March for Science April 14 2018

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cricketdiane, education, Engineering, evidence based facts, facts matter, march for science, science, science matters, STEM, stem march, support education, support science, supporting engineering, supporting science, US government war on science, war on science

The March for Science is going to be on April 14 this year. It is important this year more than ever to stand up for Science and for STEM in the United States as it is all under attack daily throughout our government in its current iteration.

At a time when America needs science and technology to make significant leaps forward to catch up with the rest of the world who has been supporting education, higher education, science, math, technology and engineering with massive efforts, our nation’s leaders have chosen to make war on science at every opportunity and in every agency, every policy, every possible way.

We need education to support STEM now more than ever and to support education for our children and adults to be competitive in a global playing field where we have fallen behind. Now, rather than supporting our nation to be in a leadership role in science, technology, innovation and education, it is being de-funded, demeaned, derided, discredited, dismantled and destroyed.

These actions will set our nation behind by years upon years against other nations’ efforts supporting STEM, higher education and science, in particular. Please join the March for Science – whether you are a scientist or not to show America’s business leaders and political decision-makers that we stand together supporting fact-based and evidence-based decision making, scientific reason and educated thinking.

• cricketdiane, 04-05-2018

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The website for the March for Science

https://www.marchforscience.com/

Tweets by ScienceMarchDC

What Fourth of July Means to Me

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America, American flag, bill of rights, Civil Rights, cricketdiane, Declaration of Independence, Fourth of July, fourth of july 2016, Freedom, freedoms, god bless america, Human Rights, Independence Day, national anthem, patriotic, Patriotism, pledge of allegiance, rights, US Constitution, USA, what fourth of july means

Is it the barbecues, picnics, going to the lake, family holidays and fireworks? Well, not really. Is Fourth of July a note to the freedoms we enjoy everyday? Sort of. But really, what does it signify anymore? Is it a time to sell  more hotdogs in ads that show us grilling out in our backyard, or simply an excuse to buy three cases of beer for the weekend? What is Fourth of July anymore anyway?

A few days ago, my granddaughter who is six stopped in the living room as the ballgame crowd was singing, God Bless America with hands over their hearts and scenes of the American flag blowing in the breeze over the ballpark. She stood proudly, put her hand over her heart and started singing with them, God Bless America in our living room. And a good friend over for a while sitting to watch the ballgame made a comment of embarrassment that would have shamed her for doing it. And I said, “well sometimes, something has to be important.” That’s true. It can’t be that we are all to sophisticated to join and support respect for our country and what it stands for.

And for days now, that scene rolls about in my mind, of my granddaughter innocently and grandly showing her patriotism in the safety of her own space joining with others on the tele box at the ballgame doing the same thing. And, more and more, I’ve thought about those few minutes of our friend’s reaction being so out of place and bizarre in a sense, and yet, understandable in a time when overt shows of pride in our nation are not for the modern and sophisticated every day person (unless at the ballgame in person or at some public rally specific to it.)

And, I’ve thought about the freedoms to do what we would choose in our own homes, how it is very bizarre for it to be socially unacceptable to stand and sing the National Anthem or America the Beautiful, to join in saying the Pledge of Allegiance, to salute for a parade of soldiers on the tele (even in person at the parade), or to put hand over heart and stand when appropriate to the event we are watching on the TV singing with the National Anthem as the crowd does. How bizarre a lack of freedom that is, in the very country where those freedoms have been fought for, paid for, died for, won for and firmly established. Really, that is strange.

As I think about it, I’m reminded of a recent conversation with one of my daughters in their late 20’s who told me when I was designing tshirts for the Fourth of July and things with the American flag on them, that it has been unpopular and not trendy to wear a shirt with the American flag on it for the Fourth of July. And, yesterday she explained that most people don’t want to wear or carry things in red, white and blue for the Independence Day events, whether it is a headband, party sunglasses, hats or a stick with streamers on it.

I’m not sure if this is true because around the Fourth of July weekend there is lots of those things sold, but maybe it is unpopular or has been recently unpopular for people to embrace those things to use for celebrating the Fourth as an expression of their love for America. Maybe it is okay to have red, white and blue balloons attached to the mailbox to show their barbecue is happening in the backyard for the Fourth of July, but not to wear a shirt that shows those colors or an American flag or says USA. That is bizarre too.

It’s as if we’ve all taken on that contempt found in TV shows’ character dialogs and one-liners that belittles and shames all things expressing our belief in something important and of expressing any feeling of caring about something.important. So is it easier to not engage the moment and express those feelings of oneness with our nation, our pride of place and honor for those who’ve fought to defend it, than to risk being vilified and demeaned even in our own homes for doing it? Really? To be called crazy for standing up and singing the National Anthem or God Bless America even in our own homes – in the privacy of our own homes? Is that what it is to live in this great nation of ours, that even in our own homes, we don’t actually enjoy THAT freedom?

NO. Sometimes, some things have to be important – fashionable or not. It is, in my estimation, not trendy, not fashionable AND it is not sane to belittle anyone as they do on TV shows, sitcoms and even the kid’s shows. It isn’t funny, no one is laughing at it anymore – not for many years now, and despite the popularity of re-running things to hell and back, those dialogs are not the real dialogs between real people in real lives, nor would we ever want them to be. Their ideas of my patriotism and expressions of it cannot be what works in my house nor the definition of what goes in my house and what my choices are for my house. And, it shouldn’t be either, that social conventions described by popular TV sitcoms, reality shows and animated adult humor shows choose our expressions of or reactions to patriotic feelings being expressed, or any damn thing else for that matter.

What Fourth of July means to me is that we all stop for a moment and say together in one voice that it matters, that what has been fought for, defended, protected, lives lost for, tremendous efforts made for and hard won to be a nation of freedom and full human rights honored and protected for everyone – matters. And, that we all agree despite everything on which we disagree – that the United States of America is more than a legacy, that it is ours and together we promise to protect what she stands for , to further what she offers to all, to strengthen and keep her safe from those who would destroy her, and to continue her grand ideals of freedoms and inalienable human rights, opportunities to thrive and equality today and in the future.

And, Fourth of July means that we will honor those efforts made that came before we were ever part of this great nation, to hold her dear, value her ideals, cherish her strengths and make her stronger still.

And frankly, I don’t care what tshirt anyone wears and whether it has an American flag on it or not for the Fourth of July holiday events. I am proud to say that my America lets you wear what you damn well please and I’m an American who supports your freedom and rights to do so. That is what matters.

• cricketdiane, 07-01-2016

I pledge allegiance, to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for ALL. – means we agree on some things being important, despite the many things on which we disagree. It is our duty, our responsibility AND our honor to uphold these Truths noted in the beginning of our Declaration of Independence and structured to be protected by our US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Some things simply do have to be important. And sometimes, we really do have to show that it matters. Happy Fourth of July!

 

 

Commemorative Plates for Family Patriotic USA

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4th of july, America, american, american families, collectibles, commemorative plates, commemorative usa plates, Cricket Diane C Phillips, Cricket House Studios, cricketdiane, family, family plates, military appreciation, patriotic, patriotic designs, patriotic plates, Patriotism, red white and blue, Stars and Stripes, style, USA, USA plates

These porcelain plates I designed are available on Zazzle so that you can customize them with your family name, this year or another year of special commemoration and use them to hang on the wall as collectibles and family commemoration plates. Simply use the template field to change my family name and this year, to whatever you want with your family name. Wonderfully pretty.

America USA July 4th Patriotic Family CricketDiane Dinner Plate by CricketDiane
Shop for another party plate

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About CricketDiane –

I’ve been creating nearly every day since I was a kid and that is over 50 years. I’ve created in numerous ways in a range that moves from art to problem-solving to inventing, creating music, sculpting and painting to writing and doing various computer / online based projects.

“It is better to make the effort to move forward and release the flow of ideas to work with them and do things creatively, create things and invent and write and make – I definitely know that by experience.” – cricketdiane, 2018
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You can find more of my art and designs here –

CricketDiane and Cricket House Studios Store on Zazzle
and other blog writings by me here –

https://cricketdiane.wordpress.com/

https://cricketdiane.com/

On YouTube –

CricketDiane Phillips

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The website for Cricket House Studios Art and Design is found here –

http://www.crickethousestudios.com/

And see my current efforts on GoFundMe to make a board game I created into a video game that I’m working on right now – (NOT active right now – re-analyzing this effort)

The Scared Donkey Mine Money Game by CricketDiane on GoFundMe
Thanks for checking us out!

The Cricket House Studios Team and CricketDiane
**

The Statue of Liberty isn’t called that by virtue of political rhetoric

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America, American money, cricket diane, cricketdiane, Democracy, Egypt, foreign policy, Freedom, Human Rights, Mubarak, Suleiman, US foreign aid, US foreign military aid

As I’ve thought about this and about our nation giving $3.5 million dollars a day to Egypt, along with no telling how much else for a brutal dictatorship to be kept in power all this time, and after hearing the Republican comment on the news several days ago about how the protesters in Egypt had “bought into Obama’s rhetoric from his speech when he was there” and were acting on it – and having seen enough to know that the amount of money per day being paid out to Egypt and other countries with the same kinds of regimes is far in excess of that –

I just keep thinking about the words in the Pledge of Allegiance – and the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Oath our legislators, presidents, secretaries of agencies, staff of agencies, administration officials and foreign policy committees take – and the words keep rolling around in my mind.

Did they think those things were just “rhetoric”?

– cricketdiane

***

The current version of the Pledge of Allegiance reads:^[1]

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

(from)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

***

To be honest, the part I always had trouble with was that “indivisible” thing. I had trouble learning to spell it and trouble when I was younger, learning what it meant. How could I have had so much trouble understanding, “a thing which cannot be divided, is never to be divided, is to forever be one great thing together.” That is how it was explained where it finally made sense to me. I was about 5 years old, maybe younger when I must have asked thirty or forty adults, every time I had the chance, “what does indivisible mean?”

But, the part I didn’t have any trouble with understanding was that last part that says, “with Liberty and Justice for all,” and the fact that I was giving my “”oath,” (my full and complete commitment throughout the full course of my life,) to something greater than myself. The pledge of allegiance isn’t just something we stand and say in a classroom somewhere or before an event of some kind. Those moments standing with our hands over our hearts, heads up, singing our national anthem before football games or baseball games and other events, isn’t a meaningless display of “rhetoric” – that we believe in freedom sometimes for some people in some places under some conditions. That isn’t right.

“With Liberty and Justice For All” doesn’t mean nothing. In the hands and decisions of our legislators and past presidents, it may have meant nothing, but they were wrong. They were just plain wrong when they thought that and acted on it that way.

I understand that we live in a world of contrasts, of conflicting ideologies and disparate perspectives. I get that. But, when choices are made about how our nation uses our resources that we have individually given into a pool to serve our common good, we didn’t send those resources to Washington for other nations to use as a bank account.

“The Statue of Liberty isn’t called that by virtue of political rhetoric”

It is said that when you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything. I think that needs to be expanded a bit to include this, “when the principles that you stand for aren’t applied properly, the results will indicate it. They won’t match up.”

When money is given to Israel and Egypt, (among others) and then used to brutalize people, it does not match up with the principles of democracy, liberty, freedom, human rights, civil rights, inalienable rights, universal human rights, dignity, value for human life, responsibility, equality, and America’s tenets of every single document underwriting our laws and beliefs.

Further, when that money is being used to sponsor brutality and the elite hoarding of resources in these nations, it is also not doing the things elsewhere that do underwrite our values. It is not making a level playing field in free market economies, it is not supporting our own economic foundations either, it is not ensuring our own domestic strengths, it is not being used to benefit our own people and nor is it supporting our own national interests.

It doesn’t match up.

Online, I can go and see the vast sums of money that is being appropriated, has been appropriated, has been sent, spent or just plain went wherever it went. I can go in person and find the vast reams of paper that have printed text, charts, graphs, logs of what the money did and what it was supposed to do, reports, final reports, declassified “secret” documents, and various other physical documentation of how our money was used. I can, (as anyone can), follow a trail to see whose hand appropriated it, argued for it and eventually, find out why that was done in that way by that person or the group who were backing them.

We have people and resources that can do that and are doing that all the time, even before having the internet widely available. There have been some legislators and even Presidential administration members that have found themselves in just as much trouble as many business leaders for the “insider trading” of our dollars and resources among the world’s nations and industries.

But, at its heart is the very thing I started talking about in this post and the post I made yesterday, (about Egypt and the money that has and is going to their ruling dictator and his cronies to brutalize their citizens and profit at their and our expense along with their Washington lobbyists paid to help them do it). The heart of why America’s leaders have in complicity made the wrong choices about what to do with our money and our resources is exactly the things that we’ve all heard them say. They have believed that those words in our Constitution, Bill of Rights, Pledge of Allegiance and other oaths to our nation, in our laws, in our founding principles, are just rhetoric – something to be used in a speech to get the job or to get the seat in Congress or to have the opportunities to be elected or in the case of businesses, to have expanded business profits and “sweet deals.” And to them, these tenets of America are just something to sound good when speaking before the cameras in a televised snippet on the news or in a speech somewhere around the world, or somewhere in the US, because it sounds good and people want to believe that these things matter.

The truth is, these things are being used as “rhetoric” by speechmakers because they know people have, or will, hire elected officials to stand up for these things, not because they are rhetoric but because applying these principles upon which our nation is founded means something to us.

That old saying about following the money and you can see what is important and who is behind it (and why), holds true. What will we find this time as we all see across the entire populations and leaders of the world, what America has done with our money for the last thirty years? What does it prove was important to our leadership who made those decisions and the parties who backed them?

What does it say about our business and corporate leaders? What does it say about our nation and our political leaders and those decision-makers who made these choices? And, what does it say has been done in our name, as the American people who are the bedrock and foundation of our nation?

