Friday, December 20, 2013

The Evolution of Song Truth - 3

Why can't we live as one?
In this series we have been noticing "song truth", whether it is found directly within the lyrics of songs, or whether it is found in a song's implications.

In today's post let's consider the scientific truth (it's Friday after all) that we have found, and let's consider it along with some song truth.

Gilda Radner once said that "comedy is truth, only faster", so why not "song truth is truth, only more melodious" as an adjunct to that?

The Ecocosmology Blog deals with the subject of the Sun we all live under, as well as some of the almost timeless import of that reality, so, for today's Dredd Blog post the song truth we will consider (so as to compare it with some almost timeless cosmic scientific truth) has these almost timeless lyrics in it:

'cause we all live under the same sun
We all walk under the same moon
Then why, why can't we live as one
'cause we all live under the same sky
We all look up at the same stars
Then why, tell me why can't we live as one

(Under The Same Sun, by The Scorpions, see video below). It is obvious that we live under the same Sun, Moon, and Stars, so the lyrics in that song are true.

The impetus in the song is that we should live as one, which brings up some scientific truth and extrapolations from it:
1) The stars like our Sun, at the center of all solar systems, will support life forms for an amount of time, but will then destroy life on the planets near them at an unknown time during each solar system's developmental life cycle.
a) For stars that are late K thru M, such as red dwarfs, this applies to the deadly outbursts, that come short of physical destruction, of the planets orbiting close to that type star.
2) That final catastrophic event (destruction of life on inner planets), and all events leading up to it, comprise "The Test" (This test is composed of all the preliminary and final evolutionary requirements for the life forms on all planets near central stars. The Test works as a wall, moat, or barrier, to divide those species who may continue to live in the physical universe from those who may not).

3) To pass The Test, intelligent life forms inhabiting any planet will be required to:
a) first learn to live and work together within, and in accord with, their planet's ecosystem, and to substantially coexist with all the other species on that planet, while overcoming any toxins of power that are contrary to social harmony;

b) develop technology that produces space vehicles able to substantially meet or exceed the speed of light;

c) find another solar system with a habitable planet which contains a central star still having enough time left in its stellar life cycle for them to colonize a habitable planet in that solar system (since it is unknown whether the toxins of power are to be found on all planets, as they are found on Earth, that possibility should be taken into consideration when selecting any new planet or moon as a home world); Note: since red dwarfs are the most stable and most abundant stars, they should be favored over Sun-like stars;

d) colonize that habitable planet, and then improve ecocosmological skills as needed;

e) then repeat the entire process ad infinitum;

f) or, experience a morph into another "species" free from that type of solar/planetary cosmic dependence.
4) The seeds of intelligence (genetic and memetic clues) required to successfully perform The Test are distributed into all species, races, religions, sciences, creeds, and genders. Thus, all individuals should be respected as carriers of some quanta of the seed of intelligence required to pass The Test, lest a fundamental quantum of necessary intelligence be lost.
(Tenets of Ecocosmology). That vibrant Sun which we are currently under, which supports life now, at some time in the future (when it begins to die out), will take all life on Earth with it.

There are several Dredd Blog series that deal with how we are dependent on Earth life, even down to the too-small-to-see-with-eyes-only microbes and viruses (see e.g. The Human Microbiome Congress, Ecosystems & Microbes, and On The New Meaning of "Human" - 2).

Scientists tell us that microbes from our pets can help us with some of our allergies (Dog. microbes, allergies), that we descend from some ancient species (Basal Animal Ancestor - another reason to buy stock in Textbook Publishing Companies LOL), and that we are recent in that scheme of the things of time (Oldest Hominin DNA).

So, why can't we live as one as we reach for the stars (A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood? - 3)?

The previous post in this series is here.

"Under The Same Sun", by The Scorpions:




Thursday, December 19, 2013

The Keystone Complex To The Rescue - 8

How to tell who is naughty or nice?
On Morning Joke today the right reverend wing-nuts made the case for the military NSA spying on every American, and every human being around the globe, for that matter.

Keystone Kops aficionado Kookie Robbers intimated "how do you know who is being naughty or nice if you don't spy on everyone?"

Her argument basically boils down to the notion that the more inept at the intelligence business or the Kop business our federal agents are, the more they have to watch more and more people as a way to figure out who is being naughty and who is being nice.

"All the competent cops and spies are gone, now that Maxwell Smart has passed away, along with my weakening mind, so we have to fall back on the Keystone Komplex to protect us", Kookie intimated.

