tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60820034329229552192024-03-13T22:58:21.262+11:00Sceptic Watchpeaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comBlogger208125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-23482653070081133942023-12-12T00:33:00.007+11:002024-01-30T02:10:30.683+11:00The Liberal Reward of Labour<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
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<a href="https://40-eridani-a.blogspot.com/p/peace-and-long-life_9.html#top" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7awQvddiAR450udUbWOyPwJ53F-ZDfupR1UfkIopBQw6AnEEgeWgVL43vZqJzwuuBFd9n8F3OsBxVBX_YIrJ7l7d7kREhxaP_0Hv1CZRT8wAnxCvQBzOZ2vIjv-7axqMfSd6RncjDFTo/s640/dalek.jpg"></a>
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<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">[A] house divided against itself shall not stand.</span><br>
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<i>— <a href="https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-12-25/">Matthew 12:25</a> , </i>KJV Standard<i>, 1769.</i><br>
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<span style="font-size: medium">At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.</span><br>
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<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle">Aristotle</a> (384 – 322 BCE)</i><br>
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<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">War can make murders out of otherwise decent people.<br>
That may come as a shock to some of the viewers who perceive these mass murderers as horrible beasts.<br>
Not so.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Ferencz">Ben Ferencz</a> (1920 – 2023), </i>Prosecuting Evil<i>, 2018.</i></blockquote></blockquote>
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<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin">Benjamin Franklin</a> (1706 – 1790)</h3>
<br>
Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!<br>
<br>
(13 November 1789)<br>
<br>
<br>
Can sweetening our tea, &c. with sugar, be a circumstance of such absolute necessity?<br>
Can the petty pleasure thence arising to the taste, compensate for so much misery produced among our fellow creatures, and such a constant butchery of the human species by this pestilential detestable traffic in the bodies and souls of men?<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Somersett_Case_and_the_Slave_Trade">The Somersett Case and the Slave Trade</a>, <i>The London Chronicle</i>, 20 June 1772)<br>
<br>
<br>
Well, Doctor, what have we got:
<ul><li>a Republic, or</li>
<li>a Monarchy?</li></ul>
A Republic, if you can keep it.<br>
<br>
(Mrs Powel of Philada & Benjamin Franklin, <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Constitutional_Convention_of_1787">Constitutional Convention</a>, 1787)<br>
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<h2 align="center">The Liberal Reward of Labour</h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9H6RlQOGitFDTB_s6sS8O8jkLQPJIloEUdW0dODXa9_aDo39pz0fyDbqiqeEwD3Y6Z_bfU-tsIuaNSikSF45Jcxa-Ihshyphenhyphen1A2Z3xpY4r0S82jAKjLRPcfUH1ZEdUD-D9R8TCheWUq3BShkIiq6h7b9dSTl8Of4ggcuQ-DMKluJYHj3hwgRe2kXQOLAky/s1600/230982.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="848" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9H6RlQOGitFDTB_s6sS8O8jkLQPJIloEUdW0dODXa9_aDo39pz0fyDbqiqeEwD3Y6Z_bfU-tsIuaNSikSF45Jcxa-Ihshyphenhyphen1A2Z3xpY4r0S82jAKjLRPcfUH1ZEdUD-D9R8TCheWUq3BShkIiq6h7b9dSTl8Of4ggcuQ-DMKluJYHj3hwgRe2kXQOLAky/s640/230982.png"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/01/oreskes-naomi.html#top">Naomi Oreskes</a> (1958)</i>:<br>
In recent months 14 states have introduced or passed laws weakening labor protections for minors, even in notoriously dangerous industries, such as meatpacking.<br>
Nonenforcement of existing laws that limit the hours and types of work that can be performed by kids is also on the rise.<br>
This past year the number of minors illegally employed—including children as young as 13—increased by 37 percent. …<br>
Advocates of weakened protections for children claim that the states—not the federal government—should decide; that attempts to regulate the workplace represent a federal power grab; and that the defenders of strict limits on child labor are socialists …<br>
(Child Labor Laws Under Attack, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/01/scientific-american.html#top">Scientific American</a></i>, September 2003, p 82)</blockquote>
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<h3>The persistence of hyperconcentrated wealth</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9hczcTTuQGwF8YAhHLujXC_6DI5TXR-E5WZtO8_6cGCvCITxXSWAad_3wHLjrBp9wvxVLBTdPIBYm4O3Os3ehN_mmNtJp3Bcg2NN7X8vlokacGx-nkc5NAuHtKWqCYdONdhpaHioRa2jw3LFVu6ucdgIk13FUd_wKPTbVgmOz3LN9ZKQVMDulVw76PizQ/s1600/F13-10.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="673" data-original-width="1346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9hczcTTuQGwF8YAhHLujXC_6DI5TXR-E5WZtO8_6cGCvCITxXSWAad_3wHLjrBp9wvxVLBTdPIBYm4O3Os3ehN_mmNtJp3Bcg2NN7X8vlokacGx-nkc5NAuHtKWqCYdONdhpaHioRa2jw3LFVu6ucdgIk13FUd_wKPTbVgmOz3LN9ZKQVMDulVw76PizQ/s640/F13-10.jpg"/></a>
<div align="center"><table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="width: 640px; text-align: center" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><th width="25%"></th><th colspan="2" width="50%">Europe</th><th>United States</th></tr>
<tr><td><b><i>Wealth Cohort</i></b></td><td><b>1913</b></td><td><b>2018</b></td><td><b>2018</b></td></tr>
<tr><td><b><i>Top 10%</i></b></td><td>89%</td><td>55%</td><td>74%</td></tr>
<tr><td><b><i>Middle 40%</i></b></td><td>10%</td><td>40%</td><td>14%</td></tr>
<tr><td><b><i>Bottom 50%</i></b></td><td>1%</td><td>5%</td><td>2%</td></tr>
<tr><td><b><i>Top 10% : Bottom 50%</i></b></td><td>445:1</td><td>55:1</td><td>185:1</td></tr>
<tr align="center"><td colspan="4">Europe = Average of United Kingdom, France, and Sweden.</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty">Thomas Piketty</a> (1971)</i>:<br>
The sharp increase of the top decile share, especially in the United States, reflects a gradual and worrisome erosion of the share owned by the rest of the population.<br>
The lack of diffusion of wealth is a central issue for the twenty-first century, which may undermine the confidence of the lower and middle classes in the economic system …<br>
(Figure 13.10, <i><a href="http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/fr/ideology">Capital and Ideology</a></i>, 2020)</blockquote>
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<h3 align="center">Financial assets held in tax havens</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxRTY6a8pQycS4V2mEwxx4AwNblpTBsbARwMcQ8USsg6FgxhFrT4ppt8PVxqz5fCudKD345sJn4selRxLuLRWAaVl6INY7mKoM2H-yXysSUrbCOY3uL4qthTX6dJUkfiPTMnTIB0xjwxdiZFEZQAiqgDYotv0AYp_Mnr4dpvqHlecoHEwIExTLeAlfyy72/s1600/F12-05.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="1347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxRTY6a8pQycS4V2mEwxx4AwNblpTBsbARwMcQ8USsg6FgxhFrT4ppt8PVxqz5fCudKD345sJn4selRxLuLRWAaVl6INY7mKoM2H-yXysSUrbCOY3uL4qthTX6dJUkfiPTMnTIB0xjwxdiZFEZQAiqgDYotv0AYp_Mnr4dpvqHlecoHEwIExTLeAlfyy72/s610/F12-05.jpg"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty">Thomas Piketty</a> (1971)</i>:<br>
By exploiting anomalies in international financial statistics and breakdowns by country of residence from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB), one can estimate that the share of financial assets held in tax havens is:
<ul><li>4 percent for the United States,</li>
<li>10 percent for Europe, and</li>
<li>50 percent for Russia.</li></ul>
These figures exclude nonfinancial assets (such as real estate) and financial assets unreported to BIS and SNB, and should be considered <i>minimum</i> estimates.<br>
(Figure 12.5, <i><a href="http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/fr/ideology">Capital and Ideology</a></i>, 2020, emphasis added)</blockquote>
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<h3><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2023/11/adam-smith.html#top">Adam Smith</a> (1723 – 90)</h3>
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No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. …<br>
<br>
Wherever there is a great property, there is great inequality.<br>
For every rich man, you must have hundred poor.<br>
And that rich man must live every time in fear because of the jealousy of others.<br>
And if it is not for the firm hand of the magistrate … he would not be able to keep his capital safe. …<br>
[Civil government,] in so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense
<ul><li>of the rich against the poor, or</li>
<li>of those who have some property against those who have none …</li></ul>
<br>
Poverty, though it no doubt discourages, does not always prevent, marriage.<br>
It seems even to be favourable to generation.<br>
A half-starved Highland woman frequently bears more than twenty children, while a pampered fine lady is often incapable of bearing any, and is generally exhausted by two or three.<br>
Barrenness, so frequent among women of fashion, is very rare among those of inferior station.<br>
Luxury, in the fair sex, while it inflames, perhaps, the passion for enjoyment, seems always to weaken, and frequently to destroy altogether, the powers of generation. …<br>
<br>
But poverty, though it does not prevent the generation, is extremely unfavourable to the rearing of children.<br>
It is not uncommon, I have been frequently told, in the Highlands of Scotland, for a mother who has born twenty children not to have two alive. …<br>
This great mortality, however will everywhere be found chiefly among the children of the common people, who cannot afford to tend them with the same care as those of better station.<br>
Though their marriages are generally more fruitful than those of people of fashion, a smaller proportion of their children arrive at maturity. …<br>
<br>
Every species of animals naturally multiplies in proportion to the means of their subsistence, and no species can ever multiply beyond it.<br>
But in civilized society, it is only among the inferior ranks of people that the scantiness of subsistence can set limits to the further multiplication of the human species; and it can do so in no other way than by destroying a great part of the children which their fruitful marriages produce. …<br>
<br>
The liberal reward of labour, by enabling them to provide better for their children, and consequently to bring up a greater number, naturally tends to widen and extend those limits.<br>
It deserves to be remarked, too, that it necessarily does this as nearly as possible in the proportion which the demand for labour requires. …<br>
It is in this manner that the demand for men, like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men,
<ul><li>quickens it when it goes on too slowly, and</li>
<li>stops it when it advances too fast.</li></ul>
It is this demand which regulates and determines the state of propagation in all the different countries …<br>
<br>
The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the effect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population.<br>
To complain of it, is to lament over the necessary cause and effect of the greatest public prosperity.<br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations">The Wealth of Nations</a></i>, 1776)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sciencefriction/the-day-ai-toppled-humanitys-champion/102982126">Rise of the Machines</a><br>
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<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/babies-their-wonderful-world">Babies: Their Wonderful World</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct4x87">The Tortoise and the Hippo</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/allinthemind/is-life-coaching-legit-psychology/102961222">Is life coaching legit?</a><br>
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<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/allinthemind/adhd-tiktok-rejection-sensitivity-dysphoria-matilda-boseley/102953482">Matilda's brain</a><br>
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<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/backgroundbriefing/how-an-adhd-diagnosis-was-the-start-of-natalia-s-life-unravellin/103115166">How an ADHD diagnosis was the start of Natalia’s life unravelling</a><br>
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<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/saturdayextra/new-content-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-key-events-from-the/103148922">The Founding of Israel</a><br>
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<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/saturdayextra/alan-kohler-on-housing/103148282">Housing for shelter not investment</a><br>
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<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/scienceshow/aussie-stem-star-michelle-simmons/103177812">Michelle Simmons</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-85955391939934579382023-11-21T01:08:00.005+11:002023-12-04T00:58:17.075+11:00Adam Smith<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-persons-of-interest.html#contents">Blue Army: Persons of Interest</a></i><br>
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<br>
<blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">All for ourselves, and nothing for anyone else, seems, in every age, to have been the vile maxim of the Masters of Mankind.<br>
<br>
<br>
Wherever there is a great property, there is great inequality.<br>
For every rich man, you must have hundred poor.<br>
And that rich man must live every time in fear because of the jealousy of others.<br>
And if it is not for the firm hand of the magistrate … he would not be able to keep his capital safe. …<br>
[Civil government,] in so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense
<ul><li>of the rich against the poor, or</li>
<li>of those who have some property against those who have none …</li></ul></span>
<br>
<i>— </i>The Wealth of Nations<i>, 1779.</i></blockquote>
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<br>
<h2 id="contents"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith">Adam Smith</a> (1723 – 90)</h2>
<br>
<h3 id="moralsentiments"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_Moral_Sentiments">The Theory of Moral Sentiments</a> (1759)</h3>
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[The illusion that the accumulation of possessions brings real satisfaction is the] <i>deception</i> which rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind. …<br>
<br>
The great source of both the misery and disorders and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another …<br>
Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others …<br>
[But] none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us
<ul><li>to violate the rules either:
<ul><li>of prudence, or</li>
<li>of justice; or</li></ul>
</li>
<li>to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either:
<ul><li>by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or</li>
<li>by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.</li></ul>
</li></ul>
<br>
<h3 id="TWON"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations">An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations</a> (1776)</h3>
<br>
According to the system of natural liberty, the sovereign has only three duties to attend to …
<ul><li>the duty of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies; …</li>
<li>the duty of protecting, so far as possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an exact administration of justice, and …</li>
<li>the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works and … institutions, which can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals to erect and maintain …</li></ul>
<br>
In spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity, [the rich] are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessities of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus, without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species. …<br>
<br>
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.<br>
We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love.<br>
<br>
(Chapter 2, Book 1)<br>
<br>
<br>
What are the common wages of labour, depends everywhere upon the contract usually made between those two parties, whose interests are by no means the same.<br>
The workmen desire to get as much, the masters to give as little, as possible.<br>
The former are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter in order to lower, the wages of labour.<br>
<br>
It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms.<br>
The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily: and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit, their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen.<br>
<br>
We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work, but many against combining to raise it.<br>
In all such disputes, the masters can hold out much longer.<br>
A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks, which they have already acquired.<br>
Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year, without employment. …<br>
<br>
Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform, combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate. …<br>
Masters, too, sometimes enter into particular combinations to sink the wages of labour even below this rate.<br>
These are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy till the moment of execution …<br>
<br>
(Chapter 8, Book 1)<br>
<br>
<br>
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. …<br>
<br>
Poverty, though it no doubt discourages, does not always prevent, marriage.<br>
It seems even to be favourable to generation.<br>
A half-starved Highland woman frequently bears more than twenty children, while a pampered fine lady is often incapable of bearing any, and is generally exhausted by two or three.<br>
Barrenness, so frequent among women of fashion, is very rare among those of inferior station.<br>
Luxury, in the fair sex, while it inflames, perhaps, the passion for enjoyment, seems always to weaken, and frequently to destroy altogether, the powers of generation. …<br>
<br>
But poverty, though it does not prevent the generation, is extremely unfavourable to the rearing of children.<br>
It is not uncommon, I have been frequently told, in the Highlands of Scotland, for a mother who has born twenty children not to have two alive. …<br>
This great mortality, however will everywhere be found chiefly among the children of the common people, who cannot afford to tend them with the same care as those of better station.<br>
Though their marriages are generally more fruitful than those of people of fashion, a smaller proportion of their children arrive at maturity. …<br>
<br>
Every species of animals naturally multiplies in proportion to the means of their subsistence, and no species can ever multiply beyond it.<br>
But in civilized society, it is only among the inferior ranks of people that the scantiness of subsistence can set limits to the further multiplication of the human species; and it can do so in no other way than by destroying a great part of the children which their fruitful marriages produce. …<br>
<br>
The liberal reward of labour, by enabling them to provide better for their children, and consequently to bring up a greater number, naturally tends to widen and extend those limits.<br>
It deserves to be remarked, too, that it necessarily does this as nearly as possible in the proportion which the demand for labour requires. …<br>
It is in this manner that the demand for men, like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men,
<ul><li>quickens it when it goes on too slowly, and</li>
<li>stops it when it advances too fast.</li></ul>
It is this demand which regulates and determines the state of propagation in all the different countries …<br>
<br>
The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the effect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population.<br>
To complain of it, is to lament over the necessary cause and effect of the greatest public prosperity.<br>
<br>
(Chapter 10, Book 1)<br>
<br>
<br>
The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations … generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it it is possible for a human creature to become.<br>
The torpor of his mind renders him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, or tender sentiment …<br>
Of the great and extensive interests of his own country he is altogether incapable of judging …<br>
<br>
(Part 2, Chapter 10, Book 1)<br>
<br>
<br>
All for ourselves, and nothing for anyone else, seems, in every age, to have been the vile maxim of the Masters of Mankind.<br>
<br>
(Chapter 4, Book 3)<br>
<br>
<br>
The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from [the business elite] ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention.<br>
[For it] comes from an order of men,
<ul><li>whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public,</li>
<li>who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and</li>
<li>who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.</li></ul>
<br>
[The individual] is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. …<br>
I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.<br>
It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.<br>
<br>
(Chapter 2, Book 4)<br>
<br>
<br>
Wherever there is a great property, there is great inequality.<br>
For every rich man, you must have hundred poor.<br>
And that rich man must live every time in fear because of the jealousy of others.<br>
And if it is not for the firm hand of the magistrate … he would not be able to keep his capital safe. …<br>
[Civil government,] in so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense
<ul><li>of the rich against the poor, or</li>
<li>of those who have some property against those who have none …</li></ul>
<br>
(Part 2, Chapter 1, Book 5)<br>
<br>
<br>
The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.<br>
<br>
(Part 2, Chapter 2, Book 5)peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-4953036298725558862023-11-14T23:42:00.015+11:002023-12-14T03:12:30.738+11:00Order and Chaos<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson">Order and Chaos</a></h2>
<br>
<blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">Order, the known, appears symbolically associated with masculinity …<br>
This is perhaps because the primary hierarchical structure of human society is masculine, as it is among most animals …<br>
It is because men are, and throughout history have been,
<ul><li>the builders of towns and cities,</li>
<li>the engineers, stonemasons, bricklayers, and lumberjacks,</li>
<li>the operators of heavy machinery.</li></ul>
Order is:
<ul><li>God the Father, the eternal Judge, ledger-keeper and dispenser of rewards and punishments. …</li>
<li>the peacetime army of policemen and soldiers. …</li></ul>
Chaos, the eternal feminine, is … the crushing force of sexual selection.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson">Jordan Peterson</a> (1962), </i><a href="#eden">12 Rules for Life</a><i>, 2018.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">Fascists did not value masculinity <i>per se</i> – only that of some male members of the dominant race.<br>
Socialists and communists (despite their own macho inclinations) were seen as the fomenters of ‘feminine’ indiscipline – while the fascist revolution was characterized by manly order.<br>
The Nazis saw the Jews and Poles as ‘feminine’ races, achieving their goals through devious plots rather than masculine openness.
</span><br>
<br>
<i>— Kevin Passmore (1962), </i>Fascism: A Very Short Introduction<i>, 2002.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[The] Western subjugation of the female is … a function of biblical thinking.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell">Joseph Campbell</a> (1904 – 87), <a href="https://billmoyers.com/content/ep-5-joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-love-and-the-goddess-audio/">Love and the Goddess</a>, </i>The Power of Myth<i>, Episode 5, 1988.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">The overthrow of mother right [with the advent of farming and pastoralism] was the <i>world historic defeat of the female sex</i>.<br>
The man took command in the home [and] the woman was degraded and reduced to servitude; she became the slave of his lust and a mere instrument for the production of children.<br>
This degraded position of the woman … has gradually been palliated and glossed over, and somewhat clothed in a milder form; [but] in no sense has it been abolished.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels">Friedrich Engels </a> (1820 – 95), </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_the_Family,_Private_Property_and_the_State#Development_of_human_society_and_the_family">The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State</a><i>, 1884.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[Even] the most thoughtful and fair-minded of [men] fall back on conservative assumptions about the inevitability of present:
<ul><li>gender relations, and</li>
<li>distributions of power,</li></ul>
calling on precedent or sociobiology and psychobiology to demonstrate that male domination is natural and follows inevitably from evolutionary pressures.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_McIntosh">Peggy McIntosh</a> (1934), <a href="https://nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-and-male-privilege">White Privilege and Male Privilege</a>, 1988.</i></blockquote>
<br>
<h3>Kevin Passmore</h3>
<br>
Proto-fascists drew on contemporary science (or rather pseudoscience) as well as irrationalism. …<br>
Social Darwinists feared that the comforts of modern society, coupled to assistance to the poor, would lead to social degeneration and decadence.<br>
They preached ‘eugenicism’ as the answer …<br>
<br>
It is no accident that doctors and lawyers were prominent in the far right.<br>
[They feared] that professions were overcrowded with Jews and women, and [disliked] government plans to introduce ‘socialist’ health-care programmes.<br>
Doctors and lawyers espoused eugenicist theories, which they thought gave them the right to play god. …<br>
<br>
This was all the more significant given that it was within the framework of eugenics and racism that many of the elites confronted the advance of democracy at the turn of the century – the much feared ‘age of the masses’.<br>
Racist and eugenicist ideas represented, for some, a new, more effective means to govern and control the dangerous masses. …<br>
<br>
[After the Great War, governments became preoccupied with ensuring that their nation was fit to survive in the difficult international situation of the post-war world. …<br>
In its most radical form, adopted by fascists everywhere, national strength implied:
<ul><li>economic self-sufficiency behind tariff walls,</li>
<li>repression of socialism and incorporation of the workers into the national community,</li>
<li>encouragement of women to abandon careers and equality in favour of having babies for the nation,</li>
<li>assimilation or expulsion of ethnic minorities, and</li>
<li>the introduction of eugenic social welfare schemes designed to improve the physical fitness of the nation.</li></ul>
(<i>Fascism: A Very Short Introduction</i>, Oxford University Press, 2002)<br><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movie/bicentennial-man/2196606019605">Bicentennial Man</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/quick-smart/why-are-the-alt-right-eating-so-much-meat/103107658">Real Men Eat Meat</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/why-do-we-sing-to-babies/102638772">Singing to babies</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/rearvision/rear-vision/102814064">RICO</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/backgroundbriefing/the-whistleblower-who-exposed-a-lion-of-the-union-movement-as-a-/102970056">Union Man</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/abc-news-daily/laura-tingle-on-the-voice-debate/102957656">Ethnic Cleansing in Colonial Australia</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/backgroundbriefing/the-whistleblower-who-brought-down-australia-s-dr-death/102996262">Dr Death</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sundayextra/-the-deadly-rise-of-anti-science-/103033778">Anti-Science Aggression</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-38970807609519307162023-10-19T02:28:00.014+11:002023-10-29T00:50:29.289+11:00Devon Price<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/green-army-persons-of-interest.html#contents">Green Army: Persons of Interest</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<h2><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon_Price">Devon Price</a></h2>
<br>
Autism Activist.<br>
Professor of Social Psychology.
<p><ul><li><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092869514/unmasking-autism-more-inclusive-world">How "unmasking" leads to freedom for autistic and other neurodivergent people</a>, <i><a href="https://www.npr.org/lifekit">Life Kit</a></i>, NPR, 18 April 2022.</li>
<li><i>Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity</i>, 2022.<br>
<br>
<h3>Autism: From Disorder to Oppression</h3>
<br>
Price reconceptualizes autism in three stages:
<ol><li>Demedicalization: from disorder to difference.</li>
<li>Identitarianism: from difference to identity.</li>
<li>Politicization: from identity to oppression.</li></ol>
<br>
Price accepts that the central problem in autism is in the domain of social communication and interpersonal functioning.<br>
What he rejects is that this due to an <i>impairment</i> or deficits in the capacity for verbal or non-verbal communication and social cognition.<br>
Price's frames autism as a normal human variant with a different cognitive / communication style.<br>
It is this mismatch of styles, he asserts, that accounts for the interactional problems between autistics and non-autistics.<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon_Price">Devon Price</a>:</i><br>
Autism is neurological.<br>
Autism is a developmental disability that … appears to be largely genetically heritable …<br>
<br>
[Much] of what researchers consider the “social deficits” of Autism aren’t really deficits at all; they’re just differences in our communication style that neurotypicals don’t adjust to. …<br>
Autistic people don’t actually lack communication skills, or a drive to connect. …<br>
<br>
[The] idea of pursuing a treatment “for” Autism is predicated on the idea we are broken or sick … an idea the neurodiversity movement completely rejects. …<br>
Where the medical model of disability fails is in making sense of disabilities that come from social exclusion or oppression. …<br>
<br>
[We] are disabled, robbed of empowerment and agency in a world that is not built for us. …<br>
The world actively <i>dis-ables</i> people by failing to provide accommodations they need.<br>
Naming the reality of disability shows respect for disabled people and awareness of how we are oppressed. …<br>
<br>
[Neurotypicality] is more of an oppressive cultural standard than it actually is a privileged identity a person has. …<br>
[There] are just so many ways in which we are punished for deviating from the norm. …<br>
Ableism is a pervasive social force, and one we can’t entirely escape …<br>
The criminal justice system and mental health system are deeply interwoven, and they both serve to perpetuate ableism.<br>
Ableism is a powerful force of oppression. …<br>
<br>
Almost every person with a mental illness or disability … has repeatedly tried and failed to earn acceptance by playing the rules of a game that was designed to harm us. …<br>
Being Autistic in a neurotypical world is often traumatizing, and being forced to mask is essentially an experience of society-driven abuse.…<br>
[Your] disability isn’t to blame for what happened, and neither are you.<br>
It was a far-reaching, centuries-old system of injustice that left you in such a difficult spot. …<br>
<br>
Almost anyone can be viewed as defective or abnormal under our current medicalized model of mental illness …<br>
By tearing down our current, constricting definition of mental health, and celebrating different ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving, we can improve countless lives. …<br>
Our caring professionals and educators must be made aware … that their prejudicial attitudes often create disability where none might otherwise be there. …<br>
<br>
When we teach children about racism, sexism, and imperialism throughout history, we should highlight how the oppressed were often branded as hysterical, paranoid, and insane.<br>
It’s important that all people — neurodiverse and neurotypical alike — come to realize how narrow definitions of sanity and “functioning” are used to harm and dehumanize.</blockquote>
Price's conceptualization of disability is most easily understood by examining the ways in which it departs from the standard biopsychosocial model of disability as described in the public health literature:
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrltsrPaBp3vRc9KAAU-DbLKo7SHpnoLuFhywbwssmIv0HvLLRNBsrVvoQNHiig67bZrTlaUjALVQZqLUqGxGdtxlgeUQPMPnAzrLKHmrrXwolRqJ3ADJakq1pMOG5ot6swmOWuYFMM8U65lEk2LxdVJjmvpOUqulvDTZQIE1ZekMVTYms7oQiWGJbXjHN/s1600/disability.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="670" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrltsrPaBp3vRc9KAAU-DbLKo7SHpnoLuFhywbwssmIv0HvLLRNBsrVvoQNHiig67bZrTlaUjALVQZqLUqGxGdtxlgeUQPMPnAzrLKHmrrXwolRqJ3ADJakq1pMOG5ot6swmOWuYFMM8U65lEk2LxdVJjmvpOUqulvDTZQIE1ZekMVTYms7oQiWGJbXjHN/s640/disability.png"/></a>
<blockquote>As the diagram indicates … disability and functioning are viewed as outcomes of interactions between <b><i>health conditions</i></b> (diseases, disorders and injuries) and <b><i>contextual factors</i></b>.<br>
<br>
Among contextual factors are
<ul><li><b><i>external environmental factors</i></b> (for example, social attitudes, architectural characteristics, legal and social structures, as well as climate, terrain and so forth); and</li>
<li>internal <b><i>personal factors</i></b>, which include gender, age, coping styles, social background, education, profession, past and current experience, overall behaviour pattern, character and other factors that influence how disability is experienced by the individual.</li></ul>
(Concepts of functioning and disability, <i><a href="https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/classification/icf/icfbeginnersguide.pdf">Towards a Common Language for Functioning, Disability and Health: The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health</a></i>, 2002, p 10)</blockquote>
<br>
So the standard view of disability is that it results from an interaction between individual impairment (due to a disease or disorder) and environmental conditions.<br>
The archetypal example someone in a wheelchair being disabled due to the absence of wheelchair access.<br>
The impairment is an inability to walk.<br>
The disability is due to impairment (due to some disease or disorder) interacting with an external environmental factor (eg a lack of accessibility).<br>
No impairment (ie no disorder), no disability.<br>
If there is impairment, whether or not there is associated disability may depend on environmental conditions (eg ramps).<br>
<br>
<br>
In contrast with mobility, is it likewise possible that a neurologically based social ineptitude could be severe enough to cause significant psychosocial impairment?<br>
The scientific community says yes.<br>
Price says no: autism does not cause impairment, therefore it is not a disorder.<br>
<br>
<br>
In what sense, then, is autism a disability?<br>
Here Price draws a distinction between impairment related (medical) disability and non-impairment related (social) disability; arguing that autism is a <i>social / political / cultural / normative</i> disability, not a <i>medical</i> disability.<br>
And the source of this social disability?<br>
Ablelist / neurotypical oppression.<br>
Though, if Price is correct about the lack of impairment, this cannot, strictly speaking, be 'ablelist' in the usual sense of the word.<br>
Ablelism is discrimination based on actual medical impairment.<br>
Since, for Price, there is no impairment in autism, one would need to expand the meaning of ableism to include the false imputation of impairment where none exists, then stigmatizing autism based on this mislabeling.<br>
So, these semantic contortions leave us with two novel senses of 'disability' and of 'ablelism'.<br>
<br>
<br>
In summary, neurotypical oppression leads to social disability based on a biological difference between non-autistics and autistics (or alternatively between the neurotypical and the neurodiverse), not a difference between health and disorder, but a difference between two <i>normal</i> human developmental variants.<br>
The source of the disability is not individual disorder / impairment but the prevailing system of oppressive societal norms.<br>
Ableism <i>dis-ables</i> autistics in the same way as slavery <i>dis-ables</i> the enslaved.<br>
According to this view autistics are being compelled to conform to unjust cultural standards only to be excluded when they (inevitably) fail.<br>
<br>
<br>
What are the difficulties of this theory?<br>
To describe severe autistics, those without language, unable to attend to their own basic self-care and protection, as being normal developmental variants, seems to deny an obvious reality, hiding it behind a screen of confusing language and political ideology.<br>
In any other context — perinatal anoxia, traumatic brain injury, disabling genetic syndromes — such reduced capabilities would be regarded as major psychosocial impairments .<br>
They require intensive professional (ie formal) assistance and support.<br>
<br>
<br>
Consider the definition of mental disorder:
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_disorder">Mental_disorder</a>:</i><br>
A mental disorder … is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 18 September 2023)</blockquote>
One might add that by 'significant' is meant severe enough to be the focus of clinical / research attention ie professional (formal) intervention as distinct from subclinical, which is manageable by informal supports (self-help, peer-support, life-coaching, personal development).<br>
That is to say, those who fall below the clinical threshold of severity <i>do not have</i> a disorder in the sense of requiring formal assistance.<br>
Whether the 'challenges' of this population are <i>primarily</i> due to systematic oppression, as Price contends, is debatable.<br>
While there is overlap between the concepts of oppression, stigmatized difference, and discrimination, they are not the same thing and are not freely interchangeable.<br>
<br>
<br>
The mind-body distinction plays a role here.<br>
Certain physical problems, like a broken bones, are not stigmatized.<br>
Communicable diseases on the other hand are stigmatized, for obvious reasons.<br>
Problems with the brain, affecting mind and behavior, are more closely linked with moral personhood.<br>
Mental dysfunction naturally bleeds over into adverse judgements of the self.<br>
<br>
<br>
Price's seeks to demedicalize autism (presumably) in order to destigmatize it.<br>
Because he takes an identitarian approach to autism, demedicalization is necessary because it is unacceptable to identify with a stigmatized entity.<br>
If autism is identified with the <i>self</i>, and autism is a disorder, then the self is disordered.<br>
And the self has to be defended at all costs.<br>
There's nothing wrong with me, society's to blame.<br>
It's not me that needs to be fixed, but the world.<br>
One can address medical stigma directly, or as in Price's case, indirectly, by denying one has a disorder so as to avoid the associated stigma.<br>
The alternative is to directly address the stigmatizing of illness in general, and developmental disorder in particular.<br>
<br>
<br>
This identitarianism is expressed in the preference for disability-first over person-first terminology:
<ul><li>being an Autistic person vs a person <i>with</i> autism,</li>
<li>being an schizophrenic person vs a person who suffers from schizophrenia,</li>
<li>being an Asian person vs being a person of Asian descent,</li>
<li>being a gay person vs being a person who is same sex attracted.</li></ul>
Identitarianism invites essentialist thinking.<br>
In the area of race this is especially dangerous.<br>
Defining people by their ethnicity is the foundation of biological racism.<br>
It essentializes ethnicity and conflates linguistic and cultural identity with biological descent.<br>
There are numerous diasporas where immigrants are fully integrated with the majority culture despite differences in physical appearance.<br>
One is not defined by one's ancestry any more than one is defined by one's neurology.
<blockquote><i>Benjamin Zachariah [Historian]:</i><br>
Once upon a time, essentializing people was considered offensive, somewhat stupid, anti-liberal, anti-progressive, but now this is only so when it is done by other people.<br>
Self-essentializing and self-stereotyping are not only allowed but considered empowering.<br>
(<i>After the Last Post: The Lives of Indian Historiography</i>, 2019)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon_Price">Devon Price</a>:</i><br>
[It’s] more sensible to view Autistic identity through a social lens than a strictly medical one. …<br>
[The] <i>social model of disability</i>, originally coined in the 1980s by disabled academic [sociologist] Mike Oliver.<br>
In his writing, Oliver described disability as a political status, one that is created by the systems that surround us, not our minds and bodies.</blockquote>
While it is true that Oliver sought to draw attention to the environmental factors contributing to disability it seems he did not believe these were the only factors involved.<br>
That he distinguished between impairment and disability indicates he did believe that impairments existed and played a role in disability.<br>
As originally conceived, the social model of disability was a model of <i>impairment-related disability</i>, not a social model (or lens) of <i>identity</i>.
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_model_of_disability">Social model of disability</a>:</i><br>
The social model of disability diverges from the dominant medical model of disability, which is a functional analysis of the body as a machine to be fixed in order to conform with normative values. …<br>
In this model, the word <i>impairment</i> is used to refer to the actual attributes (or lack of attributes) that affect a person, such as the inability to walk or breathe independently.<br>
It seeks to redefine <i>disability</i> to refer to the restrictions caused by society when it does not give equitable social and structural support according to disabled peoples' structural needs. …<br>
<br>
Oliver did not intend the social model of disability to be an all-encompassing theory of disability, but rather a starting point in reframing how society views disability.<br>
This model was conceived of as a tool that could be used to improve the lives of disabled people, rather than a complete explanation for every experience and circumstance.<br>
<br>
A primary criticism of the social model is its centering of the experiences of individuals with physical impairments, which has resulted in overlooking other forms of disability, such as mental health conditions. …<br>
<br>
In the late 20th century and early 21st century, the social model of disability became a dominant identity for disabled people in the UK.<br>
Under the social model of disability, a disability identity is created by:
<ul><li>"the presence of impairment,</li>
<li>the experience of disablism, and</li>
<li>self-identification as a disabled person."</li></ul>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>17 September 2023)</blockquote>
<br>
In addition to with arguing that autism is not a disorder, Price also criticizes the syndromic approach to diagnosis in general, at least when it is applied to conditions whose manifestations are 'mental' (psychological or behavioral), rather than 'physical' (neuropathic pain).<br>
Again, he concedes that autism has a physical cause, but not that it is a disorder.
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon_Price">Devon Price</a>:</i><br>
[For] many illnesses and disabilities, medical care and a medical lens is undeniably appropriate.<br>
If you’re someone who is in excruciating, daily pain due to nerve damage, medical treatment and medication can help you.<br>
If you have a degenerative condition that progressively gets worse, such as multiple sclerosis, you have every reason to support medical research in pursuit of a cure. …<br>
<br>
[It’s] arguable whether the disability should even be defined by the presence of clear behavioral signs, such as
<ul><li>trouble reading social cues or</li>
<li>hesitating to initiate contact with other people. …</li></ul>
Instead of looking to the external signals of autism that others might pick up on, it’s important that we instead focus on
<ul><li>the neurobiological markers of the neurotype, and</li>
<li>the internal experiences and challenges that Autistic people themselves report. …</li></ul>
[Autism is] diagnosed based on behavior and reported challenges the Autistic person is facing, not on a brain scan. …<br>
<br>
When it comes to mental illness and disability, diagnostic categories are really flawed things.<br>
A disorder is a cluster of symptoms and traits that tend to go together, but don’t always, and the way those clusters get organized tends to change over time. …<br>
Our understandings of these labels are constantly in flux, and who gets stuck with a particular label varies across time and cultural context. …<br>
This dynamic is particularly challenging for people with Autism Spectrum traits, because our neurotype is so multifaceted and so easily mistaken for other conditions. …<br>
<br>
I prefer the terms self-determination or self-realization to self-diagnosis, because I believe it’s more sensible to view Autistic identity through a social lens than a strictly medical one.<br>
Diagnosis is a gatekeeping process, and it slams its heavy bars in the face of anyone who is too poor, too busy, too Black, too feminine, too queer, and too gender nonconforming, among others. …<br>
<br>
[Self-definition] is a means of reclaiming our power from the medical establishment that has long sought to corral and control us.<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neurotype">Neurotype</a>:</i><br>
A type of brain, in terms of how a person interprets and responds to social cues, etc.
<ul><li>2018, Steve Bloem, <i>The Pastoral Handbook of Mental Illness</i>, page 56:<br>
And the neurotypes aren't random.<br>
They align with their symptom clusters along two major axes: anxiety and anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure).</li></ul>
(<i>Wiktionary</i>, 23 April 2023)<br>
<br>
('Neurotype' does not yet appear in OED online)</blockquote>
If you reject expert opinion using on objective criteria (syndromal diagnosis based on patterns of signs and symptoms), how do you determine your neurotype?<br>
Is it something you knows instinctively, like same sex attraction?<br>
Do you conclude you are Autistic because you feel an affinity with others who identify as Autistic?<br>
How did <i>they</i> discover they were Autistic?<br>
Is it <i>all about</i> identification:
<ul><li>gender: male / female / non-binary?</li>
<li>race: black / white / colored?</li>
<li>neurotype: neurotypical / neurodiverse?</li></ul>
<br>
There are no 'neurobiological markers of the neurotype'.<br>
There is no neuroscience or recognized classification of neurotypes.<br>
There are only neurobiological correlates of known clinical syndromes.<br>
Substituting the word 'neurotype' for 'diagnosis' is just trying to demedicalize autism by linguistic manipulation.<br>
This is no substitute for a rational debate about alternative ways of categorizing phenomena.<br>
Like using the word 'disability' in a non-impairment-related (social) sense, when in common usage it refers to disability in the impairment-related (medical) sense.<br>
Unless done carefully, argument by redefinition just creates confusion.<br>
<br>
<br>
Since it is unclear what the general properties of a neurotype are, one cannot be certain what entities should be included in this category.<br>
Is anyone who is neurodiverse (ie not neurotypical), possessed of a neurotype?<br>
Where do <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperament">temperaments</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits">personality traits</a> fit in?<br>
Price mentions both:
<ul><li>a range of specific conditions apart from autism: Tourettes, ADHD, PTSD, depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and Social Anxiety Disorder; as well as</li>
<li>certain general categories: Mental Illness / Disorder and Cognitive Disability (TBI, CTE, dementia, ID).</li></ul>
Clearly many putative neurotypes are neither congenital / developmental nor permanent / unchangeable as Price asserts autism is.<br>
Many with PTSD were neurotypical before being traumatized, and some recover.<br>
Likewise, in a significant proportion of cases schizophrenia, depression, and epilepsy are not permanent conditions.<br>
<br>
<br>
Price's perspective echos a range of past and current intellectual traditions:<br>
<br>
<ol><li>Demedicalization:<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._D._Laing">R D Laing</a>:</i><br>
Laing took the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of personal experience rather than simply as symptoms of mental illness. …<br>
Laing regarded schizophrenia as the normal psychological adjustment to a dysfunctional social context, but he later acknowledged that his views on schizophrenia were wrong.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 24 September 2023)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labeling_theory">Labeling Theory</a>:</i><br>
Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent in an act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 26 September 2023)</li>
<br>
<li>Identitarianism:<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon_Price">Devon Price</a>:</i><br>
… I capitalize “Autistic” … to indicate it is a part of my identity I am proud of, and to signal Autistics have our own culture, history, and community. …<br>
Because the neural and cognitive features of autism are so pervasive, it affects almost every aspect of a person’s body and brain. …<br>
autism is a core part of who we are, impossible to separate from our personalities, talents, preferences, and general outlook. …<br>
Without our disability (or our gender identity) we’d be entirely different people.<br>
They’re both core parts [of our personhood or personality …]<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity">Neurodiversity</a>:</i><br>
The framework grew out of the autism rights movement and builds on the social model of disability, arguing that disability partly arises from societal barriers, rather than attributing disability purely to inherent deficits.<br>
It instead situates human cognitive variation in the context of biodiversity and the politics of minority groups.<br>
Some neurodiversity advocates and researchers argue that the neurodiversity paradigm is the middle ground between strong medical model and strong social model.<br>
The neurodiversity paradigm has been controversial among disability advocates, with opponents arguing it risks downplaying the suffering associated with some disabilities, and that it calls for the acceptance of things some would wish to be treated.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 26 September 2023)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_politics">Identity Politics</a>:</i><br>
Many contemporary advocates of identity politics take an intersectional perspective, which accounts for the range of interacting systems of oppression that may affect their lives and come from their various identities.<br>
According to many who describe themselves as advocates of identity politics, it centers the lived experiences of those facing systemic oppression; the purpose is
<ul><li>to better understand the interplay of racial, economic, sex-based, and gender-based oppression (among others) and</li>
<li>to ensure no one group is disproportionately affected by political actions, present and future.</li></ul>
Such contemporary applications of identity politics describe people of specific race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, economic class, disability status, education, religion, language, profession, political party, veteran status, recovery status, and geographic location.<br>
These identity labels are not mutually exclusive but are in many cases compounded into one when describing hyper-specific groups.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 14 August 2023)</li>
<br>
<li>Politicization:<br>
<br>
<ul><li>sexism — discrimination / oppression based on patriarchy (eg the feminist 'male gaze' recast as the 'neurotypical gaze');</li>
<li>biological racism — discrimination / oppression based on imagined biological differences between races;
</li>
<li>homophobia — discrimination / oppression based on sexual taboos;</li>
<li>ableism — discrimination / oppression on physical or mental impairment.</li></ul>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Minogue">Kenneth Minogue</a>:</i><br>
Ideology is commonly signaled by the presence of a tripartite structure of theory.<br>
The first stage reveals to us that the past is the history of the oppression of some abstract class of person.<br>
<br>It is concerned
<ul><li>with workers as a class, not (as a politician might be) with workers at a particular time and place; or</li>
<li>with women in general, or</li>
<li>with this or that race.</li></ul>
Specific discontents are all swept up into the symptomatology of the structurally determined oppression.
