GULF SPILL MUCH WORSE THAN WE'VE BEEN TOLD...

     Corporate inaction and incompetence helped thrust the Macondo blowout into an environmental disaster, and energy investment banker Matthew Simmons will be the first one to say so; in fact, he was among the first to say so, and by his own words, took a roasting for it.  Read the longer article in full at:  http://knox.villagesoup.com/news/story/matt-simmons-tells-a-real-ugly-story/338589
     Simmons believes the image of the oil spewing from the blowout preventer displayed on news sites around the world fails to illustrate the reality of the situation. He maintains that a vast lake of oil seeping from the ocean floor and the well head lies approximately six miles from the site where BP says it is trying to cap the oil flow — "flowing like lava and now probably the size of two Washington states," said Simmons. That is the source of what is polluting the gulf, spreading "rainbows of death that stretch for miles in every direction," a description of the oil paths narrated in a video produced by the conservation aviation group South Wings.
     The world is not seeing that well head, from which the heavy crude is gushing. The drilling rig is only partially attached to that well head, maintains Simmons, via a damaged riser — a long pipe (see image 5 in the gallery for an illustration of the mechanics). BP is focusing on capping the end of that riser, which is minimally connected to the well. Imagine a hose that is 30 percent connected to the faucet. The faucet is leaking more water than is entering the hose, while at the other end of the hose, much activity is placed on stopping the hose flow.
     He points to the color of the oil: Louisiana light is a high grade of crude oil typically obtained along the immediate shelf; but what is washing up with the waves is a heavy, orange substance that suggest to Simmons an origin deep below the gulf floor. He fears what gases are also coming up with it, methane and benzene lifting onto ocean breezes.
     Simmons calculates up to 120,000 barrels a day are seeping up into the Gulf, while the U.S. Geological Survey estimates 35,000 to 60,000 barrel per day. He calls the oozing oil the "crime scene," outlining its potential for smothering life in 40 percent of the gulf. In addition to environmental destruction, he talks of the potential for massive human injury, should hurricanes stir the gulf waters and release even more toxic gases from the underwater accruing oil.
     It's a scenario compounded by the prospect of power plants and refineries becoming incapacitated, their systems contaminated by oily water, causing mass mechanical failure. How will people escape noxious clouds if they can't rely on power to get them out, said Simmons.

HOME CANNING POTATOES... on the cheap

     If you got here via the doomer's forum at LATOC, you already know there's a subset / sub list there on home canning.  If you just stumbled into this site, you might want to check LATOC out -- and, if you have ANY interest in a financial hedge against 'inflation' -- food prices will keep going up -- read my first post here (June 1, 2010) on 'survival' -- and stocking in a three to six month food supply.
     Here's what I did today ~!  Would you rather pay $1.69 per can (Del Monte, store brand $ .99) for a can of potatoes or twenty-two cents ($ .22). The latter is MY choice. Recently I bought 10 lbs. of Irish potatoes for $1.99 -- it takes a good 5 lbs. for 9 pints (what my canner holds) -- more if bad spots.

     IF you do this, tho, ask the produce guy if potatoes are THIS YEAR'S harvest or on sale because they want to empty out cold storage. I fear my "sale" potatoes were the latter item. Lots of rough spots. Just cut those out and go at it. Figure I could have paid $l5.40 vs. my $1.99 and still had six potatoes left over to eat NOW (I pack my pint jars TIGHTLY). Trimmings / bad spots go into compost (I use inserts out of old washing machines for this (holes good for ventilation and drainage when it rains) and make "lasagna" -- layers of kitchen compost, then spoilt hay and thin layer to dirt. Turn it every few layers w/ garden fork.
     I learned home canning at my great-granny's knees -- in an old farm house with NO running water inside -- she did quarts -- i prefer pints (smaller family). These potatoes, along with carrots which i'll buy at the store and can up later, and cabbage will go into soups this winter.
     Remember when mayo came in real glass pint jars? Those CAN be used safely. Once you have your jars and a good canner, all you'll ever need more of are the lids -- and those CAN be kept for a decade -- they'll 'glom' together but put them into warm water, the rubber seals will loosen and you can separate them without affecting the sealing part.
     Next week it's mesquite bean jelly and mid-August, prickly pear jelly -- i will NOT eat that grape jelly crud from the dollar store, even at $1.00 per jar,  with high fructose corn syrup in it -- back to making our own ~!

THE NATIVES ARE GETTIN' RESTLESS ~!

Governors Of 35 States Have (SUPPOSEDLY) Filed Suit Against the Federal Government.

     I thought this was worth your consideration, attention and interest! A little different perspective on an idea that has been circulated for some months now. . . We need a Constitutional Convention!
     Governors of 35 states have purportedly (not verified by this writer) already filed suit against the Federal Government for imposing unlawful burdens upon them. It only takes 38 (76% of the 50) States to convene a Constitutional Convention.
     This is REALLY important!  This will take less than thirty seconds to read. If you agree, please pass it on. An idea whose time has come .  For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress.
     Many citizens had no idea that members of Congress could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn't pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment), while ordinary citizens must live under those laws.
     The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered... in all of its forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We should not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. This is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has come.
     If each reader person contacts a minimum of twenty people on their Address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise and pass this on to them. In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one proposal that really should be passed around.
     Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

COLLAPSE -- here sooner or here later ???

If you've not been following Michael Ruppert's work (notes from the wilderness, now http://www.collapse.net/) I strongly suggest getting acquainted with his work and predictions.  Perhaps scarey, but VERY sound research (IMHO) and at least worth thinking about.

