I have to laugh when I hear Wayne LaPierre talk about Boston.

Long many years ago when my youngest son was still an infant there was an incident where I wish I was wise enough to have been locked in.

Guns and the predicament one finds themselves is completely by circumstance. 

We lived in a house about 150 feet in from the road accessed by a driveway. The drive went around the back of the house and for the most part the back door was more or less the main door to the house. There were three steps to the back door and then a screen door. Once inside the screen door there was a breeze way where at the far end was a cabinet where ammunition and hunting guns were kept.

The breeze way was about thirty feet by ten. After entering the back door and walking across the breeze way there was a door to the house. Now the screen door to the outside was not the only door, there was also a hardwood door with four glass windows to match the door to the inside of the house which entered into a family room / dining area. The house was all wood construction and it was a good old house.

This was a sunny day in spring about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. No lie and no coincidence to the Boston tragedy. Truth, promise. The two wooden doors were open to allow air to circulate through the house with the screen door closed of course. The baby was asleep upstairs and my toddler was playing in the corner of the family room. I was in the kitchen beginning dinner.

All of a sudden, my toddler yelled, "Mommy" and I turned around to find a man the size of a mountain standing in the room between myself and my son. It was not my husband. I was startled and he took his badge out and introduced himself. I stated, "Shouldn't you have knocked first." I walked over to my son and picked him up, he was not as startled as I was.

The officer was a detective. He stated I was lucky to be alive. See, the house sat on a few acres with a stream running through it, pasture for horses and a densely wooded area along the back pasture. The horses were in barn at that time after being out for awhile that morning through early afternoon. I didn't appreciate his statement until he asked me to sit down and searched the house.

I don't remember where the dog was, but, for as good a watch dog as she was she didn't let out a peep that day. I suppose he approached her and pet her to submission. The detective had locked the outside and inside doors after he entered.

He came back downstairs and told me there was a bank robbery that day. The man had been on a cross country motorcycle and they didn't know where he was except they were searching the entire area. The robber was armed and dangerous. I remember how I felt. I was drained, scared and grateful all at the same time. The detective told me to keep the dog inside, keep the doors locked and if anything at all was to bring my attention to something odd I was to call. He said he could be reached at any time by calling the number on his card and to check later to be sure all was clear.

I followed him out to the porch and promised I would do nothing else, except, tend to my children, stay inside and keep the doors locked. I turned as he waited for me to enter the house again as he was getting in his unmarked car. I closed the breeze way door and turned to go inside and it hit me. Oh, dear god, the guns.

I walked to the end of the breeze way behind a now locked door and opened the cabinet. They were there. All three of them including a 12 gauge double barrel shot gun which was used for hunting. I didn't recall if all the ammunition was there, I had supposed it was, there was no real inventory.

I closed the door to the cabinet and then went inside. I locked the inside door and it seemed as though forever before my husband came home. I realize I was a lucky woman that day. I was not shot or killed by the weapons in my own house. My sons were safe and my husband was home.

The robber was caught about a mile away within the hour after the detective had left. My husband called the phone number on the card and it was a police officer that answered. The police officer explained we were safe, but, to remember it was always better to keep the doors locked even on the sunniest of days.

I do know how it feels to be in a home where it is a safe haven and by the luck of the draw to be alive. There are many scenarios that could have occurred that day, but, didn't. I had very well trained officers who knew exactly what they were doing. They saved my life and the lives of my children. So, when I hear Mr. LaPierre state all those folks in Watertown and the Boston area are probably wishing they had a gun that day; he is grossly wrong.

You see, fighting a gunman well armed, dangerous and capable is a completely different ball game than anyone can imagine. And to realize that danger lurks at the most inopportune times is a reality I wish on no one.

I find Mr. LaPierre's statements offensive and characteristically crude. 

People died in Boston. They died on a sunny spring day when they never expected it. That violence was facilitated in the USA through the easy access to weapons and munitions. We don't have to live in a country that dangerous, but, thanks to Mr. LaPierre and his convention addicts, we do.

