“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."
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Were the Syrian “victims of chemical weapons” or is this staged?
WE know they are lying in Washington. They have been lying about war after war. They lied in Viet Nam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Benghazi and now Syria. They lie about Iran. Remember George Galloway calling them on it?
All you have to do is look at the still shots of the “dead children”. None have them have soiled themselves or have leaked any bodily fluids on the floor or their clothing. No vommit. No head or facial wounds from falling. No bruises from blood settling while being in one spot. Almost all their heads are turned in the same direction. There is no signs of Decerebrate rigidity which would you expect from brain trauma. They don’t look dead.
The Obama administration believes that U.S. intelligence has established how Syrian government forces stored, assembled and launched the chemical weapons allegedly used in last week’s attack outside Damascus, according to U.S. officials.
The administration is planning to release evidence, possibly as soon as Thursday, that it will say proves that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad bears responsibility for what U.S. officials have called an “undeniable” chemical attack that killed hundreds on the outskirts of the Syrian capital.
Graphic
Timeline: Major events in the country’s tumultuous uprising that began in March 2011. Video
Paul Danahar, author of "The New Middle East" and former BBC Middle East bureau chief, explains how the Obama administration's red line leaves it with no other option than to take action in Syria. The report, being compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is one of the final steps that the administration is taking before President Obama makes a decision on a U.S. military strike against Syria, which now appears all but inevitable,
“We are prepared,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the BBC on Tuesday. “We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfill and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take. We are ready to go.” The assets include four cruise-missile-armed destroyers in the Mediterranean.
They look dead to me but you might be right. Hard to keep so many kids dead still for so long. Never saw a chest move in that very short video. Not even a twitch.
You can't fake 300-400 dead especially with the UN inspectors coming in, that is unless you assume they are in on the caper, something I very much doubt. The real question becomes to verify how they were killed and who did the deed.
The report, being compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence..."
Let's see. That would be the Clapper, the man who lied to Congress, who then admitted that he lied to Congress, and who then spent a week making up excuses as to why he lied to Congress.
"I was confused by the question."
"I thought you were talking about 702 not 215."
"I wasn't aware of that part of the program."
Sure, it makes sense, in OZ.
The real question is what the hell is Clapper still doing as Director of National Intelligence?
I agree with Quirk. Now I have been watching video - assuming it's not faked, or course - of lots of living kids obviously suffering the effects of some sort of attack, coughing, wheezing, etc.
These kids are either in some kind of trauma, or they are such great actors they should get to Hollywood fast.
I am assuming the UN will demand to see bodies and take their own blood and fluid samples.
The problem isn't that the bodies were buried within one day, or that the UN will be unable to determine if their were chemical weapons used. The problem is that the UN mandate doesn't authorize these guys to determine who launched the attack if, in fact, one was launched.
It's all calibrated to provide enough ambiguity for Clapper to issue his report which will provide us the 'truth' or at least the 'least untruthful' truth he can give us.
The same calibration will go into this war's 'coalition of the willing' meme. FUKUS and Turkey seem to be the only ones demanding Western intervention; although, the big three will probably be able to whip reluctant NATO members into line. However, the UN will be unable to get anything through the Security Council. And even the regional players are unwilling to sanction US intervention. Unlike the Libyan situation the Arab Legal has declined to support Western direct intervention in Syria although they did blame Assad and while admitting it is unclear who used the chemical weapons did say that the perps needed to be punished.
That should be enough for FUKUS to spin it as Arab League approval. Heck, who listens to anything the Arab League says anyway?
Welcome to Libya II. It all worked out so well the last time.
The rest of the article makes a point I have mentioned here before. We waste $ billions killing thousands when the funds we waste could instead be used to save or improve the lives of millions.
Roethke's greenhouse - his grandfather was gardener to the Kaiser - which was owned by his uncles, where he spent much time in his youth, is in one reading as image of hell itself, or humanity en masse, much like the middle east, as in the greenhouse the plants, many individually quite beautiful, ALL struggle against one another for soil, water, space, air, and light. It is absurd. Yet their is light up there. And it doesn't have to be like this. Though it seems mostly it always is.
And for making light cynical mockery of the situation in the mid east I have been called an asshole.
