Visions of Die Sturm - Targeting Soldiers...

Mr.Atos

Die Sturm operates on many levels as we have seen so far, but primative violence is the base derivative of their ignorance and hate. Its the fall back tool for them when the argument is hopelessly lost, fear and coercion being often more powerful than thoughtful persuasion. Clearly losing the arguments at an intellectual level, the thugs that are what is being Left return back to the method they know best... right here again, in the Pacific Northwest. Michelle Malkin alerts our attention today to the beating of a National Guard Soldier and GWOT veteran in Washington. Kiro News reports,

PARKLAND, Wash. -- The Pierce County Sheriff's Department is searching for five people who allegedly attacked a uniformed National Guardsmen walking along 138th Street in Parkland Tuesday afternoon.

The soldier was walking to a convenience store when a sport utility vehicle pulled up alongside him and the driver asked if he was in the military and if he had been in any action.

The driver then got out of the vehicle, displayed a gun and shouted insults at the victim. Four other suspects exited the vehicle and knocked the soldier down, punching and kicking him.

“And during the assault the suspects called him a baby killer. At that point they got into the car and drove off and left him on the side of the road,” Detective Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

This behavior unfortunately is not rare, and it certainly is not new to the Pacific Northwest. Michelle reminds us of a disturbing trend,

• Activist Sentenced to 5 Years for Molotov Attack on Army Recruitment Station
• The Seattle Soldier Beatings
• Caught on tape: Soldiers beaten in Seattle
• We support our troops...when they shoot their officers
• Bloody, anti-war liberals
• Seattle hates America

And let's not forget the butchering of a Kirkland Soldier's wife and children earlier this year while he was on active duty in Iraq.

Whether deliberate or derivative acts of hate, the current wave of violence on the part of this new Sturmabteilung could be said to be directly attributable to the disgusting and vitriolic rhetoric of the Left's fanatic fringe. They preach it in Public schools and Universities. They bath in it on their blogs and in their septic grottos of the web. And they parade it in the culture at large, daily, as Michelle notes yet again today. How long before, its most ardent subjugates are convinced it is their right... ney, their duty to react accordingly? Afterall, if President Bush is the devil incarnate as they suggest, and American troops his legion of demonic minions, then no means are beyond consideration toward their ends of eliminating the reign of the great Satan.

How long? How about now! Because what is being Left has nothing but primitive emotion to offer in place of rational discourse, and Die Sturm represents their inevitable means.


See Also:
Visions of Die Sturm...
Visions of Die Sturm - A Kos For Alarm...
Visions of Die Sturm - A Frisch Dose of Hate...
What Is Being Left - Sturmabteilung ...

Headwork

Major Mike

In Flight School the last marked item, before comments, on your flight gradesheet is usually…headwork. What you say? Headwork?

In pilot/NFO training circles, and far beyond once inculcated, "headwork" is a lexicon staple. Headwork, according to Webster…"mental labor: especially: cleaver thinking."

Nice for Webster, but for flight students, headwork is vastly more complex.

Headwork…the ability to sort through hundreds of inputs a minute; make dozens of intuitive mathematical calculations a second; assess a multitude of options and select the preeminent choice; always making choices based on sound reasoning, unfailingly displaying good judgment, invariably choosing workable courses of action, and never physically flying/guiding the aircraft in a manner that could get you killed…is a vaporous intangible that can get you your wings if you possess it, or garner you enough of the dreaded “downs” to end your flight career if you don’t.

“Headwork” works its way into every conversation in flight school…even more than “gouge.”

Gouge… the “skinny”, the shortcut to the core knowledge, the needed ingredient to get ahead, the gossip from the O’Club Happy Hour last night…the “gouge.” But I digress.

“Headwork,” or more importantly, lack of headwork is the fastest way out of flight school. A couple of bonehead moves that demonstrate that you can’t walk, chew gum, and fly at the same time…and you are gone. Forgetting to do a descent checklist; not being able to decide what to do when the flight instructor, or the anonymous voice from “Center” (FAA controller) changes your flight plan; seeing a danger and taking no action, simply waiting for events to pull you through…and millions more, are examples of bad headwork. Dozens of flight students a month will hear an assessment of how their “lack of headwork” is the cause for their dismissal from the program.

Don’t worry…lots of good C4I (Comm) jobs left. But I digress.

Don’t despair…many a flight student has received a break from a flight instructor, if they lacked a particular graded skill, but showed “good headwork.” In flight school, you come to understand that headwork is not simply “cleaver thinking,” but rather it is more a nose for the practical; an ability to make really excellent life/death decisions under pressure; and an ingrained skill for always (almost always) displaying common sense.

Once the word “headwork” and the breadth of its meaning takes hold in your lexicon…everything that your brain assesses, is judged by the flight school standard. Does this make sense? Was it based on sound reasoning? Are your actions defensible?

Which leads me to this…what chucklehead thought it was (is) okay for the former President of Iran to come this country to speak. I want to know. I don’t want a Condi Rice taking responsibility for an anonymous knucklehead…I want to know which future government pension earner, made that brilliant decision. Who did it? Because whoever made this bonehead decision needs to be fired, because they have demonstrated, the worst offense in my circles, piss-poor headwork.

It is insane to permit someone who has sworn to eliminate Israel, who has lead a country that has been described by our current President as part of an Axis of Evil, and who still has influence in a country that is refusing to discuss their nuclear intentions with the appropriate, albeit ineffectual, UN agency, to come into our country…on a visa that cleared State…to ramble at will, and as Hugh Hewitt says… ”generate propaganda on our soil.”

But after pondering this while Hugh discussed it on his show today, I realized this idiot is not alone. He has company with a press that can’t figure out what terrorism really is. He has hundreds of comrades in the UN…the gold standard for institutionally propagated poor headwork…always resulting in unworkable solutions. He is flanked by Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy, Harry Bellefonte, Jane Fonda, John Murtha, Cindy Sheehan, and a million other unreasoned and illogical cut-and-runners who refuse to use good headwork in the fighting of the GWOT.

And, without an ounce of conceit, whose judgment would you trust with your life? Someone who has been continuously evaluated for their ability to make excellent life/death decisions, to recognize and head off danger, to intuitively project where various courses of action would lead, and which would produce the best results; or someone whose judgments on such matters are bent by their myopic hatred of our current President?

You pick. My experience and my judgment tell me to vote Republican, for I agree with Hugh…

“Any vote for any House or Senate Democrat is a vote against victory and a vote for vulnerability. Vote for victory. Vote Republican.”

In life or death decisions, and lives will depend on who is running the country, good headwork MUST carry more weight than political myopia…at least I pray so.

Vote against the boneheads...vote Repbulican. Maintain control of the courts, the Senate, the House, but more importantly your life...it IS that serious. There is no longer room for "harmless idiots" in politics...those that govern without good foresight and good judgment are doomed to fail this country. Do not trust the Dems to fight the GWOT...they barely know we are in it. They clearly lack the headwork to govern.