You can catch 8 parts of interview with him at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsju8-q-TT8&feature=related, along with several other clips featured there.  Better still, read his books and/or watch the movie, "Collapse" on DVD, also available at Amazon.com.

He talks about there being three types of people on the Titanic when it hit the 'berg:  a)  those in total denial of emminent danger (after all, the ship was "un" sinkable), b) those who knew how to take steps to avoid disaster, i.e. "build lifeboats" and c) those who needed direction as to what to do.

Same for society today -- by my math calculations (which are NOT that good), assume we have 300 million people in the USA -- only around 8-8,500 follow the doomers threads at LATOC -- that must mean each one of us who is wide awake and THINKING is around l:35,000 or so.  I don't like those odds (for being informed) -- prolly better odds in Vegas.

One last discouraging word:  it was on the teevee news today that Texas ranks # 40 in UNeducated, semi-literate (i give credit for literacy if you can write your name) population.  Arkansas ranks #50.  This was data from some University-type research group in re: advanced degrees (or even Associates degrees).

You're "in" or you're OUT ~!

     Well, it tells you something when I've resorted to posting funnies here...  but then it IS MY blogspot~!  Just too much going on to post / paste the really "serious" stuff that I'm prone to -- but shally return.  What with all the rain we're had here in the desert, I've had to crank up the lawn mower MANY times of late, AND do battle royal with the tumbleweeds -- but I'm winning. 
     Then there's the watering (of container garden), canning to do, and prep work for mesquite bean jelly~!  And more reading to be done when I'm too pooped (or sunburned) to work outside any longer.  Just got used copy of "The End of Oil" to plow through.  This was printed in 2005, so NOT the most recent, but still a VERY good overview.  PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE -- so says Pauline Revere here~!  (my new pen name).
TO PEE OR NOT TO PEE.

     Like most folks in this country, I have a job.  I work, they pay me.  I pay my taxes & the government
distributes my taxes as it sees fit.  In order to get that paycheck, in my case, I am required to pass a random
urine test (with which I have no problem).
     What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. So, here is my question:  Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check?
     Because I have to pass one to earn it for them?   Please understand, I have no problem with helping people et back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sit on their BUTT
doing drugs while I work.
     Can you imagine how much money each state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?  I guess we could call the program "URINE OR YOU'RE OUT"!
--  author unknown  (my comment:  maybe it's a good idea for ALL politicans to have to pass these tests, too)

ANY INTELLIGENCE IN THE AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE ESTABLISHMENT?

     I find it questionable just how "intelligent" American intelligence is, in light of the following:  "An explosive investigative series published in the Washington Post today (7/19/10) begins, "The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work." Among the findings: An estimated 854,000 people hold top-secret security clearances.
     More than 1,200 government organizations and nearly 2,000 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in 10,000 locations.
     We speak with one of the co-authors of the series, Bill Arkin.
     AMY GOODMAN: "Top Secret America." That’s the title of an explosive investigative series published in the Washington Post this morning that’s already creating a firestorm on Capitol Hill. It starts, quote, "The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work."
     Some of the findings of the two-year investigation include more than 1,200 government organizations and nearly 2,000 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. An estimated 854,000 people—nearly one-and-a-half times as many as live in Washington, DC—hold top-secret security clearances. Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. (emphasis added)
     The series by Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and Bill Arkin includes an online searchable database and locator map. PBS Frontline is producing an hour-long documentary on the investigation that will run in October.  We’re giving you information on 1,931 corporations, on 1,271 government ntities across forty-five different departments and agencies. I mean, this is an enormous amount of information. And Secretary Gates himself said to us in an interview that he can’t even get this type of information about his own office and who contracts all of the contractors within his own office. 
     So much for "transparency" since some of the powers that be did NOT want this printed.  For the rest of this article, see:  'Top Secret America' Washington Post Investigation Reveals Massive, Unmanageable, Outsourced US Intelligence System http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/19/top_secret_america__washington_post
Published on Monday, July 19, 2010 by Democracy Now!

SO MUCH HOPE.... SO MUCH DISAPPOINTMENT ~!

