Angry Granny

FASCISTS RUN AMOK: Republicans Block U.S. Health Aid for 9/11 Workers

2010-12-09T14:16:00.001-05:00

Only days after giving the rich (and themselves)an unfunded tax cut, they can't give medical benefits to the 911 responders?? This is the definition of shameless.

And this is the party of American Patriots? I don't think so.

Anybody who continues to doubt the absolute moral bankruptcy of the republican party -- this should clear that up for ya.

Wow! They are concerned about the cost for this bill, yet are enthusiastic about borrowing $900 billion to cover this new tax bill. So deficits are okay when they cover tax breaks for the wealthy, but not when they help pay for the health costs of the very brave people that helped after 9/11. I guess I will never understand.
The republicans are showing their appreciation for the patriotism of the emergency workers and volunteers that stepped up to help our country in a moment of need.
$800 billion to extend tax cuts for the very rich? No problem.
$7 billion for health needs of those who helped our country? No way.
Great country.

There's your Republicans for you...I bet if Georgie had gotten sick as a result of being at Ground Zero, there's be no problem -- but then again, he's rich and doesn't need the money. Kind of like the rich and their tax cuts...they don't need the extra money but they'll make sure the poor and middle class don't get a tax cut either... God is watching you, Republiscums!

$700 billion tax cut for the top 2%, but no health aid for American heros. How much more proof do we need? They play us against each other as Democrat and Republican, then make back room deals that betray all but the most powerful and well connected.

Where is the justice?

Oh yes - we can start so many wars but can we take care of our 9/11 aid workers - who did so much for us here in New York, and the country! Maybe the Senate Republicans could give up their Health Care Benefits to help these courageous Workers. As someone who lives downtown near ground Zero please remember - we were all told that there were no health issues regarding the air by the Bush Administration - as we all know this was a "lie".

I think Republicans owe the 9/11 Workers at least $1 for everytime they invoked 9/11 in one of their speeches which should tally around $10 billion.

Seriously though, I'm absolutely disgusted by this. I'd like to hear the Republicans arguments against the bill. I believe if they had let the tax cuts expire for the wealthy, it would have covered this cost...

A Fascist Call to Kill WikiLeaks: Amazon Hypocrisy!

2010-12-09T12:42:00.000-05:00

FASCISTS at Amazon that banned WikiLeaks are now making money selling the same.

Well done Amazon, you get rid of wikileaks because papa US gov asked you to do so and now you are selling wikileaks cables !!! I mean do you have any moral at all ??? Buy wikileaks cables in Amazon with your mastercard or visa card !! Strange world... (by "freedomofspeech)

It's not fair and rude. Father of WikiLeaks project is in jail in UK, and Amazon is selling result of his work.
Shame to Amazon. (by Viacheslav)

Really love amazon, but you must be kidding me. I have spent thousands of dollars on here over the past couple years due to your low prices and good quality used books. But this is it, we are over. I hope you lose a lot more business than just mine. You don't deserve to be making money on the cables and hopefully one of your employees will leak something to the world that ruins your PR. (by Maltman)

I can't believe you would kick Wikileaks off your server then try and sell the cables for profit. I just started to use amazon and now I will never use them again. It is really a shame.(by Jkoch)

Are you freaking kidding me? Had given you the benefit of the doubt (be it a small and very fragile one), because maybe you'd lift the ban on hosting WikiLeaks, but this? This is the purest form of hypocracy if ever I've seen it in my life. Grow a clue, you fools at amazon. You've lost yet another customer. Bye now! (by J.B. Thijssen)

How hypocritical, amazon. I used to love you, but this is a blot upon what I believed [was?] a great company. (by Timothy D. Stoltenburg "tech-idea)

Amazon you are doing a super job !
1) Eliminate the competition on your servers (Wikileaks as they provide this for free!)
2) Start selling the documents
3) Profit !!
Seriously, you're a sad excuse for a company.
Bowing down to everything the US government wants even though they are NOT charged for any crime.
You would be very popular in countries such as China and Iran !!
A Shame on you, bigger shame on me if I purchase anything from Amazon in the future... (by Patrik)

What is wrong with this company? You succumb to US pressure to take off Wikileaks from your servers, yet you think its acceptable to sell the cables that they protest? I will be glad when Anon avenges this. (by John Stuart)

Man, this is so embarrasing. The world seems like a big joke to you guys at Amazon. Since the US government put pressure on you, you stepped back like a little girl. But it's its going to give you profit, you sell these information. It's disgusting. Amazon just lost another good customer. (by Flater Master)

Incredible. Amazon's arrogance and hypocrisy selling this product in this light of its treatment of WikiLeaks is breathtaking. What prison term can Amazon executives look forward to for selling US states secrets, I wonder? (by Moksha)

I'm quite speechless and in lack of words.
Luckily, more eloquent people wrote pretty much everything there is to write about this.
Amazon, you greedy phony *******! (byJaroslaw Sehn)
I find it saddening that the general public is so hopelessly brainwashed that they will still continue to stand up for their own murderous Government against people who simply point out that Governments's actions. Anybody who has a negative view on outdated diplomatic cables being leaked showing the true intentions and actions of their own leaders needs to seriously think about what they're standing up for rather than blindly calling those who care "terrorists". You sheep disgust me. (by Will)

The reason Amazon stopped the DNS of wikilinks was, they said, because the information was theft - a crime.
So why on earth are they selling it ?
If they believe what they are saying when will they hand themselves in (suggest they shouldn't confess to Alaska prosecutors or assassination may happen).
Amazon, thy names are Hypocrite and Opportunism. (by Triffid)

The reason Amazon stopped the DNS of wikilinks was, they said, because the information was theft - a crime.

