President Nixon wanted a Guaranteed Minimum Income(GMI) for all...

Alaska gives an automatic revenue dividend to its citizens (depending upon how much money the state makes with its various projects) .

The Mongol hordes elected their leaders.

European pirates also held elections, divided up their booty fairly evenly, and offered monetary compensation for the loss of limbs.

Blue

(Female) Sunbathing became popular because a few Hollywood actresses in the 1920's sported tans on the silverscreen. The development of affordable automobiles during the same time period allowed people to more easily vacation along sunny resorts (in Europe), so females who could show-off tans also showed the world that they had access to money.
Previously, only low-born peasant women had tans,because they worked in the fields; the aristocratic ladies showed off their white alabaster skin, they were 'Bluebloods' because their white skin allowed the veins upon their wrists to be clearly seen by all.

Psychologically, and in Mythology, the Sun is masculine, its rays are phallic, explaining why most sunbathers are women.

Many women ruin their looks by too much exposure to sunlight, and these same women think they are making themselves more attractive by burning their skin; they often only create the 'alligator' look.

( a few people, men and women, really do need some sun)

'Parliamentary procedure'

Americans had 12 straight years of Reagan and Bush no. 1 quasi- fascism, and many hailed Clinton a reformer in 1992, who would roll-back the excesses of the recent past. Clinton merely continued the same policies with a baby-boomer twist.

Seven or Eight years of Bush's crude authoritarianism, and many now hope a 'Democrat' will win in 2008, and reverse the excesses of our all- too recent national nightmare. If a Democrat moves into Pennsylvania Avenue in 2009 or before, we will still suffer beneath the crushing weight of (unelected) multinational corporations that call all the shots. Then a fascist goon Republican will will in 2012, after the incumbent has been savaged -out by right-wing media.

We have had essentially one trade policy for the last 30 years, one immigration policy, one foreign policy in the middle east, one anti-crime policy for 30 years, etc,etc.,etc.,.....The two major parties merely argue over 'details,' rotating control with each other, while collecting obscene pay-offs from Wall Streeters....any difference between the two are evened out by this rotation, the difference is only one of (small) degree, not kind. Somewhere about 50 people are laughing their asses off at our stupidity.

Most people are locked into a either-or mentality, with disastrous consequences for all.

Our rulers want a dumbed-down populace. When the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, America was shocked into accelerating her academic curriculum, and one of the results was a searching, questioning, and rebellious youth movement a few years later. Our rulers don't want this happening again- hence, the introduction of the 'sliding scale' grade system, zero tolerance laws against, well, almost everything, and the burgeoning debts most young people incur, plus the rising cost of living... endless cable channels full of crap; which effectively keep people tied down,distracted, and passive/submissive.

It was leisure which afforded the ancient Athenians the ability to produce its 'Golden Age.'

(more to come).

Hitler got his idea of empire from the Brits and their rule over India.

Hitler got his idea of genocide from the way the Americans treated the native Indians.

Hitler got his organizational ideas from the Jesuits.

The Brits may have invented the concentration camp, during the Boer war in south Africa in the 1890's- thousands of innocent civilians died.

An almost simultaneously conceived camp system developed just before the outbreak of the Spanish-American war in 1898- the Iberian Generalissimo Wyler corralled Cuban insurgents and innocents, to break the will of the rebels....

Hitler got his idea of a 'Master Race' from the elitism of the Jews and the ancient Hebrews/Israelites (The 'Chosen few').

Bush spoke to the press Friday morning, discussing American loss of life in his war, and promised a "bloody August." He also gave himself dictatorial powers, in the event of another 9-11 type event ( He already had such powers through executive orders devised by Reagan's team in the 1980's).

Estonia was nearly shut down last week due to cyber-attacks. Most government computers crashed, banks almost lost track of personal accounts, airports came close to massive air-traffic disaster. Rogue Russian hackers are probably to blame (Estonia unceremoniously removed a Red Army statue,triggering anger and a computer assault).

This is a lesson for the rest of us- the next major terrorist action directed against the U.S. could be a stealth shut-down of most of the internet, obliterating vital records, etc.

Most of Southern Africa was uninhabited until recently.

About 500 AD the Hottentot (Khoi) and Bushmen (San) migrated into the region and became agrarian pastoralists...

About 100 years before the arrival of the whites (before 1650) the Bantu tribe swept into the area, killing the blacks already there, taking the best land.

The Bantu view the San people as inferiors...The leaders of Zaire (Congo) and Botswana use race-baiting politics to garner support- Blacks versus the desert dwelling San (and Pygmy).

