Sunday, May 31, 2009

Travels: Fruits and Follies

 By Dint: Countries in photos with comment

Europe Road Ways - Hub for trips, Dan and sidekick. Background to our ventures. Essentially, improvised on-the-cheap road trips, 14-17 days each, cross borders often, no reservations, just a rental car and two backpacks. And a few maps and guidebooks. No tours. Always a clean, safe place to stay.  Plan B:  If we get stuck at 8 at night and no place, we plan to go to the nearest police station, introduce ourselves, and ask if we can sleep in the parking lot, and do that.  Haven't had to yet, but everybody needs a Plan B. Dan has Down syndrome, is a fine, interesting and fun adult, an adventurous eater, and a great travel boss. When lost, he decides the direction. One parent, one child - try it. Egg each other on. Hope to resume depending on economies, budgets.

Europe Road Ways: Themes - Recurrent ideas and topics that cross boundaries - Black Madonnas, migrations, human coping, The Plague, decorative arts

Europe Road Ways - How We Do It  Travel overviews and tips, comprehensive listing of countries

Andorra Road Ways -  A side trip from Spain, in the Pyrenees, on the way to France.

Austria Road Ways - A sudden diversion at first, from Croatia heading for Slovakia, when we saw the overhead green highway sign for Vienna - 70 km.  Who can resist? Just go.  Then we went back, a later trip that also included Switzerland, Northern Italy.

Belgium Road Ways -  Here we saw Belgium as part of a larger venture that started in the Netherlands, then looped down into Belgium and Luxembourg, and back.

Bosnia Road Ways - Bosnia-Herzegovina - Driving in the Herzegovina section is dicey, such as in the return from Montenegro - the Cyrillic alphabet is a huge hurdle. Drive by ouija. It worked. Just took a little longer. In other words, aim for the road looking downhill when there is a choice, if you are heading generally back to Croatia and the coast.
 
Croatia Road Ways  We started at Zagreb, the capital, then went on a series of loops - 1) up to Istria and Trieste, then 2) down the Dalmatian Coast to Bosnia and Montenegro, and back, 3) with another loop to Slovenia, and 4) the west of Croatia and back to Zagreb.

Czech Republic Road Ways - A start at Prague, then south Bratislava, Slovakia; Vienna and Budapest; then more Slovakia and Poland, and back to Czech Republic. We do keep moving here. Hit the bricks, as Dan says.

Denmark Road Ways  - Part of a regional trip including Sweden, Northern Germany.

England Road Ways - Part of larger trip including Wales. Follow King Arthur, Robin Hood, Peter Pan, King Harold, and castles, castles

France Road Ways - Northern half, Somme area, Normandy, Loire, down to Dijon or so, Paris.  Follow Joan of Arc.  We returned another year to the Languedoc, South of France, Provence, as part of a trip that also included Spain and the Pyrenees.

Hebrides Road Ways -  A ferry ride from Skye to Lewes and Harris, and ferry back farther north back to mainland Scotland.  There is a bridge now from Scotland to Skye.

Germany Road Ways
We aimed especially for what used to be East Germany - Wittenberg, Berlin, Dresden. Then looped south and back through Bavaria to Frankfurt.  Second trip:  Northern Germany, as part of Denmark-Sweden regional trip.

Greece Road Ways - Just keep the back of the guidebook open to the driving signs and you'll do fine. When in doubt, keep in the same direction. No fast turns to get what you see too late is your exit. Magnificent country. Menus: order the fourth thing down. In each category. All delicious. 

Hungary Road Ways - Mostly Budapest, So Far Suddenly, from Slovakia, the highway sign read, Budapest, 100 km. Who can resist? Just go. Notify your credit card peeps first so they will accept the bankomats.

Ireland Road Ways -  For a variety of reasons, this has been a return and then some. First, Dan and I doing our loop.  Then a family wedding in Wexford, and I took an extra 5 days; then my husband and I went.  See whatever you see on the way. Eat local. Fast food: fries, peas, gravy, in a paper cone.

Italy Road Ways -  This also took two trips.  It is a long, thin country, First route. Land at Venice, take train (get on and off) to Rome, then to Naples and pick up your rental car there. Then take ferry to Sicily, back to Naples and up the coast looping back to Rome. Second trip: northern Italy as part of regional visit including Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria.

Liechtenstein Road Ways - Visit as part of regional trip to Switzerland, Austria, Northern Italy

Luxembourg Road Ways - Get there from Belgium, from the Bulge area, for example. General Patton is buried here.

Montenegro Road Ways - Had been part of the former Yugoslavia, and then part of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, now independent. Mountains, skiing, fjords.

The Netherlands Road Ways Plan for tulips. Do a figure 8 - A Bridge Too Far area, then loop south (Belgium, Luxembourg if you have time) then bbe sure to go north across the Alfluitsdyke and back.

Orkney Road Ways - A convenient ferry ride from northeastern Scotland

Poland Road Ways - Part of our Czech Republic, Slovakia trip. We did a horseshoe, right side first going up, round north all the way to Malbork and Gdansk, on the Baltic Sea. The middle area will be a flat  "run" but a lovely drive. Back down the left side and cross into Poland near Zakopane from Levoca, Slovakia.. We re-entered the Czech Republic at Kudowa Zdroj.

Romania Road Ways II, Vlad Tepes  - This is one of two Romania sites.  This one focuses on the Vlad the Impaler sites in Romania.  Trip was a circle.

Romania Road Ways I -Distinct regions, as in many countries, so do go north east and northwest, Bucovina and Maramures areas. We did not go over the border to Ukraine. Carpathian Mountains - watch the weather, as the Transfagarasan Pass may be closed for snow, storms. Postings on signs before you get near the mountains.

Scotland  Road Ways - With those wonderful full Scots breakfasts (as in Ireland and England), why are people not obese like we are. Glasgow, Campbelltown then loop up and around with Hebrides, Highlands, and Orkey areas; and back to Glasgow. Circle trip. Nessie was to be there at 5 but was a no-show.

Sicily Road Ways  Easy to visit as part of a trip to Italy - take the ferry from Naples, for example, to Palermo. Greek temples at Agrigento. Stay at the top of Mt. Etna. Don't miss Erice, on a mountaintop near Trapani. Circle trip, but missed the eastern part. Have to go back. Loved the east-central-northeastern.