Did the Washington, London and Geneva groups of decision-makers really believe they were buying “stability” with our resources? As they wined and dined themselves at our expense, and people were being beaten to death all across the world as a direct result of the power those financial and military resources gave, did those decision-makers really believe sponsoring police brutality, denial of human rights, destruction of families and communities, keeping vast multitudes of people in poverty, abuse of people throughout the world (and throughout the US, for that matter) was the “right thing to do”?

Is that right? That’s what they believed . . .?

That’s what they did.

That is what they did with our money and resources.

That is what they did with their decisions and their office of power.

That is what they did at our expense with our name and the money from our pockets.

That is what they chose.

That is what they wanted.

That is what they thought was right.

And, now I’m asking –

“Why?”

Why could that even have appeared to be right?

There is no “stability” from it. Those are not even the kinds of decisions that create stability, stable economies, stable nations, or stable societies. Those kinds of things didn’t work historically to create stability when decisions were made to brutalize populations and keep them impoverished, denying opportunities to many for the hoarding of resources by a few. It never worked. It doesn’t work this time, either. And, for the same reasons it didn’t offer stability in historic examples of it, these were known factors for the very results that would be likely by those making the decisions about it.

So, again – I’m asking, “why?”

Was it like the Wall Street bunch who thought they could simply get out before it all went to hell?

Did they think that if they put enough resources into place, that they could quash any rebellions of people rising up demanding their rightful participation in society such that the historic evidence of results could be waylaid?

Were none of the applications of education made to the decisions at hand when they were making them?

Did the decision-makers think it was all just a matter of rhetoric and perception management?

Hmmmm………..

$3.5 million dollars a day for people to be beaten to a bloody pulp, tortured, abused, denied access to make a living, denied employment, denied their fundamental human rights, denied a place in the society to which they were born and to which they belong, and to make money for the rich and the richer and the richest, while keeping vast populations too poor to even have food, shelter, water, education and opportunity.

How dare you use America to do that.

And, don’t even say that I don’t understand.

I’ve already noticed that our business community and political leadership don’t believe in communist societies until it is time to get free labor or nearly free labor or cheap labor or not have to deal with unionized labor –

And, I’ve already noticed that our leaders and decision-makers have been pretty loosey-goosey about what they see as nothing but “rhetoric” when they are feeding caviar to their friends around the world on our dime –

And, it is pretty obvious where they got the money they are using to feed to their rich friends around the world, including in Egypt and Israel and Jordan and every damn where else –

State after State across the US have budget deficits. The Federal government says they cannot do this and cannot do that because cuts have to be made. Party candidates and representatives scream for the nation to be fifty sovereign separate entities and to remove all Federal domestic spending to “balance the budget.” Homeless people across the US in numbers that are staggering have few, if any opportunities. Vast unemployment across the US and inequity of resources has left millions without opportunities or access to make better lives for themselves.

Massive foreclosures on homes, many of which are being demolished now – are razed to the ground by communities given money to buy them but not money to save them for the families that had owned them, have devastated our nation at every level. Vast numbers of businesses, retailers, corporations, and long established companies have gone into bankruptcy, closed their doors or re-organized by closing multiple locations in their organizations.

Resources once in place for factories and businesses to produce things, including the production and factory line equipment have been sold for nearly nothing to countries around the world and now do not exist in our own country to use. It is no longer a matter of re-tooling a factory for production, the equipment, dies, production line, manufacturing robotics, specialty manufacturing processes and equipment would all have to be built or contracted from another country to be built “from scratch,” even to make a startup producing anything.

Patents and intellectual property once in the control and management of the US and for our citizens’ employment opportunities, and for our business profits to be made – have now been stripped from companies that were either sold to other nations or offered in “fire sales” to raise needed money without resulting in saving the companies who did it that way.

Well, I would say –

At the rate of hundreds of billions of dollars going out every single day to the rest of the world from our States coffers and our Federal tax dollars, and with hundreds of billions of dollars a day going also to these same places from everywhere any other resources exist, from the UN, the UK, the EU, from every agency of the US and state governments, from the IMF, and from vast business / industry groups as well –

you have fucked up.

***

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/topusretailcompanies/a/chapter11retail_5.htm

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/topusretailcompanies/a/chapter11retail_4.htm

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/topusretailcompanies/a/chapter11retail_3.htm

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/topusretailcompanies/a/chapter11retail_2.htm

http://retailindustry.about.com/od/topusretailcompanies/a/chapter11retail.htm

These are lists of retailers which have gone under in the US only in 2008-2009.

***

A note from a website about arms sales from the US – (and appropriations for it) –

When countries designated by the State Department’s Human Rights Report to have poor human rights records or serious patterns of abuse are factored in, 20 of the top 25 U.S. arms clients in the developing world in 2003—a full 80%—were either undemocratic regimes or governments with records of major human rights abuses.

A report from the World Policy Institute released mid-2005 has found that the U.S. is routinely funneling military aid and arms to undemocratic nations. [The figures are from] 2003, for which the most recent data was available at the time, (above).

(from)

http://www.globalissues.org/article/74/the-arms-trade-is-big-business

***

USAID or the U.S. Agency for International Development, offers tens of thousands of results for any search for non-military aid.

(from)

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/politics/us-foreign-aid.htm

(also from that page – about US foreign military aid and other funds flowing out of the US coffers to foreign nations)

It has become more difficult to get more recent data, since the FAS stopped presenting their analysis in 2006. Ever since, it is necessary to go to the source data from the US State Department. The State Department is not consistent year-by-year in its data presentation. Entities change, departments change, and file names change. Each year presents a new puzzle, as to how to find the data. (etc.)

One third of ALL US AID
goes to Israel and Egypt.

These 2 countries receive
one-third of the total
aid, the majority of which
pays for armaments.
Yet, neither is a “developing” country.

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/politics/us-foreign-aid.htm

***

(also from)

http://www.globalissues.org/article/74/the-arms-trade-is-big-business

The British arms manufacturer, BAE was being investigated for bribing Saudi officials to buy fighter planes, but the government intervened in the investigation citing national interests. The Guardian also reported that BAE gave a Saudi prince a £75 airliner ($150m approx) as part of a British arms deal, with the arms firm paying the expenses of flying it. This seemingly large figure is small compared to the overall deal, but very enticing for the deal makers, and it is easy to see how corruption is so possible when large sums are involved.

***

A note from an earlier blog post about  – “innovating in America”

In fact, imagine what happens when I want to create a business. As an example – There is a need that I see for a person to be able to go into any store and buy something which would show up at another store in another state or another location across town. I know their computers are tied together and they are part of the same corporate entity. But, I also know that they are sometimes franchise stores, that their inventory systems are not necessarily the same in every state and that their financial systems do not integrate from store to store. I think this could be fixed with a bit of software which could be designed and then sold to the store’s corporate headquarters to do this job for them. It would serve their customers. It would serve my needs and my family’s needs when we want to buy groceries or formula for for a daughter or son or grandbaby or friend or someone somewhere in some other state. It would allow us to purchase a fan or heater or air conditioner here where we live that they could go to their local store and simply pick up to have it right now on the same day. We could buy tires for their car when the tires are so bald that they aren’t safe anymore and pay for them to be picked up near the college where they are living or in the state where they decided to runoff to in order to have some freedom from us.

It is true, that between what I know and what other people who can do programming know, that we could create the software to do this. That is a fact. It is a good innovation. That is also a fact. I can even write a business plan to show how it would make money and project revenues for it with something less than a lie and fairly close to the reality of what costs it would have and sales it could make. However, then what happens?

And, the text from that blog entry goes on to explain some of what happens and the insurmountable obstacles which have been placed in the way of anyone in America creating their own business –

But what happens if it is the King of Saudi Arabia, or Mr. Netanyahu, or Mr. Mubarak and his goon squads – Hmmm……. Let’s see. Despite the fact that they can both personally, and economically from their own nation’s resources start up such a business, or provide the capital for it to be accomplished – they call America and get the money that I couldn’t even access one millionths of one tenth thousandths of a micro-fraction of one percent of – in order to do it, when in fact, for the price of the caviar they throw away from their tables alone, just about all of Georgia’s state budget could be provided for our entire population to prosper for several years.

Hmmm…………

***

Well, what do I want to do about this?

Let me think.

Yes, I’ve thought of some things –

One, of course – is to do nothing and let America fall to its indentured servitude in slavery to its Mid-Eastern and Asian masters. The leaders we’ve had and their viewpoints and decisions sold us to them and now here we are . . .

Two, would be to bring a class-action suit against the appropriations members who have decided to consistently give our money away to ruthless and already well-funded dictators against every known law and principle our nation has. That is certainly a possibility that would hold them individually and collectively responsible for what they’ve done. It would have to reach back at least thirty years and include the advisors and their political backers who told them to do it that way in antithesis of everything our nation stands for. And maybe add “collusion” with those dictators and corporate interests involved, in the charges.

Hmmm…….

Yes, that would be good.

At the very least, the world would see that the American people do not agree with things being done that way and let the people around the world know that we do stand up for what is right. I doubt that it would fix anything, though.

Third, I could start a business somewhere else rather than in the US, especially since this is so typical of life in the US during the last thirty years of my adult lifetime, and I have no way to change it –

Rubenstein said Louima is a victim of perhaps one of the worst examples of police brutality in the history of this country.

Louima’s case led to a major shakeup of the New York Police Department. Charges against him were later dropped. ( . . . )

After Louima’s arrest in 1997 for a scuffle outside a nightclub, Volpe assaulted him in the patrol car and later sodomized him with a broomstick handle inside the 70th Precinct station house. Louima suffered severe internal injuries.

http://articles.cnn.com/2002-02-28/justice/police.torture.overturn_1_bathroom-assault-thomas-wiese-haitian-immigrant-abner-louima?_s=PM:LAW

(and this one – )

Houston’s mayor and police department were on the defensive Friday, two days after graphic video came out showing several police repeatedly kicking and beating a 15-year-old burglary suspect as he lay on the ground.

(There is actually video of this one along with many, many others like it from across the US – )http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-05/justice/texas.police.beating_1_police-officers-police-car-police-department?_s=PM:CRIME

Fourth, we could all get together as Americans and demonstrate as they are doing in Egypt –

It is certainly possible, but it looks like to me that multitudes have been protesting these kinds of things for years upon years at every occasion and it has yet to yield even one modicum of difference in it.

Fifth, ahhh – even better –

There could be a class action styled suit brought to the international courts for breach and defiance of international laws by decisions and financial appropriations made by our previous leadership including the Senators and Congressmen who made those choices. Many of those laws were insisted upon and written by the United States leadership for the rest of the world to follow, so they obviously knew them when they made those decisions.

Again, at the very least, the rest of the world would know that America’s citizens did not agree with doing things that way, nor did we agree with brutal dictatorships that they were sponsoring with our financial resources.

And, of course, sixth would be –

could be, anyway – to hunker down like the right wing militia types are screaming for us all to do and get enough gold, physical protection and friends who think the same way about it to try and survive it all as it is . . .

but, gold doesn’t buy anything in America for regular Americans trying to get food, or shoes, or pay the utility bills, or get water when it is needed to drink, or just about anything else required – and as much as I believe in guns and the right to have them and to carry them, I’ve never noticed them to be an appropriate nor handy option at the point of needing to defend myself against sure physical assault or danger. Those are really just expensive and stupid toys to most of the people who have them in this day and time. And, friends who think as those right wing people do are part of the reason we are where we are right now in as big a mess as we are in – I don’t think having them any one bit closer to me is what would make my life better or safer.

So, Seventh could be –

Building something that I could sell to those jackasses in the Middle East and elsewhere to get our money back. That is one possibility but it could be that it was part of what they were trying to do when they sold all those military arms to those places in the first place. It looks as though, our national resources were appropriated to go to those countries by the millions of dollars a day, and then some companies, in particular military hardware companies, went over there, sold them those even more dangerous “toys” and as a consequence, funded their companies’ profitability. I suppose, that is what they told themselves they were doing anyway.

And, while I can certainly see how that worked out – still, there are some who are working to do it that way, from Wal-Mart to PepsiCo among others. And, President Obama did say for us to out-innovate them, out-maneuver them and out-do them in typical American fashion as we have been prone to do on multiple occasions in our history. That might work . . .

I could take my little, “order a patent” form and sell it around the world through brokering deals on our patents. They are selling them around the world anyway. Hmmm………

Then, these countries could make the things wherever they sit – oh wait, they are already doing that, from tanks to helicopters, handguns to 50mm rifles, chemical and biological weapons to sodapop and air cleaners . . . No use in brokering licenses at this point, then. And, what can’t be done that way is getting reverse engineered anyway. So, hmmm…… again.

Well, a number Eight choice of what I could do about all this might be –

To at least make sure my children know what matters in America –  having cosmetically enhanced big tits and shopping to get designer handbags whether they are homeless or not. And, knowing who to bet on in the Super Bowl, including the commercials. That is the important thing.

I’m guessing they already know how to get drunk and just not worry about it, like most of the rest of America does. And, at least that is considered psychologically healthy in our society. Most of our leaders are running around the world partying to their heart’s content and on any given day, most of America is “wired” or drunk too. At least, they will know how to fit in, and never notice the crap going on around them.

I still think they should at least change the Barney song on kiddie tv to reflect that the only good use of any American child, adult or citizen, generally is to “not be special.” At least it would be honest.

At most, I think there should be a national campaign to let people know that they are not important in America, that there are no freedoms or rights from brutality, and that our Constitutional guarantees of such things simply are no more than rhetoric to those we have charged with positions of leadership in our country over the last thirty years. And, that is why police brutalize us on our own streets and halfway around the world, as well as in countries we have funded with our hard-earned dollars.

Nope, that wouldn’t be right – it would possibly remove hope and that may be the last remaining shred of what people have.

