(crossposted from the front page of
My Left Wing)
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!
~ William Shakespeare
Humans have been around for nearly 4.4 million years all told (if one considers all of our relatives), going all the way back to Ardipithecus ramidus, which predates what was previously thought to be our oldest relative, Australopithecus amenensis. The oldest fossils of Homo sapiens (modern man) go back 195,000 years, and Homo sapiens himself probably considerably further. That's not a bad run I guess.
(more over the fold)
We Homo sapiens (Latin for "wise man" or "knowing man") have come to exist in a stunningly beautiful and profoundly mysterious universe that we now know to be 13.7 billion years old, give or take a couple of hundred mil.
When you frankly consider any small aspect of it, this cosmos is a wondrous place - and the more we know about it the truer that becomes. With every new discovery our senses of awe and wonder are deepened, our imaginations challenged. The accumulation of discoveries since the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's other space observation marvels like COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) and WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) have produced stunning insights such as:
The universe is 13.7 billion ± 200 million years old.
It consists of 22% of an unknown type of Dark matter, which does not emit or absorb light, and 74% of a mysterious Dark energy, which acts to accelerate the expansion of the Universe.
All galaxies most likely have a supermassive black hole at their center, including our own.
And the Hubble has floored both scientists and laymen alike with its extraordinary images of the heavens.
Our particular corner of the Universe, the Milky Way galaxy, is just a bit younger than the Universe itself at 13.6 billion years old.
The Milky Way is the spiral galaxy we all love to call home. In addition to our sun, it contains an estimated 200 to 400 billion other stars. If we could look at it from above, it would look very much like a lot of the other spiral galaxies that exist. Structurally it consists of a dense bright center, which oddly is the hallmark of a supermassive black hole, with long spiral arms pin-wheeling thousands of light-years out into space. Our Sun lies on the inner rim of the Orion spiral arm more than halfway to the edge of the Galaxy from its center.
The Sun is revolving around the center of the Milky Way at a speed of half a million miles per hour, yet it will still take 200 million years to complete the circumnavigation. Did you know that we're all whipping through space at a half a million miles per hour? Makes me a little dizzy to think about it.
The earth itself is 4.54 billion years old. It is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest. Earth evolved over the eons into a uniquely habitable planet. I'm sure we'll all hate to see it go. Or maybe it's more acurate to say she'll hate to see us go. On the other hand, maybe she won't.
Early man had a tenuous grasp on existence to say the least. Lacking fur, claws, and swiftness; few would have bet even money on the survival of such a defenseless species. But improbably enough we bucked the odds, adapted, evolved, and found ways to make it in a dangerous and hostile world.
As time went by, the species evolved an ever larger and more complex brain leading to the development of crude language and the use of simple tools. We learned to walk upright, shelter in caves, cooperate for mutual protection, employ items in the environment as tools, dress ourselves in the skins of other animals and to make and use fire.
As we got smarter our tools went from what we could find to what we could make. Crude hammer stones and clubs made from sticks developed into delicately flaked spearheads and advanced technology such as the atlatl or spear-thrower, which vastly increased the force with which a spear could be thrown.
Our use of stone went from using the razor edge of a chip knocked off of a boulder to the development of remarkable skill in flint knapping and the shaping and grinding of stone implements. Tools that started out as crude and simple grew to become elegant and advanced.
From frightened and vulnerable eaters of berries and grains we evolved into sophisticated hunter-gatherers, and the apex predator. Our large brains allowed us to overcome our natural disadvantages and to establish dominion of sorts over our animal brethren.
With advances in language, culture, and hunting technology human society went from small nomadic family groups to larger tribes and the development of loose confederations between groups. Cooperation and communication were necessary to bring down large prey such as the wooly mammoth or cave bear. You have to admire the courage it took to go up against such formidable prey with sticks and stones - and these folks had no emergency rooms to run to, no ambulances, no doctors. It is safe to say that Neolithic life was no picnic.
Along with language, tribalism, and Stone Age technology came the development of culture. Our early ancestors invented art, music, dance, philosophy, and religion. It is a marvel that people whose lives were so brutal and challenging ever found the time or inclination to engage in such non-survival related endeavors. But they did.
By 10,000 BC the last Ice Age was over, the nomadic Paleo Indians had spread throughout the North and South American continents hunting mastodons, mammoths, long-horned bison, miniature horses, camels and giant sloths. These people would remain nomadic for some time.
