Inane Ramblings

30 April 2007

Little Einsteins....made in China?

Good Morning!

Javi's favorite Disney program of late has been the Little Einsteins. If you haven't watched it, it's about some precocious 6-year-olds that fly around the world in their rocket ships and use music to solve an endless series of puzzles.

Anyway....I actually sat and paid attention to the opening sequence yesterday morning, and I noticed something very curious. The kids run out to their tree, and slide down to their secret underground lair. Then they use their 'magic' to get rocket to launch.

The fly out of the tree, and without disappearing into the clouds or flying over a body of water, the first thing they see is.....the Great Wall of China! Then it's off to the Taj Mahal....and then the pyramids! Lastly, they soar over the Eiffel Tower, and the opening sequence ends!

Well, that's got me thinking....they're obviously based in China, aren't they? But I suppose that would make sense, since this program is attempting to use music as a teaching aid, and given the sorry state of music education in this country, I suppose they had to be based somewhere that the arts and music are still valued.

I also noticed something curious about their nemesis, "big jet". It's a generic fighter jet to the kiddies, but to these learned eyes, it looks like a MiG-29. Which of course, would be more worrisome to the Chinese than us Americans.

Coincidence? I don't think so!

27 April 2007

Overseas Roundup

Good Morning! We've made it to another Friday, so it's time to take our weekly trip around the world and see what everyone else is thinking about...


Switzerland is looking at itself very closely this week, as they had a rare shooting in a hotel in Baden. They are comparing it to the shootings at Virginia Tech and thinking that the US has become the world leader in mass killings.

For the past twenty years, all forms of media have published the long list of mass shooting deaths committed outside the context of war. It's obvious that this list reveals a profound malaise in our society. And it's not surprising that here again, the United States holds the role of pioneer, just as it has in other areas.

America has developed the culture of confrontation on all levels. From the legal system to Hollywood, and encompassing politics, economics and even religion, free market beliefs govern everything. This type of culture has indeed enabled the West to develop its technological creativity. But to favor confrontation in human relations has deleterious moral consequences. Society then becomes akin to a battlefield where everything is allowed, the only goal being victory of one over another. Such a combative environment can only act disastrously on fragile spirits. “To blow a fuse” or “to blow a cable” are expressions that are quite literally in the air, and are accurate expressions of the state of psychic tension that corrodes the life of society.

We would hope in vain for a world without conflict, misfortune or crime. Violence is an essential element of human nature. But each one of us has a vague sense that balance must be restored.

And this goal will not be met by spreading a few ounces of brotherhood over this world of brutality.


An Iraqi newspaper has also chimed in on the shooting, by thanking Allah that the killer was not Muslim. I'd have to agree....could you imagine what Bush would have done if it was a student from Iran?

The blood which flowed following the crime at Virginia Tech was of a very rare kind: we Arabs and Muslims had absolutely nothing to do with it!!

American police continue to investigate the motives behind the incident at Virginia Polytechnic Institute - in which a gunman opened fire killing 32 students and faculty members before turning the gun on himself - and will likely find a thread that links us [Muslims] to this heinous crime. This was a crime that has made everyone tremble with anger - including President Bush. In a case like this, speculation abounds, which is why we praise Allah, and give him our thanks that the gunman was not a Muslim! The crime overwhelmed police and at first they asserted that this was an act of terrorism. But God was kind to his Muslim worshipers when he did not make the killer one of us. Thus, the charges against us were dropped!

We also praise Allah and thank Him that the gunman was not of Arab descent, as the investigation has confirmed that the killer was from South Korea. What if the gunman had been Iraqi or Sudanese? The whole world would have been up in arms over it!

As long as we Arabs and Muslims are far away from this case, "it's springtime and the weather is marvelous," as the late Egyptian singer and actress Suad Husni once observed. But our innocence complicates matters for the investigators, and they are now caught up in a whirlwind of questions.

How could it be that this expert killer isn't a member of our [Muslim] clan? Not one of our cousins? Not even one of our neighbors? Especially since the specifics of this repugnant crime correspond to us: The Virginia Tech killer murdered innocent people, just as bad men killed innocent people on September 11, 2001. The killer committed terrible evil on a university campus, and we certainly have no taboos about slitting throats in order to preserve our existence!

The Virginia Tech killer murdered students of science. We Arabs and Muslims are an ignorant and backward people, and we fight against education from cradle to grave, or so the Western media likes to say!



