MAN AND ANIMALS

Firetree / Firetree Publishing: MAN AND ANIMALS: Several things disturb me about our relationship with animals. The stimulus for this blog post was a picture of a person kissing a tiger w...

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MAN AND ANIMALS

Several things disturb me about our relationship with animals. The stimulus for this blog post was a picture of a person kissing a tiger with a subtitle suggesting the person was fearless. The person is not fearless; he is encouraging people to endanger themselves. The thrills we experience from looking at such pictures is because we realize wild animals are dangerous. What are we to think when we see a picture of someone handling a harmless turtle, snake, or a ground hog—even if it nipped the mayor’s ear? Perhaps the thrill, in this case, is not that it is dangerous but that a person is violating a wild animal’s sanctuary. I suspect the idea is the same as having an animal caged, dangerous or not. It is within the range of my experience of having a colleague have his hand grabbed by a gorilla that proceeded to eat his fingers. Or, as a friend said he knew he was at a convention of herpetologist be the number of people he saw who were missing fingers and hands.

Some sense it is morally wrong to deprive an animal of its freedom. Others of us are conflicted over this as evidenced by zoo facilitators to cage an animal as evidenced by the attempt of some zoos to establish “realistic” habitats. The problem with natural habitats in zoos is that the center of attention often hides from the view of visitors. It seems the best of all worlds is to view the animal of interest in their natural habitat, unfortunately, this means that most of us would never see them. The solution is that we should keep trying to figure out how we can properly feed and house captive wild animal in for educations purposes, an endeavor that needs improvement.

These thoughts extend to the correctness of a private person housing a lion or a monkey, for example, not for exhibit but for his or her own private satisfaction. The fate of these animals is often the same sad story; captured as “cute” babies, house until they are ugly dangerous adults, then turned loose into the wilds to starve or be killed. Did you know that orangutans grow to about 200 pounds and stand five feet in height—not exactly, something you would want as a member of your family? Sadly, orangutan sanctuaries in Indonesia and Malaysia are full of such animals. It is interesting to think about his in terms of domestic animal; horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and goats on display in New York City would be of value for educational purposes.

While teaching at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) in Africa I had a conversation with a wildlife service employee, she told me that the elephant herd was growing in population so much they were destroying their habits. The American media had schooled me about how elephants were a protected species—sometimes associated with collecting money to save elephants. I was shocked to hear they were thinking of “thinning” out the population. When I asked about how many animals she was talking about shooting, she staggered me with the number 16,000 to 17,000; I still do not believe it but it is not what you will ever read about in the news. This is a country where there is a ban on killing elephants for their valuable ivory tusks. As a consequence of that law, the wildlife service had confiscated a huge pile of “poached”: tusks. Because it was illegal to sell ivory, their solution was to burn them, which they did. As a side story, a grass fire had burned the feet and legs of a baby elephant. The veterinary college at UZ housed and treated it until it recovered; they could not turn it loose because they had fed it on garden grown vegetables and it would head for the market.

A friend I met in Belize was born and raised in Zimbabwe, when it was still Rhodesia. As a young man, he told me he made his living by spears fishing in the Zambezi River. I found this hard to believe because when I was in that country forty or fifty years later, the river was so full of crocodiles that fishing guides warned anglers about even washing their hands in the river because young crocodiles would come from under the boats and bite them. Need I mention that the government started and rigorously enforced a crocodile preservation program?

In Belize, the government protects big cats, such as mountain lions and jaguars. As a sheep rancher living at the interface of the Mountain Pine ridge preserve and civilization, I expected this problem. My neighbors often lost their dogs to them. I lost 140 sheep to big cats and dogs over a 10 to 15 year period. When I had an especially persistent cat problem, they I would call forestry department and they would send out a live trap. I felt good about it because I was told they would release the animals in other parts of the country but later I was told the sold them to zoos. I have a picture of one we trapped while in the trap with a missing lower left canine tooth; that cat disappeared.      

