This isn't a soldier issue, a religious issue or any issue. This is a man called Nidal Malik Hasan's issue. This man does not represent any group of people, because he is essentially unique. He was a single man who couldn't get married to a woman who matched his religious beliefs (you could connect him with George Sodini and all men, then?) , he was a muslim religious man who couldn't resolve it with the military's actions (therefore you could connect him with jihadists who also represent all muslims, then?) -- yet I'm not as religious as he was and still wouldn't go into the military; he made a terrible decision there which others paid for and nobody stopped. He was a deeply disturbed psychiatrist (who have -- in their profession -- elevated levels of mental troubles anyway). He had bad reviews about his psychiatric practice which weren't addressed. He wanted to leave the army and they wouldn't let him. He experienced discrimination which -- in his case -- turned out to be justified.

This situation is a confluence of multiple factors.

The Quran -- although the unquestioned authority full of evidence -- is not by itself the determinant of any one muslim's actions. It is interpreted by each individual muslim who reads it, each muslim who gains guidance from scholars, the Prophet's legacy in terms hadiths and the stories of his seera -- his life's path -- as passed on through the ages. There are schools of thought and interpretation taking it all into account responsible for Islamic jurisprudence. Muslims can reach a consensus between them. They can also be divided.

The point of meritocracy is that you decide in terms of the individual in front of you: you take into account their beliefs, their troubles and treat them based on this. You do not be blind to their ethnicity, culture or religion if it effects them neither do you assume based on religion: the most prominent example is what has happened to Christianity, there're people naming themselves Christians who only remember that when they need to write it on some Equal Opportunities form.

The first point of failure was Nidal Malik Hasan, his mistakes, his arguably self-inflicted mental hell and his horrifying indiscriminate killing. He shot at a pregnant woman. That it is justified Islamically is something only a pathological personality will believe. That he justified it Islamically when it was a grudge against the Army itself of which religion and discrimination by individuals played a part seems very likely. It was a vicious cycle: he felt persecuted and out of place due to his own choices, which resulted in him becoming more defensive and unhappy, which resulted in more isolation and a higher sense of feeling persecuted. Repeat until you have a personality feeling so victimised that you have a remorseless shooter with misdirected anger, instead of finding real solutions.

The second point of failure was the Army for retaining him in service, of which a policy of organisational non-discrimination as well as a failure of policy played a part. Why was he retained against his own feelings and beliefs, as well as giving a poor performance?

The big irony in this situation is that both discrimination and anti-discrimination played a part. This is what happens when you allow individuals to foster a victim mentality.

It doesn't matter whether a person is muslim or not. You need to listen to them and evaluate them as an individual: what do their beliefs mean to them, how are they practically applied? Is it merely lip service? What part of life's buffet is particularly to their taste? Is it family, charity, war? You must protect yourself and others from them if you see signs that are a warning.

Sometimes life itself discourages a society from moving in a certain direction:

A massive statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin collapsed on a man who was hanging from it Monday, killing him on the spot, authorities said.

The 21-year-old man was drunk when he climbed onto the five-meter (16-foot)-high plaster monument and hung from its arm, the Emergency Situations ministry said. It then broke into pieces and he was crushed.

Revolutionary Marxism - killing off clueless peasants since 1917.

Although it was over a year since we had the chance of interviewing city architect and reconstructor Michael E. Arth, I still often reference his ideas and visions, which serve as a great source of inspiration. It was clear from the beginning when we got in contact with him that he's not just another idealistic architect with big dreams and an empty pocket. Michael's triumph, today known as the Garden District, is real proof of what one strong will can do to influence other people and create a better community for all of us.

Michael, unlike most architects, thinks practically and get things done, no matter what. But first and foremost I believe he's a thinker; a kind of philosopher in the sense that he first looks at ideas very carefully, and only later worries about how to apply them to real life. He dreamt up the New Pedestrianist vision before he got to work, and regardless of the extremely difficult circumstances, he succeeded. He's like one of those brilliant, seemingly slightly-out-of-touch-with-common-reality kind of people who always lives in the future. Yet he's one of the common folks you see out on the street, mowing the lawn and repairing the porch after work.

And so I was hardly surprised when he just a few months ago announced that he was going to run as candidate for Governor of Florida. When you think about it, it's a logical extension of his past work, most notably involving a complete social, cultural and architectural remake of a neighboorhood in De Land, Florida. He just had to take it further, all the way up to a political level. I guess he now feels ready to implement some of his visions on a broader scale. Visions that combine Libertarian and Progressive ideas, openly defying what Ron Paul famously coined the "two-party charade."

True, you may not agree with all of his policies--some, like the virtual reality projects, may even strike you as unrealistic. However, after having had the great opportunity of interviewing him again about his upcoming political work, I know for a fact that he's never been more serious and focused than what he is today. Politics, as Michael himself is clearly aware of, is a dirty business, but if we know anything about this man, it is that he's not afraid of getting his hands dirty. Watch him succeed, again.

- A. Birch, 08/01/09

Your recent announcement of running for Florida Governor in 2010 positively surprised many of us. What was it that ultimately made you take the step of entering the world of politics?

It surprised my wife too. She tried to talk me out of it by saying what we all know—“Politics is a dirty business.” I told her that I want to help make changes that would turn politics into a noble business. To do this, we have to change the winner-take-all voting scheme and eliminate pay-for-play. Our ultimate goal—in addition to protecting and expanding the constitutional guarantees—is to bring the greatest good to the greatest number in the most efficient manner possible. This would also mean turning our winner-take-all economy into one that spreads the benefits more equitably while also increasing efficiency and democratic representation.