<br>
The duty of the present is thus to mobilize the oppressed class in the <i>struggle</i> against the oppressive system.<br>
This struggle is not confined to the conventional areas of politics.<br>
It flares up everywhere, even in the remoter recesses of the mind.<br>
And the aim of this struggle is to attain a fully just society, a process generally called <i>liberation</i>.<br>
Ideology is thus a variation played on the triple theme of oppression, struggle, and liberation.<br>
(<i>Politics: A Very Short Introduction</i>, Oxford University Press, 1995)</li></ul>
</li></ul></p>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-69259819798602532022023-10-07T00:32:00.048+11:002023-11-21T01:22:20.864+11:00Equality of Opportunity<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/08/thomas-piketty.html#top">Equality of Opportunity</a></h2>
<br>
<h3 align="center">Parental income and university access, United States, 2014</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Eb_S5veO2I4J_16eWZf0G1Y8WX6wPTYDMFCBMb4xluw2_zMRi63Xz2tSkm4kY1sGXnHg-5WexCtwmWFSSV-4yTdSX7mKgppZEUBlGhpp_oGNQ5R_PRTeamJT_vKs6tYUymGeraBpPLkwAAzHI5rcArbnV8LYbWPCPUtavQcE4b-K-vsIxe7EnuhqOel6/s1600/F_I-08.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="1347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Eb_S5veO2I4J_16eWZf0G1Y8WX6wPTYDMFCBMb4xluw2_zMRi63Xz2tSkm4kY1sGXnHg-5WexCtwmWFSSV-4yTdSX7mKgppZEUBlGhpp_oGNQ5R_PRTeamJT_vKs6tYUymGeraBpPLkwAAzHI5rcArbnV8LYbWPCPUtavQcE4b-K-vsIxe7EnuhqOel6/s640/F_I-08.jpg"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty">Thomas Piketty</a> (1971)</i>:<br>
In 2014, the rate of access to higher education (percentage of individuals age 19–21 enrolled in a college, university, or other institution of higher education) was barely 30 percent for children of the poorest 10 percent in the United States and 90 percent for the richest 10 percent.<br>
(Figure I.8, <i><a href="http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/fr/ideology">Capital and Ideology</a></i>, 2020)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2016/10/robert-putnam.html#top">Robert Putnam</a> (1941):</i><br>
The class gap in college completion, which was already substantial 30 to 40 years ago, has steadily expanded. …<br>
Kids from low-income backgrounds … are working more or less diligently to improve their prospects in life, but no matter how talented and hardworking they are, at best they are improving their play at checkers, while upper-class kids are widening their lead at three-dimensional chess. …<br>
As the twenty-first century opened, a family’s socioeconomic status had become even more important than test scores in predicting which eighth graders would graduate from college. …<br>
[Academically] high-scoring poor kids are now slightly <i>less likely</i> (29%) to get a college degree than low-scoring rich kids (30%).<br>
(<i>Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis</i>, 2015, emphasis added)</blockquote>
<br>
<h3 align="center">The fall of the bottom 50 percent share of total income in the United States, 1960–2015</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5DVr778uw_hnMy25mYDCwYkYdAF3-jEMqtniQ5GnXXFGAIHeIX--hmBogtY6b14lkI0rD3yygrAbEWhqfyhAQQLPuGH6k8ZVr8LuhULIPiibXJni0ElcK8CFzdP6FhQvsTy7iMWXUHpT-6XzjxBXvpsx6i5CfPKg-XovuYbCIOo-mGSd8ZMVpODh7RR_-/s1600/F11-05.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="1336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5DVr778uw_hnMy25mYDCwYkYdAF3-jEMqtniQ5GnXXFGAIHeIX--hmBogtY6b14lkI0rD3yygrAbEWhqfyhAQQLPuGH6k8ZVr8LuhULIPiibXJni0ElcK8CFzdP6FhQvsTy7iMWXUHpT-6XzjxBXvpsx6i5CfPKg-XovuYbCIOo-mGSd8ZMVpODh7RR_-/s640/F11-05.jpg"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty">Thomas Piketty</a> (1971)</i>:<br>
The share of the bottom 50 percent of the income distribution fell from about 20 percent of total income in the United States in the 1970s to 12–13 percent in the 2010s.<br>
During the same period, the top centile share rose from 11 percent to 20–21 percent.<br>
(Figure 11.5, <i><a href="http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/fr/ideology">Capital and Ideology</a></i>, 2020)</blockquote>
<br>
<h3 align="center">Low and high incomes in the United States, 1960–2015</h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0N6VWptZhabu-PeVP7x-7Ku7Z_z0RnIDNw7_c1muwPSFwFH2HgUr1Kp4lPvdnolbwKc5xG7YYnX-ifSvi7_mMbBCptfbEoc65CJM9RUHwXgBEtKR7o_UZrAN8oWlFc75Qo8YvLmcb5iIGjRz5qmj5G2b9ICiVkHPHXvQxk9o_n081BjIENi9q0amLeSYb/s1600/F11-07.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="1346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0N6VWptZhabu-PeVP7x-7Ku7Z_z0RnIDNw7_c1muwPSFwFH2HgUr1Kp4lPvdnolbwKc5xG7YYnX-ifSvi7_mMbBCptfbEoc65CJM9RUHwXgBEtKR7o_UZrAN8oWlFc75Qo8YvLmcb5iIGjRz5qmj5G2b9ICiVkHPHXvQxk9o_n081BjIENi9q0amLeSYb/s640/F11-07.jpg"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty">Thomas Piketty</a> (1971)</i>:<br>
It is now well known that the explosion of inequality in the United States since 1980 was due to an unprecedented increase in very high incomes, especially the famous '1 percent'. …<br>
In 1970, the average income of the poorest 50 percent was $15,200 per year per adult, and that of the richest 1 percent was $403,000, for a ratio of 1 to 26.<br>
In 2015, the average income of the poorest 50 percent was $16,200 and that of the richest 1 percent was $1,305,000, for a ratio of 1 to 81.<br>
All amounts are in 2015 dollars. …<br>
<br>
[One] of the main consequences of the extremely high marginal rates (70–90 percent) on top incomes between 1930 and 1980, especially in the United States and United Kingdom, was to put an end to the most extravagant executive pay.<br>
By contrast, the sharp reduction of top tax rates in the 1980s strongly contributed to the skyrocketing of executive pay.<br>
Indeed, if one looks at the evolution of executive pay in listed companies in all the developed countries since 1980, one finds that variations in tax rates explain much of the variation in executive pay — much more than other factors such as sector of activity, firm size, or performance. …<br>
In the 1950s and 1960s, the top executives of major British and American firms had little interest in fighting for huge raises … because 80–90 percent of any raise would have gone directly to the government.<br>
In the 1980s, however, the nature of the game changed completely.<br>
The evidence suggests that executives began to devote considerable effort to persuading others that enormous raises were warranted, which was not always difficult to do, since it is hard to measure how much any individual executive contributes to the firm’s success.<br>
What is more, compensation committees were often constituted in a rather incestuous fashion.<br>
This also explains why it is so difficult to find any statistically significant correlation between executive pay and firm performance (or productivity). …<br>
<br>
In the 1950s and 1960s, the United States had by far the highest minimum wage in the world.<br>
In 1968–1970 the federal minimum wage was more than $10 an hour in today’s dollars.<br>
Since 1980, however, the failure to raise the minimum wage regularly gradually eroded its value in real terms: in 2019 it was only $7.20, representing a 30 percent decline in purchasing power over half a century — remarkable for a country at peace and growing economically. …<br>
Many works have shown that the drop in the minimum wage in the United States contributed strongly to the declining position of low-wage workers since the 1980s in a general climate of decreased worker bargaining power.<br>
(Figure 11.7, <i><a href="http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/fr/ideology">Capital and Ideology</a></i>, 2020)</blockquote>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2023/11/adam-smith.html#top">Adam Smith</a> (1723 – 90)</h3>
<br>
What are the common wages of labour, depends everywhere upon the contract usually made between [masters and workers], whose interests are by no means the same.<br>
The workmen desire to get as much, the masters to give as little, as possible.<br>
The former are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter in order to lower, the wages of labour.<br>
<br>
It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms.<br>
The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily: and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit, their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen.<br>
<br>
We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work, but many against combining to raise it.<br>
In all such disputes, the masters can hold out much longer.<br>
A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks, which they have already acquired.<br>
Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year, without employment. …<br>
<br>
Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform, combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate. …<br>
Masters, too, sometimes enter into particular combinations to sink the wages of labour even below this rate.<br>
These are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy till the moment of execution …<br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations">The Wealth of Nations</a></i>, 1776)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-frontier">The Frontier</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/murder-in-the-pacific/season-1/rainbow-warrior-murder-in-the-pacific-s1-ep2/2231631427883">Murder in the Pacific</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/trump-takes-on-the-world">Trump Takes on the World</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/the-year-that-made-me-dr-bruce-powell-1985/102663444">Bruce Powell</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/take-me-to-your-leader/sanna-marin/102047484">Sana Marin</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/take-me-to-your-leader/02-take-me-to-your-leader-mohammed-bin-salman/101860116">A man who would be king</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-31156792274076834162023-08-31T00:05:00.022+10:002023-10-07T00:45:42.466+11:00Wonderland<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20205200">Wonderland</a></h2>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien">John Tolkien</a> (1892 – 1970):</i><br>
War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory.<br>
I love only that which they defend.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Two_Towers#The_Window_on_the_West">The Two Towers</a>, <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, 1954)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDaDcq-lGaygyzYIc1u6-xgTA_mqY9Vy0_-498hNhMhNyl7Q9cxKszTkGpAfAWgWDZRP3QdYNaTHtbCzuNLITy1DHl2qEmG86S0IxCBSRbbysNMAg0bix7eJ2pDsLlm96wdYv2OaY-iVQEc910CaVOfXvb7BGas-LtxANpzoaxiSB7Xu4qND0PwjNmV7F/s1600/wonderland303.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="733" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDaDcq-lGaygyzYIc1u6-xgTA_mqY9Vy0_-498hNhMhNyl7Q9cxKszTkGpAfAWgWDZRP3QdYNaTHtbCzuNLITy1DHl2qEmG86S0IxCBSRbbysNMAg0bix7eJ2pDsLlm96wdYv2OaY-iVQEc910CaVOfXvb7BGas-LtxANpzoaxiSB7Xu4qND0PwjNmV7F/s640/wonderland303.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kipling">John Kipling</a>, 1897–1915</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling">Rudyard Kipling</a> (1865 – 1936):</i><br>
My son was killed whilst laughing at some jest.<br>
I would I knew what it was, it might serve me in a time when jests are few.<br>
(A Son, <i><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57409/epitaphs-of-the-war">Epitaphs of the War</a></i>, 1914–18)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgew27pF2pdHEBuysLDxqk4YvKhrwiYmZfsXURU_eq9n3hA3FVxo7L7cThOdnwGrptlm6HeVOudp10kxaALbBU82pYXPU_LuLG78GVWQuK2CeFaU20HBA2Xln8zVbw-cAMiGHVThn0rqM8n_emETE_lWBz6_GS2Ap73rzprLmI1OvGmTiBvwFNUpsffbcZk/s1600/wonderland300.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="763" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgew27pF2pdHEBuysLDxqk4YvKhrwiYmZfsXURU_eq9n3hA3FVxo7L7cThOdnwGrptlm6HeVOudp10kxaALbBU82pYXPU_LuLG78GVWQuK2CeFaU20HBA2Xln8zVbw-cAMiGHVThn0rqM8n_emETE_lWBz6_GS2Ap73rzprLmI1OvGmTiBvwFNUpsffbcZk/s640/wonderland300.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZjDWz3mhYtMKMcbWei4nlFgVmM3ukalBZ2VEnk_iMy31de3kuSBLmmwEvW9i1ctONVeFkT0A1VX1h479pCcjA9jYK5P5aiKGz9yHE7swukz4iZuENF6gCxltFslkj3c1i5k9sXArV-u4Zo0q1Y1dn-62bm-z-88weJUISe2ZPvyM4j8XGurG60pkoCd-/s1600/wonderland301.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="723" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmZjDWz3mhYtMKMcbWei4nlFgVmM3ukalBZ2VEnk_iMy31de3kuSBLmmwEvW9i1ctONVeFkT0A1VX1h479pCcjA9jYK5P5aiKGz9yHE7swukz4iZuENF6gCxltFslkj3c1i5k9sXArV-u4Zo0q1Y1dn-62bm-z-88weJUISe2ZPvyM4j8XGurG60pkoCd-/s640/wonderland301.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJPTrcaKKzL2E-AEiPXB_zkH55on6n27idfMOlm-nhDn8qqkMuS7BmPxpimhtAVvGowNBT2oObq5ESZXZiM7FpDmZcF7gul5ZyLW8w1XqR7PCC1FqSM2jJSxRmDdeIEZRJtnIp_ycWABLU7FoNt86lmg4-mGynAzbEZrKOF-36Zy_HYEEAHmHRAXHkY8Bi/s1600/wonderland302.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJPTrcaKKzL2E-AEiPXB_zkH55on6n27idfMOlm-nhDn8qqkMuS7BmPxpimhtAVvGowNBT2oObq5ESZXZiM7FpDmZcF7gul5ZyLW8w1XqR7PCC1FqSM2jJSxRmDdeIEZRJtnIp_ycWABLU7FoNt86lmg4-mGynAzbEZrKOF-36Zy_HYEEAHmHRAXHkY8Bi/s640/wonderland302.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center">Josephine Kipling, 1892–99</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling">Rudyard Kipling</a> (1865 – 1936):</i><br>
Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds,<br>
And golden elf-locks fly above;<br>
Her eyes are bright as diamonds<br>
And bluer than the sky above.<br>
<br>
In moccasins and deer-skin cloak,<br>
Unfearing, free and fair she flits,<br>
And lights her little damp-wood smoke<br>
To show her Daddy where she flits.<br>
<br>
For far—oh, very far behind,<br>
So far she cannot call to him,<br>
Comes Tegumai alone to find<br>
The daughter that was all to him!<br>
(<a href="https://allpoetry.com/Merrow-Down">Merrow Down</a>, <i>Just So Stories</i>, 1902)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwixYrC04gAdbuIF-51XIk8Pl_yrDRMdMVtcQj-3zNbR8ko0BcFhiiSf86L2S-ts2ZKRWgRcArPgpbwYyeawq5d1rQpYmsx43je0bYYqdxCoyQRwMsjuWqoWejeVrQzgtkeKbvJEz3Ec_tlFRZSj5Ah9A9QkZMgELdaMpJdfQFdeTM1XwFVLWBFWc0aCEU/s1600/wonderland100.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="753" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwixYrC04gAdbuIF-51XIk8Pl_yrDRMdMVtcQj-3zNbR8ko0BcFhiiSf86L2S-ts2ZKRWgRcArPgpbwYyeawq5d1rQpYmsx43je0bYYqdxCoyQRwMsjuWqoWejeVrQzgtkeKbvJEz3Ec_tlFRZSj5Ah9A9QkZMgELdaMpJdfQFdeTM1XwFVLWBFWc0aCEU/s640/wonderland100.PNG"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._A._Milne">Alan Milne</a> (1882 – 1956):</i><br>
Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing.<br>
Of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering. …<br>
<br>
Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known. …<br>
<br>
So, they went off together.<br>
But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest, a little boy and his bear will always be playing.</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lNnPoRqROwX7Cj2Jvii_f5uKhVvmytbi56VBL1KBMCZid2xHOAoDpwaj2euIrGYCvaO_GO2IBWNu7Ah75cXBhu7PweOVS79x51HbbsN4uTS8rWuGMTedcntVmRH35DHYsYZRYLHL7IS_lufbJ1TneEUHuQe-6JHA6O42ych39iBm07UYFynECv3-PsfM/s1600/wonderland402.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="765" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8lNnPoRqROwX7Cj2Jvii_f5uKhVvmytbi56VBL1KBMCZid2xHOAoDpwaj2euIrGYCvaO_GO2IBWNu7Ah75cXBhu7PweOVS79x51HbbsN4uTS8rWuGMTedcntVmRH35DHYsYZRYLHL7IS_lufbJ1TneEUHuQe-6JHA6O42ych39iBm07UYFynECv3-PsfM/s640/wonderland402.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Robin_Milne">Christopher Milne</a>, 1920–96</div>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoVCYOZHyfS2GHxfpsBDTFb9GxVk9bXbTezmUfwfhm-fV2-5OZckTbeHlYe9vgSSjQkZ-jRvXidOcLi6_5j11NLoUmD-phNBbL_84pfBL66OYCsvY2miK-PkHJkS9K5ypYmRPvW_Z9J-lfeqX0_G0kIdTz_DfHukpxdF64-j_XhMb4avfmFa1mQfQ4vGSG/s1600/thearmicanpresidency502.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="749" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoVCYOZHyfS2GHxfpsBDTFb9GxVk9bXbTezmUfwfhm-fV2-5OZckTbeHlYe9vgSSjQkZ-jRvXidOcLi6_5j11NLoUmD-phNBbL_84pfBL66OYCsvY2miK-PkHJkS9K5ypYmRPvW_Z9J-lfeqX0_G0kIdTz_DfHukpxdF64-j_XhMb4avfmFa1mQfQ4vGSG/s640/thearmicanpresidency502.PNG"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Rauchway">Eric Rauchway</a> [Professor of History, University of California, Davis]:</i><br>
When [Woodrow Wilson] was a university professor, he said that he feared that teaching woman was atrophying his mental muscles.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson">Woodrow Wilson</a> (1856 – 1924):</i><br>
We have made partners of the women in this war ...<br>
Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of privilege and right?<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution">Appeal for Women's Suffrage</a>, 1918)</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixqOE-E0iEiBZjLI0Gt-FFAACTIKmdOtMSg2ggWkWOlIHCOCP-4oWyD-eJkJZb_hRsREQwhBlC6l5D_EkZXOLridF0fIA6xFSP351XH6kbxmEzXPRzPQuPhL_MnhTVqnGjiBZay1_kh2kBcGjlPZOoa9vYi7Ks6Fwrn1zBWtH51uH5Gxdt_x0MUibj8_mA/s1600/thearmicanpresidency503.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="764" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixqOE-E0iEiBZjLI0Gt-FFAACTIKmdOtMSg2ggWkWOlIHCOCP-4oWyD-eJkJZb_hRsREQwhBlC6l5D_EkZXOLridF0fIA6xFSP351XH6kbxmEzXPRzPQuPhL_MnhTVqnGjiBZay1_kh2kBcGjlPZOoa9vYi7Ks6Fwrn1zBWtH51uH5Gxdt_x0MUibj8_mA/s640/thearmicanpresidency503.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center">(<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-american-presidency-with-bill-clinton">The American Presidency with Bill Clinton</a>, 2022)</div>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_E1yqqa4oQbDeYREl0zHvAVNj-CEUNuKgFSGa-qtOiZd4Xx6WCNPNZtTlxpo68QzWmhTh1FTUs_fU8fw9_jl70_ol2N5vP7UnygZC5914xfAb0PEx7eoyqZxYV59LI_4ZvJ3kLjgEUrsxIRmBJ8dJdWlEynUi4asEWrp2A88Y25vOcUZKQayxnGz7P9c/s1600/cosmictimemachine00.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_E1yqqa4oQbDeYREl0zHvAVNj-CEUNuKgFSGa-qtOiZd4Xx6WCNPNZtTlxpo68QzWmhTh1FTUs_fU8fw9_jl70_ol2N5vP7UnygZC5914xfAb0PEx7eoyqZxYV59LI_4ZvJ3kLjgEUrsxIRmBJ8dJdWlEynUi4asEWrp2A88Y25vOcUZKQayxnGz7P9c/s640/cosmictimemachine00.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope">James Webb Space Telescope</a><br>
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<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibnFzsSC4XV0uhuOlnhMB6AvaEXKV_jXB4R5N44mJ9lxZTZEPTats0dRyDXr4Zrk6Pg2xp9-yjFEXAq3688ZC4OLs1nhx5raFNEW5sn-JhMlNTfv96tQUatWJNMjCkiKrGYLhKFuusNdfDssiuQZT3tKnsn5gBxpTzgrzKfAnw_6HUrS62n5UoOlGU4LKw/s1600/themurdochsempireofinfluence703.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="623" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibnFzsSC4XV0uhuOlnhMB6AvaEXKV_jXB4R5N44mJ9lxZTZEPTats0dRyDXr4Zrk6Pg2xp9-yjFEXAq3688ZC4OLs1nhx5raFNEW5sn-JhMlNTfv96tQUatWJNMjCkiKrGYLhKFuusNdfDssiuQZT3tKnsn5gBxpTzgrzKfAnw_6HUrS62n5UoOlGU4LKw/s640/themurdochsempireofinfluence703.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-murdochs-empire-of-influence">The Murdochs: Empire of Influence</a>, <i>CNN</i>, 2022</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931):</i><br>
[There’s] a real challenge to confront: a wave of censorship that seeks:
<ul><li>to silence conversation,</li>
<li>to stifle debate,</li>
<li>to ultimately stop individuals and societies from realizing their potential.</li></ul>
This rigidly enforced conformity, aided and abetted by so-called social media, is a straitjacket on sensibility.<br>
To many people have fought too hard, in too many places, for freedom of speech to be suppressed by this awful woke orthodoxy. …<br>
There are many goals still to come and challenges to overcome.<br>
Well, I'm far from done.<br>
(<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/business/media/rupert-murdoch-josh-hawley-woke.html">Acceptance Speech</a>, Lifetime Achievement Award by the Australia Day Foundation UK, Australia House, 23 January 2021)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/korean-women/102252804">The Korean Fertility Crisis</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/self-love-liability-and-babies-as-click-bait-algorithms/102583216">Monetizing Your Children</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001h4bz">Rawls' Theory of Justice</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/30/1185025497/a-bounced-check-a-police-arrest-and-the-fight-to-give-millions-a-second-chance">Criminalizing Poverty</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0011lt1">Think with Pinker</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/the-year-that-made-me-dr-bruce-powell-1985/102663444">Bruce Powell</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-90304566636176489012023-08-04T02:10:00.025+10:002023-09-09T02:35:33.372+10:00The Road to Freedom<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
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<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWmJItILvtWl2D_IV7TtGqac1YjPVVXTk0-yHTyYA7rWnDcnNvbyhZvBF0KI6Yz9qzs8Nf1wT6p9jio6NRHhEuVmG0Ptu3H3RJ3D5l6uy1KQHVuwNSJG2NkZ-yn_Ok5j1yj-e9vFnShnq_htohQBAKDJhlnFeLcxN_l5IOKVTpam1J96aU816Fa2zeuEo/s1600/hemingway200.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="775" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWmJItILvtWl2D_IV7TtGqac1YjPVVXTk0-yHTyYA7rWnDcnNvbyhZvBF0KI6Yz9qzs8Nf1wT6p9jio6NRHhEuVmG0Ptu3H3RJ3D5l6uy1KQHVuwNSJG2NkZ-yn_Ok5j1yj-e9vFnShnq_htohQBAKDJhlnFeLcxN_l5IOKVTpam1J96aU816Fa2zeuEo/s640/hemingway200.PNG"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/06/american-experience-theodore-roosevelt.html#2.3">Theodore Roosevelt</a> (1858 – 1919):</i><br>
Leave it as it is.<br>
You can not improve on it.<br>
The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.<br>
What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and for all who come after you …<br>
(<a href="https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/TR-Quotes/Leave%20it%20as%20it%20is%20%20You%20can%20not%20improve%20on%20it%20%20The%20ages%20have%20been%20at%20work%20on%20it">Grand Canyon</a>, 6 May 1903)<br>
<br>
We must handle the water, the wood, the grasses … so that we will hand them on to our children and children's children in better and not worse shape than we got them. …<br>
(David Grubin, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/tr/">TR</a>, <i>PBS American Experience</i>, 1996)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes">Thomas Hobbes</a> (1588 – 1679):</i><br>
In [the <i>natural condition</i> of mankind], there is
<ul><li>no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently</li>
<li>no Culture of the Earth;</li>
<li>no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea;</li>
<li>no commodious Building;</li>
<li>no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force;</li>
<li>no Knowledge of the face of the Earth;</li>
<li>no account of Time;</li>
<li>no Arts;</li>
<li>no Letters;</li>
<li>no Society; and which is worst of all,</li>
<li>continuall feare, and danger of violent death;</li></uL>
And the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes#Leviathan_(1651)">Leviathan</a></i>, 1651)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Silvia Federici is & Alice Markham-Cantor:</i><br>
[The] following were the crimes of 65-year-old Margaret Harkett, who was
hanged at Tyburn, England, in 1585:
<blockquote><i>Keith Thomas (1933):</i><br>
She had picked a basket of peas in a neighbor’s field without permission.<br>
Asked to return them, she flung them down in anger; since when, no peas would grow in the field.<br>
Later, William Goodwin’s servants denied her yeast, whereupon his brewing-stand dried up.<br>
She was struck by a bailiff who had caught her taking wood from his master’s ground; the bailiff went mad.<br>
A neighbor refused her a horse; all his horses died.<br>
Another paid her less for a pair of shoes than she asked; later he died.<br>
A gentleman told his servants to refuse her buttermilk; after which they were unable to make butter or cheese.<br>
(<i><a href="https://archive.org/details/religiondeclineo0000thom">Religion and the Decline of Magic</a></i>, 1971)</blockquote>
(Witch Hunts, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/01/scientific-american.html">Scientific American</a></i>, May 2023, p 48)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/05/carl-sagan.html#7-top">Would you like to know more?</a></i></blockquote>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/russell-bertrand.html#top">Bertrand Russell</a> (1872 – 1970)</h3>
<br>
If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it.<br>
If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance with his instincts, he will accept it even on the slenderest evidence.<br>
<br>
<br>
The glorification of the State, and the doctrine that it is every citizen's duty to serve the State, are radically against progress and against liberty.<br>
The State, though at present a source of much evil, is also a means to certain good things, and will be needed so long as violent and destructive impulses remain common.<br>
But it is MERELY a means, and a means which needs to be very carefully and sparingly used if it is not to do more harm than good.<br>
It is not the State, but the community, the worldwide community of all human beings present and future, that we ought to serve.<br>
And a good community does not spring from the glory of the State, but
<ul><li>from the unfettered development of individuals:</li>
<li>from happiness in daily life,</li>
<li>from congenial work giving opportunity for whatever constructiveness each man or woman may possess,</li>
<li>from free personal relations embodying love and taking away the roots of envy in thwarted capacity from affection, and above all</li>
<li>from the joy of life and its expression in the spontaneous creations of art and science.</li></ul>
It is these things that make an age or a nation worthy of existence, and these things are not to be secured by bowing down before the State.<br>
It is the individual in whom all that is good must be realized, and the free growth of the individual must be the supreme end of a political system which is to re-fashion the world.<br>
<br>
(<i>Proposed Roads to Freedom</i>, 1918 / 2014)<br>
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<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2329H001S00">Trump: My beautiful mind paper boxes</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2303H023S00">Putin and the Presidents</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2303H024S00">Blocked: The battle over youth gender care</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/watch/2202293827848">Fox News and January 6</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-american-presidency-with-bill-clinton">The American Presidency</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sundayextra/putin-s-war/102750036">Why Putin and Russia went to war</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/folbigg/102462412">Kathleen Folbigg</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/not-so-black-and-white-/102458064">No so black and white: a history of race from white supremacy to identity politics</a><br>
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<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/false-witness/102485342">The Psychologist from Hell</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-62195762169928188622023-07-02T01:11:00.018+10:002023-08-04T03:43:28.182+10:00Non-Random Evolution<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
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<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins">Richard Dawkins</a> (1941)</h3>
<br>
[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle">Fred Hoyle</a> (1915 – 2001) compared] the spontaneous formation by ‘chance’ of a working enzyme is like a hurricane blowing through a junkyard and spontaneously
having the luck to put together a Boeing 747. …<br>
<br>
<br>
[To] invoke chance, on its own, as an explanation [for objects such as eyes and protein molecules], is equivalent to vaulting from the bottom to the top of Mount Improbable’s steepest cliff in one bound. <br>
And what corresponds to inching up the kindly, grassy slopes on the other side of the mountain? <br>
It is the slow, cumulative, one-step-at-a-time, <b>non-random</b> survival of random variants that Darwin called natural selection.<br>
The metaphor of Mount Improbable dramatizes the mistake of the sceptics quoted at the beginning of this chapter.<br>
Where they went wrong was to keep their eyes fixed on the vertical precipice and its dramatic height. <br>
They assumed that the sheer cliff was the only way up to the summit on which are perched eyes and protein molecules and other supremely improbable arrangements of parts.<br>
It was Darwin’s great achievement to discover the gentle gradients winding up the other side of the mountain. …<br>
<br>
<br>
Darwinism is widely misunderstood as a theory of pure chance. …<br>
One stage in the Darwinian process is indeed a chance process—mutation.<br>
Mutation is the process by which fresh genetic variation is offered up for selection and it is usually described as random. <br>
But Darwinians make the fuss that they do about the ‘randomness’ of mutation only in order to contrast it to the non-randomness of
selection, the other side of the process.<br>
It is not necessary that mutation should be random in order for natural selection to work. <br>
Selection can still do its work whether mutation is directed or not.<br>
Emphasizing that mutation can be random is our way of calling attention to the crucial fact that, by contrast, selection is sublimely and quintessentially non-random.<br>
It is ironic that this emphasis on the contrast between mutation and the non-randomness of selection has led people to think that the whole theory is a theory of chance. …<br>
<br>
<br>
The Darwinian explanation for why living things are so good at doing what they do is very simple.<br>
They are good because of the accumulated wisdom of their ancestors.<br>
But it is not wisdom that they have learned or acquired.<br>
It is wisdom that they chanced upon by lucky random mutations, wisdom that was then selectively, non-randomly, recorded in the genetic database of the species.<br>
In each generation the amount of luck was not very great …<br>
But, because the luck has been accumulated over so many generations, we are eventually very impressed by the apparent improbability of the end product. …<br>
[Heredity] the basic ingredient [of] Darwinism, and hence life, will follow, more or less inevitably, on any planet in the universe where something equivalent to heredity arises. …<br>
<br>
<br>
The message from the mountain is threefold. <br>
First is the message we have already introduced: there can be no sudden leaps upward—no precipitous increases in ordered complexity.<br>
Second, there can be no going downhill—species can’t get worse as a prelude to getting better.<br>
Third, there may be more than one peak—more than one way of solving the same problem, all flourishing in the world.<br>
<br>
Take any part of any animal or plant, and … ask: how that part has been formed by gradual transformation from some other part of an earlier ancestor? …<br>
A famous example is the gradual derivation of our mammalian ear bones …<br>
Fossil evidence clearly shows that these three bones, called the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup, are lineally descended from three corresponding bones that, in our reptile ancestors, formed the jaw joint.<br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climbing_Mount_Improbable">Climbing Mount Improbable</a></i>, 1996)<br>
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<br>
<h3><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/04/charles-darwin.html#top">Charles Darwin</a> (1809 – 82)</h3>
<br>
Under nature, the slightest difference of structure or constitution may well turn the nicely-balanced scale in the struggle for life, and so be preserved.<br>
How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man! how short his time! and consequently how poor will his products be, compared with those accumulated by nature during whole geological periods.<br>
Can we wonder, then,
<ul><li>that nature’s productions should be far ‘truer’ in character than man’s productions;</li>
<li>that they should be infinitely better adapted to the most complex conditions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far higher workmanship?</li></ul>
<br>
It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly:
<ul><li>scrutinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest;</li>
<li>rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good;</li>
<li>silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life.</li></ul>
We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the long lapse of ages, and then so imperfect is our view into long past geological ages, that we only see that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were.<br>
<br>
(<i>On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection</i>, 1859)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3>The Final Victory</h3>
<br>
<i>Christian Krause:</i><br>
Where cities once bloomed, the ruins reach up to the sky.<br>
The war is our destiny.<br>
We must accept it.<br>
And it is proof of our unique greatness that we are not prepared to give in to our enemies.<br>
Better dead than a slave!<br>
Our task is to mature for victory or death.<br>
(1945)<br>
<br>
<i>Margarete Krause:</i><br>
The Führer is there, where the danger is greatest.<br>
He is true to himself.<br>
Should we not be true to him, unto victory or ruin?<br>
We have no choice!<br>
We must fulfil the destiny he gies us with our bravest hearts, with the best we have, loyal, upright, without hesitating or wavering.<br>
(1945)<br>
<br>
<i>Johannes Tuchal {German Resistance Memorial Centre]:</i><br>
The people supported the dictatorship.<br>
At no point did a majority of Germans ever turn against Hitler.<br>
It was always a very, very small minority of the German people who turned against him and grasped what the dictatorship had done to Germany.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claus_von_Stauffenberg">Claus von Stauffenberg</a> (1907 – 44):</i><br>
It is time for something to be done.<br>
Anyone who dares to do something must accept that he will probably go down in German history as a traitor.<br>
But if he fails to act, he would be a traitor to his own conscience.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler">Adolf Hitler</a> (1889 – 1945):</i><br>
However great the crisis of the moment may be, we will master it in the end through our unbreakable will.<br>
(30 January 1945)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/brian-cox-seven-days-on-mars/">Seven Days On Mars</a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKV7hnrU2usDqm35JvODlcunEbL0YgyGuvrVsjm-qZJ6ahCh_a1149E_gjczJrTIvP_pinheNV0BtLfg2qbY8WTaJW8F3cIWL3YLs8368_suIjhV52ZXZUMVi_BMGjQ57U3lJjDUbC0RSpzzqwN4BDnCxTwYGaggR9-vZTXpOthdriYVqeadzlihXJ_IW/s1600/sevendaysonmars100.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="612" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKV7hnrU2usDqm35JvODlcunEbL0YgyGuvrVsjm-qZJ6ahCh_a1149E_gjczJrTIvP_pinheNV0BtLfg2qbY8WTaJW8F3cIWL3YLs8368_suIjhV52ZXZUMVi_BMGjQ57U3lJjDUbC0RSpzzqwN4BDnCxTwYGaggR9-vZTXpOthdriYVqeadzlihXJ_IW/s640/sevendaysonmars100.PNG"/></a>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2303H026S00">Wagner</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/rear-vision/102583222">Soldiers of Fortune</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/24/1159075553/does-language-shape-how-we-think">Does language shape how we think?</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/if-youre-listening/zelenskys-big-call-run-away-or-stay-to-fight/101654270">I don't need a ride</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/the-cost-of-speaking-out-on-afghanistan/102467716">The cost of speaking out on Afghanistan</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-67122915417680139732023-06-07T00:57:00.051+10:002023-07-03T02:15:26.986+10:00Human Capital<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Minogue">Kenneth Minogue</a> (1930 – 2013):</i><br>
The Greek <i>despotes</i> and the Roman <i>dominus</i> both signify the specific form of power exercised by the master of slaves. …<br>
The essence of despotism is … the unchecked power of the master. …<br>
The sole object of the subjects must be to please.<br>
There is … no public voice except that of the despot.<br>
<br>
Such powerlessness is, oddly enough, the reason why despotisms are notable generators of spiritual enlightenment.<br>
A reaction sets in against a world governed by the caprice of power, and thoughtful subjects take up mysticism, Stoicism, and other forms of withdrawal.<br>
The essence of life is then found in a spiritual realm beyond that of the senses, and social and political life is devalued as illusion.<br>
The result is usually scientific and technological stagnation …<br>
<br>
All that one can confidently say about despotism is that able rulers will sooner or later be followed by mad or feeble heirs.<br>
(<i>Politics: A Very Short Introduction</i>, Oxford University Press, 1995)</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/08/thomas-piketty.html#top">Thomas Piketty</a> (1971)</h2>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2018/01/brothers-in-arms.html#slavery">Land of the Free</a></h3>
<br>
The total number of slaves on Euro-American plantations in the Atlantic region [peaked at] 6 million in 1860 (4 million of whom were in the southern United States, 1.6 million in Brazil, and 0.4 million in Cuba). …<br>
[The] 4 million slaves exploited in the southern United States on the eve of the Civil War (1861–1865) constituted the largest concentration of slaves that ever existed. …<br>
[The] market value of all slaves exceeded the value of all other private property (land, buildings, and equipment). …<br>
<br>
[Politically,] the number of slaves played a key role in determining the number of seats assigned to each state in the House of Representatives and therefore the number of members of the Electoral College, which chooses the president: each slave counted for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise">three-fifths</a> of a free person. …<br>
Of the fifteen presidents who served prior to the election of the Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860, no fewer than eleven were slaveowners. …<br>
<br>
In the 1850s, on the eve of the American Civil War, 75 percent of the cotton imported by European textile factories came from the southern United States.<br>
[It] was this “empire of cotton,” intimately associated with slave plantations, that was the heart of the Industrial Revolution and more generally of the economic domination of Europe and the United States. …<br>
<br>
The necessity of compensating slaveowners [for loss of their property] was obvious not only to the political and economic elites of the time but also to many thinkers and intellectuals. …<br>
<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2016/06/alexis-de-tocqueville.html#top">Tocqueville</a> … proposed in 1843 that half the indemnity be paid to slaveholders in the form of government annuities (hence by increasing the public debt, to be repaid by the taxpayers) and the other half by the slaves themselves, who would work for the state for ten years at low wages, allowing the wage differential to be used to reimburse their former owners.<br>
In that way, he argued, the solution would be “fair to all participating parties,” since the former slaveowners would, after ten years, be obliged to pay “the increased price of labor” due to emancipation. …<br>
[He also] proposed that former slaves be deprived of property rights for a long period of time, from ten to twenty years, to give them time to acquire <i>a taste for work and effort</i>; this lesson might be lost if they were to discover the comforts of property too quickly (and “unnaturally”).<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/08/thomas-piketty.html#capital&ideology">From Ownership Society to Social Democracy</a></h3>
<blockquote><i>OWNERSHIP SOCIETY (sometimes called proprietarian society):</i><br>
A social order based on a quasi-religious defense of property rights as the sine qua non of social and political stability.<br>
Ownership societies flourished in Europe and the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. …<br>
Proprietarian ideology is the ideology of ownership society, based on the sacralization of property rights.</blockquote>
[In] 1880 nearly 80% of the land in the United Kingdom was … owned by 7,000 noble families (less than 0.1% of the population), with more than half belonging to just 250 families (0.01% of the population), a tiny group that largely coincided with the hereditary peers who sat in the House of Lords. …<br>
<br>
[The] House of Lords played a clearly dominant role in British becameralism until the last third of the nineteeth century. …<br>
Specifically, all laws had to be approved in identical terms by both houses, effectively conferring a veto power over all legislation, including fiscal and budgetary matters and anything to do with property rights, on the House of Lords (and thus on a few hundred hereditary peers). …<br>
<br>
In the early 1860s, roughly 75 percent of the seats in the House of Commons were still occupied by members of the [landed] aristocracy, which accounted for less than 0.5 percent of the British population at the time. …<br>
[Before the] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_ballot">secret ballot</a> was … introduced [in] 1872 … each individual vote was announced publicly and recorded …<br>
Hence it was not easy for voters to make political choices that went against the wishes of their landlords or employers. …<br>
The local member of Parliament (MP) was reelected in election after election and often in generation after generation.<br>
In 1860 the House of Commons was still profoundly aristocratic and oligarchic. …<br>
<br>
[The] famous Black Act of 1723 … stipulated the death penalty for anyone caught pilfering wood or poaching game on land they did not own.<br>
Humble folk had taken to blackening their faces and trying their luck by night, and landlords in the House of Lords and their allies in the House of Commons were determined to prevent this.<br>
Anyone who killed a deer, cut down a tree, poached fish from a breeding pond, pulled up plants, or abetted or incited such activity fell under the shadow of the act and could be sentenced to death by hanging without trial of any kind.<br>
Initially intended to expire after three years, the law was renewed and reinforced over the next century until these acts of rebellion ceased and the proprietarian order was restored. …<br>
<br>
Universal male suffrage was established in 1918, and the vote was finally extended to women in 1928.<br>
This final phase of reform also witnessed the first decisive successes of the Labour Party.<br>
<br>
The [Swedish] social democrats of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Social_Democratic_Party">SAP</a> came to power in the early 1920s …<br>
The party subsequently held power more or less permanently from 1932 to 2006, and this long period in government allowed it to develop a very sophisticated welfare and tax system, which in turn achieved one of the lowest levels of inequality ever observed anywhere.<br>
[Prior to] the early twentieth century, Sweden was a profoundly inegalitarian country …<br>
In 1885, Sweden still had a law on the books allowing anyone without either a job or sufficient property to live on to be arrested and sentenced to a term of forced labor. …<br>
<br>
[In] Sweden from 1865 to 1911 … the number of votes each voter could cast depended on the size of that voter’s tax payments, property, and income.<br>
The men sufficiently wealthy to vote in elections for the lower house were divided into forty-odd groups, and each group was assigned a different electoral weight.<br>
Specifically, each member of the least wealthy group could cast one vote, while each member of the wealthiest group could cast as many as fifty-four votes.<br>
<br>
A similar system applied to municipal elections … with the additional wrinkle that corporations also had the right to vote in local elections, again casting a number of ballots that depended on their tax payments, property, and profits.<br>
No voter in an urban municipal election, whether a private individual or a corporation, could cast more than one hundred ballots.<br>
In rural towns, however, there was no such ceiling; indeed, in the municipal elections of 1871, there were 54 rural towns in Sweden where one voter cast more than 50% of the votes. …<br>
<br>
[Yet] in the space of a few years Sweden moved from the most extreme hyper-inegalitarian proprietarian system … to a quintessential egalitarian social-democratic society once the SAP came to power in the 1920s …<br>
<br>
People sometimes imagine that each culture or civilization has some “essence” that makes it naturally egalitarian or inegalitarian. …<br>
In fact, everything depends on the rules and institutions that each human society establishes, and things can change very quickly depending on the balance of political and ideological power among contending social groups as well as on the logic of events and on unstable historical trajectories …<br>
Sweden reminds us that equality is always a fragile sociopolitical construct, and nothing can be considered permanent: what was transformed in the past by institutions and the mobilization of political movements and ideologies can be transformed again by similar means, for better or for worse.<br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_and_Ideology">Capital and Ideology</a></i>, 2019)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-23/russias-info-war/102016186">Satanic Paedophillic Cannabilistic LGBT Nazi Drug Addicts</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/watch/2199115331582">The Fall of King Roger</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/whale-wisdom-narrated-by-david-attenborough/video/ZW3612A001S00">Whale Wisdom</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/the-global-rise-of-unhappiness/102042494">The global rise of unhappiness</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fm8m">Race Suicide: Jews Will Not Replace Us</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/self-help-the-problem-pop-psychology/102171186">Replication in Psychology</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/medicare-is-it-still-fit-for-purpose/102171182">Liberals Hate Medicare</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-64032908916953221322023-05-04T00:09:00.015+10:002023-06-22T00:34:52.274+10:00The First Australian Civilization<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">Expansion is everything<br>
These stars … these vast worlds which we can never reach<br>
I would annex the planets if I could</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes">Cecil Rhodes</a> (1853 – 1902)</i></blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/russell-bertrand.html#top">Bertrand Russell</a> (1872 – 1970):</i><br>
The men who advocate an unpopular reform are exceptional in disinterestedness and zeal for the public good; but those who hold power after the reform has been carried out are likely to belong, in the main, to the ambitious executive type which has in all ages possessed itself of the government of nations.<br>
And this type has never shown itself tolerant of opposition or friendly to freedom.<br>
(<i>Proposed Roads to Freedom</i>, 1918 / 2014)<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes"><br>
<br>
<br>
Thomas Lawrence</a> (1888 – 1935) [Lawrence or Arabia]:</i><br>
There is a preliminary Arab success, the British reinforcements go out as a punitive force.<br>
They fight their way … to their objective, which is meanwhile bombarded by artillery, aeroplanes, or gunboats.<br>
Finally perhaps a village is burnt and the district pacified.<br>
It is odd that we don’t use poison gas on these occasions.<br>
Bombing the houses is a patchy way of getting the women and children. …<br>
By gas attacks the whole population of offending districts could be wiped out neatly; and as a method of government it would be no more immoral than the present system.<br>
(France, Britain and the Arabs, <i>The Observer</i>, 1920)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLubPQT2gL5Cl6nVL6rxKvcMlivXosivVDNHG6c4fvlpFcfiqhz4Qtuqu3XT7EPyGFkYL4vDEyhghrR5e1CO9ir3hIrORyYwBzKYp0fH2RfYGhNeqFC5FIC2ZmkTfPI-SwwM-fD9DhVmEx8YuyBNyanMHXe5SOdU8dgChPDwZhuQpw_CeQMxx41pfypPP/s1600/BBC.Empire.1of5.A.Taste.for.Power.XviD.AC3.MVGroup.org.avi_snapshot_39.04_%5B2023.06.22_00.29.02%5D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="720" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLubPQT2gL5Cl6nVL6rxKvcMlivXosivVDNHG6c4fvlpFcfiqhz4Qtuqu3XT7EPyGFkYL4vDEyhghrR5e1CO9ir3hIrORyYwBzKYp0fH2RfYGhNeqFC5FIC2ZmkTfPI-SwwM-fD9DhVmEx8YuyBNyanMHXe5SOdU8dgChPDwZhuQpw_CeQMxx41pfypPP/s640/BBC.Empire.1of5.A.Taste.for.Power.XviD.AC3.MVGroup.org.avi_snapshot_39.04_%5B2023.06.22_00.29.02%5D.png"/></a>
<br>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond">Jared Diamond</a> (1937)</h3>
<br>
Nomadism, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and minimal investment in shelter and possessions were sensible adaptations to Australia's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B1o%E2%80%93Southern_Oscillation">ENSO</a>-driven resource unpredictability.<br>
When local conditions deteriorated, Aborigines simply moved to an area where conditions were temporarily better.<br>
Rather than depending on just a few crops that could fail, they minimized risk by developing an economy based on a great variety of wild foods, not all of which were likely to fail simultaneously.<br>
Instead of having fluctuating populations that periodically outran their resources and starved, they maintained smaller populations that enjoyed
<ul><li>an abundance of food in good years, and</li>
<li>a sufficiency in bad years.</li></ul>
<br>
The Aboriginal Australian substitute for food production has been termed "firestick farming."<br>
The Aborigines modified and managed the surrounding landscape in ways that increased its production of edible plants and animals, without resorting to cultivation.<br>
In particular, they intentionally burned much of the landscape periodically.<br>
That served several purposes:
<ul><li>the fires drove out animals that could be killed and eaten immediately;</li>
<li>fires converted dense thickets into open parkland in which people could travel more easily;</li>
<li>the parkland was also an ideal habitat for kangaroos, Australia's prime game animal; and</li>
<li>the fires stimulated the growth both
<ul><li>of new grass on which kangaroos fed, and</li>
<li>of fern roots on which Aborigines themselves fed.</li></ul>
</ul>
<br>
We think of Australian Aborigines as desert people, but most of them were not.<br>
Instead, their population densities varied
<ul><li>with rainfall (because it controls the production of terrestrial wild plant and animal foods) and</li>
<li>with abundance of aquatic foods in the sea, rivers, and lakes.</li></ul>
The highest population densities of Aborigines were in Australia's wettest and most productive regions:
<ul><li>the Murray-Darling river system of the Southeast,</li>
<li>the eastern and northern coasts, and</li>
<li>the southwestern corner.</li></ul>
Those areas also came to support the densest populations of European settlers in modern Australia.<br>
The reason we think of Aborigines as desert people is simply that Europeans killed or drove them out of the most desirable areas, leaving the last intact Aboriginal populations only in areas that Europeans didn't want. …<br>
<br>
Why did [Indigenous Australians] not develop metal tools, writing, and politically complex societies?<br>
A major reason is that Aborigines remained hunter-gatherers, whereas … those developments arose elsewhere only in populous and economically specialized societies of food producers.<br>
In addition, Australia's aridity, infertility, and climatic unpredictability limited its hunter-gatherer population to only a few hundred thousand [widely dispersed] people.<br>
Compared with the tens of millions of people in ancient China or Mesoamerica, that meant that Australia had
<ul><li>far fewer potential inventors, and</li>
<li>far fewer societies to experiment with adopting innovations. …</li></ul>
<br>
European settlement reduced the number of Aborigines by two means.
<ul><li>One involved shooting them …<br>
The last large-scale massacre, of 31 Aborigines, occurred at Alice Springs in 1928.</li>
<li>The other means involved European-introduced germs to which Aborigines had had no opportunity to acquire immunity or to evolve genetic resistance. …</li></ul>
Within one century of European colonization, 40,000 years of Aboriginal traditions had been mostly swept away. …<br>
<br>
How, except by postulating deficiencies in the Aborigines themselves, can one account for the fact that white English colonists apparently created a literate, food-producing, industrial democracy, within a few decades of colonizing a continent whose inhabitants after more than 40,000 years were still nonliterate nomadic hunter-gatherers?<br>
Doesn't that constitute a perfectly controlled experiment in the evolution of human societies, forcing us to a simple racist conclusion?<br>
<br>
The resolution of this problem is simple.<br>
White English colonists did not create a literate, food-producing, industrial democracy in Australia.<br>
Instead, they imported … 10,000 years of development in Eurasian environments. …<br>
Europeans have never learned to survive in Australia or New Guinea without their inherited Eurasian technology. …<br>
The people who did create a society in Australia were Aboriginal Australians.<br>
Of course, the society that they created was not a literate, food- producing, industrial democracy.<br>
The reasons follow straightforwardly from features of the Australian environment.<br>
<br>
(Yali's People, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel">Guns, Germs, and Steel</a></i>, Chapter 15, 1997)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/SC2204H001S00">The Dark Universe</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/RF2106H002S00">Onward Christian Soldier: Israel Folau</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-20/ron-desantis,-the-republican-most-likely-to-take/102249000">The War on Woke</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-american-presidency-with-bill-clinton">Separate but Unequal</a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLuv2MTjTEyHBxxzi9FT_od3eELbXEj13QBYP4Y8VJiqx5131fYmiavdcyyl6oux4SrZwj2PV5fx0jqBIY-osRRw1DAmfRjZaZAnNe7LTbh-UGq6bM5nng7KSbd_qoH4z7FJOxH2JO_-ijdlOPPiajjwiPT6Ep7fydFIMluLg-oz1cgnULNqBdRLkwXQ/s1600/thearmicanpresidency102.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="691" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLuv2MTjTEyHBxxzi9FT_od3eELbXEj13QBYP4Y8VJiqx5131fYmiavdcyyl6oux4SrZwj2PV5fx0jqBIY-osRRw1DAmfRjZaZAnNe7LTbh-UGq6bM5nng7KSbd_qoH4z7FJOxH2JO_-ijdlOPPiajjwiPT6Ep7fydFIMluLg-oz1cgnULNqBdRLkwXQ/s640/thearmicanpresidency102.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center">(<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/tr/">Booker T Washington dinner at the White House</a>, 16 October 1901)</div>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/reserve-bank-review/102180386">The Right to be Unequal</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/economic-inequality/102207348">Winner Takes All</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/trump-criminal-charge/102192690">Lock Him Up</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_and_kill">Catch and Kill</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-44980161873241474632023-04-01T01:00:00.046+11:002023-06-15T01:55:47.349+10:00The Right to be Unequal<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1935">Soak the Rich</a></h2>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">In order to succeed … the poor need, most of all, the spur of their poverty.</span><br>
<br>
<i>—
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gilder">George Gilder</a> (1939), </i>Wealth and Poverty<i>, 1981.</i><span style="font-size: medium"><br>
<br>
<br>
Everything that is economically efficient is morally justified.</i></span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yegor_Gaidar">Yegor Gaidar</a> (1956 – 2009)</i></blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher">Margaret Thatcher</a> (1925 – 2013):</i><br>
[The] pursuit of equality itself is a mirage.<br>
What's more desireable and more practicable than the pursuit of equality is the pursuit of equality of opportunity.<br>
And opportunity means nothing unless it includes <i>the right to be unequal</i> and the freedom to be different. …<br>
I would say, let our children grow tall and some taller than others if they have the ability in them to do so.<br>
Because we must build a society in which each citizen can develop his full potential, both for his own benefit and for the community as a whole …<br>
(<a href="https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102769">Let Our Children Grow Tall</a>, Institute of SocioEconomic Studies, 15 September 1975)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a> (1911 – 2004):</i><br>
The minimum wage has caused more misery and unemployment than anything since the Great Depression.<br>
(1980)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman:</i><br>
The bottom half of the adult population has thus been shut off from economic growth for over 40 years, and the modest increase in their post-tax income has been absorbed by increased health spending. …<br>
[The] stagnation of bottom 50% incomes and the upsurge in the top 1% coincided with:
<ul><li>reduced progressive taxation,</li>
<li>widespread deregulation (particularly in the financial sector),</li>
<li>weakened unions, and</li>
<li>an erosion of the federal minimum wage.</li></ul>
(<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjx043">Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States</a>, <i>The Quarterly Journal of Economics</i> 133, no. 2:553–609, May 2018)</blockquote>
<br>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="width: 680px;" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="2"><div align="center"><h3>Mean Wealth Holdings in the United States (2013)</h3>
(Adapted from Table 3: Edward Wolff, <i><a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w20733">Household Wealth Trends in the United States, 1962-2013: What Happened Over the Great Recession?</a></i>, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2014, p 51)</div></td></tr>
<tr><th width="50%">Percentile</th><th width="50%">Net Worth</th></tr>
<tr><td>P99-100</td><td align="right">$18,623,400</td></tr>
<tr><td>P90-99</td><td align="right">$2,266,400</td></tr>
<tr><td>P40-90</td><td align="right">$242,800</td></tr>
<tr><td>P0-40</td><td align="right">−$10,800</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>
<br>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" style="width: 680px;" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="4" align="center"><h3>Income in the United States (1970)</h3>
(US Department of Commerce, <i>Statistical Abstract of the United States</i>, 1972, p 324)</td></tr>
<tr><th width="25%">Percentile</th><th width="25%"></th><th width="25%">% of Total Income</th><th width="25%"></th></tr>
<tr><td>P50-100 (50%)</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">77</td><td align="right"></td></tr>
<tr><td>P0-50 (50%)</td><td align="right"></td><td align="right">23</td><td align="right"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>
<br>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" style="width: 680px;" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><th colspan="4"><h3>Income in the United States (2012)</h3></th></tr>
<tr><th width="25%">Percentile</th><th width="25%"># per 100,000 Taxpayers</th><th width="25%">% of Total Income</th><th width="25%">% of Total Income Tax</th></tr>
<tr><td>P99-100 (1%)</td><td align="right">1,000</td><td align="right">21.9</td><td align="right">38.1</td></tr>
<tr><td> P99.999-100 (0.001%)</td><td align="right">1</td><td align="right">2.4</td><td align="right">3.3</td></tr>
<tr><td> P99.99-99.999 (0.009%)</td><td align="right">9</td><td align="right">3.1</td><td align="right">8.3</td></tr>
<tr><td> P99.9-99.99 (0.09%)</td><td align="right">90</td><td align="right">5.5</td><td align="right">10.3</td></tr>
<tr><td> P99-99.9 (0.9%)</td><td align="right">900</td><td align="right">10.9</td><td align="right">19.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>P50-99 (49%)</td><td align="right">49,000</td><td align="right">67.0</td><td align="right">59.1</td></tr>
<tr><td>P0-50 (50%)</td><td align="right">50,000</td><td align="right">11.1</td><td align="right">2.8</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://40-eridani-a.blogspot.com/p/peace-and-long-life_9.html#top">peaceandlonglife</a>:</i><br>
The share of total US income going to the bottom 50% fell by more than half between 1970 and 2012 (from 23% to 11%).<br>
(Looked at the other way, the income share of the top 50% rose from 77% to 89%.)<br>
For a doubling of the income pie (equivalent to 2% annual growth in national income for 35 years) this amounts to:
<ul><li>a 131% <i>rise</i> in income for the top 50%, and</li>
<li>a 4% <i>fall</i> in income for the bottom 50%.</li></ul>
A rising tide does you no good if your boat is sinking faster than the water is rising.<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Anna Stansbury & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers">Lawrence Summers</a> (1954):</i><br>
[Since 1973 there has been] a 75% increase in labor productivity.<br>
(<a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w24165">Working Paper 24165</a>, <i>National Bureau of Economic Research</i>, December 2017, p 2)</blockquote>
<br>
<h3 id="upswing"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2016/10/robert-putnam.html#top">Robert Putnam</a> (1941)</h3>
<br>
Over the four decades between 1974 and 2014, inflation-adjusted annual market income
<ul><li>fell $320 for households at the 10th percentile (the bottom tenth),</li>
<li>rose $388 for those at the 20th percentile (the bottom fifth),</li>
<li>rose $5,232 for those at the national median,</li>
<li>rose $75,053 for households in the top 5 percent,</li>
<li>rose $929,108 for those in the top 1 percent, and</li>
<li>rose $4,846,718 for those in the top 0.1 percent. …</li></ul>
If today’s income were distributed in the same way that 1970 income was distributed, it is estimated,
<ul><li>the bottom 99 percent would get roughly $1 trillion more annually, and</li>
<li>the top 1 percent would get roughly $1 trillion less. …</li></ul>
<br>
On issue after issue [since 1975, the Democrats have] remained mostly on the center-left, [while] the Republican center of gravity moved further and further to the right …<br>
In other words, bipartisanship has disappeared from American politics over the last half century largely because the Republican Party has become steadily more extreme.<br>
At least part of the explanation for this rightward shift is the investment by wealthy, highly <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/koch-industries.html#top">conservative business elites</a> in a sustained effort to shift American politics rightward, an effort signaled, symbolically at least, in a memo by Lewis F Powell, Jr in 1971, articulating a coordinated, long-term political strategy. …<br>
<br>
[One] of the most robust findings of the ensuing half century of research is that most ordinary voters are ill-informed about the details of public issues, so much so that they entirely lack views on many issues of the day.<br>
Most people have more urgent everyday things to worry about than policy debates. …<br>
Partisan identification is more a tribal affiliation than an ideological commitment …
<blockquote><i>Shanto Iyengar, Tobias Konitzer, & Kent Tedin:</i><br>
[The] most significant fault line in the second decade of the twenty-first century [in America] is not race, religion, or economic status but political party affiliation.<br>
(<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/698929">The Home as a Political Fortress: Family Agreement in an Era of Polarization</a>, <i>The Journal of Politics</i> 80, 4:1326–38, October 2018)</blockquote>
[People] are increasingly choosing their partners on the basis of political affiliation, even more than on the basis of education or religious orientation.<br>
Over the last half century:
<ul><li>marriage across racial and religious lines has become much more common than either used to be, whereas</li>
<li>marriage across party lines has become much less common. …</li></ul>
<br>
This increasing agreement between husband and wife about politics in turn strengthens the inheritance of party identity by the next generation, since we know that children are more likely to inherit party identity when both parents agree politically.<br>
In this very intimate way, over the last half century partisanship has gradually replaced religion as the main basis of “tribal” affiliation in America. …<br>
<br>
In 1960, [George Romney's salary as CEO of American Motors peaked at] just over $661,000 (roughly $5.5 million today). …<br>
In 1960 … he refused a $100,000 bonus, and in a five-year period he turned down a total of $268,000 (roughly 20 percent of his total earnings during the period). …<br>
Moreover, he paid over a third of his income in taxes.<br>
<br>
Fifty years later, his son Mitt pulled in $21.7 million in 2010, roughly four times his father’s peak income.<br>
Of this, he paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent, roughly one third the rate his father had paid.<br>
We know of no evidence Mitt has ever voluntarily returned any of his compensation, though he and his wife gave away $3 million in charitable donations in 2010, including $1.5 million to the Mormon Church. …<br>
<br>
[George Romney, as Nixon's] first secretary of housing and urban development (HUD) … exemplified the last gasp of progressive Republicanism.<br>
Romney’s Republicanism didn’t see the world as a zero-sum contest between:
<ul><li>capital and labor,</li>
<li>white and black,</li>
<li>friend and enemy,</li>
<li>us and them.</li></ul>
As secretary of HUD, he was implacable that minorities deserved access to quality housing in affluent white suburbs.<br>
But in the new Republican Party he had become a political liability, a fossil from earlier in the century, and he was forced from his position by Nixon in 1972.<br>
<br>
(<i>The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again</i>, 2020)<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney">Mitt Romney</a> (1947) [US Senator
from Utah]:</i><br>
There are 47% of the people
<ul><li>who will vote for [President Obama] no matter what …</li>
<li>who are dependent upon government,</li>
<li>who believe that they are victims …</li>
<li>who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them …</li>
<li>who believe they are <i>entitled</i> to health care, to food, to housing, [and that] the government should give it to them. …</li></ul>
These are people who pay no income tax. …<br>
[My] job is not to worry about those people.<br>
I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.<br>
(David Corn, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiser/">Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He Really Thinks of Obama Voters</a>, <i>Mother Jones</i>, 17 September 2012)</blockquote>
