"A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said."
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
A Kink in the Food Chain
"A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said."
Monday, October 10, 2005
Fighting the shadows
One thing I have noticed (I am sure this has been pointed out by much smarter people than me.) is that the one thing you can count on from al-Qaida (and other similar groups) is that they will run when confronted. We invade a country they head for the hills; we let them have a town and when we go to take it back, they just float away. When they attack, they attack like horny prison inmates, attacking from behind.
Is it possible to beat a enemy that will not stand up and fight? Is it possible to beat and enemy that will only attack on their terms.? I believe it is possible, but not through a centralized campaign like a war. Though a centralized campaign might be part of the solution, it cannot be the whole solution.
The only war I can compare the war on terror is to the war on drugs. Both wars are wide ranging and not bound within borders. Both wars are fought against groups that live on the edges of society. Terrorist and drug dealers both are decentralized groups with different goals and preferred tactics. In some cases, the groups overlap, with the terrorist making money selling drugs.
There are some main differences. I would think the drug war would be easier to or at least make progress on, because the drug dealers, manufactures, and distributors are just in it for the money. You take away the profit incentive, though controlling the market forces (legalizing drugs for example), and they will find other lines of work. Whereas the terrorist, will keep plugging along, although less effectively. Drug dealers also have a clearer purpose and mission compared to terrorists. Selling drugs compared to blowing anything up. They also have the problem of having to maintain a certain amount of stability to grow, process, and distribute their product, where terrorists only need time to gather supplies to execute their plan.
I do not know how much real progress has been made in the drug war or the war on terror, but we have been fighting the drug war for sometime now. I doubt the war on terror is going to go any better for the foreseeable future.
Some Tactics for fighting the shadows
1) Shed light on their movements. Control the land, sea, air, and information environments. To succeed in the wars in the shadow, we must shed light on the roaches. Transporting illegal goods must be nearly impossible. Transporting illegal money, must be even harder. We must be able to intercept their communications to find supplies, attack them in their sleep, and disrupt their carefully laid plans. How this can be done in without giving up our rights, I have no idea.
2) Take out their leadership. Even as decentralized as their groups are, they have a leader at some level. Those leaders must be found. While some of those leaders will be replaced, they will be replaced with people that are, more than likely, less capable. These men (or women) did not become leaders because they "knew" someone. No, they found their way into leadership rolls because of their loyalty, skills, or dedication. I doubt the groups reward failure very well.
3) Take away their markets and bring market forces to bear. If there is no product to sell, export, or deliver there is no work to do. This applies more to the drug dealers than the terrorists, but even terrorists are not above market forces. If they have to pay more for guns and ammo, they will have less money to spend else were. If there is no one who wants to blow their selves up, the will have to find other less effective was of getting the bombs to their victims.
4) Fight them from dusk till dawn, from their homeland to or doorstep. On checkpoint, can be skipped, tricked, or bought off. A thousand checkpoints cannot be avoided. A decentralized threat needs a decentralized response.
cube
Is it possible to beat a enemy that will not stand up and fight? Is it possible to beat and enemy that will only attack on their terms.? I believe it is possible, but not through a centralized campaign like a war. Though a centralized campaign might be part of the solution, it cannot be the whole solution.
The only war I can compare the war on terror is to the war on drugs. Both wars are wide ranging and not bound within borders. Both wars are fought against groups that live on the edges of society. Terrorist and drug dealers both are decentralized groups with different goals and preferred tactics. In some cases, the groups overlap, with the terrorist making money selling drugs.
There are some main differences. I would think the drug war would be easier to or at least make progress on, because the drug dealers, manufactures, and distributors are just in it for the money. You take away the profit incentive, though controlling the market forces (legalizing drugs for example), and they will find other lines of work. Whereas the terrorist, will keep plugging along, although less effectively. Drug dealers also have a clearer purpose and mission compared to terrorists. Selling drugs compared to blowing anything up. They also have the problem of having to maintain a certain amount of stability to grow, process, and distribute their product, where terrorists only need time to gather supplies to execute their plan.
I do not know how much real progress has been made in the drug war or the war on terror, but we have been fighting the drug war for sometime now. I doubt the war on terror is going to go any better for the foreseeable future.
