Misplaced Priorities….

If these stupid SOB’s who ran our government had their heads on straight they would be talking less about going to war with Iran than making peace with the missing honey bee; there would be less talk about bringing peace to Iraq and more about Global Warming.



This is not warmed over news. This is the future. And we’d better doing something about addressing these realities.



We knew Bush hates science and he’d rather believe we were all created whole six thousand years ago, but this time, people of good sense have to go with the science which has a track record of being provable…..



NATURE OVER WAR….OUR FIRST PRIORITY….



The danger of the obsolescence of the honey bee could easily be larger than the prospect of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons if that’s what this is really all about.



And instead of looking to kill everyone in Iraq for the sake of peace, we should be more worried about the consequences of Global Warming to billions of people on this planet who, if we don’t do anything for within the next fifty years, will be moving all over the planet to find a place that is dry and above the water.



We have been lied to,….



….. we have been fooled about the issues and we have been led by the blind who seem unconscious of anything but their penchant for war and dislocation.



It is pretty fundamentally agreed….



….. that if global warming continues at the present pace, we may see a rise of sixteen feet of water within the next several decades. Sixteen feet of ocean rise would change the way we see the map. Would place virtually all of our coastal cities below sea level and result in the fundamental dislocation of billions. It would make states like Delaware disappear!....



Moreover, an increasing number of species would disappear and farmlands will face the continued threat of drought. There will not be enough food for everyone…tropical diseases will make their reappearance.



If we cannot bring some order back to nature, Iran and Iraq may be the least of our worries….



Wise up, America. And let’s get our priorities straight!



What can you do about it?



If you can write, you can pen letters.



It is clear that our politicians have been sucked into the Executive’s orbit….and that all of the dialogue has been shaped by them in the biggest smoke and mirrors trick ever played on humans. A trick that promises to come back and haunt us in spades!!!



If you can talk, you can speak to your neighbors.



This is not the time to be modest or casual: It is the time to speak up!



It is the future…and our only hope!....





PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS; AND TO YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS; LET THEM KNOW THAT WE KNOW....





Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change


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Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change LAAGroup@aol.com

Are Dems Next Year's "Slam Dunk?"


Are the Democrats the “Slam Dunk” this Election Season?

Maybe not!

The Republicans are starting to come alive and almost look reanimated.

Why?

They have a replacement for Bush.

Although one wonders what they could be thinking.

Standing in the wings is the Bush Clone.

Who?

You got it, Rudy.

Increasingly, Rudy is getting to look more like someone as crazed as Bush.

\And if that’s not scary, what is?

I must admit that I fell under his aura when I lived in New York.

Dinkens had let the City go to ruin.

And Rudy promised to get rid of crime.

And he did. That much I’ll give him.

With the appointments of two great Police Commissioners.

But not without alienating half the City.

But at least he got rid of the small time crimes that annoy more than anything else.

Now, we’ve all discovered that his presumed love affair with New York was all pretend.

Rudy didn’t really love New York or the Yankees, Rudy loved Rudy.

And he loved power.

Now, we discover that he loves the idea of War, too.

And that he wants to go to war with Iran….as soon as we are capable of it.

We also discovered that Rudy now makes fun of the New York he claimed to love.

That the only thing that means anything to him is power.

Good-bye all of the old ideals and values that we heard Rudy expound upon for years.

We find out he’s not about a woman’s choice and he, in fact, really hates abortion.

We discover that he’s very flexible on his loyalties.

And more and more he’s mouthing the Conservative rhetoric; this coming from a guy who liked to play a woman on the stage….

But Rudy is talking the good game.

And increasingly he’s sounding like the Bush clone.

So, if the Republican Party wants more of the same,

Rudy is standing in the aisles just waiting to be chosen.

In fact, he’s foaming at the mouth for the opportunity to claim his Executive Privileges….

Increasingly, it is looking that the Conservatives are not going to back
Huckabee who seems to fulfill all of their conservative aspirations; yet the Evangelicals have decided that whilel Huckabee scores well on his conservatism, he doesn’t have a chance of winning. That tells us that the Conservatives are less idealistic than they are committed to winning.

And with Giuliani they just may have a candidate who’s willing to tell them mostly what they want to hear and can’t wait to pick up the wars against Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and whoever else wants to mess with this crazy guy who thinks he qualified to lead the country.

Les Aaron

It’s not the War that scares; It’s the power to arbitrarily make war!....

Bill Moyers always gives you lots of value for your time.

Last night, his sermon had to do with torture and the invasion of privacy. And the extraordinary display of power of this president.

Who could resist—especially with a guest like Fritz O. Schwarz, Jr. who is the senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School…and, perhaps more interestingly….

The former lead counsel for the Church Committee, a Senate committee that investigated executive overreach from FDR to Nixon issuing 14 reports over three years.

Moyers, always trying to play a balanced hand, asked Schwarz what he thought was the one thing that worried Schwarz more than anything else about this government.

Schwarz did have to think a moment before answering that his greatest concern was that this president thought that he was above the law; that he had the power to write, change and interpret the law as he saw fit.

He thought that Congress’ ceding power to the Executive to pursue terrorism inferred that he, the president, had the power to do whatever was necessary in his own judgment.

In so doing, Schwarz stated time and time again, that George Bush had violated the Constitution and the law of the land.

His main concern was that Bush did not feel constrained by the law; or that he had to be subject to them which concerned Schwarz because of Bush’s recent rhetoric on Iran that seemed to emulate what happened with Iraq. Schwarz was worried that we may be seeing a repeat of the aggressive behavior that led to Iraq beind duplicated in an unjustified war against Iran.

Moreover, Schwarz pointed out that Bush did not seem constrained when it came to issues of torture or eavesdropping even after he violated the FISA courts by not abiding by the law that stated that the president had to get the permission of the special FISA courts to proceed with spying on fellow citizens….

Nor does Bush feel that he must debate this inasmuch as he is protected by his revised interpretation of Executive Privilege.