Commit to protecting yourself...Vote Repbulican.

Myths and Memes...

Mr.Atos

... and the manufacturing of news. Over at Q&O Blog, Bruce McQuain takes note of an AP reporter contorting the speech of Secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfield, in what can only be a deliberate attempt to misrepresent both content and meaning (HT: Hugh Hewitt):

In example one, it is apparent, at least to me, that Rumsfeld wasn't at all accusing anyone of anything. He was instead saying these questions need to be asked and answered by everyone, to include those who disagree with the administration. But there isn't an accusation against anyone within that portion of his speech.

Example two shows no "accusation" with the phrase "moral and intellectual confusion." In fact he's talking about our military when he uses the phrase. "Moral confusion" is also found in the speech where he discussed the history leading up to WWII. However it is never addressed to the administration's critics.

Additionally, "courage" is found one time in the speech and it is addressing something completely different ("And one day, a future speaker may reflect back on this time of historic choice — remembering the questions raised as to our country’s courage, dedication, and willingness to continue this fight until we have prevailed.". Nowhere is anyone "accused" of "lacking the courage to fight back."

And there's more. Bruce further notes how other news agencies picked up the AP report and ran it today, unedited, and uncorroborated. Might we ask, how reliable are the portions of news that are left unchecked? If AP and Reuters manufactured tires, I dare say their names would be far more notorious than Bridgestone/Firestone.

Harvesting Dependency...

Mr.Atos

One question... if we can pump it out of the ground, why grow it above? The idea of growing 'gasoline' (as ethanol) on otherwise arable food cropland, has never made a lick of sense to this old farm boy. Are we to believe that the world, in its entirety is so well fed, that we can surrender millions of acres of fertile land to the production of fuel for commerce and industry? Many would have us believe that to be a wise choice, arguing that farm production is currently suffering an abundance of yield. Supply is high, and produce prices are simply too low for most farmers to maintain a sustainable profit margin in the area of food production. Perhaps it is presently the case. But, is there not an inherent danger in encouraging the conversion of food production to infinitely more lucrative fuel production?

Recently, both Oregon and Washington implemented California's LEV II Standards for lower emissions. It includes a requirement for the mandatory distribution of ethanols and biodiesel products in place of so-called fossil-fuels... namely petroleum products. In the interests of Oregon, and in accordance with certain Sustainability principals (see Conservation Economics), the intention is for this state to convert much of its agricultural industry to fuel production, according to Oregon Business Magazine,

Biodiesel is a processed vegetable oil that can be made from canola and mustard seed, both of which grow well in Oregon. It can be used in a pure (100%) or blended form to power diesel engines — from cars and trucks, to tractors and off-road vehicles. The version that's available in Oregon right now is B-20 (20% biodiesel, 80% petroleum diesel). Biodiesel delivers a double whammy: Diesel engines get much better mileage than gasoline combustion engines (the new Volkswagen diesel cars are pushing 50 mpg), and biodiesel is renewable, reducing the amount of carbon that's pumped from deep under the ground and released into the atmosphere when it's burned in a car or truck.

Until now, virtually all the biodiesel sold in Oregon has come by rail from the Midwest, with a freight premium added for shipping. Beginning this fall, SeQuential Biodiesel (investors include Kettle Foods founder Cameron Healy and singer Willie Nelson) will produce 1 million to 4 million gallons of biodiesel a year at a new plant in Portland. "The feedstock — canola, mustard seed and used cooking oil — will be grown in Oregon, and it'll be consumed here as well," says SeQuential's Tomas Endicott, who predicts that the Oregon biodiesel market will double annually for the next several years. "This keeps money in Oregon and in the U.S.," says Endicott. "It doesn't get any more sustainable than that."

In the Willamette Valley the competition for farmland is indeed intense. Agricultural land is being surrendered on a daily basis to suburban development in the form of housing, commercial and retail uses. Additionally grape production for wine-making is a rapidly growing concern consuming traditional farmlands. Now, while grapes are fruit and wine is technically an agricultural product, I submit to you that wine, no matter how desirable, is not food. In addition, and in accordance with certain sustainable principals, renewable materials crops are also beginning to compete for agricultural land. Varieties of bamboo, species of genetically engineered lumber, and rye grasses to name a few, are products that may all prove to be a more economically attractive means of agricultural production in the near future. Consider that asthe land is converted accordingly, few mechanisms will exists to encourage it back to food production once the demand has locked the process of supply in a precarious new direction. This consideration would seem to have fostered U.N. concern, in one of the institutions quite rare cogent moments...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Rising production of biofuels from crops might complicate U.N. goals of ending hunger in developing countries, where 850 million people do not have enough to eat, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday.

"There's a huge potential for biofuels but we have to look at ... competition with food production," said Alexander Mueller, assistant Director General of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Production of fuels from sugar, maize, soybeans and other corps is surging, spurred by oil prices above $70 a barrel and a drive for more environmentally friendly fuels from renewable sources. "This is a completely new issue, we only know that this has impact on the question of feeding the world," he told a news conference during a meeting of 1,500 water experts in Stockholm

Wheat sells for a few dollars per bushel, while bio-fuels can yield upwards of $70 dollars per barrel. Building products, always in high demand tease various degrees of monetary success, while tightening restrictions and regulations encourage a broadening market for both of those sustainable products. A widespread conversion is already taking place across the United States and other parts of the globe. The U.N. is right to be worried about the implications of decreasing food production. Its humanitarian mission to feed the misfortunate masses of the world may indeed be in jeopardy, when fuel is cheap relative to a seventy dollar loaf of bread, and corn is exclusively refined into Citco barrels instead of being packed into Del Monte cans.

Katrina Memorium, Part 2...

Mr.Atos

Since the MSM is so eager for us to recall today, do let's consider the sham that was the Plame Investigation, via the old truth detector...

Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, with David Corn of The Nation, telling us what we've all known for a long time, that Richard Armitage was the leaker of Valerie Plame's name to Robert Novak and to Bob Woodward. The amazing thing about this is that Fitzgerald knew this, so the justice department knew this early on in the investigation. This whole investigation ended up being pointless, and the investigation, because it turned up nothing, they didn't want -- you know, Armitage kept quiet, for some reason nobody leaked in time for the investigation that he was the leaker in all of this. So the investigation goes on and totally transforms itself into a process investigation where they nail Scooter Libby for having conversations with media types and then not being able to remember it and are calling it perjury and obstruction of justice, when they knew at the justice department. This investigation should have been shut down the moment they found out it was Armitage, and it was Armitage himself who called them and told them that it was. "I think I've done something pretty bad, made a mistake here." And yet how many people think that it was still Rove and Libby in the White House that did it? I want to know, Joe Wilson, are you going to demand that Richard Armitage be frog-marched out of the state department? Well, he's already out of the state department. He's gone from there. He resigned with Colin Powell.

