I heard this from an employee at this institution for the disabled –he took part in it.
We had this child who turned into a man –many years at the facility –he was being “aged out” of the facility. This guy had an extreme anger problem and was mentally disabled. His parents couldn’t take care of him and no other facility and group home would take care of this man. This guy hurt many of the staff members of the facility through the years.
I guess this has become a well worn procedure. They would take him to an emergency room of a hospital and try and get him a psychological admittance. Of course they wouldn’t tell the man that’s what they were doing. So they would fill out the admittance forms and bring all of his medical records with them. They knew the hospital couldn’t and wouldn’t admit this person.
So after the decline by the hospital, the case workers and institutional employees would just sit down in the emergency waiting room. They knew the man would end up getting bored –and thus he would eventually have a temper tantrum. There would be a lot of screaming, foot stomping, throwing furniture and maybe a punch or two (just another day for the employees) –with the institutional employees told not to get involved.
So the hospital police would be called in, maybe the town police would arrive, the man would get subdued, charged with breach of peace, put on a stretcher and sedated, and admitted to the hospital –thus the deal would be completed. Once that happened the man would not be allowed to go back to the institution.
A type of patient dumping?
Thanks,
mike
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Dysfunctional Pyramids of Power: Those Who Create and Sustain Them...
"Look up drama triangle in google"
I got this from a man a lot smarter that I am. By the way, my mother and father were both alcoholics -and they both died an early death. All of my parents children (3) including me are alcoholics -and I have a severe case of the disease. I had to stop drinking before my 28 birthday or die. All of us have had to stop drinking(now for decade(s)) -well, trouble helped us confront our problems.
You see problems and troubles (of course most of the normal people don't need to create trouble in order to progress) is the scacred doorway through which you can pass and build a new life. Serious problems are such a grand opportunity.
So I see a man who creates so many troubles for himself and his community -such that the world has given up on him. I can see this man giving the greatest recovery speech that the world has ever seen... maybe tomorrow, next week ...or next year...but it is there behind his current tragity.
The older I get -the less faith I have in the typical"reality" that the world has tought me. It's just the superficial outer layer.
mike
Dysfunctional Pyramids of Power: Those Who Create and Sustain Them or A Big Dose of Your Own "Medicine"
by Patricia Lefave, D.D.(P), B.R.P., "The Mystical Madwoman"
Most of us are familiar with the Drama Triangle: Persecutor (or Aggressor), Victim, Rescuer and the tendency of human beings to rotate through those roles, in an attempt to "fix" life, for both ourselves and others. In the ideal triangle, the Rescuer is at the top of the pyramid as an archetype. That one represents the Savior or Messiah.
In dysfunctional pyramids, the Drama Triangle has shifted slightly. The Rescuer has been replaced by an Aggressor, who masquerades as the Rescuer, and the base line of the pyramid is thick with Victims, unaware of the Aggressor's hidden agenda. Should anyone become aware, of the pseudo Rescuer's hidden agenda, he, or she, will soon see that beneath the mask, lies the Destroyer of anyone who gets in his way.
The Aggressor's "game" plan is to remain at the top of the pyramid of power, by manipulating and controlling everyone beneath him. How much damage will be done to everyone else, from the top down, will depend only upon how far that particular Aggressor is willing to go, to reach, and maintain his goal. Then it becomes how much those who are beneath him, are willing to accept, before they see the truth about the Leader, and attempt to stop his "game", or escape his control.
Often, the most successful dysfunctional pyramids of power, are run by the most "charismatic" of sociopaths. These are the people who really understand the "game", and playing the game, becomes their only reason for living. It has become their addiction. Their "fix". Seeing themselves as the "winners" of the game, has become their only real identity. Everything else in their life is done, or not done, for the purpose of keeping the game intact, and themselves in position, at the top of the pyramid.
The sociopaths who get really "good" at this, are the ones who become the "Adolph Hitlers", because like all addictions, the need for an ever bigger "fix" to make oneself feel better, feeds on itself.
The manipulated group which forms the base line of the pyramid, supports and enables the Rescuer/Aggressor's power. They are sucked into the scheme, long before anyone, ever, becomes aware it has happened, or even how it happened.
The first social situation in which the sociopath learns interrelationship, as a member of a group, is in the family. Of course, it's not the only social situation. But, we all take whatever we learn in our families, out into the external world with us; into schools, workplaces, and all other social situations. There, we repeat them, usually unconsciously, as "normal" patterns of behavior. "Normal" meaning; to what we have become accustomed, and so re-enact, robot like, without any thought given as to why we do it.
Dysfunctional families are the scaled down version, of the group dynamics, which support pyramids of power. This, the place where the "game" is most often first taught, and then, passed along, generation after generation. Any member of the group, who sees the pattern of the game itself, and; protests it, tries to create a group awareness of it, or tries to change it, becomes the natural enemy of the one who runs it. The leader then deals with that challenge to his power and authority, by attempting to, and often succeeding at, turning the group against the dissident member.
Often, this is accomplished by using a Bait and Switch con. The leader sets up his "enemy", by pretending to be his/her friend. He then sets up the group, by presenting the dissident as the Aggressor. The Aggressor continues to masquerade as the Rescuer, and manipulates the group to accept his version of the Victim, as stupid, sick, or crazy. The Aggressor/Rescuer communicates ambiguously, so that no one will obtain a clear picture of what is actually occurring. The opposing versions of reality, create so much chaos and confusion, through misdirection, that the truth about what is really happening, can rarely be pinpointed. The Aggressor is always careful to keep witnesses away from his private conversations with all the participants.
This group interaction actually equates to Chaos Theory. When the starting point is not really known, the results appear to be random and unconnected. But, when the starting point is known, the results are completely predictable. The Aggressor employs the "switch" because it is unlikely, once the game gets going, that either the Victim, or the Group, will ever be able to see through the chaos. He can hide successfully in the confusion. If his true agenda remains hidden, the threat to the loss of his position, or power, is greatly reduced.
The Aggressor's goal is never that of resolution, though he will deceive the group to believe that it is, if it seems politically expedient to do so. The Aggressor's goal is to make certain that resolution does not come, for if it did, it would mean the truth about him would be revealed. If it was revealed, he would lose his position at the top of the pyramid, and the power to control everyone else.
This is the "game" of Domination and Submission. It is the abstract paradigm of all dysfunctional leaders who have a hidden agenda of obtaining absolute power and control over others.
The Drama Triangle of this dysfunctional game is actually: Aggressor, Victim, and Manipulated Group. There is no Rescuer in this perverted drama.
This game varies only in the degree of it's insanity and the concrete details which reflect the structure. The details (the players, the roles, the sets, the costumes) may change slightly, but the play remains the same. Sense, or reason, has nothing to do with it. This play, is anti-logical to perfection.
We can't reason with the leader since he will simply invalidate everything we say, do, or feel, in order to validate himself, his position, and his power. We usually can' t get the leader to just leave us alone, or "allow" "inferior" us, to disagree either. If we threaten his power, even by suggestion, we get stopped every time, for as long as he manages to hold onto the power to stop us.
The goal of the one at the top of a dysfunctional pyramid of power, is to maintain that power and his position, by keeping the system closed. That means, he must see to it that nothing inside it, gets out, and nothing outside it, gets in. "Reason" has nothing to do with it. Dysfunctional pyramids are structures of power, built without reason. The only way anyone can "win" in this insane "game" is to stop playing it, and expose the madness of the game, itself, to the light of day. To do that, you must first get outside of it, so that you can see it clearly. Once it is seen for what it really is, the mystification comes to an end, the agenda no longer hidden. No one gets sucked into a con game, if the end result is perfectly obvious from the start.
The sociopath thinks in adversarial terms. He sees life itself, as a "contest" against others, which he must "win". In religious terms, the name "Satan" means adversary. If I were to discuss this in purely religious terms, I would still mean the same thing. There is a saying about Satan, a.k.a The Devil (which you may notice is "lived" backwards) It is: Satan's arrogance blinds him to the truth about himself. Arrogant individuals maintain their position, in spite of any and all evidence that it is wrong, by projecting their own errors onto their victims. The victims' lives are "sacrificed", one way or another, to appease the petty gods of dysfunction and to maintain the perverted system.
These are the group dynamics of scapegoating. This system is supported by a blindly led majority, which enables the leader, simply because we all want to feel we "belong"; that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. I believe it appeals to the innate desire of human beings to be "One" again, to feel safe and warm within the "womb" of Creation, and to follow a Rescuer who will lead us all safely "Home". Unfortunately, when our Savior turns out to be our Destroyer in disguise, we often blindly follow him anyway, all the way to the edge of the Abyss, before we start to notice that something isn't right.
The Destroyer who masquerades as the Rescuer always has a primary rule which must be followed if you want to belong to his group. The rule is: You are not allowed to perceive any fault in the leader, or his system. If you do, you threaten his power and control, and become the enemy. If you become his enemy, he will enlist the support of the group to force you out. Then you will face the terrors of isolation, for committing the sin of awareness.
Paradoxically, the only way to see the truth about the distorted system, is to see it from the outside. So, being forced out, may be just what you need the most. At that moment, we start to regain our sanity. That is the moment we reach the nexus. Our collective "center". That is also the moment the group often believes we have "gone insane", because we see something the group does not see. It is during this period of our transformation that we "nuts" tend to laugh and giggle uncontrollably. At the complete absurdity of it all. A Cosmic Joke. If psychiatry is really interested in healing, rather than suppressing the truth nobody likes, and controlling misunderstood emotional reactions, it needs to get out of the instant judgment business, and start listening. Learn to see and hear , what has been right in front of you all along, "hidden" in plain sight.
As I said to psychiatry in 1995 ,about my own relationship with an Aggressor, masquerading as a Rescuer, "He couldn't have done it without manipulating the group to help him."
Allow a new idea to enter you own collective mind. For what is "hidden" to you, isn't necessarily "hidden" to "us". It is actually possible that "we" "defectives" understand something, that you "experts" do not. As hard as that may be for you to imagine.
It is said, the original error occurred back in the Garden, when that Old Serpent, that Snake in the Grass, pulled off the first Bait and Switch routine. He switched positions with God, in order to create doubt in the minds of the original parents, Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve "fell" for it. We've paid for that error (which means sin) ever since, even passing it along, generation after generation, like the family heirloom. All because no fault must ever be found in the preceding generation, (or "authority" figures who represent them), even if the failure to find that fault costs us all, Life itself.
It's time we all faced the reality of that error, as the faulty premise of our reasoning. Still, who am I, to have the unmitigated gall, to dare to disagree with authority. They are right, I think. It's time I "let it go", stopped this "whining" and did something different to "get on with my life".
In MY ultimate "reality", I find myself in full agreement with psychiatry's diagnosis of me. For I am indeed, resisting, denying, non compliant, and NOW, I'm even "seeking fame". Would you say we've come "full circ
I got this from a man a lot smarter that I am. By the way, my mother and father were both alcoholics -and they both died an early death. All of my parents children (3) including me are alcoholics -and I have a severe case of the disease. I had to stop drinking before my 28 birthday or die. All of us have had to stop drinking(now for decade(s)) -well, trouble helped us confront our problems.
You see problems and troubles (of course most of the normal people don't need to create trouble in order to progress) is the scacred doorway through which you can pass and build a new life. Serious problems are such a grand opportunity.
So I see a man who creates so many troubles for himself and his community -such that the world has given up on him. I can see this man giving the greatest recovery speech that the world has ever seen... maybe tomorrow, next week ...or next year...but it is there behind his current tragity.
The older I get -the less faith I have in the typical"reality" that the world has tought me. It's just the superficial outer layer.
mike
Dysfunctional Pyramids of Power: Those Who Create and Sustain Them or A Big Dose of Your Own "Medicine"
by Patricia Lefave, D.D.(P), B.R.P., "The Mystical Madwoman"
Most of us are familiar with the Drama Triangle: Persecutor (or Aggressor), Victim, Rescuer and the tendency of human beings to rotate through those roles, in an attempt to "fix" life, for both ourselves and others. In the ideal triangle, the Rescuer is at the top of the pyramid as an archetype. That one represents the Savior or Messiah.
In dysfunctional pyramids, the Drama Triangle has shifted slightly. The Rescuer has been replaced by an Aggressor, who masquerades as the Rescuer, and the base line of the pyramid is thick with Victims, unaware of the Aggressor's hidden agenda. Should anyone become aware, of the pseudo Rescuer's hidden agenda, he, or she, will soon see that beneath the mask, lies the Destroyer of anyone who gets in his way.
The Aggressor's "game" plan is to remain at the top of the pyramid of power, by manipulating and controlling everyone beneath him. How much damage will be done to everyone else, from the top down, will depend only upon how far that particular Aggressor is willing to go, to reach, and maintain his goal. Then it becomes how much those who are beneath him, are willing to accept, before they see the truth about the Leader, and attempt to stop his "game", or escape his control.
Often, the most successful dysfunctional pyramids of power, are run by the most "charismatic" of sociopaths. These are the people who really understand the "game", and playing the game, becomes their only reason for living. It has become their addiction. Their "fix". Seeing themselves as the "winners" of the game, has become their only real identity. Everything else in their life is done, or not done, for the purpose of keeping the game intact, and themselves in position, at the top of the pyramid.
The sociopaths who get really "good" at this, are the ones who become the "Adolph Hitlers", because like all addictions, the need for an ever bigger "fix" to make oneself feel better, feeds on itself.
The manipulated group which forms the base line of the pyramid, supports and enables the Rescuer/Aggressor's power. They are sucked into the scheme, long before anyone, ever, becomes aware it has happened, or even how it happened.
The first social situation in which the sociopath learns interrelationship, as a member of a group, is in the family. Of course, it's not the only social situation. But, we all take whatever we learn in our families, out into the external world with us; into schools, workplaces, and all other social situations. There, we repeat them, usually unconsciously, as "normal" patterns of behavior. "Normal" meaning; to what we have become accustomed, and so re-enact, robot like, without any thought given as to why we do it.
Dysfunctional families are the scaled down version, of the group dynamics, which support pyramids of power. This, the place where the "game" is most often first taught, and then, passed along, generation after generation. Any member of the group, who sees the pattern of the game itself, and; protests it, tries to create a group awareness of it, or tries to change it, becomes the natural enemy of the one who runs it. The leader then deals with that challenge to his power and authority, by attempting to, and often succeeding at, turning the group against the dissident member.
Often, this is accomplished by using a Bait and Switch con. The leader sets up his "enemy", by pretending to be his/her friend. He then sets up the group, by presenting the dissident as the Aggressor. The Aggressor continues to masquerade as the Rescuer, and manipulates the group to accept his version of the Victim, as stupid, sick, or crazy. The Aggressor/Rescuer communicates ambiguously, so that no one will obtain a clear picture of what is actually occurring. The opposing versions of reality, create so much chaos and confusion, through misdirection, that the truth about what is really happening, can rarely be pinpointed. The Aggressor is always careful to keep witnesses away from his private conversations with all the participants.
This group interaction actually equates to Chaos Theory. When the starting point is not really known, the results appear to be random and unconnected. But, when the starting point is known, the results are completely predictable. The Aggressor employs the "switch" because it is unlikely, once the game gets going, that either the Victim, or the Group, will ever be able to see through the chaos. He can hide successfully in the confusion. If his true agenda remains hidden, the threat to the loss of his position, or power, is greatly reduced.
The Aggressor's goal is never that of resolution, though he will deceive the group to believe that it is, if it seems politically expedient to do so. The Aggressor's goal is to make certain that resolution does not come, for if it did, it would mean the truth about him would be revealed. If it was revealed, he would lose his position at the top of the pyramid, and the power to control everyone else.
This is the "game" of Domination and Submission. It is the abstract paradigm of all dysfunctional leaders who have a hidden agenda of obtaining absolute power and control over others.
The Drama Triangle of this dysfunctional game is actually: Aggressor, Victim, and Manipulated Group. There is no Rescuer in this perverted drama.
This game varies only in the degree of it's insanity and the concrete details which reflect the structure. The details (the players, the roles, the sets, the costumes) may change slightly, but the play remains the same. Sense, or reason, has nothing to do with it. This play, is anti-logical to perfection.
We can't reason with the leader since he will simply invalidate everything we say, do, or feel, in order to validate himself, his position, and his power. We usually can' t get the leader to just leave us alone, or "allow" "inferior" us, to disagree either. If we threaten his power, even by suggestion, we get stopped every time, for as long as he manages to hold onto the power to stop us.
The goal of the one at the top of a dysfunctional pyramid of power, is to maintain that power and his position, by keeping the system closed. That means, he must see to it that nothing inside it, gets out, and nothing outside it, gets in. "Reason" has nothing to do with it. Dysfunctional pyramids are structures of power, built without reason. The only way anyone can "win" in this insane "game" is to stop playing it, and expose the madness of the game, itself, to the light of day. To do that, you must first get outside of it, so that you can see it clearly. Once it is seen for what it really is, the mystification comes to an end, the agenda no longer hidden. No one gets sucked into a con game, if the end result is perfectly obvious from the start.
