Why it Matters....at least to me

 

Nature tracks the passage of time.  Trees form yearly rings on their trunks, we can determine the age of the tree by counting its rings. The oldest living trees on earth are said to be the six-thousand-year-old bristlecone pines found in the Sierra Nevada. The dead trees lying beside them are said to be almost twice as old. Similarly, lakebeds are said to accumulate sediments with seasonal variations: minerals in spring, pollen and plant material in summer and fall. This creates distinguishable annual layers on the bottom of lakes that can be counted, just like counting tree rings. Scientists have found lakebeds with layers as old as thirty-five-thousand years.

 

Seasonal ice rings in glaciers provide another example. Ice rings form through the accumulation of years of falling snow, and seasonal differences can be distinguished---such as increased dust and larger ice crystals in summer---that allow the age to be determined. Scientists have drilled ice cores deep into the glaciers and found ice that is 123,000 years old in Greenland and as old as 740,000 years in Antarctica.

 

Such dating methods are straightforward. Pull a cylindrical plug from a glacier and count the layers. The clarity is one of the reasons scientists react negatively to claims that the earth is less than ten thousand years old. They consider that an ice core with 500,000 seasonal summer layers of pollen can no more be ten thousand years old than a massive oak with two hundred annual rings can be two years old.

 

Some weeks back you asked why what we believe concerning the age of the universe matters: In the January 2010 issue of Smithsonian magazine there is an article about the Dead Sea scrolls. The article says the thousands of tourists who flock to Qumran each year, where the scrolls were discovered, are told the site was once home to a Jewish sect called the Essences, who devoted their lives to writing and preserving sacred texts. An Israeli archaeologist disagrees, and says the settlement was originally a small fort that was later converted into a pottery factory to serve nearby towns. Which story sounds better to the tourists? Do they want to know the truth or do they want to continue to believe what they want to believe even if it might be false? Do we?

 

Consider the history of the United States. Do you want to know how things really were or are you comfortable with someone's story?

 

John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN



Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Blogs: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/
         http://alumcave.blogspot.com/

"It is, in the end, cheaper to feed the whole flock for a year than to fight them for a week."  

---1850 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs

"If the tale of the poor wretches...could be impartially related, it would exhibit  a picture of cruelty, injustice, and horror scarcely surpassed by that of the Peruvians in the time of Pizarro."  

---1852 Gen. E. D. Townsend in his California Diary of the Indians facing pressure from the 1849 gold rush

A Book to be Considered

The first government shutdown occurred in 1976 during the Ford Administration.

 

In the 37 years since there have been 17 other shutdowns including the current one. It took 200 hundred years before Congress began using government shutdown as a tool and now it is common practice and for most of us, they go unnoticed. The Stock Market doesn't care either. 

 

A book worth everyone's time is:

 

The Spirit of Compromise: Why Governing Demands It and Campaigning Undermines It

Amy Gutmann & Dennis Thompson

 

John Jenkins
865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN



Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Blogs: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/
         http://alumcave.blogspot.com/

"Religious belief can guide one in life or strengthen one at the approach of death, but unless it is true it can do neither of these things and so would amount to no more than an illusionary exercise in comforting fantasy."  

---John Polkinghorne

A Failed Congress

You and your fellow members of Congress are an embarrassment to the citizens of the United States and a joke to the world. You were elected to do job part of which is to work with the Executive Branch to create a budget for the Federal Government and you have failed to do for several years. You all should be fired. Blackmail is illegal, extortion is illegal but you and your fellow members of Congress appear to think it is the way to do you job. "Shit or get off the pot" or "lead, follow or get out of the way."

 

The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. Due to your refusing to get involved and do your job, the Democrats went without you. What is known as Obamacare was a Republican idea, Richard Nixon, supported by a Republican President, George43, implemented in Massachusetts by a Republican governor. The only reason Republicans are against it is President Obama is for it. If Obama was against it you would be for it and the Democrats would be against it. You are like children. Obama is President, the citizens have spoken, get over it.