Alrighty then, you get over there and fix it. I've said what I think is best in Syria, for US, and them too, and that is a continuing stalemate and the eventual division of Syria into three parts or even four parts, amicably if possible, through some peace table, through this big struggle if no other way. In the long run there might be more joy and less woe and suffering all around. If the rebs were to prevail it would lead to more oppression, the oppressed becoming the new oppressors, a never ending cycle.
Michigan signs up for the expanded Medicaid under Obamacare.
Michigan Senate passes Medicaid expansion after hammering out compromise
Gov. Rick Snyder overcame stiff opposition Tuesday from fellow Republicans as the GOP-controlled Senate approved his highest legislative priority — the expansion of Michigan's Medicaid program.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com#ixzz2dEdBYiCQ
I still can't get over the Egyptian Affair. Morsi gets 'elected' - I guess he did, I don't know - clears out the Army High Command, appoints Sisi, thinking he will be his good bud, not realizing where his true allegiance lay, who, after massive demonstrations, overthrows Morsi, who has now replaced Mubarak in prison. Would be perfect if it were in the same cell.
This has a little whiff of The Bard, as well as the old motif of the Reversal, the Wheel of Fortune.
It's the stuff of myth and poetry and Biblical hymns and psalms.
Access to the areas near Damascus affected by the presumed chemical weapons attack last Wednesday has been complicated by a Syria military operation—code-named Operation City Shield—that kicked off just hours after the first reports that toxic gas was killing residents.
For months, Syrian forces have successfully fought to regain control over the suburban regions surrounding the capital Damascus. The Eastern Ghouta region where the suspected chemical attack occurred is the last remaining area not under partial or total regime control.
...
Security officials previously said the strike was in the first hours of Aug. 21 and that rebels had been planning a massive attack on Damascus from four different fronts.
Copts March on Washington August 28, 2013 By Faith J. H. McDonnell
>>>“Many of the signs at today’s protest argued that the Brotherhood is a part of al-Qaeda and that Obama’s support for the Brotherhood is equivalent to funding terrorism,” the Post writers mused, as if this was the first time it had ever occurred to them. “Although the U.S. has been at pains to maintain neutrality in Egypt’s deepening social and political divisions, it has been accused by both sides of secretly supporting the other,” their piece confessed. Actually, it seems more as if The Washington Post and other media have been at pains to maintain the impression that the U.S. has been at pains to maintain neutrality in Egypt’s divisions, when the truth is obvious to 33 million Egyptians.
The Post article closed by describing how one protestor carrying a poster of General Sissi sought to make eye contact with all of journalists watching from inside the building. “Whenever someone would acknowledge him, he’d smile, hold the poster next to his face and give a big thumbs-up for Sissi,” says the Post. In this closing incident, as throughout the article, the Post writers focused on the political aspect of the protest and not the other key reason why the demonstrators had come. The article omitted reference to the many, many photos of burned churches and of the faces of those killed – now joining Egypt’s long list of martyrs.
The Post did not even mention the striking model of a church – blackened with smoke and stained red – representing the dozens of churches burned, and the blood of Egyptian Christians killed, by the Muslim Brotherhood and by various other Islamists over recent years and over the centuries. The model church was carried lovingly in front of the lock-down crowd by two young men. It was on a platform with poles that rested on the young men’s shoulders in a way that called to mind the manner in which the priests of Israel are described in the Bible as carrying the Ark of the Covenant.
In what could possibly be construed as Divine coincidence or even Divine reassurance, a small lad carrying his own sign stood close to the church-bearers. His poster was a photograph of boys about his own age praying inside the scorched wreckage of an Egyptian church. The sign declared, “You can burn down our churches, but you can never touch our faith.” This is the true witness of the Copts’ march on Washington.<<<
The Post is a rag. Not sure about the NYT anymore. Since they went to the maximum 10 free reads a month, I've stopped bothering.
The Post is a mouthpiece for the administration and the liberal elite. Since the Obama 'scandals' surfaced, their editorial board and even columnists have strained to become more 'objective'. There view not mine.
Indonesia: Sharia police injured when music fans fight back
>>>>Ibrahim cited a local decree that prohibited performances of live music after 6 p.m.
