Happy Halloween!!!

My son's jack-o'-lantern.

The Evils of Liberalism

This reminds me of some discussions I had with my daughter about why liberalism is evil, rather than simply misdirected concern for others. A review by Jim O'Neil of the "Kindergarden [sic] of Eden."

“If they weren’t so dangerous and destructive, one could smile and pat the Modern Liberal on the head and tell him how cute he is and go on about the business of being an adult. But he is dangerous and destructive, with the True Believer’s very purpose being the total destruction of everything that God and science—most obviously Western Civilization—has ever created. ...The Modern Liberal will invariably and, in fact, inevitably side with evil over good, wrong over right and the behaviors that lead to failure over those that lead to success.”—Evan Sayet “The Kindergarden of Eden”.

. . . Of all the harmful doctrines promulgated by liberals, perhaps none has been as devastating in its effects as relativism. Put simply, relativism is the belief that there is no such thing as objective truth—truth is relative—one person’s “truth"is no more or less valid than another person’s. Relativism has been incorporated into several insidious offshoots such as moral relativism, cultural relativism, deconstructionism, postmodernism, political correctness, and multiculturalism.

I would be more than happy to slice and dice the concept of relativism like a Cuisinart blender, but time will not allow for it at the moment. Suffice it for now to point out that one of the basal claims of relativism—“there are no absolutes”—is self-refuting. That is, if the axiom is right then it is wrong, for the statement itself is asserting an absolute.

Leftists will of course counter that argument with one of their own, and so on until you have boxed them into their ultimate fall-back position of nihilism—at which point they will tell you that words are meaningless, logic is senseless, science oppressive, and nothing matters. Why they do not just say that up front and spare us all the song and dance is beyond me—luring in the gullible I suppose.

(Sidebar: If you would like to delve into the subject in more depth, let me suggest the paper “Relativism”(available online) by Allen Wood, Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. Dr. Wood is more refined than I in his dialogue with relativists, e.g.: “If relativists say that this isn’t what they mean when they assert a proposition or say they believe it, then they are apparently using the terms “assert” and “believe” in a new and mysterious sense, which they apparently can’t explain. Until they do explain the meanings these words have for them, we can’t be sure what (if anything) they are really saying when their mouths make noises that sound (to us) like assertions of relativism”).

Moving right along, let me next touch on the decline and fall of American education—triggered in no small part by members of the Frankfurt School. Most readers are at least somewhat familiar with the Frankfurt School—that group of German Marxists who were welcomed into the United States during the Nazi’s rise to power in the 1930s. Members of the Frankfurt School repaid America’s largesse by stabbing her in the back and spreading an especially virulent form of anti-Americanism throughout US academia. Perhaps the most infectious carrier of their disease was Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979).

“Sex sells"is a well known advertising axiom, and Marcuse hit upon the diabolically clever stratagem of combining sex with soft-sell Marxism. In 1955 Marcuse published his book “Eros and Civilization,“which lit the fire that would erupt into “the sexual revolution"of the 1960s (aided and abetted by the bogus “scientific findings"of pervert extraordinaire Dr. Alfred Kinsey—“Marquis de Sade with a research team"as Selwyn Duke describes him).

“Eros and Civilization“popularized the concept of polymorphous perversity (a term coined by atheist and hater of Judeo/Christian tradition Sigmund Freud). Polymorphous perversity was put into the vernacular in the 1960s as “If it feels good do it.“Skillfully hidden within the “if it feels good do it"camouflage, Marcuse included anti-capitalism, anti-freedom, anti-American Marxist propaganda.

Polymorphous perversity leaves everything and anything of a sexual nature on the table—pedophilia, bestiality, necrophilia, you name it. Whatever floats your boat is considered tr√®s [sic] chic, and any opposition to such perversions is considered to be hopelessly retardataire, repressive and anti-revolutionary. “No discrimination"is the operative catch-phrase, and as Evan Sayet observes, “Once you subscribe to indiscriminateness everything else is the evil of having discriminated.”

And here we come to Evan Sayet’s book “The Kindergarden of Eden"and its surprising, even stunning, conclusions concerning the mindset of America’s modern liberal. Although Sayet has a background as a humorist, his description of modern liberalism is no joke. Andrew Breitbart described Sayet’s talk given at The Heritage Foundation in 2007 as “one of the five most important conservative speeches ever given.“The video of his speech (”How Liberals Think”) on YouTube has had over 600,000 views.

Sayet’s description of the modern liberal mindset is summarized in the quote that opened this article: “...the Modern Liberal will invariably and, in fact, inevitably side with evil over good, wrong over right and the behaviors that lead to failure over those that lead to success.”

. . . In its simplest form, the culture war is a war being waged by the people who don’t do anything against the people who do everything. ...For the first part of the Modern Liberal era, the abject stupidity of the permanently infantilized could be absorbed…. So long as there were a sufficient number of people of God and science doing things and making things, these Modern Liberals could remain forever like Adam and Eve in Eden, or a child in a kindergarten playground….So long as there were people of God and science who could provide for him when he couldn’t provide for himself, he was sure to be safe and comfortable just being himself and doing whatever feels good. Today we are at a tipping point where the people of God and science will soon be overwhelmed by the demands of taking care of the permanently infantilized. It is unsustainable.

 Read the whole thing.

Tempers Flare in NJ Town Where Thousands Remain Stranded

From the AP (via Yahoo news):

Officials in the city of Hoboken, N.J., are defending their response to severe flooding from superstorm Sandy.

Public Safety director Jon Tooke says at least 25 percent of the city on the Hudson River across from Manhattan remains under water. He estimates at least 20,000 people are stranded and says most are being encouraged to shelter in place until floodwaters recede.

Tempers flared Wednesday morning outside City Hall as some residents complained the city was slow to get food and other supplies out to the stranded.

If you rely on the mercy of others, you are at the mercy of others. This is a good reminder to pay attention to evacuation warnings and to have food and water stored up for an emergency.

Reforming China's One-Child Policy?

NBC reports that a Chinese government "think tank" has suggested phasing out China's one-child policy by 2020. The article states:

The official Xinhua News Agency said the foundation was recommending a two-child policy in some provinces from this year and a nationwide two-child policy by 2015. It also proposed all birth limits be dropped by 2020.

"China has paid a huge political and social cost for the policy, as it has resulted in social conflict, high administrative costs and led indirectly to a long-term gender imbalance at birth," Xinhua said, citing the report.

The article also goes on to note possible opposition to changes within the government. It relates that while the policy has been unpopular among the common people, some credit it for China's current prosperity.

China's current prosperity is primarily a result of its people's work ethic and ability to provide cheap labor, neither of which depended on the one-child policy. However, any changes to the policy now, while welcome, will probably be a case of too little, too late. As it is now, even if given the option of having children, more and more Chinese will voluntarily opt to have one (or none), just like most other countries around the world.

Antibiotic Resistant TB Spreads in Eastern Europe

Drug resistant TB on the rise in Easter Europe:

TB, which cannot be cured with conventional drugs, is spreading in Eastern Europe. So far, strategies to fight the disease have shown little success because it is closely linked to poverty and exclusion.

Two years ago, most addicts in Eastern Europe died from a overdose or committed suicide; today, more and more of them are dying from multi-resistant tuberculosis (TB).