Have you seen the picture on the nightly news of coyotes or black bear prowling the suburbs? Homeowners are afraid to go out into their back yards. They are advised not to put dog food outside on their porches or patios.

We have a lot to learn about how to manage wild animals; in fact, judging by experiences I have had all my live we have a lot to learn about how to manage domestic animals as well.   

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OBAMA AND THE PROMISED LAND

Firetree / Firetree Publishing: OBAMA AND THE PROMISED LAND: I listened with great interest to the President address to the Prayer Breakfast. It was one of his finest speeches, which is why I was sho...

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OBAMA AND THE PROMISED LAND

I listened with great interest to the President address to the Prayer Breakfast. It was one of his finest speeches, which is why I was shocked when news analyst Lawrence O’Donnell said it was this worst speech. The speech reminded me of Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech when King said something like I have been to the mountaintop and saw the Promised Land. Everyone recognizes that Christianity was as diabolical as Islam, if not worse, at one time in its history. The Catholic church slaughter thousands of people but learned that over time, it took centuries, that ruling by hate and terror drives away followers and that love and peace draws followers. We all know that man shapes religion, as he shapes heaven; we can make it into to what we want it to be. We also know religion is a game of numbers; it is not whether they love of hate but it is the biggest church prevails.

What Obama is doing is leading the Islamic religion onto a path Christianity took centuries ago. He knows he cannot go into their Mosques and tell them they are bad asses, but he can tell them they are the ones who have to teach themselves that lesion.  That is what he did at the Prayer Breakfast. Lawrence O’Donnell joined the right wing in accepting the idea that the concept that all Muslims are bad. The John McCain faction wants to kill them all—1.2 billion of them—until those that remain act like sniveling dogs. It reminded me of the printing on tee shirts; “Kill them all and let God sort them out”. It seems to be their desire to get rid of everything and start all over again; only this time “we” should shape those who remain into something like Christianity. Of course, the meaning of “we” in that sentence is where the problem Obama recognized. He knows it will never work; he knows it did not work in the Plantation South, it did not work in South Africa, it is not working in Palestine, and it did work with indigenous Americans.

Our FAR SIGHTED President went to the mountaintop, looked over, and saw that titles such as Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Buddhist make no difference just as Martin Luther king saw that skin color makes no difference. When such titles are no longer significant, it will be the Promised Land. 

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OBAMA CHANGED THE MIDDLE EAST

Firetree / Firetree Publishing: OBAMA CHANGED THE MIDDLE EAST: Something extremely important has happened in the Middle East. President Obama has been advocating the principle that Muslims must be the ...

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OBAMA CHANGED THE MIDDLE EAST

Something extremely important has happened in the Middle East. President Obama has been advocating the principle that Muslims must be the ones responsible for stamping our extremism in their ranks, something so obviously simple that people overlook it. On the other hand, people like John McCain declare President Obama is not providing leadership. For him, if the President does not bomb, bomb, bomb something somewhere, as he wants to do, means he is not providing leadership. Against a growing opposition, the President has said “no U.S. boots on the ground” in the Middle East including Iraq and Syria. He was instrumental in organizing a coalition of Arab nations to join militarily in the fight against ISIS, not only Arab nations, but Sunni Arab nations. This is looking ahead. For example, if we arm the Kurds in their battle with ISIS, we overlook the fact that the Kurds are also battling the Iraqi, Turkish, and Syrian governments; after the fog of war clears and the smoke settles, who then is our ally? However, if these nations and groups are involved in the fight it is their problem. We can not provoke Muslims to clean their  own house of terrorists, they have to do it. That is bold, insightful, leadership. Obama is sticking to his operating principle and it is paying off.   

