Monthly Archives: January 2013

Obama … Gun Control & the 2014/16 Elections

“Never let a serious crisis go to waste …”

That’s the governing mantra in the Obama Post-Republic America.

In watching the evolving gun control “crisis”, one thing that fascinates me is the seemingly huge up-spike in NRA memberships along with gun and ammo purchases (I myself have recently joined NRA). It fascinates me because I see in it a type of wallet voting among a large group of Americans.

Here’s the view I believe is held by a large number of Americans, myself included; a view of grave concern for the future of the republic:

We see in Barack Hussein Obama:

  • A strong vein of narcissism
  • A strong vein of megalomania
  • An extreme arrogance
  • A strong sense of Imperial entitlement
  • A selfishness that justifies spending 7 million tax payer dollars on a family Christmas vacation to Hawaii
  • A strong disregard for the Constitution of George Washington, James Madison and the states who ratified that constitution in 1789
  • A man who seemingly has no conscience and will lie on any occasion that will further his statist agenda
  • A man who will set up straw man enemies that he will then attack in order to shore up his Democratic and low information voting base
  • A man who consistently ignores the great problems facing America, all the while blaming others for those problems
  • A man whose formative years were spent under the influence of Communists
  • A man who is an Academy Award caliber actor, a consummate charlatan who promises utopia to any and all
  • A man who gets away with all of the above with amazing grace and charm

The latest example of this mantra is the gun debate. Barack is setting up the NRA, the Republican congress (read Tea Party), Conservative talk radio and Fox news as the enemy of “common sense” gun control. The fact that in none of these mass killings has the shooter been a member of the NRA is of no consequence in setting up this enemy; nor is the fact that in few if any of the many drug and gang related killings in many of our cities, my own included, are the shooters members of the NRA.

The NRA and its defenders are the latest enemy in a long list of Obama enemies to be trotted out at the next election to motivate and energize his base.

So is this really a gun control issue?

No … the man has little or no interest in those children killed in Newtown, except as useful props to his agenda.

No … It is an early attack in the never ending campaign towards engineering a Democrat victory in 2014 and 2016, plain and simple. It is an attack aimed towards eliminating opposition to the Progressive onslaught of Obama and the Democrats. These latest opposition targets have been identified by Obama recently and include Fox News (again), Rush Limbaugh (always) and Congressional Republicans (read Tea Party here) but will expand as the weeks and months unfold towards 2014.

I wrote shortly after the 2010 elections that everything Obama says or does from that point onward needs to be viewed through the lens of the next election. A lens that will reveal the man as a rock star celebrity and a charismatic cult leader who will continue to mesmerize millions, especially those low information and intentionally uninformed voters he appeals so well to.

I was right in 2010!

And if you pay attention in the coming weeks and months you will see it all unfold yet again; playing us all for suckers once again.

But you can only accurately pay attention if you pay attention to the Obama enemies; Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and others in the Conservative media, a media that will become more and more demonized as the days wear on. Meanwhile the main stream media will more and more metastasize into the Progressive juggernaut and you will see more of them recommend, as a CBS news executive did recently, that Obama “go for the throat of the Republican party.”

If you recall your twentieth century history, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union both controlled the press, and only the official line was permitted for dissemination to the public. Well, Fox News is in the position of being, probably, the only major television new outlet that is honestly reporting on perceived and actual misdeeds of our federal government. Has “Operation Fast & Furious” been adequately reported on any other news outlet other than Fox? Or has the Benghazi terrorist attack and subsequent cover-up been reported? Maybe you haven’t heard of Fast & Furious; it was a US government gunrunning operation that sent some 2500 military type weapons such as AK-47s into the Mexican drug wars. The Mexican government has reported that several hundred Mexicans have died from these weapons, and at least one American Border Patrol agent was killed with one of them.

Do you want to put yourself in the position of getting your news and information only from a government controlled and filtered outlet?

I don’t, and that’s why I will continue to utilize Fox News and other conservative outlets as my major source of news and commentary.

* * * *

My friends it will not get easier over the next years, it will only get harder. Many have given up and many more want to give up after the 2012 election. I myself give up often throughout the week, (why bother anymore) but then find myself at the keyboard once more. The example of George Washington and the Continental Army struggling through eight long years of grueling battle often inspire me to continue on; they won liberty, can we strive for any less?

Don Johnson – January 2013

Decades

Today is my birthday! … 69 years.

It’s not one of the zero birthdays, but in ways I look at this as more pivotal than my next, the 70’th one.

Like many of my generation I’ve had a good life; a fair number of successes, some regrets and a small bit of disappointment. And as the song says:

I’ve had a roof up above me,
And a fine place to sleep.
There’s been food on the table,
and shoes on my feet.
You gave me your love, Lord,
and a fine family.
Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me.

And I do thank the Lord for my family:

My child bride Diana;
Don & Stephanie;
JoAnne, Matt, Jake, Scott & Riley;
My father Bjarne and mother Greta;
Brothers Elmer and Melvin and their families; my nieces and nephews.

I realize that in leaving this decade of my sixties and entering the seventies and maybe beyond, I am looking towards the end, with each year closing that gap. Finished with the so-called productive years and retired at the age of sixty-something and looking for ways to fill the days.

But I have another birthday, a birthday of an entirely different sort! Thirty some years ago I had a new birth when Jesus Christ came into my life and gave me spiritual birth.

You see, because of this birthday I count up and not down. You’ve heard that great old hymn “Amazing Grace?” Listen to some of the words it speaks to my soul:

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.
When we’ve been here ten thousand years…
bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise…
then when we’ve first begun.

That hymn begins “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me….
” When you look at the wretched life of the writer, a slave trader, you realize the power in the birth of which I speak.

Let me invoke a privilege on this birthday of mine. A privilege that is a hope and a prayer that when I’ve been there ten thousand years … bright shining as the sun … that those I love in the here-and-now will have answered that beckoning of Jesus and will be with me on that day ten thousand years from now.