To any American, this is scarily reminiscent of the reign of Richard Nixon. Subsequently, during the presidency of Ford, Cheney, who believed that Richard Nixon’s rights had been compromised, fought for Executive Privilege and an expansion of the president’s rights. We are seeing this writ large in the antics of a man who is looking towards Nixon as an example of his own lack of constraints , a man who wants respect but , at the same time, does not feel that his actions are governed by the law.

If the American people do nothing here and Congress does not demonstrate that no one is above the law, we are setting dangerous precedent here that will come back to haunt us….


Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

The Committee for Positive Change

Abdullah a Darwinist?

What if everyone around you was a thousand years behind the times and you had all the money in the world. What would you do?

Well, apparently this thought had occurred to Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and he had an idea. It was to start to educate people in the Middle East about science and technology—a radical notion for a nomadic people who are used to tending to camels or living on the dole.. In fact, Abdullah is so taken with this idea that he’s turned it over to one of his major oil subcontractors to make it a reality. His intent: To develop an international University in the middle of a land that practices one of the oldest and most conservative religions on earth which seem like a paradox to outsiders looking in. But it does make some sense.

Right now, if the oil ran out what would the average Saudi do?

To play the world’s game, you have to be willing to take chances and obviously that’s what Abdullah plans to do.

Many are afraid however that this will be another giant encircled encampment, like the oil wells, that will keep the locals out and cater to foreigners.

Abdullah has given instructions that this new university will be committed to the teaching of science and technology will admit both men and women with no restrictions and people of all nationalities and colors. That, in and of itself, is a breakthrough of major proportions. Only a few years back, they were having public executions of women suspected of being unfaithful.

It remains to be seen how this will fly in the old kingdom but Abdullah must be seeing what the Emirates and other gulf nations are doing to build a world class economic climate that seems to be doing well if the economies of various countries hold out..

At least, it’s nice to know that all of our oil money isn’t going to finance terrorists….


Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

The Committee for Positive Change

FEMA’s Charade


Impressed with FEMA’s press conference?.
Especially after the fiasco that was Katrina.

April Fool!...


Surprise of surprises, the FEMA press conference turned out to be a charade.

There was no press conference.

The press was actually barred.

And the spokesperson answered pre-arranged questions from his own staff giving the illusion that this was the real thing.

But word leaked out. FEMA was simulating a press conference.

The impression is that FEMA was trying to fool us, the public.

Is that not only embarrassing, it is the height of stupidity.

If it were the Japanese equivalent, the spokesperson would have already fallen on his sword.

If we are indulging in programs that are meant to only fool the public, where do we go from here? Monopoly money. Phony promises to those without housing. Medals that have no significance at all.

FEMA is already a joke.

And that stupid display is strike two!...

Now, as if to poke fun at something everyone already pokes fun at, they exacerbate FEMA’s already flimsy grasp of reality by smoke and mirrors that wouldn’t qualify them for amateur shows….

We don’t need more smoke and mirrors.

They’ve already proved that that’s how they operate in the first place.

All show and no content!....

If by now, we haven’t learned that FEMA is no place for sinecures to manage.

They only come out looking like a bunch of inept clowns.

The trouble is that those inept clowns are responsible for saving lives.

And then it’s no longer a joke.


It’s time to dismantle FEMA and put something serious in its place.

They are an embarrassment to America presided over by a bunch of self-serving nit-wits!...

God save this country from what it calls government.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

Committee for Positive Change
LAAGroup@aol.com

The “I” Word Writ Large





Increasingly, it is looking that in order to advance his radicalized ideas,

Bush will stop at nothing.



The Russian reaction to what Bush is doing is being played down by the media.



But Putin is calling Bush’s actions the worst thing since the Cuban Missile Crisis. He then backed off his claim. But the Russians are freaking out...



What kind of precipitous actions would bring such a response from Russia?.



Well, the fact of the matter is that without consultation, without Congress’ approval, Bush is planning to introduce advanced listening equipment and radar into what was once an Iron Curtain country, Poland. But it doesn’t stop there.

He also wants to put in at the same time a battery of ten nuclear missiles.



This is just like sticking your thumb into an old friend's eye. It is far from a friendly gesture.






Bush claims the only reason he is doing this is to be prepared should Iran develop a nuclear missile capability.



Sure, he’s preparing himself against Iran.



Absolutely nobody is willing to buy that story….



We have twenty seven different ways of dropping a payload on Iran; why bother adding missiles to Poland when it will only inflame the Russians to start another cold war.



To do something like this, you have to be out of your mind….or just looking to start another war—cold or hot.



Russian leaders are already asking what if America decides to transform these warheads into multi-targeted warheads or what if 10 warheads becomes 20 or 100?





WE know that Russia has always been schizophrenic and paranoid about its relations with the west.



Why fan the flames?



Why antagonize them if you don’t have to?



Isn’t that baiting?



The last thing anyone with common sense would want to do is inflame the only country in the world that has more nuclear weapons than we do…. A country where their weapons could be retargeted in minutes.



If this isn’t the most provocative actions America could have taken, I couldn’t imagine what else it could be. If this isn’t the height of craziness, I think we would be hard pressed to find an equal.



I am now thoroughly convinced that our president is mad!...mad beyond redemption.



This only adds fuel to the flames and ratchets up the rhetoric to some point where we will not be able to back off and save face at the same time.



Increasingly, our policy seems to be repeat the build up to Iraq over and over again.



This is one act play and the reviews keep getting worse….It’s beginning to look increasingly like we’re all stuck in his Groundhog Day….



I am appalled and chagrined that this kind of precipitous action is going forward without so much as a peep from the media or Congress.



Why isn’t somewhere common sense prevailing?



Where are the great statesmen; those who advocate for peace and understanding—instead of building a climate for war.?



This president has outlasted his welcome!



It is time for impeachment and now!



Call your representative and demand that they sign Dennis Kucinich’s law seeking impeachment for Cheney and let’s make it retroactive for Bush—a two-fer!



May it be the last time we ever have to resort to this kind of action!....