“There’s no problem if the keyboard concerts are held in daylight, because we would be able to control the events to make sure there would be no khalwat and parties with alcohol,” Ibrahim said.
Khalwat is the term used to describe an unrelated or unmarried man and woman in a room together. It is considered forbidden under Islamic Shariah law. Its enforcement occupies the lion’s share of the WH’s day job. Ibrahim added that he was also mindful that clothing perceived to be provocative was occasionally on display at live-music performances.
“Despite the resistance, we will keep trying to disperse keyboard performances held at night,” Ibrahim said.<<<<
August 28, 2013 Study reveals newborns recall words heard in utero
Thomas Lifson
The little human being living inside a pregnant mother turns out to be a lot more capable than previously known. Kathy Drummond describes the research that led to the startling finding that newborns can recall words they heard in the womb in The Verge:
...new research offers provocative evidence that an unborn fetus can not only hear sounds from the outside world, but is actually capable of recalling specific words in the days following birth.
In a study out of the University of Helsinki that builds on previous investigations, a team used EEG scans on 33 newborn babies to reach that conclusion. Their research started, however, when those infants were still in the womb: moms-to-be in their third trimester were divided into two groups, with only one group listening to repeating sequences of a nonsensical word ("tatata"). Occasionally, the word would be delivered with a subtle tweak in pronunciation or tone. In all, some study participants listened to that same word a whopping - and probably insufferable - 25,000 times.
Five days following birth, the team played those same recordings to each newborn. Babies who'd been exposed to the sounds in-utero showed a specific pattern of enhanced brain activity when they heard the word, as well as a reaction known as "a mismatch response" when they heard the altered version of "tatata." These reactions, researchers suggest, indicate a recollection of the word and its conventional delivery. "Once we learn a sound, if it's repeated to us often enough, we form a memory of it, which is activated when we hear the sound again," Eino Partanen, a cognitive neuroscientist and the study's lead author, toldScience. "This leads us to believe that the fetus can learn much more detailed information than we previously thought."
Abortion advocates like to throw around the term "fetal tissue mass" to dehumanize the fetus, but science increasingly informs us of the wondrous capabilities of the human life entrusted to a mother's care during pregnancy.
American military intervention in Syria is likely to begin this week, and one thing we know amid the general confusion is that the objective is not to oust Bashar Assad: White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday: “I want to make clear that the options that we are considering are not about regime change. They are about responding to a clear violation of international standard that prohibits the use of chemical weapons.” How the Obama Administration plans to deal with Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons without challenging his grip on power is unclear, but then again, so is everything else about this misadventure.
Epitomizing the muddle surrounding the likely attack on Syria was former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In endorsing his country’s likely participation in a strike on Syria, Blair said that it was necessary to prevent the country from becoming a “breeding ground for extremism.”
"Emergency personnel transported 55 people to the hospital; most were victims of alcohol poisoning. Two people fell off the cliffs, with one suffering serious injuries"
:-)
The Definition of Moderation has been stretched, somewhat.
"Originally a thriving Chumash Indian settlement when the Spanish arrived in the mid-1500s, Isla Vista secured a place in contemporary history between 1968 and 1970- at the height of the Vietnam War, with a series of civil disturbances. Local and national media covered arrests, riots, and clashes between protesters and the local law enforcement, and then-Governor Ronald Reagan called in the California National Guard for support. Out of the turmoil of this era emerged a number of successful grassroots community-building efforts, culminating in the creation of health and human service agencies and non-profits to serve Isla Vista residents.
The community of Isla Vista, commonly known as “I.V.”,..."
---
It actually started before that in a class I took featuring a Pioneering Prof on "The Environment"
Started
"GOO"
...short for "Get Oil Out!"
After a minor blowout in the Channel of the already Greasy town of Santa Barbara.
Fucking Joe Kernan on CNBC is beating that War Drum. It's like Iraq never happened. I hate that motherfucker. I notice I never saw a picture of Him in Uniform.
This is bullshit.
ReplyDeleteI can't, for the life of me, figure out what's going on.