Slovakia Road Ways This once was part of the former Czechoslovakia.  Plan to see the festival at Bojnice Castle - theater by the young people every year for a week, great food. Go east to Banska Bistrica, Kosice, then loop up east to Spis and Levoca, then cross into Poland to Zakopane (beautiful ski area, year-round mountain hiking resort)

Also find the cities mentioned in the "Zoli" book, at Slovakia, Gypsies: "Zoli" (based on life of singer, Papusza)

Slovenia Road Ways This once was part of the former Yugoslavia.  Strong Austrian influence. Alpine looking homes, neat and tidy. Lake Bled. The Google changed its algorithm and decided this was repetitive (repetitive?? another country with links to our other trips where appropriate and themes appeared?) so we reproduced it at Wordpress.  Good idea.  Never believe a robot.

Spain Road Ways - And Gibraltar Gibraltar is British, but convenient to visit as part of a trip to Spain. Figure 8. Madrid to Pamplona for the bulls, then loop back through La Mancha and Estremadura, south and around to Seville, Ronda, Gibraltar, Cordoba, and up again to Madrid.

Sweden Road Ways Sweden Road Ways as part of Scandinavian trip, Denmark and Northern Germany.

Trieste Road Ways - Italian since WWII  Straddles cultures, the Balkan - Slovenia - Croatia,  and Italy.  Convenient to visit as part of a trip to Croatia.  Kayaks downtown. Return through Slovenia.

Wales Road Ways
Castles, castles. Go from Cornwall, England, area, drive north and loop back to England at Manchester in time for the races. Do not mark your parking place by the half-timbered houses nearby.  The whole town is.

What War Wrought - Battles, Individuals Who Rise Above, Arts

 By Dint:

Citizen Questioning Bloodshed:  Isaac Bashevis Singer
The tale-teller. Read and reread. 

Government as Marketer, Taking Over Lilli Marleen.   World War I protest song, "Lilli Marleen", becomes German army marching song, World War II.

Verdun, France, WWI.  Trench of Bayonets.  Accidents, tragedies other than tactics, of history.  A trench collapsed, the line of French soldiers caught in line as they stood, so the story goes, bayonets facing the sky.  Still do.  Americans built memorial, an open-air structure, tips still show. 

Dresden, Germany, and Area Bombing.  Retribution, revenge fire-bombing of an entire city with no military significance.  Just kill and demoralize.  Signs there now:  "Dresden Lives."

Unlikely Hartford and Colt Armaments.  Recycling opportunity.  Old Colt arms factory, and possible reuse as arts colony, studios, residential apartments, other residences.  But its second floor faces the freeway....

Big Black Tatras; Official Cars.  The notoriety of the vehicles used by the oppressor, the secret police, the ones who carried the powerful, or came to take the less powerful away.  The Tatra. World War II. Slovakia. Elsewhere. The Commpany. .

War Poets.  Poetry from the Trenches.  World War I.  See also Ypres, Ieper, Belgium. Soldier poets.

The Enemy Becomes the Economic Desirable.  Boche to Bosche.  The hated soldier in death; to the newest in kitchen appliances.  Cultural short memories. We rely on that? 

Plus ca change: PTSD.  Post traumatic stress disorder.  PTSD.  Here, World War I.  Poem by Wilfred Gibson, with permission of site.  He lived 1872-1962. 

The Concept of Mutiny:  France, Verdun  And other instances, circumstances, surrounding mutiny; 

1915 Battle of Loos;  Missing.  Son of Rudyard Kipling  "*** Have you news of my boy, Jack?  Not this tide. When d'you think that he'll come back?   Not with this wind blowing, And this tide. *** "

Places of Petr Ginz: Lens and Legacy. Places of Petr Ginz from his diary written in Prague during WWII; until his transport to Theresienstadt (Terezin) and then his death at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Studying War. Hub: Origins of Conflict - Hub site for the concept. Nature and origins of warfare, other conflict. Roles, hardwired? Is it possible to tame demagoguery and violence, and survive, without becoming a demagogue and violent.

Studying Wars: Mindset, Place and Manner Specific battlegrounds, examples of patterns, aggression and agenda vs. common good, history's unfoldings, internal conflicts. Territory, culture, character.

Wars ongoing, conflict, marginalization

Warfare Against Children  What are the roots of such disregard.  How we transmit the "glory" of war.  
  • Update: Wars on children. See the sculpture grouping with blindfolded children reaching out while vile adults surround and lure, in Moscow. Mihail Chemiakin, Children are the Victims of Adult Vices. It includes Propaganda of Violence.
"Facing History and Ourselves" - an Online Curriculum to Counter Hate.  Curriculum to focus on the hate crimes of the 20th-21st centuries, including wars, so our children can learn and avoid, we hope. How to apply to urban schools so focused on employment issues.
.
Czechoslovakia in the 1930's - Roma. Through a Novel's Eyes ("Zoli") Picture the big black Tatras. This section refers to a portion of the book with this section heading: Czechoslovakia in the 1930's.

Roma: Czechoslovakia under Fascism; also part of the Zoli book section Czechoslovakia 1930's to 1949. The Hlinka Guards.

Mouquet Farm, Somme Area, France  Military as fodder, consumer humor - Mouquet Farm became Mucky Farm, the front barely moved for years, tunnels and tunnels. Australian troops.

Ironies; Government Branch Functioning, Rulings

By Dint:

Executive Branch

Failure to Vet an Appointee prior to proposed Appointment. This oversight shall be a Class A Felony; such that if embarrassing disclosures are made later, the Appointor goes directly to Jail; or pays a fine, whichever is loudest.

The Legislative Branch

The George Voinovich Unexcused Absence Counts as Pro Rule.  An unexcused absence from a roll call results in a Pro vote attributed.

Negotiations tips

Use of the Golden Mean and its Dragon clause in settlements.  Good negotiating leaves room for the dragon, and provides for what to do when or if it arrives.

The Judicial Branch

Federalist Society: Activist judges no; activist presidents, yes.  Activism by judges is verboten, but expected in the executive, so long as the executive is of a particular party.  See use of "white papers" (aptly named) generated to promote positions among the faithful but research-impaired, to provide immediate source material.  Why is this a tax-free group? White gets around anything.

Constructive use of judicial dicta

Federalist Society and Judicial Commentary - Garden Variety Dicta becomes Anathema.  Why condemn dicta. We expect judges to explain their views in non-binding ways.  How else do we move forward with the next case, unless the first is discussed more fully?

Change as part of Executive Branch history

Chester A. Arthur, a president who improved in office  Surprise. From patronage to reformer. He set aside his prior history of nepotism and did the right thing.

Molding: Organizations, Tales, Techniques. Cultures, Sub-Cultures, Shaping People

Uncle Remus Tales, Translations - Informal translations of the stories into more traditional spoken English, with references and footnotes. No substitute for dialect. Go back to it and read it aloud. Get the sound in your ear.

