Stigmata: Intellectual Fear Syndrome

Many Dredd Blog posts focus on the damage which the institutionalization of propaganda has done to the people and institutions of the USA.

Usually such posts will elaborate on a stigmata, a layer of the onion, or a facet of the "jewel', because the subject is too vast to deal with even in a large book, much less one blog post.

Before we connect some more dots, let's grasp a bit of the definition of stigmata:

stigma ... stig´mata [Gr.], any mental or physical mark or peculiarity that aids in identification or diagnosis of a condition ... Visible evidence of a disease ... a moral or physical blemish ... A sign, mark, feature, indicator of something, which generally has a negative connotation

(Medical Dictionary). This post will target the impact which fear induced propaganda has upon intellectuals, more specifically, the scientific community.

That focus will be directed toward the mild form of the condition, since we have dealt extensively with the ugly form of the condition (which is generally denied across the board).

The story begins with a scientific study conducted by a NASA scientist, a researcher who took a look into the entrails of meteorites that have impacted the earth from space, meteorites which were examined with very powerful analytical tools:

Richard Hoover has discovered evidence of microfossils similar to Cyanobacteria, in freshly fractured slices of the interior surfaces of the Alais, Ivuna, and Orgueil CI1 carbonaceous meteorites. Based on Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and other measures, Richard Hoover has concluded they are indigenous to these meteors and are similar to trichomic cyanobacteria and other trichomic prokaryotes such as filamentous sulfur bacteria. He concludes these fossilized bacteria are not Earthly contaminants but are the fossilized remains of living organisms which lived in the parent bodies of these meteors, e.g. comets, moons, and other astral bodies. Coupled with a wealth of date published elsewhere and in previous editions of the Journal of Cosmology, and as presented in the edited text, "The Biological Big Bang", the implications are that life is everywhere, and that life on Earth may have come from other planets.

(Journal of Cosmology). For some reason this study scared the propaganda right out the wazoo of the dogmatic halls of scientific officialdom.

That led to a phase-two meltdown, which always leaks deadly slander contaminants into the scholarly atmosphere, then it was followed with the inevitable demonization of a scientific journal they were slobbering out praise about just last issue:

The Journal of Cosmology is free, online, open access. Free means = No money.

Our intention has always been to promote science and this means, particularly in this case, stepping on the toes of the "status quo" who have responded with a barrage of slanderous attacks. The statements issued by NASA are especially disappointing as they are not true.

The Journal of Cosmology is a Prestigious Scientific Journal Two of NASA Senior Scientists Science Directorates have published in the Journal of Cosmology (JOC). A NASA Senior Scientist Science Directorate served as a "guest" Executive editor and repeatedly referred to the Journal as "prestigious." Four astronauts, two who walked on the Moon have published with JOC. Over 30 top NASA scientists have published in JOC.

Top scientists from prestigious universities from around the world have published in the Journal of Cosmology, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, and so on. Sir Roger Penrose of Oxford and who shared the "Wolf Prize" in physics with Stephen Hawking is Guest editing the April edition.

Peer Review NASA Senior Scientist Science Directorate Joel Levine, while participating in a NASA press conference, remarked about how his papers were peer reviewed and he was required to revise all of them, even though he was the editor for that edition of JOC!

As every editor, and guest editor will attest, all articles are subjected to peer review. We reject over 30% of invited papers and over 70% of those which are not invited. Over 90% of all papers are sent back for revision following peer review. Every editor, and Guest editor, has had their work subjected to peer review, and every editor has been required to revise their articles after peer review. Even the executive editors have been required to revise their papers after peer review. We believe in peer review. Peer review provides wonderful feedback which can help make a paper better, or which can explain why the paper is hopeless and must be rejected. However, we do not reject great papers because we disagree with them as is the habit of other periodicals.

Richard Hoover's paper was received in November. It was subjected to repeated reviews and underwent one significant revision.

The Journal of Cosmology is Not For Sale & Will Continue Publishing The Journal of Cosmology has no income, a small staff, and is overwhelmed with submissions from scientists around the world.

We were well aware we would suffer profound, slanderous, attacks by those who would do anything to destroy our reputation. It took tremendous courage to publish this paper, and despite its lack of funds, the Journal will continue publishing great ideas and great research.

(Official Statement The Journal of Cosmology). The reaction to free publication of research results is typical of some intellectually sloven bureaucrats who slander when they have no competent rebuttal.

The toxins of power which produce propaganda within the organs of demented government officialdom can be traced and studied through stigmata.

Connect the duhs.

Tight Rope - 2

In the first episode we did the very boring part, the song and dance.