All you have to do is look at the still shots of the “dead children”. None have them have soiled themselves or have leaked any bodily fluids on the floor or their clothing. No vommit. No head or facial wounds from falling. No bruises from blood settling while being in one spot. Almost all their heads are turned in the same direction. There is no signs of Decerebrate rigidity which would you expect from brain trauma. They don’t look dead.
ReplyDelete'Almost all their heads are turned in the same direction.'
DeleteTo Mecca.
A few infidels among them.
Being cynical again.
All this non sense is the result of the Koran.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteLove the critical eye about the fake victims.
DeleteIt's a shame this effort never was applied to the fake palestinian "victims", the fake lebanese "victims" of past situations.
The arabs/palestinians have had a production arm called "pallywood" for decades.
Creating fake deaths, fake destruction, photoshopped images and of course fake martyrs
Nothing new here, except for the 1st time the same lying, the same deceptions are now being used arab against arab.
But a true fact?
DeleteMore arabs have died and made homeless in Syria in 30 months than the last 60 years in all the wars that israel and the entire arab world have fought.
You know that they know this in DC.
ReplyDeleteThere is not a wall long enough.
The Obama administration believes that U.S. intelligence has established how Syrian government forces stored, assembled and launched the chemical weapons allegedly used in last week’s attack outside Damascus, according to U.S. officials.
ReplyDeleteThe administration is planning to release evidence, possibly as soon as Thursday, that it will say proves that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad bears responsibility for what U.S. officials have called an “undeniable” chemical attack that killed hundreds on the outskirts of the Syrian capital.
Graphic
Timeline: Major events in the country’s tumultuous uprising that began in March 2011.
Video
Paul Danahar, author of "The New Middle East" and former BBC Middle East bureau chief, explains how the Obama administration's red line leaves it with no other option than to take action in Syria.
The report, being compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is one of the final steps that the administration is taking before President Obama makes a decision on a U.S. military strike against Syria, which now appears all but inevitable,
“We are prepared,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the BBC on Tuesday. “We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfill and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take. We are ready to go.” The assets include four cruise-missile-armed destroyers in the Mediterranean.
They look dead to me but you might be right. Hard to keep so many kids dead still for so long. Never saw a chest move in that very short video. Not even a twitch.
Delete.
DeleteYou can't fake 300-400 dead especially with the UN inspectors coming in, that is unless you assume they are in on the caper, something I very much doubt. The real question becomes to verify how they were killed and who did the deed.
The report, being compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence..."
Let's see. That would be the Clapper, the man who lied to Congress, who then admitted that he lied to Congress, and who then spent a week making up excuses as to why he lied to Congress.
"I was confused by the question."
"I thought you were talking about 702 not 215."
"I wasn't aware of that part of the program."
Sure, it makes sense, in OZ.
The real question is what the hell is Clapper still doing as Director of National Intelligence?
.
They are all buried within one day.
DeleteI agree with Quirk. Now I have been watching video - assuming it's not faked, or course - of lots of living kids obviously suffering the effects of some sort of attack, coughing, wheezing, etc.
DeleteThese kids are either in some kind of trauma, or they are such great actors they should get to Hollywood fast.
.
DeleteI am assuming the UN will demand to see bodies and take their own blood and fluid samples.
The problem isn't that the bodies were buried within one day, or that the UN will be unable to determine if their were chemical weapons used. The problem is that the UN mandate doesn't authorize these guys to determine who launched the attack if, in fact, one was launched.
It's all calibrated to provide enough ambiguity for Clapper to issue his report which will provide us the 'truth' or at least the 'least untruthful' truth he can give us.
.
.
.
DeleteThe same calibration will go into this war's 'coalition of the willing' meme. FUKUS and Turkey seem to be the only ones demanding Western intervention; although, the big three will probably be able to whip reluctant NATO members into line. However, the UN will be unable to get anything through the Security Council. And even the regional players are unwilling to sanction US intervention. Unlike the Libyan situation the Arab Legal has declined to support Western direct intervention in Syria although they did blame Assad and while admitting it is unclear who used the chemical weapons did say that the perps needed to be punished.
That should be enough for FUKUS to spin it as Arab League approval. Heck, who listens to anything the Arab League says anyway?
Welcome to Libya II. It all worked out so well the last time.
.
.