So why on earth are they selling it ?
If they believe what they are saying when will they hand themselves in (suggest they shouldn't confess to Alaska prosecutors or assassination may happen).
Amazon, thy names are Hypocrite and Opportunism. (by Fed-up)

This makes absolutely no sense. I am pretty sure that I won't be supporting a company that contradicts itself so extremely and conspicuously, not to mention blatantly takes advantage of the situation. This is beyond inappropriate.
So, with our current "World Police" title, I hope the United States takes Amazon offline for distributing this. (by Dylan W. Sampson "film maker")

So wait, Assange is being chased down for releasing the same documents YOU GUYS ARE SELLING?!
Hypocritical to the fullest. If i would have known this before the holidays, I would have taken my business elsewhere... which I will do from here on out. (by Mark)

A Fascist Call: Kill Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) | FOX's Bob Beckel

2010-12-09T10:57:00.001-05:00

Morally deranged fascists go amok in their calls to assassinate the messenger, in this case Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. http://wlcentral.org/ has a nice collection of fascists calling for the same. However, one should enjoy doublespeak by the Choosen One:

“The more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free internet — or unrestricted internet access is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged," (The U.S. President Barack Obama, talking in China)

Morally Deranged Fascists Go Amok | Call to Kill Julian Assange; Gerald Celente Take

2010-12-09T10:46:00.003-05:00

The morally deranged nation whose "leaders" want to kill a messenger does need a deep self re-evaluation. Listen to Gerald Celente's take on the issue. But the Granny wonders WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG with Australians? They allow fascists to rule their country? Perhaps John Pilger offer a glimmer of hope?

"The defence of Julian Assange and Wikileaks is one of the most important issues of my lifetime. There are now two superpowers in the world — the military power of Washington and the power of public opinion and justice, which Wikileaks represents.

If the Australian prime minister doesn’t understand this, we Australians need to remind her that she may head a mercenary government but we are not a mercenary people.

Those of us in London who are working to free Julian, knowing that the Swedish prosecution is a political stunt that would never produce a fair trial, will be at his side, and we call on the support of every decent Australian."

Obama Tax Cut Appeasment

2010-12-08T10:33:00.000-05:00

That Liar-In-Chief said that tax plan is intended to help short-term job creation.

Baloney, I say!!! The Bush tax cuts were in effect during the entire time that this disastrous unemployment situation developed, so it is a proven fact that they don't produce jobs. What I see the outcome of these tax cuts to be is that off-shoring of jobs and investment by American corporations and wealthy Americans in foreign countries will increase. Of course this means even more job cuts for Americans.

If making the rich even richer truly created jobs, then every American would have five by now instead of 15 million Americans having none.

The argument that the President got the best deal possible is ludicrous...This President is gutless and unprincipled...I thought the world "compromise" suggested that both sides give up something...I can't see what the Republicans gave up. I hope that this "compromise" will insure that the Democrats have an alternative in the primary battles for 2012...I think Roger Hodge got it correct in "The Mendacity of Hope".

In a nutshell Obama is telling you that you all should be happy that you will be taking home a few extra dollars with every measly recession paycheck you receive, while your kids grow up to live in a nation with no social services, a devastated environment and sky-high national debt. All this so the rich can continue to grow richer. I don't buy it, Obama.

Unemployment levels for Americans 50 years and older

2010-12-08T10:23:00.001-05:00

That idiot Obama said how his new appeasement (tax break to the rich extension) would create "millions of jobs". I guess it would be the same as the "millions of jobs" already created during the 8 years of the said tax cut.

I hope at least few million would go to unemployed over 50 years. Here’s a chart showing the monthly unemployment level (in thousands) of Americans 50 years and older based on Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey (not seasonally adjusted).

In January 2006, there were 1,374,000 unemployed Americans 50 and older.
In December 2007, at the start of the Great Recession, there were 1,398,000 unemployed Americans 50 and older.
In November 2010, there were 3,475,000 unemployed Americans 50 and older.

The unemployment level among Americans 50 years and older has increased almost two and one-half times since the start of the Great Recession.

TSA Molestation Also Poses Serious Health Risks

2010-11-29T16:03:00.001-05:00

The following is a letter from members of the University of California San Francisco - to Dr John P Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology

Dear Dr Holdren,

We, a number of University of California, San Francisco faculty, are writing -- see attached memo -- to call to your attention our concerns about the potential serious health risks of the recently adopted whole body backscatter X-ray airport security scanners. This is an urgent situation as these X-ray scanners are rapidly being implemented as a primary screening step for all air travel passengers.

By way of introduction one of us (John Sedat) met you recently when he and his wife Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, a 2009 Nobel Laureate, talked with President Obama last December.

Dr Sedat is Professor Emeritus in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California San Francisco, with expertise in imaging. He is also a member of The National Academy of Sciences. The other co-signers include Dr Marc Shuman, an internationally well known and respected cancer expert and UCSF professor, as well as Drs David Agard and Robert Stroud, who are UCSF Professors, X-ray crystallographers, imaging experts and NAS members.

Sincerely Yours

Professors John Sedat, Elizabeth Blackburn, Marc Shuman, David Agard, Robert Stroud

LETTER OF CONCERN

We are writing to call your attention to serious concerns about the potential health risks of the recently adopted whole body backscatter X-ray airport security scanners. This is an urgent situation as these X-ray scanners are rapidly being implemented as a primary screening step for all air travel passengers.

Our overriding concern is the extent to which the safety of this scanning device has been adequately demonstrated. This can only be determined by a meeting of an impartial panel of experts that would include medical physicists and radiation biologists at which all of the available relevant data is reviewed.

An important consideration is that a large fraction of the population will be subject to the new X-ray scanners and be at potential risk, as discussed below. This raises a number of ‘red flags’. Can we have an urgent second independent evaluation?

The Red Flags

The physics of these X-rays is very telling: the X-rays are Compton-Scattering off outer molecule bonding electrons and thus inelastic (likely breaking bonds).

Unlike other scanners, these new devices operate at relatively low beam energies (28keV). The majority of their energy is delivered to the skin and the underlying tissue. Thus, while the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high.

The X-ray dose from these devices has often been compared in the media to the cosmic ray exposure inherent to airplane travel or that of a chest X-ray. However, this comparison is very misleading: both the air travel cosmic ray exposure and chest Xrays have much higher X-ray energies and the health consequences are appropriately understood in terms of the whole body volume dose. In contrast, these new airport scanners are largely depositing their energy into the skin and immediately adjacent tissue, and since this is such a small fraction of body weight/vol, possibly by one to two orders of magnitude, the real dose to the skin is now high.

