Flashback Ten Years ago...25 Signs that the World is Insane

(I wrote this in 2008)

1. Millions of Dollars are paid for the Brangalina baby pictures.
2. Jimmy Carter wins a Nobel Peace Prize
3. Academics call for a boycott of the only democracy in the Middle East - Israel. Non-democracies escape criticism from the same voices (who claim to be champions of human rights). 4. Champions of the failed ideologies of Marxist-Leninism (and its history of violent repression) are still considered progressives by many in the MSM.
5. Baseball players earn more money in a week than teachers earn in a year.
6. 'Canadian Left' stakes moral high ground position in arguing for abandonment of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
7. Ideology is substituted for education in many humanities and social science courses in the US and Canada. So much for university being a mind opening experience.
8. Archbishop of Canterbury makes favourable comments with respect to allowing Sharia Law in the UK.
9. Jesse Jackson jokingly claims that he will cut Barack Obama's nuts off...the Left makes barely a whisper.
10. One of the most left wing politician in the senate, Barack Obama, is re marketed as a moderate and half the US buys it.
11. Socialist politicians championing high corporate taxes without acknowledging the obvious reality that such taxes cause mass layoffs and re locations.
12. People continue to buy SUVs.
13. Universities champion free thought but then institute speech codes.
14. Lindsey Lohan is granted so much print space in the press.
15. John McCain nominates a small town rookie for his VP choice after criticizing Obama's lack of experience.
16. Schools respond to falling academic standards by dropping education requirements even further.
17. Medical students accept students with absolutely no Science background into their programs (McMaster U for example)
18. Large portions of Euclidean Geometry - which teaches students reason and logic - is axed from the Ontario Math Curriculum.
19. Ontario Liberals break umpteen different election promises but still win re-election.
20. Reality TV shows dominates the tube.
21. The Olympic Games are granted to Beijing in the first place - so much for human rights meaning anything.
22. Some Politicians not understanding the need for a large border fence between the US and Mexico.
23. The ACLU backing up the politics of Discrimination - aka Affirmative Action.
24. Political Figures acting as if we have infinite resources
25. The existence of a troop of deniers who cannot see the obvious dictatorship ambitions of Hugo Chavez.
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The Foundation for Critical Thinking.

See Foundation  I am posting a link to this group. Have excellent resources for this obvious necessity.

On this Blog Going Forward

I have some great plans for this blog that I will be working on for the next couple of months. These include

1. Continuation with the History of Western Civilization Plots (Plan to reach 300 sometime)

2. More specific history topic focus - largely on events in the 20th century

3. Science Topics largely targeted to Physics

4. A History of the Future Series

5. Personal Reflections

6. Some political commentary.

I will import writing from an earlier blog (quality material) and make a request for others to comment on the posts.

Challenges to the West

The march toward human betterment (somewhat debatable) in Western Civilization has been challenged throughout its history by various force-dynamics . Some of these movements have been products of the outside world others were creations from within. The following is a list of such force-dynamics. All are problematic, some have been overcome, but others remain as an epidemic that future generations will have to deal with:

· Feudalism – Ended by the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration, early urbanization and the birth of the modern economy;
· The Domination of the Totalitarian Church – Eventually Eclipsed by the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Rise of Reason and Science;
· Powers of the Aristocracy – Ended by both the violent and non-violent bourgeoisie revolution, liberalism and nationalism;
· Fascism – Defeated by the Western Democracies in World War II;
· Communism – Defeated by the Economic Machine of the United States;
· Islamism – A struggle that still continues;
· Rampant Statism - The Nanny State that threatens individual freedom,
· Greed Capitalism – A dangerous but age old phenomenon that still survives.

Western History is complicated in its analysis – a reason why I reject the silver bullet 'means- of-production-model' that is defined by the failed school of Marxist- Leninism (and all its cousins Trotskyism, Stalinim, Maoism, Fabianism). The fact that this model continues to survive in earnest in academia, where it nestles alongside Post-Modernism (Radical Feminism, Primitivism, Intellectual Anarchism etc) is a tragedy that serves as a blight on modern academia.