Les Aaron


THE COMMITTEE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE
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"Our Worst Halloween Nightmare"

I was living in New York’s Greenwich Village when Norman Podhoretz declared that he was giving up on the liberals and declaring liberalism dead, everyone thought he was either kidding or mad. Afterall, he was associated with its roots. But his book “Making It” convinced us that he was not kidding. This was in the sixties…

When he left, we thought that would be the end of him.

That was some fifty years ago.

But he kept popping up like a bad penny.

If not him, William Kristol, who had abandoned liberalism for the cloak of conservatism.

. Moreover, Podhoretz’s newly minted conservatism was most visible through editing of Commentary, a conservative news magazine..

And his philosophical influence on the White House and its policy has been grossly under-examined. In effect, Podhoretz may even be credited with being the architect of all of the neo-con aggression that we have witnessed in the last six years. He is also one of the original signers of the neo-cons statement of policy that has influenced think tanks who envision a new American Century….

But don’t count him out just yet—especially when Bush, his protégé still has more than a year left where he could still do incalculable damage.

He’s since made his presence felt through his editorials and his affiliations with Bush II where he’s served as an advisor and earned the sobriquet of Neo-Con, or perhaps the master of the Neo-Cons. In fact, while maintaining the lowest of profiles, he is the one who pushed for Bush to go to war with Iraq and, now, Iran.

Bush according to critics has already painted himself into a corner if he doesn’t go to War with Iran but in case he doesn’t, Podhoretz has not painted himself into a corner. He is now a consultant to Rudy Giuliani who can’t wait to invade Iran starting the War with Iran the first time or if he’s elected, the second time.

A vote for Giuliani increasingly is looking like a rubber stamp for a continuation of Bush II policy which will plunge us into another four years of darkness….


Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon.

Did anyone ever go over a bridge and think twice about it.


I didn’t.



I just bought into the myths. Like countless other people.



This was America.



Our country was strong. Our apple pie the best.

And the flag really stood for something.



So much for sloganism...



What we did believe was that bridges were strong; bridges would not let us down; and they were in place for ever.



Some of us were involved enough to believe that all bridges are inspected regularly by licensed engineers and that all bridges are fundamentally in good shape and no way structurally deficient.



Well, folks, the bridge's cover has been blown!



I was brought up short in listening to a few professionals in the bridge building business exchanging confidences.



It was enough to blow my socks off.



First, there are only two states who require bridge inspectors to be engineers and professional licensed for that job.



One is New York.



And if that wasn’t scary enough, one engineer mentioned that one out of four bridges in the US today are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.



It gets worse when you talk urban areas, where faulty bridges account for one out of three bridges.



This doesn’t mean that the bridges are going to fall down tomorrow; it does mean that bridge inspectors need to be vigilant and attend to what they see as “danger” signs.



That would take into consideration the age of the bridge, the design, the frequency of inspection, the safety record on the bridge.



In New York alone, 58% of all bridges were built before 1970.





And the condition of bridges is probably worse elsewhere where the bridge inspectors are not engineers….



The problem is mainly a budgetary one where budgets for inert items that simply do their job year after year do not automatically move up despite the best of intentions.



Therefore, it would seem to behoove residents of areas where the bridges may be old or questionable to consider making information about the bridge’s inspection schedules and safety records part of public information and subject to hearings in those specific areas where the bridges are located.



The key again tends often to be the public sector displaying a higher level of vigilance.



So, what else is new?



Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change

\


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The parable of the fox and the sheep

The Fox speaks before an assembly of favored sheep.

And they rush home believing every word that the fox said.

But the sheep cannot seem to understand that every night they go home to fewer
Sheep.

Now, the head fox will say that sheep are simply prone to natural disease that can cause a rapid Depletion in their numbers. That sheep are not predisposed to fight disease. And that most sheep would willingly sacrifice themselves to prevent anti-sheep terrorist activities.

The sheep buy into that.

But in the course of six years, they discover that their savings are down, there are fewer jobs for sheep and that all of the programs seemed designed to help out the foxes.

But instead of doing something about it, they hunker down in self doubt.

If the chief fox says it’s so, it must be so….

Today, fifty percent of the Republican party believe that the head fox is right.

And the passive sheep in the “other” party are too intimidated—being sheep—to do something about it and try to find rationales for escaping any responsibility.

Like, “oh, that stuff happens. We just have to be tougher sheep!”

Or that chief fox is still our leader and we must believe him and follow him to the ends of the earth.”

Too bad, sheep tend to live up to their biological expectations.

Leg of lamb anyone?

But there is yet another group out there, not sheep or fox but predatory nonetheless.

A group that doesn’t buy into the rhetoric and is not kidding itself about bringing democracy to the world. They know that our Wars are not about cute democratic notions. They can’t be since our government has already eviscerated democracy in our country.
It is about economic advantage and the sooner we realize that the better off we’d be.

It’s one thing to have our troops protect the word for democracy; it’s quite another to send them off to fight for economic advantage.

This other group, I call the eagles.

They are weary; they don’t say much but they are hanging on every word.

Some of them are motivated for personal reasons; but many others want America to return to the notions of democracy, to combat global warming, build jobs and opportunity again.

If this group finds its core, it may just change the way politics are conducted in this country.

And they are rising as we speak in power and influence.

Consider that the biggest group in America today is not sheep or fox,
It is the Independents.

And what will happen to the US depends on whether they get their heads on straight.

It would be nice to see an endangered species make its way back!....


Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

The Committee for Positive Change

LAAGroup@aol.com

Hardboiled Rice

When the dust settles—if it ever does, our citizenry will have an opportunity to review the performance of Bush appointees and being the healing process of hard questions.

No one will be more out there than, Condy Rice, our National Security Adviser turned Secretary of State.

Considering that the Secretary of State is one of the highest profile positions in any administration, some may begin to ask some very explosive questions.

Among them:

What has Rice brought to the table?

And what is her legacy?

