Through October 15, I plan to devote my Pony Party slots to support International Blog Action Day and its focus on our environment. Below the fold is a look at some secret places on this place we call Earth… v.v.v. cool.

Don’t rec the Pony Party RiaD! Chitchat and maybe talk a little about this home of ours…

(Burma 6:00 – promoted by buhdydharma )

I have been trying to stay current with what is going on in Burma.  That isn’t easy, of course, because of the difficulty of getting stories out of the country.  If caught trying to cover what’s going on, journalists can expect the same harsh treatment from the junta as any Burmese citizen.  But still, stories emerge.

One of these stories is posted in ABITSU, All Burma I.T. Students Union.  It is about a 15 year old novice monk who is in hiding from the junta.

By timesofinda.indiatimes.com : YANGON: Just two weeks ago, Yin Phoe Htoo’s life was governed by the austere but peaceful routines of the Yangon monastery where he has spent the past five years as a novice monk.Every morning, the 15-year-old would wake up at 4:00 am, eat breakfast at dawn, and then walk through the community in his saffron robes to accept alms from residents.

But since Myanmar’s deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests that saw Buddhist monks lead 100,000 people onto the streets, Yin Phoe Htoo now lives in hiding at one of the homes where he used to seek alms of food or small coins.

He has shed his flowing robes for a T-shirt and the traditional lungi that most men in Myanmar wear.

“I want to become a novice again. I feel uncomfortable living with the family here,” he said, giving a false name to protect himself from military reprisal.

For now he has little choice but to hide. At least three monks were killed and hundreds more were beaten or arrested as security forces used baton charges, teargas and live weapons fire to break up the monks’ peaceful protests.

jamesboyce over at Daily Kos has written a diary today with a disturbing story out of Burma, from the Sunday Times Online, entitled “Secret cremations hide Burma killings:”

THE Burmese army has burnt an undetermined number of bodies at a crematorium sealed off by armed guards northeast of Rangoon over the past seven days, ensuring that the exact death toll in the recent pro-democracy protests will never be known.

The secret cremations have been reported by local people who have seen olive green trucks covered with tarpaulins rumbling through the area at night and watched smoke rising continuously from the furnace chimneys.

jamesboyce has also set up a blog entitled burma newsladder, trying to aggregate all stories on what is going on there.

But let’s go back to Yin Phoe Htoo, the 15 year old novice monk.  One person, one story.

“For many of us, especially the women, our hearts broke because we could not protect the monks. The armed forces were stronger than us,” one 57-year-old in the community said.

“Monks from Ngwekyaryan are very respected in our community. They used to offer free tuition every year for our children,” he added.

Yin Phoe Htoo has not suffered directly from any attacks but the presiding monk from his monastery has ordered all his novices to hide in residents’ homes or to flee to their home towns.

The woman sheltering Yin Phoe Htoo said she feared the novices would be arrested if they tried to return to their villages, saying she would rather care for them herself.

“I heard some monks were arrested on the way to their villages. I worry for these young novices, and no one can guarantee their wellbeing,” she said.

…

Despite his life of fear and hiding, Yin Phoe Htoo said he had no regrets about the protests that defied the military regime with simple prayers and chanting.

“The monks who led the protests strove for people. When I grow up, I will do the same. Our leading monks risked their lives to stand up for the people,” he said.

I’ve probably excerpted too much of this story, but I think it is important.  It’s so easy when we hear of tragedies, whether they be here in America (New Orleans) or far away (Darfur), to have a hard time wrapping our minds and hearts around such suffering, and unfortunately it is all too easy to immerse ourselves in this suffering for a day or even a week and then it fades, it fades away in the face of some new suffering or some new joy, always changing.

Yin Phoe Htoo is a 15 year old, he wants to get back to his life as a novice monk.  He wants to continue to help people, not have to be protected by those whom he has always served.  The communities who benefit from the monasteries only want their monks to be safe and to be allowed to continue to serve those communities.

Not so exotic, not so hard to understand, even as the mores and culture of these communities may seem exotic and unusual to us.

Suffering.  We can look at large numbers of casualties, deaths of human beings everywhere from Darfur to Iraq to Burma to New York City and New Orleans.  We can look at mass suffering and be overwhelmed by it.

Or we can look at an individual, someone perhaps we would like as a friend, who seems very interesting, who we’d like to speak with and exchange stories.  And then the place where the suffering occurred becomes secondary to the humanity of the one who has suffered.  The numbers who have suffered become less overwhelming than the sadness in our hearts towards a fellow human being — he might be me!  I might be him!  A connection is formed in the heart.