In addition, it appears that real independent safety data do not exist. A search, ultimately finding top FDA radiation physics staff, suggests that the relevant radiation quantity, the Flux [photons per unit area and time (because this is a scanning device)] has not been characterized. Instead an indirect test (Air Kerma) was made that emphasized the whole body exposure value, and thus it appears that the danger is low when compared to cosmic rays during airplane travel and a chest X-ray dose. In summary, if the key data (flux-integrated photons per unit values) were available, it would be straightforward to accurately model the dose being deposited in the skin and adjacent tissues using available computer codes, which would resolve the potential concerns over radiation damage.

Our colleagues at UCSF, dermatologists and cancer experts, raise specific important concerns:

• A) The large population of older travelers, >65 years of age, is particularly at risk from the mutagenic effects of the X-rays based on the known biology of melanocyte aging.

• B) A fraction of the female population is especially sensitive to muta genesis provoking radiation leading to breast cancer. Notably, because these women, who have defects in DNA repair mechanisms, are particularly prone to cancer, X-ray mammograms are not performed on them. The dose to breast tissue beneath the skin represents a similar risk.

• C) Blood (white blood cells) perfusing the skin is also at risk.

• D) The population of immuno compromised individuals--HIV and cancer patients (see above) is likely to be at risk for cancer induction by the high skin dose.

• E) The risk of radiation emission to children and adolescents does not appear to have been fully evaluated. • F) The policy towards pregnant women needs to be defined once the theoretical risks to the fetus are determined.

• G) Because of the proximity of the testicles to skin, this tissue is at risk for sperm mutagenesis.

• H) Have the effects of the radiation on the cornea and thymus been determined?

Moreover, there are a number of ‘red flags’ related to the hardware itself. Because this device can scan a human in a few seconds, the X-ray beam is very intense. Any glitch in power at any point in the hardware (or more importantly in software) that stops the device could cause an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin. Who will oversee problems with overall dose after repair or software problems? The TSA is already complaining about resolution limitations; who will keep the manufacturers and/or TSA from just raising the dose, an easy way to improve signal-to-noise and get higher resolution? Lastly, given the recent incident (on December 25th), how do we know whether the manufacturer or TSA, seeking higher resolution, will scan the groin area more slowly leading to a much higher total dose? After review of the available data we have already obtained, we suggest that additional critical information be obtained, with the goal to minimize the potential health risks of total body scanning. One can study the relevant X-ray dose effects with modern molecular tools.

Once a small team of appropriate experts is assembled, an experimental plan can be designed and implemented with the objective of obtaining information relevant to our concerns expressed above, with attention paid to completing the information gathering and formulating recommendations in a timely fashion. We would like to put our current concerns into perspective. As longstanding UCSF scientists and physicians, we have witnessed critical errors in decisions that have seriously affected the health of thousands of people in the United States. These unfortunate errors were made because of the failure to recognize potential adverse outcomes of decisions made at the federal level.

Crises create a sense of urgency that frequently leads to hasty decisions where unintended consequences are not recognized. Examples include the failure of the CDC to recognize the risk of blood transfusions in the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, approval of drugs and devices by the FDA without sufficient review, and improper standards set by the EPA, to name a few. Similarly, there has not been sufficient review of the intermediate and long-term effects of radiation exposure associated with airport scanners. There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations. We are unanimous in believing that the potential health consequences need to be rigorously studied before these scanners are adopted. Modifications that reduce radiation exposure need to be explored as soon as possible.

In summary we urge you to empower an impartial panel of experts to re-evaluate the potential health issues we have raised before there are irrevocable long-term consequences to the health of our country.

These negative effects may on balance far outweigh the potential benefit of increased detection of terrorists.

However, the Boiled Frogs Nation f.k.a. Americans, do not give a flying fuck if their kids are being molsted:

Where is the Revolution, Americans???

2010-10-25T11:28:00.002-04:00

I was reading the Skin Encyclopedia, about the human skin texture because, yes, you've guessed right, the Angry Granny had had some health issues and now when I'm back I asked, what the fuck has happened with the revolution???

AMERICANS?? Where's the guillotine for all the criminals that pillaged your country while the Angry Granny was away?

Your Privacy is Sold Out! Profit From It While You Can.

2007-12-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

''You already have zero privacy. Get over it,'' Sun Microsystems' Chairman Scott G. McNealy famously noted. So far everyone who had not been living under the rock knows that the government is spying on its citizens. You know, for your own security they are listening on your phone conversations, collect your messages, analyze your e-mails etc.. I hope you feel safe. What is lesser known is the fact that spying is a booming, huge business. $48 billions of your money is being spent on spying.

Intelligence Senate (now, that is contradictio in adjecto) Committee spells out the costs to taxpayers, every one of you, my fellow Americans. It estimates that the average annual cost for a government intelligence officer is $126,500, compared to the average $250,000 (including overhead) paid by the government for an intelligence contractor. The U.S. Government spends an immense part - 70% - of its intelligence budget on private contracts and only 30% within the agency, better known as the Defense Intelligence Agency. Even the CIA has about 60% private contractors employed in the business of making money out of your money.

You could be upset, angry as the Granny is, enraged over those facts; another proof how the corporate giants and its servant, the government, are taking your money to make profit is maddening. Or you can join grassroots’ resistance and try to change things. Or, and isn’t America all about making money, why wouldn't you simply buy some shares of the biggest contractors like BEA Systems, Boeing, L-3 Communications and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and make a killing. These companies already provide technology and personnel to U.S. agencies involved in foreign intelligence and are actively lobbying intelligence officials to buy products specifically designed for domestic surveillance.

For the years to come, you will be watched and spied on. Video surveillance cameras everywhere coupled with ubiquitous cell phone recording devices, DNA testing for the government vast databases, biometric identification techniques, RFID chips that would record your every move, the electronic banking system that is recording your every transaction, Google that analyses your gmail and stores your browsing history make this dystopian amalgam of the world in which you sand naked. All your life will be scrutinized and used for data collection, and you will have no privacy at all. Perhaps Privacy Lost by David H. Holzman can teach you a thing or two, Gene Hackman and Will Smith’s Enemy of the State could entertain you, but do not overlook this great opportunity and profit on the value you have lost forever – your privacy!!

