The U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade combat team just finished hands on training in Indian Head, Maryland, acquiring the skills to provide support in a natural or man-made emergency.  They are the first active duty unit assigned to support U.S. civilian authorities in such an event.

The Army announced this new role on October 1, 2008.  The 1st Brigade now falls under the control of Northern Command , and is essentially “on call.”  It becomes part of the CBRNE Consequence Management Force, which included others military assets assigned to Northern Command.

Many critics are seeing this as the latest in a series of attempts to incrementally militarize the United States.  The most blatent attempt at this came with the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, signed into law October 17, 2006

In that Act, section 1076 changed the “Insurrection Act” to the “Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act.”  Under the Insurrection Act , the President could only deploy troops in the U.S. “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”  The new law added “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition,” with “other condition” not defined.

Jeff Stein, CQ National Security editor stated the change “virtually invites the White House to declare federal martial law.”  Indeed, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) noted, “The changes to the Insurrection Act will allow the President to use the military, including the National Guard, to carry out law enforcement activities without the consent of a governor.”

Thankfully, the changes were repealed in 2008, with the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, and so reverted to the previous wording of the Insurrection Act.

James Madison was well aware of the danger of using a nation’s army against its own people -  “The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.”

Sources - Coastal Courier 1st Brigade trained for homeland response December 26, 2008

Infowars - Northcom Combat Team Conducts “Humanitarian Support” Exercise in Maryland December 27, 2008

Omnivores be on the lookout for a trio of meat recalls -

First -  Officials in Boulder, CO are warning people against eating elk meat that could have chronic wasting disease.

“Thousands of captive elk were slaughtered in Colorado to prevent spread of the disease.  In 2002, the disease was also found in the wild and deer and elk farms in Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, and Canada.”

Second -  Officials in St. Louis are warning people meat from Piekutowski European Style Sausage, a St. Louis company.  Approximately 750 pounds of sausage products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes are being recalled.

“Consumption of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially fatal disease.”

Third -  Canadian officials are warning the public against eating Old Style brand meat products, as they might contain Listeria monocytogenes.  As with the St.Louis sausage, consuming said bacteria could cause listeriosis.

The rail cars of animal fat?  Well those come courtesy of my city of Chicago.  Over 160 firefighters were needed on Christmas day to put out a fire at a south side meat-packing plant.  “Firefighters arrived on the scene and heard loud noises coming from the plant, and saw rail cars full of animal fat near the burning plant.” “there were rail cars full of animal fat, which would be broken down with ammonia for reprocessing, near the plant. Firefighters were able to contain the fire to the plant, and did not spread to the animal fat in the rail cars.”

If the fire would have reached the cars full of fat, the city would have once more had that nostalgic scent that used to waft up from the Stockyards.  On a high school trip about ten years ago, we visited the famous “bubbly creek” adjacent to the Stockyards.  Even with all this time, it still continues to bubble and stink from all of the animal parts discarded into it.

Sources - Examiner - Elk meat recalled in Colorado; wasting disease found December 24, 2008

My Fox Orlando - Sausage recall December 25, 2008 

The Canadian Press - Mariposa Meats Old Style meat may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes December 19, 2008

Chicago Sun Times - Firefighters extinguish extra-alarm fire at meat-packing plant December 25, 2008

No matter your religious stripe, history, biblical evidence, and science shows us that no part of the Jesus story adheres to him actually being born on December 25.

Recently, Austrailian astronomer Dave Reneke, editor of Sky and Space magazine  used complex computer software to chart the precise positions of all celestial bodies as they would have appeared over the Holy Land some 2,000 years ago.

He did actually find a very bright star appeared over Bethlehem, but he pinpointed it to June 17, not December 25.  Scientists generally believe this “Christmas star” was most likely a fantastic conjunction of Venus and Jupiter.  As they were so close together, the result was an unusually bright “beacon of light.”

Reneke stated, “We have software that can recreate the night sky exactly as it was at any point in the last several thousand years.  Venus and Jupiter became very close in the the year 2BC and they would have appeared to be one bright beacon of light.

We are not saying this was definitely the Christmas star - but it is the strongest explanation for it of any I have seen so far. Astronomy is such a precise science, we can plot exactly where the planets were, and it certainly seems this is the fabled Christmas star. There’s no other explanation that so closely matches the facts we have from the time.”

 Source - Daily Mail - Cancel Christmas - Jesus was born June 17, says scientists December 8, 2008

So why celebrate his birthday December 25?  It’s those damn pagans again! Yes, pagans celebrated the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, on December 21.  Following that, December 25 is the first day when it was clear that days were getting longer and the sun returned for more of the day.  Thus, if the Christians could install a new holiday it would be easier for them to convert the heathens.