And lastly, our neighbor to the south is paraphrasing a timeworn phrase about the Roman Empire....in that the all paths of death lead to Washington.

The loss of life being generated in Latin America by the war on drugs is, in part, a result of a mistaken and hypocritical strategy imposed on the continent by Washington and other governments: the prohibition of psychotropic substances and the prohibition of their production, sale and consumption.

By creating conditions that allow the extreme enrichment of drug traffickers, governments have transferred the problem of addiction from the realm of public health to that of police officers, military men and national security, thereby creating a monster with unlimited economic power, which exhibits an almost unlimited capacity to corrupt public officials at all levels. It also equips drug traffickers with firepower at least as lethal as institutions of provide public safety.

Regarding the outbreaks of individual violence that regularly inflict United States society - such as the slaughter perpetrated on Monday in Virginia by an unbalanced South Korean immigrant, who only weeks before and without difficulty, purchased an automatic firearm and hundreds of rounds of ammunition to assassinate 32 people - these are overwhelmingly due to the extreme proliferation of firearms in the hands of the general population.

It should not go unnoticed that the main promoter of this civilian arms buildup - the National Rifle Association - is an ultraconservative organization closely tied to the ruling Republican Party. Similarly, it should be considered that the present administration permitted the few regulations on the indiscriminate sale of high-powered weapons adopted in the days of Bill Clinton to fall into disuse.

The key to stopping all this violence - the colonial war in Iraq, the drug trafficking and the massive number of homicides within the territory of the United States - is in the hands of Washington's political class. At this point it's clear that the first condition for stopping the daily atrocities being committed against Iraq's civilian population, the bloody confrontation between local factions, the losses of British and American troops and the growing disintegration of Iraq's social fabric, consists of the immediate withdrawal of the occupying forces from Iraq.

With respect to the war on drugs, the solution can be found in the very history of the United States itself: the adoption of so called prohibition , outlawing the production and sale of spirits did not eliminate, nor did it reduce alcoholism, Rather, it generated a black market, the members of which defied the government for over a decade, submerging the country in a wave of criminal violence that could not be staunched until the legalization and decriminalization of alcoholic beverages was restored. It's time to come back to our senses and recognize that public health issues cannot be resolved by the army or police, and that combating addictions requires medical and social strategies other than the prohibition of addictive substances.

But for now, the paths of death - the war in Iraq, the war on drugs and the bloody shootings in the United States - have one thing common: they all lead to the White House and the U.S. Capitol.


So....there you have it. Another week of death and mayhem in these United States. No surprise, the rest of the world has taken notice.


25 April 2007

An old box of magazines...

Good Morning.

About a year ago, my inlaws gave us a box of old National Geographic magazines. It's sat in a corner of the dining room for months, forgotten and unchecked.

We've been meaning to go through them, but never had the time. Now that Mrs. TriSec is out of work again, she's started some small cleanup projects around the house. First among them was that weird corner of the dining room where everything had piled up.

She called me at work yesterday, wondering what to do with 'that old box of magazines'. I said, they can be thrown out, but if they're vintage, hold onto them. As luck would have it....they are indeed vintage!

We've got stuff from the early to mid 1970s, and inexplicably, a single issue from 1954.

I was going through it last night, and what I had hoped for was there, a couple of issues detailing Apollo 14 and 17 (and hopefully more, I still haven't gotten to the bottom of the box.

I also found issues on my beloved Nova Scotia, and a couple that bear reading about Syria and "Iraq's Embattled Kurds". Some things never change.

The 1954 issue is mostly about colonial Williamsburg, which was a terrific find, considering that we are visiting there this summer. I can't imagine it's changed much since 1954. Probably hasn't changed much since 1754.

But what's really fascinating....is the ads. There's plenty of cars in there, including some old and boxy looking Toyotas, and a massive 1970s Chrysler Town & Country wagon. Interesting to note that the mpg was listed in one of the Toyota ads....I have it as 25 highway/17 city. While small cars have improved significantly since then, that's still about the norm for a midsize SUV.

You want to buy a TV? Sony also had a full-page ad for their wide-screen TV and "Commander" VHS cassette system. What a monstrous looking thing. And the TV had a "new" synchronized remote that allowed you to change from channels 2-83 instantly!

