I love being in the great outdoors, feeling the sun on my face, the wind, the sounds and smells of nature. If I’m going to be inside though, one of the easiest ways to convince me to stay inside a building is to put a gun and knife show in it, which is exactly what happened today. The Southern Classic Gun & Knife show at Jacksonville (Florida) Fairgrounds. Talk about a kid in a candy store. I’ll get to what I purchased later, I’m not at the gun show yet, at this point in our narrative friends, I’m still driving toward it.

I must confess, I don’t frequent downtown much. At 885 square miles, land wise, Jacksonville is the largest city in the contiguous United States. I’ve been to the Fairgrounds a few times in the past, but I had to look it up on Google Maps before heading out to get a rough idea of where it is located, which I did exactly that, get a rough idea. I figured I’d just follow the cars once I got down there, it’s not difficult to spot large numbers of people gathering, in general.

I’m downtown now folks, and I see traffic backing up all over the place. Wow, I don’t remember this many people showing up for a gun show before. This is huge! There must be some major vendors that came this time, there are people and cars all over the place. I’m excited as all get out! Fantastic!

I follow the trail of cars like a dutiful worker ant, straight into the parking lot. It’s several blocks away from where I thought the Fairgrounds were, but a little exercise would be good for me, so I think nothing of it. I hop out, lock up my vehicle and become an ant again, following the merging lines of people. Hmm, I thought the Fairgrounds were a little more to the North, it looks like we’re walking toward Metro Park. Maybe I misread where it was being held. No matter. Everyone is walking toward Metro Park, so that’s where it must be. Crikey, there are a lot of people showing up, this gun show must be absolutely massive!

The walking is slowing down, and I see a line up ahead. A huge line. Thousands of people long line. Erm. Huh. Erm. I’ve never seen a line for a gun show waiting to get in. Not literally thousands of people. I begin to suspect that something is perhaps amiss. I turn to a person next to me, and open my mouth to speak and happen to glance at the t-shirt they are wearing. “Obama” blazoned across the front of it. Odd t-shirt for a gun show, that’ll cause some comments, I’m certain. Maybe I’d better ask someone else, I turn my head to ask the next person, who is also wearing an Obama t-shirt. They must have come together. I search for someone else to ask, and I might as well have been a caveman at the beginning of 2001 – A Space Odyssey with the title track playing as, as a torrential flood of epiphany poured through my brain cells, I looked upon a veritable sea of Obama shirts and buttons, and it dawned on me that somehow I was not in line outside of the Southern Classic Gun & Knife Show. I began to suspect, however, that I was, in fact, in line for an Obama political rally of some sort. Oh … that explains the helicopters flying overhead then, which my subconscious had been filtering out before hand. I’m not a morning person, I’ll be the first to admit, but I’ve never accidentally found myself standing in line for a Democratic political event thinking that I’m at a gun show. This one takes the cake, I think to myself as I start walking back in the direction I thought it was in the first place. I see a police officer directing traffic, and head over to get the facts. “This isn’t the line for the gun show, is it?” The officer’s expression only very briefly began to change into one of utter incredulity before he roped it back in again like a champion rodeo star. Keeping what was now an expression blank enough to gain the admiration of professional poker players, and perhaps enough to make a Marine Corps drill instructor shed a tear of pride, he told me that I was in line for the Barak Obama rally, and that the gun show was a few blocks away, and gave me directions. Never did his expression crack again after that brief moment before he reined it in. Ebert and Roper would have given two thumbs up on the spot.

I walk the few blocks, and find the Fairgrounds, and the gun show. There are several hundred people there. Nothing compared to the throngs I had just left. (I have since read that approximately 18,000 people showed up at Metro Park, which would probably explain the line.) I meet up with a friend, and proceed to shop. Nothing exciting, I just needed some bare necessities. I pick up a Tapco Fusion tactical stock with a forward grip for my Ruger Mini-30 (conversion is a breeze if you read the manual, which I did the second time around, I’m very happy with it) and a military surplus ammo can packed with 300 rounds of steel cased 7.62x39R to feed it with. There wasn’t really anything else I was looking for, so I decided to call it a day.

Needless to say, a tactical rifle stock does not fit into a plastic shopping bag, at all. Not even close. Neither, does a heavy ammunition can. There is nothing in the universe that would cover up the fact that I look like a guy carrying a tricked-out rifle stock and a heavy can of ammunition. It’s time to go back to my vehicle, parked, as it happened, in the parking lot of the Obama rally. Oh.

As I’m walking down the streets of downtown Jacksonville once again, this time carrying a rifle stock and ammo can, walking head on toward the Obama supporters, I can tell you that it’s quite possible that I may never, ever, forget the expressions I saw on some of their faces. I saw everything from “Holy cr*p!” to looks of outright seething hatred, and everything in between. I don’t remember a single face that I was walking towards that did not, in some way, as soon as they did the double take, have a sudden and dramatic expression on it. If someone had been with me, as my mother pointed out later as I relayed the experience to her, it would have been great to post on YouTube.