To do this we should have electoral reform that includes:

• 1. Public campaign financing: Make private campaign financing illegal. Give publicly funded micro-payment credits to each voter, who can assign them to their candidates of choice anytime during the campaign. We should have publicly funded websites and in-depth coverage of the issues with a means to compare candidates at any level of scrutiny. TV and radio media would have to air debates among the candidates (who reach a certain threshold of support) as part of their licensing of the publicly owned airwaves. Every candidate would have to take a “political courage test” that requires them to state their views in detail on a long list of subjects. The candidates should have to undergo a meaningful public hearing so the public can know better who they are voting for.
• 2. Instant Runoff Voting: (aka Majority Voting). Instead of winner-take-all voting, voters would rank their candidates in order of preference. Only a majority can win, so the votes are recounted with the lowest ranking candidates being dropped until there is a majority. This would eliminate spoilers and vote strategizing. In general, this does not favor either end of the political spectrum, but let’s take one particularly egregious example: If instant runoff voting had been in place for the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore would have probably been elected instead of George W. Bush. It would be a different world today.
• 3. Proportional Representation: Instead of single member districts, you make bigger districts (automatically drawn by computer) where the candidates are elected proportionately. Instead of districts that either Democrat or Republican, thus usually leaving out the majority, you might have 3 Democrats, 3 Republicans, 1 Green, a Libertarian, and 2 Independents in a 10 member district. Almost everyone gets represented in every district. This would make gerrymanders extinct, eliminate redistricting fights, allow third party challengers, and create a representative democracy. Most of the other world’s democracies have some version of this, but we don’t. Why not? It threatens the hegemony of the two-party duopoly.

With the American democratic system being something of a money game for rich contestants, how do you plan to build public momentum without great economic resources backing you up?

After registering to run and setting up my web site, I called up the Florida Democratic Party headquarters and talked to a top official. He did everything he could to talk me out of running. In so many words he said, “If you don’t have $3 million to start and $1.3 million a week to win it you’re wasting your time.”

I said, “If I know the issues better than the other candidates and would make a better governor why shouldn’t I run?”

“The issues don’t count. I spent a long time writing up the issues and no one pays attention to them. It’s all about the money,” he said. “I don’t work in the fundraising side of it because it would shred every last speck of idealism I have left.”

Then he told me that if I did not have the millions in campaign payola, the newspapers would not write one single word about me. This sounded like a challenge to me and I took it. I emailed the editor at the Daytona News-Journal and asked him: “Is it true that if I don’t have $3 million, you won’t write a single word about me?”

The News-Journal’s answer was a front-page story, both above and below the fold, with four photographs. The article continued on page two. I asked this of a few other newspapers, and I was assured that they would cover my campaign and take me seriously. The West Volusia Beacon, for example, came out with another front page story on July 30th appropriately titled, “Can a Renaissance man with no money become governor?”.

The media, including Corrupt.org, can help spread the ideas and the name recognition needed to alert the voters. However, we will still need substantial donations and volunteers in order to win and reform the system. Even with only a fraction of the money we have a good chance of prevailing over our rich opponents and their rich backers because in these tough times people are beginning to focus a little more on the issues. It will ultimately be up to the voters to decide what is more compelling—the propaganda paid for with millions in donations from special interests, or the important issues that will actually affect our lives. To help my campaign please donate here. Sorry, I gotta ask.

You seem to be a Democrat out of practicality more than anything else. With more and more political leaders declaring themselves independents from the two-party hegemony, do you think political parties are still necessary?

George Washington, in his farewell address, warned against “the baneful effects of the spirit of party” and his vice-president John Adams stated: “There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the Republic into two great parties, each under its leader.”

Parties serve a function in organizing like-minded people, while at the same time they create rivalries that exaggerate the divisions between them. Sometimes it’s like rival football teams from different high schools in the same town. The only thing that separates them are the colors and mascots they identify with. We have to be careful of things that polarize us needlessly and be supportive of rational dialogue that promotes rational thought, mutual understanding, and tolerance. Ultimately we are one country, together with other countries sharing one small planet, and we have to learn to get along. We must hold our principles above our party, or even before country. That is the kind of true patriotism that will ensure the improvement and endurance of our union.

I have voted Democrat for almost 40 years, but it has often been a choice between the lesser of two evils. This is because the candidates produced by the two parties are a product of our dysfunctional electoral system. The system is not completely broken down because—occasionally—good leaders do slip through. I still have hope for President Obama. He has been a miracle worker in regards race relations, even though he is clinging to the status quo on important issues related to economics, the Military Industrial Complex, and criminal justice. He is deepening the quagmire in Afghanistan. He has not put enough pressure on Israel to settle with the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors.

Obama has also ridiculed the idea of legalizing marijuana, which is very disconcerting in a country where the War on Drugs has created the highest incarceration rate in the world. It is even more disturbing that a socially conscious black man would ignore this issue, especially when drug prohibition was conceived and launched by President Nixon as a racist war on poor minorities. Minority communities have been devastated and popular contempt for the law—as embodied in prison-inspired fashion and the lyrics of drug-war-inspired “gangsta rap”—now pervades a huge section of society. Mexico’s war on drugs, funded and supplied by American money and guns, is now operating in over 200 American cities. Six thousand people were murdered in the Mexican Drug War in 2008. Drug cartel operatives routinely drop off beheaded corpses of cops or soldiers with warning notes near school grounds and in shopping centers in Mexico. In the U.S., cartels have hooked up with local gangs that were created after the War on Drugs was declared. Phoenix, Arizona sees over 300 drug related kidnappings a year.

At the core, I’m a pragmatic, progressive Democrat who favors such bedrock issues as single-payer health care and diplomacy over reckless military aggression. I have developed economic politics that aim to reverse the compression of the middle class that has been occurring since the 1960s. I favor stem cell research, civil rights, abortion rights, environmental protections, gun control, and increased emphasis on family planning. These tend to be Democratic Party issues, even if the elected Democrats are usually more talk than action. I support free trade because it will help the planet as a whole, but there have to be laws to protect workers rights and their future security as we head into a world that will have increasing automation. Robots, artificial intelligence, driverless cars and other technological wonders should lighten the load and benefit all of us.

I agree with the Blue Dog Democrats and true conservatives about fiscal responsibility and budgeting. Like any prudent investor, we should put away money in good economic times to be used for in lean economic times.

Reconciling your blend of Libertarian and Progressive opinions, what do you believe the role/function of government is in an ideal society?

