02.05.12
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History at 10:47 am by Administrator
Plutonium: a History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element by Jeremy Bernstein is another informative book for anyone interested in nuclear issues. This book is rather short (only 171 pages), but still full of interesting information. It primarily deals with the discovery of plutonium and the many key scientists involved in its discovery. Often times we read about scientists like Oppenheimer, Curie, Rongent, Becquerel, Fermi, Szilard, Seaborg, Teller, and Ulam, etc when discussing the discovery of radiation and the development of the A-bomb. But Bernsteins’s book reveals many more scientists who’s paths crossed and thus contributed to the discovery of plutonium. While the book is short, at times it’s a bit challenging to read for lay people like me because Bernstein is a physicist, so along with explaining the history of plutonium’s discovery, he gets a little more detailed about the properties and behavior of atoms and elements than the average non-scientific author. It does make the history much more interesting, though, because it helps to explain the quandaries and dilemmas the scientists were faced with and had to overcome. Bernstein also briefly describes the climate of the time and why some felt the urgency to develop the bomb first. I was particularly surprised to learn of the several other women involved that we don’t commonly hear about when discussing the invention or development of the atomic bomb. Women like Ida Noddack and Lise Meitner, while they weren’t involved with the development of the atom bomb, were involved with the discovery of fission.
Another notable aspect of Berstein’s book deals with the millions and billions of dollars spent on developing nuclear bombs along with the millions and billions of dollars needed to “clean up” the mess that’s left behind, which unfortunately, much of the mess left behind is still not cleaned up, and the price tag for cleaning those sites up is still increasing each year. For example, Bernstein writes about the Hanford site in Washington State that was the facility used to make the plutonium for the atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. That site cost about $350 million to build and operate. After WWII and the cold war the site was supposed to be decommissioned. In 1989, about 45 years after it’s construction, discussion and debate raged as to how to clean up the site which stored 54 million gallons of radioactive waste in 177 underground tanks, some of which were leaking. This is not to mention the concern of contamination to the Columbia River where the plant was built alongside, or the downwind contamination from the venting of the reactors. In 1991, the plan to vitrify the waste tanks into glass were abandoned because it wouldn’t be fast enough. In 1995, the DOE decided to privatize the project by contracting British Nuclear Fuels to do it. That contract was canceled five years later, and a $4.3 billion contract was awarded to Bechtel to complete the project, which increased to $5.8 billion in 2002 as an incentive to complete the project by 2011. Then it was decided that it would not be completed by 2015, and the plans were delayed further due to concerns of earthquake safety, etc. Bernstein wrote that the present estimate to clean up the site is $9.65 billion and will require the further man-hour equivalent of 2,300 engineers working full-time for a year. His book was copyrighted in 2007, more than 60 years since the construction of the Hanford site. Some progress has been made, but there’s still a lot of clean up to do. Now consider that Hanford is only one site. The U.S. has about 100 other nuclear plants in operation, and a few other sites that have been decommissioned. How many billions of dollars and contaminated soil will all this amount to? Who will pay this price for both environmental clean up and medical expenses due to the deleterious health effects of radiation? The above mentioned clean up price tag doesn’t include medical expenses or pain and suffering.
It’s staggering to me to think of how many billions of dollars is invested in the nuclear industry, which is not as clean as many tout it to be. Nuclear energy still uses much non-nuclear energy to operate because for example, the mining of the uranium requires the use of a large amount of fossil fuels. Consider uranium 238 only contains about seven tenths of a percent of natural uranium 235, one would have to mine a ton of U238 to get a pound of U235, the grade commonly used for nuclear fuel. I still haven’t read of any calculation of how much fossil fuel energy that amounts to in comparison to the calculation that nuclear plants in the U.S. provides 20% of our energy needs. If they subtract the amount of fossil fuel consumed to provide the fuel for nuclear plants, I wonder if that 20% would go down? My primary peeve is the contamination issues of nuclear energy. The monetary costs alone are daunting, but the contamination cost is what really blows me away. I think of the miles of contaminated lands that are no longer habitable by people, and I think of the thousands of people who have been displaced due to nuclear contamination, and I wonder what God thinks of us. He originally put us here to tend the land, to be fruitful and multiply. I think of when God came to Cain after Cain murdered Able and asked him, “What have you done?” When God comes back as He said He would, there will be no hiding what we have done.