Needless to say, I was very happy to finally get back to my vehicle, and loading my gun show purchases into the back of my 4x4, it occurred to me that some of the stickers on the back must have raised some eyebrows from the Obama supporters I was in line with just pulling into the parking lot. Aside from the obligatory “Support our troops” I also have an American Legion sticker, the NRA logo (front and back), and one that says “I’m the NRA”. If I had been a little more awake this morning, I’m thinking I might have noticed if I actually started leaving a trail of facial expressions in downtown Jacksonville today much earlier than I was aware of. Huh.

At the conclusion of a very interesting day, which I always seem to find myself having, I can only sit and wonder, as I write the story of my experience, how many people have been telling stories about me this day around the dinner table. It’s a shame I’ll never hear them, I’d be fascinated in hearing how their stories went.

AP probe finds “vast array of pharmaceuticals” in drinking water supplies. General Ripper concerned about precious bodily fluids.

 

It’s not a remake of the movie Dr Strangelove, but an Associated Press probe finds contamination in the drinking water of 41 million Americans in 24 metropolitan areas. The contamination includes amongst other things; anti-anxiety drugs, mood-stabilizing drugs, sex hormones, anti-convulsants and tranquilizers. But it's neither a conspiracy nor anything to find alarming.

“Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water? Vodka. That’s what they drink, isn’t it? Never water.”

Well the inability to biodegrade and/or the continuous release of pharmaceuticals being flushed out of our own systems into the water table may mean that General Ripper's paranoia was at least partially tangible. When we ingest medications, a portion of the medication is left to be excreted. Surprisingly, the portion of orally ingested medications released in our excrement is around 90 percent. Many of these drugs are not filtered out during processing at sewage treatment facilities and go straight into the drinking water system, measuring in extremely small quantities, either parts per billion, or parts per trillion. There are currently no Federal regulations prohibiting their presence, nor establishing acceptable concentrations.

"Water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, you realize that seventy percent of you is water. And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids."

The United States retail pharmaceutical market is approximately one half of the global market. With Americans seeking antibiotics for anything more than a sniffle it's of little wonder that a large amount of antibiotics are entering the United States water supplies especially. 

"It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard core commie works." 

So is there any impact? Some studies noticed a rise of bacteria resistant to antibiotics within fish due to a constant release of pharmaceutical estrogens, some studies show antidepressants cause premature spawning in shellfish and heart medication release preventing fish from healing damaged fins. There have been no widespread studies, however, of the impact on wildlife or of human re-ingestion.

"Well, I ah, I I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love. Yes a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I was able to interpret these feelings correctly: loss of essence." 

The use of more advanced filtration methods could be effective at removal of these pharmaceuticals before we re-consume the water. Methods such as ozonation, ultraviolet light, membrane filtration, granular activated carbon, nano-filtration and reverse osmosis have been found to be much more effective than chlorination. 

"Women... women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake, but I do deny them my essence." 

For more articles ...
[ Go to the main blog of Jonathan Cooke at http://coffee.townhall.com ]

Sources:
"AP probe finds drugs in drinking water", Yahoo! News, 09 MAR 2008
"Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water Supplies", WC&P, 23 JUN, 2003

Al Gore Reaps Profits from his Global Warming Alarmism

It was in the movie, ‘All the President’s Men’ that we heard Deep Throat advise reporter Bob Woodward to “Follow the money”, while investigating what would turn out to be the called the Watergate scandal. It has been quite a few years since that story broke, but the quote is as relevant today as it was then. If you want to see some motivation behind Al Gore’s campaign of Global Warming Alarmism, you only need to follow the money.

Although a veritable spider web of links and associations, some patterns can be discerned. Al Gore himself is on record stating that all the profits from his over the top alarmist pseudo –documentary, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, are being funneled into the ‘Alliance for Climate Protection’, a 501(3) (c) organization pushing for legislation forcing “cap-and-trade” policies on carbon emissions.

Al Gore founded the Alliance for Climate Protection.

“Cap-and-trade” means that through governmental regulation carbon dioxide emissions from industries are “capped” at a ceiling level, then if those caps are exceeded then in order to avoid heavy fines the industry must “trade” their additional emissions by purchasing “carbon-credits”.

Since 85% of all U.S. energy is supplied by oil, coal and natural gas, which produce carbon dioxide emissions, the potential market for purchasing carbon-credits is enormous. The lower the cap, the higher the amount of carbon-credits that governmental regulations will require industry to purchase. Since the U.S. economy is growing, and emissions are projected to grow, the purchasing of carbon-credits would be a multi-billion dollar industry of itself. Al Gore is pushing heavily to create this carbon-asset / carbon-credit marketplace.

An example of an investment firm that purchases carbon-assets, essentially where the sellers of carbon assets meet the buyers of carbon credits, would be the private firm Generation Investment Management (GIM), which is heavily laden with ex-Goldman Sachs employees, and in many ways still linked with Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs has spent millions researching possible new government policies around carbon emissions and has committed a billion dollars to carbon-asset projects. Generation Investment Management (GIM) is making profits through governmental legislation on a global scale, from conformity to the Kyoto Protocols. It was the Kyoto Protocols that then Vice President Al Gore symbolically signed on November 12, 1998, despite being voted down unanimously by the United States Senate. Generation Investment Management (GIM) assets, profits and sources of investment are, according to Forbes magazine, “secret”.

