"Dead Hand" System Still Operational

SS-18 "Satan" Russian ICBM launch.

On December 8th, 1991 the Belovezh Agreement was signed, thus dissolving the Soviet union and establishing a Commonwealth of Independent States.

Known to only a few Americans at the time was the fact that the Soviet Union had developed what was, essentially, a doomsday machine which became operational in 1985. The system was developed in response to the Russian perception that Ronald Reagan would initiate a massive pre-emptive strike on the Soviet Union.

Details of the system, known by the Soviets as "Perimeter" and by the West as the "Dead Hand" system, are as follows:

"Perimeter ensures the ability to strike back, but it's no hair-trigger device. It was designed to lie semi-dormant until switched on by a high official in a crisis. Then it would begin monitoring a network of seismic, radiation, and air pressure sensors for signs of nuclear explosions. Before launching any retaliatory strike, the system had to check off four if/then propositions: If it was turned on, then it would try to determine that a nuclear weapon had hit Soviet soil. If it seemed that one had, the system would check to see if any communication links to the war room of the Soviet General Staff remained. If they did, and if some amount of time—likely ranging from 15 minutes to an hour—passed without further indications of attack, the machine would assume officials were still living who could order the counterattack and shut down. But if the line to the General Staff went dead, then Perimeter would infer that apocalypse had arrived. It would immediately transfer launch authority to whoever was manning the system at that moment deep inside a protected bunker—bypassing layers and layers of normal command authority. At that point, the ability to destroy the world would fall to whoever was on duty: maybe a high minister sent in during the crisis, maybe a 25-year-old junior officer fresh out of military academy. And if that person decided to press the button ... If/then. If/then. If/then. If/then.

Once initiated, the counterattack would be controlled by so-called command missiles. Hidden in hardened silos designed to withstand the massive blast and electromagnetic pulses of a nuclear explosion, these missiles would launch first and then radio down coded orders to whatever Soviet weapons had survived the first strike. At that point, the machines will have taken over the war. Soaring over the smoldering, radioactive ruins of the motherland, and with all ground communications destroyed, the command missiles would lead the destruction of the US."

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The problem is that this system is STILL OPERATIONAL. The other issue is that while the Russians have been saying that they have detargeted their missiles, the fact that Perimeter is still operational means that the missiles must have targeting data since it will not be possible to add the data once the system is activated. Thus if China launches a massive surprise nuclear strike on Russia and their missiles are targeted at the U.S., then Perimeter will launch the missiles at the U.S.

Now that we know Perimeter is still active, it places our relationship with the Russians in a bit of a different light than was previously the case. It also gives Putin a huge ace in the hole. (Don Rich has done some excellent research on Putin and Russia, his earlier posts are worth checking out)

The Russians know they can pretty much do what they want with impunity since we would not risk complete destruction by ever launching a first strike at Russia------certainly Obama would never consider this as an option.

Sleep well tonight everyone.

The Beast of Kandahar..........the RQ-170

The United States Air Force has confirmed the existence of the RQ-170 Sentinel Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. It has been seen in Afghanistan since 2007, but the USAF did not confirm it actually existed until December 4th, 2009. Due to its stealthy nature and menacing appearance, it has been nicknamed the "Beast of Kandahar."

Now, I would rather have Uncle Sugar spending our tax dollars on the homefront, but I suppose it is keeping some defense contractors employed, at least.

Since the Taliban lack radar, some have been speculating as to why this aircraft would be deployed to Afghanistan. A relatively good possibility could be that the Beast is being used to keep tabs on the Pakistani weapons research facility at Kahuta. It is also well known that the Chinese have been helping Pakistan with their nuclear and conventional weapons programs.

The stubby, but sturdy, landing gear could indicate that it can be launched and recovered by an aircraft carrier. It could be used to gather electronic radar and weapons signatures from Iran in preparation for a strike on that country as well.

It should also be a very quiet aircraft and able to get close to an enemy. It does not carry any weapons, but has extensive sensor arrays. This neat piece of tech was developed at the famous Lockheed "Skunk Works" facility and the 30th Reconnaissance Squadron, based in Tonopah, operates the RQ-170.