On the back of a mid-70s magazine is a full page ad for Mazola Corn Oil....and since corn doesn't grow cholesterol, there's none in our oil! I see nothing much has changed on that front, either.

There's also things for slide projectors, turntables, defunct airlines....it's really quite fascinating.

But I did have a 'modern' moment while leafing through these old relics. I was idly wondering if any of the older companies might still be in business. Without even thinking, my eyes automatically went to the bottom of the ad to look for a website!

Whatever did we do before the internets?

20 April 2007

Overseas Roundup

Good Morning! It's the end of another week, so let's take a look around the world and see what's in the headlines elsewhere. Not surprisingly, outher countries have weighed in on the Virginia Tech shooting. The UAE believes we may be rotten to the core.

AMERICA is yet to recover from the shock of what is being called, “the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history” - a shooting-spree that took the lives of 33 young, promising men and women at a prominent university campus in Virginia.

We too are shocked. All that is known so far is that a student of apparently of Asian origin wielded the gun, a fact which was confirmed in the second wave of attacks that took 30 lives, while some mystery still surrounds the first round of firings that killed three others.

What is also known is that this is the second time in nine months that this university has been shut due to gunfire; and that a bomb threat had been made against the campus two weeks ago. Under these circumstances, it appears strange that no special security measures were then put in place. Had they been, it might have at least helped minimize if not altogether avert, what happened on Monday morning.

It's also intriguing as to how, in an advanced state like Virginia, and on a high technology campus at that, it took two hours for an e-mail to circulate among students about a firing incident on campus - and alerting students that a killer was on the prowl in their midst. Had such a message reached students immediately after the first incident, they would have been in a state of high alert, and it might even have helped capture the assailant.

In many respects, America is currently in the best of positions. Its people are among the best cared for in the world by virtue of the affluence and systems that support life in that nation. Yet, without doubt, something is ailing that society at its very core, symptoms of which are evident in cases like the Virginia one.

Whether this has something to do with the overall weakening of its value system or America's pre-occupation with the affairs in the rest of the world leaving it little time to care for its own affairs, is simply a matter of conjecture.


Naturally, other countries are weighing in on our gun control laws, or lack thereof. The UK is particularly interested in why we don't want more gun control. But it should be obvious, if nobody had guns, then how could we fight back against the shooter?

IT IS surely an American oddity that, after the worst mass shooting in the country’s history, some are already saying that such horrors would be less likely if only guns were easier to own and carry. Americans love firearms. The second item in the constitution’s bill of rights, just after freedom of speech, religion, assembly and the press, is the right to bear arms. It is part of the national religion.

Mass killings remain rare events, whatever outsiders might think, and they also happen in other countries, including those with tight rules on gun ownership. But life in modern America is punctuated frighteningly often by such attacks. Making any sort of accurate international comparison is tricky, but some attempts have been tried. The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), an activist group, counts 41 school shootings in America since 1996, which have claimed 110 lives, including those in Virginia this week. IANSA also looks at school shootings in 80 other countries. Culling from media reports, they count only 14 school gun killings outside America in the same period. Putting aside the Beslan massacre in Russia—committed by an organised terrorist group—school shootings in all those countries claimed just 59 victims.

What might be done to improve matters in America? The intuitive answer, at least for Europeans and those who live in countries where guns are less easily available, is that laws must be tightened to make it harder to obtain and use such weapons. Not only might that reduce the frequency of criminal acts, goes the argument, but it may also cut the number of accidental deaths and suicides.

Yet some in America are reaching the opposite conclusion. Within hours of the shootings in Virginia on Monday April 16th, a conservative blogger was quoting a Roman military historian, suggesting that “if you want peace, prepare for war” (“si vis pacem, para bellum”). Others put it more bluntly: “an armed society is a polite society”. Virginia’s gun laws are generally permissive. Any adult can buy a handgun after a brief background check (as required by federal law), and anyone who legally owns a handgun and who asks for a permit to carry a concealed weapon must be granted such a permit. Yet Virginia Tech, like many schools and universities, is a gun-free zone. Gun advocates are daring to say that if Virginia Tech allowed concealed weapons, someone might have stopped the rampaging killer. To gun-control advocates, this is self-evident madness.


Lastly, of course, there's always a story about Iraq. It's hard to imagine things getting an worse after the series of bombings this week that have killed hundreds....but Switzerland thinks the worst is yet to come.


