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.
*************************************************************
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. [...]
*******************************************************
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.
***********************************
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.
**************************************************************
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.
****************************************************************
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.
****************************************************************
|