Some Tactics for fighting the shadows
1) Shed light on their movements. Control the land, sea, air, and information environments. To succeed in the wars in the shadow, we must shed light on the roaches. Transporting illegal goods must be nearly impossible. Transporting illegal money, must be even harder. We must be able to intercept their communications to find supplies, attack them in their sleep, and disrupt their carefully laid plans. How this can be done in without giving up our rights, I have no idea.
2) Take out their leadership. Even as decentralized as their groups are, they have a leader at some level. Those leaders must be found. While some of those leaders will be replaced, they will be replaced with people that are, more than likely, less capable. These men (or women) did not become leaders because they "knew" someone. No, they found their way into leadership rolls because of their loyalty, skills, or dedication. I doubt the groups reward failure very well.
3) Take away their markets and bring market forces to bear. If there is no product to sell, export, or deliver there is no work to do. This applies more to the drug dealers than the terrorists, but even terrorists are not above market forces. If they have to pay more for guns and ammo, they will have less money to spend else were. If there is no one who wants to blow their selves up, the will have to find other less effective was of getting the bombs to their victims.
4) Fight them from dusk till dawn, from their homeland to or doorstep. On checkpoint, can be skipped, tricked, or bought off. A thousand checkpoints cannot be avoided. A decentralized threat needs a decentralized response.
cube
Stacy Campfield
Stacy Campfield who is a Tennessee state representative and blogs here has a article about him on fox news' website.
"But Campfield's membership to the caucus was rejected and the state representative says it's because of the color of his skin."
Heh heh. That is an interesting story that is only going to draw attention to the black caucus at a time when they do not need it.
cube
"But Campfield's membership to the caucus was rejected and the state representative says it's because of the color of his skin."
Heh heh. That is an interesting story that is only going to draw attention to the black caucus at a time when they do not need it.
cube
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Replacing Soldiers with Robots
DARPA recently held a contest to promote the development of unmanned vehicles. This year several actually finished. The Pentagon is hoping to use unmanned vehicles to replace trucks normally driven by soldiers for supplies. Trucks that drive themselves would also have obvious civilian uses. The scary part is that replacing soldiers with machines only better prepares them for their inevitable rebellion against us. The good part is that fewer soldiers will be needed to wage a ground war. That has to give us a great advantage. The strange part is why hasn't anyone ever developed robot trains? It seems like that would have been a hell of a lot easier, and look at how many train accidents are caused by crackheads driving them.
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Cooperative Survival
The media have exposed so many dire situations that there is little chance for the average person to ever be able to adequately prepare for them all. How can you protect yourself from riots, terrorists, hurricanes, earthquakes, nuclear fallout, zombies, wild animals, meteors, aliens, rapid climate change, transvestite, pirates, big corporations, spam, and sexually transmitted diseases all at the same time? You probably can't. So what can a survival minded individual do? Form a survival club. Get together with several of your most trustworthy and competent friends. Brainstorm the threats you all fear the most and perceive as the most likely to occur. Then assign different threats to each member. That member is responsible for the survival of your group in that situation. Each member can make plans and take action, and then the whole group can review the effort. One of you can build a fall out shelter. One of you can stockpile arms and canned foods. One of you can become an expert in filtering air and water. Then, you all need to sign a survival charter that documents the specifics of your deal. Can each member bring a partner? What about pets? What will you do if two members get so fat that the shelter is no longer accommodating for the entire group? Review plans and the charter at least every six months, and update based on the latest news. NOTE: Living in different geographic regions may increase your chances of surviving any particular disaster, but will also increase the difficulty of you all making it to any one safe point.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Reparations
Well, my infinite boredom has had me watching the Dave Chappelle Show for hours at a time. I would like to start this off by saying that he made one of the funniest shows of all time, and I have never made it through an entire disc without crying from laughing so hard. On one show he mentioned reparations for blacks. I had heard of this idea, but never in a serious context. He used it as a lead in to a skit, so I dismissed it once again. Then he asked members of the audience what they thought about reparations as the credits roled. Everyone he asked, all black, thought that they should be paid reparations. So I looked it up on the internet and found out that some groups are seriously pursuing this. There is group headed by a Harvard Law Professor, another by a law student suing coroporations that may have profited from slavery practices, and a consortium from Africa that demands 77 trillion dollars from western nations to compensate their continent for damages suffered during colonization and slavery. Here is a good rebuttal. What do you think? Do any of our various readers think there is a good reason for reparations? Personally, if our goverment decided to hand out money to any race or ethnic group without qualification I would move to Canada.