 

You and your fellow members of Congress have approved the spending you are now attempting to blame Obama for but it will not work. You are killing the economy, destroying the savings of your constituents, and ruining our country's reputation around the world.

 

If I had the authority I would demand your resignation to be on my desk first thing tomorrow. The only other thing I can think of is to vote Democratic in the next elections. Maybe if the House and the Senate are controlled by the same party this kind of behavior will stop.

Ideological Amplification

When researchers studied various political blogs looking at patterns of linking they discovered a sharp and unmistakable division between the conservative and liberal camps.  91% of the links originating within either the conservative or liberal community stay within that community. The two groups have different lists of favorite news sources, people and topics to discuss with only occasional overlaps.

 

The blogs researchers found that the vast majority of readers tend to stay within the bounds of either the liberal or the conservative sphere. Liberals listen almost exclusively to other liberals, and conservatives tend almost exclusively to other conservatives.

 

In 2005 a group of researchers assembled sixty-three Coloradans to discuss three controversial issues: same sex marriage, affirmative action, and global warming. About half the participants were conservatives from Colorado Springs and the other half liberals living in Boulder.  After the participants completed, in private, questionnaires about their personal views on the three topics they were split into ten groups---five conservative and five liberal. Each group spent time discussing the issues with the goal of reaching a consensus on each one. After the discussion, the participant again filled out questionnaires.

 

The results showed the deliberations among like-minded people produced what researchers call "ideological amplification." People's views became more extreme and more entrenched.

Putin's Op-Ed

You may not trust him, you may not believe him but what specifically does Putin say in his op-ed that as one of our members of congress says "makes you want to vomit?"

 

Exceptional: not typical; unusual, uncommon, abnormal, atypical, extraordinary, rare, unprecedented, unexpected, surprising.

Exceptionalism: the condition of being different from the norm; a theory expounding the exceptionalism especially of a nation or region; the perception that a country, society, institution, movement, or time period is unusual or extraordinary in some way and thus does not need to conform to normal rules or general principles. ...

What people does not believe in their own exceptionalism?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?ref=opinion&_r=0 

My guess is you trust Putin as much as the Russian people trust Obama.

Responses from various members of our government are great examples of ideological amplification.

Hurrah!! for Great Britain

Aren't we glad England showed the United States how countries work together? First you get the citizens on your side, second you get the Congress next your friends then your enemies. If Obama and Putin had not talked the United States would be in another unending war with a nothing-country in the Middle East. If the Bushes would have followed that roadmap thousands of American Citizens as well as hundreds of thousands or Iraqis and Afghans would be alive and well today.

Email sent to Roe, Corker, Alexander

As anyone knows who watches the various cable networks broadcasting trials knowing something is different than proving it.  The president may "know" the Syrian government used chemical weapons but can he "prove" it? Do you remember how George Bush 43 "knew" Iraq had WMDs but after causing the deaths of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis it was "proven" that what Bush "knew" was false.  

Syria did not sign the treaty banning chemical weapons which permits them to use them as they like. Otherwise banning something would take the opinion of just one country. The fear of chemical weapons is if they were to be used on the battle field. Do we want another country attacking us because they disagree with our use of the death penalty?

Remember the Tet Offensive in 1968? The enemy had capabilities far beyond our greatest dreams. While Congress looked at the budget the enemy became stronger.

The "rebels" or "Free Syrian Army" have a brigade calling itself "Osama bin Laden", which belongs to the "Hawks of Damascus" Battalion.

Our government has been claiming the FSA is comprised of somewhat "secular" people and that jihadists have only joined the fight but they are not part of the FSA. Well, you cannot get more al-Qaeda'ish than calling a brigade "Osama bin Laden".

VOTE NO!!!!! ON ANY INVOLVEMENT IN SYRIA. THAT IS VOTE NO!!!!!!!

Letter Sent to Alexander, Corker and Roe

Vote "NO!!!" on any action in or to Syria. The guarantee of no boots on the ground in combat capacity means nothing. You will put military in Syria as advisors or as some other euphemism, they will be killed, and we will invade. Another war.