In recent months there has been an interest in Former Vice President Gore.

There is every indication others try to put him in a bottle and it just doesn't work. Of all things, Michael Lind seeks to label him. Is it possible to label a dedicated scholar that has greater understanding, knowledge and connection to real people than society is comfortable to assign him?

I think it is an insult to man who traveled to Antarctica and sought the knowledge of scientists long before the Climate Crisis is found to be real. That seems to be the problem with Mr. Lind's article. 

He wants to debunk the Former Vice President before he becomes validated as a real threat to Wall Street as it exists today.

Democracy, Hacked (click here)

‘The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change,’ by Al Gore

By MICHAEL LIND

Published: February 8, 2013

....Still, the faults of “The Future” have less to do with Gore’s particular approach to his material than with the shortcomings of the genre itself; futurist polemics tend to alternate between exposition and exhortation. When the alternation is too rapid, we get passages like the following. “There are already several reckless practices that should be immediately stopped: the sale of deadly weapons to groups throughout the world; the use of antibiotics as a livestock growth stimulant; drilling for oil in the vulnerable Arctic Ocean; the dominance of stock market trading by supercomputers with algorithms optimized for high-speed, high-frequency trades that create volatility and risk of market disruptions; and utterly insane proposals for blocking sunlight from reaching the Earth as a strategy to offset the trappings of heat by ever-mounting levels of global warming pollution.”...

I think it is far easier for the USA to laugh at genius than actually see it. That is the real problem here, now isn't it? Why not make the Former Vice President a cartoon than a scholar. After all, he might have to be respected.

By Steve Fishman
Published May 5, 2013

...By mansion standards, the house is modest. (click here) The most famous feature of the Gore living room, Tipper’s drum kit, has been moved out since they separated in 2010. Off the living room is Gore’s writing room, with floor-to-ceiling whiteboards, where he spent the better part of two years—nights and weekends included—writing his latest book, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, 533 pages, 154 of which are endnotes and bibliography. Shortly after finishing his manuscript, he sold his cable channel, Current TV, in a deal worth $784 million—Al Gore is now richer than Mitt Romney, according to Forbes magazine. Add that to his books, his investment company, his Oscar-winning movie, and his Nobel Prize, and you have a flawless American success story—except, of course, for one little detail....

Now, what was it he said? Hmmmmm? Oh, yeah. The severe storms the world now faces belongs to a warming plant caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gases.

Hitting to close to home to admit he was absolutely correct the entire time. Is there any reason the 2000 elections were rigged by purging thousands of registered democratic minority voters in Florida violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

Global carbon dioxide levels set to pass 400ppm milestone (click here)
The concentration of carbon in the atmosphere over the next few days is expected to hit record levels

John Vidal
The Guardian 
Monday, 29 April 2013

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 399.72 parts per million (ppm) and is likely to pass the symbolically important 400ppm level for the first time in the next few days.

Readings at the US government's Earth Systems Research laboratory in Hawaii, are not expected to reach their 2013 peak until mid May, but were recorded at a daily average of 399.72ppm on 25 April. The weekly average stood at 398.5 on Monday.

Hourly readings above 400 ppm have been recorded six times in the last week, and on occasion, at observatories in the high Arctic. But the Mauna Loa station, sited at 3,400 m and far away from major pollution sources in the Pacific Ocean, has been monitoring levels for more than 50 years and is considered the gold standard.

"I wish it weren't true but it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400ppm level without losing a beat. At this pace we'll hit 450ppm within a few decades," said Ralph Keeling, a geologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography which operates the Hawaiian observatory....

So, while the USA's government, lined with juvenile thinkers that count on rhetoric rather than genius, blew off any idea there was actually a Climate Crisis, there are many who were as dedicated to the truth and accepting of the leadership.