To further simplify the formula I explained in the first answer, the role of government should be to develop policies that follow the Golden Rule of Sustainability: Do unto current and future generations as you would have them do unto you. There are many important orphaned issues, adopted by the Libertarian and Green parties, that fit into this formula. Some of the libertarian positions need some massaging to make them more equitable, so I would say that the progressives are closer to the ideal. Some of the orphan issues include dealing with overpopulation, taxation, the war on drugs, prostitution, electoral reform, poverty, homelessness, energy self-sufficiency, and growth management.

I won’t go through all of those issues here, but to give one example: I would like to completely overhaul the tax system and replace it with my Sustainable Tax System or STS. Just as Dennis Kucinich proposed an amendment to HR 3200 that would allow individual states to have their own single payer health plans, I propose that Florida be allowed to experiment with STS. I will explain how this could work in a minute.

How have you calculated the $50m figure that would be saved by the abolition of the death penalty? Have you included the costs of increased incarceration rates in that total?

According to Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, since 1972 Florida has spent more than a billion dollars on the death penalty system, which has executed 58 prisoners. That is $18 million per execution. According to FADP’s executive director, Mark Elliott, “Florida spends over $50 million every year on the death penalty. That's an awful lot of money spent to kill a couple of prisoners destined to die in prison anyway. Since [Spenkelink’s execution in 1972], Florida has spent over $1 billion on the death penalty and amassed over 10,000 unsolved homicides.”

The death penalty is not a deterrence according to the majority of leading criminologists. The death penalty is based on retribution, so it violates religious and ethical principles; it probably violates our constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual treatment; innocent people are sometimes executed. Capital punishment disproportionately targets poor minorities who not only have higher conviction rates, but they are suffering for circumstances that have contributed to them committing the crime in the first place. It is also barbaric. We’re in company with countries like Iran, Iraq, China, North Korea, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Do you support the same state benefits of marriage for straight and gay couples? Please state your reasons as to why or why not.

I fully support equal rights, including the right to marry, for gay, lesbian, or trans-gender individuals or couples. I reject intolerance on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation. The government has no business trying to regulate, control, or prohibit activities or commitments between consenting adults. Long-term commitments between adults—no matter what their sexual orientation—should be encouraged. Such commitments are good for both individuals and society.

What negative implications can you see from socializing healthcare?

None, but like anything it has to be done right. It is hard to do it right when the insurance companies are spending $1.3 million a day to convince lawmakers and the public that we shouldn’t have it. That is why you see this hybridized bill called HR 3200 that proposes competing plans. We are the only industrialized Western country without universal health care. We spend twice what Europeans spend and we are behind 41 other countries on life expectancy.

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can just do what other countries do, the way they do it, and we’ll reap the benefits. Actually, we don’t even need to copy other countries. Our own veterans have socialized healthcare. It costs 2/3rds of what Medicare costs and it is the best health care program in the country. The mechanism is already in place. We just need to expand it, and incorporate additional cost-cutting measures that make sense. The Veteran’s Administration reduces costs by taking a comprehensive approach to their patients. They emphasize preventative care and they keep their information in one database. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That preventative medicine is best administered in a single-payer system.

To what extent do you think that applying free market principles in a society can be effective?

The conservative Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman once said that America is about half-socialist. This means it is also about half-capitalist. The socialist half is essential, but it should be reallocated. We should spent less on the prisons, military adventures, and oil subsidies, for example, and more on developing domestic clean energy, education, and an efficient health care system. The market-based half of the economy should be managed better so that banks and other institutions that determine our quality of life are regulated. Things that are bad for us or bad for the environment should be either banned or taxed. Things that are good for us and help sustain us in the long term should be taxed less or not at all. The Arth Sustainable Tax System (STS) should replace our labyrinthine tax system. Ninety-five percent of us—currently that includes those making $200,000 or less a year—would pay no state or federal income tax. Those individuals and corporations in the top 5% would pay federal and state income tax on that portion higher than the 95th percentile. This is fairer than the so-called Fair Tax, but it still addresses the need for an efficient, consumption-based tax.

All taxes would be included in a value-added, consumption-based tax that would be included in the price of the goods or services. It would average around 18%, but unhealthy or unsustainable goods and services would be taxed the most and healthy things the least. The taxes would have to reflect the true social cost of a product instead of privatizing the profits and socializing the costs, as it done now by many businesses. The level of tax for classes of products and services would be determined democratically, but there would have to be independent assessments to determine recommended tax levels and the true social cost. For example, property taxes (whether in the form of a VAT upon sale or in annual property taxes) could be eliminated for houses that are below the median price and size in a given area, but scaled up for houses that are bigger and more expensive. This would help the poor and middle class while tending to reign in construction of the environmentally unfriendly McMansions.

Some say America is currently moving closer to a European model of society. What are your thoughts on this?

We should be pragmatists and use what works, and stop pretending that there is something good about just being different. That famous European, Winston Churchill, once said that Americans usually do the right thing, but only after trying everything else. Should we keep doing the wrong thing, just because someone plants an American flag on it?

If you were able to implement at least 1/3 of your policy proposals and your vision of New Pedestrianism in a random American small city, how would it change people’s lives for the better?

Do I get to choose which third? I have about 200 proposals in my forthcoming books A New Road, and The Labors of Hercules If I got to pick out 67 of those and implement them, we’d be much better off but I’d have to cheat because everything connects to everything else.

To really fix something you have to go to the root causes. For example, to really fix the schools, you’d have to discourage parenthood among the people who are least qualified from having children. Teaching begins at home, and if kids without proper grounding are sent to school, the teachers end up being wardens for delinquents who drag down the standards for the others. The lack of family planning and effects of overpopulation have grave consequences for a whole range of societal ills. My wish list—no matter how short it is—would include zero population growth. Tragically, despite its importance, it’s unpopular, politicians won’t touch it, and the media ignores it. As mathematician Bertrand Russell once said about overpopulation, “People would rather commit suicide than do math.”

People living in a Pedestrian Village that follows the principles of New Pedestrianism would be radically better off than those not living in one, but they would still have to deal with the problems of the greater society in which they are embedded.

What are the main issues the State of Florida faces today?

