JOE

Joseph Raymond McCarthy

    THE ENEMY WITHIN

Monday on his Fox News show, Glenn Beck launched an attack on the AFL-CIO and its president, Richard Trumka, claiming that the "Communist Party USA is admitting to the party's working relationship with Richard Trumka ... and the AFL-CIO." Beck reprised his attack this morning on Fox & Friends, during a rant about Democrats being "controlled by radicals and revolutionaries" as well as "communists":
BECK: Yesterday, AFL-CIO -- the Communist Party leader -- for the Communist Party USA -- talked about how they are coordinating with Richard Trumka and the AFL-CIO. If you're in the unions, do you realize that your money, your union dues, are going to stand with the communists and the revolutionaries in this country.
Beck seems to have based his attack on a November 13 post on a right-wing blog claiming that "Communist Party USA Boasts Working Relationship with AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka" and that Scott Marshall, CPUSA's labor commission chairman, "emphasized their direct working relationship" with Trumka.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201011160022

Glenn Beck will not quit being Glenn Beck.  Bill Maher was just on Keith O last night declaring that there are differences between the crew at MSNBC and Fox News.

To Maher, Keith O and his staff research the news of the day and take up a few issues to discuss in depth.

Glenn Beck slings his own poop at the TV screen.

I think it is more serious than that. Beck and rush and even figures like Newt are making speeches that remind me of days past.

Speech of Joseph McCarthy, Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950
 

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight as we celebrate the one hundred forty-first birthday of one of the greatest men in American history, I would like to be able to talk about what a glorious day today is in the history of the world. As we celebrate the birth of this man who with his whole heart and soul hated war, I would like to be able to speak of peace in our time—of war being outlawed—and of world-wide disarmament. These would be truly appropriate things to be able to mention as we celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

You see how Joe began this famous rant with praise for an American icon on that icon’s birthday? And do you see how Senator McCarthy includes in his opening salvo the importance of world peace and world-wide disarmament.

Then he moves on, gradually describing the enemy, the enemy that will prevent war from being outlawed and the world from being disarmed.

The enemy is thus described.

Karl Marx dismissed God as a hoax, and Lenin and Stalin have added in clear-cut, unmistakable language their resolve that no nation, no people who believe in a god, can exist side by side with their communistic state.
Karl Marx, for example, expelled people from his Communist Party for mentioning such things as love, justice, humanity or morality. He called this “soulful ravings” and “sloppy sentimentality.” . . .
Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time, and ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down.

Joe McCarthy has described the enemy, juxtaposed to our American Icon. The coming war is between the followers of honest, religious and American Lincoln vs. atheistic, dishonest, immoral Karl Marx.

The current battle will be between a country full of love, justice, humanity and morality and a country of godless communist heathens. 

However, there is a further twist in all of this war of ideals. That is U.S. being full of ideals and them having none.

This indicates the swiftness of the tempo of Communist victories and American defeats in the cold war. As one of our outstanding historical figures once said, “When a great democracy is destroyed, it will not be from enemies from without, but rather because of enemies from within.” . . .

The enemies within will destroy us folks, that was Joe’s message.

The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores . . . but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by this Nation. It has not been the less fortunate, or members of minority groups who have been traitorous to this Nation, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest Nation on earth has had to offer . . . the finest homes, the finest college education and the finest jobs in government we can give.
This is glaringly true in the State Department. There the bright young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths are the ones who have been most traitorous. . . .
I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. . . .

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456/

I just thought that it might be fruitful to go back to one of William F. Buckley’s heroes and see what it was that he communicated to my parent’s generation

Most of us have seen the first Manchurian Candidate that offered a caricature of Senator Joe waiving a list in the air.  The more you look at these speeches given in the year I was born and the year after, the more you see that the fellow in the Manchurian Candidate was not a caricature at all but the real thing.

And then look how this racist prick uses the name of Abraham Lincoln. I mean here is a right wing fascist prick who uses the name of ole Abe in defense of his fascist rantings.

You see how it goes.

That is why Glenn Beck has used the name of Martin Luther King in his modern demagoguery.

