bizarre assassinations, wars and diamond, drugs and arms smuggling.
Estulin documents how Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, working with the International Monetary Fund, deliberately set up the circumstances for the massive transfer of Russia’s wealth into secret U.S. and other offshore bank accounts, leaving a collapsed economy and millions of people penniless and starving by the early 1990s. This agenda had been prearranged at a number of Bilderberg gatherings.
Mind-blowing from the beginning, Estulin’s book takes an even more astounding contemporary turn with his account of the sensationalistic nature of the international vilification campaign against Victor Bout, reputedly the largest weaponry dealer in the world. A former junior lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force, this “Lord of War” began an aviation transport business in Africa after the fall of the USSR. As conflicts raged all over the continent and airlines pulled out, Bout gained control of almost all the air transport business in Africa. When his business profile heightened in two areas of great interest to the Bilderberger’s Shadow Masters—arms and air transport—Bout now found himself an international pariah. An intense worldwide defamation campaign was launched, encompassing UN reports, press accounts, and a book titled “Merchant of Death,” by Douglas Farah who admittedly never met or interviewed Bout. The book’s nickname for Bout is constantly parroted in the U.S. media.
Suddenly intelligence officials considered the patsy Bout to be one of the world’s greatest threats to U.S. interests, in the same league as al Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden. Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest; the United Nations Security Council restricted his travel; President George W. Bush signed an Executive Order calling for Bout’s nonexistent U.S. assets to be frozen.
After the Washington Times and the Miami Herald printed erroneous reports connecting him to attempts by FARC rebels in Columbia to buy uranium for a dirty bomb, Bout was arrested in Thailand in 2008 in a U..S-led sting operation, and his extradition was requested. Estulin, the only Western journalist to regularly attend the Thai extradition proceedings, chronicles the mysterious mix of super espionage and Keystone Kops antics comprising the U.S. moves against Bout, and resulting in Thai refusal of extradition, U..S appeals, and Bout’s continuing residence in a Bangkok prison.
Unquestionably, Bout is the man the media most want to talk to, the million-dollar interview, the Pulitzer Prize, the Emmy interview. Estulin has interviewed Bout extensively for Shadow Masters, and tells an amazing story of what happens when the Shadow Master’s wish a person out of the way.
In “Shadow Masters” Estulin is inarguably the world’s most daring and experienced reporter on the global power elite. He meticulously documents his reporting and has developed sources other journalists don’t even know exist. Asked why he practices such a difficult and controversial brand of journalism, Estulin replies, “Because universal corruption and abuse of power and privileges at the deepest levels of society must be exposed and because I refuse to turn my back on inhumanity and violence.”
Publisher TrineDay, 347 pp, $24.95 USD.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R38JTMINHQZ61O/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Summer Garden: Be Careful What You Wish For
We wished that our fruit blossoms not be zapped by late freezes this year. And somehow we dodged that bullet (unlike last year when all fruit was lost). At this point, it looks as if we may actually have a bumper crop of peaches, a few plums, and a few pears on our young trees. — Too soon yet to know about persimmons, pomegranates, grapes and pecans.
We wished that our fruit blossoms not be zapped by late freezes this year. And somehow we dodged that bullet (unlike last year when all fruit was lost). At this point, it looks as if we may actually have a bumper crop of peaches, a few plums, and a few pears on our young trees. — Too soon yet to know about persimmons, pomegranates, grapes and pecans.
Some things come back to life after the winter sleep much later than others. For instance, our tiny fig tree that’s been trying its best to grow for the last three years or so always greens up late. Every spring, Zack says, “Look at this. It’s DEAD!” And with that, he starts breaking off pieces of the poor little thing to show me. Every year, I push his hand away in horror and tell him it’s still dormant and needs more days of warm weather. Zack is not a patient man. Sure enough, the little fig tree will look for all the world like dead sticks for weeks later than everything else. Then suddenly, tiny leaves begin to appear. Every year it’s a little shorter in stature, though, due to Zack’s emphatic and demonstrative “pruning.” I think we’re producing a bonsai fig.
So many things can go wrong with fruit-bearing trees and plants — from the time the blossoms bring us one of our first breaths of spring — until they may eventually bear ripe fruit. So although things do look promising at this early stage, only time will tell the final tale.
We’re also putting the first plants into the garden just now. We finally took down last year’s old, dry plants stalks a few weeks ago (Other projects trumped striking the garden during the winter). Zack broke up the earth — with the large tiller behind the tractor — then the hand tiller, to make rows. Every year we promise ourselves we’ll wait until April 15 to plant the garden, and every year we break that promise. But at least this time, we managed to hold off a little longer. Looking at the 10-day weather forecast, it appears there won’t be any late cold snaps. We’ll see. “APPEARS” is the operative word. Last year we replanted three times when unexpected, late freezes killed the tender plants we had enthusiastically and prematurely entrusted to the earth. A year or so before that, we awoke one April morning to frost on our bluebonnets. This was a first in my memory.(Life is full of surprises). Our current crop of bluebonnets (and boy is the patch thickening and expanding!) just started blooming during these past few days, so wish us luck with this weather thing.
It’s always so exciting to begin again with this seasonal renewal, the affirmation of the return of warmth and promise. However — soon the reality of watering and weeding (in the hot, hot sun of late spring and summer) will set in. If most of the fruit matures and most of the garden plants do well — and if we’re lucky enough to have a wild mustang grape crop (for wine and jelly), we have just created almost endless work for ourselves come summer. Of course, I wasn’t thinking of any of that as I gleefully planted veggies this afternoon. (Well, OK, maybe for a fleeting moment).
Last year, there were no grapes or fruit due to the late freezes. And still, I almost worked myself to death with only my flower beds, the garden maintenance, harvest, and pickling of cucumbers and okra. How will I ever manage to wash, prepare, and cook or freeze all the fruit, weed the garden, and handle the bounty — if everything “makes”? It will be necessary to enlist Zack’s help, for sure. This will be the first growing season since he fell ill that he may be able to more fully pitch in to help reap what he hath sewn! Follow-through is everything!
Gene Ellis, Ed.D is a Bosque County resident who returned to the family farm after years of living in New Orleans, New York, and Florida. She’s an artist who holds a doctoral degree from New York University and is writing a book about the minor catastrophes of life. Check out Genie’s blog at <http://rusticramblings.wordpress.com/>.
What’s In That Tea?
This whole Tea Party thing is somewhat confusing. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great that people who are upset about politics are participating in protests rather than being apathetic. However, some things that they’re saying don’t make sense to me. The big cry is, “Give me my country back.” Where do they think their country went? Did they have a bad dream in which they wake up and suddenly can’t find all of the states? “Oh, no! Didn’t Delaware used to be over there? Whoever took it, should give it back.” And who do they think took it? Was it some country with fewer problems than we have? Are they calling out in this dream, “Hey, Monaco, we know you took our country. That’s not right. You don’t even have room for it.”
This whole Tea Party thing is somewhat confusing. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great that people who are upset about politics are participating in protests rather than being apathetic. However, some things that they’re saying don’t make sense to me. The big cry is, “Give me my country back.” Where do they think their country went? Did they have a bad dream in which they wake up and suddenly can’t find all of the states? “Oh, no! Didn’t Delaware used to be over there? Whoever took it, should give it back.” And who do they think took it? Was it some country with fewer problems than we have? Are they calling out in this dream, “Hey, Monaco, we know you took our country. That’s not right. You don’t even have room for it.”
Many of us were surprised by the recent demographic statistics that showed the Tea Party is not a movement consisting of people who have been unfairly deprived of achieving the American Dream. Tea Partiers say they don’t want the government so involved in their lives, yet the majority of them are in favor of Social Security and Medicare. In other words, they are against the government spending money on programs to help people except for the programs that they like. The majority of Tea Partiers are wealthier than the average American, better educated, and own nicer homes. So they achieved the American Dream. They just don’t care if anyone else ever gets to have that dream.