The sociopath thinks in adversarial terms. He sees life itself, as a "contest" against others, which he must "win". In religious terms, the name "Satan" means adversary. If I were to discuss this in purely religious terms, I would still mean the same thing. There is a saying about Satan, a.k.a The Devil (which you may notice is "lived" backwards) It is: Satan's arrogance blinds him to the truth about himself. Arrogant individuals maintain their position, in spite of any and all evidence that it is wrong, by projecting their own errors onto their victims. The victims' lives are "sacrificed", one way or another, to appease the petty gods of dysfunction and to maintain the perverted system.
These are the group dynamics of scapegoating. This system is supported by a blindly led majority, which enables the leader, simply because we all want to feel we "belong"; that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. I believe it appeals to the innate desire of human beings to be "One" again, to feel safe and warm within the "womb" of Creation, and to follow a Rescuer who will lead us all safely "Home". Unfortunately, when our Savior turns out to be our Destroyer in disguise, we often blindly follow him anyway, all the way to the edge of the Abyss, before we start to notice that something isn't right.
The Destroyer who masquerades as the Rescuer always has a primary rule which must be followed if you want to belong to his group. The rule is: You are not allowed to perceive any fault in the leader, or his system. If you do, you threaten his power and control, and become the enemy. If you become his enemy, he will enlist the support of the group to force you out. Then you will face the terrors of isolation, for committing the sin of awareness.
Paradoxically, the only way to see the truth about the distorted system, is to see it from the outside. So, being forced out, may be just what you need the most. At that moment, we start to regain our sanity. That is the moment we reach the nexus. Our collective "center". That is also the moment the group often believes we have "gone insane", because we see something the group does not see. It is during this period of our transformation that we "nuts" tend to laugh and giggle uncontrollably. At the complete absurdity of it all. A Cosmic Joke. If psychiatry is really interested in healing, rather than suppressing the truth nobody likes, and controlling misunderstood emotional reactions, it needs to get out of the instant judgment business, and start listening. Learn to see and hear , what has been right in front of you all along, "hidden" in plain sight.
As I said to psychiatry in 1995 ,about my own relationship with an Aggressor, masquerading as a Rescuer, "He couldn't have done it without manipulating the group to help him."
Allow a new idea to enter you own collective mind. For what is "hidden" to you, isn't necessarily "hidden" to "us". It is actually possible that "we" "defectives" understand something, that you "experts" do not. As hard as that may be for you to imagine.
It is said, the original error occurred back in the Garden, when that Old Serpent, that Snake in the Grass, pulled off the first Bait and Switch routine. He switched positions with God, in order to create doubt in the minds of the original parents, Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve "fell" for it. We've paid for that error (which means sin) ever since, even passing it along, generation after generation, like the family heirloom. All because no fault must ever be found in the preceding generation, (or "authority" figures who represent them), even if the failure to find that fault costs us all, Life itself.
It's time we all faced the reality of that error, as the faulty premise of our reasoning. Still, who am I, to have the unmitigated gall, to dare to disagree with authority. They are right, I think. It's time I "let it go", stopped this "whining" and did something different to "get on with my life".
In MY ultimate "reality", I find myself in full agreement with psychiatry's diagnosis of me. For I am indeed, resisting, denying, non compliant, and NOW, I'm even "seeking fame". Would you say we've come "full circ
Victimhood and Victimization-the cutting edge of activism
Victimhood and Victimization – the cutting edge of activism
Let talk a little about the cutting edge of innovative activism in the USA today. Jim I do realize I put you in a very difficult position in these last few months across this board.
Jim said “PS: permission granted for you to post this private email, if you'd like to show the world your victimization. They might wonder why you've disappeared, if it comes to that :-“
Maybe we need to discuss the issues of my victim-hood now. What I’ve generally discovered is the people who highly dislike me, or highly admire me, these are the people usually characterize me in the most narrow terms. Well, it just ain’t me.
I grew up in a low incoming housing project. There was gangs, drugs, stealing, and that is just the beginning of the things that I participated in. I had a lot of experience with observing the results of receiving and inflicting aggressions, assaults, sabotage, betrayal…and all the rest of the gang behaviors. When I shower, I can take a look down on the side of stomach where there is a large deep life threatening knife stabbing scar.
I can tell you for a fact that most of my childhood buddies are dead, in jail, paraplegic because of gang violence, drug abuse, car crashes while DWI, or homeless. I was interrogated by the police many times –sometimes in their offices and sometimes in the back seat of their cars (beatings). Believe me I was never innocence while being interrogated in any of the forms.
I was also aware of how educated gentlemen of the establishment stole and corrupted the system. I knew people in high places kept my (mostly) name off of official documents and records, and at times I “worked” for them.
You guys can move around in your head engineering conceptual models, estimation and calculation of numbers –and I can move around the predictions and estimations of group dysfunctional dynamics -on myself, my friends, my enemies, the system and the suit coats –the detectives and newspaper people. They taught me if you are caught in an illegal act – even if coldly caught in the act with pictures –never admit that you ever done anything wrong. I have had more experience than you can imagine. I got away with much more that I disserved.
One day you wake up. Though, you never can erase the memories of your younger years. My memories of those days are almost as clear as a movie. I am haunted with my past – and I am ashamed of my behaviors. Memories of the hurt I’d seen, that I’d put in other people faces –is a jail I put myself in for the rest of my life. I also realized I was placed in a nightmare by my parents and the indifference of the culture around me. So you tell me what justice is?
Let me talk a little in my neighborhood language of years past about the methods and motives of my activities around Vermont Yankee in 1991. Let’s talk about who was assaulted and who was victimized. We will talk in symbols and images of the bureaucratic system here –not real people. It should be noted that I never reverted to actual violence throughout this period and I never will.
Have you ever watched wrestling on Tv –World Wrestling Federation (WF)? Mr. VY came walking in my turf one day. I came out from the bushes, came up quietly behind him, I blindsided him with my hardest sucker shot (punched) on the side of his head. The governor and state officials came into my neighborhood and I dropped her/them with a punch they didn’t see coming. In the ensuing mouths, they kept visiting my neighborhood and I kept dropping them with punches, which came out of nowhere. The punches were of course –the outside disclosures of internal secrets.
Then I intentionally disclosed that it was I who was assaulting you –and I kept walking up to them right in front of their faces and I continued to assault them. I said to them, you are either going to have to reform or you will have to victimize me in order to get me to stop. Do you understand, I defined their choices to two paths? I am telling you they were all dazed, bloody and bruised –and extremely fearful.
These candy asses choose to victimize me. Do you have any idea of the power with being anonymous, of creating a mystery, of acting counter to a business in the media, of transparent cultural sabotage and betrayal… and rule breaking and breaking everyones rules? Do you have any idea of the power you have in forcing them to in an underhanded manner –to turn you into a victim.
The hardest part for the whistleblower in a large institutional readjustment –is to anticipate the eventual blowback pressures of the bureaucracies, media, home and family- that will force you to cave in and prevent you from the completion of your task -in the end stage. In other words, you have got to anticipated that in they will force you to go begging for your career life and career dignity –and even your standing in your family and the community. In the end stage, you got to figure your career body is going to go begging for its last breath, wrecking any chance of institutional change. The question is –you got to set up the inertia in the opening and middle stages; such that when you eventually go begging for your final breath – the inertia, the hate, fear and anger of the system that you created that is aligned against you, will prevent them from throwing you in lifeboat. You want them to tie your up with a block of cement and throw you in the ocean. As Richard Nixon said when you end up hating your competitors, you self destruct. Like Jesus Christ said you need to love you enemies!
You drag everyone in to the drama –either in an attempt to destroy you, mostly the bureaucracy does it in an instinctual matter of survival, the media loves a mystery and people being anonymous –mostly the employees adores and loves anybody punching out management. The employees don’t care if it is justified. You end up drawing breathlessly everyone into the drama. What they don’t realize until it to late –you drag the establishment and bureaucrats extraordinarily into being knowledgeable and accountable to the dysfunctional culture. That’s what I’d done and I stepped around the whole god dammed system.
I am telling you –you have the power to interact with these institutional failures. People either hate your guts or admire you beyond belief at the end of it. Very few remain indifferent. You create a permanent image in their minds. Your name lives forever!
Jesus Christ I think did the same. Many of us framed him by his innocent victimization of the religious bureaucracy and legal system of those days. I don’t think that was true. Jesus “brutally assaulted” our limited humanity and the injustice of those days –and he cold bloodily forced the system to brutalize him. I think he tormented the men who were beating him with –you can’t hurt me, hit me harder. And the myths of Jesus life live in our minds today.
We need to look at the international disgrace concerning the Abu Ghraib prison around Baghdad Iraq with the sexual and physical abuse of the prisoners. You had young kids here involved in extraordinary events, which goes against everything they were taught here in the USA. You have to be very careful about the unconscious and conscious motives of these young kids who participated and took the pictures. In some ways, I think they staged those pictures. I am not saying that there was not cold bloody brutality going on at the prison.
This dammed thing between our ears. Sometimes we do brutal things for the shear thrill of doing it. Sometimes we model brutal behavior (illegal) in the hopes that the world will catch us –and thereby model to the world the dysfunctional systems we live under. It’s a scream for help. It’s extraordinarily potent and powerful. It has the power to change a course of an accident and change the direction of the world.
At some level they must have known those picture were going to get out to the media. Can you imagine the unconstrained power of the war machine about this, outside of accountability and laws? I know some of these Iraqis are killers and threats to American military service members? Can you imagine the torturer chamber we put our kids in, weighting the lesser evils and the bigger evils.
You see victimhood has to be interpreted very carefully. Is it retribution? Is it redemption? Is it passive? Is it brutally aggressive? Is it masochistic? Is it about a thrill?
I think the only pertinent question here –does it open up or close down the issues of your concern. Does it push the world away ---“or do you drag the world into your problem?
Therefore be careful, when you have a need to create a victim?
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Let talk a little about the cutting edge of innovative activism in the USA today. Jim I do realize I put you in a very difficult position in these last few months across this board.
Jim said “PS: permission granted for you to post this private email, if you'd like to show the world your victimization. They might wonder why you've disappeared, if it comes to that :-“
Maybe we need to discuss the issues of my victim-hood now. What I’ve generally discovered is the people who highly dislike me, or highly admire me, these are the people usually characterize me in the most narrow terms. Well, it just ain’t me.
I grew up in a low incoming housing project. There was gangs, drugs, stealing, and that is just the beginning of the things that I participated in. I had a lot of experience with observing the results of receiving and inflicting aggressions, assaults, sabotage, betrayal…and all the rest of the gang behaviors. When I shower, I can take a look down on the side of stomach where there is a large deep life threatening knife stabbing scar.
I can tell you for a fact that most of my childhood buddies are dead, in jail, paraplegic because of gang violence, drug abuse, car crashes while DWI, or homeless. I was interrogated by the police many times –sometimes in their offices and sometimes in the back seat of their cars (beatings). Believe me I was never innocence while being interrogated in any of the forms.
I was also aware of how educated gentlemen of the establishment stole and corrupted the system. I knew people in high places kept my (mostly) name off of official documents and records, and at times I “worked” for them.
You guys can move around in your head engineering conceptual models, estimation and calculation of numbers –and I can move around the predictions and estimations of group dysfunctional dynamics -on myself, my friends, my enemies, the system and the suit coats –the detectives and newspaper people. They taught me if you are caught in an illegal act – even if coldly caught in the act with pictures –never admit that you ever done anything wrong. I have had more experience than you can imagine. I got away with much more that I disserved.
One day you wake up. Though, you never can erase the memories of your younger years. My memories of those days are almost as clear as a movie. I am haunted with my past – and I am ashamed of my behaviors. Memories of the hurt I’d seen, that I’d put in other people faces –is a jail I put myself in for the rest of my life. I also realized I was placed in a nightmare by my parents and the indifference of the culture around me. So you tell me what justice is?
Let me talk a little in my neighborhood language of years past about the methods and motives of my activities around Vermont Yankee in 1991. Let’s talk about who was assaulted and who was victimized. We will talk in symbols and images of the bureaucratic system here –not real people. It should be noted that I never reverted to actual violence throughout this period and I never will.
Have you ever watched wrestling on Tv –World Wrestling Federation (WF)? Mr. VY came walking in my turf one day. I came out from the bushes, came up quietly behind him, I blindsided him with my hardest sucker shot (punched) on the side of his head. The governor and state officials came into my neighborhood and I dropped her/them with a punch they didn’t see coming. In the ensuing mouths, they kept visiting my neighborhood and I kept dropping them with punches, which came out of nowhere. The punches were of course –the outside disclosures of internal secrets.
Then I intentionally disclosed that it was I who was assaulting you –and I kept walking up to them right in front of their faces and I continued to assault them. I said to them, you are either going to have to reform or you will have to victimize me in order to get me to stop. Do you understand, I defined their choices to two paths? I am telling you they were all dazed, bloody and bruised –and extremely fearful.
These candy asses choose to victimize me. Do you have any idea of the power with being anonymous, of creating a mystery, of acting counter to a business in the media, of transparent cultural sabotage and betrayal… and rule breaking and breaking everyones rules? Do you have any idea of the power you have in forcing them to in an underhanded manner –to turn you into a victim.
The hardest part for the whistleblower in a large institutional readjustment –is to anticipate the eventual blowback pressures of the bureaucracies, media, home and family- that will force you to cave in and prevent you from the completion of your task -in the end stage. In other words, you have got to anticipated that in they will force you to go begging for your career life and career dignity –and even your standing in your family and the community. In the end stage, you got to figure your career body is going to go begging for its last breath, wrecking any chance of institutional change. The question is –you got to set up the inertia in the opening and middle stages; such that when you eventually go begging for your final breath – the inertia, the hate, fear and anger of the system that you created that is aligned against you, will prevent them from throwing you in lifeboat. You want them to tie your up with a block of cement and throw you in the ocean. As Richard Nixon said when you end up hating your competitors, you self destruct. Like Jesus Christ said you need to love you enemies!
You drag everyone in to the drama –either in an attempt to destroy you, mostly the bureaucracy does it in an instinctual matter of survival, the media loves a mystery and people being anonymous –mostly the employees adores and loves anybody punching out management. The employees don’t care if it is justified. You end up drawing breathlessly everyone into the drama. What they don’t realize until it to late –you drag the establishment and bureaucrats extraordinarily into being knowledgeable and accountable to the dysfunctional culture. That’s what I’d done and I stepped around the whole god dammed system.
I am telling you –you have the power to interact with these institutional failures. People either hate your guts or admire you beyond belief at the end of it. Very few remain indifferent. You create a permanent image in their minds. Your name lives forever!
Jesus Christ I think did the same. Many of us framed him by his innocent victimization of the religious bureaucracy and legal system of those days. I don’t think that was true. Jesus “brutally assaulted” our limited humanity and the injustice of those days –and he cold bloodily forced the system to brutalize him. I think he tormented the men who were beating him with –you can’t hurt me, hit me harder. And the myths of Jesus life live in our minds today.
We need to look at the international disgrace concerning the Abu Ghraib prison around Baghdad Iraq with the sexual and physical abuse of the prisoners. You had young kids here involved in extraordinary events, which goes against everything they were taught here in the USA. You have to be very careful about the unconscious and conscious motives of these young kids who participated and took the pictures. In some ways, I think they staged those pictures. I am not saying that there was not cold bloody brutality going on at the prison.
This dammed thing between our ears. Sometimes we do brutal things for the shear thrill of doing it. Sometimes we model brutal behavior (illegal) in the hopes that the world will catch us –and thereby model to the world the dysfunctional systems we live under. It’s a scream for help. It’s extraordinarily potent and powerful. It has the power to change a course of an accident and change the direction of the world.
At some level they must have known those picture were going to get out to the media. Can you imagine the unconstrained power of the war machine about this, outside of accountability and laws? I know some of these Iraqis are killers and threats to American military service members? Can you imagine the torturer chamber we put our kids in, weighting the lesser evils and the bigger evils.
You see victimhood has to be interpreted very carefully. Is it retribution? Is it redemption? Is it passive? Is it brutally aggressive? Is it masochistic? Is it about a thrill?
I think the only pertinent question here –does it open up or close down the issues of your concern. Does it push the world away ---“or do you drag the world into your problem?
Therefore be careful, when you have a need to create a victim?
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Saturday, December 25, 2004
The "event horizon" in a nuclear plant control room
Message 7799 of 8998
From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...> Date: Tue Apr 20, 2004 1:18 pm Subject: Re: Human Errors
Friends,
You must have read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It’s on my best books list. I see this story different than most people. The way I see it - Frankenstein is a technological advance marvel. Frankenstein ended up being the ultimate victim. Aren't we doing that today with replacing body parts and cloning, by the way! The way I see it is Dr Frankenstein abandoned his progeny in disgust; he leftFrankenstein to travel in the winds and to the ends of the earth, to grow up as it seen fit without any fatherly attention –as many of us are doing with our young children in our own lives…
I believe that is what happened with the nuclear power industry. I believe the creative best and brightest of us – have abandoned the nuclear industry to the technocrats, the legal rule makers and pencil pushers. What is left is a mournful industry that is disconnected from the world - sad and angry because they are not loved and admired. I think the utility executives have set this in motion.
Here is a recent e-mail of mine to another group. This will have a bearing with my story later on.
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Not saying that at all –you have to read my comment carefully. But I think you are intentionally misinterpreting my comment for your own agenda.