Everyone talks of al-Qaeda and its destructive madness. But that's only one small aspect of the problem. The Shiites are fighting among themselves for power and against the Sunnis, who would like to recover it. These two communities - sometimes - find that they agree on only one point: the fight against the “liberator” who very quickly became the invader.

And then, what is mentioned less and less often, is that Iraq has become a country of anarchy where brigands, extortionists and mafias cohabit, and it's not always possible to distinguish them from the militia who have their own representatives in government. In this hell, the Americans - after a fashion - are trying somehow to deal with the most urgent issues first. But by sending reinforcements they are only serving to feed the fire. And this is due to one simple fact: The United States has become the source of the problem.

Recall that less than a month after the entry of GIs into Baghdad on April 9, 2003, George W. Bush declared on the deck of an aircraft carrier amidst much fanfare that the war was over. History is often cruel.

Up to now, the only area of stability in Iraq has been that of the Iraqi Kurds, who have been faithful supporters - perhaps the only ones left - of the Americans. But the Kurds are also beginning to get pulled into the mire. Kurdish President Talabani evoked the American occupier, although that's who he owes his position to. And like an echo, the other Kurdish leader, Massoud Barzani, threatened to interfere with the Kurdish problem in Turkey [Kurds say the Turks oppress them]. One might as well say that a bomb has just been lit - and with a short fuse - which is located in Kirkuk, where a referendum is supposed to be held to determine whether the oil-rich city should be part of the Kurdish region - a referendum which is naturally unacceptable to Turkey. Ankara, defender of the Turkmen minority, could see this as a pretext to intervene militarily. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has let this be known loud and clear - on April 9, of course, as if to back up his remarks.

Iraq was invaded in a moment of ideological madness by American neoconservatives who dreamed of artificially grafting democracy there - and more likely, a Pax Americana. Four years later, Iraq is submerged in chaos and several wars. And the worst is undoubtedly yet to come.


So, another fun-filled week comes to an end. At long last, we're going to have decent weather this weekend...and I may be able to get the bike out and start riding next week!




18 April 2007

A day in Iraq

Good Morning.

33 dead.

19 wounded.

26,000 terrorized.

A massive attack, days of looking inward, pondering what went wrong, and how to prevent it the next time. It's a week of tragedy and sorrow in these United States.

As we investigate the gunman and his motives, it's worth noting that such casualty figures in other parts of the world would be considered a good day.

Tuesday: 104 Iraqis, 3 GIs; 51 Iraqis Wounded

Updated at 12:40 a.m. EDT, April, 18, 2007

Although there were less attacks today, at least 104 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 51 wounded in violence. Security forces reported killing 25 suspects during operations in Suwayra. Also, three U.S. servicemembers were reported killed, and British base in Basra also came under attack; one British soldier was wounded.

The Department of Defense reported on the deaths of two soldiers in Anbar province. (Here and here.) Also, a Marine was killed in a non-combat related shooting incident in Anbar province. In Mashada, a driver was paid to drive a truck loaded with gasoline and explosives to a joint U.S.-Iraqi checkpoint, but the vehicle overturned before reaching its destination.

In Baghdad, 25 dumped bodies were found. Gunmen in the Saidiya district killed a university professor. In the greater Amil area, gunmen killed one person and wounded three more. In Mansour, two policemen and one soldier were injured in clashes with gunmen. One person was killed and four wounded during a mortar attack in the Amiriyah neighborhood. Four people were injured during a mortar attack in Doura. A roadside bomb injured four police officers. Also, bombs went off in Qasadiya and Amiriyah without causing casualities, and gunmen attacked Ghazaliya without harming anyone.

Also in the capital, a U.S. tank was damaged by a roadside bomb in the Amil district; one juvenile bystander was injured. U.S. forces killed three militants after they attacked an armored vehicle. Near Qadisiyah, U.S. forces killed one civilian. Clashes between gunmen and combined U.S.-Iraqi forces resulted in one civilian death and one injured person.

Seventeen decomposed bodies were found in a Ramadi school.

A car bomb at a Hawija petrol station killed three people and wounded four more.

In Mosul, a tribal leader was wounded and his son was killed. Gunmen also killed a police Brigadier and two of his guards. Clashes erupted between gunmen and U.S. troops, but no casualties were reported. Also, nine dumped bodies were found.

An oil tanker exploded near Mosul killed one person and injured four Iraqi soldiers.