We’re excited to announce today that ten U.S. cities are now on board with fossil fuel divestment! They include: Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, Berkeley, CA, Richmond, CA, Boulder, CO, Bayfield, WI, Madison, WI, State College, PA, Eugene, OR, and Ithaca, NY.

Posted by Jamie Henn
04/25/13

Last fall, (click here) Seattle started the trend when Mayor Mike McGinn committed to keep his city funds out of fossil fuel companies and push the city’s $2 billion pension fund to pursue divestment. 

Then, last week, Ithaca, NY became the first East Coast city to commit to divestment. Ithaca’s Mayor, 26-year old Mayor Svante Myrick, is one of the youngest mayors and youngest African-Americans elected in US history. He agreed to pursue divestment after meeting with a group of local high school students who urged him to act in order to protect their future. 

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco followed suit, voting unanimously to urge the city’s $16 billion retirement fund to divest over $583 million from 91 different fossil fuel companies. The San Francisco fund is the largest that our campaign has targeted so far. We’re still going to need to put some serious pressure on the Retirement Board to follow through with divestment, but as a long-time board member told a local paper, “We’d give it consideration if one supervisor asked us to look at it — and in this case, it was the full board.”...

By all means continue to make something out of nothing when it comes to war, after all it is so much easier to comprehend and deal with, wouldn't you say? Hating and acting on hate, violence and causing violence is, after all, something everyone can do without compromising the idea they are too stupid to reach with real insight. Might effect the ratings after all. It makes the politics a 'basic instinct' rather than the values of a sincere First World society.

It would seem as though Italy doesn't have an early warning system.

Previous to 2010, it was four decades since a tornado in Italy.

...While so-called tornado alley runs (click here) through the midwestern United States — in a wide band running through Texas in the south and upward through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and as far north as Minnesota — the United States National Severe Storms Laboratory has often pointed out that it’s possible for tornadoes to occur anywhere.

Tornadoes as powerful as F5 have struck in Europe before, including Italy.

A September 1970 Italian tornado outbreak started in Padua and ended in Venice, leaving a trail of death in its track through the highly populated region. Thirty-six people died.

A more recent event was the triple tornadoes that struck near Venice, Padua, and Vicenza in July 2010, which resulted in the death of a Verona man. Several other tornadoes hit Italy in 2012, including a November 28 event that resulted in 22 injuries....

"Morning Papers" - Its Origins (click here)

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

I take it there was no moment of silence or pray at the NRA Convention for those dead due gun violence.

No matter what philosophy one holds about guns in our society there is always reason to recognize the dead.

It is awareness. It is a way of saying there is a sincere understanding things have to change. According to both sides of the issue things have to change. For those that see the vast pollution of guns on our streets it is a matter of regulation. For those that believe being armed is the only answer to equate the killing fields it is a matter of empowerment and putting guns in the hands of all people.

For each person there is a point of view, but, there can be no mistaking there is an element of death in the gun economy that needs to be addressed. By ignoring the dead those at the convention simply dismissed the problem. They can justify it any way they want, but, in realizing there is no reverence for even children that had their lives snuffed out at the muzzle of a gun proves this is about gun sales and money, not quality of life.

Where does it stop? When are the police put ahead of gun owner ego? The police officer in this video died.

This video featuring Perry is about glamorizing violence. It isn't about safety. It isn't about reverence for the power of the weapon and how it can be used against citizens. It isn't about the reality of carrying such a weapon and turning the streets of the USA into Baghdad. It is about ego. It says, "Guns are for Sale and so am I." This is a Governor's answer to gun violence in the USA? It is sensationism for attention. That weapon is available today and has absolutely no purpose in this society.

"Good night, Moon."

Waning Crescent

15 percent full

Google Moon (click here) records the historical events  between the Moon and Human.

By Erik Derr
May 05, 2013 04:02 PM EDT

It may (click here) or may not be enough to cause the hearts of space buffs to jump a few beats, but a New Hampshire auction house is offering a monitored readout of Neil Armstrong's heartbeat taken the moment he first stepped onto the surface of the moon,

Amherst-based RR Auction will take bids on a section of the electrocardiogram results, which showed Armstrong had a normal heartbeat during his historic first lunar encounter....