Just what are they unhappy with? What do they think has changed too much? Do they yearn for a time when there was runaway spending by the Bush Administration? They shouldn’t worry about that. We’ve still got runaway spending. Do they miss the days when we waged a senseless war in the Mideast? Cheer up. We’re still waging that war. Are they afraid that since Obama was elected, Wall Street’s traditional greed has been halted? There are two words that should get rid of this fear: “Goldman Sachs.” So where’s the “socialism?” What are the “radical” moves Obama has made?
Is it just about health care? Come on. Is there one American who either personally or through his or her family hasn’t had a horrible experience with a doctor, a hospital, or an insurance company? I don’t know any. Besides, if for some reason, you love your nice, caring insurance company, nobody’s making you change to something else. That doesn’t sound so radical to me.
So why are they upset with the Obama Administration? It goes beyond the Democrats who were upset with Bush becoming President. These are not the usual feelings that those among the political “outs” have for the political “ins.” There are some things having to do with the anger that these people feel towards Obama that is over the top. I’m talking about the out and out disdain, the name-calling, the drawings of Obama looking like Hitler that are displayed at their rallies. This is not just the traditional American rhetoric of those who were disappointed that their people were voted out of office. This is unabashed hatred.
I’m thinking of forming my own political group and calling it the Cola Party. I want my country back, too, and not just the good old America in which Coke only cost a dime. I would love to see the old America in which people could disagree politically, but still respect each other’s opinions — and their right to have them. Give me back my America in which people could calmly discuss their differences without calling each other un-American. Is it really “American,” is it really “patriotic” to not act this way?
Those who are actually spewing disgusting invective or bringing those Nazi posters to the rallies might very well be on the fringe of this fringe movement. I’m certainly not suggesting that everyone in the Tea Party is filled with this venom. But I worry that too many of them are.
So what makes these Obama opponents so much angrier, so much more threatened, and so much more involved in using violent images than Americans who haven’t liked previous Presidents throughout our history? It’s a mystery, isn’t it? Lets see. What is it about President Obama that’s different from all the other Presidents who’ve come before him? Maybe it’s not really such a mystery after all.
Lloyd Garver has written for many television shows, ranging from “Sesame Street” to “Family Ties” to “Home Improvement” to “Frasier.” He has also read many books, some of them in hardcover. He can be reached at lloydgarver@gmail.com. Check out his website at and his podcasts on iTunes.
Larry Blyden Made It On Broadway And The Small Screen
The high point of Larry Blyden’s show business career came on April 23, 1972, when the star of stage and the small screen was awarded a Tony for his performance in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
The high point of Larry Blyden’s show business career came on April 23, 1972, when the star of stage and the small screen was awarded a Tony for his performance in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
Ivan Lawrence Blieden was born into a comfortably middle-class Houston family in 1925. But like so many children of his generation, the “nice Jewish boy” was badly scarred by the Depression.
Times were suddenly tough for the Bliedens after the father, a respected lawyer, lost his job and could not find work for three long years. Little Larry’s earliest memories were of “dodging creditors” and the losing battle to make ends meet.
“I assumed that being poor was personal,” he reflected in a 1962 interview. “It was hard for me to realize that it was a general condition and not my family’s fault.”
Unhappy and feeling “personally insignificant,” teenaged Larry developed a deep inferiority complex. Then in high school he discovered acting and learned “I didn’t have to be me. I could be somebody else.”
After graduation, Larry did his patriotic part by serving three years in the Marines. He returned to the Bayou City and earned a degree at the University of Houston, while working part-time as a radio announcer and dabbling in community theater.
With college behind him, Larry decided to devote himself to acting. He studied at the Royal Academy of the Arts in London and with the famous Stella Adler in New York.
Changing the spelling and pronunciation of his last name, he landed a few bit parts in Broadway plays before fellow Texan Josh Logan provided his big break – the role of Ensign Frank Pulver in the hit “Mister Roberts.”
Unlike most stage actors, Blyden did not turn up his nose at the new entertainment medium taking over America’s living rooms in the early 1950s. And, with most television programs being produced in New York, he was able to juggle two careers at once.
When Blyden was not on Broadway, he was on TV appearing in the weekly dramas so popular at the time. “Playhouse 90,” “The Loretta Young Show,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and many others gave the comedian the opportunity to show his serious side.
One such role is now considered a classic, that of “Rocky Valentine” in the “Twilight Zone” episode titled “A Nice Place to Visit” which aired on April 15, 1960. Blyden played a small-time hoodlum, who thinks he has died and gone to heaven because in the afterlife he has everything he ever wanted.
Blyden’s quick wit and charm were a perfect fit for the half-hour game show, which began to catch on with viewers in the 1950s. He was a frequent panelist on “What’s My Line?,” “Password” and “To Tell the Truth.”
His growing popularity with the TV audience convinced network bosses to try him in his own sitcom. But both “Joe & Mabel” in 1957 and “Harry’s Girls” seven years later summer replacements that did not make to Labor Day.
The only place Blyden did not succeed was Hollywood. He made just three films: “Kiss Them for Me” with Gary Grant and Jayne Mansfield in 1957, “The Bachelor Party” with Amarillo’s Carolyn Jones and Don Murray that same year and “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” with Barbra Streisand in 1970. He summed up his short-lived movie career with the comment, “The fact that I’m in something sells very few tickets.”
Despite his busy television schedule, Blyden’s first love was Broadway. In the 1960s alone, he appeared with Bert Lahr in the musical “Foxy,” replaced Eli Wallach in the lead role of “Luv,” co-starred in the musical “The Apple Tree” and received rave reviews for the comedy “You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running.”
Blyden’s game-show experience coupled with his ability to work without a script, something very few actors can do, made him an ideal emcee. His first gig as host was on “Personality” in 1967.
He soon became, as son Josh put it, “the guy that took over for other guys on game shows.” When Bill Leyden suffered a brain hemorrhage, it was Blyden who stepped in as emcee of “You’re Putting Me On.” In the case of “The Movie Game,” it was poor ratings that led to his replacing the original host. Finally, in 1972, Blyden filled the chair once occupied by the legendary John Charles Daly on “What’s My Line?”
Nineteen seventy-two was also the year Blyden won a Tony, the Broadway equivalent of the Oscar, for his hilarious portrayal of Hysterium the slave in the slapstick comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
After “What’s My Line?” finally ran out of gas in early 1975, Blyden signed to host “Showoffs” with a starting date of June 30. Taking some much needed time off, he flew to Morocco to hunt for antiques, a favorite pastime.
Larry Blyden was badly injured in a one-car accident on May 31, 1975. Although the American consul reported his prognosis was good after emergency surgery, the talented Texan took an unexpected turn for the worse and died five days later at age 49.
Nine “Best of This Week in Texas History” column collections to choose from at twith.com. Order on-line or by mail from Bartee Haile, P.O. Box 152, Friendswood, TX 77549.
Coordination Is The Key When Battling With A Cucumber
In order to help prepare my daughter for her first season of T-ball, we bought a mitt, ball, practice tee, and all the equipment necessary to get started on the basics. For obvious reasons, we saw no need to purchase an athletic cup—until I decided to advise her about batting stance, at which point it became obvious that I should have.
Flashback: May 2003
In order to help prepare my daughter for her first season of T-ball, we bought a mitt, ball, practice tee, and all the equipment necessary to get started on the basics. For obvious reasons, we saw no need to purchase an athletic cup—until I decided to advise her about batting stance, at which point it became obvious that I should have.
At least for myself.