That is probably anecdotal to her having been removed from the realm of journalism, and then having been relegated to bottom feeding at propaganda outlets who think it is sexy to catapult the propaganda, as Bush II was fond of doing.

Kookie works for those incompetent agencies which have descended into blatant and habitual lying to congress and the people about the policy coup those traitors have fostered on American tradition and law.

She is a Madam of the Presstitute Brothel for sure, those who think that the U.S. Constitution is "a condom for turrrisssstssss."

Shamely Manless, a favorite Sinatur of the Brotheloids, was also there to help Kookie root all the way down there into the garbage heap of cognition, far from American logic and proportion.

Pop Kultur also stopped by to wipe his butt on a copy of the U.S. Constitution, while puffing on old stogies he had found, short butt not too big around.

That is what social dementia does to those who gorge themselves on propaganda day after day, month after month, and year after year.

The ideology of titanic mistakes is what they call leadership.

On other fronts, such as the judicial branch of government, a federal court held the military NSA activities to be unconstitutional (ACLU vs. Clapper, Alexander, Hagel, Holder, and Mueller - 8).

That judicial ruling came as a committee of security experts recommended that the military NSA stop animating old Keystone Kops scripts (Intelligence Panel Recommends Limits On NSA Surveillance, Obama Is Urged to Sharply Curb N.S.A. Data Mining).

The previous post in this series is here.

So, Get Smart!


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland? - 3

"I am your father"
Regular readers know that we closed the previous post in this series by musing: "If we cast the notion of epigovernment into this discussion, then apply these same dynamics, is seems as though metaphorically we are stepchildren in an abusive home" (Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland? - 2).

This is all the more clear when we consider the observations of psychologists and other behavior and brain scientists who have pointed out: "What links Strict Father family-based morality to politics is a common metaphor, shared by conservatives and liberals alike -- the Nation-as-Family metaphor, in which the nation is seen as a family, the government as a parent and the citizens as children. This metaphor turns family-based morality into political morality, providing the link between conservative family values and conservative political policies. The Strict Father model, which brings together the conservative metaphors for morality, is what unites the various conservative political positions into a coherent whole when it is imposed on political life by the Nation-as-Family metaphor" (Lakoff).

There are many reasons for the usage of a metaphorical concept.

One of those reasons is to explain that great harm can be done even in the absence of a malicious intent to do mass destruction, especially by those who inhabit offices of power:
Two years ago, on a gorgeous November day, 12,000 activists surrounded the White House to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Signs we carried featured quotes from Barack Obama in 2008: "Time to end the tyranny of oil"; "In my administration, the rise of the oceans will begin to slow."
...
Our hope was that we could inspire him to keep those promises. Even then, there were plenty of cynics who said Obama and his insiders were too closely tied to the fossil-fuel industry to take climate change seriously. But in the two years since, it's looked more and more like they were right – that in our hope for action we were willing ourselves to overlook the black-and-white proof of how he really feels.

If you want to understand how people will remember the Obama climate legacy, a few facts tell the tale: By the time Obama leaves office, the U.S. will pass Saudi Arabia as the planet's biggest oil producer and Russia as the world's biggest producer of oil and gas combined. In the same years, even as we've begun to burn less coal at home, our coal exports have climbed to record highs. We are, despite slight declines in our domestic emissions, a global-warming machine: At the moment when physics tell us we should be jamming on the carbon brakes, America is revving the engine.
(McKibben @ Rolling Stone). There is something innately wrong with competing to destroy that which we must have in order to survive as a civilization or as a life form.

Perhaps this post should have been placed in the series about psychopaths (When You Are Governed By Psychopaths, When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 2, When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 3, or When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 4).

Or, perhaps it should have been placed in the series about social suicide pacts (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact, MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact - 2, MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact - 3, MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact - 4, or MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact - 5).

The direction in which OIl-Qaeda wants nations to continue to go is going to destroy civilization as we know it.

That in itself is clear evidence of either psychopaths or criminally negligent officials at the helm (when no change in direction is made).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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"For more than 15 years the USS Calhoun County dumped atomic waste and condemned weaponry into the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was later sank by the Navy after becoming radioactive." The Atomic Sailors


Tuesday, December 17, 2013

When Dredd Blog Was Young

"A little Dredd with coffee."
Once upon a time a dreaded youngster wore out the keyboards.