President Idi Amin Dada of Uganda admired Hitler, as does his current successor, Museveni. Museveni thinks that if people are dumb enough to get caught in a refugee camp, then they ought to starve. Bantus and some other tribes where their chiefs rule, consider themselves superior to other blacks, and practice racism and genocide against each other (the Rwanda tragedy of the 1990's being the best example-hundreds of thousands butchered with machetes in a few weeks time- it was also a disaster for the mountain gorilla- refugees swamped the nearby national park and began eating protected animals. The UN has documented instances of cannibalism...)

The Sioux Indian leader Red Cloud won a war against the American government. Between 1866-1868 his warriors made travel along the Bozeman trail in Montana impossible for whites, he won many military victories, most notably the Fetterman massacre ( not quite a 'massacre' but a fair fight. Fetterman was lured out of Fort Laramie with 80 other soldiers and went too far from any further help- they were all killed. Red Cloud signed a peace treaty as the victor, receiving extensive land rights.


About 300 'Undefeated' Seminole Indians (in Florida) remained after three bloody wars with the US army, which cost the government about $40 million and over 2,000 dead soldiers. These Seminoles never signed any treaty, they were never relocated west to Oklahoma, their descendants live in Florida today.

A fire has burned out of control beneath Centralia, Pennsylvania, since 1962. ( A land fill-abandoned coal mine/vein combusted; the ground under the whole town is warm, almost everyone has abandoned their homes).

(Not so obvious) inventions that changed the world:

Double-entry book keeping,
The Gregorian calendar,
the modern emergency room in general...

Dr. John Snow devised the science of epidemiology: A Cholera epidemic struck in London in 1854. Using maps and statistics, Dr. Snow figured out that a certain Soho water pump handle was spreading the contagion-refuting the miasma (vapor, or bad air)theory and developing a germ theory explanation..untold millions of lives have subsequently been saved by proper sanitation and clean water.

Mohammed is considered to be an example of how one can rule a temporal realm and remain uncorrupted by secular power- he refused to engage in excessive nepotism and often showed mercy to the defeated, and he was generous to his followers with the spoils of military victory.

Becoming 'King' doesn't always mean you have to make a deal with the devil...

The Jewish Stern gang (Lehi) offered to collaborate with Nazi Germany in 1940. A few Jewish-Zionist leaders saw Britain as the main enemy (England controlled Palestine). A proposal was made to help the Nazis 'evacuate' Jews from conquered eastern territories and resettle them in Palestine, and the Jews would mount massive attacks against British interests in the middle east-in exchange, the Zionists wanted a homeland in the region. ( It was thought by many in 1940-1941 that England would eventually be knocked out of the war, so Jews collaborating with Nazi's at this point actually made some sense).

The Nazi regime originally wanted to deport all of Europes Jews to Madagascar. When Germany failed to achieve a quick victory, the resources needed for such a plan were diverted, and the idea was completely dropped by January 1941, eventually leading to the formulation of the 'Final Solution.' ( After Germans began to experience setbacks in the east, about the same time that they learned that the allies intended to dismember their nation after winning the war).

For several decades (1900-1945) various British officials wanted to establish a Jewish homeland in Uganda-Kenya.

The second world war was mainly caused by the excessively punitive reparations imposed upon Germany at the Versailles peace treaty in 1919.

In the last months of WW2 and for three years afterward, millions of ethnic Germans were either kept in concentration camps in Slavic countries or were forced to migrate- as a result, about 2-3 million civilians died, and it is generally agreed the responsibility for this belongs with the Allies.

The Soviet Union recovered rapidly from the horror of the second world war- by 1948, heavy industry had regained the level of production it enjoyed in 1941. Central planning made the Soviet Union the worlds 3rd. greatest producer of material goods during 70 years of the 20th century.

Stalingrad the the major turning point- the Russians beat back the Germans because of numerical superiority; their victories were not due to superior Generalship. When Berlin was stormed in spring of 1945, about 3 millions Russian soldiers took part (using tons of American-made equipment).

Hitler lost the war because he refused to listen to advice from more experienced military commanders (he never allowed any strategic retreats,etc.). Hitler directed the war while safely hidden from any harm inside his bunker or some such hiding place, thousands of miles from the front (but it cannot be accurately said that Hitler was a physical coward- his duties during WW1 were dangerous- he was a 'runner' who sent messages from commanders to other officers- frequently dodging bullets, and once capturing 15 of the enemy single-handed, withonly a pistol).

The Israeli General Moshe Dayan was perhaps the last 'front-line' General- he personally led the attack upon the Suez Canal during the 'Crisis' of 1957.

I use to think that the expression 'One day at a time' was too limiting, as far as long term strategic life planning went. But human foibles being legion and enduring, sometimes the only way to get by is to view each day as being uniquely new, to see the past as something that never happened. The demon survives all imaginings, we can only take our dose daily, we must forget and forge ahead.

"The responsibility of parents is to raise children who do not need parents." Bob Keeshan a.k.a. Captain Kangaroo