As an aside, the Predator UAV is manufactured by General Atomics subsidiary General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. General Atomics does some interesting things:

GA’s Energy Operating Group (Energy Group) plays an important role in nuclear research and development, and is well-regarded for contributions in nuclear power, magnetic fusion, and inertial fusion applications. The Energy Group converts fundamental theoretical research into authentic solutions, producing advanced technologies for use today.

GA’s Electromagnetic Systems (EMS) Division focuses on the military and commercial applications of advanced electromagnetic technologies, including power generation and distribution, magnetic levitation, and systems design and engineering. The EMS Division supports government customers, which include the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation. (My note: Notice the reference to magnetic levitation.)

General Atomics may be developing some type of advanced electro magnetic or atomic engine technology which could give a UAV essentially unlimited range and an ability to stay aloft for weeks a time.

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At any rate, this is interesting stuff.

Obama throws Secret Service under the bus. (Update)

The below photo (via Polo Contacts Worldwide) was taken at a Rock The Vote event on June 9, 2005. With the Salahi's are Barack Obama and Randy Jackson, among others.

When I first heard about the Obama party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi, my initial thought was that some Secret Service agents are going to be unemployed soon. My other thought was that this could be some type of deliberate lax security. That some folks high up may want something bad to happen to Obama so the SS is ordered to be less diligent.

It turns out that it is actually business as usual with Obama. He is actually friends with Tareq and Michaele Salahi, but since it has been discovered that Tareq is a board member of the American Task Force on Palestine. (Well he was until Nov. 25, 2009) This group has ties to Hamas and to certain Saudi Wahabist sects.

According to the americalovesobama.com website, the Salahis had communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official now denies she helped the couple.(Yeah, right)

So the real story is that Obama has ties to yet another scumbag and he (Obama) did not want the scrutiny, so, he tossed the Secret Service under the bus. The Salahis were invited to the event, but were deliberately left off the official guest list. (I'm sure it was to avoid scrutiny of the couple, but that backfired and the cat is now out of the bag)

Update: MSNBC has an article where Pentagon official Michele Jones denies getting the Salahis an invitation, but later in the article it states: "That night the Salahis showed up at the White House, where they said they stood in line at multiple security checkpoints. They said they showed their passports to three Secret Service agents, who compared the Salahis’ IDs against their own paperwork. After the security checks, the Salahis were allowed to enter the party and mingle and have photo ops with the president and vice president." This sounds like what actually transpired. Again, Obama is just trying to cover his tracks.

American Education

Letter to the University of Minnesota from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. (Looks like U of M is trying hard to be part of the Obamanation):

 

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
202 Morrill Hall
100 Church Street S.E.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

Sent via U.S. Mail and Facsimile (612-625-3875)

Dear President Bruininks:

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE; www.thefire.org) unites leaders in the fields of civil rights and civil liberties, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of liberty, legal equality, academic freedom, due process, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and religion, and freedom of association on America's college campuses.

FIRE is deeply concerned about new policies at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities proposed by the College of Education and Human Development. According to documents published by the college (see http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cehd/teri), it intends to mandate certain beliefs and values-"dispositions"-for future teachers. The college also intends to redesign its admissions process so that it screens out people with the "wrong" beliefs and values-those who either do not have sufficient "cultural competence" or those who the college judges will not be able to be converted to the "correct" beliefs and values even after remedial re-education. These intentions violate the freedom of conscience of the university's students. As a public university bound by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the university is both legally and morally obligated to uphold this fundamental right.

The following is our understanding of the facts. Please correct us if you believe we are in error.

In early 2009, the College began to reassess its teacher education program through a Teacher Education Redesign Initiative (TERI). TERI's seven task groups included a "Race, Culture, Class, and Gender Task Group." This group defined very specific ideas about "cultural competence," as described in its

final report (later slightly amended) of July 16, 2009. Although the task group report admits "that cultural competence remains hard to define and that current definitions lack consensus," the group emphasizes:

Nonetheless, let there be no doubt that we consider cultural competence to be an indispensable characteristic of all beginning teachers and, hence, an obligatory goal of teacher education. In fact, we believe that the following outcomes that we present should serve as an overarching framework from which beginning teachers frame the rest of teacher education courses and practice. [Emphasis added.]