Though practice ended a little early that first day, we were back at it the following afternoon—my daughter with her bat and a look of determination, and me offering advice and encouragement a safe distance away with my bull horn. It was one of those father/daughter moments that lasted just long enough for me to realize it, and just long enough for our neighbor to cross the street and threaten to shove my bull horn somewhere that isn’t located on any ball field.
With that, we decided to try some fielding practice; I’d hit the ball to her, and she’d practice leaping on it with her eyes closed. Before we could do that, however, I had to actually HIT the ball. In my defense, I was using her bat, which is roughly the size of a cucumber. Also in my defense, let me just say that the cucumber and I have about the same degree of hand-eye coordination. Yet, between the two of us, we STILL couldn’t hit the ball.
As a father, this is very embarrassing.
(As a cucumber, it’s no big deal.)
On the other hand, this was a good opportunity to teach my daughter about the importance of not giving up, and how, through patience and determination, you can do anything.
I say this all in retrospect, having hurled her cucumber bat over the top of the house in a fit of frustration.
In spite of all this, when it came time for our daughter’s first official T-ball practice this week, we felt ready.
For those of you who’ve never watched T-ball, the rules are roughly the same as baseball; the ball is hit, the batter runs the bases, and 15 infielders throw their mitts at the ball in order to stop it. Once that is accomplished, everyone runs to a spot about eight inches in front of home plate—which is where the ball has usually landed after gravity, and a solid hit to the neck of the tee, has advanced the ball.
This isn’t always the case, however. In fact, some of the kids I saw could really whack the ball. If not for them, the outfielders walking around with mitts on their faces pretending to be monsters might not have seen any action at all.
In the end, it is the ability to cover your face with your mitt and run around in circles until you trip over a sprinkler head that separates T-ball from major league baseball (not counting Darryl Strawberry). I’d even say that professional baseball could learn a thing or two from T-ball.
But not before I learn how to hit the ball with a cucumber.
(You can write to Ned Hickson at nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com, or at the Siuslaw News at P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR. 97439)
Archeology At Its Best: Mayan Ruins & Branson, Missouri
I just went on a trip through the Mayan ruins of Central America — and all I can say about that is, “Wow!” First I went to Joya de Ceren, an archeological site in El Salvador consisting of a small fifth-century Mayan town that had been preserved because of a volcanic eruption — sort of like the Pompeii of Central America. There you could see how every-day Mayans lived 1,320 years ago. And guess what? Every-day Mayans back then lived in adobe homes pretty much like the ones that many Mayans still live in today.
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com
I just went on a trip through the Mayan ruins of Central America — and all I can say about that is, “Wow!”
First I went to Joya de Ceren, an archeological site in El Salvador consisting of a small fifth-century Mayan town that had been preserved because of a volcanic eruption — sort of like the Pompeii of Central America. There you could see how every-day Mayans lived 1,320 years ago. And guess what? Every-day Mayans back then lived in adobe homes pretty much like the ones that many Mayans still live in today. Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTPQZjVhjqU
Then I went off to see the Copan temple complex in Honduras. But I already told you about that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2buP1SLgIg
Then I went to Tikal, in Guatemala. It was as big as Yosemite and as impressive as Karnak. And I got lost and had to get rescued by a park ranger. He was cute. Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMxyXdBxQYc
Then I went to the exact same ruin where they filmed “Survivor Guatemala,” and stood on the exact same spot where Jeff Probst had stood. It doesn’t get more archeological than that! Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xEgLD8NnZo
Then I spent several hours on a small boat, going up a river in the jungle to the Mayan ruin of Lamanai in Belize. It was all very Indiana Jones. Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E83zl0ypUH4
On the way back through the jungle, I passed a Mennonite settlement. How bizarre is that! Out in the middle of the freaking jungle, miles from nowhere, lived a whole colony of old-fashioned Mennonites, wearing old-fashioned dresses and beards and suspenders and looking for all the world like I had just landed in western Pennsylvania.
And not only that, but it was Sunday and a lot of the Mennonites were strolling down by the riverside after church — and the young men were courting the young ladies by showing off and diving into the river from high posts, fully clothed. And the young ladies were giggling and blushing and totally attentive. Watching this scene was like witnessing an American-style courtship ritual from 150 years ago. It was fascinating. But was it archeology? Probably not.
When I get back to the U.S., I want to go to Branson, Missouri. I already got a brochure!
“Known as the ‘Live Music Show Capital of the World,’ Branson, Missouri, is truly a one-of-a-kind family vacation destination — and an incredible value — with more than 50 live performance theaters, three pristine lakes, 12 championship golf courses, an international award-winning theme park, dozens of attractions and museums, an Historic Downtown district, shopping galore, a full range of dining options, and a host of hotels, motels, resorts, RV parks, campgrounds and meeting and conference facilities.”
I wonder what archeologists will be saying about Branson, Missouri 1,320 years from now?
“But maybe there won’t even BE any archeologists 1,320 years from now,” commented my daughter Ashley. “You’re forgetting that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012.” You mean that the human race could be coming to an end in less than two years? Well, heck. In that case, what we really need to do is to make the most of these two remaining years. Screw buying a new car, working a dead-end job or getting my apartment clean. If the human race is truly going to die out by 2012 (and if you consider the way that we are avoiding the reality of climate change and using mega-bombs like they were Kleenex, this extinction is totally possible), then I need to get ready! We all need to get ready. We all need to run out and do a whole bunch of good deeds ASAP so that we can all make it into Heaven.
PS: Back in the U.S. of A., I hear that Americans are still running around like chickens with their heads cut off, all dazed and confused. There are many serious things wrong with America right now but nobody seems to be trying to fix any of them — or else are only making use of our confusion to feather their own nests.
Wall Street and bankers are acting like vultures. Teabaggers are acting like ostriches with their heads in the sand. The Pentagon has pretty much gone coo-coo about trying to conquer the world. And most Americans are acting like turkeys. “Gobble gobble gobble,” they say, as they gobble up everything in sight at the malls and swallow up all that bird poop being force-fed down their throats by commercials — clearly unaware that they are only fattening themselves up to get stuffed.
At a time when Americans direly needs more eagles and doves, we seem to be mostly stuck with birdbrains, birds of prey and pigeons.
Americans need to stop acting like dodos, prepare for the harsh winter ahead, work together for the common good as one flock, learn to fly high and stop feathering their nests with all that greed and hate that’s gonna come back and bite them in the [tail feathers] REALLY SOON — whether or not the Mayan calendar is right.
Mineral Water Could Make CSI: Ashland Hard To Swallow
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, police dramas involving any type of forensic investigation are still very popular. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this type of crime show, it’s when old-fashioned detective work — in combination with high-tech science — is conducted by really attractive people who would otherwise be getting into water balloon fights at the Playboy Mansion. This formula has proven so popular that every major network now carries at least one of these shows (Not counting the WB, which cancelled its plans for CSI: Pennsylvania after test audiences complained that watching Quaker detectives chase villians in pony carts was “really boring.”)As I’m sure you’ve noticed, police dramas involving any type of forensic investigation are still very popular. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this type of crime show, it’s when old-fashioned detective work — in combination with high-tech science — is conducted by really attractive people who would otherwise be getting into water balloon fights at the Playboy Mansion. This formula has proven so popular that every major network now carries at least one of these shows (Not counting the WB, which cancelled its plans for CSI: Pennsylvania after test audiences complained that watching Quaker detectives chase villians in pony carts was “really boring.”)
In spite of this, talks are continuing about a new spin-off from the CSI franchise that would take place in Ashland, Ore., which, in real life, is home to the world’s only forensic crime lab dedicated exclusively to cases involving wildlife.
For example: When a squirrel’s death is deemed accidental after attempting to retrieve a loose walnut from Interstate 5 during the city’s annual Shakespeare Festival, it takes a highly-trained forensic detective to unravel the ugly truth.