Marlakins
P.S. Two thumbs up to Jeremy Bernstein’s Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element.
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01.23.12
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History, quotes at 12:23 pm by Administrator
For anyone interested in nuclear issues and the history of it’s discovery, I recommend reading The Plutonium Files by Eileen Welsome. I actually finished reading this book back in November, but was too busy to sit down and give it a proper review. Now that I’m currently reading another book called, Plutonium by Jeremy Bernstein, I figured I’d better pound out my comments on Welsome’s book before I forget about it. That would be a shame because her book is very informative and an excellent commentary on how our government has operated. It also exposes the blatant disregard of peoples’ lives for the sake of science. Another reason I’ve held off on commenting on Welsome’s book is because it is so full of information, I didn’t know where to start. What particularly struck me was that her book tied in a lot of information that I had read in previous books, so The Plutonium Files helped to put many things in order in my mind.
The Plutonium Files is a 489-page book dealing with America’s secret medical experiments in the cold war. Welsome explains how plutonium was once so rare that the largest stock of plutonium in our laboratories was too small to be seen by the naked eye. As more plutonium was produced, it was held in a beaker the size of a sewing needle. Now we have hundreds of tons of the stuff that we don’t know what to do with. According to Bernstein, author of Plutonium, “aside from making nuclear weapons, plutonium is good for nothing else.” Basically, it’s a deadly poison that is now here with us for the rest of lives.
While I have read about secret programs such as Operation Paperclip where after WWII German scientists were brought to the U.S. and allowed to continue their work here like Von Braun on the V2 rocket and others that helped with mind control experiments later revealed as MKUltra, and even other medical experiments such as those described in Acres of Skin on prisoners, I had not realized the extent to which secret medical experiments were carried out. Sure I had read about G.I. guinea pigs, which I actually read a book years ago by that same name, which described how our military was exposed to harmful chemicals such as Agent Orange and also purposely exposed to radiation in the many nuclear bomb tests such as Operation Crossroads and the others that followed. But Welsome reveals experiments that were performed on unsuspecting and uninformed U.S. citizens, including children and pregnant women. Sure I realize it was a time when medical ethics codes were not strongly enforced (think the Tuskegee experiments), but just the fact that they did these experiments in secret shows that they knew it was not right. Yet it was done at the hands of professional scientists and medical personnel using government funding. Experiments such as feeding plutonium to young boys in their oatmeal and having pregnant women drink radioactive “cocktails,” on the pretense that they were having a nutritional drink were among these secret experiments that lasted for decades.
As I type this, I realize again why I have put off writing my comments on this book–it’s very disturbing to me and really wears me out emotionally. It saddens me to think how people treat each other. I find it ironic that these discoveries and inventions (i.e. nuclear bombs) were said to have been necessary for our safety, but yet, the safety of our soldiers and civilians is compromised by those very forces behind trying to protect us with these nuclear devices. The same forces that have developed bombs to protect us has endangered all of us from the threat of nuclear war to the contamination of our environment–soil and water. We are left today with highly contaminated areas and tons of radioactive wastes that they “still” don’t know what to do with. With the Chernobyl accident and now the Fukushima accidents, which is still not contained, our world is being blanketed with radioactive particles contaminating our food and water. And yet, they continue to march on creating more and more radioactive waste every day, every minute. The silence in our media reflects the U.S.’s disregard for our true safety and well-being because less information to it’s public translate into less opposition to nuclear technology. The more sane countries such as Austria, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Belguim, and Spain have at least acknowledged the dangers of nuclear power and are phasing them out.
The nuclear issue is so complicated that I don’t even want to start into that subject right now. However, I do find it upsetting that many of us have no say in what happens or if nuclear projects get funded. The secrecy is astounding. An example is that even the Manhattan Project, which cost billions of taxpayers’ dollars, was so secret that even Truman, the vice president at the time, wasn’t even aware of the project until Roosevelt died. It appears this is the way our government operates, with many highly secret plans and operations. For a supposedly Christian society, this culture of secrecy is contrary to the Bible–John 3:20 states that,
“For everyone who doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”
So many government operations are secret, and for the most part, the public is completely kept in the dark. This secrecy ensures no outcry or opposition to these projects. Strangely enough, this secrecy creates the “in” groups vs. the “out groups.” Those who are “in” (who know of these secret projects) feel privileged and possibly superior to the “out groups,” who don’t know of these projects. So they convince themselves that they have a right to “experiment” on others for their “higher cause” (commonly patriotism is the name of that higher cause). This is again contrary to the Bible regarding treating others as you would like to be treated. Or even contrary to the biblical concept of caring for those who are poor or needy (many secret experiments are carried out on the underprivileged like prisoners or lower income groups). It’s contrary to the biblical concept of not participating in evil so that good will come from it. But light will eventually shine as the bible does tell us in Luke 12:2-3 that,
“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
“Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoke in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.”