The task group's full explanation of "cultural competence" includes specific definitions of required beliefs and values. Under the heading "What Successful Beginning Teachers Need to Know & How to Assess and How to Teach Them," the task group identifies four categories of attributes that teachers "need." Each category is described as an "outcome" and includes various means of "assessment." The following excerpts from each section demonstrate many of the unacceptable impositions planned by the college to mandate that teachers' thoughts, attitudes, values, and beliefs conform to the task group's ideas of "cultural competence."

On the level of "Self," the task group seeks to require that:

Our future teachers will be able to discuss their own histories and current thinking drawing on notions of white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression.

Future teachers will understand that they are privileged & marginalized depending on context ... It is about the development of cultural empathy, if you will. Teachers first have to discover their own privilege, oppression, or marginalization and also are able to describe their cultural identity.

Future teachers will recognize & demonstrate understanding of white privilege[.]

Future teachers will understand the importance of cultural identity and develop a positive sense of racial/cultural identity[.]

On the level of "Self & Others," future teachers must take the Intercultural Development Inventory, "which measures five of the six major stages of the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity." Their "Cultural Intelligence" also will be assessed. They must reveal a "pervasive stereotype" they personally held about an identity group, and evidently must argue in a personal essay that this view has now been "challenged" on the basis of their experiences with that identity group. They also will be assessed regarding "the extent to which they find intrinsic satisfaction" in being in "culturally diverse situations."

In the area of "Self & Schools":

Future teachers will recognize that schools are socially constructed systems that are susceptible to racism. That schools and classrooms are often structured in ways that advantage and disadvantage some groups but are also critical sites for social and cultural transformation.

In this area, the task group further elaborates that a student's

Autoethnography should reflect appreciation for how dominant pedagogical styles, school curricula, behavioral expectations, personal prejudices of school personnel (among other things) often convey overt and covert messages that devalue the culture, heritage, and identity of minority students.(nutjob add: There is no value in a loser culture.) Writings must show awareness that, when minority individuals actively resist and reject the implicit and explicit messages attacking their ethnic identity, educational achievement is negatively impacted....

In addition, this area demands that "Future teachers create & fight for social justice."

Finally, in the area of "Self & Society":

Future teachers will understand that despite an ideal about what is considered common culture in the United States [what the college identifies as "the American Dream"], that many groups are typically not included within this celebrated cultural identity and more often than not, many students with multi-generational histories in the United States are routinely perceived to be new immigrants or foreign. That such exclusion is frequently a result of dissimilarities in power and influence.

One of the sources for this critique is the concept of the "myth of meritocracy in the United States."

In the following section of the task force's report on "Questions, Barriers & Possible Ways to Overcome," the task force presents several ominous ideas for overcoming barriers to implementing this curriculum:

That all beginning teachers be required to sign up for a certain number of diversity dialogues/seminars/workshops as a requirement for graduation?

Have students take course(s) that meet these outcomes as a condition for admission?

Develop clear steps and procedures for working with non-performing students, including a remediation plan.

In the final section, "What Makes the University of Minnesota's Programs Distinctive from Other Programs in the State?" the task force even presumes to demand commitments from the college's faculty, in violation of their academic freedom:

Every faculty member at our university that trains our teachers must comprehend and commit to the centrality of race, class, culture, and gender issues in teaching and learning, and consequently, frame their teaching and course foci accordingly.

The task force's definition of teachers' "cultural competence"-elaborated in the final version of the task force report, excerpted above and published online-appears to be the college's official definition. In addition, it appears that the college fully intends to implement these recommendations. In an October 28, 2009, proposal to The Bush Foundation, the college promises that it will revise its curriculum toward the "development of cultural competence." Although further details are not provided in the proposal, the college has offered no more recent or more specific articulation of the term than what appears in the Race, Culture, Class, and Gender Task Group's final report.

Making matters yet worse, however, the college in its proposal promises to start screening its applicants to make sure they have the proper "commitments" and "dispositions":

Develop admission procedures to assess professional commitments. We recognize that both academic preparation and particular dispositions or professional commitments are needed for effective teaching. [Emphasis added.]

Moreover, in its proposal the college promises to begin using "predictive criteria" to make sure that future teachers will be able to develop an acceptable level of "cultural competence." (nutjob add:WTF?) Apparently, those who do not pass the political litmus tests set by the college and who seem too set in their beliefs will be refused admission.