 

Concerning the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction: Iran signed it, Israel and Syria did not. Can we hold a country to a treaty they did not sign? If we do we are taking away the individual sovereignty of all other countries. We are saying if we want it this way you have no choice.

 

On the subject of WMD's the treaty prohibits the stockpiling of such weapons which includes our nuclear arsenal. Since we are violators who are we to judge?

 

With the exception of a couple of Middle East countries we are the primary user of WMDs against civilians. The original concern was voiced in response to our carpet bombing of civilians in Germany. Are we really on the high road?

 

The United States does not become involved in the internal squabbles of every country. Vote NO!!!!! on any action in or to Syria.

Price of Gasoline

As we worry about the price of gasoline continues to go up we might consider that China passed the US as the largest auto manufacturing and consuming country in the world last year and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently estimated that there will be over 200 million registered vehicles in the country in 2020.  In 2007 there were 247 million in the United States.

 

When do you think we can look forward to lower gasoline prices?

Tax not Insurance

When Francis Perkins and Paul Douglas had their plans for unemployment insurance and pensions for senior citizens in draft bill form Justice Harlan Stone gave her a tip. She was afraid any great social insurance system would be rejected by the court and expressed those concerns to Stone at a tea. Justice Stone told her not to worry and told her "the taxing power of the federal government is sufficient for everything she wanted and needed. If the Social Security Act was formulated as a tax, and not government insurance, it could get through.

 

Supporters of Obamacare might want to consider Justice Stone's advice.

Bill Cosby "I'm 83 and Tired"

 

 

 

 

I'm 83. Except for brief period in the 50's when I was doing my National
Service, I've worked hard since I was 17. Except for some serious
health challenges, I put in 50-hour weeks, and didn't call in sick in nearly
40 years. I made a reasonable salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my
income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, it looks as
though retirement was a bad idea, and I'm tired. Very tired. 

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who
don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take
the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy
to earn it. 

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I
can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and
daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight
offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't
"believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning
teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the
genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and
Shari'a law tells them to. 

I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques
and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in Australia , New Zealand ,
UK , America and Canada , while no one from these countries are allowed to
fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia or any other
Arab country to teach love and tolerance.. 

I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global
warming, which no one is allowed to debate.

I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help
support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ
rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses
or stick a needle in their arm while they tried to fight it off? 

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all
parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful
mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting
caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor. 

I'm really tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and
actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination
or big-whatever for their problems. 

I'm also tired and fed up with seeing young men and women in their teens and
early 20's be-deck them selves in tattoos and face studs, thereby making
themselves un-employable and claiming money from the Government. 

Yes,  I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 83.. Because, mostly, I'm not
going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for
my granddaughter and their children. Thank God I'm on the way out and not
on the way in. 


.

Where to Look

The Boston bombers are from the Republic of Dagestan, a republic of Russia, which has been a scene of low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism since the 1990s. That is the environment the bombers came from. This does not justify what they did but it might help us understand where to look for future threats.

 

The area known as the Tigris-Euphrates Basin is losing water faster than any other place in the world except for northern India. From 2003 through 2009 an amount equal to the contents of the Dead Sea has disappeared.

 

As water levels drop tensions rise. In Iraq, the absence of a strong government, drought and shrinking aquifers have led to a number of assassinations of irrigation department officials and a re-emergence of clashes among clans which, are feared, could escalate into full scale armed conflicts.

 

In Syria, drought beginning in 2006 forced many farmers to leave their farms and migrate to urban centers.  Some political pundits believe the migration instigated the civil war. With the migration resulting in angry, unemployed men helped trigger a revolution in which 80,000 people have died.

 

Since 1975, Turkey's dam and hydropower construction has reduced water flow to Iraq by 80 percent and to Syria by 40 percent.

 

Wars over water may replace wars over oil.

