Introducing Objectivism, by Ayn Rand

Introducing Objectivism

The following is a short description of Objectivism given by Ayn Rand in 1962.

by Ayn Rand

At a sales conference at Random House, preceding the publication of Atlas Shrugged, one of the book salesmen asked me whether I could present the essence of my philosophy while standing on one foot. I did as follows:

1. Metaphysics Objective Reality
2. Epistemology Reason
3. Ethics Self-interest
4. Politics Capitalism

If you want this translated into simple language, it would read: 1. “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed” or “Wishing won’t make it so.” 2. “You can’t eat your cake and have it, too.” 3. “Man is an end in himself.” 4. “Give me liberty or give me death.”

If you held these concepts with total consistency, as the base of your convictions, you would have a full philosophical system to guide the course of your life. But to hold them with total consistency—to understand, to define, to prove and to apply them—requires volumes of thought. Which is why philosophy cannot be discussed while standing on one foot—nor while standing on two feet on both sides of every fence. This last is the predominant philosophical position today, particularly in the field of politics.

My philosophy, Objectivism, holds that:

1. Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses) is man’s only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
3. Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
4. The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man’s rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.

Copyright © 1962 by Times-Mirror Co.

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*An opposing point of view on Objectivism. Although the argument is wordy it is, in my opinion, unconvincing*

Denying Objectivism

By Nikola Milanovic, published March, 2010

”Based on Rand’s aggrandizement of self-interest, her followers believe in libertarian politics, centered around capitalism and the rights of the individual.”

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Objectivism & Religion

Jacob (phatjew) wrote in relobj,
2002-12-16

Aren’t Objectivists atheists?

No. Most definitely not. Although Objectivists vociferously attack comparisons with religion, I have yet to find a modern Objectivist philosopher who actually says “Objectivists are atheists” in complete candor. David Kelley (he is officially not an Objectivist by the fact that he was “excommunicated”) presents the basic and most well-thought through presentation of traditional Objectivist views on (against?) religion in his FAQ. The Randroids (as I prefer to call those who argue based on Rand’s authority, as opposed to the force of her logic) can make an argument that Rand viewed herself as an atheist, and therefor all “Objectivism” as defined to be “the philosophy of Ayn Rand” must similarly be atheist. My assertions about Objectivism, however, are based on the Essentials of Objectivism. Objectivists and Objectivism are incompatible with religion as most people understand the idea of religion. That does not mean Objectivists must be atheists.

The term atheism cannot be applied to Objectivism. Atheism, as defined by Webster’s dictionary is “a : a disbelief in the existence of deity b : the doctrine that there is no deity.” The doctrine that anything does not exist, or we should not believe that anything exists is fundamentally against Objectivism. Objectivism is founded upon the belief that existence does exist, in complete disregard for anyone’s belief to the contrary. If there is a deity as a matter of objective fact, then an Objectivist must completely reject atheism. And, since it is impossible to prove the absence of something without complete information, it is incredible for anyone to assert such a doctrine. Continue reading…

What does Objectivism have to say about religion?

A lot. From Ayn Rand’s own words through the further development of her ideas by various sources. Most specifically, Objectivism rejects mysticism, the supernatural and faith. This is devestating to most belief in religion as it currently exists. The words are often left to incredibly varying and sometimes contradictory defitions. Hopefully, that will be cleared up as Objectivism matures.

I make one reference to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s magnum opus Halakhic Man, note 4, first printed in Hebrew in 1944.

It would appear to me that there is no need to explain the self-evident falsity of this ideology. First, the entire Romantic aspiration to escape from the domain of knowledge, the rebellion against the authority of objective, scientific cognition which has found its expression in the biologistic philosophies of Bergson, Nietzsche, Spengler, Klages, and their followers and in the phenomenological, existential, and antiscientific school of Heidegger and his coterie, and from the midsts of which there arose in various forms the sanctification of vitality and intuition, the veneration of instinct, the desire for power, the glorification of the emotional-affective life and the flowing, surging stream of subjectivity, the lavishing of extravagant praise on the Faustian type and the Dionysian personality, etc., etc., have brought complete chaos and human depravity to the world. And let the events of the present era be proof! The individual who frees himself from the rational principle and who casts off the yoke of objective thought will in the end turn destructive and lay waste the entire created order. Therefore, it is preferable that religion should ally itself with the forces of clear, logical cognition, as uniquely exemplified in the scientific method, even at times the two might clash with one another, rather than pledge its troth to beclouded, mysterious ideologies that grope in the dark corners of existence, unaided by the shining light of objective knowledge, and believe that they have penetrated to the secret core of the world.

As Rabbi Soloveitchik discusses, these beliefs pervade Christianity and liberal Judaism; basically the entirety of Western religion. But, the fact remains, that they are not integral to religion. Religion implies a relationship with G-d, not the epistemology that supports the belief in G-d. I predict that if the existence of G-d be proven with due epistemological rigor, Objectivism would be a religion. Every Objectivist would relate to G-d as part of reality. Unfortunately, (probably because of Ayn Rand’s association of religion with “faith”) there is a complete void of serious discussion about what type of evidence would be required and what such a relationship would be.
In closing, I re-assert the following points.

1. Objectivists perceive reality as it exists, not as we conceive it.
2. Questions of epistemology should not depend on the individual datum to be assessed.
3. Objectivists perceive a need to gain as much knowledge and influence over reality as possible and ethical.

I believe, from these points, it follows that Objectivists should involve themselves in questions of theology and religion with true intellectual commitment.

*Objectivism has been and continues to be a major influence on the libertarian movement*

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Metaphysics Objective Reality

Epistemology Reason

Ethics Self-interest

Politics Capitalism

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Water World GJ1214b

“Water-world” alien planet confirmed by Hubble

Wed, Feb 22, 2012

Post filled in: Alien life, Discoveries, Observations, Space

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Astronomers spotted the all-water planet through the Hubble space telescope – Agencies

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Artist impression of the “water-world” GJ1214b, orbiting around its red-dward star. The planet represents a whole new type of exoplanet, like nothing ever observed so far in known planetary systems. (c) NASA

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The planet GJ 1214b, shown here in an artist’s conception with two hypothetical moons, orbits a ‘red dwarf’ star 40 light-years from Earth. Observations of the planet, which measures almost three times the size of Earth, suggest that it has a thick, steamy atmosphere.

CfA/David Aguilar

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GJ1214b has much more water than Earth, and much less rock. As a result, the internal structure of GJ1214b would be very different than our world

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed the existence of a completely new type of planet.

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The hunt for the second Earth, a similar life-bearing paradise like our own, rages on, and while no candidate came any close so far, scientists have made some extraordinary discoveries in the process. The latest exciting find is a super-Earth, a planet larger than Earth, but no bigger than Neptune, that represents the first of a new class of exoplanets – a steamy waterworld. Quick, someone call Kevin Costner!

Dubbed, GJ 1214b, the exoplanet is a mere 40 light-years away.  It was first discovered in 2009 by ground-based telescopes, and a preliminary report was issued in 2010 by a team of scientists lead by Zachory Berta, from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Back then, collected data suggested that GJ 1214b’s atmosphere was likely composed primarily by water, however until recently, they couldn’t make a definitive conclusion.

Even from back then, however, Berta and colleagues knew they came across something extraordinary. Fortunately, they managed to have the Hubble Space Telescope’s wide-field camera take a glimpse in the planet’s direction and study it as it crossed in front of its star. The telescope studied the planet as it was in transit, and thus determined the composition of the planet’s atmosphere based on how it filtered the starlight.

“GJ 1214b is like no planet we know of,” study lead author Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., said in a statement. “A huge fraction of its mass is made up of water.”

“We’re using Hubble to measure the infrared color of sunset on this world,” Berta said. “The Hubble measurements really tip the balance in favor of a steamy atmosphere.”

An alien world filled with water

The planet  is about 2.7 times the Earth’s diameter, however its mass is just seven times higher, resulting in  2 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cc) density. Earth’s density is  5.5 g/cc, while that of water is 1 g/cc. It seems  GJ 1214b has a lot more water and a lot less rock than our blue marble – a complete new class of alien planet, one the likes have never been found before.

[RECOMMENDED] Kepler’s hunt for Earth-like planets

It might seem like we’ve found that other life-supporting paradise, however  GJ 1214b orbits its red-dwarf star at a distance of 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers), which results in an estimated surface temperature of about 446 degrees Fahrenheit (230 degrees Celsius). This boiler-planet has no chance of serving life at its surface, covered in a steamy atmosphere. However, deep underwater might be another story. Even on our planet, biologists have found evidence of life lurking right next to hot, underwater geysers.

“The high temperatures and high pressures would form exotic materials like ‘hot ice’ or ‘superfluid water,’ substances that are completely alien to our everyday experience,” Berta said.

Still, GJ 1214b sounds extremely interesting and considering it’s relative short distance from Earth, it certainly makes an exciting prospect for follow-up observations by modern, future instruments, like the James Webb Space Telescope, slated for launch in 2018.

The study will be published in a future edition of the Astrophysical Journal.

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Claire Wolfe: Movin’ To Hardyville

August 2nd, 2011

Claire Wolfe: Movin’ To Hardyville

Claire Wolfe’s clear voice sets the mark for Liberty in letters. She is libertarianism with a distinctive appeal, boldly free and quite human, grassroots as all get-out, brilliantly down to earth, and delightfully candid.

Enjoy all the great reading you’ll find at Claire Wolfe’s directory at
Backwoods Home Magazine and on her blog

Claire Wolfe also writes the column “Enemy At The Gates” for S.W.A.T. Magazine:

To purchase her current book, “The Bad Attitude Guide To Good Citizenship” please go to Paladin Press -

http://www.paladin-press.com/product/Bad_Attitude_Guide_to_Good_Citizenship/?a=acsw

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Claire Wolfe: Bad Attitude Guide To Good Citizenship

Movin’ To Hardyville

By Claire Wolfe

To reach Hardyville, you must grind your way up to Lonelyheart Pass, then slither on ice into the Great Brown Valley. If you know where to look, you’ll find the ghost town of Lost Fortune crouched at the foot of the grade. But this time of year, it’s best not to stop. From Lost Fortune, count 4,387,004 sagebrush bushes and you’ll find yourself at the one-and-only stoplight in the middle of nowhere — Hardyville.

Half a block north, drop in at Hardyville’s center of hot cuisine, the Hog Trough Grill and Feed. That’s where, on this gray and snowy day, I found Dora-the-Exile-from-Yale staring in consternation at a menu.

“Is this chicken or steak?” she grimaced.

“What?”

“This.” Pointing. “It says chicken fried steak. Well, which is it? Chicken or steak?”