There are fifty SBIs - State Bureau of Investigations

There is absolutely nothing in the way of a consolidation of information to bring about a national network to reduce and eliminate extremism in the USA.

"Sharing is Caring"

There is no lack of funding or interest by Obama's cabinet.

Partnering to Better Understand Violent Extremism (click here)

To counter violent extremism (CVE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) works with a broad range of partners to gain a better understanding of the behaviors, tactics, and other indicators that could point to potential terrorist activity within the United States, and the best ways to mitigate or prevent that activity.

We are an important partner in supporting the National Strategy on Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism, which President Obama released on Aug. 3, 2011.

Supporting Local Communities

As part of its effort to support local networks to counter violent extremism, DHS has launched a number of core initiatives:

• DHS Conferences and Workshops on CVE: With our federal partners, DHS hosts conferences and workshops for law enforcement to better educate them about CVE.
• Training Initiatives:  DHS is working with DOJ, and has trained hundreds of thousands of front line officers on Suspicious Activities Reporting and CVE. 
• Grants: DHS has prioritized prevention activities through our grants that directly support local law enforcement efforts to understand, recognize, prepare for, prevent, and respond to terrorist pre-cursor activity, and separately to raise public awareness and vigilance through the If You See Something, Say Something campaign.

International Partnerships

DHS also has CVE partnerships with the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, and Australia, as well as partnerships with international law enforcement organizations such as Europol. 

• For the past year, DHS, Europol, and E.U. partners have exchanged information on U.S. and E.U. based fusion center best practices, CVE training standards, and research and case studies, including a joint case study on the 2011 Norway attacks.
• DHS signed a U.S.-Australia Joint Statement on Countering Transnational Crime, Terrorism, and Violent Extremism in Canberra in May 2012. 
• Since 2010, DHS has partnered with Canadian counterparts to share best practices and research related to CVE and promote community-based and community driven efforts.  

There is no shortage of expertise in the USA.

For over 90 years, the Anti-Defamation League (click here) has fought against bigotry and anti-Semitism by exposing and reporting on hate groups and other extremists who seek to harm perceived enemies and to undermine our democracy.  Today, ADL’s Center on Extremism continues our mission to expose and document the groups and individuals whose ideologies and activities perpetuate hatred and extremism.  To this end, the Center on Extremism has created an online resource, Extremism in America, which serves as a guide to prominent extreme movements, groups, and leaders in the United States....

There are many people in the USA already knowledgeable about USA extremism.

The Southern Poverty Law Center

Intelligence Report, Spring 2013, Issue Number:  149

By Mark Potok, Senior Fellow

The Year in Hate and Extremism (click here)

Capping four years of explosive growth sparked by the election of America’s first black president and anger over the economy, the number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment “Patriot” groups reached an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012, while the number of hard-core hate groups remained above 1,000. As President Obama enters his second term with an agenda of gun control and immigration reform, the rage on the right is likely to intensify.

The furious reaction to the Obama administration’s gun control proposals is reminiscent of the anger that greeted the passage of the 1993 Brady Bill and the 1994 ban on assault weapons supported by another relatively liberal Democrat — Bill Clinton. The passage of those bills, along with what was seen by the right as the federal government’s violent suppression of political dissidents at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in the early 1990s, led to the first wave of the Patriot movement that burst into public consciousness with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The number of Patriot groups in that era peaked in 1996 at 858, more than 500 groups fewer than the number active in 2012....

The American Friends Service Committee (click here) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action. Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, we nurture the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social relations and systems.

If We Don't Teach Peace is a short (16 min) documentary made for the purpose of exploring the importance of teaching skills and attitudes that lead to nonviolence and a culture of peace. The Center for Nonviolent Solutions, a non-profit organization, is highlighted and the case-study of a high school that CNVS conducted programming with is used. This film is dedicated to William P. Densmore, co-founder (along with Michael True) of CNVS.