Don Johnson – January 2013

 

 

                    

Did the Universe Create Itself?

Stephen Hawking believes that the universe created itself out of nothing “ … tiny quantum fluctuations in the very early universe became the seeds from which galaxies, stars, and ultimately human life emerged. “Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in,”  He further states that God did not create the universe and the “Big Bang” was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.  Hawking’s assertion is based upon the idea that physical laws of the universe inevitably lead to the spontaneous creation of the universe, without the necessity of a creator or any other kind of “first cause.” So let me take a shot at that from a layman’s perspective, and with 4 decades of experience as a software developer working in very complex systems.

First let me lay some groundwork by summarizing some things about the “laws of physics” and some of the known physical attributes and constants of the universe. I’ve included them below and you can skim through the tedium if you wish, or dwell on it yourself; I’ll present my questions and conclusions here for you to consider.

My summary of the matter:


When I look at these physical laws and constants, the first thing I notice is that they describe a real no-kidding physical system. I also notice that they are there for the purpose of describing and constraining a real no-kidding physical system, namely the universe we all live in.

So if these laws of physics and the constraining constants  apply to an already created universe no matter the creator, then why are they there in the first place. They seem to provide no mechanisms to form a universe, but only serve to describe the end result of the creation. Where is the motivation, where is the intelligent drive that will create a universe to fit into these laws and constraints?

Where is the first and preeminent  “law of physics” that describes the creation of the laws of physics  and the constants themselves so that we can know about and study our own universe?

Something is missing here Dr. Hawking! You make the claim that  “ … many different kinds of universes will be spontaneously created out of nothing …” but you neglect to mention that in the beginning there indeed was “something,”  not “nothing” as you claim, but at the very least the laws of physics. And who or what created these laws Dr. Hawking?  What or who, Dr. Hawking, created the Laws of Thermodynamics?

So why do I care and why do I study & write about such things?

There is and has been a concerted effort among certain segments of society and also of science to eliminate all possibility of God. In particular, they want to eliminate God from the world of the younger generations, and in doing so they allow those who would impose their own godless world view on society, even though they themselves may have no such intent. The consequences of this effort is to remove the moral laws that a belief in God provides.

For example, consider the Ten Commandments. The Commandments begin by positing a transcendent God to which all mankind is accountable to. The Commandments continue with a moral code proscribing the behavior of mankind. Thou shall not kill places a significant boundary on the behavior and relationship between all mankind that protects the lives and well being of us all. When that boundary is removed, along with the transcendent accountability for such actions, then we should expect horrific societal behavior as a result.   

So I believe it is important to stay abreast of this issue and make comment such as to counter what I see as a destructive trend.

Don Johnson – January 2013 



Note: The information below is taken from the article Major Laws of Physics: by Andrew Zimmerman Jones at http://physics.about.com/od/physics101thebasics/p/PhysicsLaws.htm 


About Physical Laws:

Over the years, one thing scientists have discovered is that nature is generally more complex than we give it credit for. The following laws of physics are considered fundamental, but many of them refer to idealized, closed systems, which are hard to obtain in the real world. Also, some are altered slightly in different circumstances. The laws that Newton developed, for example, are modified by the findings of the theory of relativity, but they are still basically valid in most regular cases that you’ll run into.

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion:

Sir Isaac Newton developed the Three Laws of Motion, which describe basic rules about how the motion of physical objects change. Newton was able to define the fundamental relationship between the acceleration of an object and the total forces acting upon it.

“Law” of Gravity:

Newton developed his “Law of Gravity” to explain the attractive force between a pair of masses. In the twentieth century, it became clear that this is not the whole story, as Einstein’s theory of general relativity has provided a more comprehensive explanation for the phenomenon of gravity. Still, Newton’s law of gravity is an accurate low-energy approximation that works for most of the cases that you’ll explore in physics.

Conservation of Mass-Energy:

The total energy in a closed or isolated system is constant, no matter what happens. Another law stated that the mass in an isolated system is constant. When Einstein discovered the relationship E=mc2 (in other words that mass was a manifestation of energy) the law was said to refer to the conservation of mass-energy. The total of both mass and energy is retained, although some may change forms. The ultimate example of this is a nuclear explosion, where mass transforms into energy.

Conservation of Momentum:

The total momentum in a closed or isolated system remains constant. An alternative of this is the law of conservation of angular momentum.

Laws of Thermodynamics:

The laws of thermodynamics are actually specific manifestations of the law of conservation of mass-energy as it relates to thermodynamic processes.

Electrostatic Laws:

Coulomb’s law and Gauss’s law are formulations of the relationship between electrically charged particles to create electrostatic force and electrostatic fields. The formulas, it turns out, parallel the laws of universal gravitation in structure. There also exist similar laws relating to magnetism and electromagnetism as a whole.

Invariance of the Speed of Light:

Einstein’s major insight, which led him to the Theory of Relativity, was the realization that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant and is not measured differently for observers in different inertial frames of reference, unlike all other forms of motion. Some theoretical physicists have conjectured different variable speed of light (VSL) possibilities, but these are highly speculative. Most physicists believe that Einstein was right and the speed of light is constant.

Modern Physics & Physical Laws:

In the realm of relativity and quantum mechanics, scientists have found that these laws still apply, although their interpretation requires some refinement to be applied, resulting in fields such as quantum electronics and quantum gravity. Care should be taken in applying them in these situations.