The control room employees are extremely trained and skilled people. They absolutely know what is recorded–and they know the crew will be questioned later about their action –they can exactly predict what questioned will be asked. These guys are extremely intelligent–in that they can shape the disclosures of their responses to the outsider's which follows very closely what was recorded. It is easy as hell to do this because everyone is generally a lot less skilled with the plant.
After a plant scram –the crew spends a lot of time getting their story straight on their interpretation of the event and the recorded evidence. I can tell you for a fact –the control room crews are a loyal lot and tight group of individuals –very tight. They end up thinking that it is us –and the rest of the plant is against us. It is absolutely true -these outside crew people are bloodsuckers looking to make a career out of wrecking the careers of the operators.
Right, you got some 7AM to 3PM engineer or NRC inspector with very little control room experience, who comes in making a judgment against some recorded device –and the operator knows the recorded devices of the plant gives primitive information at best. Do you understand whatI mean –every scram is different from every past one–none are the same. These guys are constantly walking into the unknown –and I might add respond in a very skillful manner most of the time with the unknown. The problem is with these day shift people –they come into make a judgment with the plant in a stable condition –there is no surprises left, just the recorded event --they live in two completely different worlds.
Sitting on the "edge of time" in a control room –on that "event horizon"- on that "random generator" -is unlike any other human endeavor on this planet.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...> Date: Tue Apr 20, 2004 1:18 pm Subject: Re: Human Errors
Friends,
You must have read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It’s on my best books list. I see this story different than most people. The way I see it - Frankenstein is a technological advance marvel. Frankenstein ended up being the ultimate victim. Aren't we doing that today with replacing body parts and cloning, by the way! The way I see it is Dr Frankenstein abandoned his progeny in disgust; he leftFrankenstein to travel in the winds and to the ends of the earth, to grow up as it seen fit without any fatherly attention –as many of us are doing with our young children in our own lives…
I believe that is what happened with the nuclear power industry. I believe the creative best and brightest of us – have abandoned the nuclear industry to the technocrats, the legal rule makers and pencil pushers. What is left is a mournful industry that is disconnected from the world - sad and angry because they are not loved and admired. I think the utility executives have set this in motion.
Here is a recent e-mail of mine to another group. This will have a bearing with my story later on.
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Not saying that at all –you have to read my comment carefully. But I think you are intentionally misinterpreting my comment for your own agenda.
The control room employees are extremely trained and skilled people. They absolutely know what is recorded–and they know the crew will be questioned later about their action –they can exactly predict what questioned will be asked. These guys are extremely intelligent–in that they can shape the disclosures of their responses to the outsider's which follows very closely what was recorded. It is easy as hell to do this because everyone is generally a lot less skilled with the plant.
After a plant scram –the crew spends a lot of time getting their story straight on their interpretation of the event and the recorded evidence. I can tell you for a fact –the control room crews are a loyal lot and tight group of individuals –very tight. They end up thinking that it is us –and the rest of the plant is against us. It is absolutely true -these outside crew people are bloodsuckers looking to make a career out of wrecking the careers of the operators.
Right, you got some 7AM to 3PM engineer or NRC inspector with very little control room experience, who comes in making a judgment against some recorded device –and the operator knows the recorded devices of the plant gives primitive information at best. Do you understand whatI mean –every scram is different from every past one–none are the same. These guys are constantly walking into the unknown –and I might add respond in a very skillful manner most of the time with the unknown. The problem is with these day shift people –they come into make a judgment with the plant in a stable condition –there is no surprises left, just the recorded event --they live in two completely different worlds.
Sitting on the "edge of time" in a control room –on that "event horizon"- on that "random generator" -is unlike any other human endeavor on this planet.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
The Future Of Energy
Message 7887 of 8998
From: "Mike Mulligan" <http://groups.yaho Date: Fri May 7, 2004 9:24 pm Subject: Event horizon of a black hole
Message 7873 of 8998
From: "Mike Mulligan"> Date: Wed May 5, 2004 7:42 pm Subject: Re: Victimhood and Victimization – the cutting edge of activism
People have long asked me why I keep going over events that happened over 12 years ago.
1) Irregardless if you think I had a legitimate safety issue in 1991 in this high value and high consequence industry, there are ways you can drag the whole community and region, indeed national interest, into your area of concern. You don't necessarily have to ask any authority in order to do this. That idea is radical beyond belief.
I piss off the establishment and the managers to no ends. I also piss off the employees who sit in their helplessness. I tell them it's baloney that they can't change things, it's about just yourindifference.
I have a very difficult time writing my thoughts down on paper. I often wondered with our lost children souls of the projects –if we just figured out an incentive to get them to write down their emotions, thoughts, feelings, problems, perceptions, hopes anddreams, as they were growing up. You could head off the majority ofthe problems with these children. Could it be as simple as that? Just the idea of putting something down on paper (electrons) is radical beyond belief –it transforms yourself and it has the potential of reaching another heart. Punctuation and grammar have noworth unless there are ideas behind it.
2) For all I write about, I am still a mystery to many of you. You right, I heard that often –I express myself in a very difficult fashion. I leave people with the problem –what the hell did he mean by that and they have to choke down my bad grammar. I don't intentionally write like that. But I'll tell you it is powerful. For some people, this leaves them thinking. That part of making them think is huge. I've continue to this very moment –I interact with problems, peoples and the establishment –I get them thinking about the infinite and not some source point.
I have been involved with some pretty big issues here in NewHampshire and Vermont through the recent years outside the nuclear establishment. The establishment of this area listens to my rants very carefully and they tend to react to what I express. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, I'll bet recognizes my interaction with the state officials and specific internal plant issues today. They wonder why the employees talk to me. I've got the NRC commissioners breathing pretty hard today.
There is an increasing recognition that the planet is in a deep crisis concerning global warming, modernization of the third world, adequate transmission and production of energy. There is no doubt in my mind that in days past, the idea that we had a choice with utilizing nuclear power is a luxury we can't afford tomorrow.
I asked some astonishing sophisticated questions of recent about the fundamental systems organizing principles of the NRC. The NRC is fundamentally a 1960's regulatory bureaucracy; it is hierarchal in a military sense; it is top down and not bottoms up; it is extremelyvulnerable to inappropriate political pressure through the tip of the organization; many of the politicians act as a gang type organization with their secrecy and hidden control to the top of the organization; a top down hierarchal organization is extremely unstable with creating long term system stability; and a top down organization has the ability to create powerful illusions against themselves and the outside organization.
So when is a top down hierarchal military organization appropriate –many organizations swing between top down and bottoms up, with the majority of the time in the bottoms up? So how does a top down organization create indifference and not caring with the lower levels of employees? How does a bottoms up organization create engagement and creativity? So what are the attributes of a bottoms up organization, What what about links and nodes? On the cutting edge of modern technological systems organization –what creates organizational stability and organization interstability as it relates to the NRC, the utilities, and all ofthe stakeholders. What role does propriety information and secrecy play in leveraging instability?
I am out to reorganize how we manage energy and I am out to reorganize the nuclear regulatory commission. These are the biggest problems this planet is going to face in the next fifty years. There are a lot of people who recognize that this has to be done now. They recognize, it is an enormous latent institutional failure –we see it in the energy shortages, price spikes up and down and across the board, unreliability of our energy distribution system across the board, and the blackouts…the enormous energy problems that repetitively knock on our doors and our political systems on this planet. All of us who has become unavailable to respond with creating the most technologically advanced system that we can think of. It’s appalling our increasing militarization of our energy cost –what a waste of money.
It is a massive active failure of all of us to politically manage the energy sector. It is mostly a failure of the voters and the public. They need to step up andbe responsible, to interact with the managing of the political sector.
I keep going back to this over and over. If you really think about the electricity sector; it's about how our educational institutions have failed to educate us –in creating our communication and understanding between of all of the complicated activities across this industry and the public interactions. We know how to create and move electrons –but we don't know how to make the system holistic to the needs of our country and planet. It's an unbelievable huge failure of ours. It's primitive in the continuum of planetary development and it goes on and on and on and on withoutchange.
Think about it! Our political system is incapable of managing the developing energy sector. This includes the so called economic system and free market, which frames how we manage energy. I would put it like this -the planetary needs of using energy are increasing at an astonishing rate –with our institutional/educational/skills ability -to manipulate and be creative is declining or remaining stagnant. Our ability to manipulate and innovate through our politics is absolutely frozen in the 1950's. Our nuclear plant sector is an example of this. How long do you think this is going to last? Sometimes I wonder that our first two milleniums of the the planets history coelesced through the constructions of our religions --with tomorrow, I think our planet will coelesced around the issues of how we make and manage energy, much like religions at our earlier times. It does give us all commonality.
It is an enormous philosophical failure within our highest principles, in how we manage the materials and intellectual resources through truth, trustworthiness, integrity, and the idea of a creative futuristic energy system in order to maintain our lifestyles and economy. I am not talking about turning us into a socialist, communist state – but something is clearly wrong with thecurrent system.
I mean I am an idiot. I sit on the outside. I can see that education drives everything---- or our institutional failures are driven by the failures of our educational system. I am absolutely astonished that I can come to that conclusion with my level of education!
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Message 7873 of 899
From: "Mike Mulligan" <http://groups.yaho Date: Fri May 7, 2004 9:24 pm Subject: Event horizon of a black hole
Message 7873 of 8998
From: "Mike Mulligan"> Date: Wed May 5, 2004 7:42 pm Subject: Re: Victimhood and Victimization – the cutting edge of activism
People have long asked me why I keep going over events that happened over 12 years ago.
1) Irregardless if you think I had a legitimate safety issue in 1991 in this high value and high consequence industry, there are ways you can drag the whole community and region, indeed national interest, into your area of concern. You don't necessarily have to ask any authority in order to do this. That idea is radical beyond belief.
I piss off the establishment and the managers to no ends. I also piss off the employees who sit in their helplessness. I tell them it's baloney that they can't change things, it's about just yourindifference.
I have a very difficult time writing my thoughts down on paper. I often wondered with our lost children souls of the projects –if we just figured out an incentive to get them to write down their emotions, thoughts, feelings, problems, perceptions, hopes anddreams, as they were growing up. You could head off the majority ofthe problems with these children. Could it be as simple as that? Just the idea of putting something down on paper (electrons) is radical beyond belief –it transforms yourself and it has the potential of reaching another heart. Punctuation and grammar have noworth unless there are ideas behind it.
2) For all I write about, I am still a mystery to many of you. You right, I heard that often –I express myself in a very difficult fashion. I leave people with the problem –what the hell did he mean by that and they have to choke down my bad grammar. I don't intentionally write like that. But I'll tell you it is powerful. For some people, this leaves them thinking. That part of making them think is huge. I've continue to this very moment –I interact with problems, peoples and the establishment –I get them thinking about the infinite and not some source point.
I have been involved with some pretty big issues here in NewHampshire and Vermont through the recent years outside the nuclear establishment. The establishment of this area listens to my rants very carefully and they tend to react to what I express. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, I'll bet recognizes my interaction with the state officials and specific internal plant issues today. They wonder why the employees talk to me. I've got the NRC commissioners breathing pretty hard today.
There is an increasing recognition that the planet is in a deep crisis concerning global warming, modernization of the third world, adequate transmission and production of energy. There is no doubt in my mind that in days past, the idea that we had a choice with utilizing nuclear power is a luxury we can't afford tomorrow.
I asked some astonishing sophisticated questions of recent about the fundamental systems organizing principles of the NRC. The NRC is fundamentally a 1960's regulatory bureaucracy; it is hierarchal in a military sense; it is top down and not bottoms up; it is extremelyvulnerable to inappropriate political pressure through the tip of the organization; many of the politicians act as a gang type organization with their secrecy and hidden control to the top of the organization; a top down hierarchal organization is extremely unstable with creating long term system stability; and a top down organization has the ability to create powerful illusions against themselves and the outside organization.
So when is a top down hierarchal military organization appropriate –many organizations swing between top down and bottoms up, with the majority of the time in the bottoms up? So how does a top down organization create indifference and not caring with the lower levels of employees? How does a bottoms up organization create engagement and creativity? So what are the attributes of a bottoms up organization, What what about links and nodes? On the cutting edge of modern technological systems organization –what creates organizational stability and organization interstability as it relates to the NRC, the utilities, and all ofthe stakeholders. What role does propriety information and secrecy play in leveraging instability?
I am out to reorganize how we manage energy and I am out to reorganize the nuclear regulatory commission. These are the biggest problems this planet is going to face in the next fifty years. There are a lot of people who recognize that this has to be done now. They recognize, it is an enormous latent institutional failure –we see it in the energy shortages, price spikes up and down and across the board, unreliability of our energy distribution system across the board, and the blackouts…the enormous energy problems that repetitively knock on our doors and our political systems on this planet. All of us who has become unavailable to respond with creating the most technologically advanced system that we can think of. It’s appalling our increasing militarization of our energy cost –what a waste of money.
It is a massive active failure of all of us to politically manage the energy sector. It is mostly a failure of the voters and the public. They need to step up andbe responsible, to interact with the managing of the political sector.
I keep going back to this over and over. If you really think about the electricity sector; it's about how our educational institutions have failed to educate us –in creating our communication and understanding between of all of the complicated activities across this industry and the public interactions. We know how to create and move electrons –but we don't know how to make the system holistic to the needs of our country and planet. It's an unbelievable huge failure of ours. It's primitive in the continuum of planetary development and it goes on and on and on and on withoutchange.
Think about it! Our political system is incapable of managing the developing energy sector. This includes the so called economic system and free market, which frames how we manage energy. I would put it like this -the planetary needs of using energy are increasing at an astonishing rate –with our institutional/educational/skills ability -to manipulate and be creative is declining or remaining stagnant. Our ability to manipulate and innovate through our politics is absolutely frozen in the 1950's. Our nuclear plant sector is an example of this. How long do you think this is going to last? Sometimes I wonder that our first two milleniums of the the planets history coelesced through the constructions of our religions --with tomorrow, I think our planet will coelesced around the issues of how we make and manage energy, much like religions at our earlier times. It does give us all commonality.
It is an enormous philosophical failure within our highest principles, in how we manage the materials and intellectual resources through truth, trustworthiness, integrity, and the idea of a creative futuristic energy system in order to maintain our lifestyles and economy. I am not talking about turning us into a socialist, communist state – but something is clearly wrong with thecurrent system.
I mean I am an idiot. I sit on the outside. I can see that education drives everything---- or our institutional failures are driven by the failures of our educational system. I am absolutely astonished that I can come to that conclusion with my level of education!
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Message 7873 of 899
Event Horizon of a black whole
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From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...> Date: Fri May 7, 2004 9:24 pm Subject:
Event horizon of a black hole
Now what were the names of the sub atomic particles who seem to popin and out of the fabric of our cosmos –theorized in a complete vacuum out in outer space. We are coming to see, that the whole of our cosmos lives within a larger matrix of energy. All of us are infused in it and within it. We think of it in terms of particles–or energy of some sort. It's an illusion.
It might be looked at as in the "event horizon" of a black hole, where on the other side of this demarcation time and all our natural laws don't matter in more. I think as time goes on we will discover more and more about the fabric that holds our cosmos together –through this mysterious house of mirror. We will never find out what's at the bottom of this matrix.
It's the mystery that is so beautiful. It's called love my friends, it is outside time and undimensionless and forever. Is there a possibility of communication across this web?
This is the e-mail that set up my response concerning victimization Don't forget to look at the date.qqqMessage 1204 of 1238 Previous Next [ Up Thread ]Message IndexqqqFrom: Michael MulliganDate: Sat Apr 10, 2004 11:12 pmSubject: Re: [DBRVH_LTBL_II] Re: FirstEnergy and the BlackoutI am resending this becasue of problems with the last!”
"If you accept the privilege of standing witht he People of the united States of America, you must govern yourself, and accept the rule of law(Lincoln was right on this point).”
I see you didn't capitalize United States. What a radical document this is.
We notice this is a male oriented document -all men are created equal. So here we sit with the foundation of our country being spell out with "justice for all"and "all men are created equal". It took us through the civil war and up to the mid 1960's till theAmerican apartheid was broken –and many now believe the unfairness is still with us today within the disparity of the black population.
So tell me –how come the whole of America couldn't govern ourselves according to the clear policy and laws of our lands in those times? We even had a set of laws which defined the American apartheid and backed by the supreme court.
Actually we don't worship rules and laws. We worship the ideals that all women and men are created equal throughout this planet. We all have that right because we are human and it is right. Actually we worship the ideal that the full weight of our nation’s power and might will fully protect, demand full human dignity –even to the least amongst us. I am internally grateful for our nation in every breath I can take.
Right, privilege is a word of class exclusion. I would put it as we in the United States have a responsibility to continually make sure all of our rules, laws and policy of this magnificent country, always bolsters the dignity of any human being and never decreases any amount of dignity of any of us.