It is the pointy headed liberal with the silver spoon in his mouth who will destroy U.S. And a year later, Joe made another speech that appears at first to allude to his list of 220 commie pinko silver spooned liberal pricks and then he appears somehow to whittle that number down to 57.

While the records are not available to me, I know absolutely of one group of approximately 300 certified to the Secretary for discharge because of communism. He actually only discharged approximately 80. I understand that this was done after lengthy consultation with the now-convicted traitor, Alger Hiss. I would suggest, therefore, Mr. President, that you simply pick up your phone and ask Mr. Acheson how many of those whom your board had labeled as dangerous Communists he failed to discharge. The day the House Un-American Activities Committee exposed Alger Hiss as an important link in an international Communist spy ring you signed an order forbidding the State Department’s giving any information in regard to the disloyalty or the communistic connections of anyone in that Department to the Congress.
Despite this State Department black-out, we have been able to compile a list of 57 Communists in the State Department. This list is available to you but you can get a much longer list by ordering Secretary Acheson to give you a list of those whom your own board listed as being disloyal and who are still working in the State Department. I believe the following is the minimum which can be expected of you in this case.
Source: U.S. Senate, State Department Loyalty Investigation Committee on Foreign Relations, 81st Congress; Joseph McCarthy to President Harry Truman February 11, 1950, Congressional Record, 81st Congress
See Also:"You Are the Un-Americans, and You Ought to be Ashamed of Yourselves": Paul Robeson Appears Before HUAC
"They Want to Muzzle Public Opinion": John Howard Lawson's Warning to the American Public
"The World Was at Stake": Three "Friendly" HUAC Hollywood Witnesses Assess Pro-Soviet Wartime Films
"A Damaging Impression of Hollywood Has Spread": Movie "Czar" Eric Johnston Testifies before HUAC

Now here is just one rant from Newt recently:

The Soviet Polish dictatorship was repressive," Gingrich said, according to prepared remarks given to us by Gingrich's office. "Imagine a country where you could not pray in school -- the government was constantly tearing down crosses -- in classrooms and newsrooms it was easier to be an atheist than to be a Christian.
"Imagine a small secular political elite imposing its radical values on a massive majority of worshippers. You can see how strange Poland was -- or maybe you can see how relevant this story is to America today
http://carloz.newsvine.com/_news/2010/10/28/5369265-gingrich-compares-todays-secular-socialist-america-to-poland-under-communism

See Newt is worried about those pointy headed liberal elitist commie bastards, just like beckerhead.  But unlike beckerhead, Newt should no better since he has about five degrees and has spent decades researching and teaching at ivy league schools.

Here is Rush at his best:

Communist Party USA Hails Obama Victory."  "'From the understandably elated editors of the Communist Party USA's people's weekly, formerly the Daily Worker, July 1st, 2009: 'Communist Party USA Eelebrates Obama's First Six Months.'"  "Communist Party USA to Take the Streets for Obama," August 10th, 2009. This is to oppose the tea parties and the town hall meetings that were going on.  "Communist Party USA Honors SEIU and the AFSCME Union Leaders."  "CPUSA Speech Lays Out Obama Agenda."  I mean, it's right there for people to see; and these are not, you know, play communists.  They're not all that powerful here. Well, they are actually with Obama in office.  But he says that he's not a Bolshevik.  "I'm not. I'm not an ideologue," but he most definitely is.   http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_012910/content/01125111.guest.html

Rush weaves all the unions into this communist conspiracy, just like beckerhead.

We do have an enemies within folks and beckerhead and rush and the Newt count among their members.

ID EST

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 RHETORIC GONE AMUK

Hyperbole (pronounced /haɪˈpɜrbəli/, hye-PUR-bə-lee^[1]; from ancient Greek ὑπερβολή 'exaggeration') is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally.
Hyperboles are exaggerations to create emphasis or effect. As a literary device, hyperbole is often used in poetry, and is frequently encountered in casual speech. An example of hyperbole is: "The bag weighed a ton".^[2] Hyperbole helps to make the point that the bag was very heavy although it is not probable that it would actually weigh a ton. On occasion, newspapers and other media use hyperbole when speaking of an accident, to increase the impact of the story. This is more often found in tabloid newspapers, which often exaggerate accounts of events to appeal to a wider audience.

