Controlling People by Imposing Differences by Louis Evan Palmer

Visible differences in one's appearance can act as a powerful means of isolating a given person and the community to which they belong. These differences can extend to social interaction, to languages, to meals and food, to types of entertainment, to rituals and the use of symbols. It serves paradoxically both to make one stand out from the majority and to make one clearly fit into a given minority. When members of that minority are together, they all look the same, they conform.

Differences in appearance and behaviour can used to distinguish an elite military unit or a religious sect or even an entire culture. It can be used deliberately in the knowledge that it will generate group solidarity by inviting hostility from outside the differentiated group. It also serves as a means of recognition.

By controlling with whom one socializes and marries, a group can create its own "world" that tries to operate and survive and prosper within the larger human society but, at the same time, tries to minimize contact.

If a group has a belief system that arrogates to themselves, special privileges and rewards and authorities, then its method of recognizing its members becomes more important as the value of membership increases. It's a dangerous game though as the fortunes of any such self-distinguished group will wax and wane with various circumstances and obvious membership can then become a liability. It's also dangerous to society if a given self-isolating group becomes powerful in that it can wage "war" on the larger society either as a pre-emptive strike, as a taking of what's is by right theirs, or, often enough, as an act of beneficience and cleansing.

The deliberate imposition and acceptances of differences, some ostentatious, is a hostile act in disguise. It is a blatant means of social control. It serves to solidify and perpetuate in defiance of the impermanance of all things. It looks to magnify and project the group ego both within to the group and without to the world at large.

If there are no meaningful differences between people then why go out of the way to use them in a manipulative way? This is beyond fashion statements or as a method of rebellion against oppression. This is an act of creation of a "group", typically founded on dubious or unproveable claims of divine intercession, with clear and deliberate differences to foster its identity and mission, feeding a sense of superiority and danger, again to support group solidarity against anyone outside the group.

This cannot lead to a happy ending.

Controlling People by Imposing Differences, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2008 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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Value, Money and The First Law of Thermodynamics by Louis Evan Palmer

"Energy cannot be created or destroyed."

Money, a form of economic energy, is a marker for value. Nothing more. And there are many other markers - for example, stocks & bonds.

If a value marker is more than one step removed from the object of value (where "object" has the broadest possible definition) then it should be considered speculative. Speculative objects should not have any standing versus a marker. They should not be permitted to affect markers. Making a currency convertible to gold or silver was a way of guaranteeing this for money.

One level of abstraction with regards to value markers is more than enough. It is difficult enough to manage that single layer of markers. Going beyond that is the realm of cheats and thieves and those who allow cheats and thieves to prosper are their accomplices. Those who deal with them - beware.

Value is a complex entity and putting a currency value on it is fraught with risk but it's safe to say that for every individual loss of value of an object there's a individual winner. It can only lose value in relation to the establishment of a current value which entails that some money changed hands. If, for whatever reason, the object drops in value then the person who received the pre-loss price is the winner and the person stuck with the depreciated value object is the loser.

There might have been fraud. There might have been insider information. There might have been external forces that caused a drop or increase in value. Regardless, there's a individual winner & loser.

What if real value in all its forms, including potential value, was like energy and it could neither be created nor destroyed but only transformed. When an object is considered to have no value, its value will have been transformed or transferred into something else. The value itself is not lost.

The creation of value would be thrown up as the way out of this limitation. People invent & improve things and that creates new wealth, increases the pie.

But what if the pie was already an almost infinite size and we insisted in seeing only one portion of it? What if all the "value" that there can be already exists and is there for us.

The trick would consist of recognizing what is of value - the thing itself or an irrefutable claim on the value object. Nothing else is worth the paper it's written on, or the terminal screen it types out on. And, of course, this doesn't really touch on all there is of value that doesn't figure into dollars and cents. The best things.

Value, Money and The First Law of Thermodynamics, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2008 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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No End in Sight by Louis Evan Palmer

"This thing cannot keep on going so that we are always going to discover more and more new laws." Richard Feynman

The search for the ultimate truth, the ultimate explanation or framework continues unabated. In some cases, it's just a job, a way to pay expenses, invested with only an occasional excitement or joy. In other cases, it's a vibrant exploration. But, regardless, it never seems to make definitive progress. Every time a complete solution seems to present itself, it opens up onto another world of knowledge.

For example, a short time ago, the 1950s, we thought and scientists agreed, that the universe consisted of "The Milky Way". For several decades that was the received knowledge.