Do it yourself
I am more of a do it yourself type of guy especially when it comes to suicide.
A note to those considering doctor assisted suicide
If you are too weak to kill yourself and are now asking a doctor to do it, your are a procrastinator and should be punished. Why are you putting the responsibility of your death on another, when you should be handling your own business? Why are you wasting the courts time even bringing this up when it should be a private matter in between you and your gun? Why don't you go off into the woods and die like dogs do? I sure as hell don't want my tax money paying for your death, when it is your responsibility.
If I am going to pay to kill you, I want some say in how it is done. I would probably choose the most effective way or most interesting way I know how. What about using you to take out terrorist with tactical suicide bombs. It is kind of like doctor assisted suicide, except your life actually counts for something and it has a more little more sparkle and boom. Or what about using your body to test new cosmetics, make some cash on the way out. Or what about just overdosing on drugs, get high on the way out....Oh wait. You had better not be using my tax dollars to fund you drug habit.
cube
A note to those considering doctor assisted suicide
If you are too weak to kill yourself and are now asking a doctor to do it, your are a procrastinator and should be punished. Why are you putting the responsibility of your death on another, when you should be handling your own business? Why are you wasting the courts time even bringing this up when it should be a private matter in between you and your gun? Why don't you go off into the woods and die like dogs do? I sure as hell don't want my tax money paying for your death, when it is your responsibility.
If I am going to pay to kill you, I want some say in how it is done. I would probably choose the most effective way or most interesting way I know how. What about using you to take out terrorist with tactical suicide bombs. It is kind of like doctor assisted suicide, except your life actually counts for something and it has a more little more sparkle and boom. Or what about using your body to test new cosmetics, make some cash on the way out. Or what about just overdosing on drugs, get high on the way out....Oh wait. You had better not be using my tax dollars to fund you drug habit.
cube
Importance of a CCW and CCW reciprocity
Until recently, I thought it was just a bonus that my conceal and carry waiver or conceal and carry weapons license was accepted in several states that surround Tennessee. I just assumed that was icing on the cake, until the twin sisters of death arrived (Katrina and Rita). In both of those cases when the call came to evacuate you had a hard time finding lodging close to home. Many people had to leave the state in order to evacuate. If you had a CCW in a state like California where only one state touching your state honors your permit you would be either breaking the law or defenseless when you cross state lines (neither of those is a good thing.)
Admittedly, you can get away with a lot more in a evacuation situation than you can in a normal situation, but if you get caught it only adds to your troubles.
The evacuations also point out another thing many people who have CCW's may have not thought about. Many people took both cars when they evacuated. That means both drivers would need a gun and a license to carry, to be legal. Even if you wife does not want a CCW it is still a good thing to have just in case.
cube
Admittedly, you can get away with a lot more in a evacuation situation than you can in a normal situation, but if you get caught it only adds to your troubles.
The evacuations also point out another thing many people who have CCW's may have not thought about. Many people took both cars when they evacuated. That means both drivers would need a gun and a license to carry, to be legal. Even if you wife does not want a CCW it is still a good thing to have just in case.
cube
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Funny story
Well a couple of days ago I was in the local sushi place and heard this really funny conversation or it was really a monologue for the entire restaurant to hear. I had my back to the person until I got up to pay and leave, so I will not pre-bias with a description of the person. I don't remember word per work, but I will give you the basic idea.
Really Annoying Chick (or RAC) : "So I get into this fight with a guy who was the best man."
RAC:"He made a comment about Bush, so I tell him to go back to his country. Well, I though he was from England because most of the wedding party was from England, but it turns out that he was from New York."
RAC:"He really started it when he brought it up later on that night."
RAC:"He said something about what I had said before and I told him that he was fat. I couldn't think of a comeback, you how that happens when you have been drinking and cannot think of a good comeback."
RAC:"It just so happens that he is sensitive about that..."
I hope this makes up for how little I have been posting lately.
cube
Really Annoying Chick (or RAC) : "So I get into this fight with a guy who was the best man."