Iraqi and multi-national troops killed 25 gunmen during security operations in Suwayra. Three bodies were fished out of the Tigris River; two were shot and the third decapitated.

A roadside bomb in Kirkuk wounded three people, including a policeman. Another IED injured a civilian and a policemen. A hair stylist was killed and a client was wounded during an attack; several barbers have reported receiving death threats.

The bodies of four men, including three policemen, were found shot in and around Diwaniya. Echo base came under mortar attack again, but no casualties were reported.

Near Fallujah in al-Habsa village, an Iraqi army barracks was attacked, but the number of casualties was not reported.

Two kidnap victims were freed in Muthanna village; a number of people were arrested.

A man was killed in al-Shurqat has he was planting a bomb.

When 25 displaced families attempted to return to Abu Saida, gunmen attacked them, killing two and injured five.

A mortar attack at Nahr al-Iman wounded four people.

A Qusaibaa policeman was injured in an attack.

Five employees were injured during a mortar attack on a Baquba hospital.

16 April 2007

The weather outside is frightful!

Good Morning!

Well, it's a disgusting Patriot's Day here. We've got a Northeaster blowing, gale force winds with heavy rain. Unfortunately, today is also the 111th running of the Boston Marathon, which is never cancelled or postponned. The Red Sox have already given up, and I don't know about the Revolutionary re-enactors out on the Green.

Anyway...on to some news.

It seems like our closest ally has some issues with the phrase "War on Terror".
According to the British foreign secretary, giving it such a grand name empowers the terrorists and makes them feel a part of something larger. But they already are part of something larger. Small, insurgent groups, fighting a guerilla war, and tying up most of the resources of the world's only superpower? It's interesting to note that it's Patriot's Day. Does this sound familiar at all?

President George W Bush's concept of a "war on terror" has given strength to terrorists by making them feel part of something bigger, Hilary Benn will say. The international development secretary will tell a meeting in New York the phrase gives a shared identity to small groups with widely differing aims. And Mr Benn, a candidate for Labour's deputy leadership, will confirm that UK officials will stop using the term. The White House coined the phrase after the attacks of 11 September 2001.

'Disparate groups'
Mr Benn will say: "In the UK, we do not use the phrase 'war on terror' because we can't win by military means alone. "And because this isn't us against one organised enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objective."

It is "the vast majority of the people in the world" against "a small number of loose, shifting and disparate groups who have relatively little in common", he will say.
"What these groups want is to force their individual and narrow values on others, without dialogue, without debate, through violence.

"And by letting them feel part of something bigger, we give them strength."

'Battle of values'
In a New York meeting organised by the Center on International Cooperation think-tank, Mr Benn will urge world leaders to find common ground with potential enemies, rather than relying on "hard" military power.

"The fight for the kind of world that most people want can, in the end, only be won in a different battle - a battle of values and ideas." Mr Bush first outlined the concept of a "war on terror" shortly after New York and the Pentagon were attacked by Islamist terror group al-Qaeda on 11 September 2001.

"Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there," he told Congress nine days after the attacks.

"It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."


Staying with the Brits, they're not going to be happy about the news that the American pilot that inadvertently killed a British tanker back in 2003 is returning to Iraq. The British decided the airman was guilty of "unlawfully killing" the soldier, but he was exonerated by the Americans.

A US pilot involved in the friendly fire killing of a UK soldier is returning to fight in Iraq next month, it has emerged. Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, 25, of Windsor, Berkshire, died when his Scimitar tank came under fire from a US A-10 "Tank Buster" plane in March 2003.

One of two pilots involved in the incident is now being deployed in Iraq as part of the Idaho Air Guard.

A spokesman said he was deployed due to his "extensive combat experience".

'Unlawfully killed'
Air Guard spokesman 1st Lt Tony Vincelli said the pilot's squadron would focus on providing close air support for ground troops, but for security reasons the exact location of the deployment would not be made public.

The other pilot involved in the "blue on blue" attack on British scimitar armoured vehicles near Basra has since retired.

At an inquest earlier this year, Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker concluded L/Cp Hull was unlawfully killed.

He told Oxford Coroners' Court L/Cp Hull's death had been "an entirely avoidable tragedy" and that the US fighter pilots' attack on the British convoy of four vehicles near Basra "amounted to an assault" and was criminal.

The US military has not released the names of the A-10 pilots, who were cleared of wrongdoing by the military.