“Mystery food,” I shrugged. “Try it. You’ll hate it.”

She gave me that east-coast-martyr-to-hummus-and-arugula look, then turned back to the menu in search of something edible by her standards. She wouldn’t find it. In Hardyville, you adapt to chicken fried steak or stick to your own kitchen.

Pretty soon Nat-the-rancher ambled in from the feed side of the operation, plopped some horse wormer on the table, and folded himself into one of the Hog Trough’s slightly uncertain chairs. Nat’s old and pretty grizzled. But he wears a cowboy hat even older and more weathered than he. The hat is the wonder of Hardy County and it stays firmly on his head through all waking hours of the day. I even once saw him keep the hat on as he took a back flip off a green horse and landed in cactus.

“Hey,” he greeted me. “There’s the lady who’s making Hardyville famous in that newspaper column. Not too famous, I hope. Don’t want a lot of strangers movin’ in.”

“Don’t worry. I’m telling everyone that Hardyville and all you guys are imaginary.”

“I feel imaginary sometimes,” sighed Dora, still scanning the menu in hopes of locating a vegetable.

“Imaginary, huh?” Nat mused.

“Yeah, but strange thing; I still get a lot of requests from people who think they want to live here.”

“You think they really do? Want to live here, I mean?” Nat scratched his whiskers.

“No. They just think they do. Most of ‘em would run screaming bonkers out of here if they stayed more than a week. They imagine they want a picturesque life in some picturesque town filled with rugged individualists. But not many want to be rugged individualists, or even slightly inconvenienced individualists. Soon as they really understood in their bones that the nearest Wal-Mart is 93 miles away … that they have to fix their own radiators … that they might make $10,000 a year here if they’re lucky … and that the Hardyville One-Plex is going to play Anastasia clear into the next century — pfft! gone!”

“And once they realize there’s nothing to eat except … um … Rocky Mountain oysters,” added Dora. “By the way, what are Rocky. …?”

“You don’t want to know,” Nat and I rushed to assure her.

“Well, you two are both born city girls,” Nat went on. “And you’re doin’ okay here.”

“Yeah, but in my case, it’s simple. I’m stubborn enough to put up with anything for the sake of being left alone and having some breathing space. Hardyville’s about as good as it gets for that. End of story.”

“Well, I miss concerts and libraries and … oh, a lot of things,” sighed Dora. “I even miss freeway gridlock, sometimes. But I’m getting used to it.”

“You already got used to the snow plowing,” I agreed.

Dora blushed. When she first moved to Hardyville she famously violated the modern Code of the West. She moved onto a scenic little acreage half a mile past the sign that said, “Road not plowed beyond this point.” Then, come the first snowstorm, she went howling into the county commissioners’ office, reminding them that since she lived there now, they’d darn well better not “forget” to plow for her.

True, they weren’t plowing her road. Just like the sign says, M’am. And they couldn’t see any reason to deplete their tiny road maintenance budget now, just because some snooty college girl from Connecticut never learned how to read.

Unlike many notorious California folks — or New York folks — or Denver folks, for that matter, Dora got it. She shut up and started trading with a local rancher — Nat. He plows, she delivers home baked bread. Dora learned. But too many transplant folks would just sit and whine about the lack of services until they finally got what they wanted — and got our taxes launched into the sky. Or they’d leave, sniveling all the way to the coast about how we benighted rubes failed to appreciate their Bountiful Efforts to Improve Our Community.

You see, that’s what I mean when I say Hardyville is a state of mind. It’s not where Hardyville is that matters. It’s how Hardyville is. If you honestly want Hardyville, and all the cranky, troublesome, but spirit-filling independence it implies, then don’t bring your dependencies to Hardyville. Don’t bring them anywhere else you go, for that matter.

You want to live in Hardyville? I tell you the secret, then, that Hardyville is as real as it is imaginary. It’s at least as real, and as much a part of twentieth-century America, as Atlanta or Minneapolis. More real than Los Angeles, Washington, DC or Aspen, Colorado.

How do you get there? If you can’t find Lonelyheart Pass, you can start in the direction of Hardyville by thinking about the way you’re living now. Are you racing like a little maze-rat, just to keep yourself in fancy toys? Do you fantasize about independence while tying yourself to every tax-funded service available? Are you living vicariously, via television? Do you choose to spend your days in a little gray cube? Is your mind in a little gray cube? Are you giving your freedom away to every diktat spewed by some gov-o-crat, because you’re too risk-averse to declare that your life belongs to you? Have you put your kids in day care, soccer and gymnastics, more than in your life? Do you hate your life, but somehow never manage to take real steps to fix it? Are you using people — or being used by them — instead of having honest relationships? When it comes right down to it, do you choose convenience over independence? Do you choose the status quo over the uncertainties of happiness? Do your deeds fail to match your words, your hopes and your ideals?

Then you’re not on the road to Hardyville. If you want to be on the road to Hardyville, then turn around.

Oh yes, Hardyville exists. And no, it isn’t a quaint throwback to the past. It isn’t some nostalgic remnant of nineteenth-century Americana. It’s as modern and accessible as any other place, in its own way. But it’s too inconvenient for contemporary tastes.

Most people will never make it anywhere near Hardyville. Even — maybe especially — most people who say they want to. Hardyville, like freedom, will remain the province of a few who give enough of a damn to put up with the inconveniences, or who care enough to change their hearts and lives for a more fulfilling, but somewhat risky, life.

And so we sit around the table at the Hog Trough — Nat who got born here, Dora who’s a refugee, and me who’s too plain stubborn for what elsewhere passes for the good life. Just the three of us and a few more hardy Hardyvillians.

The Hog Trough is kind of empty, truth to tell, now that winter has driven the outsiders away from Hardyville’s one unattractive tourist attraction. And the food … well, I’d rather suck on horse wormer. As the snow drives down from Lonelyheart Pass, shutting us off even more tightly from the outside, I know Dora and I are thinking of all the advantages we lack.

No stock exchanges, sushi bars, Furbys, frequent fliers or FBI agents. No bureaus, block grants or Friends of Bill Clinton. No major leagues, no Junior League, no malls, boutiques, department stores or mega-corps. No Red Robin, Red Lobster or Whoppers. No rush hour with choppers reporting traffic-on-the-nines. No Versace, Gucci, Ralph Lauren or Calvin Klein. No personal trainers, credit jewelers, street gangs, liposuckers, homeowners associations, post-modern architecture, deconstructivist intellectuals, PC committees or Lexus dealers. No arbitragers, executive producers, multinational millionaires, multi-level marketers or media stars. Ronald McDonald, Bill Gates, Bill Bennett, Ralph Nader, Martha Stewart, Dr. Ruth and Dr. Laura are all somewhere, far away, beyond the forbidding hills. We are on our own here.

It’s a bleak life. But somehow we will survive.

© 1998 Claire Wolfe. All rights reserved.

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Geronimo – Apache

1899 Map of Indian Nations

American Indians of the South West

Geronimo, 1899
Apache, Fort Sill, OT
The Butler Institute of American Art
Geronimo, a Family Man
by Apryl Nelson

“Geronimo!” Children have cried this name as they ran into make-believe battles, but they do not know who Geronimo was. Geronimo was one of the last wild and free Indians of the west, an Apache warrior who finally surrendered in 1886 to General Nelson A. Miles, hoping to return to his beloved Arizona, destined to spend his last years on army camps in places like Florida. Underneath the “dangerous warrior” label white America feared and happily captured in the late 1800s, was a man.

Geronimo was married to several women over his life time. When he had the status of a great man he took a second wife, something only the greatest chiefs did, as a status symbol. Marrying a great chief was good for the woman too, it gave her honor, she took care of her husband and he took care of her, and if they were fortunate they would have children to take care of together. Apache society greatly honored their children.

Geronimo lost several wives to death by illness or by other tribes or other hostile relations. When one wife died he usually had another wife, but he often got a new wife to “replace” the one who died. This may sound callous to our twenty-first century ears, but this was common practice in Geronimo’s time. Geronimo loved his wives and they loved him, and worked well with one another. There were tales of Apache wives being captured by Mexicans, sold as slaves, their children taken from them, who later managed to escape and return to their tribes. Such was the story of Nah-thle-tla, an Apache women kidnapped when Mexicans attacked their camp. Her children were taken from her forever and after she served several years in slavery she escaped and journeyed at least 250 miles to return to her tribe.

Geronimo’s wives were Alope, with whom he had three children, all of whom he lost. After which he married Chee-hash-kish and had two children, Chappo and Dohn-say, then he took a second wife, Nana-tha-thtith with whom he had one child. He later had a wife named Zi-yeh at the same time as another wife, She-gha, one named Shtsha-she and later a wife named Ih-tedda. Some of his wives were captured women he took as a wife, such as the young Ih-tedda. Wives came and went, overlapping each other, being captured and brought into the family, lost, or even given up, as Geronimo did with Ih-tedda when he and his band were captured, at that time he kept his wife She-gha but not the younger wife, Ih-tedda. Geronimo’s last wife was Azul.

Throughout his life Geronimo had some eleven children, though less than half of them survived to adulthood. Geronimo lost his first wife Alope, and their three children to a Mexican raid, a large part of what turned Geronimo against Mexicans and led him to kill many of them throughout his lifetime in Arizona. Another wife of Geronimo, Nana-tha-thith and her child were killed in a Mexican attack. Mexicans would either kill Apache women or take them as wives. Apaches did the same to Mexican captives. A Mexican woman or child captive would be taken in and made part of the Apache family.

Despite the white men and Mexicans Geronimo and his friends killed, there is some respect to be had for Geronimo. He loved his family and his friends, he would do anything to protect them. He loved his home land of Arizona and longed always to return to Arizona once the government had forced him to leave Arizona and live in their Fort Sill and other places, in climates that were strange and unhealthy to Geronimo and his fellow Apaches. When Geronimo was captured for the last time, his “surrender” to General Nelson Miles, he calmed down and accepted his life. Many times he asked President Theodore Roosevelt to allow him to return to Arizona, but was refused, for this I feel sorry, he wanted to change his life, stop killing and raiding and just live in his home, but they never let him return to Arizona. Further, once a captive of the United States Geronimo was put on exhibit in many towns and cities across the United States, used in parades and fairs to bring spectators, and saw as little more than a savage, non-human.

Source:
Junto Society

http://www.juntosociety.com

Geronimo
by Sierra

“Our arrows were all gone, our spears broken off in the bodies of dead enemies. We had only our hands and knives with which to fight, but all who stood around us were dead… Still covered with the blood of my enemies, still holding my conquered weapon, still hot with the joy of battle, victory, and vengeance, I was surrounded by the Apache braves and made war chief of all Apaches. Then I gave orders for scalping the slain.”