This time we focus on the exciting part, the book review:

Global climate change, pollution, inequality, warfare. The list of today’s plaguing problems goes on and on. When presented with such a huge stinking banquet of the world’s ugliness, most people simply turn their noses away, unable to gather the courage to face the intimidating task of coming up with some plausible solutions. However, “Humanity on a Tightrope: Thoughts on Empathy, Family and Big Changes for a Viable Future” makes a valiant attempt at addressing these formidable world issues from an interesting, but maybe too idealistic, point of view.

(The Stanford Daily, italics added, bold in original). Meanwhile, the Japanese are moving people further away from the troubled nuclear power plant:

Japanese officials on Friday began quietly encouraging people to evacuate a larger swath of territory around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a sign that they hold little hope that the crippled facility will soon be brought under control.

(NY Times). Not only that, a Japanese news source says strange things have been happening:

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami disaster.

(Kyodo News). Perhaps that is why the Obama Administration has gone clean coal nuts, and is unleashing a storm of coal mining leases on federal lands:

“As the number one coal producer from public lands, Wyoming provided nearly 40 percent of the domestic coal used to generate electricity last year and it’s important that we continue to encourage safe production of this important resource.”

("Clean Coal" ... Yeah ... that's the ticket). The Daily Kos does not think Salazar was telling much of the truth:

Salazar is flatly wrong regarding greenhouse gas emissions. Sub-bituminous coal emits more carbon dioxide than bituminous coal ... When burned, the coal threatens to release more than 3.9 billion tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, equal to the annual emissions from 300 coal-fired power plants.

(Daily Kos). Our post yesterday pointed out that our culture of falsehood may be bringing yet another disaster upon us.

The Dredd Philosophy Is The Dread Truth

"It's a bird, it's a seal, it's a lie"

Who wudda thunk it (Navy Seal evolves into Air Force Seal)?

One of the yada yada yada's of Dredd Blog, it is said, is "the bitching, moaning, and groaning" about the ever present MOMCOM propaganda machine deep within our reality.

Post upon post here hits upon many facets of the daily propaganda.

We hope that such reiteration can be tolerated by the good folks who read Dredd Blog regularly.

The rub, and the covering up of the ears, comes when Dredd Blog exclaims that this MOMCOM propaganda is doing severe, lasting, or even permanent damage to the population of these good United States.

Even though Dredd Blog may not have been exaggerating, we had no basis in law with which to refer readers to an official national acknowledgement of the effects of propaganda upon our national cognition and day-to-day behavior.

But that seems to have changed, following the decision in a major criminal case where a city official was prosecuted in a criminal trial for lying about his service record in the military, the muscle of MOMCOM (was he a real seal or was he just parroting The Good Housekeeping Seal?).

The law in the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, the largest federal judicial circuit in the USA, has now changed that by in effect acknowledging that the Dredd Blog mantra this post deals with is actually "spot on" as the British like to say.

An en banc rehearing request by the federal government, following the Ninth Circuit panel's reversing of the criminal conviction and even holding that the criminal statute which outlaws lying is unconstitutional, the court voted to deny rehearing of the three-judge panel's decision:

Saints may always tell the truth, but for mortals living means lying. We lie to protect our privacy (“No, I don’t live around here”); to avoid hurt feelings (“Friday is my study night”); to make others feel better (“Gee you’ve gotten skinny”); to avoid recriminations (“I only lost $10 at poker”); to prevent grief (“The doc says you’re getting better”); to maintain domestic tranquility (“She’s just a friend”); to avoid social stigma (“I just haven’t met the right woman”); for career advancement (“I’m sooo lucky to have a smart boss like you”); to avoid being lonely (“I love opera”); to eliminate a rival (“He has a boyfriend”); to achieve an objective (“But I love you so much”); to defeat an objective (“I’m allergic to latex”); to make an exit (“It’s not you, it’s me”); to delay the inevitable (“The check is in the mail”); to communicate displeasure (“There’s nothing wrong”); to get someone off your back (“I’ll call you about lunch”); to escape a nudnik (“My mother’s on the other line”); to namedrop (“We go way back”); to set up a surprise party (“I need help moving the piano”); to buy time (“I’m on my way”); to keep up appearances (“We’re not talking divorce”); to avoid taking out the trash (“My back hurts”); to duck an obligation (“I’ve got a headache”); to maintain a public image (“I go to church every Sunday”); to make a point (“Ich bin ein Berliner”); to save face (“I had too much to drink”); to humor (“Correct as usual, King Friday”); to avoid embarrassment (“That wasn’t me”); to curry favor (“I’ve read all your books”); to get a clerkship (“You’re the greatest living jurist”); to save a dollar (“I gave at the office”); or to maintain innocence (“There are eight tiny reindeer on the rooftop”).

