Friday, March 19, 2004

Beyond Ownership and Property Timothy Wilken, MD writes: If we humans with no political or economic power want to solve our problems, then we will have to take charge of our society. What is our authority for taking such action? We must begin by seizing the moral highground. And, taking the moral highground requires that we face the truth. Possessions are not necessarily property. The possession of an object does not mean that the possessor has a moral or rational claim to ownership of the object. The political, economic, and social structures of our present world are all based on our concept of ‘property’ and property rights. Recall from the Basics section, my discussion of the shifting of human values as humanity evolves from adversary processing to neutral processing to synergic processing. Adversary wealth is physical force. Neutral wealth is money. And, synergic wealth is mutual life support. Therefore adversary ‘property’ is property obtained by force or fraud, and then held with physical force. Neutral ‘property’ is property purchased in the fair market, and held by right of law enforced by neutral government. Remember Neutrality was an evolutionary advance from Adversity, at the time of Neutrality’s inception most possessions were adversary. They had been obtained through force or fraud and held with physical force. The new institutions of Neutrality never made any attempt to correct what by the new values of Neutrality would be past injustices. Neutral values would prevail in future, but the past was left alone. This resulted in the legal precedent wherein possession is 9/10 of the law. In other words, at the time Neutrality was institutionalized, all existing ‘property’ whether adversary or neutral was made legal ‘property’. However, all new ‘property’ was required to be neutral ‘property’–that is ‘property’ acquired by paying a fair price in a free market to the rightful owner, or that ‘property’ which is created directly by the mind and labor of the owner. Most of the founding fathers of Neutrality were beneficiaries of ‘adversary’ property and in no hurry to give it up. They also believed that in the long run these injustices would slowly be corrected, and all property would eventually come to be ‘neutral’ property. We will see later that this was not the case.While synergic ‘property’ is not yet defined, it would have to be property that was obtained without hurting or ignoring anyone, and even more importantly, it would have to be property that was mutually life supporting–that is it would have to be property that had a beneficial effect for self and others. If humanity is to advance to Synergy, our concept of ‘property’ and property rights must change radically in the future. How this could work will be explained in the Future section, but now let us examine ‘property’ as it exists today. (03/19/04) Theocracy in America Chris Floyd writes: One of the sticking points in crafting the just-signed "interim constitution" of the Pentagon cash cow formerly known as Iraq was the question of acknowledging Islam as the fundamental source of law. After much wrangling, a fudge was worked out that cites the Koran as a fundamental source of legal authority, with the proviso that no law can be passed that conflicts with Islam. We in the enlightened West smile at such theocratic quibbling, of course: Imagine, national leaders insisting that a modern state be governed solely by divine authority! Governments guaranteeing the right of religious extremists to impose their views on society! What next -- debates about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Oh, those poor, ignorant barbarians in Babylon! Well, wipe that smile off your face. For even now, the ignorant barbarians in Washington are pushing a law through Congress that would "acknowledge God as the sovereign source of law, liberty [and] government" in the United States. What's more, it would forbid all legal challenges to government officials who use the power of the state to enforce their own view of "God's sovereign authority." Any judge who dared even hear such a challenge could be removed from office. The "Constitution Restoration Act of 2004" is no joke; it was introduced last month by some of the Bush Regime's most powerful Congressional sycophants. If enacted, it will effectively transform the American republic into a theocracy, where the arbitrary dictates of a "higher power" -- as interpreted by a judge, policeman, bureaucrat or president -- can override the rule of law. The Act -- drafted by a minion of television evangelist Pat Robertson -- is the fruit of decades of work by a group of extremists known broadly as "Dominionists." Their openly expressed aim is to establish "biblical rule" over every aspect of society -- placing "the state, the school, the arts and sciences, law, economics, and every other sphere under Christ the King." Or as Attorney General John Ashcroft -- the nation's chief law