 

The United States may have to become more sensitive to problems in other countries that are taken for granted within our borders, at least for now.

 

 

Oil or Water

Water, the next war; the Tigris-Euphrates Basin is losing water faster than any other place in the world except for northern India. From 2003 through 2009 due to dwindling rainfall and poor water management policies an amount equal to the contents of the Dead Sea has disappeared.

 

As scientists watch dropping water levels political experts have observed rising tensions. In Iraq, the absence of a strong government, drought and shrinking aquifers have led to a number of assassinations of irrigation department officials and a re-emergence of clashes among clans which, are feared, could escalate into full scale armed conflicts.

 

In Syria, drought beginning in 2006 forced may farmers to leave their fields and migrate to urban centers.  Some political experts believe the migration instigated the civil war. With the migration resulting in angry, unemployed men helping to trigger a revolution in which 80,000 people have died.

 

Since 1975, Turkey's dam and hydropower construction has reduced water flow to Iraq by 80 percent and to Syria by 50 percent.

 

Wars over water may replace wars over oil.

 

Test-Taking

At the university level students are skilled at taking tests.  Test Taking is an ability distinct from actual knowledge, which is not to say that knowledge is unimportant to success on a well-constructed exam. There is a strategic component to right questions" Is there a correction [on multiple choice questions] for guessing?" "Should I write a literal answer, or should I extrapolate?" "Do you want all possible solutions or just the most obvious one?" Skilled test-takers pace themselves intelligently, quickly identifying the most time-consuming questions, making sure that they leave them for last, scoring as many points as they can on questions that could be quickly answered.

 

Is there a course where students are taught how to take tests? Don't need one. It's natural selection.

 

Why natural selection? Student admissions at the university are extremely competitive. Students are products of an educational system in which those who are proficient at test-taking are moved towards the honors tracks in middle school and high school. Once there, they can earn the best grades only by excellent exam work---test-taking again. If that were not enough, nearly all students take a nationwide aptitude test as the capstone of their preparations. Students who are not proficient at test-taking are gradually weeded out. By the time students reach the university classroom, only the adept test-takers are left. It works automatically, just like natural selection.

 

Fwd: FW: All I ask is to pass this on!

 

 

WHEN A SOLDIER COMES HOME This email is being circulated around the world~~~please keep it going. When a soldier comes home, he finds it hard to..... listen to his son whine about being bored. ....to keep a straight face when people complain about potholes. To be tolerant of people who complain about the hassle of getting ready for work. ...to be understanding when a co-worker complains about a bad night's sleep. ..to be silent when people pray to God for a new car. ....to control his panic when his wife tells him he needs to drive slower. ..to be compassionate when a businessman expresses a fear of flying. ....to keep from laughing when anxious parents say they're afraid to send their kids off to summer camp. ....to keep from ridiculing someone who complains about hot weather. ....to control his frustration when a colleague gripes about his coffee being cold. ....to remain calm when his daughter complains about having to walk the dog. .....to be civil to people who complain about their jobs. .....to just walk away when someone says they only get two weeks of vacation a year. ....to be forgiving when someone says how hard it is to have a new baby in the house. The only thing harder than being a Soldier... Is loving one. I was asked to pass this on and I will gladly do so!! Will you??? No one has been able to explain to me why young men and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay on retirement. While Politicians hold their political positions In the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and Receive full-pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense. If each person who receives this will forward it on to 20 people, 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." You are one of my 20+. I passed it on, will you? "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice," and these brave soldiers have given you that right!! I Love my Country. It's the government I'm afraid of!

FREE Animations for your email Click Here!

--
Michael Kinder

Failing States

One of the problems the civilized world is facing is the number of failed states. A failed state, similar to a severely disturbed individual, is a danger to itself as well as well as those around it and beyond.

 

The term "failing state" has been in use only a decade or so but these countries are now the center of global politics. Yesteryear the concern was the concentration of too much power in one state as in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union. Today the concern is the absence of power. Failed states often degenerate into civil war as opposing groups vie for power.