There would have to be a Ninth choice of what I could do –

I could let my imagination run wild a bit and see what it comes up with – like something designed that would literally melt the gun that is in the hands of someone about to use it . . . .

That would be an interesting possibility but it wouldn’t get our money back from those who have it nor would it get the constant flow of our funds to dictators who are brutalizing their people to stop.

It also wouldn’t re-route any of those funds to our national domestic needs and uses. But, it would be nifty to see armed combatants have nothing but ooze in their hands where a gun used to be – before they can even shoot with it at somebody.

It would make me feel better, anyway.

I don’t think that “sensitivity training” would stop any of the police brutality we have on our own streets, or to keep the use of our funding, training and police equipment, (and military equipment) to brutalize and torture people elsewhere from happening. At one time, I had thought that anger management courses being required of all police personnel for their own anger issues would be of help, but then having been reminded of the fact that “absolute power corrupts absolutely” (roughly paraphrased,) it occurred to me that it just wouldn’t be enough to do any good. And, besides – we’ve been taking fairly normal people and training them to be psychotic in the ways they deal with others in order to do police things, and military things and espionage things, and detective things and other things of that nature. (and most of them may not have been real “normal” and respectful of others in the first place, but they certainly wouldn’t have been after the kind of training we’ve been paying for them to have.)

What if,

all the heads of state, US and international leaders and every single person involved in giving our money to Egypt to brutalize people were required to spend three months in an Egyptian jail at the hands of those brutal beatings every day by their secret police that our leaders have been funding for thirty years – would it change their minds about whether it matters or not and whether those “human rights things’ are just a matter of rhetoric?

Is it that, in the plush surroundings of mahogany clad rooms with elegant gold gilded furnishings where every mete and measure of their whims, needs and desires are satiated with immediacy from the finest selection of everything available on the planet, the idea of “human rights’ is simply an intellectual discussion for debate to entertain and while away the hours?

Or, is it that they are just chasing the party? I had thought about this earlier, that Bautista in Cuba was propped up to keep the party available in America’s playground (although Americans weren’t the only ones partying there), and by party – I mean, the casinos, the drunken orgies, the opportunity to have prostitutes who will engage in whatever twisted perversions businessmen and government leaders desire – in fact, prostitutes of even young ages of both sexes available to them for nearly nothing, the most extreme forms of gambling from full contact lethal sports between people and all types of animals, to other twisted games of chance upon which to bet, opportunities to have “sweet deals” and inside contracts on business dealings, and the kickbacks and bonuses from those things along with the nearly free flow of drugs that they desire from cocaine to smoking hashish (to relax.) Could it be that wherever we, as Americans and as international citizens, have seen leaders and power brokers maintain oppression of the local people, there has gone hand-in-hand, a use of that population to serve the needs, whims and desires of a few in ways that are irresponsible, unconscionable, twisted and perverse, considered by them to be entertaining or satiating in some way, and against what would be considered sane social norms were it done in any other place?

There is a solution to that.

We could return these countries to their local populations to run, stop funding military weapons to them and use that money for ourselves instead as our nation is in dire straits, and create one place appropriate to party where the whole world agrees for them to go and do that. It could be created in such a way that no one under the age of thirteen would be allowed into it ever. And, only those below twenty-five whose parents agreed to sell them for that use could be offered in that environment (since that is what they are doing already). And, all the twisted extreme forms of gambling, lethal sport fighting, and sex could just go on day and night and night and day and then nobody would have to be repressed, obsessed, oppressed, beaten half to death or killed to get it, keep it or have it available.

Or we could make sure all our businessmen are eunuchs before sending them anywhere to make deals or lobby Washington. I don’t know, its just a thought.

Maybe my imagination is not the best places to find choices of solutions. It finds some extremes as options that seem at least nearly as appropriate as what is being done already. But, all the above concept would do, would be to confine to one place, that which is unacceptable to be happening anywhere already, yet is happening in many places around the world to serve the whims and perversions of the rich, of the wealthy business leaders and government officials that are running to those places as it is. It wouldn’t really fix anything or make it better for the nations where it is happening, in the US where it is happening, nor the people who have been forced to endure it.

Maybe there needs to be a tenth option –

Well, we could all just get in there and be criminals, too. This is how some people are doing it and there are many examples of how this is working, sometimes well and sometimes not. I would say that Bernie Madoff showed us how to do it well, he lived well, he enjoyed his life and so did the family he made. The brutal dictators of many foreign countries have done it well, as have the Bush clan and their friends – a little close to the line at times but overall – they’ve gotten away with it.

And, the bankers and Wall Street groups have found ways to make it legal to steal from everybody. We could all just do that, too – in the ways they’ve already shown us. They’ve gotten away with it as well. And, people like them just fine. That, of course is the typical “join ’em” philosophy, which it looks like any number of people in the world have managed to do without consequence, maybe it is the “American way”.

There have, in fact – only been a few instances where that didn’t work out so well. Even during Prohibition, vast sums of money and power were accumulated and until they started shooting each other in the streets every other day, very few people in America even cared.

I don’t much like the tenth option. It is possible and as much as I or anyone else could do it that way, it seems like a lot of trouble to go through without changing much of anything for the better, but maybe I’m wrong. At the very least, those people are in positions of power and people listen to them and do things the way they want them done, including interpreting our Constitution to suit themselves and their own perspectives about what is important.

But, I don’t like it.

I will try one more time to think of something I could do about all this – hopefully, more effective than the things I’ve considered already – there would have to be some other choices –

*  I could write about it – did that.

*  I could give up and not doing anything about it – tried that.

*  I could tell others about it and see if they will do anything about it – yeah, well, it didn’t matter to them either, but maybe I didn’t work with the right people who give a damn about it or know what to do.

*  I could build something that would help, which was a choice in the above group of options – have done that.

*  I could do any or all of the things on the list above whether I liked them, or thought much of them or not – well, maybe.

*  And, I could bring into the world something that would help – I’m working on that.

*  Or, I could create a solution or a set of solutions that doesn’t exist already – that would work.

Hmm…….

Well, that certainly was fun.

I’m still disgusted by what our previous thirty years of officials, agency members and elected leaders have done with my money and my family’s money and my neighbor’s money and my state’s money and my nation’s money and my children’s money and our opportunities and the opportunities I would have had in my lifetime and that they would’ve had in their lifetimes – [*that sheer and absolute contempt for what they did and how they did it, might just never change.]

– cricketdiane

***

***

Switzerland: Letter to the Swiss Confederation regarding the visit of Mr Bush / February 3, 2011 / Assistance to victims / OMCT

Tags

anti-corruption, anti-torture, cricketdiane, Human Rights, President Bush, Republican Presidential administrations, Switzerland, torture ordered by President Bush and Dick Cheney, UN human rights council, US executive trust

In light of the overwhelming body of available information there can hardly be doubt that there are grounds that were to trigger Switzerland’s obligation to submit cases for investigations into the crime of torture against anybody present on its soil who has authorized, participated or was complicit in the above practices.

 

This would have to include also former President G Bush who had the overall control as commander in chief and as all information suggests authorized, knew and acquiesced into the practices that constitute the crime of torture. Switzerland would also have to take measures against any offender present on its territory to secure his presence for such criminal investigations and proceedings.

 

In this regard, the OMCT considers that neither officials nor former Heads of States can enjoy immunity for the crime of torture under the UN Convention Against Torture, nor can superior orders or the memos drafted by government lawyers and that sought to immunize officials from prospective prosecution under US domestic law, shield them from responsibility under international law.

via Switzerland: Letter to the Swiss Confederation regarding the visit of Mr Bush / February 3, 2011 / Assistance to victims / OMCT.

Excerpt from the article / letter on the above linked page about the visit that ex-President George Bush was expecting to make on Feb. 12, 2011.

It is about damn time. He and his Republican conservative cronies had no right to use the United States the way they did and to use the resources put at their command to abuse people, to torture, to kill people during torture, and to do any other of a number of horrible things they did. It is unfortunate that they made those decisions but they were not done in our name as citizens and most of us, including me – do not agree with any of it having been done in America’s name. I’m glad they have taken a stand on it.

– cricketdiane

***

 

Why I know the government of the states and the US are lying to us – whether Party, Legislatures, Legislators, Politicians, Elected US Government Officials, State Government Officials, Republicans, Democrats, Administration Leadership, Agency Appointees, Highly Paid Experts to Cabinet Members and Administration Officials, Highly Paid Experts and Think Tanks to Congressional Members and Caucuses – gee, let me think – what tells me they are lying?

Tags

bill of rights, cricketdiane, Don't Tread On Me, health care reform, health care summit Washington DC, health insurance corruption in Washington political parties, innovation and invention, lies of Washington and state govenments in the US, New Boston Tea Party Actions, tenets of freedom, the Revolutionary War soldiers of this generation, the United States of America, US and state legislators, US Constitution, US Government

Here is why I know Washington is lying – all of them that we’ve elected to be there making decisions who are at the table –

1.  They didn’t invite us to the table (as in, the American people). Oh no, they invited the insurance companies to be at the table, the automakers CEOs, the banking industry and financial services industry CEOs, pharmaceutical company representatives, oil company lobbyists and big industry consortium representatives to be at the table – not us.)

2.  If they (legislators in Washington) had wanted to pass a health care insurance bill to serve the US population, they could’ve passed one bill to make it illegal for insurance companies to charge 80% more in premiums based on gender and to make it illegal to deny coverage in pre-existing conditions. (Period – nothing else in the bill, no “riders”, no pork, no bullshit.) But they didn’t do that – no, not even after a year of fussing, cussing, discussing and putting off other more important issues to play with this one. Time consuming at best – energy, manpower, effort, money, resource, time and opportunity wasting at worst.

3.  If they were very concerned about the health and well-being of the American people and our quality of life throughout the US, these legislators would’ve stopped a lot of common practices in industries, including the release of toxic chemicals into their surrounding living communities. They would’ve stopped corporations from taking profits made in the US into other countries in order to evade taxes on those profits. They would’ve funded schools first and the re-building of Iraq and Afghanistan second. They would’ve thought more of us than to allow 2600 complaints about cars with defective design elements to be disregarded while causing deaths and injuries to people throughout the US. They would’ve made sure our food supply and food providers were using safe food handling methods and processes across the board whether the manufacturer sneaked the production facilities into another country with lax standards or was sitting here in the US right under their noses breeding salmonella and E.Coli in their production facilities. They would’ve required standards of accounting in our corporations that show everything on the balance sheet, not off-balance hidden accounting for liabilities and they would’ve required that accounting to be prudent and truthful and accurately reflect the true values of those assets and liabilities across the board. They would’ve made financiers who got into trouble dig into their own pockets to get themselves out of it, since that is the same thing required of us. And, they would’ve made sure that nobody, but nobody could buy the goodwill and rubber stamp of the consumer protection agency that was intended to keep us safe from defective products and fraudulent business practices. They didn’t do any of that.

4.  The elected officials in Washington also never, never, never create and apply policy that does what they claimed it would do, either by their intentional design of it which is the antithesis of what they claimed it would be or by virtue of some very basic misunderstanding of applied common sense which escapes their abilities and that of their staff members. Rarely, if ever, are the people of the United States doing anything that they can hear, acknowledge, believe or understand to express the accurate facts about what their policy decisions are destroying, causing, distorting, screwing up, manipulating in negative ways or otherwise resulting in some unnecessary and expensive suffering of some kind. That information is either discounted, discredited or just plainly not heard in Washington no matter how it is done and no matter what measures are used to get the information to them. Then, why do I know they are lying because of this – because I can hear it, I can see it, I know about it, I find it easy to get the information about what their policies have done in real factual reflections of reality. To say they can’t or don’t know or can’t see it or can’t hear it or don’t know about it – has to be either a lie or a lying excuse to do nothing about it.

5. I also know they are lying because the evidence is there in their choices, decisions and actions. One side of their mouths says that the American people are at fault for our financial meltdown, while their backhand is giving away our money to financial institutions and insurance companies like it is a private bank account of free money to cover whatever they want at the moment. The other side of those mouths they have are saying that they want us to innovate and create solutions, while behind their backs they are doing everything possible to hinder the growth and opportunities of entrepreneuship, raising fees and licenses, requiring absurd groups of regulations to be met by small businesses and startups, hindering business grants and loan packages to any but the large business communities and foreign investors, and generally, laying every complexity of intellectual prowess in the path of starting up any business from scratch at all – particularly those that are innovative, new, and competitive to larger industries.

6.  At every turn, they have taken out the checks and balances systems that would ensure our Constitutional rights and guarantees are upheld and that would insure our government doesn’t become the bully state of Orwellian novels which we’ve all seen come to fruition in dictatorships, regimes of absolute tyranny, despotism, aristocratic rule, profit-driven anything goes industrialism, and in Nazi Germany’s Aryan race atrocities. Enough is enough, none of us like the America that has become so close to those things as to mitigate the belief it can be something else. If our government legislators in the states and federal levels cared about that as they say they do, they simply wouldn’t be doing half the things they are doing now and wouldn’t have done 90% of the things they’ve already done. The checks and balances built into our system would be restored to what it was intended in order to accomplish what was intended and offer accountability both individually and collectively from our government officials at every level as well as our agencies. The sovereign immunity clause offering no accountability to government personnel is only appropriate in a tyranny or a dictatorship where there are no rights afforded the citizens – not in a free and democratic society where the government serves the people who are their primary source of power.

