Moral injury

Please read A Warrior’s Moral Dilemma

At last, a clear, comprehensive and totally compelling analysis of what serving in war and combat really does to people. Everyone in America - indeed, the world - should read this paper very carefully, digest what it's saying and learn from the very clear lessons.

I think the root problem lies in the fact that people making decisions of our behalf don't have our consent on the most urgent matters of our time. Big Money seized control of our democracy, and a relative handful of barons at the top are doing what pleases them, and they are getting away with doing it in our name. Their MSM counterpart not only sold us on their evil designs, but they got us thanking and honoring their soldiers for their service. See this article for a real life description of what that service actually looks like.

Their projection of the "hero" is now shattered, hopefully forever, by actual historical records and writers like David Wood. Now it's time for all of us to access the situation and do something about it.

The approach I believe will work is to use the Internet to provide the basic mechanics for a money-free, corruption proof, election system. It can be done, and the "open source" approach is the way to do it to insure it's efficacy in all respects. There are thousands, maybe millions, of competent programmers out there, and programmers love to think of new ideas, find holes, etc. They love the challenge, and this system will keep them busy for some time. But, over time it will improve and settle in. It can use, for example, IBM's Watson to help voters identify candidates that match their interests.

And there has to be a "recall" or "no-confidence" feature, to let us boot out fakes and liars should they get into office.


Bill

Delsalinization

Here's another excellent article on the world's water problems:

Humanity Has Got to Come to Grips with the World's Fresh Water Crisis

I don't know why desalinization is never mentioned, but I think it's easy to see that it's the best long term solution in town.

The world is what, 80% water?

Sure, it's salt water, but that's by no means at all insurmountable. Look at Saudi Arabia and other places that use desalinization plants.

Yes, it would take a major project, but with our unemployment rate, don't you think that makes the idea even better? Wouldn't it be nice if a million people where involved in making desalinization happen? Sounds like win-win to me.

Bill

IBM's Watson: a big question

You may have noticed the mention of IBM's Watson in today's Wall Street Journal. It looks/feels to me like IBM has big plans for Watson.

I have mixed feelings about it. It's existence (and future) touches on some really important issues, such as privacy, that will have to be sorted out.

But for the moment, assuming Watson is nothing more then a giant question answering machine, here's a big question it should be asked:

"Should Bush should be put on trial for the invasion of Iraq?"

The facts are available, millions of pieces of data exist, no doubt. There is so much information (and disinformation) that a human would need a lifetime to systematically and intelligently sort it all out and present a case one way or the other. Watson can do it in a few minutes, at most, and it could generate a log showing how it reasoned for people to study and decide.


Bill

Obama and the economy

Please see The Incredible, Shrinking Presidency of Barack Obama by Mike Whitney

"Everything has gotten worse under Obama. Everything. And, not once, in his five years as president, has this gifted and charismatic leader ever lifted a finger to help the millions of people who supported him, who believed in him, and who voted him into office."

Bill

Snowden and snooping

Please see Snowden and snooping by Chas Freeman

"Mr. Snowden justifies his flight abroad on the grounds that, had he remained within the jurisdiction of the United States, he could not have had a fair trial, would very likely have been subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, and would have been isolated and silenced to avert informed debate by Americans about the public policy issues his revelations raise. Not so very long ago – let’s say in the time of Daniel Ellsberg – it would have been fairly easy to show that such fears were groundless. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Mr. Snowden has been driven to ground in Russia, a country with an incomparably worse record of lawlessness than ours that he never intended to visit, let alone reside in. If he tries to go elsewhere, he will be hunted down and made to disappear."

Another quote:

"What is not in doubt is that there has been a massive, ongoing failure by our government to conduct its intelligence activities in a manner supportive of our liberties and our alliances with foreign nations. Both oversight and management of intelligence collection programs need urgent corrective surgery. And it is time for a major pruning of the jungle of surveillance programs that national hysteria about terrorism, essentially limitless funding, and burgeoning technical capabilities have combined to produce."

It is only because the Internet exists that we have access to the better thinkers of our time, of which Chas Freeman is clearly one. As you may know preserving the Internet as it is will be very difficult. Please see The End of Free Internet as We Know It? By Timothy Karr



Bill

Carl Sagan interview

Please see this clip from Carl Sagan's last interview His Last Interview, He Made A Warning That Gives Me Goosebumps. by Rajiv Narayan

"Carl Sagan inspired a generation of scientists with his work in and out of the classroom. But he didn't always present science with cheer. In this clip, he passionately defends science with a grave warning. It's something we all need to hear."

Bill

China, a land of opportunity

The Blob Hits China by Robert Hunziker

In this very interesting and informative article, Mr. Munziker presents an image of China that certainly extended my knowledge of the causes and consequences of pollution in China. Indeed.

Yet another world killer! God, there must be 10 of them by now. Is it me, the biases at the top of the MSM and their alter egos in the alternative media, or are these reports "the way it is" and we have to individually sort it out?

Well, despite all of the most imminent threats to civilization, we're still here.

Back to this article: as well written as it is, it misses a high note: it describes a collection of clearly defined opportunities!

Capitalism sure has it's warts, but one of it's good parts is that it breeds people who think, have ideas, and can find ways to fund at least some of the good ones. How hard do you think it would be to match up the challenges described in this article with ideas and businesses (and jobs) to provide the solutions?

Let's see: how many factories and jobs would it take to build enough solar panels, windmills and hydro-electric plants in China to bring down the number of fossil fuel power sources?

I'm not saying this is *the* idea, but I am saying that at least one person has an even better one. Let capitalism get some respect back by taking on this and the other pollution problems in China and elsewhere.


Bill