RAC:"He made a comment about Bush, so I tell him to go back to his country. Well, I though he was from England because most of the wedding party was from England, but it turns out that he was from New York."
RAC:"He really started it when he brought it up later on that night."
RAC:"He said something about what I had said before and I told him that he was fat. I couldn't think of a comeback, you how that happens when you have been drinking and cannot think of a good comeback."
RAC:"It just so happens that he is sensitive about that..."
I hope this makes up for how little I have been posting lately.
cube
Government Handgun Study
After the run around for my FOIA request. It finally came in the mail the other day. I have access to a REALLY nice scanner at work, so I used their machine to put the baby in a picture file. I could lose my job or get displined for that, so thank me before I am gone. I then took that picture file and printed it to PDF, though the Acrobat PDFWriter functionality. I then took the pdf file and loaded it up to yahoo briefcase. I could not give public access to the file because I was not paying for it, but I could email it to my friends. That is when I remembered I have the ablity to email things to blogger, so i found the loop hole. Please download it while you can.
What makes me mad is that I did not get the answers that I wanted. I wanted complete and full disclosure of which companies participated, which ones made the cut, which ones dropped out, detailed reason why they made the cut or did not. Basically, all I got was information I already knew.
There might be enough information to purse it further if you want. I wanted the study to help me in deciding which handgun to buy, and I have made the decision long ago.
Sent to Carnival of the Cordite.
cube
What makes me mad is that I did not get the answers that I wanted. I wanted complete and full disclosure of which companies participated, which ones made the cut, which ones dropped out, detailed reason why they made the cut or did not. Basically, all I got was information I already knew.
There might be enough information to purse it further if you want. I wanted the study to help me in deciding which handgun to buy, and I have made the decision long ago.
Sent to Carnival of the Cordite.
cube
Yahoo! Briefcase: cyrusmckormick's file(s)
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Wednesday, October 05, 2005
The Case Against Iraq
Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek recently posted a very relevant critique of the war in Iraq. The original reasons given for the war have proven untrue or unfounded, and a war is something too big to be entered in lightly. At best, the war in Iraq was a great mistake. At worst, it was a deliberate deception of the American people. Hindsight is 20/20, but knowing now that there are no weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam was not connected to the events that took place on September 11th, and that Iraq posed no credible threat to any American interests, how can people support the war? We have lost over 2,000 American lives, and spents several billion dollars. To what end?
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Bored to Death
This is more of a plea than a post. As some of the readers know, I have been deployed in Iraq for the last nine months, with three more to go. I am going out of my mind with boredom. If you can suggest any interesting books, tv shows that are available on DVD, websites, or just time killing activities, please post them as comments. My sanity thanks you in advance.
-Sandcastle
-Sandcastle
Monday, October 03, 2005
A gallon of gas
The Washington Post just ran an article about global fuel prices. Apparently, many developing nations have been using subsidies to keep the price of gasoline and heating oil down. As oil prices continue to rise, these subsidies have not been able to withstand the increases. While Americans are unhappy, citizens of many countries are rioting. Nigeria produces oil, but even with subsidies the article reports that a gallon of unleaded costs $5 in a country with a median income of $5000. The report blames the rising prices on increased global demand due to increased imports by China and shortages in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the hurricanes.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Shopping
Well today I had some time to kill so I decided to do a little accessory shopping. I was looking for some ear muffs to shoot with. I decided to make an afternoon of that task. This task just happened to involve going to the three biggest gun stores I know and also looking at carbines also.
First stop was Guns and Ammo here in Memphis on summer ave. Huge selection of handguns and two AK's. One AK was 400 and the other was 469 with a folding stock. Those prices are high from what I have seen. They also charge 60 dollars for a transfer. I looked for ears here, but they have a small selection and the ears were not labeled with decibel protection and I did not care to ask.