 

Afghanistan is 6th and Iraq is 7^th.  Pakistan is 10^th and has nuclear weapons.

Why you don't really have free will

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-01-01/free-will-science-religion/52317624/1

Christians Controlling Government

On the subject of Christians influencing government, when the founders of the United States added the 8th amendment to the Constitution prohibiting excessive bail, extensive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment they did not have the prick of a needle (our lethal injection) in mind. They were used to punishments such as "flaying alive" and being "drawn and quartered."

 

Do you know what being "flayed alive" means?  The prisoner was tied to a stake hands above his head and his feet secured. Skin was removed from head to toe; the prisoner was disemboweled while still alive. There were other procedures but the prisoner customarily died before the punishment was completed.

 

How about "drawn and quartered; the convicted was hanged, by the neck, until almost dead; strapped down and their abdominal area sliced open, their bowels and genitals would be removed and burn before their eyes; beheaded by an axe; their body divided into four sections (quartered) and, along with their head, put on public display in an attempt to deter people from similar crimes. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of similar crimes were instead burnt at the stake. With modifications the punishment was on the books in England until 1870. The most famous case was Guy Faux who was convicted of trying to blow up parliament. His mistake was thinking he could beat the system. When the rope was around his neck he jumped thinking he would break his neck but he broke the rope. He then went through the final steps fully conscious.  England has holiday, Guy Faux Day.

 

Witchcraft was a capital crime. The legal precedent cited by the devoutly Puritan colonists was the bible; biblical passages such as Exodus 22:18 ("Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live") and Leviticus 20:27 ("A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death"). Problem was there were no witches but that did not stop Christians from thinking there were some.

 

These punishments were enforced by Christians (?) so when the subject is Christians in government we have to be careful. Our war for freedom from Britain was conducted by people who believed owning and mistreating human beings was acceptable behavior and did not want anyone to vote who was not a white protestant, male, land owner.

 

Now presume you are not one of the selected would you still want Christians running the government?

Going Downhill and Excelerating

Since 1960 the divorce rate has doubled, the teen-suicide rate has tripled, the recorded violent crime rate has quadrupled, the prison population has quintupled, the percentage of babies born to unmarried parents has sextupled, and the rate of cohabitation without marriage (which is a pretty good predictor of eventual divorce0 has increased sevenfold. The rate of serious clinical depression has more than tripled over the last two generations, and increased by perhaps a factor of ten from 1900 to 2000. Is it any wonder children are violent? What makes you think anything will change for the better.

Free Will

Free will is the ability of agents to make choices unconstrained by certain factors. The principle of free will has religious implications. In the religious realm, free will implies that individual will and choices can coexist with an omnipotent divinity. We believe salvation is only for those who freely choose Jesus as their savior and choose to follow his instructions and human evil is an unavoidable byproduct of God's gift of free will. If free will goes, so do those beliefs.

 

Do we really have "free will?" "Free will" is defined as: at the moment when we have to decide among alternatives, we have free will if we could have chosen otherwise. In other words if we could re-do  our life up to the moment we make a choice, with every aspect of the universe configured identically, free will means that our choice could have been different.

 

Some believe this sort of free will is ruled out by the laws of physics.

 

Our brain and body, the vehicles that make "choices," are composed of molecules, and the arrangement of those molecules is entirely determined by our genes and our environment. Our decisions result from molecular-based electrical impulses and chemical substances transmitted from one brain cell to another. These molecules must obey the laws of physics, so the outputs of our brain—our "choices"—are dictated by those laws. (It's possible, though improbable, that the indeterminacy of quantum physics may tweak behavior a bit, but such random effects can't be part of free will.) And deliberating about your choices in advance doesn't help matters, for that deliberation also reflects brain activity that must obey physical laws.

 

To assert that we can freely choose among alternatives is to claim that we can somehow step outside the physical structure of our brain and change its workings. We can't do that. Like the output of a programmed computer, only one choice is ever physically possible: the one we made.