The Water's Not the Only Place You Find Sharks in the Outer Banks

   During a recent vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I learned [being an arm-chair fancier of sharks],  that there had been 5 unprovoked attacks in North Carolina waters since 2010, alone. That's a lot--no matter how much officials soft-pedal the fact.

   Worldwide statistics of unprovoked attacks are still very small, but are growing, according to researchers. We think of Australia, Hawaii, California, Florida, South Africa, the Gulf of Mexico, as more typical locations of encounters.  But historically--since about the 1910's--North Carolina and Georgia waters have had a very significant share of unprovoked shark attacks.

   Let me tell you about the encounter we had on land. Driving toward the toll bridge to the barrier islands late in the evening, we passed a dimly lit sign stating, among other things: "Two axle vehicles--$6.00."

   The lady toll collector said to my-son-in-law who was driving: "That'll be eight even."

   He replied: "But the sign says, six dollars."

   "Correct. Have a happy Fourth."  [of July].

   We paid $6.00. As we drove wearily toward our final destination another 30 miles after the bridge, having been on the road for the past 12 hours, we discussed what just happened and how to react.

   We decided it would be too tough to prove now, recognize which booth and which toll collector. Plus late at night, who do you report to, when no one's around? We did agree that the collector must be making some decent side money if others did not notice the solitary, dimly lit sign just before the toll booths--when drivers are more focused on which lane is shortest and if someone is merging into your lane.

   Given the relatively high number of shark encounters off the Outer Banks, we wrote it off as just another encounter--but with a different breed of shark.

                                    Photo from KQED-QUEST short film - www.flickr.com/photos/kqedquest
                                                                             

Who Are the Politicians Talking To?

  As we approach the inevitable conclusion of the "Debt Ceiling Debate" [Debacle?], one wonders who our leaders are talking to. It sure doesn't seem to be the mainstream of the American people.

  Various polls in past months have painted a very confusing picture [think swabs of paint on a modern art canvas] of the outlooks and attitudes of "mainstream" Americans.

   The conclusions range from an ideological divide that has not existed since the American Civil War, whose 150th Anniversary we are commemorating this year, to a more traditional, centrist,"silent majority"--confused, apprehensive, and getting more and more irritated with all our elected officials. One recent poll suggests a majority of respondents is inclined to vote everybody out of office next time around.

  So, who are the politicians talking to? The Pew Research Center--in doing a statistical sample--[mathematicians say these do reflect reality...okay, let's say for now they do] states that 18% are liberal, 15% conservative, 16% populist, 9% libertarian, and 42% "ambivalents" (their word.)

   We don't need to go into specific definitions of, let's say "populist", or the currently popular "progressive", which is not noted in the Pew study, to see that the overwhelmingly largest percentage is "ambivalents." In traditional political science language this would mean "centrists" or "middle-of-the roaders."

   Centrists may not make a lot of noise, because they are busy with their daily lives--often overcoming the results of burdensome legislation. But they are the ones who voice their views at election-time--often in the form of "upsets"--what pundits scratch their heads about, because they did not see it coming. They were too busy covering the more extreme views and sometimes rants, of the "outsiders," the "rogues". [Funny thing: Sarah Palin's documentary "The Undefeated" reportedly has taken a dive at the box-office and is now on pay-per-view.]

   A majority of responders in recent polls are faulting both sides in Congress for the looming default ready to occur on August 2. These certainly are not die-hard partisans of the "Conservatives" or "Liberals".

   Extremists think they are playing to the crowd...but it's a very small one.  Media coverage bloats extreme positions for its own reasons--mainly viewership or readership..[and, lately, ownership by ideologues or unscrupulous money hounds]. Too often our leaders are seduced into repeating those extreme views--thinking that's a reflection of  "main street"....not really, it's more like a "blind alley." You'd think they knew better: the "Center" rules.

   Politicians, unfortunately, have to play their roles--often in a straitjacket with the word  "(pick one, any one) Party stitched into it. A report in McClatchy Newspapers (7/26/11) detailed numerous lawmakers doing the obligatory "flip-flop" on raising the debt ceiling since 2002. Most significantly--among many others--President Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling in 2006 when he was a Senator, and current House Speaker, John Boehner, voted more than once to raise the debt ceiling limits under the Bush Administration--raising the limit to $6.4 trillion and $8.2 trillion respectively.

   Writer Tony Pugh stated in his analysis: "In the battle to raise the debt ceiling, politics usually trumps principle."