“Hmmm. Judging from this buzzard feather I found near the scene of the crime, I think the victim was PUSHED in front of that Volvo!”
Anther important ingredient to any CSI-type show is that it take place in a unique location. Until recently, I was completely unaware of that Ashland has a free-flowing fountain that spews naturally-occurring mineral water from an underground spring.
Apparently, this is a huge attraction that draws tourists from throughout the world for a chance to drink this mineral-rich water. It is also a huge attraction for Ashland residents, who come to watch tourists gag and then rub dry grass in their mouths after actually tasting the water that comes from the fountain. I’m not saying that everyone thinks it tastes bad; but there’s a reason it’s not in a squeeze bottle next to the Evian.
Which brings us back to the city’s unique crime lab, and its potential as a new police drama. Although I’m not at liberty to divulge my source, I was able to get my hands on a page of script from the pilot episode — which opens with David Hasselhoff standing over a 60-foot-long indentation left in the grass by what he deduces was a severely undernourished boa constrictor.
Hasselhoff: I want this area completely sealed off. It’s going to take a while to process this.
Coroner: What are you doing?
Hasselhoff: I’m going to sift through all 60 feet, starting here at this water faucet and all the way across the yard to the vegetable garden. I WILL find out who starved this poor snake and just left it out here to die.
Coroner: You DO understand that this was made by the garden hose after we moved it, right?
Hasselhoff: Hmmm?
As you can see, there’s plenty of potential here for some riveting television drama. Granted, it isn’t Shakespeare. But I don’t think it’ll be hard to swallow.
Especially with a little mineral water.
(You can write to Ned Hickson at the Siuslaw News at P.O. Box 10, Florence, Or. 97439, or at nhickson@oregonfast.net.)
Chicken Wallbanger?
It wouldn’t shock anyone to learn that San Francisco recently passed a resolution to make Mondays “VegDays.” Everyone in the city will be encouraged to eat vegetarian meals and to avoid eating meat every Monday. Don’t worry. There will be no Vegetarian Police, clad in green outfits, barging into people’s homes to make sure that they aren’t having lamb chops on Monday night.It wouldn’t shock anyone to learn that San Francisco recently passed a resolution to make Mondays “VegDays.” Everyone in the city will be encouraged to eat vegetarian meals and to avoid eating meat every Monday. Don’t worry. There will be no Vegetarian Police, clad in green outfits, barging into people’s homes to make sure that they aren’t having lamb chops on Monday night. This is not just a movement by people who want their fellow citizens to eat less meat to be healthier. The people behind this resolution point out, “If everyone in San Francisco eats a plant-based diet just one day a week for a year, we would save over 378,600,768 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. That is the equivalent of taking 123,822 cars off the streets of San Francisco.” I wonder how many of those 123,822 cars are on their way to pick up a Big Mac.
Vegetarianism has, of course, increased over recent years. So it came as a big surprise to me to learn that some people are clinging onto meat. The weirdest way that they are consuming meat products is in their cocktails. They’ve given a whole new meaning to Beefeater gin.
Some hip,”in” bars are serving drinks like “Bring Home the Bacon.” That’s a concoction that contains beef bullion, vodka and a garnish of deep-fried bacon and a prosciutto-stuffed olive. Beef bullion doesn’t sound all that over the top. However, would you want to drink a cocktail containing elk bullion? There is an elk based drink called, “Big Eye Bloody Bull.” Sounds really appetizing, doesn’t it? Where do you even buy elk bullion? I’ve never seen it on a grocery store shelf, have you?
This infusion of meat into people’s lives during the vegetarian revolution doesn’t stop at the corner bar. According to “Time” magazine, more and more people are butchering their own meat. I’m not kidding. People are butchering their own meat in their kitchens, right next to that beautiful white tile that they spent all that money on. Now, I would never suggest that all this home butchering would save the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as VegDay. However, in one way this meat movement is “green.” That’s the color I’d turn if anyone ever did any butchering in my kitchen.
The last time I heard about a cleaver being in a home kitchen, she was named June. However, the author of “Julie and Julia,” Julie Powell, has published a new book called, “Cleaving” about home butchering. I can hardly wait to see the movie in which Meryl Streep prepares a romantic dinner by chopping off a pig’s snout.
So what’s this culinary counterrevolution all about? Why are people bringing dead animals into their kitchens? Why are they excited about a dinner of braised hoof? I have a theory. In these difficult economic times, people want to hold onto something that they’ve always felt was special. Meat has traditionally been a symbol of wealth and good times. When people want to celebrate something, they have often celebrated with the most expensive meat they can find, not with an avocado and sprouts sandwich. So maybe the attitude is, “You can take away my raise. You can take away my fancy car, you can even take away the house I bought with ridiculous credit three years ago. But keep your hands off my meat.”
Evidently, to some people, meat is an economic comfort food. Maybe when their finances are back up where they want them to be, they will look back and laugh at the time they moved yesterday’s mail, the laptop, and their kid’s relief map of South America off the kitchen counter so they could make oxtail soup from scratch.
So is it possible to reconcile these polar opposites of vegetarianism and meat-ism? I think it is. I think both sides can be happy. All the people who serve that elk bullion cocktail have to do is make sure that the menu states that the bullion is made from free range elk.
Lloyd Garver has written for many television shows, ranging from “Sesame Street” to “Family Ties” to “Home Improvement” to “Frasier.” He has also read many books, some of them in hardcover. He can be reached at lloydgarver@gmail.com. Check out his website at lloydgarver.com and his podcasts on iTunes.
Opportunity: Get Paid To Shut Down Pesticide Companies
Surviving & Prospering in the New Economy
As the Meltdown continues to impact American jobs, lost both to outsourcing and to the death of American enterprise, more Americans live in daily fear of what is to come. Even as pundits and others in positions of influence promise us the long fall from hope is about to turn, continuing their cries of “recovery is beginning,”and “the market needed correction,” the truth stares all of us baldly in the face.
We are witnessing not correction but events which will change the world as we know it forever. The tsunami of monetary and economic shock waves are only now beginning to hit.
Americans need work right now, not later. All of us need good health and fewer chemicals in our homes and communities. At the same time we are urged to lower our standards for the sake of profits.
Our choices matter and choices made today will impact children unborn. Now, as never before you can act to broaden and illuminate a real path to survival and prosperity. Over the next six months I’m going to be writing about small businesses you can start for yourself which turn off the corporate spigot. These are ventures which can generate income and turn off the flow of money to Greed Corporations.
America began as a collection of small towns where people managed their own business. It can be so again and so avoid what government and corporations have wrought.
How would you like to start a business which cleans up the environment, serves your community, and costs little to start? How would you like to know every cent you earn is one denied to corporations? Keep reading.
Big government and Big Business have proven to be unworkable tools for human organization for many reasons. One reason is the presence of psychopathic individuals who, lacking conscience, will do anything to achieve their goals. Once viewed as a problem solvable by traditional therapy, today psychopathy is viewed very differently. Examining the patterns, now obvious, in corporations and government, such experts as Dr. Robert Hare, who originated the first tests for identifying psychopathic behavior, have concluded the behavior is not limited to those truly without conscience. The behavior is readily adopted by those in contact with psychopaths. This can be corporate, as discussed in his book, “Snakes in Suits,” or in government.
This explains why those in positions of power are willing to lie, cheat, steal and kill with no show of conscience and to why we need to turn off the spigots of profit for Greed Corporations.
Back to your new local business.
Rebuilding local commerce, community organizations, and local economy increases our real security.
In communities we work, live, and get to know who we can trust. It is there we must restore the means to manage our common needs and interests, building a firm foundation for new prosperity.
We have a lot to work with.