Atoms were originally conceived as the irreducible elements out of which everything else was made. Now there's a veritable zoo of particles and quasi-forces, some verified, some half-proven but still mostly theoretical.

It has been recently posited that there is such a thing as "dark matter" and "dark energy" which is about as gigantic a revolution in understanding as is possible. It's tremendously exciting and fun in the sense of a never-ending journey but it calls into question if there really is a destination, a final stop.

When every plateau opens up onto another series of mountains and valleys but more than that, changes the journey and changes the assumptions that guided the last leg of the struggle, changes the map and the directions. Yes, we can do things at this new level but being able to do things and understanding what or how that is happening is another matter.

We have introduced the element of the observer and the possibility of the observer changing processes and changing reality. We haven't as yet allowed for the effect of non-human entities on levels or layers we haven't as yet dreamed of. Or, even an ultimate force or presence that unfolds this existence in which we find ourselves.

If each explanation is not really an explanation but merely a description; if each level we find ourselves in is actually subject to the dictates of another dimension or level; then unless we can discern that underlying or over-riding reality we'll be forever playing in a believed world, in our musings and elaborations, never actually reaching the true crux of the matter, or a complete understanding of reality and existence.

No End in Sight, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2008 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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Hating Hate & Other Pastimes by Louis Evan Palmer

While Hate and Love do seem like cornucopias - endless flows of something out of nothing - it might be more useful to think of them as energies that can manifest themselves as acts upon beings, objects and conditions or states such as consciousness and feelings. Energies that need sources and mediums and propagation mechanics.

One of the routes often proposed in eradicating evil and its effects is to tackle one of its major causes - that being hate. But one of the flaws in that approach is that it addresses the instruments used such as articles or films or even speech but not the source. It's like taking a bat away from a hooligan but not dealing with the hooligan. It goes to the core - what causes hate? What gives birth to hate? What nourishes it? What makes it spread? The same can said of Love or Fear or or any of major emotions or attitudes.

A question that comes to the fore almost immediately is whether hate is a primary feeling or attitude or if it, in fact, derives from another more basic feeling. Is the foundation of attitude and feeling the more elemental, physical actions and reactions like fight or flight and hunger and cold? It seems that hate cannot just spring into existence without some impetus, some framework. Hate being the act or wish for harm or denial of good or gain to someone or something. It's very much of a struggle against someone or something that hurts you or threatens you or steals or denies you someone or something. This struggle engenders feelings of malice and anger towards this target. The blows or anticipated blows can be painful or humiliating, they damage us depending on how powerful and directed they are. They also depend on our definition of self as the larger and broader that is, the more things that can threaten us. This might be why empires hate the most - they have the most to fear.

What a different question - what do you fear? Why do you fear them/it? Why are you angry?

It's been observed that hate cannot transcend itself. It is bound to its own self-reinforcing circumference. How much more so than for fear and anger. Maybe it is in its very nature that negative feeling and attitude cannot go beyond itself because it cannot let go. Another potent wellspring of hate is indignation (a type of anger) especially when it is caused by cruelty or injustice.

Hate does not seem to spring forth on its own, it is a feeling and attitude that requires thought and conceptualization. This in turn makes the attachment to it stronger and the arguments against it weaker. The counterpoint to hate cannot merely be taking away the mediums for its expression and thereby hoping to starve it out of communities. It ignores the true source of the hate and it often gets mixed up with disapproval and disagreement. Fighting hate should not lead to a lessening of freedom. Anti-bias and anti-hate laws are not the real answer.

Society must discuss hate in a context of what is causing it, not just outlawing expressions of it. It must address injustices that feed it. The right reaction to injustice should not be hate and its entourage. There should be constructive alternatives and they must work. Lies and hopelessness also create hate. We must learn and teach how to cope with the many things that lead to hate. We must detoxify our culture. Hate, anger, and fear will destroy any society where it takes too deep a hold. Critical thinking can also serve as a potent antidote to hate. As the Buddha said: "Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else.." Whatever is enough to hurt someone else is enough to hurt you.

Hating Hate & Other Diversions, The Way It Can Be, Louis Evan Palmer, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2008 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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Sovereign Wealth Funds by Louis Evan Palmer

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Versus Super Wealthy Family Funds

Versus Hedge Funds & Private Equity

Versus Drug & Gun Money & Other Criminal Enterprise

The righteous bellows from various pseudo-nationalists about Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have the sound of someone whose toes are being stepped on. The complaints of one gang when another gang intrudes on their turf.