In the annals of American history, there is possibly no greater legend than Geronimo. He was not a man of superhuman strength or power, and he was no medicine man or chief, as some believe. He was an ordinary man with extraordinary vision, an ability to look deep into his soul and meet all adversity head-on. He never wavered in his desire to live free, or die trying. During his lifetime, he became a stranger in his own land, hunted by white man and Apache alike. When finally forced to surrender, he found himself banished forever. His story is the most heroic and tragic in the history of the Southwest.

“None had lost as I had, for I had lost all.” Geronimo’s words and his vows of vengeance may have been the beginning of his rise to leadership, but only his courage and cunning kept him strong in the eyes of his people. No other man has written his name so fiercely on the history of the land. Lied to and betrayed by his white adversaries, he still remained a man of integrity, keeping his word once it was given. He was wary and distrustful of everyone, even among his own people, yet he was known to be kind and affectionate to his family and friends. His suspicions were real, and his judgments unbending, but it was his unrelenting hatreds which guided his thought. He was a legend in his own time.

Mention the word ‘Apache,’ and Geronimo comes to mind. He was born Goyahkla, and some claim this translates to “One Who Yawns,” although many, including modern Apaches, say otherwise. His family was the Bedonkohe branch of the Chiricahua Nation. He gave his own birth date as June 1829, but he was almost certainly born before that. His place of birth is still in question, but it is known to be located near the headwaters of the Gila River, possibly near present-day Clifton, Arizona. At the time of his birth, this area was part of Mexico. Much later, the Fort Sill Apaches would suggest his birth name meant “intelligent, shrewd, clever,” descriptions which aptly suited him all his adult life.

His own family was small, but like all Apaches, Geronimo counted all his relatives as his “brothers.” Chief Juh of the Nedhai band in Sonora was a true brother-in-law, as was Chief Nana of the Warm Springs band. When he later married a niece of Cochise, Geronimo acquired not only the greatest Apache leader in history as his uncle, but also Chief Mangas Coloradas of the Mimbreno band as another uncle. His closest “brothers” were Naiche, Victorio, Loco, and Chihauhau, all famous war chiefs in their time. All these men figured prominently in Apache history. Throughout his life, Geronimo’s family ties would always be very strong.

Geronimo’s war with Mexico most likely started in 1835 when the Mexican state of Sonora, in an all-out effort to rid the Sierra Madres of the Nedhai band, passed a law offering one hundred pesos (roughly equal to one American dollar) for every scalp of an Apache warrior. Two years later, the state of Chihuahua set a scale of one hundred pesos for a warrior’s scalp, fifty for a woman’s, and twenty-five for a child’s. Many white mercenaries killed Apaches in the United States and took the scalps into Mexico for the bounty. It became increasingly dangerous for any Apache to live anywhere in Apacheria. With his first wife Alope, his mother Juana, and three children to support, Geronimo moved into the Big and Little Burro Mountains area of Arizona, where he met the magnificent Mimbreno leader, Mangas Coloradas, father-in-law of the famous Cochise. Geronimo formed a deep and lasting friendship with the Mimbreno chief.

By the summer of 1850, Geronimo and his Bedonkohe adherents had come under the full leadership and protection of Mangas Coloradas. On a trading trip to Casa Grandes, with the great chief leading, they stopped at a town they called Kas-ki-yeh. It has been accepted that this site is the town of Janos in the Mexican state of Chihauhau. It was a peaceful expedition, and all the women and children were along. While the men were out hunting meat, a group of Mexican troops swooped down upon the camp, butchering nearly everyone in sight. The massacre of his family loosed Geronimo upon the land. It was an enraged, burning hatred he carried against the Mexicans until his dying day.

This bitter loss brought Geronimo his “Power,” and it directly led to his new name. While sitting with his head bowed in sorrow, he heard a voice tell him that ‘no gun can ever kill you, and I will guide your arrows.’ The fact that he was often wounded, but remained alive, strengthened his conviction in this power. He became so fierce and unafraid in his war with the Mexicans that the soldiers began to cry out in terror each time they saw him. “Cuidado! Geronimo!” They were calling upon St. Jerome, the patron saint of the Mexican army, to protect them, but their calls became the battle cry for all Apaches everywhere. Goyahkla officially became “Geronimo.”

Geronimo was neither a war chief nor a medicine man to the Apache, although many people think that he was. By the time the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 brought the disputed Arizona border under close scrutiny, the Bedonkohes were fully merged with the Mimbrenos under Mangas Coloradas’ leadership. Geronimo was just another warrior sneaking in and out of Mexico on war raids. When Mangas Coloradas was betrayed and murdered by a group of miners at Pinos Altos on 18 January 1863, it was Geronimo who brought war to the whites. He went straight to Cochise and was soon joined by his close friends, Victorio and Loco, whose names would soon become household words. Geronimo’s revenge was completely brutal, designed to strike fear into hearts everywhere. Since Cochise himself had been betrayed by the US Army, a full-scale Apache War commenced. According to Geronimo’s own words, “All of the Indians agreed not to be friendly with the white men any more.” Geronimo also said the murder of Mangas Coloradas was “perhaps the greatest wrong ever done to the Indians.”

There was no successor to Mangas Coloradas. The Mimbrenos finally assimilated with the Warm Springs Apaches under the leadership of Chief Nana, later chiefs Victorio and Loco, Victorio being described as the “most perfect human being in existence.” Geronimo stayed with Cochise. His war with the whites lasted until 1886.

Although it was the honest integrity of Tom Jeffords who managed to make a pact with Cochise, bringing peace to the Chiricahua in 1873, Geronimo never capitulated. He gave reservation life a couple of tries and then headed for his Skeleton Canyon stronghold, where he continued his depredations on both sides of the border. There was no stopping him. He meant to live free, or die trying. Over the years, he would have nine more wives after Alope, nearly all of them killed or taken captive by the Mexicans. Two died in captivity in Florida. His last wife, Azul, outlived her husband and moved to Mescalero, New Mexico in 1913 with the prisoners who chose that reservation as their future home.

On April 7, 1886, Chief Chihuahua and the other Chiricahuas who remained on the reservation, including the wives of Geronimo and Naiche, were sent to Fort Marion, Florida. The Warm Springs Apaches under Chiefs Loco and Nana, remained on the reservation, as did Chato and his friendly Chiricahuas, to be removed to Oklahoma later. The idea was to bring Geronimo down from the hills. It worked. Without his precious family, Geronimo negotiated a surrender with Lieutenant Charles Gatewood and two Apache scouts, one of whom was the famous Chatto, and three days later, on 8 September 1886, he was on his way toward Florida, where he thought he would be allowed to rejoin his family. Instead, he was once again betrayed.

He was sent to Fort Pickens at Pensacola, and it was several more months before his family would be allowed to join him. The local citizens in Arizona, who had lived the horror of the death and destruction which Geronimo had wreaked upon them for so long, were only too glad to see the Chiricahuas sent away. According to General Nelson Miles, who had put 5,000 soldiers, almost as many civilian irregulars, and hundreds of Apache scouts after Geronimo and his 24 warriors without even the smallest smidgen of success, if Geronimo had elected to remain in his mountain fortress, the Army would never have caught him.

Under the terms of Geronimo’s surrender, the Indians were to remain in Florida for only two years, after which they could return to Arizona. Again, Geronimo was betrayed. Secretary of War William Endicott decided it foolhardy to return the Apaches to the Southwest. He set about “civilizing” Geronimo’s band, sending the older children to Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where their hair was cut, they were dressed in uniforms, and where they were given white names.

In May 1888, Geronimo and the Apaches were transferred to an even worse center of disease and death at Mount Vernon Barracks in Mobile, Alabama. Conditions were so severe that by the end of the year, two men, ten women, and nine children were dead and more were dying. Through the efforts of General George Crook, John Clum, and other white men who sympathized with the Apache plight, some of the Apaches were allowed to return to San Carlos, but not Geronimo and his Chiricahuas. They remained in Alabama until a curious reversal of an ancient relationship set them on the journey to Fort Sill, Oklahoma in October 1893. The Kiowas and Comanches at Fort Sill offered to share their reservation with Geronimo’s Chiricahuas, who were their traditional enemies. The remnants of the Chiricahuas arrived in January 1894. By this time, there were only 296 of them left.

Throughout the remainder of his life, Geronimo never missed a chance to plead for his Apaches’ return to Arizona. He told General Miles in 1898 that ‘the acorns and the pinon nuts, the quail and the wild turkey, the giant cactus and the palo verdes – they all miss me. I miss them too. I want to go back to them.’ General Miles replied, “A very beautiful thought, Geronimo. But the men and women who live in Arizona, they do not miss you….Folks in Arizona sleep now at night, have no fear that Geronimo will come and kill them.”

An old man by the time he arrived in Oklahoma, Geronimo was still a formidable person. Although a prisoner of war, he was not kept in the guardhouse, except when he became drunk and disorderly. He had photographs made of himself which he sold for 50 cents, and he also sold the buttons off his clothing for a quarter, carrying a button case around with him so he could attach new buttons at night. His autograph would often fetch a dollar. He became a living legend with as many stories told about his exploits as Billy the Kid or Jesse James.

While bullets might not kill him, “civilization” surely did. He got drunk on the night of 11 February on white man’s whiskey in Lawton, and on the ride back to Fort Sill, he fell off his horse. No one missed him. It was raining and very cold, and he lay unconscious in the wet and muddy road until the next morning. The old warrior, feeling betrayed and begging for freedom, died of pneumonia on 17 February 1909. He was still a prisoner of war and still longing for his mountains of Arizona. He is buried in the Apache South cemetery on the Fort Sill Military Reservation. Nearby lie the graves of family members and his “brothers,” Nana, Naiche, Loco, and Chihauhua.

**************

As a bit of trivia, a number of his descendants have been well-known in various fields of endeavor. One of his grandsons was a famous character actor in Hollywood by the name of Charlie Stevens. Charlie acted in hundreds of films and was a close personal friend of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Another grandson, Geronimo III, would often bring his Apaches down from the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico for pow-wow each summer, to the great delight of the people in Alamogordo.

Geronimo is the ONLY Indian to be recognized worldwide for his bravery and ferocity, and this includes the likes of such great leaders as Cochise, Crazy Horse, Stand Watie, Osceola, Satanta, et al. The battle cry of “Geronimo” stands alone as the most powerful word in the military language.