Steve Tevdten will be on his way to China this week, invited by business there to partner with them to produce an entirely organic pest control product which will be used in China to produce vegetables and other produce to be sold widely in China, Europe, and the United States. Using Tvedten’s brain child they know they can build market shares which will bring in billions for them. For his participation Tvedten will receive 15%, but for Stephen the money is not the motive.
Stephen Tvedten’s mission for the last many years has been to provide, for free to Americans, the same information he is now providing for profit to China Qinghai General Health Bio-Science Co., LLC, savvy innovators who want to stop the damage presently being done to the environment in China.
Stephen incorporated his effort, which is called, Get Set, Intelligent Pest Management. He provides all the information you need to start the same business for the US in his book, downloadable for free, on the Internet.
Why would Stephen be willing to give away ideas which could make him wealthy? For him the goal is building a healthy world for his grandchildren. Stephen owned a prosperous extermination business when his unborn son and uncle died of causes he realized were exposure to the toxic chemicals he, himself, had introduced to their lives. Desperately ill himself, he sought treatment and recovered.
Afterward he gave away the business and set himself to finding alternatives so his tragic losses would not happen to others. All profits are not counted in money.
Tens of thousands of people have used Intelligent Pest Management to solve their own problems today.
On Stephen’s site you see this posted.
“The Best Control 2 is a reference manual based on exhaustive research in the field of nontoxic pest control or IPM. This guide will teach you how to implement nontoxic alternatives to pesticides safely and easily by yourself. This information is provided as a free resource to encourage the spread of safe alternatives to chemical poisons, and thus reduce contamination to ourselves and pollution to our environment.”
When you are moved to action any one of us can do much more than we imagined possible.
Stephen made it his life’s work to find those other courses. You can start your own business using the information Stephen provides.
By so doing you begin the process of solving problems without toxic chemicals today in routine use. Children will grow up healthier and our communities will be improved in many ways. Our water will be cleaner and if enough of us take up this work the oceans will stop becoming dumping grounds for chemicals which are killing the life there and coming back to us in the food we take from those same oceans.
Instead of the frustration of protest and letter writing you can make a business of cleaning up our world.
Your costs will be lower than companies which handle the problem with chemical killers from such corporations as Dow Chemicals. Now, when you are wondering how you are going to survive, you can begin building a new America.
Imagine the sputtering sound of the emptying coffers of Big Chemical as we turn off the spigot which has kept them in control for so many years.
Organic, sustainable solutions do not need to cost us more and the list of opportunities is long.
In Florida, where termites cause multiple needs for tenting homes, there is a solution to now existing structures which are infested.
For restaurants, which are struggling to end infestations of cockroaches, it is in the book.
The book is 900 pages long and the number of solutions to specific problems are enormous – more are added all the time. Stephen tells you when he updates the book, if you ask, and so you know what has been added. Right now we are putting up a directory so you will be able to list yourself as providing Intelligent Pest Management Services.
Stephen Tvedten’s tragedy and work has made this possible. By adding value to his work thousands of Americans can act out their convictions while supporting their families.
Given the state of the economy and the need to remove toxic influences this may be the most important work any of us could take up.
America Goes Home, a non profit, is providing a directory for listing IPM Businesses. Others are providing instructions to starting your own business and building out into your community.
Rebuilding community, one step at a time, begins where ever you are and now you are here.
http://qh-comped.en.alibaba.com/
During The Past Decade Did The U.S. Change For The Better?
During the past several decades the U.S. has changed very quickly and in many ways. Is it changed for the better? As with most things in life, nothing is all good or all bad; however, it would be tough to argue that most of the changes are for the better.During the past several decades the U.S. has changed very quickly and in many ways. Is it changed for the better? As with most things in life, nothing is all good or all bad; however, it would be tough to argue that most of the changes are for the better.
Perhaps more than anything else, the George Walker Bush administration’s legacy was to create the greatest changes in recent U.S. history. Since Year 2000 we went from a representative democracy to a profiteering imperialist oligarchy. Is that a bad thing? Yes it is, pretty much.
The reason it become a bad thing is not because so many individuals and corporations earned gi-normous profits, but it was horrible because of how they did it. They put-away huge profits by scamming or stepping on and over the American people.
There were ponzi schemes and too much easy credit offerings. Banks jumped on providing and turning-over home and other loans virtually disregarding whether or not people could continue to pay them off.
In addition, many laws were bent or changed that afforded the President more power without the oversight of Congress, as had previously been determined by the US Constitution. Accompanying such power was the deterioration of our inalienable and civil rights. We become more of a nation of blathering sheep.
We became involved in more Vietnam style of thinking when we sent our soldiers off to fight an obscure Iraq war for many wrong reasons and became enmeshed in a long-term struggle in which there still is no sight of winning.
Now with the current President’s Barack Obama administration, not only do we remain in Iraq, but we also invaded Afghanistan to crush supposed terrorist cells and activities that are supposed to cause us harm.
Furthermore, as if that was not enough warring to focus on, we are concerned about and are considering to move troops into Iran, North Korea and other areas of the world, e.g., several African nations.
In short, we are acting irresponsibly and sticking our imperialist noses into affairs across the globe. Imperialism and profiteering are not evil advances in themselves; however, they are irresponsible and reprehensible because we continue these activities without ensuring the political, social and economic stability of our own nation and our citizens.
We have become the nation of sheep. We Americans are walking, eating, drinking, and breathing zombies who have lost our direction. Our government has driven a wedge into the heart of our representative democracy, which we seem to have changed more often than our underwear.
There have our good leaders gone? That’s the question that boggles the imagination. Capitalism once was a good thing, but now it has driven the middle class into possible extinction. There are more wealthy extremists since Bush entered the White House, but there are increasingly more poor Americans, who stand on long unemployment lines or beg on more street corners with signs that scream for money and jobs.
Where has the middle class gone? It must have fallen into the trenches for its own survival, but so far, there is no climbing out from them.
Credit card usage burned the American people. What were we thinking?
Gasoline prices are escalating again as OPEC nations manipulate the oil markets by cutting production as spring moves closer to summer and we all drive more, highlighting the never-ending struggle of the laws of supply and demand as we continue to get screwed into the ground by our own government, which permits OPEC to do whatever it wants, and which refuses to open-up our gasoline and oil reserves to the public as we continue to stockpile our energy reserves instead of providing more affordable energy to all Americans.
Yet, Capitalistic Imperialism has its limitations. When profits made from bleeding Americans citizens reached its peak back in 2008, the corporate sector “suddenly” saw a downturn in all market. In actuality, “suddenly” had been brewing for the previous four years, but no one wanted to focus on what was occurring economically. Who could have determined that overnight the U.S. would change from a Capitalistic Imperialism to a Representative Socialism that diverted American jobs to overseas nations, pushed thousands of homes into foreclosure, and subjected US citizens into a hellish nightmare that destroyed the lives and dreams of future generations?
Once again the fix for all our folly is too excessive. Loose credit has been checked by virtually tightening and choking it to death. Credit reports are plummeting individual levels to a point of no return.
Where are the jobs?
There are more than 40 million immigrant living and working inside the U.S. Of those, more than 20 million are deemed illegal. President Obama wants to permit the illegals to become legal. Will it happen? Of course it will. When it does, long-time American citizens will be crushed to the ground, more jobs will fly-out the window, more elderly and college kids will have to go on government assistance and food stamps, as will millions of illegal immigrants who have turned legal.
How will government subsidized health care support all these people? Where will the tax dollars come from to serve this massive population? As for corporate profiteering, as they escalate how far down will the poor class be driven? Remember “Les Miserables” who catalyzed the poor in France to revolt and cut-off the heads of the frivolous reigning aristocracy? Will American citizens rise-up to the challenge, or will the sheep follow the herdsman into the corral to be slaughtered shortly?
Where are the jobs? Where are the inalienable rights of all American citizens? Where have all the good leaders gone? Has the past decade of U.S. history shown positive change? Currently our history books have little more than blank pages to show any positive change.