On this date in those ancient times Dredd Blog did multiple posts in one day.

For your perusal they are reposted today so you can see if history is presenting changes in a new world, or whether history is much ado about the same.

Below are the posts on this date in 2009 from that young whipper-snapper Dredd Blog ...

... the little meanie who sends fascists and commies and psychopathic politicians into a rage against the truth:


Big Pharma Chastens Men Into Boyz

Senator Dorgan had an idea any reform minded Senator would embrace.

His Amendment to the status quo, where Americans pay many times more for pharmaceuticals than any other nation in the civilized world, would have ended the rape and plunder of needy Americans by Big Pharma.

It would have allowed us to purchase prescription drugs for a fair price.

The three boyz pictured in the photo voted against Dorgan's Amendment, as did a number of phonies who say they are for health care reform:
Akaka (D-HI), Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN),
Burris (D-IL), Cantwell (D-WA), Cardin (D-MD),
Carper (D-DE), Casey (D-PA), Dodd (D-CT),
Durbin (D-IL), Gillibrand (D-NY), Hagan (D-NC),
Inouye (D-HI), Kaufman (D-DE), Kerry (D-MA),
Kirk (D-MA), Landrieu (D-LA), Lautenberg (D-NJ),
Levin (D-MI), Lieberman (ID-CT), Menendez (D-NJ),
Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Reed (D-RI),
Reid (D-NV), Rockefeller (D-WV), Schumer (D-NY),
Tester (D-MT), Udall (D-CO), Warner (D-VA),
Whitehouse (D-RI)
(vote on Dorgan Amdt. No. 2793). Meanwhile several republicans, who a progressive would not have expected to vote for the amendment, voted to be fair to Americans:
Alexander (R-TN), Bond (R-MO), Coburn (R-OK),
Collins (R-ME), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX),
Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Graham (R-SC),
Grassley (R-IA), Hutchison (R-TX), Johanns (R-NE),
LeMieux (R-FL), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY),
Murkowski (R-AK), Risch (R-ID), Sessions (R-AL),
Shelby (R-AL), Snowe (R-ME), Thune (R-SD),
Vitter (R-LA), Wicker (R-MS)
(ibid). Can you say WTF? This is one for Ed Shultz's psycho talk, or perhaps a new segment of his show called "Psycho Vote".

Dorgan's Amendment failed and will not be in the "bill to bail out mini-AIG", which the phonies call "health care reform".

Thanks to all the Senators who care about needy Americans!


George W. Oilwell On Health Care 1984

Baghdad Bob is such a wild and crazy guy who epitomizes newspeak, the language of propagandistic journalism now fashionable in the United States' main stream media, the virtual children of political speak (a.k.a. doublespeak), made famous in 1984 if you know what I mean.

This national speech impairment has not gone unnoticed by the scientific community.

One professor calls this mode of communication "doublespeak", and has written a book "Why No One Knows What Anyone Is Saying Anymore". He points out:
With doublespeak, banks don't have "bad loans" or "bad debts"; they have "nonperforming assets" or "nonperforming credits" which are "rolled over" or "rescheduled." Corporations never lose money; they just experience "negative cash flow," "deficit enhancement," "net profit revenue deficiencies," or "negative contributions to profits."
(William Lutz, Rutgers University). What is forgotten is that this propaganda is not harmless but is toxic, and those who use it are doomed to eventually become deceived by it.

What they call "health care reform" has morphed into an under the table bailout of the predatory Insurance Institutions, one of the tentacles sucking the life out of the middle class and poor.

Those bankster bailouts right out in the open, done even when they were "on message", became unfashionable to "doublespeakers", once they felt the outrage of the public.

So the bailouts are now done surreptitiously through the time worn practices of deceit.

The U.S. news media, as usual, are unaware of the catastrophic damage this Saran Wrap phoniness is doing to the image of The United States of America in the eyes of The United States of Europe, as well as other nations in the world, who are far more sophisticated in health care matters.

They even know what the word "care" means.


Ye Olde Drone Hackers Ride Again

So the cavemen really are sophisticated enough to hack into our best and brightest?

They really did hack into military drone aircraft station KBOM to see our view of things? That is what the journalists are reporting:
Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems.
(Wall Street Journal). Just for kicks lets remember that there are lots of posts which point out that security is the word the military thinkers use to scare the congress into trillions of dollars spent on useless wars and infrastructure improvement in foreign nations that many folks can't find on a map.