<br>
<h3>Tom Bergin</h3>
<br>
<i>Financial Journalist, Reuters</i><br>
<br>
In 1990, the average CEO of a company in the S&P 500 index of major firms earned around $3.7 million in 2018 prices.<br>
In 2000, they received $22 million. …<br>
One study calculated that the aggregate compensation paid by public companies to their top-five executives between 2001 and 2003 amounted to 10.3% of the aggregate earnings of these firms during the period.<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN8PKS6TIPoY4SuNZaztTYIV4WCj0XqiBmy6luMlvkO0a9Mu_P_28Vx5eUL8C73dwjtulTLQ_y-jW29tFD8g5Q9vOP4lh9g8DzjgSZODeOQvM1JW7Nq6FZ78iDymVVtnLwgckh2je4_YIRk51-a11CfXLZj7YqoIdHwZc62mYf3ZkYzAKFdLRXY0gK1Q/s1600/ceopayvprofits.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="456" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN8PKS6TIPoY4SuNZaztTYIV4WCj0XqiBmy6luMlvkO0a9Mu_P_28Vx5eUL8C73dwjtulTLQ_y-jW29tFD8g5Q9vOP4lh9g8DzjgSZODeOQvM1JW7Nq6FZ78iDymVVtnLwgckh2je4_YIRk51-a11CfXLZj7YqoIdHwZc62mYf3ZkYzAKFdLRXY0gK1Q/s640/ceopayvprofits.jpg"/></a>
In 1992 the average boss of a company in the FTSE 100 index of the biggest UK firms earned £450,000. …<br>
By 2010, FTSE CEOs were earning an average £4.5 million.<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhquw51KDfAhgf3E13qsNOdrizgrMyso7VsUwWeax2diZmh4LUi-1CbpaIE__DeTAaUd5SQ4R7BGUbPZZM59WTOIUGijm9UITKwprEdMxYiMUJ8jIFTpDPXw-cvscQHTx_h_SDsY-mJC9CdAdAJhQYrExfyEJ9d0Q3KzqfLMdpg4PaW_ZXgsWkTFJooEA/s1600/ukceopayvftse.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhquw51KDfAhgf3E13qsNOdrizgrMyso7VsUwWeax2diZmh4LUi-1CbpaIE__DeTAaUd5SQ4R7BGUbPZZM59WTOIUGijm9UITKwprEdMxYiMUJ8jIFTpDPXw-cvscQHTx_h_SDsY-mJC9CdAdAJhQYrExfyEJ9d0Q3KzqfLMdpg4PaW_ZXgsWkTFJooEA/s641/ukceopayvftse.jpg"/></a>
In the more than a hundred economic studies of executive pay I have studied, I have not found one that explains how aligning the interests of shareholders and managers could help the managers make smarter choices.<br>
As one former CEO who went on to teach at Harvard Business School said,
<blockquote>All the financial incentives in the world won’t transform CEOs into better decision makers. …</blockquote>
<br>
Efficient Markets Theory [EMT], which years later would win [Eugene] Fama a Nobel memorial prize, argued that stock markets were perfectly efficient and rational.<br>
This meant that if share prices were languishing, it reflected the fact that investors had carefully considered all the evidence and concluded firms’ management was bad. …<br>
By reframing the employment contract to make a manager’s experience reflect that of investors, [it was] argued that managers would, in working for their own benefit, simultaneously and almost incidentally perfectly serve shareholders’ interests.<br>
The key to everything was to link pay to share prices.<br>
[According to EMT] the stock market prices all relevant information about the performance of a company into its share price immediately.<br>
This meant that one didn’t have to think about how to measure whether a manager did a good job: if they did, the share price would go up. …<br>
<br>
Robert Shiller, who mapped the relationship between earnings and share prices across many decades and concluded markets were fundamentally irrational … ironically won the Nobel prize jointly with Eugene Fama in 2013 …<br>
The Nobel prize committee tried to justify their decision to honour two men with diametrically opposed views by arguing that Fama was talking about the short term and Shiller about the long term, a distinction Shiller didn’t entertain.<br>
<br>
(<i>Free Lunch Thinking: How Economics Ruins the Economy</i>, 2021)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/who-is-special-counsel-jack/101979260">Allison Gill: Blue dots in Red states</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/musician-processes-bipolar-diagnosis/102028482">Parvyn Kaur Singh</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/robert-douglas-fairhurst-metamorphosis-power-literature/102045308">Robert Douglas-Fairhurst</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3c05">Octavia Butler</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3bxx">Child Goddess of Nepal</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/themoney/how-improve-future-young-austraiains-central-bankers-talk/102050556">Generation F'd</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3bxz">Freeing Willy</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3c2h">Terminal Man</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/10/1155759289/lessons-on-love-and-acceptance-from-todays-dynamic-families">Andrew Solomon</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-75140014229768489652023-03-11T01:17:00.047+11:002023-04-02T00:03:33.440+11:00Peace in Our Time<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">In the beginning the Universe was created.<br>
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams">Douglas Adams</a> (1952 – 2001), </i>The Restaurant at the End of the Universe<i>, 1980.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace and lead in gently all the sick, the halt and the lamed.<br>
And they would smile me a weary thanks.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence">D H Lawrence</a> (1885 – 1930), 1908.</i></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="width: 480px" unselectable="off" align="center"><tbody>
<tr><th colspan="2"><h3>Nazi Party (NSDAP) Election Results</h3></th></tr>
<tr><td width="50%">1928</td><td align="right">2.6%</td></tr>
<tr><td>1930</td><td align="right">18.3%</td></tr>
<tr><td>1932 (Jul)</td><td align="right">37.3%</td></tr>
<tr><td>1932 (Nov)*</td><td align="right">33.1%</td></tr>
<tr><td>1933 (Mar)**</td><td align="right">43.9%</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">*Last free elections<br>
**Last contested elections</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbiCaYMKyqGgWXTN3PqFACyV2sbB5TvGA_5nn6RavbQsPV_6IW6Fj-V8yWMKwoApGlejQyuGfY6MQ3L2uKBUbFO4IEUtKiwGMx3Yf2FHsVEPDzsmMvQVjVJ72WH4meWJm6TJSA79FytrMtdwtz03k89JJQW0vJPw3CtTX4Y91525SvR3Q7wQ8P7Jp2dw/s1600/theabyss603.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="772" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbiCaYMKyqGgWXTN3PqFACyV2sbB5TvGA_5nn6RavbQsPV_6IW6Fj-V8yWMKwoApGlejQyuGfY6MQ3L2uKBUbFO4IEUtKiwGMx3Yf2FHsVEPDzsmMvQVjVJ72WH4meWJm6TJSA79FytrMtdwtz03k89JJQW0vJPw3CtTX4Y91525SvR3Q7wQ8P7Jp2dw/s640/theabyss603.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center">(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement">Munich Agreement</a>, 30 September 1938)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i>Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945):</i><br>
[The Jew] is and remains the eternal parasite, a freeloader and scrounger, foreever spreading like a bactarium, and wherever he appears, the host nation withers and dies away.<br>
(<i>Mein Kampf</i>, 1925)<br>
<br>
The hour will come at last in which the millions who despise us will stand by us, who with us will hail the new hard won, painfully acquired, German Reich we have created together, the new German kingdom of greatness and power and glory and justice.<br>
(Election Campaign Launch, Berlin Sports Palace, 10 February 1933)<br>
<br>
There will be no mercy now. …<br>
Anyone who stands in our way will be butchered.<br>
Every communist functionary will be shot where he is found.<br>
The communist deputies must be hanged this very night.<br>
Everyone in league with the communists is to be arrested.<br>
Against the social democrats … too, there will be no more mercy.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire">Reichstag fire</a>, 27 February 1933)<br>
<br>
On 30 January, [the day I was appointed Chancellor,] the die was cast in Germany.<br>
And I don't think that our opponents, who were laughing then, are still laughing now!<br>
(1933)<br>
<br>
If international financial Jewry in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the peoples into a world war again, the the result will not be the Bolehevization of the Earth and thus the victory of Judaism, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.<br>
(30 January 1939)</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9xtlW3iAe_JWRlfFTOys8X1Z8B9jx6m9yAJygax4u03yzCW9bm8KM3Q_lxmMFgxat2zgAIT1OccJBByXx3kRHq0aCYXUqEegbgqlMy-8_0-2UPfuuZodlBS9AdaTURx0_4aLXxDthsXR1uMyvRmf8k3b1m26Jrim10zURvdw2ZEevTNGJuwpE1sLIvw/s1600/theabyss703.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="745" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9xtlW3iAe_JWRlfFTOys8X1Z8B9jx6m9yAJygax4u03yzCW9bm8KM3Q_lxmMFgxat2zgAIT1OccJBByXx3kRHq0aCYXUqEegbgqlMy-8_0-2UPfuuZodlBS9AdaTURx0_4aLXxDthsXR1uMyvRmf8k3b1m26Jrim10zURvdw2ZEevTNGJuwpE1sLIvw/s640/theabyss703.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center">(The Gates of Hell 1941 ‒ 1942, <i><a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-abyss-rise-and-fall-of-the-nazis">The Abyss: Rise and Fall of the Nazis</a></i>, Episode 7, 2021)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels">Joseph Goebbels</a> (1897 – 1945):</i><br>
With regard to the Jewish question, the Fuhrer wants to wipe the slate clean.<br>
That's not just a turn of phrase.<br>
Global war is here, and the annihilation of world Jewry much be its necessary consequence.<br>
(13 December 1941)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_von_Papen">Franz von Papen</a> (1879 – 1969) [Conservative Politician]:</i><br>
We have hired [Hitler].<br>
Within six weeks, we'll have pushed him so far into the corner, he will squeak.<br>
(1933)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Wels#Enabling_Act">Otto Wels</a> (1885 – 1930) [Social Democratic Politician]:</i><br>
You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honour. …<br>
At this historic hour, we German Social Democrats pledge ourselves to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and socialism. …<br>
We send greetings to the persecuted and oppressed.<br>
We greet our friends in the Reich.<br>
Their steadfastness and loyalty deserve admiration.<br>
The courage with which they maintain their convictions and their unbroken confidence guarantee a brighter future.<br>
(Reichstag, 23 March 1933)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Hannah Arendt (1906 – 75):</i><br>
[The] Jewish moneylender [had] for centuries … been excluded from all greater business transactions and found his only opportunity in the economically unproductive and insignificant but socially important loans to people who had a tendency to live beyond their means. …<br>
<br>
Which group of people would turn antisemitic in a given country at a given historical moment depended exclusively upon general circumstances which made them ready for a violent antagonism to their government.<br>
But the remarkable similarity of arguments and images which time and again were spontaneously reproduced have an intimate relationship with the truth they distort.<br>
We find the Jews always represented as
<ul><li>an international trade organization,</li>
<li>a world-wide family concern with identical interests everywhere,</li>
<li>a secret force behind the throne which degrades all visible governments
<ul><li>into mere façade, or</li>
<li>into marionettes whose strings are manipulated from behind the scenes.</li></ul>
</ul>
Because of their close relationship to state sources of power, the Jews were invariably identified with power, and because of their aloofness from society and concentration upon the closed circle of the family, they were invariably suspected of working for the destruction of all social structures. …<br>
<br>
The first international anti-Jewish congress took place in 1882 in Dresden, with about 3,000 delegates from Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia …<br>
The Jews very clearly were the only inter-European element in a nationalized Europe.<br>
It seemed only logical that their enemies had to organize on the same principle, if they were to fight those who were supposed to be the secret manipulators of the political destiny of all nations.<br>
(<i>The Origins of Totalitarianism</i>, 1951 / 1967)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Claudia Wallis:</i><br>
[A] huge study published this past summer in the <i>New England Journal of Medicine</i> found
that taking vitamin D for five years did not reduce the rate of fractures in healthy adults ages 50 and older.<br>
That result built on earlier findings, led by the same team, that D supplements do not improve bone density (or, for that matter, lower the risk of cancer or heart disease).<br>
An editorial accompanying the fracture study declared that it’s time for medical professionals to stop pushing these pills and quit ordering so many blood tests for vitamin D levels.<br>
“Food and incidental sun exposure likely provide enough vitamin D for healthy adults,” says endocrinologist Meryl LeBoff of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who led the study.<br>
(A Diet for Better Bones, <i>Scientific American</i>, January 2023)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Steven Cummings & Clifford Rosen:</i><br>
An estimated one third or more of US adults 60 years of age or older take vitamin D supplements, not including those who take multivitamins or other compounds containing vitamin D.<br>
Yet controversy continues about its overall benefits.<br>
In this issue of the <i>Journal</i>, LeBoff and colleagues report findings from an ancillary study of the Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL), which extend the results of that trial; taken together, VITAL and this ancillary study show that vitamin supplements do not have important health benefits in the general population of older adults, even in those with low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.<br>
(<a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2205993">VITAL Findings — A Decisive Verdict on Vitamin D Supplementation</a>, <i>New England Journal of Medicine</i>, 28 July 2022)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama">Michelle Obama</a> (1964):</i><br>
Emotions are not plans.<br>
They don't solve problems or right any wrongs.<br>
[Be] careful about letting them guide you.<br>
Rage can be a dirty windshield.<br>
Hurt is like a broken steering wheel. …<br>
It you don't do something constructive with them, they'll take you straight into a ditch. …<br>
<br>
Going high … happens over the course of a lifetime, the course of a generation.<br>
[It] is demonstrative, a commitment to showing your children, your friends, your colleagues, and your community what it looks like to live with love, and operate with decency.<br>
(<i>The Light We Carry</i>, 2022, pp 276‒7)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/provocateur-clive-hamilton-/101486660">Clive Hamilton</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-greatest-speeches-never-heard/101486344">The greatest speeches never heard</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/all-in-the-mind-unethical-experiments-monster-study/14073414">The Monster Study</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/what-the-duck/ducktheripper/13726188">You Bloody Fool</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012q21">The Control Problem</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/teenagers-modern-masculinity-man-cave/101968274">The Man Cave</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/rear-vision/102057918">Harmony Day</a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard">John Howard</a> (1963):</i><br>
I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country …<br>
(Response to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_riots">Cronulla Riots</a>, 2005)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/">Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid</a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2014/08/jonathan-haidt.html#top">Jonathan Haidt</a> (1939):</i><br>
People who think differently and are willing to speak up if they disagree with you make you smarter, almost as if they are extensions of your own brain.<br>
People who try to silence or intimidate their critics make themselves stupider, almost as if they are shooting darts into their own brain.</blockquote>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-66285594989725723312023-02-08T03:09:00.021+11:002023-05-04T00:13:56.736+10:00Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">Who controls the Past controls the Future<br>
Who controls the Present controls the Past</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell</a> (1903 – 50), </i>Nineteen Eight-Four<i>, 1949.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">The struggle of Man against Power<br>
Is the struggle of Memory against Forgetting</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haight_Ashbury_Free_Clinics">Milan Kundera</a> (1929)</i>, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, <i>1979</i>.<br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">In Beleriand in those days the Elves walked, and the rivers flowed, and the stars shone, and the night-flowers gave forth their scents; and the beauty of Melian was as the noon, and the beauty of Lúthien was as the dawn in spring.</span><br>
<br>
— <i>John Tolkien (1892 – 1973), </i>The Silmarillion<i>, 1977.</i></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson">Charles Manson</a> (1934 – 2017):</i><br>
[On release from prison in 1967, Manson] was transferred to the supervision of criminology doctoral researcher and federal probation officer Roger Smith [in San Francisco.]<br>
… Smith worked at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haight_Ashbury_Free_Clinics">Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic</a> (HAFMC), which Manson and his family frequented throughout their stay in the Haight.<br>
Roger Smith, as well as the HAFMC's founder David E Smith, received funding from the National Institutes of Health, and reportedly the CIA to study the effects of drugs like LSD and methamphetamine on the counterculture movement in Haight–Ashbury.<br>
The patients at the clinic became subjects of their research, including Manson and his expanding group of (mostly) female followers …<br>
<br>
David Smith … wrote that the change in Manson's personality during this time "was the most abrupt Roger Smith had observed in his entire professional career."…<br>
David Smith claims that Manson attempted to reprogram [his followers] minds to "submit totally to his will" through the use of "LSD and … unconventional sexual practices" that would turn his followers into "empty vessels that would accept anything he poured." …<br>
[By] April 1968, Manson had attracted 20 or so followers, all under the supervision of his parole officer Roger Smith and many of the staff at the HAFMC.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 13 February 2023)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Skelter_(scenario)">Helter Skelter</a>:</i><br>
… Manson often spoke to the members of his Family about Helter Skelter in the months leading up to the murders of Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in August 1969, an apocalyptic war arising from racial tensions between Black and White people.<br>
This involved reference to music of the Beatles, particularly songs from their 1968 "White Album", and the New Testament's Book of Revelation.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 15 February 2023)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Mach">Ernst Mach</a> (1838 – 1916):</i><br>
I do not believe that atoms exist.</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/whos-gonna-save-us/01-standing-up-for-the-climate/101372650">Being Part of the Solution</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct39t5">Stochastic Parrots</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct39t1">Living to 100</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/themoney/online-sports-betting/14056178">The Biggest Losers</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/alan-kohler-jobs-summit/101392340">Division vs Consensus</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="churchill"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill">Winston Churchill</a> (1874 – 1965)</h3>
<br>
The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the feeble-minded and insane classes constitutes a national and race danger which is impossible to exagerate.<br>
<br>
(Letter to Prime Minister Asquith)<br>
<br>
<br>
We shall not flag or fail.<br>
We shall go on to the end.<br>
We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air; we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be.<br>
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.<br>
And even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.<br>
<br>
(Speech in the House of Commons, 4 June 1940)<br>
<br>
<br>
Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation.<br>
Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire.<br>
The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us now.<br>
Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.<br>
If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.<br>
But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.<br>
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say,
<blockquote>This was their finest hour.</blockquote>
(Speech in the House of Commons, 18 June 1940)peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-23892734221472394232023-01-01T00:50:00.027+11:002023-05-06T00:09:03.723+10:00Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">All that is gold does not glitter,<br>
Not all those who wander are lost;<br>
The old that is strong does not wither,<br>
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.<br>
<br>
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,<br>
A light from the shadows shall spring;<br>
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,<br>
The crownless again shall be king.</span><br>
<br>
— <i>John Tolkien (1892 – 1973), The Riddle of Strider,<br>
</i>The Lord of the Rings<i>, 1954.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">Every time I change wives, I should burn the last one.<br>
That way I’d be rid of them.<br>
They wouldn’t be around to complicate my existence.<br>
(Maybe that would bring back my youth, too.)<br>
You kill the woman and you wipe out the past she represents.</span><br>
<br>
— <i>Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[For] young ladies will look forward to being married, and will jostle each other in the race to the altar, and will avail themselves of all opportunities of displaying their own attractions to the best advantage, down to the very end of time as they have done from its beginning.</span><br>
<br>
— <i>Charles Dickens (1812 – 70), </i>Nicholas Nickleby<i>, 1839.</i></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KfQVvUVSXIYSVwepuOZ0UCKsrrE98l4mq41VP9sw6UFkh8h0XoNUes4i7DNd9EVhTHHAxdNQHwRiRxjcCk8i9_Mr-rIrgdbdNs7nMyV-77Z62hHM58q-XUekO0mWCHYjOAOn-Xpm89xqHTMiX8JQyupgUcMKDNAx8j7PMy3AKh_EJ7qfEZQtO4NzTA/s1600/Women%20in%20Science%20Fiction-2VfE2fD0xUs.mp4_snapshot_00.30.49_%5B2023.01.01_00.19.56%5D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KfQVvUVSXIYSVwepuOZ0UCKsrrE98l4mq41VP9sw6UFkh8h0XoNUes4i7DNd9EVhTHHAxdNQHwRiRxjcCk8i9_Mr-rIrgdbdNs7nMyV-77Z62hHM58q-XUekO0mWCHYjOAOn-Xpm89xqHTMiX8JQyupgUcMKDNAx8j7PMy3AKh_EJ7qfEZQtO4NzTA/s640/Women%20in%20Science%20Fiction-2VfE2fD0xUs.mp4_snapshot_00.30.49_%5B2023.01.01_00.19.56%5D.png"/></a>
<div align="center">(Jim Endersby, <i><a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=2VfE2fD0xUs">Women in Science Fiction</a></i>, 2021)</div><br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvbrDenE8SkvgOXIARr_wWlNh9MgGOd5lOugkajjmDArLQbRgd78awAw8IR_kYRrP7uNraWeOKwpWYq8OTTPjm_voJ9Qx6wKUG5qKj9KFD5VmBrih9LooXa1vZc5DwECXVJKuRAi4C3PuSQYPP9PRum6hDb91Ts7VP7tTwKVY1rGKR21LJLfNQE-8Fng/s1600/explained3100.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="673" data-original-width="534" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvbrDenE8SkvgOXIARr_wWlNh9MgGOd5lOugkajjmDArLQbRgd78awAw8IR_kYRrP7uNraWeOKwpWYq8OTTPjm_voJ9Qx6wKUG5qKj9KFD5VmBrih9LooXa1vZc5DwECXVJKuRAi4C3PuSQYPP9PRum6hDb91Ts7VP7tTwKVY1rGKR21LJLfNQE-8Fng/s1600/explained3100.PNG"/></a>
<blockquote>Dear Miss Ford,<br>
<br>
Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as the work is performed entirely by young men.<br>
For this reason girls are not considered for the training school.<br>
<br>
The only work open to women consists of tracing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink and filling in the tracings on the reverse side with paint according to directions.<br>
<br>
(Walt Disney Productions, 7 June 1958)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin">Charles Darwin</a> (1809 – 82):</i><br>
[Among women] the powers of intuition, of rapid perception, and perhaps of imitation, are more strongly marked than in man. …<br>
[These] faculties are characteristic of the lower races and therefore of a past and lower state of civilisation.<br>
(<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/04/charles-darwin.html#descent">The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex</a></i>, 1871)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct33q2">Andrew Tate vs Greta Thunberg</a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXJIi3SeSd2Lc0sQx8aPLOiUtjHnnePBkeEvpYtnNKx6wG9zLozhWEeJjZYQ8MqTma_vuTQBd8X_oC20KSNARWBMIYaYc8J5HeJFe-CqSjYC9aRjQlDmFjGzVQFLpF7fYeCk7egFENljVrr6BKm4x95ypq5KweEn4kBUPfjM5CHHFfrZyvBy-Z1scnfw/s1600/Screenshot%202023-01-25%20at%2023-19-58%20What%20teen%20boys%20see%20in%20Andrew%20Tate%20-%20ABC%20Radio.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXJIi3SeSd2Lc0sQx8aPLOiUtjHnnePBkeEvpYtnNKx6wG9zLozhWEeJjZYQ8MqTma_vuTQBd8X_oC20KSNARWBMIYaYc8J5HeJFe-CqSjYC9aRjQlDmFjGzVQFLpF7fYeCk7egFENljVrr6BKm4x95ypq5KweEn4kBUPfjM5CHHFfrZyvBy-Z1scnfw/s1600/Screenshot%202023-01-25%20at%2023-19-58%20What%20teen%20boys%20see%20in%20Andrew%20Tate%20-%20ABC%20Radio.png"/></a>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/covid-origin/101325116">The Origin of COVID</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/what-happened-saudi-sisters-alsehli-saudi-canterbury-asylum/14007712">No Sparrow Falls</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavi_%28Germanic_tribe%29">The Batavi</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/26/1119220726/holly-herndon-how-ai-can-transform-your-voice">Digital Diva</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/are-the-secrets-of-the-universe-down-a-victorian-gold-mine/101373354">The Search For Dark Matter</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/if-youre-listening/climate-change-culture-war/13797366">Hugh Morgan: Master of Denial</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1860871_1860876_1861029,00.html">The Reptilian Elite</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/if-youre-listening/countdown-on-coal/13757412">The Latrobe Valley</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/what-the-duck/what-the-duck!/14100490">Ninja and Blankie Spiders</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/for-sale-on-ebay-us-military-devices/101814736">SEEK II (Secure Electronic Enrollment Kit)</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlCxeMYD4d5rVS8OUPSe4VygqEhe9wfST5GBsWOthANwf9LnVBxM12vE1c1Pt0LkeX8JrsNj6IqO2bgctjh-C3QMFg1Xh9fZ0T2zK_BUyqNy8-3L7Ve-5vM1CK_5dqNKTIeU8HyO1By56McdjHeUXuL4_29ZVwk1OrmU0VFYkcwqGioy6EEfsT351J6g/s1600/SEEKII.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="885" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlCxeMYD4d5rVS8OUPSe4VygqEhe9wfST5GBsWOthANwf9LnVBxM12vE1c1Pt0LkeX8JrsNj6IqO2bgctjh-C3QMFg1Xh9fZ0T2zK_BUyqNy8-3L7Ve-5vM1CK_5dqNKTIeU8HyO1By56McdjHeUXuL4_29ZVwk1OrmU0VFYkcwqGioy6EEfsT351J6g/s640/SEEKII.png"/></a>
<blockquote><a href="https://www.officer.com/command-hq/technology/computers-software/product/10053971/cross-match-technologies-seek-ii-secure-electronic-enrollment-kit">SEEK II</a> [combines] forensic-quality fingerprint capture, rapid dual iris scan capability and innovative facial capture technology.<br>
SEEK II is a comprehensive biometric identity management solution.</blockquote>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-83427828082661003862022-12-03T02:43:00.012+11:002023-04-01T01:12:31.983+11:00The Descent of Man<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin">Charles Darwin</a> (1809 – 82):</i><br>
The [marked] variability of all the characteristic differences between the races [of man] indicates that these differences cannot be of much importance …<br>
[For,] had they been important, they would long ago have been either:
<ul><li>fixed and preserved, or</li>
<li>eliminated.</li></ul>
In this respect man resembles those forms, called by naturalists protean or polymorphic, which have remained extremely variable, owing … to their variations being of an indifferent nature, and consequently to their having escaped the action of natural selection.<br>
(On the Races of Man, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/04/charles-darwin.html#descent">The Descent of Man</a></i>, 1871)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sloan_Wilson">David Wilson</a> (1949) [Evolutionary Biologist]:</i><br>
Jewish history is not as simple as a displaced people struggling to survive amidst hostile neighbors.<br>
Jewish groups survived and even prospered through specific activities and relationships with different elements of their host nations. …<br>
<br>
A common pattern was for Jews to form an alliance with one gentile segment of the host nation, usually the ruling elite, to exploit another gentile segment, such as the peasantry.<br>
Far from being anti-Semitic, the ruling elite would attempt to protect the Jews from the rest of the resentful host population. …
<blockquote>The non-Jew had no fear that the Jew would take a partisan stand in the struggle between the rulers and the ruled, who bore the economic yoke of the political privileges enjoyed by the rulers.<br>
(J Katz, <i>Tradition and crisis: Jewish society at the end of the middle ages</i>, 1961)</blockquote>
The Jew’s outsider status was an advantage as far as the rulers were concerned.<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin%27s_Cathedral">Darwin's Cathedral</a></i>, 2002)<br></blockquote>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Grosby">Steven Grosby</a></h3>
<br>
<i>Professor of Religion, Clemson University</i><br>
<br>
During the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, there were those who thought that the divisions of humanity were ‘given’ in the sense that they were an unavoidable consequence of racial differences.<br>
For example, the French diplomat <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_de_Gobineau">Arthur de Gobineau</a> (1816 – 82) argued:
<ul><li>that humanity was divided into different races; and …</li>
<li>that these races determined the distinctiveness of the culture of one civilization from that of another.</li></ul>
[It] was Gobineau who developed … the view that the decline of a civilization was the inevitable result of the mixing of one race with another.<br>
This view was subsequently extended by the anti-Semitic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Stewart_Chamberlain">Houston Stewart Chamberlain</a> (1855 – 1927), who believed in the existence of a pure Aryan race.<br>
The most hideous historical expression of these racialist views was the anti-Semitism of German Fascism, which asserted that the ‘blood’ of the Jews defiled the supposedly pure and superior Aryan race.<br>
Such racialist views about the ‘natural’ divisions of humanity into permanent physical types have been shown to have no scientific basis whatsoever, as genetic variability may be greater within a race, than between races.<br>
These views have, deservedly, been rejected today by all serious analysts.<br>
<br>
(<i>Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction</i>, Oxford University Press, 2005, p 99)</br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/DO2011H004S00">The Descent of Man</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/RK2201H005S00">Radial Bleach</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/paul-barry-on-trump-s-big-lie-the-murdochs-and-crikey/101380496">Goliath vs David</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/losing-it-all-to-the-wolf-of-woy-woy/101383456">The Wolf of Woy Woy</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/radical-partisans-takeover-republican-party/101396092">From Reagan To Trump</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/all-in-the-mind-harry-harlow-animal-ethics-unethical/14087792">The Pit of Despair</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/taxing-gas-solve-our-problems/101547764">Gas Superprofits</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/little-known-religious-code-ruling-many-major-public-hospitals/101724694">Faith Based Medicine</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/rear-vision/14110816">RoboTheft: Ripping off the Poor</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/tytmm-david-pocock-2017/101782732">David Pocock</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-46157004883125183402022-11-04T01:16:00.021+11:002023-05-16T00:45:42.712+10:00The Upward Surge of Mankind<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">The point is … that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.<br>
Greed is right, greed works.<br>
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.<br>
Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, [for] knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Stone">Oliver Stone</a> (1946), </i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/quotes/">Wall Street</a><i>, 1987.</i></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><h2><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/05/carl-sagan.html#onesmallstep">One Small Step</a></h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSVv-MoHLfNsi5x7MSYJ7nYKtAy276Nn2h7hxOt80szteyujTDkF_hb3cmccT5564cG-9CawJ1_Zxv37T2aYbybnkrq3T8l6cU1c1MUdLQFCssWY0wxA1DpRc3Xbmp9esf_cNnd8qRW8B6J0X1ND9YbicLpwxDWYEonW3mP0BiFyU8vS0XuqQhmykFQ/s1600/secretsoftheuniverse102.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBSVv-MoHLfNsi5x7MSYJ7nYKtAy276Nn2h7hxOt80szteyujTDkF_hb3cmccT5564cG-9CawJ1_Zxv37T2aYbybnkrq3T8l6cU1c1MUdLQFCssWY0wxA1DpRc3Xbmp9esf_cNnd8qRW8B6J0X1ND9YbicLpwxDWYEonW3mP0BiFyU8vS0XuqQhmykFQ/s641/secretsoftheuniverse102.PNG"/></a>
(<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/secrets-of-the-universe">Secrets of the Universe</a>)</div>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1qvVacZcLvs5C2ScbFkL7YtI-aL3J7NG_6Fh9f1qZycDYlWobp0KN8vHYSwV61LPhFa-ndxQ4--XwW8oqv-mBfmGWCqlWPfEmzsXgWvGhW3BWqgPeqCEf3YRbSoELEaoQZofwHs3H7xD0gbUo_XWboDTwr4M1BK8iia_PuBEqRfuKBGUThsIy3TTTTw/s1600/icons202.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1qvVacZcLvs5C2ScbFkL7YtI-aL3J7NG_6Fh9f1qZycDYlWobp0KN8vHYSwV61LPhFa-ndxQ4--XwW8oqv-mBfmGWCqlWPfEmzsXgWvGhW3BWqgPeqCEf3YRbSoELEaoQZofwHs3H7xD0gbUo_XWboDTwr4M1BK8iia_PuBEqRfuKBGUThsIy3TTTTw/s640/icons202.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/golden-record-cover/" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4GrKDQMCfX0l0EJDLdQKPPMrtlqwuP3vJuj3gH7xugzLRQJCFZ6btpLphO0iLikdqaFVlEbdJYJNa8INzdlhj0GPx2NjfWXl7t6heYr9tsyg7BMIJFLWdy8aSd7LwjZMAWD_mIN8DUzAFiXA7a58naP968tdFifyGLUm_pwPt2F5XKHM9ytJ1RtxCwg/s1600/record-diagram2.jpg"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter">Jimmy Carter</a> (1924):</i><br>
We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization. …<br>
We cast this message into the cosmos. …<br>
This is a present from a small distant world …<br>
We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. …<br>
We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations.<br>
This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.<br>
(<a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/voyager-spacecraft-statement-the-president">The Golden Record</a>, Voyager Spacecraft, 1977)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky">Konstantin Tsiolkovsky</a> (1857 – 1935):</i><br>
Earth is the cradle of humanity.<br>
But one cannot live in the cradle forever.<br>
(1903)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells">Herbert Wells</a> (1866 – 1946):</i><br>
A day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars.<br>
(The Discovery of the Future, <i>Nature</i>, 65:326, 1902)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre">Georges Lemaître</a> (1894 – 1966):</i><br>
Standing on a cooled cinder, we see that slow fading of the suns, and we try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson">Ralph Emerson</a> (1803 – 82):</i><br>
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!<br>
(<i><a href="https://emersoncentral.com/texts/nature-addresses-lectures/nature2/chapter1-nature/">Nature</a></i>, Chapter 1, 1836)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Alfano">Mark Alfano</a> [Associate Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University]:</i><br>
[We] find that people who are <b>open-minded</b>, who score
<ul><li>low on <b>intellectual arrogance</b>, and</li>
<li>high on a disposition to <b>criticize their own in-groups</b>,</li></ul>
are simultaneously better at:
<ul><li>rejecting unwarranted conspiracy theories, [eg about COVID, and]</li>
<li>accepting true, or warranted, conspiracy theories, like that Osama Bin Laden plotted 9/11.</li></ul>
(<a
href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/trust-and-scepticism-in-a-post-truth-world/14067680">Trust and scepticism in a post-truth world</a>, <i>ABC The Philosopher's Zone</i>, 30 September 2022)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-31/war-games:-what-would-conflict-with-china-mean-for/101598584">The Taiwan War</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/themoney/delivering-a-budget-during-difficult-times/14090348">Measuring What Matters</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3c3w">Goofy was a communist</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1127249176/yael-eisenstat-why-we-need-more-friction-on-social-media">Capitalism vs Democracy</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/13992976">Innoculation</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/how-climate-200-the-teals-took-the-2022-election-by-storm/101549332">Grassroots Democracy</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/how-some-birds-use-deception-to-trick-other-birds/101614300">Theory of mind in birds</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3bzl">Surviving the police</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/under-the-eye-of-iran/101616368">Dress Code Violation</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/has-the-age-of-ai-already-begun-loab-generative-art/101694260">Ghost in the Machine</a>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-16830054656713508162022-10-10T01:22:00.037+11:002023-05-18T01:08:58.692+10:00The Price of Civilization<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/aly-waleed.html#QE61">Greed is Good</a></h2>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2017/07/milton-friedman.html#top">Milton Friedman</a> (1912 – 2006):</i><br>
I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Ellenberg">Jordan Ellenberg</a>, Less Like Sweden, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Not_to_Be_Wrong">How Not To Be Wrong</a></i>, Part 1, Chapter 1, Penguin, 2014)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="http://www.fya.org.au/about-us/">Foundation for Young Australians</a>:</i><br>
Over the past 15 years:
<ul><li>incomes of the top 10% have grown [25% faster] than the bottom 90%.</li>
<li>Incomes of the top 1% have grown [twice as fast as the bottom 90%, and]</li>
<li>incomes of the top 0.1% have grown 2.8 times faster than the bottom 90%.]</li></ul>
(<a href="http://www.fya.org.au/2015/09/04/we-need-to-do-more-to-prepare-our-young-people-for-the-new-work-order/"><i>The New Work Order</i></a>, 4 September 2015, pp 8 & 26)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Nicolas Herault & Francisco Azpitarte [Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research]:</i><br>
[The] direct effect of tax-transfer policy reforms [in Australia] accounts for half of the observed increase in income inequality between 1999 and 2008 …<br>
(<a href="http://lare-efi.u-bordeaux4.fr/IMG/pdf/N_Herault_Redistribution.pdf">Understanding changes in the distribution and redistribution of income: A unifying decomposition framework</a>, <i>Review of Income and Wealth</i>, 12 December 2014)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/03/george-megalogenis.html#top">George Megalogenis</a> (1964):</i><br>
This is the part of the Great Recession we did not avoid.<br>
We had imported the AMERICAN DISEASE of budget-busting <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/12/president-of-good-and-evil-justice-and.html#2">TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH</a>.<br>
(p 39)<br>
<br>
Both sides of politics have fallen for the line that in order to maintain our record run of prosperity you have to squeeze:
<ul><li>the employee,</li>
<li>the student,</li>
<li>the single parent,</li>
<li>the consumer</li></ul>
— anyone, really who
<ul><li>does not run a business, or</li>
<li>own an investment property.</li></ul>
(p 27)<br>
<br>
Business has convinced itself that globalisation means it owes no obligation to society other to generate profit.<br>
(p 26)<br>
<br>
[Indeed, business has, if anything,] become more presumptuous since [the 2008 global financial crisis:]
<ul><li>Give us a cut in the company tax rate.</li>
<li>Fund it with an increase in the GST.</li></ul>
There is NO economic logic here …<br>
(<a href="https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2016/02/balancing-act">Balancing Act: Australia Between Recession and Renewal</a>, <i>Quarterly Essay</i>, Issue 61, February 2016, p 27)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Frydenberg">Josh Frydenberg</a> (1971):</i><br>
I was thinking yesterday, as [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Chalmers">Jim Chalmers</a> (1978)] was coming into the chamber — fresh from his ashram deep in the Himalayas, barefoot, robes flowing, incense burning, beads in one hand, <b>wellbeing budget</b> in the other — what would the yoga position be that the member for Rankin would assume?<br>
(<i><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/3d8353f5-762e-4ef4-a2a0-ae9cc5a9b94f/&sid=0118">Hansard</a></i>, 27 February 2020)<br>
<br>
Labor and @JEChalmers want to replace responsible economic management with a yoga mat, beads and a “wellbeing budget”.<br>
(26 February 2020)<br>
<br>
[A "well-being" budget is] laughable …<br>
Labor hasn't delivered a surplus since 1989 so it should surprise no one they're going to look around for some other way to measure economic output.<br>
(<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/laughable-josh-frydenberg-rules-out-adopting-jacinda-ardern-inspired-wellbeing-budget/chux70luf">'Laughable': Josh Frydenberg rules out adopting Jacinda Ardern-inspired 'wellbeing budget'</a>, <i>SBS News</i>, 20 February 2020)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Martin_(economist)">Peter Martin</a> (1958):</i><br>
In an important way, Chalmers first "wellbeing budget" will have more rigour than any of the budgets prepared by Frydenberg or any of his predecessors. …<br>
Introducing measurables wouldn't be about supplanting GDP, but about including it along with other measures of prosperity as outcomes against which the budget could be assessed, along with measures of health, the environment, gender, children's welfare, and the welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.<br>
It would let us see whether we are making progress or going backwards on the environment … living standards, inequality, health and other things, and what the budget is doing about it.<br>
(<a href="https://theconversation.com/wellbeing-its-why-labors-first-budget-will-have-more-rigour-than-any-before-it-187160">Why Labor's first 'wellbeing' budget will have more rigour than any before it</a>, <i>The Conversation</i>, 19 July 2022)</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/were-all-gonna-die-even-jay-baruchel/season-1/were-all-gonna-die-even-jay-baruchel-s1-ep4/2067628099688">Things To Be Afraid Of</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/hell-on-earth-wwii">Hell on Earth</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/science-fiction">How Not To Be Human</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-03/no-place-to-call-home/14072740">The Working Homeless</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/this-week/liz-truss-quits/14085798">Well-being budget</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/why-the-reserve-bank-isnt-done-yet/101500138">Inflation Panic</a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kohler">Alan Kohler</a> (1952):</i><br>
Some people might … have to sell the house because they can't afford to make the repayments.<br>
And god help them if they have to go and rent, because there's just no rental properties available and rents have gone up far more than interest rates have gone up.<br>
Rents in Adelaide and Brisbane are up 13% to 14% in 12 months … that's if you can get a place.<br>
(<i>ABC News Daily</i>, 5 October 2022)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/uk-pm-liz-truss-makes-speech-of-her-political-career/101506146">Tax cuts funded by welfare cuts</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/tax-cuts-are-good-economic-policy-jane-hume/101502052">Conservatives love tax cuts</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/this-week/should-the-government-scrap-its-promised-tax-cuts/14071742">Blowing the budget on $9,000 bonuses for the rich</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/labor-tax-cuts/101519364">Broken Promises</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/labor-first-budget/101574330">No Taxes, No Services</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/themoney/how-much-tax-is-enough/14077802">How civlized you want to be?</a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Denniss">Richard Denniss</a>:</i><br>
[Out] of the 38 OECD nations, [Australia has] got the 10th lowest tax in the developed world [— $115 billion dollars per year less than the OECD average.]<br>
[Tax] is the price [you] pay for a civilized society …</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Gfj2EOCq7JMh2jIso9db8rhBSfUtBamcFU_1GBUEaKihm4IlP8OFnHBvj4Sj_neMi_p1iOIWO8nA027v7kw5byhc_1P7uiSoGIP9tLQUljZFp6vooSdtyI57mdIeI6-h4CfN3JjbB4BDC6R38JFSamRi8NB3yDu4cIT4GOTH3iMdc8Cu2vGh8jI70w/s1600/jeffreysmart11.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="621" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Gfj2EOCq7JMh2jIso9db8rhBSfUtBamcFU_1GBUEaKihm4IlP8OFnHBvj4Sj_neMi_p1iOIWO8nA027v7kw5byhc_1P7uiSoGIP9tLQUljZFp6vooSdtyI57mdIeI6-h4CfN3JjbB4BDC6R38JFSamRi8NB3yDu4cIT4GOTH3iMdc8Cu2vGh8jI70w/s640/jeffreysmart11.PNG"/></a>
(<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/jeffrey-smart/">Jeffrey Smart</a> (1921 – 2013), Labyrinth, 2011)</div>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-14789915909641458802022-09-01T23:12:00.081+10:002023-05-19T00:47:12.559+10:00What Do You Care About?<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2020/07/created-equal.html#top">Created Equal</a></h2>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">We hold these truths to be self-evident,<br>
that all men are created equal …</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence">United States Declaration of Independence</a>, 4 July 1776.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL,<br>
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell</a> (1903 – 50), </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm">Animal Farm</a><i>, 1945.</i></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2xdaBTo8FG23omHnMEbNC3SaEhJgUQQ0NK0mGcLxdooL2BOcyOZEf3eyx-wsPG3ia0P5YeZm7POP1_HGBo5aLtT-sw2zM14dANOM0r4gne_U_OvAXBbVfZbPEDu4HmB208V7WIGF74s7Y/s0/whywehate118.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="819" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2xdaBTo8FG23omHnMEbNC3SaEhJgUQQ0NK0mGcLxdooL2BOcyOZEf3eyx-wsPG3ia0P5YeZm7POP1_HGBo5aLtT-sw2zM14dANOM0r4gne_U_OvAXBbVfZbPEDu4HmB208V7WIGF74s7Y/s640/whywehate118.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlsGP17m-D8JwP_fyBd4pD1VtKtNsaw8QeV2EKWLc7LLCgRBlcJq8zJeCQRNre4uqDgs7Va6KJrogUrF9oV75dWM-LxrmlCLR52GyNQOV8nNGBk63z0eH6lMI6HosuT-qU6GvMoikweFI4/s0/whywehate403.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="796" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlsGP17m-D8JwP_fyBd4pD1VtKtNsaw8QeV2EKWLc7LLCgRBlcJq8zJeCQRNre4uqDgs7Va6KJrogUrF9oV75dWM-LxrmlCLR52GyNQOV8nNGBk63z0eH6lMI6HosuT-qU6GvMoikweFI4/s640/whywehate403.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfNAgJaQg8Ea9nljVmK0poNNdiCFeIHh5D7nneoqixbiLsZAiH2zVHutWs-6W11jkpl8rx4bpcZGW1hDZD3j-0EwJdJ37RZC-4tgfhUv7sc5x21GxuekjE0mcXmAxClVkadzi1d0YXnmED-b-yJCXTjwioVCd98X1APvuEFXnGS1uIxj9fRQLnsa0vA/s1600/whywehate101.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="809" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfNAgJaQg8Ea9nljVmK0poNNdiCFeIHh5D7nneoqixbiLsZAiH2zVHutWs-6W11jkpl8rx4bpcZGW1hDZD3j-0EwJdJ37RZC-4tgfhUv7sc5x21GxuekjE0mcXmAxClVkadzi1d0YXnmED-b-yJCXTjwioVCd98X1APvuEFXnGS1uIxj9fRQLnsa0vA/s640/whywehate101.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN1S_JGWmUDJBf1IaY5MYYN6Mm6vs0HfrDSLz9XCFCc_tmUDbbfBprgMdFbwwHFb-TkQeGlSdbNn2UulVXHKl5l6YhBuKB9y9i0lxnYSHPuerJRRjInX8Cu_qhO2ndGtcSw0Pxq0wY_7nYxtUQHQRbDkBKP1stqERvUZVzzB0QJoilIFCwGheX2AZ-EA/s1600/Why.We.Hate.S01E02.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-IKA.mkv_snapshot_28.27_%5B2022.10.03_00.58.47%5D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN1S_JGWmUDJBf1IaY5MYYN6Mm6vs0HfrDSLz9XCFCc_tmUDbbfBprgMdFbwwHFb-TkQeGlSdbNn2UulVXHKl5l6YhBuKB9y9i0lxnYSHPuerJRRjInX8Cu_qhO2ndGtcSw0Pxq0wY_7nYxtUQHQRbDkBKP1stqERvUZVzzB0QJoilIFCwGheX2AZ-EA/s640/Why.We.Hate.S01E02.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-IKA.mkv_snapshot_28.27_%5B2022.10.03_00.58.47%5D.png"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGketZiu-wcZL_mKLAEWKpA0rBXiIV0zM2uMirgDghU8rkFEiECnRPBAgIn8FKCieX-q11L00Mj0b79HVchuQAtxjiTcrQdkMjY9zRli61qfTSJH0ox1m8XmwBwl533H_OqDazTFIyyJpqh_OIW0odJy7XsyDKmI5nI0MF_mWzgMUGvNqHPZCba6OPaw/s1600/whywehate119.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="856" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGketZiu-wcZL_mKLAEWKpA0rBXiIV0zM2uMirgDghU8rkFEiECnRPBAgIn8FKCieX-q11L00Mj0b79HVchuQAtxjiTcrQdkMjY9zRli61qfTSJH0ox1m8XmwBwl533H_OqDazTFIyyJpqh_OIW0odJy7XsyDKmI5nI0MF_mWzgMUGvNqHPZCba6OPaw/s640/whywehate119.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOOA9Stk3P4cE_x4oZZV7yTO09ERf93GFlyZ-9aj1BTvuoff15r6SJwqT2KMBIgpnVaw5nEpm5G_mJ3Iq6lq61AtWTbZxE7_gcdj9YnI932iG4Oy9Nw_k6N4hOFg59qfZFpSD9eUPX_n4F1bjMT4wA5AdGVJKpwhhZezIzpTKvX6QxfJz7rwa47lLEgg/s1600/Why.We.Hate.S01E04.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-IKA.mkv_snapshot_38.44_%5B2022.10.03_00.31.16%5D+.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1067" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOOA9Stk3P4cE_x4oZZV7yTO09ERf93GFlyZ-9aj1BTvuoff15r6SJwqT2KMBIgpnVaw5nEpm5G_mJ3Iq6lq61AtWTbZxE7_gcdj9YnI932iG4Oy9Nw_k6N4hOFg59qfZFpSD9eUPX_n4F1bjMT4wA5AdGVJKpwhhZezIzpTKvX6QxfJz7rwa47lLEgg/s640/Why.We.Hate.S01E04.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-IKA.mkv_snapshot_38.44_%5B2022.10.03_00.31.16%5D+.png"/></a>
<div align="center">(Geeta Gandbhir & Sam Pollard, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8300948/">Why We Hate</a></i>, 2019)</div>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-01/downfall:-the-last-days-of-president-trump/13110382">January 6</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/foreign/taking-on-trump/14017068">Liz Cheney</a><br>
<blockquote><i>Woman:</i><br>
I don't think [Donald] was responsible for inciting violence or an insurrection.<br>
I guarantee you, if it was an insurrection … the Capitol would've burned down. …<br>
It wasn't a violent, intentional … like we saw all summer with the riots of 2020.<br>
We're totally ignoring all of that and focusing on this one, this one incident. …<br>
<br>
<i>Woman 2:</i><br>
My problem with January 6th is if you're going to go after … Trump and whoever was involved with that, you better go after the other side just as hard, because my city burned and nobody did anything. …<br>
<br>
<i>Man:</i><br>
[Cheney's] done a lot of, a lot of great things, but she lost all of my trust … and all of my respect when she went after … former President Trump …<br>
(<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/foreign/taking-on-trump/14017068">Taking on Trump</a>, <i>ABC Foreign Correspondent</i>, August 2022)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBPpiRP8NQw">The Evolution of Tribalism</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-26/defining-dutton/14066096">Peter Dutton</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/satan-miracles-and-gods-plan-scott-morrison-unplugged/13981320">In God We Trust</a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Menzies">Robert Menzies</a> (1894 – 1978):</i><br>
Human nature is at its greatest when it combines
<ul><li>dependence upon God with</li>
<li>independence of man.</li></ul>
(<a href="http://www.liberals.net/theforgottenpeople.htm">The Forgotten People</a>, 22 May 1942)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calvin">John Calvin</a> (1509 – 64):</i><br>
Not only should we behave obediently toward those leaders who perform their office uprightly and faithfully as they ought, but also it is fitting to endure those who insolently abuse their power, until freed from their yoke by a lawful order.<br>
For as a good prince is proof of DIVINE BENEFICENCE for the preservation of human welfare, so a bad and wicked ruler is His whip to chastise the peoples’ transgressions.</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/inside-scott-morrisons-last-ditch-election-day-tactic/13987888">Morrison's Trump Card</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/morrison-ministry/101339070">One Man Government</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/morrison-press-conference/101343604">Morrison's Defense</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/this-week/minister-for-everything/14018938">Autocracy vs Cabinet Government</a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien">John Tolkien</a> (1892 – 1970):</i><br>
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,<br>
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,<br>
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,<br>
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne<br>
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.<br>
<br>
One Ring to rule them all,<br>
One Ring to find them,<br>
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them<br>
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.<br>
(<i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, 1968)</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/aly-waleed.html#QF61">Tax Cuts For The Rich, Spending Cuts For The Poor</a></h2>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">[Our] administration favors the many instead of the few<br>
This is why it is called a democracy</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericles">Pericles</a> (c495 – 29 BCE), </i>Funeral Oration<i>, Athens, 431 BCE.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium;">[The] primary role of the state in classical Liberalism is to protect private property …</span><br>
<br>
<i>— Arthur Goldwag, </i>Isms and Ologies<i>, 2007, p 35.</i></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Btn6ubJ-B2E_4PovzUelclRY8T_LQFbZ-IaTbPVg-mE3I4hAbSMjLE0Nzo-LgsJuFfzSb09Ew9gijAQgghVlGtez0m2qmZLG1ivGLHnt8KVtXxBdykIkvjd3bjGIFoKqpOY2gTxzUBcJ/s1600/rich.png" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img align="center" border="0" width="640" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Btn6ubJ-B2E_4PovzUelclRY8T_LQFbZ-IaTbPVg-mE3I4hAbSMjLE0Nzo-LgsJuFfzSb09Ew9gijAQgghVlGtez0m2qmZLG1ivGLHnt8KVtXxBdykIkvjd3bjGIFoKqpOY2gTxzUBcJ/s640/rich.png"></a>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Grant_(journalist)">Stan Grant</a> (1963):</i><br>
The average wealth of the top 20% in Australia is 90 times that of the lowest 20%.<br>
That is an unsustainable situation that will lead to:
<ul><li>the extremities,</li>
<li>the tribal warfare,</li>
<li>the ugliness,</li>
<li>the populism</li></ul>
— that tears apart so many other democracies.<br>
(<a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=qgL2WR6fX1M">Australia’s inequality crisis</a>)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect">Matthew 25:29</a>:</i><br>
For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance;<br>
but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Standard_Version">RSV</a></i>, 1946.)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a> (1911 – 2004):</i><br>
[Government] is not the solution …<br>
Government is the problem.<br>
(First Inaugural Address, 1981)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher#Third_term_as_Prime_Minister">Margaret Thatcher</a> (1925 – 2013):</i><br>
There is no such thing as society.<br>
There are [only] individual men and women, and there are families.<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._H._Tawney">Richard Tawney</a> (1880 – 1962):</i>
<br>Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows.<br>
(<i>Equality</i>, 3rd Edition, 1938)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Berlin">Isaiah Berlin</a> (1909 – 97):</i><br>[Total] liberty for wolves is death to [lambs.]<br>
[Total] liberty of the powerful [and] the gifted, is not compatible with the rights to a decent existence of the weak and less gifted. …<br>
Equality may demand the restraint of the liberty of those who wish to dominate … in order
<ul><li>to make room for social welfare,</li>
<li>to feed the hungry,</li>
<li>to clothe the naked,</li>
<li>to shelter the homeless,</li>
<li>to leave room for the liberty of others, [and]</li>
<li>to allow justice or fairness to exercised.</li></ul>
(The Pursuit of the Ideal, <i>The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideas</i>, 1990)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard">John Howard</a> (1939):</i><br>
… I would like to see an Australian nation that feels comfortable and relaxed about three things:
<ul><li>I would like to see them comfortable and relaxed about their history;</li>
<li>I would like to see them comfortable and relaxed about the present; and</li>
<li>I'd also like to see them comfortable and relaxed about the future.</li></ul>
</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/liz-truss-to-be-next-british-prime-minister-/101408476">Conservatives love tax cuts</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/british-conservatives-lose-control-of-economy-/101480688">Tax cuts for the rich</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/how-not-to-run-an-economy/101487296">Blowing up the economy</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/uk-pm-liz-truss-grilled-on-mini-budget-/101489368">Tickle down economics</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/economic-management/13891640">Who is the better economic manager?</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<h3>What Do You Care About? Prisons or Schools?</h3>
<br>
If you care about the economy, defence, law and order, and preserving the traditional social order, vote conservative.<br>
If you care about the economy, health, education, welfare, social justice, and the environment, vote progressive.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b><i>Progressive or Conservative? Public Goods or Private Gain?</i></b><br>
<br>
If you prefer a society more like those of a Scandinavian country, vote progressive.<br>
If you prefer a society more like the United States, vote conservative.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b><i>Pro-Rich Policies</i></b>
<ul><li>Stage 3 tax cuts for the rich.</li>
<li>Funding of private schools.</li>
<li>Generous superannuation tax breaks for high income earners.</li>
<li>Trickle down economics (a rising tide lifts all boats).</li>
<li>Privatization and deregulation.</li>
<li>Attempt by the Abbott government to repeal the post-GFC <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-27/future-of-financial-advice-reforms-promise-check/5566446">financial advice (FOFA) legislation</a> in 2016 (required advisors to act in the best interests of their CLIENTS); weakening of the post-GFC / banking royal commission <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/campaign-against-responsible-lending-changes/12913854">responsible lending laws</a> by the Morrison government in 2021.</li></ul>
<blockquote><i>Brodie Haupt:</i><br>
The key changes [to the responsible] lending laws include:
<ul><li>Removing responsible lending obligations from the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, with the exception of small amount credit contracts and consumer leases.</li>
<li>Ensuring that authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) will continue to comply with Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's (APRA) lending standards requiring credit assessment and approval criteria.</li>
<li>Protecting consumers from the <b>predatory practices</b> of debt management firms by requiring them to hold an Australian Credit License (ACL) when they are paid to represent consumers in disputes.</li>
<li>Allowing lenders to rely on the information provided by borrowers, replacing the current practice of 'lender beware' with a <b>'borrower responsibility'</b> principle.</li></ul>
(<a href="https://www.moneymag.com.au/changes-responsible-lending-laws">How we borrow money is about to change - here's what it means for you</a>, <i>Money Magazine</i>, 22 January 2021)</blockquote>
<br>
<b><i>Anti-Poor Policies</i></b>
<ul><li>Austerity (spending cuts for the poor).</li>
<li>Defunding of public schools (axing of the bulk of the Gonski needs-based education funding).</li>
<li>The unlawful <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robodebt_scheme">RoboDebt</a> scheme.</li>
<li>Opposition to raising the minimum wage.</li>
<li>Abolition of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(Australia)#Medibank_Mark_II_(1976%E2%80%931981)">universal health care</a> by Fraser government in 1981.</li>
<li>Punishing the unemployed even though relatively high unemployment is deliberately engineered by government to keep wages down (and inflation low).</li></ul>
<br>
<b><i>Anti-Human / Minority Rights Policies</i></b>
<ul><li>Attacks on Gillian Triggs, the Human Rights Commission, and the Racial Discrimination Act.</li>
<li>Attempts to override state discimination protections with a federal religious anti-discrimination act.</li>
<li>Federal funding for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Schools_Coalition_Australia">Safe Schools</a> LGBTIQ anti-bullying program ceased by the Abbott government in 2016.</li>
<li>Outlawing of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_same-sex_marriage_in_Australia">gay marriage</a> by the Howard Government in 2004.</li>
<li>Hardline refugee policy (repealing the medivac bill, attempted deportation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murugappan_family_asylum_claims">Biloela family</a>).</li></ul>
<br>
<b><i>Resistance to Accountable and Transparent Government</i></b>
<ul><li>Opposition to an effective federal integrity commission</li>
<li>Hostility to public broadcasting (defunding / <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2016/07/tom-switzer.html#4740464-top">privitazation</a> of the ABC, stacking the ABC board with arch-conservatives).</li>
<li>Hollowing out and intimidation of the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/the-australian-public-service/14058378">public service</a> in favor of private consultancies.</li>
<li>Stacking public bodies, such as the AAT and the Human Rights Commission, with conservative political appointees, many with no legal training.</li></ul>
<br>
<b><i>Anti-Environment Policies</i></b>
<ul><li>Repeal of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_pricing_in_Australia">carbon price</a> by the Abbott government in 2014.</li>
<li>Pro-fossil fuel / anti-clean energy policies.</li></ul>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dutton">Peter Dutton</a> (1970):</i><br>
What the Liberal Party stands accused of is, not continuation of [the] climate wars, it's the ability to POORLY MARKET what we've achieved …<br>
I'm sure climate was an element for some people, particularly in inner city seats, but in many other seats, there were other issues that were at play.<br>
The thought that we lost the election because of one issue … just doesn't make any sense.<br>
(<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/defining-dutton/14066096">Defining Dutton: Can the Liberals succeed under Peter Dutton?</a>, <i>ABC Four Corners</i>, September 2022)<br>
<br>
<i>Barbara Norman [Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Canberra]:</i><br>
So what's happened since [2013?]<br>
The defunding of the of National Adaptation Centre.<br>
The abolition of the Climate Commission.<br>
The defunding of adaptation research in CSIRO, … the Bureau of Meteorology, and universities … <br>
[The] systematic dismantling of many programs to assist local and regional communities to adapt to a changing climate.<br>
(<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/urban-planning-and-sustainability-in-australia/13896714">What's the future without planning?</a>, <i>ABC Ockham's Razor</i>, 29 May 2022)</blockquote>
<br>
<b><i>Pro-Defence / Anti-Foreign Aid Policies</i></b>
<ul><li>Plan to buy $170 billion <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/rex-patrick:-abandon-the-course-of-nuclear-powered-subs/13952786">nuclear powered submarines</a> instead of $30 billion conventional submarines.</li>
<li>Abolishing of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aid">AusAID</a> by the Abbott government in 2014; falling overseas development assistance.</li></ul>
<br>
<b><i>Anti-Science Policies</i></b>
<ul><li>Declining funding for scientific research and public universities.</li>
<li>Climate science denial.</li></ul>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="guy">The Second Coming of <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Guy">Matthew Guy</a> (1974)</h3>
<br>
<i>Leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition and the Liberal Party of Victoria</i><br>
<br>
… I believe the acceptance as the norm of high TAXation, both commercial and personal, must end. …<br>
A simple, basic rule for every Victorian government should be that it makes every effort not to TAX the community more than is necessary to run the affairs of the state — that is the Liberal Way.<br>
The Liberal philosophy is and always has been about reducing the TAXation burden …<br>
Victoria will not maintain a competitive position if … we continue to trundle along as a cool-climate, highly TAXed, and over-regulated economy. …<br>
… Victoria should be aiming to be the lowest TAXing state in Australia … as a key weapon in maintaining an economic edge over … other economies in the Asia-Pacific region. …<br>
If we were to provide future generations with just one tool for long-term social and economic success, it would be … keeping Victoria the lowest TAXing state in Australia …<br>
The Liberal Party stands as a beacon of hope to all those Victorians who know that we will not succeed by being a high-TAXing, overregulated, cool-climate economy near the bottom of the world …<br>
<br>
