Sharkatude: Wisdom of the Common Sense

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To the Unknown Soldier! 05.31.04 (2:19 pm)   [edit] "That... be not told of my death, Or made to grieve on account of me, And that I be not buried in consecrated ground, And that no sexton be asked to toll the bell, And that nobody is wished to see my dead body, And that no mourners walk behind me at my funeral, And that no flowers be planted on my grave, And that no man remember me, To this I put my name." ---Thomas Hardy The soldiers lot is a hard one, so on this Memorial Day, please remember those who risked and lost their lives for us, giving us a birthright of freedom. This to the unknown soldiers, raise a glass and toast their memory, foe and ally alike, for each left behind families who loved them.   United States Patriot Act 05.22.04 (4:00 pm)   [edit] I recently went to the public library and I saw a little note posted next to the check out counter. It stated that the FBI or other federal authorities have the right to check out what books I take out without informing me of their record check. According to the note this was in compliance with the US Patriot Act that is aimed at detecting terrorists. I got curious so I went online to research the US Patriot Act, and what I found was very disturbing. The curtailing of civil liberties and the granting of vast powers to the Executive branch is not as startling as the fact that US Congress actually passed this law, almost unanimously. For a more indepth analysis of this law, check out: http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/docs/USA_P ATRIOT_ACT.pdf" title="http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/docs/USA_P ATRIOT_ACT.pdf" target="_blank"http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/repo... Be frightened, be very frightened.   Power!, Guns, and Freedom!! 05.21.04 (4:00 pm)   [edit] "Power is nothing without fear. If those who have power are not feared they can't have their power. Fear is what gives them power, and power is what gives them control." ---Deanna Downyard I thought about this quote and I really liked it. When people think about power they usually think about dictators or the like, but if you look at it in our own society, why do we follow laws? We follow laws because we are scared of going to jail. Well, most people are scared of going to jail. We are terrified of the punishment. Why do we listen to our parents? Because when we are little we don't know any better, and we are scared that they won't approve of us or will even hit us, but it's all about control. We are too young or weak to exercise any control, so we find it better to go with the flow than revolt. It's not until we reach our teens that we begin to revolt. Let's go back to the government, the government has a monopoly on the rule of law, we can't be our own judges and take the law into our own hands. Some people do, or try, but inevitably they fail because the law has everything behind it. The government, however, does not have complete power, though it feels like it at times. In an elected republic it's the citizens that yield the ultimate power, they decide who is elected, and who will make the decisions for them. Now enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm, but that is why not one man can control the government. In America it is estimated that 80 million people own guns, and that is the way the Founding Fathers wanted it. In a land where citizens have the right to bear arms, the citizens have more of a say than in a country where they are denied to right to bear arms. Citizens in Europe don't understand this concept, they believe that the only people who should own guns are the police and the military, i.e. the government. Well, I don't know about you, but I don't like a government that has a complete monopoly on control. Who is to stop a government from crushing the rights of the citizens? Let's say for example the government all of a sudden wanted to strip everybody of their rights, in America people would revolt, and revolt fiercely. It is even doubtful whether or not the Army or the Police would even follow the government's orders, but in other countries this might happen, and especially when people are denied access to guns, this is a scary thought indeed. Imagine how Tianamen Square would have played out had citizens owned guns and decided that they were tired of a government that denies their citizens even the basic right to decide how many children they should have??? I know what people are saying, they are saying, "well if you want to play with guns, why don't you join the army or the police?" That's exactly what Heinrich Himmler said, the head of the German secret police and SS in World War II. He didn't want ordinary people, especially Jews, to own guns. He knew that once you granted citizens the right to bear arms, they would not be so easy to subjegate. People take their freedoms and rights for granted in this country, but they should pay close attention to how fast those freedoms and liberties can get erroded. Only a vigilant, armed citizenry, can ensure a proper, functioning republic according to the United States Constitution. And oh yes, America is NOT a democracy, it is a REPUBLIC. If you don't know the difference, take polisci 101.   