And we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk, as reflected by the popularity of plastic surgery, elevator shoes, wood veneer paneling, cubic zirconia, toupees, artificial turf and cross-dressing. Last year, Americans spent $40 billion on cosmetics — an industry devoted almost entirely to helping people deceive each other about their appearance. It doesn’t matter whether we think that such lies are despicable or cause more harm than good. An important aspect of personal autonomy is the right to shape one’s public and private persona by choosing when to tell the truth about oneself, when to conceal and when to deceive. Of course, lies are often disbelieved or discovered, and that too is part of the pull and tug of social intercourse. But it’s critical to leave such interactions in private hands, so that we can make choices about who we are. How can you develop a reputation as a straight shooter if lying is not an option?

(US v Alvarez). It is almost like the court said to Dredd Blog: "you be knowin'"; ... well, except for torture monger, and now Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, who dissented from the decision.

Can you imagine the hubris required for Bybee to say lying is criminal following his professional lying on steroids when he said to Bush II's gang that waterboard torture is way cool?

He would send a citizen to prison for bloviating about a non-existent military record but would not send himself to prison for lying about torture, in the process destroying innocent lives, and ruining the reputation (a la Abu Ghraib) of these United States?

Dredd Blog fully agrees with the decision of the court, because it does not take much imagination to see what would happen if the government became the sole source of "truth".

Let it be known that Dredd Blog is vindicated, let it be known that the propaganda arm of MOMCOM does damage to these good United States, the Oilah Akbar portion of MOMCOM does damage to the entire earth, and the military portion of MOMCOM is robbing us blind.

The songs "tell me sweet little lies" and "when the truth is found to be lies", the saying "don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see", the epidemic of disrespect for the USA around the world, the book "On Bullshit", and the epidemic of dementia here at home, all point to a culture of falsehood.

It's the way MOMCOM raises the kids don't you know.

Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news about the book "On Bullshit".

UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument on the case next Wednesday. Will try to update this post or do another post about it.

UPDATE 2: The Supreme Court upheld the 9th Circuit's decision (6/28/12).

Seasickness At The Star Gate

Sometimes it seems like federal politicians, once elected, enter into a device not unlike the Star Gate ("an ancient ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole enabling travel to a similar device a galaxy away"), then off to the Washington, D.C. galaxy they go.

These politicians, once they have made the trip to D.C., often no longer talk nor act like the person campaigning for office who we voted for.

The internal direction finder for that special type of spin device goes only in The W Direction.

That space ship spin makes them toxin rich it would seem, because after the ride "the American people" is a saying that does not apply to that verbal homogeneous myth they create, use, and repeat often to bolster their rejection of "campaign speech reality", which they then progressively replace with "campaign contribution reality".

Of course that presidentially applies to Barak Obama, but this post is mostly focused on his own Brownie, like the Brownie of Bush II before him, instead of the Mr. President himself.

We know that at the behest of his advisor Browner, he took his children swimming into the waters of Oilah Akbar in order to show how safe the Gulf of Mexico waters were.

But also less known is that he did it to show how good the animals taste after they have been baptized into the Oilah Akbar religion (the religion of addiction, the religion of the worship the the Dark Liquid Lord) whom the poets call Johnny:

Johnny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he’s got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It’s somethin’ you did
God knows when
But you’re doin’ it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin’ for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
By the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

(UnderGround Seasick Hues). Meanwhile, the scientist from Georgia, the woman who has been studying the dangers of crystallized methane (hydrates) in the gulf, has recently given a lecture detailing the disaster still looming before us:

The deep-sea hydrocarbon discharge resulting from the BP oil well blowout in the northern Gulf of Mexico released large quantities of oil and gaseous hydrocarbons such as methane into the deep ocean. So far, estimates of hydrocarbon discharge have focused on the oil released, and have overlooked the quantity, fate and environmental impact of the gas. Gaseous hydrocarbons turn over slowly in the deep ocean, and microbial consumption of these gases could have a long-lasting impact on oceanic oxygen levels. Here, we combine published estimates of the volume of oil released, together with provisional estimates of the oil to gas ratio of the discharged fluid, to determine the volume of gaseous hydrocarbons discharged during the spill. We estimate that the spill injected up to 500,000 t of gaseous hydrocarbons into the deep ocean and that these gaseous emissions comprised 40% of the total hydrocarbon discharge. Analysis of water around the wellhead revealed discrete layers of dissolved hydrocarbon gases between 1,000 and 1,300 m depth; concentrations exceeded background levels by up to 75,000 times. We suggest that microbial consumption of these gases could lead to the extensive and persistent depletion of oxygen in hydrocarbon-enriched waters.

