Jason Mark Roehrig My Web Home

Mike Luckovich got it spot on.
Found on Truthdig.

Just today in Iraq, a bomb killed 183 people. Further students and academics are being killed nearly every day.

And what about Darfur?

We are powerless against the lonely loon, but we can do something against organized loons in power!

Photo by t_a_i_s.

The human race is slowly reaching total domination of this planet, as there is a difference between domination and total domination. While we already cover a few patches of this planet, there still seems to be too much nature around. And what has nature done for us, besides ensuring pain and suffering? Suggested by our apparent behaviour, and illustrated by the decisions we make in regards to development.

A proposal to build a tunnel from Russia to Alaska, will mean a far more radical change to the environment of Alaska, than most can currently envision. And I'm not only referring to the destruction of natural habitat. Having a direct link connecting the two continents, will radically change the economic significance of Alaska from a relative unimportant state to a power house.

Image of some nice art work
by Zhan Wang.
A creative depiction of Bejing.

Environmental concerns are going to be drowned by the calls for jobs, energy, and development. And I'm certain, that lessons learnt from past mistakes will surely be forgotten and repressed, as cost reduction is what drives profits, and profits drive social change.

Further drilling for oil in Alaska might have been stopped by the US Senate in 2005, but as all involved knew and know, that wasn't the last we were going to hear of such an enterprise. Too tempting are the siren calls of profit. Sustainable development takes time. More than elected officials have to ensure re-election. With the majority of us humans solely concerned with survival, especially at a comfort level regarded as common in the collective, the electorate will rather follow the "we need jobs and economic prosperity" argument. "We need to live in harmony with our environment" is just not sufficiently compelling, leaving an impression of putting nature before humans. And as a species we are determined to ensure our short term existence only. The future will be taken care of by adaptation and developmental progress. Which is not a belief, nor knowledge gained through experience, but our primal instinct.

Current concern for the environment, is nothing but a "global warming fashion". It will pass by, just as every other guilt driven polit-fashion has.

At least when it comes to the search term failure, which lists what or who as number one result?

For more information read the article on Search Engine Watch titled George W. Bush: A Failure Once Again, According To Google.

author: Noam Chomsky asin: 0805076883 binding: Paperback list price: $15.00 USD amazon price: $11.96 USD

Noam Chomsky is considered the father of modern linguistics. In this richly detailed criticism of American foreign policy, he seeks to redefine many of the terms commonly used in the ongoing American war on terrorism. Surveying U.S. actions in Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkey, the Far East and elsewhere over the past half a century along with the modern American war in Iraq, Chomsky indicates that America is just as much a terrorist state as any other government or rogue organization. George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq drew worldwide criticism, in part because it seemed to present a new philosophy of pre-emptive war and an appearance of global empire building. But according to Chomsky, such has been the operating philosophy of American foreign policy for decades. Opponents of the Bush administration's tactics consistently point out how the American government supported Saddam Hussein for many years prior to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait (pictures of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand are easy to come by) as a means of pointing out how the United States is happy to fund despots when it's in American interests. But Chomsky, armed with extensive historical notation, takes this notion further, arguing how the repression of other nations' citizenry is, in fact, the very reason Americans support certain foreign leaders. The charges made throughout the book are severe, as are the dire consequences he posits if current trends are not reversed, and Chomsky is no more likely to make friends or gain supporters from the mainstream now than he's ever been. But Hegemony or Survival is relatively dispassionate. Instead of relying on camp or shock value or personal attacks as some of his contemporaries have done, Chomsky drives his well-supported points steadily forward in an earnest and highly readable style. --John Moe

A health teacher in the USA has been suspended from teaching and might be fired, because he asked a seventh grader to draw the male anatomy on a blackboard in front of the whole class. Their reasoning is, that "as a teacher you have to be sensitive and you have to look at the age-appropriateness of any activity that you ask a child to do. And this was just not appropriate." It seems that one parent disagreed with the schools decision, to which the Miami Herald responded with a quote from a fourth grader by the name of Noah Klibonoff "They're not supposed to know what it's supposed to look like at this age yet, so I think it's a little embarrassing and it's also a little inappropriate". I wouldn't be surprised if little Noah would find it OK if children that age were taught how to use a lethal weapon.

But let's analyze this. Seventh grade, that should be kids around 12 to 13 years old (fourth grade, would be 9 to 10), on average. Which is actually the age, at which for many boys puberty sets in. For some it can be later, for others it starts earlier, as with a chap in my class, who we all made fun of in fifth grade, because he already had a decent sized shlonk, while all us others were still checking for pube hairs. In Germany we learnt about sexuality in sixth grade, which would be 11-12 years. We had books on topic, diagrams and photos, and we even watched movies (no porn to the general disappointment of all male students, can't recall the girls reactions though). My parents were quite happy that they didn't have to teach me all the "ins and outs" about sex and sexual matters, and I believe this to be true for nearly every parent.

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Let's not forget the case of the four year old Texan suspended from class, for supposedly touching his teachers breast. Or that poor fellow - Genarlow Wilson, looked up in jail with a 10 year sentence for having consented oral sex with a 15 year old, when he was 17 years old (I'm not even going to play the race card here).

Genarlow's case especially hits home, as it reminded me of my time as an exchange student, back in 1990/91, just after the Berlin Wall came to crumble. I arrived in the US as 16 year old. I then turned 17 and a week later entered into a relationship with a 14 year old. I was soon approached by teachers, inquiring about our relationship. I was told, that if I didn't break off the relationship, I would most likely be sent to jail, or with a little luck, would be sent back to Germany, as it was against the law. At first I laughed and thought my track trainer (as he was the first to approach me), was just pulling my leg. But his stern facial expression, which then turned aggravated, suggested everything but a joke.

One might be tempted to laugh about US American prudence, if it weren't for the fact, that this is a nation allowing people with IQs that would generally be considered as "retarded" to carry a gun. Not to mention, that this is the nation with the largest nuclear arsenal on this planet. It's a scientific fact, that humans suffering from sexual deprivation and repression suffer psychologically, which can also leads to violent or criminal behaviour. Also, it is the only country where it is legal to execute minors.

The land of the free? I don't think so. I joined the student exchange program to experience freedom, and was taught a lesson never expected. But that's material for separate articles. And it only seems to have gotten worse.