While I’m all for any season that focuses on peace, love and kindness to others, if you are going to call someone your savior, shouldn’t you be want to be as accurate as possible?  Then again, somehow Christians who proclaim to be followers of Jesus’ message of peace and love often then to be the ones leading the calls for war and destruction.  Funny that.

This author was raised Catholic, and while is no longer a “believer,” does believe and practice the message of love and kindness to all beings.  All he wants is people to back up their words with actions, and their theories with facts.

Merry Christmas.

More reports continue to come out on the cat meat trade in Guangdong province, China.  LA Times reporter Barbara Demick tells the tale of one feline -

“The gray tabby cat with hazel eyes and a white nose scrunched at the bottom of a stack of metal cages filled with rabbits, quail, pigeons and ducks, across the aisle from the buckets of turtles and scorpions in a narrow shop with as many live animals as a petting zoo.

If it was male or female, young or old, nobody seemed to know or care. All that mattered was its weight, 6 1/2 pounds.”

The shopkeeper offered to sell her the cat for $9, or about $1.32/lb, and would even slaughter it right there for her.

While dogs are eaten in many parts of China, it is only in Guangdong that they eat cats.  It is part of Cantonese cuisine, which is known as the most exotic of Chinese cuisines.  However, cat loving Chinese are beginning to draw the line.

Last week there was a demonstration at the Guangzhou train station, where protesters carried banners reading, “Cats are your friends, not food.”  They were attempting to stop a shipment of cats.  According to the Small Animal Protection Association, one Guangzhou based business captures up to 10,000 cats a day from different parts of China, paying around $1.50 per cat.

While many pets have disappeared, the police have been reluctant to charge cat catchers with theft as many cats live outside and are technically not owned by anyone, just fed and cared for by them.  Without the police, then, increasing numbers of cat lovers have begun taking action on their own.

Lu Di, nearly 80 years old, is the founder of the Small Animal Protection Association.  She used to work for Mao Tse-tung, reading to him in his later years when his eyes were bad.  Now she and her organization lead many of the efforts to save cats.  Paraphrasing Ghandi she said, “You can judge how advanced a civilization is by the way it treats its animals.”

Demick described the trade, “Often, the cats are badly mistreated in their final moments, crammed as tightly as tomatoes into crates so they can’t breathe, and clubbed into semiconsciousness before being thrown alive into boiling water.”

Delightful.

In good news, however, Demick did end up purchasing the gray tabby cat, releasing it into a field where a local woman told her “Oh, we really need a cat here.  There are mice in the empty lot.”

Source - Los Angeles Times - Chinese seek to pull cats from the menu December 22, 2008

 I suppose there is not much to add to this.  It is a horrible and disgusting practice.

Dr. William Happer , an award winning physicist at Princeton University, requested to add his dissent to the U.S. Senate Minority Report that already has 650+ international scientists arguing against the theory of man-made global warming .  “I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken,” Happer stated.

Happer has published over 200 scientific papers and was the former director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy from 1990-93.  He is a fellow of the American Physical Society , American Association for the Advancement of Science , and the National Academy of Sciences .  He said he was fired by Al Gore for refusing to go along with his alarmism over fears of man-made global warming.

This week he stated, “I have spent a long research career studying physics that is closely related to the greenhouse effect, for example, absorption and emission of visible and infrared radiation, and fluid flo.  Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science. The earth’s climate is changing now, as it always has. There is no evidence that the changes differ in any qualitative way from those of the past.” 

“Over the past 500 million years since the Cambrian, when fossils of multicellular life first became abundant, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been much higher than current levels, about 3 times higher on average.  Life on earth flourished with these higher levels of carbon dioxide.  Computer models used to generate frightening scenarios from increasing levels of carbon dioxide have scant credibility.”

Others recently joining the report include meteorologists from Germany, Netherlands, and CNN, along with professors from MIT and the University of Arizona.

Source - EPW Press Blog - Prominent Scientist Fired by Gore Says Warming Alarm ‘Mistaken’ December 22, 2008

More voices for an open and honest debate.  Why do we so easily accept what we’re told?  If the case for man-made global warming is so air tight, let us rationally discuss it. The earth’s climate has always been in a state of flux, with periods much colder than now and much warmer than now.

Let us always listen to the dissenting voices - if we disagree with then we should be able to back up our arguments.  If cannot back up our arguments, perhaps we need to reevaluate what we think we know.

Despite the fact that the number of scientists questioning man-made global warming is continually growing, Al Gore continues to call his pet issue “the equivalent of a five-alarm fire that has to be addressed immediately.”  During last week’s UN Climate Change Summit in Poland, few news outlets even mentioned the U.S. Senate Minority Report, which presents 650 prominent international scientists dissenting from the generally accepted science.

