COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Oh, that we were an Empire!
ReplyDeleteSome damn Empire we have. The Japanese making our cars in Lexington, Kentucky, with our labor. We don't even control the Panama Canal anymore. A pitiful, helpless giant, that never was an Empire, and when we had the chance after World War II, we blew it. Spent all our time defending Europe, even Germany, from the Rooskies, set them all up as independent states, same with Japan, forced them to live in the community of nations.
The Rooskies had an Empire in Eastern Europe, but with our help, over decades, they have it no longer.
This is why I have a hard time taking much of anything published here seriously any longer. The beginning premise is almost always wrong, and from there it degenerates into gibberish.
When the Philippines wanted us out of Subic Bay, we left, for instance. Now they may be wanting us back.
Get a grip, Deuce.
Is this a description of our rat?
ReplyDelete>>>The man's admission of his boyhood as a doormat didn't surprise me, for gullibility and cynicism are two sides of the same coin. They are both a function of naiveté, which can be defined as ignorance about reality. The gullible person proceeds as if everyone is good and trustworthy, whereas the cynic proceeds as if everyone is essentially bad and untrustworthy. But reality is quite different: there are, practically speaking, "good" people and "bad" people, the well-meaning and the self-serving. And possessing discernment enables one to distinguish between the two groups. Yet the gullible person trusts people even when he shouldn't and the cynic fails to trust them even when he should.
The transition from gullible babe in the woods to steadfast cynic is easy to understand. The budding cynic, lacking in what some today called "emotional I.Q.," is unable to draw the aforementioned distinctions among people; they all look the same to him. But being essentially good -- and, as people will do, supposing that others operate as he does -- he assumes that virtually everyone can be trusted. Then, of course, it isn't long before the wrong person betrays his trust -- and it happens again and again and again (this is especially problematic since con artists, generally possessed of great feel for man's nature, will sense his gullibility and target him specifically). Not wanting to be burned again, the babe then switches modes and ceases to trust, but not just those unworthy of it. For he still can't distinguish between the good and bad; people still all look the same to him, so the untrustworthy who scarred him now just seem like a representative sample of man. Thus does he assume that all people are basically self-serving and often mercenary.<<<
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/08/the_naive_cynic.html#ixzz2bV76qfJe
Close, perhaps, but that's not quite it. We all know that there's something really wrong with rat, as Trish said, but it is hard to define what it is exactly. The mystery endures.
I don't know, Deuce; it seems like all this Hedges guy wants to do is "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch."
ReplyDeleteHe's cute, and well-spoken, but in the end it's just kind of a continuous whine.
I can't take him all that seriously (in this iteration, anyway.)
He's wearing me down. I don't think I'm going to get through it.
DeleteOh, well, another cup of coffee, and on to the "Good News." :)
DeleteCalifornia breaks through the 23,000 Megawatt Hrs of Solar/Day threshold.
CaISO
Israel’s first electric bus hits the road in Tel Aviv
DeleteRecharging at night in Dan parking lots, the bus battery requires only about four to five hours to achieve full capacity.
Beginning on Tuesday morning, passengers traveling on Dan’s Number 5 bus line in Tel Aviv may suddenly encounter a much quieter and cleaner ride, aboard the country’s first fully electric bus.
The vibrantly orange bus, produced by Chinese firm BYD and imported to Israel through Clal Motors, is a low-floor city vehicle about 12 meters long with a driving range of about 250 miles, according to Dan. This lengthy lifespan allows for most urban buses to travel a day’s routes without requiring a recharge, the company said. Recharging at night in Dan parking lots, the bus battery requires only about four to five hours to achieve full capacity.
“Today begins a new era in the vision of public transportation,” said Dan chairman Michael Nagar and CEO Shmuel Rafaeli in a joint statement at a Tel Aviv launch ceremony for the bus on Monday.
“The experience of a quiet and comfortable ride on an electric bus revolutionizes the customer experience, and we intend to enable this experience for all Dan passengers across Israel.”
Dan aims to upgrade 25 percent of its fleet with electric buses within five years, an investment that will cost about NIS 400 million. The maintenance of electric buses, however, costs about 25% less than the maintenance of the diesel buses dominating Israel’s public transportation sector today, the company said. Meanwhile, the energy cost per mile while operating an electric bus is about a third of the costs associated with the fuel necessary for the same diesel-powered journey.
BYD’s technology incorporates a lithium iron phosphate battery adapted for electrical vehicle use, and the company manufactures the batteries in an environmentally friendly manner that does not involve heavy metals or other toxic substances, information from the companies said. The battery lasts for up to 6,000 cycles, and the battery and its charger together cost about $400,000. Operating on an alternating current, the battery is able to plug directly into the national electricity grid if necessary, the technical data explained.
Doron Vadai, CEO of Clal Motors, stressed that seeing the public making use of electric buses is “part of the general green city vision of BYD, which includes electric cars and buses, electricity production from the sun and the use of energysaving LED lights.”