Proud of your heritage. You know the one that is ethnic. Irish. German. Polish.

In the USA, the melting pot, we all self identify with our ethnic heritage.

Former Major Nidal Malik Hasan was a Palestinian. Born in the USA. In Virginia. He was a native born American.

But, he parents were from Palestine. To be exact, al-Bireh in the West Bank.

When does self-identification with genetic heritage take a different tilt? Don't tell me for one minute there weren't self-radicalized Irish in the USA. I know there was. I had two uncles, second generation in the USA, that absolutely mourned Northern Ireland. A grandmother, first generation in the USA, that could not stand the sight of Queen Elizabeth II. 

Don't tell me this is new, it isn't and I know it isn't. My family never built bombs or found identity over the internet or thought turning against the USA was ever an answer, but, they were self-identified back to Ireland and had strong opinions and reactions to Northern Ireland.

A Profile of Mahmud Mansur Nidal: The Alleged Dagestani Connection to Boston Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev

...While some newspapers and Western media (click here) have incorrectly reported that Nidal is an ethnic Chechen, he is actually from Dagestan and is half ethnic Kumyk and half Palestinian (www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/57925.html).  The Kumyks—the third largest ethnic group in the republic of Dagestan—are a Turkic speaking people who are of Mongol descent....

...Whatever ties existed between Tamerlan and Nidal, they did not last long.  Mahmud Mansur Nidal was 19 years old when he was killed in a police operation in Makhachkala on May 19, 2012...

It doesn't really add up that Tamerlan was radicalized in Dagestan. He even surprised himself when he finished assembling his bombs ahead of schedule. He was shooting from the hip while becoming his own one man military for a cause he never understood, but, gave him an identity other than the one he was failing at due to being linked to FBI records.

His failure to boxing and his failure in achieving his American citizenship after ten years were all linked to an FBI profile that even the FBI didn't pay attention to.

We may be missing an opportunity to change the dialogue in the Middle East. Much of the extremism resulted because of Western domination of the Muslim culture to exploit oil resources. 

The extremism is not without it's educated leadership. A leadership responsible for the dialogue as it exists today.

I believe they would like to change the dialogue and find greater political success than they are now realizing. I would hate to think The West relishes their failure only to return to their prior status and failures. 

There is a sincere opportunity in Egypt to change the dialogue with the Muslim extremism in the Middle East. There are respected leaders in Egypt on both sides of the issue.

There are parties in Egypt that need to resolve the extremism and bring the people together. Dare I say, this meeting of the minds is as important as resolving the Israel - Palestine issue.

I might point out the jihadi-Salafi had not come to a political resolve until the election of Mohamed Morsi. I think we have their attention now.

It was the radicalized Salafis that attacked the Benghazi consulate. It is the factionalization that provides insight to the willingness to be lead. The dialogue can be changed.

The tragic assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi (click here) was the latest in a series of attacks by the country’s increasingly active Salafis. In late August, armed Salafi groups demolished Sufi shrines, mosques, and mausoleums in Tripoli, Misrata, and Zliten.  Earlier this year, Salafis desecrated British World War II graves, attacked the Tunisian consulate over an art exhibit in Tunis they deemed offensive, bombed the offices of the International Red Cross, and detonated an improvised explosive device at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.  But such attacks are hardly proof of Salafism’s growing influence over the country.  Rather, they are symptoms of an intense re-composition and fractionalization of the movement, between quietist, “politico,” and militant strands.  More importantly, they reveal the Salafis’ anguished search for relevance in a country that is already socially conservative, but that has soundly rejected dogmatic political actors in favor of technocratic ones. 

Isolation does have a role to play in any radicalization.