... and recall again, the veritable sham that was the Katrina catastrophe through the spectacle of hindsight.


Shaving With a Cheese Grater...
Mr.Atos
Friday, September 30, 2005

One of the best lines in the history of network television was spoken by Sam Malone on the popular 80's sitcom, Cheers. In response to an absolutely distasteful alternative, Ted Danson's character replies, "I'd rather shave my head with a cheese grater while chewing on tinfoil." As amusing as it was to hear at the time, it could not have been fully conceived by me until now... every time I am forced to listen to anything from Dan Rather. Hand me a friggin' box of Reynolds Wrap and the grater. Just turn the man off!

We came in Tuesday after an 8 hour flight from New York to Oregon and tuned into Hugh Hewitt for the first time in a week. There, I was tempted to endure the blathering of Dan Rather being interviewed the previous night by Marvin Kalb. In his usual reliable fashion, Duane has posted the audio and transcript over at RadioBlogger for anyone brave enough to endure it. Or just grab the cheese grater and call it a day.

I'm not sure what is worse, Rather indulging his own delusional gravitas, or the aura of misdirected respect afforded his very being. But, one thing is certain. Dan has served as a model mentor for a generation of journalists who are determined to follow in the little man's footsteps... right to the edge of the cliff. And that precipice was violated some three weeks ago by the coverage of Hurricane Katrina; plummeting the character of the American Press to its lowest depths in the history of this nation.

Misrepresentation at best or downright malevolence at worst, press coverage after the storm became an orgy of feigned consternation and self-righteous repudiation hurled like brickbats in a riot. And their target was exclusively (while not surprisingly) FEMA and the Bush administration. It likelwise became a convenient if not gruesome political bludgeon of the Democrats. Myopic reporting by vampiric news crews culling New Orleans for misery became a game entertained by the network news staffs, who were the only people entertained. The American public bore witness to imagined horror; an invisible travesty consisting of roving hordes of murderous cannibals, mass looting, rape and murder. The anarchy at the city's two major hurricane shelters became legendary as Americans conjured scenes of the LA riots being replayed in the darkness of the SuperDome, while a Romero remake was being realized in the flooded streets outside. 10,000 were dead, said Mayor Nagin. And the press played a proverbial game of badminton with that number until it was 25,000 dead... as bad as the Indian tsunami for some, and even another Holocaust in the eyes of others.

Yet it was all a lie. As Hugh Hewitt points out in his latest Weekly Standard column,

At this point there is no disputing that media hysteria overwhelmed most of the mainstream media's talking heads and even their old school newspaper reporters and editors. The only question is whether the mainstream media will admit that it suffered another pratfall in full public view.

DON'T COUNT ON IT. Discussing the meltdown on MSNBC on September 27, reporter Heath Allen defended

the hysterical reporting, arguing that, "[I]t's the responsibility of the photojournalist to capture that and put it on television because those people at that point needed help no matter what was true, what was false, what was exaggerated."Thus is established the "fake but necessary" corollary to the Rathergate doctrine of "fake but true."

Hugh was on the PBS News Hour last night discussing the subject of Katrina coverage with fellow journalists from CBS and the Times-Picayune. There amidst the usual naval-gazing, he reiterated his view with an appropriate degree of admonition toward his fellow journalists who were not, as Hewitt submitted, simply covering a disaster. By painting a misleading picture of confusion and chaos, they were in fact contributing to a catastrophe. That being the case, how can the American people trust the Press to get any story right? The incompetence and malfeasance extends from local policy to the Iraq War, where a constant misrepresentation of the situation might very well be emboldening insurgency and promoting mass murder, while threatening the safety and security of the United States both at home and abroad. It is a profound point and one that should be carefully considered before affording another ingot of respect to the likes of Dan rather and his generation of pathetic media proteges.

The reign of the fourth estate has been collapsing for years. Rather was one pillar... rotted to the core and overbearing with bias and condescension, certain to crumble. And in the aftermath of Katrina, what little remains of its professional reputation and perceived objectivity is disintegrating faster than the chimera of benevolent humanitarianism in Louisiana. The ability of the mainstream media to manufacture reality has been eroded by the advent of the New Media using radio and the internet to challenge the aged aristocracy of arrogant omniscience. With it goes the propaganda wing of the American Left, much to the chagrin of that failing movement.

But, it is clearly not going quietly. With the analysis of botched Katrina coverage threatening to dominate the news cycle, the CIA Leak Probe redux, the suspicious indictment of Congressman DeLay, another media attack on Bill Bennett, combined with a new wave of violence in Iraq offers a maelstrom of convenient distraction. Attention must be hurried away from stories of Senators Reid and Schumer's malfeasance, the lurid impressions of Hurricane Politics and the degeneracy of mainstream American journalism championing the contemporary doctrine of "fake but necessary" to qualify an agenda that tastes, to most Americans, more and more like tinfoil.


One year later, still chewing and shaving at the prospect of indulging the reprobates of the so-called 'Mainstream' of American Media for mere an instant.

Katrina Memorium...

Mr.Atos

Today is the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a somewhat notable Gulf Hurricane that became a montrous functional disaster, emblemmatic of human failure at both collective and individual levels. And the MSM is determined that we all recollect the mayhem with story after story, after story. For the last several days, Yahoo has led it news window with various Katrina stories cycle throughout the day. Pundits continue to tell us that it was the worst disaster in American history. Maybe for dollars, but try telling that to the victims and families of 9/11. Perhaps we might recall the Indian Tsunami of 2004 in order to gather some real perspective. Reaching back a bit, there was the Galveston Hurricane of 1900...

The Johnstown Flood of 1889...

Those were inconceivable nightmares glistened only by the spark of human courage, strength, endurance, perseverance and integrity. Those were none of the qualities on display under the lenses of the Mainstream Media in August of 2005. Those were none of the qualities on display by the Old Busted Media in August 2005. And little has changed in 2006 as they wait breathlessly for the next catastrophe to create.

The MSM would have us recollect the events of August 2005, then do lets recall with perfect hindsight,

Hurricane Politics: The Chiles' Gambit...
Friday, September 09, 2005
Mr.Atos

"Disasters are very political events."
-FEMA Director James Witt, congressional testimony, April 30, 1996

Major Garret of the Fox News Channel has been exposing a disturbing aspect of Hurricane Katrina response efforts that the rest of the Old Busted Media is ignoring. In a series of breaking stories, Garret demonstrates that both the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army were prevented by local distaster officials - LOCAL OFFICIALS - from providing emergency relief supplies of food and water to the major refuge centers. Garret spoke about this story with Hugh Hewitt on his show both yesterday and today. Hugh summarizes the story on his website as follows,

The Fox News Channel's Major Garrett made another appearance on the program this evening, following up on his blockbuster story yesterday. Among other things,Garrett got confirmation from the head of the Red cross --on camera-- of the Louisiana State Department of Homeland Security's blocking of the delivery of relief supplies to the Superdome and the Convention Center. In addition, Garrett received confirmation from senior Salvation Army officials in Washington, D.C. that the Salvation Army's efforts at supplying the evacuees were also repeatedly blocked.