This post is turning out to be a book in itself, so I’ll wrap it up here. But first, one last point I want to bring up is Welsome’s title of chapter 20–Shields Warren: ”Patriotic Enough to Lie.” This chapter documented how some of the scientists were being questioned by ethics groups regarding their participation in some plutonium experiments. Many of these scientists covered their butts with lies or acted like they didn’t know about these projects. One such scientist was Shields Warren of who fellow scientist Merril Eisenbud once wrote, “some people are patriotic enough to lie.” Again, another contradiction to the bible wherein we are told not to lie, patriotism is not an exception.
Welsome’s book is excellent, and especially insightful as it ties in so many other books I’ve read such as the Radium Girls and Yellow Dirt and others. Definitely two thumbs up!
Marlakins
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11.21.11
Posted in Anything goes, Historical Trivia, History, Playing the Tourist, museums at 11:59 pm by Administrator
Before I get too lazy, I thought I’d start to share some of the pictures we took while at Mexico City. Here’s a pic near our hotel on the Avenue Reforma.
Brian and I were taking a walk to look for a place to exchange currency. The rate we found was 12.15 Mexican pesos to 1 U.S. dollar. The exchange rate was better at the currency exchange along the street than at the hotel or the LAX airport. Oh, one other thing, I found that it could actually get a bit chilly in Mexico City. I never really thought of Mexico being cold.
After exchanging a little cash, Brian and I headed over to the Anthropological Museum. Here’s a pic of the front of the museum.
This museum cost about $5 U.S. or $51 Mexican pesos per person. It was a very good museum, full of artifacts that were well laid out and separated by groups like the Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs,etc. Here’s an example of part of the Aztec exhibit.
The round stone mounted against the back wall is an Aztec calendar. The cylindrical stone laying between me and the Aztec calendar is believed to be a sort of alter for human sacrifices. The center hole is believed to be where the heart was placed during or after the sacrifice. Yikes! The carvings along the sides of the stone seem to depict the sacrificial ceremony that takes place on that alter.
Here’s Brian next to another carving. If memory serves me correctly, this is part of the exhibit for Teotihuacan. At least I’m pretty sure that right outside to the left of Brian was the miniature layout of the Teotihuacan pyramids.
We took loads of pictures so that we could continue to enjoy them at home. They were also good for art inspiration. I’ve known that colors were used back in those times, but like the Italian villas, I didn’t realize how colorful the original structures were. For instance, here’s a replica of what some of the outer walls looked like. Along the side was a sort of freeze made of ceramic, and the colorful paintings looked like a sort of fresco.
Unfortunately we were only able to spend the last half of the day at the museum. You could easily spend the whole day or more there because it was really loaded with so many artifacts. But the museum closed at 6PM, so we had to get moving. There were lots of vendors just outside of the museum, and also some flying pole men dancers. Here’s a pic of them as they were slowly repelling down.
I believe this dance has something to do with Mayan mythology of the creation of the world. They’re supposed to be birdmen (the diety associated with this dance is a bird), and one of the men plays a flute as they gradually spin around and around until they slowly reach the ground.
That evening Brian and I hopped on a local bus to get back to the hotel. That was much cheaper than taking a taxi. The bus ride only cost $4.5 pesos each compared to us paying about $20 U.S. dollars taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Granted that was farther, but still, a taxi would have cost us much more. $4.5 pesos is just under $0.50 U.S.
The next day we joined a tour that took us to The Guadalupe Shrine and the ruins of Teotihuacan. I’ll try to sort through some of those pics and share those later. Aside from being wiped out from traveling and the slight time change (Mexico is two hours ahead of California time), our trip to Mexico was quite nice. Definitely a nice quick get away.