… I want to state loudly and proudly to this chamber that I am a Christian. …<br>
[What] has concerned me over a number of years is the growing acceptance of ridicule and denigration of the Christian church in … the entertainment industry, the media and even … within government. …<br>
I am dumbfounded that some contemporary movies … questioning the authenticity of the Bible can be painted off as reasoned fact. …<br>
As we approach Christmas … I hope the teaching to our young of THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS is never lost or banned by overzealous, POLITICALLY CORRECT politicians or bureaucrats.<br>
I for one will be most vocal against any moves to lessen the significance of the church within our society. …<br>
<br>
Ever since I was a boy I have loved state politics and had a deep desire to participate in it as a state parliamentarian. …<br>
I am proud to say that my first full-time job in politics was with former Premier Jeff Kennett.<br>
He and his government worked exceptionally hard to restore the confidence of a beaten and comatose economy.<br>
(<a
href="http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/downloadhansard/pdf/Council/Dec%202006/Council%20Extract%2019%20December%202006%20from%20Book%201.pdf">Maiden Speech</a>, Legislative Council, Victorian Parliament, 19 December 2006, pp 36‒9)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat">The Dictatorship of the Proletariat</a></h3>
<br>
<h4><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dutton">Peter Dutton</a> (1970)</h4>
<br>
The fight for a better place in which to live is today made even more difficult for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that … the POLITICALLY CORRECT seem to have a disproportionate say in public debate today.<br>
The <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/02/richard-nixon.html#silentmajority">silent majority</a>, the <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/03/george-megalogenis.html#forgottenpeople">forgotten people</a> … are fed up with bodies like
<ul><li>the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_Council_for_Civil_Liberties">Civil Liberties Council</a>, …</li>
<li>the Refugee Action Collective, and …</li>
<li>the DICTATORSHIP of the trade union movement. …</li></ul>
<br>
[We must] not be deterred by those who would seek to drive their own hidden agendas.<br>
It is my aim to use my experience both in small business and in law enforcement to provide … a more practical view on some of the issues and problems experienced in these areas.<br>
[I am] proud to be part of a government … determined to ensure a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorkChoices">balanced workplace</a>, not only for employees but also for EMPLOYERS. …<br>
<br>
In society today we are experiencing unacceptable crime rates, causing older Australians to barricade themselves in their homes, all in the name of safety. …<br>
[It is] obvious that … the courts are not representing the views … of the broader community.<br>
Time after time we see grossly inadequate sentences being delivered to criminals whose civil rights have far exceeded those of the victim and others in our society. …<br>
Australians are fed up with the Civil Liberties Council … who appear obsessed with the rights of criminals yet do not utter a word of understanding or compassion for the victims of crime.<br>
Their motives are questionable and their hypocrisy breathtaking. …<br>
<br>
[As] a police officer … I have seen the sickening behaviour displayed by people who, frankly, barely justify their EXISTENCE in our sometimes OVER TOLERANT society. …<br>
We are seeing an alarming number of households where up to three generations—in many cases by choice—have never worked in their lives, and a society where in many cases rights are demanded but no responsibility taken.<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170603100441/http://www.peterdutton.com.au/MeetPeter/MaidenSpeech.aspx">Maiden Speech</a>, House of Representatives, Australian Parliament, 13 February 2002)peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-13916404399594782292022-08-13T21:28:00.033+10:002023-05-20T00:31:03.195+10:00Public Decency<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Would%20you%20like%20to%20know%20more%3F">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered">Hanged, drawn and quartered</a>:</i><br>
To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 …<br>
The convicted traitor was …
<ul><li>hanged (almost to the point of death),</li>
<li>emasculated,</li>
<li>disembowelled,</li>
<li>beheaded, and</li>
<li>quartered (chopped into four pieces).</li></ul>
His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors.<br>
For reasons of PUBLIC DECENCY, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 19 July 2022, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barilaro">John Barilaro</a> (1971) {18th Deputy Premier of NSW, 2016– 21]:</i><br>
[Barilaro's] attempt at a post-political career as the New South Wales trade commissioner to the United States resulted in a political scandal … after a series of embarrassing disclosures over [his] creation of the highly paid role prior to his departure from Parliament, and the role of NSW Government ministers and public servants in the process.<br>
That process saw the originally successful applicant fired from her public service job. …<br>
He ultimately won the job and had his position confirmed but the scandal erupted in the middle of 2022 and he quit prior to moving to New York.<br>
The issue was referred to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, and minister Stuart Ayres resigned from his cabinet role over the matter.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 8 August 2022)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D#Mortality,_all-causes">Vitamin D</a>:</i><br>
Vitamin D3 [cholecalciferol] supplementation has been tentatively found to lead to a reduced risk of death in the elderly, but the effect has not been deemed pronounced, or certain enough, to make taking supplements recommendable. …<br>
High blood levels appear to be associated with a lower risk of death, but it is unclear if supplementation can result in this benefit.<br>
Both an excess and a deficiency in vitamin D appear to cause abnormal functioning and premature aging.<br>
The relationship between serum calcifediol concentrations and all-cause mortality is "U-shaped": mortality is elevated at high and low calcifediol levels, relative to moderate levels.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 9 August 2022)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams">Douglas Adams</a> (1952 – 2001):</i><br>
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that something so mind-bogglingly useful [as the Babel fish] could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.<br>
The argument goes something like this:
<blockquote>'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing.'<br>
<br>
'But, says Man, the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it?<br>
It could not have evolved by chance.<br>
It proves you exist, and, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'<br>
<br>
'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and vanishes in a puff of logic.</blockquote>
(<i>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</i>, 1979)</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMFkbk12pbvLvPoRI9mwOnaVVPWn_J6LjyOnH4fnD08r73rCoID_0sEpDRpx0VetdsCQT2Sy5suRkAIzx3N-SSWEbXFpzlc_ZzMdz4zMzLKfSzipgK81kks76QwUcq7WOEmSpJp60epa7Qtcllq0R3Jhkkh9dxQVXigKpNF7KMZ2jPoL9-Ps-kSfCyNg/s1600/SciAm_2022_05.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1296" data-original-width="968" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMFkbk12pbvLvPoRI9mwOnaVVPWn_J6LjyOnH4fnD08r73rCoID_0sEpDRpx0VetdsCQT2Sy5suRkAIzx3N-SSWEbXFpzlc_ZzMdz4zMzLKfSzipgK81kks76QwUcq7WOEmSpJp60epa7Qtcllq0R3Jhkkh9dxQVXigKpNF7KMZ2jPoL9-Ps-kSfCyNg/s400/SciAm_2022_05.jpg"/></a></div>
<div align="center">(Tim Flach, How Birds Hear Birdsong, <i>Scientific American</i>, May 2022, p 41)
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgUCN35VhQU3-gXKdCUdS3J_PecXeIzYYk467u264alWRGAcwKiB1ZLRb_FZh5ga3PP0GO8XGVWzVeZbl7QBR_eVObYKYGX0lAJN0ME6UUBqq8HOem0Jv3WpW9GEr8VTiFcElA5SdjrrxRKtmRVrMR9HHGIWthe4OxExeNry30TnZeEkHmAIZZ9XBTcg/s1600/icons203.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="813" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgUCN35VhQU3-gXKdCUdS3J_PecXeIzYYk467u264alWRGAcwKiB1ZLRb_FZh5ga3PP0GO8XGVWzVeZbl7QBR_eVObYKYGX0lAJN0ME6UUBqq8HOem0Jv3WpW9GEr8VTiFcElA5SdjrrxRKtmRVrMR9HHGIWthe4OxExeNry30TnZeEkHmAIZZ9XBTcg/s640/icons203.PNG"/></a>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall">Jane Goodall</a>, 1934)
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQd99alsQtj7gJ4V_bNWI9PzjKbtqPMKtjniF-3YpUt_XhRI01yXDJ8jI2m9TnKlaPJzVCncVdE8oodgy6391oD6bgk6ZxMPsiZuWOJMy2vZT5BojqT1OE2XUGpp0U9indwAYFNFjusnmZufyDLDZYzpoiWVQIz1n4JgMXeqxxRynngRMqe7pLXVYQ2A/s1600/icons204.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="780" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQd99alsQtj7gJ4V_bNWI9PzjKbtqPMKtjniF-3YpUt_XhRI01yXDJ8jI2m9TnKlaPJzVCncVdE8oodgy6391oD6bgk6ZxMPsiZuWOJMy2vZT5BojqT1OE2XUGpp0U9indwAYFNFjusnmZufyDLDZYzpoiWVQIz1n4JgMXeqxxRynngRMqe7pLXVYQ2A/s640/icons204.PNG"/></a>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell">Gertrude Bell</a>, 1868 – 1926)</div>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/our-brain/">Our Brain</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnO75DHfxTA">How to get money</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bTKRkmwtGY">The Science of Gender & Science</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/threats-to-u.s.-poll-workers-ahead-of-mid-term-elections/13995712">US Elections</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/2002488899790/secrets-of-americas-shadow-government-s2-ep8-the-real-drug-lords">Pill MIlls</a>
<blockquote>By the late aughts, nearly 50,000 Americans are dying each year from opiate abuse, triple the number from just a decade earlier.<br>
So many die, that the average American's life expectancy drops nearly a year.</blockquote>
<br>
<a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html">How to Disagree</a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(programmer)#Graham's_Hierarchy_of_Disagreement" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhScjA7a9MYY9KHJp8es1XxE8KtBu4xeJjt7lExQ5Ac1ufSIrv-fSohisHSPkAJIeOUa8OpFiCL5na__5FYaguJWZjhS-DwERSboscgU8oPFIXy5aMHU4ppp9BgwZw5z25WK2LcmFv5tgI5tPg8Agd9TGA-V1MqJWbXFjMnwKi4FvtmORgsjyulEHl6Ng/s640/Graham%27s_Hierarchy_of_Disagreement-en.svg.png"/></a>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-15/independents-day:-behind-the-scenes-with-the-new/14020206">Independent Women</a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBY56AQdpXxFp1rxR2997ajez7O1wf9vBdIijx3Di14mvs3Qg1TccEVYd0NfH5MkI3um1FSR4cYHJ5rE-X4B493h0aKaeYf4hD43Xgc_7pMSTBcqXMvvZhoUo-1ACpNR8dQ07o-6An76j1_paVAk8wxpu9HtG58J4xffAMTuhi77bYODu9hjmzLi6lQA/s1600/independentsday.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="655" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBY56AQdpXxFp1rxR2997ajez7O1wf9vBdIijx3Di14mvs3Qg1TccEVYd0NfH5MkI3um1FSR4cYHJ5rE-X4B493h0aKaeYf4hD43Xgc_7pMSTBcqXMvvZhoUo-1ACpNR8dQ07o-6An76j1_paVAk8wxpu9HtG58J4xffAMTuhi77bYODu9hjmzLi6lQA/s640/independentsday.PNG"/></a>
<br>
<a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/DO2014H002S00">Polar Change</a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYhsendsCGviBbJkqb6m9o7dt3aaE_ApleNOC-5bBSHSN6aQsvgidVumkQg1RbNO5A1II7nCFcpLgU-y0pFjlVa9QWAYDBJDqpSQxStdYoz6iLseL6pEXRboe7MdVUSIApucU3vB487thymgWsweBj3vWHhscwEFCQYoJ8C-KcZWcOBQe2F6igZC5Wg/s1600/thepolesrevealed200.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="637" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYhsendsCGviBbJkqb6m9o7dt3aaE_ApleNOC-5bBSHSN6aQsvgidVumkQg1RbNO5A1II7nCFcpLgU-y0pFjlVa9QWAYDBJDqpSQxStdYoz6iLseL6pEXRboe7MdVUSIApucU3vB487thymgWsweBj3vWHhscwEFCQYoJ8C-KcZWcOBQe2F6igZC5Wg/s640/thepolesrevealed200.PNG"/></a>
<br>
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-04/the-war-within/13958396">Factional warfare / branch stacking within the Liberal Party of Australia</a><br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOC4SgjdROyoylbOwHJEmDwSRrY0jMigQvsq3Y_YGhyoH0eToYZvpB2kiiJ1KNzTNvW1e0IRjN2gOK8oelcUx4r1HRuUKYV2mtqbw9vTIZOP1_LDAi7t9kicA9wQgj9ieVXlSJ-4JXtDeBy48fSxxrxlxSZ3VYPJip1ilskJ8vWaUYUMja3GvlvPCgGw/s1600/thewarwithin00.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="857" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOC4SgjdROyoylbOwHJEmDwSRrY0jMigQvsq3Y_YGhyoH0eToYZvpB2kiiJ1KNzTNvW1e0IRjN2gOK8oelcUx4r1HRuUKYV2mtqbw9vTIZOP1_LDAi7t9kicA9wQgj9ieVXlSJ-4JXtDeBy48fSxxrxlxSZ3VYPJip1ilskJ8vWaUYUMja3GvlvPCgGw/s640/thewarwithin00.PNG"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branch_stacking">Branch Stacking</a></i>:<br>
Branch stacking itself is legal under Australian law since it is an internal party matter, but some activities like providing false information to the Australian Electoral Commission, such as the numbers of members, can be prosecuted as fraud.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 7 May 2022)</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Garnaut">Ross Garnaut</a> (1946)</h3>
<br>
After being on a strongly increasing trajectory for many years, Australian emissions have stabilised under the new [Labor] policies.<br>
Emissions from the electricity sector fell by more than 7% over the year to June 2013. …<br>
Current policies can meet the more and more demanding reductions that Austrlaia is likely to be called to make, at a relatively low cost and with minimal political discretion and business uncertainty.<br>
(p 207)<br>
<br>
The new [<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/12/tony-abbott.html">Abbott</a>] government is bound by its election commitments to … remove carbon pricing. …<br>
[Doing this] would deepen the budgetary problems with which the government will eventually have to deal.<br>
It would lead to larger sacrificies of productivity than would be necessary with broadly based carbon pricing.<br>
It would lead either:
<ul><li>to much higher costs later in the decade; or</li>
<li>to Australia breaching its committments to the international community and damaging its own interest in the global mitagation effort.</li></ul>
And it would set the Australian polity on another long journey to find a way to make our contribution to combating global climate change, distracting the government and the polity from the great economic challenges facing Australia.<br>
(p 211)<br>
<br>
Non-Labor governments have greater longevity .<br>
There have been five long-term (three or more terms) non-Labor governments and only one long-term Labor government.<br>
This reflects and electoral advantage in conservatisim, in the sense of defending the status quo and resisting change.<br>
As Machiavelli explained to the Medici princes, reform excites the passions of all who will be hurt by it, but the enthusiasm of [none of the] beneficiaries.<br>
<br>
(<i>Dog Days: Australia After The Boom</i>, 2013, p 227)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth">William Wordsworth</a> (1770 – 1850)</h3>
<br>
For I have learned<br>
To look on nature, not as in the hour<br>
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes<br>
The still, sad music of humanity …<br>
And I have felt … a sense sublime<br>
Of something far more deeply interfused,<br>
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,<br>
And the round ocean and the living air,<br>
And the blue sky …<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth#Lines_written_a_few_miles_above_Tintern_Abbey_%281798%29">Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey</a>, 1798)<br>
<br>
<br>
One impulse from a vernal wood<br>
May teach you more of man,<br>
Of moral evil and of good,<br>
Than all the sages can.<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth#Lyrical_Ballads_%281798%E2%80%931800%29">The Tables Turned</a>, <i>Lyrical Ballads</i>, 1798)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschylus">Aeschylus</a> (c 525/524 – c 456/455 BCE)</h3>
<br>
[He] who learns must suffer.<br>
And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget<br>
falls drop by drop upon the heart,<br>
and in our own despite, against our will,<br>
comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aeschylus#Agamemnon">Agamemnon</a>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oresteia">Oresteia</a></i>, 458 BCE)peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-43166847803448555532022-04-24T00:44:00.014+10:002022-06-11T00:49:25.971+10:00Simon Chapman<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/green-army-persons-of-interest.html#contents">Green Army: Persons of Interest</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium" id="tobacco">I am a cigarette with a life attached.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Carver#Death">Raymond Carver</a> (1938 – 88)</i></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a></h3>
<br>
Smoking kills 19,000 Australians a year, more than 4,000 before retirement age, more than those who die from breast, cervical and skin cancer, AIDS, suicide, alcohol and road crashes combined.<br>
(p 192)<br>
<br>
Globally, an estimated 4 million people die each year from tobacco-related illness, compared to 2.7 million from malaria and 2.8 million from AIDS.<br>
After malnutrition (5.9 million in 1990) and violence and injury (5.8 million), tobacco claims more deaths than any other single cause.<br>
<br>
(<i>Smoke Signals</i>, 2016, p 141)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman</a> [Director of Research, School of Public Health, University of Sydney]:</i><br>
[According to] internal tobacco industry documents [the price of cigarettes] is the single greatest determinant of smoking in the community. …<br>
<br>
[They also] show that the main purpose of [cigarette additives] is to make smoking more palatable for young people.<br>
[A] lot of work has gone [into reducing] 'throat grab' [‒ that initial coughing you get when you first start smoking.]<br>
[Menthol] acts as a sort of a gentle local anaesthetic in the throat, which makes [smoking] easier, particularly for young women, who tend to favour menthol cigarettes …<br>
<br>
<i>Robert Proctor:</i><br>
[Smoking] is not like drinking …<br>
[It's] like being an alcoholic.<br>
Only about three per cent of people who drink are addicted, whereas 80 to 90 per cent of people who smoke are addicted. …<br>
[Smoking] is not a recreational drug …<br>
<br>
[The] cigarette pack itself [is] the last bastion of advertising.<br>
The cigarette pack [is] like a micro-ad …<br>
[Cigarettes are an undifferentiated product, they're] basically all … the same.<br>
[From a marketing viewpoint, the packaging is the] product. …<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a>:</i><br>
[If you] open any tobacco industry trade magazine [there is] page after page of advertisements from packaging companies, talking about how packaging is front and centre of branding …<br>
[The package] is the centre of the advertising effort.<br>
<br>
There's been a lot of experimental evidence by people showing young people different versions of packs and asking them which ones that they would prefer.<br>
[They] always say that they don't like the plain-packaged ones, they want the nice looking packs …<br>
[It's] a no-brainer.<br>
[The] next generation of kids will grow up never having seen a packet of carcinogenic products packaged in a beautiful box.<br>
<br>
(<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/plain-packaging-of-cigarettes/3584320">Plain packaging of cigarettes</a>, <i>ABC Rear Vision</i>, 19 October 2011)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="#3584320">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="vaping">E-cigarettes</h3>
<br>
<i>Banks E, Yazidjoglou A, Brown S, Nguyen M, Martin M, Beckwith K, Daluwatta A, Campbell S & Joshy G</i>
<br>
<br>
Among non-smokers, there is currently <b>strong evidence</b> that use of e-cigarettes is harmful to health overall, with multiple health harms and no health benefits identified in this population. …<br>
There is <b>no available evidence</b> as to how e-cigarette use affects clinical mental-health outcomes. …<br>
There is <b>strong evidence</b> that e-cigarettes increase combustible smoking uptake in non-smokers, particularly youth …<br>
<br>
Use of e-cigarettes results in inhalation of a complex array of chemicals originating from:
<ul><li>the e-liquid,</li>
<li>chemical reactions in the heating coil and the device itself.</li></ul>
These include:
<ul><li>nicotine,</li>
<li>solvent carriers (propyleneglycol, ethylene glycol and glycerol),</li>
<li>tobacco-specific nitrosamines,</li>
<li>volatile organic compounds,</li>
<li>phenolic compounds,</li>
<li>flavourings,</li>
<li>tobacco alkaloids,</li>
<li>aldehydes,</li>
<li>free radicals,</li>
<li>reactive oxygen species,</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furan">furans</a>, and</li>
<li>metals.</li></ul>
Toxicological studies indicate that exposure to these substances can result in adverse health effects.
Nicotine is highly addictive and there is evidence from basic human and animal studies that it adversely affects:
<ul><li>cardiovascular measures, and</li>
<li>brain development and functioning. …</li></ul>
Nicotine e-cigarettes are highly addictive, underpinning increasing and widespread use among children and adolescents in many settings. …<br>
<br>
There is <b>conclusive evidence</b> that:
<ul><li>e-cigarettes and their constituents cause poisoning, injuries and burns and immediate toxicity through inhalation, including seizures …</li>
<li>their use leads to addiction, and that</li>
<li>they cause less serious adverse events, such as throat irritation and nausea.</li></ul>
There is <b>conclusive evidence</b> that the use of e-cigarettes can cause [EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury)] among smokers and non-smokers … with
<ul><li>half of cases related to THC in conjunction with vitamin E acetate, and</li>
<li>14% in patients reporting the use of nicotine-delivering products only …</li></ul>
<br>
(Executive Summary, <i><a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/262914/1/Electronic%20cigarettes%20health%20outcomes%20review_2022_WCAG.pdf">Electronic cigarettes and health outcomes: systematic review of global evidence</a></i>, Report for the Australian Department of Health, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Canberra, April 2022, pp viii‒xiv, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3>Wind Turbines</h3>
<br>
There is currently no published scientific evidence to positively link wind turbines with adverse health effects. …<br>
The evidence on shadow flicker does not support a health concern. …<br>
[Wind] turbines of contemporary design … produce very low levels of infrasound. …<br>
The risk of blade glint from modern wind turbines is … very low.<br>
[The] closeness of the electrical cables counters the electromagnetic field [generated by wind turbines], as does shielding with metal armour. …<br>
[Evidence is limited, therefore] it is recommended that relevant authorities take a precautionary approach and continue to monitor research outcomes.<br>
<br>
(<a href="http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines/publications/new0048">NHMRC Public Statement</a>, July 2010)<br>
<br>
<br>
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="width: 640px;" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><th valign="top" colspan="2"><h3>Table 3 (Adapted): Typical A-weighted sound levels for different sources</h3>
</th></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><b>Activity</b></td><td valign="top"><b>Sound pressure level (dBA)</b></td></tr>
<tr><td>Busy general office</td><td valign="top">60</td></tr>
<tr><td>Car travelling at 64km/h at 100m</td><td>55</td></tr>
<tr><td><i>Typical wind farm (at moderate wind speed 7 m/s)*</i></td><td>40 ± 5</td></tr>
<tr><td>Background noise in rural area at night</td><td>30 ± 10</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top" colspan="2">*Based on sound level measurements taken from multiple resident locations near two Victorian wind farms, at distances 500–1,000 m from the nearest turbine.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>
(p 8)<br>
<br>
<a name='more'></a>
<br>
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" style="width: 640px;" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><th colspan="3"><h3>Table 4: Examples of sources of infrasound</h3></th></tr>
<tr><td width="33%"><b>Natural environment</b></td><td width="33%"><b>Household and industry</b></td><td width="33%"><b>Human body</b></td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top">Wind<br>
Waves<br>
Waterfalls</td>
<td valign="top">Air conditioning<br>
Rail traffic<br>
Power plants</td>
<td>Breathing<br>
Chewing<br>
Heart beat<br>
Head movement</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>
<br>
Infrasound from wind farms has been found to be well below the hearing threshold of 85 dBG, and therefore inaudible, even as close as 185 m from the turbines.<br>
(p 10)<br>
<br>
(Wind farms, sound and health — Technical information, Victorian Department of Health, April 2013)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="#4705822">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="contents">Contents</h3>
<br>
<a href="#3584320">Tobacco</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#4705822">Wind Turbines</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#12834">The Nocebo Hypothesis</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#4323486">Wind Turbine Apocalypse</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#vaping">E-cigarettes</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a></h2>
<br>
Professor of Public Health, University of Sydney.<br>
<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-funding-research-and.html#IPA">Institute of Public Affairs</a> (2014): Top 12 Australian all time 'opponent of freedom'.
<p><ul><li><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/wind-turbine-syndrome-a-communicated-disease-simon-chapman/9396452">Wind turbine syndrome: a communicated disease</a>, <i>ABC Health Report</i>, 5 February 2018.</li>
<li id="4705822"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2013-05-26/4705822">An ill wind</a>, <i>ABC Background Briefing</i>, 26 May 2013.<br>
<a href="http://waubrafoundation.com.au/~waubra/Y2NpZD0xJmNhaWQ9MTAmYWlkPSZjcmM9LTc4ODYyMzYxMA%3D%3D">Sarah Laurie</a>: Medical Director, Waubra Foundation.<br>
(Laurie's medical registration lapsed in 2006.)<br>
Richard Dowell: Professor of Audiology and Speech Science, University of Melbourne.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a>:</i><br>
[In 30 years of practice in public health I've never] come across anything which has remotely the same number of problems associated with it [as Wind Turbine Syndrome.]<br>
There have been [<a href="https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/handle/2123/10559/WindHealthReviews_3.pdf?sequence=7">19 reviews</a> of the available research and none] have said that wind turbines, and specifically infrasound, are harmful to health. …<br>
<br>
<blockquote>Infrasound … refers to sounds with a frequency below 20 Hz.<br>
Infrasound above 85 dBG is generally audible, while infrasound below this level is generally inaudible. …<br>
Below 16–20 Hz, the sensation of tone (recognisable pitch of the sound) disappears. …<br>
The sound may become discontinuous in character and, at very high levels, may feel like pressure at the eardrums.<br>
(Wind farms, sound and health — Technical information, Victorian Department of Health, April 2013, p 10)<br>
<br>
<br>
Professor Simon Chapman is the lead author of a paper examining a condition known as vibroacoustic disease, which some people say causes adverse medical conditions for people living or working with 10 kilometres of wind turbines. …<br>
The study, published in the Australian and <i>New Zealand Journal of Public Health</i>, examined 35 research papers on vibroacoustic disease, and found that all but one had a first author from the same research group.<br>
Professor Chapman says the claim that wind turbines cause the disease is based on a <i>single case study</i> of a 12-year-old boy with memory and attention problems at school.<br>
(<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-05/doubt-over-validity-of-wind-turbine-related-diseases/4734172">Academic Simon Chapman finds no evidence that wind turbines cause vibroacoustic disease</a>, ABC News, 5 June 2013, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<br>
Nina Pierpont, a New York pediatrician and wife of an anti-wind energy activist [claims in her] self-published, non-peer-reviewed book that ultra-low frequency sounds affect human health …<br>
[These claims] are based on a very small sample of self-selected subjects with no control group for comparison. …<br>
Simon Chapman has said that "wind turbine syndrome" is [not a recognised diagnosis in] any international disease classification system and does not appear in any title or abstract in the … US National Library of Medicine's PubMed database.<br>
[The] term appears [to have been coined] by anti-wind farm activist groups.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_syndrome#Noise_annoyance">Environmental impact of wind power — Noise Annoyance</a>, Wikipedia, 6 July 2013)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="http://waubrafoundation.com.au/~waubra/Y2NpZD0xJmNhaWQ9MTMmYWlkPSZjcmM9MTQ0OTg1MjMyOA%3D%3D">EXPLICIT CAUTIONARY NOTICE TO THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR WIND TURBINE SITING DECISIONS</a><br>
<br>
BE ADVISED that, as a result of information gathered from the Waubra Foundation’s own [unpublished] field research, and from the clinical and acoustic research available internationally, the following serious medical conditions have been identified in people living, working, or visiting within 10 km of operating wind turbine developments. …<br>
<ul><li>chronic severe sleep deprivation;</li>
<li>acute hypertensive crises;</li>
<li>new onset hypertension;</li>
<li>heart attacks (including Tako Tsubo episodes);</li>
<li>worsening control of preexisting and previously stable medical problems such as angina, hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, migraines, tinnitus, depression, and post traumatic stress disorder;</li>
<li>severe depression, with suicidal ideation;</li>
<li>development of irreversible memory dysfunction, tinnitus, and hyperacusis. … </li></ul>
<br>
Other symptoms include those described … in Dr Pierpont’s book entitled “Wind Turbine Syndrome, A Report on a Natural Experiment”, 2009 …<br>
<br>
The Foundation is also concerned that Vibroacoustic Disease, as recorded and described by Professor Mariana Alves-Pereira’s team from Portugal, will develop in people chronically exposed to wind turbines.<br>
The disease has already been identified in the occupants of a house with levels of infrasound and low frequency noise identical to levels the Foundation is recording in the homes of affected residents in Australia.<br>
<br>
(The Waubra Foundation, 29 June 2011)</blockquote>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
[Symptoms of WTS include tinnitus,] balance problems, dizziness, headaches, and … 'fuzzy thinking', or not being able to think clearly. …<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a>:</i><br>
This is a disease in search of a cause …<br>
Sarah Laurie believes that lips can quiver at up to 10 kilometres away from a turbine and that wind turbines can make a stationary car rock at up to 1 kilometre.<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
We know that in the population roughly 10% of people will be quite severely motion sick.<br>
And [they] seem to be the ones that develop the symptoms earlier. …<br>
<br>
<i>Richard Dowell:</i><br>
At very high levels, it's … <i>possible</i> that low frequencies could be detected in the fluids of the inner ear …<br>
[This could, perhaps, make you] dizzy or [feel] a little strange …<br>
[But] I have never seen any clear evidence of that [actually] occurring …<br>
[If] you measure the levels of infrasound in most cities from traffic and other sources, they're actually much higher levels than you get from a wind turbine …<br>
[And at 300 metres or more] from the wind turbine [it becomes] very hard [to separate the] contribution of the wind turbine [from] normal wind noise. …<br>
[The] literature review [we conducted in 2012] concluded there was no evidence of a link between the sounds generated by the turbines and any health symptoms. …<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
[There] is a connection between specific acoustic frequencies and the sleep disturbance …<br>
[That] was according to the resident who took part in [Professor Con Doolan's] study.<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Dingle:</i><br>
[A] single resident?<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
The single resident, that's correct.<br>
[There's] not a lot of data that's been collected, so we go on what we've got …<br>
That's why we need [more research. …]<br>
<br>
<i>Ian Macfarlane [Opposition Energy Spokesperson]:</i><br>
[The] concerns of the community are not satisfied by international studies.<br>
What we need to do is do a report here in Australia … in the communities that claim to be affected and then come to a scientific and medically based position after that. …<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Dingle:</i><br>
If federal and state governments agree to fund the research you're calling for around the country, and it clears wind farms of any adverse impact on human health, would you accept that?<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
[The] adverse impacts have been shown by a number of studies, both overseas and in Australia.<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://40-eridani-a.blogspot.com/p/peace-and-long-life_9.html#top">peaceandlonglife</a>:</i><br>
Wind turbines are electric fans operating in reverse.<br>
That is to say, electricity generators mirror electric motors.<br>
A wind turbine converts the kinetic or mechanical energy of the wind into electricity.<br>
Conversely, an electric motor in a fan uses electricity to drive the blades to create wind.<br>
The types of sound produced by each device (turbulent airflow and electro-mechanical noise) are the same.<br>
(Of course, all electric motors produce electro-mechanicial noise (eg refrigerators), whilst only appliances incorporating a fan would produce airflow noise.)<br>
Thus, if electric fans are safe, it is likely that wind turbines are equally safe.</blockquote>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a>:</i><br>
… 72% of the complaints [of WTS have] come from just six farms out of the 51 round Australia, and nearly 80% of those complaints have started after 2009.<br>
[It was around that time that] some of the anti-wind turbine groups — who'd previously been mostly basing their opposition around aesthetics [— started to focus on] health problems. …<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
There are two patterns of symptoms that are characteristic for exposure to the very low frequency sound energy.
<ul><li>One of them is this waking up in a panicked state at night, and</li>
<li>the other one is a very unusual and bizarre perception of body vibration.<br>
Sometimes it can be as subtle as just your upper lip. …</li></ul>
<br>
<i>Sarah Dingle:</i><br>
Sarah Laurie also says her phone is being tapped.<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
I've had it confirmed by police on a number of occasions when I've complained.<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Dingle:</i><br>
Background Briefing has statements from the South Australian police and the AFP, saying they don't have any record of Dr Laurie's complaint, and the South Australian police say they have no evidence of her phone being tapped. …<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Dingle:</i><br>
The head of the NHMRC Professor Warwick Anderson says outside of universities there's no legal requirement to have an ethics committee oversee research involving humans. …<br>
[The] acoustician, Les Huson [has] was conducting tests at six homes in Victoria and South Australia for the Waubra Foundation.
[Residents were asked] to fill out questionnaires, which included a section for health complaints [including] the severity of symptoms. …<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
The residents notice that the turbines are not as noisy when the monitoring is going on …<br>
[And] we've got some film footage [showing the turbines] turning at [markedly] different speeds [while the] wind is blowing at the same strength …<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Dingle:</i><br>
A senior engineer at Hydro Tasmania says individual wind turbines catch different wind speeds, even in a local area, and each turbine automatically adjusts to the wind, which is why they can turn at different rates. …<br>
<br>
Fiona Crichton is a PhD candidate in psychological medicine at the University of Auckland.<br>
In a paper published by the American Psychological Association, she and her co-authors decided to test whether expectations affected the number and severity of symptoms reported from infrasound …<br>
<br>
[One] group of 27 people [were shown] a video of scientists explaining infrasound, saying there was no reason to assume it would affect health.<br>
This was the low expectancy group.<br>
She showed a second group video of media reports warning them of the health impacts of wind farms.<br>
This was the high expectancy group.<br>
Then she subjected both groups to ten minutes of real infrasound, and ten minutes of sham infrasound.<br>
<br>
<i>Fiona Crichton:</i><br>
In the high expectancy group they experienced an elevation of symptoms both during sham and during infrasound.<br>
The low expectancy group didn't experience any symptomatic change at all.<br>
There was no physiological impact of the infrasound …<br>
[It] was all about expectancy. …<br>
[It's possible that Laurie, by] creating a health scare … could [be, inadvertently, creating] symptoms. …<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Laurie:</i><br>
I'm not telling them that it's going to make them sick …<br>
… I'm very careful … to say to people that not everybody experiences symptoms.<br>
Some people are fine.<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Dingle:</i><br>
There can be what's known as a 'psychological overlay' to symptoms.
… Dowell says conditions like tinnitus and balance problems are common in older people, and psychological factors can considerably worsen the effects for some people.<br>
<br>
<i>Richard Dowell:</i><br>
They then focus on that symptom very powerfully to the [extent] that they really can't even live their lives.<br>
… I see a few similarities in some of the reports about these symptoms related to being close to wind farms.<br>
<br>
<i>Sarah Dingle:</i><br>
That people feel anxious and ill is not disputed.<br>
But there's been no evidence to date that wind turbines directly cause illness.<br>
The fear of health effects may be harming those individuals.
<blockquote>In 2011, the British Acoustics Bulletin published the [<i>tenth</i>] independent review of the evidence on wind farms causing annoyance and ill health in people. …
<blockquote>[Annoyance] has far more to do with social and psychological factors in those complaining than any direct effect from sound or inaudible infrasound emanating from wind turbines. …
<ul><li>being able to see wind turbines … increases annoyance [especially] in those who dislike or fear them [and]</li>
<li>whether people derive income from hosting turbines …</li></ul></blockquote>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_syndrome#Noise_annoyance">Environmental impact of wind power — Noise Annoyance</a>, Wikipedia, 6 July 2013)</blockquote>
<i>Ian Macfarlane [Opposition Energy Spokesperson]:</i><br>
Of all the other technologies very few have the capability to install around 1,000 MW per annum which is what's going to be required if we are to reach the 20% [Renewable Energy Target by 2020].<br>
In fact the biggest challenge facing us getting to that target is to see enough wind farms built.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/02/abc-radio-national-science-show.html#4323486">Would you like to know more?</a></i></li>
<br>
<li id="12834"><a href="http://theconversation.com/new-study-wind-turbine-syndrome-is-spread-by-scaremongers-12834">New study: wind turbine syndrome is spread by scaremongers</a>, <i>The Conversation</i>, 15 March 2013.<br>
<br>
[Researchers] at the University of Auckland [have] published an <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2013-07740-001/">experimental study</a> showing that people primed by watching online information about health problems from wind turbines, reported more symptoms after being exposed to recorded infrasound or to sham (fake) infrasound.<br>
<br>
[The] nocebo hypothesis [proposes] that anxiety and fear about wind turbines being spread about by anti-wind farm groups, will cause some people hearing this scary stuff to get those symptoms. …<br>
<br>
Australia’s first wind farm, which still operates today, started generating power in 1993 at Esperance in Western Australia.<br>
Twenty years on, our 49 wind farms have seen 1471 turbines turning for a cumulative total of 328 years.<br>
<br>
[Since] 2009, we’ve heard a lot about health complaints involving wind turbines, thanks to the efforts of groups such as the Waubra Foundation (none of whose directors live in or near the Victorian town of Waubra) and the interconnected Landscape Guardians.<br>
And, just as the nocebo hypothesis would predict … 82% of complainants made their first complaint after [2009.]<br>
<br>
There are some 32,677 people living within 5km of these 49 wind farms … and just 120 — or one in 272 — of them have ever made formal complaints, appeared in news reports or sent complaining submissions to government.<br>
Moreover, 81 (68%) of these are people living near just five wind farms, each of which have been heavily targeted by wind farm opponent groups. …<br>
<br>
The first [claim] that wind turbines could cause health problems [was made in] 2003, when a British GP wrote an unpublished report about just 36 people scattered around the UK who all said the turbines made them ill.<br>
<br>
A Victorian country GP followed this up with an even smaller study in 2004, where after dropping 25 questionnaires to people living near the local turbines, eight reported problems like sleep difficulties, stress and dizziness.<br>
[In] any community, regardless of the presence or absence of wind turbines,
<ul><li>about a quarter to a third will have sleep problems,</li>
<li>nearly half will have had a headache in the last week, and</li>
<li>nearly one in six will have felt dizzy.</li></ul>
<br>
<blockquote id="8977"><h3><a href="http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/8977">Spatio-temporal differences in the history of health and noise complaints about Australian wind farms: evidence for the psychogenic, “communicated disease” hypothesis.</a></h3>
<br>
Simon Chapman, Alexis St George, Karen Waller and Vince Cakic, Prepress, University of Sydney, 14 March 2013.<br>
<br>
<h4>Abstract</h4>
<br>
<b><i>Setting</i></b><br>
<br>
All (n=51) Australian wind farms (with 1634 turbines) operating from 1993–2012.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b><i>Methods</i></b><br>
<br>
Records of complaints about noise or health obtained from wind farm companies regarding residents living near 51 Australian wind farms, expressed as proportions of estimated populations residing within 5km of wind farms, and corroborated with complaints in submissions to 3 government public enquiries and news media records and court affidavits.<br>
<br>
<br>
<b><i>Results</i></b><br>
<br>
33/51 (64.7%) of Australian wind farms including 17/34 (50%) with turbine size >1MW have never been subject to noise or health complaints.<br>
These 33 farms have some 21,592 residents within 5km of their turbines and have operated complaint-free for a cumulative total of 267 years.<br>
Western Australia and Tasmania have seen no complaints.<br>
<br>
<i>Only 131 individuals across Australia representing approximately 1 in 250 residents living within 5km of wind farms appear to have ever complained, with 94 (72%) of these being residents near 6 wind farms which have been targeted by anti wind farm groups.</i><br>
About 1 in 87 (126/10901) of those living near turbines >1MW have ever complained.<br>
The large majority 104/131 (79%) of health and noise complaints commenced after 2009 when anti wind farm groups began to add health concerns to their wider opposition.<br>
In the preceding years, health or noise complaints were rare despite large and small turbined wind farms having operated for many years.<br>
<br>
(emphasis added)</blockquote>
</li>
<br>
<li id="4323486"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/curious-distribution-for-wind-turbine-sickness/4323486">Curious distribution for wind turbine sickness</a>, <i>ABC The Science Show</i>, 20 October 2012.<br>
<br>
New technology has long attracted concerns about modern health worries.<br>
{Australian hysteria about mobile telephone towers had its heyday in the late 1990s …<br>
There are now [<a href="http://tobacco.health.usyd.edu.au/assets/pdfs/publications/WindHealthReviews.pdf">19 reviews</a>] of the evidence on harm [all of] which are consistent [with] insignificant risk.}<br>
[And yet, in] 35 years in public health I have never encountered anything remotely as apocalyptic [as WTS]. …<br>
<br>
There are several reasons to suspect the unrecognised entity of wind turbine syndrome is psychogenic, a communicated disease spread by anti-wind interest groups, sometimes with connections to fossil fuel interests.<br>
<br>
Wind farms first appeared about 20 years ago in the USA and have rapidly proliferated.<br>
There are now just shy of 200,000 turbines around the world …<br>
[The] first recorded claims about diseases occurred a decade later when two rural doctors in Wales and Victoria made widely repeated claims that have never been published in any research journal. …<br>
{[They include] health problems [commonly] found in all communities, whether they have wind turbines or not … greying hair, energy loss, concentration lapses, weight gain and loss, and all the problems of ageing …}<br>
Turbines are said to cause both chronic conditions [—] lung and skin cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis [— and] acute symptoms.<br>
According to … Sarah Laurie, an unregistered [Australian] doctor, these can commence within 20 minutes of exposure. …<br>
Why [then] do citizens [with] community owned turbines in … Germany and Denmark rarely complain?<br>
[And, why] are complaints unknown in Western Australia where wind farms have operated for many years? …}<br>
<br>
{[It seems that problems only occur] in particular regions and around certain farms and involve a small fraction of residents.}<br>
Many wind farms have operated for years and never received a single complaint. …<br>
Opponents … concede that only a [susceptible] minority of those exposed report being ill …<br>
[But this does not explain how] whole regions and indeed nations [appear to] have no susceptible residents …<br>
<br>
The key factor seems to be the presence … of anti-wind activists …<br>
Farms with years of community acceptance can erupt with complaints when anti-wind activists arrive in town …<br>
Prominent among these … are wealthy conservative landowners, appalled by [visibility of wind turbines owned by their less well-off neighbors who need to generate] extra income from their often hilly, poorer quality land. …<br>
<br>
Health complaints are rare among turbine hosts and from those financially benefiting from communal ownership arrangements.<br>
In Australia … a turbine can earn a host between $7,000 and $18,000 a year.<br>
Hosts speak of drought proofing their farms when several turbines are hosted. …<br>
<br>
In rural Australia, residential buyouts from mining companies are common. …<br>
So when a cashed up company appears in the district, it is understandable that some see their ticket out via protracted complaints.<br>
<br>
A recent Canadian case collapsed when [complainants refused to] provide their medical records going back 10 years [ostensibly because it was] too difficult to obtain … documentation that every doctor routinely keeps.<br>
<br>
Opponents claimed that turbine hosts are gagged by confidentiality clauses …<br>
I've seen several contracts [none of which required hosts to waive] their common-law rights to claims of negligence. …<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/wind-farms-guilty-until-proven-otherwise"><i>Would you like to know more?</a></i></li>
<br>
<li id="3584320"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/plain-packaging-of-cigarettes/3584320">
Plain packaging of cigarettes</a>, <i>ABC Rear Vision</i>, 19 October 2011.<br>
Cynthia Callard: Executive Director, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.<br>
Robert Proctor: Professor of the History of Science, Stanford University, California.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a>:</i><br>
[The first] health warning on the bottom of packs [was introduced in 1973:]
<blockquote>Warning: Smoking is a health hazard.</blockquote>
We've had four generations of pack warnings since then, each introduced with major protests from the tobacco companies …<br>
<br>
[In 1976] it became illegal to smoke on buses and trains. …<br>
[We then] saw it go into workplaces and [later] hospitality venues, which actually should have been the first place it was introduced, because that's where the exposures are greatest. …<br>
<br>
Tobacco advertising was first restricted from September 1976.<br>
It was legislation which was introduced into the parliament by the Whitlam Government and then … implemented by the Fraser …<br>
That [banned] smoking advertising [on] radio and television …<br>
<br>
[In 1992 the] Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act [put an end to] the Winfield Cup [rugby] … the football competitions and the motor racing sponsorships …<br>
<br>
{<i>John Elliott [President, Carlton Football Club]:</i><br>
Every other minority group's gone to court.<br>
I've now had hundreds of people ring me already saying we ought to take the MCC to court.<br>
The community's basically 70/30 smoking and non-smoking and Australia has the only airports in the world that are non-smoking and it's the very insular society that won't look after minority groups like us.}<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a>:</i><br>
[Smoking] advertising inside shops … has gone.<br>
[Finally,] displaying cigarettes has started to happen …<br>
[There is] only one jurisdiction in Australia which hasn't yet implemented that yet. …<br>
<br>
[Cigarettes are now] behind the counter, as prescription drugs are in the dispensary, and you have to ask for them. …<br>
<br>
<i>Cynthia Callard:</i><br>
Tobacco companies had framed the issue as being government versus smokers, not government versus tobacco industry.<br>
[It] took a long time to overcome that framing and for … political parties … to see that they could in fact introduce these measures with the support of smokers and not be perceived as being [hostile to many] of their constituents. …<br>
<br>
It wasn't really until 2003 that we got an effective curtailment of tobacco promotion in Canada. …<br>
The generation of kids that are now in our first wave of surveys of 14- to 15-year-olds—those are kids that were born in 1995, that would have grown up, gone to school after these advertisements had been removed — have half the smoking rates of the cohort ten years older than them. …<br>
<br>
<i>Mark Colvin [Radio National]:</i><br>
From midnight tonight the excise on tobacco will go up by 25 per cent — $2.16 for a pack of 30 cigarettes. …<br>
<br>
<i>Kevin Rudd:</i><br>
We estimate that 80 or 90,000 Australians will [give up cigarettes] based on the increase in the cost that we have announced. …<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a>:</i><br>
[Australia now has] some of the most expensive cigarettes in the world …<br>
[In] Norway and the United Kingdom they're even more expensive …<br>
[This] has been driving consumption down dramatically [which is] why the tobacco industry fight tooth and nail against all price rises. …<br>
<br>
<i>Robert Proctor:</i><br>
[Even] though smokers are addicted, they do respond to pricing.<br>
[There's] a price elasticity of around 0.4, which means that for every ten per cent you increase the price of cigarettes, smokers will smoke about half of that increase less. …<br>
<br>
<i>Keri Phillips:</i><br>
[60 chemicals] that are known to cause cancer, have been found in tobacco and tobacco smoke.<br>
<br>
<i>Robert Proctor:</i><br>
There are … simple measures that a regulatory state could implement that would radically reduce the number of people smoking.
<ul><li>[Dropping] the nicotine significantly below about 1 mg per cigarette, then the cigarette itself can no longer create or sustain addiction. …</li>
<li>[Making] cigarette smoke … alkaline, the way it used to be with Native American tobacco [so] there'd be no inhalation.</li>
<li>[Taking] out the [flavourings] that are put into cigarettes to make them more attractive …</li></ul>
<br>
<i>Keri Phillips:</i><br>
Why haven't governments gone down that path?<br>
<br>
<i>Robert Proctor:</i><br>
[Because the Tobacco industry] is one of the most powerful … in the world.<br>
<br>
[In] the 1960s when the Surgeon General first issued a report saying that tobacco was causing mass death, President Johnson [refused to] endorse the report …<br>
[He feared] the Democrats would lose the presidency, because of the power of tobacco growers and the tobacco industry in the south. …<br>
<br>
[So] policies have been centred around altering the information environment. …<br>
[It's] a very different approach [to that taken with, say,] lead paint or asbestos.<br>
[Everyone is] free to smoke as much as they want, but they [are] well informed while they do it. …<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Chapman_(academic)">Simon Chapman (1951)</a>:</i><br>
The main things which cause ill health in smokers are inhaling smoke.<br>
It would be the same if you were inhaling combusted smoke from any source.<br>
If you burnt straw and inhaled it, it wouldn't be good for you either.<br>
The question as to whether the … additives — flavouring agents, chemicals, preservatives, temperature regulation chemicals [cause further harm is] an open question.<br>
Certainly nobody's arguing that they [are] good for you …<br>
<br>
[In] New South Wales … we had a ban on smoking in cars for children, [a] ban on displays of tobacco products in shops, and … significant increases [in] the budget of the Cancer Institute to run big campaigns. …<br>
[The] tobacco industry [responded by] saying:
<blockquote>[Show] us the evidence of the precise effect [of each specific intervention.]</blockquote>
[As] if society was a kind of a rat laboratory where you could partition people off who are only exposed to certain variables and not others.<br>
[You] just can't do that. …<br>
<br>
[But based on mathematical modelling: tax increases,] restrictions on smoking [and] large-budget hard-hitting education campaigns are probably the top three [most effective interventions.]<br>
<br>
The rest [are] about de-normalising cigarettes.<br>
[Ten years after] banning tobacco advertising we have the lowest rates of youth smoking in Australia tha[t] we've ever seen …<br>
[A] person who is 19 has never seen a [domestic] tobacco advertisement …<br>
<br>
<i><a href="http://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au">Would you like to know more?</a></i></li></ul></p>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-61309463783542097472021-07-04T01:57:00.017+10:002022-02-21T01:50:54.024+11:00Gigi Foster<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-persons-of-interest.html#contents">Blue Army: Persons of Interest</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="socialism" align="center">An Epidemic of Socialism</h2>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">COVID didn't crush the economy.<br>
Government crushed the economy.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristi_Noem">Kristi Noem</a> (1971), Govenor of South Dakota, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Political_Action_Conference">CPAC</a>, 2021.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[You] need to control the virus to get people back to work.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kohler">Alan Kohler</a> (1952)</i></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNevGbedu5DORz80UuC2DIf5SmwixDGBxbxl3_ziprZVhc5DXvObRlmQPhUplQZPR9drha9JLd2mrecHSLCwb09_NZLSyeQfJQzSofimQdXrUEE_-oodItcDB3PNH3cr39zft8A77h0N7/s1600/ABCNewsVIC200902.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNevGbedu5DORz80UuC2DIf5SmwixDGBxbxl3_ziprZVhc5DXvObRlmQPhUplQZPR9drha9JLd2mrecHSLCwb09_NZLSyeQfJQzSofimQdXrUEE_-oodItcDB3PNH3cr39zft8A77h0N7/s1600/ABCNewsVIC200902.PNG" data-original-width="380" data-original-height="356" width="420" height="393"></a>
(<i>ABC News</i>, 2 September 2020)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHrf1RjnSAV8DHUuFMWPY04guvt4SS5248-2wJ0OJxLYwxb5sSG_OpIy27mb7F8M9aAi7OBq4THSGPnZEwe7jMiWVb0arLvk77C-dyASPHi6XvNCkFyYjX4mYn7jgV3_gkm7R0RIfdmAo/s0/news201207.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-width="378" data-original-height="377" width="420" height="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHrf1RjnSAV8DHUuFMWPY04guvt4SS5248-2wJ0OJxLYwxb5sSG_OpIy27mb7F8M9aAi7OBq4THSGPnZEwe7jMiWVb0arLvk77C-dyASPHi6XvNCkFyYjX4mYn7jgV3_gkm7R0RIfdmAo/s384/news201207.PNG"/></a>
(<i>ABC News</i>, 7 December 2020)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2>Liberty Or Death</h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvakoyTwkqgYAFgPZN48sET8ZFxakFfGAl857U43Bc60-h6frtM39pm8jcG54yDU083WMCOrRFtwzOsH4d2C6sq7HmFRpuo706vw_X5vuB-QWHhiq1VXe75aL4B6PnV_r-hrEB9xaRpibv/s0/pandemic2020_201.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="721" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvakoyTwkqgYAFgPZN48sET8ZFxakFfGAl857U43Bc60-h6frtM39pm8jcG54yDU083WMCOrRFtwzOsH4d2C6sq7HmFRpuo706vw_X5vuB-QWHhiq1VXe75aL4B6PnV_r-hrEB9xaRpibv/s640/pandemic2020_201.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib310ZEsR9zwQ6wDVK__tU-ZyDMeUx5vw_JPGvHBVvvFTmjbDNEYYW20w4MF8z0JBP8_H6itWpQ3z1CODiAZCFJBL8wM22rYFfZ8xbsbjeROxFev5Oi2pq9m7A53knHlwPm6sDRecnbgmX/s0/pandemic2020_202.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="949" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib310ZEsR9zwQ6wDVK__tU-ZyDMeUx5vw_JPGvHBVvvFTmjbDNEYYW20w4MF8z0JBP8_H6itWpQ3z1CODiAZCFJBL8wM22rYFfZ8xbsbjeROxFev5Oi2pq9m7A53knHlwPm6sDRecnbgmX/s640/pandemic2020_202.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqZziMino8fInorGt-wC5zCWehZL2bI5O46CkO96UZv9cUfhBhzAD-iU6_PRip-52FVJZPvFDPQsGPPja5elQUMSpu74AzLpsHdJuWYKkL4CyKCbcrXbHBFumVHaXLfLQeztHGMq-CtJZ/s0/pandemic2020_300.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqZziMino8fInorGt-wC5zCWehZL2bI5O46CkO96UZv9cUfhBhzAD-iU6_PRip-52FVJZPvFDPQsGPPja5elQUMSpu74AzLpsHdJuWYKkL4CyKCbcrXbHBFumVHaXLfLQeztHGMq-CtJZ/s640/pandemic2020_300.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFUKv9dUsRilf01wx7PTZJaMTM7usStBiSiGYhmpV_7cIlhJS8jKsHZMTrlgNPdyvtoWiwElpwwEtzmsFms-xbs7yxxONKAfPD2Cm9R6vyzy5Oq2rRdlcXBZb84vkN5L-qZy8Q6tDcltJ/s0/pandemic2020_205.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="945" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnFUKv9dUsRilf01wx7PTZJaMTM7usStBiSiGYhmpV_7cIlhJS8jKsHZMTrlgNPdyvtoWiwElpwwEtzmsFms-xbs7yxxONKAfPD2Cm9R6vyzy5Oq2rRdlcXBZb84vkN5L-qZy8Q6tDcltJ/s640/pandemic2020_205.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj8jHNt-ezalYyNPsdedhYWEp4HMxSv2TZLJSUc3GYK-UPmsCN_armjW5xMI99ABOLYcV2il9KhlP9OA2_KlXd6AgEj5nxIKp4sALK8C3p-MKN4oz6UbvKLciFRwW2QAVTSunybjeBxQYV/s0/pandemic2020_303.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="937" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj8jHNt-ezalYyNPsdedhYWEp4HMxSv2TZLJSUc3GYK-UPmsCN_armjW5xMI99ABOLYcV2il9KhlP9OA2_KlXd6AgEj5nxIKp4sALK8C3p-MKN4oz6UbvKLciFRwW2QAVTSunybjeBxQYV/s640/pandemic2020_303.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSSEaWM7QilwyirJ8w-_rqjtyTUc40HLYwd8lONB648LPxD4hozgHTvx_0evmi2ONN4CDhMTwTTPkiwus5wrCM4dai3SzYh8amPyh5UMfAM-WxENYQ69wECZvCNcXyQzxmGNJSeDb58K3/s0/pandemic2020_304.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="950" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSSEaWM7QilwyirJ8w-_rqjtyTUc40HLYwd8lONB648LPxD4hozgHTvx_0evmi2ONN4CDhMTwTTPkiwus5wrCM4dai3SzYh8amPyh5UMfAM-WxENYQ69wECZvCNcXyQzxmGNJSeDb58K3/s640/pandemic2020_304.PNG"/></a>
(<i><a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/pandemic-2020">Pandemic 2020</a></i>)</div>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="contents"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gigi-foster-194">Gigi Foster</a></h2>
<br>
Associate Professor of Economics, UNSW Business School.<br>
PhD (Economics), University of Maryland.<br>
BA (Ethics, Politics, and Economics), Yale University.<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="crimes">Are Lockdowns a Crime Against Humanity?</h3>
<br>
The Nuremberg code [is] a code of ethical standards …<br>
It's something that, essentially, the war criminals of period during the WWII atrocities were facing, in the 1950s kind of period, to try to draw them to account for the massive damage they had done, the genocides.<br>
And this code is something that requires governments defend the actions on the basis of public health.<br>
So the sixth Nuremberg code demands that the decision maker must have a reasonable view that the benefits of an intervention will be higher than the costs, and failure to abide by that is a crime against humanity …
<blockquote><i>Museum Note:</i><br>
On August 19, 1947, the judges of the American military tribunal in the case of the <i>USA vs Karl Brandt et al</i> … confronted the difficult question of medical experimentation on human beings. …<br>
Although the [Nuremberg] code addressed the defense arguments in general remarkably none of the specific findings against Brandt and his codefendants mentioned the code.<br>
Thus the legal force of the document was not well established.<br>
The uncertain use of the code continued in the half century following the trial when it informed numerous international ethics statements but failed to find a place in either the American or German national law codes.<br>
Nevertheless, it remains a landmark document on medical ethics …<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/doctors-trial/nuremberg-code#Permissible">Permissible Medical Experiments:</a></i><br>
The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.<br>
(<a href="https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/doctors-trial/nuremberg-code#Permissible">Nuremberg Code</a>, <i>United States Holocaust Memorial Museum</i>)</blockquote>
Have you seen a cost-benefit analysis produced by the government to defend its decisions during this period?<br>
To strip people of their liberties.<br>
To close schools.<br>
To shut borders.<br>
To cease trade.<br>
I went for months waiting for that and finally produced one on the back of a cocktail napkin basically myself [in approximately … 15 hours in August 2020.]<br>
<br>
[You can't assume] that it was those tough early restrictions that, as a package, created the outcomes we've seen.<br>
My reading of the data is that pretty much how well or not you did in this period health-wise and economics-wise was kind of unrelated whether you locked down really hard or not so hard or whatever.<br>
In fact the best thing to do probably would have been to target of our protection and our attention to the people who were actually vulnerable to this virus, and to invest in things like prophylactic treatments evaluation and evaluation of what can we do, medicines we can use, not just vaccines, but all sorts of cheaper things, when somebody gets the virus to prevent them getting serious symptoms. …<br>
<br>
[We're] an island nation …<br>
But there are many [other] reasons why the virus didn't run like it did, in the US for example, here that have nothing to do with our policy responses and you can compare Victoria to NSW if you want to get a sense of what's possible without locking down. …<br>
<br>
<br>
[We] knew that this thing was killing mainly older people … which is why … in March of last year I called for the radical protection of older people, people in danger from this virus, and everybody else be allowed to go about their business as they deemed fit …<br>
And the thing is, it's very uncomfortable right now to admit that we messed up.<br>
For the politicians to admit it …<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-economists/title/13406906">Lockdowns and the path forward </a>, <i>ABC The Economists</i>, 24 June 2021)<br>
<br>
<br>
If you look at the people who have died from [COVID-19, they] have 5-6 years on average still to live …<br>
How much does a developed society typically spend in normal times per [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year">Quality Adjusted Life Year</a>?]<br>
Usually somewhere between $50,000 and $150,000 per QALY. …
<blockquote><i>Office of Best Practice Regulation:</i><br>
Willingness to pay is the appropriate way to estimate the value of reductions in the risk of physical harm – known as the value of statistical life.<br>
Based on international and Australian research a credible estimate of … the value of statistical life year is $195,000 in 2018 dollars.<br>
(<a href="https://pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/value-of-statistical-life-guidance-note.pdf">Best Practice Regulation Guidance Note: Value of statistical life</a>, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, <i>Australian Government</i>, October 2018)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Kip_Viscusi">William Viscusi</a> (1947):</i><br>
Unlimited personal freedoms will lower our well‐being, particularly when confronting crises for which collective, responsible behavior is desirable.<br>
<br>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="width: 420px" unselectable="off" align="center"><tbody>
<tr align="center"><td colspan="2"><b>Mortality costs of COVID‐19 in Australia as of January 1, 2021</b><br>
(Table A1 extract)</td></tr>
<tr><td width="75%"><i>Number of deaths</i></td><td align="right">909</td></tr>
<tr><td><i>VSL ($ millions)</i></td><td align="right">8.6636</td></tr>
<tr><td><i>VSL × deaths ($ millions)<i></td><td align="right">7875</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" align="center">VSL = Value of a Statistical Life</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>
(<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8013555/">Economic lessons for COVID‐19 pandemic policies</a>, <i>South Economic Journal</i>, 4 March 2021)</blockquote>
[So] every death we [prevent] from COVID-19 is [worth] around $500,000 and $600,000. …<br>
Then you have a currency. …<br>
Then you can say … when we do this lockdown:
<ul><li>[Firstly,] are we actually preventing that many more deaths?</li>
<li>[Secondly,] whatever number we are saving [we] multiply that by whatever the amount is we're willing to spend in normal times to save that amount of lives, that quality of life.</li></ul>
[Then] we get a dollar figure.<br>
And then we can say: …<br>
Is the economic cost of implementing these measures less than that?