If we are truly worried about SWFs then why aren't we just as worried about gigantic family trusts which are even more self-serving and counter-intuitive in their placements and investments.

If we are truly worried about SWFs then why aren't we as worried about Hedge Funds and Derivatives and other murky financial instruments that are being used to relieve people and government and businesses of their valuables.

If we are truly worried about SWFs then why aren't we as worried about the vast sums of money flowing from criminal enterprises and rogue divisions of intelligence services. As in Drugs, Guns, Pornography, Slavery and Smuggling.

And there is always ravenous shadow-seeking acquisition-hungry corporations.

Who's worried about all of them? Who's watching them? Who's fighting them?

It's only us. It can only ever be us. Desist. Resist. Insist.

Sovereign Wealth Funds, The Way It Can Be, Louis Evan Palmer, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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Our World Facing Hundreds of Tipping Points by Louis Evan Palmer

Quoting Malcolm Gladwell, a "tipping point" is "the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass." It also refers to the point when a spinning object like a top or a planet stops spinning in a stable manner and starts to wobble and fall over. Or when that type of phenomenon occurs in society. As well, it is reminiscent of the quantum mechanics postulate - "the butterfly effect" - regarding the non-linear cumulative effects of actions and things; and "critical mass" as it applies to the moment when a nuclear reaction becomes self-sustaining.

Unfortunately, our world is facing hundreds of potential tipping points and while a tipping point can be positive or negative, the necessary focus is on the negative because almost all of them involve our survival as a species.

Such as, nuclear bombs and depleted uranium shells in their ten of thousands as missles and millions as shells and tons as radioactive dust and waste; and, as micro and mini nukes anywhere. Weapons programs gone awry all over the world spewing our their deadly possibilities in the form of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, plans, attacks, accidents and disasters; programs, likely illegal, delving into areas best not touched like weather modification and the manipulation of earth energies to facilitate or produce earth and sea quakes.

So-called technological advances like nano-technology and genetic modification speeding like runaway trains towards the inevitable canyon with its bridge out. Pollution fouling our air and water and soil, the oceans with huge dead swaths and frightening drops in key species. Coral reefs withering. Our atmosphere under seige, increases in cosmic radiation, increases in sunspot and other solar activity. Our surprisingly thin layer of topsoil being blown away and paved over though poor agricultural practices and unbridled urban development.

Resurgent diseases like tuberculosis, smallpox and leprosy becoming resistant to our drugs, and exotic ones like ebola and others not previously seen, ready to sweep like a wraith across the globe scything its victims down like fields of grass.

Climate change and disruptive weather endangering lives and food & water supplies. Our flora and fauna disappearing and sickening - bees, amphibians, numerous sea species, butterflies. Destruction of our biodiversity and seed supplies through monoculture and companies like Monsanto with their terminator seeds.

Collisions or too-close pass-bys with comets or asteroids.

Collapsing infrastructures and our over-reliance on them which sees our power, water, food, transportation, storage and distribution systems hanging by the proverbial threads. Wars, social unrest, oppression, tyranny.

Revolutionary contacts with unfriendly non-terrestial beings.

It seems that given the array of things that can go wrong, it's only a matter of time before they do and we're engulfed in a mammoth catastrophe from which there is no escape. It may be that our salvation lies in one or more of the positive tipping points. If so, we must uncover them and communicate them. We must not allow secrets and their covetous, self-righteous custodians to keep our planet from getting out of a reckoning we're not likely to survive. Zero-point energy, friendly advanced aliens, whatever good there is, we need it, we need help.

Our World Facing Hundreds of Tipping Points, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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Democracy anyone? by Louis Evan Palmer

The misleading debate over Pakistan.

Some may insist that the ideal of democracy is fixed and absolute but it is evident that the definition and understanding of it moves with the times. The understanding of a person in medieval England of what the word "democracy" means would differ substantially from that of a person in 21st century France or 25th century Canada. When other cultures and religions are thrown into the mix, any potential consensus would mutatate further.

Given the complexity of any society and its institutions, is it right or fair to have outside parties deciding whether a given country is "democratic" (or "democratic enough"), and based on that to decide to unilaterally intervene in that nation's affairs? Not only might the analysis be invalid, one country's destination, priorities & values can legitimately differ from another's - it may consciously want to evolve at a slower pace and/or in a different direction.

There's been an interventionist bent in the ongoing world debate for some time now. It was called aggression during the Nuremberg trials when it was the German Reich doing it but it received a more sympathetic hearing now that America and its cowed allies have used it to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq. It is again being used in a cynically manipulative manner to lay down the groundwork for possible action against one of (perhaps all of) Iran, Pakistan and North Korea.