While Obama tells us, “The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over. We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years,” he has joined Al Gore in silencing any rational debate over global warming.  The issue is not just if the earth is warming, but, more importantly, why and how.  But is it even warming?

According to the National Climatic Data Center, 2008 is on track to be the coolest year in a decade.  Climatologist Dr. Richard Keen of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado tells us “Earth has cooled since 1998 in defiance of the predictions by the UN-IPCC…. The global temperature for 2007 was the coldest in a decade and the coldest of the millennium … which is why ‘global warming’ is now called ‘climate change.’”

The news also failed to report that over 31,000 U.S. scientists signed the Global Warming Petition Project, “the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.”

Perhaps it is possible that human-created greenhouses gases has severely altered the Earth’s climate.  But that is highly doubtful.  However, if we declare the debate over, there is no way to really know.  There has never been and never will be an idea is so dangerous that it cannot be debated.

Obama has already said he plans mandatory caps on carbon emissions and a new global warming treaty - all based on incomplete evidence.  The UN is a POLITICAL NOT a SCIENTIFIC body.  While they claim 2,500 as the magic number of scientists who support their claim that humans are the primary cause of global warming, those 2,500 were only asked to review the science, NOT support it.  Of those, only 62 completed the review, and of those 55 had serious concerns.

And the debate is over?

Sources - Calgary Herald -  The so-called consensus on global warming is melting December 19, 2008

Baltimore Examiner -  An inconvenient truth: The Earth is cooling December 23, 2008

The New American - Scientists Challenge Global Warming “Crisis” December 16, 2008

Michael Connell, an IT expert and longtime Bush family loyalist died December 19 when his single engine plane crashed less than three miles from the Akron, Ohio airport. An experienced pilot, he had abandoned at least two flights in the last two months over suspicious problems with his plane.

Connell set up the 2000 Bush/Cheney Presidential campaign website, and worked as chief IT consultant and operative for Karl Rove.  The non-profit group Velvet Revolution has been investigating Connell for the last two years and is demanding a full federal investigation into his death to determine if there was any foul play.  In the past they had received tips the lives of Connell and other GOP IT experts had been threatened.

VR’s attorney Cliff Arnebeck , emailed Attorney General Michael Mukasey on July 24, 2008 stating: “We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King-Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio,….” No action was taken.

In 2004 Connell was hired by Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State to create a realtime computer program to count the state’s votes.  Under Connell’s guise, Ohio’s vote counts were transmitted to private computer servers owned by SmartTech, which were in the basement of a bank building in Chattanooga, TN.

At 12:20 am on election night 2004, initial reports all showed Kerry leading the race for Ohio’s 20 electoral votes.  The flow of information then began to mysteriously stop, until 2am, when the vote count went to Bush, and with it the Presidency.

On October 31 of this year Connell was subpoened in a federal lawsuit alledging election rigging under Rove.  The judge ordered him to testify under oath on November 3, the day before the election.    While he was fairly evasive, many close to the case believe he had a great deal more to say.

And now he can’t say anything.

Sources - PR Newswire -  Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash: Non-Profit Demands Full Federal Investigation December 20, 2008

Ohio Free Press -  The suspicious, disturbing death of election rigger Michael Connell December 20, 2008.

Clearly this is a case being blow up into some silly conspiracy theory…I mean, the Bush Administration has always prided itself on transparency, accountability, restraint, good judgement, fair treatment for all…

Oh, wait.  Nevermind…

About 40 animal lovers took to the streets of Bejing to protest the slaughtering of cats for food.  In a letter to the provincial government in Guangdong, group leader Wang Hongyao urged, “We must make them correct this uncivilized behavior.”  They are trying to get the government to crack down on traders and restaurants trafficking in cats, but there are no laws against it.

Huang, a butcher in Guangdong province said, “Cats have a strong flavor. Dogs taste much better, but if you really want cat meat, I can have it delivered by tomorrow.” She explained,   “The cat meat we sell comes from legitimate sources.  It’s from cat farms. The animals are raised the same way cows are.”

The clash of ideologies stems from the time that the Communist Party banned pet ownership, condemning it as “bourgeois.”  At the time, most people were also too poor to own a cat or dog.

The actions of the protesters were ignited by a recent story in the Southern Metropolis Daily - a Guangdong newspaper.  It detailed the trade in cats for meat, including how 1,000 cats are transported by train each day to Guangdong.  The cats come from Nanjing, a major trading center for cats.

As pets are often stolen to be sold for meat, pet owners no longer allow their cats outdoors.  Animal protection groups have occasionally ambushed the trucks filled with cats crammed in bamboo cages, and recently were able to release hundreds from a truck.

 Source - Associated Press Pet lovers protest cats on the menu in China December 18, 2008.