I like that. I mean, the bag weighed a ton.

I mean if someone said:

If Glenn Beck were a bag of shite he would weigh a ton.

I was musing as the snow fell for the first time this year in these northern parts, during the day anyway. Weather is good at hyperbole and weather cannot write or speak.

I see a comedic value in hyperbole, but with a million people in just this country who think they are journalists or pundits, it is over done. That is, hyperbole has become hyperbolic.

Representative Alan Grayson, who just lost his job is America’s Worst Politician, according to the greatest writer in politics today, George Will. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/24/america-s-worst-politician.html?obref=obinsite

Representative Darrell Issa, soon to be the most powerful man in the universe,  declared that President Obama is the most corrupt politician in the United States; the most corrupt President in the history of this nation; although he felt it important to walk that statement back a little.

Apparently our Lord goes over the top sometimes according to Representative John Shimkus:

"I believe that's the infallible word of God, and that's the way it's going to be for his creation," Shimkus said.
Then he quoted Matthew 24:31.
"And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other."
"The Earth will end only when God declares it's time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a Flood," Shimkus asserted. "I do believe that God's word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/13/john-shimkus-climate-change_n_782664.html

The good lord will not take us out, until he is ready to take us out even though he promised never to take us out. Now that is inconsistency rather than hyperbole.

I mean Yogi told us that it would not be over until it is over.

But God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect….now that has to be construed as being hyperbole.

Tommy Franks liked hyperbole:

The latest manifestation of this is the juicy quote by Gen. Tommy Franks in Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, in which Franks calls Feith "the fucking stupidest motherfucker on the face of the earth."  http://www.slate.com/id/2100899/

Now we all know that stupid things are accomplished by members of the human race everyday. I am sure there are stupider guys out there somewhere.

I mean what about the guy dressed as a breathalyzer and arrested for driving drunk while in costume? I mean that was kind of stupid.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/halloween/halloween-reveler-dressed-breathalyzer-busted-drunk-driving

And of course Sarah Palin thinks that she can win arguments with the Wall Street Journal. http://www.adn.com/2010/11/09/1544804/palin-battles-wall-street-journal.html

I mean, how stupid is that?

So I have Feith that the former assistant to the President of the United States was and is not the stupidest person on the face of the earth, although I have no information concerning his relationship with his maternal caretaker.

Sometimes hyperbole is not hyperbole. It is kind of present or not present depending upon the circumstances:

I, however, find it impossible not to speak up when I hear the likes of Beck from the comfort of his armchair charge Soros with anti-Semitism. Beck paints Soros as a Nazi tool for having had the supreme nerve to survive Europe’s most violent Holocaust: the one that swept through Hungary under SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann during the summer and fall of 1944. Eichmann’s was a well-oiled machine by then, and he had to make quick work of Europe’s last remaining intact Jewish community. Even the most deluded Nazis knew the war was over, their cause lost. But Eichmann was determined to finish the job in Hungary. Only the most resourceful and the luckiest survived.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-13/glenn-becks-attacks-on-george-soros/?cid=hp:mainpromo3

If the holocaust caused by the Germans was nosed out by Stalin (who was always part of Europe and Asia), I do not think that the adjectival use of language here was not called for in this little slam against beckerhead by Kati Marton at the Beast.

Now take Hunter S. Thompson. At times he even escaped the trappings of hyperbole:

The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason   http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hunter_s_thompson_2.html

See Hunter never said the TV is the ugliest thing in the world. It was just uglier than most.

Besides hyperbole there is irony. I mean a guy named Rich talks about the  sins of the rich all the time. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/opinion/14rich.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

But hyperbole is the most prevalent stroke of rhetoric.

And it might be a good idea for pundits and ‘journalists’ and bloggers to use er more often and est.

Lost

They knew he had never
Been on their T.V.
So they passed his music by

Joni Mitchell, For Free, Ladies of the Canyon (1970) (and, here, on the Dick Cavett Show of August 19, 1969)


But there he was, after being carefully hidden in the weeks leading up to the election, now able to reappear on our t.v. screens, trying to sell his peculiar logic, his malaprop slogans, his utter failure of a presidency as if it were a great time for a country now, amazingly, in free fall.