   As the sides posture to what they think is their base--and it's a majority by no means--they should remember the immutable truth of the arena in which they act---the Center is watching and the Center does not like to be taken for fools.







   






 
 

You Can't be a Martyr if You're a Murderer

  Now that Ayman al Zawahri has set himself up as the next leader of al Qaida and new Target Number One....It is time to consider the real meaning of the word: Martyr.

  Muslim radicals have stolen the word and been misusing it ever since they started their murderous rampages throughout the world.

   According to standard, accepted usage a martyr is someone who suffers death, rather than renounce his or her faith.  A martyr is someone who is put upon by others who demand that he or she renounce their faith.

  Martyrdom is never self-described or self-defined. That status or condition is bestowed upon someone who suffered death at the hands of others who held them captive, specifically for not renouncing their faith.

  At no time in history has a Martyr been anyone who deliberately planned and executed mass murder for some twisted cause. That is more in the realm of Blasphemy.

  "Martyring oneself" is an oxymoron. Martyrdom cannot be self-generated. It is probably used by the manipulators who lure confused souls to commit mass murder in the hope of seeing their forbidden fantasies realized in paradise. [But that's another story.]

  Let us honor Martyrs of all ages and all faiths, and not allow their legacies to be debased by mass murderers trying to usurp their mantle.

  You can't be a Martyr if you're a Murderer.

St. Stephen

Has Metropolis Come Full-Circle? ---Urban Farming To Restore Cities

   While urban planners scratch their heads about how to restore decaying central cities, a growing movement is proving that, maybe, history goes in cycles, after all.

    The big trend, in older--especially "rust-belt" cities--is to go back to the soil--to cultivate urban gardens--especially in blighted and often deserted stretches that used to be vibrant neighborhoods near downtown.

   Urban Homesteading is playing a dual role:  Filling the growing demand for healthy, organic, locally grown produce; and in the scarcity of ideas how to bring back depressed core neighborhoods, is becoming a quaint form of urban development.

  It's kind of ironic: We started off as hunter-gatherers, then learned to cultivate the land and became farmers.  The feudal age fostered an agrarian economy, protected by territorial castles. Division of labor helped foster arts and crafts, which led to the guilds [unions of sorts] and the growth of towns, more division of labor and time to think and innovate.

   This helped foster the coming Industrial Age and the explosive growth of cities, luring tens of thousands into teeming urban centers.

   With added inventions and innovations--especially the automobile-- squeezed populations began to look outward again toward a patch of greenery outside of the city--which in many cases had become a stifling megalopolis.

  After World War II suburban growth exploded and a unique and attractive phenomenon appeared--the Suburban Mall, together with the Industrial Park, which lured people and industry out of the heart of cities.

   What remained were decaying urban centers with people whose jobs had left town, and where those who could leave, left. Various social ills took over and "doctors" of every stripe--political, social, economic, civic--prescribed solutions from afar, but very few of them made "house calls" to see if the solutions were realistic. (But, that's another story.)

   There are hopeful signs that central cities are starting to "come back"--not least of which has to be the realization that if we keep outrunning urban decay by leapfrogging further into exurbia, we'll end up in the outskirts of the big city next to us, whose people are leapfrogging our way.

   Farmers are complaining  nationwide that suburban (now exurban) growth is chewing up farmland. Where alfalfa grew now stands a 5,000 square foot manor house with acreage for grass cutting.

   That's why it is a delicious irony--that one of the prominent solutions to curbing urban blight is the establishment of farms in central cities, where entire blocks are abandoned.  This is good and healthy for urban residents--with the trend toward organic, healthful, local produce--and  for the new urban farmer, as entrepreneur.

   And, who knows, maybe that new farmer, will become the "go to" guy or gal when farmland in farm country becomes more and more scarce. Why? Because the Chinese, Saudi Arabians, and other countries are buying up thousands of acres of American farmland to grow grain for their own export--bypassing purchases from American farmers.
 
   So, the Urban Garden, may help the re-birth of the central city  in more ways than one. Vast tracts of blighted, empty city scapes, may become our new breadbaskets, and those tending them, our new moguls-- rivaling millionaire techno geeks.

  What goes around, comes around.