DeleteA quote from a Connor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic
"Hawks are most interested in humanitarian causes that can be carried out by force.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/08/a-brief-argument-against-war-in-syria/279078/
The rest of the article makes a point I have mentioned here before. We waste $ billions killing thousands when the funds we waste could instead be used to save or improve the lives of millions.
.
WILL WE NEVER TIRE OF QUIRK COMING DOWN ON THE CLAPPER?
Delete.
DeleteNope.
.
Roethke's greenhouse - his grandfather was gardener to the Kaiser - which was owned by his uncles, where he spent much time in his youth, is in one reading as image of hell itself, or humanity en masse, much like the middle east, as in the greenhouse the plants, many individually quite beautiful, ALL struggle against one another for soil, water, space, air, and light. It is absurd. Yet their is light up there. And it doesn't have to be like this. Though it seems mostly it always is.
ReplyDeleteAnd for making light cynical mockery of the situation in the mid east I have been called an asshole.
Alrighty then, you get over there and fix it. I've said what I think is best in Syria, for US, and them too, and that is a continuing stalemate and the eventual division of Syria into three parts or even four parts, amicably if possible, through some peace table, through this big struggle if no other way. In the long run there might be more joy and less woe and suffering all around. If the rebs were to prevail it would lead to more oppression, the oppressed becoming the new oppressors, a never ending cycle.
What if the whole thing is a fakaroo, Rufus, and The One knows it? What will you say then?
ReplyDeleteBetter prepare yourself for that eventuality, just to be on the safe side, so as to not feint dead away when he is impeached.
.
ReplyDeleteMichigan signs up for the expanded Medicaid under Obamacare.
Michigan Senate passes Medicaid expansion after hammering out compromise
Gov. Rick Snyder overcame stiff opposition Tuesday from fellow Republicans as the GOP-controlled Senate approved his highest legislative priority — the expansion of Michigan's Medicaid program.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com#ixzz2dEdBYiCQ
.
I still can't get over the Egyptian Affair. Morsi gets 'elected' - I guess he did, I don't know - clears out the Army High Command, appoints Sisi, thinking he will be his good bud, not realizing where his true allegiance lay, who, after massive demonstrations, overthrows Morsi, who has now replaced Mubarak in prison. Would be perfect if it were in the same cell.
ReplyDeleteThis has a little whiff of The Bard, as well as the old motif of the Reversal, the Wheel of
Fortune.
It's the stuff of myth and poetry and Biblical hymns and psalms.
Intermission:
ReplyDeleteSchools dump federal lunch program...
STUDENTS TO MICHELLE O: 'Your food tastes like vomit'...drudge
Access to the areas near Damascus affected by the presumed chemical weapons attack last Wednesday has been complicated by a Syria military operation—code-named Operation City Shield—that kicked off just hours after the first reports that toxic gas was killing residents.
ReplyDeleteFor months, Syrian forces have successfully fought to regain control over the suburban regions surrounding the capital Damascus. The Eastern Ghouta region where the suspected chemical attack occurred is the last remaining area not under partial or total regime control.
...
Security officials previously said the strike was in the first hours of Aug. 21 and that rebels had been planning a massive attack on Damascus from four different fronts.
Misheard Lyrics
ReplyDelete:)
Delete.
ReplyDeleteVisiting myths about the upcoming war in Syria.
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/b0e3d2e9c062
.
The dead cat isn't faking it.
DeleteA dog smarter than Ash -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-07/i-met-worlds-smartest-dog
They have corked up their asses, and made up their faces to
ReplyDeleteMAKE IT APPEAR THEY ARE NOT DEAD!
They then instructed their souls to face Meca and promised them all I-Pad Minis!
This is Shit!
You mean they actually paid them for his charade?
DeleteThat's awful.
ReplyDeleteCopts March on Washington
August 28, 2013 By Faith J. H. McDonnell
>>>“Many of the signs at today’s protest argued that the Brotherhood is a part of al-Qaeda and that Obama’s support for the Brotherhood is equivalent to funding terrorism,” the Post writers mused, as if this was the first time it had ever occurred to them. “Although the U.S. has been at pains to maintain neutrality in Egypt’s deepening social and political divisions, it has been accused by both sides of secretly supporting the other,” their piece confessed. Actually, it seems more as if The Washington Post and other media have been at pains to maintain the impression that the U.S. has been at pains to maintain neutrality in Egypt’s divisions, when the truth is obvious to 33 million Egyptians.