The case against Pakistan involves an argument that its democracy is fractured or non-existent and that this allows for the United States to act in self-defence - in one scenario, to secure the 60-some nuclear weapons on Pakistani soil. Somehow these are a bigger threat than the tens of thousands that the US and Russia have between themselves. Or the tons of toxic DU (depleted uranium) dust fouling Iraq and via global air currents the rest of the world.

Previously, having nuclear weapons was the way to keep the United States from attacking your country. Now, if you don't tend them to America's liking, you may trigger a surreptious invasion. Of course, in this case, any intervention is a recklessly dangerous course of action because trying to assume control of another country's main defense system is an act of war and we are talking about nuclear weapons.

Democracy in Pakistan
Given that the state of a given country's democracy is not a just cause for aggression (overt or covert), is it even accurate to say that Pakistan is falling apart?

Let us begin by looking at Rawalpindi, the former interim capital and the city where Benazir Bhutto's assassination took place. It took over 11 years, from 1959 to 1970, to build the new capital of Pakistan at Islamabad. During that time, Rawalpindi, which takes its name from an ancient village of Yogis called Rawals, served as the capital. This city of over 3 million on the Potwar Plateau also serves as the General Head Quarters for the Pakistan Army and Air Force which is a continuation of its function as the key garrison city of the British Raj.

Various pundits claim that this is a city where the Pakistan Armed Forces exert almost total control and in which nothing can happen that they do not want to happen. Following this logic, the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at the rear gate of Liaquat Bagh Park on December 27, 2007 was permitted or facilitated by the Pakistan military. Not sure if they are presumed to have been involved fixty-six years earlier in the same park in 1951 at the front entrance, when the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated. Also in Rawalpindi in 1979, former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged at the instigation of General Zia who in turn was blown up in a airplane in August 1988.

Over its short history, Pakistan has been under military rule for more than 23 years. Arguably, if the United States wants to secure nuclear weapons, it would be just as happy with military rule as with a stable democracy. However, now-former General Musharaf is not immune from attack either - he has suffered 9 assassination attempts in the last 7 years - most of that time while his country was under military rule.

However, as violent as this summary appears, how does this type of record compare to other nations?

Democracy in the Rest of the World
In 1975 & again in 1981, the then president of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) was assassinated. In India, the three Gandhis were all assassinated. In the United States, there have been 19 assassination attempts on the president of which 4 were successful. In the 1970s alone, there were 5 assassination attempts on the US president - 2 attempts on Gerald Ford were within a couple of weeks of each other. When Charles de Gaulle was France's president there were some 30 assassination attempts on him. Should this have made any or all of these countries candidates for a foreign intervention?

The Future
In a universe where "free will" prevails (whether we believe it or not) then democracy or something like it must be the ideal governing framework. But the future may consist more of a self-governing individualistic mode of government where the community-giving infrastructure is the key design and everything flows from that. Perhaps a time when the larger weapons can be easily and quickly destroyed and where armies are useless and therefore obsolete. These pretentious debates about whether country-A has the right to invade country-B will be meaningless because there will be no country as such, no army, no reason to fight. "Democracy" will be so embedded everywhere as to be invisible - like the air we breath.

Democracy anyone?, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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When a Group Decision is the Answer by Louis Evan Palmer

Asking the right question is often more important than providing the right answer. When the right answer doesn't help us or improve the situation or provide insight or inspiration then we can, with some confidence, deduce that we've asked the wrong question - plain wrong, or wrongly focused or with an improper context or inaccurate supporting information.

In addition, who should address a given question or how it is to be answered should also be subject to some analysis. The PROs and CONs of group decisions typically conclude with an assertation that its utility depends on the circumstances (the acolytes of the "lone genius" or "teamism" not withstanding).

Breakthrough ideas or products are often the result of a single person or the efforts of individuals in concert or sequence. The oft-observed fact that a revolutionary idea will frequently pop up in two or more places at around the same time demonstrates the influence of the social and intellectual environment but the typically solitary nature of the analysis and insight is clear. It is likely that the intense concentration & long time frames required preclude more than a single person staying involved. Albert Einstein stated that he had deeply pondered light, quantum mechanics & relativity for ten years before his epochal theses of 1905.