Radioblogger will have the transcript up later,

Here is the transcript of yesterday's interview. If you did not hear the interview or see Garret's Fox segment, read them both over at Radioblogger.

Incompetence, disorganization, bureaucratic paralysis... or inadvertant malice? All of these are possible explanations for the actions of local officials, but not one is a legitimate excuse for the devastation that resulted from their actions. And one has to assume that if this was the condition of the local response at the emergency shelters, city and state reponses throughout Louisiana to Katrina's disaster was equally deplorable. Is it any wonder that these same officials began feigning righteous indignation in an effort to obfuscate the reality of their own poor judgment. For as nature's impact passed and the subsequent calamity of malfeasance began, the world was a witness to a crime unfolding before their eyes.

Furthermore, there is an additional aspect of Garret's story that begs the attention of the curious students of history. And while everyone is entertaining the seductive folly of hindsight, do let's turn the 'wayback machine' way back to 1992 and Hurricane Andrew. In an MSNBC story by national affairs writer Tom Curry, posted August of last year, entitled,"In election year, hurricanes, too, are political," the author reviews the 1992 criticism of Bush the elder's delayed aid for Florida.

President Bush and his brother Jeb, Florida’s governor, know the lessons of August 1992, when their father, President George H.W. Bush, reacted too slowly with federal aid to help speed recovery after Hurricane Andrew ravaged Florida.

The now-famous quote that August from Dade County's emergency operations director, Kate Hale — “Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one? For God's sake, where are they?'' — summed up the frustration that many people in Florida voiced in the days after Andrew hit. (Some of Floridians’ anger was also directed at then-Gov. Lawton Chiles, a Democrat, who delayed asking for federal troops.) [emphasis mine]

Mentioned as an end note, was the fact that the Governor of Florida delayed the necessary request for aid from Federal authorities (FEMA). The blame, however, was deliberatly pinned on the President both at the time, and again by Mr. Curry even in retrospect. Implied in the story, is the Democrat's (and MSM's) tendency to make a political issue out of a delay in disaster response. Considering the criticism at the time, the evidence exists to suggest that Governor Chiles deliberately delayed such requests for Federal assistance in order to fabricate a political issue for the Democrats in an election year. Do let's recall that Bush the elder lost that election to Bill Clinton.

With that in mind, consider the current contentious political environment. Then take note of an active upcoming legislative season, with open and extreme animosity on the part of Democrats for the current Republican President. One must wonder if Katrina presented a tempting, albeit dangerous, gamble for local officials; a gambit perhaps floated by the political leadership. Granted this foray into speculation is unsupported to date by factual verification, the circumstantial and historical evidence is enough to beg serious consideration.

Consider for instance, this story from The American Spectator archives, from September 1996, "FEMA Money! Come & Get It!" describing the infamous history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency:

FEMA was the brainchild of Jimmy Carter, who announced plans in 1978 to form afederal agency to cope with disasters. Before 1950, other than sporadic flood and other disaster relief provided by Congress in special appropriations bills, there was no consistent federal relief effort. That year, however, Congress passed a law giving the president the power and discretion to determine when a disaster had occurred and how much aid Washington would provide. From that point on, federal disaster involvement slowly expanded until March 30, 1979, whenPresident Carter, spurred to action by the Three Mile Island nuclear debacle, issued an executive order to create FEMA. The new agency was to be an amalgam ofthe Civil Defense Preparedness Agency, the Federal Disaster AssistanceAdministration, the Federal Preparedness Agency, the Federal Insurance Administration, and the National Fire and Control Administration.

Within just five weeks, the Washington Post was reporting that the new agency was already a shambles: "The air is thick with memos, counter-memos andcriticisms alleging that the new anti-disaster agency is on the verge of becoming a disaster itself."

From 1979 to the late 1980's, FEMA stumbled from one boondoggle to the next. It carried out the Environmental Protection Agency's infamous buyout of all the homes in Times Beach, Missouri--after the EPA had mistakenly concluded that trace elements of dioxin in some of the dirt in town were a deadly threat.Press coverage of FEMA during these years was pretty much summarized by this1984 New York Times headline, "A Disaster Agency's Image Disaster."...

But the event that truly transformed the agency into a federal behemoth was Hurricane Andrew, which devastated southern Florida in August 1992. Though the storm left an estimated 160,000 people homeless, and destroyed or damaged 82,000 businesses, Gov. Lawton Chiles initially refused to request federal aid to clean up the $30 billion worth of damage (far greater than the figure for the Northridge, California earthquake of 1994). It was not until Bush TransportationSecretary Andrew Card implored Chiles to request FEMA assistance that the governor asked for the region to be declared a disaster area. [emphasis mine]

Bush honored the request, but the agency proceeded to bungle the relief effort. For several days, thousands of people were left searching for food and water. Victims of the storm quickly resorted to gallows humor, posting makeshift signs in front of their ruined homes: "What do George Bush and Hurricane Andrew have in common? They're both natural disasters." Even a visit to Florida by FEMAboard member Marilyn Quayle was not enough to reverse public opinion.

Sound familiar? Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters demonstrates the risks of the Chiles' Gambit by illustrating how even a seemingly brief delay during a distaster, can lead to cataclysmic results (HT: OKIE on the LAM):

ABC also asked Governor Kathleen Blanco’s office about their response to the evacuation. They responded that they never asked for evacuation assistance from the federal government as part of their interaction with FEMA, only for assistance with shelter and provisions. They assumed that the city of New Orleans had followed its own evacuation plan. [Emphasis mine]

That assumption wound up costing lives. Did they ask Nagin if his administration had followed the plan, and if so, what kind of response did they get?If ABC’s report is correct, then the feds may not have known of the evacuation breakdown until the flood on Tuesday made it a critical situation — and then were forced to respond by getting the correct assets in place within 72 hours for evacuation while almost all the roads and bridges were unusable. By that time, FEMA had begun to use what roadways were left open to move in the supplies and temporary shelter they had prestaged in the area. The feds would have had to quickly shift to a massive evacuation effort instead, a difficult and time-consuming transformation.

I repeat for emphasis... "they responded that they never asked for evacuation assistance from the federal government as part of their interaction with FEMA, only for assistance with shelter and provisions." And yet, Major Garret demonstrates that relief organizations acting in conjunction with Federal emergency response efforts, could not get those provisions to survivors in the city of New Orleans.Consider for a moment, the morning of Monday August 29th. Hurricane Katrina, a category 5+ event on a direct course for the City of New Orleans shifts east, and is sheared by a wave of dry air reducing her intensity to a low category 4. The News networks report her weaknening. She makes landfall east of the city, thrusting the brunt of a massive anti-cyclonic storm surge (right to left in the northern hemisphere) into the Mississippi coast at places like Gulf Port and Biloxi. The News networks report New Orleans to have dodged a bullet. Meanwhile, the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama are noticeable devastated and local and Federal emergency services respond immediately. Rescues take place throughout Monday night and into the week that followed. Federal and private relief personnel and supplies start pouring into those areas. That night, Fox's Shephard Smith is chatting with revelers in the French Quarter on camera, proudly defiant of nature's wraith. Experts are paradeing across network coverage chastizing the doomsayers for predicting the worst proclaiming that New Orleans dodge another bullet.