Neither is capable of a quick answer…

In Rice’s behalf, she does have an impressive set of credentials: A PhD and a specialization in USSR Studies.

But of course, the USSR no longer exists so in one respect Rice is a specialist without a specialty.

And despite her impressive credentials, it is hard to see that she has placed her own personal stamp on the office she holds.

Secondly, over nearly four years since she has become Secretary of State, we have the right to ask what is Condy Rice’s legacy?

Judging from the evidence, it is hard to see one.

If anything, Rice has brought a new policy of remoteness to the art of diplomacy.
She has been quick to say, “no” when it is to her advantage to do so; but, at the same time, she has been less inclined to encourage dialogue among interested parties. This has conveyed to other countries’ officials that Rice tends to dialogue with those she likes and ignore those she doesn’t like. And she is more connected with that mind set than any particular legacy.

In effect, this seems to be an inversion of the way classic diplomacy works where opposing parties are encouraged to come to the table for the purpose of discussing their differences and how to find a common path to arriving at an accord.

Much of our plethora of stalemates on many issues have evolved out of charges of obstinacy and inability to compromise that are increasingly being laid at her door.

When diplomacy has called for imagination and creativity, it is clear that they have been sadly missing from Ms. Rice’s repertoire; instead, she has chosen to emulate the recalcitrance of her boss and, ironically, instead of helping his cause, she has only served to dig his hole deeper.

It is clear that we have a long way to go to patch things up with the world and restore our democratic outlook on the world.

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change
www.LAAGroup@aol.com
Send for our free book list and previews…

WHO WILL GO?


If we can rush to War but can’t take care of our Veterans needs, what does that say about us as a people?

What is wrong with us?

Why won’t various Veterans groups stand up for their fellow veterans?

Why will we let America go to war without thinking about the wounded veterans who return from wars….

Our short term memory of convenience is an embarrassment to us as a people.

Here’s just the latest example of those we’ve allowed to slip through the cracks:

The latest brouhaha concerns the fact that the head of the Veterans Administration has resigned and there is no replacement as yet. Who in fact would want to take on an unpopular job with problems heaped upon problems for fewer than eighteen months and then get unceremoniously dumped. No wonder there are no takers. Nevertheless, Bush has put it on the back burner.
And as a result, no one is looking out for our service people who were put in harm’s way.

But this is a Federal problem that begins at the White House. Clearly, while we can ask for nearly a trillion dollars to maintain our troops and provide for a mercenary army, there is not enough money in the kitty to do what is needed to help out our veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

As it turns out, those with various mental disorders have been largely overlooked, denied benefits or otherwise just fell through the cracks. Their numbers have not even been included in the 27,000 wounded Iraq veterans that this government will admit to—even though it is virtually impossible to get responsible figures that can be verified. . And even the numbers given fall short by nearly 100% of the numbers previously estimated.

Were that by itself not bad enough, returning veterans are facing a six month delay in making their claims to the VA.

With veterans having to get by on their own after their service benefits run out and facing cut-backs in other benefits, and with over a million veterans without insurance, we are left with a total mess on our hands.

One wife of a veteran put it best, it seems that we have money to conduct wars but no money to take care of the disabled caused by war. If we needed a more apt or stunning indictment of the way this war is being conducted by our government, we would have to look long and hard to beat that one…

The fact is that the VA has played second fiddle to the conduct of the War. The real heroes are being left pretty much on their own after they served their country and the VA is either ill equipped to do what’s right or is simply trying to ignore the problem in the hope that it will go away. Either way, the buck stops at Bush’s desk.


If we cannot treat our heroes any better than that, it’s a sad commentary on what we have allowed our government to become. Who will go to War in the future and do the country’s heavy lifting knowing that we can’t even take care of our heroes now?


Keep that in mind with all the talk of invading Iran.

Who will go?


Les Aaron

"Go East, Young Man...."


In a free wheeling take on Horace Greeley’s advice to young people, the new mantra seems to be “Go East, young man.”

Several recent articles have recently touted the advantages of going east over going west.
Increasingly, today, displaced people—or those seeking new careers—are making the decision to forsake the west for potential livelihoods in China.

Why China?

For the first time since the Mao revolution, people of various backgrounds and ethnicities are flocking to China. They cite the freedom, peace and opportunity that newcomers have here over other places. Several pointed out that in Europe, they are treated below the locals but here in China, they are treated better than most Chinese.

Most of all, Chinese is open to this kind of expansion and has encouraged economic growth through the absorption of different people who can bring various new talents or contacts into the economic equation.

Towards this end, Chinese officials have recently expanded their scholarship program, making available some 8,800 scholarships this year, up from 6,000 plus last year.

These scholarships have been used to solidify contacts with countries that China needs in order to continue its economic expansion. For example, scholarship winners have come from countries where China wants to expand its trade or obtain access to precious raw materials.

Others say that China policies have allowed “outsiders” to not only derive a living but even become millionaires. These stories have circulated outside of China and contributed to the growing harmonious relationships that China enjoys with the various nations it does business with while at the same time, becoming a destination for entrepreneurs seeking a more welcoming environment for trade.

Although this is a fairly new side of China, the results so far have been encouraging and if anything, China has extended a new green card program to facilitate even more newcomers who have money to invest in a China introducing them to a climate that seems to impose few limits on the economic freedoms enjoyed here. One does not have to go beyond the new free trade zones to see what is possible and how China has gone through an economic revolution to produce a whole new class of entrepreneurs and business men virtually overnight. This lesson is not lost on anyone and should neither be ignored by the west if it hopes to compete effectively with a country that claims to be communist but is more capitalistic than its counterparts in the west.


Les Aaron

We Need Our Own Surge....
In Technology and Science

In the 1950’s, after the Second World War and Korea, and the GI Bill, many of us went to school believing that Engineering was the key to even greater prosperity and a life style that would be the envy of the world.



At CUNY, that education was free of charge. I and a thousand others on my campus enrolled in Engineering in the same class that Colin Powell enrolled in, except at a different campus of the University.