A point to be made is that what we are looking at is actually several different phenomena - in one case, it's a research & development paradigm; in another case, it's a canvass of a larger population for ideas or insights or feedback; in other instances, it's a sequence of individuals each building on the previous one in a series of smaller or apparently unrelated insights or pure theorizing.

Democracy can be viewed as a group decision about the evaluation & action plans of a given person or political party or movement and what support, if any, we will give them.

In a vote, the issues are defined by the candidates based on their ideology (& morality) and bolstered by polling and surveys. Usually, there are some issues upon which the candidate is firm and others upon which they may be swayed or are uncommitted. All things being equal, the more in tune with the electorate a candidate is, the more likely they are to win given that the candidates can get their message out and that their supporters are able & willing to vote and additionally, that their supporters can make it to the correct polling station, can vote in an acceptably easy, secure and quick manner, and can have their votes fairly counted.

To subvert the voting process, a given malefactor would interfere with their opponents and some or all of these various facets: with fund-raising, with political rallies, with distribution of campaign material, with supporters, with media placement & effectiveness, with election lists, with validity of votes, with location of polling stations, with how votes are counted and recorded, with audit trails, etc. There are many links in the chain which unfortunately offers many opportunities to subvert the process.

But if we could make use of new technologies and the mindsets that are emboldened by them, we might be able to generate a continuous polling-cum-voting process by which "the people" and various designated & self-selected experts including experts in the process of analysis & evaluation could decide on courses of action. This new technique, if successfully implemented, could be used elsewhere where appropriate. Most likely areas of application would be the main group-think arenas now - general elections, juries, the "markets". Like Surowiecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds" but better. Not design by committee but using knowledge wisely. The main thrust by one or two insightful persons, the rapid incremental improvements by the well-connected "crowd".

While the danger of Maslow's phrase "When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" comes to mind, we would proceed with this venture knowing that it is only suitable for certain classes and types of problems. The telling forays into the virtual commons of problems & solutions will resonate with enough perceving individuals to provide the "proof" that the answer is valid.

It will work. What is be guarded against are those (read intelligence services and their ilk) who would subvert any tool like this that is too empowering and revealing. If we thwart them then we all can prosper.

When a Group Decision is the Answer, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2008 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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Bryan Mulroney and "The Liars Club" by Louis Evan Palmer

Mulroney, like Reagan a great communicator, highlights the danger to any democratic society of the smooth talker with at-the-ready solutions and aspirations of power. They can get away with just about anything!

Ancient cultures esteemed eloquence and in the absence of recorded histories, these orators cast the myths and legends of the people (to some extent in their own image) and were honoured and respected for it.

However, in modern societies, the orator is more a menace than a blessing as they are able to subvert and hide their wrongdoings, and that of their confederates, more easily; they also are more able to set societies against themselves as they seduce their supporters into an unwavering allegiance that inevitably slips into confrontation and disunity with others more skeptical and less enamoured.

The most skillful liars are smart, oily, manipulative and narcissistic. The very best liars don't even think they're lying and no polygraph would ever detect their untruths.

When asked under oath at a previous inquiry if he had dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber, Bryan Mulroney replied: "Well,from time to time, not very often. When he was going through Montreal, he would give me a call. We would have a cup of coffee, I think, once or twice."

No amount of contextualization can change the fact that this is a bald-faced lie. There were three envelopes of cash that went from Schreiber's hands to Mulroney's, probably without any coffee involved, one of those times in New York and another in Zurich. Even if this is a commonplace for Mulroney, it should certainly have been mentioned in his reply. Referring back to Mulroney's answer: it was more than twice, more than in Montreal and more than just coffee. It was also more than Mr. Schreiber calling Mr. Mulroney if it is true than Mr. Doucet contacted Schreiber on Mulroney's behalf. This short reply by Mr. Mulroney overflows with misrepresentation and evasion.

Frank Moores is another member of this Liars Club. Moores stated more than once that he had no involvement in what became known as the Airbus affair. However, in November 2007, the Globe & Mail, produced proof of Mr. Moores involvement in the form of a copy of a letter to Franz Josef Strauss, chairman of Airbus. Again, the most egregious of lies.

A probationary member at this point is Fred Doucet. Mr. Schreiber filed an affidavit which alleges that the former Mulroney adviser asked him to transfer Airbus funds to Mulroney's lawyer in Geneva. As with his mentor, Mr. Doucet denies this. He is quoted as categorizing it as a "fabrication".

