Medical Benefits of Picking Your Nose

Just in case you wanted to know . . . ??

U.S. Military Interventions 1890 - 2011

History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America

United Nations Resolutions Vetoed by the U.S.

Western Military Involvement in the Middle East

The U.S. invasion of Iraq was undertaken largely by American and European soldiers. Similarly, the current fighting in Afghanistan and Libya is under the jurisdiction of NATO, a combined American and European military force.  The citizens of Western Countries (Americans and Europeans) are told in each of these cases that their military forces are undertaking military operations for humanitarian purposes only, not for conquest or domination, or that they are undertaken as part of the "War on Terror"  ("We're fighting the terrorists over there so that we don't have to fight them here"). Most Westerners believe this and usually support military invasions.  It is interesting that at the Berlin Conference in 1885 in which European powers divided up Africa into spheres of influence that determined which areas would be colonized by which country each of the countries ennobled their colonization by agreeing to

"bind themselves to watch over the preservation of the native tribes, and to care for the improvement of the conditions of their moral and material well-being  ...  instructing the natives and bringing home to them the blessings of civilization."

The history of European colonization makes a mockery of the above statement.  European colonization of Africa (and elsewhere) was undertaken for the benefit of Europeans, not Africans.  This is clearly illustrated by British torture (including castration) of Kenyans fighting for independence from Great Britain during the 1950s and France's brutal response to the Algerian struggle for independence in the 1960s.  Both of these events took place after nearly a century of colonial rule in which the colonized peoples existed as second-class citizens in their own countries.  Numerous other examples can be given of European exploitation of colonized peoples, including Madhusree Mukerjee's (Churchill's Secret War) detailed account of the British Government's refusal to send surplus food to prevent the famine in India in 1943 that killed an estimated 2-3 million people.

Similarly, in 1953 the U.S. Government, working through the CIA, overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran and placed the Shah on the throne.  This was done largely to retain Western control of Iran's oil and to counter the Soviet Union's gaining an influence in Iran.  The Shah was given carte blanche to purchase any weapons he wanted, including those needed to suppress Iranian dissidents.  The Shah became one of the most brutal dictators in the Middle East, who increasingly relied on his secret police (SAVAK) to maintain control.  Opposition to the Shah eventually led to the Iranian Revolution in 1979 that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini into power and the clerics who rule Iran today.  Similarly, the U.S. Government supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran and the eight-year war that followed in which an estimated one million people were killed, even though American officials knew at the time that Hussein was employing chemical warfare (including mustard gas) against Iranian soldiers and civilians, and that he had even used them against the Kurds in Iraq.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1980, the U.S. provided military and logistical support to the Mujahideen (Muslim jihadists) resisting the Soviet invasion, The U.S. spent hundreds of millions of dollars per year supporting the Mujahideen, including arming them with shoulder-launched Stinger missiles capable of shooting down Soviet attack helicopters.    The CIA also worked with local Afghans and with Saudi Arabia to recruit 35,000 Jihadists from some 40 Arab countries to come to Afghanistan to fight along side the Afghan Mujahideen.  Prominent in that recruitment process purportedly were Osama bin Laden and Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman (the blind cleric behind the World Trade Towers bombing in 1993).  Once the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, U.S. interests in helping the Afghans ended.  The U.S., thus, curtailed its support of the Afghans and left the various factions in Afghanistan to fight among themselves to run their country.  It was during this struggle that the Taliban emerged victorious and came to control Afghanistan.

Most Americans know very little history and are completely unaware of the significant role that their government and the governments of Europe --especially Great Britain and France-- have played in creating the current conditions that exist throughout the world, especially in the Middle East.  Every single country in the Middle East, Africa and Asia (except Japan) was at one time a European colony, and both the former colonists and increasingly the U.S. have worked steadily over the past century or more to maintain control of events in the region, including establishing and maintaining governments that advanced their interests.  How might an understanding of the actual history of Western involvement in the Middle East help us gain a better insight into contemporary developments in this region?  What do theories in political science have to say about why political actors such as countries act the way they do and implement the policies they do?  How might an application of the concepts of emic and etic enhance our understanding of such actions?

How might all of these approaches help us to be critical observers of actions taken in our name?

Intelligent Falling Theory

In 1900, there were approximately 500,000 deer in the U.S.  Today, there are almost 20 million deer in the U.S.  The expansion of the deer population, combined with the redistribution of the American population away from urban centers, has resulted in increased contact between the two populations and, consequently, in an increase in the incidence of Lyme disease.

"Disputes within anthropology have a way of becoming blood feuds.  Virtually all of the field's leading figures have been struck by poison arrows.  Margaret Mead?  Dupe!  Franz Boas?  Spy!  Colin Turnbull?  Hoaxer!  Marshall Sahlins?  Imperialist!  Indeed, the excessive ferocity of anthropological warfare has fractured the discipline and tarnished its image.  It's become the academic equivalent of 'The Jerry Springer Show.'"

                                            --New York Times, October 8, 2000

Thomas Malthus

         Paul Ehrlich

MORMON WOMEN AND POLYGAMY

"The American newspapers report that on January 13th an indignation meeting was held at the Salt Lake City, at which about three thousand women attended, and all men except the reporters were excluded. The object was to protest in the most earnest manner against two Bills recently brought into the Federal Congress for the suppression of polygamy. They also state that the Legislature of Utah has passed a Bill giving women the suffrage. If this be true, and if the three thousand indignationists can influence the whole twenty-five thousand in Utah, polygamy is not likely to be put down by the Federal Congress."