Original Homeland Security

Medicine Song – Sung by Geronimo
The song that I will sing is an old song, so old that none knows who made it. It has been handed down through generations and was taught to me when I was but a little lad. It is now my own song. It belongs to me. This is a holy song (medicine-song), and great is its power. The song tells how, as I sing, I go through the air to a holy place where Yusun (The Supreme Being) will give me power to do wonderful things. I am surrounded by little clouds, and as I go through the air I change, becoming spirit only.

O, ha le
O, ha le!
Awbizhaye
Shichl hadahiyago niniya
O, ha le
O, ha le
Tsago degi naleya
Ah–yu whi ye!
O, ha le
O, ha le!
O, ha le
O, ha le!
Through the air
I fly upon the air
Towards the sky, far, far, far,
O, ha le
O, ha le!
There to find the holy place,
Ah, now the change comes o’re me!
O, ha le
O, ha le!

One of Geronimo’s favorite daughters, E-wa

Apache Prisoners at Fort Pickens – NPS.gov (pdf)

Fort Pickens Geronimo’s Quarters Virtual Tour

Tracking radiation Levels from Japan

RADIATION – JET STREAM – MEGA STORM forms in the Pacific
March 17, 2011

A United Nations forecast of the possible movement of the radioactive plume coming from crippled Japanese reactors shows it churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting Southern California late Friday, read full article HERE

As the high pressure system moves northeastwards and passes just east of Japan on Saturday, winds will gradually shift to the west and then southwest, keeping the radiation from the Fukushima plant blowing out to sea. As the winds shift to southwesterly, the sinking air over Japan will be replaced by rising air, and radioactive emissions will begin being lifted high in the atmosphere. Since there is less friction aloft, and the high speed winds of jet stream increase as the air moves higher in the atmosphere, this radiation will undergo long-range transport, Read full article including graphics HERE

For those of you who want to avoid the potential radiation. Here’s the Global Jet Stream Forecast for March 13-21st.

Storm monitoring realtime
Weather Model – Global Jet Stream Wind and 250 mb Pressure
Mouse-over/click Control Panel buttons (below left) to stop or reverse animation

National Radiation Map
(The Online Map refreshes automatically).

Are your friends panicked by media coverage of the event? Share this page so they can see things are normal.
Online Ionizing Radiation Detectors (2nd Source of USA Radiation Readings)
Online Geiger Counter Nuclear Radiation Detector Map (Online Interaction)

VERIFIED ANOMALY! march 18, 2011

Live Radiation Monitoring from West LA
This stream is of live radiation monitoring in West LA. A live streaming geiger counter in Los Angeles, California.
FAQs:
Why isn’t the monitor outside?
We keep the Inspector inside so we can light it easier for you to be able to see 24/7. There is no need to have it outside or face it into the wind. The kind of radiation we’re looking for at first with fallout that may travel across the Pacific Ocean to Southern California is gamma radiation. Gamma travels great distances and goes through just about anything, including you and me. Lead will stop it. In fallout, one the primary radionuclides of concern is iodine-131 which emits a lot of gamma radiation but is a beta emitter as well. If we left the Inspector outside and fallout begins to come down, the beta emitting I-131 could contaminate the instrument. Even without contamination issues, measuring it inside or outside, if at the same elevation, location and not over concrete (which has some uranium in it which skews the readings higher), is the same.
Can’t you do it outdoors too?
No, we have only one Inspector and they are not cheap. There also is the issue of contamination as previously noted.
Why do the numbers jump around?
Ions from the earth (radium and uranium) and cosmic radiation (including the Sun) do not emit in a steady manner. It’s random. That said, when the numbers go up and stay up, that’s the time to pay close attention.
When should I be worried?
A range of normal background radiation at this location at this time over several days has been determined to be between 40 to 46 CPM. These measurements are similar to background measurements taken in this location over long periods of time prior to the partial meltdowns in Japan.
Should radiation measured by the Inspector begin to rise to double background, we will be concerned. If the measurements go to triple background and above for a sustained period of time in the next few days, we might deduce that this may be coming from the Japan nuclear disaster.
What just happened? It just spiked from 50 to 389?
We used to leave the Inspector on view during our 10 minute averaging which counts the total ionizing events which are then divided by ten for a more accurate Counts Per Minute measurement. This practice confused and alarmed some folks because they thought that was the actual CPM going up and up. We now remove the Inspector for 10-15 minute periods to do this averaging which is then immediately posted on EnviroReporter.com’s Radiation Station.
Can you convert CPM to millisieverts?
0-200 cpm / 0-0.05 mR/hr
200-400 cpm / 0.05-0.1 mR/hr
>400 cpm / >0.1 mR/hr
When do you think my family and I should leave? Before the fallout? Wouldn’t it be too late once it starts?
We aren’t going advise anyone. We just don’t know if we will experience contamination, at what level, or where. For all you know, you could inadvertently flee towards contamination and not from it.
The state government and EPA say they are activating over 200 fallout monitoring stations. How can I access their information like I can here at the Radiation Station in real time?

California SuperStorm 2011 Natural Disaster

VERIFIED ANOMALY! march 18, 2011

Be prepared for this, and you WILL live to fight another day
Radioactive Metal Detox
This note will contain a collection of preventions and treatments for radiation, it will also work well for many heavy metals in the body. Be prepared, save your friends, family and yourself, to live to fight on.

Basically, an anti-radiation diet should focus on the following foods

* Miso soup
* Spirulina, chlorella and the algaes (kelp, etc.)
* Brassica vegetables and high beta carotene vegetables
* Beans and lentils
* Potassium, calcium and mineral rich foods
* High nucleotide content foods to assist in cellular repair including spirulina, chlorella, algae, yeast, sardines, liver, anchovies and mackerel
* Cod liver oil and olive oil
* Avoid sugars and sweets and wheat
* A good multivitamin/multimineral supplement

Miso soup, sea vegetables recommended instead of potassium iodide for radiation fear

Miso Soup Recipe
(Cooking Video)

Radiation Toxicity Antidotes
by John W. Apsley, II, MD(E), DC
The Regeneration Effect

The fallout will present in THREE forms or threats to our health:
The first will be the immediate airborne threat over the next several weeks heading into the U.S.

Low radiation detected on U.S. west coast
The next threat will be when it enters into our water supply and food chain over the many weeks and perhaps months ahead.
The last threat stems from the extremely low levels of radiation which become ever present due to radioactive materials burrowing into our tissues. This will be by far the more deadly form of radiation poisoning to those living in North America, and is properly called The Petkau Effect. The Petkau Effect applies to chronic low level exposures and accrues over a long time frame because these radioactive materials will continue to emit toxic ionizing radiation for thousands of years.

SHORT TERM ANTIDOTES: (Condensed)
1. N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC) is the most powerful short term quencher of ionizing radiation.
2. Iodide is also a first line of defense mineral supplement, since it can out-compete radioactive iodide from entering into our bodies.
3. Chlorella (and other blue green algae) is a superior protector and remover of radioactive metals from the body contains no less than 20 superior neutralizers to radioactive poisons.
4. High quality bone meal (rich in Calcium & Strontium Hydroxyapatite) will also protect against radioactive strontium poisoning.
5. Natural Vitamin E Complex – To stop cell membrane destruction.
6. Consuming High fiber and seaweed dishes on a regular basis must be used to maximize the best effects of the above tools.

LONG TERM ANTIDOTES (for maintenance):
*Bone Meal (protects against radioactive Strontium);
*Chlorella (protects against most radioactive metals);
*Kelp (protects against radioactive iodide and other radioactive metals);
*Probiotics – several billion per meal in capsule format (protects against radioactive Strontium).

Examples of Protection Schedules According to Body Weight & Budgetary Allowances
Continue reading for Dr. John W. Apsley’s detoxification regime.

March 18, 2011

Colorado inmates train wild mustangs to guard the nation’s border’s

*”Wild Horse Inmate program” trains horses that enhances the ”Project Noble Mustang” to Guard the border’s

Colorado inmates train wild mustangs to help guard the nation’s rugged borders
By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post
01/22/2011

It is, to say the least, an unlikely alliance.