I made myself a vow -- to be as positive as possible, while not sticking my head in the Imperial Sandhills (12 miles from here) and eschewing "reality" -- altho "reality" really IS subjective and seems to fluctuate from hour to hour (does that mean I'm bipolar???  probably).  But with all the delving into "peak oil" I'm doing, and especially surfin' ALL OVER message boards at doomers.us (a subset of LATOC - http://www.lifeafterthecrash.com/ stuff), I'M DEPRESSED.  So not deleting this one, but posting:
The Fall of Obama -- maybe that should be "The Failure of Obama" ??http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07162010.html
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN July 16 - 18, 2010
     The man who seized the White House by fomenting a mood of irrational expectation is now facing the bitter price exacted by reality. The reality is that there can be no “good” American president. It’s an impossible hand to play. Obama is close to being finished.
     The nation’s first black president promised change at the precise moment when no single man, even if endowed with the communicative powers of Franklin Roosevelt, the politic mastery of Lyndon Johnson, the brazen agility of Bill Clinton, could turn the tide that has been carrying America to disaster for 30 years.
     (But he snooked me -- I believed his "hope for the future" deal -- oops, that's the line from my favorite soap opera -- and voted for him ~!)
     This summer many Americans are frightened. Over 100,000 of them file for bankruptcy every month. Three million homeowners face foreclosure this year. Add them to the 2.8 million who were foreclosed in 2009, Obama’s first year in office. Nearly seven million have been without jobs in the last year for six months or longer. By the time you tot up the people who have given up looking for work and the people on part-time, the total is heading toward 20 million.
     Fearful people are irrational. So are racists. Obama is the target of insane charges. A hefty percentage of Americans believe that he is a socialist – a charge as ludicrous as accusing the Archbishop of Canterbury of being a closet Druid. Obama reveres the capitalist system. He admires the apex predators of Wall Street who showered his campaign treasury with millions of dollars. The frightful catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico stemmed directly from the green light he and his Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, gave to BP.
     It is not Obama’s fault that for 30 years America’s policy – under Reagan, both Bushes and Bill Clinton – has been to export jobs permanently to the Third World. The jobs that Americans now desperately seek are no longer here, in the homeland, and never will be. They’re in China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Indonesia.
     No stimulus program, giving money to cement contractors to fix potholes along the federal interstate highway system, is going to bring those jobs back. Highly trained tool and die workers, the aristocrats of the
manufacturing sector, are flipping hamburgers – at best – for $7.50 an hour because U.S. corporations sent their jobs to Guangzhou, with the approval of politicians flush with the money of the “free trade” lobby.
     It is not Obama’s fault that across 30 years more and more money has floated up to the apex of the social pyramid till America is heading back to where it was in the 1880s, a nation of tramps and millionaires. It’s not his fault that every tax break, every regulation, every judicial decision tilts toward business and the rich.  
     That was the neoliberal America conjured into malign vitality back in the mid 1970s.  But it is Obama’s fault that he did not understand this, that always, from the getgo, he flattered Americans with paeans to their greatness, without adequate warning of the political and corporate corruption destroying America and the resistance he would face if he really fought against the prevailing arrangements that were destroying America.     
     He offered them a free and easy pass to a better future, and now they see that the promise was empty.  It’s Obama’s fault, too, that, as a communicator, he cannot rally and inspire the nation from its fears. From his earliest years he has schooled himself not to be excitable, not to be an angry black man who would be alarming to his white friends at Harvard and his later corporate patrons.  Self-control was his passport to the guardians of the system, who were desperate to find a symbolic leader to restore America’s credibility in
the world after the disasters of the Bush era. He is too cool.
     So, now Americans in increasing numbers have lost confidence in him. For the first time in the polls negative assessments outnumber the positive. He no longer commands trust. His support is drifting down to 40 per cent. The straddle that allowed him to flatter corporate chieftains at the same time  as blue-collar workers now seems like the most vapid opportunism. The casual campaign pledge to wipe out al-Quaida in Afghanistan is now being cashed out in a disastrous campaign viewed with dismay by a majority of
Americans. 
     The polls portend disaster. It now looks as though the Republicans may well recapture not only the House but, conceivably, the Senate as well. The public mood is so contrarian that, even though polls show that voters think the Democrats may well have better solutions on the economy than Republicans, they will vote against incumbent Democrats in the midterm elections next fall. They just want to throw the bums out.
     Obama has sought out Bill Clinton to advise him in this desperate hour. If Clinton is frank, he will remind Obama that his own hopes for a progressive first term were destroyed by the failure of his health reform in the spring of 1993. By August of that year, he was importing a Republican, David Gergen, to run the White House. Obama had his window of opportunity last year, when he could have made jobs and financial reform his prime objectives. That’s what Americans hoped for. Mesmerized by economic advisers who were creatures of the banks, he instead plunged into the Sargasso Sea of “health reform,” wasted the better part of a year, and ended up with something that pleases no one. 
     What can save Obama now? It’s hard even to identify a straw he can grasp at. (You can bet it won't have a THING to do with "Peak Oil" and that IS the 900 lbs. gorilla in the Oval Office)  It’s awfully early in the game to say it, but, as Marlene Dietrich said to Orson Welles in Touch of Evil, “your future is all used up.”

Peak Oil, climate change, and economic hard times are here ~!!

     Here's another site / blog you just GOTTA READ ~!  Two of them really... by the same lady.  I took the liberty of lifting a few of her words below, because they are MUCH better stated than I can do, on the fly: 
See:  http://www.feistylife.com/  She a psychologist and aware of peak oil and the consequences of same on our mental states. 
     "It takes a special individual to step away from their culture’s commonly accepted view of the future. You’ve stepped away from the pack and slipped down into the rabbit hole…  And it is (or can or will take)taking an emotional toll. 
     “Kathy is a psychologist who actually understands Peak Oil. If you are trying to deal with Peak Oil and all its implications (whether it is partners who don’t agree, family, or friends who think you’ve gone off the deep end) and feel that it’s all getting too much, you would be hard pressed to find someone more qualified and empathic than Kathy to lend you a helping hand if you need it… but if you have the opportunity to either meet with Kathy, hear her speak, or phone/email her to help you make sense of what you are going through, she will be able to help you.”I’ve worked with people struggling with these sorts of questions:
•How have other people learned to cope with this realization that things won’t be improving in the foreseeable future? How can I?
•How do I learn to carry on with my life without falling into depression and despair?
•How long does it take people to ‘get back to normal’ and is that even possible or desirable?
•How can I manage the feelings of hopelessness, social isolation, or ridicule from friends and family?
•What do I tell my kids and what if my wife or husband is not on board? Will it kill my marriage or make it stronger? Should I stay or should I go?
•The values and attitudes I now hold have made me a stranger in my own extended family and among my group of friends. But I thought we need a strong community?! Should I forget talking about what I know in order to bond with them? If I do that, how will things change for the better?
•I’ve joined a sustainability group. But there are squabbles and power struggles, and I have become disillusioned. How can I take the lead to change it around?
     "I’ve explored the unique social and emotional challenges we’ll all face in a post-petroleum age. I will help navigate you through the maze of destructive emotional reactions and reach for a more proactive and productive state of mind. We’re extremely relieved to know that others are going through the same emotional roller coaster, or perhaps comforted by the knowledge that this roller coaster is, instead, a train or a boat that bring us to an entirely different sense of ourselves, our world, and our responsible place in it.
     I found "Dr. Peak Shrink" initially at:  http://www.peakoilblues.org/blog/.  You can read all about her professional credentials and offering at the link above.