   

 

Kill or Capture Osama bin Laden? No Need to Anguish--There is Precedent

   The execution by American commandos of Osama bin Laden, the mass-murdering mastermind of El Quaida, is a direct parallel to the American ambush of Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor--which triggered WWII in the Pacific.
   Bin Laden publicly declared war on the United States in August of 1996 on behalf of the "people of  Islam" in a long tract entitled "Declaring War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places." He and his followers acted upon that Declaration and killed thousands of innocent people in years since then...including the devastating attack upon America on September 11, 2001, which, alone took the lives of  nearly 3,000 innocent people.
   That state of war still exists, even though neither bin Laden, nor any of his followers, were leaders of countries--(or were they?)...hmmm, President Bush did say El Quaida and Iraq's Saddam Hussein were in cahoots; the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and even though they went into hiding, no one called a cease fire or truce as they shut the door behind them in Kabul and went into the mountains to fight from cover. And, lately, many people suspect leadership circles in Pakistan were sympathetic to and maybe even hiding bin Laden for the past 10 years.
   Admiral Yamamoto  prepared and executed the plans for the attack on Pearl Harbor which took the lives of more than 3,000 innocent people---until that surprise attack, it was peacetime in the Pacific. He remained the mastermind of Japanese war strategy afterwards.
   In April of 1943 U.S. code-breakers learned that Yamamoto was making an inspection tour of some Japanese-held Pacific islands near Bougainville in the Solomons.
   President Franklin Roosevelt was informed and told his Secretary of the Navy: "Get Yamamoto!" The Navy dispatched a squadron of P-38 Lightning fighters to intercept and shoot down his plane. It was a very risky operation with the U.S. planes flying more than 430 miles one-way with drop-tanks for extra range. They flew most of the way between 10 and 50 feet above the waves to avoid detection by the Japanese. The Americans intercepted Yamamoto's flight, dispatched 6 escorting Japanese Zero fighter planes and shot down both bombers in the formation, one of which held Yamamoto. [one P-38 was lost.]
   The ambush was a major blow to Japanese morale--news of his death was held back in Japan for more than a month.
  The war against El Quaida was still in full gear when U.S. Intelligence finally located Osama bin Laden. Not in the same words, as Roosevelt, but President Barack Obama gave the go-ahead to: "Get bin Laden!"
   Since 9/11 Osama bin Laden had declared publicly through his followers that he wished to be "martyred" and would not be taken alive. Reports floated that he had several circles of protectors around him (...read, Pakistanis, maybe?) Supposedly, he had given orders for his own personal guards, including among them several sons, to shoot him before he would fall into American hands.
   There is no question, that he considered himself to be in a warlike situation and that the end would be in a warlike confrontation.
   The death of Osama bin Laden is a major blow to his followers and sympathizers, just as Yamamoto's was to Japan. The comparison is a little out of kilter, only because in the new age of warfare the field of battle is not clearly defined. But the strategy and tactics of destroying the enemy remain the same.
   Osama bin Laden was killed in a war of his own choosing and a casualty of the tactics he had, himself, chosen: stealth, surprise, and fatality coming from the shadows.

Possible Meaning of "Team Six"

  We heard of the mysterious commando group called "Team Six" that executed the  mass-murderer Osama bin Laden. Officially, that Navy SEAL team is not even supposed to exist. But officials do not deny it either. (We should also give credit on this operation to U.S. Army helicopter pilots who flew "Team Six" in and out of Pakistan--no small feat in and of itself.
 Why call it "Team Six"? It sounds so...well, so simple. But, it's probably an innocuous, innocent name for a deadly official hit squad.
  To "Deep Six" something is to destroy it. The roots are in old navy parlance: to "Deep Six" something or to send someone to "Davy Jones' Locker."
  It's very likely that "'Team Six" are commandos specially trained to "Deep Six" targets in this new age of warfare.
   News reports stated that it was also members of "Team Six" who saved the U.S. captain of a container ship many months ago. Somali pirates had him in a boat drifting far behind the vessel when a "Team Six" commando shot a pirate at far range at night in a boat bobbing in high swells.
  The two times "Team Six" was mentioned in the news involved a precision "hit".  
  Based on what's reported thus far, "Team Six" sounds like a very logical designation. Maybe it will even revert to slang: "The candidate was 'Team Sixed'."  "Chicago 'Team Sixed' the Miami Heat in the playoffs." [just sayin']
   As for Osama bin Laden and "Davy Jones' Locker".......

 



  

China's Looking for Trouble

   The Chinese government, effective immediately according to the BBC, has forbidden broadcast of any TV programs until July.  In their place are officially produced programs extolling the virtues of Communism in celebration of the Communist Party's 90th Anniversary.
   Are they asking for it, or what?....Imagine close to a billion people being cut off from a diet of detective programs, dramas, sports, and--most of all--soap operas.
   This could be the delayed revolution that was spawned in Tienanmen Square in 1988.