The horses arrive without names or manners. They are taught to behave by Colorado inmates serving time for robbery, burglary and other crimes. The horses are then deployed along the nation’s borders to stop crime — helping catch 500 illegal immigrants in one stretch of the Mexican border alone.
So far, this combination of the untamed and confined has worked well for law enforcement. The horses are well- trained by inmates who learn a trade in the process, and the horses’ unique skills allow Border Patrol agents to visit rugged stretches with few provisions.
The wild horses are prized for their toughness. Rocks? Not a problem. No pastures? Anything green or brown will do. Frozen lakes and rivers? They’ll eat snow.
“The mustangs never had a water trough,” said Dick Graham, patrol agent in charge of the U.S. Border Patrol station in Oroville, Wash., northwest of Spokane. “It shows you how self-sufficient they are.”
As he spoke, Shorty chomped big bites of fresh snow off the ground as a U.S. Border Patrol wrangler saddled him up for a day of work along the U.S.-Canada border.
Mustangs like Shorty were molded by trials. They fended off mountain lions using large hooves or more likely galloped safely away from them on thick- boned, sturdy legs through rocky, cactus-choked ravines infested with rattlesnakes.
The mixed-breed, mangy horses descended from ancestors that escaped from Spanish explorers, U.S. cavalry soldiers, gold miners and ranchers. All Shorty needed to channel generations of wilderness experience to become a valuable Border Patrol mount was some gentle coaxing by horse trainers. That’s where prisoners at Four Mile Correctional Center in Cañon City came in. Lessons in training horses. Four years ago, now-retired Border Patrol supervisor Lee Pinkerton called Colorado prison officials and asked whether the inmates who had been training wild mustangs since 1986 to become working ranch horses could also train them to chase down drug and human smugglers.
Pinkerton’s idea has since evolved into a nationwide program called Project Noble Mustang. At the time, Shorty was still roaming the Western plains.
The Bureau of Land Management rounded up him and dozens of other mustangs from four wild herds in Colorado and from herds across the West for the Border Patrol.
The BLM sent the mustangs to Cañon City, where inmates train them for three to four months, said Katherine Sanguinetti, Colorado prisons spokeswoman. By the time they are done, the horses are considered “green broke.”
The cost of the trained horse is a bargain at $1,100, Graham said.
Colorado inmate Terry Benjamin, 45, spends most of his day at a large corral complex where Colorado Correctional Industries holds 3,000 mustangs. On Thursday afternoon, he pointed out a scar on his forehead and another above his right eye.
“Jughead gave me 11 stitches,” said Benjamin, referring to a strawberry-colored mustang with a massive head huddled with three other mustangs in a nearby corral. “He reared up. He got his butt way up there.”
Benjamin held no ill will toward the horse he continued to train for three months after he was bucked and stomped.
“It wasn’t his fault. He’s a wild horse. He did what horses do,” Benjamin said.
In the year that Benjamin, serving a robbery sentence out of Cañon City, has been training horses, his tolerance for mustang missteps has molded him as much as his horses, said Department of Corrections officer and horse wrangler Cody West.
At home in rugged areas Ramon Gonzales, a city boy from Denver, sat comfortably high atop Silver Bullet, a blue roan with deep blue eyes. He leaned over and patted Silver Bullet on the neck.
“Just getting close enough to touch them can take weeks,” said Gonzales, a convicted burglar from Jefferson County. “They pretty much think we’re going to eat them.”
After Gonzales and other inmates train the horses, they go to the border, where Border Patrol agents train them not to get spooked when they hear gunfire.
The mustang program worked so well along the Canadian border that it was replicated from Texas to California, where agents now use the prison-trained mustangs to catch illegal immigrants every day.
Rafael V. Garza, horse patrol commander for the Border Patrol in the Laredo, Texas, sector, said in the first year of service, his nine mounted agents caught 500 illegal immigrants.
“It’s the intimidation factor,” Garza said.
When they approach a group of drug smugglers sleeping under mesquite trees and one of them bolts, the agents give chase on mustangs, crashing through the brush.
“They know they aren’t going to outrun a horse,” Garza said.
Unlike domestic horses, the mustangs are comfortable in the most inhospitable of terrain. But Garza worried that the mustangs would kick, bite and buck. Instead, they readily follow orders and have proved to be endearing companions, he said.
They do well in hot southwestern deserts and in the frigid north, where they must maneuver through dense pine forests on steep grades along the 49th parallel, Graham said.
Currently about 60 mustangs are in service nationally, and that number is growing. About 27 of them patrol a 308-mile stretch from the Cascade Mountains in Washington to Glacier National Park in Montana.
Using horses is a throwback to the cowboy days when the Border Patrol was first formed, Graham said.
“Mustangs are a little bit of America’s past,” he said.
The mustangs have also proved to be valuable ambassadors for the Border Patrol.
Graham rode Okanogan — a black mustang named after the county where he patrols — at the head of President Barack Obama’s inaugural parade in January 2009.
The same ranchers who forbid Border Patrol agents from driving ATVs that scare livestock on their property eagerly accompany the agents when they visit on horseback. The ranchers have since called Graham to report smuggling.
Keen senses a benefit
The horses have an acute sense of smell. They warn when predators such as grizzly bears are near and detect smugglers.
In a test by San Diego Border Patrol agents, mustangs had keener senses than dogs, DOC officer and horse wrangler West said. They can see, smell or hear a smuggler far sooner than their rider and are stealthier than noisy ATVs.
“If you pay attention to your horse, you can sneak up on (smugglers),” said Oroville patrol wrangler Brandon Perez.
Without the horses, the Border Patrol would rarely be able to visit remote areas of the border like the Pasayten Wilderness Area in northern Washington.
The mustangs are durable and rarely go lame. On one expedition along the Canadian border that lasted 10 days, a group of agents crossed a field where a grove of trees had tumbled over like match sticks, Graham said.
“We were riding in snow up to Shorty’s belly,” he recalled. “He literally crawled over the logs. No problem.”
Long-distance hoofing On a recent chilly morning following a snowstorm, Graham, who stands 6 feet 2 and weighs 230 pounds, mounted Shorty.
Horse and rider led a small caravan of agents, a reporter and photographer up a steep snow-draped slope below Anarchist Mountain a few miles north of Oroville.
The group crossed through a herd of cattle without disturbing them. The mustangs traversed a small stream and zigzagged up a steep hill along a barbed-wire border fence to a bluff overlooking Lake Osoyoos, which extends several miles into Canada.
In the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, politicians were concerned that terrorists might use the less patrolled Canadian border to slip into the U.S. The Border Patrol bolstered its force with hundreds of new agents.
The mustangs have helped make them all the more effective, Graham said. They can cover the vast northern border more swiftly and frequently.
The hill above Lake Osoyoos was slick, but the mustangs steadily trudged upward and then back down without slipping or sliding. The horses covered about 5 miles in three hours.
“We could never do this in a few hours if we were on foot,” Graham said.

U.S. Border Patrol agents Spokane Washington Sector, from left to right, Richard Graham, Patrol Agent in Charge, and wrangler, Josh Bocook, and wrangler, Brandon Perez, ride mustang horses on patrol in Oroville Washington, patrolling the U.S./Canadian border, Thursday morning, January 13th 2011. (Andy Cross | The Denver Post)

Colorado inmate Ramon Gonzales works to train the wild mustang Silver Bullet. “Just getting close enough to touch them can take weeks,” Gonzales said. ( Andy Cross, The Denver Post )

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Tucson Sector Border Patrol Adopts Wild Horses
by Hugh Holub on Oct. 26, 2010, under border issues

Press release from US Customs and Border Protection October 20, 2010

Tucson Sector Border Patrol Adopts Wild Horses
The Noble Mustang Program

TUCSON, Ariz. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection Tucson Sector Border Patrol has adopted 10 horses from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) “Wild Horse and Burro Program.” The program works in conjunction with Colorado Correctional Institute’s Wild Horse Inmate Program (WHIP).

The Border Patrol initiated the Noble Mustang Program in the Spokane Sector in 2007 which purchases mustangs from WHIP. By purchasing horses through this program it eases BLM’s burden of locating suitable homes for these wild mustangs. As part of their inmate rehabilitation program, the Colorado Correctional Institute provides preliminary training for the horses.

Prior to utilizing the Noble Mustang Program, the Tucson Sector purchased horses from vendors across the Nation at double the cost. The Noble Mustang Program is an economical means of increasing Tucson Sector’s Horse Patrol Unit at half the cost. Mustangs are known to be tough, durable horses that have very solid hooves and strong bone structure, which makes them less prone to lameness, and better suited for the rocky mountainous terrain found in Southern Arizona.

WHIP provides mustangs with basic skill sets which Border Patrol agents enhance and build upon. Once they have been trained and have adapted to Border Patrol operations, they will be added to the Tucson Sector’s Horse Patrol Unit. (Photos Available)

The Noble Mustang program has received high recognition and was selected to participate in the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Parade. The Noble Mustang Program was nominated by the Office of Management and Budget for the SAVE (Securing Americans’ Value and Efficiency) Award in 2010.

“The Noble Mustang Program is a win-win situation for all parties involved, including these magnificent animals.” said Chief Patrol Agent Victor M. Manjarrez, Jr. “The Tucson Sector is proud to implement the legacy of these mustangs into the traditions of our Horse Patrol Unit, at a great savings to the taxpayer.”

The Tucson Sector Horse Patrol Unit was responsible for more than 18,000 apprehensions and more than 93,000 pounds of marijuana seizures from Oct. 1, 2009 to Aug. 31, 2010. Horses have a very low impact on the natural environment and therefore do not disturb wildlife and the ecosystem.

~CBP~

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with management, control and protection of our nation’s borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Judge John M. Roll: A True American Hero by Richard Mack

January 14th, 2011

Judge John M. Roll: A True American Hero

By: Richard Mack

Member of Oath Keepers Board of Directors

Liberty News Radio

On January 8, 2011, Federal District Judge John Roll was gunned down by a maniacal coward lunatic. Since this unspeakable and unimaginable tragedy much has been said about who caused this tragedy or who may have prompted its occurrence. Some of this rhetoric bordered on the absurd. I would much rather talk about the good people who had their lives snuffed out before their time and to pay tribute to who they were and what they stood for. Certainly, a beautiful little nine year old angel, named Christina Green, deserves to have her life displayed as an example to others to learn from and enjoy. So, I will do that regarding a man who changed my life and helped alter American history; Judge John M. Roll. He was an honest man and a principled judge. He stood for what he believed was right despite the possible consequences. I met Judge Roll back in 1994, in fact, it was in his courtroom. He was the judge who first heard my lawsuit against the Clinton Administration. Judge Roll had the courage to take a strong stand against the very entity that controlled his salary and career. He actually had the audacity to tell Congress and President Clinton that they exceeded their authority when they made the Brady bill a law.

I was extremely nervous when I walked into Judge Roll’s courtroom. There was a big crowd of supporters and numerous reporters and cameras outside the courthouse. Although I had been to court many times before, this was the first time it was in front of such a crowd of onlookers and the Press and in Federal court. I remember looking at Judge Roll and relaxing somewhat; he was nice looking and rather young, about my age. He had already defended me with at least two pretrial motions that he ruled on, both in my favor. The first one was the Federal Government’s attempt to remove me from the case entirely by claiming I had no standing to sue them in the first place. They argued that only the county’s Board of Supervisors could represent the county in such legal actions. Judge Roll said this was wrong because it was the sheriff being commandeered by the Federal Government, both officially and personally. Next, my lawyer asked for an injunction against the government from being able to arrest me for “failure to comply.” (There was an actual provision in the Brady bill that threatened to arrest the sheriffs if we failed to comply with this unfunded mandate from Congress.) Judge Roll seemed legitimately concerned about this threat throughout the entire lawsuit. Janet Reno herself wrote a memo to the Judge and assured him that the Feds had no intention of arresting me and that the threat of arrest within the language of the Brady bill, was only intended for the gun shop owners, not the sheriffs. Judge Roll, as he announced his decision regarding the injunction said that Janet Reno was not allowed to change the law “by fiat” nor interpret the law for Congress. “Mack’s injunction is hereby granted,” the Judge said calmly and sternly.

Then as the hearing proceeded I was called to the stand. The butterflies returned big time. As the Justice Department’s lawyer cross examined me, she did something unusual; she actually began to address the Judge while I am still sitting on the stand. She said, “why your honor, already in just the first four months of the implementation of the Brady background checks, we have denied over 250,000 felons from gaining access to handguns in this country.” I was thinking to myself what a crock her numbers were and wondering why we had so many felons on the streets all trying to buy handguns in government checked gun shops. Suddenly, Judge Roll interrupted the attorney and rebuked her with, “Counselor, do not pretend in this courtroom that your statistical analysis somehow equates to constitutionality.” I have to say that Roll’s understanding of principles amazed me. He was so professional and knowledgeable. He took his job and the Constitution so seriously. He was truly an exemplary Justice.