Thoughts on Chile

Writers such as Naomi Klein continue to propagate the false mantra of the success of Chile’s leftist Allende Regime.  It is true that Allende’s coalition of Socialists and Communists (Allende himself was a Marxist) obtained the most votes of any single party in the 1970 election (36.2%). However he received considerably less than the two conservative opponents that stood against him (62.7%).

Allende was only able to govern as he struck a guarantee deal with Radomiro Tomic of the Christian Democrat Party (the smaller of these two opponents). In an interview with the journalist Regis De Bray, Allende indicated that this was largely a tactical move and that he had no real intention of abiding by it. Allende’s radical economic reforms – the Vuskovic Plans - although promising in the short run were widely seen to be a failure by 1972. Inflation stood at 140%, the black market in rice, beans, sugar and flour was on the rise, and the Average GDP was shrinking.

He furthermore defaulted on loans from international creditors and was forced to freeze all prices whilst raising salaries. The country was beset by violence, strikes and shortages. One of his great supporters Eduardo Frei Montalva called it the ‘carnival of madness’. In fact the Supreme Court declared Allende outside the law as did the Chamber of Deputies. A resolution in August of 1973 virtually encouraged the Army to seize power to rescue the country from chaos, which it did on September 3rd with popular support.

The military regime that followed although brutal at times (it is believed that about 2300 people died during its tenure in power – a large figure but significantly smaller than the millions who perished under the Communist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia) actually decreased the infant mortality rate from 66 per 1000 births to 13 per 1000 births, increased the access to drinking water from 67% to 98% and doubled the standard of living.

For a more accurate portrayal of the Chilean Crisis I would suggest read the works of James Whelan a former professor at the University of Chile and a noted historian of the South American nation.

Western History 86: How did Spain rise as a Power?

The Arabs had dominated Spain from the 8^th century when they were invited to intervene in a Visigothic Civil war. An Arab victory in 711 at the Battle of Guadalete swung the balance of power in their favour and by 718 much of the Iberian Peninsula was under their control. Nevertheless despite the defeat of the Umayyad Caliphate by the Abbasids in the Levant Al-Andalus (or Muslim Spain) still remained as an Umayyad outpost with the Umayyad’s defending the peninsula against both the Magyars (a pagan people) and the Vikings.

The period of Umayyad rule was known as La Convivencia and was often characterized by coexistence between the Muslim Christian and Jewish populations. A famous ruler during this time period was Abd-ar-Rahman III. However the region fill into disarray with the warring of the Taifa Kingdoms. The Medieval Period saw conflict between Muslims and Christians. The Berber Almoravids dominated Al-Andulus but were themselves pushed back by the Fundamentalist  Almohads. The period of toleration had come to an end.

The Christian kingdom pushed back securing a major victory at the Battle of Las Navas de Toloso (1212) so that by the mid thirteenth century only the region of Granada lay was still under Muslim Control.Spanish identity was forged during this period with the formalization of language and university education. Christian power was centered in the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.

The marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon (1469) would unite these two powers with the former serving as the senior partner. By 1492 the Reconquista of Spain (Christian Reconquest) was complete with Granada finally falling into Christian hands. The joint monarchy would represent the essence of Catholic Power.

It was Isabella and Ferdinand who bankrolled the exhibitions of Christopher Columbus, expelled the Jews, solidified the alliance of Portugal through marriage (their first daughter Isabella was betrothed to Alfonso of Portugal) and more importantly married their second daughter Juana, into the Hapsburg Dynasty. Another daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, Catherine, married Henry VIII of England.

Spain would emerge as a pre-eminent maritime power from the late fifteenth to early seventeenth century. They first conquered the Canary Islands and then spread Westwards into the New World winning dominion ship over most of Modern day Central America, the interior of South America, Western South America, portions of the Eastern South American coast, the Caribbean, the Philippines as well as select African enclaves. The Treaty of  Tordesillas (1494) divided South and Central America into regions of Spanish and Portuguese influence.