PEAK OIL IS COMING ~!

     The U.S. economy IS in decline and any "rebounds" are nothing more than smoke and mirrors.  Much more on this to come.
     The U.S. lifestyle and "standard of living" we take for granted are also in decline -- there are "doomers" and "doomer damners", but whether the ride down is slow or swift, it IS coming -- hopefully NOT in sheer freefall.
     BUT, before I dive deeply and drill down on what "peak oil" protends (with both some pro- and many con sites -- that would be "con" of maintaining the status quo), here's a wee bit of humor for your weekend reading (both my readers~!).  (the laffs only come at the end when you THINK about this):
 Wal-Mart vs. the (elected) Morons, i.e. our "leaders'
  The heirs to Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. Each of the five heirs was worth at least $15 BILLION in 2008. Probably more than $20 BILLION by now.

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.
2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears+ Costco + K-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.
7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.
8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.
9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.
11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)
12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart (I'm an exception in SOOooo many ways -- for starters, 60% of the people my age don't know how to use a computer or "google" anything -- and I live a good 40 miles, one way, to the nearest wally world and I LIKE it that way)
     Lest you may think that the writer of these stats is complaining, but s/he was really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.
     This should be read and understood by all Americans Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE!!
MEMO: To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature:
     It is now official you are ALL corrupt morons:
a. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.
b. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.
c.. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.
d.. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.
e.. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.
f.. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.
g.. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.
     You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.

(here's the laughter part, or at least a cynical smirk):  MAYBE WE OUGHT TO KICK YOUR EGG-HEAD BUDDY BUMS OUT OF OFFICE AND HIRE WAL MART TO RUN THE GOVERNMENT ???  WAL MART SEEMS TO KNOW HOW TO RUN A BUSINESS.......WHY DON'T YOU GUYS JUST ADMIT IT'S WAY BEYOND YOUR PAY GRADE, AND QUIT?
     Folks, keep this circulating. It is very well stated. Maybe it will end up in the e-mails of some of our "duly elected' (they never read anything) and but MAYBE their staff will clue them in on how Americans feel.

IF you don't believe me, maybe...

Maybe you'll believe the info provided by http://guymcpherson.com/2010/04/surveying-the-field-and-charting-a-course/

Dr. McPherson, professor emeritus at Univ. of Az., is a prolific writer, researcher and all around SMART guy -- check him out online and follow these (from his site):
     "When I open my browser to start the day, several tabs reveal themselves. Some of these websites give the facts, as accurately as they can be determined: Bloomberg energy prices, American stock markets, and the U.S. national debt clock. Others are information clearing houses with occasional original essays, notably including the sites of Matt Savinar, Mike Ruppert, Rice Farmer, and Chris Martenson, along with Energy Bulletin, Counter Currents, and The Oil Drum. Others provide synthesis and analysis: Business Insider, Baseline Scenario, Dmitry Orlov’s blog, Speak Truth to Power, Economic Collapse Blog, The Automatic Earth, and Zero Hedge. Finally, one tells me what people are thinking out there in the culture of make believe: MSNBC. Needless to say, that’s the scary one.
     Go to the link above for his page with direct links to the sites in bold face here.

AIN'T (nano)TECHNOLOGY GREAT ~!!

From the best wholistic wellness newsletter on the net (right up there with Dr. Mecola's) -- http://www.naturalnews.com/

      A breakthrough technology now being marketed to Big Pharma could allow governments, health insurance companies and employers to track your history of taking pills by simply scanning your body tissues with a portable scanning device. 
     This is being made possible by a new way of encoding pills with data bits that you swallow along with the pill, turning your body into a biological data storage device.
     This isn't science fiction. Much of this technology exists right now, and in today's investigative report, I take a closer look at how Big Pharma could abuse nanotechnology to monitor your medical behavior:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029210_nanotechnology_medicines.html 
     Also posted is a related video explaining all this. It's only 8 minutes, but explains what could soon be possible with this technology:  http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=936266036BB7162D53A8717A2AD71A84

IT'S STOPPED.... for now ~! Time for BP to pay up ~!

     Well, ONLY 87 days into Bp's "accident" -- the Gulf of Mexico oil SPILL -- at around 2:00 p.m. EST today (7/l5/10) it WAS STOPPED.  But for how long?    And only after spewing something like 60,000 barrels per day into the waters, shutting down 100's of jobs for shrimpers, oyster fishermen, recreational supports, the "small" people employed in processing, cooking and selling seafood, et al.
     So how big is 60,000 times 87 days???  Maybe 5 million plus???  (5,220,000 if my calculator went that high).  The "fine" (supposedly imposed by our gummint) was reported as $4,300.00 PER BARREL.  I KNOW my calculator won't go THAT high, but it might be $22,446,000,000.00 and I SURE can't count THAT high -- $22.5 billion???