Florida is the canary in the coalmine, and it’s choking on its last tweet. Florida is lower, flatter, hotter, and getting more crowded faster than any other state in the continental U.S. Florida faces the same issues the rest of the country faces, but certain issues stand out. We are in greater danger than any other state from global warming and climate change. We have more than our share of ugly, dysfunctional architecture and poor town planning.

Our State Board of Administration (SBA), which administers the financial nest egg of over 1000 schools, municipalities, pension funds, the state lottery, the hurricane disaster fund, and other monies, lost $61 billion in the 18 months preceding March 2009. The funds were mismanaged even after many audits and critical reports warned the current trustees of risky practices. The trustees are Governor Charlie Crist, CFO Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum. Crist is now running for Senate, while Sink and McCollum are running against me for the governor’s job. I would call for a comprehensive audit and radical transparency.

Florida has the fastest growing prison population and is a major drug-dealing gateway and crossroads. The average U.S. incarceration is 7 times that of Canada. In Florida, it’s 8 times higher. Yet we still have higher rates of violence than Canada. To this Florida’s leaders have answered: “build more prisons.” When are they going to realize that if you cannot keep drugs out of prison, you won’t be able to keep drugs out of open society.

More than half the people in prison are the non-violent mentally ill or those in for drug-related offences. We have 30,000 to 40,000 homeless people wandering our streets, most of whom have mental or substance abuse issues. The answer is to end the war on drugs and treat mental illness and drug addiction as the health issues they are. We also need to let judges do what they do best in regards sentencing. Florida needs to lead on these issues and if the feds do not have the courage to replace the drug war with treatment they at least need to pass a bill that allows Florida and other states to do the practical thing.

In regards global warming and growth issues: Florida’s population in 2010 will be 19 times higher than it was 100 years earlier, while the country as a whole grew by 3.3 times. World population tripled during the same period. So the U.S. population has been growing slightly faster than the world population while Florida’s population grew around 6 times faster than either the country or the rest of the world. This has caused growth-related issues both in terms of the built environment and in how dependent our local economy has become on growth. This growth spiral collapsed during the recession, and we must seize this opportunity to redirect our economy.

All new growth should follow the New Pedestrianism model. We should begin to develop an energy conservation model that promotes a transportation system based on technology now in development—publicly owned, electric, self-driving vehicles coupled with virtual reality. We should also take advantage of Florida’s reputation as the Sunshine State. Cheap solar thermal power, thin, flexible solar panels and other kinds of solar arrays are being developed and installed. Taking into account the subsidies that are flowing out of the country to either prop up or fight with theocratic dictatorships that don’t like us, solar is already cheaper than oil. For more on all these issues, please go to http://www.michaelearth.org.

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Learn more about Michael Arth and his work

Personal website

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Documentary about Michael's remake of a neighbourhood in De Land, Florida: New Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism

Michael's book series The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems

Michael's project to end homelessness: Villages For the Homeless

Michael's virtual reality project: UNICE

Michael's press contact: Golden Apples Media

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Remember F1 boss Max Mosley and the Nazi orgy involving five hookers dressed out as Nazis and concentration camp prisoners? Just a strange fetish for a 67-year-old pervert, you say? Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone joins the club:

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone faced criticism from politicians and Jewish groups Saturday after being quoted as saying that Adolf Hitler "got things done."

He was quoted as saying that democracy "hasn't done a lot of good for many countries -- including this one."

"In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done," Ecclestone was quoted as saying.

Anti-Semitism, after decades of all-theory-no-action, is finally mutating into a fierce virus among the patriarchal F1 elite. This suggests we're entering a celebrity age for racially motivated hate. If the Nazi of yesterday came from a working class background, wore militant clothes and yelled in speakers about Jews, the Nazi of today wears business clothes, drives fast cars, spanks hot ladies, and mobilizes anti-democratic sentiment in the media. Whatever's going on here, anti-racists have reason to worry, and a sufficient reason to upgrade their cars.

Bubbles are bursting and financial institutions running out of money in places which don't much resemble Wall Street.

"People wanted bigger weddings, newer carriages," Mr. Lehman says. "They were buying things they didn't need." Mr. Lehman spent several hundred dollars on a model-train and truck hobby, and about $4,000 on annual family vacations, he says. This year, there will be no vacation.

It became common practice for families to leave their carriages home and take taxis on shopping trips and to dinners out.

Some Amish families had bought second homes on the west coast of Florida and expensive Dutch Harness Horses, with their distinctive, prancing gait. Others lined their carriages in dark velvet and illuminated them with battery-powered LED lighting.

Yup, living above your means and spending money you might not have to pimp out your ride will have negative consequences when the cash stops flowing. It won't make a lick of difference that the ride you've been pimping is a horse-drawn buggy and your trousers don't have zippers. Trying to live according to the old ways won't prevent the kind of unplesantness which has been happening to countless fools and unfortunates ranging from peasants to kings for thousands of years. Who knew?

HT: Dealbreaker

When killing hobos gets old, and even forcing your employees to help you bury dead strippers no longer gives you a thrill, what can you do? Fortunately some Russian entrepeneurs have a solution involving some more lively targets. It'll cost you a pretty penny, though. Don't you sometimes envy those who can still enjoy something as pedestrian as killing a few kittens?

As the war cry of the Texas revolutionaries was "Remember the Alamo!", so skinheads are now apparently taking up the cry of "Remember Caitlin Davis!" Where the Texans used guns, white nationalists now use permanent markers. Much like Davis, the former New England Patriots cheerleader who lost her job when she turned out to be a white nationalist heroine (or perhaps just drunk teenager, it's hard to tell the difference), drew swastikas, penises etc. on some unconscious woman, a Manitoba couple sent their seven-year-old daughter to school with a swastika drawn on her arm.

Fortunately Canadian schools are prepared to fight the scourge of racism - "The teacher scrubbed it off in the afternoon". The parents, however, were persistent and wily - they drew another swastika plus more white nationalist symbols on their daughter the next day. Predictably enough, this epic struggle ended up with Child and Family Services involvement and a court case. The poor parents are fighting for their legal right to draw swastikas on their daughter's body, but things don't look good for them. The goverment's case is bolstered by "drug and alcohol abuse, criminal behaviour, domestic violence, and mental health concerns".