Peter Stern, a former director of information services, university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Driftwood, Texas.
2010 Susan G. Komen Tarrant County Race For The Cure Saturday
The 2010 Susan G. Komen Tarrant County Race for the Cure will be held in downtown Fort Worth’s Sundance Square this Saturday. The Race for the Cure is the largest charitable 5K Race in Tarrant County. With more going on this year than ever before, it is expected to draw more than 15,000 people to the downtown area. The race is the largest fundraiser for Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tarrant County, and 75 percent of the funds raised support breast cancer education, detection and treatment in Tarrant County, with the remaining 25 percent going to national research initiatives.FORT WORTH — The 2010 Susan G. Komen Tarrant County Race for the Cure will be held in downtown Fort Worth’s Sundance Square this Saturday.
The Race for the Cure is the largest charitable 5K Race in Tarrant County. With more going on this year than ever before, it is expected to draw more than 15,000 people to the downtown area. The race is the largest fundraiser for Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tarrant County, and 75 percent of the funds raised support breast cancer education, detection and treatment in Tarrant County, with the remaining 25 percent going to national research initiatives.
This year’s race will kick off with a competitive start, in the first-ever Pink Tractor Pull with qualifying rounds held on Friday, April 23. Teams generated from all over Tarrant County, and consisting of firefighters, construction workers, city mayors, survivors and more, will participate in pulling a pink tractor down Fort Worth’s Main Street. Pink Tractor Pull finals and VIP runs will be held following the awards ceremony and survivor march and celebration on race day.
Additionally, the race will pamper breast cancer survivors by hosting a survivor breakfast, reserving a survivor patio during the Race and concluding with a survivor march and celebration. In honor of survivors and the Race for the Cure, local businesses across Tarrant County will “go pink” for the race, with pink lights and supportive banners on buildings across the county.
Participants can register from now until the moment the race begins on April 24 (additional fees are assessed on race day), for just $30 for regular registration, or $35 for competitive registration. In-person registration will be held at Luke’s Locker on April 16-23 during normal store hours at 2600 W. 7th Street, Suite 107 in Fort Worth. Forms to download or submit electronically can be found at www.komentarrant.org.
Though many participants do choose to use the race as an opportunity for competition, it isn’t necessary to run, or even walk, to participate. Many Komen supporters choose to participate simply by fundraising or making a donation in honor of another participant or loved one. Others focus on fundraising and then simply walk the race, using it as an opportunity to show support for survivors. You can even “Sleep in for the Cure” and simply register for the race without attending.
This year, Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tarrant County asks that each participant try to secure at least 10 donations of at least $10 each in advance of the race. Fundraising will remain open through the end of May.
Participants can track donations through a personalized web page they can create at www.komentarrant.org, where anyone can make a donation to the Race.
Race for the Cure events are held in 120 cities across the world and draw more than 1.5 million participants. The first Tarrant County Race for the Cure was held in 1993 and drew 1,800 participants.
About Susan G. Komen For the Cure® and the Tarrant County Affiliate
Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the global leader of the breast cancer movement, has invested more than $1 billion since its inception in 1982. The world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists all work together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, and generous contributions from partners, sponsors and fellow supporters, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has become the largest source in the world of non-profit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer.
April 16-23, 2010
In-person registration available during regular store hours at Luke’s Locker, 2600 W. 7th Street, Suite 107 in Fort Worth
Week of April 19th
Businesses across Tarrant County will “go pink” for the Race, with pink lights and supportive banners on buildings across the county.
Friday, April 23, 2010
6:00 p.m. – First Annual Pink Tractor Pull featuring teams from across the metroplex
Saturday, April 24, 2010
6:00 a.m. – 8:20 a.m. – Race Day Registration
7:45 a.m. – Aerobic warm-Up
8:00 a.m. – 1 Mile Family Fun Run Start (2nd & Commerce)
8:30 a.m. – 5k Start (Timed runners at 3rd & Houston, Non-timed at 4th & Houston)
9:45 a.m. – Survivor Celebration & Awards Ceremony at Main Stage
10:15 a.m. – Pink Tractor Pull Finals
We’re Becoming Dinosaurs
I’ve known for a while that Zack and I are becoming dinosaurs. We live in an old house on an old family place, own old things and often (but not exclusively) enjoy old, simple, reliable ways. We seem to know (old) things that no one else knows, remembers, or thinks is important any longer. We understand how to operate things that are outdated and of little value to many in “the modern world.” I’m a stickler for proper grammar when no one else seems to care. Zack likes people to actually have knowledge of a subject they consider themselves expert on when they expound.I’ve known for a while that Zack and I are becoming dinosaurs. We live in an old house on an old family place, own old things and often (but not exclusively) enjoy old, simple, reliable ways. We seem to know (old) things that no one else knows, remembers, or thinks is important any longer. We understand how to operate things that are outdated and of little value to many in “the modern world.” I’m a stickler for proper grammar when no one else seems to care. Zack likes people to actually have knowledge of a subject they consider themselves expert on when they expound.
The other day, we visited a large office supply store chain. Zack needed cartridges for his fountain pen. These are no longer available to fit each and every brand, but come in a few generic varieties. You have to hope there’s one to fit the pen you might own. While there, we asked the young woman behind the service counter if the store sold fountain pens. “Fountain? (pause) Pens? (Pause). I don’t even know what that IS”. We were taken aback. (It isn’t like we’re closing in on a century of life or anything even close). It was an office supply store. She called a supervisor. He wasn’t sure. So he guided us to the same pen display we had already perused. Nope. Calligraphy pens were as close as he could come. At least he knew what they were.
Today in our local post office, a neighbor asked the clerk for a fountain pen to complete a label. (To our generation, this is like asking for Kleenex or Clorox instead of a tissue or bleach). I had to laugh. Of course, she was handed a ball point, and I told her my story. She said, “I have a better one than that. I had to upgrade to a new cell phone last week. My old one was really, REALLY old. The girl who helped me was busy punching all kinds of buttons with her thumbs on the new phone, faster than I could even follow with my eyes. She set the thing up, and presented it to me. I asked if she thought I should send the old one in to the Smithsonian. And she said, ‘What’s the Smithsonian?’ “
I suppose I can understand that a twenty-three year old woman might never have encountered a fountain pen. Penmanship is no longer taught in the public schools around here. Cursive writing isn’t taught either. This is interesting, because at least up until a few years ago, there was a portion on the SAT test that required reading in cursive. Proper grammar is not expected or even graded on the statewide TAKS test. (This makes me crazy). And Zack questioned, don’t kids even read any more? See the occasional old movie? Surely somewhere, a person would encounter the term, “fountain pen.” But perhaps not.
I ran into an acquaintance the other day, a writer. When I asked how the book was coming along, he indicated he had had a couple of good days, had been working away on his Olivetti. It occurred to me that even I think of typewriters as outdated. I own two wonderful old models (Royals, both) and cherish them. But I write on my laptop. Zack is the same. We also shy away from texting and using wireless connections to the Internet on our cell phones. It’s just too expensive, and we don’t need to be connected 24/7 to anything but the kids or Zack’s father — in case of emergency. We have computers for the Internet (which we LOVE. A world of information is at our fingertips).