On our campus, we were told to look around, because by the end of the year, the persons on either side would not be there. If they were looking to sow fear in us, it wasn’t working. We still thought we were great for graduating high school at the upper one third.



Nevertheless, the head of the Department had been right; they weren’t there.



And at the end of two years, there were fewer than sixty of us left. The composition was about 55 men students and 5 women. That was a sign of the times in the decade where women were thought qualified to be only nurses or secretaries or librarians.



Some of us changed course after three years.



I found I liked English, History and Mathematics better so I switched majors.



If ten or fifteen out of the thousand that started, it would probably have been about average.



At the time, CUNY was graduating the most PhD’s in the country and ranked high in the teaching of mathematics, chemistry and liberal arts subjects. It ranked among the top fifteen of all campuses in the teaching of Chemistry. The head of the math department was an associate of Einstein so this little liberal arts college had its share of great teachers.



Colin Powell had also switched careers before graduating.



Nevertheless, we still envisioned the acceleration of the technological age and an evolution out of conventional manufacturing.



We led the world on patents and innovations; our graduate schools were considered the world’s best.



But in recent years, all that has changed. We now lag in new patents and are down something like forty percent from a decade before.



Our schools are no longer the magnet they once were.



And students from other schools around the world consistently beat us in competitions in mathematics and science.



In the meantime, our educational infrastructure has grown mired in the past and there have been movements afoot to denigrate the role of science in our lives.



Darwinian theory has taken a hit from virtually everyone connected with this White House.



There is little acceptance among senior republican politicians for the effects of global warming and consequently very little is being done to change the status quo.



In my book, A Blueprint for Winning, I point out that educationally we are at a crisis stage. We need literally something on the style of a Roosevelt type program to revive science and mathematics in this country and to make us competitive on a world scale again.



Science and technology hold the hope of finding alternative fuel solutions that can free us up from our dependency on foreign oil It can promulgate alternatives to global warming and re-energize this country to move forward at the technological level after so many years of stasis.



Viewed through a long term lens, putting science and technology on the back burner is no longer a viable option; if we fail to act, we may be witnessing not only the transformation of this country but also surrendering to the idea that nothing can be done about the deleterious effects of global warming.



Carl Sagan, even with his lasting doubts, was always optimistic that with the right kind of commitment, we could always find a solution. We hope that the spirit of Carl Sagan and others and the character of the American people will rise to the challenge and help us reemerge as a bright shining beacon for the rest of the world, made more so by our renewed commitment to science and technology.



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon

"It Ain't Over Til It's Over..."


Everybody is saying it's all over.



Hillary is the presumptive candidate.



she's thirty points ahead in the polls.



And expected to wrap it all up in the first rounds of the Primary.



But it isn't all over.



And anyone who thinks it is didn't see Joe Biden today who reminds us that there are two and a half months before the Primary begins give or take what New Hampshire decides.



Joe Biden was on Stephanopolis this morning and he looked presidential.



I haven’t often said that although I really have a feeling for Joe who is the penultimate nice guy in person who you would delight in having a drink with….



Joe has always had that great mixture of Irish hail and fair well and Italian good will for his fellow man. He is bright, resourceful and best of all, experienced; yet he has not done all that well in the debate format.



The question is Why?



Part of it has to do with the fact that Joe’s policies need time to explain; he cannot package them into thirty seconds which is a problem with the forums as they’ve been remade. . But Joe has been there and done that and I suspect he is the best and most experienced candidate among the candidates.



He can also argue the Republican value’s argument as he did this morning.



And he also gave the best thought out solution for Iraq.



This wasn’t just off the top of his head.



I heard him speak shortly after Bush announced a win in Iraq nearly five years ago.



At that time, his theories had not cooked enough. He was basing his approach on his feelings rather than the real thing…



I did not agree with him and sent him letter after letter to that affect.



If Joe knew that it was me, I don’t think he would have spoken to me down at the yearly beach party that Democrats have in Sussex County…..



He has been to Iraq many times since and he has listened to the right people. His federalized Iraq is a program that has not received the attention it needs, even though it got attention from the group appointed by Bush’s dad.





Joe is a smart guy and he is the penultimate public servant.



He is one of those people who really love this role.



And if you knew him, you’d know why.



He comes from family that is committed to public service. His youngest son is now Attorney General in the State of Delaware, his sister supports Joe’s candidacy and Hunter, the eldest boy is knee deep in the law trying to help those less fortunate.

Even his sister is engaged. This is a do-gooder family!....and corny as it sounds, they really do good!



I think it would be a lot fairer to all of the candidates if they had five minutes each to go over the high points of where they stand on things, what they see as the priorities with another five minutes tacked on for questions and answers based upon questions submitted by the viewing audience and rated for relevancy.



This would provide a much more balanced picture of where the candidates stand and what we can expect from them in the heat of the Election and afterwards.



Anyway, that’s my perspective.





Les Aaron

From the Files of the Aggressive Progressive


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From the files of the Aggressive Progressive:


It's Greek to Me....


Congress this week in the wake of many challenges has opted to give an audience to the caucus for the preservation of Ancient Greek Religion, and after their findings, are in a position to state categorically that the Persians attack on Athens was provoked and resulted in the genocide of a people during the subsequent
Peloponnesian Wars approximately 330 BCE.

The caucus reached the conclusion that the Persians were guilty of genocide at the time.

The media has repeatedly asked why it has taken nearly 3,000 years to come to that conclusion. Nancy Pelosi replied that the docket was loaded and some things simply cannot be put off and now that all Greeks will be able to enjoy their rights that were taken from them during these Wars that were instigated by the Persians without cause. They deny that at that particular time, that most Athenians were regarded as pompous and arrogant and full of their own power.

With things made right, Congress and the Executive can now get back to the more pressing issues of whether we should invade Persia. A committee of Ancient Greek philosophers have been empowered by the Executive to give objective and fair testimony in this case. According to the record, the president was heard to reply, “These guys have sold one too many carpets. They’ve been getting under my skin for six years now and that bloody little twerp is not going to embarrass me by more of his (expletive deleted) remarks!”