Migratory Patterns of Cultural Tales - Stories change change over time, pulled by cultural values. Where did the strong little girls go, until Disneyed to death. Fairy tales, Faerie Tales. The Fey. Archetypes. Meet them again. Red Riding Hood the vivisectionist? Mostly secular, some religious stories.

Vetting Roots. By the Heater. Martin Luther's Stove. Find original texts in transliterations. Mythological roots. Or ambiguity, inconsistency. Close readings. Then see ideologies get to work: add this, omit that, downplay the other thing, change meaning. Ideas squashed by systems. Sausage into casings.

Heaters in Intellectual Life - Individuals and Groups, Some Forgotten

Bogomilia, Site for the Unsung  Because we forget.

Vetting Roots, By the Heater. Martin Luther's Stove  Early post look-ups about use of the heater, the stove, the fire pit, as references in religious and other stories.  Transmitting tales. Without a place for warm gathering, how could stories be passed on, memorized.  Did the Renaissance really bloom when it did, because somebody spread the idea of central heating?  Ducts, pipes, big tiled stoves in the rooms. How creative can you be when you are fed and warm?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Trompe News - DSM Diagnoses Aggression

By Dint:

DSM IV. Aggression as Mental Disorder
Fake news here. Duh. What would happen if the fabled, worshipped, also bunked Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders should includes Aggression as a mental illness.  Just think of the marketing opportunities for antidotes to aggression's behaviorally addictive qualities. Trompe news: think of all that air going 'round and 'round in the proverbially trumpet. More air.

Need to Know - Huswifery and Thanksgiving and Two Turkeys

By Dint:

How to Cook Two Turkeys in One Ordinary Oven.
This Thanksgiving is stacked. Pile two turkeys in one. It can be done.  Foodies.  Unite. Thanksgiving doup de familie.

Family Planning: Uses of Sassafras. Is that it?

By Dint:

How does evildoing figure with sassafras?.
Sassafras as a family planning tool. Nemenhah. Poem by Marge Piercy, a tribute.

Is Safrole Banned Because It Could Be Used as an Abortifacient?  Has been for centuries.

Religious Text Analysis, Tools

By Dint:

Creation

Creation: How did Evil originate? Not with Eve
A small play that Eden as spun did not see play, but you may.

Translation, Transliteration, what origins of what concepts, and were they agenda-driven? Silly question, Ben.

Context
Mithraism, Religion of Rome and Paul
And roots of the Roman Catholic branch of Christianity.

Characters: Tracing Fact from Elaboration
Sara la Kali, Sara the Black, Roma Saint

Explanations, file under Other

Pantera (Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera), and Religious Tradition 
A persistent but speculative secular explanation for events many see as divine.  Keep an open mind, now. Often the simplest is so, rather than the convoluted compled; and need not affect other matters.

KNGDV. Tainted Founts

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Migrations, Immigration, Emigration, Exploration. Europe. Global issues, newcomers

By Dint:

Myth or real? Migration of Swedish forbears from Caucasus to Sweden, Sigge Fridulfson

Current issues, Migrations: Economic Conditions Follow gypsy migrations from the east to the British Isles, to the US and elsewhere; ongoing; reasons.

Roma groups in Europe: self-identifications, languages, subgroups, specific skill groups, niche

Sassafras in Georgia, Moravian, Jewish migrants Uses of and trade in sassafras. Dr. Samuel Nunez, 18th Century.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Governments; Governing; News Control, Transparency in Reporting

 By Dint:


Governing is like a bad divorce: both sides tilting Need for neutral fact-finding Install a neutral moderator in legislative committees (not at hearings) to facilitate discussion in partisan times, and ensure all positions are aired objectively at that stage.

Disclose nature of the reporting:  interest, bias, financial stake


Disclosure of Financial Stake by News Purveyor or Owner of Media as to Legislation Under Discussion.  Requirements for those reporting on governing.  The more financial interest the purveyor or owner of the media has in the law, the more the broadcast or other dissemination shall be labeled as propaganda, such rating to be displayed to the public simultaneously with the airing or waving.

The Truth in News Sources Act.
  Disclosure shall be required as to the source of news by name of overall owning conglomerate, not merely the name of the newspaper.  That is, the same conglomerate may send out its news to seven papers it owns, and people think that is original source. Not.

NATURE OF GOVERNMENTS

Similarity: Sassafras and Governments: Varied at the bottom, sameness at the top.
Those who rise to the top get to look alike. Like dog owners.

GOVERNING SKILLS 

Uses of Reverse. Can We Teach It?
Governing skills. People who govern need to know how to drive in reverse sometimes

Who Will Bell the Cat - Piers Plowman.  In the 1377 English poetry version by William Langtrey, the council mouse found that no mouse was man enough to bell the cat, as Aesop had originally told.  However, Piers goes further:  What would have happened if the cat indeed had been belled.... as the mice first wanted. Would it have been worse? Watch what you seek.



FOOLING THE PEOPLE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

Propaganda in governing: euphemism, unwarranted extrapolation

FOSTERING PATRIOTISM

Child's Tale: Pledge of Allegiance and the Common Good  We knew a piece had been left out.

NEED FOR SUNSET LAWS; ACCOUNTABILITY

Group formation; sunset laws, foundationalism
Political Parties: Who Needs Them After They Calcify.  Sunset out the names every 16 years. Everybody rethink who to vote for. Platforms may grab planks from prior party designation.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Justice; Law Enforcement; Civil Justice; Criminal Justice

By Dint:

Promoting decorum in debate
Debatus Interruptus, Khalid's Law. Guantamee's behavior at their trials, if disruptive, shall only be criticized by those who did not condone such behavior by our own Tea and other residents, reference Summer of 2009.

Religious views to be excluded from reasons for proposed legislation

JC (Jesus Christ for those who prefer full names) Tradition of Autonomy for All, Voluntary Compliance. Let Those leave who want to,  Peeps in Pulpit and Pew  Autonomy in personal life over rules, so long as the personal or property rights of individual other residents are not impinged.  Try pragmatic secularism in matters affecting others, the community.

Civil Justice and procedure

Parking Lot Attack Light Property Tax Abatement.
Public area design should not sabotage the ordinary user.  

Jurisprurience and Strip Searches of Girls
School days, school daze, fantasize with ghouls days.

No Senate Filibuster Unless Supreme Court Enacts Similar Provision for Its Proceedings
Criminal Justice and procedure

Police Reports: Criteria for Taint.  The Cambridge police arrest of the Harvard professor for in-home lippiness against the police officer.