This redesign of the college's policies is far in excess of what the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has ever mandated regarding "dispositions." FIRE notes that even NCATE removed from its accreditation standards the vague and politically loaded recommendation that education students demonstrate a belief in "social justice" in order to graduate.

FIRE urges you to consider the Supreme Court's ruling in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), which invalidated mandated allegiances to political ideologies at public schools. Writing for the Court, Justice Robert H. Jackson declared:

Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.

The Court ultimately concluded that the Constitution intended to protect precisely "the sphere of intellect and spirit" from "all official control."

Moreover, as the Supreme Court declared-and as I am sure you will agree-"[t]he college classroom with its surrounding environs is peculiarly the ‘marketplace of ideas.'" Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169, 180 (1972) (internal citation omitted). That marketplace cannot function when a college mandates the beliefs, dispositions, and values of its students and suggests that students who do not conform lack "competence" and need remediation.

The University of Minnesota also should remember the Supreme Court's timeless expression of the important role of our universities in Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 250 (1957):

The essentiality of freedom in the community of American universities is almost self-evident. No one should underestimate the vital role in a democracy that is played by those who guide and train our youth. To impose any strait jacket upon the intellectual leaders in our colleges and universities would imperil the future of our Nation. No field of education is so thoroughly comprehended by man that new discoveries cannot yet be made.... Scholarship cannot flourish in an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. Teachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, to gain new maturity and understanding; otherwise our civilization will stagnate and die. [Emphasis added.]

FIRE understands that the college intends to consult with the university's general counsel regarding its "dispositions assessment" in the summer of 2010. Let us urge you today not to wait until the college wastes valuable resources in taking several more months to plan such an unconstitutional and morally unconscionable set of demands on future teachers.

Indeed, the university's general counsel should be asked to comment as soon as possible. If the Race, Culture, Class, and Gender Task Group achieves its stated goals, the result will be political and ideological screening of applicants, remedial re-education for those with the "wrong" views and values, and withholding of degrees from those upon whom the university's political reeducation efforts proved ineffective. While the task group appears to have attempted to take matters of "social justice" to heart, it seems to have persuaded the College of Education and Human Development to adopt requirements that, by any non-totalitarian standard, are severely unjust and impermissibly intrude into matters of individual conscience. As these demands for "cultural competence" stand today, they are a severe affront to liberty and a disservice to the very ideal of a liberating education that appears to be behind the task group's ideas. It is a shame that the College of Education and Human Development has embraced such an illiberal view of education.

There is still time for the college to change course. A new set of "Phase II" task groups was established in October 2009 for the purpose of "moving forward on structural dimensions" of the plan. This year's applicants are already being warned about the possible changes, but the new "[d]ispositions assessment" is not scheduled to occur until next summer.

Please recognize your legal and moral obligation to respect the freedom of conscience of the future teachers of Minnesota. The College of Education and Human Development has a chance to demonstrate that it shares an understanding of the basic premises of a liberal education and truly embraces human diversity on its most profound and essential level. Great teachers come in all shapes and sizes, from all backgrounds and all beliefs. Let the college's policies reflect this reality.

FIRE requests a response by Thursday, December 17, 2009.

Sincerely,

 

Adam Kissel

Director, Individual Rights Defense Program

============================

 

It always seems to be those with the least knowledge thet think they are the most knowledgable; hence the trouble with academia. This is just one more step closer to the spark that will ignite the powderkeg.

Forgotten History: Civil War Coffee

Although it is not something most people stop and think about, have you ever wondered how coffee ended up as our national drink instead of tea?

You can thank the Union Army for that. Most historians are aware that the Nazis pumped their troops full of amphetamines during WWII to keep them going. (Ya know, Blitzkrieg) Far fewer know that the Union Army was pumping their men full of coffee for the same purpose.

While it is generally accepted that the superior industrial base was ultimately responsible for the Union victory, of equal importance, in my opinion, was the fact that the Union kept their troops pumped full of caffeine.

The top photo is of a reproduction Union coffee wagon as supplied by the United States Christian Commission. Although the USCC helped mostly Union soldiers, they also supplied some Confederate soldiers as well. From their website:

"There is a group of heroes that served upon the battlefields of the Civil War without rifles or cannons. They came with bibles, bandages and the love of Christ. These were the heroes of the U.S. Christian Commission.