And having managed to keep hidden before the election, his party and its bought and paid for supporters, were able to take advantage of the fact that without a star power national candidate to motivate them, young voters, just as others who normally support Democrats, would not vote.

They do blog, though. They tell us that the President should hang tough, and not allow the weeklong reappearance of the Congress filled with members who have been told to find other work to extend those parts of the foolish tax cuts enacted during the prior administration, carefully set to expire in the next president's term, as apply to adjusted personal incomes of over $250,000.

There's a lot to be said for this well made argument. It is unfair and a foolish expenditure of money at a time when the government has far more urgent priorities. Even the Weekly Standard, the home of Kristol and all that there is of "conservative thought" understood all of this when the issue was not how best to rid the country of the black president. In 2005, this cogent point even appeared in their pages:

The deficits that Bush ran up in the years in which the country was teetering on the verge of a serious recession had the beneficial effect of righting the economy. In that sense, deficits not only didn't matter, but were a force for economic good.

But that was then, and this is now. The economy, growing at an annual rate of 3.5 percent to 4.0 percent, is hardly in need of further fiscal stimulus.

Well we are back to then, with a vengeance. Even an economics illiterate who can't rub two quarters together, such as the guy whose drivel you are reading, knows that in a collapsing economy, when people can't spend money, the government has to or we fall into a depression. For those who need a review of why this is not the time to start thinking about deficit spending by the government, try this or this for starters or read a book about the New Deal.

Of course, the President should try to prevent this give away to the wealthy and use the money for larger government intervention to prop up the economy than the little half measure he could get through Congress when he was supposedly riding high. Spending this money on tax breaks for people who will bank their money i is an absurdity, and even the fools who voted know this. But it won't happen because reason, and even well written posts to do not effect what Congress does. Votes and the people who buy them do.

Sure. In a country that was not completely broken, in which people cared more about their nation's well being and the plight of their neighbors, this proposal would not stand a chance. Maybe, if compromise was necessary, the tax cuts would not be extended to adjusted personal incomes of over half a million dollars rather than quarter of a million dollars.

But that is not where we live. Huge amounts of money paid for television commercials, aided and abetted by blow haired "impartial journalists" all of which informed the electorate that nothing was their fault: the eight years of the Bush presidency was not their fault, the preceeding eight years where they elected a Congress which impeached the president rather than deal with the problems of adjusting to the new world of the late 1990s and the early twenty-first century, following twelve years of "me, me, mine, not yours" and "government is not the answer; it is the problem" was just a little blip that the magician from Hawaii would fix for us. When he could not restore our country to the forward looking mass we had become by 1965 at least partly to honor our murdered president, he was declared a failure or, at least not worth supporting by the hour it might take for someone to cast a vote.

The murdered president told us that progress was

in your hands more than mine

but that runs against popular thought and the dreams of the emperor, king or god who can magically make all that is bad go away. Too bad life is not the same as fairly tales.

On election day, a trenchant comment from President Roosevelt in 1936 appeared in this space and, sadly, it fits today's politics perfectly, too.

Those, fortunately few in number, who are frightened by boldness and cowed by the necessity for making decisions, complain that all we have done is unnecessary and subject to great risks. Now that these people are coming out of their storm cellars, they forget that there ever was a storm...

They lost in 1936, but they won and won big this month. We will pay for this step backward. There are not two ways about it. The election is over. We may make the right arguments but the people who were elected, who overwhelmingly will control the House of Representatives, want to do something else. There is little a president can do to stop them, except to make them pay at the next election. And, again, it will be votes that matter, not blog posts.

Yes, the muse Regina Spektor, born in the U.S.S.R., and an American after her family fled, when she was nine, from the treatment of Jews there, and whose work touches on everything important there is has it exactly right:

Power to the people
We don't want it
We want pleasure
And the TVs try to rape us
And I guess that they're succeeding
And we're going to these meetings
But we're not doing any meeting
And we're trying to be faithful, but we're
Cheating, cheating, cheating

On Veteran's Day

Or, as it used to be known, Armistice Day, celebrating, as really Americans do best, a truce--the end of hostilities, with a mess all around, and one that still causes us trouble from Persia, and almost every other place beaten up by the war to end all wars, but did not.

So, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month and some of us get a day off to work from home.

And, of course, there is always a quote from some president or another that is worth noting:

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation,"² a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

So, on his behalf and mine, may I ask if next time you are asked to vote (which really is not asking as much as we have our military), that you find a way to do it.

The video is not mine; nor is the song, but it is music I think of every year when this day comes around.


Paul Simon - Armistice Day
Uploaded by johnnyfnc. - Explore more music videos.

THE SILVER FOX

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I became interested in a long study in domestication of Siberian Silver Foxes initiated by Dr. Dmitri K. Belyaev; former director of the Russian Institute of Cytology and Genetics. He began a series of experiments by gathering Silver Foxes from a Siberian wool manufacturer in 1959.

He died in 1985 but the institute still survives and is currently run by a Dr. Lyumeda Trut.

I came across several links on line after viewing a couple of documentaries regarding this study on PBS.

Basically, the institute selected the most human friendly foxes from each generation of fox.

Artificial selection was at work here. The scientists simply gathered foxes from wool producers. So the initial generation of foxes had already undergone change after some 50 years of captivity at the wool manufacturing plant.

The experimenters then bred the animals in captivity and kept the most endearing foxes. Those discarded, I assume, became hats.

The PBS documentary I am now watching, reports that one percent of the ‘tamest’ foxes were kept and allowed to reproduce. One percent for each generation and the following traits came to the fore, some within a few generations some within scores of generations:

Floppy ears.

Shorter tails (due to loss of vertebrae, believe it or not) and a circular shape to those tails.

Change in color almost immediately.

Less fear reactions from the survivors.

Less biting and challenging behavior.

Change in canine ‘speech’ patterns

And, as the scientific technology changed over the fifty year experiment, methodology has changed. DNA tests have been made on the subjects.

And sure enough, there are recognizable genetic changes.

http://www.hum.utah.edu/~bbenham/2510%20Spring%2009/Behavior%20Genetics/Farm-Fox%20Experiment.pdf

One change that occurred earliest in the experiment was color. You can just imagine how important color was in the fox fur industry in Siberia.

I gleaned that the red and the silver coats were of the utmost importance to the furrier.

Those colors are gone following the first couple generations of artificial or human selection.

Color is one of the fastest changing traits in nature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphism_%28biology%29

As a child we are taught (evidently not so much in the South) the history of the white moths in England who morphed into black moths as the dirt and soot overtook the urban areas.

Anti-Darwinians (a/k/a mental midgets) will simply call this type of morphology a ‘population shift’ that has nothing to do with evil-ution.

Why population shifts should not be seen as part of an evolutionary model is beyond me.

I have an interest in evolution because I love coming up with evidence at the drop of a hat to counter the silliness of the mental midgets in this country. On Keith O tonight we appear to be facing a repub head of energy in the House who either believes that we are being unfair to BP by overregulation or a mental midget who quotes Genesis as proof that there is no such thing as global warming.

Yeah, the choice is between a capitalist corporate anti environmental oligarchist or a capitalist corporate anti-environmental oligarchist mental midget.

The other interest of mine involves the actual changes in the DNA chain that can be measured.

I mean any gardener can tell you about changes in vegetation caused by the continual care by human hands and the chemicals put into the soil.

And we were taught as children about the bonuses the farmer may inherit through a process known as crop rotation.

But from whence do these DNA alterations occur?

I mean a change in climate might mean that a population of wolves might grow thicker or thinner coats. That might be explained by population shift—inherent DNA—and that the stronger or warmer or cooler survive. The theory of natural selection is easy to understand in this context.

It might also be explained by simple biological changes that occur in every living creature that present themselves with a change of environs. We sweat more when we are hot. Wolves grow thicker coats during colder times.

Wolves may become meaner during leaner times; kind of like modern day corporate management.

So too, ingestion of certain substances may alter one’s DNA strains. My understanding is that certain steroids and hormones might actually alter one’s DNA besides shrinking gonads.