The Nuremberg trail speaks to the principles that all of us have the international requirement to put ethical and moral responsibility above any national order, policy, rule and/or law.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
privilege
SYLLABICATION: priv•i•legePRONUNCIATION:NOUN: 1a. A special advantage, immunity, permission,right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by anindividual, class, or caste. See synonyms at right. b.Such an advantage, immunity, or right held as aprerogative of status or rank, and exercised to theexclusion or detriment of others.2. The principle of granting and maintaining a specialright or immunity: a society based on privilege.3. Law The right to privileged communication in aconfidential relationship, as between client andattorney, patient and physician, or communicant andpriest.4. An option to buy or sell a stock, including put,call, spread, and straddle.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form amore perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domesticTranquility, provide for the common defence, promotethe general Welfare, and secure the Blessings ofLiberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain andestablish this Constitution for the United States ofAmerica.The Declaration of IndependenceA TranscriptionIN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate ande qual station to which the Laws of Nature and ofNature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all menare created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit ofHappiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever anyForm of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likelyto effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world….
Nuremberg Principles
The Nuremberg Principles were a set of guidelines fordetermining what constitues a war crime. The documentwas created by necessity during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi party members following World War II. The guidelines are as follows:
Principle I. Any personwho commits an act which constitutes a crime underinternational law is responsible therefore and liableto punishment.
Principle II. The fact that internal law does notimpose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crimeunder international law does not relieve the personwho committed the act from responsibility underinternational law.
Principle III. The fact that a person who committed anact which constitutes a crime under international lawacted as Head of State or responsible governmentofficial does not relieve him from responsibilityunder international law.qqqqPrinciple IV. The fact that a person acted pursuant toorder of his Government or of a superior does notrelieve him from responsibility under internationallaw, provided a moral choice was in fact possible tohim.qqqPrinciple V. Any person charged with a crime underinternational law has the right to a fair trial on thefacts and law.qqqqPrinciple VI. The crimes hereinafter set out arepunishable as crimes under international law: (a)Crimes against peace: (i) Planning, preparation,initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a warin violation of international treaties, agreements orassurances; (ii) Participation in a common plan orconspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the actsmentioned under (i).qqqq
(b) War Crimes: Violations of the laws or customs ofwar which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave-labour or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or inoccupied territory, murder or ill-treatment ofprisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property,wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
(c) Crimes against humanity: Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts doneagainst any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on inexecution of or in connection with any crime againstpeace or any war crime.
Principle VII. Complicity in the commission of a crimea gainst peace, a war crime, or a crime againsthumanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime underinternational lawqqq
Message Index
Msg #
From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...> Date: Fri May 7, 2004 9:24 pm Subject:
Event horizon of a black hole
Now what were the names of the sub atomic particles who seem to popin and out of the fabric of our cosmos –theorized in a complete vacuum out in outer space. We are coming to see, that the whole of our cosmos lives within a larger matrix of energy. All of us are infused in it and within it. We think of it in terms of particles–or energy of some sort. It's an illusion.
It might be looked at as in the "event horizon" of a black hole, where on the other side of this demarcation time and all our natural laws don't matter in more. I think as time goes on we will discover more and more about the fabric that holds our cosmos together –through this mysterious house of mirror. We will never find out what's at the bottom of this matrix.
It's the mystery that is so beautiful. It's called love my friends, it is outside time and undimensionless and forever. Is there a possibility of communication across this web?
This is the e-mail that set up my response concerning victimization Don't forget to look at the date.qqqMessage 1204 of 1238 Previous Next [ Up Thread ]Message IndexqqqFrom: Michael Mulligan
"If you accept the privilege of standing witht he People of the united States of America, you must govern yourself, and accept the rule of law(Lincoln was right on this point).”
I see you didn't capitalize United States. What a radical document this is.
We notice this is a male oriented document -all men are created equal. So here we sit with the foundation of our country being spell out with "justice for all"and "all men are created equal". It took us through the civil war and up to the mid 1960's till theAmerican apartheid was broken –and many now believe the unfairness is still with us today within the disparity of the black population.
So tell me –how come the whole of America couldn't govern ourselves according to the clear policy and laws of our lands in those times? We even had a set of laws which defined the American apartheid and backed by the supreme court.
Actually we don't worship rules and laws. We worship the ideals that all women and men are created equal throughout this planet. We all have that right because we are human and it is right. Actually we worship the ideal that the full weight of our nation’s power and might will fully protect, demand full human dignity –even to the least amongst us. I am internally grateful for our nation in every breath I can take.
Right, privilege is a word of class exclusion. I would put it as we in the United States have a responsibility to continually make sure all of our rules, laws and policy of this magnificent country, always bolsters the dignity of any human being and never decreases any amount of dignity of any of us.
The Nuremberg trail speaks to the principles that all of us have the international requirement to put ethical and moral responsibility above any national order, policy, rule and/or law.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
privilege
SYLLABICATION: priv•i•legePRONUNCIATION:NOUN: 1a. A special advantage, immunity, permission,right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by anindividual, class, or caste. See synonyms at right. b.Such an advantage, immunity, or right held as aprerogative of status or rank, and exercised to theexclusion or detriment of others.2. The principle of granting and maintaining a specialright or immunity: a society based on privilege.3. Law The right to privileged communication in aconfidential relationship, as between client andattorney, patient and physician, or communicant andpriest.4. An option to buy or sell a stock, including put,call, spread, and straddle.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form amore perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domesticTranquility, provide for the common defence, promotethe general Welfare, and secure the Blessings ofLiberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain andestablish this Constitution for the United States ofAmerica.The Declaration of IndependenceA TranscriptionIN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate ande qual station to which the Laws of Nature and ofNature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all menare created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit ofHappiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever anyForm of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likelyto effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world….
Nuremberg Principles
The Nuremberg Principles were a set of guidelines fordetermining what constitues a war crime. The documentwas created by necessity during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi party members following World War II. The guidelines are as follows:
Principle I. Any personwho commits an act which constitutes a crime underinternational law is responsible therefore and liableto punishment.
Principle II. The fact that internal law does notimpose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crimeunder international law does not relieve the personwho committed the act from responsibility underinternational law.
Principle III. The fact that a person who committed anact which constitutes a crime under international lawacted as Head of State or responsible governmentofficial does not relieve him from responsibilityunder international law.qqqqPrinciple IV. The fact that a person acted pursuant toorder of his Government or of a superior does notrelieve him from responsibility under internationallaw, provided a moral choice was in fact possible tohim.qqqPrinciple V. Any person charged with a crime underinternational law has the right to a fair trial on thefacts and law.qqqqPrinciple VI. The crimes hereinafter set out arepunishable as crimes under international law: (a)Crimes against peace: (i) Planning, preparation,initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a warin violation of international treaties, agreements orassurances; (ii) Participation in a common plan orconspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the actsmentioned under (i).qqqq
(b) War Crimes: Violations of the laws or customs ofwar which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave-labour or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or inoccupied territory, murder or ill-treatment ofprisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property,wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
(c) Crimes against humanity: Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts doneagainst any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on inexecution of or in connection with any crime againstpeace or any war crime.
Principle VII. Complicity in the commission of a crimea gainst peace, a war crime, or a crime againsthumanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime underinternational lawqqq
An American Abu Ghraib
Message 7888 of 8998 Previous Next [ Up Thread ]
Message Index
Msg #
From: "Mike Mulligan"
Date: Fri May 7, 2004 10:31 pm Subject: American Gulag
Darn –the NYT beat me to the story!May 8, 2004PRISONERSMistreatment of Prisoners Is Called Routine in U.S.By FOX BUTTERFIELD
Why doesn't the horrors Abu Ghraib surprise me? We got a gulag here in the USA. Why doesn't that grab your hearts? Imagine if the prisoner's in Iraq were physically and mentally disable. Imagine if they couldn't understand your order to get undressed and form a pyramid?
I've seen horrific human rights abuse with the community mental and physical services. The majority of the managers and employees would agree with me. The whole system of state and federal oversight has been dead on arrival. You know I tried to drag them into it.
I had written about specific issues on the board. We pay an extraordinary amount of money to house these people per year. We pay so little money for the care giver who actually touches these humans. The employees we get are coming from the bottom of the barrel and have very little educational and professional skills. We'd house animals better than that. If there aren't enough resources in the community –we send them into the prisons
I've seen the gulag here right in my own community. I seen hundreds of young employees involved with this-and many of them can't put themselves in the place of the disabled. It's wide spread.
The media really doesn't want to get involve –because who would want to buy advertisement space next to a pathetic story of the disabled. All segments of our society are involved in this including the politicians.
There is little realization of this but Howard Dean was about ready to get blown out of the water with how he handled the mentally disabled in the state of Vermont. He knew it was coming.
I think it past time that we look at these in isolation within eacheconomic/ military sector –its epidemic and a national cultural problem.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Message Index
Msg #
From: "Mike Mulligan"
Date: Fri May 7, 2004 10:31 pm Subject: American Gulag
Darn –the NYT beat me to the story!May 8, 2004PRISONERSMistreatment of Prisoners Is Called Routine in U.S.By FOX BUTTERFIELD
Why doesn't the horrors Abu Ghraib surprise me? We got a gulag here in the USA. Why doesn't that grab your hearts? Imagine if the prisoner's in Iraq were physically and mentally disable. Imagine if they couldn't understand your order to get undressed and form a pyramid?
I've seen horrific human rights abuse with the community mental and physical services. The majority of the managers and employees would agree with me. The whole system of state and federal oversight has been dead on arrival. You know I tried to drag them into it.
I had written about specific issues on the board. We pay an extraordinary amount of money to house these people per year. We pay so little money for the care giver who actually touches these humans. The employees we get are coming from the bottom of the barrel and have very little educational and professional skills. We'd house animals better than that. If there aren't enough resources in the community –we send them into the prisons
I've seen the gulag here right in my own community. I seen hundreds of young employees involved with this-and many of them can't put themselves in the place of the disabled. It's wide spread.
The media really doesn't want to get involve –because who would want to buy advertisement space next to a pathetic story of the disabled. All segments of our society are involved in this including the politicians.
There is little realization of this but Howard Dean was about ready to get blown out of the water with how he handled the mentally disabled in the state of Vermont. He knew it was coming.
I think it past time that we look at these in isolation within eacheconomic/ military sector –its epidemic and a national cultural problem.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
An assembly line of dispair into the future
From: "Mike Mulligan" > Date: Sun May 30, 2004 1:14 pm Subject: American Gulag -last one really on this subject
Shocks used to control autistic sonParents defend prod as best hopeBy Michael HigginsTribune staff reporterMay 30, 200 0405300211may30,1,4
If this wasn't important I wouldn't keep going on. In many ways I want to stop talking about it –but there is a higher purpose here.
David's father committed suicide with a gun with David playing athis feet. His mother came home to see that. You can't imagine what astory like this does to the employees. There are many more of them. So his mother's angle was, she just doesn't want to see David get hurt anymore. Does a mother who has seen such trauma, does she knowwhat best for her child?
A month before David's death –the mother and me had a long talkc about children. As you know my boy has mild cerebral palsy –we had a lot in common with dealing with the medical bureaucracy. She tells me David needs to get bigger heart valves –but she won't give permission to do it because David has been "hurt enough" in his life.
What does "hurt enough" mean –does it mean that she has been hurt enough? What did she have to tell me that for -why can't they keep it to themselves? Of all the peole in the world to tell this to -why was it me.
I told my manager –they were already looking to get me fired because I was complaining to upper management at this time. I told them, you got to have an ethical debate about this. I asked him, does David need a new artificial heart valve(s). He curtly told me it was none of my business and it was medical information between the facility and family, and he was under the best medical care available. I told him, well now it's my business because I heard the story –and I have concerns whether it right orwrong. He told me I was hanging on to this job by a thread -$9.00 an hour job.
I understand that Down's syndrome children have a high risk of death and have a shortened life span. I have seen many happy older Down's syndrome adults. I know there are many more Down's syndrome adults who are very difficult to control.
I wonder about the upperclass kids –I am sure it would be very acceptable with giving your child a heart operation and he could expect a normal life. So who was responsible for the design and structure of David's 15 year old life?
Did we design his life into being such a house of horrors –that the rational objective solution was that his life wasn't worth living. I mean, we are dealing with the objective evidence of what his life was up to this point. It was a life of horrors –and believe me, we knew what his life was in front of him. Of all the people in the world we knew what was in front of him.
Can you imagine what a life can turn too with a constant churning of uninspiring low paid care giver employees and managers. With these employees on the edge of being dysfunctional themselves and sitting in a boiling caldron of making profits and cutting expensive? These employees didn't come from our elite colleges. They weren't highly educated NASA shuttle astronauts willing to die for the thrill of the ride. There is a theory that many care giver employees come from children with dysfunctional childhoods –and they are trying to relive their earlier lives by care-giving for the disabled (with very dysfunctional skills).
Were we putting a hamburger between two buns at MacDonald's -an assembly line of despair into the foreseeable future? What do you think about this illusory "evidence" we build for ourselves that we are so sure of? We intentionally designed and built the structure, the foundations, and the reality of a human life. We declare it has no past or future value. It is a life not worth living. We balance a human life on the selective evidence that we collect for our own self interest. We discard and forget the evidence that condemns us!
David only mirrored to us the reality of our own miserable existence. He was only showing the image of us to ourselves -do you get that.
I ask over and over again –where have all the good people gone!
But I want you to know… I playfully wrestled with this boy on the floor. We laughed so hard at each other... and at the immoral system that was around us. You have no idea of being on the edge of dispair -and finding humor with a child. It felt so good.
We so loud. We couldn't catch our breaths. We disturbed the whole house with our noise, joy and laughter. Oh, David had such an easy and huge smile!
…and that I will never forget….
And the story about David will haunt me for forever and maybe change the world for a few of
us.
(I also seen him being restrained many times and I was involved in some.).
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Shocks used to control autistic sonParents defend prod as best hopeBy Michael HigginsTribune staff reporterMay 30, 200 0405300211may30,1,4
If this wasn't important I wouldn't keep going on. In many ways I want to stop talking about it –but there is a higher purpose here.
David's father committed suicide with a gun with David playing athis feet. His mother came home to see that. You can't imagine what astory like this does to the employees. There are many more of them. So his mother's angle was, she just doesn't want to see David get hurt anymore. Does a mother who has seen such trauma, does she knowwhat best for her child?
A month before David's death –the mother and me had a long talkc about children. As you know my boy has mild cerebral palsy –we had a lot in common with dealing with the medical bureaucracy. She tells me David needs to get bigger heart valves –but she won't give permission to do it because David has been "hurt enough" in his life.
What does "hurt enough" mean –does it mean that she has been hurt enough? What did she have to tell me that for -why can't they keep it to themselves? Of all the peole in the world to tell this to -why was it me.
I told my manager –they were already looking to get me fired because I was complaining to upper management at this time. I told them, you got to have an ethical debate about this. I asked him, does David need a new artificial heart valve(s). He curtly told me it was none of my business and it was medical information between the facility and family, and he was under the best medical care available. I told him, well now it's my business because I heard the story –and I have concerns whether it right orwrong. He told me I was hanging on to this job by a thread -$9.00 an hour job.
I understand that Down's syndrome children have a high risk of death and have a shortened life span. I have seen many happy older Down's syndrome adults. I know there are many more Down's syndrome adults who are very difficult to control.
I wonder about the upperclass kids –I am sure it would be very acceptable with giving your child a heart operation and he could expect a normal life. So who was responsible for the design and structure of David's 15 year old life?
Did we design his life into being such a house of horrors –that the rational objective solution was that his life wasn't worth living. I mean, we are dealing with the objective evidence of what his life was up to this point. It was a life of horrors –and believe me, we knew what his life was in front of him. Of all the people in the world we knew what was in front of him.
Can you imagine what a life can turn too with a constant churning of uninspiring low paid care giver employees and managers. With these employees on the edge of being dysfunctional themselves and sitting in a boiling caldron of making profits and cutting expensive? These employees didn't come from our elite colleges. They weren't highly educated NASA shuttle astronauts willing to die for the thrill of the ride. There is a theory that many care giver employees come from children with dysfunctional childhoods –and they are trying to relive their earlier lives by care-giving for the disabled (with very dysfunctional skills).
Were we putting a hamburger between two buns at MacDonald's -an assembly line of despair into the foreseeable future? What do you think about this illusory "evidence" we build for ourselves that we are so sure of? We intentionally designed and built the structure, the foundations, and the reality of a human life. We declare it has no past or future value. It is a life not worth living. We balance a human life on the selective evidence that we collect for our own self interest. We discard and forget the evidence that condemns us!
David only mirrored to us the reality of our own miserable existence. He was only showing the image of us to ourselves -do you get that.
I ask over and over again –where have all the good people gone!
But I want you to know… I playfully wrestled with this boy on the floor. We laughed so hard at each other... and at the immoral system that was around us. You have no idea of being on the edge of dispair -and finding humor with a child. It felt so good.
We so loud. We couldn't catch our breaths. We disturbed the whole house with our noise, joy and laughter. Oh, David had such an easy and huge smile!
…and that I will never forget….
And the story about David will haunt me for forever and maybe change the world for a few of
us.
(I also seen him being restrained many times and I was involved in some.).
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Friday, December 24, 2004
The bleak grey rooms the disabled live in
From: "Mike Mulligan" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rootcauseconferance Date: Sat May 29, 2004 2:15 pm Subject: Re: American Gulag -last one on this subject
Message 7988 of 8998
This will be the last message for a while on this subject.
I worked for a year as an unskilled counselor at a severely impaired children's mental institution. It's a long story, but I was asked to go there to work (anonymously) by a set of mothers who had grave concerns for their children who were housed there. My wife had worked there as a special ed teacher. She only lasted 9 mouths. They though I could change it.