By 10,000 years before present we had domesticated dogs, begun to make pottery and the shift from hunter-gatherers to agriculture was underway, beginning in small isolated pockets like the Indus Valley and parts of Egypt. The ability to produce enough food to sustain the group led to the development of permanent settlements.
By 5,000 BC mangoes were being cultivated in SE Asia and corn had been domesticated in Mexico. Agriculture, perhaps more than any other single development, profoundly changed the way people lived.
The remaining seven thousand years of human history leading to the present saw:
* the continued shift from hunter-gatherer to agriculture and permanent settlements
* steady progress in technological advancement, invention, and cultural innovation
* exponential growth in world populations
* continual advances in art, literacy, and the preservation of knowledge
* the development of worldwide trade and exploration
Agriculture led to permanent settlements, which led to the rise of city-states and then to nations. Exploration and trade flourished as we sought out and exploited the unknown corners of the world.
Periodically we entered into times of accelerated change that transformed us and forever altered the way we related to the world. One such time was the agricultural revolution already discussed. Another such time was the Renaissance.
Yet another such time of compressed change was the Industrial Revolution. Driven by James Watt's improvements on the steam engines of the day and the development of all-metal machine tools, the Industrial Revolution replaced an economic system based on manual labor with one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. The effects transformed Great Britain and then swept through Europe and North America.
There were many benefits from the Industrial Revolution such as increased productivity and wide spread availability of manufactured goods, but there were also many dreadful consequences such as air pollution and child labor - the air pollution we're still dealing with today, and it may be what kills us off.
Yes, air pollution that began with the Industrial Revolution may well be what ends life on earth. That is if we don't blow ourselves to hell first. All of mankind's remarkable advancement has been played out against the backdrop of war, conquest, and slavery. For all of our innovation and technological progress, there is apparently no overcoming our predilection for violence and savagery.
Some say it's wired into our genes. Others say it has to do with the structures of our brains. I say it all boils down to greed - and fear. Most wars are waged to take something or for fear of being attacked. That's war in its historical context.
In the context of modern war, it has become one of the biggest businesses in the world.
MERCHANTS OF MISERY
Today, a handful of well-connected U.S. corporations - many with scandal-ridden business records - are making billions in profits off the suffering of war, and pushing,
with the aid of the U.S. military, a destructive plan of privatization.
Many of these big corporations exert undue influence in U.S. politics, making big contributions to pro-war politicians who reward them with huge military contracts.
Powerful multinational businesses are also leading a corporate invasion of Iraq with aims to loot the oil, water, and other resources that belong to the people. Source
And lately the Republicans have been putting their own inimitable stamp on the business by privatizing it, taking it out of the hands of the military and putting it into the hands of greedy businessmen so that even greater profits can be reaped without the pesky interference of government or oversight of any kind.
War, Profits, and the Vacuum of Law
Over the last decade, a new global industry has arisen, made up of private firms that sell military services. These companies, known as "Privatized Military Firms" (PMFs), sell everything from small teams of commandos to massive military supply operations. PMFs have operated in places as diverse as Sierra Leone and Iraq, including on behalf of the U.S., and signal an important new development in the way that war is now carried out. Unfortunately, the legal side has not yet caught up to events. This article examines the applicability of present international laws and definitions to PMFs and finds a gap in effectiveness. It next looks at national attempts at legal regulation and the challenges that they face. Finally, it surveys some of the possible solutions that have been offered to this legal quandary, seeking to offer workable proposals for how the PMF industry might be brought under some standard of regulation. Source
The neocon thugs who have seized control of our country are up to their eyeballs in war profiteering, beginning with Cheney and working all the way down to the bottom of the scumbucket that is our `government.'
"A Pentagon adviser, Richard Perle, briefed an investment seminar on ways to profit from conflicts in Iraq and North Korea just weeks after he received a top-secret government document on the crises in the two countries. The revelation yesterday provoked new concerns about conflicts of interest. Mr Perle also serves on the boards of several defence contractors." Source
Of all the bloated swine in our land, Cheney is the king pig.
The Halliburton Factor: Iraq Rebuilding Contracts Fuel Revenue Growth
"The greatest beneficiary thus far from the Bush administration's 'war without end' approach to fighting terrorism has been Vice President Cheney's former company, Halliburton," notes, William D. Hartung, the co-author of the Institute's new analysis and the author of a new book on war profiteering in the Bush era entitled How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration (Nation Books/Avalon Group, 2004). Halliburton's prime contracts with the Pentagon jumped from $483 million in Fiscal Year 2002 to $3.9 billion in Fiscal year 2003, and increase of nearly 700%. Source
From 1998 to 2001, the USA, the UK, and France earned more income from arms sales to developing countries than they gave in aid.