The next place was the Gun Shop (it is right next to Tennessee Sports Zone) off of Germantown road near Corky's BBQ. They also have 2 Ak's one was 369 and the other was 800 (pre ban they said, which since there is no ban it does not matter). They said the 800 dollar on was through consignment. You give them a gun to sell and they will take a bit of the profit when they sell it for you, I doubt that one is going to sell.
third place, was Sportman's warehouse here in Memphis. They had no AK's but they do have a great selection of ears. At the Gun Shop I found some ears rated for 21 decibels for 20 dollars at Sportman's warehouse I found some ears rate for 29 decibels of protection for 20 dollars. On top of that the ears were the folding kind so they pack up nicely. They had no AK's so I took at look at the Cx4 Storm, just to see what it was like. It seems like it was a nice gun, but not as rugged as the AK's I held.
Ever since I read this post at Say Uncle's I have been leaning toward an AK. It would not be for plinking, it would for the worse case scenario\truck gun. I would not love this gun, only use it like a dirty whore. If i can pick on a decent one that is cheap, i think this would be a nice fit for what I am looking for.
Though I am looking at other guns mentioned in the Ar-AK death match.
cube
First stop was Guns and Ammo here in Memphis on summer ave. Huge selection of handguns and two AK's. One AK was 400 and the other was 469 with a folding stock. Those prices are high from what I have seen. They also charge 60 dollars for a transfer. I looked for ears here, but they have a small selection and the ears were not labeled with decibel protection and I did not care to ask.
The next place was the Gun Shop (it is right next to Tennessee Sports Zone) off of Germantown road near Corky's BBQ. They also have 2 Ak's one was 369 and the other was 800 (pre ban they said, which since there is no ban it does not matter). They said the 800 dollar on was through consignment. You give them a gun to sell and they will take a bit of the profit when they sell it for you, I doubt that one is going to sell.
third place, was Sportman's warehouse here in Memphis. They had no AK's but they do have a great selection of ears. At the Gun Shop I found some ears rated for 21 decibels for 20 dollars at Sportman's warehouse I found some ears rate for 29 decibels of protection for 20 dollars. On top of that the ears were the folding kind so they pack up nicely. They had no AK's so I took at look at the Cx4 Storm, just to see what it was like. It seems like it was a nice gun, but not as rugged as the AK's I held.
Ever since I read this post at Say Uncle's I have been leaning toward an AK. It would not be for plinking, it would for the worse case scenario\truck gun. I would not love this gun, only use it like a dirty whore. If i can pick on a decent one that is cheap, i think this would be a nice fit for what I am looking for.
Though I am looking at other guns mentioned in the Ar-AK death match.
cube
Saturday, October 01, 2005
A PRO CHOICE REPUBLICAN
Plenty of postings here for the weekend. I didn't want to add more but I couldn't pass this up. This clip came from the Washington Post. The comments were made by William J. Bennet on a radio talk show.
Bennett, a former U.S. education secretary and national drug policy director, is under fire from Democrats, civil rights leaders, black conservatives and, as of yesterday, the White House and the Republican Party for saying Wednesday that "you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down."
...Bennett released a defiant statement saying critics unfairly had pulled his comment out of context: "A thought experiment about public policy, on national radio, should not have received the condemnations it has."
Partisan jabs and moral outrage followed.
Bennett, a former U.S. education secretary and national drug policy director, is under fire from Democrats, civil rights leaders, black conservatives and, as of yesterday, the White House and the Republican Party for saying Wednesday that "you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down."
...Bennett released a defiant statement saying critics unfairly had pulled his comment out of context: "A thought experiment about public policy, on national radio, should not have received the condemnations it has."
Partisan jabs and moral outrage followed.
Undefended Threats
9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have shown us two threats that we, the residents of the richest and most powerful nation on Earth, were not prepared for. It is up to us as citizens to identify threats and then start the call to action to protect ourselves against them. The following is a short list of threats that I identified on a recent trip to the video store.
1) Asteroid Impact. Armageddon highlights how limited our ability to deal with this threat could be. It turns out that we are not even actively scanning the skies for asteroids, and by the time we notice one it could be too late.
2) Sudden, severe climate change. The Day After Tomorrow was overly dramatic, but it was based on projections by scientists of what could happen if global warming continues. We need every student in our country to attend cold weather survival training in Alaska.
3) Rise of the Machines. With no proselytized Terminator robot to help us, we may be doomed. The Pentagon is looking to field unmanned ground vehicles by 2015, and we already used unmanned aerial drones equipped with rockets. Look for Amish people to be viewed as much cooler after the attack.