When Judge Roll issued his ruling on the Mack v. US case on June 28, 1994, he said two things that absolutely floored me. The first one was the order of the court which summarized his findings:

“The Court finds that in enacting (the Brady bill) Congress exceeded its authority under Article 1, section 8 of the United States Constitution, thereby impermissibly encroaching upon the powers retained by the states pursuant to the Tenth Amendment. The Court further finds that the provision, in conjunction with the criminal sanctions its violation would engender, is unconstitutionally vague under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

Judge Roll, of all the dozens of Judges who had heard this case from me and the other six sheriff defendants, was the only one who ruled that the Brady bill violated the Fifth Amendment as well as the Tenth. It was pursuant to Judge Roll’s insight and sensitivity to the threat this “law” posed to us, the sheriffs, that this case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

When I read the other Judge Roll principle, it truly brought me to understand how astonishing this man really was. He said:

“Mack is thus forced to choose between keeping his oath or obeying the act, subjecting himself to possible sanctions.”

To have a federal Judge actually grasp the full extent of my personal motivation for filing this case was absolutely remarkable. He touched my soul with this comment and it is recorded in my books and memory forever. He was truly before his time. Now, his work is a part of American history. His legacy should be one of honesty, courage, and living up to his oath as a true defender of our nation’s rule of law. He changed my life and showed us all that the Constitution is still the supreme law of the land.

This article was posted on Liberty News Radio.

In Memory of Chief U.S. District Judge John M. Roll

Chief U.S. District Judge John M. Roll, 1947-2011
January 10, 2011

Chief Judge John M. Roll of the District of Arizona died on January 8, 2011. He was 63. Judge Roll was one of several victims fatally shot outside a Tucson grocery store during an attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Judge Roll was appointed to the federal bench in 1991 after serving as an Arizona state judge. He also had worked as a state and federal prosecutor. He became chief judge of the district court in 2006.
Flags outside federal courthouses were flown at half staff on January 10, 2011, to honor Judge Roll.

JOHN ROLL, 63
Named Arizona’s chief federal judge in 2006, U.S. District Judge John M. Roll won acclaim for a career as a respected jurist and leader who had pushed to beef up the court’s strained bench to handle a growing number of border crime-related cases. Roll was appointed to the federal bench in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. He previously served as a state trial judge and as a judge on the mid-level Arizona Court of Appeals, and as a county and state prosecutor. Bishop Gerald Kicanas of the Roman Catholic Church’s Tucson Diocese said Roll was an active parishioner. “He lived his faith as a servant of our nation for the cause of justice,” Kicanas said. Roll was a Pennsylvania native who graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in 1969; earned a law degree in 1972 at University of Arizona Law College and received his master’s law degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 1990. He is survived by his wife, Maureen; three sons; and five grandchildren.

U.S. District Court Judge John M. Rolls, Catholic, Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus, charter member of Deacon Raphael Longpre Council 10441, member of Msgr. Hughes Assembly 2392, both in Tucson.

Animal Recovery mission & Respect 4 Horses Investigate

Animal Recovery mission & Respect 4 Horses Investigate

Investigation on the BLM claiming wild horses are being removed do to lack of water. Animalrecoverymission.org

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Animal Recovery Mission website

Fighting for the Forgotten!
Richard “Kudo” Couto started A.R.M as a organization to fight illegal horse slaughter, the horse meat black market trade, shutdown all illegal slaughter farms and to fight for the American wild mustangs.

Kudo investigates miamis illegal slaughter industry with CNN

HORSE ROUNDUP CONNECTED TO GAS PIPELINE?
Added On January 3, 2011

HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell investigates a report claiming that horses are being rounded up as part of a pipeline project (Ruby Pipeline).

NEVADA
Walker Lake Wild Horses
A Community Unites to Save Their Wild Horses

In this post, I would like to deviate from my usual writings about photography and travels to bring attention to the plight of the Walker Lake Wild Horse Herd that BLM has scheduled for roundup around the middle of November, 2010. The Walker Lake Wild Horse Herd has been on the south end of Walker Lake for well over ten years. The area on the south end of Walker Lake is over ten square miles with fresh ground water and abundant native grasses. These wild horses are actually on land that is controlled by the military and restricted for use by the public. US highway 95 runs along and above the south end of Walker Lake and the wild horses are within easy viewing from the road.

The rational behind BLM’s roundup of these wild horses is due to several horses straying on to the highway and getting hit by cars. The speed limit in this area is 70mph.

”Unfortunately, there is still much controversy over whether the Wild Horses on our American Pubic lands are actually wild horses. Many view the present day wild horses as nothing more than feral offspring that were turned out to fend for themselves because they were no longer useful. Others see the wild horses as nuisances who destroy the fragile desert eco-systems and unlike cattle, provide no benefit to humanity.”

On January 5, 2007, a statement was introduced to the 110th Congress, entitled Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife, by Jay F. Kirkpatrick, Ph. D. and Patricia M. Fazio, Ph.D, which supports evidence through DNA analysis that the modern horse is genetically equivalent to a horse, that according to fossil records, represented the most recent specimen prior to extinction in North America. In summary, Kirkpatrick and Fazio conclude that native status for wild horses would place these animals, under law, within a new category for management considerations. As a form of wildlife, embedded with wilderness, ancient behavioral patterns, and the morphology and biology of a sensitive prey species, they may finally be released from the “livestock-gone-loose” application.

For more information:
Mustangs in danger? Too many horses, too little land

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_13_58/ai_85465324

Wild Horses as Native North American Wildlife

http://www.awionline.org/ht/d/sp/i/18457/pid/18457

Horse Power

http://www.nvhorsepower.org/

Bureau of Land Management in Nevada is involved in the Wilderness Act and ICLEI’s Sustainable Development. There is no room for grazing horses or burros that affects their Environmental Impact Statement.

Speak Up For Wildlife in Nevada
www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/R40237.pdf
posted by: alicia graef

”A large part of the federal kill program also focuses on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. Policies of the BLM have been revealed to benefit private interests at the expense of wild horses being inhumanely rounded up and removed.”

”More than 100,000 predator animals native to the land are shot, trapped, snared, poisoned and killed in dens every year by programs authorized by the federal government. Animals that are being erased from the landscape as the human population increases include mountain lions, coyotes, bears and wolves whose job is to keep nature in balance. The justification for killing these animals is that grazing livestock need public lands, which commercial producers can get at below-market rates.”

”The BLM insists there are more wild horses and burros today than there were in 1971 when the roundup program began after a unanimous vote to protect and manage wild horses and burros under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, ensuring them a place on public lands free from “capture, harassment and death.”
The population grew and the last BLM roundup removed more horses and burros than it had in other years. According to the BLM, the estimated 33,700 wild horses and 4,700 burros roaming the bureau’s lands in 10 western states would explode in numbers if not controlled.The government’s plan to remove 12,000 more horses from the land would leave about 26,600 horses and burros to roam 26 million acres.”

“So the tax-funded killing cycle of wildlife continues, killing both predators and prey, despite public outcry.”

NEVADA PREDATOR CONTROL PROGRAM HARMS WILD HORSES AND BURROS

Citizens concerned about wild horses and wildlife have an opportunity to voice opposition to this wasteful, destructive and inhumane federal program. The USDA is accepting comments on an Environmental Assessment for Predator Damage Management in Nevada. The predator-killing efforts in Nevada focus on 19.6 million acres of BLM land, including Herd Management Areas, which are utilized extensively for livestock grazing at the expense of wild horses and burros.

Take Easy Action By January 18 To Submit Comments on Destructive Federal Program
Please take a moment to personalize and submit the sample letter below to comment on this damaging and wasteful federal program in Nevada.

Planet War

From the bloody civil wars in Africa to the rag-tag insurgiences in Southeast Asia, 33 conflicts are raging around the world today, and it’s often innocent civilians who suffer the most

Next Year’s Wars
The 16 brewing conflicts to watch for in 2011.

CAPTIONS BY INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP
DECEMBER 28, 2010

Across the globe today, you’ll find almost three dozen raging conflicts, from the valleys of Afghanistan to the jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the streets of Kashmir. But what are the next crises that might erupt in 2011? Here are a few worrisome spots that make our list.

Côte d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire is on the brink of what may be a very bad 2011. After a five-year delay, Côte d’Ivoire held presidential elections on Oct. 31. A peaceful first round of voting was commended by the international community, but the runoff between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara was marred by clashes and allegations of fraud on both sides. The international community, including the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), former colonial power France, and the United States, has recognized Outtara as the victor, but this has not prevented Gbagbo, with the backing of senior military officials and the Constitutional Council, from taking the oath of office. Both politicians have named prime ministers and governments as tension mounts and protests occur in the streets. The United Nations has reported disappearances, rape, and at least two dozen deaths so far.
Worst case scenario: Gbagbo stays in power, armed conflict between the supporters of each side plunges the country into civil war. Best case scenario: Gbagbo succumbs to international appeals and steps down. But it’s not clear how things could get better from here. The international community has already ratcheted up pressure, including financial restrictions and travel bans. And the United Nations renewed the mandate of its peacekeeping operation there, despite Gbagbo calling for its immediate departure.
It’s very possible that Cote d’Ivoire will take a turn for the worse in 2011. Gbagbo and Ouattara both have heavily armed supporters who seem ready to fight for the long haul.
ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images

Colombia
At first glance, Colombia’s prospects for 2011 look bright. The country’s new president, Juan Manuel Santos, has surprised many former critics with his bold reform proposals, many of which are aimed at addressing the root causes of the country’s 46-year civil conflict against leftist rebels. He has mended relations with neighbouring Venezuela and Ecuador, committed to protect human rights advocates, and proposed legislation to help resettle the country’s four million displaced.
The news is not all good, however. Despite a series of strategic losses in recent years — from territory to key leadership — the country’s leftist guerrillas, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), still maintain about 8,000 armed troops and perhaps twice that number of supporters. The rebels killed some 30 police in the weeks after Santos’s inauguration, clearly to make a point. Meanwhile, new illegal armed groups have sprung up to capture the drug trafficking market, their ranks filled with former paramilitary fighters. These gangs are largely responsible for the rising incidence of urban violence; homicide rates have gone up by over 100 percent in Colombia’s second city, Medellín, last year.
If these new armed groups are not contained, Colombia stands to regress in its long fight to finally root out the drug trade — and the militancy it fuels. In such a scenario, FARC could see a comeback, restarting its campaign of terror in the country’s major cities. As has been the case so often in Colombia’s recent history, it would be the civilian population who would suffer most from such a return to conflict.
Yet the opposite scenario is equally likely in the coming months. Santos has worked with his counterparts in Venezuela and Ecuador to increase border surveillance, putting pressure on illegal armed groups holed up there. Under such pressure, FARC may even welcome the chance to start talks with the government about disarmament and reintegration. Much rests in this government’s hands.
LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/Getty Images