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

Medicine

A Point of View:

Did you ever get that feeling that you would just like to take a little pill and watch all of this painful stuff go away—a pill that would allow you to sleep like Rip Van Winkle til the Election?

I know I do….

But I’m afraid.

You see, after you take the pill, you have to worry about side effects—the bug a boo of TV watchers.

I would be taking happy pills all over the place if I didn’t have to worry about taking them when driving heavy equipment, or falling asleep on the highway in some giant rig where I might take a whole line of cars with me….

I mean there are so many things we have to watch out for—especially in the smaller print where they tell you in six point type that this little drug can cause your liver to stop automatically—it doesn’t spell it out all the way, but I can’t imagine that a liver stopping on you is a good thing anyway you slice it….

And then there’s the danger that the pill you take may give you these funny feelings in your legs that seem to compel you to want to move. (What’s wrong with that?, I wonder. I suspect if they moved, they wouldn’t have to take those little pills in the first place)….

And then there’s always the chance of dizziness that force you to be careful when you get up….Why? I suspect that’s because they don’t want you falling under the stove only to be discovered in the spring…

There are so many dangers associated with taking medication that the writers try to put a happy face on…. I mean can you imagine calling your doctor after having an erection for more than four hours? I mean what could you say: I’m sorry, doctor. I’m eighty five years old and I have been a bad boy? Come on….
The first thing you would do is run down to the corner to see the boys. Undoubtedly, you would become the neighborhood hero surely to earn praise in the hereafter for your exploits. Perhaps they would raise a statue to you but it might be awkward come to think of it….

Then there’s those other risks. I mean if you are taking an alpha blocker and memory enhancing drugs because you forget you were taking an alpha blocker, that could be dangerous I suspect.

And what about your partner, what would she think if you went out the door not wearing any clothes. Would that be embarrassing or not. I guess you wouldn’t have to worry until the neighborhood worked up a petition but look at all the challenges you face just taking a damned pill.

I’ve made up my mind, I will never take another pill because I don’t like the idea of the pharmaceutical companies getting rich off me because I’m falling apart.
I think we are entitled to a better future. By the way, whatever happened to that Golden Age. It doesn’t seem so golden these days…. It seems more like, “Bah humbug.” Increasingly, I’m beginning to sound more like that guy on Sixty Minutes who calls himself a curmudgeon. I’ve been a curmudgeon a long time but I can see that there are degrees of being curmudgeonly that almost defy description.

For the time being, I will not take the damned pill because I can’t remember all of the things I have to avoid if I do and I can’t remember if my alpha blockers is compatible with my prostate drug and my blood pressure which I only take now when I feel like it. It is kind of fun having your blood pressure go up and down real fast; kind of a cheap roller coaster but with the cost of these damned drugs who can afford to take them according to any regular schedule. I’d rather eat a burger which is a hell of a lot cheaper and makes me feel a hell of a lot better than any beta blocker ever did and wash it down with a good beer while I can still enjoy it and to hell with all of these medications. I’m going to die anyway so I might as well enjoy myself in the process. But don’t tell my kids; they think I should stick around forever and I’m already getting bored. Thank God, I never listened to all the prophets about what I should or should not do growing up.
It would have ruined my life. As of now, I’m feeling pretty good and ahead of the curve which is more than my mother in law does since she passed this mortal coil two weeks ago and listened carefully to whatever the quack doctor told her to do. So much for belief systems.

Les Aaron

SATIRE





The White House, Off-Camera



What really goes on:



Well, George, I think we pulled it off. While you were doing your looney tunes routine yelling and screaming about the threat of terrorism, I was wrapping things up all over the globe.



Dick, maybe we should just run through a few things….



Sure, where do you want me to start?



Well, let’s see what we really accomplished?



Well first of all, Dick, we got that damned constitution out of the way….it’s a real shame how a piece of paper can put the kabash on your plans…



Well, it was ready made. 9/11 took care of that!...



No question about it….



Don’t forget, that allowed us to get rid of habeas corpus almost immediately…

And allowed us to imprison suspects—even American citizens.



It was a first for that.



Did you see the public squeal?



But nobody did anything about it. We had scared the hell out of the democrats, too, by using that old threat of not being on America’s side in our battle against terrorism.



Got to hand it to you, Dick, you really pulled that off.



Yeah, we were doing fine in snooping and eavesdropping and sending suspects off to places like Egypt for interrogation when that damn prison got exposed.



Well, you have to take the good with the bad, Dick. We’re still doing our thing and without Court papers….



Yup! Score another one for our side.



And, Dick, you got the guys you wanted to run things in Iraq.



Yeah, that’s true. That was a coup.



Hey, Dick, whatever really happened with that 9 billion dollars in taxpayer monies that was lost?



You got me, George. Would I lie?



Hell, no; but I sure as hell won’t go hunting with you….



Well, it was his fault, he was standing in front of the birds...



That’s a good reason!....



What else?



Well, things were going pretty good with my appointments of sinecures til that damned Brownie started getting high and mighty.



We had the Cabinet folks okay the internal drilling licenses and we didn’t even claim the fees that were due us from the drillers because they were our friends.



Lucky, nothing happened with that.



Then we had all of those good kids come into the State Department to breathe down the necks of those Federal Prosecutors who didn’t want to follow up on those democratic trouble makers and we had to take them out.



Of course. The Attorney General had to take the heat on that one.



Oh, don’t worry about him. He’s helping me on Texas issues when I get out of here…



Otherwise, things look damned good.



Sure as hell do. I guess your family made a bundle with Carlyle.



Hell, yes, and I didn’t do so bad either.



And those PMA lobbies are making sure we don’t run out of money.



That’s essential.



What do you think of the new guys?



Well, I don’t like that Giuliani guy; he’s going to screw things up with our Arab friends, I’m willing to bet.



And yeah, that bloody Mormon is raising a little hell too about getting off of fossil fuels.