Page 22

Living within and as part of a diaspora provides an increased sense of
isolation and a desire to bond with others of the same culture and religion.
Within diaspora Muslim communities in the West, there is a certain
tolerance for the existence of the extremist subculture that enables
radicalization. For the individual, radicalization generally takes place in an
atmosphere where others are being radicalized as well.

It has little to do with immigration. McVeigh was not an immigrate, but, he was radicalized by an idea he was right about injustice and the problem was the government, hence, the bombing of The Federal Building. There is no exclusivity on symbolic terrorism with Muslim extremists. 

The Kelly Report goes on to detail an understanding about the jihadi-Salafi movement. It is a culture that seems to resolve to extremism, but, the trajectory is more interesting in recognizing where we are failing to recognize dangerous extremism.

New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, authorized a study about radicalization in The West.

I have some problems with the report in that it concentrates on Muslims. 

I don't think Commissioner Kelly believes Muslims are the only people radicalized. I also don't believe he hates Muslims. Nor do I believe he seeks to remove any other possibility that can cause danger to citizens.

I respect Commissioner Kelly and find his study valuable. It is a good launching point to create a clear understanding of how police and protection from such individuals melds into the practice of law enforcement.

Radicalization happens in the USA, too. It was happening before the attacks of September 11, 2001. I am not sure there is much difference in the process of extremism, which is what radicalization is, but the results no matter the impetus to the thoughts are the same; dead people.

THE RADICALIZATION PROCESS (page 19 of the report - click here)

The radicalization process is composed of four distinct phases:

• Stage 1: Pre-Radicalization

• Stage 2: Self-Identification

• Stage 3: Indoctrination

• Stage 4: Jihadization

Each of these phases is unique and has specific signatures associated with it. All individuals who begin this process do not necessarily pass through all the stages and many, in fact, stop or abandon this process at different points. Moreover, although this model is sequential, individuals do not always follow a perfectly linear progression. However, individuals who do pass through this entire process are quite likely to be involved in a terrorist act.

involved in a terrorist act.

According to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the grievances that fuel radicalization are diverse and vary across locations and groups. Radicalization frequently is driven by personal concerns at the local level in addition to frustration with international events.

I cannot believe the NCTC has a "Kids Zone (click here)." Really?

I don't mind saying I am dense about what this is all about. 

I don't get it. 

Why would a child want to know about counter-terrorism? 

I thought that was a grown up issue.

No?

I thought the Tic-Tac-Toe was okay, but, what's the point?

The point to the entry is there is a clear understanding that grievances provide a platform for radicalization.

Yes, I think it is in a way. (click here) I thought that the uncle had it right, you know, and when he said that their problem was one of making a success of their lives in the new world, so to speak. I mean he called them losers...

It's Sunday Night

"High Ideals" by Elbow (click here for official website)

There's a laddered tear in my high ideals
Like I took a chair on the battle field
And any noble fire that was burning in my chest
Is acid in my belt at the very best

There's a bayonet in my family things
It was made in the USA to defend the king
And though the sinew that thrust
And all the bones it splintered are dust
It's passed from hand to hand
With the wedding rings

Oh settle down little heart of mine
Oh settle down you're doing double time
You're so far away and she's right there
By your side
Oh settle down little heart of mine

Thank you, Israel. You solved Russia's problem.

Now the region can begin to stabilize. I would expect all missile silo doors to be closed around the world at this point.

"Initial reports point (click here) to these explosions being a result of Israeli missiles that targeted the research center in Jamraya," SANA said. Israel has said it will not allow sophisticated weapons to flow from Syria to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and a heavily armed foe of the Jewish state.

Whether anyone wants to admit it or not Israel just saved millions of lives. I know Israel understands what it means to save millions of lives from destruction of their right to exist.

Now, Jordan, Lebanon and the Arab League can begin to thank Israel for removing such a horrible danger allowed to exist because Assad would not sign a simple treaty.

Israel took care of it's own people and sovereignty by eliminating such horrible dangers from the entire region. It is quite a side effect to realize the entire region is breathing a sign of relief.