Al Gore founded Generation Investment Management (GIM).

In order to make billions off the cap-and-trade scam, in order to sell participation in the scam, you might want to run it like a political campaign. Coincidentally, as well as founding GIM, Al Gore made sure the President of GIM is lawyer Peter Knight, who had been on Gore’s campaign since the Senate and was campaign manager for the Gore-Clinton campaign in 1996. How appropriate.

In summary …

Al Gore, if he is successful at creating a global panic over carbon dioxide emissions, is poised to make potentially billions of dollars off that fear. As the high priest of the Church of Global Warming, some might find that … suspicious. Follow the money.


Jonathan RF Cooke
10 December, 2007

For more articles ...
[ Go to the main blog of Jonathan Cooke at http://coffee.townhall.com ]

Comments on Fred Thompson's Plan for Border Security and Immigration reform.

The following is the text of Fred Thompson's plan. My comments are in red, and italicized. In the interest of full disclosure I am a Fred Thompson supporter and donor to his presidential campaign.


Border Security and Immigration Reform Plan

In the post-9/11 world, immigration is much more of a national security issue. A government that cannot secure its borders and determine who may enter and who may not, fails in a fundamental responsibility. As we take steps to secure our borders and enforce our laws, we must also ensure that our immigration laws and policies advance our national interests in a variety of areas, and that the immigration process itself is as fair, efficient, and effective as possible.

Securing the Border and Enforcing the Law

A fundamental responsibility of the federal government is to secure the nation's borders and enforce the law. The following policies and initiatives will put the nation on a path to success:

1. No Amnesty. Do not provide legal status to illegal aliens. Amnesty undermines U.S. law and policy, rewards bad behavior, and is unfair to the millions of immigrants who follow the law and are awaiting legal entry into the United States. In some cases, those law-abiding and aspiring immigrants have been waiting for several years.

JC: I could not agree more. These "undocumented citizens" as the Democrats call them are criminals, let's not mince words about it. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines 'criminal' as "relating to, involving, or being a crime". People who come here illegally have committed a crime, hence they are criminals. They know they are committing a crime otherwise they wouldn't be sneaking in mostly under cover of darkness. Once they are caught they should be deported and have any future applications go to the bottom of the stack. There are too many law abiding applicants who are more deserving of entry than those who have already shown a gross disrespect for our laws and national sovereignty.

2. Attrition through Enforcement. Reduce the number of illegal aliens through increased enforcement against unauthorized alien workers and their employers. Without illegal employment opportunities available, fewer illegal aliens will attempt to enter the country, and many of those illegally in the country now likely will return home. Self-deportation can also be maximized by stepping up the enforcement levels of other existing immigration laws. This course of action offers a reasonable alternative to the false choices currently proposed to deal with the 12 million or more aliens already in the U.S. illegally: either arrest and deport them all, or give them all amnesty. Attrition through enforcement is a more reasonable and achievable solution, but this approach requires additional resources for enforcement and border security:

JC: The most practical solution I have heard. It reminds me of the advice of a security consultant I knew some years ago. When considering different methods of protecting my home I asked him what was the best way to keep burglars out, he said, “Make it so it’s not worth their time to break in.” If we enforce the laws already on the books the risk of being here will begin to outweigh the potential gains made by sneaking in or trying to remain here under the radar.A. Doubling ICE agents handling interior enforcement, increasing the Border Patrol to at least 25,000 agents, and increasing detention space to incarcerate illegal aliens we arrest rather than letting them go with a promise to show up later for legal proceedings against them.

B. Adding resources for the Department of Justice to prosecute alien smugglers, people involved in trafficking in false identification documents, and previously deported felons. JC: Amen.

C. Maximizing efforts to prosecute and convict members of criminal alien gangs, such as MS-13 and affiliated gangs. These gangs have brought unusual levels of violence to more than 30 U.S. states and have also become very active in drug-smuggling, gun-smuggling, and alien-smuggling. JC: Amen.

D. Implementing fully and making greater use of the expedited removal process already allowed under federal law. JC: Amen.

E. Enabling the Social Security Administration to share relevant information with immigration and law enforcement personnel in a manner that will support effective interior enforcement efforts.

JC: This is very important folks. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) have met with great resistance at the hands of the AFL-CIO and the ACLU in regards to sending out “no match” letters to employers. The “no match” letters inform an employer that the data of a new hire does not match SSA records. More often than not this means the Social Security Number (SSN) does not match the employee’s other data. In 2005 the SSA mailed out 10.5 million of the “no match” letters and estimates indicate than over 90 percent of the persons identified by these letters were here illegally and were providing false identification. Aside from enforcement of illegal immigration this could be a tool for the DHS to identify persons in this country for other nefarious reasons.

3. Enforce Existing Federal Laws. Enforce the laws Congress has already enacted to prevent illegal aliens from unlawfully benefiting from their presence in the country:

A. End Sanctuary Cities by cutting off discretionary federal grant funds as appropriate to any community that, by law, ordinance, executive order, or other formal policy directs its public officials not to comply with the provisions of 8 USC 1373 and 8 USC 1644, which prohibit any state or local government from restricting in any way communications with the Department of Homeland Security regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of an alien in the United States.