ISIS publically executed Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, a “coalition” pilot from Jordan, in a most grisly way. This drew a reaction from around the world. In the United States and in Europe, the people reacted with such nonsensical ways as showing hate for all Muslims by banning burkas and the like. ISIS leaders want all Christians to hate all Muslims and all Muslims to fear them. Obviously, within the context of Muslim nations in the Middle East, it makes no sense to hate all Muslims but it does when it comes to instilling fear.  The objective of having no U.S. boots on the ground is to provoke Muslims to fight against extremist in their midst; therefore, what ISIS has done was accomplished Obama’s objective.

  

All of a sudden, the death of a pilot at the hands of ISIS, as horrific as it was, has changed the entire world picture. The Muslim world is not holding the west as their principle enemy, they are now focusing on extremists in their midst. It could not be said better nor said in a more appropriate place than this: the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat headlined its coverage of this burning death with a single word: “Barbarity.”

There is still danger in the United States. Islamic extremist will continue to provoke us to do battle with acts of terror such as backpack bombings, but thanks to the effects of the intellectually grounded Obama policy, the bulk of their hate has shifted to ISIS. Nevertheless, if we heed the emotionally grounded advice of tough-talking killer John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and right wing accomplices, we will keep stirring up more Islamic hate for us. There seems to be a principle, “it takes two to hate”. In this case, it is McCain and company versus ISIS. Obama’s leadership has put us on the “right” road to take care of ISIS, now he has to rely on “ we the people” of this great nation to take care of the war-monger “right” at the ballot box.

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ISIS AND CUBA COINS

Firetree / Firetree Publishing: ISIS AND CUBA COINS: ISIS wins again; it is unbelievable how naive John McCain and his followers are. I am reminded of the dark ages when a priest, who thinks ...

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ISIS AND CUBA COINS

ISIS wins again; it is unbelievable how naive John McCain and his followers are. I am reminded of the dark ages when a priest, who thinks as McCain, does, could order a person burned at the stake for blasphemy and his followers would eagerly follow his orders. In addition, thousands would show up to watch victims wither in misery. How macabre and primitive is that? This is 2015, not the 8^th century.

ISIS execute a pilot in the most excruciating way possible—equivalent to burning at the stake—knowing that there are people like John McCain will react the way he did. They committed the deed in the most horrific way possible and the media made it possible for millions to “show up to watch”. The radical ISIS leaders are working to build a tightly organized thus recognizable enclave for people who think the way they do to join because they believe Islam is the way to heaven or if the people live in the region and are afraid not to join for fear of the same fate. For ISIS to accomplish their goals they need recognition by all people in the world; this is exactly the reward the sought by burning that pilot.

Look at more recent history than the dark ages. The 1953 a mob supported by the United Kingdom and paid for by the CIA in response to request by an oil company (now known as BP) marched on democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh's residence in Iran and delivered a coup d'état, known as the 28 Mordad coup. The United States and Britain installed a puppet absolute, who reminded in office until 1979. It should not come as a surprise to know the Republican Eisenhower was sworn in as our president January 1953. In Januar20, 2001, Republican George W. Bush took office and invasion of Iraq took place on 19 March 2003 two years later following plans laid out before he took office. Need I mention that McCain thinks just as Eisenhower and Bush think?

How do the people in the Middle East see this history? Their nationalist feelings along with religious zealotry caused some to build a small and strong coalition based on both nationalism and religious hate, which is ISIS. All humans have a common innate feeling known as “self-preservation”. We see the protection of us and ours as the only reason for the government (we the people) to kill someone; it is lawful to kill in self-defense. If I provoke someone into trying to kill me, I can kill him or her. If I can burn one of your pilots to death or if I can behead one of your compatriots, it may make you angry enough to fight. If I can do that, it is OK to kill you! Everyone knows this is a losing game; it goes nowhere. We have several thousand years of history chucked full of evidence to prove that is the case.