What happened Tuesday? The Big Easy was real easy as people emerged to survey the damage. Meanwhile, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, had pre-positioned a litteral vanguard of trucks with water, food, blankets and hygiene items in expectation of disaster relief, according to Major Garret. But, they were denied from delivering those shipments to the local refuges. Why?

Do let's recall the 1996 testimony of FEMA director James Witt, "Disasters are very political events." In light of a bullet dodged, perhaps Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco considered upward pressure (ala Governor Chiles) to delay relief requests for a few dozen hours. Might we imagine the leader of the DNC, Howard Dean, advising party officials that a delay of request would be politically expedient to seed the issue of Federal confusion and thus establish the charge of the Administration's incompetence with emergency response efforts? It worked before. As with President George Bush the elder, political blame could be nailed to the feet of Bush the younger. And, in recognition of a lighter disaster than was expected, the human expense from delay could be kept to a minimum...

... at least until the levee along the 17th Street canal, collapsed, pouring the fetid contents of Lake Pontchartrain into the depression of New Orleans.

That's when the political gambit turned into a calamity beyond control. See Major Mike's previous post to get a glympse of the sysiphian task at hand for FEMA officials in the wake of the storm. When expectations failed miserably, the natural tragedy became a man-made travesty. And it became a political CYA for Democrats aided by all willing accomplises in the Old Busted Media still intent to pin the tale of blame, not on the guilty donkey, but on the noble elephant. Now it was no longer convenient. It was imperative to conceal their own malfeasance on the part of Nagin, Blanco, and Landrieu - both situational and historical.

Incompetence, disorganization, bureaucratic paralysis... or inadvertant malice? Regardless, the official Democrat strategy never changed. If they cannot gain legitimate political control of this nation, they will seize upon tragedy and the misery of victimhood to generate a fury of their own and rip America to shreds. That is malice! And the question the nation must ask, is how deep does that malice extend. With a party that openly dismisses the virtue of moral principle, to what extent are any means justified by their ends?

We may never know if the Chiles' Gambit was played here with Katrina. Barring an honest assessment of the situation in its aftermath by the Mainstream Media, and members of Congress the truth will never be known about the full details of the response. And that will never happen as long as the irrational voices like Jack Cafferty's speak for cable news, the juvenile conjecture of Campbell Brown speaks for the networks, the knee jerks like Tancredo speak for Republicans, and as long as the Democrats embrace the rhetorical vitriol of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as a replacement for statesmenship. And problems in emergency coordination will continue to be camouflaged by hurricane politics until the next great disaster claims more lives and opens a breech that can never be closed.

UPDATE... The number of dead have yet to be counted along the Gulf Coast, yet this is the number that the Associated Press, the Left and their willling accomplises in the media have been consumed with all along, lending further evidence to the indictment that Democrats played an obscene game with people in peril in order to fabricate a political disaster.
Katrina Rant


By all means, do let us recall the truth about Katrina.

A Vogon Conversion...

Mr. Atos

A hostage Fox News crew is freed by Hamas after forced conversion to Islam. One can only imagine the choice being rather like listening to Vogon poetry or having one's head sawed off. Take your pick. No doubt the faux fawning sounded something like this...

"Yes I think some of the metaphysical imagery of islam is particularly effective... and um interesting rhythmic devices you have too which seem to counter point the, um surrealism of the underlying realism of the islamity of mohammed's compassionate soul which contrives through the medium of the faith structure to sublimate this, transcend that and come to terms with the fundamental dichotomies of the other ...and one is left is left with a profound and vivid insight into the uh...., whatever it was the religion is about. Peace?"

Congratulations... you're Muslim! We not saw your head off now.

Beautiful thing, Islam. A lot like Vogon poetry, I suppose.

10 For 10...

Mr.Atos

10 for 10, then tell 10...

...then work as hard as you can for the next 10 weeks for the candidates, and for the issues that matter to you, your family, and your nation. It wont take much for sanity to prevail this election cycle. But, it will take a complete effort on the part of all Republicans any rational Democrats who refuse to trust what is being Left with their families' safety and the National security.

As with a tsunami, the swell starts small. But, the ultimate impact can be enormous. It requires little effort from each of us. Yet, it does require that effort extended, combined and coordinated from everyone from now until November. The impact will be enormous indeed.

This blog started as a small effort to counteract the misinformation of the Kerry Campaign and the Democrat media machine. Little has changed since September 2004. If anything the political atmosphere has gotten worse as the Mainstream Media has forfeited all semblence of objectivity and credibility, and as the Democrat Party has surrendered its veritable sanity to Anti-Bush, Anti-War, Anti-America mentality of what is being Left.

With 10 weeks remaining to this year's critical mid-term Congressional and Gubernatorial elections, get a personal effort started with 10 small steps toward victory:

1... Choose ten candidates locally and from across the country. We have provided a list with links on the sidebar, but there are others still.

2... Write ten checks for $10 each. That's only $100.

3... Make the checks payable to each of the ten chosen candidates' election efforts.

4... Put the checks in their respective stamped envelops, adressed accordingly.

5... Mail the 10 campaign contributions immediately.

6... Choose 10 like-minded friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers.

7... Tell them of this idea. Give them a link to this post if you must. Now its potentially $1000, cascading to $10,000, $100,000...

8... Post to your blog in support of your ten candidates.

9... If possible, find out what you can do to help those campaigns.

10... The most important step... Vote! Absentee, by mail, or in person. Just be sure to vote. And take 10 friends with you.

Its only $100 dollars, 10 stamps, and ten minutes of your time. And that's a small price to pay in honor of the men and women standing to your defence out on the frontiers of chaos. Their courage, and committment is worth far more to us than that, is it not?! The best thing we can all do for them now is extend our perseverence against the chaos threatening to spread here at home in the form of a fringe-directed Democrat party that has lost its way...

... and its mind.

Think of it as your "Yopp!"

UPDATE:

Welcome, Hewitt fans and fellow Yoppers. While you're here, do have a look around. Mike just recently posted an excellent commentary on the state of the American will, Prisoners of Our Own Liberalism. I have posted a 4-part essay on the dangers of the Conservation Economic movement. And Dueler recently posted a great 4-part essay on the decline of Empire. Enjoy!