Marlakins
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11.18.11
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History at 6:03 pm by Administrator
Back in 1999 when I was first diagnosed with aplastic anemia, I was frantically looking for ways to naturally treat myself. Amongst some of the known causes of aplastic anemia was radiation exposure. From that time on, I was fascinated with the history and discovery of radiation and how it has shaped the medical establishment and the military establishment and subsequently global politics. As a matter of fact, I even wrote a short primer series of blog entries pertaining to radiation back in 2006. The first post I titled “Radiation” and can be viewed here. I have since learned that the history of radiation is long and convoluted. While its discovery is fairly well-known, the processes of its acquisition and its subsequent uses and experiments are less known. More importantly, it’s dangers are also shrouded in confusion to this day.
Today in 2011, I’m still drawn to the subject of radiation (granted I have many distractions, thus the snail-paced rate by which I learn, heheh). After the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, the nuclear movement fell in the background. With the recent promotion of global warming, nuclear power was starting to re-emerge on the stage as a clean energy source. But with the advent of the Fukushima nuclear accident on March 2011, the dangers of radiation has been revitalized in some circles. I say “some” circles because there are still a lot of people who ignore and/or are just plain indifferent about it. That amazes me, but such is life. I guess it would be something like a football fanatic wondering why I couldn’t care less for the sport, heh.
Anyway, what I wanted to share today is a video I stumbled across called, “Lost Worlds – Secret Cities of the A-bomb”.
The secret cities referred to in the video were the cities created for the Manhattan Project–the United States’ secret nuclear weapons project that culminated in the creation of the atom bombs, Fat Man and Little Boy. For anyone who might not remember what Fat Man and Little Boy were, they were the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The project was enormous and cost U.S. taxpayers about $2 billion.
Despite the thousands of people who worked for the Manhattan Project, and despite its exorbitant cost, relatively few people really knew what the project was all about. Many jobs were compartmentalized and secrecy was highly enforced. According to Robert J. Lifton and Greg Mitchell, authors of Hiroshima in America, even Truman as Vice President of the United States, didn’t know about the Manhattan Project until Roosevelt died. The enormous cost and effort to create the A-bombs, according to Lifton and Mitchell, was likely a significant factor regarding the pressure/need to use the bombs before WWII ended. How could they explain using all that money and effort for nothing? It was also a political move to place the U.S. as the world leader over the defeated countries and its allies, including Russia. As such, those factors may have been the true motivating factors to drop the bombs in Japan, than ending the war. Historical accounts clearly shows that Japan had already been trying to negotiate a surrender back in April, about three and a half months before the first successful atom bomb test at Trinity, and about four months before the a- bombs obliterated two of Japan’s cities. It is also a known historical fact that only five Japanese cities had not been fire bombed by that time as well. Japan was already at its knees.
After reading Yellow Dirt by Judy Pasternak, I checked out one of the books she referenced called, The Plutonium Files by Eileen Welsome. My! Another fascinating book! Welsome’s book was copyrighted in 1999, the same year I was diagnosed with aplastic anemia and just beginning to learn about radiation. Welsome’s book brought to light 50-year-old secret radiation experiments on humans as part of the Manhattan Project. Evidently, unsuspecting people were secretly exposed to plutonium for research purposes. I am just beginning to read the book, so may comment about it later when I’m finished. For now, hope the video, “Lost Worlds–the Secret Cities of the A-bomb” is enlightening. To properly understand current world policies and how it is intertwined with the civilian world, especially those pertaining to nuclear proliferation, mining, and safety, this piece of history is indispensable.
Marlakins
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11.17.11
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History at 1:21 pm by Administrator
Just when you think you’ve heard it all, something new comes along. . . Well, actually that’s only partly true. There is always something new coming along. However, the more I learn, the more I realize there’s so much out there that I don’t know. I never think these days that I’ve heard it all, cuz I haven’t. There’s always more to learn, and today I stumbled across this video on how tens of thousands of barrels of nuclear “waste” were disposed of by the international nuclear community lead by Germany. . .
That’s just great news, isn’t it? How eco friendly the nuclear industry is! For more information, take a look at this video. Apparently, at the height of the cold war (1960’s or so) tons of nuclear waste was being generated, and they didn’t know what to do with it. Just as they still don’t know what to do with it today. So what did they do? Load the nuclear waste in barrels and dump it into the sea! Genius! The practice was supposedly banned in 1995, but not until after 20,500 or so barrels had been dumped and now sitting on the sea floor corroding and contaminating sea life there. And ultimately land life as the food chain works its way up to us. Maybe this is why they don’t want to test the seafood. Perhaps it’s already been contaminating years ago and they don’t want the cat out of the bag. How can we protect ourselves when so many things are done clandestinely? For all our advances, the modern world is highly over rated.