“The leading cause of death for people we treat is TB," says Daria Ocheret, who has worked with addicts in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for 10 years. "And most of the time, it is multi-resistant tuberculosis.”

For many people, TB is a disease that was eradicated in the last century. But the fact is the disease has returned and is more dangerous than ever. Multi-drug resistant TB complicates the treatment of patients worldwide.

The past several years has seen the rise of strains that are resistant not only to conventional antibiotics but nearly to all medicines. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 400,000 people are suffering from multi- or extremely-resistant TB.

. . . The former Soviet Union is especially at risk in Europe. Around 80,000 people with resistance to conventional TB medicines live in former Soviet states – a fifth of all cases worldwide, according to the WHO. A total of 15 European countries are considered high-risk, including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, and Moldavia as well as the Baltic states.

How to Tie a Shemagh Scarf

One of the better methods and explanations I've seen.

Reactive Draw Stroke

An article from Warrior Talk News about drawing a firearm (or other weapon) if you are threatened or attacked by someone else with a firearm. Synopsis: getting out of the way of the other person's weapon is your first priority, so practice moving and drawing at the same time.

Plans for a DIY Rocket Stove Using Wire Hangers

It is designed to be portable and uses rocks and the thick wire from wire coat hangers. (Link here).

Rifle Field Positions

Warrior Talk News has started a series on field positions to use when shooting a rifle. The first two--on prone shooting and sitting--are already up. One point they bring up with prone shooting that I thought was interesting, because it contradicts everything I've ever been told or read before, is:

Use the magazine as a monopod. Those that tell you doing so will malfunction the rifle are wrong...or they are using substandard magazines. The goal is as much bone support as possible with the least amount of muscle strength necessary to maintain the position.

Important Hurricane Tips

From Coalition of the Swilling. Note especially the list of food and supplies (reproduced below), advice on how to board up your windows, and to close your garage doors and back your vehicles up against the door to keep the wind from blowing them down.

A Few Days PRIOR (three days out may be TOO LATE to find everything):

3 gallons BOTTLED water per person (for 3 days) minimum
enough prescription medication to get you through 10 DAYS if you take any
canned tuna/chicken/SPAM/shelf stable meats
those damned nasty vienna snausages
canned chili
beenie weenies
canned soups like “chunky” that don’t need water added
mayo/mustard/ketchup
bread (Get the one with the FURTHEST OUT SHELF DATE)
canned vegetables, like green beans or baby peas
kraft macaroni and cheese in a box
dry cereal
instant oatmeal
squeezy cheese
large jar(s) peanut butter
large jar(s) jelly
various boxes of crackers
instant coffee or tea
coffemate, dry milk or shelf stable milk
sugar, salt, pepper
juice boxes
instant potatoes (like a BIG box of “Potato Buds”)
whatever fresh fruit your family enjoys
butter or (gulp) margarine
dogfood/catfood if you have furry family members besides, well…
snacks and chips
canned or plastic jarred fruits, like cocktail or peaches
pudding cups
dish detergent
antiseptic hand soap
paper towels
paper napkins
plastic utensils (forks, knives,spoons)
paper plates
plastic trash bags
ZIPLOCK baggies, QT and GAL
DUCK tape
boxes of wooden matches
MANUAL CAN OPENER
large candles (and not really stinky ones) As leelu notes in the comments:WITH a GAS LEAK, CANDLES CAN BE BAD. **SITUATIONAL AWARENESS** KNOW what’s going on.
bug spray, both yard and personal
A BATTERY OPERATED RADIO (that voice in the dark from the local TV station will be your BEST FRIEND, trust me.)
LARGE BATTERY OPERATED LIGHTS that will sit independently (hard to go to a dark bathroom holding a flashlight)
small flashlights
LED poplights are great
BATTERIES and SPARES that fit EVERY SINGLE THING YOU NEED BATTERIES FOR!!!
FILL YOUR PROPANE CANNISTER NOW (if you are on a direct gas hook-up, get a charcoal grill)
3 bags of charcoal
lighter fluid for the charcoal
CASH
CAR CHARGER for cell phones (ours were worthless during Ivan but I’ve heard they’ve come a long way, tower-wise…)
COOLERS for the ice (and the stuff that’ll come out of that fridge)
FIRST AID KIT which I bolster with additional Ace bandages, BandAids of every size and description, sterile wraps, tapes, Neosporin, hydrocortizone, anti-histimine pills, aspirin etc.
Little Coleman tanks if you have camping stoves or lights (as always, to be used OUTSIDE AFTERWARDS…DUH)
Old fashioned board games, playing cards, Mille Bornes, Yahtzee, books (especially with wired little ones)

Hold off on ice until the latest you possibly can, which is why it’s NOT on the “go after work TONIGHT” list. TOP YOUR GAS TANKS off while you can, too, as Bingley points out. You all will have to fight a ton more people at the pump than we ever did down here. *DIRECT plug-in phone like a Princess type, if you have a PHONE COMPANY landline. Your multiple remote handset phone will not work when the power goes out, and your old fashioned one may very well get a call out on the substation batteries.

Off Grid Survival Has a List of Survival Websites

(Link here). It is split into some general categories, so its a little better than just a long list.

Equipment for Urban Exploration

... and some of which may come in handy when scrounging after TEOTWAWKI. From Urban Explorers:

Rope	Depending on the type of outing, this is sometimes a necessity. Many people always carry at least one short (20-30ft) climbing rope/handline. If you have confidence in your upper body strength, you can fashion a simple climbing rope in a few minutes; the kind you remember from your old phys ed. days. Just tie a big half knot every foot or so. Alternatively, tie short loops at slightly shorter intervals, and use them as holds. A longer length of weight-bearing rope for use as a safety line is sometimes useful.
Duct Tape	I recommend a small roll in your sack, but don't worry about it for a simple trip. It's become kind of a joke, but people in the know don't laugh -- duct tape can do everything. It'll even work for shoe patches in a pinch.
Respirator	One which is rated for asbestos is what you're looking for. You can find them at Home Depot or similar hardware outlets for about $40. It's kind of cumbersome, but if you're going to spend a lot of time in steam tunnels you should have one. Unless, you're sure that there is no asbestos, which is unlikely in steam tunnels -- don't count on word of mouth or what you think asbestos "looks like" for this question. Find official documents.
Radios	Small handheld radios can be useful, especially in high-traffic areas requiring lookouts. Lapel mics and earpieces are good, as they are hands-free and inconspicuous. Remember that no radios travel very far through earth.
Hammer/small crowbar	A lot of those pesky manhole covers can be popped with just a hammer. Those which can't will usually succumb to a small crowbar (aka prybar). A hammer is slightly more versatile, and doesn't raise as much suspicion as a crowbar. The crowbar can be useful at disused sites for crusty old hatches and doors. Be careful -- getting caught with a crowbar, especially if you also have things like rope or walkie-talkies on you (or god forbid, lockpicks) can get you a quick trip to city lodgings. "Burglarious instruments."
Water	A water bottle is always a good idea, especially in steam tunnels. Tuck it into your ever-ready pack. A person can quickly get dehydrated when you're walking and crouching and crawling through 120 degree unventilated spaces. While you won't likely get into any real danger because of it, your endurance and enjoyment will suffer.
Maps/Blueprints/Etc.	Many tunnel explorers prefer not to have maps beforehand, as it heightens the sense of adventure. Others like to have an idea of where to go to see things that are out of the ordinary. In drains, don't ever head downstream in an unknown drain. Maps are often inaccurate (yes, even if they come straight from the sewer department) and nothing will ruin your day like getting swept over a waterfall.
Camera/Film	Or, a digital camera or video camera. Again, this is widely variable; some adventurers rarely leave the house without one, some just don't care that much. Keep your settings in mind and consider a beater.
Lighting rig	If you're doing lots of photo or video work, or just want a really good look at where you're going, consider a car battery-based light rig. Labor-intensive to truck around, but sometimes useful.
Head Light	When you are in the dark and you need both hands to get around, having a head light will be quite "handy." Get something like the Energizer Trail Finder 7 LED Head Light which is easy to pack to have ready when you need it.
Pen and Paper	Take notes and make maps. It makes the trip much more interesting, and it will help your recollection when you set up that fancy website about your exploits!
Plastic baggies	This is a must if you're draining, probably ignorable otherwise. A way to keep cameras, spare batteries, and anything else dry.

