Monday, March 21, 2011

Waco, Ruby Ridge, Kent State, Libya; what's the difference?

March 21, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
March 21 is … Fragrance Day

Japanese death toll is now pegged at 18,000. It will go higher but we will never have an exact figure.

Illinois was destroyed by Kansas and former coach Bill Self, 73-59. It was a typical second half collapse for the Illini. If these guys still played high school minutes, they would be world beaters but they don’t. A change in strength coach, conditioning coach and head coach is needed in Champaign.

Something smells rotten in Denmark and everywhere else gasoline is sold. The law of physics teaches that everything falls at the same rate. It has something to do with gravity. Apparently the laws of physics do not apply to the price of gasoline. It rises much quicker than it falls. I have been telling a friend of mine, Glenn, that gravity is not a law, merely a guideline. The price of gasoline tends to prove my point.

He just had too big a nut to crack to make it in this world. Knut, the Berlin Zoo's world-famous polar bear whose fragile psyche became an international obsession, died after several hundred visitors witnessed him falling in his enclosure. The four-year-old was raised by zookeepers after being rejected by his mother. The cause of death has not yet been determined. "It's terrible," Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit told a local paper, according to the Associated Press. "He had a special place in all of our hearts. He was the star of Berlin Zoo." As a cub, Knut was known as "Knut the Cute." But later he became known as "Knut the Nut", a bear with serious psychological problems. His strange antics became a rallying cry for activists who believe it's cruel to confine a polar bear in a zoo. A study by the German arm of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals found that most polar bears in German zoos are insane and Knut was the worst of the lot. That seems to be a hard thing to prove but PETA has never been accused of being objective.

The zoo said claims about Knut were overblown; in June, a spokesman called the statements "ridiculous" and maintained that "Knut is fine," according to AFP. Knut, the four-year-old polar bear at the Berlin Zoo, has died. Apparently the statement “Knut is fine.” was off base. Once photographed with Leo DiCaprio for the cover of "Vanity Fair," Knut became world famous, though as he grew older, many said he showed signs of mental deterioration. PETA said polar bears in zoos have one millionth the amount of space of those allowed to roam free and it's taking its toll.

"Some species fare worse in captivity than others and polar bears are certainly at the top of that list," Lisa Wathne, PETA's captive exotic animal specialist, told AOL News last year. "These animals are so severely restricted, it's literally driving them insane." She pointed to a 2003 study in Nature magazine that found that animals with the ability to roam vast distances in the wild, like polar bears, do especially poorly in captivity. Wathne, who was not involved in the Knut study, said bears in captivity also show bizarre behavior, such as incessant pacing and awkward twisting of the head and neck. PETA scientist Frank Albrecht told AFP that Knut suffered from panic attacks, swayed in an abnormal manner and mimicked picture-taking tourists by pretending to snap photos with his paws. This is not behavior normally scene in polar bears in the wild.

Last year, PETA made headlines with Knut when it called for him to be castrated to prevent him from mating with a blood relative and conceiving a child that would be born in captivity like Knut himself was back in 2006. Knut became a global sensation shortly after his birth when his mother rejected him and he was raised by keepers, including one who slept in his enclosure. At one point, the bear was photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Vanity Fair. (Knut was on the cover of the German issue by himself but shared the spotlight with actor Leonardo DiCaprio for the U.S. edition.)

As Knut grew up, the spotlight faded. "The really heartbreaking thing about Knut is he was so celebrated and so loved, and no one can deny that a baby polar bear is the cutest thing ever," Wathne said. "But as happens to all animals in zoos, as they outgrow that cuteness, the furor dies down and people kind of forget about them." Polar bears are not considered endangered in the wild. However, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classified them as "vulnerable" due to declining populations and the destruction of their sea-ice habitat due to climate change. Some pessimists predict that, as the polar ice cap vanishes, polar bears in the wild could be extinct within 100 years.

As I mentioned yesterday, the US military had launched 114 Tomahawk cruise missiles on Saturday. At 2 million dollars each, we spent nearly one quarter of a billion dollars on Saturday just on this type of weapon. Obviously, other expenses are involved.

I consider myself a hawk. I am not a dove of a peacenik but this madness has got to all end. We never seem to attack a real opponent. Afghanistan is not a power but we cannot win that war. Iraq is not a power but we cannot win that war. Libya is not a power but we will not win this war. We never attack North Korea, a real opponent. We never attack Iran, a stronger opponent than the ones we have attacked. We have not attacked Pakistan, a nuclear opponent. We pick on the weaklings and then we still fail.

The proponents of this newest aggression are saying we could not stand by while the Libyan leaders killed their own people. We have no proof this was happening. You clearly cannot trust or believe our intelligence apparatus. Other countries around the world are treating their citizens just as horrifically but they do not have oil.

This country does not have clean hands when it comes to killing its own citizens. Did Libya attack us when our government murdered Randy Weaver’s wife and children at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992? Did Libya, North Korea, Afghanistan or Iraq attack the United States after the government shot and killed unarmed war protesters at Kent State University on May 4, 1970? National guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. Did any country attack the United States after our government murdered numerous people during a siege that began February 28, 1993 and ended fifty days later, on April 19, 1993 near Waco. Texas? Seventy-six people (24 of them British nationals) died in the fire, including more than 20 children and two pregnant women. The fire was set after numerous gun battles which killed some of the people. This transgression by our government so outraged Timothy McVeigh, he bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, OK. We then put him to death for his protest and we should have but we should have also prosecuted some of those responsible for Waco.

Who are we to be the moral compass of the world? Our civilized society leads the earth in murders per capita but we think we know how to tell others how to run their country and treat their citizens. God help us all if the world follows our lead.

More to come tomorrow on the transgressions, tortures and citizen abuse by our government that is O K when we do it but is worth starting a war for if another country does it.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011

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"Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly." - Leo Tolstoy




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