JC: I couldn’t agree more. I’m not a huge fan of Big Government, I think what we have already is considerably larger than I would like it to be and I also have a healthy respect of State’s rights and civil ordinances, but when it’s time to enforce a federal law that is in the best interest of the nation then by God let’s have that law enforced and not allow rebelious politicians to run amok and thumb their noses at the national interest.

B. Deny discretionary Federal education grants as appropriate to public universities that violate federal law by offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens without also offering identical benefits to United States citizens, regardless of whether or not they live in the state, as required by 8 USC 1623.

JC: The very concept of having a tuition rate for illegals at all just plain floors me. How is it that someone who is not legally allowed to even be in the country can enroll at an educational institution? This has me incensed. I hope Fred expands on this to cut Federal funds to any educational institution that accepts tuition money from criminals, no matter how much or little we're talking about. I realize this may sound harsh to many people, but the child of an illegal is still an illegal. I see no logical reason to have more than one standard in operation.

C. Deny discretionary Federal grants as appropriate to states and local governments that violate federal law by offering public benefits to illegal aliens, as prohibited by 8 USC 1621(a). JC: Amen.

4. Reduce the Jobs Incentive. Ensure employee verification by requiring that all U.S. employers use the Department of Homeland Security's electronic database (the E-Verify system) to confirm that a prospective employee is authorized to work in the U.S. Now that the technology is proven, provide sufficient resources to make the system as thorough, fast, accurate, and easy-to-use as possible. JC: Amen.

5. Bolster Border Security. Finish building the 854-mile wall along the border by 2010 as required by 8 USC 1103. Extend the wall beyond that as appropriate and deploy new technologies and additional resources to enhance detection and rapid apprehension along our borders by 2012.

JC: This is essential folks, and not just to protect against illegal immigration. The less people attempting to gain illegal entry into our nation at any given time, the easier it will be to spot the most dangerous elements coming in. The sheer number flooding in now can and perhaps already has masked entry by groups intent on terrorist attacks on our nation. Cutting that number down to a trickle will allow our security services to focus on the critical threat elements instead of being relegated to crowd control.

6. Increased Prosecution. Deploy the additional assets outlined above to prosecute alien smugglers ("coyotes"), alien gang members, previously deported felons, and aliens who have repeatedly violated our immigration laws much more vigorously. JC: Amen.

7. Rigorous Entry/Exit Tracking. Complete the implementation of a system to track visa entrants and exits, as has been required by federal law for more than ten years, and connect it to the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC), in order to curb visa overstays and permit more effective enforcement.

JC: I am surprised this is not being enforced rigorously. I had assumed it was being. I'm glad Fred is on the ball in noticing that is hasn't been.

Improving the Legal Immigration Process
The United States is a nation of immigrants. We must continue to welcome immigrants and foreign workers who come to our country legally, giving priority to those who can advance the nation's interests and common good. Immigrants and foreign workers who play by the rules need to be rewarded with faster and less burdensome service, not delays that last years. Advancing the following initiatives will require close cooperation between all levels of government, the business community, and concerned citizens:

JC: I can relate to this personally, being a legal immigrant myself. I came over from Britain on a visa, then a permanent resident “green card”, and am now proud, very proud, to call myself a fully natrualized American citizen. At every single step along the way I was in full compliance with the law. I was rewarded for my patience by being a member of the greatest nation the world has ever seen. Now try to tell me that’s not worth a little paperwork and a little patience. Anyone who thinks the reward is not worth the effort neither understands nor appreciates that reward and in my opinion doesn’t deserve it. Those who do, or can, add to the United States as productive members of society I think all clearly see this fact themselves.

1. Maximize Program Efficiency. Reduce the backlogs and streamline the process for immigrants and employers who seek to follow the law. Also, simplify and expedite the application processes for temporary visas. This can be accomplished by hiring more personnel at Citizenship and Immigration Services and the FBI. Caps for any category of temporary work visa would be increased as appropriate, if it could be demonstrated that there are no Americans capable and willing to do the jobs. JC: Amen.

2. Enhanced Reporting. Improve reporting to the government by businesses that rely on temporary workers so that the government can track whether the visa holder remains employed. JC: Amen.

3. Modernize Immigration Law/Policy. Change the nature of our legal immigration system to welcome immigrants who can be economic contributors to our country, are willing to learn the English language, and want to assimilate. JC: Amen. Note - Being born in England, I was even willing to learn the American language (chuckle).

A. Reduce the scope of chain migration by giving family preference in the allocation of lawful permanent resident status only to spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens, and no one else (no siblings, no parents, no adult children, etc.).

JC: Not the easiest pill to swallow in all circumstances, but I have to agree with Fred that this is in the best interest of the nation, and therefore should be the policy.

B. Eliminate the diversity visa lottery.

JC: Immediately! Apart from turning permanent residency in the United States for 50,000 people annually into the equivalent of a television game show, which is not very dignified, it also (in the interest of cultural diversity) eliminates the nations most culturally aligned with the United States (namely the nations with the largest rates of immigration already). This means that to be part of the 50,000 let in this year, a middle eastern Muslim would qualify for the lottery, but and Englishman or a Canadian would not. I would have thought we had already learned the pitfalls of affirmative action programs already, apparently not. Fred, once again, is on the ball though.