<ul><li>[If] so — good idea.</li>
<li>If not — let's think about it more.</li></ul>
(<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/the-signal/who-will-pay-the-covid-19-bill/12213650">Who'll pay the COVID-19 bill?</a>, <i>ABC The Signal</i>, 5 May 2020)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3>What Have The Capitalists Ever Done For Us?</h3>
<br>
[Shutdowns are] very much a cure that's worse than the disease …<br>
We had Trump saying that, by Easter, he wants things to be back on game …<br>
He's right … to try to give a stopping point, to try to increase a bit of certainty about what to expect.<br>
Because businesses … are in free freefall — people are stressed and they're going to be dying from that at some stage. …<br>
<br>
This is the way that economies in communist systems organise …<br>
[Whereas, Capitalism] has kept us all doing so well and having such luxurious lives, by historical and international comparisons, for so long. …<br>
<br>
We know GDP is a huge predictor of [longevity.]<br>
[Life] spans have increased over the last 100 years … on the back of rises in GDP per capita that pay for research and development, and health … and education services, and better roads, and <i>everything</i> that makes our lives better …<br>
We giving that up with every day we are in shutdown …<br>
<br>
[The global response to COVID-19] is actually killing people …<br>
I'm talking about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life">statistical lives</a> lost.<br>
Human welfare which is tanking because the economy is tanking. …<br>
<br>
[Keeping the economy running] saves many more lives than are saved by quarantining the entire economy …<br>
[The tradeoff is] not lives against money, it's lives against more lives. …<br>
<br>
We need to be aggressively targeting isolation of older people, because those are the people who are dying. …<br>
But to say to young people you should stay home and worry, and not go to pubs, is … absolutely a disgrace.<br>
[These people] won't die from it — under 40 it's a 0.2% death rate …<br>
[When Boris Johnson] could not stay that ["herd immunity"] course in the face public opinion — that was an entirely <i>political</i> move. …<br>
<br>
<br>
The young people who lived through this, the coronavirus cohort, they are going to see negative effects throughout their lives because of what has <i>already</i> happened.<br>
The longer this goes on, the worse off those people are going to be, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years …<br>
<br>
I just want to see us open for business as soon as possible.<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-economists/covid-19:can-wartime-measures-save-us-from-depression/12093478">As the coronavirus marches on, can wartime measures save us from a depression?</a>, <i>ABC The Economists</i>, 26 March 2020)<br>
<br>
<a name='more'></a>
<br>
A proposal to throw money at people, while wrapping that proposal in the flags of "equality" and "basic rights," can be argued to be the lazy man’s face-saving response to the complex, entrenched problems of poverty. …<br>
The poor arguably lack access and/or skills as much as or more than they lack money.<br>
[Don’t] assume for one minute that universal basic income is a magic bullet.<br>
Compared to our current system, it is expensive, inefficient, and potentially regressive.<br>
(<a href="https://theconversation.com/universal-basic-income-the-dangerous-idea-of-2016-70395">Universal basic income: the dangerous idea of 2016</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-conversation.html">The Conversation</a></i>, 16 December 2016)<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i>Strumpf, Charters, Harper & Nandi:</i><br>
Our finding that all-cause mortality <i>decreased</i> during the Great Recession is consistent with previous studies.<br>
(<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28772108">Did the Great Recession affect mortality rates in the metropolitan United States? Effects on mortality by age, gender and cause of death</a>, <i>Social Science & Medicine</i>, 189:11-16, September 2017, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Anne Case & Angus Deaton:</i><br>
[There has been] a marked <i>increase</i> in the all-cause mortality of middle-aged white non-Hispanic men and women in the United States between 1999 and 2013.<br>
This change reversed decades of progress in mortality and was unique to the United States; no other rich country saw a similar turnaround. …<br>
This increase for whites was largely accounted for by increasing death rates from:
<ul><li>drug and alcohol poisonings,</li>
<li>suicide, and</li>
<li>chronic liver diseases [including] cirrhosis.</li></ul>
(<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15078.full.pdf">Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century</a>, <i>PNAS</i>, 112:49, 8 December 2015, p 15081, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2016/10/robert-putnam.html#PNAS">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Jackson_(economist)">Tim Jackson</a> (1957):</i><br>
Japan … was hit quite severely during the Asian crisis in the late 1990s and suffered a prolonged period of economic turbulence [—] yet life expectancy subsequently increased faster than at any time in the preceding two decades. …<br>
<br>
In Argentina … economic output has been highly erratic over the last three decades, but the gains in life expectancy have been substantial and consistent.<br>
<br>
In Russia [life expectancy] fell by 6% following the collapse of the Soviet Union [in 1989 and continued to decline] even after the economy started to recover. …<br>
<br>
In Cuba [GDP also] collapsed after the breakup of the Soviet Union …<br>
[Nevertheless] one recent study [found that between] 1997 and 2002, "there were declines in deaths attributed to:
<ul><li>diabetes (51%),</li>
<li>coronary heart disease (35%) [and]</li>
<li>stroke (20%)." …</li></ul>
Infant mortality in Cuba is six deaths per 1000 live births, as low as it is in the US — [despite] an average per capita income of … less than 15% of the income enjoyed by Americans.<br>
(<a href="http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/data/files/publications/prosperity_without_growth_report.pdf"><i>Prosperity Without Growth</i></a>, Sustainable Development Commission, 30 March 2009, pp 43-4)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/03/prosperity-without-growth-chapters-1-5.html#top">Would you like to know more?</a></i></blockquote>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-18767341997505397722021-03-13T21:36:00.016+11:002022-04-29T02:40:12.239+10:00The Logic of War<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/live-long-and-prosper-peace.html#contents">Live Long and Prosper: Ministry of Peace</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">For such is the logic of war.<br>
If people do not display wisdom, they will clash like blind moles.<br>
And then mutual annihilation will commence. …<br>
<br>
What good would it have done me in the last hour of my life to know that,<br>
though our great nation and the United States were in complete ruins,<br>
the national honor of the Soviet Union was intact?</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev">Nikita Khrushchev</a> (1894 – 1971), October 1962 & 1963.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[Peace is] the necessary rational end of rational men. …<br>
[The] expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them [is <i>not</i>] the most efficient, means of assuring peace. …<br>
<br>
[In] the final analysis, our most basic common link is that …
<ul><li>we all inhabit this small planet …</li>
<li>we all breathe the same air …</li>
<li>we all cherish our children's future, and</li>
<li>we are all mortal.</li></ul></span>
<br>
<i>—<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/pbs-american-experience-kennedys.html#top">John Kennedy</a> (1917 – 63), <a href="http://ratical.org/co-globalize/JFK061063.html">Commencement Address</a></i>, American University, Washington, 10 June 1963)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNhc125JLL76xQNr7i6I_3crLk5SvX5hRGZBuaqleU3BVc1UquCNnyH07daXVL_gupWDtxhtDz_CVr3s6nraPw52onPyjz3FxyYfmzKuscXh3_fsvmBZfxZTN0dTGgSQDgITijSOV__tnd/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_38.03_%255B2021.03.19_04.15.31%255D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNhc125JLL76xQNr7i6I_3crLk5SvX5hRGZBuaqleU3BVc1UquCNnyH07daXVL_gupWDtxhtDz_CVr3s6nraPw52onPyjz3FxyYfmzKuscXh3_fsvmBZfxZTN0dTGgSQDgITijSOV__tnd/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_38.03_%255B2021.03.19_04.15.31%255D.png"/></a>
(Susan Bellows, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jfk/">JFK</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/public-broadcasting-system-american.html#top">PBS American Experience</a></i>, WGBH, 2013)<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIkIlMA0pwtrW-MTAU07HubpVH82jTBq7hdWerjjhnP27tYA1s4vG9Y0xwyNgAvQvyD94KiJ_vDRDOgMeevSBGb5y_L1EtH066kJ8hV0bHhhVTi0JQQW7s7GSxxIl8D8wShUiAD3il3URb/s1600/Ike+A.avi_snapshot_00.12.27_%5B2013.02.18_00.15.04%5D.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" width="640" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIkIlMA0pwtrW-MTAU07HubpVH82jTBq7hdWerjjhnP27tYA1s4vG9Y0xwyNgAvQvyD94KiJ_vDRDOgMeevSBGb5y_L1EtH066kJ8hV0bHhhVTi0JQQW7s7GSxxIl8D8wShUiAD3il3URb/s640/Ike%2520A.avi_snapshot_00.12.27_%255B2013.02.18_00.15.04%255D.jpg"></a>
(Adriana Bosch, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/eisenhower/">Eisenhower</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/public-broadcasting-system-american.html#top">PBS American Experience</a></i>, WGBH, 1993)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Haldeman">Harry Haldeman</a> (1926 – 93) [White House Chief of Staff, Nixon Administration, 1969–73]:</i><br>
When Eisenhower arrived in the White House, the Korean War was stalemated.<br>
Eisenhower ended the impasse in a hurry.<br>
He secretly got word to the Chinese that he would drop nuclear bombs on North Korea unless a truce was signed immediately.<br>
In a few weeks, the Chinese called for a truce and the Korean War ended.<br>
(<i>The Ends of Power</i>, Times Books, 1978)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg">Daniel Ellsberg</a> (1931):</i><br>
Whether such threats actually affected the Chinese decision makers or whether they even received them remains uncertain and controversial.<br>
What is neither uncertain nor inconsequential is that the Eisenhower administration, including [then vice president] Richard Nixon, regarded them as successful.<br>
In line with this belief, Eisenhower and Dulles relied on such threats repeatedly, in a series of crises.<br>
[And later Nixon, as president, made similar threats towards the North Vietnamese.]<br>
(pp 311-2)<br>
<br>
[Eisenhower’s judgment was] that no war between any significant forces of the United States and the Soviet Union could remain limited more than momentarily.<br>
Therefore, if such a conflict were pending, the United States should immediately go to an all-out nuclear first strike rather than allow the Soviets to do so. …<br>
<br>
[Any] alternative approach was unacceptable from a <i>fiscal</i> point of view.<br>
[His economic advisors had convinced him] that preparation to fight even a limited number of Soviet divisions on the ground … would compel an increase in <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/live-long-and-prosper-peace.html#sum">defense spending</a> that would cause inflation, precipitating a depression and "national bankruptcy."<br>
(pp 94-5)<br>
<br>
In 1961, [within the US] arsenal there were some 500 bombs with an explosive power of 25 megatons.<br>
Each of these warheads had more firepower than all the bombs and shells exploded in all the wars of human history. …<br>
The preplanned targets for the whole force included … every city in the Soviet Union and China.<br>
There was at least one warhead allocated for every city of 25,000 people or more in the Soviet Union.<br>
(pp 98-9)<br>
<br>
In 1986, the US had 23,317 nuclear warheads and Russia had 40,159, for a total of 63,836 weapons.<br>
(p 144)<br>
<br>
[The Strategic Integrated Operations Plan:]
<ul><li>provided for no distinction between the USSR and China; …</li>
<li>allowed for no avoidance or postponement of attacks on cities; …</li>
<li>allowed for no option to minimize nonmilitary casualties; …</li>
<li>offered no option for preserving enemy command and control capability, [and]</li>
<li>allowed for no Stop order once an authenticated Execute order was received by [Strategic Air Command] forces.</li></ul>
Since this unleashed attacks on all major Sino-Soviet urban-industrial centers and governmental and military control centers, this policy maintained no plausible basis for inducing any Soviet commanders or units to <i>terminate</i> operations prior to expending all their weapons upon US and allied cities.<br>
(pp 126-7)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Shoup">David Shoup</a> (1904 – 83) [General, US Marine Corp]:</i><br>
[Any] plan that murders 300 million Chinese when <i>it might not even be their war</i> is not a good plan.<br>
That is not the American way.<br>
(p 103, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg">Daniel Ellsberg</a> (1931):</i><br>
Deterring a surprise Soviet nuclear attack — or responding to such an attack — has <i>never</i> been the only or even the primary purpose of our nuclear plans and preparations.<br>
The nature, scale, and posture of our strategic nuclear forces has always been shaped by the [imperative] to limit the damage to the United States from Soviet or Russian retaliation to a <i>US <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-emptive_nuclear_strike">first strike</a></i> against the USSR or Russia.<br>
(p 12)<br>
<br>
The … arrangements made in Russia and the United States have long made it highly likely, if not virtually certain, that a single Hiroshima-type fission weapon exploding on either Washington or Moscow — whether deliberate or the result of a mistaken attack (as in <i>Fail Safe</i> or <i>Dr Strangelove</i>) or as a result of an independent terrorist action — would lead to the end of human civilization (and most other species).<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#The_Doomsday_Machine">The Doomsday Machine</a></i>, Bloomsbury, 2017, p 305)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._McMahon">Robert McMahon</a>:</i><br>
By 1960, the United States [had achieved] the coveted ‘triad’ of bomber-, land-, and submarine-based nuclear weapons, each part of the triad capable of obliterating major Soviet targets.<br>
The total US nuclear arsenal had grown from approximately 1,000 warheads in 1953, Eisenhower’s first year in office, to 18,000 in 1960, his last.<br>
By then, the US Strategic Air Command (SAC) boasted a total of 1,735 strategic bombers capable of dropping nuclear weapons on Soviet targets. …<br>
Aided by secret reconnaissance photographs [Eisenhower knew] that the United States maintained a formidable lead over its rival in deliverable nuclear weapons.<br>
Still, a political frenzy surrounded the supposed missile gap, and the non-existent gap actually emerged as a galvanizing issue in the 1960 presidential election.<br>
(<i>The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction</i>, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp 74‒6)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche">Friedrich Nietzsche</a> (1844 – 1900):</i><br>
Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, [and] ages, it is the rule.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Beyond_Good_and_Evil#Aphorism_156">Aphorism 156</a>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Good_and_Evil">Beyond Good and Evil</a></i>, 1886)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-75AQFfQoQzpZI3KF7iS0OCA-zfETTB0q9SQXe8mIVQ5_-9b7nJ8X36Gjhhj12XTqULSWYA0Zm5QHQFXzGKPwNroNDNrI6RXMMmW58DYyKtl4R6V5MpIO6AeMA6c8b3MBRHjjMZg9uzmCmTwXg-OV4mamp4_fy1cLTdq0PFM8xmmjccr_Cd6XBjaug/s1600/secrest%20ofamericasshadowgovernment2204.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="1220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-75AQFfQoQzpZI3KF7iS0OCA-zfETTB0q9SQXe8mIVQ5_-9b7nJ8X36Gjhhj12XTqULSWYA0Zm5QHQFXzGKPwNroNDNrI6RXMMmW58DYyKtl4R6V5MpIO6AeMA6c8b3MBRHjjMZg9uzmCmTwXg-OV4mamp4_fy1cLTdq0PFM8xmmjccr_Cd6XBjaug/s640/secrest%20ofamericasshadowgovernment2204.PNG"/></a>
(Nuclear Nightmeres, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13950332/episodes?season=2">While the Rest of Us Die: Secrets of America's Shadow Government</a></i>, Episode 5, Season 2, Vice, 2021)</div>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="9819904" align="center">Rationality Alone Will Not Save Us</h2>
<blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">Against stupidity<br>
The Gods themselves<br>
Contend in vain</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_von_Schiller">Friedrich von Schiller</a> (1759 – 1805)</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">India and Pakistan have fought three vicious conventional land wars.<br>
Yet despite their border disputes [they] have not fought a major conflict since since they generated nuclear capacity in the 1970s. …<br>
Post-WWII history is littered with examples of deterrence preventing powers from using nuclear weapons in an offensive manner.<br>
During the long peace of the Cold War there was actually a <i>very limited</i> chance of nuclear war.<br>
Why?<br>
Because Washington and Moscow were <i>rational calculators</i> of nuclear risks. …<br>
Now it's true that Pakistan could one day implode into chaos and one or more of its nukes could fall into the hands of jihadists who are irrational enough to use them.<br>
Still, the lesson [of history] is clear: nuclear deterrence works.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Switzer">Tom Switzer</a> (1971), <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/betweenthelines/india-pakistan-nuclear-tests-1998/9819904">India and Pakistan nuclear tests 1998</a>, </i>ABC Between the Lines<i>, 31 May 2018.</i><br>
<br>
<a name='more'></a>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">India and Pakistan, which together have more than 100 nuclear weapons, may be the most worrisome adversaries capable of a regional nuclear conflict today. …<br>
Some people think that the nuclear winter theory developed in the 1980s was discredited.<br>
And they may therefore raise their eyebrows at our new assertion that a regional nuclear war, like one between India and Pakistan, could also devastate agriculture worldwide.<br>
But the original theory was thoroughly validated.<br>
The science behind it was supported:
<ul><li>by investigations from the National Academy of Sciences,</li>
<li>by studies sponsored within the US military, and</li>
<li>by the International Council of Scientific Unions, which included representatives from 74 national academies of science and other scientific bodies. …</li></ul>
Because India could rapidly overrun Pakistan with conventional forces, it would be conceivable for Pakistan to attack India with nuclear weapons if it thought that India was about to go on the offensive.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— Alan Robock & Owen Toon, Local Nuclear War, Global Suffering, </i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/01/scientific-american.html#top">Scientific American</a><i>, January 2010, pp 75, 78 & 80.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">Striking first would offer a tremendous advantage, and would emphasize degrading the highest political and military control to the greatest possible degree. …<br>
[There] is no other targeting strategy that can achieve the war aims that underwrite survival.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_K._Holloway">Bruce Holloway</a> (1912 – 99), Commander in Chief, US Strategic Air Command (1968-72),<br>
Letter to Dr Francis Kane, TRW Inc, 31 March 1980.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[With] the advent of the nuclear peace … there is no possibility of a war between the … major powers — Chinese, Russian, French, British, Americans and so on — they're simply never going to fight.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Luttwak">Edward Luttwak</a> (1942), </i><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/edward-luttwak/2965482">Saturday Extra</a><i>, 11 September 2010.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[We] no longer have to worry about … the prospect of a nuclear world war that would put an end to civilization or to human life itself.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker">Steven Pinker</a> (1954), </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature">The Better Angels of Our Nature</a><i>, Penguin, 2011, p 30.</i></blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEyXjrJeBSxvi_qzsdM-JvClvViKWnoQQqqeGPW20YEQrXT9TTxgE6znHUH11v7OdNXS7EHfZ5emAWakklB1qRnM20QWjN_3Hfq2fdlXwy9tj41nWmOPYatpwxjPeuUj7sx27cOu45Io_h/s1600/Cuban+Missile+Crisis+Game+Tree.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEyXjrJeBSxvi_qzsdM-JvClvViKWnoQQqqeGPW20YEQrXT9TTxgE6znHUH11v7OdNXS7EHfZ5emAWakklB1qRnM20QWjN_3Hfq2fdlXwy9tj41nWmOPYatpwxjPeuUj7sx27cOu45Io_h/s640/Cuban+Missile+Crisis+Game+Tree.png" data-original-width="1365" data-original-height="800" /></a><br>
<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis#Responses_considered">Cuban Missile Crisis</a>, <i>Wikipedia</i>, 24 July 2018)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7nY4aC_lz6UD4rztabYLoRypjbPEf8xRqgL83qk6EasXi0Ds8gAKJSnEZ6Eo_ioioqPPuBp4RyTcWpPf3ldAPJSrC7cHBYUJ8b8pNTl47nSOCORSwYOgYIjoCY0cN8r-AjAeb6oPbU_z/s1600/fogofwar.avi_snapshot_00.14.59_%255B2020.08.13_01.38.26%255D.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh7nY4aC_lz6UD4rztabYLoRypjbPEf8xRqgL83qk6EasXi0Ds8gAKJSnEZ6Eo_ioioqPPuBp4RyTcWpPf3ldAPJSrC7cHBYUJ8b8pNTl47nSOCORSwYOgYIjoCY0cN8r-AjAeb6oPbU_z/s1600/fogofwar.avi_snapshot_00.14.59_%255B2020.08.13_01.38.26%255D.png" data-original-width="544" data-original-height="304" width="640" height="358"></a></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara">Robert McNamara</a> (1916 – 2009) [Former US Secretary of Defense]:</i><br>
It was luck that prevented nuclear war [in October 1962.]<br>
We came <i>that</i> close to nuclear war at the end. …<br>
Rational individuals came that close to total destruction of their societies.<br>
And that danger exists today.<br>
(Errol Morris, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War">The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S McNamara</a></i>, 2003)</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigtY0Bjvk8U_ojHuXzOKRY8uWJ8ccym5gaHN7RdynrS-6FT3_kl9QYKdL0v6oY8mSoYE1aySVccx0bvKdBqzJDAi9I2NlI797nmxzFKnlS8No2b8QMu98xg-0Mk-IPDGlokAPj_Wn4au8G8hfJYHznLQP-LZxxmOQKIvXvDu29pjHdpwGgqDpDDd9BbQ=s985" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" width="640" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="985" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigtY0Bjvk8U_ojHuXzOKRY8uWJ8ccym5gaHN7RdynrS-6FT3_kl9QYKdL0v6oY8mSoYE1aySVccx0bvKdBqzJDAi9I2NlI797nmxzFKnlS8No2b8QMu98xg-0Mk-IPDGlokAPj_Wn4au8G8hfJYHznLQP-LZxxmOQKIvXvDu29pjHdpwGgqDpDDd9BbQ=s640"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOkB42ElRFaovTeljbSoQwCUcdptvBsSP7OFQoOlBPCBa4Wcqcub6fb9gJfz-IbJ7RDDoGWC9DdaSYV9yUJ868PsjLazTTrGJVHJ0jsPb5VU0FYapzG0EwQJVbEh9pY8bZBEYMSPz1lp--yNyJkyKa16eILceOu7kkbq0L2In-JP0PNFBgIlYoZ5niFg=s1234" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" width="640" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="1234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOkB42ElRFaovTeljbSoQwCUcdptvBsSP7OFQoOlBPCBa4Wcqcub6fb9gJfz-IbJ7RDDoGWC9DdaSYV9yUJ868PsjLazTTrGJVHJ0jsPb5VU0FYapzG0EwQJVbEh9pY8bZBEYMSPz1lp--yNyJkyKa16eILceOu7kkbq0L2In-JP0PNFBgIlYoZ5niFg=s640"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiE6ouDXYzLDEHsaVVAUQepVVs2fW80jZALy3PbzA5eAGRdQ0Jc81-FNL0qI2xZectpZodyItNCZuPOTGV6KFcgu1Yu3Pe3s8BCJJDYXwkmw1dQXJk-slRTYXfxcSo3xZiY-oSk9x_p24LpkRXibV2Piyq8iwBlvaTzTfNlLbptHpPgkZSyPVkDmnjiIw=s1304" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" width="640" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="1304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiE6ouDXYzLDEHsaVVAUQepVVs2fW80jZALy3PbzA5eAGRdQ0Jc81-FNL0qI2xZectpZodyItNCZuPOTGV6KFcgu1Yu3Pe3s8BCJJDYXwkmw1dQXJk-slRTYXfxcSo3xZiY-oSk9x_p24LpkRXibV2Piyq8iwBlvaTzTfNlLbptHpPgkZSyPVkDmnjiIw=s640"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjo58nXsrPY0yNT4Xonpm6-vK5mz2DXC3xMe2_jhhjf90mck-9EAugBmWT5aTwBaNWmu9vtnfERqYBsedVlUq9aT15-MEL17HXEE6BQgMoqkK_axFvv_ygc175wd-rueAwEZKaINum4Ym1YfHCFiHVLF6Hf5YGAmjPACj14TZ8CXbsF8S0H8Ryou6LOHQ=s1290" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" width="640" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="1290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjo58nXsrPY0yNT4Xonpm6-vK5mz2DXC3xMe2_jhhjf90mck-9EAugBmWT5aTwBaNWmu9vtnfERqYBsedVlUq9aT15-MEL17HXEE6BQgMoqkK_axFvv_ygc175wd-rueAwEZKaINum4Ym1YfHCFiHVLF6Hf5YGAmjPACj14TZ8CXbsF8S0H8Ryou6LOHQ=s640"/></a>
<div align="center">(National Insecurity, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13950332/episodes?season=2">While the Rest of Us Die: Secrets of America's Shadow Government</a></i>, Episode 4, Season 1, Vice, 2020)</div><br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeg2Jr1eq-yZw-9ZZgFS2aV6t0KNynioh1JZEsb93kqnkQevLL-SsiR5qDAL9C89ruGa4xNvNXOODvl0Tgdmn8p53UAj6xy-xOWMB22SAQ2wKkSMoKIy87y4IPULLnCOAgJ_keyPuh21A7/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_05.43_%255B2021.03.12_01.42.19%255D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeg2Jr1eq-yZw-9ZZgFS2aV6t0KNynioh1JZEsb93kqnkQevLL-SsiR5qDAL9C89ruGa4xNvNXOODvl0Tgdmn8p53UAj6xy-xOWMB22SAQ2wKkSMoKIy87y4IPULLnCOAgJ_keyPuh21A7/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_05.43_%255B2021.03.12_01.42.19%255D.png"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dobbs_(journalist)">Michael Dobbs</a> [Writer] (1950):</i><br>
Kennedy's nightmare scenario during the missile crisis was that war would start without either him or Nikita Khrushchev really wanting it.<br>
Somebody would make a mistake, and there would be a spiraling chain of events that would quickly get out of control. …<br>
Both leaders, Khrushchev and Kennedy, were beginning to lose control over their own forces.</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSHZKJweHBcVI8GQSG4OQfLTzza6Mm8EtKyCxvsQMD1BvHP5DlpXiV2w40awF8yE3A-GEOPVVOBaoI7YIj1y1psIBoiXuJfooANeX-oshSKpDCbTLDGd-rrVaEhp5ZoJIjbFmPV5GzNjV5/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_13.12_%255B2021.03.13_01.11.58%255D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSHZKJweHBcVI8GQSG4OQfLTzza6Mm8EtKyCxvsQMD1BvHP5DlpXiV2w40awF8yE3A-GEOPVVOBaoI7YIj1y1psIBoiXuJfooANeX-oshSKpDCbTLDGd-rrVaEhp5ZoJIjbFmPV5GzNjV5/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_13.12_%255B2021.03.13_01.11.58%255D.png"/></a>
<div align="center">(Susan Bellows, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jfk/">JFK</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/public-broadcasting-system-american.html#top">PBS American Experience</a></i>, WGBH, November 2013)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Lemay#Cuban_Missile_Crisis.2C_1962">Curtis LeMay</a> (1906 – 90) [General & Chief of Staff, US Air Force]:</i><br>
[The withdrawal of US missiles from Turkey and Italy] is the greatest defeat in our history.<br>
We should invade [Cuba] today.<br>
(28 October 1962)<br>
<br>
[Who] is more qualified to make that decision [to initiate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_on_warning">launch on warning</a>:]
<ul><li>some <i>politician</i> who may have been in office for only a couple of months … or</li>
<li>a man who has been preparing all his adult life to make it?</li></ul>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg">Daniel Ellsberg</a>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#The_Doomsday_Machine">The Doomsday Machine</a></i>, Bloomsbury, 2017, p 113)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/quotes/">Jack D Ripper</a> [General, US Air Force]:</i><br>
[War] is too important to be left to politicians.<br>
They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought.<br>
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.<br>
(Stanley Kubrick, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/">Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb</a>, 1964)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy">Robert Kennedy</a> (1925 – 68):</i><br>
[Those favoring diplomacy are] losing momentum. …<br>
The generals are itching for a fight.<br>
They want to go.<br>
(Meeting with Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador, 27 October 1962)</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-1IK8ltsGs1_ohjCVRjbzf7rcNlgIDgpzzNYRyrVPBYQHLIIcLW1CVCgSYIRKlQNNbwhIsAaOKWIgpaWUH1Y4HMptU5rMouCHG9K5EruPCm7LFmQpjV-ke4K0pRZ7QHElEWtluZPAOxIx/s1600/thekennedys407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-1IK8ltsGs1_ohjCVRjbzf7rcNlgIDgpzzNYRyrVPBYQHLIIcLW1CVCgSYIRKlQNNbwhIsAaOKWIgpaWUH1Y4HMptU5rMouCHG9K5EruPCm7LFmQpjV-ke4K0pRZ7QHElEWtluZPAOxIx/s640/thekennedys407.JPG" data-original-width="762" data-original-height="427"></a>
<div align="center">(Family Secrets, <i>The Kennedys</i>, Episode 4, 2018)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy">Robert Kennedy</a> (1925 – 68):</i><br>
[Aerial reconnaissance] indicated that [Cuban] missiles were being directed at certain American cities …<br>
[The] estimate was that within a few minutes of their being fired 80 million Americans would be dead.<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_Days_(book)">Thirteen Days</a></i>, 1969)</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixEkpvq-JKs-N8jEVQYz3Q6-m3zPRyY5_-Q90AjnstAaLTRBfgLcdZSGxL6Tdn0rcQx78L8nI2Uz82kge7DCmWaQ6dt4FWSZjO1uMnga1C55JvxyvYeQs5yPFdXRsp7OKTd01yB27NwhPF/s1600/180327210853-05-jfk-cuba-missile-crisis-map-super-169%252B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixEkpvq-JKs-N8jEVQYz3Q6-m3zPRyY5_-Q90AjnstAaLTRBfgLcdZSGxL6Tdn0rcQx78L8nI2Uz82kge7DCmWaQ6dt4FWSZjO1uMnga1C55JvxyvYeQs5yPFdXRsp7OKTd01yB27NwhPF/s640/180327210853-05-jfk-cuba-missile-crisis-map-super-169%252B.jpg" data-original-width="791" data-original-height="615"></a>
<div align="center">(<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/06/us/jfk-cuban-missile-crisis-map-auction/index.html">RFK: 80 million Americans could have died</a>, CNN)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Matthews">Chris Matthews</a>:</i><br>
There were 90 nuclear warheads [in Cuba in October 1962] in all.<br>
30 of them possessed 66 times the explosive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.<br>
There was an equal number of warheads with the firepower of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, plus an assortment of other, smaller ones.<br>
(<i>Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero</i>, Simon & Schuster, 2011, Reader's Digest, 2013, p 237)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg">Daniel Ellsberg</a> (1931):</i><br>
[On] Saturday, October 27, 1962, a chain of events was in motion that might have come [within a handbreadth] of ending civilization …<br>
[Despite] the fact … that both leaders, Khrushchev and Kennedy, were determined to avoid armed conflict … each hoped, by threatening war, to achieve a better bargain.<br>
For the sake of a better deal they both were willing to postpone by hours or days the settlement that each was willing to make.<br>
[Meanwhile,] their subordinates (unaware that they were supporting a pure bluff in a game of bargaining) were taking military actions that could unleash an unstoppable train of events …<br>
[John Kennedy, and the other members of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, assessed the risk of "some form of nuclear war" to be <i>at least</i> 10%.]<br>
(p 201)<br>
<br>
[As Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara later] compelled the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-30_Minuteman">Minuteman</a> developers, against great resistance, to install the equivalent of an electronic lock on the Minuteman, such that it couldn’t be fired without the receipt of a coded message from higher headquarters.<br>
Decades later … a former Minuteman launch control officer, informed [McNamara] that the Air Force had ensured that the codes in the launch control centers were all set continuously at 00000000 [so as to defeat this safeguard against unauthorized launches.]<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#The_Doomsday_Machine">The Doomsday Machine</a></i>, Bloomsbury, 2017, p 62)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2IXEOIcznLUKbTk4W3gdRhQ2KHapDQsGBlWVjzUCWz-jRs4HQXf_n0B5MeAXKZ2xm6Qd8WTaKZ-vduE6Gd1qotBn-b_hM5sgBLzVRyz7H59YrYh4_WyUVJ0TVIHK6ZBI8dgBcz8cuyLR/s1600/Dr.Strangelove.1964.720p.BluRay.x264.anoXmous_.mp4_snapshot_00.14.56_%255B2018.09.18_03.58.51%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR2IXEOIcznLUKbTk4W3gdRhQ2KHapDQsGBlWVjzUCWz-jRs4HQXf_n0B5MeAXKZ2xm6Qd8WTaKZ-vduE6Gd1qotBn-b_hM5sgBLzVRyz7H59YrYh4_WyUVJ0TVIHK6ZBI8dgBcz8cuyLR/s640/Dr.Strangelove.1964.720p.BluRay.x264.anoXmous_.mp4_snapshot_00.14.56_%255B2018.09.18_03.58.51%255D.jpg" data-original-width="1200" data-original-height="720"></a><br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOmO8k9ZbDElqGvspVw3Vd1s327pmhJA5FeUiI-i5cvy2tek6AewNSEUoWp_VRSzx0UkeGbIrvD8dCNUJQh0JyJeUFD2M2cVV8iibtIUuwY-Vipv1bqROsYgE7OMN3KDZ87fxZXHLL4wFo/s1600/Dr.Strangelove.1964.720p.BluRay.x264.anoXmous_.mp4_snapshot_00.24.34_%255B2018.09.20_04.01.03%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOmO8k9ZbDElqGvspVw3Vd1s327pmhJA5FeUiI-i5cvy2tek6AewNSEUoWp_VRSzx0UkeGbIrvD8dCNUJQh0JyJeUFD2M2cVV8iibtIUuwY-Vipv1bqROsYgE7OMN3KDZ87fxZXHLL4wFo/s640/Dr.Strangelove.1964.720p.BluRay.x264.anoXmous_.mp4_snapshot_00.24.34_%255B2018.09.20_04.01.03%255D.jpg" data-original-width="1200" data-original-height="720"></a><br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK46K2C8xGaWbGgy84YZHtcgt_NLd4FDHIRVYY7-lsk1RLERHS24EY1BKmfO8hHhwte8ebQsz2Aq1rZChetl7DXoD_4c6iKwCrxlV_OPBDm0xtaCvRDKV_nJGO6cGFWdOHIPuaMMx0eT4V/s1600/Dr.Strangelove.1964.720p.BluRay.x264.anoXmous_.mp4_snapshot_01.14.17_%255B2018.09.30_01.21.47%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK46K2C8xGaWbGgy84YZHtcgt_NLd4FDHIRVYY7-lsk1RLERHS24EY1BKmfO8hHhwte8ebQsz2Aq1rZChetl7DXoD_4c6iKwCrxlV_OPBDm0xtaCvRDKV_nJGO6cGFWdOHIPuaMMx0eT4V/s640/Dr.Strangelove.1964.720p.BluRay.x264.anoXmous_.mp4_snapshot_01.14.17_%255B2018.09.30_01.21.47%255D.jpg" data-original-width="1200" data-original-height="720"></a><br>
<br>
(Stanley Kubrick, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/">Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb</a></i>, 1964)</div>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="contents">Contents</h3>
<br>
<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-logic-of-war.html#top">Rationality Alone Will Not Save Us</a>
<ul><a href="#roulette">Nuclear Roulette</a></ul>
<ul><a href="#poker">Nuclear Poker</a></ul>
<br>
<a href="#Isaiah">All Flesh is Grass</a>
<ul><a href="#burningcities">Burning Cities</a></ul>
<br>
<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/live-long-and-prosper-peace.html#sum">The Sum of All Fears</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="roulette">Nuclear Roulette</h3>
<br>
Nuclear roulette is a game in which if either player shoots, both die.<br>
Neither player can win.<br>
Both players can lose.<br>
<br>
In his 2017 book <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#The_Doomsday_Machine">The Doomsday Machine</a></i>, Daniel Ellsberg describes his work on the command and control of US strategic forces at RAND in the heart of the nuclear weapon's establishment from 1958-64.<br>
US weapons crews had the capacity to circumvent the chain of command and launch their weapons (and order subordinate forces to launch their's) without authorization.<br>
Once launched they could not be recalled (despite a public statement once made by Ronald Reagan that submarine launched weapons could be).<br>
<br>
Tom Switzer's editorial of 31 May 2018 ("<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/betweenthelines/india-pakistan-nuclear-tests-1998/9819904">India and Pakistan nuclear tests 1998</a>") spruiks the deterrent benefits of nuclear weapons proliferation as a guarantor of peace between rational adversaries.<br>
This raises a number of questions:
<ul><li>Why shouldn't the Middle East also enjoy the benefits of a regional balance of terror, like those that prevail in South Asia and Europe?<br>
That is to say, why pursue counterproductive sanctions against Iran, when an Iranian bomb (and in due course a Saudi bomb) can stabilise the region by balancing Israel's nuclear arsenal?</li>
<li>Has the spread of nuclear technology/materiel from Pakistan to North Korea and Iran made the US and its allies safer?</li>
<li>Does he believe that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_MacArthur#Removal_from_command">Douglas MacArthur</a> was calculating rationally when he pressed Harry Truman to extend the Korean police action into China and kick off WWIII?<br>
Or when Curtis LeMay urged John Kennedy to invade Cuba in the face of 42,000 Soviet troops armed, unbeknownst to the Americans, with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis#Later_revelations">nuclear weapons</a>?</li>
<li>And, since falsifying the hypothesis that "deterrence works" would, in all likelihood cost billions of people their lives, how sure do you have to be, to justify the risk that you might be wrong?</li></ul>
<br>
Switzer is betting his life (and everyone else's) on:
<ul><li>the <i>rationality</i> of national leaders (and the thousands of other people in a position to launch nuclear weapons), and</li>
<li>the <i>infallibility</i> of the systems and procedures machines they rely upon.</li></ul>
Given what we know of the command and control vulnerabilities of nuclear weapons systems, his confidence in human rationality is as astonishing, as it is naive.<br>
As an example of rational calculation, it is not impressive.<br>
It betrays, ironically enough, an implicit and distinctly <i>irrational</i> faith in human rationality.<br>
That is to say, it is irrational not to recognise the limitations of human rationality and work within them.<br>
<br>
In an ideal world inhabited by perfectly rational self-interested agents (ala political realism) with access to complete information (ala game theory) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction#The_doctrine_of_nuclear_deterrence_depends_on_several_challengeable_assumptions">mutual assured destruction</a> may be a stable equilibrium.<br>
However, in real life, geopolitical crises involve:
<ul><li>thousands of imperfectly rational human beings,</li>
<li>operating under conditions of incomplete information (command and communications infrastructure being likely early targets of attack) and extreme time pressure, and</li>
<li>in circumstances which are complex, rapidly changing, and highly stressful.</li></ul>
<i>Realistically</i> speaking, there is a non-trivial risk of things going catastrophically wrong.<br>
The greatest enemy of rationality is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_of_war">fog of war</a>.<br>
<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058083/">Fail-Safe</a>, in the context of nuclear conflict, is an oxymoron.<br>
All complex systems are prone to failure — without exception.<br>
And, nuclear deterrence needs to fail only once for mutual annihilation to commence.<br>
<br>
In overestimating human rationality, Switzer underestimates the human capacity both for:
<ul><li>irrationality, and</li>
<li>rational <i>mis</i>calculation.</li></ul>
There may be many more people willing to sacrifice their lives in pursuit of <i>irrational</i> self-interest than he imagines.<br>
Say, by engineering a war in the Middle East to bring on the Second Coming of Christ.<br>
Not only can rational self-interest <i>not</i> save us.<br>
But <i>irrational</i> self-interest may well destroy us.<br>
<br>
In the trade off between:
<ul><li>potential benefits (reduced conventional or unilateral nuclear warfare), and</li>
<li>potential costs (ranging from civilisational collapse to species extinction),</li></ul>
when does a "very limited" chance of nuclear war become an "acceptable" chance of nuclear war?<br>
And who decides?<br>
<br>
The fact that we are not all dead may be evidence that nuclear deterrence works.<br>
On the other hand, it might just mean that our luck has not yet run out.<br>
As in Russian Roulette, no matter how many rounds you survive, there is no guarantee that the next round will not be your last.<br>
Switzer imagines that he is relying on human rationality to keep us safe; when, in reality, he is relying on a combination of luck and wishful thinking.<br>
<br>
Nuclear deterrence works: because humans are rational.<br>
Until it doesn't: because humans are not rational enough.<br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://40-eridani-a.blogspot.com/p/peace-and-long-life_9.html#top">peaceandlonglife</a></i>)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/04/cultural-cognition-project.html#whitemale">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="poker">Nuclear Poker</h3>
<br>
[In June 1961, the US Air Force] assistant chief of staff … believed there were "at least" 120 [Soviet ICBMs, ie] upwards of three to five times as many as [the US had.]<br>
(p 152)<br>
<br>
[This was based on] the fundamental premise that the Soviets were pursuing a program of world conquest like Hitler’s.<br>
[Assuming this was true, they would logically seek to obtain a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-emptive_nuclear_strike">first strike</a> capability as soon as possible.]<br>
(p 162)<br>
<br>
It had actually been leaks from the Air Force about the alleged Soviet superiority in ICBMs that had encouraged Kennedy to campaign for the presidency on a promise to eliminate the "missile gap" by accelerating our own missile program.<br>
For the Air Force even to entertain what Army and Navy intelligence had been saying secretly for several years — that the Soviets were actually greatly inferior to the United States in strategic capability and numbers and that they showed no signs of attempting to change that situation — might have undermined the perceived necessity for an increased missile force, and perhaps radically lowered the size of the force that the Kennedy administration would procure.<br>
(p 146)<br>
<br>
[In September 1961, satellite reconnaissance of all suspected missile sites in revealed] that the Soviets had exactly <i>four</i> ICBMs, soft, liquid-fueled missiles at one site, Plesetsk.<br>
Currently we had about 40 operational Atlas and Titan ICBMs. …<br>
Hence, in terms just of ICBMs alone, the numbers were 10 to 1 in <i>our</i> favor.<br>
(p 164, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
A single US missile warhead, landing several miles away, would destroy all four with near certainty.<br>
[In] terms of actual survivable missile capability against the United States, the Soviets had no deterrent at all.<br>
(p 163)<br>
<br>
In 1959 [two of the top Soviet experts at RAND] warned with unusual urgency that the Soviets were probably conducting a crash program on ICBMs that would give them a significant first-strike capability …<br>
Their premise was that Bolsheviks did not bluff.<br>
On that assumption, the sequence of [Khrushchev’s] allusions to rockets and sausage making told them that he had already arrived at the capability he had earlier predicted and now claimed.<br>
They were wrong.<br>
Khrushchev had been bluffing.<br>
(p 166)<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg">Daniel Ellsberg</a>, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#The_Doomsday_Machine">The Doomsday Machine</a></i>, Bloomsbury, 2017)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/10/merchants-of-doubt-star-wars.html#bteam">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="Isaiah" align="center"><a href="https://40-eridani-a.blogspot.com/2017/03/prose.html#Isaiah">All Flesh is Grass</a></h2>
<blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">I firmly believe, that before many centuries more, science will be the master of Man.<br>
The engines he will have invented will be beyond his strength to control.<br>
Someday science shall have the existence of mankind in its power, and the human race commit suicide by blowing up the world.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Adams">Henry Adams</a> (1838 – 1918), 11 April 1862.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">I wish I could produce a substance, or machine, of such frightful efficacy, the wholesale devastation, that war should therefore become altogether impossible.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel">Alfred Nobel</a> (1833 – 96)</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">One by one, the cities blossomed.<br>
The atmosphere rippled over each explosion, as if a giant steel ball had been dropped in a pond.<br>
Over the western limb, beyond the Atlantic, a brighter-than-dawn glow was creeping, now yellow, now purple, now green.<br>
The whole world was being swept by a crown fire, with the flames leaping not from tree to tree, but from city to city, continent to continent.<br>
People were no more substantial than pine needles.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://40-eridani-a.blogspot.com/2017/03/prose.html#Bear">Greg Bear</a> (1951), </i><a href="https://40-eridani-a.blogspot.com/2017/03/prose.html#Eon">Eon</a><i>, 1985, Gollanz, 2002, p 201.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[At Hiroshima it] is probable that more persons were killed in one six-hour period … than in any other recorded attack of any kind.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— Effects of the Incendiary Bomb Attacks on Japan: A Report on Eight Cities, </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Strategic_Bombing_Survey#Atomic_bombing">United States Strategic Bombing Survey</a><i>, Physical Damage Division, Report 90, April 1947.</i></blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="width: 640px" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><h3 id="1megaton">One Megaton Airburst* Over the Southern Tip of Manhattan</h3>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Freedman">Lawrence Feedman</a>, <i>Atlas of Global Strategy</i>, MacMillan, 1985, pp 86-7, adapted)</td></tr>
<tr><td width="20%"><b>Distance from<br>
Ground Zero (km)</b></td><td width="20%"><b>Windspeed (kph)</b></td><td width="60%"><b>Projected Effects</b></td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" valign="top">12.0</td><td valign="top" align="right">55</td><td>>50% mortality from thermal radiant exposure (severe burns)<br>
People flash-blinded by reflected light<br>
Light damage to buildings<br>
Branch damage to trees<br>
Sporadic fires</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" valign="top">8.0</td><td align="right" valign="top">150</td><td>Telephone lines blown down<br>
30% of trees blown down<br>
Grass and shrubs catch fire</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" valign="top">6.5</td><td align="right" valign="top">260</td><td>Buildings severely damaged<br>
Upholstery, canvas and clothing ignite<br>
Long term risk of receiving lethal dose of radiation from fallout</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" valign="top">5.0</td><td align="right" valign="top">470</td><td>Houses destroyed<br>
Multistory buildings and bridges severely damaged<br>
Main fire zone:
<ul><li>aluminium window frames melt</li>
<li>car metal melts</li>
<li>wood and roofing felt ignite</li>
<li>fatal burns</li></ul>
</td></tr>
<tr><td align="right" valign="top">3.0</td><td align="right" valign="top">760</td><td>People killed by blast and heat<br>
Reinforced-concrete multistory buildings, factories and bridges leveled<br>
90% of trees blown down<br>
Cars and trucks blown long distances</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="3" align="center">*For comparison: the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy">15 kiloton airburst</a> over Hiroshima killed 188,661 and injured 79,130 (p 83).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMXO9Brl1xC1fdkcpF16teiP6blSh-bx5kQgJFQLfsf4wK3emlxYUxw-b4taeRa_YH3BCCGVKczWBG3r92AbJrnrTd-58aSF6Tn-TRQ9p4OrfCfZV5o6C9MGbcZRmePmcQficHFHTM12bZ/s1600/Hiroshima+-+The+Next+Day.mp4_snapshot_47.46_%255B2016.10.13_04.43.21%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMXO9Brl1xC1fdkcpF16teiP6blSh-bx5kQgJFQLfsf4wK3emlxYUxw-b4taeRa_YH3BCCGVKczWBG3r92AbJrnrTd-58aSF6Tn-TRQ9p4OrfCfZV5o6C9MGbcZRmePmcQficHFHTM12bZ/s640/Hiroshima+-+The+Next+Day.mp4_snapshot_47.46_%255B2016.10.13_04.43.21%255D.jpg" /></a><br>
<br>
(<i>Hiroshima — The Next Day</i>, 2010)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSoE-LIZPfjkWcPawoM3jHzkncU-6BgwVBmKeH3LAABMEIlJzmkmyIIkpQ8kmIudM8okBCfv1NFUKlv_NCo3gNGlKUBvyegiaHkt9Iefpy09uFJJyG3J23z3lLmKaegMmAzy4WcconJtXv/s1600/Inhuman+Kind.flv_snapshot_23.27_%255B2017.01.24_05.56.32%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSoE-LIZPfjkWcPawoM3jHzkncU-6BgwVBmKeH3LAABMEIlJzmkmyIIkpQ8kmIudM8okBCfv1NFUKlv_NCo3gNGlKUBvyegiaHkt9Iefpy09uFJJyG3J23z3lLmKaegMmAzy4WcconJtXv/s640/Inhuman+Kind.flv_snapshot_23.27_%255B2017.01.24_05.56.32%255D.jpg" /></a><br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qBjFZV19p0">Inhuman Kind</a></i>, Vice, 2016)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMUNerYfoWrUlILCHP2-F91GHl9Qxh6c8V7fOwB8HCVrgy4_qD6-9-GD_OZfc8Ke3rCmO6DSH7nu4hsYCnV7Jc605uAL71QHIzw_tF_afVriLOwJ8bjx6-Il7jYC6guYx6rAP0s_GGprhs/s0/capital12.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="629" width="640" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMUNerYfoWrUlILCHP2-F91GHl9Qxh6c8V7fOwB8HCVrgy4_qD6-9-GD_OZfc8Ke3rCmO6DSH7nu4hsYCnV7Jc605uAL71QHIzw_tF_afVriLOwJ8bjx6-Il7jYC6guYx6rAP0s_GGprhs/s0/capital12.PNG"/></a>
(Justin Pemberton, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5723056/">Capital in the Twenty-First Century</a></i>, 2019)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikY83Ob0IwPVSB76D-rSu7SqUuhPR139ccxtYqTunffa5T_2VyeOxD513gnNQeVFtgfWsj9fUfa_X5UCqCiNeDaCAk3r5-luePDMaxQMU4oQf2DZDeAt3pmIlVZI6JsgHy2a3NKgKUTwb7/s1600/The+Bomb.flv_snapshot_00.00.08_%255B2016.08.23_04.56.04%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikY83Ob0IwPVSB76D-rSu7SqUuhPR139ccxtYqTunffa5T_2VyeOxD513gnNQeVFtgfWsj9fUfa_X5UCqCiNeDaCAk3r5-luePDMaxQMU4oQf2DZDeAt3pmIlVZI6JsgHy2a3NKgKUTwb7/s640/The+Bomb.flv_snapshot_00.00.08_%255B2016.08.23_04.56.04%255D.jpg" /></a><br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4Xgd67VsutRlG884xjXdvpg8y2lCcrxT26_LihebxtpueD7qePp2x1AX7xqGWasLu8k9GMecN3_pN0_ap9r5K9RsDaPbPj2xrqbqbRHIqTwj7FldYE47GheI8TmxJ_VGFiE-VndkNZnp/s1600/The+Bomb.flv_snapshot_01.28.18_%255B2016.09.01_00.17.13%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4Xgd67VsutRlG884xjXdvpg8y2lCcrxT26_LihebxtpueD7qePp2x1AX7xqGWasLu8k9GMecN3_pN0_ap9r5K9RsDaPbPj2xrqbqbRHIqTwj7FldYE47GheI8TmxJ_VGFiE-VndkNZnp/s640/The+Bomb.flv_snapshot_01.28.18_%255B2016.09.01_00.17.13%255D.jpg" data-original-width="1280" data-original-height="720" /></a><br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-XM-G2sBo_P-FrrFoPzIbBpJbLqm93ly6t1NFs7tKhLpN2ALK5m8Ytjw8OhkMJMvA46Ao3loRmf6fJLpqR2SgZOsCImKcFz99eWhkghoGBlP3wL0LyjszAnWgY7TCkhwdyG__c7YKB8-B/s1600/The+Bomb.flv_snapshot_01.24.13_%255B2016.09.01_00.12.23%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-XM-G2sBo_P-FrrFoPzIbBpJbLqm93ly6t1NFs7tKhLpN2ALK5m8Ytjw8OhkMJMvA46Ao3loRmf6fJLpqR2SgZOsCImKcFz99eWhkghoGBlP3wL0LyjszAnWgY7TCkhwdyG__c7YKB8-B/s640/The+Bomb.flv_snapshot_01.24.13_%255B2016.09.01_00.12.23%255D.jpg" data-original-width="1280" data-original-height="720" /></a><br>
<br>
(Rushmore DeNooyer, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4840922">The Bomb</a></i>, PBS, 2015)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzm33gBiRCYhn-cy7xcVCf-kRY_0THaia2J_xZ2Oq71S0N4_MdQFw89EecNDI_Gv99lVVSOnYGBbKKgF4uIefJAJxEL3cQsrOAaxNE_hyrZC49YakHt3pCFX96HEry76cQVEizjrUkJw3/s1600/dvd_snapshot_36.12_%255B2017.02.11_08.54.43%255D%252B.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzm33gBiRCYhn-cy7xcVCf-kRY_0THaia2J_xZ2Oq71S0N4_MdQFw89EecNDI_Gv99lVVSOnYGBbKKgF4uIefJAJxEL3cQsrOAaxNE_hyrZC49YakHt3pCFX96HEry76cQVEizjrUkJw3/s640/dvd_snapshot_36.12_%255B2017.02.11_08.54.43%255D%252B.jpg" /></a><br>
<br>
(David Heycock, The Arsenal, <i>Alistair Cooke's America</i>, Episode 12, BBC, 1972)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkzNj3X3xb-vMWHuiTTtj-hagbfTuvs2HZV5cmSFpIxCSwDhTHmWusSjLOxMh9iqIrTzMEaquE19Yz3xiDOhzFkehxmixbXnevWBt3dAiNJRdFFQVU40w3CXgSTQFQ4k8Sv_xtMSti8bhf/s1600/Inside+The+Cuban+Missile+Crisis.mp4_snapshot_47.40_%255B2015.07.19_05.21.06%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkzNj3X3xb-vMWHuiTTtj-hagbfTuvs2HZV5cmSFpIxCSwDhTHmWusSjLOxMh9iqIrTzMEaquE19Yz3xiDOhzFkehxmixbXnevWBt3dAiNJRdFFQVU40w3CXgSTQFQ4k8Sv_xtMSti8bhf/s640/Inside+The+Cuban+Missile+Crisis.mp4_snapshot_47.40_%255B2015.07.19_05.21.06%255D.jpg"></a><br>
<br>
(<i>Inside the Cuban Missile Crisis</i>, Crossing the Line, 2012)</div>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell</a> (1903 – 50):</i><br>
[All] talk of "limiting" or "humanising" war is sheer humbug …<br>
Why is it worse to kill civilians than soldiers? …<br>
(Up to date, German bombs have killed between six and seven thousand children in this country.<br>
This, I believe, is less than the number killed in road accidents in the same period.)<br>
On the other hand, "normal" or "legitimate" warfare picks out and slaughters all the healthiest and bravest of the young male population. …<br>
War is not avoidable at this stage of history, and since it has to happen it does not seem to me a bad thing that others should be killed besides young men. …<br>
<br>
[The] suffering of this war has been shared out more evenly than the last one was.<br>
The immunity of the civilian, one of the things that have made war possible, has been shattered.<br>
I can't feel that war is "humanised" by being confined to the slaughter of the young, and becomes "barbarous" when the old get killed as well.<br>
(As I Please, <i>Tribune</i>, 19 May 1944)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi">Enrico Fermi</a> (1901 – 54) & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidor_Isaac_Rabi">Isador Rabi</a> (1898 – 1988):</i><br>
By its very nature [a thermonuclear bomb] cannot be confined to a military objective but becomes a weapon which in practical effect is almost one of genocide.<br>
It is clear that the use of such a weapon cannot be justified on any ethical ground which gives a human being a certain individuality and dignity …<br>
The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole.<br>
It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light.<br>
(An Opinion on the Development of the '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Teller%E2%80%93Ulam_design#Teller%27s_%22Super%22">Super</a>,' 30 October 1949)<br>
<br>
<i>Daniel Clery:</i><br>
At around 11.30 on 30th October [1961, a Soviet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95">TU-95V</a> dropped a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba">50 megaton Teller-Ulam type hydrogen] bomb</a> above the island of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Sea. …<br>
The fireball could be seen 1,000 kilometres away and the mushroom cloud rose to seven times the height of Everest.<br>
A village fifty-five kilometres away was completely destroyed and … windows were broken in Norway and Finland, more than 1,000 kilometres distant …<br>
[It] was the most powerful device of <i>any kind</i> ever built.<br>
To produce such a blast with conventional explosives would require a cube of TNT 312 metres on each side, roughly the height of the Eiffel Tower [—] ten times the total amount of conventional explosives used in World War II.<br>
(<i>A Piece of the Sun</i>, 2004, p 202-3, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="#galbraith">John Galbraith</a> (1908 – 2006):</i><br>
War once had a clear class aspect; it was the common soldier, the son of the peasant or working-class family, who was at risk.<br>
Modern nuclear war is dramatically more democratic; all ranks and all classes equally will be swept away.