Lastly this morning, there's yet another reason to get out of Iraq. The fragile coalition government may not last. Muqtada al-Sadr has withdrawn six ministers that represent his faction in the Iraqi Parliament, mainly because the US has refused to set a timetable for withdrawal. If al-Sadr's people won't participate in the sham government, can the rest of the Iraqis be far behind?

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Cabinet ministers loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will withdraw from the Iraqi government later Monday, the head of his parliamentary bloc said.

Al-Sadr’s ministers will “withdraw immediately from the Iraqi government and give the six Cabinet seats to the government, with the hope that they will be given to independents who represent the will of the people,” said Nassar al-Rubaie, head of al-Sadr’s bloc, reading a statement from the cleric.

Al-Sadr, who wields tremendous power among Iraq’s majority Shiites, has been upset about recent arrests of his Mahdi Army fighters in the U.S.-led Baghdad security crackdown. He and his followers have also criticized Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for failing to back calls for a timetable for U.S. troops to leave the country.

The Sadrists hold six positions in the 37-member Cabinet, and 30 seats in the 275-member parliament. Monday’s move would affect only the Cabinet members.

Still, the move would deal a blow to al-Maliki, who relied on support from the Sadrists to gain office.

All six ministers were expected to hand in resignation letters later Monday.

“I ask God to provide the Iraqi people with an independent government, far from (U.S.) occupation, that does all it can to serve the people,” the statement said.


And so, another fun-filled day in the mines awaits. Stay dry, and watch the Marathon!



13 April 2007

Don't Meet the Robinsons

Good Morning!

Have you heard about the new Disney movie, Meet the Robinsons? It's supposedly a fantasy story about an orphaned boy that has a science project ruined, then has to work with a time traveller from the future in order to put things to right.

Sounds pretty benign, hmm? Well, unfortunately, no. According to Wide Horizons, there's an anti-
adoption message
running through the film.

(WBZ) BOSTON A Waltham adoption agency is recommending parents not bring adopted children to watch the new Disney movie, "Meet the Robinsons."

Vicki Peterson of Wide Horizons For Children is one of many critics who believe the movie is filled with negative adoption messages.

"I found the movie was distorted, unrealistic and innappropriate in terms of the story it tells about adoption," said Peterson.

The movie centers on a boy inventor named Lewis, who was left at an orphanage by his mother when he was an infant. More than 100 families refuse to adopt Lewis, which prompts the boy to invent a time-machine so he can find his biological mother.

"That setup has disturbed hundreds of adoptive parents and their children, stoking abandonment and rejection fears originating from a story that does not accurately reflect how adopted children are placed with families," Adam Pertman of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute told USA Today.

Disney released the following statement:

"....the heartwarming animated film about a young boy in search of a family to call his own was co-written and directed by Steve Anderson who himself was adopted and drew directly from his own life experience and that of others. Thanks to his intimate understanding of adoption, Steve was able to craft a highly sensitive story that ultimately is about the importance of moving forward in life, no matter what obstacles we may face along the way. This message has resonated with audiences of all backgrounds and all ages, who have given the film high marks."

"Meet the Robinsons" has grossed more than $50 million since its release on March 30.

The movie is based upon the book, "A Day with Wilbur Robinson" by William Joyce.


Javi has seen the commercials, but I think we're going to take a pass on this one. If you're going to see the movie, do yourself a favor and read Adam Pertman's Adoption Nation...maybe you'll start to understand where I'm coming from.

Besides, if there was a movie disparaging birth mothers, don't you think there'd be a massive hue and cry for apologies and withdrawal? No? Well, how about a movie about a scrappy basketball team of nappy-headed ho's winning the championship?

08 April 2007

Remembering Geordie....Ten years on.

Good Morning. We're veering away from the politic today, as we do from time to time.


Ten years ago this very day, we lost a dear brother in Scouting, and a gentleman who means more to me to this day than many will ever know. I've learned my lesson from the last time I tried to pay tribute to some scouters who have gone on (see the archive for that sorry saga) and am posting something I wrote ten years ago when Geordie went to meet his maker.

Even now, Geordie seems to be speaking to me from beyond the grave. I recently found this buried away in a drawer, and I took it as a sign that a dear friend thought that my commitment to Scouting this season is not what it should be. I hope I've corrected some shortcomings, and I stand poised to become Cubmaster of the pack when young Javier joins as a Tiger this fall.