Buy, buy, buy… buy BEA, buy BA, buy LLL, buy, buy, buy now when your government have already sold you and your privacy out. Funny, don't you think, they sold you out closing the deal with your own money. One must admire the genius of the government! By the corporations, for the corporations...

Has the World Gone Mad?

2007-12-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

Do you remember “The Addams Family”? Addams Gomez once cried in despair, “Has the world gone mad?”

After hearing Mike Huckabee – Mitt Romney verbal brawl on Jesus and Devil issue I felt like I am living in a melting pot of insanity. CNN "Bible" debate, Jesus all over the place, Romney's "faith speech", Huckabee's "Christian Leader" much talked about TV ad in Iowa. Pundits regurgitating all this all the time? What is going on? Arguably, the position of the President of the United States still carries the title of the most powerful position in the world and those men, Republicans presidential hopefuls, are endlessly discussing Jesus and Devil and their potential brotherhood?

Do those guys have any serious issues to discuss or should we simple go and elect Benny Hinn for the President?

I badly need an antidote for insanity. Perhaps a big swig of some refreshing Holly Water would do?

Mike Huckabee's Surge and Halls of Illusion

2007-12-11T11:16:00.000-05:00

I came across this question on the recent republicans debate on another hall of illusion, CNN - Do you believe every word of the Bible? - and this is what another Governor from Hope, Arkansas, surging in the polls, Mike Huckabee had to say:

As a Man from Hope has said, the Bible is allegorical word of God and no one, not even the pastor Huckabee, is supposed to fully understand it. Good, I always believed the faith is a private issue and that it should stay there, at your home, in your church, in your heart. While I watched those eight middle aged Christian men (with a Mormon believer in the Bible among them), I watch very wealthy white men, a real representatives of the most diversified country in the world and am wondering what is wrong with this country? Do those politicians and pundits have anything else to say but to endlessly talk about the Bible, a book none understands? And how could you "understand" it, when it is so full of factual contradictions?

Two Gospels are saying Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, while Luke asserted that John was already in prison. Mark and John give little importance to the birth of Jesus, while Matthew and Luke give differing accounts. There are three separate and different versions of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20, Exodus 34, and Deuteronomy 5). As for the question of God’s true nature, there are many substantive contradictions. Is God a loving or vengeful God? In some sections of the Bible, vicious acts of vengeance, including the genocidal extermination of opposing tribes and nations, appear to be blessed by God. God turns on the Egyptians and transforms the Nile into blood so the Egyptians will suffer from thirst – and then sends swarms of locusts and flies to torture them, along with hail, fire and thunder from the heavens to destroy all plants and trees. To liberate the children of Israel, God orders the firstborn of every Egyptian household killed so all will know “that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel” (Exodus 11:7). The killing does not cease until “There was not a house where one was not dead” (Exodus 12:30). Amid the carnage God orders Moses to loot all the clothing, jewelry, gold and silver from the Egyptian homes (Exodus 12:35-36).

And what if Umberto Eco is right and all this Bible authoring was a practical joke? This is what he wrote in his sensational and thrilling book, "Foucault's Pendulum":

"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are a bunch of practical jokers who meet somewhere and decide to have a contest. They invent a character, agree on a few basic facts, and then each one’s free to take it and run with it. At the end, they’ll see who’s done the best job. The four stories are picked up by some friends who act as critics: Matthew is fairly realistic, but insists on that Messiah business too much; Mark isn’t bad, just a little sloppy; Luke is elegant, no denying that; and John takes the philosophy a little too far. Actually, though, the books have an appeal, they circulate, and when the four realize what’s happening, it’s too late. Paul has already met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Pliny begins his investigation ordered by the worried emperor, and a legion of apocryphal writers pretend also to know plenty…

It all goes to Peter’s head; he takes himself seriously. John threatens to tell the truth, the poor man is seeing things: Help, there are locusts all over my bed, make those trumpets stop, where’s all this blood coming from? The others say he’s drunk, or maybe it’s arteriosclerosis… Who knows, maybe it really happened that way?”

Blaise Pascal has warned us that "Men never do evils so completely and cheerfully as when they do it for religious conviction," so perhaps would be a good idea to tone down this endless bible talk. We do not want to sound like a bunch of crazy religious fanatics, don't we?

$516 TRILLION DOLLARS Ticking Bomb

2007-12-10T09:33:00.000-05:00

Your share of a national debt (over $9 trillion so far), according to the Associated Press is some $30,000.00; that's about $30K in debt for everyone living legally in this country. Being citizen bears the high honor of bearing the debt your government is taking upon your children's children's future. It would be stories all over the place; how Japan and China owe the U.S. or how the dollar's decline reduced the U.S. to a cheap touristic destination for European working class and so on. But, what you are not going to read very often is the story of the real financial bomb ticking underneath this country and this world's financial realities.

The Bank for International Settlements carries, in its virtual vaults, some really interesting data. The U.S. economy is an $11 trillion dollars economy. The U.S. stock market is valued at roughly $11 trillion dollars, give a take a few, due to the volatility and Jim Cramer. The U.S. bond market is valued at about $20 trillion dollars. The rest of the world's stock markets is an additional $13 trillion dollars and the world bond markets adds a modest sum of $13 trillion dollars.

Of course all that money does not exist at all. Imagine if everyone tries, at the same moment, to withdraw her or his money? Requesting a hard, green cash, now, this very moment! Ha, that would be the day. Do you really believe the banks have even the fraction of that money at their disposal? Long since gone are the days of the gold standard. The Federal Reserve Bank requires the banks to carry not more than 10% of their (that is: yours) deposits in cash. The rest is lent out or invested elsewhere, mostly in numerous derivatives of the endlessly creative financial markets.