     DON'T I WISH !

     And another big number:  that big guy who owned some ball team (baseball ???), Bob Steinbrener or whoever, died this week and his heirs will NOT be paying some $5 MILLION in inheritance taxes, thanks to a loophole for this year, 2010, ONLY, "suspending" inheritance taxes -- which WOULD have gone into the Federal teasurery per one reported.  Oh well, we're only a trillion $$$'s in the hole so that's hardly walking around money.  Thanks Bushie ~!

MADNESS AND MAHEM...

Again, I'm copying, pasting, purloining the good words of another VERY good writer -- but also giving credit.  I promise, I'll replace batteries in my keyboard and get back to a) more of MY original writing and b) some good, promising and positive news on the morrow.  Cite for this one:  http://intotheashes.imva.info/?p=388

Psychopaths in the Gulf

by Mark Sircus  --July 12, 2010

     We have never faced anything like what we are facing today. Most of us have planned our lives in terms of a world that is quickly disappearing and we have not set new sails based on the prevailing winds that will blow across our future bows. What will surprise most people is the fact that our true enemies are not terrorists in far away countries but psychopaths that walk among us and populate corporate boardrooms, banks and government chambers. 
     We have not learned what to do about the world’s psychopaths so we will see our civilization ripped asunder. Psychopaths and sociopaths have little choice but to hurt others as well as the environment because it is in their very nature to do so. These vicious individuals and the institutions they manage are at war with the peoples of the world and there is little defense against them. The very nature of our civilization encourages these people to seek the pinnacles of power and they certainly found just that inside the oil companies. 
     They aren’t that rare. In fact millions of people are psychopathic enough’ to destroy other people’s lives.
The concept of “corporate psychopaths” is an emerging realization and has been described by Dr. Robert Hare who is a world-renowned psychiatrist and professor at the University of British Columbia. The 2008 Australian documentary, I, Psychopath, points out that the vast majority of psychopaths are not crazed axe murderers: “Most of them function incognito in high-powered professions, all the way to the very top.” These are people who have no conscience. They are described as being manipulative, charming, glib, deceptive, parasitic, irresponsible, selfish, callous, promiscuous, impulsive, antisocial, and aggressive. Their main defect—what psychologists call “severe emotional detachment” or a total lack of empathy and remorse—is concealed and harder to describe than the symptoms of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.” 
     "There is an enemy that lurks, a dangerous group of people that want to do harm to the American people."  -- George Bush 
     Bush got this one right. Many people are struggling to understand and explain what is really happening in the Gulf of Mexico, who is really responsible for the explosion, and how the devastation is serving certain special interests among the elites of this world. We can assume that the most dangerous people on the planet—that have mixed their genetic deposition with greed and power—have anti-life agendas when it comes to us and pro-life ones for themselves. 
     Captain Joyce Riley stood before Louisiana government officials and told them the only acts of terrorism ever conducted on merican soil have been perpetrated by our own government. 
     Dr. Robert Hare says that, “Psychopaths see nothing wrong with themselves, experience little personal distress, and find their behavior rational, rewarding, and satisfying; they never look back with regret or forward with concern. They perceive themselves as superior beings in a hostile, dog-eat-dog world in which others are competitors for power and resources.” 
     Today there can be no possible doubt that evil exists and that there are people who are capable of extremely destructive behavior.  Any lingering doubts on this score will be swept away by an evening spent in front of the television. -- Alice Miller
     It is the choice of our civilization to favor the bad over the good and this is telling in corporate politics. “Traits like being a good listener, a good team builder, an enthusiastic colleague, a great communicator do not seem to be very important when it comes to leading successful companies. In other words, warm, flexible, team-oriented and empathetic people are less likely to thrive as C.E.O.s. Organized, dogged, anal-retentive and slightly boring people are more likely to thrive,” writes David Brooks for the New York Times. What Brooks is saying is that we have created the conditions for the most ruthless humans to populate the top strata of civilization. 
     Because psychopaths can’t feel emotions such as fear, they are well suited to executive decision-making. They can eliminate emotion from weighing the upside and downside of actions; there will be no sleepless nights for them because they have closed a plant and put thousands out of work. --Stanford Graduate School of Business 
     Psychopaths, even those who are psychopathic killers, however, are not mad, according to accepted legal and psychiatric standards. Their acts result not from a deranged mind but from a cold, calculating rationality combined with a chilling inability to treat others as thinking, feeling human beings. We really have no idea how cold hearted even the medical profession is and how pediatricians insist on injecting more and more poisons into their young patients. 
     The medical response to the Gulf disaster is shameful, to say the least, for they are leaving men, women and children throughout the Gulf region vulnerable to severe contamination. They are not telling them anything about basic ways of treating airborne poisons. Several institutions are standing naked in front of the world during this disaster. In Russia they tried to help the people from the radiation and even used spirulina and chlorella but for some ungodly reason there seems to be little to none of that in the States. 
     Butoxyethanol (a potential carcinogen and NOT good for any living thing that breathes) is a major component (30-60% by weight) of orexit 9527, an oil spill dispersant product. In the United States, the primary manufacturers are Eastman Chemical, Dow Chemical and Equistar. Corexit 9527 is being used in conjunction with Corexit 9500 in the oil spill disaster.
     Psychopaths often seem completely normal to unsuspecting targets—and they do not always ply their trade by killing. Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. But what we do not see is how these people and companies thrive by creating chemicals, foods, and many products, drugs, and dental products that poison and kill people without a trace back to the source, which are the boardrooms of these companies who make these products in the first place. 
     Psychopaths are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others. They know their poisons are going to hurt us and our children but they just go ahead and enjoy their lives at our expense. God must see a reason for their existence. Could it be that they are here to teach us about the true nature of evil? Or the true nature of ourselves? 
     It is likely that at some time in your life you will come into painful contact with a psychopath. For your own physical, psychological, and financial wellbeing, it is crucial that you know how to identify the psychopath, how to protect yourself and how to minimize the harm done to you. --Dr. Robert Hare
     Next time you see a child dying of leukemia (chemical poisoning) think about these psychopaths in their boardrooms who are causing a health disaster of truly sickening proportions. Reports of oil toxicity in Texas know no end and yes, go ahead and keep eating the beef from that polluted state. It’s like playing Russian roulette; you never know when you are eating a steak grown right from the side of an oil pit. 
     There is so much wrong with our modern civilization it will be a miracle if we can ever make it right. We have accepted the madness of modern day life mostly because we have been addicted to promises and dreams of riches and comfort. Also because we are afraid to lose what it is we have. But what is it modern man has that is worth so much? Have our decades of wealth and comfort been worth so much that we have willingly sacrificed the future of our children and the carrying capacity of the planet? 
     Psychopaths are simply people without hearts. Sure they have pumps beating in their chests but the heart of man goes much deeper than a muscle. It is my opinion that there is just too little heart in this world, too little love. We are facing a doubtful future because we have not learned the lessons of love. Certainly the captains of civilization are not loving nor do they like to listen to anything that conflicts with their agenda.
     The next effort at building a civilization will have to be fundamentally different. It will need to be built on love of our fellow human beings and that is not about to happen as long as those in power remain so. It’s the elites that we have to be most careful about for they have sociopathic goals and have no compunction against using psychopathic means. They certainly have their hands on the power strings that control contemporary civilization so their lack of heart is crushing.