I have read of folks getting angry and getting into comparative suffering — how DARE you write about this suffering when that suffering is so much greater!

And of course you can get into that mind-set, it’s not hard to do.  It then becomes sort of a triage of humanity, though, and I have yet to be able to perform that in my heart.  So I get overwhelmed, sure, but I begin to see the connections in the suffering of human beings, begin to see the overriding injustices that in so many ways contribute to suffering in extremely disparate situations, from here in the US where we have so much freedom, so much comfort, yet allow fear and suspicion to keep us from outright opposition of our present regime, to Burma, where there is no freedom at all, yet they marched in opposition, and were cut down, and now a 15 year old has to hide, he doesn’t want to hide, he wants to help.  And yet he hides.

Social justice is a stodgy term, I think.  Perhaps it should be changed to Protecting Our Humanity, against fear and hatred and greed.  Perhaps then when we think of a 15 year old monk in Burma we are also thinking of a 15 year old boy in Darfur, a 15 year old girl in Iraq, a 15 year old girl in New Orleans living in a FEMA trailer, our children, all of them, we will make the human connection, we will keep them in mind for more than a news cycle.

Every once in a while, you see a news story that makes you feel good about people again.

Paul Sucher was on a waiting list for a new kidney when a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesman knocked on his door.  When Sucher told Jamie Howard that he couldn’t afford a Kirby because of his disability, Howard was touched. 

From the Yahoo!News article:

“I went outside, prayed about it, called my dad and my wife,” Howard remembers. “(Donation) was something I was called to do.”

Two months later, Sucher says he feels so good it’s almost as if he never was ill: “It’s truly a miracle.”

According to Keith Olbermann on last night’s ‘Countdown’, at a gathering of Howard’s and Sucher’s families, Howard’s aunt fell in love with Sucher’s 2nd cousin, and they have since married. 

I’m sure by now you know not to recommend the Pony Party.

Without further ado, the floor is yours…

~73v

Three years ago next month the Clinton library opened.

Three years.

November 2004, some of us had yet to get up from the floor, others seethed while still others moved on to action. “2006” was the cry. There was hope amidst all the bad, Howard Dean and the DNC comes to mind, but then it got really, really bad. dubya was ‘reselected’ and all pretense was dropped, political capital ruled the day. The constitution was shrouded shredded; dissent was suppressed, personal rights disappeared and fear was mongered as never before.

Through it all there remained the image of dubya; dubya dropping the dog, choking on a pretzel, bulging inappropriately or those “WTF” moments like the door in China or the malaprops or all of the unapologetic flights to idiocy (the gynecologists line or “Need some wood”). Ah, memories of a great so-so truly bad president.

Before a site for the bush library was announced I wrote about plans for dubya’s library in November 2004.

As we know the Clinton library was dedicated this past week.  The Clinton Presidential Center will be a treasure trove of documents and, for many Americans who understand good governance, sacred ground.  What will it be like for this President?

The George W. Bush Presidential Library

Plans were announced today for the George W. Bush Presidential Library.  According to spokesman Scott McClellan the building will be housed on a 40 acre tract donated by the Mule Mellon Trust.  The centerpiece of the sprawling complex envisioned by architect Bionda dell’ Adamello will feature a replica of the President’s desk at his ranch in Crawford using wood he personally chopped down during his vacation in August of 2001. 

The twenty thousand square foot main building will include wings dedicated to inspirations that guided the President  The largest, Zalawadi, is dedicated to Karl Rove.  While unwilling to discuss details dell’ Admello did say that his inspiration for Zalawadi was the Art of M.C. Escher.  “I’m attracted to the up is down, down is up concept,” he said. 

The Cheney room features a whispering wall and displays such artifacts as the Dick’s Pacemaker Plus, his first EKG and a scooter of unknown origin. 

Other wings include Angora, Barbari and Kaghani.  Asked as to the significance of the names dell’ Admello alluded to “mythical figures.”  The library’s buildings will be constructed by guest workers.

Landscaping will include colorful gardens and sculpture, such as “Dry Well” by artist Dutch Toggenburg.  World famous sculptor Murcia-Granada is planning a steel and iron piece entitled “Pretzel.” Valais Blackneck, famed for his wood work, has announced he will be donating “Door with Crescent Moon” for the entrance to the Colin Powell building located at the service entrance on the south end of the property.