By all means access the 10 for 10 links to the left and get started immediately. As Ron Saxton noted while speaking with us yesterday, the campaigns began this week. the commercias began running last night. And voters will be getting their mail-in ballots in less than 60 days. This is the moment we have been waiting for. The charge has begun. The pickets are stationed. Now load the chambers. Then we watch for the whites of their beadie little eyes.

As for Ron Saxton... He is the Republican Candidate for Governor in Oregon. We heard him speak locally yesterday. The crowd of professionals was not typically the friendliest for Republicans, especially in Portland. Nevertheless, it was a packed venue. He is a strong speaker with a passionate adherence to some very important State issues. Even presented with the B-word, he did not flinch and expressed solidarity with Bush on the issue of Forest management. He is a strong candidate. And given the close nature of past gubernatorial races in Oregon, he has a solid chance of taking the seat away from Kulongowski and anchoring the State to its Red County majority. But, as you know, it must not be too close, or the election here will be ‘gregoired.’ Oregonians by law, can contribute up to $100 to local campaigns and receive a full 100% deduction of that money on your State taxes. In other words, the 100 comes right back to you. So, direct it where it counts and give it now. Be sure to record it and claim it on your State forms.

I was wondering, Dean B., when someone was going to mistake me for that goon, Atrios. Sadly the monikers are similar, and while I dont know if his is real, my alias has been in use by me since the beginning of the World Wide Web. It has particular significance based on what I was doing then, but I wont go into all that. Suffice it to say, originally it should have read Mr. Atoz. Unfortunatley my typing wasn't so good then either. Perhaps one day, Mr.Atos and his Sandmen will be better known than the purveyor of bile.

Thank you, All!

Prisoners of Our Own Liberalism

Major Mike

"A liberal man is too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel."
Robert Frost

I commented earlier today on the Hugh Hewitt show in regards to Dean Barnett’s assessment that we are staring into the abyss. We are indeed staring into the abyss…the abyss created by our vacuous political reasoning…our blindness to our enemies…and our self-absorption with the idea that we can be isolated with our luxuries. We are poisoned by our perceived ability to isolate ourselves within our neighborhoods, as we unwittingly think we can do the same with our enemies.

We are staring into the abyss…an abyss created by an unbalanced dependence on hope, while we abandon reasoning and evidence. We are staring to the abyss…an abyss created by our false and hollow trust of international institutions that fail us regularly. And we are staring into the abyss… because we no longer connect with our fellow citizens in a way that used to bind us in sacrifice, and connect us as Americans.

We no longer connect in a way that keeps the loss of our fellow citizens…our neighbors…in the forefront of our selfless actions. The loss of 3000 citizens and 2000+ soldiers is now met with scorn, rather than further sacrifice and unselfish contribution. We are hoarding our holdings and our freedoms while others sacrifice to protect them, and while a scant few politicians hold the sane course to ensure that these freedoms are protected from terror out into the future.

We are staring into the abyss because our collective will, and our individual wills, are collapsing in spades. We are coming to value the false and hollow, Carteresque doctrine, of press-friendly-appeasing-delay…in the hopes that we will enjoy “ peace in our time.” What does this delay of the inevitable conflict between good and evil hold for our children? Worse than burdening our children with our Social Security bill, is burdening them with our National Security bill. For, as WJC proved beyond doubt…hollow actions, and delaying tactics, only forestall the inevitable.

We are staring into the abyss because we are playing for time…a prisoner’s strategy. A hostage’s strategy.

We are collectively suffering from an international blindness and malaise towards those who have killed us, a malaise that is evidenced by our passive capitulation to our captor’s beliefs…we are suffering from Terror Induced, Globally Applied Stockholm Syndrome.

The UN, the press, and many liberals are blaming Israel for the 34 days of war in the Middle East. They are comfortable in disregarding the un-neat details of the causes…kidnap, attack, hundreds of suicidal murders, random rocket attacks on civilian areas.

They are quick to forgive these attacks obliquely via articles about “proportionality,” and an unbalanced focus on civilian causalities in Lebanon…a focus that ignored the dozens of press released photos that showed the precision of the Israeli attacks…single bomb attacks on runway intersections, bridgeheads and even urban intersections. International press organizations ignored all indications of possible forensic manipulation by Hezbollah in favor of printing/airing stories about the impact of the war on the Lebanese civilians. They ignored reporting that Hezbollah’s strategy is precisely to hide amongst civilians, so that all attacks on Hezbollah inevitably result in civilian causalities.

The international activity is equally as lame…200 soldiers from France…on the ground, on a continuous basis, including patrolling, rest, and defense…200 men could control a front of about 1000 meters…maybe less…more likely 500 or less. But we all fawn over the international community’s hollow offer as if it is the chalice of salvation…it is simply the next symbol of some poorly negotiated, highly touted, hollow peace. A peace that bears only the harbinger of death to Israel. A peace that will evaporate as quickly as our memories of who won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize fade.

Name the winner…you can’t.

Such hollow milestones are only mile markers in our attempts to negotiate with those who don’t seek peace…with those who only seek death. We see the evidence in front of us, yet we ignore it and its consequences.

We praise the proven useless compromise, yet we ignore its consequences for one reason alone…we are adopting a hostage’s strategy…a prisoner’s strategy…we hope, collectively, and as individuals, to trade small increments of peace and personal safety for someone else’s life.

We know that this recipe will cost Israeli civilians their lives, yet we do nothing to change the final formula. We know this recipe will allow Hezbollah to rearm and re-strategize, yet we agree to let them. We have somehow decided that 3000 New Yawkers…are not closely enough connected to us, for us to insist on a real victory over terror…that we will accept these modest interludes of peace, in hope that it doesn’t “happen to us.”

That is a prisoner’s mentality. A hostage’s mentality. Substituting self-preservation for sacrifice and righteousness, is the scammer’s way in a POW camp, and it is evidence enough that we are well on our way to losing the war on terrorism. We are slowly capitulating our values as a nation, in favor of our self-preservation. We are well on our way to being a nation, no a world, of hostages.

The empathy and deference given to our murderous enemy by our press and many of our citizens is proof enough that we are a nation Stockholm Syndrome sufferers. We are a nation of hostages, and as such…without resolute resistance, and aggressive action, we will suffer the fate of most hostages…anonymous death, at the hands of a ruthless, sociopathic, anarchists. Unless all elements of our society come to recognize this…particularly those in the press and those in government, we are doomed to a hostage’s death.

And sadly, even if we escape, we only doom our children.

There is an antidote…resolve combined with aggressive action.

To bolster this resolve, it would be helpful to keep in mind the national Code of Conduct set as the standard for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, coasties, and Marines who find themselves held hostage…I go to my Desert Storm memento book…a book I have not opened in years, to transcribe from the copy I carried with me into combat…it still has my hand scribbled access code for calls back to the States…

Article I
I am an American fighting in the forces that guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.
Article II
I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist.
Article III
If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.
Article IV
If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me and will back them up in every way.
Article V
When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am required to give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause.
Article VI
I will never forget that I am an American fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.