If there was ever a cat slaughter business in the U.S. millions of people would be outraged and disgusted, but as the butcher in the story said, the cats “are raised the same way cows are.” So then, what really is the difference?  Are cats lives worth more because they can be domesticated?

As we are disgusted that countries like China eat cats and dogs, so countries such as India, where cows are revered as holy, are surely disgusted by our treatment of them.  What is the difference?  We give these creatures’ lives different net worth, but why?  Either all animals should be fair game for food, or none.  Meat is meat.  If you’re going to eat flesh, why does it matter what animal it comes from?  If presented with a cooked piece of meat, perhaps mixed into a dish, could you tell by looking at it was from a cat or not?

I guess I’ve never seen cooked cat meat, so perhaps you could.  But that’s not a chance I’d like to take.

This is my cat, Ashford.  I can pretty much guarantee he doesn’t want to be eaten.

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) was on the Alex Jones radio show Wednesday, warning that the politics of fear being used to push the culture of economic bailouts is being used exactly the same way it was to get us into the Iraq war.  When asked if it was tantamount to economic terrorism, Paul answered, “Of course it is, and those responsible should be held accountable.”

The most shocking use of fear came in the weeks before the passage of the $750 billion bailout earlier this year.  Congressmen where warned that if the bailout was not passed, they would essentially be creating a new great depression and cause martial law.  “They do that all the time, that is their technique, always to build a tremendous fear in the hearts of the people. Terrorize the people and say that ‘we are your saviors and we’re the only ones that can take care of it’.” The Congressman said.

On October 2, Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) gave a speech on the House floor where he stated, “Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day, another couple of thousand the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no.”

Indeed in an interview on KFAQ 1170 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) identified Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as the one behind the threats.  Interviewer Pat Campbell asked Inhofe: “Somebody in D.C. was feeding you guys quite a story prior to the bailout, a story that if we didn’t do this we were going to see something on the scale of the depression, there were people talking about martial law being instituted, civil unrest….who was feeding you guys this stuff?”

To which Inhofe replied, “That’s Henry Paulson.  We had a conference call early on, it was on a Friday I think – a week and half before the vote on Oct. 1. So it would have been the middle … what was it – the 19th of September, we had a conference call. In this conference call – and I guess there’s no reason for me not to repeat what he said, but he said – he painted this picture you just described. He said, ‘This is serious. This is the most serious thing that we faced.’” If they failed to act the result would be “far worse than the great depression.”

Ron Paul points out that there is hope, but we must radically shift the debate - “We have a real opportunity to direct attention to the real culprit and that is those who control the monetary system. Those who counterfeit our money and cause the financial bubbles and then recessions, and now are working real hard on a depression.”

He continued, “The only thing that can counteract this is a different philosophy. A convincing argument that free markets, sound money and no Federal Reserve and limited taxes, the things that made America great. The system that they are trying to patch together right now will not work. We don’t need more regulatory agencies, all we need is the enforcement of fraud laws.”

 Amen.

Sources - Infowars - Ron Paul: Fear Based Bailouts Constitute Economic Terrorism
December 18, 2008

Prison Planet - Paulson was Behind Bailout Martial Law Threat November 20, 2008

One reason I consider myself a huge supporter of capitalism is the fact that you have to pay for your mistakes.  If you make stupid decisions, you deserve to fail.  Our culture has lost any sense of responsibilty for our actions.  Everyone must be held accountable for the decisions that they make.

As of this writing, the U.S debt stands at over $10 trillion dollars.  10 TRILLION DOLLARS.  The only way to make these bailouts happen is to print more money, thus making the dollar worth even less than it is now, and by increaing our debt with nations such as China and Japan.  This insane debt spending must stop before we destroy ourselves.  It is not a matter of if but when.

It’s true.  The marketing geniuses at Burger King now give you the ability to not only eat flame-broiled cow flesh but to smell like it too, courtesy of their new scent, “Flame.”

A new website, www.firemeetsdesire.com, describes the product - “The Whopper sandwich is America’s favorite favorite burger. FLAME by BK captures the essence of that love and gives it to you. Behold the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame-broiled meat.”

The Telegraph kindly points out that it is “Not recommended for vegetarians.”  Thanks for that one guys.  Perhaps the estate of Upton Sinclair could follow on the heels of BK and release a scent called “The Jungle.”  Then everyone could smell just like Jurgis Rudkus, who was unable to get the stench of the blood and the slaughterhouse out of his skin.  It’s a logical progression.

Sources - Associated Content -  “Burger King Launches Meat-Scented Cologne Called ‘Flame’” December 17

Telegraph - “Burger King releases meat-scented cologne” December 17

Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has recalled Old Style brand Pastrami over fears of listeria contamination.  “Officials warn you not to eat the product, even though it may not look or smell spoiled.”

Source - CKTB - “Meat Recall ” December 14, 2008