Oaths. Worth Anything? What Else?

Religious and other oaths; Holocausts, Bad Actors. Oaths are a hoax. Do Oaths alter behavior; or does self-interest, institutional interest, prevail.

Leadership - Qualities. Go Ahead. Change your Mind. Things Change.

True leaders are flexible as contexts change.

State of the Union: Hamlet's Soliloquy on Burdens of Choice in Action.  The President's Speech. Follow President Obama's rehearsal in the Oval Office for the State of the Union Address, with his special Speech Coach.  Matters of pitch and moment.  King Claudius begins with the upper hand in persuasion; Hamlet believes he has the merit, but how to proceed. O, Fardels!

Uses of Reverse. How to Teach It. Can We?.
If you can't shift into reverse, don't drive. Productive uses of Reverse.

Chester A. Arthur, a president who improved in office
From patronage to reformer. He set aside his prior history of nepotism and did the right thing.

Nature. Defenses against encroachment. Sassafras, Ginkgo

By Dint:

Sassafras

Allelopathy as a Defense, and Offense.
Learn from sassafras: Some plants prevent others from thriving in their shadow; make potential diners on their root, bark, leaf, sicken. Allelopathy.

Why did the Sassafras Survive - usefulness, fits the food chain, venerated
Its allelopathy enabled it to survive, fill gaps in the food chain. Allelopathy prevents omni-greed; allelopathy is contained.

Ginkgo

Ginkgo in Japan and Korea.
The ginkgo survived at Hiroshima. See Ginkgo, Plant with History.   Is it resistant to radioactivity. Some say it speaks.

Ginkgo, Male or Female. Know Which.
Pick before you plant, lest the fruits overwhelm.
Medicinal uses of ginkgo, sources.

Cultures, Religions. Cross-Pollinating Spirituality.

By Dint:

NATIVE AMERICAN - I Sing a Song of Sitting Bull. Buffalo Totem.
Put essential points of the life of Sitting Bull, who defeated Custer at Little Big Horn, and in defense of lands granted to the Indians through the Treaty of Laramie.  Buffalo totem:  follow the footnote


NATIONAL

Afghanistan: How to Learn. Self-Help

ETHNIC

Andaman Water Gypsies "Sea gypsies", Myanmar

"Gyptians" as Gypsies, origins Historical and legendary John Faa, origin of Samoyed dog, migrating groups, steppes; cultural-ethnic mix with indo-gypsies? "Golden Compass" film cultural references, pop culture.

Magyars, Khazars (Central Asia Jewish cultures) Hazars - physical characteristic may include epicanthal fold in Norse blonde children, disappears about age 2, traces of past interminglings?


RELIGIOUS

PROTESTANT

EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN

JUDAISM


ISLAM - a best effort at learning more here. Did we get it right?

Historical Islam, Pre-Islam, Women and Roles Hind bint Rabi'a, others. The Historian vs. the Persuader.

DRUIDISM

Sassafras - Widespread Use, Veneration: Druids, Native Americans

GYPSY, ROMA, ROMANI

Roma, popular culture vs. cultural belief Find universal concepts such as shamans, daemons, other guides. Reference: Hollywood picks up some at "Golden Compass" film. This site also references Native American, Judeo-Christian, Greek and other demons ideas in other belief systems.

MITHRAISM
Mithraism, Religion of Rome and Paul

Journalism - National Broadband, expand access to Cable, Pulp. Ranking for Content

By Dint:

Ranking for Journalism forms. Promote national broadband, expand access to cable, pulp dissemination of objective information. Is there such a thing as "objective" information? What to include, exclude. Do we die of partisanship, as they say Romans died of lead poisoning in their wine chalices?  Aargh.

Federal Journalism Content Classification Commission: Disclose Degrees of Fact; Reward Fact-Based  Incentivize a form of journalism that relies on fact, not bombast. Rank content to separate opinion and fantasy from objective information; offer rewards to incentivize reliance on fact, not bombast or voyeurs

Need for national broadband and all access to objective information:

Voter Online Access Debated 
Why not support FCC relaxing common ownership of media rules. Let people have online access for independent researching. How else to self-educate? Not so.  Why not? Who are they kidding about whose interests are served?

National Broadband:  Neshama and Open Access.
A pollination issue. How to transmit information from and to the financially challenged, or in remote areas.  Oppose charges for information and access.  Compensate those who create works other than by fees to the individual clicker. Wire the country.  Broad information is in the national interest. Wealth and location: no corner on wisdom.

PAPER MEDIA TROUBLES.  Stealth persuasion.

Outing the Stealth Persuaders: Subscribe Elsewhere
Paper journalism financial problems as largely self-inflicted; increased ideology promotion (by the profit-focused), diminished news promotion in the public interest, separating neutral, more comprehensive news from opinion.

Newspapers as Educators: Common Law Justice, Terminology.

FACT-LESS OPINION SUBSTITUTING FOR "NEWS"

Opinion Implants in News Slots :
Tainted "journalism". Fact-less media news, focuses on churning opinions without laying out what facts are relied upon. Weasel words about "some people think...."

Churning, repeating what others are reported to say:  Why not penalize opinions that do not lay out their fact? What is the grounding?

Commerce, Role of Profit

By Dint:

War Profiteering - Resuscitate the blocked legislation against?
Why allow war profiteering? Repeat. Why allow war profiteering?

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Education in Consumer Matters, Butchering, Propaganda Analysis, Education Itself, Prop

By Dint:

Education initiative in consumer information dissemination

United for Life. Decency in Butchering
Purveyors of meat products shall display videos of the corraling and rendering of such life dead or nearly dead before further processing, at the place of purchase.

Education Initiative:  Persuasion Technique Spotting and Countering  At each grade level, training in spotting propaganda techniques in advertising and any area of sales, including politics

Jan Amos Komensky, The Teacher of Nations Czech philosopher, educator, 18th Century. Roots for Montessori - teach so children have fun. Make it natural. A/k/a Comenius. Check different Czech spellings for any name.

Public and Consumer Education Shall Include Propaganda Analysis. See 1937 Institute for Propaganda Analysis, see www.propagandacritic.com.

National Endowment for the Humanities resource
Donate. Now. Saith the bard.

Facing History and Ourselves, Curriculum Developers for a "humane, informed citizenry".
Brutality wins in the short run, kill the humanity in the human in the long run

Montessori for Grown-Ups. The Absorbent Mind.
Let the child learn, offer environments, guide, keep safe, keep out of the way. Education for independence and creativity and self-reliance.