.

PEAK OIL - another disaster in the making

     A bit of a personal post now.  I grew up in the "oil patch" -- my dad worked in the petroleum industry, his last gig being a pipe-straightening business, in conjunction with running a small motel in West Texas.  We lived through "boom or bust" periods -- chicken or feathers economy.  In good times, the "bunk house" might have three men alternating with one bed, and a total of maybe twelve men in the sleeping quarters, as their 8-hour shifts rotated them in and out of town.  When the "morning tower" crew came in, they'd roust out the "evening tower" guys and fall into an already warm bed to grab a few winks. 
     When I was still on the bottle, my dad would take me with him, out "to the field" to guage tanks.  He'd have been called a "pumper" in today's lingo.  I still remember my first memory of oil and rigs -- stinky, grimmy, scarey to be up on the floor of a working drilling rig.  I loathed the STINCH of worker's oil soaked work boots and pants -- but was told "that's the smell of money".  Black gold.  Crude cash. 
     Later, as an adult, I was Chief Technical Writer for the BJ-Hughes Training Center in Midland, TX -- crafting training manuals so a man with a 5th grade reading comprehension level could study up well (formation) fracturing procedures and not go out and blow himself or a half-million dollar frac truck to kingdom come (i.e. don't flow into closed manifolds on the frac lines). 
     The science of geology was much more fascinating to me than the oil patch per se, and I should have become a geologist but back in the late 1960's, mid 1970's when I was getting my "learnin'" it was not fashionable to women to go into such fields.  But even then, I had a suspicion -- an inkling of an idea that the good times might not roll on forever, and since ALL the oil in the ground was created during two unusual geologic / climatological events millions of years ago...  and we aren't crushing and cooking any more dinosaurs, we MIGHT run out of this FINITE resource.
     Now, the handwriting is on the wall -- we ARE going to "peak" in re: oil production -- and the ride down off Hubbart's peak will be a slippery slope for sure.  Probably the most important url on the net is NOT for this blog, but at http://lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ -- I urge ALL my readers (both of them) to study this site in depth.
     When I tenatively converted to Judaism some years back, I came across the story of a kid who asked his Rabbi, "Where IS God?".  The teacher replied, "Where is God NOT at?".  There is really NO place where we can't see evidence of a Divine Intelligence if you know what you are looking at -- even a chair reflects the Grand Design that did up the brains of the person who created the chair and materials in his or her mind before it took shape. 
     More recently, that same sense of omnipresence smacked me in the face with regard to oil -- there is NOTHING in our "modern" lives, other than the air we breathe, that doesn't have a petrochemical price tag attached to it.  All the food we eat required oil for fertilizer, diesel to harvest and transport it, for the plastic bags we put it in, for the microchips in the cash registers -- etc.  You get the picture. 
     The basis -- the very underpinning of our "civilization" is OIL -- and while we won't "run out" next week, this resource IS rapidly diminishing and as it becomes more scarce...  and more expensive -- it WILL impact all that we take for granted.  Not 1 out of 100 people have a ghost of an idea just how precarious our situation is -- being totally dependent on petroleum, and the potential consequences of NOT having a reliable source and supply of it.  Not 1 person in 1,000 could tell you what the daily consumption of oil is in this country -- here's some hints -- we are walking, two-legged SUV's -- our lifestyle takes, on average, FOUR gallons of gasoline/oil per day to sustain us.  And there are 300 million (give or take) of us in this country, legally or illegally.
     In the coming days, this blog will focus more and more on "Peak Oil" and what it means. Be well, get prepared and stay safe.