…<br>
One hopes that this will be recognized — and that the weapons commitment will breed a political movement that crosses all income and class lines.<br>
It is, after all, the affluent who have the most to lose.<br>
(<i>The Affluent Society</i>, 4th Edition, Penguin, 1984, pp xxxvi-vii)<br>
<br>
<i id="quest"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/pbs-american-experience-kennedys.html#inaugural">John Kennedy</a> (1917 – 63):</i><br>
[To] those nations who would make themselves our adversaries, we offer not a pledge but a request:<br>
That both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self destruction …<br>
(<a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/BqXIEM9F4024ntFl7SVAjA.aspx">Inaugural Address</a>, 20 January 1961)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Matthews">Chris Matthews</a>:</i><br>
Kennedy … knew that [the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Chiefs_of_Staff">Joint Chiefs of Staff</a>] leaned towards a 'first strike' option, especially in the case of Soviet move on Berlin.<br>
This meant an 'obliterating' nuclear attack on all Communist countries: 3,000 weapons aimed at a thousand targets.<br>
(<i>Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero</i>, Simon & Schuster, 2011, Reader's Digest, 2013, p 233)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/russell-bertrand.html#top">Bertrand Russell</a> (1872 - 1970):</i><br>
So long as national States exist and fight each other, only inefficiency can preserve the human race.<br>
To improve the fighting quality of separate States without having any means of preventing war is the road to universal destruction.<br>
(<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/russell-bertrand.html#HWP">A History of Western Philosophy</a></i>, 2nd Edition, 1961, p 541)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2016/06/alexis-de-tocqueville.html#top">Alexis de Tocqueville</a> (1805 – 59):</i><br>
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and the shortest means to accomplish it.<br>
(<i>Democracy in America</i>, 1835, Bantam, 2011, p 807)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana">George Santayana</a> (1863 – 1952):</i><br>
Only the dead have seen the end of war.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Santayana#Soliloquies_in_England_and_Later_Soliloquies_.281922.29">Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies</a>, 1922)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrc-CJ90_C0DiPPk6icjJJ8N9bJfKbp69ewmU_zuiha5-_3k7A17peR7uiD66BdAP8OhD3NWQ9LdW_vJGBAHtdWE9j44YDW6j19-OnTqajaWYqELi9VzRE31-gUtEoGt-ZHUqwRlmDTfvd/s1600/fogofwar.avi_snapshot_01.41.43_%255B2018.04.21_21.17.09%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" width="640" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrc-CJ90_C0DiPPk6icjJJ8N9bJfKbp69ewmU_zuiha5-_3k7A17peR7uiD66BdAP8OhD3NWQ9LdW_vJGBAHtdWE9j44YDW6j19-OnTqajaWYqELi9VzRE31-gUtEoGt-ZHUqwRlmDTfvd/s1600/fogofwar.avi_snapshot_01.41.43_%255B2018.04.21_21.17.09%255D.jpg" data-original-width="544" data-original-height="304"></a></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara">Robert McNamara</a> (1916 – 2009) [Secretary of Defense, 1961-68]:</i><br>
In [a] single night, we burned to death <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/harry-truman.html#moon-top">100,000 Japanese civilians</a> in Tokyo. …<br>
How much evil must we do in order to do good?<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War">The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S McNamara</a></i>, 2003)</blockquote>
<br>
<h3 id="burningcities">Burning Cities</h3>
<br>
<i>TO THE BOMBER COMMAND:</i><br>
The primary object of your operations should now be focused on the morale of the enemy’s civil population, and in particular of the industrial workers. …<br>
[Be] clear that the aiming points are to be the built-up areas, <i>not</i>, for instance, the dockyards or aircraft factories …<br>
(British Air Staff Directive, 14 February 1942, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<i>Fritz Sallagar:</i><br>
For the first time, a bombing directive had singled out the parts of cities where civilians were housed most densely as the primary objective of individual attacks and of the overall campaign.<br>
[This] was to remain the primary objective for Bomber Command for the remaining years of the war.<br>
(<i>The Road to Total War: Escalation in World War II</i>, R-465-PR, RAND Corporation, April 1969)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson">Freeman Dyson</a> (1923):</i><br>
I arrived at the headquarters of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command just in time for the big raids against Hamburg.<br>
[In one night] we killed 40,000 people and lost only 12 bombers, by far the best we had ever done.<br>
For the first time in history we created a fire storm, which killed people even inside shelters.<br>
The casualties were about 10 times as numerous as in a normal attack of the same size without a fire storm. …<br>
In every big raid we tried to raise a fire storm, but we succeeded only twice,
<ul><li>once in Hamburg and</li>
<li>once two years later in Dresden [where 25,000 were killed].</li></ul>
(<i>Weapons and Hope</i>, Harper Collins, 1984, p 117)<br>
<br>
[From] our point of view [the Dresden fire storm] was only a fluke.<br>
We attacked Berlin 16 times with the kind of force that attacked Dresden once.<br>
We were trying every time to raise a fire storm.<br>
There was nothing special about Dresden except that for once everything worked as we intended.<br>
It was like a hole-in-one in a game of golf.<br>
Unfortunately Dresden had little military significance and anyway the slaughter came too late to have any serious effect on the war.<br>
(<i>Disturbing the Universe</i>, Harper & Row, 1979), p 28)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Arthur_Harris,_1st_Baronet">Arthur "Bomber" Harris</a> (1892 – 1984) [28 March 1945]:</i><br>
Attacks on cities like any other act of war are intolerable unless they are strategically justified.<br>
But they are strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the war and preserve the lives of Allied soldiers. …<br>
I do not personally regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier.<br>
(Frederick Taylor, <i>Dresden: Tuesday 13 February, 1945</i>, Bloomsbury, 2005, p 432)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg">Daniel Ellsberg</a> (1931)</h4>
<br>
For every ton of bombs dropped on England in the nine months of the Blitz, [the Allies, principally Britain,] eventually dropped a hundred tons of bombs on German cities.<br>
More than [500,000 German] civilians were killed.<br>
(p 245)<br>
<br>
[The] RAF was using magnesium-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite">thermite</a> bombs that couldn’t be put out with water.<br>
They had to be smothered with sand. …<br>
If enough planes were sent in en masse to do patterned area bombing with incendiaries, a lot of little fires would start simultaneously throughout a large area.<br>
This would be helped by first dropping high-explosive bombs, which would break up the structures and make for better kindling, and also block fire trucks from the streets. …<br>
<br>
[In] Hamburg on the night of July 27, 1943, in Operation Gomorrah [temperatures rose] up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.<br>
Everyone died in the area within the circle of fire, fed by winds coming from all directions, at up to 150 miles per hour.<br>
(pp 246-7)<br>
<br>
Operations analysts turned to questions of what the mix should be of explosives and different sorts of incendiaries for the most efficient, cost-effective ways to burn German workers and their families alive.<br>
City burning … was becoming something of a science. …<br>
<br>
The most effective weapon for Japan was the M-69, a small incendiary bomb, many of which were dropped in a single casing.<br>
The casing was designed to release 38 incendiary bombs made to fall in a random pattern.<br>
Delayed-action high-explosive bombs would also be included, exploding minutes to hours after landing, to deter and obstruct firefighters.<br>
People became conditioned to stay away from these little thermite or napalm bombs when they first landed and could still be smothered fairly easily with sand.<br>
(p 252)<br>
<br>
For five solid months before August 1945, the US Army Air Force had been deliberately killing as many Japanese civilians as it could.<br>
The atomic bomb simply did it more efficiently, one bomb doing what [had previously taken] 300 bombers to do …<br>
(p 260)<br>
<br>
The atom bomb did not start a new era of targeting or strategy or war making in the world.<br>
Annihilation of an urban civilian population by fire had already become the American way of war from the air, as it had been the British way since late 1940.<br>
(p 261)<br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#The_Doomsday_Machine">The Doomsday Machine</a></i>, Bloomsbury, 2017)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/harry-truman.html#moon-top">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="2965482"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Luttwak">Edward Luttwak</a> (1942)</h4>
<br>
<i>Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington.</i><br>
<br>
[We] have wars for a reason …<br>
[War] throughout history [has brought] peace.<br>
If you go to where war lived most comfortably, like Europe, it's not like it's a desert.<br>
[Look at] all the cities they built:
<ul><li>the cathedrals,</li>
<li>the houses,</li>
<li>the wealth,</li>
<li>the technology,</li>
<li>the science.</li></ul>
How did they do it?<br>
Because they had peace.<br>
When did they have peace?<br>
When the previous war had reached its natural conclusion … an organic, natural peace.<br>
<br>
[What's] happened since 1945 [is that] we have an … invented this perverse United Nation's mechanism where outsiders step in and prevent war from achieving its purpose, which is … to bring peace.<br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/edward-luttwak/2965482">ABC Saturday Extra</a></i>, 11 September 2010)peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-68238836469218579852020-10-21T01:32:00.028+11:002023-08-19T03:52:00.528+10:00House Murdoch<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Miniture">Ministry of Truth</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibnFzsSC4XV0uhuOlnhMB6AvaEXKV_jXB4R5N44mJ9lxZTZEPTats0dRyDXr4Zrk6Pg2xp9-yjFEXAq3688ZC4OLs1nhx5raFNEW5sn-JhMlNTfv96tQUatWJNMjCkiKrGYLhKFuusNdfDssiuQZT3tKnsn5gBxpTzgrzKfAnw_6HUrS62n5UoOlGU4LKw/s1600/themurdochsempireofinfluence703.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="623" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibnFzsSC4XV0uhuOlnhMB6AvaEXKV_jXB4R5N44mJ9lxZTZEPTats0dRyDXr4Zrk6Pg2xp9-yjFEXAq3688ZC4OLs1nhx5raFNEW5sn-JhMlNTfv96tQUatWJNMjCkiKrGYLhKFuusNdfDssiuQZT3tKnsn5gBxpTzgrzKfAnw_6HUrS62n5UoOlGU4LKw/s640/themurdochsempireofinfluence703.PNG"/></a>
(<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-murdochs-empire-of-influence">The Murdochs: Empire of Influence</a>, <i>CNN</i>, 2022)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931):</i><br>
[There’s] a real challenge to confront: a wave of censorship that seeks:
<ul><li>to silence conversation,</li>
<li>to stifle debate,</li>
<li>to ultimately stop individuals and societies from realizing their potential.</li></ul>
This rigidly enforced conformity, aided and abetted by so-called social media, is a straitjacket on sensibility.<br>
To many people have fought too hard, in too many places, for freedom of speech to be suppressed by this awful woke orthodoxy. …<br>
There are many goals still to come and challenges to overcome.<br>
Well, I'm far from done.<br>
(<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/business/media/rupert-murdoch-josh-hawley-woke.html">Acceptance Speech</a>, Lifetime Achievement Award by the Australia Day Foundation UK, Australia House, 23 January 2021)</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXwzIpynS_0Ev6HfGbyZJMt3H7F_8U5UwfJm5uBk0Z83umvHrLmxSrDkuNiB29UP5S_Fw8M2sCUGfpR4DnsL3ypZ6B9LqjCB-2BbY4QSL4UoJE7wCC66RXz0rUOa76MIAPQkuY_ibNOugP/s0/murdoch302.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="184" data-original-width="615" height="191" width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXwzIpynS_0Ev6HfGbyZJMt3H7F_8U5UwfJm5uBk0Z83umvHrLmxSrDkuNiB29UP5S_Fw8M2sCUGfpR4DnsL3ypZ6B9LqjCB-2BbY4QSL4UoJE7wCC66RXz0rUOa76MIAPQkuY_ibNOugP/s640/murdoch302.PNG"/></a>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUTZhonWjRcIy4NH_IkqnOKth4czFuEktGs5Dnv4v5VlSMlNwTiFe9DKKHXhdTkX72-Z0TGIq_djR73vKOHAUsoBdSBlC4Upmo7_hIYACHQ14Q_M76j4tEDv7CXeFBIfHis370xY1RunQa/s0/murdoch300.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="635" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUTZhonWjRcIy4NH_IkqnOKth4czFuEktGs5Dnv4v5VlSMlNwTiFe9DKKHXhdTkX72-Z0TGIq_djR73vKOHAUsoBdSBlC4Upmo7_hIYACHQ14Q_M76j4tEDv7CXeFBIfHis370xY1RunQa/s0/murdoch300.PNG"/></a>
(Jamie Roberts, <i><a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/rise-of-the-murdoch-dynasty">BBC The Rise Of The Murdoch Dynasty</a></i>, 2020)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Murdoch">James Murdoch</a> (1972):</i><br>
There's an inescapable conclusion that we must reach if we are to have a better society:<br>
The only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence, is profit.<br>
(<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/video/2009/aug/29/james-murdoch-edinburgh-festival-mactaggart">MacTaggart Lecture</a>, MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, August 2009)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Murdoch_(businesswoman)">Elisabeth Murdoch</a> (1968):</i><br>
[Profit] without purpose is a recipe for disaster.<br>
(<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/interactive/2012/aug/23/elisabeth-murdoch-mactaggart-lecture">MacTaggart Lecture</a>, MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, August 2012)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931):</i><br>
We should approach climate change with great scepticism. …<br>
[How] much are we doing with emissions and so on?<br>
Well, as far as Australia goes, nothing in the overall picture. …<br>
The most alarmist things have said maybe … 3°C in 100 years.<br>
At the very most, one [degree] would … be man-made. …<br>
Now, what that means is that, if the sea level rises 6 inches [the] Maldives might disappear or something …<br>
We can't mitigate that.<br>
We can't stop it.<br>
We've just got to stop building vast houses of sea shores and go back a little bit.<br>
[The world has] been changing for thousands and thousands of years. …<br>
Climate change has been going on as long as the planet is here.<br>
(2014)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Bacon">Wendy Bacon</a> (1946) [Professorial Fellow, Australian Centre for Independent Journalism]:</i><br>
One third of articles in Australia’s major newspapers do not accept the consensus position of climate science …<br>
That’s a very high level of scepticism when you consider that these stories are rejecting findings that over 97% of the world’s climate scientists support. …<br>
While the News Corp tabloids tend to outright reject the consensus, the national newspaper <i>The Australian</i> is more likely to suggest that climate science is a matter of debate. …<br>
In the <i>Herald Sun</i> 97% of comment articles were sceptical.<br>
This is largely due to … <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/andrew-bolt.html#top">Andrew Bolt</a>, who wrote over half of all the words on climate science in the paper. …<br>
News Corp’s coverage seems to be more about production of ignorance than informing people so they can participate in debates about solutions. …<br>
The public is paying a heavy price for having News Corp as the dominant player in the most concentrated press in the developed world.<br>
(Big Australian media reject climate science, <i>The Conversation</i>, 1 November 2013)<br>
<br>
The newspaper that most actively promotes climate scepticism is also the biggest selling newspaper in Australia, the <i>Herald Sun</i>. …<br>
The next most sceptical publication is <i>The Daily Telegraph</i> …<br>
(A Sceptical Climate: Media coverage of climate change in Australia, 2011 & 2013)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" style="width: 480px;" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="3"><div align="center"><h3>Market Share by Readership</h3>
(Adapted from Figure 1, p 23)</div></td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Ownership</b></td><th colspan="2">Readership</th></tr>
<tr><td>News Limited</td><td align="right">3,707,000</td><td align="right">65%</td></tr>
<tr><td width="33%">Fairfax</td><td width="33%" align="right">1,439,000</td><td width="33%" align="right">25%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Seven West Media</td><td align="right">547,000</td><td align="right">10%</td></tr>
<tr><td><b><i>Total</i></b></td><td align="right">5,963,000</td><td align="right">100%</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i>James Painter [Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University]:</i><br>
Australia had the most articles, and the highest percentage of articles with sceptics in them, ahead of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Norway and India.<br>
This finding tallied with a previous report we had published which strongly suggested that climate scepticism was common in the English-speaking media in countries like the UK, USA and Australia.<br>
It is nothing like as common in the media in developing countries, such as Brazil, India and China, and in France.<br>
(<i><a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publications/risj-challenges/">Climate Change in the Media: Reporting Risk and Uncertainty</a></i>, I B Taurus, Oxford)<br>
<br>
<i>Philip Chubb [Associate Professor of Journalism, Monash University]:</i><br>
… I'm accusing <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-media-hubs.html#oz">The Australian</a></i> of ideological bias.<br>
All the evidence is there.<br>
It's absolutely clear.<br>
It has ceased to function as a news outlet according to the ordinary meaning of that term.<br>
(George Munster Award Forum, University of Technology Sydney, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/10/abc-television-big-ideas.html#top">ABC Big Ideas</a></i>, 2 December 2010)<br>
<br>
<i>Would you like to know more?</a></i>
<ul><li><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1938">Royal Commission Into Media Diversity</li>
<li><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/11/australian-centre-for-independent.html#top">Media coverage of climate change in Australia</a></li>
<li><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/06/robert-manne.html#badnews">Murdoch's <i>Australian</i> and the Shaping of the Nation</a></li></ul>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="foxnews" align="center">Loyalty is Good</h2>
<blockquote><blockquote><br><span style="font-size: medium">[Our] first responsibility [as journalists, is to earn] the trust and loyalty of our readers.<br>
<br>
The newspaper … can throw light on injustices, just as it can do the opposite.<br>
It can hide things and be a great power for evil.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931)</i></blockquote></blockquote>
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<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2cvREOdFUtJ6xCZJxsu-8YcA9zy-s4rt1ukngrVCxliJBRLMivmbApCeiU-dOd8-PeP0wsjf1UOIDyR7hdJAjinZQgdxrRfJANdk4I_V-NVtsIUn_ya9cymBZwQ-5evBQCF8MKFP18zDq/s1600/foxnews09.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2cvREOdFUtJ6xCZJxsu-8YcA9zy-s4rt1ukngrVCxliJBRLMivmbApCeiU-dOd8-PeP0wsjf1UOIDyR7hdJAjinZQgdxrRfJANdk4I_V-NVtsIUn_ya9cymBZwQ-5evBQCF8MKFP18zDq/s640/foxnews09.JPG" data-original-width="760" data-original-height="425"></a></div>
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<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_O%27Reilly_(political_commentator)">Bill O'Reilly</a> (1949):</i><br>
If any woman ever breathed a word, I'll make her pay so dearly that she'll wish she'd never been born.<br>
I'll rake her through the mud, bring up things in her life, and make her so miserable that she'll be destroyed. …<br>
If you cross FOX NEWS CHANNEL, it's not just me, it's Roger Ailes who will go after you …<br>
Ailes operates behind the scenes … and makes things happen, so that one day BAM! — the person gets what's coming to them, but never sees it coming. …<br>
<br>
So here's the deal: if someone is paying you a wage, you owe that person, or company, allegiance.<br>
You don't like what's happening in the workplace?<br>
Go to human resources or leave, but don't run down the concern that supports you by trying to undermine it.<br>
[O'Reilly] Factor tip of the day — loyalty is good.</blockquote>
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<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzsaSomAh2viOsaGDh_fIaN8VyYDsT9y4rhRCMd57ZCIT8hy_KCDPxAnk1rVRosqHiCvKBjJoosRFe9ioZtcNW29YcyLOiHaE62eAmS2O8UbQk1zCsD01JYypXI4RctSxv6a9cUsT63w03/s1600/foxnews02.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzsaSomAh2viOsaGDh_fIaN8VyYDsT9y4rhRCMd57ZCIT8hy_KCDPxAnk1rVRosqHiCvKBjJoosRFe9ioZtcNW29YcyLOiHaE62eAmS2O8UbQk1zCsD01JYypXI4RctSxv6a9cUsT63w03/s640/foxnews02.JPG" data-original-width="754" data-original-height="425"></a><br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiERnSrLmjQD5M-KUGKml0gwTzI4x2m8bP7mJbccW2rYVystGyEbnfwR3rYf8xL0ZW8_WrweFV9Qm_VwDwndy3PKD_GhznJENtLT1VYdUhmmfq8ZZbRKWjr6DKc3lYWCfJeyvFhr4WJWHMr/s1600/foxnews03.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiERnSrLmjQD5M-KUGKml0gwTzI4x2m8bP7mJbccW2rYVystGyEbnfwR3rYf8xL0ZW8_WrweFV9Qm_VwDwndy3PKD_GhznJENtLT1VYdUhmmfq8ZZbRKWjr6DKc3lYWCfJeyvFhr4WJWHMr/s640/foxnews03.JPG" data-original-width="753" data-original-height="413"></a><br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBZcxXPsoEzQBdHFF1yiEzaGTytcD6pf-4jxOXiYGnJkT_tr92Wc7k7YviWj5VzIzyS57zJRoTegqP-2MwTMM-imv6L1r0by3Yn0KRU2wOwCjcgATgzi4ogQRqCUuGLksZ4gE-8YvWyIj/s1600/foxnews08.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBZcxXPsoEzQBdHFF1yiEzaGTytcD6pf-4jxOXiYGnJkT_tr92Wc7k7YviWj5VzIzyS57zJRoTegqP-2MwTMM-imv6L1r0by3Yn0KRU2wOwCjcgATgzi4ogQRqCUuGLksZ4gE-8YvWyIj/s640/foxnews08.JPG" data-original-width="757" data-original-height="419"></a></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump">Donald Trump</a> (1946):</i><br>
[Roger Ailes] is a very good person.<br>
I can tell you that, some of the women that are complaining … I know how much he's helped them.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Muto">Joe Muto</a> [Former Associate Producer, </i>The O'Reilly Factor<i>, Fox News]:</i><br>
It was imparted to me, right from the very beginning, that it wasn't about journalism, it was about drawing the biggest audience possible. …<br>
We used to call it: "Riling up the Crazies".<br>
That's what we were there to do.<br>
We were there to stir up outrage.<br>
Because that's what kept them watching.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck">Glenn Beck</a> (1964):</i><br>
It's hard when you actually believe in something, and you don't want to do harm but, somehow or another, you just keep doing harm. …<br>
And I remember, praying and hearing: "you're standing in the wrong place."<br>
How am I now, in the position, where I am the most polarizing, divisive figure in the country?<br>
And it was the beginning of: "give it all up, get out … get out, get out, get out."<br>
So I went into Roger's office and said: "I'm leaving" …<br>
(<i>Fox News: Divide And Conquer</i>, 2018)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Broomfield">Nick Broomfield</a> (1948):</i><br>
[Rupert Murdoch] paid Sarah [Palin:]
<ul><li>a $3 million salary [as a news analyst for <i>Fox News</i>;] and</li>
<li>a $7 million [book] advance for <i>Going Rogue</i>.</li></ul>
[The] <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/koch-industries.html#top">Koch brothers</a> are massive contributors to [both] Sarah and the Tea Party.<br>
(<i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1965264/">Sarah Palin: You Betcha!</a></i>, Gravity Films, 2011)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ailes">Roger Ailes</a> (1940 – 2017):</i><br>
[At Fox News, we'd] like to restore objectivity, where we find it lacking.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Ferguson_(journalist)">Sarah Ferguson</a> (1965):</i><br>
[Gretchn Carlson] would eventually settle [her sexual harassment claim] with Fox News for $20 million US dollars. …<br>
[Susan] Estrich negotiated a departure package for [Roger] Ailes — worth more than $70 million US dollars — directly with Rupert Murdoch.<br>
(<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/fox-and-the-big-lie:-how-the-network-promoted/13510238">Fox and the Big Lie</a>, <i>ABC Four Corners</i>, 23 August 2021)</blockquote>
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<a name='more'></a>
<br>
<div align="center"><h2 id="culture">Lawful Bribery</h2>
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<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Bryant#Expenses_claims_scandal">Chris Bryant</a> (1962) [Labour MP]:</i><br>
Do either of your newspapers ever use private detectives, ever bug or pay the police?<br>
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<i><a href="https://imgur.com/a/xSEt6">Rebekah Brooks</a> [Editor, </i>News of the World<i>, 2000-3; CEO, News International, 2001-11]:</i><br>
We have paid police for information in the past …<br>
<br>
<i>Chris Bryant:</i><br>
Andy Coulson, who was sitting beside her, tried to say:<br>
<blockquote>But only <i>within</i> the law!</blockquote>
And I pointed out it's against the law: bribing a police officer, suborning a police officer …
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Coulson">Andy Coulson</a> (1968) [Editor, </i>News of the World<i>, 2003-7; Director of Communications to David Cameron, 2010-11]:</i><br>
No, no, no, without — as I said, <i>within</i> the law.</blockquote>
<i>Chris Bryant:</i><br>
And then the chairman chose to close the meeting, for some bizarre reason …<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Bergman">Lowell Bergman</a> (1945):</i><br>
[After the story broke] Rebekah Brooks wrote to the chairman of the parliamentary committee [accusing] <i>The Guardian</i> of deliberately misleading the British public.<br>
(Neil Docherty, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/media/murdochs-scandal/transcript-17/">Murdoch's Scandal</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/network-hubs-green-army.html#Frontline">PBS Frontline</a></i>, 27 March 2012)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Brooks">Rebekah Brooks</a> (1968)]:</i><br>
My intention was simply to comment generally on the widely-held belief that payments had been made in the past to police officers.<br>
If, in doing so, I gave the impression that I had knowledge of any specific cases, I can assure you that this was not my intention.<br>
(<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/apr/11/rebekah-brooks">Rebekah Brooks: I have no knowledge of actual payments to police</a>, <i>The Guardian</i>, 11 April 2011)<br>
<br>
[Eliminate] in a consistent manner across NI (subject to compliance with legal and regulatory requirements as to retention) emails that could be <i>unhelpful</i> in the context of future litigation in which an NI company is a defendant.<br>
(Email, January 2010, emphasis added)<br>
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<i><a href="https://imgur.com/a/xSEt6">Would you like to know more?</a></i></blockquote>
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(Marian Wilkinson & Janine Cohen, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2014/06/30/4033817.htm">Rupert, Rebekah and Andy</a>, <i>ABC Four Corners</i>, 30 June 2014)</div>
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<br>
<h3 id="4033817">The Face of Humility</h3>
<br>
[The hacking of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Milly_Dowler">Milly Dowler</a>'s (1988–2002) voicemail] was done … when Brooks was editor [of the <i>News of the World</i>. …]<br>
Brooks flatly denied knowing about any hacking under her editorship …
<blockquote><i><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8775568/Phone-hacking-Milly-Dowler-family-set-for-3-million-News-International-payout.html">Gordon Rayner & Andrew Hough</a>:</i><br>
The payout will include
<ul><li>a personal £1 million donation to charity from Rupert Murdoch … as well [as]</li>
<li>a £2 million settlement directly to the Dowler family.</li></ul>
(<i>Daily Telegraph</i>, 20 September 2011)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacking_scandal">Wikipedia</a>:</i><br>
By March 2010, News International had spent over £2 million settling court cases with victims of phone hacking. …<br>
(15 April 2015)</blockquote>
[Throughout] 2010 the civil cases against over <i>News of the World</i> over phone hacking kept coming …<br>
Prosecutors say, at this time, Brooks approved a sweeping policy to delete emails en masse across the UK company.<br>
The deletions were partly explained as an overhaul of News' old email system.<br>
But Brooks specifically demanded her own emails to 2010 be deleted in what she called 'a clean sweep'. …<br>
Brooks stepped up the email deletions just as the £8 billion takeover bid for BSkyB was announced in July 2010. …
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Murdoch">James Murdoch</a> (1972):</i><br>
I'm convinced that Rebekah Brooks' leadership of the company is the right thing. …<br>
It's her leadership that has really gotten to grips with this whole period in the company's history.</blockquote>
Days later James told Brooks to go because the police were about to arrest her.<br>
She would negotiate an £11 million pay out. …<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931):</i><br>
I would have thought that … at least 90% of the payments were made at the instigation of cops …</blockquote>
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<br>
(Marian Wilkinson & Janine Cohen, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2014/06/30/4033817.htm">Rupert, Rebekah and Andy</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/australian-broadcasting-corporation.html#4corners">Four Corners</a></i>, <i>ABC Television</i>, 30 June 2014)</div>
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<h3 id="141019">A Better Society</h3>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/05/richard-wilkinson.html#Chang">Ha Joon Chang</a>: Professor, Faculty of Politics and Economics, Cambridge University</i><br>
<br>
The success of the Conservative economic narrative has allowed the coalition to pursue a destructive and unfair economic strategy, which has generated only a bogus recovery largely based on government-fuelled asset bubbles in real estate and finance, with stagnant productivity, falling wages, millions of people in precarious jobs, and savage welfare cuts. …<br>
<br>
A government budget should be understood not just in terms of bookkeeping but also of demand management, national cohesion and productivity growth.<br>
Jobs and wages should not be seen simply as a matter of people being “worth” (or not) what they get, but of better utilising human potential and of providing decent and dignified livelihoods.<br>
Ways have to be found to generate economic growth based on rising productivity rather than the continuous blowing of asset bubbles.<br>
<br>
Without a new economic vision incorporating these dimensions, Britain will continue on its path of stagnation, financial instability and social conflict.<br>
<br>
(<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/19/britain-political-class-tories-economic-fairytale">Why did Britain’s political class buy into the Tories’ economic fairy tale?</a>, 19 October 2014)<br>
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<h3 id="hero">Abbott on Murdoch</h3>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931):</i><br>
I’m an American citizen and [I] consider myself an American.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch#Activities_in_the_United_States">Wikipedia</a>:</i><br>
On 4 September 1985, Murdoch became a naturalized citizen to satisfy the legal requirement that only US citizens were permitted to own US television stations.<br>
This resulted in Murdoch losing his Australian citizenship.<br>
(21 February 2013)<br>
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<br>
<h4><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott">Tony Abbott</a> (1957)</h4>
<br>
I've got a lot of time for <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-persons-of-interest.html#murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> because whether you like his papers or don't like his papers he's one of the most influential Australians of all time.<br>
Aussies should support our hometown heroes — that's what I think … Rupert Murdoch is.<br>
(<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/06/tony-abbott-hails-rupert-murdoch-as-hometown-hero">Tony Abbott hails Rupert Murdoch as 'hometown hero'</a>, <i>The Guardian</i>, 6 September 2013)<br>
<br>
[Apart from] John Monash, the Commander of the First AIF [who] saved Paris and helped to win the First World War, and [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Florey">Howard Florey</a>,] the co-inventor of penicillin [who] literally saved millions of lives, Rupert Murdoch is probably the Australian who has most shaped the world …<br>
For our guest of honour … experience trumps theory and facts trump speculation.<br>
His publications have borne his ideals but never his <a href="#fingerprints">fingerprints</a>.<br>
<br>
Rupert Murdoch is a corporate citizen of many countries, but above all else, he’s one of us.<br>
[And most especially] he’s a long-serving director of the <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-funding-research-and.html#IPA">IPA</a> …<br>
<br>
[Tonight we] renew our commitment [and] our <i>faith</i>.<br>
In a hundred years’ time [may] it be said of us that we … passed the torch of freedom [on] to our successors …<br>
(70th Anniversary Dinner, <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-funding-research-and.html#IPA">Institute of Public Affairs</a>, 4 April 2013.)<br>
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<br>
<h3 id="aom">Murdoch on Abbott</h3>
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<h4><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931)</h4>
<br>
Conviction politicians hard to find anywhere.<br>
Australia’s Tony Abbott a rare exception.<br>
(19 August 2013)<br>
<br>
Great first day by PM Abbott firing top bureaucrats, merging departments and killing carbon tax.<br>
(19 September 2013)<br>
<br>
(<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/06/robert-manne.html#top">Robert Manne</a>, <a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/november/1383224400/robert-manne/why-rupert-murdoch-can-t-be-stopped">Why Rupert Murdoch Can't Be Stopped</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/05/monthly.html#top">The Monthly</a></i>, November 2013)<br>
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<br>
<h3><a href="#4580216">Brothers in Arms</a></h3>
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<i><a href="http://www.wendybacon.com/about/">Wendy Bacon</a>: Professor of Journalism, Australian Centre for Independent Journalism</i><br>
<br>
[The] most critical point … was the hysterical overreaction by News Limited [to the proposed Public Interest Advocate.]<br>
I don't think anyone could read this legislation and think there was anything remotely like a star chamber. …
<blockquote><i>Tony Abbott:</i><br>
Not since the days of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Public_Safety">Committee of Public Safety</a> have we seen an attempt by a government to do something as Orwellian as the Public Interest Media Advocate is.<br>
[The] Public Interest Media Advocate, the government's version of the <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/10/live-long-and-prosper-propaganda.html#top">Ministry for Truth</a>, will be vetting every aspect of the media for fairness, accuracy and the professional conduct of journalists.</blockquote>
[This is] a complete distortion of what the law is actually proposing.<br>
<br>
[Which] is that, after a whole lot of consideration of different factors, some of which are set down in detail, the advocate would have the power to approve a self-regulatory body.<br>
Which would then, as it does now in the case of the Press Council, take complaints.<br>
There is no suggestion … that this advocate would be in any way dealing with day to day content of the media. …<br>
<br>
What we've got here, is News Limited and Abbott in unison … overstating and misleading the Australian public about the powers of the advocate.<br>
The Minister … can't direct the advocate at all.<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="contents">Contents</h3>
<br>
<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2020/10/house-murdoch.html#top">House Murdoch</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#foxnews">Loyalty is Good</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#4033817">Humble Pie</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#McKnight">Murdoch and Political Power</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#1383224400">The Eye of Murdoch</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#5061778">Media Godfather</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#hero">An Australian Hero</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#3192214">A Golden Age of Freedom</a><br>
<br>
<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/06/robert-manne.html#badnews">Murdoch's <i>Australian</i> and the Shaping of the Nation</a><br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/10/live-long-and-prosper-propaganda.html#contents">Would you like to know more?</a></i><br>
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<br>
<h2><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Keith Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931)</h2>
<br>
Executive Chairman, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corp">News Corp</a>.<br>
Chairman, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Corporation">Fox Corporation</a>.<br>
Companion of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Australia">Order of Australia</a>.<br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_St._Gregory_the_Great">Order of St Gregory the Great</a>.
<p><ul><li><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2013/11/25/3890739.htm">The 21st Century is Australia's for the Taking</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/10/abc-television-big-ideas.html#top">Big Ideas</a></i>, ABC Television, 25 November 2013.</li>
<li id="5061778"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/murdoch/5061778">Murdoch</a>, 4 November 2013.<br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Barry">Paul Barry</a> (1952): Author, <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741759785"><i>Breaking News — Sex, Lies & The Murdoch Succession</i></a>, Allan & Unwin, October 2013.<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barry:</i><br>
[By] restructuring his company in response to the phone hacking crisis [Rupert Murdoch] has managed to more than double his wealth from 4 billion to 9 billion dollars. … <br>
<br>
[The <i>News of the World</i>] hacked into people's phones on a industrial scale. …<br>
[And] the information taken from [thousands of] people's voice-mails was used to write stories. …<br>
[There are around] 40 top journalists from the Murdoch organization [who] could find themselves behind bars up to 2 years. <br>
[The] people on <i>The Sun</i> who are being charged [with phone hacking, conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice] are the top level of editorial management of the newspaper …<br>
<br>
It was well known [that phones were being hacked].<br>
[The public] thought it was only politicians and celebrities and football stars and a lot of people didn't really care about that. …<br>
There was a view … that they deserved it.<br>
But when the hacking of Millie Dowler's phone was revealed the whole thing crumbled …<br>
[Suddenly,] the Murdochs had no friends at all and the <i>News of World</i> was closed within a couple of days …<br>
<br>
[In 2006 a] couple of people were arrested [for] hacking into Prince William's phone. …<br>
The story that [News International] put out was that it was just those two guys.<br>
They were operating without any authorization, no-one knew what they were doing, they were, so-called "rogue reporters".<br>
James [Murdoch] came in shortly after that [and] for the next four years presided over a cover-up …<br>
[The] public and the parliament [were repeatedly told:] this was not going on on a grand scale, it was only these two people, we've investigated, we know, we're quite certain, it's absolutely not true to say that anyone else was doing it.<br>
So he's implicated in the cover-up but not in the events themselves. …<br>
<br>
It's a surprise to me that James wasn't … done for contempt of parliament.<br>
[Fairly] early on in the proceedings, one of the hacking victims sued … News International.<br>
They gave him a million pound payoff … and James signed off on that.<br>
So when parliament comes to look at this and … they say:<br>
<blockquote>So, why did you pay this huge amount of money, which is 50 times more than anyone's ever been paid for this before?</blockquote>
And he says:
<blockquote>Well, I was told that this was just the thing to do.</blockquote>
And so they say:
<blockquote>Did you know this?<br>
[Did] you know that.<br>
[Did] you see this document?</blockquote>
And he says:
<blockquote>No, I had no idea.<br>
I had no idea that it was anything to do with this …<br>
… I saw no documents …</blockquote>
[But] as more and more documents were … shown to him over a period of months. …
<blockquote>Oh yes … it does show that I received that document but I didn't look at it.</blockquote>
And then:
<blockquote>Okay, I might have looked at it, but I didn't scroll down the page to get to that bit. …</blockquote>
So, he was either lying, in that he knew about this stuff and wasn't saying, or that he was a complete idiot and it was put in front of his nose and he didn't look at it. …<br>
<br>
[James] had been appointed to Deputy Chief Operating officer, before this scandal broke, of the whole News Corp empire.<br>
[These events have] basically killed his chances [of taking over from Rupert] — for the moment.<br>
But in five [or] ten years time, depending on how long it takes before Rupert hands over, things may change.<br>
[They] could get worse for James, because these trials could bring investigators closer to him — in the sense that directors are held responsible for what happened in their company.<br>
Or alternatively, it could get better for James — the trials produce no convictions … there's no more evidence shown that James was involved and he has time to redeem himself. …<br>
<br>
… James still believes that <i>News</i> can take over [the BSkyB satellite network.]<br>
I would be amazed if that were to happen.<br>
… I think Murdoch's power in Britain is … at an end.<br>
<br>
What this whole scandal revealed was two things:
One was, the way in which the tabloids treated their victims.<br>
The way in which they set out to destroy their victims and had no mercy for them.<br>
And the way in which they used stolen information to do that. …<br>
<br>
The other side of it was the way in which <i>The Sun</i> in particular used its political power to back the party that Rupert wanted to back and what that did for the relationship between politics and the media.<br>
Where politicians felt they had to have the Murdoch media onside, if they were going to get elected. …<br>
<br>
And so what you discovered … was that politicians had had all these meetings that no-one knew about.<br>
Scores and scores and scores of [private meetings] between Rebecca Brooks [and James Murdoch] and David Cameron … and before that with Blair. …<br>
<br>
[Phone hacking was not] happening on a grand scale outside [of] the News of the World.<br>
We haven't seen any allegations that journalists at <i>The Sun</i> were doing this.<br>
We've seen a few from the <i>Daily Mirror</i>, but not very many.<br>
And none from the <i>Daily Mail</i>.<br>
<br>
[The <i>News of the World</i>] employed a private detective to reset people's PIN numbers.<br>
This guy would pose as an employee of the [mobile] phone company, and ring [them] and say:
<blockquote>I'm John from credit control …<br>
I'm just having a look at this account here.<br>
Could you reset the PIN number so I can get into it?</blockquote>
No-one else … was doing anything remotely like that …<br>
<br>
[When I looked into Rupert's family background I was] amazed to discover how rich they were.<br>
And how many servants they had.<br>
How he was chauffeured around in a Rolls Royce most of the time. …<br>
His father was … a very rich [newspaper] proprietor …<br>
They had five properties and this massive house in Melbourne.<br>
And Prime Ministers, and Heads of the Army, and all sorts of dignitaries used to come to dinner there and to parties there.<br>
It was a life of privilege and power. …<br>
<br>
… I'm surprised about his reaction to what his papers do.<br>
I've always thought that he did feel that … sometimes, at least, they might go to far.<br>
But he's been asked about it a couple of times, and he's never really said:
<blockquote>No, we went too far there.<br>
It's wrong, I disapprove of that.</blockquote>
He basically seems to suggest [that] these people are not worthy of decent treatment because they've done what they've done.
<blockquote>If they've ended up in my tabloid newspapers, they deserve to be there.</blockquote>
— seems to be his view. …<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barclay:</i><br>
When he was studying at Oxford, he had a bust of Lenin on his mantelpiece.<br>
And he was a member of the Oxford Labour Club. …<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barry:</i><br>
[Though] he's now a conservative in the more traditional sense of being on the right-wing and … being anti-welfare and stuff like that … he's always been a radical.<br>
He's always been someone who liked to shake things up and believed in change.<br>
He was a backer of Whitlam [in Australia in the 1970s and] of Blair in the 1990s in Britain. …<br>
[He] felt that they had a vision. …<br>
<br>
I've worked for News Limited as well — and enjoyed it.<br>
So I started off this book thinking:
<blockquote>I'm going to surprise everyone here, because I'm going to write a book which is gonna say:
<blockquote>I really quite like Murdoch and he's done a lot of good things!</blockquote>
</blockquote>
And I spoke to a lot of people who worked for him, and they reinforced that.<br>
But then I began to speak to more people who had totally different view.<br>
[But] the more I found about phone hacking … the more I found about the <i>New York Post</i> and the <i>San Antonio Express</i> and all the other papers he's got — that he's done this stuff to — the less I liked him.<br>
And I ended up, not liking him very much at all …<br>
Because, whatever else he is as a person, the stuff that he allows his papers to do … is pretty much indefensible. …<br>
<br>
I talked to a lot of people who had good things to say about him.<br>
He does inspire great loyalty among the people who work for him.<br>
It's a very invigorating company to work for.<br>
It's not bureaucratic.<br>
You can get through to him.<br>
He talks to you.<br>
He treats you like … you're, I don't know about an equal, but he's certainly prepared to talk to you.<br>
And so … people find it very refreshing …<br>
[It's] like a family.<br>
In fact, people use the word family a lot. …<br>
Often they say it's like a mafia family — in all senses — in that they're good to you when you're with them; and they're bloody awful to you when you leave. …<br>
<br>
People who've worked with him for 20 years, and thought they've had some sort of relationship with him, then find that they're sacked, and out the door, and never talked to [or] consulted again.<br>
And they're sort of written off.<br>
He has this great ability to move on.<br>
You can see him moving on from his wives.<br>
But he moves on from his executives as well.<br>
<br>
He's very, very focussed on <i>him</i>.<br>
His prize, his power and the next step in the game.<br>
[It's] a big game to him.<br>
He likes the game. …<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barclay:</i><br>
The turning point for Rupert Murdoch in Australia came when he took over the <i>Herald and Weekly Times</i> Newspaper Group in the late '80s.<br>
This gave him just about the most highly concentrated ownership of newspapers of any country in the world.<br>
Pretty much 70% of every newspaper bought in Australia is owned by Rupert Murdoch. …<br>
Why was was he allowed to take such control of newspapers in Australia? ...<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barry:</i><br>
Labor had an agenda to attack the power of Fairfax press … the <i>Sydney Morning Herald</i> and <i>The Age</i>, who were very unsympathetic to Labor.<br>
They felt Rupert was their man, their mate and would do them a good turn if they did him one. …<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barclay:</i><br>
But this mate, had torn down the last Labor government, the Whitlam government, and had done so in such as fashion … that the respected journalist Paul Kelly quit <i>The Australian</i> newspaper (he's back there working now, by the way) saying the news pages had been turned over to propaganda organs of the paper's editorial line.<br>
So he had form, in terms of turning on a Labor government. …<br>
<br>
… Rupert Murdoch has made a loss on <i>[<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-media-hubs.html#oz">The Australian</a>]</i> pretty much from the very beginning …<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barry:</i><br>
<i>The Times</i>, in London, has lost money every since he took it over …<br>
The <i>New York Post</i> … is again, a loss leader.<br>
So he's got [vanity papers] in all capitals of the world that he's represented in.<br>
Why he does it?<br>
I guess for influence.<br>
Maybe he thinks it's performing a public service as well, but certainly it gives him influence.<br>
<br>
<span id="fingerprints"></span>It's not a question of it being Murdoch.<br>
It's a real problem if any one proprietor, particularly an interventionist proprietor, has two thirds of the papers in the country, however many other sources of information there are …<br>
Papers are very influential — news, radio and TV feed off them. …<br>
<br>
[If] you talk to any of his editors who have worked for they would get the weekly call, or sometimes the daily call, from Rupert who would say:
<blockquote>What have you got on the front page today?</blockquote>
Or
<blockquote>I saw you had this on the front page — its rubbish, take it off!</blockquote>
[He] is interventionist.<br>
A couple of editors [said that when they] wake up in the morning and their first thought is …
<blockquote>What would Rupert like me to do today?</blockquote>
In an organization that is so focussed on one person … which is a family business in the sense that everyone thinks that they are working for him that's who they want to please.<br>
That's how they get on in the company.<br>
And that's why they try and anticipate what they would like him to do.<br>
It's not really a good career move to ignore what he thinks …<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barclay:</i><br>
It's the TV and movie business that makes Rupert his money.<br>
Twentieth Century Fox, Fox TV, Cable, Sky TV [make] 90% of [News Corp's] profit. …<br>
<br>
<i>Paul Barry:</i><br>
That's partly why the [$80 billion] empire has been <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/11/australian-broadcasting-commission.html#4098994">split</a> in two; because, shareholders and some of the executives … were fed up with the profitable parts of the group subsidizing … Rupert's love of going out and buying yet another [loss leading] newspaper. …<br>
Buying the <i>Wall Street Journal</i>, for example, they paid $5.6 billion and wrote off $2.8 billion within two years — so they lost half their money within 2 years.<br>
And that was basically Rupert's decision to buy that.<br>
So there's a great relief among shareholders that the papers have been hived off and now will have to fend for themselves.<br>
It's one of the reasons why the empire is worth a lot more than it was [2-3] years ago.</li>
<br>
<li><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/the-brooks-hacking-scandal3a-murdoch27s-tragedy/5063180">Phone Hacking: Murdoch's Tragedy</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/radio-national-sunday-extra.html#top">Sunday Extra</a></i>, ABC Radio National, 3 November 2013.<br>
David Folkenflik: <i>Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires</i>, Media Correspondent, National Public Radio.</li>
<li id="1383224400"><a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/november/1383224400/robert-manne/why-rupert-murdoch-can-t-be-stopped">Why Rupert Murdoch Can't Be Stopped</a>, November 2013.<br>
<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/06/robert-manne.html#top">Robert Manne</a> (1947).
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Neil">Andrew Neil</a> [Former Editor,</i> The Sunday Times<i>]:</i><br>
Rupert has an uncanny knack of being there even when he is not.<br>
When I did not hear from him and knew his attention was elsewhere, he was still uppermost in my mind. …<br>
(<i>Full Disclosure</i>, Pan Books, 19 September 1997)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931):</i><br>
[Julia] Gillard once good education minister, now prisoner of minority [government] & Greenies.<br>
[Kevin] Rudd still delusional who nobody could work with. …<br>
(5 February 2012)<br>
<br>
Australia itself makes no carbon problem.<br>
China does, but what can we do other than meaningless gestures costly to every home?<br>
(17 May 2013)<br>
<br>
Conviction politicians hard to find anywhere.<br>
Australia’s <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/12/tony-abbott.html#top">Tony Abbott</a> a rare exception. …<br>
(19 August 2013)<br>
<br>
Aust election public sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of economy.<br>
(7 September 2013)<br>
<br>
Great first day by PM Abbott firing top bureaucrats, merging departments and killing carbon tax.<br>
(19 September 2013)</blockquote>
<br>
In 1981, Murdoch [took] control of the London <i>Times</i> and <i>Sunday Times</i> [in] the collusion [with] Margaret Thatcher.<br>
His bid had been spared reference to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission on the condition that he respected the newspapers’ editorial independence.<br>
Almost immediately, the condition was flagrantly breached and Murdoch threatened with a term in prison.<br>
Even more importantly, by this time it was clear that Murdoch was using his papers as standard-bearers for the Thatcher–Reagan radical-conservative revolutions that were undermining social democratic parties and progressive politics throughout the English-speaking world. …<br>
<br>
Over the past 40 years he has built two remarkable parallel empires,
<ul><li>one expanding his media interests,</li>
<li>the other advancing his quest for political power. …</li></ul>
Murdoch’s media empire now spans the globe, but his shadow political empire hardly extends beyond the United Kingdom, the US and Australia. …<br>
<br>
Murdoch’s political influence in the UK has … been chiefly exercised through <i>The Sun</i>.<br>
[Margaret Thatcher] described the support <i>The Sun</i> had given her government as “marvellous”.<br>
More crucially, in 1992 <i>The Sun</i> helped destroy Neil Kinnock’s Labour Opposition, which once had a commanding lead in the polls. …<br>
To Kinnock’s disgust, the party’s new leader, Tony Blair, conducted a long flirtation with Murdoch, symbolised by Blair’s round-the-world journey to meet Murdoch and his News Corp staff on Hayman Island, and confirmed by his promise to weaken Britain’s cross-media ownership laws.<br>
The reward for Labour was the vicious campaign <i>The Sun</i> waged in 1997 against the Conservative prime minister, John Major, who had held Murdoch at arms’ length and sought to restrict his movement into terrestrial television. …<br>
<br>
In 2009, News Corp decided to switch to David Cameron and the Conservatives.<br>
Cameron had already paid homage on Murdoch’s yacht moored by the Greek island Santorini.<br>
News proclaimed its turn against Labour on the day Gordon Brown addressed his party conference.<br>
In this case the influence of <i>The Sun</i> was used nakedly to advance News Corp’s commercial interests — their controversial proposed $12 billion bid for total control of BSkyB, whose announcement was delayed until the Conservative-led government was elected. …<br>
<br>
<i>Fox News</i> was a vital supporter of <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/07/george-w-bush.html#top">George W Bush’s</a> presidency and the most important cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq.<br>
It was the arbiter of the fate of the Republican contenders for the presidential nomination in both 2008 and 2012.<br>
And it was in attendance at the birth of the Tea Party movement which, in its insane permanent war against the presidency of Barack Obama, is currently tearing Congress and American society apart. …
<blockquote><i>David Frum [Former Speech Writer to George W Bush]: </i><br>
Republicans originally thought that <i>Fox</i> worked for us.<br>
Now we’re discovering that we work for <i>Fox</i>.</blockquote>
<br>
[What] News Corp has done in Australia is to [effectively, forge its national broadsheet, <i>The Australian</i>, and] its five state-based tabloids — the Sydney <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, the Melbourne <i>Herald Sun</i>, the Brisbane <i>Courier-Mail</i>, the Adelaide <i>Advertiser</i> and the Hobart <i>Mercury</i> — into a single political [weapon. …]<br>
<br>
Around late 2010 … Rupert Murdoch decided to use his Australian newspapers to destroy the government of Julia Gillard.<br>
[It] was the first such decision with regard to federal Australian politics he had taken since 1975 [when he helped Malcolm Fraser depose Gough Whitlam. …]<br>
<br>
It is … extraordinarily unhealthy for a single corporation to own two thirds of the metropolitan press.<br>
This is the situation in no other Western nation.<br>
[Furthermore, News Corporation] is owned by an ideologue who has a proven track record of political manipulation and who demands that his newspapers across the globe remain committed to his views, as all 173 did … during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. …<br>
News Corp’s domination of the press is a threat to Australia’s democracy.</li>
<br>
<li id="4580216"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/media-reforms-threaten-journalism2c-say-media-bosses/4580216">Media reforms threaten journalism, say media bosses</a>, <i>Drive</i>, ABC Radio National, 13 March 2013.<br>
Wendy Bacon: Contributing editor, <i>New Matilda</i>; Professor, Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.<br>
<br>
And the Advocate … apart from the Diversity Test … has purely the purpose of approving a self-regulatory body. …<br>
<br>
The Australian Press Council has been gradually trying to strengthen it's role.<br>
[The head of the Press Council, Julian Disney] has gone about putting in place … quite a few of the things that are mentioned in the legislation.<br>
For example, [that] there should be independence from the people who are funding the organisation, he's been trying to strengthen that.<br>
He's been trying to open up the membership of it.<br>
He's been trying to strengthen up the power to actually publish adjudications.<br>
All of that is what the Public Interest Advocate would be looking for in an organisation.<br>
So it's … clear that the purpose is to approve the Australian Press Council to go on and do what its currently doing.<br>
<br>
… I can see why Seven West Media are so upset about it …<br>
They are a very big powerful media organisation which has huge sway in Western Australia because they not only control the newspapers but a lot of television — they're also in regional radio.<br>
They walked out of the Press Council and have set up a sort of press council of their own which may not qualify under this test.<br>
For example, for an organisation to quality as a self-regulatory body, it must have some independence from the media organisations themselves … especially in relation to being able to control through funding. …<br>
<br>
It there is no reform at all, this time round …<br>
It could be a very long time before there is any similar opportunity.<br>
[The] Diversity Test will never be applied and we'll probably end up [with an even] more concentrated media.</li>
<br>
<li id="McKnight"><a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781742373522"><i>Rupert Murdoch — An Investigation of Political Power</i></a>, Allen & Unwin, February 2012.<br>
David McKnight: Associate Professor of Journalism, University of NSW.