And let me include a partial listing of some constants that define the universe we live in. These are taken from a previous article I wrote The Origins of the Universe … Simple or Complex: Part 2 … The Problem of “Massively Complex Synchronicity” at: https://ayearningforpublius.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/the-origins-of-the-universe-simple-or-complex-part-2-the-problem-of-massively-complex-synchronicity/

Constants in the category ” Universal constants “…

characteristic impedance of vacuum
electric constant
magnetic constant
Newtonian constant of gravitation
Newtonian constant of gravitation over h-bar c
Planck constant
Planck constant in eV s
Planck constant over 2 pi
Planck constant over 2 pi in eV s
Planck constant over 2 pi times c in MeV fm
Planck length
Planck mass
Planck mass energy equivalent in GeV
Planck temperature
Planck time
speed of light in vacuum

Constants in the category ” Electromagnetic constants “…

Bohr magneton
Bohr magneton in eV/T
Bohr magneton in Hz/T
Bohr magneton in inverse meters per tesla
Bohr magneton in K/T
conductance quantum
elementary charge
elementary charge over h
inverse of conductance quantum
Josephson constant
magnetic flux quantum
nuclear magneton
nuclear magneton in eV/T
nuclear magneton in inverse meters per tesla
nuclear magneton in K/T
nuclear magneton in MHz/T
von Klitzing constant

Constants in the category ” Atomic and nuclear constants “…

alpha particle mass
alpha particle mass energy equivalent
alpha particle mass energy equivalent in MeV
alpha particle mass in u
alpha particle molar mass
alpha particle-electron mass ratio
alpha particle-proton mass ratio
Bohr radius
classical electron radius
Compton wavelength
Compton wavelength over 2 pi
deuteron g factor
deuteron magnetic moment
deuteron magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
deuteron magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
deuteron mass
deuteron mass energy equivalent
deuteron mass energy equivalent in MeV
deuteron mass in u
deuteron molar mass
deuteron rms charge radius
deuteron-electron magnetic moment ratio
deuteron-electron mass ratio
deuteron-neutron magnetic moment ratio
deuteron-proton magnetic moment ratio
deuteron-proton mass ratio
electron charge to mass quotient
electron g factor
electron gyromagnetic ratio
electron gyromagnetic ratio over 2 pi
electron magnetic moment
electron magnetic moment anomaly
electron magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
electron magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
electron mass
electron mass energy equivalent
electron mass energy equivalent in MeV
electron mass in u
electron molar mass
electron to alpha particle mass ratio
electron to shielded helion magnetic moment ratio
electron to shielded proton magnetic moment ratio
electron-deuteron magnetic moment ratio
electron-deuteron mass ratio
electron-helion mass ratio
electron-muon magnetic moment ratio
electron-muon mass ratio
electron-neutron magnetic moment ratio
electron-neutron mass ratio
electron-proton magnetic moment ratio
electron-proton mass ratio
electron-tau mass ratio
electron-triton mass ratio
Fermi coupling constant
fine-structure constant
Hartree energy
Hartree energy in eV
helion g factor
helion magnetic moment
helion magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
helion magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
helion mass
helion mass energy equivalent
helion mass energy equivalent in MeV
helion mass in u
helion molar mass
helion-electron mass ratio
helion-proton mass ratio
inverse fine-structure constant
muon Compton wavelength
muon Compton wavelength over 2 pi
muon g factor
muon magnetic moment
muon magnetic moment anomaly
muon magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
muon magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
muon mass
muon mass energy equivalent
muon mass energy equivalent in MeV
muon mass in u
muon molar mass
muon-electron mass ratio
muon-neutron mass ratio
muon-proton magnetic moment ratio
muon-proton mass ratio
muon-tau mass ratio
neutron Compton wavelength
neutron Compton wavelength over 2 pi
neutron g factor
neutron gyromagnetic ratio
neutron gyromagnetic ratio over 2 pi
neutron magnetic moment
neutron magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
neutron magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
neutron mass
neutron mass energy equivalent
neutron mass energy equivalent in MeV
neutron mass in u
neutron molar mass
neutron to shielded proton magnetic moment ratio
neutron-electron magnetic moment ratio
neutron-electron mass ratio
neutron-muon mass ratio
neutron-proton magnetic moment ratio
neutron-proton mass difference
neutron-proton mass difference energy equivalent
neutron-proton mass difference energy equivalent in MeV
neutron-proton mass difference in u
neutron-proton mass ratio
neutron-tau mass ratio
proton charge to mass quotient
proton Compton wavelength
proton Compton wavelength over 2 pi
proton g factor
proton gyromagnetic ratio
proton gyromagnetic ratio over 2 pi
proton magnetic moment
proton magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
proton magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
proton magnetic shielding correction
proton mass
proton mass energy equivalent
proton mass energy equivalent in MeV
proton mass in u
proton molar mass
proton rms charge radius
proton-electron mass ratio
proton-muon mass ratio
proton-neutron magnetic moment ratio
proton-neutron mass ratio
proton-tau mass ratio
quantum of circulation
quantum of circulation times 2
Rydberg constant
Rydberg constant times c in Hz
Rydberg constant times hc in eV
Rydberg constant times hc in J
shielded helion gyromagnetic ratio
shielded helion gyromagnetic ratio over 2 pi
shielded helion magnetic moment
shielded helion magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
shielded helion magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
shielded helion to proton magnetic moment ratio
shielded helion to shielded proton magnetic moment ratio
shielded proton gyromagnetic ratio
shielded proton gyromagnetic ratio over 2 pi
shielded proton magnetic moment
shielded proton magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
shielded proton magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
tau Compton wavelength
tau Compton wavelength over 2 pi
tau mass
tau mass energy equivalent
tau mass energy equivalent in MeV
tau mass in u
tau molar mass
tau-electron mass ratio
tau-muon mass ratio
tau-neutron mass ratio
tau-proton mass ratio
Thomson cross section
triton g factor
triton magnetic moment
triton magnetic moment to Bohr magneton ratio
triton magnetic moment to nuclear magneton ratio
triton mass
triton mass energy equivalent
triton mass energy equivalent in MeV
triton mass in u
triton molar mass
triton-electron mass ratio
triton-proton mass ratio
weak mixing angle