It is time for this nation, collectively, to fight the effects of 34 years of terror indoctrination and inculcation, and resist with every fiber of our being. These terrorists are counting on your acquiescence to their will, and they will eventually dominate you, your dreams, your ambitions, and this nation…if we do not resist, at this very moment in time.

Forge a future that holds your dreams…it will require sacrifice. It will require a thoughtful look into the past, and a long look into the dark future, but it is a future that every American has within their being to forge…a future free from fanatical domination and murderous tyranny.

We fought an infinitely milder form of tyranny when we forged a new nation over 200 years ago. Certainly we are up to the task today, in light of the abyss into which we look.

Free your hostage self.

Conservation Economy: The Architecture of Statism... (Part 4)

Mr.Atos

The Architecture of Sustainable Liberty...

The Architect has been recognized throughout history as the master builder; a unique creator who renders culture in form and space, in time. As a unique cultural entity, architecture exist at once as both monument and machine; artifact and icon. The designer is charged with a profound duty to understand and integrate the values of Man into the built environment, momentarily to serve its function, to be recorded as history and interpreted accordingly. It is no wonder that the Architect is now charged with the ultimate challenge of manifesting Man’s renewed conviction for a sustainable existence. Sustainability and its Green principles are influencing many industries, professions, and institutions with a renewed sense of obligation and optimism. Many localities are now adopting the principles into their charters as with State and Federal governments. Yet, Sustainable Design is the means to effect cultural transformations with profound consequence. It is the primary mechanism with which to unify efforts for the sake of change and to manifest reform on the people… for better or for worse.

Few issues afford the means to unite individuals to a common purpose with collective effort. Likewise, few concerns encourage some to forfeit sovereignty for the sake of parity. The Earth being the isolated receptacle on which Man currently resides, resources seem limited in light of an expansive civilization. Opportunity appears disproportionate considering economic disparity. And outcomes seem further disparate in light of unequal distribution of liberty; or rather a notable tolerance for tyranny. Yet, while Man’s vessel is finite, the capacity for achievement is limitless. Resources evolve, efficiencies improve, and Man’s sense of self-respect continues to encourage more thoughtful consideration of everything.

Man has the unique capacity of virtue among a rational universe that can be both known and developed. It merely awaits the grasp. At times, individuals will fall short, whilst others achieve. It is the nature of a sustainable process. Yet Mankind is its own mentor and ultimately must be trusted to act by the blue print of history, in accordance with virtue, and through the liberty to engage all endeavors accordingly… both individually and collectively. Caution is warranted with regard to experimental panaceas offering solutions that overreach the problem and promise nothing more than ‘comfortable sufficiency’ in the place of sustainable prosperity.

Responsible action does not require the sale of Man back into the confines of serfdom where meaningful work of the able is extracted for the ‘alternative livelihood’ of the few and elite. The Architect’s benefactors are neither the tyrants of history nor the aristocracy of dogmatic sensibility. It is the client of Man; each according to one’s desires and the will to make them real. Too often, the proclivity for reverence becomes a narcotic of good sense. Principles that are not in line with rational precepts of liberty can infect the sensibility of the cleric, replacing a dedication to reason and respect for choice, with the seduction of an egocentric autocracy. History is replete with the minions of tyranny, erecting the prisons of authoritarian servitude… and moral bankruptcy. Sustainability is a cultural hydra – one head promising tranquility, the other damnation. The profession should be careful to sever its formidable body from the damned head. It must embrace the virtue of Sustainability while rejecting the authoritarian monstrosity that is the Conservation Economic model. As seductive as its principles may seem, the model is an insidious attempt to exploit professional virtue for political malfeasance. The bureaucracy of patronage must not seduce the culture’s Master Builder into becoming the builder for the Masters of men.


Author's note... Obviously, this essay was written to address the profession of Arcitecture, specifically. LEED has becoming one specific concern. But, superimpose any of a number of professions. Issues of sustainability are now transcending the built environment, reaching into many other professional realms, and ultimately all of them. Just look at the mission as outlined at the website. It is an extremely comprehension overview of an incredibly comprehensive intention, but it is by no means the only purveyor of the principals. By now, nearly ever major locality in America is adopting them into their revised charters. Schools and Universities are teaching them to students as inevitabilities. Codes are being modified, laws changed, and legal arguments and precedents established. The bureaucracy of patronage is seducing and compelling all professionals into becoming instruments for those who wish to be the Masters of all men. Take note.

See also,
Part 1 - Sustainable Design...
Part 2 - The Capital Of The Mind...
Part 3 - The Conservation Economy...

Conservation Economy: The Architecture of Statism... (Part 3)

Mr.Atos

The Conservation Economy...

Conservation Economy in theory is a means to encourage Sustainability through Man’s social and professional endeavors. According to this model, the health of ecosystems and communities alike suffer when choices remain unregulated. Economic dependence on so-called ‘destructive’ activities creates stresses in the system components that threaten its very existence. The model therefore seeks to create an economy that focuses on human needs while protecting natural systems. Growth is to be maintained ‘organically’ filling new niches and enriching 'human capacities.' Economic arrangements are ‘designed’ to include abstract considerations of value ordained according to dictated models for idealized conditions of preferred balance. They include, but are not limited to Natural and Social assets, the Fundamental Needs of people and the Ecosystems which sustain them. Additionally, desirable characteristics are given notable consideration, including Social Justice, Fairness, and Cultural Diversity, to name a few. This is thought to be the starting point for an alternative economic prosperity; a sustainable conception transcending the trivialities of consumption, production, and wealth.

In fact, the Conservation Economy model risks a substituting of the moral concept of liberty with an indefinable abstract called fairness. It seeks to replace systemic equilibrium with a proscribe definition of balance; exchanging the emancipating mechanism of the dollar with the coercive submission to regulation, and the demoralizing capital of obedience. Personal desires are surrendered to authoritarian whim. Property rights, likewise and by necessity, must be severely limited and ultimately abolished altogether; forfeited to collective stewardship. Choice is likewise relinquished by finite sets of mandated alternatives dictated by collective consensus on ‘poorly understood’, ‘loosely measured’ variables oddly deemed to be ‘chronically undervalued.’ But, undervalued by whom? The market is not a hypothetical, after all. It is the moral representation of the exercised liberty of productive people recognizing, achieving and enjoying their own individual existence. In a free nation, moral decisions are encouraged. Philosophy and religion provide ethical guidance. Government is the manifestation of these values and operates from that basis in accordance with a set of ideal principles. But, ultimately all choices are left to the individual as the primary benefactor of the dividends and consequences. The shift to a Conservation Economy will scrap that concept nearly entirely, alternatively imposing the experimental bridle of Behavior Economics onto a dynamic system of Capitalist mechanisms with the reigns pulled tight by powerful government oversight.