7.  One side of our government party system says that small government is desirable and offers a list of benefits they assume come with that territory – and they did their best to accomplish that while they spent the last thirty years in power. They were lying then and they are lying now. Those benefits did not materialize during their reign. And, the word for small government is “king” with the tentacles of an octopus doing all his dirty work. Which, by the way, is exactly what we’ve had in the US for the last thirty years and more so in each and every day throughout that time and still yet from the damages that they caused. States underfunded programs that the Republican administratorship did not want, removed checks and balances because they didn’t want to be accountable for the heinous crimes they committed everywhere they touched, acted like mini-dictatorships at the behest of the federal government lackeys who were serving the interests of industries, big business, and financial conglomerates and genuinely, treated the American people like slaves and undesirables along with establishing a caste system in America where it didn’t belong that is still there to this day. They were lying when they said that is the “American Way.” They were lying when they said it would be the best for America. They were lying when they told us our lives would be better and America would be stronger for it. They were lying when they said they weren’t criminals. They were lying when they said they had the interests of the American people first and foremost on their agenda and on their minds when they did these things and numerous others (both at state levels and federal levels). It was all lies.

8.  I also know they are lying now because they do know better. They have the finest resources available, all of our money, the best in education, the best in the educated minds of our country available to them, the most in money, materials and manhours to get any job done, the best in intellectual and data resources from around the world available to them, the instant information resources from the American people to use as feedback on how their decisions are actually working out – if they choose to see them or hear them, the best opportunities, the most egregious pool of combined resources that belong to us which we’ve made available to them from every hard earned dime and dollar we’ve sent there along with the resources that have been bought with it – as well as having resources available to them on a daily basis that cover every basic need, want, income, delight, luxury, comfort, opportunity and desirable life experience for each of them personally – so they could want for nothing while doing our national and state business. How the hell can you screw it up with that much to work with?

9.  If they wanted to stop waste and fraud, they could stop giving themselves raises. If they wanted to help the budget deficit, they wouldn’t have been charging the American people to cover each of them with 100% fully paid health care coverage when they, if anybody could afford it for themselves. If they wanted to cut government dole, they would’ve only hired lawyers to cover their asses as needed instead of keeping armies of them on the payroll at anywhere from $187,000 – $450,000 a year each as they have done. If they wanted to insure good health in America, they would’ve changed the fuel on school buses from diesel to natural gas and they would’ve made polluting industries stop polluting in the same year they discovered they were doing it, not years into the future after really damaging the health of everybody for hundreds of miles around and many generations thereafter. If they had ever wanted to get legislation passed that was sane, sober and built on some kind of common sense, they would’ve made it illegal to place riders into bills that are in no way related to the material subject of the legislation. At the very least, if they had wanted to do a good job for the American people, they would’ve considered the American people and their interests in light of what they were doing, what they are doing and in light of what choices they are making in order to serve industries that basically have no use for them or us in the overall scheme of their activities.

10. I’m sad to say that I know they are lying because to get to Washington requires being the better liar, the more convincing liar and the best opportunistic lying bastard of the lot or people just don’t get to be elected to go to Washington. Isn’t that the shame of it all, that we, as Americans would choose the best liar of the lot to send into Washington to get our business done than to choose an honest, decent man or woman to serve our interests? And, isn’t it the shame and tragedy of it all, that we let them get away with it without doing a damn thing to change it when we knew what they were doing was wrong and even, as most of us noticed that they weren’t listening to any of us with any real regard – that we let them get away with demonizing us, discrediting us, disregarding us, and generally, dismissing us and our concerns? They lied to us in Washington and in our state legislators and administrations. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party have served the interests of their financial power base while lying to us and using us to further their own personal opportunities and enrichment. The lies have been so pervasive and perverse that the media and the American people alike believe that the truth, the facts and the reality are no more than a matter of opinion and rhetoric as presented by whosever side is representing it and irregardless of those facts. And, isn’t it the greater shame of all of it that the truth, in fact – will be the reality that we all suffer, endure or experience – no matter what perspective we might have about it. Dead is dead and broke is broke and polluted beyond recognition is still polluted beyond recognition – climate change is, because we are experiencing it whether the “rhetoric” told us it didn’t exist or not, and most of us in America are living in a “Depression Economy” whether it is called that or not and no matter what the politicians tell us it is.

(And)

11. Just for good measure, the problem with these lies and probably the reason most religions suggest that it is a bad idea in the first place, is because reality will win out every time. Sooner or later, the propaganda doesn’t work and the deflected, distorted perspectives about reality and about the facts just doesn’t make any difference in changing what is what. It still is whatever it is. And sooner or later, people know about it and they do understand it for what it is, and sooner or later, they do get up and make things different starting right where they are with a power that is unknown and misunderstood by the people who think they hold all the power. One change, changes everything a little bit and another change, changes it even more, and as another person and another person join in making those changes one at a time from where they are with their own personal abilities and perceptions, the whole thing changes even more.

That is the truth. And, that is what made the Boston Tea Party so monumental. The American Revolutionaries said – You will not tax us without representation. You will not steal from us without our voice. You will not indenture us in enslavement to you and you will not indenture our lands and the abilities of our hands. You will not tread on me nor force me to set below your feet for you to stand on nor for your power to rest upon. You will not use me to do your bidding without my will or choice. You will not remove from Us nor from me that which God has given:  life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and the right of every man to set his own course and to pursue his own destiny. Try as you might, once a human being knows the taste of freedom, democracy and the rights to life free of the burdenous yoke of tyranny – there is no going back.

Don’t believe for one minute that perception is everything. It just isn’t. The power and truth of our Constitution does not exist in a piece of paper or some flimsy document resting in a museum somewhere. It is in each of us and that is where the true power of our nation’s substance exists and where it will always exist. It is in the power and wonder of freedom that we already know exists and can exist for each of us that can never be taken away no matter the circumstances where we find ourselves. It is the truth of what we see and know in our hearts and minds which is defined by the reality of the facts at hand that can never be distorted by politicians or religious fervor or zealousness of a cause or by the disregard for human life that we have experienced or have seen those in authority exemplify. It is the desire for human dignity and decency and fairness for all without discrimination, contempt or disregard. It is the sword of justice that is not blind, deaf and dumb to the plight of suffering and inhumanity to human lives and human dignity at the hands of others. It is the will of the American people, both individually and collectively that define the power of the government to govern by no more and no less than the consent of the governed. And, it is the true power that comes from the intimate knowledge of the freedom, rights and accountability to those tenets of America’s founding fathers that spilled our blood to protect it and have made us the soldiers of freedom that we are and will always be as American citizens and as citizens of the World.

– cricketdiane, 02-25-10

**

Failed Banks, Foreclosures Increase by ? how much, and what is left of AIG now – why do they want to keep the biggest money loser in the bunch? So, how is everything all okay now? Any $2000 is only worth $300 now in America – how is that okay?

Tags

AIG, bank bailouts, banks, credit default swaps, cricketdiane, economic crisis, failed US banks, foreclosures, housing prices, International Concerns, macroeconomic forecasting, mortgage insurers, mortgages, Wall Street

Failed Bank List

The FDIC is often appointed as receiver for failed banks. This page contains useful information for the customers and vendors of these banks. This includes information on the acquiring bank (if applicable), how your accounts and loans are affected, and how vendors can file claims against the receivership. Failed Financial Institution Contact Search displays point of contact information related to failed banks. This list includes banks which have failed since October 1, 2000. Open Bank List as CSV file –> Failed Bank List – CSV file (Updated on Mondays. Also opens in Excel – Excel Help)