Mulroney denies having had a lawyer in Switzerland but then adds "...except to defend himself.." There never seems to be a straight, simple answer with Mulroney or his cronies. And these contexts and backgrounds that are brought out only under duress and in dribs and drabs, almost always change the reply substantially, in fact, in many cases reverse it. So, we will wait and hope to see the truth emerge and see if "no Swiss lawyer" becomes "except when I did have one for.." and "no Airbus monies" becomes "except for those that went through Frank Moores lobbyist company" at which point they presumably ceased being Airbus monies and became Government Consultants International (GCI) monies.

It is likely that there are other Mulroney & company lies that stretch across the border into the States, to do with the FTA, to do with Meech Lake, almost anything you can think of. Anomalies that are currently on the table - the burglary of PC records involving possible offshore Schreiber-related funding for Mulroney's treacherous unseating of Joe Clark; the sale of publicly-paid-for furniture from 24 Sussex & then the hurried reimbursing when it was revealed in the newspapers; the appearance of large amounts of cash in Mulroney's possesion that was used to pay for renovations at Mulroney's Montreal abode after he left office supposedly in financial straits (while Mulroney professed surprise at Schreiber's use of cash).

Admittedly there will be a time when Mulroney's noxious personality will no longer soil his legacy and his achievements, if they are still regarded as achievements, will stand alone on their merit but it won't be any time soon. Until then, the promised public inquiry is a must and a charge of perjury should be levied for Mulroney's previous answer about his dealings with Schreiber.

Bryan Mulroney and "The Liars Club", Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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Breaking Free of the Money Tyranny by Louis Evan Palmer

There are alternatives to money and the more and better they are, the stronger our collective liberty will be: for there is no doubt that money is the key to the now creeping, now galloping, enslavement we find with us and all around us. As with everything, there are good alternatives and problematic alternatives.

For example, Liberty dollars, issued by the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and the Internal Revenue Code, have been targeted by the US Justice department as illegal. You may not want to get too deep into that source of value even though they're mostly made of silver and backed by silver and gold.

Company script is another option although one that has seen its share of abuse especially in company-run towns of the type made infamous by the Ernie William's song "Sixteen Tons". For those who may not have heard about this, it's where you have a one company town, usually resource-based, and everything in the town is owned and operated by the company; in addition, everything is paid for in company script - food, clothes, shelter, etc. Of course, if you have a monopoly, you're going to get robber-baron prices and the workers ending up owing the company money so they can't even quit. If we did this to prisoners, they'd never get out!

There are other types of script from stores, usually chains, or "destinations" like Disney where you can spend their money in their stores and parks and ships. The city of Toronto has an alternative money called "Toronto dollars". Several American cities also have their own type of script or "dollars".

As long as these alternatives don't encompass much of the economy, they won't attract the wrath of the government. However, when they do, such as the above mentioned "Liberty" dollars, then the government can be expected to act. There is something profoundly wrong with this though. Some countries will allow foreign currency, say American dollars, to circulate either officially or without protest. With currencies trading across borders, countries have given up a measure of control to persons and entities that have, and can move, large amounts of currency quickly.

With other financial instruments such as Bonds and Stocks, the government has permitted themselves, corporations, other governments and various money managers to inject supply into the system as these instruments must at some point translate into dollars or yen or euros, etc.

Then there are any and all types of credit cards and debit cards and checking accounts with overdraft privileges. All ways of creating money. So, there shouldn't be an issue with ordinary citizens taking some control and benefit for themselves.

In theory there is nothing to stop a group of like-minded individuals from setting up a trading & supply organization that is sufficiently large enough to be able to provide for all the necessities of life and issues its own trading vouchers. For people working within that trading block, they can be paid in these vouchers and pay for everything they need from within it. To some degree, they will have broken away from the official economy although they will have to accrue official currency or credits for it to pay taxes and the like but aside from that they will be autonomous.

Alternate systems of exchange are happening on a widening scale and with the right push here and there, it can become the mainstream way of running things. At the very least, it will serve as a brake and a check on the runaway robber-baron system we currently have.

Breaking Free of the Money Tyranny, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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The "Non-Lethal" Deception by Louis Evan Palmer

The ACLU states that a person has died every 600 times pepper spray has been used by the police. It's front page news, although not enough it appears, when people die from tasering. There are arguments about whether these so-called non-lethal weapons are non-lethal or used properly or necessary. The key premise underpinning everything is whether police forces should be allowed to kill people under any circumstances. The euphemism "use of lethal force" is a ruse to get us to avoid re-evaluating that fundamental premise. If it's not to be allowed anymore then most of the debates melt away. Anything that can be expected to kill someone would not be permitted. After that, strict usage guidelines on permitted non-lethal weapons based on independent testing must be enforced to ensure public safety.