The Post article closed by describing how one protestor carrying a poster of General Sissi sought to make eye contact with all of journalists watching from inside the building. “Whenever someone would acknowledge him, he’d smile, hold the poster next to his face and give a big thumbs-up for Sissi,” says the Post. In this closing incident, as throughout the article, the Post writers focused on the political aspect of the protest and not the other key reason why the demonstrators had come. The article omitted reference to the many, many photos of burned churches and of the faces of those killed – now joining Egypt’s long list of martyrs.
The Post did not even mention the striking model of a church – blackened with smoke and stained red – representing the dozens of churches burned, and the blood of Egyptian Christians killed, by the Muslim Brotherhood and by various other Islamists over recent years and over the centuries. The model church was carried lovingly in front of the lock-down crowd by two young men. It was on a platform with poles that rested on the young men’s shoulders in a way that called to mind the manner in which the priests of Israel are described in the Bible as carrying the Ark of the Covenant.
In what could possibly be construed as Divine coincidence or even Divine reassurance, a small lad carrying his own sign stood close to the church-bearers. His poster was a photograph of boys about his own age praying inside the scorched wreckage of an Egyptian church. The sign declared, “You can burn down our churches, but you can never touch our faith.” This is the true witness of the Copts’ march on Washington.<<<
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/copts-march-on-washington/
I Hate Pigs!
Delete.
DeleteThe Post is a rag. Not sure about the NYT anymore. Since they went to the maximum 10 free reads a month, I've stopped bothering.
The Post is a mouthpiece for the administration and the liberal elite. Since the Obama 'scandals' surfaced, their editorial board and even columnists have strained to become more 'objective'. There view not mine.
.
Cop vs Pop
ReplyDeleteIndonesia: Sharia police injured when music fans fight back
>>>>Ibrahim cited a local decree that prohibited performances of live music after 6 p.m.
“There’s no problem if the keyboard concerts are held in daylight, because we would be able to control the events to make sure there would be no khalwat and parties with alcohol,” Ibrahim said.
Khalwat is the term used to describe an unrelated or unmarried man and woman in a room together. It is considered forbidden under Islamic Shariah law. Its enforcement occupies the lion’s share of the WH’s day job. Ibrahim added that he was also mindful that clothing perceived to be provocative was occasionally on display at live-music performances.
“Despite the resistance, we will keep trying to disperse keyboard performances held at night,” Ibrahim said.<<<<
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/08/indonesia-sharia-police-injured-when-music-fans-fight-back.html
August 28, 2013
ReplyDeleteStudy reveals newborns recall words heard in utero
Thomas Lifson
The little human being living inside a pregnant mother turns out to be a lot more capable than previously known. Kathy Drummond describes the research that led to the startling finding that newborns can recall words they heard in the womb in The Verge:
...new research offers provocative evidence that an unborn fetus can not only hear sounds from the outside world, but is actually capable of recalling specific words in the days following birth.
In a study out of the University of Helsinki that builds on previous investigations, a team used EEG scans on 33 newborn babies to reach that conclusion. Their research started, however, when those infants were still in the womb: moms-to-be in their third trimester were divided into two groups, with only one group listening to repeating sequences of a nonsensical word ("tatata"). Occasionally, the word would be delivered with a subtle tweak in pronunciation or tone. In all, some study participants listened to that same word a whopping - and probably insufferable - 25,000 times.
Five days following birth, the team played those same recordings to each newborn. Babies who'd been exposed to the sounds in-utero showed a specific pattern of enhanced brain activity when they heard the word, as well as a reaction known as "a mismatch response" when they heard the altered version of "tatata." These reactions, researchers suggest, indicate a recollection of the word and its conventional delivery. "Once we learn a sound, if it's repeated to us often enough, we form a memory of it, which is activated when we hear the sound again," Eino Partanen, a cognitive neuroscientist and the study's lead author, toldScience. "This leads us to believe that the fetus can learn much more detailed information than we previously thought."