This reminded me of the Cuba situation we now have in the news. After 50 years of sanctions that didn’t work, it is time to try something new. We finally have a President that understands this. He lifted the embargo on Cuba and he is advocating that people in the Middle East fight for themselves. What this does in the Middle East is removes one of the greatest obstacles to finding a solution, which is our country against their country and our religion against their religion: “us against them”. Kill, Kill, Kill. This is beyond John McCain’s capabilities of understanding just as lifting sanctions on Cuba is beyond Marco Rubio’s ability to understand that the embargo didn’t work. We, at least some of us and I hope most of us; don’t hate the people in the Middle East any more than we hate the people of Cuba.

McCain and Rubio are just the other side of the ISIS and Castro coins. Instead of building walls, let's try to build paths; it may be a harder thing to do but will be more rewarding.

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EQUAL OPPORTUINITY GOP VERSION

Firetree / Firetree Publishing: EQUAL OPPORTUINITY GOP VERSION: EQUAL OPPORTUNITY GOP VERSION Jim Demint, ex-Senator from South Carolina, was a guest on +Joe Scarborough’s MSNBC show this morning. He...

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EQUAL OPPORTUINITY GOP VERSION

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY GOP VERSION

Jim Demint, ex-Senator from South Carolina, was a guest on +Joe Scarborough’s MSNBC show this morning. He is now head of the Heritage Foundation, one of the most radical right wing organizations in the United States. The expression “the most radical” may sound like a redundancy but it is not . . . no other group is more radical. There is a question; is it the most radical organization because of +Jim Demint or is it that they hired him because of their extreme radicalism. Either way, he heads an organization that is like a lobbying firm for an industry or group of industries. They hire people they think can have access to other law makes and Demint’s status as an ex-Senator gives him that access. They pay him somewhat over $1,000,000 per year—he must be worth it because he is still there. Industries hire people as lobbyists who can promote their product or services. I had a question about what Demint promotes and who benefits from what he and his organization does were unanswered until I heard him on Joe this morning—he is there to tell lies that are so brazen elected right-wing politicians could never tell them from a campaign stump. The only people who benefit from the lies are in that small group of people—the economic elite—who do not want a government of the people. In their mind, if there were no government “of the people”, then leadership would come from them, the rich. It reminds me of the concept of a “black horse” candidate that is someone one no one wants but because of our innate tendency to requires a peck order, we recognizes we do need a leader, even a bad one.

Not one thing the man said this morning was the truth and Joe sat there nodding in agreement at every pronouncement. Of course, what should happen on a discussion show is both sides of every question are explored, not that Morning Joe is ever a discussion show or even close to being one. +Demint made grossly lopsided ridiculous pronouncements after ridiculous pronouncement. You or I will never hear a reporter, or group moderator, force politicians to answer hard questions. Interviews are always guarded by the reporters’ fear of lost access and those being interviewed have the right to walk away or not to answer and use these things to avoid questions that should be asked. Although Joe bases his show on having guests as radical as he is, the same rule applies. If they do not espouse the radicalism he is looking for he shuts them up.

Rachael +Maddow show is an example of what happens if you attack a politician for their beliefs as she did to Rand +Paul; he will never com back. She finds it almost impossible to have a “conservative” politician on her show. She invites them, but they don’t come. Last night she had radical Senator +Isakson of Georgia, Republican chair of the arms services committee. His unusual appearance on the show was coupled with an unusual bit of legislation; he passed a bill out of committee that would spend tax money to protect veterans from suicide. Tom +Colburn, a single senator, who is also a Republican, had blocked the legislation because it cost money, but he retired from the Senate. This story was especially newsworthy because Senate rules allowed one man had the power blocked the bill all 100 other Senators wanted. Isakson slipped in the statement that they found a way of paying for the program by transferring money from something else in the veterans’ program.