ENOUGH OF BP ALREADY ~!!!!

They’re BACK ...

     The same company that just brought you the most catastrophic oil spill in American history is now planning a risky new project that would use untested drilling technology in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea -- the heart of America’s polar bear habitat.
     BP’s so-called Liberty Project would use the biggest rig in the world -- propped up by a manmade gravel island three miles from shore – to drill up to eight miles horizontally, exposing pipes to the same kind of explosive “gas kicks” that led to the blowout in the Gulf.
     In other words, this latest BP project is a disaster waiting to happen!
     Please help stop it by signing this urgent Petition of Protest to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
     Sign the petition to save Bio-Gems at:  https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1909&autologin=true
     You might have thought BP would lay low after the Gulf disaster: focusing on the cleanup effort and repairing its dismal environmental record.
     Instead, the company is planning to begin drilling this fall in one of the two Polar Bear Seas that are home to HALF of our nation’s polar bears.
     A few facts about BP’s Liberty Project:
     Even though it’s three miles offshore, this project is NOT subject to President Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic! That’s because the operation is built on a 31-acre manmade gravel island. In other words, BP is getting a free pass based on a technicality.
     BP is prepared to drill up to eight miles horizontally in search of oil, even though this type of drilling is even more prone to gas kicks like the one that caused the huge blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to drill these unprecedented wells, BP has commissioned the building of the largest drilling rig in the world!
     Shockingly, BP was allowed to write its own environmental assessment and emergency response plan for the Liberty Project, just like it did in the Gulf. And we know what happened there.
     The Obama Administration needs to make clear that the days of BP running the show are over.
     Tell Secretary Salazar to stop the Liberty Project immediately by denying BP’s application to drill. He is unlikely to do that unless he hears a groundswell of public opposition -- starting with you.
     BP’s horrendous environmental record is well documented. It is already responsible for the 2010 Gulf disaster, the 2006 oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope (the largest oil spill to date in the region) and the 2005 Texas City explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 more.
     We don't need more "spill, baby spill~!". (comment added by this blogger) We can’t afford a repeat performance in the Arctic. High winds, freezing temperatures and dangerous sea ice could make cleanup impossible. The nearest Coast Guard station is over 1,000 miles away, and much of the oil spill response equipment on-site is more than two decades old!
     Tell Secretary Salazar to prevent a disaster on ice by saying No to BP.

Too Good to be True? Maybe. Maybe not.

2012: Tibetan Monks See the Future


Source: True Or Not True  (no working link found for this)
     Remote viewing is nothing new in Tibetan monasteries -- the U.S. Military is supposedly into "remote viewing" -- I knew an Apache elder once who was proficient in this "art". For thousands of years remote viewing in the middle of other spiritual activities have dominated Tibetan culture. What some Indian tourists came to learn from a few Tibetan monasteries under the current Chinese rule is extremely alarming and fascinating.               
     According to these tourists remote viewers are seeing world powers in the course of self-destruction. They also see that the world will not be destroyed. Between now and 2012 the world super powers will continue to engage in regional wars. Terrorism and covert war will be the main problem. In world politics something will happen in and around 2010. At that time the world powers will threaten to destroy each other.  
     Between 2010 and 2012, the whole world will get polarized and prepare for the ultimate dooms day. Heavy political maneuvers and negotiations will take place with little progress.  n 2012, the world will start plunging into a total destructive nuclear war.
     And at that time something remarkable will happen, says a Buddhist monk of Tibet. Supernatural divine powers will intervene. The destiny of the world is not to self-destruct at this time.
     Scientific interpretation of the monks’ statements makes it evident that the Extra Terrestrial powers are watching us every step of the way. They will intervene in 2012 and save the world from self-destruction.When asked about recent UFO sightings in India and China, the monks smiled and said the divine powers are watching us all. Mankind cannot and will not be allowed to alter the future to that great extent.
     Every human being though their current acts in life called "Karma" can alter the future lives to some extent, but changing the destiny in that large extent will not be allowed to that great an extent.
     Monks also mentioned that beyond 2012 our current civilization would understand that the final frontier of science and technology is in area of spirituality and not material physics and chemistry.
     Beyond 2012, out technologies will take a different direction. People will learn the essence of spirituality, the relation between body and the soul, the reincarnation and the fact we are connected with each other are all part of "God".
     In India and China UFO sightings have increased in many folds. Many say the Chinese and Indian Governments are being contacted by the Extra Terrestrials.     In recent days most UFO activities have been seen in those countries who have indigenously developed Nuke capabilities.
     When asked if these extra-terrestrials will show up in reality in 2012, the answers remote viewers are giving is: they will reveal themselves in such a way that none of us scared. They will reveal themselves only if they have to. As our science and technology progresses, we are destined to see them and interact with them any way.
     According to the remote viewers, our earth is blessed and is being saved continuously from all kinds of hazards all the time that we are not even aware of. As our technologies progress we will realize how external forces saved us.

2012 -- Radical Changes, Radical Choices ~!