Hospitals face irrational and violent people on a daily basis and are able to effectively deal with these people in a non-lethal, usually non-violent, way. In a democracy police forces are subject to society's control and direction. We can't allow the agenda to be usurped by weapons-makers and apologists for the new arms-length policing.

The advent of the so-called non-lethal weapons has seen an increase in police violence. It would be interesting to see if police shootings have even declined in numbers. Part of the game is to control statistics so the public can't discover the truth and draw its own conclusions. It's a certainty that many previously ordinary situations have escalated into taserings or pepper-sprayings. We read about children and the elderly being tasered. This reflects a lazy, me-first and the public-be-damned type of policing that is taking hold.

The most common police motto is "To serve and protect". That is the noble tradition to be upheld. It should have nothing to do with killing anyone and the way to make that happen is for society as whole to declare that that's the way it's going to be. Then the vast ingenuity of all our societies can become focused on truly non-lethal weapons that, in some cases, would be wielded by specialist forces with validated cause. For the rest of the situations, police should be trained and compelled to use old-fashioned approaches and techniques like talking to people and the simple & fast use of pressure points and the twisting & grappling of limbs.

Police work can be dangerous because you may be called upon to confront and deal with dangerous violent people. That doesn't mean you get carte blanche to "serve & protect" yourself or your colleagues. It's not about "us and them" or declaring war on broader and broader swaths of society. It also doesn't mean that society should allow weapons-makers to taint the testing and accreditation process and to foist weapons on the public via police forces and ex-officers turned shills. It goes without saying that any and all mercenary "for hire" type forces are strictly prohibited.

Yes, this would mean no guns, tasers or pepper spray for the police. We need a return to face-to-face hands-on policing and a new no-killing-ever philosophy. We need serious research and development into truly safe, non-lethal weapons with independent testing and non-police-affiliated oversight and transparent decision-making. This would be real progress. What we have now is a quickening descent into fascism.

The "Non-Lethal" Deception, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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When Loyalty is Everything by Louis Evan Palmer

Loyalty can be anything you want once you get into the breathtaking variety of things one can be said to have loyalty to or the ways one can express loyalty. But this article is more of an exploration of what loyalty should be in its best sense.That is, it is about "good" loyalty; more, it is about the kind of loyalty that ennobles living or can even redeem a life.

That kind of loyalty calls to mind the unswerving faithfulness of Penelope in the Iliad and Odyssey. It might also make us think of a comrade-in-arms who risks or gives his life to protect others in their unit. It is an expression of a personal relationship. It may be a one-way relationship which might be considered as "bad" loyalty in that it is likely to be infantile or imagined versus a mutual loyalty in which each person, or being, bonds at some level with the other. "Being" is introduced to account for bonds of loyalty between people and animals.

Good loyalty is between one being and another and is an expression of allegiance to higher values. It is not swayed by considerations of money or favour. It will endure hardships in the defense of a given person or upholding their interests or reputation. Good loyalty has a duty to a higher good as expressed in a given person and their relationships.

When times are difficult, when dangers abounds, the premium on loyalty climbs. It is probably evenly split in those trying circumstances between "bad" loyalty and "good". Between loyalty wrapped in fear and food and survival and loyalty founded on deep connections and affection. Then who is loyal is a matter of life and death. One who lives because of the loyalty of another will carry an obligation. Loyalty is the feeling that something is owed, that something must be paid.

We know that loyalty is a good because someone who was devoid of it would not be recognized as truly human; their dealings would be flawed and it would be noticeable that they could not be trusted. Yet, it is not a slavish deference or catering. It is often best expressed as what it is not - it is not betrayal, abandonment or deceit. It does not countenance diminishment or insult.

Let us end our look at loyalty with dogs: the expression "a dog is man's best friend" to a great extent reflects their loyalty and their "by your side" reliability and genuineness. Loyalty is what makes your best friend best. In a world gone bad, it might be the only good thing left.

When Loyalty is Everything, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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Ban Genetically Modified Organisms by Louis Evan Palmer

The horrible truth about GMOs beyond anything that anyone does or claims is that creating a GMO is always a roll of the dice and we cannot survive a single loss. The reason it's a roll of the dice is we understand very little of the intensely complex and long-reaching relationships between the various organisms and environments and their associated chemistries and physics. Once we make a mistake in this sphere, it's in play, it starts replicating and interacting and altering its environment, our shared environment. We don't know enough to play this game. We may never know enough. We only have this one Earth and if we lose it then we're doomed.

