Thursday 28th of March 2024

WAVING THE RED FLAG!

Well! I feel like Dave Hughes on the ABC Glass-House: "Er... I'm Annnggggrrry-y-y... Well... not really-y-y..." There're people out there who believe this web site is for anarchists!... Sure... Hey, as a cartoonist for over 54 years, I'm one of the first people to resent authority and such, but there's a strong need for clarification here... NATURAL SYSTEMS OF SURVIVAL There are many ways animal species organise themselves to survive. Bees and ants even have a genetic code to that effect, a precise code that creates a fertile "queen" amongst zillion clones. Chimps live in groups of several often related "families" with pecking order and unavoidable squabbles and challenges to this order. In these groups, individuals learn behaviour within the scope of their genetic ability (including memory). Even dolphins live in organised groups and killer whales pods develop different social traits in different environment. Many birds pair for life and attend specific duties to ensure survival not only of themselves but for the species. Anarchy, although quite a very idealistic and interesting way to live individually, is not efficient in providing survival of species, especially in large numbers. It tends to discount the important underlying factor of "belonging". A factor in which we learn to recognise our own species and differentiate from others. But even in smaller numbers of individuals, in the long run, the essential protection and raising of babies, infants and young, demands a basic structure, like a family, a tribal group and such in which there are control mechanism to minimise trauma... It's all about relationships and minimising conflicts... In humans, a species that still has complex animalistic trends on which complex learnings are grafted upon, the need for a minimal stylistic control system is essential... Even in the evolution of communication, one has to realise that language is a strongly structured assemblage of symbols, as anyone who does (or does not) understand another language can verify... Symbolism has thus become an essential and integral part of human activity. Should we have no such ability to express and understand symbols, we would still be living in trees. One can argue that would not be such a bad thing but we're not swinging from branch to branch anymore. We buy our food at the supermarket or the corner store... We hardly pick our own. We hardly walk anymore... we drive cars or take a "public" transport system which is a very structured accepted concept whether it's efficient or not. In some ways, present anarchistic beliefs can appear selfish as they could be construed as absorbing benefits of a social construct without putting anything back into it. We can't all be gurus on top of hills without destroying ourselves... We need to eat and defecate, make love and raise kids. Facts of life. And all these activities need a structured behaviour so we do not piss in our plate of chicken Marengo (an activity we're doing in our atmosphere but it's harder to see). WHAT IS DEMOCRACY ABOUT? Democracy is what the majority of people accepts presently as the best control mechanism for the group. We could have oligarchy, despotism, tyrants, kings, priests, queens and all that for that matter. Or we could have anarchy but as already shown earlier this would lead to a swift demise of the human species, unless everyone is so completely altruistic that we'd be sharing without questioning or even communicating... In your dreams. WHAT'S IMPORTANT IN A DEMOCRACY People. People are more important than the system but without the system people cannot survive. Within democratic structure there are sub structures. Family (and I include relationships of same sex couple - not as unnatural as it may seem), groups, tribes, villages, local governance, countries... Symbols are used to define our belonging to this or that group... If we're lucky we get born get in a country like Australia... If we're unlucky we're born in Rwanda... or in an Iraqi family whose house has just been bombed by an American pilot on amphetamines. Even there, language and symbolism still apply. PITFALL OF DEMOCRACY We're a guilable lot... We prefer illusions to reality often because reality can be painful and demands complex comprehension and acceptance of others. Illusion involve someone else to do the trickery for us and it just happens painlessly... Less thinking work, more fun. We survive on beliefs and these can be manipulated. We're suckers for advertising... As E. T Gundlach writes in his fascinating book (published 1931) "Fact and Fetishes in Advertising" : is it a profession, a religion or a game?... Even then, a couple of years after the 1929 crash, Advertising was a 2 billion dollar industry in the US. Our governments (the people we delegate to maintain the system) can become corrupt or shifty, and use propaganda (one-sided information stream, true or false, in which other information is supressed). out of their own beliefs or for profit - either financial or glorified. The D system has got checks and balances but like anything else they are efficient to a point. We need to be vigilant to arrest the rot in our democratic relationships. WHAT IS THIS WEB SITE ABOUT As I understand it, this web site is about helping more people realise to which extend their beliefs have been manipulated in that Democratic context, and what can be done about it to protect and advance a more equitable form of democracy For example we all know here I hope that John Howard has been lying "a few" times. Why? Hey, he was "called" Honest John in the eighties because most people, even in his own party, knew he was shifty. It was a reverse-sobriquet... He got the top job by deceit... Clever deceit but deceit nonetheless. His manipulation of subconscious fear in the public at large is masterful but in the long run it hurts the true democratic purpose rather that advance it. This is why Margo Kingston was fantastic in her exposition (NHJ) of the tricks Johnnee has used and is using to create too many people's illusions of himself and his policies. Strangely enough I would suggest too that some people would agree Johnnee is crook, lies and deceives but they accept it as okay because it does advances their own agenda and they also ascribe to similar practices themselves, although they would not publicly admit to it... They might call this the "law of the jungle" or "market forces" or "the user pays" principles... That is dangerous in a human society where most of what we do is based on trust. Trust can be manipulated. Trust is being eroded fast. We have been sold porkies by the truck-load to this effect. In regard to the law of the jungle, it is often misunderstood ... In fact, there are very strict bio-mechanisms that rule species interaction with the environment, otherwise survival is threatened (specific mathematical equations relating to this have helped the development of the "Chaos Theory"). When the majority of people can't see past their pay packet and leave the running of democracy to the most devious, because it appears to bring the most, many of the important issues are buried. We are seated on a warm comfortable sofa, without realising our house in on fire. So I got the pips when someone started to demonise the concept of the flag at the top of the site... Hey I'm only human and live in a relative world. I accept that someone can like or dislike the image. I don't mind if someone says it's not really representative... But when the underlying concepts of symbolism are not understood, nor their necessary importance in our relationships between each other, I dispair... Gus Leonisky