Therein leis the really funny part. Those "derivatives" are too often too obscure monetary instruments (like the package your mortgage company has sold over to some other money changer who sold it again and again and again while you keep paying for your death pledge, commonly known as mortgage) that are being traded in between banks, governments, mutual funds, hedge funds and so on. The TOTAL "value" of those derivatives in the world financial markets is obscene $516 trillion dollars!

All those numbers do not mean too much, written like this. They are simply too surreal to comprehend. So let us put them in some perspective: the world's GDP, all that all the people in the world produce during one full year is roughly $65 trillion dollars. To make things even clearer, each living, breathing human being in the world from Anchorage to Punta Arenas produces the value of about $10,000.00 a year. The "value" of all those derivatives financial markets are trading is, on the other hand, $78,114.00 per capita. The whole world's population, every single of us would have to work for full seven years, without spending a dime, just to cover the "value" of all these derivatives.

This is the bomb that is ticking beneath all this noise. Another LTCM (Long Term Capital Management whose $1.4 trillion dollars in derivatives almost broke Wall Street), one of thousands unregulated hedge fund could easily start a chain reaction of selling that would evaporate all the money, savings, funds, stocks that keep us feel prosperous. And you still worry about the U.S. national debt and your tiny little share of $120,000.00 for the family of four? And remember, $5 trillion that the U.S. government owes in form of T-bonds are maturing within a year. So to pay them off, the government would have to issue about $6 trillion, give or take a dime. If there will be someone to purchase them. If not, we will always have Iran to bomb.

BABY BOY NAMES – what’s in the name?

2007-12-09T10:51:00.000-05:00

I just came back from my brisk morning walk with a new, totally silly puppy, ready to rest in my cozy old chair and write here a bit when the phone rang; it was Jennifer all excited, yelling incoherently and laughing like crazy. Love completely messed up with her head, I thought. After she came back to her senses she said: “Granny, I need your help!”, and instantly scolded me for my blogging. “You should care about more important stuff!”, she paused dramatically, “Like the love, like the pregnancy, like baby boy names!” – and I almost dropped the phone.

I knew instantly – Jennifer is pregnant! With a baby boy!

“Help me to choose the name, Granny, pleaseee!”, that’s how she used to ask me to cover her up while going out insead of studying, and that’s how she tortured me, "forcing" me to analyze Miles’ name on the day of their first date. Before Miles it was Salma Hayek’s name. Now we have to choose baby boy name. That's going to be fun! I am going to visit her, she lives in D.C. now, working for some big political shot I am not allowed to mention here (she said she would kill me if I dared to do so) and I know what I am going to take with me. This book, "The Right Baby Name" is probably the best outside, for that purpose, and other two might be of some help also.

If you wish to have some more fun with analyzing baby names, this is one fun site – www.kabalarians.com – but please, take all these advices with a grain of salt and use prudence. Do not get too obsessed. Yeah, right, I can hear you comment, nomen est omen after all.

World Under Siege of a Global Tyrant

2007-12-08T13:34:00.000-05:00

America does not fine a dead man like Judge Roy Bean used to do anymore, it tortures alive and kills without a reason. Many would say that modern American tragedy has started on a gloomy day when the Supreme Court of the United States has given the Presidency to a religious fanatic with unbreakable ties to the corporatism, George W. Bush. Most might agree that attack on Iraq without any justifiable reason was the crucial point that proved the American global tyranny went berserk and is going straight to hell.

No matter how utterly horrifying is the madmen’s decision to engage into looting of a country 5,000 miles away, that is happening outside. All great empires of the past have conceived its own demise from the inside. Therefore I would say the modern day rapid decline of the American Empire had its turning point when the U.S. media gloated over the murder of an American. That happened on November 3, 2002 in Yemen, the country that George W. Bush, calls “a partner”. The CIA’s Predator, 27 feet ( 8.2 m) long unmanned drone killed six people by its Hellfire missile. One of them was American citizen! None of those alleged terrorist had a “right to life” as defined in the U.N International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that says no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law did not apply for those men.

The United States of America ended the era when the Law matters. United States of America killed, on the foreign soil of a sovereign country, and arbitrary punished terrorist “suspects”. Suspects!? Imagine having police officers running around and murdering “suspects?” What would you say if some who you love is such a suspect?

Helsingen Sanomat wrote how “This model is dangerous because there are lots of countries in the world, which want the right to kill people, they have labeled as terrorists, outside of their own borders. In a country ruled by law, mere suspicions are not sufficient .... The event illustrates in a sad way the change in thinking that has taken place in the U.S. There is extensive approval in the United States for a mentality that no rules exist in the war against terror regardless of what jointly approved international regulations say.”

And what have the U.S. media had to say on the same topic? TIME” magazine from November 18, 2002, Vol. 160 No. 21 gloated – “They Didn’t Know What Hit Them” – adding that the killing was done “without putting a pilot’s life at risk”! So when they start to yell over the war in Iraq, they shall remember their own warm feelings over killings.

USA Today of November 5, 2002 wrote: “The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the evidence collected so far linking al-Harthi (one of assassinated) to the attack on the Cole was circumstantial and probably would not be decisive in court. ‘Fortunately, that's no longer an issue,’ an official said!

“Fortunately”??? – to the horror of all civilized people kept under siege of the United States global tyranny the America does not need evidence anymore!? Yes, America can kill whoever it whishes, wherever it whishes, whenever it whishes. And we are wondering why Iraq is happening or why Iran might happen soon. But there is underlying, unspeakable arrogance of the Global Tyrant! The U.S. is a signer of the ICCPR but they yet did not Ratified that document. Should this puzzle you? Of course not, the Global Tyrant’s hypocrisy does not end here.

Let us explore one brilliant diplomatic example of the U.S. tyrannical influence over the world. In the Section 6 of the “Iraq Liberation Act of 1998” u Senate Resolution 78 105^th Congress “urged the President to call upon the United Nations to establish an international criminal tribunal for the purpose of indicting, prosecuting, and imprisoning Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials who are responsible for crimes against humanity, genocide, and other criminal violations of international law.” Rome Statute adopted the formation of the International Criminal Court adopted on July 17, 1998, and the United States of America signed the treaty on December 31, 2000.