There are already stories of how close we have come to obliterating ourselves. It's a certainty that for every story that makes it into the public domain, however briefly or tangentially, there are ten others that don't, that happened but knowledge of which is blocked by non-disclosure agreements, by the inability of people to lose their income, by threats or actual violence.

One such roll of the dice goes by the non-descript acronym of SDF-20. It is different from SDF-15 which is a normal regular baterium called Klebsiella planticola. We are told that SDF-20 is "genetically engineered" which implies that we know what we're doing. It's a lie. We know how to modify certain bacterium but we have only the sketchiest of ideas on how it fits into everything else which is where it's being placed.

It almost doesn't matter why SDF-20 was created, the basic reason is always the same, to make money. In this particular case, the object was to create more ethanol out of farm waste. It would also use the fermentation residues on the farm soil as a fertilizer. The testing used sterile soil as all testing does. Here was a huge error. This was caught in time by a Phd candidate at Oregon University who decided that testing should also use normal soil. All the plants in the test in normal soil died. SDF-20 had coated the plants' roots with deadly concentrations of ethanol.

There were various presentantions before government agencies such a one in New Zealand. The New Zeland scientists argued like their next paycheck depended on Monsanto. But none of the INs and OUTs of their nuances and point counterpoint matter. This could have slipped through and killed all living plants because we don't completely and profoundly know what we're doing and that is what is required. We can't outsource this or 80/20 it or anything else.

The GMO danger is immense. They must be banned immediately!

Genetically Modified Organisms, The Way It Can Be, Louis Evan Palmer, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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The Rise of Agriculture, The Fall of Hunting & Gathering & Humanity's Uncertain Future by Louis Evan Palmer

Rather than repeat the various claims as to agriculture's superiority over hunting & gathering, perhaps we can illustrate the situation better by exploring relevant facts & claims regarding hunting & gathering as a way of life and see how they measure up versus agriculture.

Let's begin with an interesting observation made by Timothy Earle in "How Chiefs Come to Power" - the population in north Denmark went down after they took up agriculture! This is not an isolated observation but contrasts with the often cited ability of agriculture to support a larger population with fewer producers; a fact given as one of the key reasons why agriculture supplanted hunting & gathering. Yes but maybe not right away.

However, it is difficult to properly compare the two societies because hunting & gathering societies existed for some two million years for homo erectus, and some one million years for homo sapiens, while an agriculture-based lifestyle has been with us not much more than ten thousand years. If the current agriculture-based approach falters because it is not sustainable then being able to support a huge population increase for a relatively short time will be irrelevant.

Hunting & Gathering provided a wide variety of natural seasonal foods. This resulted in better nutrition which resulted in men and women being taller in hunter-gatherer societies. A critical marker in assessing societies, particularly pre-historic ones, is average height. In this regard, hunter-gatherer was a better way to go.

Another plus for hunter-gatherer societies was that they were more egalatarian. Because they were mobile, hunter-gatherers were less subject to attack than sedantary agricultural communities. Of critical importance, hunter-gatherer groups were far less subject to disease. Major epidemic diseases like smallpox and tuberculosis are almost exclusively nurtured and confined to agriculture-based societies.

A hunter-gatherer life is often portrayed as precarious and difficult but, in fact, in good environments, it was a surprisingly leisurely life, 3 or 4 hours and you were done for the day. Much is made of the inability to store food but that also is not accurate: dried strips of meat & fish were stored and carried and a staple during hunting forays, or the winter months in colder climates; dried fruits, nuts & honey would also keep and were easily transported.

Some early cities unearthed in the Middle East were based on hunting & gathering and reached sizes of several thousand. They had some artisans and other non-food-producing members.

Distinction in a hunter-gatherer society was based more on personal attributes than on possessions - someone was a good speaker or storyteller, a good hunter, a good forager, very strong or brave or fast. The kind of things that we still value when we can think about it for long enough in the midst of the rat race we've created for ourselves.

Time will tell if people can truly make the transition to a sustainable post-agricultural society. In the meantime, it may be worth comtemplating two striking charteristics of hunter-gatherer societies: their satisfaction with less and their faith in the ability and willingness of their enviroments to sustain them. With the way our world is going, we may be back to that worldview and life sooner than we realize.

The Rise of Agriculture, The Fall of Hunting & Gathering & Humanity's Uncertain Future, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com

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Copyright 2007 Louis Evan Palmer lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.

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