Friday, January 27, 2006

Al Gore and Big Oil


It's funny to hear Al Gore lecture Canada about
the political influence of Big Oil, Gore accuses big oil of bankrolling Tories when he is a shareholder in Big Oil.




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Terrorist State Refuses to Talk to Terrorist State

Ah this is ironic. The (democratically elected) Israeli State won't talk to the newly (democratically) elected Palestinian authority because Hamas won and they are militant terrorists engaged in armed struggle.

Gee Hamas sounds exactly like the founding fathers of the Zionist State of Israel, who led their terrorist war for indpendence against Arab neighbours and the British. A state that refused to recognize the existence of the Palestinians until after Munich.

Refusing to Talk

The Israeli government ``will not negotiate with a Palestinian Authority that is comprised in part of an armed terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel,'' acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a statement issued after an emergency meeting with security chiefs in Jerusalem.

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They Walked Like Men

An intersting discovery in the news is about the unearthing of a bipedal crocodile fossil. No not from Southern Alberta or the Gobi Desert, but bundled up and forgotten the bowels of a museum, like so many other fossils are.


Basement find has scientists going snap


Crocosaur? ... the skeleton of an early reptile shows evolutionary similarites between crocodiles and dinosaurs.

Crocosaur? ... the skeleton of an early reptile shows evolutionary similarites between crocodiles and dinosaurs.
Photo: Reuters


January 27, 2006

Scientists have discovered a fossil in New Mexico that looks like a two-metre-long, two-legged dinosaur along the lines of a tyrannosaur or a velociraptor. But it is actually an ancient relative of today's crocodiles and alligators.

The discovery is a striking example of how different animals can evolve the same kind of body over and over again.

For almost 60 years, the 210-million-year-old fossil has been hiding in plain sight, in the basement of New York's American Museum of Natural History. It was in a slab of rock dug up in 1947 in New Mexico.


Now whats interesting is that this crocidile walked upright on two feet, bipedal. It occured at the end of the crocidile species dominance on the earth prior to the rise of the dinosaurs. Hey I didn't know that crocs are older than dinos.

Anyways like later developments, bipedalism appears to be an evolutionary stream that occurs in later species development, now I won't say more advanced, as that may not be the case, but in later development.

Whether that would lead to expanded brain activity and the evolution of the species into a hominid like with higher intelligence, has been speculated on. And the similarity between this croc and the species Troodon (Stenonychosaurus unequalis) which was creature speculated upon are quite startling.




But it is not nessacary to speculate, to once again be awed by what evolution shows us. Bipedalism is a late development of species.

Dino-Era Fossil Reveals Two-Footed Croc Relative

Croc Decline Key to Dino Rise?

Modern crocodiles are but one remnant of what was once a far more diverse croc family.

"Today we think of crocodiles as looking basically the same," said Nesbitt, of the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "But in their history they took on a wide variety of different body plans."

"Some looked like reptilian armadillos or cats, and others looked like little dinosaurs," Nesbitt said.

The crocodilian family may have been at its peak during the Triassic period.

"Toward the end of the Triassic period you have this crazy diversification of these crocodile relatives, including this animal," Nesbitt said.

"It was really the heyday of the crocodile-like animals, but the only lineage to really make it out of the Triassic was the lineage that led to modern crocodiles."

Nesbitt explains that dinosaur evolution was likely in its infancy during this period.

"We're not 100 percent sure what the story is," he cautioned.

"Now it seems that dinosaurs were there with these animals, they were part of the fauna. But they remained pretty small and not very diverse.

"We don't see the typical museum type dinosaurs until the Jurassic. Nothing is really happening [in dinosaur evolution] until after these crocodile relatives are gone," Nesbitt added.

It may be that Effigia-like animals were widespread but dinosaurs were comparatively rare during this era, Norell, the museum curator, explained.

If so, dinosaur evolution might have blossomed only after most crocodile-like animals became extinct. Those extinctions might have left an attractive environmental niche for the dinosaurs.

The theory seems to be backed by the abundance of Effigia-like animals found from North America's late Triassic period.

Many fossils once thought to be dinosaurs turn out, on closer inspection, to be crocodile-like animals that, like Effigia, only look like dinosaurs.

Many of these croc-like animals "are difficult to identify without nearly complete specimens, especially skulls," Nesbitt said. "If you just have a vertebra, for example, you can't tell them apart."




For more stories on dinosaurs and cryptozoology see my Live Journal Heresiology


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Thursday, January 26, 2006

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress


The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of my favorite Heinlein novels along with Stranger in a Strange Land. Its about a revolt of a moon colony and their reorganization as an anarchist society. One of its characters Manny a technician worker who is an communist (well a Cold War Russian at least).