"Facing History and Ourselves" - an Online Curriculum to Counter Hate
Educate against hate. Curriculum to focus on the hate crimes of the 20th-21st centuries, including wars, so our children can learn and avoid, we hope. How to apply to urban schools so focused on employment issues.

Tax - Issues. Who is fiduciary; what is charity; why not favor repairs, exemptions

 Government as Fiduciary.  Review tax exemptions. Need tax overhaul.

Government As Fiduciary for Taxpayer Funds.  This means fiduciary obligations and disclosures to taxpayers in all matters.

Supporting the tax deduction for charitable giving.
Criteria for tax deduction / exemption for a donor's charitable giving.  Service as well as bucks required. 

Relief to modest home dwellers.
Primary Residence To Be Exempt from Property Tax to Assessed Value $350,000.  This frees up community money to be spent more widely, and enables ordinary folk to stay in their homes.

Give a deduction for ordinary repairs.
Home Improvement Tax Deduction for Day-to-Day Repairs  This provision does not necessarily add to the market value of the home, but the deduction here improves the after-tax disposable income of the homeowner who engages in repairs, much needed in the economy.

Need overhaul. Too convoluted and the middle spine, holding up the country, loses.

Science , Food Supply, Health - Issues

LABELING

Sassafras and health, with common sense.  Information, not ban.

Sassafras, Modern Casualty of Labeling 
Evildoing as a label varies with the centuries.  Sometimes, like an old lighthouse, the old purpose of the thing is long gone.  See Urk.

FOOD SAFETY

Bee Sniff Test To Determine Marketability of Genetically Modified Crops.  If bees won't pollinate, the stuff stays off the shelves.

Allelopathy. Concept Gap in the Lab. Sassafras.
 Rats. Rodents. "Allergic" to sassafras anyway. The Sassafras Defense against being eaten. Why use rats to test safety of sassafras as to humans? A root beer site.

Thanksgiving Dinner With Featured Carcinogens.  t
All that we eat that also contains safrole, and the FDA just leans back and burps. Serve cancer with Thanksgiving

TESTING PROCEDURES

FDA, Flawed Testing, Sassafras, Allelopathy
FDA uses flawed carcinogen testing procedures: ignores the science of allelopathy in coming to conclusions

Fear of Fair Testing. Safrole and Industry Marketing Interests.
FDA use of rats to test safrole, where safrole is a rodent-repellent to begin with, plus the overdosing of it, skews results. Creates the crime. Like "entrapment", perhaps. Whose interests are served if safrole is banned? Industry substitute-makers?

FDA - Abuse of Process
Unwarranted extrapolation.

FDA Permits No Appeal; Ask Politely.
Without an appeal process, we are left with the polite request to reconsider.

FDA used selected anecdotal evidence.
No human testing at all? Just somebody's anecdotes and then the ban? Fie. Glittering generalities make propaganda, not science.

FDA misuse of doses, solubility, nature of test animal, questionable jurisdiction of FDA and gossip as to sassafras
Are we serious about taking the FDA seriously?  Maybe now, with a change of administration. Is that so or a pipedream?

NUTRITION, HEALING

Natural or Synthetic; Six of One?.
Without equal testing, who is to say that the injected or pilled lab variety equals the outdoors grown plant extract?

National Interest - Issues; News, Opinion

By Dint:

Guantanamo Inmates to Texas by Eminent Domain

Guantanamees to Crawford Texas by Eminent Domain 
Eminent domain and Guantanamo. A constructive reversion by deed results with property previously used for White House purposes is sold; a subsequent White House can re-enter.

THE UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTABLE FACT CHECK
Fact Check Channel, Broadband, Net, To be Available 24/7 
Any functioning democracy requires an educated, analytical citizenry.

RECORDS RETENTION
Government to retain records for 40 years
Fine. Who has access during that time, for what purposes, how to monitor, prevent abuse - can't even keep social security records out of prying eyes.

UNLIMITED SURVEILLANCE
Playing at Colisseum: All Aspects of Every Life On View.
Cameras, required hard-drive sign-ins. Then isolate something, blow it up, and see the person shrivel, rightfully or not. True or false?

Library Exposure Week: No Privacy in Some Libraries.
Library surveillance. Pick your library with care. Some don't care about you. How can you be an eloper if your disgruntled ex-boyfriend can track the plans you are making with the elopee?

IMMIGRATION - IMMIGRANTS - REFUGEES.  Understanding of

Immigration History in Mortar

PATRIOTISM

Phrygian Cap to symbolize the Five Freedoms  Franklin D. Roosevelt's original 4 Freedoms: to speech and expression, to worship, from want, from fear [Is Mr. Cheney paying attention?].  Add 5th - freedom from secrecy, misstatement, deception or exploitation for the profit of another

ENVIRONMENT

Resident Dumping Banned from PublicTrailside View.

Seven Hardwoods Per Acre Real Estate Development Act

FDA Bans Vitriol; Nation in Withdrawal.  The national climate is at stake.

IMMIGRATION

Red Card Shall Establish Interim Temporary Residence Authorization, For Otherwise Undocumented Immigrants Pending Resolution of Immigration Status, Issuance of Green Card.
Interim residence red card. 

Friday, May 22, 2009

Foreign Relations - Process - Index proposing Mediation

By Dint:

Preconditions for Mediation in dispute resolution.
Recommendation for mediation -  full disclosure before mediation. Require absolute disclosure of relevant facts, and restoration of status quo ante, before process begins

Rights - Personal and Governmental; Corporate, Constitutional - Index

By Dint:

SPEECH
Political Speech Shall Be Deemed Equivalent to Commercial Speech  This establishes that politics is sales, and provides some protection for the purchaser.

Where there is a conflict between interpretation of speech in politics as commercial or subject to fiduciary duty, see Fiduciary Standard of Care Applicable in All Consumer, Voter, Investor Relationships, the fiduciary standard, as providing more protection, shall control.

CORPORATE
The Bill of Rights Shall Protect Only Human Persons; Not Corporations.
Bill of Rights protects bodied persons not legal persons.  A corporation may only enjoy Bill of Rights protection if the Board of Directors, shareholders, and all employed by the corporation assume personal responsibility (no "corporate veil") as to acts of the Corporation. See also Bill of Rights (including free speech) applies to We The People.

With Citizens United, this may take a new case:  one to pierce the corporate veil if directors' disposition of corporate funds is contrary to the business judgment rule (which is very broad and slippery) and serves more the director's or directors' personal goals, just couched as corporate.


PERSONAL
Family Matters Privacy

COMMERCIAL, POLITICAL
An Act Establishing the Fiduciary Standard, Governmental, Private, Commercial, All Contractual Obligations.
Why should the fiduciary standard, a legal standard, not apply to government and contracts where the public good is at stake or fair dealing. Would this target venality at least a little? Corruption. How else to get at it. 

