A bitter fog of deceit

I was asked by a friend of the blog to read a book and report on it … it was my intent to do so, but it is so out of the ordinary for me, that is, I don’t want to simply read a book and report its findings as if every word were true. So I decided that I would highlight the book for blog readers, and suggest they too read it, and pass along some thoughts.

Bitter fogThe book is called A Bitter Fog: Herbicides and Human Rights, by Carol Van Strum. It is available on Kindle for free – I don’t own one and so downloaded it for a few bucks.

The book was first published in 1983, and recounted a long battle between local residents of Oregon and the Forest Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Dow Chemical, local government about the use of chemicals containing dioxin (including but not limited to 2-4-5-T and 2-4-D, the former known as “Agent Orange” when used in Vietnam.)

The destruction of forests and harm to people and animals, as outlined in this book, is distressing. The fact that the same chemicals keep appearing under new names equally distressing, but more than that, I found the same story I encountered when I read about AIDS, and AZT, Zika, climate change … systemic and deep corruption. I will outline just a few aspects:

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POW images from the past highlighted on Facebook

Hanoi Hilton

The above photo has been making the rounds on Facebook.I originally assumed it was of Hanoi Hilton vintage, as it reminded me of the one beneath, which I covered in my post called St. John’s Warts. In my opinion the John McCain POW story was just propaganda designed to sheep dip him and prepare him for the presidency.

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Trial by Fire

Last evening I participated as one of five presenters in a live-audience,  multi-media discussion/presentation with a group of foresters, a smoke jumper and State of Montana’s tourism specialist in the Dept. of Commerce.  The topic was “Can we manage wildfire; Should we manage wildfire.”  As the lone “tree-hugger” on the stage, I tried to probe other panel members for the reasons for their beliefs – most believed in management as a “solution” to our wildfire “problem.”  Needless to say, the anthropocentric viewpoint predominated.

Soldiering on, I tried very hard to interject a few self-evident truths about nature and fire’s natural role in the continuous mystery of life in its many forms.  When cornered with truth, however, the other participants simply lied to escape reality.  I’m sure they believed their lies, but even to the live audience lying seemed obvious, but generally an acceptable answer to a confrontation with an inescapable truth.  Continue reading “Trial by Fire” →

Hilarity ensues …

I’ve been reading comments at a long thread that I won’t link to concerning our series of posts on the man in Taos. Comments are open on this post, so it will be a chance to see if the defenses put in place are effective.

What startled me is this: In that thread several facts about me are discussed that take some research on their end. One is that in 2015 I was in Ljubljana in Slovenia. I think at that time I was writing about our travels here on the blog. I don’t do that anymore. That year we were in Italy for a trek in the Dolomites, and on return to Venice rented a car and drove to Slovenia, something had never done before (both renting a car while abroad and visiting Slovenia).

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Earth is in balance

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[Note: Comments were accidentally turned off when this article was published earlier today. That is now an automatic feature that I have to override.]

A while back I sat across from my son and daughter-in-law and received the low-down on climate change. We are, I was told, entering the Sixth Great Extinction, and we are causing it. I didn’t get excited, and from a relaxed posture suggested they get ready to enjoy some Canadian wine. I am not worried about the planet.

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Another “frivolous” lawsuit

Environmental groups (real ones, anyway) are often criticized for excessively engaging in lawsuits. The logging industry has engaged the PR industry to defend them, generating talking points such as calling the lawsuits “frivolous” and even painting environmental groups as racketeers. Behind the scenes they no doubt talk a different line … lawsuits force industry to follow the law, and are a damned nuisance.

I worked for many years in the environmental movement in Montana. The group I worked with, Montana Wilderness Association, is now a full-fledged industry front group. They might have been so in the 1990s too, when I was with them, but they had very little money. That is usually a sign of a genuine environmental group. These days their money rolls in from trusts and foundations and they are bloated with excessive staff while “collaborating” with industry. They are phonies.

Map

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The Middle Ages never ended

During the frenzy of the past couple of weeks, I took time off to engage in other pursuits. In particular I have been focused on Immanuel Velikovsky’s Mankind in Amnesia, which dovetails very nicely with other things I have read about on the effects of child abuse in younger and formative years.

Children that are traumatized in early years usually develop effective defense systems that they carry with them throughout their lives, often misdiagnosed as some sort of mental “illness” like “bipolar” or “ADD.” In fact, these particular “diseases” are rare, but child abuse is, sadly, common. The great manual of collected drivel that the mental “health” professions use to match their disorders with available drugs is the DSM-5. That desk reference, as Dorothy Parker famously said, should not be set aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

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Clarification

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One point of clarification before I move on with my life. I described the vehicle I saw parked at the Miles Mathis residence as a “golf cart.” I did not know how else to describe it. But that is not accurate. It was something like the above vehicle, and was blue, as I recall. It did not say “police” or have light bars or anything like that. In the town where I grew up, the people who enforced parking laws used them. We called them “meter maids” because they were all Lovely Ritas.

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Opportunity lost, and the Battle of France

By: Kerry Anderson

I know most of the readers are familiar with the battle of France but allow me to bore you with a quick rehash for the benefit of others.

On the 10th of May, 1940 the phony war came to an end. The French battle plan relied on a string of well-developed fixed fortifications ( the Maginot Line ), which ran along the Southern part of the border with Germany and then kind of petered out in the Verdun sector. Due to various reasons, primarily underground water, industrial development in the area, and lack of public support for its extension, the line was never completed. The solution was two large army groups covering the northern sector, and a third (Ninth Army) acting as the hinge between the North and South.

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Stonehenge, the oxymoron

I’ve been traveling these last couple of weeks,  maybe running from Father Time? I’ve experienced something so unusual that it needs to be memorialized … I’ve had nothing to write about! During this period (which included my 68th birthday) my lovely wife gave me a wonderful gift: Three books, two by Immanuel Velikovsky and one by his daughter. I’ve been engrossed.

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