In a cunning diplomatic coup, the Global Tyrant “communicated” to the Nobel Prize winner and the Secretary-General of the U.N. Kofi Anan that they were just kidding when they signed the Statute. Communication reads: "This is to inform you, in connection with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted on July 17, 1998, that the United States does not intend to become a party to the treaty. Accordingly, the United States has no legal obligations arising from its signature on December 31, 2000. The United States requests that its intention not to become a party, as expressed in this letter, be reflected in the depositary's status lists relating to this treaty."

When we need the international community to play on our tune we bully it, when we need to invade, plunder and kill on foreign soil we rub your nose with those stupid treaties we now do not care about. If someone still worries over the future attack to Iran (or any other small, defenseless country for that matter, the propaganda will find its way to turn a saint into a sinner, a friend into a foe overnight like it has done so many times, with Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Yasser Arafat, Muammar al-Gaddaffi, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi just to stay in Middle East…), you should look above your head like Vincent van Gogh has done before painted this mesmerazing night.

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On a starry night take a moment and look to the sky. Immense yourself into intense beauty of the vast Universe. If this is too much for you, focus only to our tiny little part in the Space, our Milky Way Galaxy and its 100 billion stars. And as a human, that an infinitesimal blink of an cosmic eye, that fragile creature made of water and dreams you have the incredible ability to grasp that vastness, that empty cold horror and endless possibilities on the galaxies far, far away.

And now try to grasp that the Global Tyrant claims the Space for itself! Yes, America did not satisfy its gargantuan tryst by gulping down “Iraq oil for Iraq people” through its corporate pipelines to voracious wallets of it ruling camarilla, it demands the world to stay out of the Space.

This insane Global Tyrant that’s burning the distant lands with its military might, is authorized on August 31, 2006 and by this President the U.S. to:”respond to interference; and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests.” Presidential Decision Directive/NSC–49/NTSC-8 also states that it wishes “to extend the benefits of space, enhance space exploration, and to protect and promote "freedom around the world.”

After having seen how this Global Tyrant have “promoted” the freedom already, one might wish some aliens would kick their arrogant asses deep in Space. And to keep them there.

Paul Newman's portrait of the Judge Roy Bean renders a picture of American Justice in a such brilliant way that it is worth checking it out.

TORTURE WE DO NOT...

2007-12-08T09:59:00.000-05:00

... only our interrogative techniques are somehow harsh...

The degree of hypocrisy one possesses is equal to the absolute value of the difference between their beliefs and actions. The most dangerous hypocrisy may be the rejection of international law for the arrogance of asserting that one respects "higher" laws.

Now when everyone is talking how the CIA destroyed tapes showing torturing suspects it is shamefull to see how many politicians & pundits in this country are engaged in the discussion about torture in such a hypocritical manner talking of “harsh interrogative tehniques”.

With open disgust the world is buzzing about the U.S. torturing agendas but at home, zoon politicons of a new era discuss that shamefull issue brazenly avoiding the truth.

Term "water boarding" perhaps does not mean too much for an average citizen, a surfboard goes in the water as well, what could be wrong with it? But when you bound the suspect to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet, when your wrap cellophane over his face and when water you pour it over him, you are torturing him!

When you left a suspect to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees and throughout the time in the cell you douse him with cold water, you are not being somehow "harsh" in your interrogative tehnique, you are torturing him. United States of America is one of signers of the

U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment so all is clear as the early morning sun. No goverment should ever torture its subjects, never!

If you, in you heart frightened by the ghoulish masteriminds of propaganda and their constant fear mongering, still feel that is not right to violate basic human rights even upon a "suspect", you should act and say so. The stain of shame on the U.S. face is a stigma on all Americans.

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet (Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet")

What they call "harsh interrogative technique" stinks as the stench of burning rubber; as the fetor of polluted waters; as the malodor of diesel fumes; as the reek of stale sweat; as a stink of decayed flesh and is called the torture.

A Pathological Presidential Liar, or an Idiot-in-Chief

2007-12-07T19:58:00.000-05:00

No matter how much one admires or abhors Keith Olbermann's "snake-oil salesman bald face liar" enraged tirade on Bush’s Iran, Third World War agenda, his rant is at the same time a fascinating example of American freedom to insult the President on the national TV and very disturbing sign how the truth does not matter at all.

I am afraid Mr. Olbermann is missing one crucial point. The war is The Fantastic Business for Bush and his cronies. From looting Iraq' art to billions in cash shipped to and disapeared in Iraq, from Prescott Bush's dealing with Nazis during the World War II to Halliburton and Bechtel lucrative looting Iraq deals, there has been only one word that describes the purpose of this and any following wars: MONEY!

Oil industry has obscene profits and the government is giving them tax incentives. Military related businesses flourish, surveillance projects are being funded, private armies like Blackwater’s are being paid exuberant amounts of money.

This reminded me of immortal words uttered by a great financier of many European wars, Nathan Rothschild (1777-1836) said : "I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England to rule the Empire. The man who controls Britain's money supply controls the British Empire and I control the British money supply."

So nothing has changed from Rothschild's times, and all this could be defined as in the famous Watergate movie with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford “All the President’s Men”: forget the puppet and follow the MONEY.

The Catholic League vs. The Golden Compass

2007-12-05T21:39:00.001-05:00

The Catholic League and its president, Mr. Bill Donohue attacked a children’s movie The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman and James Bond. Says Donohue: “Throughout the film, confession is trivialized, celibacy is ridiculed, the Virgin Mary is disrespected, nuns are belittled, last rites are mocked, and priestly vocations are caricatured. In short, that which is uniquely Catholic is trashed.”

Nothing enrages the Granny more but ungodly, hypocritical Holier than Thou attitude. More of Donohue: "Unsuspecting (emphasis A.G.) parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books." Books – that word alone send chills down the spine of every parent!