Zimbabwe
Keep an eye on Zimbabwe in 2011 as the country’s “unity” government — joining longtime President Robert Mugabe with opposition leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai — will warrant its conciliatory name less and less by the day. The flashpoint next year? Elections. Both men want to hold them — but they don’t agree about what Zimbabweans should be voting on. — will warrant its conciliatory name less and less by the day. The flashpoint next year? Elections. Both men want to hold them — but they don’t agree about what Zimbabweans should be voting on.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai were never going to be fast friends. Since the two were brought together in February 2009, following a 2008 election that Tsvangirai won (but his opponent refused to recognize), Mugabe has continued to monopolize the real levers of power. Despite Tsvangirai’s protests, it’s Mugabe who still holds sway over the army, the security forces, and all the state functions that generate revenue.
Earlier this fall, Mugabe declared that he wanted the unity government to end in 2011. He wants full elections mid-next year, and his party, ZANU-PF, is giving every indication that it will employ the same coercive tactics used in elections past to deliver victory to Mugabe. Tsvangirai’s idea of the 2011 ballot is quite different: he wants to pass a new constitution.
The row over elections has pushed the nominal two-year truce between Mugabe and Tsvangirai toward the verge of collapse. Open violence could break out around the elections unless regional and international mediators negotiate a compromise and bring real pressure to bear on Mugabe to play by the rules.
Michael Nagle/Getty Images

Iraq
Iraq today is in far better shape than it was in 2007, when nearly two dozen Iraqis were dying each day in suicide bombings. But it’s still far from out of the woods. And these days, it’s not militants but the country’s politics that post the biggest threat. The new government, formed in December after nine months of wrangling, is weak and lacks the institutions to rule effectively. Iraq’s bureaucracies are nascent and fragile, and its security forces remain heavily dependent on U.S. training as well as logistics and intelligence support. Meanwhile, grievances abound — from minority groups to repatriated refugees — and it is unlikely that the state will be able to appease these many political demands. Sectarian violence resurfaces in fits and spurts, and is far from quashed entirely; approximately 300 Iraqis died in violence in November.
raq’s neighbors could exploit the country’s ongoing political turmoil to gain influence and sway, particularly Iran, which has long supported Shiite militants. Insurgents also await an opportunity to capitalize on political discord. At the same time, U.S. troops will be largely — if not entirely — withdrawn by the end of next year. And lacking that safety net, it would take very little for the country to lapse back into conflict.
That course is not inevitable, however. More likely, Iraq will continue on its current trajectory, retaining enough stability to keep its citizens relatively safe, even if services remain deficient. But in a muddle-through scenario, it may be the best the country can reasonably hope for as it emerges from an 8-year U.S. occupation.
ALI AL-SAADI/AFP/Getty Images

Venezuela
Over the next 12 months, watch for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to take his brand of 21st-century socialism to the extremes. Having lost his majority in Parliament in September, Chávez has since been working hard to ensure that the new, opposition legislature will be irrelevant by the time it is sworn in in January. The Venezuelan president has consolidated control over the military and police, seized more private companies, and won temporary “decree powers” from the outgoing, pro-government National Assembly.
Chávez’s power grab comes as the country’s economic, social, and security problems are mounting. Violence has spiked dramatically in urban areas; there were some 19,000 homicides in 2009 out of a population of 28 million. In recent years, Venezuela has become a major drug-trafficking corridor, home to foreign and domestic cartels alike. State security forces have also been accused of participating in criminal activity. Meanwhile, Chávez has escalated — rather than soothed — the situation with fiery, partisan rhetoric that seems to egg on a violent suppression of the opposition. That message has an audience; government-allied street gangs in Caracas stand ready to defend his revolution with Kalashnikovs.
MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/AFP/Getty Images

Sudan
The fate of Sudan in 2011 will be set early, on January 9, when a referendum on southern self-determination is scheduled to take place, and which will likely result in independence for the south. Two decades of war came to an end in Sudan in 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). But as the agreement enters its last stages, however, that delicate peace will be tested. While securing the referendum has been an international priority, the long-term stability of the region relies on the ability of north and south Sudan to forge a positive post-CPA relationship.
If matters go well, the January referendum will take place smoothly, with its results respected by the government in Khartoum. This would provide the perfect platform for negotiations on post-referendum arrangements to be successfully concluded. But should the vote go poorly, we might witness the reignition of conflict between north and south and an escalation of violence in Darfur, all of which could potentially draw in regional states. At this point, nothing is certain.
Finally, there’s the tricky matter of creating a new, independent Southern Sudan, which many are already dubbing a pre-failed state. The border remains undecided — no small matter since the contested middle ground happens to sit on a large oil field. Meanwhile in Juba, the nascent capital, institutions and services would urgently need to be built from scratch.
ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images

Mexico

It has been four years since Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared war on the country’s drug lords. During that time, 30,000 people have fallen victim to the conflict, many of them along the northern border with the United States, largely as a result of in-fighting among rival gangs vying for control of trafficking corridors. Today, Ciudad Juarez, a border city near Texas, competes with Caracas as the most deadly city in the world. Over the last 12 months, the violence has spread to Mexico’s economic and cultural hubs that were once considered immune from drug infiltration. To the north, Mexico’s organized crime routes now reach into nearly every metropolitan area of the United States.
In short, despite a $400 million annual aid package from the United States, and big boosts in funding for the military, it’s far from clear whether the government of Mexico is winning — or can win — this battle.
During the last year in particular, Calderón has been criticized for the conduct of the narco war. Not only is it difficult to pinpoint clear progress, but for many, life has visibly deteriorated since the crackdown began. Twenty times more Mexicans have died during the last four years than Americans have in the entire war in Afghanistan. Two gubernatorial candidates and 11 mayors have been assassinated. The press is under increasing pressure to self-censor. One paper in Ciudad Juárez went as far as asking, in an open letter to the cartels, what it was that they were allowed to publish.
Winning” would require a hard look at the Mexican military and police, which have been credibly accused of committing flagrant abuses while fighting the drug gangs. The judicial system likewise needs strengthening to bring the guilty to fair trial. And, of course, much depends on Mexico’s northern neighbor: America remains the largest market for drugs in the world, and so long as U.S. users demand product, the cartels will keep the supply flowing.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Guatemala
Mexico’s drug war is also sending shockwaves throughout Latin America. Under pressure from the Mexican state, the most infamous cartels are seeking friendlier ground and finding it in Guatemala, where the state is weak and the institutions are fragile. In the worst case scenario for 2011, Guatemala could be host to a perpetual turf war of attrition between these various cartels, all competing to control drug trafficking routes — and increasingly human-trafficking corridors — to the United States.
So far, Guatemala’s best ally in fighting back has been the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a tribunal-like institution set up to root out corrupt and cartel-tainted officials. But its mandate ends in 2011 and its star prosecutor recently resigned, claiming that the political leadership was thwarting his work. Presidential elections are slotted for August, but early polls suggest a polarized nation, with around 20 candidates and no clear front runner. That’s just the sort of uncertainty that cartels are good at exploiting.
JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Haiti
Nature had it in for Haiti in 2010, but it may be politics that batters the small island country in the coming year. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere began the year with a devastating January earthquake that killed more than 300,000, a deadly cholera outbreak, and a tortuously slow reconstruction process, which remains way off the pace and beset with difficulties. A November 28 presidential election, which should have led to the election of a new, legitimate government, remains wedged in an impasse over allegations of fraud. The winner won’t be decided until a run-off vote is held in January, but protests have already erupted over what some saw as the unfair exclusion of certain candidates in the second round. At least a dozen lives have been lost in the street clashes so far.
Already, Haiti was on the verge of a social breakdown. Today, more than 1 million Haitians remain homeless in the ruined capital. The government, whose ranks and infrastructure were devastated by the earthquake, has no capacity to deliver services or provide security. And international aid groups and U.N. peacekeepers can only plug those gaps temporarily. Relief work has also been hampered by a lack of funding. Despite big promises from international donors, dollars have been slow to trickle into the country.
This precarious situation will make for an enormous challenge if and when a new government does at last come to power next year. The run-off election will mark a year since the earthquake, with little improvement in the everyday lives of Haitians, whose patience is running out.

Tajikistan
Tajikistan, a land of striking beauty, grinding poverty, and rapacious leaders, could well become the next stomping ground for guerrillas — Central Asians and other Muslims from the former Soviet Union — who have been fighting alongside the Taliban for years and may now be thinking of returning home to settle scores with the region’s brutal and corrupt leaders.
Run since 1992 by Emomali Rahmon, a post-Soviet strongman, Tajikistan has been hollowed out by top-to-bottom corruption. A U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks has an American diplomat noting that “From the President down to the policeman on the street, government is characterized by cronyism and corruption. Rahmon and his family control the country’s major businesses, including the largest bank, and they play hardball to protect their business interests, no matter the cost to the economy writ large.”
Not surprisingly in such an environment, most public services — including the health system — have all but collapsed. The economy survives on remittances from migrant laborers in Russia, and roughly half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line. It is a dangerous brew for instability.
In recent months, the Tajik government has attempted to crack down against Islamist insurgent groups who have crossed the border from northern Afghanistan, but to little effect. There is rising concern in Washington that Tajikistan will become the new theater of operations for Islamic militants, and might offer a convenient route for insurgent penetration of other volatile or vulnerable parts of Central Asia — first off, Tajikistan’s desperately weak neighbor, Kyrgyzstan.
In the coming year, it’s easy to imagine Tajikistan sliding further and further toward a failed state as the government quietly cedes control of whole sections of the country to militants. Even if the Afghan militants were out of the picture, however, Tajikistan’s democratic prospects would look bleak. As the American cable put it, “The government is not willing to reform its political process.”
STR/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistan
It’s hard to remember a time when Pakistan didn’t seem on the brink of collapse. This coming year will likely be no exception. The country faces a humanitarian crisis in its mid-section where floods displaced 10 million people, a security threat from terrorist groups operating on Pakistani soil, and political instability from a weak administration still trying to wield civilian control over the all-powerful military.
The most immediate priority is assisting the millions of people who are still displaced following floods in Pakistan’s countryside. The cities could also use attention; 2010 saw the biggest spike in urban terrorist attacks since the war next door in Afghanistan started. Insurgent and terrorist groups now have strongholds not just in the northwestern tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, but in urban centers such as Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, and Lahore. Yet despite the flurry of attacks on its heartland, Pakistan still seems reluctant to confront the insurgents with full force. So far, military operations against terrorist groups have vacillated between the extremes — either heavy-handed and haphazard force or ill-conceived peace deals. Further, the criminal justice system has failed totally to preempt, investigate, and convict militants. Violence may well spike again in 2011.
Meanwhile in Islamabad, the civilian leadership under President Asif Ali Zardari has grown unpopular and weak, plagued by corruption and an inability to maintain control of the military leaders. Civilian control over national security policy, in both the domestic and external domains, could help put the criminal genie back in the bottle. Stronger civilian leadership of the humanitarian agenda would also prevent the millions living in regions devastated by the massive monsoon floods of 2010 — in the conflict-hit zones in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and also in the Pakistani heartland — from becoming a soft target for militants. However, clashes between the judiciary and Zardari, and the military’s propensity to destabilize elected governments, could result in the democratic transition faltering and even failing, with grave consequences for an already fragile state.
RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP/Getty Images