4. English As Official Language. Make English the official language of the United States to promote assimilation and legal immigrants' success, and require English proficiency in order for any foreign person to be granted lawful permanent resident status.

JC: You would think this was a no-brainer, but we still have not officially adopted a national language. Fred is right on the reasons he stated, I might also add the savings to the federal coffers by not having multiple copies of forms in various foreign languages available. If I chose to move to Germany I would expect that the Germans would damned well make sure I spoke German before they let me live there. Why is it so ridiculous to expect the reverse?

5. Freedom from Political Oppression. Preserve U.S. laws and policies to ensure that the United States remains a beacon and a haven for persons fleeing political oppression, while assuring appropriate admission standards are maintained. JC: Amen, as long as appropriate qualifications and standards are met.

6. Service to Country. Place those foreign persons who are lawfully present in the country and who serve honorably in the Armed Forces of the United States on a faster, surer track to U.S. citizenship.

JC: I do not think there could be any greater display of qualification for citizenship than someone who wears the uniform of our armed forces and places themselves in harms way to defend this nation. Fast track, heck, make it a rocket sled. Very good point, Fred.


Closing comments:
Altogether a very good proposal that addresses everything that was ever an issue for me, and brings to light solutions for issues I was not even aware existed. Once again Fred Thompson is displaying those presidential qualities than were responsible for the grass roots effort to ask him to run for the office. For me, it’s Fred 08!

Confess your eco-sins to the Church of Global Warming.

I thought it was exaggeration at first, to hear mention of the left treating Global Warming as a religion. Evidence to the contrary seems to suggest that I was incorrect in my estimation however.

A Benedictine monk, Dom Anthony Sutch, set up an eco-confessional booth (made from recycled doors) at the Waveney Greenpeace music festival. Father Sutch dressed in his priestly robes (made from recycled curtains) and heard confessions of eco-sinners ranging from sins of items they had not recycled, to sins of flying on aircraft, to sins of things they consumed that “they ought not to have”. Penances for these eco-sinners included donating money to “green” charities, or the shaming of “telling ten other people what you have done.”

At the Glastonbury music festival there was another confessional booth set up. There, it was the Earthly Sins Temple of Enlightenment that was receiving confessions. Aside from merely confessing your sins, this self-named “temple” offers a tithe as well. The tithe for this “temple” was quite interesting. They were urging people to place their finances into cooperative banking systems instead of traditional financial institutions, which then invest your money into projects their cause is behind, such as organic foods and alternative energy. They see profits in these investment areas rising due to future consumer mass-boycotts of traditional products and services damaging the existent marketplace, boycotts instigated by the ranks of eco-activists such as themselves. Essentially an attempt to promote a coup d'état of the free marketplace. These interesting financial arrangements are nothing new to the Green Meanies. The Reverend Al Gore himself, high priest of eco-alarmism, suggests we all purchase "carbon credits" to help offset Global Warming. You may find it interesting to learn that Al Gore is chairman of Generation Investment Management, a London-based company with offices in Washington, D.C., which sells carbon credits. The more people he alarms, the more money goes into his pocket. The more people fear the wrath of the Lord, the greater the pile on the collection plate. Most curious indeed.

"The Earth's climate has always shown natural variation … There is nothing to suggest that any warming we are seeing now is not part of that natural cycle. Every generation has had an apocalyptic myth. The language of climate change is becoming … religious."
- Professor Richard S. Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But has it really taken on the form of a religion?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers for Religion, “4: a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” Well, in light of literally thousands of climatologists, paleoclimatologists, meteorologists, geologists and other scientists of a wide variety of fields who are all but jumping up and down on chairs screaming that the science being touted by the global warming alarmists is riddled with falsehoods and inconsistencies, the Global Warming Devout maintain their “faith” with “ardor”. When presented with scientific facts they become infuriated, and all but lash out with “Blasphemer! Heretic!” This would seem to solidify the argument. That they themselves are now using the term “eco-sinner” seems to have it in the bag. It’s a religion made up of godless, embittered, class-envious, wealth-redistributionist, Luddite, anarcho-primitivist, socialist, radical hippies. All of these groups are well represented within the “green movement” and I could write an entire article just demonstrating that point alone.

"In Europe, where climate change absolutism is at its strongest, the quasi-religion of greenery in general and the climate change issue in particular have filled the vacuum of organised religion, with reasoned questioning of its mantras regarded as a form of blasphemy."
- Baron Nigel Lawson, Prospect Magazine, November 2005

But surely it’s only a fringe element that is using religious symbolism for global warming. Well, no. It’s being used all the way at the top. Reverend Al Gore, high-priest himself of the Church of Global Warming was the one to say “"The Book of Revelation [says] God will destroy those who destroy his creation” when talking of global warming, clearly giving a biblical apocalyptical message to global warming. He went on to say “If you believe what [NASA scientist] Jim Hansen said just a moment ago - if you believe, if you accept the reality that we may have less than 10 years before we cross a point of no return - if you believe that, this is a time for action.” God, however, we can assume has been supplanted as Gore continued by saying, “We are the most powerful force of nature now.” All kneel at the alter of Reverend Al! Oh, some of you might find interesting the fact that the scientist, Jim Hansen, who Gore had speaking at the pulpit during that quote above, confirming what Reverend Al was preaching, had just received a $250,000 grant from a “charitable foundation” that was created by fellow Democrat John Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. Again, most curious indeed.