Abortion advocates like to throw around the term "fetal tissue mass" to dehumanize the fetus, but science increasingly informs us of the wondrous capabilities of the human life entrusted to a mother's care during pregnancy.
Hat tip: David Paulin
ReplyDeleteWhat’s Wrong with Going into Syria
Just About Everything
August 28, 2013
By Robert Spencer
American military intervention in Syria is likely to begin this week, and one thing we know amid the general confusion is that the objective is not to oust Bashar Assad: White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday: “I want to make clear that the options that we are considering are not about regime change. They are about responding to a clear violation of international standard that prohibits the use of chemical weapons.” How the Obama Administration plans to deal with Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons without challenging his grip on power is unclear, but then again, so is everything else about this misadventure.
Epitomizing the muddle surrounding the likely attack on Syria was former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In endorsing his country’s likely participation in a strike on Syria, Blair said that it was necessary to prevent the country from becoming a “breeding ground for extremism.”
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/robert-spencer/whats-wrong-with-going-into-syria/
"Epitomizing the muddle..."
DeleteOh Bother, and Piffle!
Tony will be known for bending over for a Bush and a Nigerian.
DeleteI'm up for a Hot Nigerian in the Bush.
Delete.
DeleteWe did not get into Libya for regime change either.
Ghadafi still took it up the ass. Literally.
Our strategies tend to 'evolve'.
Feed the people just enough info to keep them quiet. Then a little more. More. Pretty soon you are ripping some real ass.
.
.
Whadaya Think Richard J. Daley woulda done if the Copts had tried to march on Washington?
ReplyDeleteF... the Pigs!
DeleteGod, I just woke up from a dream that I got drunk in Isla Vista and found myself staggering around Goleta trying to figure out where I was going.
ReplyDeleteIsla Vista
DeleteGood to know the Tradition continues, although we were not quite so interested in Style
...it was more focused around the Keg.
"Emergency personnel transported 55 people to the hospital; most were victims of alcohol poisoning.
DeleteTwo people fell off the cliffs, with one suffering serious injuries"
:-)
The Definition of Moderation has been stretched, somewhat.
In the Seventies, They Got Serious.
DeleteDamned Copts and National Gaurd Shot an Innocent Student to Death!
The Guard didn't even have M-51 A-1's Rufus!
DeleteIf they had some of that stuff in the required curriculum these days, we'd have a better perspective about what to do wrt Copts, Alewites, etc etc.
DeleteM 51 brings up missiles and tanks...
DeleteThey call it the M 151
I thot we called it the M 51 around the Motor Pool.
...that was a while and many beers ago, 'tho.
"Originally a thriving Chumash Indian settlement when the Spanish arrived in the mid-1500s, Isla Vista secured a place in contemporary history between 1968 and 1970- at the height of the Vietnam War, with a series of civil disturbances. Local and national media covered arrests, riots, and clashes between protesters and the local law enforcement, and then-Governor Ronald Reagan called in the California National Guard for support. Out of the turmoil of this era emerged a number of successful grassroots community-building efforts, culminating in the creation of health and human service agencies and non-profits to serve Isla Vista residents.
DeleteThe community of Isla Vista, commonly known as “I.V.”,..."
---
It actually started before that in a class I took featuring a Pioneering Prof on "The Environment"
Started
"GOO"
...short for "Get Oil Out!"
After a minor blowout in the Channel of the already Greasy town of Santa Barbara.
Rufus woulda been thrilled.
Place looks like a GD Industrialised Institution, now.
Delete...when I started there, it was transitioning from an abandoned Marine Base.
My Dorm was a WWII Barracks.
Time Races on when you're almost 70.
Fucking Joe Kernan on CNBC is beating that War Drum. It's like Iraq never happened. I hate that motherfucker. I notice I never saw a picture of Him in Uniform.
ReplyDeleteFucking pricks in the Media loves them some wars. Cocksuckers.
ReplyDeleteSomeone said, "If we learn anything from history, it's that we learn nothing from history."
ReplyDeleteMy daughter asked me, yesterday, "with which author I would like to share a couple of drinks?"
ReplyDeleteI was a bit surprised when John Steinbeck jumped to mind.
Michener was my second thought.
It's kind of an interesting question to ask yourself.