The call to destroy all entitlements, which Demint was advocating, has no logical foundation. We pay for insurance for health care and we pay for social security. Where are the questions such as what would you do about massive old age poverty without Social Security? What would you do about sick people who cannot afford health care without insurance? What do we as a society do about paraplegic veterans? The Ayn Rand answer to these questions is there, but they will not say it; these people just don’t matter. Demint will tell you that they can go to hell. Joe will think that but will not say it. That is what Demint does to earns his million dollars a year. Who benefits? Privatized social security will put trillions of dollars in the hand of financial institutions; however, everyone knows that people working at minimum wage jobs cannot afford to save for retirement. As the expression goes; “they fall through the cracks;” however, do you think Jim Demint and Joe care one way or the other?

As he said this morning, Demint is fighting for equal opportunity. We as Americans all love that. His statement is like a sweet drink with at lemon twist, it looks good but it still has a sour lemon twist. The sweetness is that politicians can cut taxes after getting rid of all entitlement programs. Cut taxes and state politicians cut support for state support for universities. University administrators raise student tuition to pay for the difference, which is the cost of education. The sour twist is that tuition is $50,000 a year, which everyone puts up. Everyone now has equal opportunity to pay tuition. How many student loans do you suppose Romney five boys took out? After they have their degree, what is the competition in the workplace? It is only among those who could afford the tuition and not the most brilliant in society. It is like inbred royalty; the smartest person in society is not the king.  

According to Demint, there are no restrictions to upward mobility, which is of course, the biggest lie. In his mind, everyone has “equal” opportunity; this is the great free individualist society—of the economic elite. Can anyone tell me what is happening to the cost of student loans or what the average student debt is when they graduate if they do go to college? Ridiculous!

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HIDDEN HERO IN ALL OF US

Firetree / Firetree Publishing: HIDDEN HERO IN ALL OF US: War movies are like an autobiography; it is the last place you would look to find the truth. Most of us have never been in a shooting war ...

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HIDDEN HERO IN ALL OF US

War movies are like an autobiography; it is the last place you would look to find the truth. Most of us have never been in a shooting war yet we know what it is like and it has no resemblance to the usual movie plot line; good guy beats up a bad guy and gets the girl. I read a lot and of all the books I have read, Delivered from Evil (1987) by Robert Leckie was most meaningful. Perhaps I have the emotions I do because as a child in Minnesota, I followed the Second World War as it happened and saw mothers put Gold Stars in their windows and talked to the some of the guys when they came home from those notorious battle fields—people who had actually killed other people. However, the greatest impression about war was from where I never expected it. It came from a short chapter written in a book written by the famous American-born biochemist-geneticist J. Craig Venter, the acknowledged driving force behind the much-heralded human genome project. The book was, Life Decoded (2007). As a Navy Medic, he lived, and almost died by his own hand, within the nightmare of putting bodies back together in Vietnam. I have never read a more poignant account.

I fail to understand why or know how anyone can actually see glory in war. This attraction to war seems to be a residue of respecting or appreciating someone who has protected us; usually in a story line it is, the big strong hero “protected the weak, the women, and children. Obviously, this attitude remains from our tribal existence out of our distant past. I see this same attitude come to the surface in those who idolize people such as George Patton or John Wayne. I see it in things as diverse as gun ownership and in TV shows and movie preferences. It is like human preoccupation for sex scenes, entertainment producers know this and insert enough sex, and violence to attract views just as they glorify wartime killing heroism.  

In our recent history, since Vietnam and the ISIS, it has become evident there are two things that cause people to display how they really feel. We have seen the horror of beheadings on videotapes, which have spurred all the big tough guys, banishing their assault rifles, to declare they are ready to kill to protect us and the fear they have of a military draft.  You don’t believe this; look around at all the guys who own guns designed to kill people and then ask at a NRA convention for signatures pledging support of congressional legislation to start a military draft for all men, and women, between the ages of 18 and 35 to fight those who are beheading reporters. That is what you would call a room-clearing question. You would be asking them to change from heroes to what they really are and do it publically because that would be admitting they are cowards.   