German Finance Minister: Worst Is Not Behind Us

Der Spiegel quotes German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble as stating: "I'm not so sure that the worst of the crisis is behind us." Also:

His comments were echoed by Yves Mersch, a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council who was also present at the event. He warned that even if calm had returned to the markets, it could be deceptive. "The bleeding has been stopped, but the patient is not yet in the clear," he said.

More on Fethullah Gulen

A few months ago, I had noted the Islamic sect led by Fethullah Gulen as an example that Islam might be malleable enough to accept the religious system underlying the False Prophet and Antichrist. The City Journal has an article about Gulen (h/t Instapundit). It states, in part:

. . . Gülen is a powerful business figure in Turkey and—to put it mildly—a controversial one. He is also an increasingly influential businessman globally. There are somewhere between 3 million and 6 million Gülen followers—or, to use the term they prefer, people who are “inspired” by him. Sources vary widely in their estimates of the worth of the institutions “inspired” by Gülen, which exist in every populated continent, but those based on American court records have ranged from $20 billion to $50 billion. Most interesting, from the American point of view, is that Gülen lives in Pennsylvania, in the Poconos. He is, among other things, a major player in the world of American charter schools—though he claims to have no power over them; they’re just greatly inspired, he says.

Even if it were only for these reasons, you might want to know more about Gülen, especially because the few commentators who do write about him generally mischaracterize him, whether they call him a “radical Islamist” or a “liberal Muslim.” The truth is much more complicated—to the extent that anyone understands it.

To begin to understand Gülen, you must start with the history of the Nurcu movement. Said Nursî (1878–1960), a Sunni Muslim in the Sufi tradition, was one of the great charismatic religious personalities of the late Ottoman Caliphate and early Turkish Republic. His Risale-i Nur, disdained and sometimes banned by the Republic, nevertheless became the basis for the formation of “reading circles”—geographically dispersed communities the size of small towns that gathered to read, discuss, and internalize the text and to duplicate it when it was banned. Nurcus tend to say, roughly, that the Risale-i Nur is distilled from the Koran; non-Nurcus often find the claim inappropriate or arrogant.

These reading circles gradually spread through Anatolia. Hakan Yavuz, a Turkish political scientist at the University of Utah, calls the Nurcu movement “a resistance movement to the ongoing Kemalist modernization process.” But it is also “forward-looking,” Yavuz says, a “conceptual framework for a people undergoing the transformation from a confessional community (Gemeinschaft) to a secular national society (Gesellschaft). . . . Folk Islamic concepts and practices are redefined and revived to establish new solidarity networks and everyday-life strategies for coping with new conditions.” To call this movement “fundamentalist” or “radical” is to empty both terms of meaning. It is equally silly to dismiss it as theologically primitive. I confess that I have not read all 6,000 pages of the Risale-i Nur, but I have read enough to be convinced that Nursî is a fairly sophisticated thinker.

Gülen’s movement, or cemaat, arose from roughly a dozen neo-Nur reading circles. Gülen was born in 1941 in a village near Erzurum, the eastern frontier of what is now the Turkish Republic. This territory was bitterly contested by the Russian, Persian, and Ottoman empires and gave rise to interpretations of Islam strongly infused with Turkish nationalism: when nothing but the Turkish state stands between you and the Russians, you become a Turkish nationalist, fast. Likewise, contrary to a common misconception among Americans who view the Islamic world as monolithic, Gülenists do not consider Persians their friends.

Two notable points about Gülen’s philosophy. First, he strongly dissuades his followers from tebliğ, or open proselytism. He urges them instead to practice temsil—living an Islamic way of life at all times, setting a good example, and embodying their ideals in their way of life. From what I have seen in Turkey, the embodiment of these ideals involves good manners, hard work, and the funding of many charities. It also involves a highly segregated role for women. I would not want to live in the segregated world that they find acceptable here; neither, I suspect, would the Western sociologists who have enthusiastically described the Gülen movement as analogous, say, to contemporary Southern Baptists or German Calvinists.

Second, Gülen holds (publicly, at any rate) that Muslims and non-Muslims once lived in peace because the Ottoman Turks established an environment of tolerance. To restore this peaceful coexistence worldwide, he says, Turks should become world leaders in promoting tolerance among religions—and Turks following his teachings should become world leaders.

. . . Gülen’s cemaat is by far the strongest Nurcu group in Turkey, described by many as Turkey’s third power, alongside Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian Justice and Development Party (known as the AKP, its initials in Turkish) and the military. The structure and organization of the cemaat are a subject of controversy. Members tend to be evasive not only about their relationship to Gülen but about the very existence of the cemaat; of late, some have urged Turks to use the word camia in its place. What’s the difference? Not much. Camia conveys looser ties; cemaat can mean “congregation,” whereas a camia is more like a circle. But the word cemaat has become so fraught with sinister overtones that rebranding was in order. Gülen himself calls his movement Hizmet, or service.

The movement’s supporters say that its structure is informal—that being “inspired” by Gülen is akin to being “inspired” by Mother Teresa. Critics, including many people who have left the movement, observe that its organizational structure is strict, hierarchical, and undemocratic. Gülen (known to his followers as Hocaefendi, or “master teacher”) is the sole leader, they say, and each community is led by abis, or elder brothers, who are privy to only a limited amount of information. Sociologist Berna Turam has argued that the abis make strong suggestions about, and perhaps dictate, whom members should marry.

. . . there is evidence that the cemaat is internally authoritarian, even cultlike. 

. . . The belief that the movement commands or inspires blind obedience is not confined to those who have left it—its spokesmen are proud of it.

. . . The second troubling fact about the cemaat’s activities is that the Turkish media organizations associated with it are clearly pursuing an agenda at odds with the movement’s publicly stated ideals. The English version of Zaman is often significantly different from the Turkish one. Remarks about enemies of Islam, perfidious Armenians, and Mossad plots are edited out of the English version, as are other comments that sound incompatible with the message of intercultural tolerance.

Read the whole thing.

"Where Will The Next Pandemic Come From?"

Popular Science has an article speculating as to the next pandemic and how to stop it (h/t Instapundit).