The old dial phones we own and enjoy as antiques no longer work (completely) with our new phone systems. Young people will soon no longer have any idea what a dial phone is. Many already do not (unless they watch old movies). I made a partial list of other things that have become extinct are seem to be on their way. See if you can add to it:
Standard shifts in automobiles
Roll up windows in vehicles
Cars without air conditioning
Space heaters
Telephone booths
Telephone operators
Beer can and bottle openers (affectionately known in some circles as “church keys”
Roll up can opener keys (as in sardine can)
Skate keys
Black and white movies
35 mm cameras, film, and movie projectors
Mercury thermometers (that must be shaken down before use)
House calls by doctors
There are many other “dinosaurs.” A young friend commented that until she read a story on my blog, she had never heard of cloth diapers. I suppose not. There are plenty of kids now who have never learned to tell time using a clock with a face, so dependent are they upon digital readouts. Many don’t know what a clothes lines or a clothes pin is, or washboards or wringers — or so many things that are a part of everyone’s rich family history. Most have never used a sewing machine or repaired anything themselves. (I know plenty of adults like that too).
The other day our ice maker stopped working. Rather than frantically and immediately call the repairman as most of my friends would do, I wiggled my finger around and determined that water wasn’t filling the trays. Further investigation yielded the fact that there was ice stuck in the fill tube. I went for my trusty hair dryer (the one I no longer bother using for my hair) and heated the tube until the chunk of ice melted. Problem solved, expense averted, and no waiting around for a repairman. I understand that being retired (or as retired as one can be working on a ranch full time); I have time to bother with things that others must rely on professionals for. Or at least my time is more flexible. As little of it as I can spare, I still have more time than money.
The world is truly changing, just as it always has and as it always will. Perhaps these days, it’s changing a little faster than ever before.
Gene Ellis, Ed.D is a Bosque County resident who returned to the family farm after years of living in New Orleans, New York, and Florida. She’s an artist who holds a doctoral degree from New York University and is writing a book about the minor catastrophes of life. Check out Genie’s blog at http://rusticramblings.wordpress.com/
Happy 20th Birthday HST
April 25 marks the 20th anniversary of the much-anticipated deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope by Discovery space shuttle astronauts in 1990. Then to the dismay of scientists and the public, it was quickly found that the HST had an optical defect that seriously degraded its views. However, once corrective optics were installed in 1993, the magnificent telescope has been revealing a universe never before known in such depth and grandeur
April 25 marks the 20th anniversary of the much-anticipated deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope by Discovery space shuttle astronauts in 1990. Then to the dismay of scientists and the public, it was quickly found that the HST had an optical defect that seriously degraded its views. However, once corrective optics were installed in 1993, the magnificent telescope has been revealing a universe never before known in such depth and grandeur.
In 1609-1610, Galileo and his new telescope revolutionized astronomy by revealing a cosmos humans had scarcely imagined, much less seen, and altered our understanding of our place in the universe.
Then in 1924 a young American astronomer, Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), again revolutionized astronomy. The then-prevailing theory was that our Milky Way galaxy constituted the entire universe. But using the then-largest telescope in the world, the 100-inch Hooker Telescope on Mt. Wilson near Los Angeles, he discovered the universe to be vastly larger than had been imagined, and that our galaxy is but one of billions of galaxies.
Many argue that the HST, named for Edwin Hubble, has been no less revolutionary. It has enabled astronomers to determine the age of the universe (13.7 billion years) and confirm that supermassive black holes reside at the center of most galaxies. It has enabled scientists to better understand how stars and planets are formed and has detected organic molecules beyond our solar system, increasing the possibility for the existence of other organic life in the cosmos.
In its 20-year history, data from the HST has generated over 7,500 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments in history.
Although not the largest telescope in the world, HST’s 94-inch (diameter) mirror is larger than McDonald Observatory’s original 82-inch telescope which is still in use. At 43 feet long and 14 feet in diameter, our Toyota 4Runner and 23-foot travel trailer could park inside the body of the HST. It also has two rectangular solar panels, each 8.5 feet by 23 feet.
If you want to see the HST in the night sky, the Web site www.heavens-above.com provides exact viewing information on many Earth-orbiting satellites, including the HST. You’ll need to register (free) and enter your viewing location the first time you use the site, but then you won’t need to do it again.
• Sky Calendar.
* April 21 Wed. evening: The 1st quarter Moon is below Mars.
* 22 Thu. morning: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks and is best seen after the Moon sets at 3 a.m.
* 25 Sun. evening: Venus passes near the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) star cluster low in the west at dusk.
* 28 Wed.: The full Moon is called Egg Moon, Grass Moon, and Easter Moon.
* May: During the early evenings of May, the Milky Way lies flat around the horizon, making it seem to disappear.
* May 1 Sat.: May Day and Beltane, a cross-quarter day celebrating the middle of spring.
* 3 Mon. early evening: Venus passes to the right of the star Aldebaran (the “red eye” of the Taurus the bull) low in the west at dusk.
* 5 Wed. morning: The Moon is at 3rd quarter.
• Naked-eye Planets. (The Sun, Moon, and planets rise in the east and set in the west due to Earth’s west-to-east rotation on its axis.) Evening: Brilliant Venus is low in the west with much fainter Mercury to its lower right, Mars is high overhead, and Saturn is high in the southeast. Morning: Before dawn Saturn is setting in the west as Jupiter is rising in the east.
Stargazer appears every other week. Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco. Contact him at 918 N. 30th, Waco, 76707, (254) 753-6920 or paulderrickwaco@aol.com. See the Stargazer Web site at stargazerpaul.com.
Raymond Hamilton’s Big Brother Breaks Out Of Alcatraz
A Texas outlaw finally stepped out of his dead brother’s shadow with a daring daylight escape from Alcatraz on April, 14, 1943. Floyd Hamilton was relegated to a supporting role in the crime drama starring Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and his younger brother Raymond. Since his was the only face not regularly plastered across the front page, he purchased supplies, rented hideouts and coordinated prison breaks without attracting undue attention from the authorities.
A Texas outlaw finally stepped out of his dead brother’s shadow with a daring daylight escape from Alcatraz on April, 14, 1943.
Floyd Hamilton was relegated to a supporting role in the crime drama starring Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker and his younger brother Raymond. Since his was the only face not regularly plastered across the front page, he purchased supplies, rented hideouts and coordinated prison breaks without attracting undue attention from the authorities.
It was Floyd, who engineered Raymond’s sensational escape in January 1934 from the Houston County state penitentiary where he was serving 263 years from murder and armed robbery. The older Hamilton took care of everything from arranging for Bonnie and Clyde to be waiting with the getaway car to planting two pistols in the woods for his little brother and a convict accomplice.
The bloody breakout bought Raymond just three months of freedom and put him on the waiting list for the electric chair. Brandishing handguns supplied by a guard that Floyd probably bribed, six condemned killers fled the maximum-security confines of Death Row in July 1934. The charter member of the Barrow Gang and two others successfully scaled the high wall and vanished in a hail of bullets.
Raymond lay low until February 1935, when he teamed up with Floyd to lead lawmen on a wild five-state chase. After sticking up a bank in East Texas, the bandits predictably took refuge in their old West Dallas neighborhood. Surprised and surrounded by six detectives, they shot their way out of the trap with so much as a scratch.
The fast-thinking fugitives drove south into unfamiliar territory to throw pursuers off their trail. The Hamiltons replenished their private arsenal at a federal armory in Beaumont before doubling back to North Texas, where they had their pick of hiding places.
But the boys nearly bought the farm in a blazing gunbattle outside McKinney. Fearing they would wind up like Bonnie and Clyde, cut to pieces by a shoot-first posse, Raymond insisted upon parting company. That was the least he could do for the devoted brother, who had done him so many dangerous favors.
Raymond was captured on April 5, 1935 and rushed in chains to Huntsville. To eliminate the possibility of another embarrassing escape, the 22 year old desperado made the fatal acquaintance of “Old Sparky” 35 days later.
Floyd was in Leavenworth doing token time for aiding and abetting, when word came of the execution. He could have turned over a new law-abiding leaf but chose instead to follow in Raymond’s footsteps.
Facing certain conviction on a bank robbery charge, Floyd pleaded guilty hoping to receive a single-digit sentence. However, the judge rejected leniency for the career criminal and shipped him off to escape-proof Alcatraz for 30 years.