These were the kids that were separated from their parents. In the end, we got some management change, but it took a child's death in order to do it. They had a host of medical errors that lead up to this with a bunch of children. I got fired from this job also. I was in meetings with upper management with concerns of mine prior to David's death.
I had taken care of this 14 year old boy with Downs Syndrome many times -he was living in the "house" (about ten houses at this facility) that I was working at the facility. This boy had a huge tong and mucus was constantly leaking out of his nose and mouth. I had grown to love this boy in the year and he was the one who died with a preventable death. I had known his mother well.
One bright blue sky Saturday morning , what do father's do with their boys on Saturday mornings, I woke David up. He got out of the bed and sat on the floor. He got very quite. It was not like him. Tears were coming out of his eyes. He didn't have the ability to communicate. He began quietly crying. I never knew why he was crying. I never could figure it out why he was crying. He was dead in two weeks.
I worked and played with David in the last afternoon. He had died during the following night with a blood clot from his artificial heart valves.
We had about six other children, most with severe autism. None of them could verbally communicate. The majority of the employees were uneducated hamburger flippers. Management stayed far away from us. It was a horror beyond imagination. Just think about that academic study about playing prisoner and guards. It wasn't really about physical abuse, but it happened. It was more about an uneducated behavior modification program with the kids and a shortage of educated case workers. The pay was terrible for everyone except the top executives. Oh yes, most definitely, it was about the severe shortage of nurses and doctors. We had a tremendous concentration of medically fragile children beyond the mentally disabled.
It should be noted that the last few children who got into our house came from extraordinarily connected and wealthy families. There was an extreme-extreme shortage of facilities as this. Even the educated elite who lived in castles on a mountain where so disparate, that they would do anything for their children. That is what these parents had in common –the desperation.
We though the wealthy families were getting a special privilege.
I will never forget the grey and bleak physical aesthetics of the rooms, houses and buildings –either in the institution or with adults out in the community. They never had enough money for painting the rooms, carpeting or brightly colored pictures on the children’s walls -neither for the skilled professionals, such as the disability specialist, social workers and nurses. Let me tell you something friends, it was such a façade you are seeing. You could detect which parents never visited their children –they had the bleakest rooms. The game for NH was to put the disabled in their own apartments and houses -but not to fund for the adiquate upkeep and maintenance of the home. There is a huge scandal yet to be seen -it is pictures and vedios from many of these disgraceful homes for which the fedural and state goverments are responcible for.
What the public needs –is a mostly accurate computer model of the bureaucracies – the politics, the financials, the interplay of the state agencies and the contracting services, the non profits, the function of our jails –and all the rest. We should have a computer program that accurately models the dysfunction of the system for the disabled –and the official’s and public should be allowed to play with all of the variables of the system in a computer game. It could be like the Tamagochi style educational game - http://www.mimitchi.com/html/q1.htm . How about a department of defense war game type simulation
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-sims.htm on the political battlefield of the disabled. You could get all the politicians to publicly play these War games once a year.
I remember talking to this old timer employee named Marie -she was working in an office. She had been a house counselor for forever. She was in charge of us I believe. She always wore a long sleeve blouse. It was a very hot day. She had her sleeves rolled up as I came for a visit in her office. Both her forearms were disfigured with many scars. I asked her what happened to your arms. She said it was an accumulation of children's mouth bites through the years. We had to physically restrain children often (when the meds didn't work)?
I later worked in a community setting for two years for the care of the mentally disabled. It's not any better there. I asked the managers and employees, what do you think about the care of your charges. The rationale almost word for word that came back, was well it much better than Laconia.
Laconia was the infamous New Hampshire state mental institution noted for its extreme human rights abuse prior to the 1980's. I wonder if you asked the employees of Laconia back in the bad old days, what do you think of the institutional care. They would came back that it is better for them than in being out in the community and living in the streets and jails.
I think we need both the institutional and community setting for the mentally disabled. The community setting people play off their problems with it's better than being in an institution. With the institutional model, it's nothing but a failure of leadership and accountability with the agencies, business executives and politicians. Folks, we are just in a crazy circle of disconnected philosophies and rationales on the favored approach of taking care of the disabled. We just don't want to fund the appropriate level of resources on any of them and make our goverment accountably. All manners of care are bound to fail with this attitude.
I believe the care of the disabled should be undertaken with state and fedural employees. The training and skills of the employees should be set by the goverment -and the politicians should be held accoutible for this. The current system is designed by the politicians -the bureaucracies, agencies, contractors and the non profits is designed, such the politicians are not held accountible for the conditions of the system. You can't wonder if campainge contributions to the politicians, fractured accountibly and non transparency is the rationale and primary driver of the current system. It is not in the interest of the disabled.
Let me tell you another little secrete here now. If you are a disabled child with parents who aren't totally active and engaged with the care of your child -you are totally screwed for a lifetime.
A surprising amount of parents and especially mothers, for self survival reasons, have to back off with taking care of their disabled children. The burdens of these families are extraordinary. We have such poor facilities and bureaucracies. These mothers drive themselves into a mental breakdown.
And then what is there.
Pope Worries About 'Soulless' U.S.
I hope you understand what I am driving to. I have seen very similar methods of business and governmental failures and unresponsiveness across broad spectrums of our society. They are all carbon copies of each other.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale,
NHwashingtonpost.com Mental Health System Needs a Lifeline By Thomas H. Bornemann Saturday, May 29, 2004; Page A27
At a time when the United States leads the world in almost every measurable category, and when its defense budget is greater by far than that of any other nation, it's sad to note that there is one major area in which we continue to lag behind other industrialized nations: the provision of health care to our people -- especially care for people with mental illnesses.
Last summer a presidential commission on the subject declared in its final report that the American mental health system is "fragmented and in disarray . . . leading to a host of problems including disability, homelessness, school failure and incarceration." Nearly a year later, as Mental Health Month draws to a close, little has changed. Many people with mental illnesses lack access to affordable, adequate services or avoid treatment because of the stigma associated with their illness.
From the work of the commission -- as well as from the 1999 surgeon general's report on mental health and a 2001 World Health Organization report -- we know a great deal about the magnitude and burden of mental illness. We know that when suicide is included, mental illness accounts for more than 15 percent of the burden of disease in industrialized countries -- more than the burden inflicted by all cancers. We know that almost 34 million Americans --21 percent of people between the ages 18 and 64 -- will have a mental illness over the course of a given year. We know that nearly70 percent of people suffering from mental illness are not getting the help they should, and that 79 percent of U.S. children with mental health problems severe enough to indicate a clinical need for evaluation do not receive either evaluation or treatment.
Too often, when symptoms reach the point of crisis, which many will, the most expensive services are required through emergency rooms and inpatient treatment. In many cases, jails and detention centers have become the front-line providers of mental health services, causing amuch greater financial burden than if prevention and community-based resources were readily available and affordable to everyone.The burden of mental illness goes beyond the fragmented service system and into the business sector. It is in the interest of corporations to provide adequate mental health coverage as part of their employee benefits. Research shows that untreated depression costs firms $31 billion a year in lost productivity.
Today more is known about the causes of mental illness than ever before, and through groundbreaking research we finally can providetreatments that work. About 80 percent of patients with depressioncan recover now, and 74 percent of patients with schizophrenia can live without relapses if early intervention is made. Recovery is possible.
A presidential commission on mental health during the Carter administration focused on developing a network of community-based services and supports. In many ways, the challenges that were present 25 years ago remain, despite remarkable scientific advances since then. And be assured, the advances are real. When I was trained in the early 1970s, we never envisioned that recovery was possible. Now it is often expected.
One would think this progress would bring about a drastic change for the better in the provision of mental health services. But since the latest commission reported last summer, mental health services have been cut in almost every state, and the prospect of more restrictions looms. The reductions have been so massive that in some cases people with serious mental illnesses have gone without even the most basic services.
In addition, a bill to require full mental health parity for insurance has failed to move in Congress in the two years since President Bush expressed his support for the legislation. Parity would not only make mental health services affordable for the great majority of Americans, it would recognize that mental illnesses are treatable and as common as other medical conditions.
Until legislation acknowledges and legitimizes mental health parity, and policymakers provide adequate resources for treatment and support services, mental illnesses will remain stigmatized, and people will be reluctant to seek treatment. Suicides will continue to be the greatest cause of violent deaths -- more than homicide or war-related deaths -- and expensive emergency services will be the primary source of treatment for many.
Mental illness affects everyone, be it through a family member, friend or personal experience. We all need a transformed mental health system that envisions recovery for everyone suffering from mental illness.
The writer is director of the Mental Health Program at the CarterCenter in Atlanta.© 2004 The Washington Post Company
Message 7988 of 8998
This will be the last message for a while on this subject.
I worked for a year as an unskilled counselor at a severely impaired children's mental institution. It's a long story, but I was asked to go there to work (anonymously) by a set of mothers who had grave concerns for their children who were housed there. My wife had worked there as a special ed teacher. She only lasted 9 mouths. They though I could change it.
These were the kids that were separated from their parents. In the end, we got some management change, but it took a child's death in order to do it. They had a host of medical errors that lead up to this with a bunch of children. I got fired from this job also. I was in meetings with upper management with concerns of mine prior to David's death.
I had taken care of this 14 year old boy with Downs Syndrome many times -he was living in the "house" (about ten houses at this facility) that I was working at the facility. This boy had a huge tong and mucus was constantly leaking out of his nose and mouth. I had grown to love this boy in the year and he was the one who died with a preventable death. I had known his mother well.
One bright blue sky Saturday morning , what do father's do with their boys on Saturday mornings, I woke David up. He got out of the bed and sat on the floor. He got very quite. It was not like him. Tears were coming out of his eyes. He didn't have the ability to communicate. He began quietly crying. I never knew why he was crying. I never could figure it out why he was crying. He was dead in two weeks.
I worked and played with David in the last afternoon. He had died during the following night with a blood clot from his artificial heart valves.
We had about six other children, most with severe autism. None of them could verbally communicate. The majority of the employees were uneducated hamburger flippers. Management stayed far away from us. It was a horror beyond imagination. Just think about that academic study about playing prisoner and guards. It wasn't really about physical abuse, but it happened. It was more about an uneducated behavior modification program with the kids and a shortage of educated case workers. The pay was terrible for everyone except the top executives. Oh yes, most definitely, it was about the severe shortage of nurses and doctors. We had a tremendous concentration of medically fragile children beyond the mentally disabled.
It should be noted that the last few children who got into our house came from extraordinarily connected and wealthy families. There was an extreme-extreme shortage of facilities as this. Even the educated elite who lived in castles on a mountain where so disparate, that they would do anything for their children. That is what these parents had in common –the desperation.
We though the wealthy families were getting a special privilege.
I will never forget the grey and bleak physical aesthetics of the rooms, houses and buildings –either in the institution or with adults out in the community. They never had enough money for painting the rooms, carpeting or brightly colored pictures on the children’s walls -neither for the skilled professionals, such as the disability specialist, social workers and nurses. Let me tell you something friends, it was such a façade you are seeing. You could detect which parents never visited their children –they had the bleakest rooms. The game for NH was to put the disabled in their own apartments and houses -but not to fund for the adiquate upkeep and maintenance of the home. There is a huge scandal yet to be seen -it is pictures and vedios from many of these disgraceful homes for which the fedural and state goverments are responcible for.
What the public needs –is a mostly accurate computer model of the bureaucracies – the politics, the financials, the interplay of the state agencies and the contracting services, the non profits, the function of our jails –and all the rest. We should have a computer program that accurately models the dysfunction of the system for the disabled –and the official’s and public should be allowed to play with all of the variables of the system in a computer game. It could be like the Tamagochi style educational game - http://www.mimitchi.com/html/q1.htm . How about a department of defense war game type simulation
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-sims.htm on the political battlefield of the disabled. You could get all the politicians to publicly play these War games once a year.
I remember talking to this old timer employee named Marie -she was working in an office. She had been a house counselor for forever. She was in charge of us I believe. She always wore a long sleeve blouse. It was a very hot day. She had her sleeves rolled up as I came for a visit in her office. Both her forearms were disfigured with many scars. I asked her what happened to your arms. She said it was an accumulation of children's mouth bites through the years. We had to physically restrain children often (when the meds didn't work)?
I later worked in a community setting for two years for the care of the mentally disabled. It's not any better there. I asked the managers and employees, what do you think about the care of your charges. The rationale almost word for word that came back, was well it much better than Laconia.
Laconia was the infamous New Hampshire state mental institution noted for its extreme human rights abuse prior to the 1980's. I wonder if you asked the employees of Laconia back in the bad old days, what do you think of the institutional care. They would came back that it is better for them than in being out in the community and living in the streets and jails.
I think we need both the institutional and community setting for the mentally disabled. The community setting people play off their problems with it's better than being in an institution. With the institutional model, it's nothing but a failure of leadership and accountability with the agencies, business executives and politicians. Folks, we are just in a crazy circle of disconnected philosophies and rationales on the favored approach of taking care of the disabled. We just don't want to fund the appropriate level of resources on any of them and make our goverment accountably. All manners of care are bound to fail with this attitude.
I believe the care of the disabled should be undertaken with state and fedural employees. The training and skills of the employees should be set by the goverment -and the politicians should be held accoutible for this. The current system is designed by the politicians -the bureaucracies, agencies, contractors and the non profits is designed, such the politicians are not held accountible for the conditions of the system. You can't wonder if campainge contributions to the politicians, fractured accountibly and non transparency is the rationale and primary driver of the current system. It is not in the interest of the disabled.
Let me tell you another little secrete here now. If you are a disabled child with parents who aren't totally active and engaged with the care of your child -you are totally screwed for a lifetime.
A surprising amount of parents and especially mothers, for self survival reasons, have to back off with taking care of their disabled children. The burdens of these families are extraordinary. We have such poor facilities and bureaucracies. These mothers drive themselves into a mental breakdown.
And then what is there.
Pope Worries About 'Soulless' U.S.
I hope you understand what I am driving to. I have seen very similar methods of business and governmental failures and unresponsiveness across broad spectrums of our society. They are all carbon copies of each other.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale,
NHwashingtonpost.com Mental Health System Needs a Lifeline By Thomas H. Bornemann Saturday, May 29, 2004; Page A27
At a time when the United States leads the world in almost every measurable category, and when its defense budget is greater by far than that of any other nation, it's sad to note that there is one major area in which we continue to lag behind other industrialized nations: the provision of health care to our people -- especially care for people with mental illnesses.
Last summer a presidential commission on the subject declared in its final report that the American mental health system is "fragmented and in disarray . . . leading to a host of problems including disability, homelessness, school failure and incarceration." Nearly a year later, as Mental Health Month draws to a close, little has changed. Many people with mental illnesses lack access to affordable, adequate services or avoid treatment because of the stigma associated with their illness.
From the work of the commission -- as well as from the 1999 surgeon general's report on mental health and a 2001 World Health Organization report -- we know a great deal about the magnitude and burden of mental illness. We know that when suicide is included, mental illness accounts for more than 15 percent of the burden of disease in industrialized countries -- more than the burden inflicted by all cancers. We know that almost 34 million Americans --21 percent of people between the ages 18 and 64 -- will have a mental illness over the course of a given year. We know that nearly70 percent of people suffering from mental illness are not getting the help they should, and that 79 percent of U.S. children with mental health problems severe enough to indicate a clinical need for evaluation do not receive either evaluation or treatment.
Too often, when symptoms reach the point of crisis, which many will, the most expensive services are required through emergency rooms and inpatient treatment. In many cases, jails and detention centers have become the front-line providers of mental health services, causing amuch greater financial burden than if prevention and community-based resources were readily available and affordable to everyone.The burden of mental illness goes beyond the fragmented service system and into the business sector. It is in the interest of corporations to provide adequate mental health coverage as part of their employee benefits. Research shows that untreated depression costs firms $31 billion a year in lost productivity.
Today more is known about the causes of mental illness than ever before, and through groundbreaking research we finally can providetreatments that work. About 80 percent of patients with depressioncan recover now, and 74 percent of patients with schizophrenia can live without relapses if early intervention is made. Recovery is possible.
A presidential commission on mental health during the Carter administration focused on developing a network of community-based services and supports. In many ways, the challenges that were present 25 years ago remain, despite remarkable scientific advances since then. And be assured, the advances are real. When I was trained in the early 1970s, we never envisioned that recovery was possible. Now it is often expected.
One would think this progress would bring about a drastic change for the better in the provision of mental health services. But since the latest commission reported last summer, mental health services have been cut in almost every state, and the prospect of more restrictions looms. The reductions have been so massive that in some cases people with serious mental illnesses have gone without even the most basic services.
In addition, a bill to require full mental health parity for insurance has failed to move in Congress in the two years since President Bush expressed his support for the legislation. Parity would not only make mental health services affordable for the great majority of Americans, it would recognize that mental illnesses are treatable and as common as other medical conditions.
Until legislation acknowledges and legitimizes mental health parity, and policymakers provide adequate resources for treatment and support services, mental illnesses will remain stigmatized, and people will be reluctant to seek treatment. Suicides will continue to be the greatest cause of violent deaths -- more than homicide or war-related deaths -- and expensive emergency services will be the primary source of treatment for many.