A horse dies mysteriously in Australia, and people around it fall sick. A chimpanzee carcass in Central Africa passes Ebola to the villagers who scavenge and eat it. A palm civet, served at a Wild Flavors restaurant in southern China, infects one diner with a new ailment, which spreads to Hong Kong, Toronto, Hanoi, and Singapore, eventually to be known as SARS. These cases and others, equally spooky, represent not isolated events but a pattern, a trend: the emergence of new human diseases from wildlife.

The experts call such diseases zoonoses, meaning animal infections that spill into people. About 60 percent of human infectious diseases are zoonoses. For the most part, they result from infection by one of six types of pathogen: viruses, bacteria, fungi, protists, prions, and worms. The most troublesome are viruses. They are abundant, adaptable, not subject to antibiotics, and only sometimes deterred by antiviral drugs. Within the viral category is one particularly worrisome subgroup, RNA viruses. AIDS is caused by a zoonotic RNA virus.
So was the 1918 influenza, which killed 50 million people. Ebola is an RNA virus, which emerged in Uganda this summer after four years of relative quiescence. Marburg, Lassa, West Nile, Nipah, dengue, rabies, yellow fever virus, and the SARS bug are too.

Over the last half dozen years, I have asked eminent disease scientists and public-health officials, including some of the world’s experts on Ebola, on SARS, on bat-borne viruses, on HIV-1 and HIV-2, and on viral evolution, the same two-part question: 1) Will a new disease emerge, in the near future, sufficiently virulent and transmissible to cause a pandemic capable of killing tens of millions of people? and 2) If so, what does it look like and from where does it come? Their answers to the first part have ranged from maybe to probably. Their answers to the second have focused on zoonoses, particularly RNA viruses. The prospect of a new viral pandemic, for these sober professionals, looms large. They talk about it; they think about it; they make contingency plans against it: the Next Big One. They say it might happen anytime.

* * *

[There are] [t]wo reasons for that [the large number of RNA viruses], he explained. It’s not just the high mutation rates but also the fact that their population sizes are huge. “Those two things put together mean you’ll produce more adaptive change,” he said.

RNA viruses replicate quickly, generating big populations of viral particles within each host. Stated another way, they tend to produce acute infections, severe for a short time and then gone. Either they soon disappear or they kill you. Eddie called it “this kind of boom-bust thing.” Acute infection also means lots of viral shedding—by way of sneezing or coughing or vomiting or bleeding or diarrhea—which facilitates transmission to other victims. Such viruses try to outrace the immune system of each host, taking what they need and moving onward quickly, before a body’s defenses can defeat them. (The HIVs are an exception, using a slower strategy.) Their fast replication and high rates of mutation supply them with lots of genetic variation. Once an RNA virus has landed in another host—sometimes even another species of host—that abundant variation serves it well, giving it many chances to adapt to the new circumstances, whatever those circumstances might be.

* * *

To put the matter in its starkest form: Human-caused ecological pressures and disruptions are bringing animal pathogens ever more into contact with human populations, while human technology and behavior are spreading those pathogens ever more widely and quickly. In other words, outbreaks of new zoonotic diseases, as well as the recurrence and spread of old ones, reflect things that we’re doing, rather than just being things that are happening to us.

We have increased our human population to the level of seven billion and beyond. We are well on our way toward nine billion before our growth trend is likely to flatten. We live at high densities in many cities. We have penetrated, and we continue to penetrate, the last great forests and other wild ecosystems of the planet, disrupting the physical structures and the ecological communities of such places. We cut our way through the Congo. We cut our way through the Amazon. We cut our way through Borneo. We cut our way through Madagascar. We cut our way through New Guinea and northeastern Australia. We shake the trees, figuratively and literally, and things fall out. We kill and butcher and eat many of the wild animals found there. We settle in those places, creating villages, work camps, towns, extractive industries, new cities. We bring in our domesticated animals, replacing the wild herbivores with livestock. We multiply our livestock as we’ve multiplied ourselves, establishing huge factory-scale operations that contain thousands of cattle, pigs, chickens, ducks, sheep, and goats. We export and import livestock, fed and fattened with prophylactic doses of antibiotics and other drugs, across great distances and at high speeds. We export and import wild animals as exotic pets. We export and import animal skins, contraband bushmeat, and plants, some of which carry hidden microbial passengers. We travel, moving between cities and continents even more quickly than our transported livestock. We visit monkey temples in Asia, live markets in India, picturesque villages in South America, dusty archaeological sites in New Mexico, dairy towns in the Netherlands, bat caves in East Africa, racetracks in Australia—breathing the air, feeding the animals, touching things, shaking hands with the locals—and then we jump on our planes and fly home. We provide an irresistible opportunity for enterprising microbes by the ubiquity and sheer volume and mass of our human bodies.

Everything just mentioned falls under this rubric: the ecology and evolutionary biology of zoonotic diseases. Ecological circumstance provides opportunity for spillover. Evolution seizes opportunity, explores possibilities, and helps convert spillovers to pandemics. But “ecology” and “evolutionary biology” sound like science, not medicine or public health. If zoonoses from wildlife represent such a significant threat to global security, then what’s to be done? Learn more. RNA viruses are everywhere, as Eddie Holmes has warned, and science has identified only a fraction of them. Fewer still have been traced to their reservoir hosts, isolated from the wild, grown in the lab, and systematically studied. Until those steps have been achieved, the viruses in question can’t be battled with vaccines and treatments. This is where the field and laboratory scientists—veterinary ecologists, epidemiologists, molecular phylogeneticists, lab virologists—come in. If we’re going to understand how zoonoses operate, we need to find these bugs in the world, grow them in cell cultures the old-fashioned way, look at them in the flesh, sequence their genomes, and place them within their family trees. It’s happening, in laboratories and at field sites all over the world; but it’s no simple task.

Read the whole thing.

"Myths of a Muslim Antichrist"

The traditional view among Christians of the Antichrist described in Revelations is that he would be a European leader, perhaps attempting to resurrect the Roman Empire. However, over the past decade, an alternative theory--that the Antichrist would be Muslim, or at least be from Turkey or Syria--has started to challenge the traditional interpretation. I think there is a lot going for the more modern interpretation, although I have doubts as to whether Islam (at least in its current form) is the religious system overseen by the Antichrist and False Prophet. However, here is an article from Jeremy Stevens that presents an argument against the "Muslim Antichrist." He presents six basic arguments against the "Muslim Antichrist" interpretation:

1.  The "Assyrian" references in the Bible do not necessarily refer to the Antichrist.

2.  Assyrians are predominantly Christian anyway.

3.  Daniel predicts a Roman antichrist.

4.  The fourth beast of Daniel's (actually, Nebuchadnezzar's) dream is Roman/Western, not Islamic/Middle-Eastern.

5.  Beheadings are not limited to Muslims.

6.  A Muslim antichrist would not blasphemy Muhammad. 

Read it and see what you think.

German Auditors Urge Inspection of Foreign Gold Reserves

This issue had popped earlier this year. I wonder if this is a case of someone simply noticing that an audit hadn't been performed for a long time, or if there are suspicious movements or trading of gold that have sparked concerns. The real story, though, may be simply the fact that Germany no longer is trusting of keeping its gold in the U.S., France or Britain.

German federal auditors have called on the country's central bank to regularly look into the quality of its gold reserves stored at banks abroad. The Bundesbank has conceded a physical check has never been carried out.