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is similar to Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) in that both describe social upheavals, and both contain a strong streak of irony. In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the irony is that although the lunar colony is, at the beginning of the story, theoretically a kind of prison ruled by a tyrannical Warden, in reality the Warden seldom interferes in lunar society, which is portrayed as a kind of libertarian utopia. When the revolution succeeds, the new lunar government succumbs to its own worst instincts to regulate society to the hilt. The novel is notable stylistically for its use of an invented Lunar dialect consisting predominantly of English words but strongly influenced by Russian grammar (cf. Nadsat slang from Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess).


Well today Russia announced is planning to build a base on the moon for industrialization rather than weaponization of space.

Russia plans to put a mine on the Moon to help boost energy supply
Independent -
Russia has staked out plans to recapture its Soviet-era space-race glory and start mining the Moon for a promising energy resource that scientists say could meet the Earth's power needs for more than a thousand years.

Russian Rocket Builder Aims for Moon Base by 2015, Reports Say Space.com


Bloody well about time too. That someone used the space race for something other than weapons systems, spy sattelites and 500 channels on TV.

We should have had a viable space station orbiting in the L5 years ago, with regular missions to the moon, ala 2001 A Space Odessy.

But the Space Race was part of the Cold War and after that it was part of the American privatization of NASA at any cost program around the Space Shuttle. A cost which was measured in lives lost rather than missions accomplished.

After the umpteenth mission we know the space orbiter works, now do something with it like build a space station, one that won't come crashing down after a decade. But that opportunity is lost too. Won't be no more Space Shuttle missions, the point of which was what? Waste in space.

Really once the Reagan regime got the Space Weapons bug thats all the Space Shuttle missions were for, but seeing that no Weaponization systems could be put up well the Space shuttle went up and down, sometimes with horrendous accidents.

We should have one global space agency always should have. NASA the EU Space Program, the Japanese, Canadian, and all the other space programs and yes the Russians and Chinese should be part of a global space program. But sigh that is too much Star Trek for the liking of the Star Wars mentality around the Pentagon.

Now the Russians are onto something. Mining the moon, just like in the Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. One word of advice, from the novel, don't rely on prison labour for the miners or they may revolt and that would be Anarchy in space.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Wikiquote


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agorism, counter-economics, left libertarian, new libertarian or Movement of the Libertarian Left.
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Aren't you sorry you sold your shares

That should be the question going through all our minds as shareholders in fact former owners of Petro Canada, the Liberals sold off the last of our shares to pay for their 2004 election promises. Too bad. Had they waited they could have paid them off on the interest the shares earned this past year.

Petro-Canada earns $1.8B in 2005, plans new upgrader near Edmonton
CBC News - 5 hours ago
CALGARY (CP) - Petro-Canada (TSX:PCA) posted record annual earnings of $1.8 billion Thursday, up slightly over 2004, and announced it will build its new oilsands upgrader just northeast of Edmonton.

Petro-Canada profit rises 62% Globe and Mail



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Harper's First Broken Promise

Well here it is the first Conservative broken promise and the election is barely cold and Harper is still only PM designate. And already they can't deliver on their capital gains tax cut. Why not. Well it will cost to much.

Don't expect to get those promised tax cuts right away Toronto Star
Experts doubt quick capital gains tax cut
Tory government may have to rewrite or delay its plan to eliminate capital gains taxes

Opps this is one of those budget items they threw into the pot in the last days of the election. One of those that they didn't budget for. Funny that it was Monte Solberg that assured us all the costing had been done when it hadn't. So why believe him now.

Tax cuts non-negotiable for new Conservative government, says Solberg

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Klein Dares Harper


During the election Stephen Harper made no bones about it he defended the Canada Health Act. Well now he will get his chance. Becuase his good friend from Calgary, Ralph Klein has drawn the line in the sand and has shoved Harper with a dare ya challenge. Klein intends to violate the Canada Health Act with the hope that the newly elected Conservative goverment will not do anything. Caught in a quandry Mr. Harper is. Does he defend provincial government autonomy to do as it pleases or does he defend the Canada Health Act. This will be a test of his Prime Ministership. Gee it doesn't get any better than this, challenged by Klein within 72 hours of being elected. Now if it had been a Liberal government, well Klein would have never had dared. He has waited since 1999 for a sympathetic Conservative government in Ottawa.

Alberta to push ahead private health care bill

Edmonton — The Alberta government is moving ahead with its long-stated intention to allow more private health care.

Premier Ralph Klein says the party caucus has agreed unanimously to bring in legislation that would, among other things, allow people to buy private insurance for some procedures.