Bank Name City State CERT # Closing Date Updated Date 1st American State Bank of Minnesota Hancock MN 15448 February 5, 2010 February 12, 2010 American Marine Bank Bainbridge Island WA 16730 January 29, 2010 February 3, 2010 First Regional Bank Los Angeles CA 23011 January 29, 2010 February 3, 2010 Community Bank and Trust Cornelia GA 5702 January 29, 2010 February 3, 2010 Marshall Bank, N.A. Hallock MN 16133 January 29, 2010 February 3, 2010 Florida Community Bank Immokalee FL 5672 January 29, 2010 February 3, 2010 First National Bank of Georgia Carrollton GA 16480 January 29, 2010 February 3, 2010 Columbia River Bank The Dalles OR 22469 January 22, 2010 February 2, 2010 Evergreen Bank Seattle WA 20501 January 22, 2010 February 2, 2010 Charter Bank Santa Fe NM 32498 January 22, 2010 February 2, 2010 Bank of Leeton Leeton MO 8265 January 22, 2010 February 2, 2010 Premier American Bank Miami FL 57147 January 22, 2010 February 2, 2010 Barnes Banking Company Kaysville UT 1252 January 15, 2010 February 3, 2010 St. Stephen State Bank St. Stephen MN 17522 January 15, 2010 January 26, 2010 Town Community Bank & Trust Antioch IL 34705 January 15, 2010 January 26, 2010 Horizon Bank Bellingham WA 22977 January 8, 2010 January 12, 2010 First Federal Bank of California, F.S.B. Santa Monica CA 28536 December 18, 2009 December 23, 2009 Imperial Capital Bank La Jolla CA 26348 December 18, 2009 December 23, 2009 Independent Bankers’ Bank Springfield IL 26820 December 18, 2009 January 14, 2010 New South Federal Savings Bank Irondale AL 32276 December 18, 2009 December 23, 2009 Citizens State Bank New Baltimore MI 1006 December 18, 2009 January 8, 2010 Peoples First Community Bank Panama City FL 32167 December 18, 2009 December 23, 2009 RockBridge Commercial Bank Atlanta GA 58315 December 18, 2009 December 22, 2009 SolutionsBank Overland Park KS 4731 December 11, 2009 December 15, 2009 Valley Capital Bank, N.A. Mesa AZ 58399 December 11, 2009 December 15, 2009 Republic Federal Bank, N.A. Miami FL 22846 December 11, 2009 December 15, 2009 Greater Atlantic Bank Reston VA 32583 December 4, 2009 December 15, 2009 Benchmark Bank Aurora IL 10440 December 4, 2009 December 8, 2009 AmTrust Bank Cleveland OH 29776 December 4, 2009 December 8, 2009 The Tattnall Bank Reidsville GA 12080 December 4, 2009 December 15, 2009 First Security National Bank Norcross GA 26290 December 4, 2009 December 8, 2009 The Buckhead Community Bank Atlanta GA 34663 December 4, 2009 December 15, 2009 Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida Fort Myers FL 58016 November 20, 2009 December 15, 2009 Pacific Coast National Bank San Clemente CA 57914 November 13, 2009 November 18, 2009 Orion Bank Naples FL 22427 November 13, 2009 December 15, 2009 Century Bank, F.S.B. Sarasota FL 32267 November 13, 2009 December 15, 2009 United Commercial Bank San Francisco CA 32469 November 6, 2009 November 9, 2009 Gateway Bank of St. Louis St. Louis MO 19450 November 6, 2009 November 9, 2009 Prosperan Bank Oakdale MN 35074 November 6, 2009 November 9, 2009 Home Federal Savings Bank Detroit MI 30329 November 6, 2009 December 15, 2009 United Security Bank Sparta GA 22286 November 6, 2009 December 15, 2009 North Houston Bank Houston TX 18776 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 Madisonville State Bank Madisonville TX 33782 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 Citizens National Bank Teague TX 25222 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 Park National Bank Chicago IL 11677 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 Pacific National Bank San Francisco CA 30006 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 California National Bank Los Angeles CA 34659 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 San Diego National Bank San Diego CA 23594 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 Community Bank of Lemont Lemont IL 35291 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 Bank USA, N.A. Phoenix AZ 32218 October 30, 2009 November 3, 2009 First DuPage Bank Westmont IL 35038 October 23, 2009 November 3, 2009 Riverview Community Bank Otsego MN 57525 October 23, 2009 November 3, 2009 Bank of Elmwood Racine WI 18321 October 23, 2009 November 3, 2009 Flagship National Bank Bradenton FL 35044 October 23, 2009 October 29, 2009 Hillcrest Bank Florida Naples FL 58336 October 23, 2009 October 28, 2009 American United Bank Lawrenceville GA 57794 October 23, 2009 October 28, 2009 Partners Bank Naples FL 57959 October 23, 2009 October 28, 2009 San Joaquin Bank Bakersfield CA 23266 October 16, 2009 October 21, 2009 Southern Colorado National Bank Pueblo CO 57263 October 2, 2009 October 20, 2009 Jennings State Bank Spring Grove MN 11416 October 2, 2009 October 20, 2009 Warren Bank Warren MI 34824 October 2, 2009 October 20, 2009 Georgian Bank Atlanta GA 57151 September 25, 2009 October 13, 2009 Irwin Union Bank, F.S.B. Louisville KY 57068 September 18, 2009 September 22, 2009 Irwin Union Bank and Trust Company Columbus IN 10100 September 18, 2009 September 22, 2009 Venture Bank Lacey WA 22868 September 11, 2009 November 23, 2009 Brickwell Community Bank Woodbury MN 57736 September 11, 2009 November 23, 2009 Corus Bank, N.A. Chicago IL 13693 September 11, 2009 November 23, 2009 First State Bank Flagstaff AZ 34875 September 4, 2009 November 23, 2009 Platinum Community Bank Rolling Meadows IL 35030 September 4, 2009 November 23, 2009 Vantus Bank Sioux City IA 27732 September 4, 2009 November 23, 2009 InBank Oak Forest IL 20203 September 4, 2009 November 23, 2009 First Bank of Kansas City Kansas City MO 25231 September 4, 2009 November 23, 2009 Affinity Bank Ventura CA 27197 August 28, 2009 November 23, 2009 Mainstreet Bank Forest Lake MN 1909 August 28, 2009 November 23, 2009 Bradford Bank Baltimore MD 28312 August 28, 2009 November 23, 2009 Guaranty Bank Austin TX 32618 August 21, 2009 February 3, 2010 CapitalSouth Bank Birmingham AL 22130 August 21, 2009 November 23, 2009 First Coweta Bank Newnan GA 57702 August 21, 2009 November 23, 2009 ebank Atlanta GA 34682 August 21, 2009 November 23, 2009 Community Bank of Nevada Las Vegas NV 34043 August 14, 2009 November 23, 2009 Community Bank of Arizona Phoenix AZ 57645 August 14, 2009 November 23, 2009 Union Bank, National Association Gilbert AZ 34485 August 14, 2009 November 23, 2009 Colonial Bank Montgomery AL 9609 August 14, 2009 November 23, 2009 Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association Pittsburgh PA 31559 August 14, 2009 November 23, 2009 Community First Bank Prineville OR 23268 August 7, 2009 November 23, 2009 Community National Bank of Sarasota County Venice FL 27183 August 7, 2009 November 23, 2009 First State Bank Sarasota FL 27364 August 7, 2009 November 23, 2009 Mutual Bank Harvey IL 18659 July 31, 2009 November 23, 2009 First BankAmericano Elizabeth NJ 34270 July 31, 2009 November 23, 2009 Peoples Community Bank West Chester OH 32288 July 31, 2009 November 23, 2009 Integrity Bank Jupiter FL 57604 July 31, 2009 November 23, 2009 First State Bank of Altus Altus OK 9873 July 31, 2009 November 23, 2009 Security Bank of Jones County Gray GA 8486 July 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Security Bank of Houston County Perry GA 27048 July 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Security Bank of Bibb County Macon GA 27367 July 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Security Bank of North Metro Woodstock GA 57105 July 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Security Bank of North Fulton Alpharetta GA 57430 July 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Security Bank of Gwinnett County Suwanee GA 57346 July 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Waterford Village Bank Williamsville NY 58065 July 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Temecula Valley Bank Temecula CA 34341 July 17, 2009 November 23, 2009 Vineyard Bank Rancho Cucamonga CA 23556 July 17, 2009 November 23, 2009 BankFirst Sioux Falls SD 34103 July 17, 2009 November 23, 2009 First Piedmont Bank Winder GA 34594 July 17, 2009 November 23, 2009 Bank of Wyoming Thermopolis WY 22754 July 10, 2009 November 23, 2009 Founders Bank Worth IL 18390 July 2, 2009 November 23, 2009 Millennium State Bank of Texas Dallas TX 57667 July 2, 2009 November 23, 2009 First National Bank of Danville Danville IL 3644 July 2, 2009 November 23, 2009 Elizabeth State Bank Elizabeth IL 9262 July 2, 2009 November 23, 2009 Rock River Bank Oregon IL 15302 July 2, 2009 November 23, 2009 First State Bank of Winchester Winchester IL 11710 July 2, 2009 November 23, 2009 John Warner Bank Clinton IL 12093 July 2, 2009 November 23, 2009 Mirae Bank Los Angeles CA 57332 June 26, 2009 November 23, 2009 MetroPacific Bank Irvine CA 57893 June 26, 2009 November 23, 2009 Horizon Bank Pine City MN 9744 June 26, 2009 November 23, 2009 Neighborhood Community Bank Newnan GA 35285 June 26, 2009 November 23, 2009 Community Bank of West Georgia Villa Rica GA 57436 June 26, 2009 November 23, 2009 First National Bank of Anthony Anthony KS 4614 June 19, 2009 November 23, 2009 Cooperative Bank Wilmington NC 27837 June 19, 2009 November 23, 2009 Southern Community Bank Fayetteville GA 35251 June 19, 2009 November 23, 2009 Bank of Lincolnwood Lincolnwood IL 17309 June 5, 2009 November 23, 2009 Citizens National Bank Macomb IL 5757 May 22, 2009 November 23, 2009 Strategic Capital Bank Champaign IL 35175 May 22, 2009 November 23, 2009 BankUnited, FSB Coral Gables FL 32247 May 21, 2009 November 23, 2009 Westsound Bank Bremerton WA 34843 May 8, 2009 November 23, 2009 America West Bank Layton UT 35461 May 1, 2009 November 23, 2009 Citizens Community Bank Ridgewood NJ 57563 May 1, 2009 November 23, 2009 Silverton Bank, NA Atlanta GA 26535 May 1, 2009 November 23, 2009 First Bank of Idaho Ketchum ID 34396 April 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 First Bank of Beverly Hills Calabasas CA 32069 April 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Michigan Heritage Bank Farmington Hills MI 34369 April 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 American Southern Bank Kennesaw GA 57943 April 24, 2009 November 23, 2009 Great Basin Bank of Nevada Elko NV 33824 April 17, 2009 November 23, 2009 American Sterling Bank Sugar Creek MO 8266 April 17, 2009 November 23, 2009 New Frontier Bank Greeley CO 34881 April 10, 2009 December 23, 2009 Cape Fear Bank Wilmington NC 34639 April 10, 2009 November 23, 2009 Omni National Bank Atlanta GA 22238 March 27, 2009 November 23, 2009 TeamBank, NA Paola KS 4754 March 20, 2009 November 23, 2009 Colorado National Bank Colorado Springs CO 18896 March 20, 2009 November 23, 2009 FirstCity Bank Stockbridge GA 18243 March 20, 2009 November 23, 2009 Freedom Bank of Georgia Commerce GA 57558 March 6, 2009 November 23, 2009 Security Savings Bank Henderson NV 34820 February 27, 2009 November 23, 2009 Heritage Community Bank Glenwood IL 20078 February 27, 2009 November 23, 2009 Silver Falls Bank Silverton OR 35399 February 20, 2009 November 23, 2009 Pinnacle Bank of Oregon Beaverton OR 57342 February 13, 2009 November 23, 2009 Corn Belt Bank & Trust Co. Pittsfield IL 16500 February 13, 2009 November 23, 2009 Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast Cape Coral FL 34563 February 13, 2009 November 23, 2009 Sherman County Bank Loup City NE 5431 February 13, 2009 November 23, 2009 County Bank Merced CA 22574 February 6, 2009 November 23, 2009 Alliance Bank Culver City CA 23124 February 6, 2009 November 23, 2009 FirstBank Financial Services McDonough GA 57017 February 6, 2009 November 23, 2009 Ocala National Bank Ocala FL 26538 January 30, 2009 November 23, 2009 Suburban FSB Crofton MD 30763 January 30, 2009 November 23, 2009 MagnetBank Salt Lake City UT 58001 January 30, 2009 November 23, 2009 1st Centennial Bank Redlands CA 33025 January 23, 2009 November 23, 2009 Bank of Clark County Vancouver WA 34959 January 16, 2009 November 23, 2009 National Bank of Commerce Berkeley IL 19733 January 16, 2009 November 23, 2009 Sanderson State Bank En Español Sanderson TX 11568 December 12, 2008 November 23, 2009 Haven Trust Bank Duluth GA 35379 December 12, 2008 November 23, 2009 First Georgia Community Bank Jackson GA 34301 December 5, 2008 November 23, 2009 PFF Bank & Trust Pomona CA 28344 November 21, 2008 November 23, 2009 Downey Savings & Loan Newport Beach CA 30968 November 21, 2008 November 23, 2009 Community Bank Loganville GA 16490 November 21, 2008 November 23, 2009 Security Pacific Bank Los Angeles CA 23595 November 7, 2008 November 23, 2009 Franklin Bank, SSB Houston TX 26870 November 7, 2008 November 23, 2009 Freedom Bank Bradenton FL 57930 October 31, 2008 November 23, 2009 Alpha Bank & Trust Alpharetta GA 58241 October 24, 2008 November 23, 2009 Meridian Bank Eldred IL 13789 October 10, 2008 November 23, 2009 Main Street Bank Northville MI 57654 October 10, 2008 November 23, 2009 Washington Mutual Bank (Including its subsidiary Washington Mutual Bank FSB) Henderson NV 32633 September 25, 2008 November 23, 2009 Ameribank Northfork WV 6782 September 19, 2008 November 23, 2009 Silver State Bank En Español Henderson NV 34194 September 5, 2008 November 23, 2009 Integrity Bank Alpharetta GA 35469 August 29, 2008 November 23, 2009 Columbian Bank & Trust Topeka KS 22728 August 22, 2008 November 23, 2009 First Priority Bank Bradenton FL 57523 August 1, 2008 November 23, 2009 First Heritage Bank, NA Newport Beach CA 57961 July 25, 2008 November 23, 2009 First National Bank of Nevada Reno NV 27011 July 25, 2008 November 23, 2009 IndyMac Bank Pasadena CA 29730 July 11, 2008 February 1, 2010 First Integrity Bank, NA Staples MN 12736 May 30, 2008 November 23, 2009 ANB Financial, NA Bentonville AR 33901 May 9, 2008 November 23, 2009 Hume Bank Hume MO 1971 March 7, 2008 November 23, 2009 Douglass National Bank Kansas City MO 24660 January 25, 2008 November 23, 2009 Miami Valley Bank Lakeview OH 16848 October 4, 2007 November 23, 2009 NetBank Alpharetta GA 32575 September 28, 2007 November 23, 2009 Metropolitan Savings Bank Pittsburgh PA 35353 February 2, 2007 November 23, 2009 Bank of Ephraim Ephraim UT 1249 June 25, 2004 April 9, 2008 Reliance Bank White Plains NY 26778 March 19, 2004 April 9, 2008 Guaranty National Bank of Tallahassee Tallahassee FL 26838 March 12, 2004 November 23, 2009 Dollar Savings Bank Newark NJ 31330 February 14, 2004 April 9, 2008 Pulaski Savings Bank Philadelphia PA 27203 November 14, 2003 July 22, 2005 First National Bank of Blanchardville Blanchardville WI 11639 May 9, 2003 August 6, 2009 Southern Pacific Bank Torrance CA 27094 February 7, 2003 October 20, 2008 Farmers Bank of Cheneyville Cheneyville LA 16445 December 17, 2002 October 20, 2004 Bank of Alamo Alamo TN 9961 November 8, 2002 March 18, 2005 AmTrade International Bank En Español Atlanta GA 33784 September 30, 2002 September 11, 2006 Universal Federal Savings Bank Chicago IL 29355 June 27, 2002 April 9, 2008 Connecticut Bank of Commerce Stamford CT 19183 June 26, 2002 November 23, 2009 New Century Bank Shelby Township MI 34979 March 28, 2002 March 18, 2005 Net 1st National Bank Boca Raton FL 26652 March 1, 2002 April 9, 2008 NextBank, NA Phoenix AZ 22314 February 7, 2002 November 23, 2009 Oakwood Deposit Bank Co. Oakwood OH 8966 February 1, 2002 November 23, 2009 Bank of Sierra Blanca Sierra Blanca TX 22002 January 18, 2002 November 6, 2003 Hamilton Bank, NA En Español Miami FL 24382 January 11, 2002 November 23, 2009 Sinclair National Bank Gravette AR 34248 September 7, 2001 February 10, 2004 Superior Bank, FSB Hinsdale IL 32646 July 27, 2001 November 23, 2009 Malta National Bank Malta OH 6629 May 3, 2001 November 18, 2002 First Alliance Bank & Trust Co. Manchester NH 34264 February 2, 2001 February 18, 2003 National State Bank of Metropolis Metropolis IL 3815 December 14, 2000 March 17, 2005 Bank of Honolulu Honolulu HI 21029 October 13, 2000 March 17, 2005

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html

***

AIG Decides to Keep Unprofitable Mortgage Insurer (Update1)

February 12, 2010, 04:20 PM EST

AIG, which was rescued in September 2008 after losses from bad bets tied to housing markets, posted a $1.43 billion operating loss from mortgage insurance in the first nine months of 2009 as U.S. foreclosure filings climbed to a record. The company said in November that it tapped the Treasury Department line within its $182.3 billion rescue package for about $4.2 billion, in part to restructure United Guaranty.

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc., the insurer divesting assets to repay a government bailout, opted to keep its money-losing U.S. mortgage guarantor after selling Canadian and Israeli subsidiaries of the unit.

AIG made a “recent decision” to hold onto Greensboro, North Carolina-based United Guaranty, Arlene Isaacs-Lowe, a Moody’s Investors Service analyst, wrote yesterday in a research note. AIG executives told her of the move within the past few months, Isaacs-Lowe said today in an interview.

United Guaranty was founded in 1963 and sold to AIG in 1981. The business generated $2.8 billion in operating income and $600 million in dividends for AIG in the eight years prior to the housing slump, the company has said.

United Guaranty was ranked the fourth-largest U.S. mortgage insurer in the first six months of 2009, behind No. 1 MGIC Investment Corp., Radian Group Inc. and PMI Group Inc., according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade journal. All the firms were unprofitable in the first nine months of 2009.

Essent Guaranty Inc., backed by investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., became the first newcomer to the U.S. mortgage-guaranty business since the housing collapse, leaving it unburdened by policies sold in 2005 and 2006 when underwriting standards were lower.

Until 2007, private mortgage policies had been among the most profitable types of coverage sold by insurers. From 2004 to 2006, members of the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America reported a profit margin of at least 35 cents for every dollar they collected in premiums. Auto insurers made less than 5 cents on every dollar in 2006, according to A.M. Best Co.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-12/aig-decides-to-keep-unprofitable-mortgage-insurer-moody-s-says.html

***

Editorial

The Year in Foreclosures

Published: February 14, 2010

New York Times

Last week offered some sobering news on the housing market: Even with broad government support for housing, data from the National Association of Realtors showed that the median price of single-family homes continued to decline in 2009. RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties, said foreclosure filings rose by 15 percent in January compared with a year ago.

Foreclosure is generally a long process, with multiple filings as delinquent borrowers fall ever further behind. What is most ominous about the latest RealtyTrac numbers is that nearly 88,000 people had their homes repossessed in January, a 31 percent increase from a year ago. The big jump indicates that many foreclosures that were in process in 2009 are now beginning to move to repossession and, eventually, auction. With more than four million homes in that pipeline, the foreclosure crisis shows no sign of abating.