Dan currently operates about 1,300 buses and hundreds of minibuses in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. BYD is the world’s largest battery manufacturer and began to develop electric cars and buses in recent years, the companies said. BYD electric buses began operating in several Chinese cities in 2010, and the first bus to enter service has already traveled 11 million kilometers.
In January 2013, BYD received a Whole Vehicle Type Approval for its compliance with European standards, making possible the entrance of the vehicles into the European market. Aside from the buses operating in China and now Israel, BYD is providing electric buses this year to the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Uruguay, Colombia, Canada and the United States, the companies added.
Yesterday, Swiss attorney, Marcel Bosonnet, and Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Raji Sourani, submitted two complaints to the Swiss Military Attorney General in Berne on behalf of Palestinian victims. One complaint is in respect of Palestinians whose gas stations were denied commercial usage of refueling by the Israeli occupying forces; the second complaint is in respect of Palestinians who were subjected to loss of repair jobs and ill treatment by the buses lack of pollution of the Zionist entity. It is so argued that the Zionist entity, by importing reliable buses, excludes native Palestinians mechanics from steady repair jobs.
Delete.
The complaints call for investigation and prosecution of those responsible for these acts. In particular, the complaints call for investigations of former Israeli Minister of Commerce, Benjamin Ben-Cohen; former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Infrastructure, Shaul Mofad; former head of Israel’s General Transportation Services, Avi Putzy; and head of the Israeli Energy Independence Command, Doran Staltzman. The Swiss Military Attorney General accepted the complaints and promised to follow necessary legal procedures. This also submitted to the UN's Human Rights council for prosecution at the ICC.
Two Buses With 40 Israeli Tourists Blown Up At Bulgarian Airport
DeleteSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 07/18/2012 11:43 -0400
Update 2: Blame it on Iran: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER SAYS SIGNS THAT IRAN BEHIND BURGAS BOMBING -RTRS
Update: According to BurgasInfo.com not one but two buses were blown up. Unclear if the second one was also carrying Israeli tourists.
According to Bulgarian press Sega.bg, and confirmed by other wire sources, a bus with 40 Israeli tourists was "blown up" at 5:30 pm local time at the local airport of the seaside town of Bourgas. Sega says that according to BTV "it is an assassination attempt." The bomb was located in the trunk of a white bus with Israel tourists from Israel who were en route to the seaside town of Sunny Beach according to an airport source. The mayor of the city, Dimitar Nikolov confirmed the news according to Sega. Furthermore, according to the airport's website, an Air Via flight from Tel Aviv landed at 4:50 pm local time. The shock wave was so large it also exploded two neighboringing buses located in the arrival area of the airport. The number of casualties is currently unknown, but at least three people are dead according to the local police, with dozens wounded. Sega adds "the flames are huge with three firetrucks on the scene and seven ambulances driving out charred people."
After the celebrations held in Gaza, Ramallah, Lebanon and Iran a statement was issued: "We thank Allah that the buses used petro based fuels as it burns the occupying zionist apes and pigs much nicer than any other fuel.
Thailand arrests 3 Iranians over Bangkok bombings, 4th suspect wanted
Deletehttp://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/thailand/120215/thailand-charges-two-iranians-over-bangkok-bombin
Police have arrested three Iranians suspected of involvement in yesterday's explosions in Bangkok, while investigators say they may have found a link to an attack the day before on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi.
Thailand has arrested three Iranians suspected of plotting a bomb attack in the capital Bangkok on Tuesday, in which five people were injured.
According to Al Jazeera, Thailand's Foreign Minister, Surapong Tovichakchaikul, confirmed the arrests on Wednesday.
"They are charged with causing an illegal explosion in a public area and attempting to kill police officers and members of the public," Surapong said.
He added that investigators were examining a possible link between the explosion in Bangkok and Monday's blast in the Indian capital New Delhi, as well as a failed attack on an Israeli diplomatic vehicle in Tblisi.
Israel earlier claimed that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah were behind all three attacks. The Israeli ambassador to Thailand, Itzhak Shoha, told the Associated Press that Thai police had found and defused two magnetic bombs that could be stuck on vehicles, like the one used in the New Delhi attack.
"They are similar to the ones used in Delhi and in Tbilisi," Shoham said. "From that we can assume that there is the same network of terror."
A senior Thai security official confirmed that magnets were used in both the Bangkok and New Delhi explosions, but stressed that it was too early to say whether the devices were linked. The explosives found in Bangkok were intended to target individuals rather than large crowds or buildings, added National Security Council chief Wichean Potephosree.
Notice the important part...
Iranians USED magnets to attach to cars...
But let's BLAME the Israelis for killing Iranian scientists.
Maybe the Iranians were killing LEAKS in their OWN program?
Merle Hazard
ReplyDeleteThe Great Unwind
:)
This is a really interesting chart. Reagan took over in '81, and 4 years later he had done "what" with the Deficit?
DeleteObama took over in 2009, and 4 years later, what has he done?
Yikes