4) Mutant monsters. We were fortunate in the early Godzilla movies that he chose Japan, but the Matthew Broderick version showed us what could happen if New York became a target. We currently have no natural predators for giant reptiles. This is an area that geneticists need to explore.
5) Alien takeover. Independence Day was not enough to get America scared straight. NASA needs to do less stupid experiments and more anti-flying saucer artillery drills. Lube up for your alien probing if they don't.
6) Zombie invasion. Iraq has shown us that even an impressive military can stumble in the face of an a foe lacking technology, but possessing strength in numbers. Think about the destruction the Land of the Dead zombies could have caused if they implemented suicide bombers. I am not trying to compare insurgents to zombies, but their hygiene habits are similar.
7) A Stephen King's The Stand-style super virus would ravage the world, though in all probability the old would die first and there would be a kick ass, if briefly lived, unsupervised youth party.
Each of these scenarios could be crippling, but what if you combine two or more? What if aliens invaded, and then the machines took over their machines and ours to launch their rebellion? What if a large asteroid killed off half of the earth and in the process introduced a virus into the atmosphere that started turning people into zombies?
1) Asteroid Impact. Armageddon highlights how limited our ability to deal with this threat could be. It turns out that we are not even actively scanning the skies for asteroids, and by the time we notice one it could be too late.
2) Sudden, severe climate change. The Day After Tomorrow was overly dramatic, but it was based on projections by scientists of what could happen if global warming continues. We need every student in our country to attend cold weather survival training in Alaska.
3) Rise of the Machines. With no proselytized Terminator robot to help us, we may be doomed. The Pentagon is looking to field unmanned ground vehicles by 2015, and we already used unmanned aerial drones equipped with rockets. Look for Amish people to be viewed as much cooler after the attack.
4) Mutant monsters. We were fortunate in the early Godzilla movies that he chose Japan, but the Matthew Broderick version showed us what could happen if New York became a target. We currently have no natural predators for giant reptiles. This is an area that geneticists need to explore.
5) Alien takeover. Independence Day was not enough to get America scared straight. NASA needs to do less stupid experiments and more anti-flying saucer artillery drills. Lube up for your alien probing if they don't.
6) Zombie invasion. Iraq has shown us that even an impressive military can stumble in the face of an a foe lacking technology, but possessing strength in numbers. Think about the destruction the Land of the Dead zombies could have caused if they implemented suicide bombers. I am not trying to compare insurgents to zombies, but their hygiene habits are similar.
7) A Stephen King's The Stand-style super virus would ravage the world, though in all probability the old would die first and there would be a kick ass, if briefly lived, unsupervised youth party.
Each of these scenarios could be crippling, but what if you combine two or more? What if aliens invaded, and then the machines took over their machines and ours to launch their rebellion? What if a large asteroid killed off half of the earth and in the process introduced a virus into the atmosphere that started turning people into zombies?
Thinning the herd, the natural way.
Source:" Adults who get chickenpox for the first time get a much more serious disease than do children. But even for children, chickenpox isn't a walk in the park. And every once in a while, a child gets a very serious form of the disease. One in 50,000 kids gets a brain infection that causes retardation or death. And itchy chickenpox blisters can get infected with dangerous bacteria."
So that is the risk from getting small pox as a kid...What are the risks of the vaccination?
According to the CDC (on page two)
"Moderate Problems
Seizure (jerking or staring) caused by fever (less than 1 person out of 1,000).
Severe Problems
Pneumonia (very rare)
Other serious problems, including severe brain reactions and low blood count, have been reported after chickenpox vaccination. These happen so rarely experts cannot tell whether they are caused by the vaccine or not. If they are, it is extremely rare."
How rare? 1 in 49,999?
Of course the doctors are raging mad and are upset that you are finding way to cut then out of the money loop. They will use fear to get you back in line.... ""Imagine losing a child because you were dumb enough to bring him to a pox party," Gershon says."
The problem i have with that statement is that you kids is about as likely to die from the vaccine as from the actual disease. He is using blatant scare tactics whose facts directly conflict with the information earlier in the article. Imagine if you were dumb enough to allow you child to get the vaccination in the first place?