German media reports on Tuesday confirmed the country's central bank, the Bundesbank, would bring back a certain part of its gold reserves it had been storing abroad. While not specifying the amount of gold bars in question, the Bundesbank said the measure to start in 2013 would serve to check the quality of the gold.

The Bundesbank said gold bars would be completely melted as the only way of checking their purity thoroughly and would afterwards be cast into bars again.

German federal auditors on Monday once again urged the central bank to inspect at least part of its nearly 3,400 tons of gold valued at 133 billion euros ($174 billion). "Germany's gold reserves abroad have never been checked physically regarding their authenticity or weight," the auditors wrote in a report to lawmakers.

Like many central banks, the Bundesbank has always kept part of its reserves in vaults of financial institutions abroad, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Banque de France and the Bank of England.

(Full story here).

LDS Missionary Applications Increase

From the Daily Mail:

The Mormon church is bracing itself for a surge in the number of converts after applications for missionary work exploded by 471 per cent - with more than half coming from women.

Just two weeks ago the age limit for young men to be sent on full-time missions was reduced from 19 to 18 and the limit for young women from 21 to 19.

As a result of the move, the number of applications for training shot up from an average of 700 a week to 4,000 a week.

Currently the Church of Latter Day Saints has more than 58,000 missionaries around the world but women account for less than a fifth.

Book Review -- Physics of the Future

Book: Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku (2011, 389 pages) (Amazon link here).

Overview: An overview of probable technological and scientific developments over the next 100 years, primarily focusing on those with commercial development and promise.

Impression: I read this book for two reasons. First, I enjoy reading about science and technology issues. Two, I have trying a few books from futurists to get a better idea of emerging or strengthening trends. I quickly realized after starting into this book that it was written for the popular culture, with little of no technical information. In that respect, it was no better than many of the articles you might find in Popular Science talking about how in 5 or 10 years we will all be using (or driving) "X" technology or products, except that it is in a book format, instead of scattered through numerous articles. However, having been written by a theoretical physicist, I had hoped it would have more substance.




Overall, the author paints a very rosy picture of the future, with full confidence that life will improve as a direct result of technology and science. The world he pictures has seen the triumph of Western tolerance and enlightenment, and therefore (like modern Europe and North America) enjoying peace and prosperity. The only negative seems to be the lingering effects of global warming (having caused coastal flooding). He is dismissive of the ability of any government to use technology to constrain the ambitions and hopes of the populous over the long term--i.e., "Big Brother" will not come about. He also does not see any significant advances in manned space flight.

Notable Points: Obviously, there is the issue of surveillance. The author believes (correctly) that technological development (especially continued decline in prices) will lead to the ability to monitor almost everything about everyone--sensors in clothing that monitor health and (because of GPS and communication technology) request assistance; sensors in your toilet and toothbrush to sample and test DNA and other body chemistry; MRI devices the size of a cell-phone; swarms of drones that can reinforce and multiply the power and ability to conduct surveillance. In the happy world the author envisions, this technology frees people from worries and ill health. However, mostly ignored by the author, is that under a tyrannical government, it would be a living hell.

Perhaps more significantly, the author points out the coming collapse of Moore's law. Moore's law (really, an observation) states that computing power doubles roughly every 18 months. Moore's law has held true for approximately 50 years. The author bluntly states: "Even Moore's law must end, and with it the spectacular rise of computer power that has fueled economic growth for the past half century." As he points out, the reason people buy new computers is this year's model is almost twice as powerful as last years model (and just as cheap, too). However, we will reach the physical limits of our technology for etching chips in about 2020, and shortly thereafter will reach a point where the quantum effects will prevent us from using smaller circuits. He explains:

One reason why Moore's law has relentlessly increased the power of chips is because UV light can be tuned so that its wavelength is smaller and smaller, making it possible to etch increasingly tiny transistors onto silicon wafers. Since UV light has a wavelength as small as 10 nanometers (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter), this means that the smallest transistor that you can etch is about thirty atoms across.

But this process cannot go on forever. At some point, it will be physically impossible to etch transistors in this way that are the size of atoms. You can even calculate roughly when Moore's law will finally collapse: when you finally hit transistors the size of individual atoms.

He further notes that once we reach a level of 5 atoms across, quantum effects take over, including the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Even if alternative technologies are developed (something as different as tubes from integrated circuits), the author believes that the pace of the increase in computing power that we see know will significantly slow. Although massively parallel computing offers some hope, the author believes it is somewhat of a chimera because of hurdles in developing software. Thus, we may see an economic disruption beginning in 10 to 15 years due to end of Moore's law.

Obama Supporters Continue to Threaten Riots

From Info Wars:

Despite the issue garnering a significant amount of [alternative] media interest as well as the attention of the Secret Service, Obama supporters continued their threats to riot and assassinate Mitt Romney if Obama loses in the aftermath of last night’s presidential debate.

As we reported last week, Twitter has been flooded recently with violent comments from Obama supporters. The increase in volume of the comments seemed to coincide with Romney’s poll numbers edging higher against Obama.

Not only have Obama voters been making open threats that they will riot and cause mayhem, they have also been caught making direct threats to assassinate Mitt Romney, prompting the Secret Service to announce that it was “aware” of the threats and would “conduct appropriate follow up if necessary.”

Obama Recognizes Iran's "Nuclear Rights"

Not sure by "nuclear rights" whether he means "nuclear power" or "nuclear weapons." The Iranians may not know either. Anyway, the story, via Fars News Agency (h/t Weasel Zippers):

Swiss Ambassador to Tehran Livia Leu Agosti attended a meeting with senior Iranian foreign ministry officials a few days ago to submit a letter from the US president to Tehran leaders.

Vice-Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Ebrahimi told FNA that during the meeting, Agosti had told the Iranian officials that President Barack Obama recognizes Iran's right of access and use of the nuclear technology.

"There are a couple of points with regard to this (US) message (to Iran)," Ebrahimi said and added, "Firstly, during the session to submit the message, the Swiss ambassador to Tehran quoted the US president as saying that 'we (the US) recognize your nuclear rights'."

As regards the second issue, the lawmaker said that the Swiss diplomat had also quoted Obama as saying that "I didn't want to impose sanctions on your central bank but I had no options but to approve it since a Congress majority had approved the decision."

Obama's Presidency in a Song

A parody of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."

Our Hydrocarbon Future

Here's another needle to the green energy bubble:

There's been plenty of debate over the Marcellus Shale natural gas field, but new research adds a twist that could impact political and environmental battles. Two independent financial firms say the Marcellus isn't just the biggest natural gas field in the country — it's the cheapest place for energy companies to drill.

One of the reports adds that the Marcellus reserves that lie below parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York are far larger than recent government estimates, while another said the powerful combination of resource, cost and location is altering natural gas prices and market trends across the nation.

The Marcellus could contain "almost half of the current proven natural gas reserves in the U.S," a report from Standard & Poor's issued this week said.

(Full story here).

"Heterosexism" and Thought Crimes

Apparently the Liberal fascists are now teaching that it is bad to think that it is normal to be heterosexual.

If you were worried about sex education classes that encouraged sexual relations between teenage girls and boys, you might now have something even more serious on your plate: indoctrination of kids against "heterosexism".