Constants in the category ” Physico-chemical constants “…

atomic mass constant
atomic mass constant energy equivalent
atomic mass constant energy equivalent in MeV
Avogadro constant
Boltzmann constant
Boltzmann constant in eV/K
Boltzmann constant in Hz/K
Boltzmann constant in inverse meters per kelvin
Faraday constant
first radiation constant
first radiation constant for spectral radiance
Loschmidt constant (273.15 K, 100 kPa)
Loschmidt constant (273.15 K, 101.325 kPa)
molar gas constant
molar Planck constant
molar Planck constant times c
molar volume of ideal gas (273.15 K, 100 kPa)
molar volume of ideal gas (273.15 K, 101.325 kPa)
Sackur-Tetrode constant (1 K, 100 kPa)
Sackur-Tetrode constant (1 K, 101.325 kPa)
second radiation constant
Stefan-Boltzmann constant
Wien frequency displacement law constant
Wien wavelength displacement law constant

Just When You Thought Soviet Propaganda Was Dead

An issue that has been bothering me more and more in recent years, and which I have written about here American Exceptionalism Part 1: My View, here American Exceptionalism Part 2: So What!! Why Does it Matter? and here American Exceptionalism Part 3: The Case Against.  You guessed it, American Exceptionalism, or more accurately its opposite; the view of what Jeanne Kirkpatrick called the “Blame America First Crowd.”

It bothers me in particular when brought up in the context of Communism and the role of the United States in fighting this greatest scourge ever to infest the human scene. Oliver Stone’s latest entre’ in this matter is “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States,” a book and Showtime television series.

I caught wind of this in this mornings (1/11/2013) Wall Street Journal, and have included links to several articles by one of Stone’s critics. I hope you can access either of both of them. I’ve also read some of the very caustic critiques on Amazon.com (the one star reviews in particular are good).
   (More to follow)



Just When You Thought Soviet Propaganda Was Dead http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323482504578229663495014162.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

The Real Henry A. Wallace: The Truth About Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick’s “Unsung Hero.  http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2013/01/06/the-real-henry-a-wallace-the-truth-about-oliver-stone-and-peter-kuznicks-unsung-hero/?singlepage=true


So why am I so bothered by this ancient history?

To begin with the not so obvious, at least in this country, this scourge during its reign in the  now defunct Soviet Union, and in Communist China, Cambodia, Vietnam and elsewhere resulted in the death of some 100 million souls.  To put this in some perspective, the German Third Reich of Adolf Hitler killed some 18 million souls.

The socialist reign of Hitler is rightfully placed in the ash heap of history after being unconditionally defeated by war, it’s atrocities amply exposed and it’s mastermind dead like a mad dog at his own hand. When the death camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau were liberated, General Eisenhower forced the local German populace to walk through the camps and witness what was done in their name.  The Auschwitz Album here http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/album_Auschwitz/mutimedia/index.HTML documents partially what the Nazis left behind .

A similar fate was spared the Communist empires even though their evil matched and exceeded that of the Nazis. Rather, a parade of  Communist fellow travelers and actual Soviet agents infiltrated the US Government and many American University and media centers of influence. Mr. Stone is the latest such fraud as shown by those academics and historians who are stepping forward to debunk his dismal version of history.  For a glimpse of life inside the Communist empire take a look at A ‘Tribute’ to Communism” here: http://www.americanthinker.com/video/2012/11/a_tribute_to_communism_warning_graphic_images.html

Having lived through the Cold War, and having served in Vietnam, I was greatly relieved when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and relieved that  my children were spared life under, or war against, such tyranny. But then to find out later that Communism had not died as Nazism died, but lived on in high political and academic places in America was a shock. The deadly influence of communism, it turns out, was not banished to the protected shelter of a few American universities, but lived in the lives of many prominent agenda setters. How many of you reading this are aware of the upbringing of young Barack Obama under the influence of his Communist mother and grandparents and a mentor Frank Marshall Davis, a card carrying member of the Communist Party USA?  Davis was influential in Obama’s life from the ages 11 to 18. How many of you reading this are aware of Van Jones, a self identified Communist working as a key “Green Czar” in the Obama White House.

An Oliver Stone is of tremendous influence among the young and impressionable in this country, make no mistake about it! His disciples  will attempt to complete the “fundamental transformation” that Barack Obama promised. They will try and may even succeed, but the consequences may well be catastrophic.

Don Johnson  — January 2013

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

On December 15, 1791, the US Constitution, along with the Bill of Rights was ratified by process of ratification by three-fourths of the 13 states.

The second amendment was among those 10 amendments, and is still the Law of the Land as it has not been revoked or modified.

In District of Columbia v. Heller the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm to use for traditionally lawful purposes, such as defending oneself within their home or on their property. The court case ruled that the Amendment was not connected to service in a militia.

If you do the math, 1791–1783 = 8 years from the end of a brutal 8 year war against the most powerful nation in the world at the time. A British victory against the Colonialists would most likely have been brutal with much post-war punishment against the vanquished. The war was brutal against a brutal and tyrannical army.

So why was the 2’nd Amendment added to the Constitution? It and the other nine amendments were added as necessary protections for the individual citizen against a tyrannical central government.

The 2’nd Amendment was not written and added to the Constitution to protect the duck hunters.

The 2’nd Amendment was not written and added to the Constitution to protect the trap shooters.

The 2’nd Amendment was not written and added to the Constitution to protect the target shooters at the range.

* * * * *

The 2’nd Amendment was written and added to the Constitution for such a time as this.

The reason we have a 2’nd Amendment, and the reason we need a 2’nd Amendment now is Barack Hussein Obama.