From: http://hopedance.org/blogs/there-are-two-major-ways-of-looking-at-2012-andrew-harvey.html

There are two major ways of looking at 2012 by Andrew Harvey
     There are two major ways of looking at 2012. The first is that it marks the apocalyptic end of the human species, the second that it signals a miraculous new beginning and an influx of divine grace that will elevate all of us to another evolutionary level. 
     My understanding of prophecy is that it is not authoritarian or fatalistic but makes clear the possibilities inherent in the ways in which we are acting. So to me, neither the death or the birth are inevitable, both are possible and both depend on how we react and act now. If we continue on our current suicidal course, there is a definite possibility the world can end in a blaze of environmental disaster, fascist madness and nuclear war. If we are brave enough to face our psychosis and plunge into the massive ordeal of an authentic mystical transformation and put its wisdom and compassion into radical action there is also distinct possibility for an evolutionary leap in the species. 
     All we can say at this moment is that none of us know what the human race is going to choose. The situation is extremely volatile and unpredictable; the forces ranged against the birth are enormous in their power; at present neither the governments or a ruined capitalism can be trusted.
     While I cannot know what the human race will choose in our situation, I know what I have chosen. I choose to devote myself to being a midwife of the potential birth by trying to embody, evolve and share a vision and practice of Sacred Activism. I know there is only one way out of our horror - that of a global revolution in consciousness that expresses itself urgently in radical wise action. And I know too, that if enough human beings became revolutionaries of sacred love the species could be transformed and co create with the divine a new way of being and doing everything. I know also that my responsibility in knowing these truths is to embody them as completely and humbly as I can and continue to do so through disaster, despair, defeat and paralysis. 
     So the choice of whether 2012 will be a death or a birth is yours and mine. Day by day, breath by breath. There is no time left to waste in either the dark luxury of despair or the delusion of a passivity that believes that miracles we haven't sweated for will be just done for us by divine love. In other words, we are all being challenged by 2012 to gamble our lives away for divine truth and to risk everything to put it into loving, radical action without any guarantees of success, and so finally become mature, brave, and humble divine human beings, what ever happens.

More from Swami - a message of encouragement

Notes From the Trail
June 29, 2010
SPONTANEOUS RE-MISSIONING

It's Time to Wake Up Laughing, and Wise Up Loving ... For Crisis Sakes!
Dear Friends and Co-Hearts:

     No matter how you look at it, these are extraordinary times where we seem to face crisis at every turn. Interestingly, the word "crisis" first came into the English language in a translation of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie (Major Surgery) and it meant "the turning point in a disease." 
     Well folks, the body politic - and indeed the biosphere - is one sick puppy. We are at a pivotal moment where things can take a turn for the worse, or the better. Looking at the magnitude of the crises, it becomes clear that - to paraphrase Einstein - these problems cannot be solved at the same level they were created. Inside-the-box economic fixes aren't fixing anything, and technology just seems to be making the oil spill disaster worse.
     Meanwhile, we have an intransigent system invested in remaining the same, doing everything it can do to keep people asleep - or roused up in anger against the wrong enemy. It really doesn't look good for the home team. In fact, it looks more and more like the world needs a miracle. 

A Template for Miracles?
     So, where do we go to find a template for miracles? Well, we can begin with the phenomenon called spontaneous remission. We read about these seemingly anomalous healings all the time, or perhaps we know someone who has had one. One day, the individual is on death's door with a "fatal illness." The next day, they are inexplicably symptom free. This kind of miraculous change that cannot be explained through ordinary science is often deemed a Divine intervention, part of the unknowable mystery.
     But there might be more to it. 
     Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, author of Coyote Medicine, tells us that spontaneous remission is often preceded by "a change of story." In other words, our feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and the meaning we attribute to our situation may actually change the "field" in such a way that it impacts our physical reality. Can this also be true of our collective story and beliefs, and our collective reality? That's what my book with Bruce Lipton, Spontaneous Evolution, is all about. As we say in the book:
     The spontaneous remission we seek appears to be contingent upon a spontaneous re-missioning of civilization through which we change our mission from one based on survival of the individual to one that encompasses survival of the species. 
     In other words, we must spontaneously change our mission from dominate-or-be-dominated to thrival of all. Can it be done? We don't know, but that's what we're playing the game to find out.

The World Game or the End-of-the-World Game: 
     The Choice Is Ours.  And if you're wondering what the game is, consider the one proposed by R. Buckminster Fuller nearly 50 years ago. He called his game The World Game, and if played successfully, everyone can win. The challenge: "To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone." 
     Now, that's a game! Forget reality TV, folks, we've got reality, a once-in-many-lifetimes hero's journey with the entire species in the hero's role. Bucky Fuller, who also coined the term "Spaceship Earth," predicted that the 50-year period beginning in 1975 would be about aligning the planetary resources to insure abundance for all. Bucky was a visionary, but he was also a scientist and mathematician. So he knew it could be done. 
     And now ... more than 35 years into that time frame, those of us who hold that vision must create both a movement, and a "practice" so that we begin to live this One Suggestion that we're all in it together. Weaving a movement means cultivating two evolutionary qualities: awareness and community. And ... to turn this ideal into a real deal requires both intention and action. 
     While this is indeed a whole-world conversation, it begins with the individual. In Spontaneous Evolution, Bruce Lipton and I outline a 3-step plan for doing this, because frankly we don't have time for all 12 steps. These steps are:
Evolutionary Awareness.
Evolutionary Intention.
Evolutionary Practice.
     Without going into too much detail - it's all there in the book - this essentially means, first disabusing ourselves of the programmed myth-perceptions we have mistaken for reality; next, making the choice to live into the new story instead of the old one; and finally, "practicing" evolution on a daily basis, by aligning our words and deeds with the awesome notion that "humanity" is one organism.