[ . . . ]

There is an emerging consensus among financial experts and policy makers that the key to successful modifications is to reduce the amount of the borrower’s loan balance, rather than merely reducing the monthly payment. The goal is to lower the payment while restoring equity, thus giving borrowers both the means and the incentive to keep up with their payments.

Administration officials have resisted that approach, in part because they believe it would be too expensive. Another obstacle is the lenders themselves. In general, a lender is unwilling to take losses by reducing principal unless the owners of the second mortgage on a home also take a hit. For banks that own the second mortgages, such losses would be huge — something they clearly would prefer not to face up to.

Banks’ unwillingness to take losses on second mortgages may also be holding up so-called short sales, in which a lender agrees to retire a first-mortgage debt by taking the proceeds from the sale of the home, even when the amount is less than the mortgage balance.

(Excerpt from – )

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/opinion/15mon2.html

***

The number of Americans who owed more than their homes were worth was virtually nil when the real estate collapse began in mid-2006, but by the third quarter of 2009, an estimated 4.5 million homeowners had reached the critical threshold, with their home’s value dropping below 75 percent of the mortgage balance.

They are stretched, aggrieved and restless. With figures released last week showing that the real estate market was stalling again, their numbers are now projected to climb to a peak of 5.1 million by June — about 10 percent of all Americans with mortgages.

“We’re now at the point of maximum vulnerability,” said Sam Khater, a senior economist with First American CoreLogic, the firm that conducted the recent research. “People’s emotional attachment to their property is melting into the air.”

Suggestions that people would be wise to renege on their home loans are at least a couple of years old, but they are turning into a full-throated barrage. Bloggers were quick to note recently that landlords of an 11,000-unit residential complex in Manhattan showed no hesitation, or shame, in walking away from their deeply underwater investment.

[ . . . ]

It would cost about $745 billion, slightly more than the size of the original 2008 bank bailout, to restore all underwater borrowers to the point where they were breaking even, according to First American.

Using government money to do that would be seen as unfair by many taxpayers, Mr. Barr said. On the other hand, doing nothing about underwater mortgages could encourage more walk-aways, dealing another blow to a fragile economy.

With prices now down by about 30 percent, underwater borrowers fall into two groups. Some have owned their homes for many years and got in trouble because they used the house as a cash machine. Others, like Mr. Koellmann in Miami Beach, made only one mistake: they bought as the boom was cresting.

Guy D. Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance magazine, says he does not hear much sympathy from lenders for their underwater customers.

“The banks tell me that a lot of people who are complaining were the ones who refinanced and took all the equity out any time there was any appreciation,” he said. “The banks are damned if they will help.”

David Rosenberg, the chief economist of the investment firm Gluskin Sheff, wrote recently that borrowers were not victims. They “signed contracts, and as adults should also be held accountable,” he wrote.

Of course, this is not necessarily how Wall Street itself behaves, as demonstrated by the case of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. An investment group led by the real estate giant Tishman Speyer recently defaulted on $4.4 billion in debt that it had used to buy the two apartment developments in Manhattan, handing the properties back to the lenders.

Moreover, during the boom, it was the banks that helped drive prices to unrealistic levels by lowering credit standards and unleashing a wave of speculative housing demand.

[ . . . ]

Mr. Koellmann applied last fall to Bank of America for a modification, noting that his income had slipped. But the lender came back a few weeks ago with a plan that added more restrictive terms while keeping the payments about the same.

“That may have been the last straw,” Mr. Koellmann said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/business/03walk.html?fta=y

No Help in Sight, More Homeowners Walk Away

Published: February 2, 2010

By DAVID STREITFELD

***

The Making of a Euromess

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: February 14, 2010

For the truth is that lack of fiscal discipline isn’t the whole, or even the main, source of Europe’s troubles — not even in Greece, whose government was indeed irresponsible (and hid its irresponsibility with creative accounting).

No, the real story behind the euromess lies not in the profligacy of politicians but in the arrogance of elites — specifically, the policy elites who pushed Europe into adopting a single currency well before the continent was ready for such an experiment.

Consider the case of Spain, which on the eve of the crisis appeared to be a model fiscal citizen. Its debts were low — 43 percent of G.D.P. in 2007, compared with 66 percent in Germany. It was running budget surpluses. And it had exemplary bank regulation.

But with its warm weather and beaches, Spain was also the Florida of Europe — and like Florida, it experienced a huge housing boom. The financing for this boom came largely from outside the country: there were giant inflows of capital from the rest of Europe, Germany in particular.

The result was rapid growth combined with significant inflation: between 2000 and 2008, the prices of goods and services produced in Spain rose by 35 percent, compared with a rise of only 10 percent in Germany. Thanks to rising costs, Spanish exports became increasingly uncompetitive, but job growth stayed strong thanks to the housing boom.

Then the bubble burst. Spanish unemployment soared, and the budget went into deep deficit. But the flood of red ink — which was caused partly by the way the slump depressed revenues and partly by emergency spending to limit the slump’s human costs — was a result, not a cause, of Spain’s problems.

(etc. – he claims that the single currency Euro has created the problem – – I don’t agree, but it does mean that some options for currency adjustments are not available to use for fixing the situation as a result of the single currency – my note)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/opinion/15krugman.html?em

***

My Notes – Who decided that the value and costs of property, including basic shelter / housing would be at a price far beyond the reach of any real wages made in a year or in five years of a citizen’s efforts?

When was that created and was it by the natural laws of supply and demand at the time or was it constructed with intention?

And, what has it become now / as a natural outgrowth of housing values having exceeded the real income of the majority of our population, along with the uses of mortgages as an asset class to be bought and sold and leveraged against – what do we have now as a result of this huge disparity between income and housing costs?

What happens when banks are allowed to borrow at 0% interest from our Treasury using our money, although they are a bad credit risk in every respect at the time they are allowed to borrow many millions at 72 to 1 (or more) against every dollar of assets they pretend to have? (and at asset valuations they pretend are at a level that was taken before the economic downturn)?

Not only are people walking away from their upside down mortgages, they are also not being employed in any reasonable period of time after being dumped by companies whose only interest was to pad the bottom line for a short period of time to inspire conditional confidence in their stock shares?

What happens when people realize that they are not going to be employed anytime in the next five years, are not going to be able to own another house in their lifetimes, watch their children not have access to a higher education because the money intended for it was returned to them depleted of over 75%  of its initial value, and begin to understand the disparity of return on their time and efforts if and when companies do choose to hire them back?

Who was it that decided the next natural progression in the economic foundation of our country would drop manufacturing and replace it with money making money industries? Who decided that it would be a strong, healthy foundation for our economic future? What bunch of ninnies came up with that?

So, now that companies do not have to profit or to be profitable in the primary business model under which their business operates, but simply have to manipulate investment portfolios to their advantage, what real value do those companies (and state budgets and Wall Street firms) have to the employment base, in interactive services and products available to the benefits of our population, and in our longterm financial growth as a nation?

When large corporate and institutional players are the only ones basically manipulating the markets, the stock markets, the commodities markets, the futures and speculative plays marketplaces, and international economies and markets, what actual real values exist for any of the things being traded?

Just as when in 2008, the speculative increase in the oil futures drove prices up to record profits for those speculators and their firms, entire industries across the United States suffered massive losses as they covered the extra costs of those oil prices at the consumer level. But, the entire play was no more than a manipulated construct. It wasn’t the real value of the commodity in any sense but it was passed along to the consumers, including throughout the increased business costs passed along secondarily to consumers.

And, what value do those speculators have and the profits they skimmed off that play when their time, effort, talents, resources, and availability of cash isn’t used for anything productive that enhances the overall economic foundation and future of the United States? It isn’t being used to underwrite alternative energy options, it isn’t the speculators that are inventing something which solves real problems in our communities nor that solves climate change causes nor do those resources make our companies more solvent and more competitive. What good do they do?

When housing mortgages are packaged and sold, then resold and a number of financial products are made based on them, including the credit default swaps, the mortgage insurance products, leverages are made against them in huge loan packages based on their value, then what real value do they have going forward? Are they real? Are they a pretense with no more value than what someone in Wall Street or the backrooms of a banking firm somewhere says that they have? Are they real capital formation, or are they in fact, not worth the paperwork they are printed on? What trade actually exists on them in any solvent form once people across the world in every aspect of our society and financial systems are aware that the values are unfairly being manipulated and don’t exist in the real world?

Trickle down economics is a failed economic policy from the Reagan years and beyond Greenspan’s idea of an unregulated economy – at what point do the Wall Street firms and gigantic banking conglomerates realize the basis of their comparative valuation structures have re-valued real assets somewhere below zero? Why don’t they know that now? Losses that required a loan over $180 Billion dollars for AIG seem to be a clear indication of what that means. As they have tried to sell off assets, which have borne little of their estimated and accounting values – it would indicate the disparity that exists between the real economy, the real values and their perceptions of values? Why does it not tell them anything that makes sense to them in a broader understanding of what they are doing?

To me, it indicates that using a “money making money” basis for our overall economic foundation is not a sound choice, among other things. It also shows me that the integral factors of trading values are manufactured and not real.

Over the course of all these elements put together, it tells me that our economy and our economic growth, our economic foundation, our economic future, it set out over air with no real foundation whatsoever. The basic relationships that should exist to maintain a stable structure of values for the purposes of comparison and realistic values being set to actual assets, values, housing, properties, corporations, loans, loan products or whatever financial instruments does not exist in any actual sense.

It also shows me that the rules do not exist for either the values nor for the plays that can be made with them which makes the system more like a polished poker game of bluffing than a real market or any other monetary concept of actual values.

What happens when those banks, financial firms, investment banks, investment houses, stock brokerages, financial investment funds, insurance companies acting as hedge funds, and other exaggerated examples of financial imprudence get to play by a set of rules which offers large grants, loans and offsets when they are insolvent, defaulting on loans, exemplify a bad credit score and a bad credit risk, whose past behavior indicates bad choices and even tremendous bad judgments and bad plays, insider trades, conflicts of interest and abuse of their fiduciary trust?

What basis of economic growth and what new understanding of fiduciary trust does that become when those same people and institutions are refusing credit to anyone whose credit score resembles what they had when they used and continue to use the American taxpayer’s money and our National Treasury to cover their losses?

(An implicit obligation of the United States means what now?)

– cricketdiane, 02-15-10

I watched as the economic forecasters and analysts continued to say it is all better now, the same way they said in 2008 that we weren’t in a Recession (while not being willing to even use the word in many cases). Either they don’t know what the hell they are doing or they are lying about what they do know. I’m not sure which it is, but to continue paying analysts and advisors whose sole intent is to propagate lies in the name of instilling a falsely founded confidence in a system whose values are distorted, at best – is beyond me to understand.

The economic models that I understand are dimensional and well-founded in larger pictures of integrated values. When the Reagan administration cronies and Republican administration policy makers decided to fudge the numbers throughout statistical data sets that they had to collect and make public by law, it did not change the facts. The unemployment numbers inclusively are not the numbers published by the US Labor Department as a result of the changes made by Republican administrators, however – it didn’t change the facts on the ground in this country. And, since everyone making analyses knows that those employment and unemployment numbers have been divided into unnatural categories of data and statistically manipulated by that division, they should know better than to assume the rate of unemployment is anywhere close to 10% in the United States. Even adding the admitted unemployment figures across every state, yields a figure much higher on any given date and even those do not include those citizens who are in our prisons at the moment, put in mental hospitals for some reason, having to work part-time when they can’t afford to live at that rate, retired by having to go back to work because their pensions have been stolen by Wall Street, and those who have not continued to collect unemployment benefits but are still unemployed.  The real loss in consumer buying power can be significant enough that even China knew to put its focus on other markets that don’t include the United States.

Don’t tell me that everything is all okay now – that isn’t even close to the truth.

***

***

If nobody can afford to buy a house except those people who “flip houses” – then what is a house really worth?

If 90% of the bread produced goes unsold and into the trash bin, then what is a loaf of bread worth? Is it really worth the $4.29 that is being charged for that loaf of bread?

– cricketdiane

(everything from my notes on down are my thoughts about it – understandably I still have more questions that are unanswered – I will study it some more.)

***

Info portal of satellite images including archived images at USGS from Landsat satellite program

Tags

air pollution, Air Quality, climate change, Cricket House Studios, cricketdiane, Global Warming, information portals sources, maps, Reality-based Analysis, satellite photos, science stuff portals, USGS, water pollution, water quality, weather maps, where to find satellite pictures of places on earth

Free Landsat Scenes Go Public by the Million
Released: 8/20/2009 3:26:01 PM

Contact Information: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Office of Communication 119 National Center Reston, VA 20192

Ron Beck Phone: 605-594-6550 Joan Moody Phone: 202-208-3280

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//

On August 17, someone who wanted to see how the Earth looks from 440 miles away in space downloaded the one-millionth Landsat satellite image scene from a U.S. Geological Survey web site at its Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Since the USGS opened its full Landsat archive to user access at no charge last October, the response from across the nation and around the globe has grown exponentially.

“USGS satellite operations and its data archives at EROS enable experts, or any interested member of the public, to see the land objectively with unbiased, consistently calibrated data,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “The historical depth and reliability of these earth observations are vital to scientists and land managers across the country and across the Department of the Interior in projects that range from climate change studies and invasive species surveys to the monitoring of drought and assessment of wildfire damage.”

One development of particular note is that the very oldest data in the archive, dating to over three decades ago, is being downloaded at unprecedented levels – with land-surface change detection emerging as a primary use of Landsat data.

“The opening of the Landsat archive to free, web-based access is like giving a library card for the world’s best library of Earth conditions to everyone in the world,” said Adam Gerrand, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Landsat 1 was launched on July 23, 1972, and subsequent Landsat missions have continually acquired land-image data across the globe. Scientists, educators, and the general public use these data for a wide array of activities ranging from supporting disaster relief efforts to making agricultural crop assessments to identifying sites for cell phone towers.