Marlakins
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11.09.11
Posted in Book Reviews, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History at 6:50 pm by Administrator
This week started out pretty hectic for me, but despite that, I managed to finish reading Judy Pasternak’s book, Yellow Dirt, An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed. Every free moment I got, I poked my head in Pasternak’s book; it was that engaging.
Why was Yellow Dirt so engaging? I guess it’s because it’s about another significant part of American history that is an amazing story, yet not well popularized. I mean, I’m sure all of us Americans have heard of the Gold Rush, but likely not as many have heard of the Uranium Rush. Likewise, many of us have heard about the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, yet how many of us have even considered where the uranium for the bomb came from? Where did all the uranium come from to build all the nuclear warheads during the cold war? Who mined it and what ever happened to those people?
Pasternak basically lays down the history of the discovery of uranium in the Navajo Nation to the mining of the ore along with the milling, and the inter-relations/actions that occurred between the Navajos and the “White Man” throughout the 1930s to the present day. I found this Youtube video of Pasternak describing her book.
I give Judy Pasternak’s Yellow Dirt, an American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed two thumbs up. I highly recommend this book and wish more people were aware of the state of our country’s involvement with other nations and how we treat our own people. I find it very sobering and humbling.
Michael Connelly, author of Nine Dragons wrote regarding Pasternak’s book, “This book is a masterwork. It is journalism at it’s very best–a story told fully and eloquently. A story that everyone should know.” I agree. This is a story that especially all U.S. citizens should know.
Marlakins
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11.02.11
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Historical Trivia, History, Uncategorized at 8:00 pm by Administrator
Back in 1999, I was diagnosed with Very Severe Idiopathic Aplastic Anemia. Idiopathic basically meant that they didn’t know what caused my aplastic anemia. But that didn’t stop me from wondering what might have caused it, and so one of the things I did was take a minerals test to see if I had any heavy metals problem. The one metal that stood out was uranium. My level was off the chart. My naturopath remarked that all the people he had seen with levels that high pretty much all had cancer. He also remarked that there was a woman he knew who got uranium exposure through tailings from the uranium mines. I didn’t think about it back then because I really didn’t know anything about uranium and what it was. So I had no idea where any uranium mining was done. Since then I have read quite a bit on it. And recently when Borders went out of business, I purchased a bunch of books, several about the topic of nuclear energy and/or nuclear arms. I’m currently reading one of those books, which is entitled Yellow Dirt by Judy Pasternak.
I’m only half way through Pasternak’s book, but I can definitely say that she is an excellent writer. As usual, I never know at first if anything I’m reading is true or not, so I do like to look up other sources to see what they say about the topic. In particular, Pasternak’s book deals with uranium mining in Navajo territory. For anyone who may not know where Navajo territory is, it’s in the four corners region of where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah meet, thus it’s name, four corners. Now, I’ve been to Taos, New Mexico, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park in Utah, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but I’ve only been to the airport in Denver, Colorado. I’ve always thought it would be nice to one day visit Four Corners. After reading about the uranium mining done on the Navajo reservation and how it was never cleaned up properly, I don’t think I want to go there anymore, sigh. It’s a really sad thing to think about how the Navajo reservation was poisoned like that considering the Navajo were trying to help with the cold war effort of mining for uranium and earlier for vanadium. Not only were the Navajo “not” informed of the dangers of radiation exposure, then were purposefully monitored (in secret) to see how the human body reacted to radiation exposure. Basically, they were used as both slave (they only got a small portion of what the uranium was worth) and guinea pig (according to Pasternak, the Manhattan Project was interested in understanding the risks their scientists were taking with radiation exposure). To add insult to injury, it was the Navajo Code Talkers that helped the U.S. take Iwo Jima, yet their land and people were knowingly exposed to dangerous levels of radiation through their mining. The Japanese were never able to crack the code because they didn’t know the Navajo language.
So I wanted to see what other sources there were regarding the uranium mining in Navajo territory. I found videos such as this one on the subject.
While Pasternak’s book hasn’t discussed it (I’m only half way through the book, so she might mention it later), it seems there were other Indian reservations that were involved with uranium mining. Here’s another video on the subject.