Where was God during this terrible suffering and bloodshed? The answer lies most notably in the stories of heroism exhibited by the United States Christian Commission and the delegates that so fearlessly and faithfully served the soldiers with the gospel. Formed in the fall of 1861 by the Young Men’s Christian Association to “take active measure to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of the soldiers in the army, and the sailors and marines in the navy, in co-operation with chaplains and others.

During the war, five thousand delegates volunteered and distributed over $6,000,000 worth of goods and supplies (in 1860's valuation) to the soldiers and sailors of the Union army on the battlefields, camps, hospitals and prisons. They also served the soldiers in grey when the opportunity arose. It is estimated that the service rendered by the delegates of the Christian Commission equal the continuous work of one man for 658 years!"

As an aside, nicotine, via the tobacco leaf, helped keep the Southern soldier on his toes, though to a much less extent than his Union counterpart. Nevertheless, now and again Union and Confederate soldiers would meet up and swap coffee for tobacco. Another factor in Northern performance was the fact that the North had better rations.

From the U.S Army Quartermaster Foundation website: "Who shall have this?" Sergeant John W. Fuller asked in a voice loud enough for all the assembled troops to hear. He stood beside two ordinary army blankets laden with precious contents. One contained forty-five carefully divided mounds of ground coffee, the other an equal number of piles of sugar. Together, they represented a four-day ration of coffee and sugar for Company C of the 100th Regiment of the Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

Sergeant Fuller was pointing to one of the heaps of coffee. No matter how carefully they tried, it was impossible to divide the coffee equally; the company had no scales. As a result, each mound was always a bit larger or smaller than the others. In order to distribute the ration, First Sergeant Sanford W, Meyers, facing away from the coffee and the company, read from the muster roll and called out a name at random. Private Theodore F. Upson stepped forward to claim this most important part of a soldier's ration, then, its sweetener.

Salt pork and hardtack, the rest of the marching ration were to be weighed and issued later by the regimental commissary but that wasn't important now. The company focused its attention on the blankets. The weather in this third week of June, 1864 was wet and unseasonably cool, as it had been for the four previous weeks of the campaign to Atlanta. The source of that next, all sustaining cup of hot coffee, now ranked in importance with the Confederate enemy entrenched less than a mile away - Private Upson returned to the ranks with his fair, if not quite equal share of coffee, and the issue continued, by random name, till each pile of coffee and sugar had been claimed."

Union coffee was typically issued green and had to be roasted and ground, not always an easy task in a combat environment, but eventually the troops got to guzzle their java.

After the war ended, returning Union troops kept up their desire for coffee and eventually the South would come to demand it as well.

More on the Ukraine Black Lung H1N1 mutation.

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Here is the latest from recombinomics:  

 

Ukraine Dead Increase to 344 - Sequences Released
Recombinomics Commentary 22:45
November 18, 2009

1,502,345 Influenza/ARI

85,904 Hospitalized

344 Dead

The above tally is from the latest update from the Ukraine Ministry of Health.  The 344 dead represents an increase of 16 from yesterday's total, which is similar to recent daily increases (see map).  The steady climb in fatal cases highlights the importance of the release of sequences by Mill Hill a WHO regional center in London.

Included in the sequences from 10 isolates were four HA sequences with the receptor binding domain change, D225G, which was found in the one throat and three lung samples.  The change was not found in isolates from nasopharyngeal washes, suggesting D225G may lead to high concentrations of H1N1 in patient's lungs.  The high concentration of virus leads to a cytokine storm that destroys the lungs in a few days.

The finding of D225G in lung tissues raises concerns rergarding sequencing of isolates from nasopharyngeal swabs.  The monitoring of this important genetic change in the receptor binding domain may require sampling of lung tissues or fluids.

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In other related news, it was discovered that President Obama owns a nice chunk of stock in Baxter, a large vaccine manufacturer. Also, U.S. congress is pressing for legal immunity for vaccine makers.

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==================================================== ==================================================== From the Baxter International website: "DEERFIELD, Ill., October 15, 2009 – Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX) today reported solid financial results for the third quarter of 2009, and provided its fourth quarter and updated full-year 2009 financial outlook.