Now I lay me down to sleep …

The fear of God? According to the Scotsman, a survey of children in Britain found that half of children between the ages of 7 and 11 are “anxious about the effects of global warming and often lose sleep over it.” Now, I can only guess that the author of this article has never had children, since the only things I have seen children at that age lose sleep over either plug in, or have batteries. (Mine likes to read, but is certainly not kept awake by the ravings of Reverend Al). I have grave, serious doubts as to the credulity of any media report saying half of children are losing sleep over Global Warming. That’s just a bunch of pure hogwash. As to the statisticians responsible for that survey, as the saying goes, “Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything.”

In summary ...

Call it a religion or not, the overtones are there. When you enter a “temple” to “confess” your “eco-sins”, it has all the hallmarks of a new religion. When “unbelievers” or “deniers” are treated as heretics, it’s time to check on the location of your wallet. When they start talking of an impending catastrophe, it's time to check your ammunition.


Jonathan RF Cooke
11 November, 2007

For more articles ...
[ Go to the main blog of Jonathan Cooke at http://coffee.townhall.com ]

Sources:

"Gore Uses Religion to Attract Global Warming Converts", Cybercast News Service, 26 MAY 2006
"Global warming: the bogus religion of our age", Daily Mail, 08 MAR 2007
"Children losing sleep over global warming", Scotsman, 23 FEB 2007

Veterans an ocean apart wear red poppies, the story behind it.

In the United States you see red poppies worn around Memorial Day, in the United Kingdom and Canada, it’s on Remembrance Day, November 11th.

It started with the Death of a soldier

The story behind the red poppies starts in the trenches of Word War One, in the Second Battle of Ypres, with a Canadian field surgeon of Scottish descent in the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major John McCrae. After seeing much death around him already, on the 2nd of May, 1915, one death affected him most. A friend and former medical student, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed by an artillery shell. He was buried later that day, and in the absence of a chaplain Major McRae conducted the ceremony himself.

The poppies

Poppies were never abundant in Flanders. Their numbers at the time, the splash of red they painted across the ground, was a direct product of the war. To the poppy, species ‘Papaver Rhoeas’, the soil of Flanders was chalky, and not very conducive to the propagation of the species. Artillery shells changed that. With the massive barrage of artillery shells came the addition of nitrates. Gunpowder is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate. The shells hitting the ground turned it over and allowed the nitrates to penetrate the soil, providing the perfect medium for the poppies to thrive in, and spread like a blood-red blanket across the land. Major McRae took note of this blanket of red, as he sat looking at the cemetery where his friend now lay buried.

The poem

The next day, on the 3rd of May, 1915, as Major McRae sat on the back of an ambulance overlooking the cemetery splashed with red he wrote one of the most memorable war poems written, “In Flanders Fields”, below.


In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


The poem spurs a symbol

John McRae did not live long enough to see the end of the war. He died as a Lieutenant Colonel on the 28th of January, 1918 in Boulogne, France, still on active duty. The poem, which had been published in England by 'Punch', had found its way to an American woman named Moina Michael, who after reading the poem began wearing a poppy as her way of honoring the war dead. Quickly being picked up by others it was adopted as the symbol of the annual conference of the American Legion in 1920. In that year a French woman by the name of Madame E. Guerin observed the wearing of the poppy and took the custom back to France where she sold hand-made poppies to ease the suffering of the children from countries the war had ravaged. Seeing the poppy sales make progress, it was adopted in Canada in 1921. Shortly before Memorial Day the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) became the first veterans’ organization to sell the poppies.

Remembrance Day / Memorial Day

Now called Remembrance Day by many nations, and Veterans Day in the United States, it was first called Armistice Day. The Armistice was signed ending the First World War on in 1918 at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, (November 11th, at 11am), in a railroad carriage in Compiègne Forest, in Picardie, France. Originally also commemorated as Armistice Day in the United States that was changed by President Dwight Eisenhower on October 8th, 1954 when he made a proclamation to that affect following an Act of Congress (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) that Armistice Day become Veterans Day and expand the day from the remembrance of World War One dead to honor the service of all Veterans, of all wars, alive or dead. This Act of Congress was spured by Veterans Service Organizations after World War Two.

In conclusion

Regardless of when you wear the poppy, for Memorial Day in the United States or for Remembrance/Armistice day elsewhere, the most important thing is that you wear the poppy. Not just to remember those who are honored, but also to remind others to observe their remembrance, lest one day we find that we have raised a generation that has forgetten those who still sleep in Flanders fields.


Jonathan RF Cooke
11 November, 2007

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Socialism Leads to Social Decay as Firefighters, Police and Ambulance Crews are Lured into Ambushes and Attacked by Gangs of Youths in the UK.

It sounds like something out of Lord of The Flies or a Mad Max movie plot, but it's true. As a sign of further decline into social unrest, attacks on emergency first responders by gangs of children in the United Kingdom are frequent, and have been happening for years.