For forty years the military has been hackable. If you want a book that documented the current reality 40 years ago, read The Cuckoo's Egg, by Cliff Stoll. He had a difficult time convincing the military that it was being hacked as if it was an open book:
The meeting was top secret, so I couldn't listen—someone fetched me when my turn came. In a small room, lit only by the viewgraph machine, there were around thirty people, most of them in uniforms. Generals and admirals, like you see in the movies.

Well, I talked for half an hour, describing how the hacker was breaking into military computers and skipping through our networks.
...
I know as little about the military world as the next person. "I guess I'm impressed, though I'm not sure why," I said. "You ought to be," Bob said. "These are all flag officers. General John Paul Hyde works at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And that guy in the front row -- he's a big shot from the FBI. It's a good thing he heard you."
(ibid, The Cuckoo's Egg, p. 200). This took place 40 years ago when a long hair from Berkeley informed the military they were being had, so they gave the long haired hippy astronomer the National Medal of Honor.

But they did not fix the system, because when someone hacks the system they can go to congress yelling "security security" to scare congress into giving them more money not to fix it.


Jobs Are On The Way Yesterday

The House passed what it calls a jobs bill last night 217-212.

That adds to the largest public works legislation in history, which promised jobs until 2009.

We really do not know where that money went that was supposed to be spent here in the U.S. to help the citizens of America, but it looks like it went to military expenditures for soldiers, weapons, and mercenaries (a.k.a. hired killers) doing endless wars in dead end corners of the world.

Or perhaps this new money will go toward increasing jobs in the new military oil complex venture into lands south of the Texas border.


End of yesteryear.

Somehow things seem to have the same difference.

"Silvio", by Bob Dylan:


Monday, December 16, 2013

ACLU vs. Clapper, Alexander, Hagel, Holder, and Mueller - 8

This series is about a case filed in the Second Circuit, in the Federal District Court in Manhattan (complaint: ACLU v. Clapper et. al.).

A judge in the District of Columbia Circuit, in a Federal District Court there, has ruled that the military NSA practices are likely unconstitutional, and has therefore issued a preliminary injunction (pre-trial).

At footnote two of the judge's memorandum opinion, the judge mentions the case this Dredd Blog series is following.

The judge wrote the following: "The complaint in ACLU v. Clapper, Civ. No. 13-3994, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on June 11, 2013, alleges claims similar to those in the instant two cases."

In issuing the injunction, the court ruled to wit:
But in the meantime, for all the above reasons, I will grant Larry Klayman's and Charles Strange's requests for an injunction and enter an order that (1) bars the Government from collecting, as part of the NSA's Bulk Telephony Metadata Program, any telephony metadata associated with their personal Verizon accounts and (2) requires the Government to destroy any such metadata in its possession that was collected through the bulk collection program.
(Klayman v Obama, U.S. Dist. Court for the Dist. of Columbia, 12/16/13, PDF). The judge stayed the injunction pending appeal, but told the government to start figuring out how to lose the data it has collected.

That decision by conservative Judge Leon (appointed by Bush II) may help persuade the judge in the ACLU v. Clapper case Dredd Blog is following in this series.

We await a decision by Judge Pauley in this ACLU v Clapper case.

UPDATE: Judge Pauley, of the DCNY federal court, reached the opposite conclusion from what federal Judge Leon did in Klayman v Obama.

New York federal Judge Pauley, appointed by President Clinton, ruled in favor of the government, and dismissed the case brought by the ACLU (ACLU vs. Clapper, PDF), prompting this comment by the ACLU:
“We are extremely disappointed with this decision, which misinterprets the relevant statutes, understates the privacy implications of the government’s surveillance and misapplies a narrow and outdated precedent to read away core constitutional protections,” said Jameel Jaffer, ACLU deputy legal director. “As another federal judge and the president’s own review group concluded last week, the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephony data constitutes a serious invasion of Americans’ privacy. We intend to appeal and look forward to making our case in the Second Circuit.”
(ACLU Blog). We will follow the two federal cases in this series as they move on to the Federal Appellate courts and the Supreme Court.

The ACLU filed an appeal in ACLU v Clapper (Guardian).

UPDATE 2: Another case is moving along in the Ninth Circuit:
That case is: First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA
A copy of the complaint in that case is here (PDF).
This makes three federal circuits in which the NSA is now being sued (D.C. Cir., 2nd Cir., and 9th Cir.).

The next post in this series is here, previous post in this series is here.