Somalia
If Somalia keeps heading south in 2011, the entire country could fall under Islamist insurgent control. Up to now, the country’s U.N.-backed transitional government has withstood attacks from Islamist insurgents only thanks to protection from an African Union peacekeeping force; it remains weak and divided, a national government in name alone. Further, the capital city of Mogadishu is under perpetual siege by militants, a reality that has sent millions fleeing from their homes in this year alone. When the government does make gains on the insurgents, they are counted in mere city blocks, captured one by one.
The largest and most alarming insurgent group is al Shabab, which professes to desire the creation of a strict, conservative Muslim state and portions of whose leadership pledged allegiance to al Qaeda in early 2010. The group already controls most of southern and central Somalia and is currently trying to capture Mogadishu. Meanwhile, Somalia’s neighbors fear that al Shabab will begin to export terrorism, as it did for the first time last summer in a series of bombings in Uganda during the World Cup.
That said, Somaliland in the country’s northwest is an island of stability and democracy, and Puntland in the northeast is relatively peaceful, if troubled by Islamists and pirate gangs.
The best hope for Somalia is for its forces to exploit the divisions among the insurgency to recapture territory, particularly in Mogadishu. International support, already forthcoming, will help. But so would a lot of luck.
KATE HOLT/AFP/Getty Images

Lebanon
Still smarting from a war with Israel in 2006 that left a precarious balance of power between Christians and Islamic fundamentalists, Lebanon today is arguably more than ever on the brink.
In the coming months, an international tribunal is expected to issue indictments against Hezbollah members for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a step that could spark sectarian strife throughout the country. Most alarmingly, the indictments could unravel a fragile inter-Lebanese power-sharing agreement reached in Doha in 2008. In that scenario, Lebanon could see a return to political assassinations, all-out sectarian strife, or attempts by Hezbollah to assert greater political or military control. None of these scenarios are far-fetched in the coming year; indeed, they have all happened in Lebanon’s very recent past. The fact that it is so hard to imagine both how the current status quo may survive and how exactly it will unravel says volumes about the state of uncertainty and shakiness which afflicts the country.
In addition to Lebanon’s internal political unraveling, the country risks sliding back into war with Israel. Nearly five years after the 2006 war, relations between the two countries are both exceptionally quiet and uniquely dangerous — for the same reason: On both sides of Israel’s northern border, the build-up in military forces and threats of an all-out war that would spare neither civilians nor civilian infrastructure, together with the worrisome prospect of its regionalization, have had a deterrent effect on all. Today, none of the parties can soberly contemplate the prospect of a conflict that would come at greater cost to themselves, be more difficult to contain, and be less predictable in outcome than anything they witnessed in the past.
But that is only the better half of the story. Beneath the surface, tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve. The deterrence regime has helped keep the peace, but the process it perpetuates — mutually reinforcing military preparations, Hezbollah’s growing and more sophisticated arsenal, escalating Israeli threats — pulls in the opposite direction and could trigger the very result it has averted so far.
ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images

Nigeria
Nigeria’s 2010 was about as rough as they come: The country’s president disappeared on medical leave — and then died — hundreds were killed in sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians in the country’s middle belt, and a rebel amnesty in the oil-producing Niger Delta region completely unraveled, leading to a string of bombing attacks and kidnappings.
And 2011 also looks rocky for Africa’s most populous country. A presidential election is slated to be held in the spring; the last election in 2007 left international observers awestruck by flagrant intimidation and ballot stuffing. Voting in Nigeria has never been a pretty affair, and despite promises to reform the electoral system, the old habits of intimidation and vote buying die hard. After the polling does takes place, post-election turmoil is also entirely possible, particularly if one region or group is unhappy with the result. Nigeria’s many regions — north, south, west, east, and everything in between — count on office-holders to pass out patronage and favors, so the stakes of losing are high.
Whoever it may be, Nigeria’s new leader will have urgent tasks ahead. The rebellion in the Niger Delta is flaring up again, with militants promising to continue attacking oil facilities and government offices. A once effective anti-corruption commission has lost its momentum. And vast economic inequality is the order of the day, leaving oil wealth in the hands of a few while the majority of the country’s 140 million people languish.
PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images

Guinea
Guinea enters 2011 on a hopeful path. In December, the West African country inaugurated its first-ever elected leader, Alpha Condé. After decades of strongman rule, followed by a 2009 coup, this new leadership seems nothing less than miraculous.
Yet the back-story offers some sense of just how deep tensions run. After the country’s president died in December 2008, a small group of military leaders took over, declaring themselves the new leaders of Guinea. So corrupt and ineffectual had the former president been that many welcomed the junta’s rule. But it soon became apparent that the military president, Moussa Dadis Camara, was equally inept. The pinnacle of that failure came in September 2009, when his troops massacred over 150 peaceful protestors in a local stadium.
International condemnation flooded the country, putting pressure on the junta to hold elections. Meanwhile, Camara was shot by a fellow junta member and sent to Morocco for treatment. His successor, Gen. Sekouba Konate, appointed a civilian interim leader and organized the recent election.
But throughout the junta’s brief reign, the military took the opportunity to enrich and entrench its role in the economy, a fact that remains today despite the nominal civilian leadership. Guinea’s military now has a strong stake in controlling mineral wealth — the country is the world’s largest producer of bauxite — and other major industries. In the past, it has used strong-arm tactics to get its way, economically and otherwise, and this old habit will surely die hard. Having tasted the fruits of power under the junta, the military may not so easily return to its barracks.
ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Years after the official end of the Second Congo War, which raged from 1998 to 2003 and was responsible for up to 4.5 million deaths, whole swathes of the enormous Central African country remain in upheaval. In the eastern Kivu provinces, an undisciplined national army battles with rebel groups for territorial control. Amid the frenzy of violence and rape that follows in their path, the world’s largest U.N. peacekeeping force is at a loss to protect even those civilians that live close to its bases.
Lurking behind the conflict is Congo’s vast natural wealth, the very embodiment of the so-called resource curse. Government, militants, private corporations, and local citizens all angle to tap the gold, cobalt, copper, coltan and host of other minerals under the country’s soil — which are focused in the east and south of the country. Meanwhile, the central government lies nearly 1,000 miles to the west, separated from its eastern provinces by impenetrable jungle, a different language, and ethnicity. Rebel groups still roam the eastern border regions, exercising their authority with impunity and cruelty. Neither the government nor rebel groups have the strength to win, but both have the resources to keep fighting indefinitely.
Adding to the misery are appalling humanitarian conditions. Only a third of Congolese in rural areas have access to clean water, an estimated 16,000 children die each year before ever reaching the age of five, and life expectancy has actually fallen by five years since 1990.
Unless the Congolese and regional governments try different tactics, there is no end in sight to Congo’s troubles. In an ideal world, military campaigns in North and South Kivu provinces would be suspended until better-trained troops can be deployed — troops than can carry out targeted operations while protecting civilians. Meanwhile, governments in Africa’s Great Lakes region should convene a summit and negotiate agreements on economic, land, and population-movement issues. A worst-case scenario would see more of the same: a mosaic of armed groups in eastern Congo continue to fight indefinitely, with civilians paying a terrible price.
Gwenn Dubourthoumieu/AFP/Getty Images

No Doomsday in 2012

20 QUESTIONS ON 2012
BY EDEN SKY OF 13MOON.COM

Both the Hopis and Mayans recognize that we are approaching the end of a World Age not as an ending but as a transition from one World Age into another.

One of Mesoamerica’s earliest known written records, this Epi-Olmec culture monument not only recorded this ruler’s achievements, but placed them within a cosmological framework of calendars and astronomical events.

The Long Count
A Mayan date utilizes three calendars. The third calendar, known as the “long count”, is a continuous record of days that starts over every 5000 years or so. The current Long Count began in 3114 BC. And it will end very soon.

Maya math uses only three symbols – a shell-shaped glyph for zero, a dot for one and a bar for five to represent units from zero to 19. For instance, the number 13 was represented as three dots and two bars.

La Mojarra Inscription and Long Count date

La Mojarra Stela 1
Left side image of La Mojarra Stela 1, showing a person identified as “Harvester Mountain Lord”.

Inscriptions in the Isthmian or Epi-Olmec script on the right side of La Mojarra Stela 1

According to the Hopi lore, we are living in the 4th world. Pahana, the lost “White Brother” of Hopi mythology whose return marks the end of the current Fourth World and the beginning of the next, Fifth World. The first world was destroyed by FIRE, the second world was destroyed by was destroyed by FREEZING ICE, and the third world was destroyed by a FLOOD.

Hopi Elders pass warnings and prophecies from generation to generation through oral traditions and reference to ancient rock pictographs and tablets.

Hopi Blue Star or Blue Kachina Prophecy
An ancient Hopi Indian prophecy states, “When the Blue Star Kachina makes its appearance in the heavens, the Fifth World will emerge”. This will be the Day of Purification. The Hopi name for the star Sirius is Blue Star Kachina. It will come when the Saquasohuh (Blue Star) Kachina dances in the plaza and removes his mask.

Sirius
Sirius is the brightest star in the night-time sky with a visual apparent magnitude of -1.47. It is located in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius can be seen from almost every inhabited region of the Earth’s surface (those living north of 73.284 degrees cannot see it) and, in the Northern Hemisphere, is known as a vertex of the Winter Triangle. The best time of year to view it is around January 1, when it reaches the meridian at midnight. Under the right conditions, Sirius can be observed in daylight with the naked eye. Ideally the sky must be very clear, with the observer at a high altitude, the star passing overhead, and the sun low down on the horizon.

Historically, many cultures have attached special significance to Sirius: Sumer, Egypt, Dogon, Greece, Sirius was a Behenian fixed star and mentioned in the Quran.

As the Maya say, “In Lak’ech” – I am Another Yourself
Everyone has a key
buried within
with which to unlock
one’s innermost potential
This is the mysterious
quest of Life
Search by receiving

Art by Tytoalba