Another of the so-called “third way” reforms would allow doctors to practise in both the public and private health systems.

Mr. Klein admits that some of the changes might violate the Canada Health Act, but says that remains to be seen.ad1

He also says it remains to be seen how the new Conservative minority government of Stephen Harper will react.

Mr. Klein says his government will likely table its new health law in the upcoming session of the legislature, which begins next month.


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Hamas Win Stuns World But Not Me

Watching Lou Dobbs on CNN I have discovered that America is stunned at the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections. George Bush looked stunned when his much touted Democratic revolution resulted in a Hamas victory. Even PM designate Stephen Harper seemed stunned at the election results and announced that Hamas had to disavow terrorism, that is armed self defense and armed struggle, to be recognized as the government of Palestine.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Hamas 'secures stunning victory'

CNN's Lou Dobbs asserts that this was an intelligence break down by the CIA and Mossad. Really?! I knew Hamas was going to win the other day, it was a given in the middle eastern media. Which is why I wrote Green Eggs and Hamas. Guess this is another case of bloggers being in the know more than the MSM and the CIA.

That being said all Hamas has to do now is to integrate their armed forces into the Palestinian authority and claim they no longer are an independent armed force. However the world is demanding that they do more. World governments will not recognize them unless Hamas renounces its belief that Israel has no right to exist.Can Hamas Change Its Ways?

Well fine. But gee wasn't that George Bush who said democracy would free the Middle East. Well these were democratic elections. And Palestinians like Canadians voted for the only party that was an alternative to the corruption of Fatah. While the US supported, with CIA funding, Fatah. Opps.

Is democracy empowering Islamists?



Finally as I wrote here about the need for Arab Anarchism once again we see that it is patriarchical power that Hamas represents . Notice that whenever there is a rally in an Islamic country women are nowhere to be seen. Just guys. In the case of Palestine, male children and teenagers.

Q&A: What the Hamas victory means


Here's a look at what the Hamas victory could mean for Palestinian relations, Middle East peacemaking and Palestinian politics.

Q: How did Hamas pull off this shocking upset?

A: Hamas exploited public discontent with the corruption-tainted Fatah Party, which has dominated Palestinian politics for four decades.

While reiterating its commitment to "resistance" against Israel, Hamas focused its campaign on internal Palestinian issues, promising better public services, honesty in government and an end to lawlessness.




Hamas win shatters status quo
from the January 27, 2006 edition

(Photograph)
VICTORY: Hamas leader, and top candidate for the Palestinian parliamentary elections, Ismail Hanieh, salutes supporters outside his house in Gaza City.
HATEM MOUSSA/AP

Hamas win shatters status quo
Islamic militant group gains the upper hand in Palestinian politics.
By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
JERUSALEM – The Islamic group Hamas staged a stunning upset of the ruling Fatah faction in Palestinian parliamentary polls Wednesday, winning a solid outright majority of the total 132 seats and making the strongest ever showing of an Islamist movement in the Arab world.

With such a decisive win, Hamas is unlikely to need a coalition partner, sidelining the Palestine Liberation Organization's Fatah Party and promising to redefine the troubled Middle East peace process.





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Pinochet Tax Evader

Pinochet may never face trial for his Coup and the deaths of thousands of Chileans under his regime of terror, but he and his family face tax evasion charges. Reminds me Al Capone. The government may not get ya for murder but they will hunt you down like a dog to get them taxes.


Pinochet daughter seeks US asylum

9.20AM, Thu Jan 26 2006

A daughter of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet is seeking asylum in the US after being arrested at Washington's Dulles airport.

Lucia Pinochet has been indicted by a Chilean judge on tax evasion and false passport charges and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

She was detained after she got off a plane in the US from Argentina.

Chilean Foreign Minister Ignacio Walker said he ordered his country's consul in Washington, Felipe Cousino, to try to interview Lucia Pinochet.

He said she apparently has three alternatives, to have US authorities send her back to the country from which she arrived, Argentina; to voluntarily return to Chile and appear in court; or go back to Argentina by herself, which would open the way for an extradition request by Chile.

Lucia Pinochet and several members of her family are implicated in a scandal involving the now-defunct Riggs Bank of Washington.

Congressional investigators alleged that General Pinochet worked with bank managers to set up phoney offshore companies to hide the existence of about $8 million at the bank.

A subsequent judicial investigation in Chile determined that Pinochet had deposited as much as $28 million in accounts in several countries.

Last year, Gen. Pinochet issued a statement denying any wrongdoing and claiming his advisers had paid all of his outstanding taxes.

Investigators say the defendants together evaded $2.05 million in taxes.