Frankel mentioned Crow Butte, so I’m assuming that’s in Washington State. But I’ve seen other videos mentioning mining with the Lakota Indians, so I think that’s also South and North Dakota. The rush for uranium was during the 40’s to 70’s, but some mines continued on longer. Yet, to this day, it seems that those sites have never been properly cleaned up and people continue to be exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.
After watching some of these videos, I came across this one wherein McCain and several other politicians are trying to continue uranium mining in Arizona. Either McCain is mistaken about his information regarding the safety of uranium mining or he is just out-right lying, I don’t know, but he’s definitely pushing to commence uranium mining. They mention the Arizona Strip, which sounds like it’s along the Arizona-Utah border.
I know that the nuclear issue is very controversial, but after Fukushima, after Chernobyl, after Three Mile Island, after Windscale, after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the multitude of studies showing the dangers and harmful effects of radiation, when will we learn? I don’t understand how anyone can think nuclear power is safe. From the mining of uranium ore to the spent fuel rods that they don’t know what to do with, nuclear power is dangerous. They talk about opening uranium mines for jobs, but are we willing to pay our lives for those jobs? Many, if not most, of those guys who mined uranium didn’t even know they were in danger until it was too late. What people do to each other is really appalling. If we only followed God’s golden rule to love one another, we wouldn’t be deceiving people into working in dangerous conditions. Instead of loving one another, we love money and power. But God sees everything.
Matthew 25:40
“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Since you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”
Marlakins
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10.04.11
Posted in History, Hmmm Moments at 12:41 am by Administrator
Whether you love him or hate him, he always makes for interesting listening. Whether you agree with him or not, you have to admit that he’s familiar with world history and has an analytical mind. While I do think he makes some very reasonable assertions and provocative statements (some might call it inflammatory), when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program, I can’t help but think about “taqqiya,” the Islamic belief that it’s okay to lie if it’s for the greater good of the people. Mohamed Elbaradei wrote about it in his book The Age of Deception as did Hooman Majd, author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ. But I certainly understand the concept of fairness. If one country has nuclear power, why can’t other countries? Anyway, for anyone interested in this year’s UN speech by Ahmadinejad, click here to listen to the full speech.
As the year before, major UN members walked out on him during his speech. I personally think it’s very rude that they would do such a thing, especially since the West considers themselves so fair and civilized. I can’t help but think that they walk out on him because they know he’s right, and they don’t want to admit it. But how long can that last? There’s always a breaking point somewhere. Amongst some of the points Ahmadinejad highlighted were the following:
Who triggered the first and second world wars, that left seventy million killed and hundreds of millions injured or homeless. Who created the wars in Korean peninsula and in Vietnam?
· Who imposed through Zionism and over sixty years of war, homelessness, terror and mass murder on the Palestinian people and on countries of the region?
· Who imposed and supported for decades military dictatorship and totalitarian regimes on Asian, African, and Latin American nations?
· Who used nuclear bomb against defenseless people, and stockpiled thousands of warheads in their arsenals?
· Whose economies rely on waging wars and selling arms?
· Who provoked and encouraged Saddam Hussein to invade and impose an eight-year war on Iran, and who assisted and equipped him to deploy chemical weapons against our cities and our people?
· Who used the mysterious September 11 incident as a pretext to attack Afghanistan and Iraq, killing, injuring, and displacing millions in two countries with the ultimate goal of bringing into its domination the Middle East and its oil resources?
· Who nullified the Breton Woods system by printing trillions of dollars without the backing of gold reserves or equivalent currency? A move that triggered inflation worldwide and was intended to prey on the economic gains of other nations?
· Which country’s military spending exceeds annually a thousand billion dollars, more than the military budgets of all countries of the world combined?
· Who dominates the policy-making establishments of the world economy?
· Who are responsible for the world economic recession, and are imposing the consequences on America, Europe and the world in general?
· Who are the ones dominating the Security Council which is ostensibly responsible for safeguarding the international security?
The man knows his history and clearly articulates his points. He was just asking questions of which anyone who knows this history would know the answers to his questions. The answers are not secrets, but well known facts, so why did they walk out on him? Obviously it wasn’t because he was lying. The mass walkout just makes it more obvious that there’s something rotten in Denmark.