Spain capitulates 05.21.04 (6:04 am)   [edit] Spain's deputy minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega announced today that the last remnants of Spanish troops have now left Iraq, and that the Spanish government is now negotiating with insurgents to try to get Spanish civilians freed from captivity. Whether or not this appeasement has any affect on terrorist attacks against Spain remains to be seen. Though I respect Spain's decision to pull out, it was conducted through democratic means, and the will of the Spanish people took precedent over the freedom of the Iraqi people, I believe it was the wrong thing to do. When you start something you have to finish it, and the Spanish troops that have died fighting in Iraq have died in vain, and for nothing if democracy does not flourish in that country. You don't change horse in mid-stream and you stay the course, no matter how many casualties you take. Americans absolutely abhor casualties, but they know and are prepared to take sacrifices because they believe that in the end it is better to stay with your allies than abandoning them. The Spanish pull-out sets a dangerous precedent, especially with Spain being part of NATO. What if Spain is attacked, will we go and help them? Sure we will, but when we are attacked Spain came and left. It seems European nations do what they want, much like America, and that's all right. Just don't expect any help when the Germans come marching, but then again, Spain was on their side in World War II. I think it's time the United States pulled its troops from Japan, South Korea, Kosovo, and Germany. They are not needed there, and if those countries want us there they should pay for them. These troops and combat divisions would be much better needed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Japan and Germany are getting a free ride from the United States. If the US pulled out of those countries they would have to spend substantial amounts of their governments' budgets to build up their armed forces in able to defend themselves. This would no doubt cause economic troubles for them, which would be good for the United States. No longer would these gigantic economies be propped up by massive investment from their respective governments, especially when the governments would need to spend money on defense. As for the case of Iraq, when June 30th rolls around I hope there is an interim government ready to take over, but I suspect there won't be, and I know the US is in there for the long haul. It just saddens me to think that these terrorists and insurgents might possibly manage to destabilize an entire country, and then impose their warped policies on innocent Iraqis. What Spain did was weaken the resolve of the Allies, and the method was much like you stopping a burglar in your house with your gun, while he holds a knife, and then him saying that he would leave if you give him your gun, and he sincerely promises he won't kill you or rape your wife and daughters. Would you believe him? I wouldn't. Appeasement never works, and Churchill knew that back in World War II. He knew that appeasement was feeding the crocodile hoping he would eat you last.   The French 05.20.04 (9:27 am)   [edit] France that has always prided itself on being the bastion of humanity, egalitarianism, and brotherhood, is not so tolerant as they would have us believe. The French government tried to ban the wearing of Muslim head scarves in schools and public buildings, something that you would think Americans would want to do, but contrary in American the US government is trying to fight for allowing Muslims to wear scarves in schools. This is probably due to the fact that the current right-wing government wants to allow prayer in schools, but whatever the motives it differs from France's policy. Further evidence that France is not as multicultural as it thought it was, and that French society is becoming increasingly racist, is the fact that there are not alot of people on French TV that are of any other race than white. Check out this article in today's Scotsman: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=553262004" title="http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=553262004" target="_blank"http://thescotsman.scotsman.c...   South African donkeys 05.20.04 (6:56 am)   [edit] Hahah when I read this I just laughed, it reminded me of that time I read that an Amish man had been caught drunk driving in Ohio. I don't even know if Amish are allowed to drink, but I think it's high time we cracked down on drunk donkey cart drivers! Story from BBC NEWS: "SA drunk donkey cart driver fined" A South African man has been fined 2,100 rand ($312) for being drunk while driving a donkey cart. Hans du Toit was stopped by police in the town of Philippolis, 650km south of Johannesburg, when they noticed his cart swerving across the street. He was ordered to stop, but when the police left the scene he continued on his journey, South African media said. Before appearing in court, he said he did not stop "because the animals knew the way home". "I know this road and so do my donkeys. If I don't find it, my donkeys will," he said. He was later stopped again by police and his wife was called to take him home. 'Lenient' A spokesperson for the local magistrates office told BBC News Online that people caught drunk in charge of a donkey cart are usually given a warning by police. They are told to unleash the animals and continue on foot, he said. "This is the main mode of transport around here. There are no buses or taxis so we cannot be too strict." But this time, the man ignored the warning so the case went to court. Mr Du Toit was given a sentence of a 2,100 rand fine or two years in jail, of which 21 months were suspended for four years.   Americanism 05.13.04 (8:22 pm)   [edit] If you want an insight into the American psyche look no further than Kenny Rogers' "The Greatest". This song in a nutshell sums up the true American spirit. The only thing left out is mama's apple pie! ************************* ******************* Little Boy, in a baseball hat Stands in the field with his ball and bat Says I am the greatest player of them all Puts his bat on his shoulder and he tosses up his ball And the ball goes up and the ball comes down Swings his bat all the way around The world's so still you can hear the sound The baseball falls to the ground Now the little boy doesn't say a word Picks up his ball, he is undeterred Says I am the greatest there has ever been And he grits his teeth and he tries it again And the ball goes up and the ball comes down Swings his bat all the way around The world's so still you can hear the sound The baseball falls to the ground He makes no excuses, He shows no fears He just closes his eyes and listens to the cheers Little boy, in a baseball hat Picks up his ball, stares at his bat Says I am the greatest the game is on the line And he gives his all one last time And the ball goes up like the moon so bright Swings his bat with all his might And the world's so still as still can be And the baseball falls, and that's strike three Now it's supper time and his mama calls Little boy starts home with his bat and ball Says I am the greatest that is a fact But even I didn't know I could pitch like that He says I am the greatest that is understood but even I didn't know I could pitch that good.   