Racism is an ever mutating danger. The most recent mutation appears to consist of using markers to draw swastikas on girls. We must all be on the lookout for suspicious-looking white people who attempt to purchase markers. This story shows us that racists must not be underestimated and are truly dangerous - a Neo-Nazi family is as much as a threat to society as a cute 18-year-old blonde who gets hold of a writing implement.

Crowdism always fails, and the swine flu panic is not an exception. Thanks to hysteria both from WHO and the government, people freak out and think their cold/cough is going to kill them:

After a week of headlines about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, many emergency rooms and hospitals are crammed with people, many of whom don't need to be there.

The visits by the "worried well" have triggered concerns of overburdening the nation's hospitals and emergency departments, several health care professionals told CNN.

"I haven't seen such a panic among communities perhaps ever," Bell said. "We are spending significant time in the emergency department, calming people down. Right now, people think if they have a cough or a cold, they're going to die. That's a scary, frightening place to be in. I wish that this hysteria had not occurred and that we had tempered a little bit of our opinions and thoughts and fears in the media. It just went haywire."

There are a number of reasons not to get worked up like these people:

(1) The swine flu has harvested most victims in places like Mexico, where social and medical conditions are poor.

(2) We don't know yet if the people who died while carrying swine flu, actually died because of swine flu. Maybe they died of a heart attack while masturbating or something?

(3) There are several deadly viruses and diseases in the West, killing far more people than pity swine flu, including TB and HIV/AIDS.

(4) Even if the swine flu is spreading to places like Denmark, governments and health organizations will not be able to mobilize the relevant medical emergency care if whole communities freak out and overcrowd hospitals with silly problems. In fact, hysteria and panic make things worse.

(5) The swine flu epidemic in Mexico is now reported to be in decline.

CHILL OUT. Chances are greater you'll be hit by a bus or strangle yourself while sleeping than being infected by the swine flu.

From the Crowdism Dept.:

When a representative of the World Health Organization steps up to the microphone and announces that we’re on the verge of a pandemic, how could anyone not freak out at least a little bit?

The very word "pandemic" conjures up images of hazmat suits and monkeys rattling laboratory cages — a deadly disease so contagious that it threatens to sweep across the nation like flames through a bone-dry forest.

Right now, the average citizen doesn’t need to do anything except to pay attention to news on the developing pandemic and to keep away from others if flu symptoms strike. There is no call to action at this point, except follow basic flu etiquette — don't cough on people and wash your hands often. If you show symptoms of the flu — such as coughing or sneezing — don't go to work or school and spread your germs around, whether they're the swine kind or a garden-variety cold. If you have a fever or difficulty breathing, call your doctor.

WHO: "Okay, please don't panic, we have the situation under control. Everything's going to be fine, we just need to calm down and...OH MY GOD, PEOPLE ARE DYING EVERYWHERE, WE WILL ALL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH!"

Crowd: "OMFG, run, hide, do something!"

This is getting more hysterical than the War on Terror. Who benefits from people having these emotional tantrums? WHO and the Nanny State, of course, because both will suggest we increase their power to save us from the swine flu. Whatever.

If officials are so worried about a few hundred people dying from swine flu, mostly living in poor third world countries (finger im po, Mexico), why don't we freak out over the 12,898 people who were diagnosed with tuberculosis last year in America? Oh yeah, that's not as fun as swine flu. You gotta pick something that ignites the crowd.

The easiest way to control a crowd is to scare the living shit out of people:

If I was a New Yorker, I would instinctively panic and run as well. What we need to realize though is that 9/11, like the swine/Mexican/smurf flu is all about CONTROL. You are afraid and seek shelter from the government. Other things the media and government use to scare us into panic and inaction:

1. Islamic fundamentalism
2. Economic depression
3. Armageddon
4. Civilization collapse
5. World totalitarianism
6. International conspiracy

While some of these fears are faintly accurate - Europe faces big problems with radical Muslims, the world economy is currently in a deep recession, our environment is badly hurt, and we are approaching a further centralization of political power - they are effectively used to confuse people and scare them away from practical action. We become whiners who sit at home and worry about flu and Muslims, with rarely any practical bearing on our local environment, which we are unlikely to escape in our lifetime.

Unless we are in a position to act on an international scale, we need to stop worrying about things beyond our reach. Worry, panic and fear turn us into neurotic losers who praise our private fantasy religions that we think will save the world, while reality remains the same. The kind of moral courage I want to see is someone like Michael Arth renovating a city slum. That job was Arth's life project, and he's been more successful than most of us. Stop living a life based on fear and worry. You can be in control of your life, if you dare to take responsibility for yourself and your community.

As previously discussed here, the gas race between Nabucco and Nord Stream continues. Washington is now pressing the next important ally in the Nabucco pipeline project, Iran, to secure gas export to Europe. The unofficial goal is of course to circumvent Russian gas extortion on the open market, observing how Russia isbuying up assets in vital European energy companies. Israeli news network DEBKA brings the latest news:

Iran is about to become a major fuel supplier to the West, DEBKA-Net-Weekly reports.

For the sake of dialogue and cooperation, Washington is ceding Tehran the chance to feed its natural gas into the 3,000 kilometer-long Nabucco pipeline project (from the Caspian to the EU via Turkey).

Good move. I am of course a supporter of the project (if you're living in Europe, how could you not be?), although I recognize the vast difficulties we face here. Not only are we not very good friends with Iran right now (or, maybe one should say, few nations are good friends with Iran), but the project is continuously postponed in part due to lack of consensus within the European Union. France, Germany, Italy and Spain in particular prefer business with Russia instead of securing European interests first.

Iran realizes this situation enables it to take use of its newly inherited geopolitical front position (why do you think America has intervened in this region for such a long time?):

Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari here Wednesday assured that it would not be possible to put Nabucco gas pipeline into operation without Iran, dismissing it as uneconomical.

“If Nabucco pipeline comes on stream, Iran will be the sole option for supplying its gas as the country is the world’s second-largest holder of natural gas,” said the minister, however adding other companies could also provide some part of the project’s gas.