A report in the Australian Daily Telegraph today reveals that a programme teaching that it is wrong to regard heterosexuality as the norm for relationships is being piloted in 12 schools in the Australian state of New South Wales. There’s a similar programme in the state of Victoria. Academics and sexual libertarian groups such as Family Planning have had a heavy hand in them.

The target of these programmes is not just anti-gay discrimination and bullying but something much more radical -- what the theorists of the sexual diversity movement call “heteronormativity”. Training for teachers in the Proud Schools scheme advises them to “focus on the dominance of heterosexism rather than on homophobia”. Watch out for that other h-word.

The program defines "heterosexism" as the practice of "positioning heterosexuality as the norm for human relationship," according to the Proud Schools Consultation Report.

"It involves ignoring, making invisible or discriminating against non-heterosexual people, their relationships and their interests. Heterosexism feeds homophobia."

The pilot programme, which is costing AU$250,000, is to be “made available” to non-government schools, according to a statement made by the NSW education minister, Adrian Piccoli, last year. The minister seems to realise he is on shaky ground with this scheme as he has tried to distance himself from it this week, pointing out that it was launched under a former (Labour) government.

Daily Telegraph columnist Miranda Devine gives further details of the Proud Schools programme in a blog entry. She says it includes “celebrations of diversity for students” and “embedding discussion of sexuality and gender diversity into the classroom”.

Christian values are rapidly becoming thought crimes.

North Dakota Town Destroyed by Wild Fire

From the Daily Mail:

A small town in North Dakota has been wiped off the map overnight by a devastating wildfire which whipped through the landscape with the help of 70mph winds.

By Thursday morning, the 27 residents of Bucyrus had been forced to abandon their homes and take refuge in surrounding communities.

Miraculously, no one was hurt in the blaze, but Adams County state's attorney Aaron Roseland described the town as 'pretty much completely lost'.

The county commission chairman said the fire destroyed four homes and two abandoned farms in the town about 60 miles south of Dickinson.

Chuck Christman said seven structures, a church and a grain elevator were spared from the blaze that was pushed by the high winds. The town's only business, a picture-framing shop, was destroyed, while trees and buildings including homes still smoldered on Thursday, he said.

Mr Christman said the blaze scorched an area six miles long and half a mile wide and also downed about 50 power poles and set railroad ties on a nearby train track ablaze.

U.S. Military Using 3-D Printing In The Field

From the New Scientist:

AN ISOLATED military outpost in the middle of hostile territory is a bad place for your equipment to break down. Replacement parts and fuel either have to be air-dropped or driven through dangerous territory. So the US military plans to make remote operating bases and camps self-sufficient, able to generate their own energy and even print their own gadgets.

Advances in radio, GPS and surveillance equipment have changed how the US military deploys its troops, says Bob Charette of the Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office. Instead of being bunched in large groups that slowly march across enemy territory, soldiers are now strategically scattered in independent camps that span an entire war zone. These can range from operating bases with a few hundred soldiers to lookout posts of less than a dozen.

Such isolated bases are "the tip of the spear", says Pete Newell, who heads the US army's Rapid Equipping Force (REF). But they often have difficulty getting equipment. It can take months to receive parts that need to be shipped from the US.

To speed up the process, REF has put together three mobile laboratories in 6-metre-long shipping containers. Each lab comes with tools such as plasma cutters and jigsaws, a 3D printer that prints in plastic or metal and a scientist and engineer to run them. The labs, which cost about $2.8 million, can be picked up by helicopter and set down just about anywhere.

The first lab was shipped to Afghanistan in July, and a second will be deployed next month. So far, they have allowed soldiers to fix technical problems on the spot, Newell says. "Every 10th guy has a great idea." For instance, the 54 °C heat in Afghanistan was playing havoc with the batteries in a ground-penetrating radar system used to search for mines, so soldiers used the 3D printer to make a shielding case to protect them. It worked so well that everyone wanted one, Newell says, so the team emailed the design back to the US, where it could be mass-produced and distributed among other combat units. Soldiers have also used the labs to design hooks for defusing explosive devices, and parts to repair robots. Printing weapons is not on the agenda, Newell says, although fixing them might be. He also envisions printing more complex objects, like batteries and solar panels, which has been shown to be technically feasible

Greek Corruption

Der Spiegel has an article on Greek corruption--including falsifying welfare eligibility, tax evasion, and official corruption--that is draining the country of money. Here's just a portion:

Greece's largest social security organization, IKA, has been used by many in the country as their personal piggy bank. The fact that IKA coffers are actually empty hasn't stopped department heads or low-level employees from continuing to transfer money to friends and relatives who are not entitled to receive any payments whatsoever. But even everyday citizens take advantage of the system: Of the supposedly 700 blind people on the island of Zakynthos, for instance, in reality there are only 60 who truly cannot see.

Thanks to such commonplace tricks, an estimated 40 percent of Greece's annual gross domestic product (GDP) still generates no revenues for state coffers, says Athens-based corruption investigator Leandros Rakintzis.

According to Transparency International's Costa Bakouris, Greece has all the right conditions for corruption: plenty of bureaucracy, no functioning justice system, laws with numerous loopholes -- and economic pressure. Bakouris was himself an entrepreneur and lived for 20 years in Switzerland. He says Greeks like him, who have lived abroad for many years, have the clearest perception of the problems in their homeland. Bakouris also briefly worked for the state as the managing director of preparations for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. After two years, he "more or less fired" himself. He says that he refused to accept that all bids -- whether they were for major infrastructure projects or for the carpeting in the Olympic village -- should be roughly three times as high as they were in Sydney, which hosted the games in 2000.

Is it any wonder that Greece is circling the drain?

What Is The Muslim Brotherhood?

From the International (h/t Instapundit):

The MB is both a political and social movement that advocates moving away from secularism and toward a political and civil society that is organized by the principles outlined in the Qur’an, including the implementation of Shariah law.

Louay M. Safi wrote an article for The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences in which he describes Shariah law as, “a comprehensive system encompassing the whole field of human experiences. It is not simply a legal system, but rather a composite system of law and morality.”

Shariah law regulates and guides all aspects of life from politics and economics to personal issues of marriage, family, diet and hygiene and is meant to provide a guide for all things concerning morality.

Egypt’s new President Mohamed Morsi has promised to implement Shariah law as his, “first and final” objective.

Europe's Continued Descent Into Tyranny

Greeks staged more anti-austerity riots today, as well as another general strike. Says the Daily Mail:

Labour unions in recession-hit Greece are holding another general strike against the country's harsh austerity program, as European leaders beset by the debt crisis gather for a summit meeting in Brussels.

Today's strike - the 20th national stoppage since the debt crisis erupted two years ago - comes as EU leaders meet in Brussels.

It has closed down public services and severely hampered most forms of transport with even taxi drivers joining in for nine hours. Shopkeepers in Athens and other cities are also closing for the day.

It is the second general strike in less than a month.

The 24-hour shutdown has stopped all rail and ferry services, while a walkout by air traffic controllers is grounding flights for three hours.

Schools and tax offices are closed all day, state hospitals are functioning on emergency staffing and bank services are also disrupted.

Athens police are already dealing with rioting, as once again the protests have turned violent with masked anarchists fighting police.

The irony is rich--calling protesters wanting more government "anarchists." In fact, so-called anarchists are nothing more than tools for those groups and ideologies wanting more centralized control. To-wit:

The protests in Greece come as German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for stronger central powers to intervene when EU member states break budget rules.