I think people understand only one-half of human nature. They are fearful they would act like cowards if faced with real danger. They will not admit they have this fear, apparently because they think that would be admitting they would be cowards. The truth is most people, not all but most people, will not go looking for trouble but when faced with a crisis most will act like heroes—probably best to say we would do the right thing. I believe there is a hidden hero in all of us, but we will not find out until tested. We rarely see it in our daily lives in a civilized society; however, we see it on the news every day: a drowning child rescued from a cold, flooded river, a trapped driver pulled from a burning car, and know about legions of drafted soldiers, sailors, and marines with medal on their chest. 

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BERGDAHL AND COL. JACOBS PROBABLY BOTH GUILTY

Firetree / Firetree Publishing: BERGDAHL AND COL. JACOBS PROBABLY BOTH GUILTY: Firetree / Firetree Publishing: BERGDAHL AND COL. JACOBS PROBABLY BOTH GUILTY : Bowe Bergdahl 'deserter' trial is nearing an end. Th...

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BERGDAHL AND COL. JACOBS PROBABLY BOTH GUILTY

Firetree / Firetree Publishing: BERGDAHL AND COL. JACOBS PROBABLY BOTH GUILTY: Bowe Bergdahl 'deserter' trial is nearing an end. This morning Col. Jacobs, a frequent commentator on MSNBC made a serious and tel...

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BERGDAHL AND COL. JACOBS PROBABLY BOTH GUILTY

Bowe Bergdahl 'deserter' trial is nearing an end. This morning Col. Jacobs, a frequent commentator on MSNBC made a serious and telling mistake a long time ago and repeated that mistake again this morning. He represents an element of society in this country that laws are framed to protect us against, which is mob mentality. Media reports of what his fellow soldiers said of him when he walked away from his unit in Afghanistan five years ago caused headlines: he was an American disserted. Among other things, his fellow soldiers did not like him, he acted strangely from time to time, and he was a “dope” head. An element among Americans love to hate and this is especially true in the “band of brothers”, a term applied to military units when they have been in dangers. They saw Bergdahl as someone who turned his back on them—a coward among heroes. They are there to fight and die for a cause and he wasn’t.

Col. Jacobs echoed that sentiment this morning on the Steve Kornacki show. This man is a true hero out of the Vietnam War. He is a Medal of Honor winner; his citation for that award is remarkable; he risked his life repeatedly to save his fellow soldiers. Many American feel we should respect what he says for that reason. He could be, and in one sense is, a leader of a mob who feels Bergdahl should have been left in the hands of the Taliban.

He said something that caught my ear this morning; he said something to the effect that the military should rescue any of their “band of brothers” from the enemy; the military should never leave a soldier on the field of battle. Implying that “the military” should decide to rescue him or not. Clearly, he would not have been rescued if the soldiers in his unit were to make that decision. The nuance is clear; President Obama did a bad thing when he traded five Taliban fighters for Bergdahl.

The President is a man of the law; he is not a Texas cowboy, who shoots from the hip. No one knows why Bergdahl left his unit. They did not know if he was out looking to buy drugs or was wounded and captured by the Taliban. They assumed he deserted out of fear or allied himself with the enemy—they did not know. They had their suspicions. The soldiers in his unit had convicted him although they did not actually know why he left. As he should, the President felt this man was a United States soldier and we as a nation should not abandon him—that would be a cowardly thing to do. There is not a single person in uniform that thinks differently. In addition, we are innocent until proven guilty. All of a sudden, Col. Jacobs is leading lynch mob intent on abandoning a U.S. soldier in the field without a trial or even an investigation only because of suspicion.

Col Jacobs is a warrior, a paid consultant, and a Republican. I seriously question his motives for talking the way he is talking. From what I have heard from him in the past, he is not above joining the crowd of Obama haters and twists his act of political courage in rescuing this man from the Taliban to bring him back to the United States for a fair trial—it is the American way. Personally, I think Bergdahl is probably guilty of desertion and should be found guilty by a military court—out of the spotlights of a politically motivated media—but is not a coward who should be hung without a trial.   

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