Cultural, Relationship, Morality, Child-Rearing Issues - Index

By Dint:

WELFARE and the morality of the decider deciding everyone else's morality

Welfare Redefined to include All that One Receives in order to Fare Well
Welfare includes statutory provisions favoring all "freebies" including tax-exempt inheritances and tax tweaks thereof, deductions, subsidies, anything received as a perk. This is to re-set the concept from its current level casting aspersions on those in "need." We all get welfare.

ABORTION

Primacy of Law over Any Group's Claimed Revelation Source: Proposed Legislation

CHILD-REARING

Car Seat Abuse: Overuse of Child Restraints Outside the Car.

Jan Amos Komensky, The Teacher of Nations Czech philosopher, educator, 18th Century. Roots for Montessori - teach so children have fun. Make it natural. A/k/a Comenius. Check different Czech spellings for any name.

MARRIAGE, CIVIL UNION, HOOKING UP

Definitions: Civil Marriage, Religious Marriage

Uncondomized Activities Prevention Act

UNDERSTANDING KINDS OF PEOPLE
Good Group Dies for Inefficiency: Web vs. Linear Thought. The Selfish Gene, book by Richard Dawkins 1989 - there is altruism hard-wired, would you believe.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Propaganda Techniques, Communications, Persuasion, Psy Ops, Disinformaton; and Information

When Roots of Belief are Propaganda. Hitler's Power Playbook. Goes to Washington. By Dint

PSY OPS IN MEDIA AND POLITICS - Psychological Operations, from Military and Diplomatic, to Political, Guerrilla, Militia, Gun Owners

Studying Wars: Wars for the Mind. Psy Ops Coming At You   Population viewpoint control.  Psychological Operations as persuasion without reference to merits.

Psy Ops for Everyman. Sabotage a Government. Nate Rudy Gets a Handbook. CIA Manual
Psychological Operations tactics go mainstream;  arms training manual, guerrilla tactics to insinuate saboteurs into the population. 

Fodder Site: Democracy's Pitfall Dug by Psy Ops in Politics. Part II
Psy ops in political operatives.  Avoid debate on the meritsl

Fodder Site: Democracy's Pitfall Dug by Psy Ops in Media. Part I
Media news coverage lets psy ops in without comment.

Bellwether Haiku: The President's Speech Rehearsal, Hamlet's Soliloquy Redux
A President's practice session, and internal debate about the difficulties of choice. The Soliloquy and the Speech Coach. Fardels.

OPINIONS use and abuse

Opinions over wars. Analytical Tools of Gates-Crowley Cultural Opinion Groups.
Opinions as weapon, as propaganda tool.  When the report is by one of the actors. Here, skepticism over a police report concerning the arrest of  Harvard professor who was treated as a hoodlum in trying to get into his own house.

GROUP COMMUNICATIONS

Gypsies, Roma: Use of Runes in the Woods.
Finding your way, who else was there. Look to the trees.

MEDIA "FREE" REPETITION OF CANDIDATE ADS TO BE CONSIDERED A POLITICAL CONTRIBUTION

Repeat ads is a campaign contribution.

Media Shall Not Proliferate Candidate Advertising as "News".
Repeat ads on media "for free" shall be treated for tax purposes as campaign contribution. Media repetition of candidate ads, without contractual purchase of time as an ad, shall be deemed to be a political gift where the exposure exceeds a single still-frame or a single 5 second snippet.

PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES

Government as Marketer, German WWII, Nuremberg Stadium
Hitler's presentations before the crowds. The spectacles.  

Propaganda InRoad. The 1920's Speak. Adolf Hitler and Others Look at Today's Minions
What was in the water in the 1920's?   Watch communications "Greats" look at a minion doing the bidding of covert propagandists today, Adriana Inman and FreedomWorks.

When Roots of Belief are Propaganda. Hitler's Playbook. Goes to Washington.
Discussion of the propaganda steps of the 1925 Mein Kampf, Chapter Vi, Propaganda. And use of the techniques today.

Hitler by Paraphrase. Examine Mein Kampf. Unser Kampf: Our Struggle
Chapter VI of Mein Kampf.  Take it sentence by sentence.  What did Hitler say?  If we read it closely today, will we be better able to spot his ideas under the radar now?

Media Complicit in Spreading Propaganda by Refusing to Call It Out
CBS, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, NBC, act as conduits for propaganda, channeling it without critique.  Why?  Do the owners want it that way?




Edward Bernays and the Engineering of Consent. Three ways to persuade: technique in delivery, spin in interpretation, and persistence.

Edward Bernays, "The Science of Ballyhoo"
Focus attention and then shape behavior. Get their attention, readied, primed for persuasion, focused. Second zoom in with your great logical explanation! Repeat! Emote! There! Got 'em. Woodrow Wilson's Committee on Public Information (WWI)

Edward Bernays: Persuasion as to the Distasteful (theories in practice) The chaos of public opinion is to be scientifically manipulated.

Mother of All Labeling Matches: Civil and Military
Iraq. Labeling as propaganda. Convince as to a label, and the consequences flow, regardless of truth. Institute for Propaganda Analysis.

Hyper-Negative Labeling: Gingrich, GOPAC
Even you can memorize the spin words, the positive and the negative, to show off to your friends and beat up on your enemies. GOPAC. List here.

Rovism: Persuasion Focusing Techniques. Fact-Avoidance

FUD as propaganda technique

FUD and Gene Amdahl, IBM's Propaganda Target.
See IBM's successful Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) propaganda model, used against a competitor's excellent computer product. Amdahl recently died, 2009 . FUD= this has been the rule for marketing and politics to defeat someone without providing a better alternative.

DISTRACTION AND DISPLACEMENT

Jack the Giant Killer on St. Michael's Mount
Distract, divert, overcome the old tradition with the Christian overlay. Presto conversion.

OTHER PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES

Euphemism, Unwarranted Extrapolation: Food Insecurity instead of Hunger.
Agriculture Dept. use of propaganda techniques, euphemism, unwarranted extrapolation

Federalist Society, Use of White Papers to Persuade under Guise of Issue Education
Propaganda: persuasion unawares; malicious use of "authority"

DISINFORMATION as PROPAGANDA

Theft of Consent, an Impeachable Offense.
Proposed legislation

Navigation, Scope of Cultural Tales Site: Cultural Filters Distort

PERPETUATING PROPAGANDA

The Big Grip: Sunset Provisions vs. Group Perpetuation,
Edwin Bernays' propaganda techniques, developed and applied for emergency (WWI), become our national handbook for marketing anything. Need sunset provisions to rein in groups using it.