Do not buy them kids books, send them to Catholic priests like John Geoghan instead. This fellow is now in prison for "playing" with a child. Take Rev. Joseph Birmingham a priest in Boston Arcihedose who, allegedly abused at least 50 boys during his 29 years long tenure. What would he have to say about peril of books that question an institution, the one that gave him a refuge during hard times of facing his victims? Or perhaps Rev. Paul R. Shanley who is awaiting a trial on charges he raped four boys could shad some light to the crucial issues like a movie? What about Rev. Ronald H. Paquin who is serving 12 to 15 years for rape? What is so “uniquely Catholic” about all those guys?

Where was The Catholic League during twenty and nine long years of Birmingham's undisturbed sexual crimes? Donohue’s newest crusaide aims to harm the movie financially; this is the language his camarilla understands best. More than 500 people allegedly abused by Los Angeles Catholic priests are to receive a record-breaking compensation payout of $660 million. This is nowaday’s price for absolution.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington picked up slightly slimmer tap when it has reached a $1.3 million settlement with 16 men who were sexually abused by priests between 1962 and 1982.

It is outrageously offensive what the Catholic Church has been doing for decades, shushing up witnesses and victims alike by orchestrating harassment and bribes, by hiding such hideous crimes and ungodly betrayals of everything that is holly and sacred, like the trust of children and their parents. The League's principles are "Motivated by the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment," the Catholic League states and adds that it "works to safeguard both the religious freedom rights and the free speech rights of Catholics whenever and wherever they are threatened." These noble causes apparently do not preclude the League and its president to, in fact, seek a denial of the same right to others. Sometimes like in this instance those "others" are filmmakers and sometimes the "others" are innocent victims of Catholic Church's decades long sexual abuses.

CRAZY SEXY CANCER, a story of spiritual courage!

2007-12-05T16:08:00.000-05:00

Kris Carr is my new idol. Her fight with an "incurable cancer" is an inspiring example of human spirit's incredible strength.

Please, check her blog and please, do not forget to check on her film and her book, both titled Crazy Sexy Cancer". She he is one awesome young woman!

Should you wish to use this experience and to learn more on some "alternative" healing methods, I wholeheartedly recommend Daniel Reid's books:

The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity,
Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing and, following Kris's recent post on detox, The Tao of Detox: The Secrets of Yang-Sheng Dao.

Kris, I love your spirit. Keep up girl, you're an incredible inspiration!

Captain Jack Sparrow and the Fourth Amendment

2007-12-05T12:53:00.000-05:00

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in action...

A gloomy stalwart of the communist Eastern Block, notorious East Germany’s STASI (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, Ministry for State Security, in fact a communist’s secret police) enslaved its own citizens in an endless net of surveillance and constant paranoia and had them spying on each other. At the peak of its power, STASI had staggering 30% of East Germans spying on the rest.

I am not trying to say that the Bush Administration (BU) has remotely similar intentions of having our good citizens spying on each other. God forbid casting a shadow of doubt onto current administration’s Freedom Fighters! They have accomplished all their missions and they will gladly accept the task of spying on us all by themselves. All they need is some of our pocket money, give or take a billion, to provide means for such spying. We shall readily pick up the tab for George W. Bush and his administration. After all, they are here to protect us from everything and everyone and, if that shall include all of us in a dire need for protection from ourselves as well, so be it. BU has started its operations as a kind of an educating enterprise – first you had and will have to do it forever, to observe and to listen ubiquitous subway warnings – “If you see a suspicious package or activity on the platform or train, don’t keep it to yourself... call the Terrorism Hotline!” So, if you by a chance see a commuter leaning way over to see if the train is finally coming, beware, you might be seeing something deeply disturbing and really suspicious in her behavior! Stop what you’re doing immediately and call, no one less but the Terrorism Hotline. Good old police should deal only with hot-dog vendors and hygiene violations but everything even remotely suspicious goes directly under the Terror Umbrella.

In a less democratic societies, like East Germany used to be, such design would inspire fear and myopic thinking; it would get innocents ready to spy on fellow humans, but this is not happening here. We spy only on bad guys in the same manner our rockets kill with surgical precision and only bad people, if they kill at all. We have never ever harmed an innocent bystander, God forbid a child. We will never ever spy on a good, TV watching, Dunkin’s Donats munching, celebrity worshiping, “Coca-Cola” gulping, Britney Spears obsessing, Disney pilgrimaging, God fearing and above all tax paying citizens.

Someone more cynical would say that this new law is just another proof that the BU invokes evil spirits of the STASI. Smartypants pundits might even invoke Orwell’s legendary dystopian propaganda and its unlikely Big Brother as some kind of perverted parallel with our democratic domestic spying agendas. Some like the ACLU might also say that Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) does not include spying targeted “at a person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States.” (like in the Act’s previous version) thus implying that it now includes U.S. citizens. Some liberal paranoid from the ACLU might even evoke The Fourth Amendment and your right to be secure against unreasonable searches or even go so far to say that this bill unconstitutionally allows the government to wiretap Americans’ emails and phone calls without prior, individualized court review, and without any suspicion of wrongdoing but such a liberal nitpicking should not have its place under the government’s caring surveillance.

But they all would be wrong! Our intelligence community does not operate under the umbrella of some communist’s totalitarian regime, on the contrary! This is transparent policy of the most democratic government in the world, the government that equalizes you, the citizen of the world, with everyone else living on our pale blue dot, susceptible for spying! Even more so, thanks to our government we are far better off than some poor soul spied upon in Seoul or wherever our government read people's emails. It is us who provide pencils and computers and gadgets and the daily bread for the people spying on us. It is our government, by the people, for the people, therefore it is our duty to provide them with the cash.

Our is a nice, Disneyland based society that values entertainment above all. Mickey Mouse has all the mighty buck a rodent might wish for and he cheerfully buys politicians from both sides of the political spectrum to further his corporate purpose and produces the Pirates of the Caribbean. Similarities and connections do not end here. Captain of our ship, George W. Bush and Captain Jack Sparrow share the same view on laws. Like the pirate’s Parley Code all those annoying laws "are more or less what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules."

And they both act accordingly.