Again, we are all aware of changes in DNA strains of domesticated animals and plants through a process known as artificial selection. As Genesis 1 states:

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
 ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

And because there are billions of us on this planet, just about everything we do as human beings affects every single piece of flora and fauna in existence.

Therefore, just the hand of a human being (who becomes god in god’s stead) affects the DNA of all of God’s creatures. This is in fact the theory of artificial selection.

But what exactly are the other types of DNA morphology?  I mean I have discussed artificial selection in the intentional model. We change our soils per tillage and per seed choice and per fertilization and per hydro-enhanced mechanisms.

What I am saying is that when you are confronted with a mental midget’s concept of the universe you cannot be trapped into simply using natural selection as an all encompassing explanation for evolution.

Mental midgets will throw out talking points like:

There has never been on example of natural selection demonstrated in the evolvement of a single organism into another species.

Micro-evolution through changes in bacteria or viruses does not count—for what reason I am not sure.

There are so many examples of organisms with traits that are non-adaptable. Of course that is why I believe we have so many mental midgets on this planet.

I do not know about you but my ancestors are not descended from monkeys. I think I will let that statement stand by itself.

I have gleaned several different processes at work:

Molecular Evolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_evolution

Random Selection.  Also known as Natural Selection. Kind of a ‘shite happens’ approach to the natural universe.

Sexual Selection.

Population shifts.

Lamarkian Evolution. This has not been disproved completely as I was taught as a child.

Here is a nice paragraph from the National Science Foundation:

The Evolutionary Processes Cluster supports research on microevolutionary processes and their macroevolutionary consequences. Topics include mutation, gene flow, recombination, natural selection, genetic drift, assortative mating acting within species, speciation, and long-term features of evolution. These investigations attempt to explain causes and consequences of genetically-based change in the properties of groups of organisms (at the population level or higher) over the course of generations as well as large-scale patterns of evolutionary change, phylogeography, origin and maintenance of genetic variation, and molecular signatures of evolution at the population or species level. The cluster seeks to fund projects that are transformative -- that is, those that will change the conceptual bases of evolutionary biology and have broad implications for future research.  Both empirical and theoretical approaches are encouraged. The Cluster is comprised of two programs, Evolutionary Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology (described below); proposals should be submitted to one of these programs.

http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503421

There is more to evolution of species on this planet than ‘shite happens’.

And then, do not let a mental midget corner you with some specious species argument. What is and what is not a species is not written in stone.

Jack-asses will, at a much lower rate, copulate and produce more jack-asses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule

I had been taught that two animals are members of two different species if they can not copulate and produce another animal. That is not necessarily true.

I have gone on much too long here since I am attempting to limit my posts.

But this study in domestication of the Siberian Silver Fox is fascinating stuff.

See also:

PURCHASE

http://scienceblogs.com/thoughtfulanimal/2010/06/want_a_domesticated_fox.php

Applications to human genome projects:

http://cbsu.tc.cornell.edu/ccgr/behaviour/Index.htm

For a lengthy discussion of evolutionary mechanisms see:

http://www.nature.com/nature/newspdf/evolutiongems.pdf

 

COKAYGNE & THE BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN

The Land of Cockaigne by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

I found this delightful 14^th century poem that speaks of a heavenly land far west of Spain. Probably written in Ireland by some monk, who knows:

Far in the sea to the west of Spain
There is a land that we call Cokaygne;
Under God's heaven no other land
Such wealth and goodness has in hand
Though paradise be merry and bright,
Cokaygne is yet a fairer sight.
For what is there in paradise
But grass and flowers and green rice?
Though there be joy and great delight,
There is no food for the appetite;
There is no hall, nor room, nor bench,
Nothing but water man's thirst to quench.
There are only two people there,
Elijah and Enoch with him.
Tediously are they able to lead their lives
In a place where no other people dwell!
In Cokayne there is food and drink
Without care, anxiety and labor.
The food is excellent, the drink is splendid,
At dinner, snack time, and supper.
I say in truth, without doubt,
There is no land on earth its equal.
Indeed, there is no land under heaven
Which has so much joy and bliss.
Many a pleasing sight is there;
It is always day, there is no night.
There is no conflict or strife;
There is no death, but life forever;
There is no lack of food or clothing;
There no woman is angry at no man;
There is no snake, wolf, or fox;
No horse, cow or ox;
There is no sheep, no swine, no goat;
There is no dirt, God knows,
Nor horse-breeding farm nor stud farm.
The land is full of other goods.
There is no fly nor flea, nor louse,
In clothing, village, bed or house.
There is no thunder, no hail,
There is no vile worm nor snail,
And no storm, rain nor wind.
There no man nor woman is blind…