--The British Medical Journal, Feb. 26, 1870

Evolution of American Eating Behavior

"Currently, 47% of the money Americans spend on food pays for restaurant bills --up from 25% in 1955. There are about 70,000 restaurants in the U.S. --12,000 more than the previous year. The fastest growing sector was take-out restaurants; 58% of food establishments cater to take-out customers."

--International Herald Tribune (1-11-03)

The Levirate in the Bible

Deuteronomy 25

⁵  If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

⁶  The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

⁷  However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me."

⁸  Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, "I do not want to marry her,"

⁹   his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line."

¹⁰  That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

"I judge a woman and a horse by the same criteria: legs, head and rear end."

--Helena Rubenstein

"A woman's body is a work of art.  A man's body is like a Jeep. It's for getting around."

--Elaine Benes (Seinfeld)

Sadam Hussein won 100% of the votes in the 2002 Iraqi election.  To many Americans, this was proof that the Iraqi elections were unfair and invalid.  However, the overall U.S. congressional re-election rate (including both the House and the Senate) normally exceeds 90%, and in both 1998 and 2004 was nearly 98%.   How different, then, are American elections from those in countries such as Iraq, Argentina and Zimbabwe whose elections the U.S. insists must be monitored by international organizations in order to make sure that they are fair?  Might not all of these situations, including the U.S.,  represent examples of the fact that those in power can and do exploit the advantages of power in order to maintain power?  Should American elections, then, also be monitored by international organizations in order to make sure that they are fair?

Drug Violence

Below is the link to an article which discusses how the Mexican cartels have begun to grow marijuana in the U.S. in part to circumvent the U.S. Border Patrol. It indicates that the largest cartels are operating marijuana "grows" in several U.S. states. They have even begun to use National Forests, due to the isolation they provide. It is rather interesting that, while most Americans stand aghast at the wealth, power and violence associated with the cartels, most Americans seem to ignore the fact that it is Americans themselves who fund the cartels, and that this is not the first time Americans have funded such violent criminal organizations. According to most estimates, marijuana provides up to 75% of the Mexican drug cartels' revenues. This means that the cartels and the violence they produce are being funded, not by crackheads and heroin addicts, but by your average recreational American pot smoker --your average Joe. This was the same person who funded organized crime (and all of the violence it produced) in Chicago, Detroit, New York and dozens of other American cities during prohibition. The simple fact is that if you make a popular product illegal, you will create a black market for it, increase its street value and lead to individuals and groups fighting to dominate or control its trade. It is simple supply and demand. Just as the cartels are getting rich on pot, the mob got rich on alcohol and prostitution during the 1920s. Gang wars in U.S. cities today are also based on the control of lucrative drug distribution territories. This is no different than the spectacular rise in Plains Indian warfare that occurred during the 19th century as increasing numbers of Indians competed with one another over the declining numbers of buffalo whose hides they sold to trading posts established throughout the mid-West to meet the increased demand for buffalo products in the cities of the U.S. and Europe. In the same way, the violence in Mexico and in the streets of America -past and present- is caused by competition over the sale of a resource made increasingly valuable by an increasing demand for it among American consumers and a restricted supply caused by legal authorities to prevent its distribution. And ironically, each success at decreasing the available supply only increases a drug's street value in the U.S., and thus the profits that the cartels can earn by providing it. So, Americans create the violence in Mexico in two ways: by increasing the demand for pot in the U.S. by consuming it in greater and greater quantities; and by restricting the supply of marijuana by making it illegal and by imposing restrictions on its importation. I guess you would call this a lose-lose situation. Indeed, the whole situation is best expressed in a famous quote taken from Pogo, a popular cartoon of the 1950s & 1960s . . .

Mexican Cartels Running Pot Farms in U.S. National Forest

As it was written . . .

If John Kerry had won Ohio in 2004, he would have been declared President of the United States, even though he would still have lost the popular vote by nearly 3.5 million votes.  (George Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore by a half-million votes in 2000.)  Would those who complained about Bush becoming President in 2000 because he lost the popular vote likely have stood on principle and been opposed to Kerry becoming president on the same grounds, or would they have accepted and rationalized their victory?

Politics is such wonderful theater!

St. Simeon the Stylite

The Stylite saints, or "pillar hermits" as they were known, lived austere lives on top of tall towers, some over 20 feet high.  St. Simeon lived on his column for 30 years, before he died in AD 459.  In order to demonstrate his piety, Simeon stood on one leg for a year.  He also tied a rope around his waist so tightly that his lower body became putrified and infested with maggots.  According to Butler's Lives of the Saints, Simeon ate the maggots, proclaiming, "Eat what God has given you."

The Religious Divide in America

"America is one of the most religious countries in the industrialised world. Over 80% of Americans claim to believe in God, compared with 62% of the French and 52% of Swedes. About two-thirds of Americans claim membership of a church, 40% go to church once a week, and 43% describe themselves as born-again Christians. Three times as many people believe in the Virgin birth as in evolution.  . . .  But America is also one of the most secular countries in the world. The constitution guarantees a rigorous separation of church and state, and secular groups are assiduous in using the courts to enforce that separation. (On February 25th, the Supreme Court ruled that states could withhold scholarships from students studying divinity.) Public schools recoil from even the mildest religious imagery. More than 29m Americans say that they have “no religion”, a number that exceeds all but two religious denominations, Roman Catholics and Baptists. For the most part, the people who run America's media industries in New York and Hollywood are aggressively secular, combining intellectual hostility to Middle America's religious fundamentalists with a generous measure of cultural disdain."

--The Economist (February 28, 2004)

The Greatest Action Story Ever Told

A Slightly Different Version

of the Original Story

Ashoura