OSCAR WORTHY – Marion Cotillard, Best Female Performance

2007-12-04T16:14:00.000-05:00

Due to its limited theatrical release you might have missed one brilliant, independent movie: La Vie En Rose (original title: La Môme) – a biopic on phenomenal Édith Piaf, probably the best French singer ever. That little women of an extraordinary stage presence and painfully tragic life was portrayed by equally incredible Marion Cotillard. I honestly believe that you should check this flick.

Capitol Records' 10 CDs set titled simply 30th Anniversaire is a must have collection for all old and young admirers of this extraordinary artist, great little "Sparrow", Ms. Edith Piaf.

Movie's Website: http://www.edithpiafmovie.com/

ENVIRONMENT, ART, NATURE...

2007-12-04T08:51:00.000-05:00

Canadian art critic and writer, John K. Grande says this about famous environmental artist, Bavarian Nils-Udo: "Active in the field of environmental art since the 1960s, Nils-Udo builds structures, elaborates on the landscape in a scale that fits, montaging natural materials on site. Thus links are established between horticulture and art, but with a basic sensitivity to the history of the landscape and land. Nils-Udo breaks through this dream-state of contemporary culture to make explicit the many ways we perceive, define and reflect on reality."

In Nils-Udo's words:“Sketching with flowers. Painting with clouds. Writing with water. Tracing the May wind, the path of a falling leaf. Working for a thunderstorm. Awaiting a glacier. Bending the wind. Directing water and light. The May-green call of the cuckoo and the invisible trace of its flight. Space. The cry of an animal. The bitter taste of daphne. Burying the pond and the dragon-fly. Setting fire to the fog and the perfume of the yellow barberry. Marrying sounds, colors and smells. The green grass. Counting a forest and a meadow.

Clearly it is only in her very last refuges that nature is still intact, inexhaustible; it is only there that enchantment is still reality. On any day of the year, in every season, in any light, in any weather; in the Largest and Smallest.

These days however, people are not interested in this. Nature is no longer an issue, except to a few Greens, who mostly can no longer tell a lime tree from a beech tree. Of course, there are many who pretend to love nature. Like the ones who claim to want peace. The fact is, they lost nature long ago. They don't see it any more, let alone hear it, smell it, taste it or touch it. When they do in fact take a look, they still don't see: they lost the prerequisites long ago for a larger, expansive and transitory overall view.

Make natural space into Art-space? Where is the limit on the narrow line between nature and art? Art? Life! What counts is the utopian character, the life- and art-blending character of my actions. My response to the events that mark my existence. My life. Are there art-lovers interested in my life?

A picture. A leaf, laden with flowers, drifting down a brook. Life.”

Hillary’s Money Machine vs. Obama’s Money Machine

2007-12-03T10:14:00.000-05:00

According to one AP Poll voters consider honesty and integrity the most important qualities they look for in a presidential candidate. The Washington Post reports yesterday that Hillary Clinton is now attacking Barack Obama’s honesty and integrity. One of Hillary’s problems with Obama (a cynic would say that Iowa polls showing Obama’s lead is the only real problem) is the fact he has raised money from the Washington’s PACs (Political Action Committee, kind of a supplement to lobbying). That platform is kind of funny, given Ms. Clinton’s legendary Money Machine efficiency.

Watching how much money those candidates are getting from interest groups I cannot help myself but to recall Meyer Rothschild’s words: “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws!” His son, Nathan Rothschild echoed his father’s words when he stated: “I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England… The man who controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire”.

Instead of listening them bicker over “integrity and honesty” I would like to see those candidates sewer ties with the special interest money thus proving that they are not just moneymen puppets but people with integrity and honesty indeed, people that put some verbs (actions) into their words and some meaning behind nouns like integrity and honesty.

Abraham Lincoln & Washington Lobbyists

2007-12-02T04:29:00.001-05:00

It is heartbreaking to see how the values have changed dramatically in this country. Today’s The New York Times published an article - Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before '08 Vote - just to show us how this is the reality we deal with. Business Lobbyists with their open wallets lure politicians into money nets of special interest and voila!, before you say "cheese" they are caught, cooked and ready to do whatever the moneymen tells them to do.

That brings up memories. Once upon a time there were a man named Abraham Lincoln. In his famous Gettysburg Address he uttered immemorial words - "...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." – and, paradoxically, he was right. The government by the people and for the people did not perish; only "the people" is the ubiquitous lobbying moneymen and his open valet. The government is their servant. Once upon a time it was supposed to be yours.

The question naturally arises: have the politicians of nowadays ever really fought for an average man, like legendary Jimmy Stewart did in Frank Capra's 1939 classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington? When I get depressed by watching or reading about politicians of today, Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart's story of corruption and the greatness of men who resist it makes me feel a little bit better.

Imus is Back! Shall Dog the Bounty Hunter be next?

2007-12-01T16:29:00.000-05:00

Don Imus is coming back next week. Today is a month since The New York Times and pretty much every other media outlet in this country have reported Dog the Bounty Hunter’s racist rant and his subsequent suspension by the A&E. Is it now a right time for the Dog to come back as well? Is our ignorant, celebrity worshiping society built on mindless entertainment or not? Perhaps our favorite racists' return(s) would be a right moment to read a book, like Rendall Kennedy’s Nigger or to see a movie like Lenny with Dustin Hoffman playing Lenny Bruce, a greatly controversial 60s comedian. Perhaps we should learn a little about the history of the N-word and see how people coped with it and with the society that has created it.

After all, if one "Oscar" winner, Halle Berry, can call another "Oscar" winner, Warren Beatty - her nigger - like she's done in a fascinating political satire, Beatty's Bullworth, maybe the rest of us also have a chance to face the demons the N-word conveys.

ENVIRONMENT, ART, NATURE...

2007-12-01T07:59:00.000-05:00

The modern world operates under the foolish misconception that science and technology can conquer nature, thereby permitting human beings to indulge their every whim and fancy. We cut down forests and plunder the seas, pollute the air we breathe and poison the water we drink, contaminate our bodies with artificial foods and synthetic drugs, and stunt our minds with trivial distractions and unnatural notions. The net result of this battle between nature and humans is a hostile environment that subverts rather than supports human life, and the ultimate losers are humans.