Eating disorders 05.12.04 (3:57 pm)   [edit] According to a new health report, diet experts are concerned about the rise of eating disorders, particularly in the rise of males who have eating disorders. Eating disorders are serious diseases that warrant our attention. In my opinion there are two types of disorders, those two eat too little or nothing, and those who eat too much. Both will kill you. Eating disorders are seen by many as a result of the mass media portraying the ideal woman as slim and beautiful, or as a result of an overindulgent culture that has so much food that people snack themselves into oblivion. It is interesting to note that in Tonga, a country where being obese was seen as a sign of wealth and well-being, after the introduction of television in the 1970s, the number of cases of eating disorders among young women there tripled. Apparently the women saw the thin girls and wanted to be just like them, despite the tradition of larger women being viewed as the most attractive. I thought that was an interesting point to bring up.   Child prostitution 05.11.04 (11:01 am)   [edit] http://edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/11/child.prostitition.ap/index.html How damn sick do you have to be if you get off having sex with kids? These friggin predators really do make me sick, and I wish that the penalties for these types of crimes are harsher. I won't stand for these pedophiles whether they be Joe Blow down the street or Father O'Brien at the Diocese. No offense to any Father O'Brien out there who is a good guy. When will we learn that most of these guys who get put away for sexual abuse end up committing the same crime once they get out. Now people will say it's because they have a problem. You're damned right, if they come around my friend's kids or my niece they will have a problem, and you can cross reference that with the results of my paper target :) You're problem is solved, Sir!   Drunk drivers 05.11.04 (8:49 am)   [edit] Police in Germany arrested a man who had 10 times the legal limit of alcohol in his body and almost double the amount considered life-threatening to most people. Curiously enough the police had stopped him the day before and had taken away his license and confiscated his car. But apparently his urge to get some more booze caused him to get another car and take off to find some more of the good stuff. Drunk driving is a crime that is not often being taken seriously enough, and one which most people pay little attention to. The general feeling is: "well, I've only had a few, I can still see straight, so I'll just drive." Who of us haven't taken a drink and sat down behind the wheel? Especially here in America it is very common, where people take their cars everywhere, even to the bars. In Europe there is mass transportation, bus and railway systems, and an extensive taxi network to get people home. We just don't have that network here in America, where collective traffic seems to border on socialism, which interfers with our feelings of "individualism." Our right to drive alone in our cars. At any rate, here are some sad statistics from MADD about drunk driving: ****** According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2000 America experienced the largest percentage increase in alcohol-related traffic deaths on record. 17,380 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes - an average of one every half-hour. These deaths constituted approximately 41 percent of the 41,945 total traffic fatalities. In 2001, 17,400 people were killed in crashes involving alcohol, representing 41 percent of the 42,116 people killed in all traffic crashes.(New Fatality Analysis Reporting System, FARS, NHTSA 2002) In 2002, 17,419 people were killed in crashes involving alcohol, representing 41 percent of the 42,815 people killed in all traffic crashes, according to NHTSA data. ****** On a more somber note, Princess Diana and her boyfriend, and the driver, would have been alive today if they had just been wearing their seat belts. A lot of people don't wear seat belts because they find it restrictive, or they just don't care. If you don't care, that's fine, but think of the poor rescue workers who have to scrape your corpse out of the windshield you just flew out of, or the street sweepers who have to scoop up your brain from the pavement. If you were annoying in life, you are even more annoying dead. It's just Common Sense people.   Save the last cowboys! 05.09.04 (6:22 pm)   [edit] Once again an overbearing government is infringing on the rights of the citizens to live their lives free from intrusion and meddling. THE NEW YORK TIMES By CHARLIE LeDUFF Published: May 9, 2004 WILLCOX, Ariz., May 4 — "Sometimes a man has to die for what he believes in before anyone knowed he truly believed it," said Wally Klump, a 70-year-old rancher who sits in jail because he refuses to remove some cows from federal land. Mr. Klump has spent the last year behind bars for repeatedly thumbing his nose at a judge's order to remove 28 cows from the Dos Cabezas mountain range here in southwest Arizona, land owned by the Bureau of Land Management but ranched by the Klump clan for 100 years. Last week, Judge John Roll of Federal District Court summoned Mr. Klump from solitary confinement and asked him again if he had had a change of heart. Mr. Klump said he had not and was returned to jail. Now Mr. Klump promises to spend the rest of his natural days behind