http://www.thegoldendream.com/landofcokaygne.htm

This reflects only half of the full poem but it is worth a read, especially for someone residing far to the west of Spain. Ha!

I came across it during my daily read from an old textbook and found it on line.

Oh and this is a translation so be sure to catch the original written in Middle English; more or less the language of Chaucer.

It all reminded me of this little ditty recently resurrected in Brother, Where Art Thou:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqowmHgxVJQ

And catch an earlier version from Burl Ives:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPqrTaVXJhI&feature=related

The words change over the century, but the song remains the same in my mind.

Seeger speaks about how songs were taken by the old American folk singers without worry of copyright infringement. Pete spoke about taking a song and adding or subtracting words where he chose.

And friends would take his new version and just amend it to their liking.

BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN

One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning 

Down the track came a hobo hiking and he said boys I'm not turning 

I'm headin for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains 

So come with me we'll go and see the Big Rock Candy Mountains 

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright 

Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night 

Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day 

On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees 

Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings 

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains 

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains all the cops have wooden legs 

And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft boiled 

eggs 

The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay 

Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow 

Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow 

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains. 

I was just struck by the similarities between a 14^th century ditty and a 20^th century folk song.

DEADMAN'S SUIT

Justizia, by Luca Giordano

 

One fine day, Harold Deadman stopped off at Walmart on one of his savings sprees. He liked to surprise his bride of fifteen years will bags and bags of goodies from time to time. Harold figured out that he could save $63.46 a month in this endeavor to seek the lowest prices for the staples necessary to keep his family properly supplied.

Suppose now, that following one of these shopping sprees, Harold came down with ‘the bug’ and instead of making a full recovery over the week, he ended up in the hospital with a lung infection and two years later he died from complications.

Further suppose that Harold earned $500,000 a year as an executive for an advertising firm and your wife and five minor children are devastated.

Finally, suppose that Walmart had purchased some real cheap toothpaste from a smaller corporation with ties to China and that the toothpaste had kind of escaped FDA scrutiny. The toothpaste later was found to contain poisonous substances.

And, Mrs. Deadman revealed later that her deceased husband had purchased six packages of that toothpaste, bringing it home with glee after having saved $4.56 by having his entire family brush with Glea Toothpaste.

Well, about seventeen law firms would end up crawling on their knees to the Deadman’s homestead begging for the opportunity to represent the Deadman’s family in a suit against Walmart et al. The attorneys who finally landed that case would spend a million dollars on experts and investigators with the certainty that  tens of millions of dollars would be won in a personal injury lawsuit brought against ten or more corporations. 

America, what a country!!!

I mean if one of those little cherubs in the Deadman’s family came down with the sniffles for even a couple of days, the potential verdict would increase exponentially.  

There would not be one judge in this country serving on the Federal bench or a state bench who would block this widow from entering the doors to the courthouse.

I gleaned this scenario from an episode of Law & Order this morning but this type of tort action is brought to the fore every day in our nation. Tort law is big business.

And republicans will do anything to stop these kinds of suits because they attack big business and the humongous insurance structure in America today. The right wingers would seek and always seeks ceilings on personal injury awards by putting artificial caps on compensatory damages as well as punitive damages. They also seek shorter and shorter windows for bringing a suit against corporations—this subsumed under that category of Statutes of Limitations.

In the conservative southern and western states more and more impediments for individuals seeking justice in our civil courts have been created by state legislatures.  Because of this trend, more and more attorneys bring suit in Federal Court.

Let us make a Federal Case out this, cries the plaintiff’s attorney.