 

 

 Net income grew 12 percent to $530 million from $472 million reported in the third quarter of 2008. Marketing authorization from the European Commission for CELVAPAN H1N1 pandemic vaccine using Baxter’s Vero cell technology. CELVAPAN H1N1 is the first cell culture-based and non-adjuvanted pandemic influenza vaccine to receive marketing authorization in the European Union." =============================================

 

 

Is that a sweet deal or what? Invest in high profit pharmaceutical companies and then have congress give them legal imminuty if they screw up a vaccine so the investors don't take a hit. How can I get in on that action?

We aren't a third world country yet, however...

Record numbers go hungry in the U.S.. Too bad I have to go to news sources outside the U.S. to find out what is going on in our country. Here's the latest from guardian.co.uk.: (My bold)

 More than a million children regularly go to bed hungry in the US, according to a government report that shows a startling increase in the number of families struggling to put food on the table.

President Barack Obama, who pledged to eradicate childhood hunger, has described as "unsettling" the agriculture department survey, which says 50 million people in the US – one in six of the population – were unable to afford to buy sufficient food to stay healthy at some point last year, in large part because of escalating unemployment or poorly paid jobs. That is a rise of more than one-third on the year before and the highest number since the survey began in 1995.

The agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, said: "These numbers are a wake-up call … for us to get very serious about food security and hunger, about nutrition and food safety in this country."

Vilsack said he expected the numbers to worsen when the survey for this year is released in 2010.

The report said 6.7 million people were defined as having "very low food security" because they regularly lacked sufficient to eat. Among them, 96% reported that the food they bought did not last until they had money to buy more. Nearly all said they could not afford to eat balanced meals. Although few reported that this was a permanent situation throughout the year, 88% said it had occurred in three or more months.

Nearly half reported losing weight because they did not have enough money to buy food.

The number of children living in households where there were shortages of food at times rose by nearly one-third to 17 million. The report says that most parents who did not get enough to eat ensured their offspring received sufficient food but that more than 1 million children still suffered outright hunger.

The worst affected states are in the south with Mississippi having the largest proportion of its population enduring shortages of food followed by Texas and Arkansas. More than half of those affected are minorities, principally black people and Hispanics.

Millions more Americans do not go hungry only because they are so poor they receive government food stamps or rely on handouts from food banks such as Feeding America. In some states, such as West Virginia, one in six of the population is on food stamps. (I will add that nationally one in ten people are on food stamps)

Vicki Escarra, head of Feeding America which runs 200 food banks across the country feeding 25 million people, described the report as "alarming" and noted that the situation is continuing to deteriorate.

"Although these new numbers are staggering, it should be noted that these numbers reflect the state of the nation one year ago, in 2008. Since then the economy has significantly weakened, and there are likely many more people struggling with hunger than this report states," she said.

Feeding America said there had been a "dramatic increase" in requests for emergency food assistance from food banks across the US. It said that food banks in some parts of the country were requesting more than a 50% increase in assistance than over a year ago.

"Our network food banks are calling us every day, telling us that demand for emergency food is higher than it has ever been in our history," said Escarra.

The principal cause is unemployment, which has risen past 10%, as well as increasing numbers of people who have had their hours cut back or been forced in to minimum wage jobs. Even before the recent economic collapse many working people were struggling to meet rising living costs, such as those who drive long distances to their jobs in rural states who were hit by the rising cost of fuel.

Feeding America said 40% of the people it helps live in families with at least one working adult.

Charities say that many of those who fall into financial difficulties take years to get back on their feet and so the problem is likely to persist for years.

========================

 The above numbers actually make some sense as do the latest figures that show that over 6% of homeowners are 60 days or more behind on their mortgage. (No duh!! No job, no make the mortgage payment.)

Here is the latest from Nouriel Roubini:

"Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening. While the official unemployment rate is already 10.2% and another 200,000 jobs were lost in October, when you include discouraged workers and partially employed workers the figure is a whopping 17.5%.

While losing 200,000 jobs per month is better than the 700,000 jobs lost in January, current job losses still average more than the per month rate of 150,000 during the last recession. (My edit to add that 52% of college and HS grads cannot find work) 

Also, remember: The last recession ended in November 2001, but job losses continued for more than a year and half until June of 2003; ditto for the 1990-91 recession.

So we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. The jobs just are not coming back."