* * * * *

Obama has promised to “fundamentally transform the United States of America”, and, as we know, is one who will “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” Well the 26 dead teachers and children in Newtown Connecticut is a serious crisis, and we now are witnessing the apparent dismantlement of the 2’nd amendment taking place in the White House. The dismantlement is not taking place by the amendment process, or by Congressional action, not even by the Chief Executive. No, this has the markings of a lynch mob headed up by delegation, by a Vice President, with the final seal of approval, or shall we say, the death sentence pronounced by Executive Order.

Why is this taking on the appearance of yet another attack on the Constitution?

In generations past we have not had the pervasive violence of the video game industry. We have not had the generations of young boys shooting up in a virtual world without having to put real body parts in body bags and loading them into helicopters; without having to look at a friend next to him whose head has just been blown off. Will these questions get a hearing with the same intensity as the gun control frenzy?

Will the role of prescribed psychiatric medications get an adequate hearing in this frenzy? Or will it get steamrollered by the gun control frenzy that’s brewing?

Read this excerpt from David Kupelian at http://www.wnd.com/2013/01/the-giant-gaping-hole-in-sandy-hook-reporting/ and look for its reportage in the coming weeks in the major media outlets.

 … it is simply indisputable that most perpetrators of school shootings and similar mass murders in our modern era were either on – or just recently coming off of – psychiatric medications:

  • Columbine mass-killer Eric Harris was taking Luvox – like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor and many others, a modern and widely prescribed type of antidepressant drug called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. Harris and fellow student Dylan Klebold went on a hellish school shooting rampage in 1999 during which they killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others before turning their guns on themselves.Luvox manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals concedes that during short-term controlled clinical trials, 4 percent of children and youth taking Luvox – that’s 1 in 25 – developed mania, a dangerous and violence-prone mental derangement characterized by extreme excitement and delusion.
  • Patrick Purdy went on a schoolyard shooting rampage in Stockton, Calif., in 1989, which became the catalyst for the original legislative frenzy to ban “semiautomatic assault weapons” in California and the nation. The 25-year-old Purdy, who murdered five children and wounded 30, had been on Amitriptyline, an antidepressant, as well as the antipsychotic drug Thorazine.
  • Kip Kinkel, 15, murdered his parents in 1998 and the next day went to his school, Thurston High in Springfield, Ore., and opened fire on his classmates, killing two and wounding 22 others. He had been prescribed both Prozac and Ritalin.
  • In 1988, 31-year-old Laurie Dann went on a shooting rampage in a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, Ill., killing one child and wounding six. She had been taking the antidepressant Anafranil as well as Lithium, long used to treat mania.
  • In Paducah, Ky., in late 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal, son of a prominent attorney, traveled to Heath High School and started shooting students in a prayer meeting taking place in the school’s lobby, killing three and leaving another paralyzed. Carneal reportedly was on Ritalin.
  • In 2005, 16-year-old Native American Jeff Weise, living on Minnesota’s Red Lake Indian Reservation, shot and killed nine people and wounded five others before killing himself. Weise had been taking Prozac.
  • In another famous case, 47-year-old Joseph T. Wesbecker, just a month after he began taking Prozac in 1989, shot 20 workers at Standard Gravure Corp. in Louisville, Ky., killing nine. Prozac-maker Eli Lilly later settled a lawsuit brought by survivors.
  • Kurt Danysh, 18, shot his own father to death in 1996, a little more than two weeks after starting on Prozac. Danysh’s description of own his mental-emotional state at the time of the murder is chilling: “I didn’t realize I did it until after it was done,” Danysh said. “This might sound weird, but it felt like I had no control of what I was doing, like I was left there just holding a gun.”
  • John Hinckley, age 25, took four Valium two hours before shooting and almost killing President Ronald Reagan in 1981. In the assassination attempt, Hinckley also wounded press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and policeman Thomas Delahanty.
  • Andrea Yates, in one of the most heartrending crimes in modern history, drowned all five of her children – aged 7 years down to 6 months – in a bathtub. Insisting inner voices commanded her to kill her children, she had become increasingly psychotic over the course of several years. At her 2006 murder re-trial (after a 2002 guilty verdict was overturned on appeal), Yates’ longtime friend Debbie Holmes testified: “She asked me if I thought Satan could read her mind and if I believed in demon possession.” And Dr. George Ringholz, after evaluating Yates for two days, recounted an experience she had after the birth of her first child: “What she described was feeling a presence … Satan … telling her to take a knife and stab her son Noah,” Ringholz said, adding that Yates’ delusion at the time of the bathtub murders was not only that she had to kill her children to save them, but that Satan had entered her and that she had to be executed in order to kill Satan. Yates had been taking the antidepressant Effexor. In November 2005, more than four years after Yates drowned her children, Effexor manufacturer Wyeth Pharmaceuticals quietly added “homicidal ideation” to the drug’s list of “rare adverse events.” The Medical Accountability Network, a private nonprofit focused on medical ethics issues, publicly criticized Wyeth, saying Effexor’s “homicidal ideation” risk wasn’t well-publicized and that Wyeth failed to send letters to doctors or issue warning labels announcing the change.And what exactly does “rare” mean in the phrase “rare adverse events”? The FDA defines it as occurring in less than one in 1,000 people. But since that same year 19.2 million prescriptions for Effexor were filled in the U.S., statistically that means thousands of Americans might experience “homicidal ideation” – murderous thoughts – as a result of taking just this one brand of antidepressant drug.Effexor is Wyeth’s best-selling drug, by the way, which in one recent year brought in over $3 billion in sales, accounting for almost a fifth of the company’s annual revenues.
  • One more case is instructive, that of 12-year-old Christopher Pittman, who struggled in court to explain why he murdered his grandparents, who had provided the only love and stability he’d ever known in his turbulent life. “When I was lying in my bed that night,” he testified, “I couldn’t sleep because my voice in my head kept echoing through my mind telling me to kill them.” Christopher had been angry with his grandfather, who had disciplined him earlier that day for hurting another student during a fight on the school bus. So later that night, he shot both of his grandparents in the head with a .410 shotgun as they slept and then burned down their South Carolina home, where he had lived with them.”I got up, got the gun, and I went upstairs and I pulled the trigger,” he recalled. “Through the whole thing, it was like watching your favorite TV show. You know what is going to happen, but you can’t do anything to stop it. “Pittman’s lawyers would later argue that the boy had been a victim of “involuntary intoxication,” since his doctors had him taking the antidepressants Paxil and Zoloft just prior to the murders. Paxil’s known “adverse drug reactions” – according to the drug’s FDA-approved label – include “mania,” “insomnia,” “anxiety,” “agitation,” “confusion,” “amnesia,” “depression,” “paranoid reaction,” “psychosis,” “hostility,” “delirium,” “hallucinations,” “abnormal thinking,” “depersonalization” and “lack of emotion,” among others.The preceding examples are only a few of the best-known offenders who had been taking prescribed psychiatric drugs before committing their violent crimes – there are many others.Whether we like to admit it or not, it is undeniable that when certain people living on the edge of sanity take psychiatric medications, those drugs can – and occasionally do – push them over the edge into violent madness. Remember, every single SSRI antidepressant sold in the United States of America today, no matter what brand or manufacturer, bears a“black box” FDA warning label – the government’s most serious drug warning – of “increased risks of suicidal thinking and behavior, known as suicidality, in young adults ages 18 to 24.” Common sense tells us that where there are suicidal thoughts – especially in a very, very angry person – homicidal thoughts may not be far behind. Indeed, the mass shooters we are describing often take their own lives when the police show up, having planned their suicide ahead of time.