In addition to the tens of books and documents expected to be housed at the site there will be attractions for young and old alike.  The Bait and Switch Café will feature such favorites as reconstituted prime steak with rice and pioneer pork chops. Medical staff assures us that the food will be as healthy as the federal budget. Although no details are available yet, there’s talk of a value menu. There’ll be fun for the kids too.  “The Black Hole” will house rides and games such as “Whack the Mole,” and “Drop the Pooch.”

That was then. Now I’d like to see that library in the middle of nowhere on top of a future giant sinkhole or in the middle of Antarctica. Instead of my vision Commander Flight Suit (© 2007 Chickenhead Productions) seems to favor Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Will poor dubya’s project be known locally for the library’s previous tenant Mrs. Baird’s bakery, which SMU acquired in 2003, or for the smoke and mirrors necessary to lionize an empty suit?

Good Job, Mitt!  Your Cruelty knows no bounds!
More down there…

We know the drug war is working because our prisons keep filling up at exponential rates, and we keep building more!  Good job!
And in useless drug interdiction news:

KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 7 – After the biggest opium harvest in Afghanistan’s history, American officials have renewed efforts to persuade the government here to begin spraying herbicide on opium poppies, and they have found some supporters within President Hamid Karzai’s administration, officials of both countries said.

  Since early this year, Mr. Karzai has repeatedly declared his opposition to spraying the poppy fields, whether by crop-dusting airplanes or by eradication teams on the ground.

  But Afghan officials said the Karzai administration is now re-evaluating that stance. Some proponents within the government are pushing a trial program of ground spraying that could begin before the harvest next spring.

  The issue has created sharp divisions within the Afghan government, among its Western allies and even American officials of different agencies. The matter is fraught with political danger for Mr. Karzai, whose hold on power is weak.

  Many spraying advocates, including officials at the White House and the State Department, view herbicides as critical to curbing Afghanistan’s poppy crop, officials said. That crop and the opium and heroin it produces have become a major source of revenue for the Taliban insurgency.

  But officials said the skeptics – who include American military and intelligence officials and European diplomats in Afghanistan – fear that any spraying of American-made chemicals over Afghan farms would be a boon to Taliban propagandists. Some of those officials say that the political cost could be especially high if the herbicide destroys food crops that farmers often plant alongside their poppies.

  A few important issues are not being addressed here:

1.   1. Herbicides kill everything, even weeds, and create barren soil.  This means that farmers will be unable to have productive land to grow anything for years.
2.   2. Why has the anti-poppy Taliban suddenly become pro-poppy?  Why doesn’t the US government ask itself this question?
3.   3. How are these enormous poppy crops leaving Afghanistan, which is currently living in the dark ages, with the majority of transport based around donkey carts?  Where are these crops being processed and by whom?  In Afghanistan and neighboring countries, opium is taken in a virtually pure form, basically unrefined sap. To become marketable, it must be processed, and distributed.  During the Vietnam war, the C.I.A. took care of those issues, processing and distributing the Vietnamese heroin.  Why would it be any different today?
4. 4. Why hasn’t anyone talked to this guy:

Drug Interdiction–A Losing Strategy
  CSC 1992
  SUBJECT AREA National Military Strategy
  EXCUTIVE SUMMARY
  Title: Drug Interdiction — A Losing Strategy
  Author: Major Warren R. Tate, United States Air Force
  Thesis: Direct military intervention into drug trafficking is not
  strategically sound, tactically suitable, or cost  effective.

Of all the freedoms you have to lose, none is more fundamental than the freedom of thought. 

US Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo wrote:

“Freedom of thought… is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom. With rare aberrations a pervasive recognition of this truth can be traced in our history, political and legal” (Palko v. Connecticut (1937) 302 U.S. 319, 326-27.)

Without freedom of thought, the First Amendment right to freedom of speech is moot, because you can only express what you can think. Constraining or censoring how a person thinks (cognitive censorship) is the most fundamental kind of censorship, and is contrary to some of our most cherished constitutional principles.

~ Richard Glenn Boire, Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics

Cognitive Liberty (CL) means the freedom to choose your state of mind and the right to mental privacy.  Some of the main elements of CL relate to 1) Privacy – your thoughts remain private until you choose to share them, 2) Autonomy – the individual must have free will to determine their state of mind, and 3) Choice – a person should have the right to alter their consciousness by what ever method they choose, as long as they are not harmful to others.  They should also have the choice to refuse drugs or treatments that may alter their consciousness. 

The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics referenced above is a great resource for news and legal analysis of this subject.  Richard Glenn Boire is a lawyer who founded the CCLE.  When asked why CL is important he replied:

The right of a person to liberty, autonomy, and privacy over his or her own intellect is situated at the core of what it means to be a free person. This principle is what gives life to some of our most well-established and cherished rights. Today, as new drugs and other technologies are being developed for augmenting, monitoring, and manipulating mental processes, it is more important than ever to ensure that our legal system recognizes and protects cognitive liberty as a fundamental right. 