But once again, I think Geordie has an eye on me. I was aware that his anniversary was early this month, but I thought it was the 7th, and that I had missed it last week when I was laid up with strep. Yesterday, I found a "Loonie" (one dollar Canadian coin) on my bookcase, and put it in my pocket as a reminder. When we got home last night, I pulled out my old writings and discovered that I had not missed it, and the anniversary is, in fact, today.

But what really cemented it for me...you'll see when you read the legend at the end. Last night, the brightest 'star' of all, the planet Venus, hung high in the evening sky watching over me. I think Geordie understands men, too. So, with just a slight change from the original, please join me as I remember Geordie.





In Memory of Geordie



On Wednesday, April 9, 1997, our friend and brother is Scouting Jordan Womboldt lost his long battle with liver and kidney disease. I shall not recount his long ordeal, but I will offer the statement of one of Geordie’s doctors, who said “There may be stronger men than him, bit I have seen none tougher.”


Geordie brought to his troop a strong hand and an uncanny ability for leadership, but more importantly, an understanding of the scout-age boy. Much like our own Jim Virnelli, Geordie knew when to lean heavily on a scout to push him on to a greater achievement, or when to sit back and watch a scout learn for himself. Geordie was always there when his scouts needed a stable influence, a father figure, or just someone to talk to who might still remember what it was like to be a boy.


Such is the continuity of scouting that Geordie’s beloved First Milton Troop will go on, with his brother Rick at the helm. But there is a void there today that is felt by everyone who wears a scout uniform.


The last time we all saw Geordie two years ago, we brought north with us a handmade cedar-strip canoe. Geordie had few things he could enjoy in the last years of his life, but our canoe was one of them. As recounted by his family, Geordie would often have the canoe brought out in front of his house, and he would spend hours cleaning and polishing this gift of friendship. All of us who worked on that canoe can take some solace in the fact that something we put so much into in a small way made Geordie’s last years a little more enjoyable.


As I remember Geordie, ten years on, and ponder the mysteries of life and death, and wonder where it is that Scouters go when they die...once again I find comfort in an old Indian legend that has been told many times around a campfire.

Long ago, the Indians believed that the departed left this world and their spirits went to the happy hunting grounds in the sky. At night, the Great Spirit would draw a blanket over the sky to make it dark. The Indians believed that the points of light seen in the blanket were made by the spirits of the departed as they passed through on the way to the happy hunting grounds. Some of the holes were large, making bright points of light, while others were so small they were hardly visible. The Indians thought that the size of the hole had nothing to do with how powerful a chief you may have been, or how large your land was, or how many enemies you had killed in battle, but instead was larger for the number of good deeds and acts of kindness the departed had done throughout his life.



Tonight, when I go outside and look at the stars and ponder the mysteries of life and death, no star shall shine as bright as Geordie’s spirit.



April 9, 2007
David M.

Unit Commissioner, Boy Scout Troop 61, Saugus, MA (Ret.)
Committee Chair, Cub Scout Pack 250, Waltham, MA
Honorary Member, First Milton Troop, Nova Scotia



02 April 2007

Tsunami Redux...Money...Passing us by

Good Morning.

In case you missed it, over the weekend a tsunami struck the islands of the Solomons chain. It's a small chain of islands that lead up to New Guinea.

More than 15 people have been killed and thousands stranded after a powerful undersea earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands, triggering a tsunami.

Giza, an area closest to the epicentre of the earthquake, has been most affected by Monday's tsunami, a provincial leader said.






Officials said a 3m wall of water hit Gizo, just 40km from the quake's epicentre, causing widespread destruction.
"Reports have come in that more than 15 people died, just around Gizo, but with the other islands I cannot tell you," Alex Lokopio, western province premier, told Radio New Zealand.

He did not provide any further details of the deaths but said there was a desperate need for emergency supplies in the affected area following the tsunami, which followed a 8.0 magnitude earthquake .


"What we desperately need now is water, tents, and food because almost 3,000 - 4,000 people are now living on the hill at Gizo," Lokopio said.


The residents of the town were still fearful as aftershocks continued to rock the area.


He said there was no warning of the tsunami which hit just minutes after the area was rocked by the initial quake at 7:40 am local time (20:40 GMT on Sunday).