He’s just looking for a little more attention from Exxon-Mobile.

We’ll keep him in line if necessary.



By the way, good job of nailing those kids who are looking for health care services.



Yeah, you can't let them get away with that stuff, and there won’t be enough money to do what we want in Iraq.



Ain’t that the truth….



Well, you headed back to your hole, Dick?



Yes, how about you?



No, I’m going down to the ranch to take some more time off. I need to get those weeds down. And suck up some of those good ole’ Southern ribs….



Hey, George, hate to remind you…but you’re not really from the south.



Oh yeah, must have forgotten. Take care of yourself, Dick.

And don’t let those liberals get you down.



They wouldn’t if I could just use some of our biologicals on them…



Well, who knows? Maybe someday. We’ll keep you posted on that one, Dick.



By the way, how’s your gay daughter doin’?



Hey Dick how come your face got so red; is your machine working okay.



I hear this thumping sound coming from your chest.



It was okay before you got me pissed off.



Sorry, old buddy, it’s just my down home sense of humor.



Well, can it, you jackass!









Les Aaron


THE COMMITTEE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

Will wishful thinking supplant good science?

We are being lulled into believing that if global warming has any short term impact, it will be to produce a rise of perhaps a foot or so of ocean level. If that were the case, Al Gore’s presentiments were well overblown according to the typical critics.

But that is not the case.

The danger is much more real and imminent than such watered-down views might suggest.

While government tells us that there is evidence on both sides of that argument is the fact is that most of the scientific tracts see this as a very real occurrence that is much more profound than we are being led to believe and. Most agree, the culprit is primarily CO2 produced by emissions that enter the atmosphere.

As Al Gore pointed out, it is sometimes very hard to understand an issue when understanding that issue may adversely affect your income…

The question is really whether the voting public understands the true nature of global warming without the hype and smokescreen that surrounds its objective consideration and the challenges it poses.

What the government has been trying to do is to convince us that temperatures peaks and valleys are normal aberrations and, even at the most extreme, we are only talking about a rise of about one foot in ocean levels worldwide.

The one foot estimate is largely predicated on the melting of glaciers around the world. But the fact remains that the threat is much larger. From accumulated evidence, we are seeing the two largest bodies of ice in the northern and southern hemispheres threatened by melting.

In Antarctica, parts of the western ice shelf have broken off and floated free. This has made it possible for giant ice ridges—where most of the accumulated fresh ice resides—to form pockets that can lead to its breaking up and melting, contributing to a rise in global oceans…. The statistics show patterns similar to what the critics suggest but in the last several decades, a tendency to go in only one direction, up!

To keep things into perspective, bear in mind that the Antarctic is larger than the US and Mexico combined.

And if part of the western shelf collapses into the sea, as it now seems to be prepared to do, our willingness to underestimate the problem may not only prove foolhardy, it may also prove to be a tipping point for hundreds of millions of people.

Another threat is presented by the floating ice of Greenland which is in the process of melting at a higher rate than ever before and is beginning to flow into the Atlantic raising ocean levels and changing its salinity.

If only half of the ice of the Greenland cap melts, which is indicated by rapidly increasing temperatures in the Arctic and if half of the Antarctic ridge collapses, what we will be looking at is not a rise of one foot, but an increase of sixteen feet in the oceans.

Increases in the heating of the oceans caused by retained CO2 can have other disastrous consequences as we are beginning to see now.

Among them, the tendency to see tropical insects and plants moving into northern climes where they can rapidly spread deadly infection and disease where there are no natural defenses.

We are also seeing rising temperatures affecting the food chain and the reefs that are breeding grounds for a range of species. Current rising temperatures are causing the reefs to die off endangering the species they protect.

Moreover, most climatologists explain that the conveyor belt effect caused by the underwater rivers that traverse the globe may tend to be neutralized. These belts of warming waters including the Gulf Stream tend to keep temperatures stable.
They are triggered by cold salty water of heavy density being deposited in the North Atlantic where they sink and start the conveyor belt’s action world-wide.

If the North Atlantic oceans lose their salt content from the flow of the Greenland ice shelf, it will change the density of the conveyor belt and its flow may be interrupted. This has happened before according to the histories drawn from ice cores.

If this is the case, the world may not only be subjected to an increase of sixteen feet in water level, we may also find that we have entered a new ice age.

None of these potential threats are to be taken lightly and the public must be made to understand the cause and effect connection between our actions and our disregard for the environment and their measured effects.

It has also been documented through the study of ice cores, that these changes can occur quite rapidly—actually in as little as ten years!

That doesn’t give us much time to prepare. Nor do we know how far along the present melting process is at this stage or how close we may be to a tipping point that would lead to dramatic change..

Therefore, it would be wise to consider the worst in planning for our futures.

If we act now, we may still be able to reduce the total impact of global warming and bring ourselves back to some form of equilibrium or at least the carbon consumption of twenty or thirty years ago.

But the government’s position is that there are flaws in the arguments. Combine that position with the fact that we are among the two leading nations who have not signed the Kyoto Accords and we, as a result, find little reason for hope. If we are to be saved from this fate at all, it seems that the larger part of the burden must be assumed by we the people.

We need to become mobilized now to take action. And we need to think of our own survival at a time when all others seem to be either ignoring or minimizing the challenge.

If you are prepared to join with us in a letter writing campaign to let our candidates know how we feel and what we are prepared to do, please join our list to fight Global Warming at any cost!

Thank you.

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change

Please pass on this request to all of your friends and neighbors…

A ten dollar minimum contribution will make you a member of our committee and a fifty dollar contribution will move you to our Inner Circle.

Thank you for all that you do!

Les Aaron


Please make checks out to LAACO and direct to Global Warming Committee, 239 Lakeside Drive, Lewes DE 19958.

Wake Up, Detroit!

Get ready for the biggest car surge in recent memory.

Sales of 300 million expected over the next decade.

Wait, before you rush out to Detroit for a job, we should point out that this is not going to happen over here, it’s going to happen in India.