National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Managing Director Mohammadreza Ne’matzadeh had already announced that Europe had no way out but to satisfy its energy needs by transferring Iran’s gas via Turkey’s Nabucco pipeline.

While there is a lot of truth to this, it's not entirely accurate. Let's have a look at the geopolitical map:

(click to see larger image)

As you can see, Europe plans to import gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan as well. And Russia, of course, is far from helpful. Edward Lucas in his excellent "the New Cold War" elaborates:

[The] West's hopes rest on the flimsy chances of persuading two dictatorships, ultra-cautious Kazakhstan and impenetrable Turkmenistan, to take the risk of snubbing Moscow and selling their gas westwards. Unsurprisingly, in the battle for the Caspian Russia has so far outwitted the West at every turn. The chances never looked good. Russia regards the Caspian Sea as a lake. Under international law, the countries round a lake have a power of veto over the economic exploitation of the land under it. Russia can therefore block any attempt to build a pipeline on the Caspian seabed linking Turkmen and Kazakh gas fields to Azerbaijan's existing pipeline westwards. To underline its legal case, it has also been building up its naval forces in the Caspian. But in fact, Russia used an even more powerful weapon than either gunboats or international lawyers: simple diplomatic clout. In May 2007 Mr Putin signed a deal with the leaders of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to build a new gas export pipeline skirting the northern shore of the Caspian and taking the region's gas riches to Europe via Russia.

Edward Lucas, "the New Cold War," p. 229-230

In other words, this is not going to be easy. We may need some Obamarama rhetoric to bring the deal home with Iran. If Obama can play softie with Chavez, he may be able to score points in Iran as well. Of course, the mere thought of this drives most Conservatives nuts:

This hint, I suggest, is all that The Parasitic One needs to form His narrative. Let’s cut to the chase scene, and then we’ll get to Paul Harvey’s (RIP) The Rest of the Story!

The Narrative to come: In the interests of cooperation between our two countries and to further inculcate the Iranian people into the broader economic interests of the region and the European Union, I am pleased to announce today that the construction path of the Nabucco pipeline has been amended to include a second termination point inside Iran. This additional termination point will provide much-needed natural resources throughout Europe, as well as a solid economic foundation upon which Iran can develop and optimize its infrastructure and tend to the educational and technology needs of its citizens.

He’ll say more, but I’m ready to vomit so I have to stop.

This Patriot is more worried about Obama appearing in a good light than actually getting things done. That is loser politics my friend. Conservatism is not about being bitter. I don't hate Obama. In fact, I think in the big game he's kind of unimportant. He has got zero experience with foreign policy, so he will be the puppet of his advisors. Of course Obama is going to try to score points when making this deal with Iran. He needs to affirm his image. That's how democracy works.

The West needs to grow up, strengthen transatlantic relations with Europe, and wake Germany, Italy and France up. This is not a picnic. We need to secure our energy import before we get run over by the Russians.

More amusement from the New Cold War Dept.:

South Korea clones glowing dogs

South Korean scientists say they have engineered four beagles that glow red using cloning techniques that could help develop cures for human diseases. The four dogs, all named "Ruppy" — a combination of the words "ruby" and "puppy" — look like typical beagles by daylight.

But they glow red under ultraviolet light, and the dogs' nails and abdomens, which have thin skins, look red even to the naked eye.

Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-chun, head of the research team, called them the world's first transgenic dogs carrying fluorescent genes, an achievement that goes beyond just the glowing novelty.

Fancy engineering, if it's true. Now, how about creating a thousand nuclear bears using similar technology to overthrow the enemy in the north? Or maybe clone themselves to prop up their army? Imagine hundreds of millions of those South Koreans, glowing red in the dark, invading the Commies when they least expect it. Like an episode taken straight out of X-Files.

North Korea threatens with nuke test unless given apology from UN

North Korea warned Wednesday it will fire an intercontinental ballistic missile — or even carry out another nuclear test — unless the U.N. apologizes for condemning the regime's April 5 rocket launch.

By flaunting its rogue nuclear and missile programs, Pyongyang has raised the stakes in the escalating diplomatic tit for tat with the outside world. North Korea also said it would start generating nuclear fuel — an indication the regime will begin enriching uranium, another material used to make an atomic bomb.

"The North is trying to maximize the stakes as the United States keeps ignoring it," he said. But the expert also said the regime could gradually put the threat into action if Washington fails to respond as it wishes.

While Obama is exchanging bedtime stories with Chavez in Venezuela and scoring populist points with Turkey, North Korea is attempting to irritate the new Administration long enough for it to act. Of course, if we'd still have Bush and the Neocons installed, we'd see some sparks and bombs flying, but we'd also show the world where America stands, and Kim Jong would remain a pansy.

As it stands now, this soft bully is playing hardball while we're waiting to make a move. My strategy to deal with pansies who play hardball has always been to push them down and make the case clear: you're not going to make a move, son - and if you do, things will blow up.

I've seen a vision of the future, and here it is: my posts have generally (I hope) been concise & relatively focused since I started this blog. Once that kid exits the womb and enters reality, though, all bets are off: my level of sleep will decline temporarily, my stress will increase, and I'll think of nothing else except my family. I'll still go out and try to follow my own advice of having guy-time as well as being an excellent parent, not just a good one.

Here's one good reason why I bring this up (from Parentdish):

Case in point: "Princess Style" magazines. Okay, so they aren't real magazines. They're actually wall decorations, presumably for a young girl's room. If Ariel's impossibly tiny waist and come hither look aren't painful enough, check out the headlines:

• Great Legs Are a Dream That Can Come True
• What Your Guy Friends Say About You
• Two's Company, Eight's a Crowd
• Find Your Prince: 5 Tips to Show You How

These are, obviously, supposed to be parody, but Disney's target audience is too young to understand sarcasm and satire. My six-year-old is old enough to read them, though. Isn't it a little early to start suggesting to her that her legs aren't perfect? That she needs to worry about finding her "prince" or what boys are thinking about her? (Yes, it's way too early.) And don't get me started on the "eight's a crowd" thing. Sex, body issues, mean girls ... it's all there.