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Glossary: Terms
Terms appearing herein with an asterisk * signifies a definition at this location.

NEWS DISCLOSURES

Required Fact Disclosures by Purveyors of News Products

Requirement for Fact Disclosure Shall Not Violate First Amendment, Prior Restraint.

Force - Uses and Abuses; Torture

By Dint:

TORTURE

Petr Ginz, Heightened Awareness of Torture
Value of reading a WWII Prague child's diary prior to his transport to Terezin (Theresienstadt) and then Auschwitz-Birkenau

Roles:  Punisher, Enforcer, Harpy  Could we have wars if there were not people willing to take on the role of forcer, enforcer.  What is the draw.  Are we they.

ALTERNATIVES TO PAIN INFLICTION

Narcoanalysis as truth serum: MDMA or traditional hospitable sassafras?
Sassafras - direct use or derivatives; use as truth serum? See also MDMA, Safrole as Nature's Truth Serum

FACILITATORS
Testosterone Marching.  Steroids. Brain death with excess testosterone (study), other sources. Addictive?

ENTITLEMENTS
Ethics in Pain Infliction, Animals.  Who is entitled to inflict pain and death on others for other than getting needed food? On what ground?

Books - Index of favorites, roughly. An ongoing project.

WORLD WAR II

The Holocaust:

Rabbi Shmuel ben David of "Isaac's Torah"  A friend of the main character in the book, who is also caught in decades changing times, including the Holocaust. Discussions with the Rabbi - includes the Idea, vs. the later System implementing it, and becoming more focused on its own (the System's) survival than the Idea.

The Seventh Well,
by Fred Wander, accounts of life in various concentration camps, including Buchenwald, see ://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/books/review/Hoffman-t.html

The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942, edited by his sister, Chava Pressburger, see ://www.groveatlantic.com/grove/bin/wc.dll?groveproc~genauth~5238~0/ and Petr Ginz, Places, Lens and Legacy, Acknowledgement; Petr Ginz, Places, Lens and Legacy.

HUMANS

The Selfish Gene, book by Richard Dawkins 1989 - See ://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Books/selfish.shtml/ There is altruism hard-wired, would you believe.

GYPSIES, ROMA

John Updike, "Drawn to Gypsies: Six Years in the South of France"

"Zoli" by Colum McCann, Random House 2007; based loosely on the life of Papusza, a gypsy singer who was shunned by the community for her work, and lived in Slovakia, before and during the time of the Fascists. See Reviews of "Zoli"

Jewish History - Index

By Dint:

DISRAELI - Benjamin Disraeli, 19th Century Twice Prime Minister, Britain; and Dark Horse Family migrated probably from Spain, Jewish heritage, Mr. Disraeli became Episcopalian. Diaspora roots.

Petr Ginz, Prague, Jewish Quarter

Petr Ginz, When Your Roots are Mischling

Films - Index. Get a flick

By Dint:

Petr Ginz, "Operation Daybreak" - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Prague, WWII;
event referenced in the child's diary;  see also Unlikely Hartford and Colt Armaments.  World War II,  Assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, Prague, by Czech Resistance, a Colt used among their weapons.  See film, "Operation Daybreak".

Government as Marketer, German WWII, Nuremberg Stadium  Hitler's presentations before the crowds. The spectacles.  Film:  "Triumph of the Will" by Leni Riefenstahl.  See Hitler's effect, the display, the heils, in the stadium right here.

World War II, Concentration Camps, Diarists

By Dint:

Auschwitz, Poland

Poland Road Ways, Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Buchenwald, Germany

Germany Road Ways, Buchenwald

Jasenovac, Croatia

Croatia Road Ways, Jasenovac Concentration Camp

Mauthausen, Austria

Austria Road Ways, Mauthausen Concentration Camp


Theresienstadt, Terezin, CZ

Places of Petr Ginz, Theresienstadt, or Terezin, CZ

Places of Petr Ginz, Terezin, Stage Play, "Way to Heaven" 

Places of Petr Ginz,  Auschwitz - Birkenau (Osweicim) Poland

DIARISTS  Diarists, WWII

Petr Ginz, Finding Others Who Wrote
Petr Ginz and Anne Frank, Emoting in Diaries

BOOKS - The Seventh Well, by Fred Wander

Religious - Multi - Index

By Dint:

Religious marriage and Civil marriage defined

Civil and Religious Marriage Defined; with Civil Marriage Controlling as to all Laws

THEORY
Foundationalism: A Backup. Test Belief. Searching For Some Reality At the Inception

FAQ. Who Took Christ Out Of Christian. Original inspired Idea, vs; later System.

BASIC WESTERN CHRISTIANITY-TYPE OR SPINS

Proposed Legislation for Primacy of Law over Revelation
Definitions: Civil Marriage, Religious Marriage

TEXT CRITICISM TOOLS

WESTERN CREATION ISSUES

Sassafras and Choctaw Indian Legend, the Flood. Sassafras raft saves the day.

Seven-Day Edenism Frees Lilith. Genesis I idea of a chronology underlying Creation supersedes Genesis II idea of cultural narrative incorporated in Creation.

MULTI-DEITY RELIGIONS AND WHAT THEY OFFER US

Mithraism: Religion of Rome and Paul's Early Years Exposure


Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Individuals - Index, History (Pre-20th Century)

By Dint:

Domestic
Protest Within Convention: Victorian Marriage. Mary H. Seymour, story in Peterson's Ladies National Magazine 1865.

Politics
Chester A. Arthur, a President Who Changed in Office: From Patronage, to Reformer

Benjamin Disraeli, More to be Known For The dark horse.

Born out of wedlock
Shadow Children - The "Illegitimate"

Health
William Horation Bates, Ophthalmologist, bane of the vision industry

Compassion
Dr. Christianus Christian, caring for 19th C. Swiss cretins

Pre-Christian, Sagas
Otkell, Son of Skarf, Icelandic Saga. From Burnt Njall's Saga, events 900 AD, written perhaps 1100 AD. A man whose greed was simply circumvented by the group's inspired leader, a tactic of indirection leading to a better result than confrontation. Pre-Christian morality

Beowulf: Hwaet! Power of the Written Word
Beowulf, figure in a culture without writing: how much is lost until someone records; how much is lost, changed, when someone does record. Beowulf, Scandinavian, recorded centuries later by proto-Saxon.