<blockquote><i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/06/robert-manne.html#top">Robert Manne</a> (1947):</i><br>
As McKnight shows, the psychological key to Murdoch is his capacity to continue to think of himself as an anti-establishment rebel despite his vast wealth and his capacity to make and unmake governments.<br>
Before the Reagan–Thatcher era, the ‘establishment’ Murdoch thought he was unsettling was old class power.<br>
Since that time the establishment he has had in his sights is the ‘new class’ of ‘liberal elites’ and their treasonous anti-Western value system, known as ‘political correctness’.</blockquote>
(p x)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<br>
[In 2005–06] a police investigation led to the jailing of a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, and a <i>News of the World</i> journalist, Clive Goodman.<br>
The case involved the two men illegally hacking the voicemail of members of the royal family with resultant exclusive stories.<br>
Police attempts to deepen the investigation were met with a stone wall from Murdoch’s British operation, News International.<br>
A parliamentary inquiry later concluded that News International was …
<blockquote>deliberately trying to thwart a criminal investigation.</blockquote>
The same committee criticised the ‘lackadaisical attitude’ of a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/bigideas/stories/2012/04/23/3479492.htm">senior police officer</a> who had several meals with top News International figures while the company was under investigation in this period.<br>
(p 2)<br>
<br>
Two months after he left the police force, this police officer took a job with News International writing a column for the <i>Times</i>.<br>
Later still, a former deputy editor of <i>News of the World</i> was employed as a media strategist to senior police. …<br>
<br>
[When Labour MP Tom Watson] called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to resign, he angered top Murdoch executive Rebekah Brooks so much that he was told she would never forgive him for doing what he did to ‘her Tony’.<br>
Watson later found out that <i>News of the World</i> had hired a private investigator to follow him.<br>
Another Labour MP on a committee examining the phone hacking was threatened by News International with exposures about his private life.
<br>
(p 3)<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i>David Montgomery [former Murdoch Editor]:</i><br>
Rupert has contempt for the rules.<br>
Contempt even for governments.</blockquote>
For three decades this contempt for governments has been expressed as a zealous devotion to an ideology of free markets and small government.<br>
(p 4)<br>
<br>
… Rupert Murdoch’s self image is one of a rebel, an outsider and an enemy of those he calls ‘the elites’.<br>
These political beliefs are built around the conceit that he represents ordinary men and women, while his opponents form a powerful establishment.<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4>A Web of Political Influence</h4>
<br>
[In 2007] Andy Coulson was appointed as media adviser for the opposition Conservative Party and its leader.<br>
Some criticised the appointment because Coulson had edited <i>News of the World</i> when the first hacking occurred [in 2005-6].<br>
[David] Cameron was keen to win the support of Rupert Murdoch, who had been critical of him. …<br>
Through Coulson, Cameron cultivated Murdoch’s support.<br>
In 2008 he delayed his holiday and accepted free flights to hold talks with Murdoch on his luxury yacht moored off a Greek island.<br>
Cameron’s stocks rose and, in September 2009, Murdoch decided to back the Conservatives at the coming British election with a <i>Sun</i> front page exclaiming ‘LABOUR’S LOST IT’.<br>
(p 5)<br>
<br>
When the Conservatives formed government after the May 2010 election one of the first visitors to Downing Street was Rupert Murdoch, who later told the parliamentary inquiry that he entered by the back door at Cameron’s request.<br>
A month later, Rebekah Brooks was invited to the Prime Minister’s country residence of Chequers.<br>
Just before Christmas 2010, Cameron attended a dinner at Brooks’ home where he met James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn.<br>
A picnic followed on Christmas Eve.<br>
<br>
At this very time his government was deciding whether to allow Murdoch’s bid to buy all shares in BSkyB. …<br>
Of his 74 meetings with the news media, one-third (26) were with News International, he stated.<br>
On average, a member of his cabinet met an executive from Murdoch’s newspapers or businesses once every three days over the fifteen month period of his government.<br>
<br>
These intimate political links continued until the crisis engulfed the Murdochs in mid–2011.<br>
Just 24 hours before news broke of the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone, an elite group of media, business and political figures attended a party held by Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth and her husband, PR king Matthew Freud.<br>
James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks mixed with the crowd that included top figures in the Cameron government and Labour opposition.<br>
A similar group of politicians had attended the annual News International reception at the Orangery in the exclusive London suburb of Kensington a few weeks earlier.<br>
On the day that <i>News of the World</i> was closed, David Cameron was throwing open the doors of 10 Downing Street for the <i>Sun</i>-sponsored police bravery awards.<br>
On the eve of the parliamentary inquiry at which Rupert Murdoch was questioned, its chairman revealed that he was an old friend of Les Hinton, a top Murdoch executive and a life-long friend.<br>
(p 6)<br>
<br>
Such intimate connections [had also] existed with the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.<br>
… Labour designed media regulation laws specifically to suit Murdoch.<br>
<br>
For many years under both Labour and Conservative governments Murdoch and his executives had access to the cabinet, they intervened on policy matters, took sides in internal fights within government, and were part of the social circle of MPs, top officials, lobbyists and businesspeople.<br>
They were intimately entwined in the processes of government including having close relationships with police.<br>
They were able to do this because they controlled a significant group of newspapers which influenced public opinion and the national political debate.<br>
(p 7)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4>Murdoch and Australia</h4>
<br>
Murdoch’s Australian newspapers did not accept the results of the 2010 election, which saw a reduced Labor Party forced to seek the support of a number of independents and a Greens MP.<br>
While negotiations were in play, these newspapers urged the independents to support a Liberal-led government.<br>
(p 8)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4>The Best Known Australian in the World</h4>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> (1931):</i><br>
I’m an American citizen and … consider myself an American. …<br>
(p 12)</blockquote>
From the 1990s he was the key financial backer of American <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/11/blue-army-theory-and-doctrine.html#counterenlightenment">neo-conservatives</a> for whom an attack on Iraq had long been a goal.<br>
His support took the form of creating and subsidising the neo-conservatives’ magazine the <i>Weekly Standard</i>, articles from which regularly began to appear in his Australian newspapers. …<br>
In the mass circulation <i>Herald Sun</i>, columnist <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/andrew-bolt.html">Andrew Bolt</a> echoed themes from the American Right, presenting the case for war in terms of defending Western values and promoting freedom.<br>
Critics (‘pampered bigots’) were guilty of a new kind of racism, called anti-Americanism, he said, and they actually supported terrorism.<br>
Twice he claimed that Saddam Hussein would soon have a nuclear bomb. …<br>
<br>
[Murdoch is not, however, unreservedly] ‘pro-American’.<br>
He is not a supporter of the America that gave birth to the civil rights movement and the first strong environmental laws. …<br>
<br>
Murdoch is a supporter of a very particular part of America: its wealthiest and most conservative forces, whose values and voices dominate his news media.<br>
(p 13)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4>Murdoch’s Warning</h4>
<br>
[In his 2013 Boyer Lecture Series, <i>A Golden Age of Freedom</i>,] he issued a stern warning to Australia.<br>
The nation would be in trouble unless it introduced his favoured political agenda of free markets, low tax, closer links to the United States and an end to the welfare state.<br>
He criticised ‘apocalyptic visions of climate change’ and urged that the government should not ‘punish the Australian economy by imposing standards that the rest of the world will never meet’.<br>
He attacked public education and argued that education be guided by free market principles of competition and choice.<br>
He placed great faith in technological change to solve climate and energy problems and predicted that a ‘golden age of humankind’ was ‘just around the corner’.<br>
<br>
It would be wrong … to denigrate and dismiss Rupert Murdoch.<br>
The ideas he expresses are among the most influential in the world and have formed part of the conservative revolution in thinking over the last 30 years.<br>
They are shared by many powerful people and have already transformed the economic and social institutions of many nations.<br>
Murdoch … is genuinely a product of Australia and the Australian ethos.<br>
(p 20)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-guardian.html#orwell">Would you like to know more?</a></i></li>
<br>
<li id="3192214"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/a-golden-age-of-freedom/3192214">A Golden Age of Freedom</a>, <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/brooks-geraldine.html#top"><i>Boyer Lectures</i></a>, ABC Radio National.<br>
(Bill McGurn: Former Speechwriter for George W Bush.)
<ul><li><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/lecture-3-the-future-of-newspapers-moving-beyond/3192452">The future of newspapers: moving beyond dead trees</a>, 16 November 2011.<br>
<br>
For all of my working life, I have believed that there is a social and commercial value in delivering accurate news and information in a cheap and timely way. …<br>
<br>
When I was growing up, this was the key lesson my father impressed on me.<br>
If you were an owner, the best thing you could do was to hire editors who looked out for your readers' interests — and give these readers good honest reporting on issues that mattered most to them.<br>
In return, you would be rewarded with trust and loyalty you could take to the bank. …<br>
<br>
The [<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/blue-army-media-hubs.html#wsj">Wall Street Journal</a></i> is] the only US newspaper that makes real money online.<br>
One reason for this is a growing global demand for … accurate news.<br>
Integrity is not just a characteristic of our company, it is a selling point. …</li></ul>
<br>
<li><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/lists/whos-to-blame-12-politicians-and-execs-blocking-progress-on-global-warming-20110119/rupert-murdochceo-news-corporation-19691231">Who's to Blame — 12 Politicians and Execs Blocking Progress on Global Warming</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/network-hubs-green-army.html#RollingStone">Rolling Stone</a></i>, 19 January 2011.</li></ul></p>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-39272959978152999362020-10-03T01:04:00.032+10:002022-09-01T23:46:43.149+10:00An Unnecessary War<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/live-long-and-prosper-peace.html#contents">Live Long and Prosper: Ministry of Peace</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">As we act, let us not become the evil who we deplore.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_D._Baxter">Nathan Baxter</a> (1948), Eulogy for the Victims of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, 14 September 2001.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">Preventative war is a crime not easily committed by a country that retains any traces of democracy.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell</a> (1903 – 50), 1947.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">And yet I doubt, if there be a more reprehensible human act than to lead a nation into an unnecessary war …</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cobden">Richard Cobden</a> (1804 – 65), 8 August 1855.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">The advantages of successful war are doubtful, but the disadvantages of unsuccessful war are certain.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/russell-bertrand.html#top">Bertrand Russell</a> (1872 – 1970), </i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/power.html#top">Power</a><i>, 1938.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">The policy of my government … is regime change. …<br>
<br>
A liberated Iraq could show the power of freedom to transform the Middle East, by bringing hope and progress to the lives of millions. …<br>
<br>
The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush">George W Bush</a> (1946)</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">If we have to use force, it is because we are America.<br>
We are the indispensable nation.<br>
We stand tall and … see further than other countries …</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright">Madeleine Albright</a> (1937), US Secretary of State, 1998.</i></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibUYavY8vIKk3t35vF3QxIOoz7js16HzBPPHpYr7b0vHy69rR8xnwUa9J-jP9h6n31TEcLR2xHq9Volzmdbu4Zgi_p3QD9gn2HxdDcLdnu7vfSrpv16a0t_8CK0yJDkarxiRr1lTq2pjVu/s1600/%5BTBox%5D+Taxi+to+the+Dark+Side+++2007.avi_snapshot_00.25.01_%5B2013.09.24_21.53.54%5D.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibUYavY8vIKk3t35vF3QxIOoz7js16HzBPPHpYr7b0vHy69rR8xnwUa9J-jP9h6n31TEcLR2xHq9Volzmdbu4Zgi_p3QD9gn2HxdDcLdnu7vfSrpv16a0t_8CK0yJDkarxiRr1lTq2pjVu/s640/%5BTBox%5D+Taxi+to+the+Dark+Side+++2007.avi_snapshot_00.25.01_%5B2013.09.24_21.53.54%5D.jpg"></a>
(Alex Gibney, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0854678/">Taxi to the Dark Side</a></i>, 2007)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_of_2001">Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001</a>:</i><br>
[The] President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those … he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 … in order to <i>prevent</i> any future acts of international terrorism against the United States …<br>
(107th United States Congress, 18 September 2001)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Lee">Barbara Lee</a> (1946) [Member of the US House of Representatives from California]:</i><br>
[The AUMF has] been used 41 times in about 19 countries not related at all to 9/11. …<br>
That is unconstitutional.<br>
It sets the stage for perpetual war. …<br>
It's also been used for domestic spying in the United States.<br>
(<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15268588">Graveyard of Empires</a>, <i>Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror</i>, Episode 5, 2021)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbEYhCr78GU0P5zjec2oljvBQMBwKcYntM-5XQ2XyeMhwmQjDKCmpd92ov36IGIIRIs_QlXvGOyfqpYBs9x8C7b5NvpU5CkgyWwYdMymhNhzs7_psk_PQDcd45349ADvfpJkAXvPLKqkrY/s0/image539487.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="619" width="640" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbEYhCr78GU0P5zjec2oljvBQMBwKcYntM-5XQ2XyeMhwmQjDKCmpd92ov36IGIIRIs_QlXvGOyfqpYBs9x8C7b5NvpU5CkgyWwYdMymhNhzs7_psk_PQDcd45349ADvfpJkAXvPLKqkrY/s0/image539487.jpg"/></a></div>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell">Colin_Powell</a> (1937 – 2021) [US Secretary of State, 2001–5]:</i><br>
My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources.<br>
These are not assertions.<br>
What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.<br>
(<a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2003/17300.htm">Remarks to the United Nations Security Council</a>, 5 February 2003)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><table id="directwardeaths" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="width: 480px" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><h3><a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2019/direct-war-death-toll-2001-801000">War on Terror: Direct* Civilian War Deaths</a> (2019)</h3>
<i>(Neta Crawford & Catherine Lutz)</i></td></tr>
<tr><td width="50%">Iraq</td><td align="right">184,382-207,156</td></tr>
<tr><td>Syria/ISIS</td><td align="right">49,591</td></tr>
<tr><td>Afghanistan</td><td align="right">43,074</td></tr>
<tr><td>Pakistan</td><td align="right">23,924</td></tr>
<tr><td>Yemen</td><td align="right">12,000</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Total</b></td><td align="right">312,971-335,745</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">*Several times as many have been killed <i>indirectly</i> as a result of … water loss, sewage and other infrastructural issues, and war-related disease.</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><i id="4737082">Kevin Power [Iraq War Veteran]:</i><br>
The thing that is … most troubling to me [is that, the invasion of Iraq] doesn't seem to have been necessary. …<br>
If I had to go through all that.<br>
The people I was with, had to experience, what they experienced.<br>
All the lives that were lost.<br>
All the damage that was done:
<ul><li>to the country,</li>
<li>to the local people</li></ul>
I wish that it had been necessary.<br>
And I just can't find a way to accept the fact that it was.<br>
I just don't think it was necessary.<br>
It doesn't seem like we needed to be there.<br>
(<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/yellow-birds/4737082">The Yellow Birds</a>, <i>ABC Big Ideas</i>, 6 June 2013)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Fukuyama">Francis Fukuyama</a> (1952):</i><br>
It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/07/george-w-bush.html#top">George W Bush</a>.<br>
It was bad enough that he launched an <i>unnecessary</i> war and undermined the standing of the United States throughout the world in his first term.<br>
But in the waning days of his administration, he is presiding over a collapse of the American financial system and broader economy that will have consequences for years to come.<br>
(<a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-right-choice-2/#fukuyama">The Right Choice?</a>, <i>The American Conservative</i>, 3 November 2008)</blockquote>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOHwKT3Ox1McqruC3BiRK09NLMEly1OnBytVVpkALo5HHxioUVi68Oh5H-r86-XXxD-9r6nGlpD4zF3DeVmKKbwqhrfIEWqZxvHFC2A-MozeF-sUHwW2HOfYiVdI210iVG9UPmrJNi9POr7jkAIQIlqIw_bFiXsHALsjNUt22-k2qw2jj8QUXUtdNSFQ=s985" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" width="640" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="985" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOHwKT3Ox1McqruC3BiRK09NLMEly1OnBytVVpkALo5HHxioUVi68Oh5H-r86-XXxD-9r6nGlpD4zF3DeVmKKbwqhrfIEWqZxvHFC2A-MozeF-sUHwW2HOfYiVdI210iVG9UPmrJNi9POr7jkAIQIlqIw_bFiXsHALsjNUt22-k2qw2jj8QUXUtdNSFQ=s640"/></a>
(National Insecurity, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13950332/episodes?season=1">While the Rest of Us Die: Secrets of America's Shadow Government</a></i>, Episode 4, Season 1, Vice, 2020)<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBgXO0cto2dzIzVNkzVZIlX5N9kdUm6mDk3t2thWquLUhhoJ0fzD4zn5ai2APZlVwO34QVNgxy0t9dP89UmcUwxfdVZzo2GOVmuFZS0smgbaqsQdE5Mw76QFXNEbiF5BLzLBGBqBCHwUjF/s0/beyondthetowers205.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBgXO0cto2dzIzVNkzVZIlX5N9kdUm6mDk3t2thWquLUhhoJ0fzD4zn5ai2APZlVwO34QVNgxy0t9dP89UmcUwxfdVZzo2GOVmuFZS0smgbaqsQdE5Mw76QFXNEbiF5BLzLBGBqBCHwUjF/s640/beyondthetowers205.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhICCJdh2a0x5dP-m2SHlmcigU77y51oqLHc1NY_ajt5U9N-5-jc8JwEnzzuj-knHPuBg4104UkvK9sTH_RbEG1h7utzX3SCXC34ZEMUoNXcy8hholSJffVAhUS7RcJ8CT9N7kfIFbJQBK8/s0/beyondthetowers103.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="796" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhICCJdh2a0x5dP-m2SHlmcigU77y51oqLHc1NY_ajt5U9N-5-jc8JwEnzzuj-knHPuBg4104UkvK9sTH_RbEG1h7utzX3SCXC34ZEMUoNXcy8hholSJffVAhUS7RcJ8CT9N7kfIFbJQBK8/s640/beyondthetowers103.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFUiaDNtviSYySH-Mirc1C7CYOBiOmW-zA6Z7g3mmEAyJPcukRMYhctBoam7fhd2MN9xLNa8XGlths0OGRHPg3vrbjYOaFxLhVYb0JZzNVUWaEFLiIgK3pVw7VCyOawk2nRaK6H-Knh2ZC/s0/beyondthetowers303.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="748" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFUiaDNtviSYySH-Mirc1C7CYOBiOmW-zA6Z7g3mmEAyJPcukRMYhctBoam7fhd2MN9xLNa8XGlths0OGRHPg3vrbjYOaFxLhVYb0JZzNVUWaEFLiIgK3pVw7VCyOawk2nRaK6H-Knh2ZC/s640/beyondthetowers303.PNG"/></a>
(Greg Wilesmith, <i>ABC Beyond The Towers</i>, 2021)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Suskind">Ron Suskind</a> (1959) [Journalist]:</i><br>
Afghanistan's not big enough.<br>
It’s not proportional.<br>
It needs to be bigger.<br>
The towers are burning, the Pentagon’s burning.<br>
They attacked the United States, the response has to be proportional to what occurred to us. …<br>
<br>
Cheney says [that] if there’s a 1 percent chance that terrorists have gotten their hands on weapons of mass destruction, we need to treat it as a certainty.</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/03/live-long-and-prosper-peace.html#iraq" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHet01Czx7udlQONsiKhg0VZg9EH9G1FYhlbJHF9Nx-Ivj6H27sBY0JB-8aoXZi4ITm0flo-r7SDU7Fx923g9myV_wL4056A3tqXNSV73JZyzohJmySymx1eHunODi_lHfvEkLP4zNLslS/s640/directwardeaths.JPG"></a></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney">Richard Cheney</a> (1941):</i><br>
My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.<br>
The read we get on the people of Iraq is [that] they want to get rid of Saddam Hussein, and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that.<br>
(Barak Goodman, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/george-w-bush/#transcript">George W Bush</a>, <i>PBS American Experience</i>, WGBH, 2020)<br>
<a name='more'></a><br>
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.<br>
There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use them
<ul><li>against our friends,</li>
<li>against our allies, and</li>
<li>against us.</li></ul>
(Greg Wilesmith, Fiasco, <i>ABC Beyond The Towers</i>, Episode 2, 2021)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld">Donald Rumsfeld</a> (1932):</i><br>
We <i>know</i> they have weapons of mass destruction.<br>
We <i>know</i> they have active weapons programs.<br>
There isn't any debate about it.<br>
(Errol Morris, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2390962">The Unknown Known</a></i>, 2013)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMn-OKu21-nHAJ6w93Ajr5GjOkEjLNgKEwlb-PRXnUKgLliVgVkB3a1zBXQMUsFPdfmqmTDDLs0eVdPHw60wu1bmmKkdjgnAPNMLFpw_cPEpRWj9JNoKkiVPEa6PDpPN0SI8ObnFeRyvwY/s1600/gwb203.PNG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMn-OKu21-nHAJ6w93Ajr5GjOkEjLNgKEwlb-PRXnUKgLliVgVkB3a1zBXQMUsFPdfmqmTDDLs0eVdPHw60wu1bmmKkdjgnAPNMLFpw_cPEpRWj9JNoKkiVPEa6PDpPN0SI8ObnFeRyvwY/s640/gwb203.PNG" data-original-width="780" data-original-height="459" /></a></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Bartlett">Daniel Bartlett</a> (1971) [Communications Director]:</i><br>
We were all … continually stunned when week after week goes by and we haven’t found weapons of mass destruction.<br>
It … felt like it was humanly <i>impossible</i> for us not to find anything. …<br>
<br>
<i>Barak Goodman & Chris Durrance:</i><br>
[In] January 2004 … <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kay">David Kay</a> told Bush the intelligence reports had been wrong.<br>
There were no WMD.<br>
(Barak Goodman, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/george-w-bush/#transcript">George W Bush</a>, <i>PBS American Experience</i>, WGBH, 2020)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks#Casualties">11 September 2001</a>:</i><br>
2,996 killed (2,922 civilians, 55 military personnel and 19 hijackers) and 6,000+ wounded.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="#308569">US Gun Related Casualties in 2010</a>:</i><br>
105,177 (31,672 killed, 73,505 wounded) — 3,000+ deaths every 5 weeks.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor">7 December 1941</a>:</i><br>
US killed/wounded — 2,335/1,143 military, 68/35 civilian; Japanese killed — 64.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.census.gov/popclock/">Population of the United States</a>: 313,933,954.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Afghan_War">Soviet–Afghan War</a> (1979-89):</i><br>
Soviet fatalities: 14,453.<br>
Mujahideen fatalities: 75,000–90,000.<br>
Civilian (Afghan) fatalities: 562,000–2,000,000.<br>
(<i>Wikipedia</i>, 15 October 2018)<br>
<br>
<a href="http://cosit.gov.iq/english/AAS2012/section_2/1.htm">Population of Afghanistan</a>: 31,108,077.<br>
<br>
For the period from 1994 to 2003 … the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian-Chechen_Friendship_Society">Russian-Chechen Friendship Society</a> set the conservative estimate of death toll … at about 150,000 [to] 200,000 civilians, 20,000 to 40,000 Russian soldiers, and possibly the same amount of Chechen rebels.<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Second_Chechen_War#Independent_estimates">Wikipedia</a></i>, 18 December 2011)<br>
<br>
<i>Would you like to know more?</i>
<p><ul><li><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/06/george-w-bush-american-unilateralism.html#8">George W Bush</a></li>
<li><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/george-w-bush-world-1.html#7">Afghanistan</a></li></ul></p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<h3 id="PNAC"><a href="http://www.newamericancentury.org/aboutpnac.htm">Project for the New American Century</a></h3>
<br>
American foreign and defense policy is adrift. …<br>
We aim to change this [by rallying] support for American global leadership …<br>
<br>
As the 20th century draws to a close, the United States stands as the world's preeminent power.<br>
Having led the West to victory in the Cold War {[we] are in danger of squandering the opportunity} to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests …<br>
Cuts in foreign affairs and defense spending, inattention to the tools of statecraft, and inconstant leadership are making it increasingly difficult to sustain American influence around the world.<br>
<br>
We … have forgotten the essential elements of the Reagan Administration's success:
<ul><li>a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges;</li>
<li>a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad; and</li>
<li>national leadership that accepts the United States' global responsibilities.</li></ul>
<br>
Of course, the United States must be prudent in how it exercises its power. …<br>
[Nevertheless, it] has a vital role in maintaining peace and security in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.<br>
The history of the 20th century should have taught us …
<ul><li>to meet threats before they become dire</li>
<li>to shape circumstances before crises emerge [and]</li>
<li>to embrace the cause of American leadership …</li></ul>
<br>
Here are four consequences [of these lessons]:<br>
<br>
<ol><li>[We] need to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2008/2199248.htm">increase defense spending</a> significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future …</li>
<li>[We] need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;</li>
<li>[We] need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad;</li>
<li>[We] need to accept responsibility for America's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism">unique role</a> in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.</li></ol>
<br>
[Military] strength and moral clarity [are what is necessary if we in] the United States [are to] ensure our security and our greatness …
<blockquote>Elliott Abrams<br>
Gary Bauer<br>
William J Bennett<br>
Jeb Bush [Governor of Florida, 1999‒2007]<br>
Dick Cheney [Vice President of the United States, 2001‒2009]<br>
Eliot A Cohen<br>
Midge Decter<br>
Paula Dobriansky<br>
Steve Forbes<br>
Aaron Friedberg<br>
<a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2016/06/francis-fukuyama.html#top">Francis ["End of History"] Fukuyama</a><br>
Frank Gaffney<br>
Fred C Ikle<br>
Donald Kagan<br>
Zalmay Khalilzad<br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair#I._Lewis_.22Scooter.22_Libby">I Lewis ["Scooter"] Libby</a> [Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, Assistant to the President, 2001-2005.]<br>
Norman Podhoretz<br>
Dan Quayle [Vice President of the United States, 1989‒1993]<br>
Peter W Rodman<br>
Stephen P Rosen<br>
Henry S Rowen<br>
Donald Rumsfeld [Secretary of Defense, 1975‒1977 and 2001‒2006]<br>
Vin Weber<br>
George Weigel<br>
Paul Wolfowitz [Deputy Secretary of Defense, 2001‒2005]</blockquote>
(<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130609105632/http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm">Statement of Principles</a>, 3 June 1997)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>Would you like to know more?</i>
<ul><li><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/07/abc-radio-national-late-night-live.html#4763284">The Indispensable Nation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_grenada">Invasion of Grenada</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras">Contras</a></li></ul>
<br>
<h3 id="contents">Contents</h3>
<br>
<a href="#PNAC">Project for the New American Century</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#geneva">Outrages Upon Human Dignity</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#faith">Faith Based Intelligence</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#Rumsfeld">Donald Rumsfeld</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#6506418">Losing the Peace</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#wmd">Margaret Swieringa</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#Kipling">Rudyard Kipling</a><br>
<br>
<a href="#iraq">Civilian Death and Injury in Iraq</a><br>
<ul><a href="#0">Why have we argued so much and so long about the human toll in Iraq?</a></ul>
<ul><a href="#1">Direct War Related Civilian Death</a></ul>
<ul><a href="#2">Wounding</a></ul>
<ul><a href="#3">Media and Humanitarian Worker Deaths</a></ul>
<ul><a href="#4">Indirect Death</a></ul>
<ul><a href="#5">When Soldiers "Snap"</a></ul>
<ul><a href="#6">Case Study: Fallujah</a></ul>
<ul><a href="#7">Counting the Dead</a></ul>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="geneva" align="center">Outrages Upon Human Dignity</h2>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium;">[Justice] is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrasymachus#Quotes_from_Plato.27s_Republic">Thrasymachus</a> (c459 – c400 BCE).</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium;">[Right,] as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides">Thucydides</a> (c460 – c400 BCE), </i><a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html">The History of Peloponnesian War</a><i>, Book V, 89.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium;">[There] is a deep moral difference between democracy and Fascism, but if we go on the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth we simply cause that difference to be forgotten.<br>
Moreover, in the matter of ruthlessness we are unlikely to compete successfully with our enemies.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— George Orwell (1903 – 50), Unpublished Letter to </i>The Times<i>, 12 October 1942.</i></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBCT3vfHILWoGbkcH2lA9B9zlK_BL9ApAZ-ZA487n7-Z4G8wL_Kz2sfYztuMdXHfNRbmOoVn-DCZUaAHBpO5jybcfF7qlQeUeB4CotxF9TYPbYhMhwF-2LYNT-pf5CBI06IRVideM-hdWG/s1600/Dangerous+Edge-+A+Life+Of+Graham+Greene_1500K.mp4_snapshot_51.19_%5B2013.08.22_22.12.57%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBCT3vfHILWoGbkcH2lA9B9zlK_BL9ApAZ-ZA487n7-Z4G8wL_Kz2sfYztuMdXHfNRbmOoVn-DCZUaAHBpO5jybcfF7qlQeUeB4CotxF9TYPbYhMhwF-2LYNT-pf5CBI06IRVideM-hdWG/s640/Dangerous+Edge-+A+Life+Of+Graham+Greene_1500K.mp4_snapshot_51.19_%5B2013.08.22_22.12.57%5D.jpg"></a></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Greene">Graham Greene</a> (1904 – 91):</i><br>
The long, slow slide into barbarism of the Western World seems to have quickened.<br>
[These] photographs are of torturers belonging to [the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Republic_of_Vietnam">Army of the Republic of South Vietnam</a> — an army] that could not exist without the American aid and counsel.<br>
Does this mean that American authorities sanction torture as a means of interrogation?<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush">George W Bush</a> (1946):</i><br>
[The Supreme Court has] said that we must conduct ourselves under the Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.<br>
And that Common Article 3 says that … there will be no outrages upon human dignity.<br>
It's, like, very vague — what does that mean, "outrages upon human dignity"?<br>
(<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/us/16text.html">Excerpt From Bush’s Remarks</a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, 16 September 2006)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhHMNT3x5Zq71lgAGQoAJYpLFGTU5kRARdUEQSNfcHBG5Owt73zd8a5n-lC6n8sqUvrvlKimAfqkL0WdsD2EkLAFF5jxGPBgQveIoha36z9UigSHPAtHOrTkIlVWjJXNcFwvhUyuENmdq1/s1600/%5BTBox%5D+Taxi+to+the+Dark+Side+++2007.avi_snapshot_00.38.52_%5B2013.09.27_02.37.16%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhHMNT3x5Zq71lgAGQoAJYpLFGTU5kRARdUEQSNfcHBG5Owt73zd8a5n-lC6n8sqUvrvlKimAfqkL0WdsD2EkLAFF5jxGPBgQveIoha36z9UigSHPAtHOrTkIlVWjJXNcFwvhUyuENmdq1/s640/%5BTBox%5D+Taxi+to+the+Dark+Side+++2007.avi_snapshot_00.38.52_%5B2013.09.27_02.37.16%5D.jpg"></a></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush">George W Bush</a> (1946):</i><br>
Of course, our values as a nation, values that we share with many nations in the world, call for us to treat detainees humanely, including those who are not legally entitled to such treatment. …<br>
As a matter of policy, the United States Armed Forces shall continue to treat detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with <i>military necessity</i>, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva.<br>
(<a href="http://www.pegc.us/archive/White_House/bush_memo_20020207_ed.pdf">Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees</a>, 7 February 2002, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=BAA341028EBFF1E8C12563CD00519E66">Common Article 3</a>:</i><br>
Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms … shall in <i>all circumstances</i> be treated humanely …<br>
To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever …
<ul><li>violence to life and person, in particular … cruel treatment and torture …</li>
<li>outrages upon dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment …</li></ul>
(Conflicts not of an international character, <i>Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field</i>, Geneva, 12 August 1949, emphasis added)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDu6nVRRWLK1GGfvuhiwDYti8rBN7xArTHP0LzkxhPKwUWvYRTJJjw_e_D9eGrRREetSReP1kar8yV-LWD2ZNwiUY5sj3-WisXs-w6KnCUjKixxtlIYfC_oK7hnmDYEyPfv12yGxK58ZS3EsltYjsm7DI1fF5w-e7t6pih-sU0SbktztGog_PDNB24Q/s1600/whywehate404+.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="1358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDu6nVRRWLK1GGfvuhiwDYti8rBN7xArTHP0LzkxhPKwUWvYRTJJjw_e_D9eGrRREetSReP1kar8yV-LWD2ZNwiUY5sj3-WisXs-w6KnCUjKixxtlIYfC_oK7hnmDYEyPfv12yGxK58ZS3EsltYjsm7DI1fF5w-e7t6pih-sU0SbktztGog_PDNB24Q/s640/whywehate404+.png"/></a>
(The White House, Washington, 7 February 2002)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBCgfVgAodI9XCqz9IJgcI6lapOkZBja-dmuQazI0sBAU48nb8w01Ftw2hXKq781KJ20S74oukn5oSu05rO1RF4eMkN1KZjuhWexCofwdTb7FRSCxAlROtvJF6lBbxXk_KYDlkRQRRc1HR/s1600/%255BTBox%255D+Taxi+to+the+Dark+Side+++2007.avi_snapshot_00.25.15_%255B2013.09.28_18.36.01%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBCgfVgAodI9XCqz9IJgcI6lapOkZBja-dmuQazI0sBAU48nb8w01Ftw2hXKq781KJ20S74oukn5oSu05rO1RF4eMkN1KZjuhWexCofwdTb7FRSCxAlROtvJF6lBbxXk_KYDlkRQRRc1HR/s640/%255BTBox%255D+Taxi+to+the+Dark+Side+++2007.avi_snapshot_00.25.15_%255B2013.09.28_18.36.01%255D.jpg"></a></div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney">Dick Cheney</a> (1941) [<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/25/AR2005102501388.html">Vice President for Torture</a>, 2001-9]:</i><br>
We’ll have to work sort of the dark side, if you will.<br>
We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world.<br>
A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies — if we are going to be successful.<br>
That's the world these folks operate in, and so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective.<br>
(pp 9-10)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende">Salvador Allende</a> (1908 – 73) [30th President of Chile, 1970-73]:</i><br>
We find ourselves opposed by forces that operate in the shadows without a flag, with powerful weapons, from positions of great influence.<br>
(UN General Assembly, December 1972)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell">Colin Powell</a> (1937) [Secretary of State, 2001-5]:</i><br>
[George W Bush] has these cowboy characteristics, and when you know where to rub him, you can really get him to do some dumb things.<br>
You have to play on those swaggering bits of his self-image.<br>
Cheney knew <i>exactly</i> how to push all his buttons.<br>
(p 125, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo">John Yoo</a> (1967) [Author of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_Memos">Torture Memos</a>, Office of Legal Counsel, US Justice Department]:</i><br>
[Congress does not have the power to] tie the president’s hands in regard to torture as an interrogation technique.<br>
It’s the core of the commander in chief function.<br>
They can’t prevent the president from ordering torture.<br>
[The only way to block a president from torturing is to impeach him.]<br>
(Jane Mayer, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_(book)">The Dark Side</a></i>, Scribe, 2008, p 153)<br>
<br>
<i>Barak Goodman & Chris Durrance:</i><br>
To justify "working the dark side" without congressional approval, Cheney relied on a theory of executive power that placed the President beyond the oversight of Congress. …<br>
Cheney urged Bush to suspend the Geneva Conventions for captured fighters in Afghanistan, so that an array of more extreme interrogation techniques, including harsh physical punishment, could be used against them.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Priest">Dana Priest</a> (1957) [Journalist]:</i><br>
The tactics included everything from slapping somebody in the face, pushing them up against a wall, denying them food, denying them liquids, putting someone in a confined space for a long period of time, rectal feeding, continuous sleep deprivation, and … waterboarding — where you simulate drowning somebody.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Wilkerson">Lawrence Wilkerson</a> (1945) [Chief of Staff to Colin Powell]:</i><br>
The President said, "torture people".<br>
That’s the message that went down from the highest power in America.<br>
That’s [how it was] interpreted in the field.<br>
(Barak Goodman, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/george-w-bush/#transcript">George W Bush</a>, <i>PBS American Experience</i>, WGBH, 2020)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington">George Washington</a> (1732 – 99):</i><br>
[We must treat war prisoners] with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of us copying the brutal manner of the British Army …<br>
While we are contending for our own liberty we should be very cautious of violating the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only in this case, are they answerable.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Mayer">Jane Mayer</a> (1955):</i><br>
[During] the Revolutionary War, George Washington and the Continental Army were regarded by the British as treasonous, "illegal combatants" undeserving of the protections of legitimate soldiers, the same category into which the Bush Administration was casting terror suspects.<br>
As a result, the British freely brutalized and killed American prisoners of war …<br>
[By] contrast, Washington ordered American troops to take a higher road, in keeping with the ideals of the new republic. …<br>
[Such] superior treatment of enemy captives by American soldiers bolstered their morale and fomented desertion among the British and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_(soldier)">Hessian</a> soldiers.<br>
(p 84)<br>
<br>
[When George W Bush] decided to nullify the Geneva Conventions on January 8, 2002 … America became the first nation ever to [sanction] violations of the Geneva Conventions.<br>
(pp 9 & 123)<br>
<br>
[In September 2002 military interrogators] held a series of brainstorming meetings in Guantánamo about how to crack through the resistance of detainees …<br>
One source of ideas was the popular television show <i>24</i>.<br>
The fictional drama was written by a Hollywood conservative who had no military or intelligence expertise whatsoever.<br>
But on Guantánamo, as everywhere else in America, its macho hero, Jack Bauer, who tortured his enemies until they talked, was followed with admiration.<br>
On <i>24</i>, torture always worked.<br>
It saved America on a weekly basis. …<br>
The other source of wisdom was the military’s [<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/07/torture200707">Survive, Evade, Resist and Escape</a>] program …<br>
(p 196)<br>
<br>
[According to former FBI agent Daniel Coleman, the CIA essentially tortured <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Zubaydah">Abu Zubayda</a>] into telling them what they wanted to hear. …<br>
[He] reportedly confessed to dozens of half-hatched or entirely imaginary plots to blow up American banks, supermarkets, malls, the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, and nuclear power plants.<br>
Federal law-enforcement officials were dispatched to unlikely locations across the country in an effort to follow these false leads.<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_(book)">The Dark Side</a></i>, Scribe, 2008, p 178-9)<br>
<br>
<i>Peter Finn & Julie Tate:</i><br>
President George W Bush described Abu Zubaida in 2002 as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations."<br>
Intelligence, military and law enforcement sources told <i>The Washington Post</i> this year that officials later concluded he was a Pakistan-based "fixer" for radical Islamist ideologues, but not a formal member of al-Qaeda, much less one of its leaders.<br>
(<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/15/AR2009061503045.html">CIA Says It Misjudged Role of High-Value Detainee Abu Zubaida, Transcript Shows</a>, <i>The Washington Post</i>, 16 June 2009)<br>
<br>
<i>Jim Haynes [General Counsel, Department of Defence]:</i><br>
We can’t have acquittals!<br>
We’ve got to have convictions!<br>
If we’ve been holding these guys [in Guantanamo] for so long, how can we explain letting them get off?<br>
(p 332)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_J._Mora">Alberto Mora</a> (1951) [Former General Counsel of the Navy]:</i><br>
If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government.<br>
It destroys the whole notion of individual rights.<br>
(p 219)<br>
<br>
Cruelty disfigures our national character.<br>
It is incompatible with our constitutional order, with our laws, and with our most prized values. …<br>
Where cruelty exists, law does not.<br>
(p 236)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Mayer">Jane Mayer</a> (1955):</i><br>
[In] the Middle Ages, when it was called <i>tormentum insomniae</i>, professional torturers eschewed sleep deprivation, recognizing that the illusions and delusions it caused were more apt to produce false confessions than real ones.<br>
[By contrast,] it was the [torture of choice for] <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/05/carl-sagan.html#witch">witch hunters</a>, who believed it accurately revealed evidence of pacts with the devil.<br>
For decades, it was defined in the United States as an illegal form of torture. …<br>
But it became American policy in 2001, and continues to be.<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_(book)">The Dark Side</a></i>, Scribe, 2008, p 170)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofer_Black">Cofer Black</a> (1950) [Coordinator, Counter Terrorism Center, Central Intelligence Agency]:</i><br>
I have discussed this with the President, and he is in full agreement.<br>
Your mission is to find Osama Bin Laden and his senior lieutenants, and kill them. …<br>
I don’t want Bin Laden and his thugs captured.<br>
I want them dead.<br>
Alive and in prison here in the United States and they’ll become a symbol, a rallying point for other terrorists. …<br>
They must be killed.<br>
I want to see photos of their heads on pikes.<br>
I want Bin Laden’s head shipped back in a box filled with dry ice.<br>
I want to be able to show Bin Laden’s head to the President.<br>
I promised him I would do that.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Schroen">Gary Schroen</a>, <i>First In</i>, Presdio paperback, 2005, p 40)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/green-army-persons-of-interest.html#Aly">Waleed Aly</a> (1978):</i><br>
[Resorting to torture and repression] is an erosion of the moral foundations … of Western civilisation. …<br>
It is also [doomed to fail].<br>
[It] proclaims to all a humiliating desperation and the intensity of Western fears.<br>
[It is an admission by those] who reach for [it] that they have exhausted their ideas [and abandoned their values.]<br>
[No] further deterrent [is] available.<br>
[No] further philosophical triumph [is] to be sought.<br>
They have spent their last resort …<br>
These are not the responses of an assured people, upright and certain of victory. …<br>
<br>
Revolutionary movements [rely] on the repressive action of those they seek to overthrow.<br>
They cannot be fought on terrain bereft of ethics.<br>
This merely … serves as potent recruitment propaganda [and] provides a steady stream of martyrs to inspire continued revolution.<br>
(<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/green-army-persons-of-interest.html#terror">People Like Us</a></i>, 2007, pp 205-6)</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="faith" align="center">Faith Based Intelligence</h2>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel">Georg Hegel</a> (1770 – 1831):</i><br>
The state has … to make up its own mind concerning what is to be considered as objective truth.<br>
(<i>Philosophy of Right</i>, 1821)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Rove">Karl Rove</a> (1950):</i><br>
[Those in the] <i>reality-based community</i> … believe that solutions emerge from [the] judicious study of discernible reality. …<br>
That's not the way the world really works anymore.<br>
We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. …<br>
(Ron Suskind, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/faith-certainty-and-the-presidency-of-george-w-bush.html">Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W Bush</a>, <i>The New York Times Magazine</i>, 17 October 2004)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Isikoff">Michael Isikoff</a> (1952) [Journalist]:</i><br>
Cheney had an agenda.<br>
He knew what he wanted the answer to be, he knew what he wanted the end result to be.<br>
And they begin pressuring the intelligence community to find the evidence that supports their preconceived notions about the threat that Saddam posed to the world.<br>
(Barak Goodman, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/george-w-bush/#transcript">George W Bush</a>, <i>PBS American Experience</i>, WGBH, 2020)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Thielmann">Greg Thielmann</a> [Proliferation Expert, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, US State Department]:</i><br>
This administration has had a faith-based intelligence attitude:
<blockquote>We know the answers …<br>
[Give] us the intelligence to support those answers.</blockquote>
[This] kind of attitude [quashes] the spirit of intellectual inquiry and integrity.<br>
(Peter Singer, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/george-w-bush-world-1.html#rebels">The President of Good and Evil</a></i>, 2004, p 119)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamal_Habib">Kamal Habib</a> [Founding Member, Islamic Jihad]:</i><br>
… I was one [of the leaders of the jihadi movement, as] was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayman_Zawahiri">Ayman Zawahiri</a>:
<ul><li>We spearheaded the jihadi state of mind, rather than the earlier more moderate ideas in the liberal era that simply accepted reality.</li>
<li>[We] thought we were superior to reality.</li>
<li>We despised the everyday vision of the world.</li>
<li>[We] wanted to transform … this reality.</li></ul>
(Adam Curtis, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares">The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear</a>, <i>BBC</i>, 2004)<br>
<br>
<i id="4016690"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Carle">Glenn Carle</a> [Former CIA Interrogator]:</i><br>
I entered this Kafkaesque universe and the following thing would happen …<br>
I asked questions, <i>x, y</i> and <i>z</i> as instructed, and his answers are, and my assessment … correct.<br>
And there are certain questions he cannot answer.<br>
Headquarters would send back its response to me … and they said:<br>
<blockquote>
The fact that he is not responding proves that he is withholding information.<br>
And therefore, you will pressure him more.</blockquote>
And I responded:
<blockquote>Well no, it doesn't necessarily follow, that's not logically sensible at all, he's not answering because, in my assessment, he doesn't know.</blockquote>
And they said:
<blockquote>No.<br>
The fact that he's not answering proves that he's guilty, and you will pressure him more. …</blockquote>
I thought, I am dealing with an imbecile at headquarters.<br>
[But] I was wrong [he was just] following his orders. …<br>
<br>
It's literally no different to what my ancestors did, 300 years ago, with <a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2013/05/carl-sagan.html#witch">witches</a>.<br>
[If] you dunk someone in the water, and the person drowns, well she's innocent, she's not a witch.<br>
[If] she survives, that proves she is guilty, and you therefore have to hang her.<br>
(<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/glenn-carle3a-the-interrogator/4016690">The Interrogator</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2015/06/abc-radio-national-big-ideas.html#top">ABC Big Ideas</a></i>, 21 May 2012)</blockquote>
<br>
<h3><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Mayer">Jane Mayer</a> (1955)</h3>
<br>
[After <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_Sheikh_Mohammed">Khalid Sheikh Mohammed</a> was captured in March 2003, the head of the Al Qaeda unit at the CIA's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterterrorism_Center">Counterterrorism Center</a> in Langley, Virginia,] was so excited she flew at government expense to the black site where Mohammed was held so that she could personally watch him being waterboarded. …<br>
Coworkers said she had no legitimate reason to be present during Mohammed’s interrogation. …<br>
"She thought it would be cool to be in the room," a former colleague said.<br>
[Ironically,] her presence during Mohammed’s ordeal … seemed to anger and strengthen his resolve, helping him to hold out longer against the harsh tactics used against him.<br>
Afterward, [when] word leaked out about her jaunt and superiors at the CIA scolded her for treating the painful interrogation as a show.<br>
(Chapter 11)<br>
<br>
[In December 2003 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri">Khaled el-Masri</a>, a German car salesman of Lebanese descent,] was stopped and separated from fellow passengers on a tourist bus by border guards at the Tabanovce border crossing between Serbia and Macedonia.<br>
Apparently, his name was similar to that of a wanted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_al-Masri">Al Qaeda leader</a>. …<br>
He and his wife had been arguing, and in a huff he had taken off on his own for a cheap round-trip package holiday in Macedonia. …<br>
His brand new German passport, however, was confiscated by the border guards.<br>
Unfamiliar with a redesigned version just issued by Germany, they believed it to be a forgery. …<br>
<br>
Back in Langley, the head of the Al Qaeda Unit … agitated for the CIA to take custody of Masri.<br>
She had no proof, but she argued that he was probably a terrorist.<br>
Having been in the Bin Laden Unit that failed to connect the dots before September 11, she was doubly determined to let no terrorist slip through the cracks again.<br>
(p 282)<br>
<br>
She wanted Masri rendered to one of the CIA’s black site prisons in Afghanistan for interrogation.<br>
Doubters in the Agency suggested they should wait for German officials to establish first whether his passport was in fact a forgery. …<br>
[However,] the Al Qaeda Unit’s chief was skeptical about the Germans’ trustworthiness because she regarded them all as soft on terrorism …<br>
[So, after the Macedonians handed him over, the CIA] flew him to Afghanistan without evidence or charges, and without word to his family or anyone else outside, [and imprisoned him] for the next 149 days. …<br>
<br>
[Almost from the start, some] Agency officials suspected that Masri was innocent.<br>
Yet for months they subjected him to unsparing abuse anyway.<br>
The CIA has maintained that its secret program was "careful," "legal," and "professional."<br>
But without any procedure for independent judicial review, or any accountability for imprisoning an innocent victim, once a mistake was made there was [no mechanism] to correct it.<br>
<br>
[The] rendition team had a strange feeling about Masri.<br>
He wasn’t acting like a terrorist.<br>
By the time their flight reached Afghanistan, the head of the rendition team sent word to the CIA station chief in Kabul that he thought something wasn’t right.<br>
The Kabul station chief was incensed and sent a cable to the CTC accusing Langley of having sent him an innocent person.<br>
But the CTC officials sent back word that the head of the Al Qaeda Unit wanted Masri held and interrogated.<br>
(p 283)<br>
<br>
She thought he seemed suspicious. …<br>
<br>
As Masri wasted away [in the so-called 'Salt Pit',] being fed rotten chicken bones and suffering from chronic diarrhea, the chief of station in Kabul was saying, "I want this guy out" — but in Washington, the head of the Al Qaeda Unit kept insisting she had "a gut feeling he’s bad".<br>
"She can’t admit a mistake," a former colleague said.<br>
<br>
[Meanwhile the "Techs"] in Germany had, after several weeks, thoroughly analyzed Masri’s passport. …<br>
There was nothing wrong with it.<br>
It was legitimate. …<br>
[Nevertheless, she] still wanted Masri held.
<blockquote>She just looked in her crystal ball and it said that he was bad,</blockquote>
said another former colleague at the CIA in disgust.<br>
(p 284)<br>
<br>
She argued … that:
<blockquote>[Masri] had phone calls to people who were bad.<br>
Or to people who knew people who were bad. …</blockquote>
<br>
By late March [2004,] the Al Qaeda Unit chief agreed to release him, but only if the German intelligence services would promise to follow him once he was free.