Already there are a half-dozen companies, including several joint ventures with Japanese companies and native companies who see this as a very real prospect.

The key is getting the cost down.

The average Indian is now riding to work on a motor bike; the next step up the ladder is an inexpensive car.

Bosch, the giant car parts company, says that the right price is to bring a car in under 7,000 Euros or about 9500 bucks American.

The Japanese and Indians, however, are targeting a car that will go for about 3,500 dollars.

American car companies, with all due apologies, are studying the matter.

We all know that Detroit will study it and study the prospect for a good inexpensive car until they miss the opportunity and then proclaim that all of these other companies are practicing unfair methods and ‘dumping.”

Bosch pegs the market at 300 million automobiles.

If you study the Indian market, you will see that 99% of all people want a car. The big problem is that they can’t afford a car at today’s prices.

Bosch’s studies also show that better than 13% of the world market will be for a car that falls into the 7000 Euro category.

Although strategists do not believe that the US would respond to such a strategy, this author believes that in the wake of wage cuts and lost opportunity, a reliable inexpensive car will appeal greatly to not only urban residents but also second car prospects.

China is also working hard to introduce cars in its own country that are priced at under 10,000 dollars US.

One footnote: If Detroit ever awakens from its deep slumber, it might find that realistically repositioning themselves to take advantage of a burgeoning market for affordable cars may be a way out of bankruptcy and a pragmatic way of making up lost market share….

Les Aaron with the “Avenging Rabbit “
For the Committee for Positive Change

Is the end of capitalism to own nothing?
Our policies may not seem so disturbing until you kind of categorize them.

Consider the fact that in the last five years, our government has tried to sell our seaports to the Middle East, to Sunni backed governments.

We’ve also considered selling our highways that we don’t even own to various governments. And we have extended that concept to include bridges and tunnels.

And we’ve made agreements under Fast Track that has allowed us to move sensitive jobs off-shore.

Now, we are considering allowing 3Com to sell a big chunk of the company to a Chinese company that is backed by the military which, according to experts, will allow the Chinese military to penetrate our computer defense….

When we moved away from manufacturing after being lied to that Information Age jobs will flow to the public, we found ourselves without even a machine tool industry left in the US. And without machine tools, you can’t rebuild your manufacturing sector…

In terms of export/import programs, we now principally export scrap and raw materials and agricultural products to China and import manufactured goods that are more inferior than the products we scrapped.

And we’ve been doing this while operating a deficit of over $55 billion annually although it hasn’t been fully reported.

Our Americans now have to go to an Indian company to compete for jobs in the US….

And the French sell us our water back to us.

We buy our oil from the Middle East and, thereby, help fund the War against America….

And, the final straw, trickle down economics simply trickles down to inflate the bank books of the already insanely rich. Today, the top 1 ½ % alone account for more than the bottom 40% on the economic ladder.
Stand back from these realities and ask yourself the question:

So, what’s left?

Is the reducto ad absurdium of capitalism: You sell everything, take the profits and then move to China?

Or do we still have the land to sell.

Russia is already laying claim to the Arctic

Will China be competing to buy New York.?

Will Saudi Arabia own Washington DC?.

Is this what young Americans are fighting for and dying for—a chance to live in a country owned by someone else?

I just don’t get it anymore.

Bush has inverted everything that was important in my life and for the first time caused me to believe that Americans are easily conned and without the backbone to take back our country when it’s most necessary.

When asked, our spineless politicians tell us that doing the right thing would destabilize the country, cause anguish and further polarize us as a people.

I’ve got news for you, Congress, we’ve already got that!...

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change

WHATEVER IT TAKES...


The New Bush looks a lot like the Old…Nobody operates in a vacuum...

So when you see how Bubble Boy show boats in front of the UN or acts tough and doesn't give an inch when it comes time to negotiations, that is not because he just developed this persona, it's because its the way it's been all his life.

If he didn't have influence with the people he worked with, he just copped out. In school, it was said that it was “his way or the highway. “ From the earliest days, he was not used to compromise. He didn't have to. If it didn't work out his way, he would leave with the ball and the bat. So, therefore, it should be no surprise that the attitudes he developed over a lifetime have just become entrenched.

Bush doesn't negotiate. He doesn't even know the meaning of the word. What he did to get his way was to attempt to con the United Nations. Many didn't buy his promises. Surprisingly, our dimwitted Congress could never make the right connection and went along with his farce. Why? Because that's the way he wanted it.

Think back. Do you really think that the research made a case for invading Iraq. I don't think so. At least, not if you listen to the serious researchers. Yes, the CIA's boss wanted to do the perennial suck up but his people weren't with him on that.

But that didn't bother, Bush. When things do go the way you want them to go, reinvent the facts.

Get people to change your mind. Plant new evidence. Find new things to blame.

It goes with the smoke and mirrors form of government that America has become.

Actually, if you think about it, Bush's way is the inverse of the scientific method where you test a hypothesis against the real world.

Bush, on the other hand, starts with where he wants to be and then works things to make it happen. Oftentimes, however, it means turning the facts into fiction or fitting the real world into a Hollywood set—but nobody’s fooled!...except those who want to be fooled.

And this is a convenient way. So when things head south, he can blame the cause....

For his advisers, of course, it's a no win proposition. You're damned if you do; damned if you don't. Just ask the dozens of generals who’ve gone to the place where old generals go….

But the amazing thing is that this is no new revelation.

It's been in plain sight since he got into politics and even in college or the air force reserve.

Bush is now working on about his twentieth different justification for the mess in Iraq.

And it looks like the one that works is Iran.

As long as it can blame it all on Iran he'll live to fight another day.

Of course, it may mean that we will be enmeshed in this imbroglio longer than all the wars we fought in combined. But what does that matter when you know that the Republicans have preempted the democrats when it comes to fighting for American hegemony, apple pie and all the other good things America stands for.

It's amazing how willing we are to have our leaders lie to us.

Tells you something about the real American character in the post 9/11 world we inherited.

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change