The arms industry is unlike any other. It operates without regulation. It suffers from widespread corruption and bribes. And it makes its profits on the back of machines designed to kill and maim human beings.
So who profits most from this murderous trade? The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the USA, UK, France, Russia, and China. Together, they are responsible for eighty eight per cent of reported conventional arms exports. Source
Widespread corruption is putting it mildly. There was 2.3 trillion dollars unaccounted for at the Pentagon, get this - before 9/11. God knows what that figure is now with all the shamless plundering that has gone on in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina. And no matter what the final numbers are one thing can't be denied, it is the largest robbery in history - and it is you and I, the taxpayer, who are getting robbed.
Since 1992, the United States has exported more than $142 billion dollars worth of weaponry to states around the world. The U.S. dominates this international arms market, supplying just under half of all arms exports in 2001, roughly two and a half times more than the second and third largest suppliers. U.S. weapons sales help outfit non-democratic regimes, soldiers who commit gross human rights abuses against their citizens and citizens of other countries, and forces in unstable regions on the verge of, in the middle of, or recovering from conflict.
U.S.-origin weapons find their way into conflicts the world over. The United States supplied arms or military technology to more than 92% of the conflicts under way in 1999. The costs to the families and communities afflicted by this violence is immeasurable. But to most arms dealers, the profit accumulated outweighs the lives lost. In the period from 1998-2001, over 68% of world arms deliveries were sold or given to developing nations, where lingering conflicts or societal violence can scare away potential investors.
Of course, a loss of investment opportunities is not the only way Americans are impacted by the weapons trade. In addition to paying billions of dollars every year to support weapons exports, Americans may also feel the impact of increasing instability overseas. The United States military has had to face troops previously trained by its own military or supplied with U.S. weaponry in Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, and now in Afghanistan. Due to the advanced capabilities these militaries have acquired from past U.S. training and sales, the U.S. had to invest much more money and manpower in these conflicts than would have otherwise been needed. Source
The wars we see raging today are all about the Defense Industry and the Oil Industry. The few well connected among us are reaping enormous profits off of the death and misery that they so cheerfully export. It is a crime, a sin, and an abomination.
Cheney revealed himself to the discerning the other night in Florida.
Cheney Uses Mideast As Campaign Issue
Vice President Cheney Uses Mideast Conflict As Reason to Keep Republicans in Control of Congress
TAMPA, Fla. Jul 21, 2006 (AP)-- Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday pointed to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah as fresh evidence of the ongoing battle against terrorism that underscores the need to keep President Bush's Republican allies in control of Congress.
"This conflict is a long way from over," Cheney said at a fundraising appearance for a GOP congressional candidate. "It's going to be a battle that will last for a very long time. It is absolutely essential that we stay the course." Source
Could this asshole be any more transparent? They have stirred up the hornet's nest in the Middle East to draw attention away from the civil war in Iraq and improve their chances in November. Can they possibly stoop any fucking lower?
So we sit and take it while these immoral greedheads send our children off to kill, die, and be maimed in contrived wars to fatten up their bottom lines. What's it going to take to bring this sorry shitwagon to a screeching halt? When are we going to say, Fuck this! No more war!
We, as a species might even stand a chance if we could turn all that energy, work, capital, and genius to the task of solving the problems we face at home. You know things like: global warming, pollution, a decaying infrastructure, the desperate need for alternative energy, public works, universal insurance, improved public education, universal employment at a living wage, solving poverty, taking care of the homeless and needy, fixing our broken political system, rooting out corruption, achieving social and economic justice for all - you know, things like that.
In my humble opinion we need to quit being deceived into starting and fighting wars, and pitch in to clean up our own backyard. And we can only do this if we refuse to take the shit we're being shoveled.
We need to reign in our greedheads and start working for the common good. We need to turn our defense industry to peaceful purposes. We need to put the war profiteers out of business and into jail cells.
We can't solve our real problems if we don't get focused on them and bring all of our resources to bear. We can't afford to fight foolish, wasteful wars when the world itself is dying.
Great teachers came from us and to us at different times and places throughout history, their deepest lessons all but ignored.
Are we going to make it? I don't know. All I know is I'm going to miss us when we're gone.