Although this period of Imperialism is viewed as a Spanish Golden Age, the impact on the conquered local people was devastating, what with the ill treatment and mass destruction of the culture of the indigenous population as well as the spread of diseases such a Measles and Smallpox.

From an economic standpoint though the Spanish Empire would serve to spread the Catholic influence and supply the mother country with mineral wealth (gold, silver and tin) and crops. It would however spur a harsh slave trade, material greed and very costly warfare with the rival powers of England, France and the Netherlands.

Big Bang Super Quiz

1. According to the Big Bang Theory the universe emerged from a ………
2. This scientist coined the term Big Bang who was he?
3. What is expanding as a result of the Big Bang?
4. What is the best estimate for the Age of the Universe?
5. Which force was the first to separate from the other fundamental forces?
6. With what is Alan Guth most associated?
7. Which Catholic Priest developed an early version of the Big Bang where matter emerges from a primordial ‘atom’?
8. What is meant by the term CBR?
9. What does the inverse of Hubble’s constant give one?
10. How did Edwin Hubble determine that the Universe is expanding?
11. Which observatory was Hubble’s laboratory?
12. What sub-atomic particles joined to form nucleons during the nucleosynthesis era?
13. What role did Cepheid Variables play in the development of the Big Bang Theory?
14. Which of the Three Cosmological Principles was shattered by the Big Bang Theory?
15. Which two Cosmological Principles still remain intact (for now)?
16. This modern day popularizer of science (scourge of the chiropractor society) and author of Fermat’s Last Theorem wrote a book on the History of the Big Bang. Who is he?
17. Which Russian mathematician is associated with the early development of the Big Bang Model from its theoretical foundations in General Relativity?
18. What did Einstein call his greatest mistake?
19. Who was Ralph Alpher’s chief partner in the early theoretical modelling of the Big Bang?
20. What entity seems to be causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate?
21. Whether the universe expands or collapses in a Big Crunch is ultimately dependent on this factor associated with its mass and volume. What is the factor?
22. What is the earliest time from the origin of the universe that the laws of physics can be reasonably applied?
23. What are Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson most noted for?
24. What theory was the leading competitor to the Big Bang at the time of the latter’s introduction?
25.This physicist wrote about the Big Bang in his celebrated work – ‘The First Three Minutes’. Who is he?
26. What is the shape of the universe spatially?
27. The imbalance between matter and anti-matter in the universe is also known as ?
28. What was the name of the spacecraft launched on 30th June 2001 to study radiant heat from the Big Bang?
29. In M-Theory this term is short for a membrane. What is it?
30. An omega cosmological parameter that is less than 1 indicates a …………….. universe.

Big Bang Answers

1. Singularity
2. Fred Hoyle – as a term of derision. Hoyle was a Steady Stater.
3. Space (not matter)
4. 13.7 billion years old
5. Gravity
6. Inflationary Expansion Theory
7. Georges Lemaître
8. Cosmic Background Radiation – The Echo of the Big Bang
9. The Age of the Universe
10. By analyzing the Red Shift on the spectra of Light coming from distant galaxy
11. Mount Wilson
12. Quarks
13. These standard candle stars allow for an accurate estimate of galactic distances
14. The non-changing nature of the Universe
15. Isotropy and Homogeneity
16. Simon Singh
17. Alexander Friedmann
18. The Cosmological Constant (as it turned out it wasn’t a mistake at all)
19. George Gamow (One of the Greatest minds in modern physics)
20. Dark Energy (makes up 73% of the mass of the universe)
21. Critical Density
22. 10E-43sec
23. They both one Nobel Prizes for discovering evidence of the Cosmic Background Radiation
24. Steady State Theory
25. Steven Weinberg
26. It is flat
27. Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
28. Baryon asymmetry
29. Branes (there is a theory that the universe was born from the collision of two branes)
30. Closed