(Nature), and note:

The BP Blowout was not an oil spill, it was a hydrocarbon discharge. The discharge contained 40% gaseous hydrocarbons like methane. We converted this gaseous discharge to "barrel of oil equivalent" units and found that the gas component accounted for an additional 1.5 to 3 million barrel of oil equivalents discharged. This increases the size of the discharge by a significant margin, by 30 to 50%. ...

Looking out the window of ALVIN, at first, it did not seem to be so bad but as we got nearer to the bottom, I realized there were no infauna (worms and such) poking their heads out to greet us. Usually, there is a tremendous diversity of infaunal organisms on the bottom. Then, we began to see dead organisms like brittle stars. I noticed there were no holothurians (sea cucumbers) and these organisms are tremendously abundant at seeps. So, it was a grim view. We saw a few crabs but they did not look healthy and we saw oiled and dead corals. Overall, a very depressing sight but one that made me realize that we have to do a lot more mapping and visit the seafloor around the wellhead with submersibles and ROVs to truly understand which species have been impacts and to determine the area impact.

(Science), and this:

Joye’s report comes as a bit of a surprise (even to Joye); previous studies commissioned by Kenneth Feinberg, the government’s oil compensation fund czar, were optimistic that the Gulf would “almost fully recover by 2012.”

(Matternet). Ok, so now let's focus on the area nearer to the surface, where more of the "food stuffs" come from.

For several months now, that zone has been a source of contaminated food according to tests by different investigators.

Nevertheless, that contaminated food is still approved by the feds to be fit for consumption, but they also approve Twinkies, which also have oil from China in them.

The bleep goes on.

UPDATE: The latest oil spill has been traced to a dormant well (a well that was capped / abandoned). There are thousands of them in the Gulf of Mexico, which may end up changing the flavor of behavior in that region if these type leaks are to become more prevalent. This is standard operating procedure for Texas, which generates, all by its lonesome, 38.1 percent of all toxic waste in the entire USA.

Civilizations Like Our Own Without Oil

The author H.W.F. Saggs wrote about ancient civilizations that existed some 4,000 years before the discovery of oil:

"My main purpose will be served if I succeed in convincing some of my readers, amongst the many now interested in ancient world, that Babylonian and Assyrian civilisation is not wholly alien to our own."

(Everyday Life in Babylon, italics added). You and I have already used some of their thinking in our everyday pursuits in our world today:

"The Babylonian system of mathematics was sexagesimal, or a base 60 numeral system (see: Babylonian numerals). From this we derive the modern day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 (60 x 6) degrees in a circle."

(Babylonia, italics added). I am sure there are many people who feel that there was no human culture or life on earth before the discovery of oil, and that oil is what makes culture possible.

But ancient cultures had laws, commerce, international trade, religion, art, and a comfortable life for many.

Some educators indicate that we can find then use a better way to analyze and define culture:

Many people would like to conceive of history as a succession of movements or stages in an on-going (and, generally) ever-improving cultural novel of human life ... try not to measure others against your own cultural standard, which has, in many ways, formed you and your apprehension of the world.

(Exploring Ancient Culture). There are no doubts that culture in some places today is foreign to other cultures in other places, but on the other hand some cultures today do have similarities with other cultures.

Also today's ideas can completely be in accord with ancient ones:

"Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things." How appropriate this injunction is today, when many people worry that they must care for the physical environment that must, in turn, care for them.

(ibid, written hundreds of years BC). The more prevalent practices today in our oil culture really boil down to preserving our oil culture in order to destroy it.

The infamous ideology that leads to a strategy where we have to destroy the village in order to save it is not the best culture, it is in fact the worst.

Sending the fleets and troops around the globe to seize oil by various means in order to save our oil culture will end up destroying the culture as the environment is destroyed:

Controversies among climate scientists concern the magnitude of the warming, not whether or not it is occurring.

(Scientific Case - Global Warming). The general consensus is that the oil culture will go away one way or another whether we like it or not, but exactly when that will happen is open to some legitimate debate.

The phrase "global wierding" describes strange climate phenomena happening around us as our oil culture seems to be hell-bent on remaining always "the oil culture", but global wierding also describes the way we react to civilization's oil addiction.

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Sickology vs. Penology

We begin this post with a mention of the reason for the use of the word "Sickology" in the title.

Admittedly that word comes downstream from the impact of the popular documentary "Sicko" by Michael Moore.