 
 

So, what ‘medication’ was Lanza on?

The Sandy Hook school massacre, we are constantly reminded, was the “second-worst school shooting in U.S. history.” Let’s briefly revisit the worst, Virginia Tech, because it provides an important lesson for us. One would think, in light of the stunning correlation between psych meds and mass murders, that it would be considered critical to establish definitively whether the Virginia Tech murderer of 32 people, student Cho Seung-Hui, had been taking psychiatric drugs.

Yet, more than five years later, the answer to that question remains a mystery.

Even though initially the New York Times reported, “officials said prescription medications related to the treatment of psychological problems had been found among Mr. Cho’s effects,” and the killer’s roommate, Joseph Aust, had told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Cho’s routine each morning had included taking prescription drugs, the state’s toxicology report released two months later said “no prescription drugs or toxic substances were found in Cho Seung-Hui.”

 
 

Perhaps so, but one of the most notoriously unstable and unpredictable times for users of SSRI antidepressants is the period shortly after they’ve stopped taking them, during which time the substance may not be detectable in the body.

 
 

What kind of meds might Cho have been taking – or recently have stopped taking? Curiously, despite an exhaustive investigation by the Commonwealth of Virginia which disclosed that Cho had taken Paxil for a year in 1999, specifics on what meds he was taking prior to the Virginia Tech massacre have remained elusive. The final 20,000-word report manages to omit any conclusive information about the all-important issue of Cho’s medications during the period of the mass shooting.

To add to the drama, it wasn’t until two years after the state’s in-depth report was issued that, as disclosed in an Aug. 19, 2009, ABC News report, some of Cho’s long-missing mental health records were located:

The records released today were discovered to be missing during a Virginia panel’s August 2007 investigation four-and-a-half months after the massacre.

The notes were recovered last month from the home of Dr. Robert Miller, the former director of the counseling center, who says he inadvertently packed Cho’s file into boxes of personal belongings when he left the center in February 2006. Until the July 2009 discovery of the documents, Miller said he had no idea he had the records.

Miller has since been let go from the university.

Although Cho’s newly discovered mental-health files reportedly revealed nothing further about his medications, the issues raised by the initial accounts – including the “officials” cited by the New York Times and the Richmond paper’s eyewitness account of daily meds-taking – remain unaddressed to this day.

Some critics suggest these official omissions are motivated by a desire to protect the drug companies from ruinous product liability claims. Indeed, pharmaceutical manufacturers are nervous about lawsuits over the “rare adverse effects” of their mood-altering medications. To avoid costly settlements and public relations catastrophes – such as when GlaxoSmithKline was ordered to pay $6.4 million to the family of 60-year-old Donald Schnell who murdered his wife, daughter and granddaughter in a fit of rage shortly after starting on Paxil – drug companies’ legal teams have quietly and skillfully settled hundreds of cases out-of-court, shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to plaintiffs. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly fought scores of legal claims against Prozac in this way, settling for cash before the complaint could go to court while stipulating that the settlement remain secret – and then claiming it had never lost a Prozac lawsuit.

All of which is, once again, to respectfully but urgently ask the question: When on earth are we going to find out if the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook school massacre, like so many other mass shooters, had been taking psychiatric drugs?

In the end, it may well turn out that knowing what kinds of guns he used isn’t nearly as important as what kind of drugs he used.

That is, assuming we ever find out.

A few days ago I wrote about Constitutional Law Professor Louis Michael Seidman from Georgetown University advocating we abandon the Constitution, so this is a very serious question, a very serious and real Constitutional crisis. The man currently occupying the White House was also a Constitutional Law Professor, but has the luxury of being able to write his Constitutional theories into Executive Orders having the force of law; the luxury of writing a new constitution without having to go through the rigorous ratification of We the People.

The Constitutional Law Professor occupying the White House has shown distain for the Constitution of Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin and the others; and also has distain for those states that ratified that very Constitution.

Will we be happy with this new constitution?

 

 

Al Gore, Glenn Beck & Al-Jazeera

The recent sale of Al Gore’s Current TV network to Al-Jazeera sheds much needed, but much disturbing light onto the darkness; the darkness that are the values and the quality of Progressive/Democrat leadership in this country. As you might recall, in 2000 we came within a whisker of living under the leadership of Al Gore. As it turns out we got a good and decent man instead, George W. Bush.