The War on Drugs is an obvious focus of Cognitive Liberty proponents and one of my biggest concerns. There’s much to say, but not tonight – so I’ll use this succinct quote from the late great Dr. Timothy Leary. 

Source: Erowid

Two Commandments for the     Molecular Age  Thou shalt not alter the consciousness of thy fellow men. Thou shalt not prevent thy fellow man from altering his or her own consciousness.

Another main issue is the right to refuse drugs forced on you by doctors and/or courts.  Boire filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the 2003 Supreme Court case Sell v. US.  A dentist accused of Medicaid fraud was being compelled to take anti-psychotic medication so that he would be compenent to stand trial. He didn’t want to take the drug.  In their ruling, the Supreme Court affirmed the authority to administer anti-psychotic drugs to a criminal defendant for purposes of rendering him competent to stand trial.  However, strict criteria must be satisfied and it would be rare to find circumstances that warranted it.  In this particular case, the criteria were not met and so  Sell (the defendant) was allowed the right to refuse the unwanted medicine. 

Finally, as we are learning from Valtin’s essays, there is a very dark side to the issue of mind control – using methods of altered consciousness as a form of torture, interrogation or coercion.  See: Isolation, Sensory Deprivation & Sensory Overload and Still Photos from Edgewood Arsenal:  Human Experimentation Seen Up Close 

With advances in technology and psychopharmacology we are making great discoveries in how the brain works, but we are also creating new ways to read and control the mind. Here are a few examples:

Brain Fingerprinting

According to its developer, Brain Fingerprinting is designed to determine whether an individual recognizes specific information related to an event or activity by measuring electrical brain wave responses to words, phrases, or pictures presented on a computer screen.  The technique can be applied only in situations where investigators have a sufficient amount of specific information about an event or activity that would be known only to the perpetrator and investigator.  In this respect, Brain Fingerprinting is considered a type of Guilty Knowledge Test, where the “guilty” party is expected to react strongly to the relevant details of the event or activity. 

Proponents of this technology would like to use it for solving crimes and catching terrorists. 
Critics are opposed to compulsory Brain Fingerprinting because it violates the sanctity of the mind and the right to mental privacy. 

Pharmacotherapy

Researchers looking at ways of curing addiction are starting to develop the means to prevent drug abuse in the first place.  The idea is to use one drug to block the effects of another “high-producing” drug, like methadone does to heroin.  Simliar “antidotes” are being created for cocaine, marijuana, nicotine and alcohol.  That sounds great for someone who already suffers addiction and is voluntarily seeking treatment.  However, one could imagine that courts could also order this to be given to people convicted of possession or selling drugs.  Recipients of public assistance could also be treated with compulsory anti-drug drugs as a condition to receive benefits, e.g. food stamps and public housing.  There have also been proposals of anti-drug vaccinations that would be given to school children…the “Just Say No” shot.

Under the plan, doctors would immunise children at risk of becoming smokers or drug users with an injection. Childhood immunisation would provide adults with protection from the euphoria that is experienced by users, making drugs such as heroin and cocaine pointless to take.
(origninal source – The Independent (UK), July 25, 2004)

Um, but what if it stops you from feeling euphoria at all?  Is this really a good way to stop drug use in children or some kind of reefer madness?

In an article published in the Journal of Law and Health, Boire concluded: 

The development of pharmacotherapy drugs – like drug prohibition itself – is driven at least as much by politics, power, and profits than by genuine public health concerns.” (p.225)
(Neurocops: The Politics of Prohibition, J. Law and Health, Vol. 19, 215-257, 2004) [PDF]

Memory Management

This involves the use of pharmaceuticals to either improve memory, “smart pills”, or to erase memories that cause people to suffer PTSD.  Again, the research is being done with the best intentions. But there are situations where these drugs may be used coercively or without someone’s consent. 

For example, emergency room doctors giving memory erasing drugs to trauma victims to help blank out the scene of an accident or the army giving them to soldiers after battles.  What if you are a witness to a crime? Could the government compel you to take a memory-boosting drug to help you testify in court? 

In conclusion, from a scientist’s perspective, I have to say I recognize this research is important in revealing how the brain works and when it can be used for the common good.  As a cynical citizen who knows the lengths BushCo or any other fascist regime will go to wield power, I am afraid of the Thought Police. I fear we will lose control of our minds.