Mental illness affects everyone, be it through a family member, friend or personal experience. We all need a transformed mental health system that envisions recovery for everyone suffering from mental illness.
The writer is director of the Mental Health Program at the CarterCenter in Atlanta.© 2004 The Washington Post Company
American Gulag -hearing the cries of our children
From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...> Date: Tue May 25, 2004 5:49 pm Subject: Re: American Gulag
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47732-2004May22.htmlDANGEROUS PLACE : Assisted Living in VirginiaAs Care Declines, Cost Can Be Injury, Death Lapses by Home Operators, State Create Perilous Conditions By David S. FallisWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01First of four articlesWhen death came to Theresa Buford, she was cold and alone...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47732-2004May22.htmlDANGEROUS PLACE : Assisted Living in VirginiaAs Care Declines, Cost Can Be Injury, Death Lapses by Home Operators, State Create Perilous ConditionsBy David S. FallisWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01First of four articlesWhen death came to Theresa Buford, she was cold and alone...
The cries of the children, the temper tantrums and violent rages of the adults never leaves you!
I feel so guilty.
I sometimes wonder how it would be living in Germany in pre WW II -feeling horrendous in the face of perceiving of the massive deepening holocaust and wondering if the world seemingly has the heart of a pillar of a salt!
I wonder what I would do if I was living in those days? Would I be strong enough? I don't think so.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47732-2004May22.htmlDANGEROUS PLACE : Assisted Living in VirginiaAs Care Declines, Cost Can Be Injury, Death Lapses by Home Operators, State Create Perilous Conditions By David S. FallisWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01First of four articlesWhen death came to Theresa Buford, she was cold and alone...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47732-2004May22.htmlDANGEROUS PLACE : Assisted Living in VirginiaAs Care Declines, Cost Can Be Injury, Death Lapses by Home Operators, State Create Perilous ConditionsBy David S. FallisWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, May 23, 2004; Page A01First of four articlesWhen death came to Theresa Buford, she was cold and alone...
The cries of the children, the temper tantrums and violent rages of the adults never leaves you!
I feel so guilty.
I sometimes wonder how it would be living in Germany in pre WW II -feeling horrendous in the face of perceiving of the massive deepening holocaust and wondering if the world seemingly has the heart of a pillar of a salt!
I wonder what I would do if I was living in those days? Would I be strong enough? I don't think so.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Event Horizen of a Black hole
From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...> Date: Sat May 22, 2004 2:34 pm Subject: Re: Event horizon of a black hole
We know that Mohammad, Buda, Jesus Christ, and Einstein – had a heightened state of consciousness and perception, and they acted extraordinarily within their decision making ability into changing the world for the better. The question becomes, how did they transmit these truths to the wider world, even across time itself –to the benefit of us all.
And we know these people messed things up with the status quo big time. Some say the success of these individuals depended upon their correct perception of the dominant belief system of the world around them –and they had an amazing internal belief within their selves –which got to translate new perception into the mainstream reality and belief system of their times.
Take a look at the few sentences below. You tell me where the facts are of these statements. We are really talking about being in the realm of the subjective. The subjective realm of our thinking builds the objective facts that we seek –and many of us spend lifetimes discounting the realm of the subjective. Just because we can't measure it doesn't mean it is not a higher order truth.
Just what facts do we use in order to create human dignity –is it our bank account or executive bonus system; those that are so easily measured. Isn't the below nothing but a belief system.•
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men arecreated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and thepursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent ofthe governed,…"
"belief"
NOUN: 1. The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trustor confidence in another: My belief in you is as strong as ever.2. Mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something: His explanation of what happened defies belief.3. Something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons.
What good is an advanced education –if it is not about creating an organized belief system within your head? How efficient would the learnt lessens of Columbia be if you didn't have a standardized cultural belief system.
I will tell you a higher order of understanding. What fun/good would it be in being mike mulligan –if others didn't have an independent perception of who mike mulligan is compared to me? Mike mulligan won't exist if everyone else was removed from this world. What chance would I have of knowing truth if I didn't see it through the eyes of another? What chance would I have of being better and having a greater understanding of what truth is –if it wasn't relational to another human being? Some say beliefs were invented came shortly after Eve came alive –in the story of Adam and Eve. Some term it as "we are all one". I will tell you another thing, what chance would I have at desiring to perceive accurately –if somebody didn't love me.
I will tell you a very hard understanding, it's only after you viewed a horrible accident and participated in it –is only when you get a long term panicky desire to understand your errors. In another way, the more you seek love in another(s), the more you are exposed to a heart broken lost of love. With a broken heart after the crying, the desire to understand is what's left.
Some create a selective belief system in order to bring false stability out of the world of chaos.
Beliefs –does it create long term harmony and order to the majority of us, or is it designed to create an advantage for self?
Beliefs, does it open up or close down understanding is the only question?
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
We know that Mohammad, Buda, Jesus Christ, and Einstein – had a heightened state of consciousness and perception, and they acted extraordinarily within their decision making ability into changing the world for the better. The question becomes, how did they transmit these truths to the wider world, even across time itself –to the benefit of us all.
And we know these people messed things up with the status quo big time. Some say the success of these individuals depended upon their correct perception of the dominant belief system of the world around them –and they had an amazing internal belief within their selves –which got to translate new perception into the mainstream reality and belief system of their times.
Take a look at the few sentences below. You tell me where the facts are of these statements. We are really talking about being in the realm of the subjective. The subjective realm of our thinking builds the objective facts that we seek –and many of us spend lifetimes discounting the realm of the subjective. Just because we can't measure it doesn't mean it is not a higher order truth.
Just what facts do we use in order to create human dignity –is it our bank account or executive bonus system; those that are so easily measured. Isn't the below nothing but a belief system.•
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men arecreated equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and thepursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent ofthe governed,…"
"belief"
NOUN: 1. The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trustor confidence in another: My belief in you is as strong as ever.2. Mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something: His explanation of what happened defies belief.3. Something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons.
What good is an advanced education –if it is not about creating an organized belief system within your head? How efficient would the learnt lessens of Columbia be if you didn't have a standardized cultural belief system.
I will tell you a higher order of understanding. What fun/good would it be in being mike mulligan –if others didn't have an independent perception of who mike mulligan is compared to me? Mike mulligan won't exist if everyone else was removed from this world. What chance would I have of knowing truth if I didn't see it through the eyes of another? What chance would I have of being better and having a greater understanding of what truth is –if it wasn't relational to another human being? Some say beliefs were invented came shortly after Eve came alive –in the story of Adam and Eve. Some term it as "we are all one". I will tell you another thing, what chance would I have at desiring to perceive accurately –if somebody didn't love me.
I will tell you a very hard understanding, it's only after you viewed a horrible accident and participated in it –is only when you get a long term panicky desire to understand your errors. In another way, the more you seek love in another(s), the more you are exposed to a heart broken lost of love. With a broken heart after the crying, the desire to understand is what's left.
Some create a selective belief system in order to bring false stability out of the world of chaos.
Beliefs –does it create long term harmony and order to the majority of us, or is it designed to create an advantage for self?
Beliefs, does it open up or close down understanding is the only question?
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Oskar Schindler:"What's a person worth to you?"
From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...> Date: Sun Jun 13, 2004 10:40 am Subject: Re: American Gulag -last one really on this subject
A perilous prescription Kids like J.R. Green need mental health care. Because the state often fails to provide treatment, many get a prison cell instead.Jane O. Hansen - StaffSunday, June 13, 2004 A PERILOUS PRESCRIPTIONIN THIS SERIES> MONDAY: An inside look at life for the boys in one mental health unit. Plus, an update on improvements in Georgia's youth prisons.> TUESDAY: Eric Walker was headed for prison after stealing abaseball bat to protect himself. Instead, Eric became one of thelucky ones.
Let me tell you about the fundamental question this generation(ours) is going to face. It's at the root of all of our problems. It defines who we are and where will we be going. It's going to be the question of life or death to many thousands. Are we going to believe in the morality and rationality of our national economic and political system? We are just going to have to challenge the morality of how resources are dispersed to the least of us.
The question is, are we going to put the rationality of meeting budgets above the morality of questioning the value of human life.
I put it like this. You are a single mother with four children –today you could be a single father with four children. You don't have the income to feed all of your children. Food for your children could be look at as the resources to develop a child to their highest function as an adult. All your children now are starving because of the lack of resources and you have a broken heart watching this now. One day it dawns upon you that for the good of the rest –you are going to have to sacrifice your weakest child.
Before you kill that child -you need to confront the system that defined this choice for you. You need to fight it and you can't take comfort that the rest of your children will be better off.
This is where the management of our nation is bringing us today. Believe me as the problems build up –our bureaucracies will figure out the instruments of hiding the seemingly rational choice that we are making of intentionally sacrificing "symbolically" our weakest child and adults. In most ways, the system will define it as these weak people made that choice themselves. As it sits today –both the democrats and the republicans have hidden the intentional choices we made today with sacrificing our most vulnerable humans for the rationality of our economic system. Many children and adults have died prematurely from our choices already.
Fundamentally all of us have created this bureaucracy of selectively disclosing the facts of the results of our choices for self interested reasons. We all intentionally put these things in our closets and closed the door –and we intentionally forget what we have hidden behind the door. I am telling you, we know what's behind that door.
I am telling you the truth. This system will need an increasing percentage of us as being defined as hopeless and needing a sacrifice for the good of us all. We are all going to have to sacrifice one of our children before this is over. Then one day "it"will define us as being hopeless –and it will be our turn to die for the good of us all. We need to confront what is happening now!
We really need a NASA style blue ribbon commission on with the failures of taking care of our must vulnerable. I think the problemis much broader than the vulnerable.
Oskar Schindler:
"Look, All you have to do is tell me what it'sworth to you. What's a person worth to you?"
First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists
And I did not speak out-
Because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out-
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
And there was no-
one leftTo speak out for me.
Pastor Niemöller, 1938
--- In rootcauseconference@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Mulligan" wrote:>>>> Shocks used to control autistic son> Parents defend prod as best hope> By Michael Higgins> Tribune staff reporter>> May 30, 2004
A perilous prescription Kids like J.R. Green need mental health care. Because the state often fails to provide treatment, many get a prison cell instead.Jane O. Hansen - StaffSunday, June 13, 2004 A PERILOUS PRESCRIPTIONIN THIS SERIES> MONDAY: An inside look at life for the boys in one mental health unit. Plus, an update on improvements in Georgia's youth prisons.> TUESDAY: Eric Walker was headed for prison after stealing abaseball bat to protect himself. Instead, Eric became one of thelucky ones.
Let me tell you about the fundamental question this generation(ours) is going to face. It's at the root of all of our problems. It defines who we are and where will we be going. It's going to be the question of life or death to many thousands. Are we going to believe in the morality and rationality of our national economic and political system? We are just going to have to challenge the morality of how resources are dispersed to the least of us.
The question is, are we going to put the rationality of meeting budgets above the morality of questioning the value of human life.
I put it like this. You are a single mother with four children –today you could be a single father with four children. You don't have the income to feed all of your children. Food for your children could be look at as the resources to develop a child to their highest function as an adult. All your children now are starving because of the lack of resources and you have a broken heart watching this now. One day it dawns upon you that for the good of the rest –you are going to have to sacrifice your weakest child.
Before you kill that child -you need to confront the system that defined this choice for you. You need to fight it and you can't take comfort that the rest of your children will be better off.
This is where the management of our nation is bringing us today. Believe me as the problems build up –our bureaucracies will figure out the instruments of hiding the seemingly rational choice that we are making of intentionally sacrificing "symbolically" our weakest child and adults. In most ways, the system will define it as these weak people made that choice themselves. As it sits today –both the democrats and the republicans have hidden the intentional choices we made today with sacrificing our most vulnerable humans for the rationality of our economic system. Many children and adults have died prematurely from our choices already.
Fundamentally all of us have created this bureaucracy of selectively disclosing the facts of the results of our choices for self interested reasons. We all intentionally put these things in our closets and closed the door –and we intentionally forget what we have hidden behind the door. I am telling you, we know what's behind that door.
I am telling you the truth. This system will need an increasing percentage of us as being defined as hopeless and needing a sacrifice for the good of us all. We are all going to have to sacrifice one of our children before this is over. Then one day "it"will define us as being hopeless –and it will be our turn to die for the good of us all. We need to confront what is happening now!
We really need a NASA style blue ribbon commission on with the failures of taking care of our must vulnerable. I think the problemis much broader than the vulnerable.
Oskar Schindler:
"Look, All you have to do is tell me what it'sworth to you. What's a person worth to you?"
First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists
And I did not speak out-
Because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out-
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
And there was no-
one leftTo speak out for me.
Pastor Niemöller, 1938
--- In rootcauseconference@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Mulligan"
Thursday, December 23, 2004
A Wal-Mart nuclear business plan: Uranium
A Wal-Mart nuclear business plan at the source: Uranium
The question is how does this relate to the uprate -tangentially
We seem to be at the beginning of a huge price hike in Uranium price.
This isn't an American source of energy.
What would the meaning to VY be if the makers of their fuel become unstable -if the refining, manufacture, making fuel specifications (GE) became highly unstable.
All eyes are on USEC http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=USU -with their CEO being terminated from his job --I've heard it as being an explosion for the nuclear industry.
......................................................
If this is the prefect template of the ideology of free market and competitions -then this ideology is not adequate for the management of the nuclear industry. You know I'm not anti free markets -it just that you have to have extreme integrity and transparency --and all the agendas have to be placed on the table. Competition and free market are a futuristic and dynamic system -it's just that everyone has to have the same level of information -there is just to many agendas that are not being seen and it is undermining the system. You have to ask the question of what's in your "Highest Interest" - your quest for short term profits and advantage just might undermine your long term survival.
.......................................................
Well, A few years ago I raised an issue about the increasing number of fuel failures in our USA nuclear plants. I worried about the resources needed to compensate for this --anti rad resources. I couldn't understand why this was happening also. So the NRC commissioners came out in a statement saying that there was a very troubling trend with increasing fuel failures; there just was not enough resources spent in understanding and correcting the problems by the fuel pin manufactures and the plant owners --the commissioners term it as "the kids aren't doing their homework". They also said the utilities and manufacturer were under too much financial pressure, such they were taking shortcuts in the analysis and didn't have enough prospective on the future -considering the pins would be under a heavier duty.
So the question is -does the utilities have too much leverage in setting fuel prices -such that it leads to a long term lack of financial investment in the centrifuging and manufacturing processes? That's what we'd seen through these fuel failure problems. So is USEC not being given enough financial resources, such that the corporation could become a healthy business. Is it the importation of cheap foreign subsidized fuel?
Are the utilities cutting off their extremities and eating them -in order to survive and CEO bonuses ---or better yet, is the bottom line of the (utilities stock prices and executive compensation structure) causing a destructive process for the downstream businesses such as USEC?
thanks,
mike
.........................................................
Growing uranium demand triggers a shift in miningBy Alex Fak Published: December 23 2004 02:00 Last updated: December 23 2004 02:00
When Swiss-based Xstrata made a A$7.4m bid for WMC in October, the Melbourne mining group was far from happy.
//
The Australians said the offer grossly undervalued Olympic Dam, a copper and uranium mine in the South Australia outback. "With spot prices for yellowcake oxide - the main uranium grade - having risen 49 per cent in the year to November in nominal dollar terms, and global production satisfying just 58 per cent of demand from nuclear reactors, WMC wants a better offer."
WMC says it will invest some A$4bn in Olympic Dam in a move that would triple its output of yellowcake. But Xstrata says it is only interested in the copper and gold potential of the mine.
The tussle between the two companies reflects the unusual nature and geography of uranium.
Yellowcake packs a lot of energy, which nuclear reactors release by splitting uranium atoms. It can also be stored cheaply.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the world's nuclear powers stocked up, storing the stuff in reactor warehouses and ever-proliferating nuclear weapons.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and decommissioning of Soviet nuclear weapons flooded the market with enriched uranium. By 2000, prices were a quarter of their levels in the early 1980s. Many users stopped building up inventories and began buying the sludgy yellowcake on the spot market. Mines closed and investment in those that remained virtually seized up.
But with the world consuming more energy, inventories are slowly being depleted and mining is once again needed. Uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element, is as abundant in the earth's crust as tin, but concentrated lodes are rare. Tapping new veins takes time, and so does expanding the market for uranium.
"Demand has been rising by maybe 1-2 per cent per year," says Steve Kidd, director of strategy and research at the London-based World Nuclear Association. Asian governments are planning some three dozen nuclear power plants.
But authorities take years to decide on a nuclear reactor and, when they do, building the plant takes even more time.
Producers seem in no hurry. "The mining companies are saying, 'We haven't invested for 10 or 20 years because the price was so weak; now the price is $20 a pound, but you have got to give us some sort of security'," says Mr Kidd.
This means longer-term contracts at higher prices. However, old agreements at weak prices have not yet expired.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, WMC is committed to selling uranium to some clients for as little as $11 a pound for four more years. The current spot price is $20.50.
Geography has also conspired against production. Outside the former Soviet states - who tend to hold on to their uranium - Canada and Australia accounted for two-thirds of uranium production in 2003, according to Ux, the nuclear consultants. Environmental standards there are strict.
