THE HANDSTAND

WINTER 2012


miscellany of quotes rousing, rational or rabid - Aa-h!only joking! But be careful of speaking of the Irish "people"

 From Jeoff Siegle of angelnexus:

There's this great scene in the movie Men in Black when Tommy Lee Jones says, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals.”

Although that line of dialogue was written by some high-priced Hollywood screenwriter, it is, nevertheless, entirely accurate.And every time we get sideswiped by some major act of God, we are reminded of this reality.Following Hurricane Katrina, which decimated New Orleans back in 2005, the city was overwhelmed with looting, violence, and murder.And more recently, we saw proof of these “dumb, panicky dangerous animals” following Hurricane Sandy.Sean Bailey, a man from Queens, was arrested last week after pointing his pistol at motorists who complained that he tried to cut in line at a gas station...In New Jersey, fights have broken out in miles-long gas lines as motorists rushed to get just a few gallons in a state where only about 20% of all filling stations are working right now.The obligatory looters have been in full force throughout all five boroughs, gang members posing as FEMA officials have been caught robbing families in affluent neighborhoods, and the number of burglary reports have skyrocketed.

I'm telling you, when Mother Nature knocks us on our collective asses, we almost always respond the same way...Like dumb, panicky dangerous animals.Not to sound like some over-the-top doom-and-gloomer, but I truly believe civilization is no more than a major crisis or two away from a complete breakdown...Especially these days, with crushing unemployment, a greater disparity between the haves and have-nots, and the inability for most folks these days to know how to even survive without emergency rooms, 24-hour gas stations, and fully-stocked grocery store shelves.

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MEDICAL COMMENT :bluepilgrim·http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/p... 
Psychosis 
Definition 
Psychosis is a symptom or feature of mental illness typically characterized by radical changes in personality, impaired functioning, and a distorted or nonexistent sense of objective reality. 
Description Patients suffering from psychosis have impaired reality testing; that is, they are unable to distinguish personal subjective experience from the reality of the external world. [...]
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PoliticianThe sanctity of life

"I'm as pro-life as a person gets," Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican candidate for vice-president, told the conservative Weekly Standard in 2010. How nice. Yet the man supports all of America's wars, each of which takes the lives of large numbers of people, both American and foreign; and he's opposed to national health insurance, which would save countless more lives. The good congressman is also an avid hunter and supporter of gun-owners' rights, so he apparently is not too pro-life concerning other creatures of God's Kingdom. Of course, what Ryan actually means by "life" is an embryo or fetus, perhaps even a zygote. Oh wait, that's not all of it – corporations are also people whose lives Ryan cherishes.

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Libya mission was CIA operation: report

By AAP 

November 02, 2012 "
The Australian" -- THE US mission in Benghazi that came under attack by militants on September 11 was mainly a secret CIA operation, the Wall Street Journal reports, shedding new light on the deadly assault.President Barack Obama's administration has faced a storm of pre-election questions about why there was not more security at the US consulate where four Americans, including ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed on September 11.

The Wall Street Journal said on Friday the mission was mainly a CIA operation, adding that of the 30 American officials evacuated from Benghazi following the assault, just seven worked for the State Department.It also identified the two security contractors killed in the attack - former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty - as working for the Central Intelligence Agency and not the State Department.

In a break from tradition, it said CIA director David Petraeus did not attend the ceremony when the coffins arrived back on American soil in order to conceal the CIA operation in eastern Libya.


It said the nearly two dozen CIA operatives secretly worked out of a separate building known as the "annex", where officials at the consulate had retreated following the initial attack before coming under fire again.The operation, which hit the ground shortly after the start of the February 2011 revolt that overthrew Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was aimed at counterterrorism and securing heavy weapons held by the embattled regime.The Journal suggested that the security lapse may have been caused by miscommunication between the CIA and the State Department, with the latter assuming the annex security team was a sufficient backup for its own guards."They were the cavalry," it quoted a senior US official as saying.
The Journal said that the day after the attack, the CIA sent Libyan security officials to the annex to destroy classified documents and sensitive equipment while leaving the charred and ransacked consulate - which by design had contained no classified materials - unattended.

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A Libertarian Tree Hugger Joel Lipscomb is an architect.

He lives in New Jersey and was the only one in his neighborhood with power following Hurricane Sandy. With solar panels on the roof and a high-efficiency wood stove, his family is not without lights nor heat.And Joel hasn't had to wait for hours in gas lines, risking his life for a few gallons of 87 octane... His Nissan LEAF is fully charged every day, thanks to a small solar array on his garage that acts as his own private “filling station” (and he was smart enough to fill his pickup before the hurricane).Joel's freezer is also running without any problems. It's currently fully stocked with deer, chicken, beef, and vegetables. And he's not worried about anyone looking to rob him, as he's well-armed — and doesn't usually miss!Joel is the perfect example of preparedness.And while many in his neighborhood previously mocked his solar panels and electric cars, often calling the lifelong libertarian a “tree hugger,” he now keeps their laptops and cell phones charged, their neighborhood protected, and their kids well fed.

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Prof Steve Hanke recommended to the Bulgarian Currency Board :

According to Hanke, the third good investment option at present were goods such as coconuts whose consumer price was presently lower than their production price but was expected to rise. Professor Steve Hanke is considered the father of the Bulgarian currency board which pegged the Bulgarian lev (BGN) to the euro.

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