enforcement officer -- has often proclaimed: "America has no king but Jesus!" (03/19/04) Eight Organ Transplant for Baby BBC Medicine -- Surgeons in America have successfully performed a record eight organ transplant on a six-month old girl. In a 12-hour operation, Italian Alessia Di Matteo received a new liver, stomach, pancreas, small and large intestine, spleen and two kidneys. Alessia suffered from 'smooth muscle' condition, a fatal disorder of the digestive system. Professor Andreas Tzakis at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami performed the operation. Dr Tzakis said: "To my knowledge this is the first attempt at eight organs." Dr Tzakis performed the last record transplant operation, of seven organs, in 1997. He said at least one previous transplant patient has lived ten years and others are doing well. "When these children survive the surgery and do well, they can do perfectly well." Alessia's condition was diagnosed through a scan while she was still in the womb. It would have been fatal if untreated. Dr Tzakis said the first year would be critical to Alessia's survival, but is so far doing well. "The child is quite well," he said. "She is in her mother's arms and she is being fed through the new intestines." Her new organs came from a one year old baby. Alessia is currently still under observation but should be able to return to Italy in another three months. The operation was conducted on January 31, after Alessia was transferred from Gaslini Hospital in Genoa, Italy. A spokesperson for the hospital told the Daily Mirror: "We knew the only way to save Alessia was a multi-organ transplant by Professor Tzakis." (03/19/04) UK Wildlife in Decline BBC Environment -- Two new studies of UK wildlife provide alarming evidence that many animal and plant species in Britain are in sharp decline due to human activity. The authors of one report claim their findings support the hypothesis the world could be in the midst of a sixth mass extinction. Falls in numbers of butterfly, bird and plant species could be due to habitat destruction and climate change. Details of the studies are outlined in the latest issue of Science magazine. In one study, researchers analysed data from six surveys of UK butterfly, bird and plant species produced over the last 40 years. They found the majority of butterfly species, a total of 71%, had declined over 20 years. The researchers found 54% of British bird species fell over 20 years and 28% of native plant species decreased over 40 years. "There are simply no data sets that approach this detail and scale in the world," co-author Dr Jeremy Thomas, of the Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc), told journalists at a news conference in London. While there is abundant data supporting declines in birds, until now there has been no comparable data for species loss in insects. Yet insects comprise 54% of the world's described species, with birds making up only 0.6%. ... If this situation is reflected elsewhere in the globe, say the authors, it strengthens the view that the world is heading for the sixth mass extinction. Other researchers have proposed the sixth mass extinction theory on the basis that global extinction rates are roughly two orders of magnitude greater than normal "background" rates of extinction observed in the past. The last of these events occurred 65 million years ago and resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs. (03/19/04) Asteroid Near Earth on March 24th NASA -- A small near-Earth asteroid (NEA), discovered Monday night by the NASA-funded LINEAR asteroid survey, will make the closest approach to Earth ever recorded. There is no danger of a collision with the Earth during this encounter. The object, designated 2004 FH, is roughly 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter and will pass just 43,000 km (26,500 miles, or about 3.4 Earth diameters) above the Earth's surface on March 18th at 5:08 PM EST (2:08 PM PST, 22:08 UTC). (Close approach details here). On average, objects about the size of 2004 FH pass within this distance roughly once every two years, but most of these small objects pass by undetected. This particular close approach is unusual only in the sense that scientists know about it. The fact that an object as small as asteroid 2004 FH has been discovered now is mostly a matter of perseverance by the LINEAR team, who are funded by NASA to search for larger kilometer-sized NEAs, but also routinely detect much smaller objects. Asteroid 2004 FH's point of closest approach with the Earth will be over the South Atlantic Ocean. Using a good pair of binoculars, the object will be bright enough to be seen during this close approach from areas of Europe, Asia and most of the Southern Hemisphere. Scientists look forward to the flyby as it will provide them an unprecedented opportunity to study a small NEA asteroid up close. (03/19/04) 5:57:53 AM

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