The Fire Brigades Union estimates that an average of 40 attacks per week happen against Fire services. That involves the children throwing bricks, rocks, bottles, and even scaffolding poles through windshields as the fire engines arrive on the scene or are enroute. Many attacks start out with a false alarm called in, then the children hide in waiting, ready to pounce for the ambush.

Some of these ambushes have even involved cars being booby-trapped with propane tanks and occasionally fuel bombs or 'Molotov Cocktails' being launched at firefighters and their equipment. Tampering with the water pressure controls on one engine resulted in a firefighter being flung into the air by his hose, breaking his back.

Many attacks in areas of multi-story apartment blocks (a.k.a. government housing projects) involve calling in, or even setting a decoy fire, then when the firefighters arrive gangs of youths then launch bricks and stones from the roofs of the buildings in a sudden, violent, projectile assault.

It's not just attacks on firefighters ...

Last year, in 2006, there were 25,368 assaults on police officers throughout the UK. (New Scotsman, 27 APR 2007). That's an average of 70 attacks per day. Ambulance crews are also frequently attacked. As early as 2002 British ambulance service members started wearing stab-proof vests due to the increasing number of attacks as they responded to emergencies (Guardian Unlimited, 21 MAR 2002). There are gowing areas of Britain now where firefighters and ambulance crews are not permitted to respond to calls without a police escort.

Some examples of the most common methods of attack:

- 25th of March 2005, in Salford, Greater Manchester, fire crews were pelted with bricks as they tackled a fire. Two firefighters were taken to hospital.

- Rochdale, Greater Manchester, 1 April 2005: Fire crews pelted with rocks and forced to withdraw.

- A firefighter on the roof of a three story building in south London was shot in the neck by an air rifle by children on the balcony of a neighboring building. (05 FEB 2005)

- Children as young as 12 attack firefighters tackling a house fire. Police attending the scene are also hit with bottles, bricks and stones. (26 November 2004)

- Tilbury, Essex, crews hit with missiles while attending a playground fire. Children threaten firefighters with knives and cut water supplies. (26 November 2004)

- A firefighter was beaten unconscious while trying to stop a gang of children stealing life saving equipment from his fire engine while responding to a fire. (22 December 2004)

If you are thinking, "Not if I were there!" ...

Then consider that these gangs of roving children often numbering in access of 20 to 30, also frequently turn on members of the public who try to come to the aide of the firefighters, police or ambulance crews under attack. It was only last year (Sunday, February 26th 2006) that a gang of 21 children aged only between 10 to 13 years old stoned a senior-citizen to death. Ernest Norton was teaching his son James how to play cricket (somewhat like baseball) at the Erith Leisure Centre in Bexley. After surrounding Mr. Norton, jeering at him, and spitting on the 67 year old father they began hurtling a barrage of rocks at him until he lay unconscious in a pool of blood. Since one of the rocks that hit him in the head was the size of a half-brick it had caved in a portion of his skull. He died right there in the arms of his distraught wife, and before the eyes of his anguished son. Although his family will not forget him, Ernest Norton is now just consigned to being merely one example out of many of the social decay that has fallen on Britain, and Europe.

This is the house that socialism built.

Although taking root in the 19th century, British socialism has really been growing in the 20th and 21st centuries. The current administration in power now, the Labour Party, the party of former PM Tony Blair, is socialist to the core. There are a growing number of minor British political parties that might raise your eyebrows such as the Alliance for Green Socialism, the Communist Party of Britain, the Democratic Socialist Alliance, the International Socialist Group, the New Communist Party of Britain, the People's Party, the Red Party, the Revolutionary Communist Group, Socialist Appeal, the Socialist Equality Party, the Socialist Labour Party, the Socialist Party of Great Britain, the Socialist Workers Party, Workers Power, and the Workers' Revolutionary Party, to name a few.

So when you think of Hillary-Care, or of the spread of socialism that has already set it's virulent seeds within the American left, look to the UK and to the future of what we can expect if the disease of socialism is allowed to run its course through American veins.


Jonathan RF Cooke
23 October, 2007

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Souces:
"Team to stop fire crew attacks ", BBC News, 15 OCT 2007
"Youths Attack Firefighters", Staffordshire Fire and Rescue, 05 OCT 2007
"Stone thrower injures firefighter", BBC News, 12 OCT 2006
"Job comes with abuse and bricks", BBC News, 18 APR 2005
"Firefighters attacked by youths", BBC News, 26 MAR 2005
"Firefighter shot tackling blaze", BBC News, 05 FEB 2005
"Arsonists set fire station alight", BBS News 16 MAY 2005
"Fire crews get police protection", BBS News, 07 APR 2004
"Pitbull dog set on firefighters", BBC News, 03 OCT 2005
"Firefighters attacked by youths", BBC News, 18 DEC 2003
"Youths attack emergency workers", BBC News, 01 SEP 2002

Disarmed Brits Lose All Touch with Firearms. BBC Thinks Hollow Points are Super Bullets, Police Firearms Advisor Doesn’t Understand Firearms.