There's a reason they say boys are easier: because, generally speaking, they're less stress. Fathers who grew up with sisters, especially, end up being very protective of females within the pride/family, and thus want to hold off the idea of mating/promiscuity as long as possible. Since our media creates sexy images for younger & younger children with each passing year, it's increasingly difficult for a parent, using natural instinct, to exclude these images from a child's reality.

Does that mean I pray every day for a boy? Not exactly, I just wish it wasn't so damn easy to corrupt the minds of youth (in a bad way...Socrates = good way; Disney = bad way, remember that...).

The Patriot Room, consisting of various writers from the Examiner, argues why branding bloggers as amateurs within journalism is wrong:

I don't know if that is really fair. Look at it from their perspective, you earn what you bring in. You may be the next Pulitzer prize winner, but if no one reads your stuff, who cares? If no one likes reading a particular examiner's stuff, why should they get paid more just because they have more credentials or formal journalistic education?

So what if there are moms making grocery money. If they are making money, then people want to read their stuff. Good for them. In my market, there are three or four of us that are always at the top. It is amusing to see the range of topics it covers, not because they are silly or whatever but because people like to read their stuff. It also breeds a little competitiveness which is good for all.

So is Examiner NYT or LAT? No, and I'm glad it isn't. Journalists, bloggers, who cares. Examiner doesn't get 3 million unique visitors a month for nothing. People enjoy reading it and I'm sure enjoy the broad diversity of topics and writing styles. Personally I don't care too much for the 'professional' writers out there. I've seen too much of their ego over the past few years. The "I have high quality writing" or "I have a degree in journalism" or whatever. Good for you. I'll take the paper that is written on, light up my cigar with it and enjoy reading someone entertaining and passionate on their chosen topic. Not all are like that, but quite a few are. I prefer reading the average joe/jane who gets their facts straight and applies a little personality to it.

There's nothing wrong with moms making grocery money from Google ads by blogging about housework. The problem is that serious news journalism is rapidly losing market shares to a blog crowd that turns quality information into socialization. The Examiner receives 3 million unique visitors a month--so what? That tells us nothing about the quality and legitimacy of information. John C. Dvorak elaborates on the same phenomenon taking place at Twitter:

Indeed, celebrities such as Oprah or Britney Spears or President Obama have millions of fans who want to know everything these people do every minute of the day. Perhaps they find it fascinating, possibly entertaining, and probably satisfying in some way or other. Many of these people are lost souls, some are just bored in general, and a minority are obsessive, sometimes dangerously so. Whatever the case this is not a productive use of their time. The celebrity, if he or she actually does the Twittering, has a way of communicating to this obsessive fan base directly and can direct them for various marketing ploys.

And while it may be considered "productive" to sell tickets to a concert or memorabilia to a fan using Twitter as a communications tool, it degrades the usefulness of the system for what I consider productive uses. Someone can stop me here, I suppose, arguing "No, John, it degrades nothing since you can still use Twitter any way YOU want and just ignore the eating-a-cheese-sandwich-on-the-crapper people who are using it unproductively."

Well, yes, and no. Today I can ignore them. Twitter lets me choose who I follow and whose posts I can read. And I try not to follow people who post mundane details of their minute to minute activity unless it is somehow hilarious. But if the entire service becomes so inundated as a marketing arm of celebrity-worship that the systems fails and dies like CB radio did, then no, I can't ignore them, can I?

Crowdism rears its ugly head: WE DEMAND TO BE TAKEN AS SERIOUS JOURNALISTS! Reality knocks on the door: What are your qualifications and work experiences? Background, knowledge? I could pretend to be a carpenter tomorrow and hammer away with my tools, but in the end, if we're looking for houses to last more than one day, we need experts.

I'm not against Web 2.0 technology per se. In fact, that's what Corrupt is running on, and we appreciate the variety of average Joes and Janes that blog excellent stuff on the web. But we don't confuse them with professional journalists, and we hope that the news industry will continue to make enough cash to be able to finance foreign correspondents and other pressing parts of news media. If the news industry wants to survive, it needs to adapt to the new environment, but that adaptation is not crowdism. Crowdism is failure, always.

My country – the US – has outgrown capitalism, at least in regard to auto production. There's simply no other explanation after the following turn of events at GM and Chrysler:

General Motors Corp. said it will cut 21,000 U.S. factory jobs by next year, phase out its storied Pontiac brand and ask the government to take more than half its stock in exchange for half of GM's government debt as part of a major restructuring that would leave current shareholders holding just 1 percent of the company.

GM is living on $15.4 billion in government loans and faces a June 1 deadline to restructure and get more government money. If the restructuring doesn't satisfy the government, the company could go into bankruptcy protection.

If both are successful, the government and UAW health care trust would own 89 percent of the company's stock, with the government holding more than a 50 percent stake, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said.

But despite several pro-longed bail outs, companies like Chrysler spell imminent bankruptcy:

It looks like scrappy Chrysler LLC might yet escape the auctioneer's gavel. The smallest of the three major U.S.-based automakers cleared two major hurdles on Sunday in its quest for survival, agreeing on a concession agreement with negotiators for the United Auto Workers and winning ratification of its cost-cutting deal with the Canadian Auto Workers.

Chrysler has been living on $4 billion in government loans and may get another $500 million to keep it alive through Thursday's deadline to restructure to the government's satisfaction. If it can't close the final deals, however, no more government money will be made available and the company almost certainly would be auctioned off in pieces under bankruptcy court supervision.

Oh Chrysler is scrappy all right! They just keep surviving after a 30-plus year legacy of bailouts and business partnerships – like that of DaimlerBenz, which strangely didn't work out. Those Germans give up too easily!

Have you always wanted to make a career in acting but don't want to be a mere entertainer? Dealbreaker points out you can put your acting skills to use in situations where serious real-life decisions involving large amounts of money are at stake.

In late October 2006, Melissa Marie Ramon introduced people to a man she said was Scott Scrabanek of New York City, according to two who met him. Whether that is his real name is unresolved.

He was said to be CFO of a secretive Paris company called JaxTrece that made loans to nonprofit organizations. It seemed to be a lucrative business. Investors earned average annualreturns as high as 51 percent, according to a company document.