Speaking ahead of a summit at Brussels, she rebuffed demands for the quick creation of a pan-European bank supervisor.

In a speech to the lower house of parliament, Mrs Merkel put herself on a collision course with French Socialist President Francois Hollande and others, who are reluctant to cede sovereignty over fiscal policy and want the European Central Bank (ECB) to get new watchdog powers by the end of the year.

Voicing support Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's idea of a European 'currency commissioner', she said: 'We are of the opinion - and I speak for the whole German government on this - that we could go a step further by giving Europe real rights of intervention in national budgets.'

Rogue Earthquakes

Popular Mechanics had an interview with Roger Musson, author of The Million Death Quake. Part of the interview:

Q:  You warn of "rogue quakes." What are those?

A:  All earthquakes occur on fault lines, but faults are far more common than most people realize. The rocks we live on have been around for a long time. They’ve been broken up in response to episodes of mountain building that happened millions and millions of years ago. So faults are very common.

A "rogue earthquake" occurs on a fault that wasn’t identified as being particularly dangerous. That can happen in areas where earthquakes are very rare. You might get one every several thousands of years, so the last one was long before living memory.

The other sort of case is earthquakes that are a surprise but shouldn’t be a surprise, and that was very much the case with Haiti. The fault line that produced the Haiti earthquake was well-known . . . There was a historical record of a devastating earthquake back in the 18th century. But in that case, a lot of people hadn’t looked into the history of earthquakes in the area and didn’t realize that the fault was as dangerous as it is.

Here is a May 10, 2012, about the April 2012 rogue earthquake off Indonesia:

On April 11 of this year, one of the 10 biggest earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of Indonesia. It was felt from Bangladesh to Australia.

You may not have even heard of this magnitude 8.6 quake. It barely made the news in the U.S. because it did very little damage. Two people died, but there was no massive tsunami.

To understand why this quake was so big, yet not catastrophic, you need to know this: There are two kinds of major quakes in the world. One type happens when two plates of the Earth's crust slide past one another horizontally. That's what happens along California's San Andreas Fault.

The other kind of major quake occurs when two plates collide, and one slips beneath the other with a jolt.

"We expect that the largest earthquakes occur in that kind of a setting, called a megathrust," says Greg Beroza at Stanford University. In fact, he says, since seismologists started recording earthquakes about 120 years ago, every quake this huge has been a megathrust quake.

Or that was true, until last month.

The magnitude 8.6 quake off of Indonesia was actually the side-slipping kind, called a strike-slip. Fortunately, that kind of quake is much less likely to cause a tsunami because sideways motion doesn't generate big waves the way up-and-down motion does (unless it triggers an undersea landslide). That's why it caused relatively little damage.

. . . That makes it the biggest quake ever recorded that was not on a fault. It dwarfed the best-known example of quakes like that: the 1811 and 1812 quakes centered near New Madrid, Mo. Nobody measured that one at the time, but historical reconstructions estimate the magnitude at around 7.7.

Beroza suspects the April quake in Indonesia — along with a companion quake the same day, magnitude 8.2 — are part of a gradual process that is making new faults and redefining the boundary between plates.

I had posted sometime before about some of the most destructive earthquakes in history, as well as the New Madrid Earthquake.

China's Rich Continue to Move Cash Overseas

From the Wall Street Journal:

Wealthy Chinese citizens are buying beachfront condos in Cyprus, paying big U.S. tuition bills for their children and stocking up on luxury goods in Singapore, frequently moving cash secretly through a flourishing network of money-transfer agents. Chinese companies, for their part, are making big-ticket foreign acquisitions, buying up natural resources and letting foreign profits accumulate overseas.

This will mean less money to prop up the inflated real estate market.

Obama Supporters Threaten to Riot if Obama Loses

From Infowars (via Drudge):

Despite the issue receiving national media attention, Obama supporters continue to threaten to riot if Mitt Romney wins the presidential election, raising the prospect of civil unrest if Obama fails to secure a second term.

The new threats continue to dominate Twitter and the vast majority make no reference to press coverage of the issue over the last week, illustrating the fact that they are a legitimate expression of how many Obama voters plan to respond if Romney comes out on top, and not merely a reaction to media hype.

An Infowars.com story written by Michael Snyder which was picked up by the Drudge Report over the weekend and has since gone viral documented how Twitter was flooded with messages from Obama supporters threatening to riot, a sign that “whichever side loses this election will accuse the other side of stealing the election.”

The story was subsequently picked up by innumerable media outlets. Highly respected economist and philosopherThomas Sowell also voiced his concerns that race riots could ensue if Obama is not re-elected.

Checking Twitter feeds this morning, we discovered that threats to riot on behalf of Obama supporters are still flooding in, with the users seemingly unaware of the fact that the media has now picked up on the buzz.

Holocaust Fears in Israel

From the Telegraph:

But what Israelis really dread is the prospect of Iran getting nuclear weapons. "We're a small country, about the size of Wales. They only need to drop four or five Hiroshima-sized bombs and there won't be many of us left," said Mr Bloom.

"I don't think ordinary Iranians hate Jews but their president Ahmadinejad does. When he opens his mouth, he might as well have a little moustache and a slanty haircut.

"It's a tough one for us, difficult to know what Israel should do. Israel has always fought preventative wars, and when you have this nutter threatening us you hope for a diplomatic solution. But can we wait?"

A terrifying homemade film imaging what could happen if Iran gets the bomb has made many Israelis question whether they should wait.

Israel's Last Day, viewed half a million times on Youtube, imagines a young couple driving to her mother's home during an Iranian air attack when nuclear bombs explode. The five-minute film, made with amateur actors for extra realism, and computer-generated mushroom clouds, is a nightmarish vision from video-editor Ronen Barany, 33.

"I wanted to produce something shocking, to wake people up," he said at his home outside Jerusalem. "It took Hitler six years to kill six million Jews. It would take Ahmadinejad six minutes." Mr Barany, a father of two, was born in Romania. Many of his relatives died at Auschwitz.

He does not relish the prospect of a new war and hopes that diplomacy will end Iran's nuclear programme. If that fails he thinks an American attack would be the best option.

"I don't fully trust America though – in the end Israelis can't trust anybody except ourselves," he said.

He is sure that Israelis are coming round to the necessity of an air raid on Iran. "Two years ago nobody wanted to think about this. But today people worry that Iran is capable of doing something crazy. The fear is that the fanatics will do one last terrible thing when their regime is dying. People are starting to say, 'let's do something before it is too late'. We had one Holocaust. We don't want another one."

If Israel believes it is facing an existential crises, they aren't going to have the patience for diplomacy. Israel might be willing to wait a few months for a new American administration, but if Obama wins, I wouldn't expect them to wait too long.

Flemish Nationalists Make Gains in Local Elections in Belgium

This is significant because they support secession from Belgium. (Full story here). I think secession and "semi-autonomous" regions are themes that are going to increase in popularity over the next several years.

Free Syrian Army

The Daily Mail has an article and some pictures of the Free Syrian Army. Here is one of the pictures from the article:

What are some of the things he is doing wrong? Here are a few: (i) He is too close to the window--he could be seen; (ii) he is sticking his barrel out the window (see (i)); (iii) he is not shooting from a stable platform or position;  (iv) he is resting his barrel on the window sill, which will throw off his aim.