"Things have become a bit problematic in recent years almost entirely due to the environmental side," says John Meyer, an analyst at Numis Securities in London. "It can take five to 10 years to get a mine up and running as it is, and another five years to get environmental permission beforehand."
Besides spending on safety precautions, companies need to win over activists and hostile locals.
In a presentation in Sydney last week, WMC cited eight forecasts from uranium consulting firms, predicting that current prices will hold until 2010. But analysts note that the company did not exactly trumpet its vast reserves until Xstrata came along.
The question is how does this relate to the uprate -tangentially
We seem to be at the beginning of a huge price hike in Uranium price.
This isn't an American source of energy.
What would the meaning to VY be if the makers of their fuel become unstable -if the refining, manufacture, making fuel specifications (GE) became highly unstable.
All eyes are on USEC http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=USU -with their CEO being terminated from his job --I've heard it as being an explosion for the nuclear industry.
......................................................
If this is the prefect template of the ideology of free market and competitions -then this ideology is not adequate for the management of the nuclear industry. You know I'm not anti free markets -it just that you have to have extreme integrity and transparency --and all the agendas have to be placed on the table. Competition and free market are a futuristic and dynamic system -it's just that everyone has to have the same level of information -there is just to many agendas that are not being seen and it is undermining the system. You have to ask the question of what's in your "Highest Interest" - your quest for short term profits and advantage just might undermine your long term survival.
.......................................................
Well, A few years ago I raised an issue about the increasing number of fuel failures in our USA nuclear plants. I worried about the resources needed to compensate for this --anti rad resources. I couldn't understand why this was happening also. So the NRC commissioners came out in a statement saying that there was a very troubling trend with increasing fuel failures; there just was not enough resources spent in understanding and correcting the problems by the fuel pin manufactures and the plant owners --the commissioners term it as "the kids aren't doing their homework". They also said the utilities and manufacturer were under too much financial pressure, such they were taking shortcuts in the analysis and didn't have enough prospective on the future -considering the pins would be under a heavier duty.
So the question is -does the utilities have too much leverage in setting fuel prices -such that it leads to a long term lack of financial investment in the centrifuging and manufacturing processes? That's what we'd seen through these fuel failure problems. So is USEC not being given enough financial resources, such that the corporation could become a healthy business. Is it the importation of cheap foreign subsidized fuel?
Are the utilities cutting off their extremities and eating them -in order to survive and CEO bonuses ---or better yet, is the bottom line of the (utilities stock prices and executive compensation structure) causing a destructive process for the downstream businesses such as USEC?
thanks,
mike
.........................................................
Growing uranium demand triggers a shift in miningBy Alex Fak Published: December 23 2004 02:00 Last updated: December 23 2004 02:00
When Swiss-based Xstrata made a A$7.4m bid for WMC in October, the Melbourne mining group was far from happy.
//
The Australians said the offer grossly undervalued Olympic Dam, a copper and uranium mine in the South Australia outback. "With spot prices for yellowcake oxide - the main uranium grade - having risen 49 per cent in the year to November in nominal dollar terms, and global production satisfying just 58 per cent of demand from nuclear reactors, WMC wants a better offer."
WMC says it will invest some A$4bn in Olympic Dam in a move that would triple its output of yellowcake. But Xstrata says it is only interested in the copper and gold potential of the mine.
The tussle between the two companies reflects the unusual nature and geography of uranium.
Yellowcake packs a lot of energy, which nuclear reactors release by splitting uranium atoms. It can also be stored cheaply.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the world's nuclear powers stocked up, storing the stuff in reactor warehouses and ever-proliferating nuclear weapons.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and decommissioning of Soviet nuclear weapons flooded the market with enriched uranium. By 2000, prices were a quarter of their levels in the early 1980s. Many users stopped building up inventories and began buying the sludgy yellowcake on the spot market. Mines closed and investment in those that remained virtually seized up.
But with the world consuming more energy, inventories are slowly being depleted and mining is once again needed. Uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element, is as abundant in the earth's crust as tin, but concentrated lodes are rare. Tapping new veins takes time, and so does expanding the market for uranium.
"Demand has been rising by maybe 1-2 per cent per year," says Steve Kidd, director of strategy and research at the London-based World Nuclear Association. Asian governments are planning some three dozen nuclear power plants.
But authorities take years to decide on a nuclear reactor and, when they do, building the plant takes even more time.
Producers seem in no hurry. "The mining companies are saying, 'We haven't invested for 10 or 20 years because the price was so weak; now the price is $20 a pound, but you have got to give us some sort of security'," says Mr Kidd.
This means longer-term contracts at higher prices. However, old agreements at weak prices have not yet expired.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, WMC is committed to selling uranium to some clients for as little as $11 a pound for four more years. The current spot price is $20.50.
Geography has also conspired against production. Outside the former Soviet states - who tend to hold on to their uranium - Canada and Australia accounted for two-thirds of uranium production in 2003, according to Ux, the nuclear consultants. Environmental standards there are strict.
"Things have become a bit problematic in recent years almost entirely due to the environmental side," says John Meyer, an analyst at Numis Securities in London. "It can take five to 10 years to get a mine up and running as it is, and another five years to get environmental permission beforehand."
Besides spending on safety precautions, companies need to win over activists and hostile locals.
In a presentation in Sydney last week, WMC cited eight forecasts from uranium consulting firms, predicting that current prices will hold until 2010. But analysts note that the company did not exactly trumpet its vast reserves until Xstrata came along.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Putin's Efforts at Home Falter on World Stage
December 19, 2004NEWS ANALYSIS
Putin's Efforts at Home Falter on World StageBy STEVEN LEE MYERS
OSCOW, Dec. 18 - President Vladimir V. Putin's steady accretion of power over Russian business, as over politics and society, hit another obstacle, this time in a courthouse in faraway Houston. This is fast becoming a trend.
The United States Bankruptcy Court acted to restrain Russia's gas monopoly and its potential lenders from taking part in the auctioning of Yukos Oil's main subsidiary. That ruling, on Thursday, will probably not save the oil company from its state-orchestrated annihilation.
But by calling the auction's legality into question, the court delivered an unambiguous blow to Mr. Putin. It undercut his efforts to cast himself as a reform-minded democrat and laid bare, in a legal forum, widely held worries about the course Russia is taking under his presidency.
For Mr. Putin - who for years projected an image as a steady, reliable partner to the world, authoritarian in aspects perhaps, but not reckless or openly hostile to the West's interests - this is the latest in a series of unusual missteps. Ever a pragmatic, careful tactician, he has stumbled repeatedly in recent months, finding his policies, even his instincts, out of step on an international stage that he not long ago navigated deftly.
In Ukraine's recent election, Mr. Putin violated diplomatic norms by openly supporting the presidential candidate favoring closer ties to Russia and even campaigning on his behalf.
When the election results were marred by allegations of fraud, Mr. Putin rushed, twice, to declare his support for the candidate, Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich - only to watch angrily as Mr. Yanukovich's "victory" was challenged by his European counterparts and ultimately overturned by another legal institution, in this case, Ukraine's Supreme Court.
Ukraine's election, the Yukos affair, even recent legal decisions in the United States and Britain to grant political asylum to leaders of Chechnya's separatist movement - all have in effect displayed the world's lack of confidence in Mr. Putin's policies, as well as Russia's judicial and law enforcement organs.
And they have soured more than diplomatic relations. They have also raised questions about Russia's reliability as an ally, as a country in which to invest, as a member in good standing of the increasingly intertwined global market, one bound by certain minimal standards.
Here in Russia, Mr. Putin's political popularity may not be at risk, because the Kremlin strictly controls not only state television, but also the legislature and most every institution that could conceivably amount to a base of opposition. But his recent stumblings filter through nevertheless, and from unusual public criticism to pointed derision in newspapers, the cracks in Mr. Putin's once rock-hard reputation appear to have widened.
Stanislav A. Belkovsky, the president of the National Security Institute who not long ago was viewed as closely aligned with the Kremlin, has turned into an ardent critic, saying Mr. Putin's miscalculations in Ukraine and with Yukos are harming his standing as Russia's paramount leader.
"Putin has no idea of legitimacy," Mr. Belkovsky said, speaking of his miscalculations in supporting Mr. Yanukovich, despite the questions about the legitimacy of the election results. "He does not consider legitimacy a social and political phenomenon."
Mr. Putin's pointed public statements following the Ukraine debacle - in India, he denounced the foreign policy of President Bush, a man whose own re-election he championed - appeared to be, Mr. Belkovsky said, "the feelings of a weak person offended by someone."
In the extreme, Russia could find itself more and more isolated in world business and diplomacy, despite Mr. Putin's effort to restore the country as an important player, if not the superpower the Soviet Union once was. In some ways, it is already happening.
Olga V. Kryshtanovskaya, a scholar at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who has closely studied Mr. Putin and his aides, suggested that many of those around Mr. Putin "do not understand what the global world is," that Russia's role in international affairs also meant accepting the accepted rules of international affairs.
The ruling in Houston - out of left field - exposed that.
Foreign diplomats, investors and some politicians in Russia have repeatedly voiced concerns about the government's prolonged prosecutorial assault on Yukos and its founder, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky. The court's injunction, however, amounted to the first legal declaration supporting what the company's executives have been saying all along: that the government's handling of what is ostensibly a tax investigation has been fundamentally unfair, lacking any semblance of due process.
In Russia, in the end, that may not matter.
Senior Russian officials - including Prime Minister Mikhail Y. Fradkov and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov - dismissed the ruling, saying the matter was Russia's affair to decide. And by Saturday preparations for the auction of Yukos's largest subsidiary, Yuganskneftegas, ostensibly to pay off unpaid taxes, proceeded as scheduled.
But the potential legal ramifications of that ruling were swiftly understood - at least outside Russia.
A consortium of international banks, led by Deutsche Bank, made clear on Friday that they would honor the injunction, withholding a reported $13 billion worth of loans that Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant, intended to use to buy the subsidiary.
[On Saturday, Gazprom filed an appeal in the Federal District Court for southern Texas, seeking to overturn the bankruptcy judge's order, Reuters reported.]
Whatever legitimacy those banks might have provided to what Yukos's American chief executive, Steven M. Theede, this week called "expropriation 21st-century style" disappeared in the wake of the court's ruling.
That alone has cost Russia and Mr. Putin, who has until now seemed impervious to the concerns raised by the assault on Yukos.
"So far they haven't had to withstand too much pain," Ronald P. Smith, an analyst with Renaissance Capital in Moscow who has closely followed the case, said referring to the criticism that Mr. Putin and his opaque circle of advisers have endured since the Yukos case began 18 months ago.
Even if the ruling fails to halt the demise of Yukos, he added, "They're going to lose some face."
Ms. Kryshtanovskaya said the consequences of the Yukos case could be "quite serious," driving hard-liners in the Kremlin to dismiss the idea of warm relations with the West altogether.
"It seems to me they are a little annoyed in the Kremlin," she said in a telephone interview. "They would like to be with the West, but the West does not support them. Not only Mr. Putin, but also his team, have a kind of feeling that since they do not understand us, and do not want to help us, what can we do?"
"There are too many people among Putin's team members," she said, "who think Russia should not be afraid of isolation."
Indeed, Mr. Lavrov, the foreign minister, cast the court's injunction as a new effort to discredit Russia, suggesting a plot concocted in the West. "Someone wanted tensions to escalate and the investment climate in Russia to be brought into question," he said.
Of course, that was certainly the motive of Yukos's executives, who sought bankruptcy in an American court, arguing that given the state of Russia's judiciary today, they stood little chance of receiving a fair hearing of their arguments against the tax claims, which now total $27 billion, more than the revenue the company earned in some years. And to that extent, they succeeded.
"Even if it proves short-lived, the case could serve a greater political purpose than a legal one, since it leads to inevitable comparisons between Russian and Western legal systems," PFC Energy, a consulting firm in Washington, wrote in a letter to clients after the ruling. "The Houston filing puts other oil companies on notice that they can expect no fair treatment in Russian courts, where a Yukos bankruptcy petition has been ruled out by President Vladimir Putin's opposition and where detentions of Yukos officials have been extended indefinitely with little resemblance to due process of law."
Putin's Efforts at Home Falter on World StageBy STEVEN LEE MYERS
OSCOW, Dec. 18 - President Vladimir V. Putin's steady accretion of power over Russian business, as over politics and society, hit another obstacle, this time in a courthouse in faraway Houston. This is fast becoming a trend.
The United States Bankruptcy Court acted to restrain Russia's gas monopoly and its potential lenders from taking part in the auctioning of Yukos Oil's main subsidiary. That ruling, on Thursday, will probably not save the oil company from its state-orchestrated annihilation.
But by calling the auction's legality into question, the court delivered an unambiguous blow to Mr. Putin. It undercut his efforts to cast himself as a reform-minded democrat and laid bare, in a legal forum, widely held worries about the course Russia is taking under his presidency.
For Mr. Putin - who for years projected an image as a steady, reliable partner to the world, authoritarian in aspects perhaps, but not reckless or openly hostile to the West's interests - this is the latest in a series of unusual missteps. Ever a pragmatic, careful tactician, he has stumbled repeatedly in recent months, finding his policies, even his instincts, out of step on an international stage that he not long ago navigated deftly.
In Ukraine's recent election, Mr. Putin violated diplomatic norms by openly supporting the presidential candidate favoring closer ties to Russia and even campaigning on his behalf.
When the election results were marred by allegations of fraud, Mr. Putin rushed, twice, to declare his support for the candidate, Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich - only to watch angrily as Mr. Yanukovich's "victory" was challenged by his European counterparts and ultimately overturned by another legal institution, in this case, Ukraine's Supreme Court.
Ukraine's election, the Yukos affair, even recent legal decisions in the United States and Britain to grant political asylum to leaders of Chechnya's separatist movement - all have in effect displayed the world's lack of confidence in Mr. Putin's policies, as well as Russia's judicial and law enforcement organs.
And they have soured more than diplomatic relations. They have also raised questions about Russia's reliability as an ally, as a country in which to invest, as a member in good standing of the increasingly intertwined global market, one bound by certain minimal standards.
Here in Russia, Mr. Putin's political popularity may not be at risk, because the Kremlin strictly controls not only state television, but also the legislature and most every institution that could conceivably amount to a base of opposition. But his recent stumblings filter through nevertheless, and from unusual public criticism to pointed derision in newspapers, the cracks in Mr. Putin's once rock-hard reputation appear to have widened.
Stanislav A. Belkovsky, the president of the National Security Institute who not long ago was viewed as closely aligned with the Kremlin, has turned into an ardent critic, saying Mr. Putin's miscalculations in Ukraine and with Yukos are harming his standing as Russia's paramount leader.
"Putin has no idea of legitimacy," Mr. Belkovsky said, speaking of his miscalculations in supporting Mr. Yanukovich, despite the questions about the legitimacy of the election results. "He does not consider legitimacy a social and political phenomenon."
Mr. Putin's pointed public statements following the Ukraine debacle - in India, he denounced the foreign policy of President Bush, a man whose own re-election he championed - appeared to be, Mr. Belkovsky said, "the feelings of a weak person offended by someone."
In the extreme, Russia could find itself more and more isolated in world business and diplomacy, despite Mr. Putin's effort to restore the country as an important player, if not the superpower the Soviet Union once was. In some ways, it is already happening.
Olga V. Kryshtanovskaya, a scholar at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who has closely studied Mr. Putin and his aides, suggested that many of those around Mr. Putin "do not understand what the global world is," that Russia's role in international affairs also meant accepting the accepted rules of international affairs.
The ruling in Houston - out of left field - exposed that.
Foreign diplomats, investors and some politicians in Russia have repeatedly voiced concerns about the government's prolonged prosecutorial assault on Yukos and its founder, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky. The court's injunction, however, amounted to the first legal declaration supporting what the company's executives have been saying all along: that the government's handling of what is ostensibly a tax investigation has been fundamentally unfair, lacking any semblance of due process.
In Russia, in the end, that may not matter.
Senior Russian officials - including Prime Minister Mikhail Y. Fradkov and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov - dismissed the ruling, saying the matter was Russia's affair to decide. And by Saturday preparations for the auction of Yukos's largest subsidiary, Yuganskneftegas, ostensibly to pay off unpaid taxes, proceeded as scheduled.
But the potential legal ramifications of that ruling were swiftly understood - at least outside Russia.
A consortium of international banks, led by Deutsche Bank, made clear on Friday that they would honor the injunction, withholding a reported $13 billion worth of loans that Gazprom, the state-controlled energy giant, intended to use to buy the subsidiary.
[On Saturday, Gazprom filed an appeal in the Federal District Court for southern Texas, seeking to overturn the bankruptcy judge's order, Reuters reported.]
Whatever legitimacy those banks might have provided to what Yukos's American chief executive, Steven M. Theede, this week called "expropriation 21st-century style" disappeared in the wake of the court's ruling.
That alone has cost Russia and Mr. Putin, who has until now seemed impervious to the concerns raised by the assault on Yukos.
"So far they haven't had to withstand too much pain," Ronald P. Smith, an analyst with Renaissance Capital in Moscow who has closely followed the case, said referring to the criticism that Mr. Putin and his opaque circle of advisers have endured since the Yukos case began 18 months ago.