bars in canvas shoes instead of on the open range in cowboy boots. "It's a land grab and a water grab," Mr. Klump said. "The government's trying to steal my land." Mr. Klump acknowledges, however, that he and his family do not own most of the land, but have the common-law claim to the use of nearly 500 square miles of it. He said he believed he would lose his claims to the coveted groundwater if he did not have cattle drinking it. At the heart of the dispute, Mr. Klump says, are liberty, water and preservation of the Western life that he will not idly watch evaporate. "I want to show the American people how to live," he said in the visitors' room of a private jail in Florence, a two-hour drive northwest of his ranch near Willcox. The Klumps own about 50 square miles of land. Government agents have decided not to round up Mr. Klump's livestock as they have done in the past, since he has threatened to shoot them dead. While this is impossible from behind bars, his family remains on the land and the government prefers not to provoke them. Mr. Klump said he had never been in jail before. He has never been to New York or Los Angeles or even Amarillo, Tex., for that matter. He is tall, his body without a trace of excess. His face is severe, his hands soft from disuse, and he walked about the jail with a defeated shuffle. "Ownership by the government is tyranny," he said. "Ownership by the rich is feudalism. The people become slaves. I'm talking about land and liberty. I'm doing this for the people. Not for me." And here he wept, drew a laborious breath, wiped his nose in disgust at himself and said, "Shoot." Without enough private land to raise a profitable amount of livestock, ranchers have long leased adjacent land owned by the government. The arrangement for decades was friendly, even when the government rearranged the process in 1934 to stop desperate cattlemen of the Dust Bowl from killing each other. Mr. Klump said the government even helped his father put a barbed wire fence around his allotment. Ranchers used the allotted land pretty much as they saw fit until the mid-70's when environmental regulations severely curtailed agricultural operations and grazing rights. It is these grazing rights Mr. Klump is charged with violating. At the same time, agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service staked claims to water that had been claimed by ranchers decades ago, in case the ranchers should ever abandon their properties or forfeit them. The West is growing at a pace that has it tapping every water source. The population of Arizona, for instance, is expected to grow by 40 percent in the next 20 years. Despite spending $5 billion on an aqueduct to deliver Colorado River water 2,400 feet up and 335 miles across the state, Arizona still draws about 45 percent of its water from the ground. Every year the subterranean water is depleted by 2.5 million acre feet and officials wonder where the future's water will come from. Recycled toilet water is one idea. The retirement of ranchers is another. "Anyone whose livelihood depends on the water is feeling the pinch," said John Lavelle, a spokesman with the Arizona Department of Water Resources. "You can't blame a man like that for feeling threatened." About 20,000 ranchers have their cattle grazing on federal land in the West, and how the land and water regulations are being enforced is the key to their survival or death.   Oral sex 05.09.04 (9:52 am)   [edit] I read today in The Observer, a leading UK paper, that the British government is contemplating urging young people to have oral sex as a way to offset teenage pregnancy. According to a study done by Exeter University: young people who have oral sex are less likely to engage in full blown (no pun intended :) sexual intercourse. Every year 40,000 British girls get pregnant, one of the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe. It's curious to see how the US and the UK tackle this problem. The US urges total abstinence and wants young people to wait until marriage, while the UK realizes that young people will be young people and are curious about sex, and they want people to use condoms and engage in oral sex. :roll:   Guns and women do mix 05.05.04 (8:40 pm)   [edit] This is such a great picture. The Peoples' right to bear arms shall not be infringed. My question is what is a woman like that doing in the ocean with a holster and a pistol? Shark hunting probably hahaah I better watch out! [image]Shark99_1197457139 .jpg[/image]   small differences 05.03.04 (5:21 pm)   [edit] Researchers once made a study of American and Western culture and that of Japan and the Oriental culture. They wanted to see how they differed in thinking and philosophy, so they got an elaborate fish tank and put some exotic fish into it. They then allowed people from both cultures to comment on the project. The Westerners immediately noticed the biggest or the most colorful fish and commented on how gracefully it swam or other particulars. The Asians noticed the entire environment, concentrating on the fish surroundings, and the background of the fish tank. This subtle difference in cultural thinking explains why sometimes Americans glorify the individual hero while Asians enjoy the glory of conformity and oneness with their environment. Sometimes we can learn a lot from each other, and respecting other cultures is key to peace.   Slavery today 05.01.04 (8:25 pm)   [edit] A lot of people think that slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation or the British ban on slavery in 1807, but slavery exists still today, from children being exploited as sex slaves to Chinese being smuggled into the US and being forced to work in illegal sweat shops. It is estimated that 200 million people in the world are in some sort of forced servitude, according to Anti-Slavery International. To learn more about modern day slavery please visit: http://www.antislavery.org/" title="http://www.antislavery.org/" target="_blank"http://www.antislavery.org/ [image]Shark99_781633232.jpg[/image]