Landsat scenes can be previewed and downloaded through the USGS Global Visualization Viewer or USGS EarthExplorer.

Additional information on satellites, sensors, data, and the Landsat Program, which is managed by the USGS in partnership with NASA, can be found at the Landsat Missions Web site.

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USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov.

Subscribe to USGS News Releases via our electronic mailing list or RSS feed.

**** http://www.usgs.gov ****

[from]

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2293&from=rss_home

***

USA Health Care is number one – who told you that?

Tags

Cricket House Studios, cricketdiane, economic development, health care reform, insurance industry, life in the USA, medical industries, medical industry, medical science, medicine, Republican Conservatives, US and Global economic crisis, US health care

My Note –

The health care reform debate so far has been like having the makers of nuclear bombs at the table for disarmament talks – for understandable reasons – they will do all they can to undermine the success of those talks.

With the health care industry more dangerous than heart disease and cancer put together in the number of preventable deaths that are a direct result of their misogyny, incompetence, barbaric practices, profiteering, and mishandling of knowledge and expertise, who needs an enemy?

When we have beheld a common enemy, the citizens of the United States have joined to problem solve and correct the most intolerable and inhumane situations that have been instigated by the powerful, the corrupt, the overbearing, the perverse, the tyrannical, the unconscionable, and by those who would profiteer at the exceptional expense of all. We have stopped them. We have meted out justice to them and we have corrected their twisted concepts of how the world works.

When are we going to do that for these conservative right-wing corporate monstrosities that have been running our country and our lives into the ground for over a quarter of a century at the hands of their perverted reasoning and immoral application of the universal principles founding our nation?

While deeming themselves qualified to judge every last element of American life from sexuality and normalcy to acceptable uses of time and daylight and money, based on some picture show from the 1930’s glamorized by Hollywood’s elite, these monsters of the business community, right-wing politics, Christian fundamentalism, conservative Republican re-interpreters of freedom and democracy have managed to destroy just about everything they touched.

And so it goes and they still want more and more and more and more and more. When did they ever consider that they were above washing their own dishes and wiping their own asses or that they had the right to use all the resources we have put into our collective good as their own private party slush funds to serve them and no one else?

They certainly don’t mind the word socialism when it comes to covering the business losses from their extreme gambling addictions gone bad in the stock market, in bad corporate decisions to leverage against every last dollar or dime the corporation might make over the next twenty years or on the level of any number of other stupid financial gambling practices. Then, its our money to the rescue and not one Republican nor conservative excuse for a human being says that they shouldn’t be doing that with the taxpayers money more than a weak and playful, “oh, don’t do that . . . “ in the way a little kid would say it with a smirk on their face and a twinkle in their eyes.

That private party group of conservatives and right-wing business leadership needs a deluxe room out of town without a cellphone or a computer and no access to taxpayers money for awhile where they can re-evaluate their views of reality without anybody telling them what to think or how to think about it or what it means. And, that’s the truth.

– cricketdiane, 08-14-09

***

[and to repeat from my last post – ]

Excuse me but, the health industry as we currently have it – has killed more people and maimed more people than the devil himself.

The refusal to find a way to offer reasonable costs for health care has resulted in more inhumane cruelties than many wars that have been fought.

Health care, good care, good health and quality of life research wasn’t paid for by a few Christian fundamentalists or conservative talk show hosts or Republican business people – We, as American taxpayers covered the costs of that research, those breakthroughs, and that knowledge.

When did we decide that access to those tax funded benefits to society belonged only to a meager few who deemed themselves and their families more worthy of that care than the rest of us?

– cricketdiane

***

[And from the article in the Guardian UK which started my look at the ideas]

‘Evil and Orwellian’ – America’s right turns its fire on NHS

• Datablog: How does the NHS compare to US healthcare?

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 August 2009 21.00 BST

Andrew Clark in New York

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/11/nhs-united-states-republican-health

The National Health Service has become the butt of increasingly outlandish political attacks in the US as Republicans and conservative campaigners rail against Britain’s “socialist” system as part of a tussle to defeat Barack Obama’s proposals for broader government involvement in healthcare.

[ . . . ]

Slickly produced television advertisements trumpet the alleged failures of the NHS’s 61-year tradition of tax-funded healthcare. To the dismay of British healthcare professionals, US critics have accused the service of putting an “Orwellian” financial cap on the value on human life, of allowing elderly people to die untreated and, in one case, for driving a despairing dental patient to mend his teeth with superglue.

[ . . . ]

The degree of misinformation is causing dismay in NHS circles. Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), pointed out that it was utterly false that Kennedy would be left untreated in Britain: “It is neither true nor is it anything you could extrapolate from anything we’ve ever recommended to the NHS.”

Others in the US have accused Obama of trying to set up “death panels” to decide who should live and who should die, along the lines of Nice, which determines the cost-effectiveness of NHS drugs.

One right-leaning group, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, lists horror stories about British care on its website. An email widely circulated among US voters, of uncertain origin, claims that anyone over 59 in Britain is ineligible for treatment for heart disease.

[ etc.]

A $1.2m television advertising campaign bankrolled by the conservative Club for Growth displays images of the union flag and Big Ben while intoning a figure of $22,750. A voiceover says: “In England, government health officials have decided that’s how much six months of life is worth. If a medical treatment costs more, you’re out of luck.”

The number is based on a ratio of £30,000 a year used by Nice in its assessment of whether drugs provide value for money. Dillon said this was one of many variables in determining cost-effectiveness of medicines. He said of his body’s portrayal in the US: “It’s very disappointing and it’s not, obviously, the way in which Nice describes itself or the way in which we’re perceived in the UK even among those who are disappointed or upset by our decisions.”

The broader tone of the US healthcare debate has become increasingly bitter. The former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin last week described president Obama’s proposals as “evil”, while the radio presenter Rush Limbaugh has compared a logo used for the White House’s reform plans to a Nazi swastika. Hecklers have disrupted town hall meetings called to discuss the health reform plans.

[ . . . ]

Defenders of Britain’s system point out that the UK spends less per head on healthcare but has a higher life expectancy than the US. The World Health Organisation ranks Britain’s healthcare as 18th in the world, while the US is in 37th place. The British Medical Association said a majority of Britain’s doctors have consistently supported public provision of healthcare. A spokeswoman said the association’s 140,000 members were skeptical about the US approach to medicine: “Doctors and the public here are appalled that there are so many people on the US who don’t have proper access to healthcare. It’s something we would find very, very shocking.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/11/nhs-united-states-republican-health

Now there are 923 comments – the first 715 included many personal stories of how people in the UK have experienced their health care system and some comments of people who have a range of experience with both the US, Canadian and UK systems of health care.

It is well worth reading through at least the numerous comments that reflect those experiences to know about it instead of repeating whatever came in some anonymous email rounded through fifty “forwarded to” addresses from who knows where . . .

– my note

***

My point is this –

Where people are actually discussing and relating their experiences with the health care system in the UK that is known to be socialized medical care, it is upfront about its frame of reference and where it has originated. These experiences can be considered as we work to change what is plainly broken in our health care system. Maybe some parts of these international systems can be used to make our decisions about what we want to have available to our nation and to every citizen in the way of health care and medical costs.

At least we could take an intelligent look at some of what works and what doesn’t – I mean, really – what do we want to live with for the near future as well as fifty years from now? Just remember that whatever is done will be undone before anyone can derive any benefit from it – that is how American politics of aristocratic right-wing business interests works. They claim it is free market capitalism, but in fact it isn’t because it excludes any and all from competing with them on a level playing field. That is just as they want it. And they will remake it into that at every turn, no matter what changes.

– cricketdiane, Cricket House Studios, 2009

***

Since socialized medical systems are kicking our butts in offering quality of care at a reasonable cost, it doesn’t mean that socialized medicine is the only way to do that. It does mean that we need to improve what we are doing to a huge extent. And that is a fact.

***
In rushing health-care reform, Obama has pushed democracy to the side – National Review Online – August 12

In the last few weeks, the debate over health care has taken an angry and contentious turn by any standard. Town-hall meetings and public rallies, not known for their docile tenor under normal circumstances, have been punctuated by unusually spirited opposition to Democrat proposals for sweeping reform. What began as a few isolated outbursts of […]

Click to continue reading “In rushing health-care reform, Obama has pushed democracy to the side – National Review Online – August 12?
August 12th, 2009 | Category: Bible, Current Headlines, News, Prophecy, Religion | Leave a comment

(Note from Jan)

Our radio programming from August 8 is now posted at the link below. Guests include Caryl Matrisciana with her new film emphasizing Islamic infiltration into government and other high places. This is a silent jihad. Also, Jack Alnor cautions about some of today’s televangelists who are “fleecing” Christianity. Hear the disturbing sound bytes:
http://www.olivetreeviews.org/radio/mp3/
For podcasting information, […]

Click to continue reading “(Note from Jan)”
August 12th, 2009 | Category: Bible, Current Headlines, News, Prophecy, Religion | Leave a comment

States Cut Aid to College Students as Demand Booms

Struggling with budget shortfalls that reach into the billions, several states are making deep cuts in college financial aid programs, including those that provide a vital source of cash for students who most need the money.

Click to continue reading “States Cut Aid to College Students as Demand Booms”
August 12th, 2009 | Tags: CNSNews | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The White House deal with Big Pharma undermines democracy

Aug. 10, 2009 | I’m a strong supporter of universal health insurance, and a fan of the Obama administration. But I’m appalled by the deal the White House has made with the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbying arm to buy their support.Last week, after bei…

Click to continue reading “The White House deal with Big Pharma undermines democracy”
August 12th, 2009 | Tags: Eagle Forum | Category: drug companies, health care refrom | Leave a comment

http://news.aberean.org/page/8

***

[And from the fact that the above Berean Bible Ministries site is one of many who are repeating the things from here – ]

http://www.christiannewswire.com/index.php?module=content&SectionID=2

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Journalists in search of a particular news source are encouraged to visit their website. If you are unable to reach them through their website or if your deadline is quickly approaching, please call us at 202-546-0054 and we will provide you with their contact numbers.

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Ignatius Press

Infinity Publishing

JAARS: Partners in Bible Translation

Jeannie Keneley

Journeys of Faith

Julian Publishing Group

Living Waters Publications

Logos Bible Software

Loneliness Defeated

New Engel Publishing

Olive Tree Ministries

One Way Cafe Press

Parsons Publishing House

PrayerShop Publishing

PublishAmerica

Regnery Publishing

RELEVANT Media Group

Remnant Publications

Rev. CJ Conner

Revival Nation Publishing

SelectiveHouse Publishers

SharedBook Inc.

SIL International

Simon & Schuster / Pocket Books

Solving Light Books

The Fellowship of St. James Publishing

The Writers Cafe Press

Thomas Nelson Publishers

Tree of Life Publishing

Values-Driven Family

VERVE Christian Publishing

Virgo Publishing

WaterBrook Press /Random House

WinePress Publishing

Wisdom’s Gate

WND Books

WordVerse

Writing for the Lord Ministries

Xlibris

Xulon Press

Your Daily Inspiring Word

Relief Organizations

Advocates For The Persecuted

Ambassadors For Peace

American Coptic Union

B’nai B’rith International

Bridge Ministries

Charity Navigators

Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Compassion International

Cure International

Empty Tomb, Inc.

Ephesus Saints, Inc.

Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity

Geneva Global

Genocide Intervention Network

Global Fast

India Partners

International Aid

Joy Junction

King Benevolent Fund

Lighthouse Missions

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

Lutheran World Relief

Lynn and Foster Friess Family Foundation

Mercy Corps

One to One International

Pontifical Mission Societies

Save Darfur Coalition

Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Soles4Souls

The Compassionate Friends/USA

World Relief

World Vision

WorldServe Ministries

Sports

ESPN

FaithFitness Coaching

***

[And then, I started looking at what was coming from some of these places – ]

Westchester Institute
http://www.westchesterinstitute.net/

The Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person

Recently Added

* Is There a Right to Healthcare?
* Obamacare and Conscience Protections in Healthcare
* Obamacare and Abortion
* A Disturbing Finding on the Abortion Front
* The New Guidelines for Stem Cell Research
* Ideology-Free Science?

“While we’re at it…”
July 21, 2009 9:00 am EST

The Westchester Institute’s new blog, While we’re at it… is now online.
A blog by the Fellows of the Westchester Institute for Ethics & the Human Person, dedicated to enriching the quality of contemporary moral discourse, and fostering sound prudential judgment in cultural and political matters.

Visit our blog by clicking here

Father Thomas Berg, LC
Is There a Right to Healthcare?

Sorting out a complex issue

By Father Thomas Berg

August 11, 2009
9:00 am EST

In a provocative op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal in late July, Theodore Dalrymple (the pen name of British physician Anthony Daniels) argued that there simply is no such thing as a fundamental right to healthcare. “Where does the right to health care come from?” asked Dalrymple. “Did it exist in, say, 250 B.C., or in A.D. 1750? If it did, how was it that our ancestors, who were no less intelligent than we, failed completely to notice it?”

…read more>

My Note – so I went and read what he had to say – which included this –

“So what about a fundamental human right to adequate healthcare? On that count, the U.S. Catholic bishops have been firm believers for decades. In a 1993 resolution on health care reform titled “A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform” the bishops wrote:”

“Our approach to health care is shaped by a simple but fundamental principle: every person has a right to adequate health care. This right flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity that belongs to all human persons, who are made in the image of God.”

The statement goes on to explain that the existence of this right was already affirmed in Pope John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris which reads:

Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services. In consequence, he has the right to be looked after in the event of ill-health… (n.11).

My Note –

But then, Father whatever used these statements to decry and denounce any “fundamental right to health care” in a twisted and perverse intellectual argument which is exactly the opposite of what these authorities said.