Daily Journal		Pinochet family out on bail
Daily Journal, Venezuela - 24 Jan 2006
SANTIAGO – Augusto Pinochet’s wife and three of his five children were released on bail Tuesday, after a judge ordered them to stand trial for tax evasion. ...

Santiago Times
PINOCHET’S DAUGHTER ON THE RUN IN CHILE
Santiago Times (subscription), Chile - 24 Jan 2006
25, 2006) Former dictator Augusto Pinochet’s eldest daughter failed to appear before the Santiago Appeals Court Tuesday morning with her mother and four ...
Pinochet's wife and children arrested
Swissinfo, Switzerland - 23 Jan 2006
SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - The wife and five children of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet were arrested on Monday on tax evasion and fraud charges as ...

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Che Meets Benedict

During WWII it is said that those who survived the Nazi Concentration Camps were the Communists and those whose religious faith was unshakable. Today the new Catholic Pope Benedict XVI made his first papal encyclical declaring that God is Love, God is Solidarity. So in that light I thought it a good idea to compare the idea of love of social love and solidarity, between these two ideologies Communism and Catholicism. Between Che Guevera and Pope Benedict.

Che Guevera

Socialism and the New Man

The great multitudes continue to develop; the new ideas continue to attain their proper force within society; the material possibilities for the full development of all members of society make the task much more fruitful. The present is a time for struggle; the future is ours.

Our task is to prevent the present generation, torn asunder by its conflicts, from becoming perverted and from perverting new generations. We must not bring into being either docile servant of official thought or scholarship students who live at the expense of the state— practising "freedom." Already there are revolutionaries coming who will sing the song of the new man in the true voice of the people. This is a process, which takes time.

At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality. The leaders of the revolution have children just beginning to talk, who are not learning to call their fathers by name; wives, from whom they have to be separated as part of the general sacrifice of their lives to bring the revolution to its fulfilment; the circle of their friends is limited strictly to the number of fellow revolutionists. There is no life outside of the revolution.

In these circumstances one must have a great deal of humanity and a strong sense of justice and truth in order not to fall into extreme dogmatism and cold scholasticism, into isolation from the masses. We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force.

Of course there are dangers in the present situation, and not only that of dogmatism, not only that of weakening the ties with the masses midway in the great task. There is also the danger of weaknesses. If a man thinks that dedicating his entire life to the revolution means, that in return he should not have such worries as that his son lacks certain things, or that his children's shoes are worn out, or that his family lacks some necessity, then he is entering into rationalisations which open his mind to infection by the seeds of future corruption.

In our case we have maintained that our children should have or should go without those things that the children of the average man have or go without, and that our families should understand this and strive to uphold this standard. The revolution is made through man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit day by day.



An unexpected letter of love from the Pope to his church

The open papal letter to the church is titled Deus Caritas Est -- God is love. Before its publication, the Pope said his intention was "to show the concept of love in its different dimensions. I hope it might illuminate and help our Christian life."

In particular his objective appears to be to identify a common thread running through the Greek words eros -- human sexual love -- and agape -- spiritual love.

He writes that sexual love "is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings." He says: "True eros tends to rise in ecstasy towards the Divine, to lead us beyond ourselves . . . [on] a path of ascent, renunciation, purification and healing.

"Even if eros is at first mainly covetous . . . a fascination for the great promise of happiness in drawing near to the other, it [becomes] less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants 'to be there' for the other.

"The element of agape thus enters this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature. . . . Fundamentally 'love' is a single reality, but with different dimensions; at different times, one or other dimension may emerge more clearly."

Benedict says sexual love is rooted in every human being. He acknowledges that Christianity in the past was often criticized for being "opposed to the body," and he says: "It is quite true that tendencies of this sort have always existed.

"Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros, reduced to pure sex, has become a commodity, a mere 'thing' to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly man's great 'yes' to the body."

He then challenges the conventional opposing definitions of spiritual love and sexual love and argues that they are the same, that even God manifests a love for humanity that is sexual but also totally spiritual -- a love that is personal but exists with the aim of healing the whole human race.

In the Pope's words

Excerpts from Pope Benedict's first encyclical:

"Today, the term 'love' has become one of the most frequently used and misused of words. . . . We speak of love of country, love of one's profession, love between friends, love of work, love between parents and children, love of neighbour and love of God. Amid this multiplicity of meanings, however, one in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness."

". . . Love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential to her [the church] as ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. . . . For the church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being."


Sounds like Benedict has been reading the Post Structuralists, especially his comments on the body and its commodification. "Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros, reduced to pure sex, has become a commodity, a mere 'thing' to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly man's great 'yes' to the body

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