Even if the ruling fails to halt the demise of Yukos, he added, "They're going to lose some face."
Ms. Kryshtanovskaya said the consequences of the Yukos case could be "quite serious," driving hard-liners in the Kremlin to dismiss the idea of warm relations with the West altogether.
"It seems to me they are a little annoyed in the Kremlin," she said in a telephone interview. "They would like to be with the West, but the West does not support them. Not only Mr. Putin, but also his team, have a kind of feeling that since they do not understand us, and do not want to help us, what can we do?"
"There are too many people among Putin's team members," she said, "who think Russia should not be afraid of isolation."
Indeed, Mr. Lavrov, the foreign minister, cast the court's injunction as a new effort to discredit Russia, suggesting a plot concocted in the West. "Someone wanted tensions to escalate and the investment climate in Russia to be brought into question," he said.
Of course, that was certainly the motive of Yukos's executives, who sought bankruptcy in an American court, arguing that given the state of Russia's judiciary today, they stood little chance of receiving a fair hearing of their arguments against the tax claims, which now total $27 billion, more than the revenue the company earned in some years. And to that extent, they succeeded.
"Even if it proves short-lived, the case could serve a greater political purpose than a legal one, since it leads to inevitable comparisons between Russian and Western legal systems," PFC Energy, a consulting firm in Washington, wrote in a letter to clients after the ruling. "The Houston filing puts other oil companies on notice that they can expect no fair treatment in Russian courts, where a Yukos bankruptcy petition has been ruled out by President Vladimir Putin's opposition and where detentions of Yukos officials have been extended indefinitely with little resemblance to due process of law."
Saturday, December 18, 2004
It's always about the intangibles!
Yahoo! Message Boards: USU
Re: telling the truth
12/18/04 10:00 amMsg: 40834 of 40836
How many people lost their jobs in the companies you claimed to have put out of business or forced into bancrupcy?
On a temporary or permanent bases! Of course we haven’t talked about all the officials who quit; because they had seen the headlights of train bearing down at them. The real reason these employees lost their jobs was through financial corruptions and unfair competition from foreign sources with the paper mill. I could make the case that it was the employees fault themselves –in that they didn’t engage the corporation, regulators and police at the earliest opportunity.
As I’ve said –I’ve talked to the employees at these sites and they all knew the true conditions of their bureaucracies before I acted –they just didn’t have the courage to act. It’s that attitude of “what can little old me do” against such a big problem. They whole system around us turns us into insecure little people –while the truth is we are all magnificent beyond our own imagination.
I put it this way; I interacted within extremely brittle systems. The results ended up being a type of cascade. It was definitely cause and effect on my interactions. I’d say it was in the area of 1500 people on permanent bases. Right, there was always a failure to follow the rules and laws -with that adding to the velocity of the cascade.
I would say the final magnitude of the cascade was a function of the cover-up and the structured ignorance of the regulators. I mean, once you get out the angle that the regulators and politicians should have known about the magnitude of the problems and were negligent –then the system has the lay down the hammer on the entity in a fit of self protection. It’s an interpretation that it might be perceived by outsiders as negligence –it’s not about the facts. You get them to panic –you never know how deep it will go. The dominate position of our time is survival of the fittest. Right, it’s about being on the top of the mountain –with the only thought being is how big of a snow ball will it take to create the snowball effect. It can be such a dangerous thrill! If you use your head you can create the world you want.
It’s a natural reaction of these bureaucracies and it makes them extremely vulnerable. I would say corruption doesn’t pay in the long term for the corporation. I’d say an official and executives can gain and perceive of a self interested short term advantage –but the bureaucracy pays an extraordinary disproportionate price for this gain in the end. I would put it like this –it’s the same rationale for most of us with being up to our necks with extraordinary credit card debt –we immediately feel the short term pleasant feelings of the purchase and we don’t think about the long term consequences. We just might believe that you can buy statute and status; with that being an enormous error.
It is a massive natural human vulnerability that use can use to your advantage. You should be a “fly on the wall” when a bureaucracy gets into a corruption crisis –it’s all about survival and deals with your buddies. If that won’t hold, it then is about deals with the investigators and police against your friends of decades. We are all animals in the end!
The next question is how many lives did I save, or lives did I make better, or did any of my actions make it harder for budget cuts. It’s always about the intangibles that you can’t see. That might mean did I change the course of the future
I am telling you we are all time machines and we can change the future...and I could make the case that we can change the past just as easily! Of course it was the “we” and they did a lot more harder work than me in this.
I could also make the case that at the nuclear power plant –I set up a decade of good performance against a backdrop of near bankruptcy of the VT parent utilities. It took a sacrifice though!
We could be talking about 100,000’s of people on this who ended up with a better outcome.
You aint seen nothing yet!
SYLLABICATION:
in·tan·gi·ble
PRONUNCIATION:
AUDIO: n-t n j -b l KEY
ADJECTIVE:
1. Incapable of being perceived by the senses. 2. Incapable of being realized or defined. 3. Incorporeal.
NOUN:
1. Something intangible, especially an asset that cannot be perceived by the senses. Often used in the plural: intangibles such as goodwill and dedication.2. Law Incorporeal property such as bank deposits, stocks, bonds, and promissory notes. Often used in the plural: a state tax on intangibles.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Re: telling the truth
12/18/04 10:00 amMsg: 40834 of 40836
How many people lost their jobs in the companies you claimed to have put out of business or forced into bancrupcy?
On a temporary or permanent bases! Of course we haven’t talked about all the officials who quit; because they had seen the headlights of train bearing down at them. The real reason these employees lost their jobs was through financial corruptions and unfair competition from foreign sources with the paper mill. I could make the case that it was the employees fault themselves –in that they didn’t engage the corporation, regulators and police at the earliest opportunity.
As I’ve said –I’ve talked to the employees at these sites and they all knew the true conditions of their bureaucracies before I acted –they just didn’t have the courage to act. It’s that attitude of “what can little old me do” against such a big problem. They whole system around us turns us into insecure little people –while the truth is we are all magnificent beyond our own imagination.
I put it this way; I interacted within extremely brittle systems. The results ended up being a type of cascade. It was definitely cause and effect on my interactions. I’d say it was in the area of 1500 people on permanent bases. Right, there was always a failure to follow the rules and laws -with that adding to the velocity of the cascade.
I would say the final magnitude of the cascade was a function of the cover-up and the structured ignorance of the regulators. I mean, once you get out the angle that the regulators and politicians should have known about the magnitude of the problems and were negligent –then the system has the lay down the hammer on the entity in a fit of self protection. It’s an interpretation that it might be perceived by outsiders as negligence –it’s not about the facts. You get them to panic –you never know how deep it will go. The dominate position of our time is survival of the fittest. Right, it’s about being on the top of the mountain –with the only thought being is how big of a snow ball will it take to create the snowball effect. It can be such a dangerous thrill! If you use your head you can create the world you want.
It’s a natural reaction of these bureaucracies and it makes them extremely vulnerable. I would say corruption doesn’t pay in the long term for the corporation. I’d say an official and executives can gain and perceive of a self interested short term advantage –but the bureaucracy pays an extraordinary disproportionate price for this gain in the end. I would put it like this –it’s the same rationale for most of us with being up to our necks with extraordinary credit card debt –we immediately feel the short term pleasant feelings of the purchase and we don’t think about the long term consequences. We just might believe that you can buy statute and status; with that being an enormous error.
It is a massive natural human vulnerability that use can use to your advantage. You should be a “fly on the wall” when a bureaucracy gets into a corruption crisis –it’s all about survival and deals with your buddies. If that won’t hold, it then is about deals with the investigators and police against your friends of decades. We are all animals in the end!
The next question is how many lives did I save, or lives did I make better, or did any of my actions make it harder for budget cuts. It’s always about the intangibles that you can’t see. That might mean did I change the course of the future
I am telling you we are all time machines and we can change the future...and I could make the case that we can change the past just as easily! Of course it was the “we” and they did a lot more harder work than me in this.
I could also make the case that at the nuclear power plant –I set up a decade of good performance against a backdrop of near bankruptcy of the VT parent utilities. It took a sacrifice though!
We could be talking about 100,000’s of people on this who ended up with a better outcome.
You aint seen nothing yet!
SYLLABICATION:
in·tan·gi·ble
PRONUNCIATION:
AUDIO: n-t n j -b l KEY
ADJECTIVE:
1. Incapable of being perceived by the senses. 2. Incapable of being realized or defined. 3. Incorporeal.
NOUN:
1. Something intangible, especially an asset that cannot be perceived by the senses. Often used in the plural: intangibles such as goodwill and dedication.2. Law Incorporeal property such as bank deposits, stocks, bonds, and promissory notes. Often used in the plural: a state tax on intangibles.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Friday, December 17, 2004
Russian Affaires
Re: Russian Nuclear Fuel -20 billion?by: steamshovel2002 (49/M/PO Box 161 Hinsdale,NH)
10/12/04 07:34 pmMsg: 40312 of 40832
I was over in Brighten Beach in Brooklyn NY today. I was walking on the boardwalk. What a beautiful day it was when I’s spotted a bunch of young men wearing blue uniforms. How stupid I am; I thought they were from Norway. They were West Point Cadets. These cadets are specializing in Russian affaires.
These are the guys/women who are going to shoulder the fate of our nation in the future. These guys are so dam bright. I am so proud of them!
Brighten Beach has a huge Russian population. I’ve worked with many Russians and they are very fine people. We are lucky to have them in the USA today. They are very hard workers!
These West Point cadets were visiting the Russians in Brighten Beach. I had a long talk with one cadet who specialized in Russia affaires, as was the rest of these guys -in treaties, rules and laws.
I have always believed that there is no such thing as a coincidence.
Thanks,
mike
10/12/04 07:34 pmMsg: 40312 of 40832
I was over in Brighten Beach in Brooklyn NY today. I was walking on the boardwalk. What a beautiful day it was when I’s spotted a bunch of young men wearing blue uniforms. How stupid I am; I thought they were from Norway. They were West Point Cadets. These cadets are specializing in Russian affaires.
These are the guys/women who are going to shoulder the fate of our nation in the future. These guys are so dam bright. I am so proud of them!
Brighten Beach has a huge Russian population. I’ve worked with many Russians and they are very fine people. We are lucky to have them in the USA today. They are very hard workers!
These West Point cadets were visiting the Russians in Brighten Beach. I had a long talk with one cadet who specialized in Russia affaires, as was the rest of these guys -in treaties, rules and laws.
I have always believed that there is no such thing as a coincidence.
Thanks,
mike
Official: Iran targeted Seabrook for attack
News - December 17, 2004
Official: Iran targeted Seabrook for attackBy BENJAMIN KEPPLE Union Leader Staff
State and federal officials yesterday downplayed a Pennsylvania congressman's contention that Iran is plotting a terror attack against the Seabrook nuclear power plant.
Republican U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon went public with the charge earlier this week. In an interview with the New York Sun, Weldon, the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said a source with high-level Iranian government contacts had told him of the scheme, in which a Tehran-backed terror cell would hijack Canadian airliners and crash them into Seabrook. Weldon said he went public after the CIA and others ignored him.
Attempts to reach Weldon for comment weren't successful yesterday. But state and federal-level officials from the Granite State expressed their full faith in America's intelligence personnel.
A Pennsylvania congressman said he has been told of an Iranian plan to hijack Canadian airliners and crash them into the nuclear-fueled Seabrook Station. (DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER FILE PHOTO)"I know Curt Weldon. He's probably the congressman who has the best understanding of the defense budget," said U.S. Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H, who in the past served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. But, Bass added, "I never considered Curt Weldon to be all that well-versed in intelligence issues."
Bass went on to say Weldon was an aggressive and hard-working member of Congress, and he was sure Weldon held strong feelings on the issue. Bass further stressed he was not making light of Weldon's efforts.
But Bass did say he would be very surprised if the intelligence community had outright ignored a congressman's suggestions on these matters.
"I'm confident the national security apparatus is well aware of the fact Seabrook represents a hard target," Bass said, saying later, "I have faith in Porter Goss, the new Director of Central Intelligence."
Seabrook, the last atomic power plant to be built in the United States, went online in 1990. State safety officials have said security there has been stepped up ever since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H., said his office would pass Weldon's information on to the Central Intelligence Agency, but had no further comment. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said they had made inquiries to the CIA and other agencies, as did the office of U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.
"We've made inquiries to the federal agencies that have jurisdiction, including the NRC, and are awaiting responses," said Joel Maiola, Gregg's chief of staff.
As a result of inquiries by Sen. Gregg's office, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission called The Union Leader to give its view on the matter. NRC officials said no particular sites have been threatened.
"As we have said before — and it continues to be the case — there has been no credible threat against a specific nuclear power plant," NRC spokesman Sue Gagner said. "We are in regular contact with intelligence and other federal officials on such matters."
According to the New York Sun, Weldon based his warnings on conversations he had with a former high-ranking Iranian official in the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which was overthrown in 1979.
Weldon told the newspaper he held a series of secret meetings with the official in Paris, and according to Weldon, the official has correctly predicted several internal developments in Iran.
Weldon said the official, who had informants close to Iran's theocratic government, identified the target as "SEA," which led Weldon to conclude the official meant the Seabrook facility. And this August and September, Weldon has referred to the alleged Iranian scheme against Seabrook in public hearings.
Weldon said the attack was first planned for between Nov. 23 and Dec. 3, 2003, but was postponed. It later was planned to take place after the Presidential election, according to the newspaper report.
Weldon is planning to publish a book early next year outlining the intelligence he has collected detailing an Iranian plot to conduct a lethal attack on America.
Alicia Preston, a spokesman for Gov. Craig Benson, said Benson and other New Hampshire officials were aware of the Sun's article. But emergency officials had no further information other than what was in the report, she said, and said they were not aware of any specific threats.
Preston added that Seabrook and other sensitive installations in New Hampshire were well-prepared against attack.
"The preparations have been in place for a long time now," Preston said.
Official: Iran targeted Seabrook for attackBy BENJAMIN KEPPLE Union Leader Staff
State and federal officials yesterday downplayed a Pennsylvania congressman's contention that Iran is plotting a terror attack against the Seabrook nuclear power plant.
Republican U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon went public with the charge earlier this week. In an interview with the New York Sun, Weldon, the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said a source with high-level Iranian government contacts had told him of the scheme, in which a Tehran-backed terror cell would hijack Canadian airliners and crash them into Seabrook. Weldon said he went public after the CIA and others ignored him.
Attempts to reach Weldon for comment weren't successful yesterday. But state and federal-level officials from the Granite State expressed their full faith in America's intelligence personnel.
A Pennsylvania congressman said he has been told of an Iranian plan to hijack Canadian airliners and crash them into the nuclear-fueled Seabrook Station. (DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER FILE PHOTO)"I know Curt Weldon. He's probably the congressman who has the best understanding of the defense budget," said U.S. Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H, who in the past served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. But, Bass added, "I never considered Curt Weldon to be all that well-versed in intelligence issues."
Bass went on to say Weldon was an aggressive and hard-working member of Congress, and he was sure Weldon held strong feelings on the issue. Bass further stressed he was not making light of Weldon's efforts.
But Bass did say he would be very surprised if the intelligence community had outright ignored a congressman's suggestions on these matters.
"I'm confident the national security apparatus is well aware of the fact Seabrook represents a hard target," Bass said, saying later, "I have faith in Porter Goss, the new Director of Central Intelligence."
Seabrook, the last atomic power plant to be built in the United States, went online in 1990. State safety officials have said security there has been stepped up ever since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H., said his office would pass Weldon's information on to the Central Intelligence Agency, but had no further comment. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said they had made inquiries to the CIA and other agencies, as did the office of U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.
"We've made inquiries to the federal agencies that have jurisdiction, including the NRC, and are awaiting responses," said Joel Maiola, Gregg's chief of staff.
As a result of inquiries by Sen. Gregg's office, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission called The Union Leader to give its view on the matter. NRC officials said no particular sites have been threatened.
"As we have said before — and it continues to be the case — there has been no credible threat against a specific nuclear power plant," NRC spokesman Sue Gagner said. "We are in regular contact with intelligence and other federal officials on such matters."
According to the New York Sun, Weldon based his warnings on conversations he had with a former high-ranking Iranian official in the government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which was overthrown in 1979.
Weldon told the newspaper he held a series of secret meetings with the official in Paris, and according to Weldon, the official has correctly predicted several internal developments in Iran.
Weldon said the official, who had informants close to Iran's theocratic government, identified the target as "SEA," which led Weldon to conclude the official meant the Seabrook facility. And this August and September, Weldon has referred to the alleged Iranian scheme against Seabrook in public hearings.
Weldon said the attack was first planned for between Nov. 23 and Dec. 3, 2003, but was postponed. It later was planned to take place after the Presidential election, according to the newspaper report.
Weldon is planning to publish a book early next year outlining the intelligence he has collected detailing an Iranian plot to conduct a lethal attack on America.
Alicia Preston, a spokesman for Gov. Craig Benson, said Benson and other New Hampshire officials were aware of the Sun's article. But emergency officials had no further information other than what was in the report, she said, and said they were not aware of any specific threats.
Preston added that Seabrook and other sensitive installations in New Hampshire were well-prepared against attack.
"The preparations have been in place for a long time now," Preston said.
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