==========================

Retail may not do too bad as I think many folks will spend out of desperation. If that happens, the retail numbers will be down after the first of next year. Conversely, people could see the handwriting on the wall and not spend much this holiday season. We will see what the stats show.

An additional unknown is what will happen on the international front. The Chinese are openly chiding Obama on America's reckless spending and when a major incident happens, such as Israel attacking Iran, which is looking more and more likely, then who knows what the domestic economy will do.

 

 

Is Humanity Worth Saving?

As I mentioned in a previous post, our son's school lets us visit for lunch. I usually really enjoy these visits. Today, both the wife and I were able to go and it was a treat for our son to see both of us. Usually, only one of us is able to go for one reason or another.

 

Our son (2nd grader) can pick up to two friends to join him for lunch. One of the kids he picked today had been an abused child. The birth father lost custody after throwing scalding water on his son. The kid was 2 or 3 at the time. I had a chance to observe this kid as he was eating. He wore a shirt that came down to his forearms. I counted at least eight different significant scars on his forearms and one on his nose. His little arms shook slightly but constantly and his speech indicated he had some neurological issues.

 

 Matthew 7:1 advises "Judge not lest ye be not judged." Sometimes that is much easier said than done. What kind of evil does it take to harm an innocent child? Should not the evil doer be punished?

 

Evil has always been with us and there has been murder and many other horrible crimes committed throughout history.  In recent times though, we seem to be putting the pedal to the metal in terms of the ever increasing evil we do to each other.

 

From AP Nov. 4, 2009: MEXICO CITY — "Three doctors and a nurse have been arrested for allegedly selling newborns after telling mothers their babies had died at a private hospital in Mexico City, authorities said Wednesday." 

 

From Reuters (Moscow): Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house.

 

From AC:  Suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell appeared in a Cleveland courtroom Wednesday. His lawyer asked for bond, stating that Anthony Sowell was a Cleveland resident, had a medical condition, a pacemaker. Prosecutors argued that the man was an imminent threat to the community and anywhere he might be. Judge Ronald Adrine denied bond and called the allegations against Anthony Sowell some of the most serious he had ever seen. And although he was only being charged with five counts of aggravated murder, the judge also knew that five more bodies had been found at Anthony Sowell's east Cleveland residence, bringing the total number of bodies recovered in the house and on the grounds to 11.

 

From WJZ13: Police in North Carolina say more charges are coming in the case of a missing 5-year-old girl whose body was found dumped along a wooded road. .....Particularly disturbing were the accusations against Shaniya's mother, 25-year-old Antoinette Davis. Police charged Davis with human trafficking and felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for sex.

 

From FOX News: BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. —  A man angered after a dispute with his wife confessed to tossing his four young children off a bridge, authorities said Wednesday as they searched murky waters for the bodies.

 

And the list goes on and on. Not everyone is bad, of course, but I do have to wonder, considering the worldwide scope of death and destruction we are seeing, if it isn't time for God to just go ahead and drop the hammer on us.

 

What kind of future do our children have?

 

Another Ukraine H1N1 Update.

Well, it looks like Drudge is finally reporting on the Ukraine H1N1 outbreak. (This should have been picked up by all of the major media by now. )

 

Here is the latest from recombinomics:

 

Ukraine Dead Increase to 239 - Still No Sequences
Recombinomics Commentary 20:26
November 12, 2009

1,253,558 Influenza/ARI

65.615 Hospitalizations

239 Deaths

The above numbers are from the latest update from the Ukraine Ministry of Health.  The number of deaths increased 26 to 239, so 50 new deaths have been reported in the past 2 days.  Although the virus continues to spread (only 5 of the 27 reporting areas have not topped the epidemic threshold) many of the deaths are still being reported from the hard hit areas in western Ukraine(see map).  However, the biggest jump in cases was 6.096 in Kiev to 89,339.

The steady increase in the high level of deaths continues to raise concerns about genetic changes in the H1N1.  In this morning's press conference the WHO discussed the need for prompt treatment with Tamiflu, but did not address genetic changes in Ukraine. Only general statements on the stability of the H1N1 were made in response to questions on genetic changes in Ukraine. Today's conference is a week after the last comments on the Ukraine H1N1 sequences which indicated that there were no large changes, but an update would be forthcoming in a "few days".  It has now been over a week and no updates on genetic changes have been forthcoming.