Read some snippets about the Al-Jazeera transaction:


From Newsmax.com on 03 Jan 2013

The Wall Street Journal revealed that when Beck’s TheBlaze TV sought ownership of the Current broadcasting network, the bid was rejected because the principles of Beck’s company did not align with those of Current.
“Other suitors who didn’t share Current’s ideology were rebuffed,” reporters Keach Hagey and John Jannarone wrote in the
Wall Street Journal. “Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze approached Current about buying the channel last year, but was told that ‘the legacy of who the network goes to is important to us and we are sensitive to networks not aligned with our point of view,'” according to a person familiar with the negotiations.”

and

The former vice president confirmed the sale Wednesday that reportedly netted $500 million, saying in a statement that Al-Jazeera shares Current TV’s mission “to give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling.”

 


Now read some snippets from the Wall Street Journal of January 7, 2013 in an OP-ED Inconvenient Truths About Al Jazeera:

…  journalistic coverage over the years of Al Jazeera’s Arabic and English broadcasts, which discloses the unsurprising fact that the network reflects the interests of the government that runs it—making it akin to Vladimir Putin’s Russia Today and Beijing’s Xinhua. … (My comment here: and making it akin to the Democrat party’s house organ MSNBC).

and

Mr. Gore could have read the Middle East Quarterly profile titled “The Two Faces of Al Jazeera.” The network gets good marks for programming in areas outside the emir’s direct interests, but the article concludes that Al Jazeera continues “to inflame Arab resentments in its promotion of anti-Americanism, Sunni sectarianism and, in recent years, Islamism.”

and

In 2008, Al Jazeera threw an on-air party for Samir Kuntar when he was released from an Israeli prison. Kuntar led a Palestine Liberation Front terrorist team that kidnapped an Israeli family in 1979. He shot the father and killed the 4-year-old daughter by smashing her head against rocks along the beach. In footage available on YouTube, Al Jazeera’s Beirut bureau chief hands Kuntar a scimitar to cut the celebratory cake and says: “This is the sword of the Arabs, Samir.”

and

In 2009, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, host of the network’s most popular Arabic-language show, “Shariah and Life,” said on air (also available on YouTube): “Oh, Allah, take this oppressive Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers and kill them, down to the very last one.” Perhaps Mr. Gore doesn’t have access to YouTube.


My comments again:
What are we to make of this? On the one hand we have a man like Glenn Beck; a self made man who constantly brings to the fore, and highlights, core American principles and values such as “Government of the people, by the people and for the people … “.  A Glenn Beck who promotes an understanding of the lives and contributions of American founders; the lives of George Washington, James Madison, John Adams and many others. A Glenn beck who promotes the ideals present in a Biblical world view that gives value to the worth and dignity of every person … because every person is a creation of God. A Glenn Beck who highlights the major, and at times the singular, contributions of this great American Civilization to the annuls of human liberty and dignity.

Instead what we hear are the tirades, the tirades of self imposed ignorance from Progressives calling Beck a Nazi, a racist and unworthy of the mantle of being called an American.

Looking at some of my own e-mail archives I see …

Dear Don,
I am indeed sad that you looking to Fox for news.  There is virtually “no honest news” on Fox other than possibly the weather and sports.  Fox has for sometime been nothing other than an extreme right wing propaganda machine with totally discredited front men such as Rush Limbaugh and racist Glenn Beck … .

DON,
Please consider the incredibly biased source in this article.  The Wall Street Journal is now either controlled or owned by Robert Murdoch or “Newscorp” (where only the names are true and virtually anything else is either outright falsehoods, complete distortions or worse).  …

I truly consider Rupert Murdoch as the “Devil Incarnate” if there is actually such a thing. I have formed these beliefs over the past decade and am not going to change.

Propaganda and distortion not news is all that is available on Fox.  You are very likely aware that this view is shared by the vast majority of Americans.

So now we get a unvarnished view, an unvarnished world view that rejects a Glenn Beck as unacceptable because “his networks not aligned with our point of view.”  Instead what we get as acceptable from Al Gore (remember, he was just a hairs breath away from the American Presidency), is a world view that finds the advocacy and promotion of genocide, the deliberate murder of some 6,000,000 Jews as “ … aligned with our point of view.” One can legitimately come to the conclusion that such thinking sides with the thinking of one Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and 40s.

Come to your senses Progressive America. Let this sale of Current TV be a teachable moment for you, a very ugly but necessary teachable moment. Let the bright light of the circumstances of this sale reach into the depths of your conscience, and let it begin to trouble and irritate you as it should.  Let it trouble and irritate you to the point of action on your part.

The circumstances surrounding this sale are the very sorts of things that prompted me, very reluctantly, to write recently:

“A president, who I suspect more and more, that should he find himself  magically dropped into the leadership circles of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union  or China under Chairman Mao would find himself to be entirely comfortable with his new surroundings and comrades.” 

And before you go away mad or depressed, ponder these words from the apostle Paul:

2 Timothy 4

4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Don Johnson – January 2013

The Old Man in Apartment 620

I have a very special announcement to make today. The Old Man in Apartment 620 is my first venture into book authorship and I would like to share it with you from Amazon.com.

For close to four years I have been writing short directed essays on my blog AYearningForPublius and I’m sure many of you have seen my work.

This one is different. It is a fictional story and it is one you will have to pay a nominal price to read; but I hope you will find it a worthwhile read. If you find it to be worthwhile and interesting, I would ask that you share the Amazon link with as many of your friends as possible.

Thank you very much.