In a staggering show of complete ignorance coupled with Vaudevillian levels of sensationalistic journalism, BBC News, upon learning that a terrorism suspect, Jean Charles de Menezes [1], a Brazilian who in 2005 was shot with 9mm HP (Hollow Point) rounds by police, report that he was shot with “special bullets” that are “designed to kill instantly”. Good grief.

Let’s take a look at the fluff, and the errors in that article …

All ammunition is supposed to kill

For a start, all ammunition is designed to kill in that a firearm is a device that is intended for the purpose of killing. Obviously I’m talking about real bullets and not specifically designed Less-Than-Lethal (LTL) ammunition such as beanbags in shotguns, rubber bullets and arguably rimfire ammunition. When you find yourself in a situation where it is deemed necessary to discharge a firearm at another person you are intending to enact the immediate and complete incapacitation of that person. The only reliable means of immediate and complete incapacitation is by means of a lethal shot to the brain cavity, or the upper spinal column covered by the heart and its major vessels such as the aorta and vena cava. Hitting other portions of the body may kill someone eventually, but if they pose an immediate threat to your person then you will want to eliminate their threat immediately.

Different types for different needs

Different types of ammunition exist to fit different specific needs of the environment most likely for the rounds to be fired in. Hollow Point ammunition, since the British having been so long removed from being legally permitted to own firearms, now seems to be inflated to nearly mythical status if the use of HP rounds is actually a newspaper article headline [2]. The property of Hollow Points in terminal ballistics is that they are designed to “petal” or “mushroom” upon impact, meaning that the literally hollow end of the round allows the surrounding wall of cut jacket and soft lead to expand into an effectively larger diameter (caliber) and thus create a larger wound channel. Although also resulting in a larger temporary cavitation of tissues, the primary purpose of the HP is the resulting larger residual Permanent Wound Cavity.

Alarming lack of knowledge by Brit expert

The British government started disarming its citizens around 1937, slowly tightening their restrictions until the modern British public is not permitted to own almost any of the firearms we take for granted here, so it’s not surprising that a newspaper reporter wouldn’t have known anything about firearms, however a slightly disturbing quote in the article is that a British police “firearms advisor”, a former Superintendent, stated, “You need a bullet that dumps all its energy into the subject." This fundamental misunderstanding of kinetic energy in terminal ballistics is suggestive that the British police themselves do not understand firearms.

Where the  “firearms advisor” failed to understand firearms

Being a too lengthy a topic to explain in great detail here I would suggest that the “firearms advisor” pick up and read a copy of the book “Bullet Penetration: Modeling the Dynamics & the Incapacitation Resulting from Wound Trauma“, by Duncan MacPherson or watch the police training video “Deadly Effects” which has comprehensive information provided by battlefield surgeon Dr. Martin Fackler, M.D., F.A.C.S., Colonel (US Army, retired), president of the International Wound Ballistics Association and notably America's foremost forensic expert on ballistic wounds. For the reader here I will give a radically simplified reasoning why transference of kinetic energy is largely irrelevant as a measurement of the efficacy of a round. Quite simply, it has no bearing on the elasticity of human tissue. Tissue will expand during the temporary cavitation of a wound channel. Various tissues can stretch to withstand large amounts of temporary cavitation then “snap” back into place with no catastrophic damage sustained. A permanent wound channel, however, is where the cavitation has effectively stretched tissue beyond its capacity to stretch and results in a cavity in which all tissue remaining is no longer viable. A bow and arrow would be a good basis of comparison here. A modern broadhead hunting arrow produces around 50 to 80 Foot Pounds of Energy (FPE), hardly anything compared to the average of around 400 FPE produced by a 9mm round. At optimum self defense range (say 15 to 25 yards) both the hunting arrow fired from 60-80 lb compound bow and the 9mm round would be equally deadly. Looking purely at the FPE value, as the British police advisor did, the broadhead arrow wouldn’t even be an effective weapon, yet it is. It can easily drop a 300 lb whitetail deer. This is is because FPE or the “energy” of a bullet is a completely meaningless frame of reference that has no bearing on wound channels. And before anyone says that my example wasn’t even a bullet, a .22 caliber short, which has long been used as an assassination weapon, only has 50 FPE. Hardly any energy at all, yet that round has a documented history of terminal effectiveness.

Aside from their inexpert expert

Aside from the technical misunderstanding of firearms by their firearms expert, since the article was obviously written for sensationalism I wonder if the British reporter, had they known, would have mentioned that HP rounds are amazingly common. HP rounds are actually preferred by many indoor target ranges simply because they don’t over penetrate. I carry two clips of 230 grain .45 ACP nickel-coated Jacketed Hollow Points myself for my primary concealed-carry weapon, and have never thought of them as being “special” rounds. They’re so “special” that I can buy them with milk, eggs and bacon at the local Wal-Mart. Hardly James Bond material there.

The long and the short of it is this: That this level of misunderstanding can only happen in a country that no longer allows its citizens the freedom to bear arms. The British government has taken away the rights of its people and they didn't even put up a fuss. Now neither their news media nor their police seem to understand enough about firearms to even write a simple article about firearms without having an American (recovered Brit) burst into laughter at its inaccuracies. Now that's the scary element of this story.


Jonathan RF Cooke
October 15, 2007

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References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes
2. BBC News article: 'Special bullets' killed Menezes, 15 October 2007