BURNT NJALL - Otkell, Son of Skarf, Skarphedinn, Burnt NjalI - Icelandic saga on greed, leadership, human relations before Christianity

Education, Philosophy
COMENIUS - Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius): Educator Valuing, Harnessing Student Enjoyment, "Teacher of Nations"

Religion
Sara la Kali, Sara the Black, Roma Saint









GUGGENBUHL - Dr. Louis Guggenbuhl, Befriender of Cretins, Switzerland

KOMENSKY - Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius): Educator Valuing, Harnessing Student Enjoyment, "Teacher of Nations"



PANTERA - Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera. Pantera, Speculative Pater of the Son - Traditions that do not go away


PHIPPS - Wintley Phipps, Conjuror of Black Slave Experience through Song, Story behind "Amazing Grace"


SALOME - Beowulf, Alaskans, Salome: Power of the Later Written Word, to Augment, or Distort

SARAH - Sara la Kali, Sarah the Black, Gypsy Patron. And Mithra?


SEYMOUR - Mary H. Seymour, Protester, Victorian Marriage









TILLION - Germaine Tillion, French Sage, Nazi Resistor, Anthropologist, Intellectual




Hermann Dah, Artist, Delaware. Attention deserved




Religion, including speculation
Pantera (Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera), and Religious Tradition  A persistent but speculative secular explanation for events many see as divine.  Keep an open mind, now. Often the simplest is so, rather than the convoluted complex; and need not affect other matters.

Education
Jan Amos Komensky, The Teacher of Nations Czech philosopher, educator, 18th Century. Roots for Montessori - teach so children have fun. Make it natural. A/k/a Comenius. Check different Czech spellings for any name.

Political Issues - Index; Political Process

By Dint:

The Executive

An Act Moderating Midnight Regulations by Outgoing President.  No midnight regulation by an outgoing president signed on or after November 1 of his final year, shall be final until 90 days shall have passed from the time of the successor's inauguration.

PARTIES
Political Parties: Who Needs Them, or These A brief history of R's and D's.

PATRONAGE
Chester A. Arthur, a president who improved in office  From patronage to reformer. He set aside his prior history of nepotism and did the right thing.

PHILOSOPHIES
Pragmatism: If It Works, Keep It Up  A natural, evolution-based concept: sound policies can be properly fluid over time.

TACTICS
Earmarks, Replevin and Trover.  Special interest inroads under the fence? Try Trover. Below the radar? Bonus excesses? Clawback time. Old equity theories: Replevin (for wrongful takings, get it back); or trover (for rightful taking, but wrongfrul conversion to one's own use),

INFORMED LEGISLATURES

Legislation Literacy Requirement for Legislators

FINANCING

Standing to Vote Required for Standing to Contribute. No Contribution Shall Be Made by any entity not qualified to vote, to Any Candidate, Political Party, or Candidate or Party Promotional Group.

Campaign Contributions By Candidate to His or Her Campaign Shall be Deemed "Irrevocable Gifts" and not Loans; and
Candidate Gifts to Own Campaign to be Taxed As Such

Candidates Receiving Public Funds And Who Are Subjected to Swiftboat Tactics [as defined] May Use Private Funds For Countering Such Tactics.  

ACCESSIBILITY, ACCOUNTABILITY, DISCLOSURE

Candidate Financial Disclosure To Occur Simultaneous With Declaration of Candidacy

Candidate Accountability, Accessibility Requirements Candidates must be accessible to voters and news media by means of unscripted news conferences and similar means

Pre-emptive Laundry Disclosure Week.  Candidates to disclose all personal linen issues in timely and complete manner.

POLITICAL PROCESS
Super-Delegates Shall Be Financially and Beneficially Independent of Any Candidate

GOVERNING

Lobbying Activities Shall Be Conducted Publicly

ACCOUNTABILITY AND FAIR DEALING; ACCOUNTING PRACTICES
Economic Fraud Prevention
Uniform Accountability, Fair Standards Act. Shipwreck Prevention.  Too late for this one.
"Welfare" concept to expand to include whatever someone receives free from the government, in any form
Failure to Vet Credentials, Political Felony
Need for Factfinders in Committee

Government as Fiduciary for Taxpayer

Moderation of Presidential Rules-Making Power, "Midnight Regulations" Before Leaving Office

"Welfare" Redefined; Perspectives on American Ubiquitous Giveaways

Cultures, Groups, Western, Central Europe

By Dint:

CULTURES WITHOUT WRITING
(until outsiders wrote)
Hwaet! Power of the Written Word. Beowulf; saved by the ABC's Value of cultures who did not, or could not, create their own writing system; how much lost. Aleut, Eskimo, Celts, even Vikings, women's histories

VLACHS - CROSS BORDER, GREECE, EASTERN EUROPE
Vlachs: Gypsy Roots? Or earlier - areas of Roman influence Linguistic roots to Latin, some say. Romania area?

Vlachs: Nomads, Shepherds Gypsy roots; Greek tradition; Romania; enslavement


GYPSY, ROMA

Survey Sites, Roma
Romani law, culture, religion; includes references to Vlachs, as a separate people; and Vlachs (found in Roman old Romania area) speaking Romani. Not clear if the Vlachs speak Romani, suggesting a connection, or a vernacular form of old Latin. Other Roma customs.

Origins, Romani; Myths, Linguistics
Genius of the Survivor - Gypsies, Itinerant, Un-Propertied Rome fell; Gypsies survive. The genius of a targeted culture.
Romney or Cant, Gypsy Language
Bogomils, Deemed "Heretic" and persecuted, thought killed off, by Roman branch of Christianity, Balkans, Bosnia
This group was persecuted by the Roman branch of Christianity, thought killed off. Some traditions remain, it is said, despite the assimilations

POLAND
Hussars, Winged Cavalry, Poland

Khazars, or Hazars, Central, Eastern European Culture

CROATIA
Sinj, Croatia: The 600 Horsemen
Uskoks, Croatia

ASIA, EUROPE, UNITED STATES

Gypsies, Roma, Romani
Includes the "Travelers" of Great Britain, different heritage, language, but similar roots?

Melungeons Cultural, ethnic mix, Appalachia, Southern coastal areas, US



Women's Role, Western Culture
Women Restricted in Civil War to "grieving" Death of Abraham Lincoln - participation of women limited to grieving, see Godey's Lady Book, no discussion of policy, impact.


RESISTANCE - The First French Resistor, An Ordinary Man, On His Own

RESISTANCE - Czech Republic Paratrooper Resistance WWII; assassination of Reynhard Heydrich, Prague


THE IGNORED - Women - Roles Left Out of the Civil War



CULTURES - Gypsies, Roma, Romani