Don Johnson

The Old Man in Apartment 620: A Conversation

untitled copy

The apartments fronting Central Park in Manhattan are among the most sought after among the elite and wealthy, and are among the most expensive. The occupants typically keep to themselves and value their privacy in a busy metropolis such as New York City. Many are quite spacious and luxurious and offer a variety of amenities not available to the more modest residences of Brooklyn, Queens and other boroughs of New York. Chief among the sought after amenities are the often breathtaking views overlooking Central Park. A very old man is living in such an apartment, an apartment among the cream of the crop in any age, and now, well into the twenty first century retains its sophistications and comforts. Let’s listen in on this old man as he receives an unexpected visitor.

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Let Me Off the Stupid Train!

There is a train called “Stupid.”

old_steam_train-1152x864

Help! I’m on a runaway train ride and I can’t get off. The engineer has put the locomotive on full speed with a boiler full of (borrowed) coal. And … and … and he has left the throttle station, locked the door behind him and is now lecturing his passengers, me included, on the merits of train safety.

I close my eyes and try to pretend this is not happening, but can’t help peeking out between my trembling fingers at the passing scenes.

image

The debt history billboard flashes by and I see the green surplus years of the Clinton/Gingrich years followed by the serious rise in deficits during the Bush 43 years. I also notice the the debt bars are getting shorter (a good thing) during the latter parts of the Bush 43 years.

Then comes Obama and a drop that reminds me of the train I’m riding and I feel my stomach rising into my mouth as we plunge into a terrifying ride down into the abyss of a rollercoaster.

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Another billboard flashes by with actual numbers for the bars of the last billboard  … I’m not encouraged by the lecture on train safety.

labor rate

We round a corner at terrifying speed and I’m wondering how we made it around that corner. As I open my eyes once more I see the next billboard. This one shows the “labor participation rate.” This billboard shows me that many people have given up on finding work. Ironically, in a macabre sense, the lower this number is, the lower the official unemployment rate is.

thCAYQ75ED

Something inside the train catches my attention and distracts me from the fast moving scene outside. The locomotive engineer named Barack has somehow morphed into Thenardier, the devious and conniving proprietor of the tavern in Les Miserables.

While I have a sane moment or two on this insane train ride, let me put a plug in for the latest film rendition of Les Miserables staring Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and  Hugh Jackman. It’s great! And in the context of this train ride; if you’ve seen the film remember back to the scenes from the tavern and the proprietors; and if you haven’t seen it yet pay special attention to the tavern scene and relate it if you can to a man called Barack.

Master of the house, keeper of the zoo
Ready to relieve ‘em of a sou or two
Watering the wine, making up the weight
Pickin’ up their knick-knacks when they can’t see straight
Everybody loves a landlord
Everybody’s bosom friend
I do whatever pleases
Jesus! Won’t I bleed ‘em in the end!

Charge ‘em for the lice, extra for the mice
Two percent for looking in the mirror twice
Here a little slice, there a little cut
Three percent for sleeping with the window shut
When it comes to fixing prices
There are a lot of tricks he knows
How it all increases, all them bits and pieces
Jesus! It’s amazing how it grows!

Now Thenardier and Mme. Thenardier his wife are scoundrels of the first rank, and the camera does a masterful job of revealing how they relieve their unsuspecting guests of their possessions. It’s quite entertaining, and you can’t help laughing at the ease in which these scoundrels strip their victims; but … that’s theater! 

Now Thenardier’s alter-ego Barack Hussein Obama is in a class by himself when it comes to arrogance and deception. We see his record over the four years he has been engineer on this train and as President of this, the greatest nation on God’s green earth, and yet he is somehow able to place blame with ease on countless others while constantly picking pockets.

I don’t know of any religious charlatan close to Barack in being able to swindle away the fortunes of generations not yet born. The TV Evangelist pleading for placement of your hands on his TV face while asking for placement of your funds in his bank account comes to mind, but that man is a rank amateur next to Barack.  

There have been plenty of smooth-talking politicos during my lifetime of near 70 years, but none capable of doing what Barack has done; cratering an economy  and at the same time gathering his victims beneath his benevolent wings and assuring obedient followers. Perhaps Barack learned from Joseph Stalin’s plucking the chicken philosophy of governance:

On one occasion, Stalin called for a live chicken and proceeded to use it to make an unforgettable point before some of his henchmen. Forcibly clutching the chicken in one hand, with the other he began to systematically pluck out its feathers. As the chicken struggled in vain to escape, he continued with the painful denuding until the chicken was completely stripped. “now you watch,” Stalin said as he placed the chicken on the floor and walked away with some bread crumbs in his hand. Incredibly, the fear-crazed chicken hobbled towards him and clung to the legs of his trousers.  Stalin threw a handful of grain to the bird, and as it began to follow him around the room, he turned to his dumbfounded colleagues and said quietly, “This is the way to rule the people. Did you see how the chicken followed me for food, even though I had caused it such torture? People are like that chicken. If you inflict inordinate pain on them they will follow you for food the rest of their lives.”

We called Obama naïve, we called him in-experienced, we called him “just a community organizer” and all manner of other names; we were wrong.

  • Obama is a genius!
  • Obama is brilliant!
  • Obama has engineered a near collapse of the American economy and has and will blame it on the Republicans; and he will succeed!
  • Obama has engineered the dividing of American that would shame Martin Luther King of “content of their character and not the color of their skin” fame! And he has and will hold himself aloof from it while blaming his enemies. And people will believe him.
  • Obama has just spent 7 million tax payer dollars on a Christmas vacation for himself and his family. There will  hardly be a peep from the American press, and none from his dutiful followers.
  • Yes, Obama is a genius and is brilliant; but this genius and brilliance is diabolical!

The Bible says “Pride cometh before a fall,” and we have a very prideful President. What will be the nature of the fall, what will precipitate it, and what will be the extent of the fall in terms of societal and personal damage beyond this one man?

Train_wreck_at_Montparnasse_1895

Don Johnson – January 2012