And then, I watched on CNN last night as Lou Dobbs repeated the same bull about there being no fundamental right to health care as if that were some basic sensible, moral Christian principle. Did he even check where any of that nonsense had been influenced or had originated and why those people would believe that way? – cricketdiane

***

National Review OnlineRead Father Thomas’s articles
on National Review Online:
http://www.westchesterinstitute.net/

“Theodore Dalrymple (the pen name of British physician Anthony Daniels)”

Anthony Daniels (psychiatrist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anthony (A.M.) Daniels (born 1949) is a British writer and retired physician (prison doctor and psychiatrist), who generally uses the pen name Theodore Dalrymple. He has also used the pen name Edward Theberton[1] and two other pen names.[2] Before his retirement in 2005 he worked as a doctor and psychiatrist in a hospital and nearby prison in a slum area in Birmingham. His philosophical position is compassionate conservative .[3] He is a critic of liberal thinking and utopian thinking in general.

Life

Daniels has revealed in his writing that his father was a Communist businessman, while his Jewish mother was born in Germany and came to the United Kingdom as a refugee from the Nazi regime.[4]

“Daniels does not baulk at the use of the concept of evil. Numerous articles of his have evil in the title.” – found below

In 2005 he retired from England to move (with his wife) to France, where he plans to continue writing. His columns frequently appear in The Spectator as well as in City Journal, a magazine published by the Manhattan Institute.

He has worked in Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia), Tanzania, South Africa, Kiribati, the east end of London and central Birmingham (UK), amongst other places.
Regarding his pseudonym Theodore Dalrymple, Daniels says he chose a name that sounded suitably dyspeptic, that of a gouty old man looking out of the window of his London club, port in hand, lamenting the degenerating state of the world. [2]

Writing

Daniels has written extensively on culture, art, politics, education and medicine drawing upon his experience as a doctor and psychiatrist in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, and more recently at a prison and a public hospital in Birmingham, in central England. He has travelled to many countries in Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere.

In his commentary, Daniels frequently argues that the so-called progressive views prevalent within Western intellectual circles minimize the responsibility of individuals for their own actions and undermine traditional mores, contributing to the formation within rich countries of an underclass afflicted by endemic violence, criminality, sexually transmitted diseases, welfare dependency, and drug abuse.

He contends that the middle class abandonment of traditional cultural and behavioural aspirations has, by example, fostered routine incivility and ignorance among the poor. Although he is occasionally accused of being a pessimist and misanthrope, his defenders praise his persistently conservative philosophy, which they describe as being anti-ideological, sceptical, rational and empiricist.

Themes

Daniels’ writing has some recurring themes.[5]

* The cause of much contemporary misery in Western countries – criminality, domestic violence, drug addiction, aggressive youths, hooliganism, broken families – is the nihilistic, decadent and/or self-destructive behaviour of people who do not know how to live. Both the smoothing over of this behaviour, and the medicalization of the problems that emerge as a corollary of this behaviour, are forms of indifference. Someone has to tell those people, patiently and with understanding for the particulars of the case, that they have to live differently.[6]
* Poverty does not explain aggressive, criminal and self-destructive behaviour. In an African slum you will find among the very poor, living in dreadful circumstances, dignity and decency in abundance, which are painfully lacking in an average English suburb, although its inhabitants are much wealthier.[7]
* An attitude characterized by ‘gratefulness’ and ‘obligations towards others’ has been replaced, with awful consequences, by an awareness of rights, a sense of entitlement. The result is resentment as, naturally, those rights are violated by parents, authorities, bureaucracies and others in general.[8]
* Technocratic or bureaucratic solutions to the problems of mankind produce disasters in cases where the nature of man is the root cause of those problems.
* One of the things that makes Islam attractive to young westernized Muslim men, is the opportunity it gives them to dominate women.[9]
* It is a myth (its name is: cold turkey) that withdrawal symptoms of an opiate addiction (i.e. heroin) are virtually unbearable. It is hardly worse than flu.[10][11]
* Criminality is much more often the cause of drug addiction than its consequence.
* The ideology of the welfare state is used to diminish personal responsibility. Erosion of personal responsibility makes people dependent on institutions and favours the existence of a threatening and vulnerable underclass.
* Moral relativism can easily be a trick of an egotistical mind to silence the voice of conscience.[12]
* Multiculturalism and cultural relativism are at odds with common sense and statistical evidence.[13]
* The decline of civilised behaviour, such as: self-restraint, modesty, zeal, humility, irony, detachment, is a disaster for social and personal life.[14]
* The root cause of our contemporary cultural poverty is intellectual dishonesty. First, the intellectuals have destroyed the foundation of culture, and second, they refuse to acknowledge it by resorting to the caves of political correctness.
* Beyond and above all other nations in the world, Britain is the place where all the evils summarized above are most clearly manifest.[15]

References

1. ^ Website Skeptical Doctor. For an example of an article written by Edward Theberton, see: Black Marx (The Spectator, 5 juli 1986). The characteristic opening sentence of the article reads: If the people of Mozambique could eat slogans, they would be fat.
2. ^ a b Theodore Dalrymple. Where nobody knows your name. (Globe and Mail, Feb. 16, 2008).
3. ^ Profile published in the New York Sun, 2004.
4. ^ It was not a happy marriage; Daniels characterised his parents as having chose[n] to live in the most abject conflictual misery and created for themselves a kind of Hell on a small domestic scale . In his essay ‘What we have to lose’, in: Our Culture What’s Left of It, p. 158, Anthony Daniels wrote: (…) my mother was a refugee from Nazi Germany (…) She had left Germany when she was seventeen (…) .
5. ^ A good number of Daniels’ themes are discussed in the interview by Paul Belien with Daniels: ‘Dalrymple on Decadence, Europe, America and Islam’, in: The Brussels Journal, the Voice of Conservatism in Europe, 17 September 2006.
6. ^ Life at the bottom. The Worldview that makes the Underclass (passim).
7. ^ What is Poverty, City Journal, spring 1999.
8. ^ ‘The Law of Conservation of Righteous Indignation, and its Connection to the Expansion of Human Rights’, in: In Praise of Prejudice. The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas, p. 68 (chapter 17).
9. ^ When Islam Breaks Down, City Journal, Spring 2004.
10. ^ Cold turkey is no worse than flu New Statesman, 09 April 1999. See also: Romancing Opiates (passim).
11. ^ Addicted to lies: junking heroin is no worse than flu.
12. ^ ‘The Uses of Metaphysical Skepticism’, in: In Praise of Prejudice. The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas, p. 6 (chapter 2).
13. ^ Multiculturalism Starts Losing its Luster, City Journal, summer 2004.
14. ^ All our Pomp of Yesterday, City Journal, summer 1999.
15. ^ Not with a Bang but a Whimper (passim). Daniels does not baulk at the use of the concept of evil. Numerous articles of his have evil in the title.

Works

* Coups and Cocaine: Two Journeys in South America (1986)
* Fool or Physician: The Memoirs of a Sceptical Doctor (1987)
* Zanzibar to Timbuktu (1988)
* Sweet Waist of America: Journeys around Guatemala (1990)
* The Wilder Shores of Marx: Journeys in a Vanishing World (1991) (published in the U.S. as Utopias Elsewhere)
* Monrovia Mon Amour: A Visit to Liberia (1992)
* If Symptoms Persist: Anecdotes from a Doctor (1994)
* So Little Done: The Testament of a Serial Killer (1996)
* If Symptoms Still Persist (1996)
* Mass Listeria: The Meaning of Health Scares (1998)
* An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Medicine (2001)
* Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass (2001) ISBN 1566633826
* Violence, Disorder and Incivility in British Hospitals: The Case for Zero Tolerance (2002) ISBN 0907631975
* Our Culture, What’s Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses (2005) ISBN 1566636434
* Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies And The Addiction Bureaucracy (2006) ISBN 1594030871 (published in the U.K. as Junk Medicine: Doctors, Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy ISBN 1905641591)
* Making Bad Decisions. About the Way we Think of Social Problems (2006) (Dr. J. Tans Lecture 2006; published by Studium Generale Maastricht, The Netherlands. Lecture read on Wednesday 15 November 2006. ISBN 9789078769019)
* In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas (2007) ISBN 1594032025
* Not With a Bang But a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline (2008) ISBN 1566637953
* Second Opinion. A Doctor’s Notes from the Inner City (2009) ISBN 9781906308124

External links
Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Anthony Daniels (psychiatrist)

* The Skeptical Doctor (detailed biography, links to current writings, book reviews, speeches and interviews)
* Compassionate Conservative (profile published in the New York Sun, 2004)
* An interview with Theodore Dalrymple
* Diagnosis: decadence
* Violence, Disorder and Incivility in British Hospitals: The Case For Zero Tolerance (book published by the Social Affairs Unit, 2002)
[edit] Articles

* City Journal Articles by Theodore Dalrymple
* The Social Affairs Unit Articles by Theodore Dalrymple
* New English Review Articles by Theodore Dalrymple
* Spectator articles by Theodore Dalrymple
* Standpoint Articles by Anthony Daniels

Reviews

* Book review by Arthur Foulkes of Life at the Bottom
* Book review: Our Culture, What’s Left of It
* Lecture Review: Making Bad Decisions, About the way we think of social problems by Danya Chaikel for Crossroads. Lecture given in Maastricht, the Netherlands on 15 November 2006.

Multimedia

* An interview with Theodore Dalrymple about modern society for Dutch public television (video ca. 40 minutes)
* Audio podcast interview (.mp3 file, 24.1 MB, 52 min. 34 sec.) on CBC Ideas with Theodore Dalrymple by Paul Kennedy (< site: podcast.cbc.ca)
* Audio podcast interview (.mp3 file, 24.1 MB, 52 min. 34 sec.) on CBC Ideas with Theodore Dalrymple by Paul Kennedy (< site: goodreads.ca)

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Daniels_(psychiatrist)
Categories: 1949 births | Living people | British conservatives | British political writers | English atheists | English psychiatrists | British psychiatrists | English journalists | English travel writers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Daniels_(psychiatrist)

Scholars Forum

Robert GeorgeThe Scholars Forum moderated by Dr. Robert George, brings together a selection of the world’s leading ethicists, moral theologians, scientists and scholars from related fields to work together toward resolving some of the most difficult moral questions facing mankind. These invitation-only gatherings are designed to foster the highest degree of sustained and fruitful dialogue among those scholars most competent to resolve the ethical questions under discussion.

To date, the Westchester Institute has hosted seven such gatherings. To learn more about each Scholars Forum, please select the following links.

November 6-7, 2008
The Church’s Competence in Applying the Norms of Natural Law

April 10-11, 2008
When do we Die? Brain Death, Irreversible Circulatory Cessation, and the Debate over the End of Life.

May 16 – 18, 2007
On the Criteria for Determining the Totipotency of the Human Embryo

October 26 – 27, 2006
On De Facto Unions and Same Sex Marriage

March 2 – 3, 2006
On the Definition of ‘Human Embryo’ and the Criteria for Distinguishing the Human Embryo From Non-Embryonic Entities

November 3 -4, 2005
On the Morality of Condom use to Prevent the Spread of HIV

April 28 -29, 2005
On the Morality of Altered Nuclear Transfer

October 28-29, 2004
On the Morality of Heterologous Embryo Transfer

http://www.westchesterinstitute.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=193&Itemid=30

***

My Note –

It looks like there are a lot people who have been deciding to judge when life ends and the value of continued services to the elderly – there sits the actual “death panel” that Sarah Palin is fond of calling to the attention of the seniors citizens in America.

She neglected to mention that there were such people behind the scenes in the insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, Christian fundamental moralists, academic circles, big business statistics and demographics marketing executives and among the right-wing conservative Republican Party leadership who have already been making those decisions for all of us.

***

Adding 2 plus 2 to get 8,633,000,000 –

Tags

Creating, Creating Solutions That Work, creativity how to, Cricket House Studios, cricketdiane, how to create, how to invent solutions, invention, inventiveness, learning, learning skills, living in the real - reality based analysis how to, living in the real world, resourcefulness, resources, so what is normal anyway?

1. Read the papers before signing them.

2. Ask the dumb questions that make it obvious you don’t know.

3. Ask the same dumb questions of everybody, especially specialists and attorneys who would know what it actually means, until you understand it.

4. Look it up, but don’t expect that to make any sense of it until you can form the right questions to ask using the right words to convey what you are asking.

5. Expect to communicate poorly until the basic principles start to gel in your mind – but keep trying until you get the communication right.

6. Don’t expect anybody to believe you know anything about anything – it won’t be about that anyway. It will be about someone else proving they know more than you do – so let them.

7. Learning is the one thing that can’t be fudged, it can’t be cooked to appear to be what it isn’t. The skills of learning are yours simply by applying them.

8. If you know a lot about something – remember this: you can’t now, nor ever know everything about it. There will always be more to remember than you have ever thought to ask about it and there will always be more to learn about any one thing than what you’ve ever considered about it.

9. There will always, always, always be times that appear to be complicated which are indeed complicated. It is the magic of being alive as a human being that the capacity exists within each of us to challenge the reality before us and apply ourselves to it despite its complexity and difficulty.

10. Whatever can be learned, can be mastered and there will still be more to know and to learn about it. There will always be ways to apply new ideas and new information and new processes and new paradigms to that mastery.

11. If you ask, the only fool is the one who pretended to know and didn’t – not you or me for accepting the limitations of knowledge and sought to know more.

12. Living is not a game, not a premise easily dismissed and not a practice session for something else. It is lived in the now with all the fullness and depth of the entire universe available. It doesn’t matter what people think about that – living is intrinsically powerful by virtue of itself regardless of anything else. What you do with it is up to you.

– cricketdiane, 08-07-09

Adding 2 plus 2 to get 8,633,000,000 –

(A Cricket House Studios thought of the day thing.)

***