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In other news, the FDA is still authorizing minimally tested H1N1 vaccine for use on infants and children:

FDA NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS

For Immediate Release: Nov. 12, 2009

Media Inquiries: Pat El-Hinnawy, (301) 796-4763, patricia.el-hinnawy@fda.hhs.gov
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA Expands Approved Use of H1N1 Vaccines to Include Infants and Children

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of the CSL Limited’s 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine to include children ages 6 months and older. This vaccine was previously approved only for use in adults, ages 18 years and older.

“Because children are among those most vulnerable to the 2009 H1N1 virus, having a broader range of children’s vaccines available is an important step in responding to the H1N1 outbreak,” said Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., commissioner of food and drugs.

The company’s 2009 H1N1 vaccine is manufactured and tested using the same well-established licensing processes that have been in place for many years for the company’s seasonal flu vaccine. The expanded approval also covers the company’s seasonal flu vaccine.

The approval was based on a study of the company’s seasonal flu vaccine in children showing the vaccine's safety and efficacy in inducing antibodies to protect against influenza. These efficacy findings supported approval under FDA's accelerated approval regulation, which helps safe and effective medical products for serious or life-threatening diseases to become available sooner to the public.

Common adverse events experienced by children after administration of seasonal and H1N1 vaccines typically include pain, redness and swelling at the injection site as well as, in some cases, irritability, loss of appetite and drowsiness.

As with any medical product, unexpected or rare serious adverse events may occur. FDA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other government agencies to enhance the capacity for adverse event safety monitoring during and after the 2009 H1N1 vaccination program.

Because CSL’s seasonal and H1N1 monovalent vaccines contain a small amount of egg protein, they should not be administered to anyone allergic to eggs or egg products.

The vaccines will be available in single-dose, preservative-free, pre-filled syringes and in multi-dose vials that contain thimerosal, a mercury derivative, as a preservative.

Both vaccines are manufactured by CSL Ltd. of Australia.

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Feel free to read between the lines on that latest FDA announcement. I.E. "We'll approve the vaccine because the previous products appear safe and we'll do adverse event monitoring after the fact to see how many kids the minimally tested vaccine screwed up."

 

Your tax dollars at work.

 

Latest on Ukraine H1N1

 

The latest:

 

189 Deaths Reported in Ukraine - Belarus to 223K Cases
Recombinomics Commentary 21:32
November 10, 2009

1,122,188 Influenza/ARI

57,286 Hospitalized

189 Deaths             

The above numbers are from the latest report from Ukraine.  Numbers in all categories continue to rise,  The two locations with the biggest increases were Kiev (8062 to 76,285) and Kiev Oblast (6,522 to 56,688).  These increases indicate the H1N1 is spreading east and the high numbers in the Kiev region may be associated with the jump of cases in the Gomel region in Belarus, with 48,754 cases in influenza/ARI (see map). Belarus also reported 8 fatal pneumonia cases fro the region, and larger numbers of fatalities had been reported earlier for Minsk.  For the entire country, Belarus reported 223,349 cases, further supporting the H1N1 spread in the region.

Although the number of fatalities in Belarus is increasing, and may rival Ukraine, samples were sent to Mill Hill from Ukraine at the beginning of the month, and an announcement of sequencing data has been delayed.

The steady increases of H1N1 cases and hemorrhagic pneumonia deaths in Ukraine, as well as similar numbers reported for Belarus, increase concerns about the sequencing delays.

The sequences should be made public immediately. 

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(See my previous post. )

Continuing on,

Our church has a mission family in the Ukraine. They live in Kherson. Here is an excerpt from their latest blog:

 

"When we came back from Kiev, we hit the ground running and haven't slowed down since. Jamie went back to his responsibilities at church, the kids started new school year, and Agatha keeps me busy. The break came last weekend with the Ukraine shutting down for 3 weeks because of the swine flu. Schools are closed, universities are closed, daycare centers were open (so parents can go to work), but now some have closed since there was no heat (we had freezing temperatures at night for a few days last week). Our kids don't have gymnastics, dance, art class for the three weeks. We keep doing school at home, of course."

Imagine if we shut down the U.S. for three weeks! This is a really nasty strain of H1N1. It is spreading like wildfire and I hope it does not make it to the U.S.  Stay tuned..............