<blockquote>"They were still claiming he was bad," a CIA source recalled.</blockquote>
She was told that if Masri wasn’t a terrorist, they couldn’t put him on a watch list.<br>
He was a German citizen.<br>
There were no charges against him.<br>
They couldn’t just tap his phone for no reason and follow him around.<br>
The Al Qaeda Unit head again was reluctant to let him out.<br>
(p 285)<br>
<br>
[Ultimately,] two officers in the European Division drew up a plan to release Masri in what they called a "reverse rendition."<br>
The idea was to drive him around in circles for a few hours and then let him go.<br>
But the Al Qaeda Unit chief was still arguing that he was a terrorist. …<br>
<br>
One notion they discussed was giving Masri a large quantity of cash.<br>
(p 286)<br>
<br>
[Eventually, in May 2004, Masri was flown to Tirana, Albania, and dropped near] the border with Serbia and Macedonia, where he was told to start walking and not look back.<br>
At the end of a path, three waiting men handed him a picnic lunch and drove him to the Tirana Airport from [where] he flew home.<br>
He had lost so much weight, and looked so haunted and aged, the airport authorities accused him of using someone else’s passport.<br>
When he arrived at his apartment, it was deserted and ransacked.<br>
His wife and [four] sons … had assumed themselves abandoned and moved in with his in-laws in Lebanon. …<br>
<br>
A former top Agency official … said in defense of the aggressive head of the Al Qaeda Unit, whose hunch had driven the mistaken rendition,
<blockquote>General Patton wasn’t popular either, but sometimes it takes a tough person to win a war.</blockquote>
(p 287)<br>
<br>
The CIA [has since] investigated seven or more allegedly mistaken renditions of innocent victims, and sent several homicide cases resulting from prisoner abuse to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, but not a single officer was charged.<br>
Instead, President Bush gave George Tenet, who presided over the creation of the CIA’s interrogation and detention program, the Medal of Freedom.<br>
The female officer who pushed to keep Khaled El-Masri imprisoned in Afghanistan after his mistaken rendition was promoted to a top post handling sensitive matters in the Middle East.<br>
Masri, meanwhile, was denied the opportunity to bring a civil suit against the US government for his false imprisonment because the Bush Administration succeeded in arguing that simply addressing the subject of rendition in a US court would violate national security.<br>
Back in Germany, he was reportedly beset by emotional problems.<br>
(p 334)<br>
<br>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_(book)">The Dark Side</a></i>, Scribe, 2008)<br>
<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri#European_Court_of_Human_Rights">Wikipedia</a>:</i><br>
[In December] 2012, the Grand Chamber for the European Court of Human Rights … awarded El-Masri €60,000 in compensation.<br>
(2 September 2017)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 align="center" id="Kipling"><a href="http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/mesopotamia.html">Mesopotamia</a></h2>
<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young,<br>
The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave:<br>
But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung,<br>
Shall they come with years and honour to the grave? …<br>
<br>
Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide<br>
Never while the bars of sunset hold.<br>
But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died,<br>
Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?<br>
<br>
Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour:<br>
When the storm is ended shall we find<br>
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power<br>
By the favour and contrivance of their kind?</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04l3852">Rudyard Kipling</a> (1865 – 1936), 1917.</i></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ZV0oc_nACajiTUDmKoocxvLdmKe3DEnDcka6bw_QSJdpaE62CSQsjPn6tc5AGnabOdavOjy2ZqgEptjQQtd7QEiaf4-eQ-MpbyjO0wbi4wR-fTFZwKLYAFb8Vx5xPDqdFdD3TLFosPu7/s1600/10+Days+to+Iraq.mpg_snapshot_01.15.13_%5B2014.05.30_05.10.25%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" width="640" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ZV0oc_nACajiTUDmKoocxvLdmKe3DEnDcka6bw_QSJdpaE62CSQsjPn6tc5AGnabOdavOjy2ZqgEptjQQtd7QEiaf4-eQ-MpbyjO0wbi4wR-fTFZwKLYAFb8Vx5xPDqdFdD3TLFosPu7/s640/10+Days+to+Iraq.mpg_snapshot_01.15.13_%5B2014.05.30_05.10.25%5D.jpg"></a><br>
<br>
(Bruce Goodison & David Belton, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1195875">10 Days to War</a>, <i>BBC Two</i>, 2008)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Morris">Errol Morris</a> (1948):</i><br>
<ol><li>Empathize with your enemy.</li>
<li>Rationality alone will not save us.</li>
<li>There’s something beyond one’s self.</li>
<li>Maximize efficiency.</li>
<li>Proportionality should be a guideline in war.</li>
<li>Get the data.</li>
<li>Belief and seeing are both often wrong.</li>
<li>Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.</li>
<li>In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.</li>
<li>Never say never.</li>
<li>You can’t change human nature.</li></ol>
(<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War">The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S McNamara</a></i>, 2003)<br>
<br>
<i id="blairdoctrine">Manfred Steger & Ravi Roy</i>:<br>
In determining whether there was a moral case for the international community to launch a military strike against a nation, the Blair Doctrine proposed that the following five questions had to be answered in the affirmative. …
<p><ol><li>Are we sure of our case?</li>
<li>Have we exhausted all diplomatic options?</li>
<li>Are there military operations we can sensibly and prudently undertake?</li>
<li>Are we prepared for the long term?</li>
<li>Do we have national interests involved?</li></ol></p>
(<i>Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction</i>, Oxford University Press, 2010, p 74)<br></blockquote>
<br>
<h3 id="Rumsfeld">Behaving Rationally</h3>
<br>
<h4><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld">Donald Rumsfeld</a> (1932)</h4>
<br>
<i>US Secretary of Defense (2001–6)</i><br>
<br>
What in the world [were the Iraqi leadership] thinking?<br>
What else might the United States have done to … get <i>them</i> to behave rationally?<br>
(26 September 2002)<br>
<br>
There are known knowns.<br>
There are known unknowns.<br>
There are unknown unknowns.<br>
But there are also <i>unknown knowns</i> [—] things that <i>you think you know</i>, that it turns out, <i>you did not</i>.<br>
[Alternatively: things that you know, that you don't know that you know.]<br>
(4 February 2004)<br>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" style="width: 200px;" unselectable="off"><tbody>
<tr><td width="50%">Known</td><td width="50%">Known</td></tr>
<tr><td>Known</td><td>Unknown</td></tr>
<tr><td>Unknown</td><td>Unknown</td></tr>
<tr><td>Unknown</td><td>Known</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>
<br>
<br>
I picked up a newspaper today, and I couldn't believe it.<br>
I read eight headlines that talked about:
<blockquote>Chaos!<br>
Violence!<br>
Unrest!</blockquote>
And it was just:
<blockquote>Henny Penny, the sky is falling!</blockquote>
I've never seen anything like it.<br>
And here is a country that is being liberated.<br>
(11 April 2003)<br>
<br>
I don't do quagmires.<br>
(24 July 2003)<br>
<br>
(Errol Morris, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2390962">The Unknown Known</a></i>, 2013)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="6506418">Losing the Peace</h3>
<br>
<i>Deborah Nelson [Captain, US Army]:</i><br>
Mr Secretary, none of us wants to win the war and lose the peace:<br>
How can we create a stable transitional government in Iraq, should Saddam be replaced, that would improve world peace and not foster chaos and terrorism? …<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld">Donald Rumsfeld</a> (1932):</i><br>
That is a tough question and we're spending a lot of time on it.<br>
Let me assure you, we've spent two long sessions in the last week on looking at the management of a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.<br>
(February 2003)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bremer">Paul Bremer</a> (1941)</i>:<br>
Shortly I will issue an order on measures to extirpate Ba'athists and Ba'athism from Iraq forever.<br>
We have and will aggressively move to seek to identify these people and remove them from office.<br>
We have hunted down and will continue to deal with those members of the old regime who are sabotaging the country and the coalition's efforts.<br>
(May 2003)<br>
<br>
(<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/ramadi-strategy-there-is-no-strategy/6506418#transcript">Ramadi: Strategy? There is no strategy</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/01/rear-vision.html#top">ABC Rear Vision</a></i>, 7 June 2015)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="wmd">Margaret Swieringa</h3>
<br>
<i>Former Secretary, Intelligence Committee or ASIO, ASIS / Defence Signals Directorate Committee (2002-7)</i><br>
<br>
The reason there was so much argument about the existence of weapons of mass destruction prior to the war in Iraq 10 years ago was that to go to war on any other pretext would have been a breach of international law. …
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard">John Howard</a> (1939):</i><br>
I couldn't justify on its own a military invasion of Iraq to change the regime.<br>
I've never advocated that.<br>
Central to the threat is Iraq's possession of chemical and biological weapons and its pursuit of nuclear capability. …<br>
<br>
Iraq has a usable chemical and biological weapons capability which has included recent production of chemical and biological agents …<br>
Iraq continues to work on developing nuclear weapons.<br>
All key aspects — research and development, production and weaponisation — of Iraq's offensive biological weapons program are active and most elements are larger and more advanced than they were before the Gulf War in 1991.</blockquote>
None of these [assertions were based on fact. …]<br>
<br>
The parliamentary inquiry, <i>Intelligence on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction</i> [was conducted by the Intelligence Committee on the basis of information gathered] from Australia's two analytical intelligence organisations — the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Office of National Assessment — from March 2001 until March 2003.<br>
The inquiry found:<br>
<br>
<ol><li>The scale of threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was less than it had been a decade earlier.</li>
<li>Under sanctions that prevailed at the time, Iraq's military capability remained limited and the country's infrastructure was still in decline.</li>
<li>The nuclear program was unlikely to be far advanced.<br>
Iraq was unlikely to have obtained fissile material.</li>
<li>Iraq had no ballistic missiles that could reach the US.<br>
Most if not all of the few SCUDS that were hidden away were likely to be in poor condition.</li>
<li>There was no known chemical weapons production.</li>
<li>There was no specific evidence of resumed biological weapons production.</li>
<li>There was no known biological weapons testing or evaluation since 1991.</li>
<li>There was no known Iraq offensive research since 1991.</li>
<li>Iraq did not have nuclear weapons.</li>
<li>There was no evidence that chemical weapon warheads for Al Samoud or other ballistic missiles had been developed.</li>
<li>No intelligence had accurately pointed to the location of weapons of mass destruction. …</li></ol>
<br>
[There was evidence of] a limited stockpile of <i>chemical</i> weapon agents, possibly stored in dual-use or industrial facilities.<br>
[But none to indicate that] Iraq had the capacity to restart its chemical weapons program in weeks [or] to manufacture in months.<br>
<br>
The committee concluded:
<blockquote>[The] case made by the government was that Iraq possessed WMD in large quantities and posed a grave and unacceptable threat to the region and the world, particularly as there was a danger that Iraq's WMD might be passed to terrorist organisations.<br>
This is not the picture that emerges from an examination of all the assessments provided to the committee by Australia's two analytical agencies. …</blockquote>
Howard would claim, no doubt, that he took his views from overseas dossiers. …<br>
However, all that intelligence was considered by Australian agencies when forming their views. …<br>
<br>
[The] so-called "surge of new intelligence" after September 2002 relied almost exclusively on one or two entirely unreliable and self-serving individuals.<br>
… Saddam's son-in-law, Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid, who had defected in 1995, had told Western agencies that the nuclear program in Iraq had failed, that chemical and biological programs had been dismantled and weapons destroyed, largely as a result of the UNSCOM weapons inspections.<br>
<br>
(<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/howard-ignored-advice-and-went-to-war-in-iraq-20130411-2ho5d.html">Howard ignored advice and went to war in Iraq</a>, <i>The Age</i>, 12 April 2013)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h3 id="iraq"><a href="http://costsofwar.org/article/iraqi-civilians">Civilian Death and Injury in Iraq</a> (2003-11)</h3>
<br>
<i><a href="http://costsofwar.org/article/who-we-are">Neta Crawford</a>: Professor of Political Science, Boston University.</i><br>
<br>
We know the number of US soldiers killed in the war in Iraq.<br>
We know their names and how they died. …<br>
<br>
The US military … did not make a systematic account of Iraqi casualties in the early weeks of the war …<br>
[Nor] did it make public many estimates or detailed accounts of civilian death unless in response to an undeniable tragedy such as the US bombing of Iraqi markets early in the war.<br>
Iraq's Ministry of Health's statistics department was [<a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-12-10-iraq-civilians_x.htm">reportedly</a>] ordered to [abandon a survey of] civilian dead in late 2003 [— at a time when it was subject to] the Coalition Provisional Authority.<br>
<br>
{Iraq's population has been estimated at 31 million people …}<br>
[At] least 126,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a direct consequence of the war's violence.<br>
This is an extremely conservative estimate based on what has been documented by public sources.<br>
To understand the complete toll of the Iraq War, to this estimate of civilian killed from 2003, one must add:
<ul><li>the … approximately 10,000 Iraqi military killed at the outset of the war,</li>
<li>the approximately 19,000 insurgents killed from June 2003-September 2007,</li>
<li>the more than 10,100 Iraqi military and police killed since June 2003 and</li>
<li>the nearly 6,300 US and allied soldiers and US contractors killed in the war.</li></ul>
Total direct violent deaths are thus 171,000:
<ul><li>about 165,000 Iraqis and</li>
<li>6,300 US and allied soldiers and contractors.</li></ul>
<br>
Many thousands more Iraqis have been wounded by bombs, bullets, and the fire that is often triggered by bombing.<br>
Some additional number of people have also died due to the war's effect on Iraqi infrastructure and economy, in particular on the systems that provide health care and clean drinking water.<br>
(p 1)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="0">Why have we argued so much and so long about the human toll in Iraq?</h4>
<br>
The first reason that the numbers killed in Iraq have been so contested is politics.<br>
The United States was at great pains to underscore its commitment to avoid harming civilians in Iraq during the invasion in 2003 and the subsequent occupation.<br>
Before the invasion, the Pentagon invited reporters to hear how civilian casualties would be minimized in the air war. …<br>
The use of precision weapons was emphasized, and when civilians were killed, the US military spokespersons tended to emphasize the great care that had been taken to minimize effects on civilians.<br>
When violence grew in 2006, the United States emphasized that it was reducing civilian casualties by changing rules of engagement. …<br>
<br>
Some years into the Iraq war, the RAND Corporation was asked by the US DOD to assess the questions and controversies related to counting casualties.<br>
(p 2)
<blockquote><i>Katherine Hall & Dale Stahl:</i><br>
[It was not clear that] anyone in the US military or Coalition is systematically collecting and analyzing [data on Iraqi civilian fatalities. …]<br>
Had there been a more robust effort to collect accurate information on Iraqi civilians, military strategists and political leaders might have acted more determinedly to secure the civilian population prior to the carnage of 2006. …<br>
(<i>An Argument for Documenting Casualties: Violence Against Iraqi
Civilians 2006</i>, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, 2008)</blockquote>
The second reason for the contentious debate about the death and injury toll in Iraq is that the way one counts the dead …<br>
[The] ostensible differences often appear larger than they are because those who have been observing and measuring death and injury in Iraq have been counting different, though sometimes overlapping, events.<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="1">Trends in Direct War Related Civilian Death</h4>
<br>
[There] have been four main causes of civilian death due to the war:
<p><ol><li>death due to injuries directly caused by combat;</li>
<li>lawlessness, namely targeted killings, executions, or military atrocity;</li>
<li>indirect death due to increased vulnerability; and</li>
<li>an unknown number possibly killed due to the long term environmental effects of the war.</li></ol></p>
I do not attempt to estimate the latter two categories. …<br>
<br>
[Based on] Iraq Body Count records … for the first year of the war …
<ul><li>Coalition force accounted for about 52% of recorded violent deaths [— 60%] due to air attack.</li>
<li>Unknown perpetrators accounted for 41% [and]</li>
<li>anti-coalition forces accounted for about 4% …</li></ul>
(p 4)<br>
<br>
In the first five years of war in Iraq, more than 92,000 people were killed by armed violence.<br>
[By] the end of the first five years of fighting in March 2008,
<ul><li>unknown perpetrators had caused the most (74%) of all violent deaths …</li>
<li>[about] 12% … could be attributed solely to US coalition forces [and]</li>
<li>[anti-coalition] forces accounted for almost 11% …</li></ul>
<br>
Unknown perpetrators executed their victims or tortured them and then executed them.<br>
These [included of] revenge killings, and clashes between Sunni, Shia and Kurdish groups escalated.<br>
Iraqi soldiers and American soldiers killed some number as well. …<br>
When Anti-coalition forces killed civilians it was primarily by suicide bombs, vehicle bombs, and roadside bombs. …<br>
(p 6)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="2">Wounding</h4>
<br>
By one estimate, perhaps about as many who have been killed by war have been wounded in various ways.<br>
The US National Couterterrorism Center, which focuses only on "terrorist" events counted about 110,000 wounded Iraqis from 2004 through 2010.<br>
(p 8)<br>
<br>
According to a 2010 report by Handicap International, 13,000 cluster munitions, containing 1.8 to 2 million submunitions were used by the United States and Britain in 2003 in the first weeks of combat and Iraq remains one of the most heavily contaminated countries in the world.<br>
(p 9)
<blockquote><i>Haider Maliki:</i><br>
28% of Iraqi children [ie more than 3 million] suffer some degree of PTSD, and their numbers are steadily rising.<br>
(Central Pediatric Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, 2010)</blockquote>
Acute malnutrition among children in Iraq doubled in the months after the US invasion and remains a serious problem.<br>
In 2006 more about 1 in 4 children under five was classified as "stunted" by the World Health Organization.<br>
(p 10)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="3">Indirect Death</h4>
<br>
Acute malnutrition among children in Iraq doubled in the months after the U.S. invasion and remains a serious problem.<br>
In 2006 more about 1 in 4 children under five was classified as "stunted" by the World Health Organization.<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="4">Media and Humanitarian Worker Deaths</h4>
<br>
… 22 United Nations staff [died in the Baghdad attack of] August 2003 [— 100] were injured …<br>
[More] than 94 relief workers had been killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2007 and 248 were injured.<br>
<br>
… 226 journalists and other media workers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.<br>
Of those, 53 were killed in crossfire, 93 were murdered and three were killed while on dangerous assignments.<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="5">When Soldiers "Snap"</h4>
<br>
Intentionally killing non-combatants is considered an atrocity for which actors are morally responsible and legally culpable.<br>
These are war crimes. …<br>
<br>
In the early morning of 19 November 2005 a twenty year old Marine, Lance Corporal TJ Miguel Terrazas, was killed by a roadside bomb.<br>
In retaliation, over the course of about four hours, a group of US Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha including children aged 14, 10, 5, 4, 3 and 1 over the course of about four hours as members of a thirteen man unit, the 1st Squad of Marine Company K, Third Battalion Marines, attacked people in three houses and a taxi carrying four college students.<br>
(p 11)<br>
<br>
Of the eight Marines charged for various offenses related to the killings, most charges, including those of unpremeditated murder, were dropped for all but one Marine, Frank Wuterich.<br>
(p 12)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj36Uh4NL5ILKnGBYGyHEuwkhkW-UhORboTp697C9qtY20CH7oNiKz831oMgr3oso2cbVBXDZRu2rPVdE-lFPdNSdayDa8iBWq7weOuc44wIhSLqa_aof_b4ZjNgBQVQRLnHIJiFPnihHiU/s1600/2000s_500.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj36Uh4NL5ILKnGBYGyHEuwkhkW-UhORboTp697C9qtY20CH7oNiKz831oMgr3oso2cbVBXDZRu2rPVdE-lFPdNSdayDa8iBWq7weOuc44wIhSLqa_aof_b4ZjNgBQVQRLnHIJiFPnihHiU/s640/2000s_500.JPG" data-original-width="759" data-original-height="429"></a><br>
<br>
(<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8665118/">Quagmire: Bush's Second Term</a>, <i>The 2000's</i>, Episode 3, 2018)</div>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="6">Fallujah, Iraq 2004</h4>
<br>
Fallujah, Iraq, a city of approximately 300,000 people before the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, was easily occupied in April 2003 by the United States military. …<br>
(p 13)<br>
<br>
On 31 March 2004, four private military contractors, working for Blackwater USA, driving through the city were killed by gunmen.<br>
A crowd gathered, gasoline was poured into one of the vehicles, and it was set ablaze.<br>
The charred and dismembered remains of two of the men were then hung over a bridge. …<br>
<br>
President Bush ordered an assault on Fallujah, despite the fact that the Marine Commander of the area, Major General Mattis was not in favor of the attack. …<br>
During a briefing by the US commander in Iraq, General Sanchez, Bush told Sanchez to "Kick ass!" in Fallujah.<br>
<br>
The battle turned into a bloody stalemate and a public relations fiasco for the American forces.<br>
After the bombing of a mosque and other incidents that were politically sensitive, the offensive was halted and control of the city was given to Iraqi forces on 28 April on the understanding that insurgents would be kept out of the city.<br>
But insurgents remained and a decision was made to attack again.<br>
(p 14)<br>
<br>
In the days prior to the assault, the city was surrounded by US and other coalition forces and residents were told by the Marines to leave through checkpoints, or if they remained, to stay inside their homes.<br>
At these checkpoints males between the ages 15 and 45 were turned back in to the city or detained.<br>
The United Nations coordinated Emergency Working Group estimated on 11 November that approximately 200,000 people left Fallujah and were dispersed throughout Iraq while approximately 50,000 civilians remained in the city<br>
(p 16)<br>
<br>
[The] "shaping" of the battlefield began in the summer months …<br>
The second assault by US and Iraqi forces on Fallujah, Operation Phantom Fury, officially began on 7 November 2004.<br>
The assumption was that anyone who remained in the city was an insurgent.<br>
(p 17)<br>
<br>
The fighting in Fallujah was intense both day and night, moving house to house over the course of four weeks<br>
[The] city was opened for the return of its residents on 23 December. …<br>
(p 18)<br>
<br>
Marine Corporal Michael Leduc described his briefing on the rules of engagement for Fallujah in 2004 …
<blockquote><i>[Battlion JAG Officer:]</i><br>
You see an individual, who although may not be actually carrying anything or displaying any specific hostile action or intent running from, say, one building to another, running across the street or even running away from you …<br>
[Assume] that he is maneuvering against you and kill him.<br>
<br>
You see an individual with a white flag and he does anything but approach you slowly and obey commands, assume it's a trick and kill him. …<br>
<br>
<i>Burhan Fasa’a [Journalist, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation]:</i><br>
There were so many people wounded, and with no medical supplies, people died from their wounds.
Everyone in the street was a target for the Americans …<br>
I saw so many civilians shot by them. …<br>
<br>
Americans did not have interpreters with them …<br>
They entered the house where I was with 26 people, and shot people because they didn’t obey their orders …<br>
[The] people couldn’t understand a word of English.<br>
95% of the people killed in the houses that I saw were killed because they couldn’t speak English.<br>
<br>
I saw cluster bombs everywhere, and so many bodies that were burned, dead with no bullets in them.<br>
So they definitely used fire weapons …<br>
I saw an American sniper in a minaret of a mosque shooting everyone that moved. …</blockquote>
(p 19)
<blockquote><i>Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable [Pentagon Spokesperson]:</i><br>
White phosphorus is a conventional munition.<br>
It is not a chemical weapon.<br>
They are not outlawed or illegal.<br>
We use them primarily … for smokescreens or target marking in some cases.<br>
However it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants. …<br>
When you have enemy forces that are in covered positions that your high explosive artillery rounds are not having an impact on … one technique is to fire a white phosphorus round into the position …<br>
[The] combined effects of the fire and smoke … will drive them out of the holes so that you can kill them with high explosives.</blockquote>
(p 20)<br>
<br>
[An] NBC news video of a US soldier killing an unarmed prisoner in a Mosque on 13 November, raised questions about whether the practice of "dead checking" — where the wounded are killed — was widespread …<br>
The Marine Corp investigated but chose not to prosecute …<br>
(p 21)<br>
<br>
Iraq Body Count recorded 1,874 civilian deaths in Fallujah for the period of 19 March 2003 to 19 March 2005.<br>
[Hospital] workers had recovered 700 bodies from 9 of 27 neighborhoods in Fallujah [of which] 550 were women and children.<br>
Many others had already been buried …<br>
In November [there] were 540 air strikes and 14,000 artillery and mortar shells fired, as well as 2,500 main tank gun rounds.<br>
Eighteen thousand of Fallujah's 39,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.<br>
(p 22)<br>
<br>
In the November attack 70 Americans were killed and 609 wounded.<br>
(p 23)<br>
<br>
<br>
<h4 id="7">Documenting and Counting</h4>
<br>
Because the official estimates were for a long time lacking and are incomplete, for example, because they do not cover the entire period of the Iraq war, scholars concerned to understand the human toll of the war were left to use media accounts of individual incidents, occasionally supplemented by official statements.<br>
Later, public health experts conducted sample surveys in Iraq and estimated the numbers killed by violence and the number of "excess deaths" by using sophisticated statistical methods. …<br>
<br>
[Two] cluster sampling surveys, published in the <i>Lancet</i> [have been] highly criticized.<br>
(p 25)<br>
<br>
[The 2006 study] estimated about 655,000 excess deaths, of which … 601,000 were due to violent causes. [<a href="#cite1">1</a>] …<br>
[Given] the problems associated with random sample surveys in a war zone [this study may be] the best that could be done given the extreme violence in Iraq at the time.<br>
<br>
[Most importantly,] survey research and cluster sampling suggests that reliance on media reports of death undercount the true number of dead. …<br>
… Iraq Body Count enumerates each incident of civilian killing, using publicly available data. …
<blockquote><i>John Tirman [Executive Director, Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]:</i><br>
IBC’s count … is accumulated by scanning mainly <i>English-language</i> news media reports.<br>
It’s a crude method, given that not all deaths are reported in the news media, the number of reporters and their interests change over time, and most of the press was stuck in Baghdad during the most severe violence in 2004-07.<br>
IBC itself acknowledges that they are probably low by a factor of two, meaning their count should be 200,000 and the new data [from WikiLeaks] would make that at least 215,000.<br>
Even then, IBC does not count “insurgents” or security forces, or non-violent deaths that are attributable to the war.<br>
(<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wikileaks-docs-underestimate-iraqi-dead/21710">Wikileaks docs Underestimate Iraqi Dead</a>, <i>Global Research</i>, 1 November 2010)</blockquote>
(p 26, emphais added)<br>
<br>
The Brookings Institution makes estimates based on the Iraq Body Count, but adjusts them to reflect figures released by the Iraqi and US governments.<br>
[We separately studied the crime rate in Iraq for the period May 2003 to December 2005, and estimated that 23,000 murders occurred throughout the country.]<br>
<br>
[However,] Iraqi officials at the Ministry of Health may have been systematically encouraged to under-report deaths.<br>
One person who works at the Baghdad central morgue statistics office [was <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100145401">reported</a> as saying:]
<blockquote>By orders of the minister's office, we cannot talk about the real numbers of deaths.<br>
This has been the case since 2004. …<br>
I would go home and look at the news.<br>
The minister would say 10 people got killed all over Iraq, while I had received in that day more then 50 dead bodies just in Baghdad.<br>
It's always been like that — they would say one thing, but the reality was much worse.</blockquote>
Despite the potential for undercounting, the Iraq Body Count dataset is still the most transparent and comprehensive recording available of civilian deaths in Iraq since 2003.<br>
<br>
Even less likely to be accurate is the count of the number of "insurgents" killed in the Iraq war.<br>
(p 27)<br>
<br>
(Civilian Death and Injury in Iraq, 2003-2011, <i><a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/">Costs of War Project</a></i>, September 2011)
<br>
<br>
<h4>Note</h4>
<p><ol><li id="cite1">Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, and Les Roberts, "Mortality after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: A cross-sectional Cluster Sample Survey," <i>Lancet</i>, vol 368 no 9545, (2006) 1421-8.</li></ol></p>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6082003432922955219.post-60240650292164618092020-07-07T01:28:00.088+10:002023-01-15T01:09:34.245+11:00Created Equal<i id="top"><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/search/label/Miniluv">Ministry of Love</a></i><br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence">United States Declaration of Independence</a>, 4 July 1776.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL,<br>
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell">George Orwell</a> (1903 – 50), </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm">Animal Farm</a><i>, 1945.</i></blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2xdaBTo8FG23omHnMEbNC3SaEhJgUQQ0NK0mGcLxdooL2BOcyOZEf3eyx-wsPG3ia0P5YeZm7POP1_HGBo5aLtT-sw2zM14dANOM0r4gne_U_OvAXBbVfZbPEDu4HmB208V7WIGF74s7Y/s0/whywehate118.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="819" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2xdaBTo8FG23omHnMEbNC3SaEhJgUQQ0NK0mGcLxdooL2BOcyOZEf3eyx-wsPG3ia0P5YeZm7POP1_HGBo5aLtT-sw2zM14dANOM0r4gne_U_OvAXBbVfZbPEDu4HmB208V7WIGF74s7Y/s640/whywehate118.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlsGP17m-D8JwP_fyBd4pD1VtKtNsaw8QeV2EKWLc7LLCgRBlcJq8zJeCQRNre4uqDgs7Va6KJrogUrF9oV75dWM-LxrmlCLR52GyNQOV8nNGBk63z0eH6lMI6HosuT-qU6GvMoikweFI4/s0/whywehate403.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="796" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlsGP17m-D8JwP_fyBd4pD1VtKtNsaw8QeV2EKWLc7LLCgRBlcJq8zJeCQRNre4uqDgs7Va6KJrogUrF9oV75dWM-LxrmlCLR52GyNQOV8nNGBk63z0eH6lMI6HosuT-qU6GvMoikweFI4/s640/whywehate403.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfNAgJaQg8Ea9nljVmK0poNNdiCFeIHh5D7nneoqixbiLsZAiH2zVHutWs-6W11jkpl8rx4bpcZGW1hDZD3j-0EwJdJ37RZC-4tgfhUv7sc5x21GxuekjE0mcXmAxClVkadzi1d0YXnmED-b-yJCXTjwioVCd98X1APvuEFXnGS1uIxj9fRQLnsa0vA/s1600/whywehate101.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="809" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfNAgJaQg8Ea9nljVmK0poNNdiCFeIHh5D7nneoqixbiLsZAiH2zVHutWs-6W11jkpl8rx4bpcZGW1hDZD3j-0EwJdJ37RZC-4tgfhUv7sc5x21GxuekjE0mcXmAxClVkadzi1d0YXnmED-b-yJCXTjwioVCd98X1APvuEFXnGS1uIxj9fRQLnsa0vA/s640/whywehate101.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN1S_JGWmUDJBf1IaY5MYYN6Mm6vs0HfrDSLz9XCFCc_tmUDbbfBprgMdFbwwHFb-TkQeGlSdbNn2UulVXHKl5l6YhBuKB9y9i0lxnYSHPuerJRRjInX8Cu_qhO2ndGtcSw0Pxq0wY_7nYxtUQHQRbDkBKP1stqERvUZVzzB0QJoilIFCwGheX2AZ-EA/s1600/Why.We.Hate.S01E02.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-IKA.mkv_snapshot_28.27_%5B2022.10.03_00.58.47%5D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN1S_JGWmUDJBf1IaY5MYYN6Mm6vs0HfrDSLz9XCFCc_tmUDbbfBprgMdFbwwHFb-TkQeGlSdbNn2UulVXHKl5l6YhBuKB9y9i0lxnYSHPuerJRRjInX8Cu_qhO2ndGtcSw0Pxq0wY_7nYxtUQHQRbDkBKP1stqERvUZVzzB0QJoilIFCwGheX2AZ-EA/s640/Why.We.Hate.S01E02.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-IKA.mkv_snapshot_28.27_%5B2022.10.03_00.58.47%5D.png"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGketZiu-wcZL_mKLAEWKpA0rBXiIV0zM2uMirgDghU8rkFEiECnRPBAgIn8FKCieX-q11L00Mj0b79HVchuQAtxjiTcrQdkMjY9zRli61qfTSJH0ox1m8XmwBwl533H_OqDazTFIyyJpqh_OIW0odJy7XsyDKmI5nI0MF_mWzgMUGvNqHPZCba6OPaw/s1600/whywehate119.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="856" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGketZiu-wcZL_mKLAEWKpA0rBXiIV0zM2uMirgDghU8rkFEiECnRPBAgIn8FKCieX-q11L00Mj0b79HVchuQAtxjiTcrQdkMjY9zRli61qfTSJH0ox1m8XmwBwl533H_OqDazTFIyyJpqh_OIW0odJy7XsyDKmI5nI0MF_mWzgMUGvNqHPZCba6OPaw/s640/whywehate119.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOOA9Stk3P4cE_x4oZZV7yTO09ERf93GFlyZ-9aj1BTvuoff15r6SJwqT2KMBIgpnVaw5nEpm5G_mJ3Iq6lq61AtWTbZxE7_gcdj9YnI932iG4Oy9Nw_k6N4hOFg59qfZFpSD9eUPX_n4F1bjMT4wA5AdGVJKpwhhZezIzpTKvX6QxfJz7rwa47lLEgg/s1600/Why.We.Hate.S01E04.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-IKA.mkv_snapshot_38.44_%5B2022.10.03_00.31.16%5D+.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1067" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOOA9Stk3P4cE_x4oZZV7yTO09ERf93GFlyZ-9aj1BTvuoff15r6SJwqT2KMBIgpnVaw5nEpm5G_mJ3Iq6lq61AtWTbZxE7_gcdj9YnI932iG4Oy9Nw_k6N4hOFg59qfZFpSD9eUPX_n4F1bjMT4wA5AdGVJKpwhhZezIzpTKvX6QxfJz7rwa47lLEgg/s640/Why.We.Hate.S01E04.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-IKA.mkv_snapshot_38.44_%5B2022.10.03_00.31.16%5D+.png"/></a>
<div align="center">(Geeta Gandbhir & Sam Pollard, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8300948/">Why We Hate</a></i>, 2019)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2>Liberty Is Not License</h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmUWxzQHS6tPWS-_7Cja5Ylvid7_qQ8MVxIOUpMCUwC_aH2GJRC5DYiGOsQ-3ZlXcXnm2vg4-58utipUdk69Aw0PGh2IEXbuWbzh2Rm7c66ewxb-oKCPaP1fMTrLpeJfzlxhQHjzEaxmz-/s0/cathywilcox210112.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="728" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmUWxzQHS6tPWS-_7Cja5Ylvid7_qQ8MVxIOUpMCUwC_aH2GJRC5DYiGOsQ-3ZlXcXnm2vg4-58utipUdk69Aw0PGh2IEXbuWbzh2Rm7c66ewxb-oKCPaP1fMTrLpeJfzlxhQHjzEaxmz-/s640/cathywilcox210112.webp"/></a>
(Cathy Wilcox, <i><a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/acting-pm-fails-to-grasp-what-the-concept-means-20210112-p56tkt.html">The Age</a></i>, 12 January 2021)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTTefnpfi2iWn3yYp9RbuiIo-I_0XPFyCqMK-Ao2ds_xQZFseIaUF_QgbaXfZnWW4sKviIGsSjjb87vNfmaz5shk2SuVDkjyLF5uN8hyphenhyphenUlrq_UwRY0tRsD3PzyiEGT31qO8QfFwlJLG4em/s1600/PBS+The+Lincolns+2.mp4_snapshot_01.45.50_%5B2015.03.26_05.12.23%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" width="640" height="369" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTTefnpfi2iWn3yYp9RbuiIo-I_0XPFyCqMK-Ao2ds_xQZFseIaUF_QgbaXfZnWW4sKviIGsSjjb87vNfmaz5shk2SuVDkjyLF5uN8hyphenhyphenUlrq_UwRY0tRsD3PzyiEGT31qO8QfFwlJLG4em/s640/PBS+The+Lincolns+2.mp4_snapshot_01.45.50_%5B2015.03.26_05.12.23%5D.jpg"></a><br>
<br>
(<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/lincolns-transcript/5/">Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/public-broadcasting-system-american.html#top">PBS American Experience</a></i>, WGBH, 2001)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln">Abraham Lincoln</a> (1809 – 65) [16th President of the United States]:</i><br>
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.<br>
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln%27s_first_inaugural_address">First Inaugural Address</a>, 4 March 1861)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson">Andrew Johnson</a> (1808 – 75) [17th President of the United States]:</i><br>
This is a country for white men and, by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZo_0_WOWZPN8gtPGsoeQ4-3Hw_xIArtwjyqzvjTxTcLB1N801laI1UJOMC6DQCnxMCo9Iqyl024CCzohNUqqnlX4g8yjv-lEUvFYv93ww1gSdsdzfCIOHCBilG9jlmFXakctsgkSP0ue8/s0/amend115.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="832" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZo_0_WOWZPN8gtPGsoeQ4-3Hw_xIArtwjyqzvjTxTcLB1N801laI1UJOMC6DQCnxMCo9Iqyl024CCzohNUqqnlX4g8yjv-lEUvFYv93ww1gSdsdzfCIOHCBilG9jlmFXakctsgkSP0ue8/s640/amend115.PNG"></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Epps">Garrett Epps </a>(1950) [Law Professor, University of Baltimore]:</i><br>
[Andrew Johnson] loved the idea of big rallies.<br>
He loved to get up and make long speeches, largely about himself.<br>
(Reinaldo Green & Kenny Leon, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13978924/">Citizen</a>, <i>Amend: The Fight for America</i>, Episode 1, 2021)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln">Abraham Lincoln</a> (1809 – 65):</i><br>
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow?<br>
Never!…<br>
At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected?<br>
I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us.<br>
It cannot come from abroad.<br>
If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher.<br>
As a nation of free men we must
<ul><li>live through all time, or</li>
<li>die by suicide. …</li></ul>
<br>
Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed of … ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us?<br>
And when such a one does, it will require the people to be:
<ul><li>united with each other,</li>
<li>attached to the government and laws, and</li>
<li>generally intelligent,</li></ul>
to successfully frustrate his designs.<br>
Distinction will be his paramount object, and … nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.<br>
(<a href="http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm">Lyceum Address</a>, 27 January 1838)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/green-army-persons-of-interest.html#Lincoln">Would you like to know more?</a></i></blockquote>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghor2yeXUzgRYv0tjym1e63l1bXP6WPQYXcAjEKEx76BlikVGYGKE16g1dD669HSJLAfxHzcefN9cNhJ5w0E21shNYUChRPfkV7fkwl3u1TTGOURCVe7JqRccHqf1wIzBdvUOKVxxFbI0G/s1600/obamatotrump01.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghor2yeXUzgRYv0tjym1e63l1bXP6WPQYXcAjEKEx76BlikVGYGKE16g1dD669HSJLAfxHzcefN9cNhJ5w0E21shNYUChRPfkV7fkwl3u1TTGOURCVe7JqRccHqf1wIzBdvUOKVxxFbI0G/s640/obamatotrump01.PNG" data-original-width="776" data-original-height="460"></a></div>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Schmidt">Stephen Schmidt</a> (1970) [Former Republican Strategist]:</i><br>
Great presidents have been able to forge compromise.<br>
President Obama was not able to do that, and the reason may well be the implacability of the people sitting on the other side of the table from him.<br>
Sometimes you can’t get to "yes" with someone who won’t say anything other than "no."<br>
(Michael Kirk, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/americas-great-divide-from-obama-to-trump/transcript/">America’s Great Divide: From Obama to Trump</a>, <i>PBS Frontline</i>, WGBH, 2020)</blockquote>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMkpdHjZGcLAExjVZTBt-g6E3ZxB6bmPyD8WVkjMfOLYQhUBMvGJQRISy77dHXPhHYYBygUXm56B7MzXHoeVwBw3guU95hHw5MajJoE6fIHoB97XzGsjTxJsf3oZdDA0IqktZKvTFTWUpX/s0/supremerevenge00.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="886" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMkpdHjZGcLAExjVZTBt-g6E3ZxB6bmPyD8WVkjMfOLYQhUBMvGJQRISy77dHXPhHYYBygUXm56B7MzXHoeVwBw3guU95hHw5MajJoE6fIHoB97XzGsjTxJsf3oZdDA0IqktZKvTFTWUpX/s640/supremerevenge00.PNG"></a>
(Michael Kirk, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supreme-revenge/">Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Court</a>, <i>PBS Frontline</i>, WGBH, 2020)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_McConnell">Addison Mitchell McConnell</a> (1942) [Republican Leader in the Senate]:</i><br>
The single most important thing we want to achieve … is for President Obama to be a one-term president.<br>
(Michelle Obama, <i>Becoming</i>, 2018, p 370)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoni_Appelbaum">Yoni Appelbaum</a> [Senior Political Editor, </i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/cirincione-joseph.html#top">The Atlantic</a><i>]:</i><br>
A conservatism defined by ideas can hold its own against progressivism,
<ul><li>winning converts to its principles, and</li>
<li>evolving with each generation.</li></ul>
A conservatism defined by identity reduces the complex calculus of politics to a simple arithmetic question—and at some point, the numbers no longer add up. …<br>
The GOP’s efforts to cling to power by <i>coercion</i> instead of <i>persuasion</i> have illuminated the perils of defining a political party in a pluralistic democracy around a common heritage, rather than around values or ideals.<br>
(<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/how-america-ends/600757/">How America Ends</a>, <i>The Atlantic</i>, December 2019, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weyrich">Paul Weyrich</a> (1942 – 2008) [Co-founder, Heritage Foundation]:</i><br>
How many of our Christians have the ["good government"] syndrome?<br>
They want everybody to vote.<br>
I don't want everybody to vote.<br>
Elections are not won by a majority of people.<br>
They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now.<br>
As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections, quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a> (1911 – 2004):</i><br>
I know this is a non-partisan gathering, and so I know you can't endorse me.<br>
But I only brought that up because I want you to know that I endorse you [evangelicals] and what you are doing.<br>
(The Roundtable, Dallas, August 1980)</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="promise" align="center">The American Promise</h2>
<blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: medium">This nation … was founded on the principle that all men are created equal.<br>
And that the rights of every man are diminished, when the rights of one man are threatened.<br>
Now is the time for this nation to fulfill its promise. …<br>
<br>
We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. …<br>
The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. …<br>
Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States … to make a commitment … to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy">John Kennedy</a> (1917 – 63), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Report_to_the_American_People_on_Civil_Rights">Civil Rights Address</a>, 11 June 1963.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">[It] is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.<br>
And we <i>shall</i> overcome.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson">Lyndon Johnson</a> (1908 – 73), </i><a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/special-message-the-congress-the-american-promise">The American Promise</a><i>, 15 March 1965.</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.<br>
This note was a promise that <i>all</i> men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." …<br>
<br>
Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere. …<br>
Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. …<br>
[Freedom] is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. …<br>
<br>
We cannot accept these conditions of oppression.<br>
For this is not a struggle for ourselves alone.<br>
It is a struggle for the soul of America. …<br>
<br>
Let us all hope that:
<ul><li>the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and</li>
<li>the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities,</li></ul>
and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.</span><br>
<br>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson">Martin King</a> (1929 – 68)</i><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: medium">Martin Luther King [is] the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation — from the standpoint of:
<ul><li>communism,</li>
<li>the Negro, and</li>
<li>national security.</li></ul></span>
<i>— <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Sullivan">William Sullivan</a> (1914 – 77), Head of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO">COINTELPRO</a>, FBI, <a href="https://features.apmreports.org/arw/king/d4.html">30 August 1963</a>.</i></blockquote></blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCcd18qjy53AecuCpKqjbiZzJWfq3ldtJ7_SG9-wsgGsjrwhBmGukoEgfJgT5qpnjsiVJzusPAdFiamIw5xaGZ79k8TE3SvOOR0WHyOTtnZW3rB7qDD8PQjY2-weGvdQyykevJbKCzaVYb/s1600/Secrets+Of+The+White+House+-+Episode+1.flv_snapshot_26.08_%255B2016.10.23_02.58.39%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCcd18qjy53AecuCpKqjbiZzJWfq3ldtJ7_SG9-wsgGsjrwhBmGukoEgfJgT5qpnjsiVJzusPAdFiamIw5xaGZ79k8TE3SvOOR0WHyOTtnZW3rB7qDD8PQjY2-weGvdQyykevJbKCzaVYb/s640/Secrets+Of+The+White+House+-+Episode+1.flv_snapshot_26.08_%255B2016.10.23_02.58.39%255D.jpg"></a>
(David Grubbin, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/lbj/">LBJ</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/public-broadcasting-system-american.html#top">PBS American Experience</a></i>, WGBH, October 1991)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.">Martin Luther King</a> (1929 – 68):</i><br>
[If] physical death is the price a man must pay to free his children from the permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.#The_Rising_Tide_of_Racial_Consciousnes_(1960)">The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness</a>, 6 September 1960)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy">John Kennedy</a> (1917 – 63):</i><br>
Other people, [George Bernard Shaw] said, "see things and say, 'Why?'<br>
But I dream things that never were, and I say, 'Why not?'"<br>
The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.<br>
We need men who can dream of things that never were, and ask why not?</blockquote>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfvmINxIpic8Q1_x_YJuO2BvkS2_MhAedz7h0xYCAr2zNDWtpLUydFTbHciGTpNrc5fsxS6VU1wiQk5omX6IBhl5MnjtZlcVcdgu7gg-yaaRF075CbSLbsR2I4B11fL6sQtrXCCpLRdTdA/s1600/americaincolor501.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfvmINxIpic8Q1_x_YJuO2BvkS2_MhAedz7h0xYCAr2zNDWtpLUydFTbHciGTpNrc5fsxS6VU1wiQk5omX6IBhl5MnjtZlcVcdgu7gg-yaaRF075CbSLbsR2I4B11fL6sQtrXCCpLRdTdA/s640/americaincolor501.PNG" data-original-width="676" data-original-height="376"></a>
(Freedom Ride, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Riders#Anniston">Anniston</a>, Alabama, 14 May 1961)</div>
<br>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqa4g10AOMJvsyUKn7u-mnIeu5Jy5k-gCMqtcYFKYIbbvL7oPTHCSg2aZALcmhiyi-zCTpBO00f28BA8BVjfChEvRlB0I-YWZ0jYa1kmn-Ptnort8xy2DGBi0fsUEGAlkgQnVlLQf7vbu/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep2.mp4_snapshot_44.42_%255B2021.02.25_01.02.39%255D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqa4g10AOMJvsyUKn7u-mnIeu5Jy5k-gCMqtcYFKYIbbvL7oPTHCSg2aZALcmhiyi-zCTpBO00f28BA8BVjfChEvRlB0I-YWZ0jYa1kmn-Ptnort8xy2DGBi0fsUEGAlkgQnVlLQf7vbu/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep2.mp4_snapshot_44.42_%255B2021.02.25_01.02.39%255D.png"/></a>
<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Thomas">Evan Thomas</a> (1951) [Writer]:</i><br>
Jack Kennedy was very conscious of images.<br>
When the television cameras and <i>Life</i> magazine arrived down South [in 1963,] that's the moment when the federal government cannot sit back anymore.</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIf3NFV8JS48tCwE2T7NeTfb3FSwK9TCeqwNgy9S6O-vjh2wSU_WzkQHmUHbOYMHwgUJwCcNTcZ3y1VB5q9iWlsHBZwjGozQLrdbbegi4FC61lFyy6sS9b-IQ_Ihe6FvPT8lhSA4FbxCS7/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_25.48_%255B2021.03.16_00.10.14%255D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIf3NFV8JS48tCwE2T7NeTfb3FSwK9TCeqwNgy9S6O-vjh2wSU_WzkQHmUHbOYMHwgUJwCcNTcZ3y1VB5q9iWlsHBZwjGozQLrdbbegi4FC61lFyy6sS9b-IQ_Ihe6FvPT8lhSA4FbxCS7/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_25.48_%255B2021.03.16_00.10.14%255D.png"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin9AP7haOLSRVhDblchnvdKQZPMw4rwl0C8TOY2aYRVznO2kUS2Cn0JOdvEIibNm_LVOvtMXziDXtdOizmT094A4P9JNC0z3IcEPdqlMDb8p5o17WkPRUw4NjDku1Ljcs8pZeKKclsMBy4/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_26.09_%255B2021.03.16_00.09.12%255D.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin9AP7haOLSRVhDblchnvdKQZPMw4rwl0C8TOY2aYRVznO2kUS2Cn0JOdvEIibNm_LVOvtMXziDXtdOizmT094A4P9JNC0z3IcEPdqlMDb8p5o17WkPRUw4NjDku1Ljcs8pZeKKclsMBy4/s0/JFK+Biography+Ep4.mp4_snapshot_26.09_%255B2021.03.16_00.09.12%255D.png"/></a>
<a name='more'></a>
<blockquote>The President deputized a Justice Department official to go to Alabama and help get a deal to end "the spectacle," as he called it.<br>
But he refused to push Congress to solve this problem once and for all, by passing federal civil rights legislation that applied everywhere in America.<br>
The solution, he insisted, would have to be worked out by Birmingham itself.<br>
<br>
The protesters did agree to take a break as negotiations began, but as soon as a tentative deal was reached, the segregationists started a new firebombing campaign.<br>
Kennedy sent 3,000 federal troops to the city to keep the peace.<br>
He was worried, he said, that "the Negroes will be uncontrollable." …<br>
<br>
<!--more-->
The pressures of presidency [took] a heavy toll on Kennedy's health.<br>
He required as many as seven injections of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procaine">Novocain</a> in his back in a single day, and was still often unable to bend over to put on his own socks.<br>
He was on:
<ul><li>Codeine, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pethidine">Demerol</a> and Methadone for pain,</li>
<li>corticosteroids to control his Addison's disease,</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paregoric">paregoric</a> for his bad digestion.</li></ul>
He sometimes needed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentobarbital">Nembuta</a>l to help him sleep.<br>
His nights were often long and uncomfortable.<br>
(Susan Bellows, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jfk/">JFK</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/public-broadcasting-system-american.html#top">PBS American Experience</a></i>, WGBH, 2013)</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<h2 id="graham" align="center">God is a Segregationist</h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpvs4yCpTv6uFy63EljXKLTZdKoBksY8oTNQ4ZVt5siSTY6DnN07vftEQAP4eftA9WGpHehdLQfD6N2mk5H-_gg0uLFpzIZLHIn5NnGYDVSKoUAQjcsASYWnsWMJGdQhxGXLUYaQgINC6K/s0/billygraham05.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="944" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpvs4yCpTv6uFy63EljXKLTZdKoBksY8oTNQ4ZVt5siSTY6DnN07vftEQAP4eftA9WGpHehdLQfD6N2mk5H-_gg0uLFpzIZLHIn5NnGYDVSKoUAQjcsASYWnsWMJGdQhxGXLUYaQgINC6K/s640/billygraham05.PNG"/></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQH6a4uyO5x_77lFFAyp8dDEl9ZmFobf0Atj3UTsqJXascP0ojXtv5RrUs6Yaif1bhC3Uwgs6bHUD1U3d-DtpymYapG9X_pLcVyrScQ_UmU_MBjVmgspJW5JC7RxioxBMcJtr-QhBtUbCY/s0/billygraham02.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="947" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQH6a4uyO5x_77lFFAyp8dDEl9ZmFobf0Atj3UTsqJXascP0ojXtv5RrUs6Yaif1bhC3Uwgs6bHUD1U3d-DtpymYapG9X_pLcVyrScQ_UmU_MBjVmgspJW5JC7RxioxBMcJtr-QhBtUbCY/s640/billygraham02.PNG"/></a>
<blockquote><i>Maylon Watkins [Baptist Pastor]:</i><br>
God is the greatest of all segregationists.<br>
He made the white man white, and he made the Black man Black, and I for one will honor God’s creative act.<br>
<br>
<i>Darren Dochuk [Historian]:</i><br>
Billy Graham was born into a South that was heavily segregated.<br>
Graham’s evangelical circles were overtly white.<br>
Evangelicalism was defined by its whiteness. …<br>
[But, by] the early ’50s, Billy Graham has become more progressive in his racial views, so that by 1953, he begins desegregating his revivals.<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Gibbs">Nancy Gibbs</a> (1960), [Journalist]:</i><br>
[Billy Graham] believed in order.<br>
Graham's really is a gospel of obedience.<br>
The whole fundamental principle of civil disobedience, I think, is a hard one for him to really understand.<br>
<br>
<i>Anthea Butler, [Historian]:</i><br>
[Martin] King is advocating for rights for African Americans and for all people.<br>
Graham advocated for power.<br>
Graham advocates for power for himself.<br>
(Sarah Colt, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/billy-graham/#transcript">Billy Graham</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2012/11/public-broadcasting-system-american.html#top">PBS American Experience</a></i>, 2021)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham">Billy Graham</a> (1918 – 2018):</i><br>
I’m afraid that people are getting a distorted idea about American democracy, when they see, for example, rubber hoses and police dogs and all these things being used.<br>
Because I think these are isolated incidents that do not really reflect the mood of the entire country. …<br>
<br>
You cannot legislate morals.<br>
You cannot make people love each other.<br>
That can only come from within.<br>
And whether you are of the white race or the Negro race in the United States, you have an obligation as a Christian to love your fellow man no matter who he may be. …<br>
<br>
A lot of Southerners may be frustrated and angry right now, and many don’t agree with all the changes that have been taking place in the schools, especially this busing for racial balance. …<br>
I really believe that the South will set an example of respect for law that will be a model for others to follow.<br>
(Nixon-Agnew Campaign Ad, 6 September 1970)<br>
<br>
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley_Jr.">William Buckley</a> (1925 – 2008) [Founder, </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review">National Review</a><i>]:</i><br>
[The] White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically.<br>
(Adam Serwer, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/adam-serwer-civility/600784/">Civility Is Overrated</a>, <i><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/12/cirincione-joseph.html#top">The Atlantic</a></i>, December 2019)</blockquote>
<br>
<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFOsaOwMWRyA6VNPntzLcDO_oSnPHnY_FLNCnRGdK2vRtUc8swY5fhcoxLmqmVyjjhT45ABednx27fTSrvoze3rcjUm3EPipf3E87lwim61Pk9q-gABMloTE6n4Y1cZBePexbMba_7a4OY/s1600/PBS.The.Civil.War.by.Ken.Burns.8of9.War.Is.All.Hell.DVDRip.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.mkv_snapshot_00.26.59_%255B2018.02.02_05.37.23%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFOsaOwMWRyA6VNPntzLcDO_oSnPHnY_FLNCnRGdK2vRtUc8swY5fhcoxLmqmVyjjhT45ABednx27fTSrvoze3rcjUm3EPipf3E87lwim61Pk9q-gABMloTE6n4Y1cZBePexbMba_7a4OY/s1600/PBS.The.Civil.War.by.Ken.Burns.8of9.War.Is.All.Hell.DVDRip.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.mkv_snapshot_00.26.59_%255B2018.02.02_05.37.23%255D.jpg" data-original-width="640" data-original-height="480"></a>
(Ken Burns, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1066649/">War Is All Hell</a>, <i>The Civil War</i>, Episode 8, 1990)</div>
<br>
<blockquote><i>Texas Secession Convention:</i><br>
We hold as undeniable truths:
<ul><li>that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity …</li>
<li>that [the African race are] rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable. …</li>
<li>that the servitude of the African race …
<ul><li>is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and</li>
<li>is abundantly authorized and justified by
<ul><li>the experience of mankind, and</li>
<li>the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations;</li></ul>
</li></ul>
while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring
<ul><li>inevitable calamities upon both and</li>
<li>desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.</li></ul>
</li></ul>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_in_the_American_Civil_War#Secession">A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union</a>, February 1861)</blockquote>
<br>
<h3 id="cooke"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_Cooke">Alistair Cooke</a> (1908 – 2004)</h3>
<br>
… I respect more the considerate relations that many Southerners have with the Negroes around them than the glib 'social consciousness' of Northerners and Westerners whose daily life has a guaranteed immunity from Negro problems …<br>
It is is one thing to talk about equality in New York or Oregon and … Mississippi, where there are one million whites and one million Negroes.<br>
[The] mere force of numbers is a threat, if only in the minds of men, to the political and social dominance of the white man.<br>
<br>
(<i>The Court and the Negro</i>, 20 August 1954)<br>
<br>
<br>
I believe that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Monroe">Monroes'</a> solution, shipping negros back to Africa to form their own nations, might have been wise in 1820; but it's a century and a half too late.<br>
I do not know what the realistic solution is. …<br>
I do know … that nothing is more mischievous to good government than splendid rhetoric that doesn't pay off. …<br>
<br>
I have tried to show that the original institutions of this country still have great vitality.<br>
[That much] of the turmoil here springs from the energy of people who are trying to apply those institutions to forgotten minorities. …<br>
<br>
Now look what's being asked:
<ul><li>the rehousing of the population,</li>
<li>the chance of free education through college,</li>
<li>the strangling of the drug traffic at the roots, and</li>
<li>the radical overhauling of:
<ul><li>the prisons,</li>
<li>the jury system,</li>
<li>the courts.</li></ul>
</li></ul>
Now this is going to call for … a massive subsidy of taxes, <i>white</i> taxes, beyond our experience.<br>
<br>
As an historian, I'm not sure an integrated society will work.<br>
As an old reporter, I suspect the blacks will not get more than Lincoln's "the mass of whites", who live here in the ratio of nine to one, is willing to give them.<br>
[Perhaps the] only sensible hope is that the mass of whites have greatly changed since Lincoln's day (or will change) so that the blacks … can become an equal race, separately respected. …<br>
<br>
[Since 1972, the] black revolution has achieved less and more than it promised. …<br>
I would never have dreamed:
<ul><li>that by today most of the big cities of America would have black mayors — Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Washington; or</li>
<li>that there would be black generals in the armed forces; or</li>
<li>that my bank manager would be a young black woman. …</li></ul>
<br>
(The More Abundant Life, <i>Alistair Cooke's America</i>, Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1973 / 2002, emphasis added)<br>
<br>
<br>
[Never] before in history have free men faced the threat of a tyranny so large, so merciless, and so painstaking as that with which the Soviet Union confronts us.<br>
Dangling between these two unique worlds —
<ul><li>a world of unequalled slavery, and</li>
<li>a world of incomparable riches</li></ul>
— we build the storm-cellars and hope for the best.<br>
<br>
(Getting Away from It All, <i>Letter from America</i>, 11 September 1953)<br>
<br>
<br>
[The] United States has just suffered the most unmitigated defeat in its history …<br>
What Kennedy started with the quiet infiltration of 'military technicians' is about to end, fourteen years later.<br>
It would no doubt have ended much sooner if … the United States hadn't believed that it had a duty to stem the advance of Communism in Asia …<br>
[But] what if, after all, the domino theory is correct?<br>
<br>
(The End of the Affair, <i>Letter from America</i>, 11 April 1975)<br>
<br>
<i>Would you like to know more?</i>
<p><ul><li><a href="https://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/green-army-persons-of-interest.html#king">Free At Last</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/voter-suppression-in-the-united-states-of-america/12439052">Voter Suppression</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszmvb">Rolling back the Voting Rights Act</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scepticwatch.blogspot.com/2018/01/brothers-in-arms.html#capital">Forever Free</a></li></ul></p>
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<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamWklkLA2-mY3kbBT_6q3JBoSkmYeLG6EIYZXPc5baCoFiDmutoG90jkacuE52HzN4wQU6wwQ0uygLWH89-6QCiSigN7hWQUtZDu0kylTLzE26juLI9c9D5I1xlUkonGppyVIasfa9yMz/s0/whywehate303.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamWklkLA2-mY3kbBT_6q3JBoSkmYeLG6EIYZXPc5baCoFiDmutoG90jkacuE52HzN4wQU6wwQ0uygLWH89-6QCiSigN7hWQUtZDu0kylTLzE26juLI9c9D5I1xlUkonGppyVIasfa9yMz/s481/whywehate303.PNG"/></a>
(Geeta Gandbhir & Sam Pollard, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8303492/">Tools and Tactics</a>, <i>Why We Hate</i>, 2019)</div>
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<blockquote><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Barton">Edmund Barton</a> (1849 – 1920) [First Prime Minister of Australia, 1901-3]:</i><br>
[The] doctrine of the equality of Man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishmen and the Chinamen.<br>
(1901)<br>
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<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Deakin">Alfred Deakin</a> (1856 – 1919) [Prime Minister of Australia, 1903-4, 1905-8, 1909-10]:</i><br>
It is not the bad qualities, but the good qualities of these alien races that make them so dangerous to us.<br>
It is their inexhaustible energy, their power of applying themselves to new tasks, [and] their endurance and low standard of living, that make them such competitors.<br>
(1901)<br>
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<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill">Winston Churchill</a> (1874 – 1965):</i><br>
I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to:
<ul><li>the Red Indians of America, or</li>
<li>the black people of Australia.</li></ul>
I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that:
<ul><li>a stronger race,</li>
<li>a higher-grade race,</li>
<li>a more worldly wise race …</li></ul>
has come in and taken their place.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_Commission">Palestine Royal Commission</a>, 1937)<br>
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<i>Wikipedia:</i><br>
Under the terms of the [Slavery Abolition Act (1833)], the British government raised £20 million to pay out for the loss of the slaves as business assets to the registered owners of the freed slaves.<br>
In 1833, £20 million amounted to 40% of the Treasury's annual income or approximately 5% of British GDP at the time.<br>
To finance the payments, the British government took on a £15 million loan, finalised on 3 August 1835 …<br>
The money was not paid back by the British taxpayers until 2015 …<br>
The long gap between this money being borrowed and its repayment was due to the type of financial instrument that was used, rather than the amount of money borrowed.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833#Payments_to_slave_owners">Slavery Abolition Act 1833</a>, 18 December 2020)<br>
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[Haitian rebels decisively defeated the French] at the Battle of Vertières on 18 November 1803, establishing the first nation ever to successfully gain independence through a slave revolt. …<br>
In July 1825, King Charles X of France … sent a fleet to reconquer Haiti.<br>
Under pressure, President Boyer agreed to a treaty by which France formally recognized the independence of the nation in exchange for a payment of 150 million francs. …<br>
The enforced payments to France hampered Haiti's economic growth for years … and the country did not finish repaying it until 1947.<br>
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti">Haiti</a>, 6 March 2021)</blockquote>peaceandlonglifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09059683906637157584noreply@blogger.com