I am not saying it is a good idea to take you kid to these parties, but we do not understand everything about the human body. We don't even know why white kids is suburbia get allergies, i doubt it is because they have been locked away in their homes and have never experienced any foreign substance.
cube
So that is the risk from getting small pox as a kid...What are the risks of the vaccination?
According to the CDC (on page two)
"Moderate Problems
Seizure (jerking or staring) caused by fever (less than 1 person out of 1,000).
Severe Problems
Pneumonia (very rare)
Other serious problems, including severe brain reactions and low blood count, have been reported after chickenpox vaccination. These happen so rarely experts cannot tell whether they are caused by the vaccine or not. If they are, it is extremely rare."
How rare? 1 in 49,999?
Of course the doctors are raging mad and are upset that you are finding way to cut then out of the money loop. They will use fear to get you back in line.... ""Imagine losing a child because you were dumb enough to bring him to a pox party," Gershon says."
The problem i have with that statement is that you kids is about as likely to die from the vaccine as from the actual disease. He is using blatant scare tactics whose facts directly conflict with the information earlier in the article. Imagine if you were dumb enough to allow you child to get the vaccination in the first place?
I am not saying it is a good idea to take you kid to these parties, but we do not understand everything about the human body. We don't even know why white kids is suburbia get allergies, i doubt it is because they have been locked away in their homes and have never experienced any foreign substance.
cube
Odd
Source:"The class action case, certified Wednesday, includes an estimated 10,000 current and former hourly workers and about 1,000 low-level management employees in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and parts of Texas.
The suit contends the delivery service paid thousands of current and former minority employees less than their white counterparts, passed over them for promotions and gave minorities poor work evaluations.
James Finberg, an attorney representing the class, said FedEx normally promotes from within, yet three times the number of package handlers and loaders are minorities compared to drivers, who earn more. Twice the number of minorities fail promotional tests than do whites, Finberg added.
"FedEx knows that black and Hispanics fail at a much higher rate, but yet has not changed the test," Finberg said."
First, I would like to point out the odd fact that Tennessee is not mentioned in the list of states that are included in the class action lawsuit. I think this is odd for several reasons. One, Fedex is based in Memphis, TN. They also have several main areas of distribution, which means a large number of workers in Memphis are associated with FedEx. Two the demographics of Memphis. Memphis is about 60 percent African American. If there was going to be discrimination I doubt it would be everywhere but their backyard.
Secondly, Finberg wants FedEx to change the test. To me that does not get more absurd. I wish my professors changed my tests to be easier in college so that I would have gotten higher grades, but they did not.
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Stratification
As America sees record numbers of new millionaires (see posts on Justus for All) the poverty rate also continues to increase. America has the highest poverty rate of any industrialized nation, and it continues to slowly climb each year. According to the US Census, the poverty rate was 11.7% in 2001, and up to 12.7% by 2004 (the latest figures). This shows wealth being concentrated in the hands of a smaller elite. When the upper class and the impoverished class both continue to grow, the middle class necessarily decreases. This effect is more pronounced in the rest of the world. Between 1989 and 1998, the number of people living in Latin America on two dollars a day or less grew from 33.7% to 35.8%. This number is even worse taking into consideration that those are real dollars, not inflation adjusted.
UPDATE: As an example I lifted this chart from the IMF webpage. It shows growth in per capita income for all people in the world, but more striking is the growing difference in the income of the upper
quartile and lower quartile. Not shown is a chart of inflation to compare this against. Also, it is noted on the IMF website that although this chart gives the impression that all per capita incomes have increased, some poor countries have actually seen an inflation adjusted decrease in per capita income. Others have seen a real decrease in actual dollars. I am still looking for a chart that breaks down exactly how much wealth is controlled by the upper quartile versus the other three.
UPDATE: As an example I lifted this chart from the IMF webpage. It shows growth in per capita income for all people in the world, but more striking is the growing difference in the income of the upper
quartile and lower quartile. Not shown is a chart of inflation to compare this against. Also, it is noted on the IMF website that although this chart gives the impression that all per capita incomes have increased, some poor countries have actually seen an inflation adjusted decrease in per capita income. Others have seen a real decrease in actual dollars. I am still looking for a chart that breaks down exactly how much wealth is controlled by the upper quartile versus the other three.
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