Where Did the Book of Mormon Take Place?

I'm going out on a limb today and entering a subject that is complete speculation, but interesting to me. The subject is: Where did the Book of Mormon take place?

Is it necessary for our salvation and faith? No. But I like a mystery, so here are some of my thoughts on the issue.


The specific location of the Book of Mormon lands have never been revealed. This has led to a lot of speculation and theories. I have seen theories and ideas of where the Book of Mormon lands were located, ranging from western New York (basically, in the area where the Gold Plates had been stored), the American "Heartland" (i.e., the mid-West), to North and South America generally (the narrow neck of land being the isthmus of Panama), to Central America (generally, the area of the Yucatan Peninsula across to the Pacific, although there are competing ideas), and even some theories placing the region in Africa and Malaysia.

The primary clue is that, at least prior to Christ's appearance in the Americas, the Nephites and Lamanites lived in an area that was bordered on the east and west by seas, and to the north and south by narrow necks of lands (almost universally considered to be isthmus). The problem is that the Book of Mormon reports that a massive geological disaster at the time of Christ's death changed the whole face of the land. We read from 3 Nephi 8:

5 And it came to pass in the ^athirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great ^bstorm, such an one as never had been known in all the land.

 6 And there was also a great and terrible tempest; and there was terrible ^athunder, insomuch that it did ^bshake the whole earth as if it was about to divide asunder.

 7 And there were exceedingly sharp lightnings, such as never had been known in all the land.

 8 And the ^acity of Zarahemla did take fire.

 9 And the city of ^aMoroni did ^bsink into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof were drowned.

 10 And the earth was carried up upon the city of ^aMoronihah, that in the place of the city there became a great ^bmountain.

 11 And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward.

 12 But behold, there was a more great and terrible destruction in the land northward; for behold, the ^awhole face of the land was changed, because of the tempest and the whirlwinds, and the thunderings and the lightnings, and the exceedingly great quaking of the whole earth;

 13 And the ^ahighways were broken up, and the level roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became rough.

 14 And many ^agreat and notable cities were ^bsunk, and many were ^cburned, and many were shaken till the buildings thereof had fallen to the earth, and the inhabitants thereof were slain, and the places were left desolate.

 15 And there were some cities which remained; but the damage thereof was exceedingly great, and there were many in them who were slain.

 16 And there were some who were carried away in the ^awhirlwind; and whither they went no man knoweth, save they know that they were carried away.

 17 And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed, because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth.

 18 And behold, the rocks were rent in twain; they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch that they were ^afound in broken fragments, and in seams and in cracks, upon all the face of the land.

 Samuel the Lamanite, when prophesying about the destruction, said:

 20 But behold, as I said unto you concerning another ^asign, a sign of his death, behold, in that day that he shall suffer death the sun shall be darkened and refuse to give his ^blight unto you; and also the moon and the stars; and there shall be no light upon the face of this land, even from the time that he shall suffer death, for the space of ^cthree days, to the time that he shall rise again from the dead.

 21 Yea, at the time that he shall yield up the ^aghost there shall be ^bthunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the ^crocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be ^dbroken up;

 22 Yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be ^afound in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath.

 23 And behold, there shall be great ^atempests, and there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called ^bvalleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great.

 24 And ^amany highways shall be broken up, and many cities shall become desolate.

 (Helaman 14). Based on this description, I believe it is problematic to place too much reliance on the geography described prior to Christ's death.

Currently, the most popular and widely held theory is that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica. (See, e.g., In Search of Cumorah by David A. Palmer and the links above). I'm not in a position to argue with the archaeological evidence and, for a long time, thought it was a tenable theory.

There was always one thing that bothered me, though. Where were the examples of the Nephite writing or language? Nephi, at the very beginning of the Book of Mormon record, noted that he was specifically commanded to take the brass plates in order to preserve the language. 1 Nephi 3:19 states:

And behold, it is wisdom in God that we should obtain these ^arecords, that we may preserve unto our children the language of our fathers;

(See also 1 Nephi 1:2; Compare Omni 1:18, indicating that the Mulekites had lost their original language). Moroni (so at the very end of the Book of Mormon record) wrote at Mormon 9:32:

And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the ^areformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.

(See also Mormon 9:34, indicating that no other people knew the language of the Nephites, suggesting that it was significantly different from the languages of other peoples in the region).

The Book of Mormon was written in what was called reformed Egyptian--i.e., an adaptation of Egyptian (probably Hieratic) to the Hebrew language. Joseph Smith wrote down some examples of the writing:

The next question is whether examples of these types of characters have been found in the Americas. The answer is, yes. Barry Fell's book, America B.C., mostly concerns itself with linguistic evidence of contact between the Celts and the ancient Americas. However, he also briefly examines evidence of other writings found in the Americas that incorporate Egyptian style hieroglyphics. (pp. 253-276). For instance, he found that the Micmac tribes (eastern Canada and Northern Atlantic states) produced writings using a written language very similar to Egyptian Hieratic writing composed in the 18th Century--before the decipherment of Egyptian writing in the 19th Century. However, his research uncovered other artifacts with similar writing throughout the Atlantic states and the upper Mississippi valley.

There are other examples as well. One day, perusing books in a used bookstore, I came across Mysteries of Ancient South America by Harold T. Wilkins. His theory, that survivors of Atlantis were responsible for the ancient American civilizations, is not what interested me. What cought my attention were the characters below:

(p. 45; additional characters not reproduced here are on pp. 43 and 46 of the book). These characters were reproduced from an account recorded in 1753 by one of the survivors of an expedition to find a lost silver mine in the Mato Grosso region of South America. Interestingly, it was while attempting to find the lost city described in this manuscript that Percy Fawcett disappeared. (See The Lost City of Z by David Grann for more information on Col. Fawcett).

Unfortunately, when retracing the steps of Col. Fawcett's expedition in the documentary, Secrets of the Dead, "Lost in the Amazon," the film crew discovered that the "lost city" was apparently merely natural rock formations and caves. Relevant to my purpose, they filmed rock carvings that they believed were the symbols recorded in the 1753 manuscript (see at about the 30:30 and 50 minute marks).

So is there any evidence of a civilization could survive or develop in the Amazon region. Although I have not yet had the opportunity to read the whole book, Charles C. Mann describes in his book, 1491, that recently discovered evidence (most from within just the last decade) show that much of Bolivia and Amazonia was home to large and sophisticated civilizations, including the Beni, and extending across the Andes to the Pacific.

Which brings me to my final point. In his book, The Life of Nephi, George Q. Cannon indicates that Joseph Smith had said that Nephi and his brothers landed in the Americas at approximately 30 degrees south, in what is modern day Chili (p. 100). He also notes that Orson Pratt had stated that the land of Nephi (one of the regions in the Book of Mormon) was believed to be in what is modern-day Ecuador (p. 124). Elder Cannon believed that Nephi and his people settled in what is today Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru (p. 130).

As I stated earlier, the specific location of the Book of Mormon lands has never been revealed. The ideas above may all be incorrect. While we may speculate, we should not let the fact that there are different theories or evidences untowardly influence our faith, or lead us into conflict with others that hold different theories. In good time, the location will be revealed.