The sales job for the repubs is to convince the American People that if civil jury verdicts are kept to a minimum, Americans will have the opportunity to find cheaper and cheaper toothpastes on their Walmart shelves.

As a tool for social justice, tort law sucks. A few people, relatively speaking, make out like bandits. The plaintiffs are usually richer and smarter and better able to present themselves before juries.

So our tort system ends up being a lottery; a huge scratch-off game providing the few with everything. In other words it reflects our economy as a whole.

Clever attorneys with the aid of the courts and legislatures had come up with a tool that helped unclog our civil courts and that was aimed at having a more egalitarian effect upon our citizenry.

See also: Advertising for class actions: http://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/practice/Class-Actions----Plaintiff?DCMP=KNC-Accidents-&-Injuries&HBX_PK=class+action+lawsuits+list&HBX_OU=50

The class action was developed so that one court action could seek compensatory damages from the felonies committed by our larger corporate entities.

Assume a computer company sells 500,000 PCs over a period of three years. Further assume that 15000 of those units fail from some overheating defect within a month following purchase.

A couple houses may have burned down, a few people might have lost a limb or two, and 15000 people lost fifteen hundred bucks.

It is impossible for one person to file a suit against the PC manufacturer because of the monies attributable to the loss unless he or she lost a limb or a house.

So some smart attorney locates fifty disgruntled purchasers and begins a class action suit against the corporation. The law firm can spread out the costs of litigation and through discovery find all of the disgruntled consumers and seek compensatory damages.

These suits are filed every day in this country on the state and Federal levels.

Republicans do not like class action suits. Republicans really believe that corporations should be able to make money and keep that money, the public be damned.

I stole it fair and square and now it’s mine, all mine.

A class action suit (or any tort suit really) can blind side a capitalist even when that capitalist has adequate insurance. Remember, insurers will attempt to get out of paying damages anyway they can. But that is a subject for another day.

Over the last 30 years, the capitalists have attempted to shut down the class action suit. States have made it more and more difficult to bring class action suits.

Statutes of Limitations have shrunk the time periods within which one might bring a suit against corporations.

The certification process has become harder and harder to overcome. You see, there are always differences in the amount of damages incurred by every plaintiff being represented.

Corporations not only spend huge amounts of money defending themselves in our courts but they spend huge amounts of money bribing legislators to pass laws that block citizens from seeking recompense in our courts.

It hasn't gotten a lot of press, but a case involving AT&T that goes before the U.S. Supreme Court next week has sweeping ramifications for potentially millions of consumers.

If a majority of the nine justices vote the telecom giant's way, any business that issues a contract to customers — such as for credit cards, cellphones or cable TV — would be able to prevent them from joining class-action lawsuits.

This would take away in such cases arguably the most powerful legal tool available to the little guy, particularly in cases involving relatively small amounts of money. Class-action suits allow plaintiffs to band together in seeking compensation or redress, thus giving substantially more heft to their claims.

Consumer advocates say that without the threat of class-action lawsuits, many businesses would be free to engage in unfair or deceptive practices. Few people would litigate on their own to resolve a case involving, say, a hundred bucks.

"The marketplace is fairer for consumers and workers because there's a deterrent out there," said Deepak Gupta, an attorney for the advocacy group Public Citizen who will argue on consumers' behalf before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

"Companies are afraid of class actions," he said. "This helps keep them honest."

The case is AT&T Mobility vs. Concepcion. The basic question before the court is whether companies can bar class actions in the fine print of their take-it-or-leave-it contracts with customers and employees.

High courts in California and elsewhere have ruled that class-action bans are unconscionable and contrary to public policy.

   http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20101105,0,639054.column

Well, I already know how this case is going to turn out. I mean it does not take hours and hours of listening to egg heads discuss the issue on some CSPAN panel to figure this out.

The repubs have controlled our Supreme Court for decades and there is no frickin way the court is going to uphold the rights of the consumer.

This all comes down to some silly idea of the contract as being some sacred symbol of freedom in this country.

You cannot bargain with your credit card company or your local utility or Walmart for chrissakes.

So sometime next year I suppose, some long and lengthy piece of propaganda will issue from our Court discussing the freedom to contract and the consumer will once again be screwed.