Marlakins
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09.22.11
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History at 11:18 am by Administrator
While I don’t agree with everything Ron Paul believes in, he definitely makes much more sense to me than any other politician I’ve heard thus far. His recent video regarding MAD vs MAR is one of the reasons I respect Ron Paul. It’s another example to me about how much more honest and informed this man is. Paul’s video message also aligns with some of the issues Mohammed Elbaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), wrote about in his book, The Age of Deception. I don’t mean to imply that ALL of the U.S. is disrespectful and antagonistic toward foreign countries and their peoples, but rather the U.S. does harbor a faction (if I may call is that) that promotes and advances antagonistic behavior around the world. Unfortunately, this faction includes some very influential people who have control and thus use of our military.
Click here to listen to Paul’s message Mutually Assured Destruction vs Mutually Assured Respect.
Thank you, Ron Paul, for your intellectual honesty, clarity, kindness, and bravery. We need more great minds and people like you!
Marlakins
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09.17.11
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, History at 7:41 pm by Administrator
Aaron’s American history teacher recommended visiting the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum for his class. Since I love museums and anything having to do with history, I tagged along (much like the time I tagged along with Andrew when he went to the Wende Museum for his history class). 
It was a small museum, but very informative! Actually both museums were small, but both very interesting!
Unfortunately, when we went to the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum, we only had about an hour to spend there. It definitely takes a lot more time than that to soak it all that they have. So, basically I didn’t soak up all I wanted to soak up. So, I’ll blog just a short run down of what we saw. First of all the museum is now housed in what used to be a court house. They have preserved a couple court rooms, which is still used today for movie shoots. This particular court room was used in the recent movie, The Lincoln Lawyer.
Gee, this reminds me that I was able to watch a few movies while in the Philippines, but haven’t gotten around to giving my movie critique. Hmmm. Will I remember what happened in the movies? Ha!
Anyway, moving right along, here are a few of the items on display.
Right next to the “For Sale” sign were these. . .
I felt like we kinda rushed through this room and didn’t get to read all the explanations of what each item was. And one of these days I’ll have to look up what the deal is with African Americans and watermelon. I mean I love watermelon and can’t get enough when they’re in season. There’s one waiting for me in my fridge right now. . .
There were a good number of photos of African American actors, musicians, and athletes. Here’s one of Sammy Davis, Jr. in his younger days.
It’s hard sometimes to get the shot right when the items are behind glass. However, just the fact that they allow photos is good enough for me. There are a lot of places that don’t allow photos, so I really appreciate this. Aaron’s reflection is visible in the glass on that shot.
I should mention that many of the items in this museum was taken from the collection of Mayme A. Clayton. Her original intent was to show children that African Americans have done great things. Hence all the pictures and books of and from African Americans. And of course with our tumultuous history of racism, this museum has a section devoted to parts of the civil rights movement, in particular the “Freedom Ride.”
I have to admit that this is where I was taken aback. I went to school here in Los Angeles, and we were taught about Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and such, however I do not recall ever being taught about these freedom riders. Only recently a few months ago this year did one of my friends mention to me that she saw a documentary on cable regarding the freedom riders. If anyone is like me and is just learning about this, here’s a little explanation of what the freedom riders were about.
There was a replica of a burnt out bus reminiscent of one of the freedom ride buses that was burned in Alabama. It’s mind boggling to me how people can be so mean to each other.
There were pictures along the walls of the various encounters of the freedom riders as well as a running video of interviews and historical footage and pictures of the bus that didn’t make it through Alabama. Apparently they were met with a mad crowd who tried to kill them and/or scare them to death. The mod surrounded the bus, taunted the passengers, and subsequently burned it while they were still inside. The occupants were only able to get out of the bus because the mob thought the bus was going to blow up and ran away. It was a really disturbing video to watch. There are several videos on Youtube such as this one that helps describe the risks and dangers involved with participating in those freedom rides.
Here’s another replica in the museum of one of the diners used for the “sit-ins.”
There was more literature to read within the counter cases, but we had to go, so hopefully I can go back again and take a more thorough look through this museum. The museum library is also available upon request. While I know there are a lot of good things about America to celebrate, I think it’s important that we never forget the bad things in our history as well. I think if we don’t lose sight of our past, both the good and the bad, we can move forward as a more humble nation better equipped to deal with the rest of the world with all it’s cultural complexities. As the Bible says, “pride comes before a fall.” We Americans should be careful about being too proud to be American. Let’s not lose sight of our past, so that we understand who we are today and how we got here.
It’s important that we not only preserve our history, but learn it, so that things like this don’t happen again.
Marlakins
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