While it is true that all economic models recognize a government’s role in the market (enforcing legality of transaction, protecting property rights, and imposing limited regulation, for instance ) they general agree that individuals are better able to act in accordance with their values and preferences than an officer of the state. Behavioralists do not. While some (perhaps most) people in the community will exercise ‘preferable’ choices, many will not. The founders of this Constitutional Republic, understood that inevitability as a necessary subordinate to the primacy of liberty. Behaviorist systems, on the other hand, require absolute adherence to doctrine and seek, therefore, to dictate accordingly to a minority of deficiency. It thus surrenders common liberty to the potential – indeed the presumption – of human failure. Dictating the values of the market is akin to restricting freedom. Benign and benevolent as the model may appear, a Conservation Economy transforms the relationship between individual and government from one of symbiotic participation, to that of reverent submission. Where such models have been applied, standards of living have suffered, unemployment rates multiply, industrial production slips. The value of life diminishes as a whole. Esteem becomes a rare luxury. Dependency replaces productive ambition as a default state of the human condition in a contemporary revival of medieval feudalism. It is a model for degenerative Statism … a condition that is, in no way moral, nor sustainable.

Continued, Part 4 - The Architecture of Sustainable Liberty...

See also,
Part 1 - Sustainable Design...
Part 2 - The Capital Of The Mind...

Conservation Economy: The Architecture of Statism... (Part 2)

Mr. Atos

The Capital of the Mind...

On the face of it, Sustainability is a just and noble achievement. One should strive, after all, to act responsibly in all manners of personal conduct, including consumption. Human history contains numerous missteps as lessons to be learned in this regard. The natural world contains its own. More illustrative still, has been the history of Man’s progress toward an increasing respect for the human relationship with the Earth’s environment. Early in Man’s development, balance was achieved by necessity; primitive efforts toward survival being at the mercy of the Earth’s nature. The capacity to think ultimately provided the means to transcend limitations. Eventually, given the opportunity, early cultures rendered tremendous negative impacts on their environment. Paleo-Humans hunted megafauna to extinction. Mayans decimated their valleys with agrarian overproduction. European peoples deforested entire regions. The propensity for maintaining sustainable relationships tended to diminish with progressive technological advancements. Atlatles, chinampa farming techniques, bronze tools, and internal combustion engines act similarly to create immediate challenges to the balance between Man and the environment. Abuse followed advancement, to be certain. It is a pattern that continued well into the industrial era: Landscapes stripped; skies burnt; rivers tarnished; and oceans raped. The built environment likewise grew for reasons seemingly without rhyme. Yet, even in the over-analyzed Modern Era missteps were ultimately tempered by introspective re-assessment. Throughout the 19th Century and into the 20th, a voracious trend of industrial progress seemed to overwhelm any sense of dependence, for the conceit of hubris in an age of human enlightenment. Man nevertheless strived toward improvement.

Ultimately, the capacity for the mind to comprehend it’s place in it’s universe restores the balance. By the later half of the 20th Century, Man’s enlightenment extended to an assessment of place and impact. Values were refined, adjusting focus to the quality of life and sustained existence. Mistakes that were made needed to be remedied. Liberty had initially cultivated the quality of excelled purpose. It now inspired the mechanism for flourishing a sense of thoughtful conversion. A new environmental consciousness encouraged change so that by the end of the last century, tremendous improvements had been realized; if only barely recognized.

The Third recorded millenium of civilization arrived with the dawn of sustained promise. The previous had demonstrated that a mind driven increasingly by choice over instinct, once unleashed within a rational universe, transcended limitations to excel far beyond expectation. This next promised to extend even those expectations. In the process of technological development, Man’s identity transformed congruently. The mind recognized a respect for self, and existence was realized independent of group and state. The shackles of tyrannies were removed and discarded for codified relationships understood on the basis of individual significance. Ethics and values replaced blood and station and a new worth extended to brethren and nature alike. A mind fed first on self-respect, can only then lend respect accordingly. Ownership replaced stewardship and feudal dependency. Capitalism was born. Systems could be sustained by means of effort and trade devoid of mandate and sanction. The will afforded currency to each according to one’s enterprise, while worth became the manifestation of ethics reflecting the value of each according to one’s desire to exist. The individual grasped power under constitutional recognition of self-evident authority and legitimacy by nature of existence alone. And ownership of self and effort provided the capital of liberty. A revolution delivered Man from the boot heel of thugs and tyrants…

…the very place to which a Conservation Economy threatens a return.

Continued, Part 3 - The Conservation Economy...

See, Part 1 - Sustainable Design...

Conservation Economy: The Architecture of Statism... (Part 1)

Mr.Atos

“Although quality of life is partially correlated with income, it is possible for Household Economies to make decisions that lead to lives of comfortable sufficiency rather than stressful accumulation. Quality of life is highly idiosyncratic, and each household can determine a balance of social, financial, and ecological returns which is most fulfilling. From this perspective, Social Equity includes universal fulfillment of the most fundamental human needs along with broad access to meaningful work, while respecting the enormous range of life circumstances and personal goals which may drive people to seek different kinds of livelihood.”

- Mission Statement of the Conservation Economic Model on Social Equity

Sustainable Design...

Going Green. Just what does it mean? To contemporary Architects, it is the infant left on the porch – like it or not, once the door is open it dare not be ignored; and for good reason. From a professional standpoint, clients demand Green designs. From a legal perspective, revised codes and ordinances require attention to Green concepts. And fashionably speaking, Green is keen. Morally, however, it is appropriate to manifest a sense of balance throughout the built environment and sustain systems to the benefit of all parts… to a degree. Ideally speaking, a Green system is, in essence, a mechanism of relationships that can be sustained indefinitely. Sustainable design, as the name implies, promotes such a relationship among associated elements in order to achieved and maintain balance in a closed system. For the Architect, charged with the task of designing human environments, the responsibility is especially profound.

Architecture is the product of necessity, tempered by economy, unleashed through the creative spirit of Man’s limitless mind. Traditionally defined, the profession is the art and science of erecting buildings. Today, it is more widely considered to be the conception of place where the structures themselves are only a part of an assemblage that re-defines space to enhance human experience. The profession has thus evolved to a religion of sorts, with its own set of ethics filtered by surrogates through individual moral interpretations applied to each design effort. Sustainability being a concept increasingly inherent to the ethic, it is fitting therefore that Architecture and its clerics encompass a broader concern that includes resource conservation, environmental impact, human health, and social benefit, in addition to functionality, appropriateness, aesthetics, and cultural significance… with the inevitable degree of creative prowess. Where the built environment meets the natural realm, there is a tendency toward deference now emerging from an age of defiance. Man’s mind tempers the ability to do a thing, against the rectitude of its accomplishment. Ego has not been abandoned; it has merely been challenged by higher bars of excellence.

continued, Part 2 - The Capital of the Mind...


In its entirety, this essay was first published in June 2004 as the inaugeral post of my first internet blog. It has hung out there in veritable obscurity ever since. I thought it time to revive the essay as well as bind it the new established site of its original author... pröst!