"There wasn't any warning [of the tsunami]. This was a very sad thing because the warning was the earth tremors. It shook us very, very strongly and we were frightened.

"All of a sudden the sea was rising up so all the people living around the coastal area, they ran up on the hill."

He said most of the government buildings and businesses in the town were destroyed, along with houses in low-lying areas.

Millions of dollars would be needed to repair the damage caused by the tsunami and quake, Lokopio said.

The location is practically forgotten once again, but two generations ago, this was some of the most important real estate in the world. You know it from the history books...."The Slot" "Ironbottom Sound" "PT-109" "Guadalcanal". You'll also note from the story that there was 'no warning given'. The Solomons are on the other side of New Guinea, not overly far from where the tsunami struck Indonesia two Christmases ago. I'm glad to see we kept all the promises we made then. I can only hope that some rich nation might step up to the plate and help with the recovery....China or Japan perhaps. Remember when the United States would do that?



Ah, but one area the United States excels at when it comes to money is political fundraising. Here we are, a year and more away from the elections of 2008, and the most money yet has already been raised by the "candidates". And do you suppose all of these politicians are going to be worrying about Joe Sixpack, or their corporate masters once they get in the White House?

The record-shattering presidential fundraising totals posted by Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and John Edwards pose have raised questions over how the funds are spent.
While the money chase is an important gauge of political strength, it is not the only measure that matters this early in the 2008 election race.





The numbers shed no light on how wisely the campaigns are spending the millions they are taking in or how much money they have left.





With an increasing number of states rushing to hold primaries in January and early February, candidates must be careful to build the state-by-state operations they need now while saving plenty of money for ads later. The general election is not until November 2008.

In the 2004 Democratic race, Howard Dean, then governor of Vermont, stunned his rivals by leading the field with a then-record $40 million as 2004 began, but he burned through it quickly and the donations dwindled after poor showings in the early balloting.

No spending details

On Sunday, Clinton and Edwards chose to announce only their money totals, they do not have to make detailed fundraising and spending reports public until April 15.

Clinton's campaign, which reported total receipts of $36m would not say how much of her $26m in new contributions were general election donations that she would not be allowed to use in her primary campaign. In addition to the donations, Clinton transferred $10m from her Senate campaign account.

Edwards aides said his $14m in new contributions included $1m for the general election.

Neither the Edwards nor the Clinton camps wanted to discuss how much cash they had left, making it more difficult to assess how the two campaigns stack up against each other.

Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant not backing any specific candidate, said: "Things look very good for the Hillary campaign and the Edwards campaign [but] the devil could be in the details."

Barack Obama, a Democratic senator and 2008 presidential hopeful, has not yet divulged his first-quarter fundraising total, nor have any of the Republican candidates.


Ah, and as long as we are ruminating on the once and former powers of these United States, it's worth pointing out that the stem cell revolution is continuing without us. I said it years ago...this is the new oil. Just imagine that this works, and we can cure cancer, Parkinson's, diabetes, you name it, via stem cell cures. And South Korea, Japan, Germany are the only places you can get it. Well, they're the new superpower, aren't they?

British scientists have grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time.

Heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, who led the team, said doctors could be using artificially grown heart components in transplants within three years.

His researchers at Harefield hospital managed to grow tissue that works in the same way as human heart valves.

Sir Magdi told the Guardian newspaper a whole heart could be produced from stem cells within 10 years.

'Common pathway'

The team who spent 10 years working on the project included physicists, pharmacologists, clinicians and cellular scientists.

Researchers will see their achievement as a major step towards growing entire organs for transplant.

Stem cells have the potential to turn into many different types of cell.

Many scientists believe it should be possible to harness the cells' ability to grow into different tissues to repair damage and treat disease.

Previously, scientists have grown tendons, cartilages and bladders, which are all less complex.

Sir Magdi, professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, had been working on ways to address a shortage of donated hearts for patients.

He said he hoped that soon an entire heart could be grown from stem cells.

He added: "It is an ambitious project but not impossible. If you want me to guess I'd say 10 years."

His team extracted stem cells from bone marrow and cultivated them into heart valve cells.

After they were placed in scaffolds formed from collagen, 3cm-wide discs of heart valve tissue were formed.

Later in the year, these will be implanted into animals such as sheep or pigs to see how well they fare.


But hey...why worry about other people, or science? We've got religion and blind faith to keep us safe and healthy, right?