Scrabanek appeared in Houston with Ramon, where he made a show of examining the ceiling and pipes of a potential office, the sources said. He was about 6 feet tall, slim, pale, in his 50s or 60s.

Curiously, in early October, Ramon sent an e-mail to an Austin actors group: She was seeking a male actor in his 50s or 60s with a New York accent to make an appearance at what she said was a Houston fundraising event. Another document filed in a lawsuit and said to have been found in Ramon’s computer describes Scrabanek’s back story down to his children’s names and his residence (the Time Warner building in New York City), and details his attitude: "typical Jewish New York . . . doesn’t really care about anyone but yourself, snotty and stuck up."

Some now wonder whether the man they met was actually an actor earning $500 an hour to play a part in what the Justice Department says was an investment scam that defrauded investors of millions of dollars.

Yup, your acting ability is needed to add credibility to financial scams. And they're paying $500 an hour!

There's definitely more creativity and originality in the scam and scheme industry than in regular banking. Libertarians will tell you that's because scammers are unregulated and free of government interference. Bitter misanthropic teenagers will tell you that the underground is always more inventive than the boring ol' mainstream.

The flu frenzy in the media is back:

The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.

Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and "we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel.

Swine flu, Mexican flu - who cares? Some hundred people died in Mexico, and we care why? Remember the bird flu (H5N1) that everyone thought was going to kill us all? That turned out to be pure media frenzy. Even our government in Sweden freaked out after some people found a few birds who had caught the flu, and parents were told not to let their children even touch birds. Nanny State paranoia, pure and simple.

Even Conservatives seem to buy into this, some only to take a shot at Obama:

U.S. President Barack Obama was exposed to swine flu on his trip to Mexico last week. Obama was greeted by archeologist Felipe Solis at a museum in Mexico City where they warmly embraced. Felipe Solis was dead the next day from what was described then as swine flu symptoms, although local health officials changed the diagnosis to non-descriptive “pneumonia” for apparent diplomatic reasons.

Reports are that Obama knew about the outbreak three days before his visit but decided to go anyway. His imprudence may have been pushed by criticism for having never visited Mexico during his short lifetime before the presidency.

Obama may never feel the symptoms of the bug but because of his exposure he may have been a contagious carrier of the deadly disease back into the United States. There is a chance he infected others. Do not expect the White House to confirm such an interesting scenario even if true.

The same Conservative blog debates Obama's status as a Jesus figure. I think all of this comes down to a few simple facts:

(1) People love to freak out over something on a national scale, because it gives them the illusion that they share a common goal (or enemy, hence 9/11 worship).

(2) Conservatives realize Obama is all talk and no walk.

(3) The GOP is divided and tries to score points by side-tracking into anti-Obama propaganda and libertarianism (FAILURE).

My message, as always: Ever onward into countless battles.

Russian vodka still the fuel of local heroes

A Russian man has miraculously survived drinking eight bottles of vodka.

The percentage of alcohol in his blood was at least twice the lethal dose.

Doctors said that it must have been the man's bulk that saved him - the alcohol's hero is two meters' tall and weighs about 100 kilograms.

That is nothing short of a miracle, admittedly. However, while this may reinforce the stereotype of the typical Russian as a vodka-drinking warrior, the reality may be different:

The image of an average Russian man as a vodka-swilling booze lover is a myth, says a leading physician.

Evgeny Bryun, Moscow’s chief physician, said that it’s an undeserved myth that Russians drink more than most people.

Bryun’s comments stand in stark contrast to a report released last year that revealed a sharp rise in Russians” alcohol consumption.

The average Russian drinks 15 litres of alcohol per year up from 5.4 litres in 1990, the report by Russia’s chief physician, Gennady Onishchenko, found.

Oh well, as in most cases, the myth lives on - with or without reality.

Kazakhstan welcomes aliens

The Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia is in the process of building the world’s first alien embassy according to some local media reports. If these reports are to be believed, the authorities have already allocated a large plot of land in the city of Almaty for this ambitious project. Facilities to be built within the complex will include a guesthouse, theatre and translation service. A purpose built UFO landing pad and checkpoint will be attached to the embassy.

Kazakhstan’s government believes open contact with aliens is imminent and by being the first nation to specifically create such facilities they are convinced they will reap enormous financial and economic rewards. The Kazakhstan Government also see this as a chance to demonstrate their nations forward thinking policies.

The head of Kazakhstan’s space agency, Talgat Musabayev, is said to be heavily involved in the embassy project. Musabayev is an ex-cosmonaut who has spent many hours in space and is an ex-colleague of Gasimov. It is believed that he possesses a large amount of information on the aliens currently visiting earth.

That's not a miracle though, only a very strange way of trying to create a progressive foreign policy - if alien contact can be classified as foreign policy. Obama, trying to score soft points with Chavez, may have something to learn here. I mean, if he's aiming for hyper-inflation, why not spend the money on something interesting like the new space race or alien embassies?

Alex isn't the only one writing about cheerleaders these days. Deadspin brings us the tale of Lori Epperson, another cheerleader coach who lost her job, this time for taking four of the teenage cheerleaders, including her own daughter, to a gay strip club which served them alcohol.

I really don't see anything wrong there so far. I'm all for teenagers drinking a little alcohol with adults - far better that than drinking with their peers who will probably buy the cheapest crap they can, get really hammered, and do whatever hammered teenagers like to do with no adults around. I imagine there are also few safer places for teenage girls than a gay male strip club.

The only problem I see could be that the coach got permission from all the girls' parents. I don't know what the permission really says. If the permission is explicitly to take teenage girls to a gay strip club, that's just brilliant and genius and I want to know how she pulled it off. If the permission is vague and does not specify anything about gay strippers, well, I'd be pretty angry that my permission was interpreted so creatively.

Joe Mesi was forced to give up his career due to a terrifying brain bleed back in 2004. I honestly do feel for the poor guy, but he's not letting that injury hold him down. No, Mesi will be the new head of the majority office in the New York state senate. It is not surprising that being a significant political appointee in a democracy requires a less healthy brain than punching people for a living.