On that April morning in 1943, Floyd was working in the mat shop with Freddie Hunter, an associate of the notorious Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, and fellow bank robbers James Boarman and Harold Brest. The four overpowered the single guard, jumped the captain on his rounds and bound and gagged them before proceeding with their plan.
To save time the inmates already had sawed the bars in two on the outside window. It took mere seconds to remove the metal rods and slide through the opening a plank long enough to reach the perimeter fence.
Floyd went first crawling on his hands and knees to the fence, where he dropped to the ground and started a cautious descent down the steep cliff. One by one his companions followed until the group reassembled at the edge of the ice-cold water. They stripped to their underwear, smeared grease on their bodies for insulation and began the long swim across San Francisco Bay.
By this time the captain had worked his gag loose, but his shouts could not be heard over the noise of the saw in the woodshop. But he did manage to sound the alarm with a whistle he plucked with his teeth from the guard’s pocket.
The marksman in the roof tower spotted the four escapees and opened fire in accordance with Alcatraz’s unwritten shoot-to-kill policy. Brest was hit in the elbow, and Boarman died instantly from a bullet through the head. The wounded convict treaded water until hauled aboard a launch, but the dead body of his comrade sank beneath the waves never to be recovered.
Hamilton and Hunter swam underwater back to The Rock and took cover in a cave. Guards flushed out Hunter a few hours later but did not think to look under a pile of debris, where the fourth prisoner was playing possum.
Floyd Hamilton spent two wretched days and three miserable nights waiting to be caught, but search parties never reexamined the cave. Half-starved, dehydrated and bleeding from hundreds of cuts, the Lone Star outlaw retraced his escape route to the mat shop, where a startled guard found him fast asleep the next morning.
Bartee Haile welcomes your comments, questions and suggestions at haile@pdq.net or P.O. Box 152, Friendswood, TX 77549. And come on by www.twith.com for a visit!
Nature Bats Last: The Grand Ruins Of Antigua, Guatemala
Pretty much everyone knows that America’s occupation of Afghanistan has been going on since 2001, that its occupation of Iraq is now over eight years old and that its surrogate occupation of Palestine has been going on since approximately1949. Does that seem like a really long time for one country to be occupying other countries that are located clear over on the other side of the world? Does that seem like a hecka long time for America to be keeping so many over-extended and precarious supply lines open? Not really.
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com
Pretty much everyone knows that America’s occupation of Afghanistan has been going on since 2001, that its occupation of Iraq is now over eight years old and
that its surrogate occupation of Palestine has been going on since approximately1949. Does that seem like a really long time for one country to be occupying other countries that are located clear over on the other side of the world? Does that seem like a hecka long time for America to be keeping so many over-extended and precarious supply lines open?
Not really.
There have been other occupations that have existed for a lot longer — and which were dependent on even more precarious supply lines being stretched to the other side of the world. Spain first started occupying Guatemala back in the 16th century and kept its tenuous military supply lines going from Madrid to Central America for hundreds of years. But even after two centuries, even Spain’s ongoing and grinding occupation of Guatemala finally came to an end (occupations generally tend to end badly). But I digress.
What I really want to talk about now is my recent trip to visit Antigua Guatemala. This city is lovely! And the major part of its charm derives from all the ancient, gargantuan and awesome ruins of Spanish palaces, mansions, cathedrals and monasteries that you can find here, scattered throughout the city, located on almost every block. The Spanish came here to stay and built here to stay — just like Americans have built their huge permanent bases in Iraq and Afghanistan and have financed the building of huge permanent settlements in Palestine. “Jane, just get back on topic.”
Okay. But you’ve got the picture here, right? Massive and permanent Spanish structures in Guatemala like you just wouldn’t believe! Mega-tons of granite or whatever everywhere you look. You’ve got all these mammoth monasteries and convents that are five blocks long, three blocks wide and one block tall. You’ve got these huge skyline-dominating edifices that seem to shout, “We’re here to stay!” at the top of their lungs.
Well, we all know what happened there.
The Spanish are gone and their buildings are now all in ruins.
“What happened to cause the Spanish to abandon all this proof of conquest and occupation?” you might ask. “Did the locals mount a counter-insurgency because they were sick and tired of being tortured? Did Spain have an economic recession at home and have to withdraw because it could no longer afford the occupation? Were the supply lines stretched too thin all the way from the other side of the planet? Did the Spanish finally have a change of heart and decide that occupying other countries was not just, fair, right or democratic?” Nope. None of the above.
What happened back then was that, in 1773, Mother Nature spoke up — and basically flattened Antigua Guatemala. An eight-point-something earthquake destroyed all of Spain’s grand colonial structures. Timeless monuments to the glory of the Spanish occupation and empire were flattened within minutes — and I have the photos and videos to prove it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDVNyE8yDN8
There’s a moral here somewhere I suppose. Man proposes and nature disposes? Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine had better watch out for earthquakes? Spain no longer had God on its side? Never occupy a foreign country on the other side of the world? The bigger they come, the harder they fall? Those ones are nice, I am sure, but my favorite is still “Nature bats last”.
PS: One of the ruins in Antigua Guatemala has been renovated (sort of) and is now a grand gourmet restaurant — and so on a beautiful warm moonlit night recently I treated myself to dinner among the ruins. For less than half the price of dining at Chez Panisse back home in Berkeley, I got an excellent nouvelle cuisine sea bass dinner plus the priceless experience of dining in history by moonlight — although the waiter did diplomatically raise one eyebrow when I ordered dessert first. But who could resist? It was flan!
PPS: Meanwhile, back in the US of A, two debates seem to be hogging the headlines on Yahoo News. First there’s the debate over the legalization of marijuana. I’m for that. Why? Not only because of the Al Capone types who are now running our current Prohibition and have turned the American southwest, Mexico and Columbia into places resembling Chicago in the 1930s, but also because it’s income tax time.
If we legalized marijuana, not only would we get rid of all those Prohibition-style mobsters and gangs, but also a lot more people would be paying income taxes instead of getting all their millions under the table — and then perhaps the great state of California might not be as bankrupt as it is now. Tobacco companies and their customers have to pay taxes. Let’s make pot growers and their customers pay taxes too.
Here’s a video on the subject of legalizing marijuana that you might enjoy: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9077214414651731007#
The second U.S. debate seems to be all about the new Teabagger movement. “No more government!” the Teabaggers cry. Well. As Markos Moulitsas recently pointed out, “If they don’t like having government, they should move to Somalia.”
Didn’t Somalia already try that “no government” thing? And how’s that working for them?
A lot of Americans seem to miss the main point here — that only dribs and drabs of government money are being doled out to social programs in America. In actuality, most of America’s money — and its credit-card bills for approximately the next thousand years as well — is being lavishly vacuumed off into the the deep pockets of “defense” manufacturers, who are aggressively advertising the ultimate disposable consumer product — war. And, apparently, in America war really sells well.
And if perchance these Teabaggers might also be motivated by secret hopes and dreams that they too can invade the ranks of the elite at the top, fat chance of that ever happening. There is no chance in Hell that any average American — or even your average Teabagger — is ever, ever going to be allowed to break into the uber-rich inner circle of weapons manufacturers and lobbyists who REALLY own America.
OMG! This just in! Apparently the phrase “teabagging” has been in common usage among American pimps and prostitutes since forever, and refers to a particular type of sleazy oral sex. So. Now I know where all those typical hypocritical Teabaggers REALLY got their name.
PPPS: Speaking of nature batting last in Guatemala, I’m thinking that Mother Nature might get hecka pissed off at America too — because of all those Pentagon supply lines that keep stretching and snaking all over the planet, and covering every niche and corner of our world with a not-so-fine coat of radiation and smog.