The Banner

To hell with dispair, it's never too soon to rekindle the flag debate. And seeing we have to put up with Gus trying to sneak one in under the radar, the proffered design deserves a closer look. Putting aside the observation that some of the features are borrowed from the designs I lodged at Ausflag (with the 50,000 others), it could be a rival for Kennedy's Advance Australia Reconciliation flag. Am I correct in thinking the red and black diagonals are a unique feature? But I have doubts about the yellow sun at the canton. How about shifting the federation star up to the canton, colour it yellow, and stretch the cross out to fill the rest, under the diagonals? Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

A.Narkist

54 years?

1. Honest John's use dates back to 1983 in political circles, and it sure wasn't the Liberals who used the phrase. In fact, I'd like to see some evidence for your claim that "because most people, even in his own party, knew he was shifty", other than the fact that he's a politician.

2. Care to provide any evidence that Iraqi houses have "been bombed by an American pilot on amphetamines"?

3. Aren't free and fair elections, like the ones we have in the majority of Coalition Of The Willing countries, part of a democracy? Or aren't they, just like in a totalitarian dictatorship?

| The House Of Wheels | A Western Heart |

USAF and amphetamines

Oh, come on. There's more than abundant evidence relating to the use of amphetamines in the USAF in particular. Clincal trials were reported in Aviat Space Environ Med 2000 Jan;71(1):7-18. (MID: 10632125 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]) An Israeli Airforce abstract is also reported: Aviat Space Environ Med 2001 Apr;72(4):352-6. (PMID: 11318014 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ). Remember Google is your friend, your second brain. Try a very simple search before posting banal requests for evidence.

In fact, the USAF requires pilots to use amphetamines in certain circumstances. Pilots have been stood down and possibly even dismissed for refusing to use amphetamines on missions. A cursory search using Google will show lots of reputable sources for this information. There's a fairly extensive report in the NY Times (subscription required).