But Sickology goes beyond those Health Care Debates/Wars into a much broader notion of Sickoness, applying the notion of pathology to civilization itself.

Yes, Sickology goes further than mere individual health issues to encompass the study of the health of the fundamental behavior of current civilization itself.

We Sickologists have even captured, with words and ideas, a workable vision for the societal dynamic that is the subject of our study.

We have isolated the motherly educational source for the fundamental behavior to a realm we tag for discussion purposes by the use of the acronym "MOMCOM".

And finally, for treatment purposes, we have isolated the resultant behavior engendered by that motherly education with the notion that MOMCOM, in essence, is the source for the infection of the hyperactive amygdala of current civilization.

We now continue this post with a quote used by blogger Randy in comments yesterday:

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.”

(Aldous Huxley, emphasis added). I doubt that Huxley really understood how that would happen, since he used a traditional pharmacological mechanism to articulate his vision.

Even though as it turns out he was correct in principle, it is just that he did not understand that the mega-drug would be oil.

Oil is the drug of choice that fits the bill for "a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude", it is just that the "pharmacological method", as it turns out, is not addiction to something you buy at the local traditional drug store.

Instead, we buy the big drug at the local gas station (the "service station" in 1950's parlance), the Quick Stop, the Seven Eleven, or "the convenience store" (in post-peak-of-sanity civilization's parlance).

And we love it, like Huxley said we would.

The other word used in the title of this post, "Penology", needs to be addressed because it sounds less poetic, but in context it waxes a bit poetic as well:

pe·nol·o·gy:


1. the study of the punishment of crime, in both its deterrent and its reformatory aspects.


2. the study of the management of prisons

(Dictionary). Imprisonment is the subject of penology, traditionally the study of confinement in a traditional prison, but that is a minor issue when compared to the big league imprisonment studied by Sickology.

In Sickology there is by necessity the study of a crosscurrent, a study of the removal of freedom, the removal of democracy, because in our study we can't help but notice that increasingly the people of civilization are having to make choices based upon a partial, incomplete, rather than a full exposure of relevant factors that will bring about their demise or to the contrary their longevity as a civilization.

We see the manifestation of the disease increasingly showing up clearly since the people increasingly cannot make the choices that have traditionally been promised to them, because the neurological election systems within democracies have become spastic.

Finally, there is a poetic meaning to the word penology if you believe in the metonymic adage "the pen is mightier than the sword".

Regular readers of Dredd Blog know we got our pens workin' in this new realm of Penology because we hope to "spring you" in more ways than one.

Happy Spring ...

The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil - 2

The Commander in Chief of MOMCOM yesterday ordered the invasion of oil rich Libya, saying that "the people of Libya must be protected".

Bush II once upon a time said that about oil rich Iraq and the Iraqi people, just before invading Iraq to remove those dangerous WMD.

A million dead Iraqis (four million expatriated) later, BP is beginning to control the pumping of "Iraqi" oil.

One interesting thing I noted was that Obama made this proclamation from Brazil, reminding me of some recent Dredd Blog "history" written in 2009:

The 5th Fleet together with troops are in the Middle East where there is lots of oil.

The 4th Fleet has been reactivated after 58 years of being moth balled, and has been sent to Central / South America where there is also lots of oil.

A website of the federal government tells us:

"Oil is the lifeblood of America’s economy."

(Department of Energy [they removed it, so here is The Wayback Machine copy of that page: Department of Energy]). Which is the same thing as saying you are economically dead without your blood, your oil.

The struggle for economic life then, would be the struggle for oil would it not?

Bush II put it in the cowboy language during a state of the union address to congress, saying that "America is addicted to oil".

(The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil). That bit of history set the context for the meaning of some of Obama's statements from Brazil:

... hailing the United States’ growing economic and political ties with Brazil and predicting “a path toward even greater cooperation for decades to come.”

(NY Times). There are a few people in Brazil who understand exactly what he meant, there are a few people in the U.S. who also understand what he meant even though he was using "newspeak", and then there is the majority who have great faith and hope in "coincidence".

Which reminds me of some song lyrics: "Take what you have gathered from coincidence" (Bob Dylan).

Of course it was only coincidence that the Brazilian oil discovery in late 2007 (the world's largest find in 30 years) was quickly followed by the reactivation of the U.S. Navy's 4th Fleet that had been mothballed for 58 years.

It was only further coincidence that the 4th fleet went south to end up anchored around and about that "Brazilian" oil field.

Oh and yes it was another coincidence that Obama announced the invasion of Libya, the country with the largest oil reserves in Africa, on the day he arrived in oil rich Brazil.

Yeah, just hopey changey coincidence.

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