Ergo, Iraqi houses have been bombed by American pilots on amphetamines.

Interestingly, try looking for the Extended Performance War Fighter program, a Pentagon study to find means of enhancing US Army and Air Force personnel using drugs - again amphetamines.

Look More Closely

For someone so eager to dismiss my "banal request", I'm surprised you made no effort to seriously read more than half of that request.

If you'd looked at the studies that have been done, you'd find there are valid reasons why pilots on amphetamines are chosen for extended missions, and why those who aren't able to stay alert for such missions are much more likely to have what the military would call "mishaps".

Military euphemisms

Mishaps? No doubt that's the name the families of the Canadian soldiers killed in the 'so-called' friendly fire incident in Afghanistan are comfortable with. No doubt the many ordinary Iraqis who've had their houses destroyed are relieved to know that the USAF was functioning better because their pilots were on amphetamines.

Anyway, you asked for evidence; I gave it to you. Here's what you asked, in case you've conveniently forgotten, 'Care to provide any evidence that Iraqi houses have "been bombed by an American pilot on amphetamines"?' So, explain, which half didn't I read?

Now you simply turn to trying to justify the practice. Make up your mind - does it happen or not?

And, by the way, it seems that the Australian Armed Forces don't follow suite - I wonder why?

Honest John... Pilots and "Free" elections

1} Ask people like Andrew Peacock, John Valder and a few others... Though they might not give a true answer either.... They also might not have invented the words but they knew well the trickery of JWH then. AP suffered a few times from it. Even in many of the cartoons of the day (1980s) JWH is shown thus... 2) Pilots on amphetamines?... Plenty of reference available, including from the US own Defense Department... If I remember correctly one of the first case "recorded" where this caper was exposed, was in Kosovo when a pilot shot a convoy of refugees on tractors... will have to go back to my files and trace the info sources and the WWW of the USDP when I have time to make sure I'm not goofing here on the exactt info... 3) Free and fair election DEPENDS on proper information and assessment of information... and also DEPENDS on the majority of people understanding they are being fed bullshit or not... Are elections about who's going to lie the best? Do we vote for candidates like we buy corn flakes packets? YES! Why do we think advertising is a profession? Reading Gundlach (1931) once more: "Social aspect in Advertising.... In review, we can safely say however that the evil aspect of advertising are ... outweighed by the good that has been accomplished... " This was written before Hitler and his propaganda machine had fully captured the medium. These days the propaganda is far less obvious and to some extend very refined, but still "evil' to quote Gundlach's own vocab. John Howard and his propaganda machine pulled all stops to bullshit before all elections. A lot of the media too was also covert and some was overt in subtle manipulation of information, making it favorable to JWH... There are concrete proofs that Blair, Bush and Howard lied to go to war in Iraq.... (one day, will bring to the fore) and on many other subjects... go to http://www.johnhowardlies.com for just a few obvious ones...

fortuitively, a democratic line of blogs

Death penalty for ant-breeding scam          

A Chinese businessman has been sentenced to death for swindling investors out of $385m in a bogus scheme to breed ants.
 
Wang Zhendong, chairman of Yingkou Donghua Trading Group Co., had promised about 10,000 investors in the project returns of up to 60 per cent, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
   
The case involved two fake companies put together by Wang between between 2002 and 2005.
 
In some parts of China black ants are sold by the bagful to be steeped in tea or soaked in liquor as a natural healing remedy for ailments such as arthritis.
   
Prosecutors said by the time the scam had been exposed in 2005 and the companies had been shut down, only $1.2m of the $385m invested in the scheme had been recovered.
 
One investor in the scheme reportedly committed suicide after realising he had been duped.

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Gus: this old line of blogs shows we were on top of things and still are... Here, I am disgusted at the death penalty yet again... nuf said.