Thursday, April 24, 2003
April showers bring Spring flowers - and mosquitoes
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
As the Winter hardships subside and nice Spring weather makes outdoor joys accessible to New Yorkers, season-appropriate problems arise. Not like terrorism, the war and SARS, not as in "Houston, I have a..." they are nevertheless real.
My current concern is the little- recognized and rapidly spreading West Nile Virus, borne by an insect well known to local park frequenters, the mosquito. The onset of warm weather brings out the mosquitoes, a few of them WNV infected, who will lay their eggs in trash-filled puddles, rain-filled discarded containers and old tires in abandoned lots, such as those in East Village (check around 12th Street). Gutters filled with decaying leaves, water in dog bowls and birdbaths, flower pot saucers left for more than a few days are their ideal breeding grounds. Note that a clean and chlorinated swimming pool is safe.
The risk increases when we seek relief in the country, where both rain and the spring thaws have left ample wetlands. Cleanup is indicated, as is cautious avoidance of the wetlands until they dry up. As for prevention of bites, repellent sprays help, DEET -based prays are the safest. When going out for a walk between dusk and dawn, the active hours for mosquitoes, wear light and loose-fitting apparel that covers the body (the insects can bite through tight clothes). Spray the clothing with DEET. Although it has been considered safe since its discovery some 50 years ago by the US Army and Department of Agriculture, be cautious in using the spray on bare skin, stay with short-term protective preparations. The May 2003 issue of Consumers Reports lists nine sprays, with their rated hours of use, for both mosquitoes and Lyme ticks. Speaking of the latter, cutting the bright early Spring lawn short and keeping it that way is another way reventing exposure to Lyme disease, keeping both the mice ant ticks down. That's important when our cats and dogs gambol outdoors.
Why this alarm about the WNF? Well, there are the growing numbers and exposures. While there were over 18,000 cases of Lyme Disease reported in 2002, only the Northeast and a couple of Midwest states are actively at risk, while the count of laboratory-positive West Nile cases in the same year has grown to 4,156, affecting 40 states of the US, with 284 deaths. The figures are those published by the Atlanta-based national CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). That is extreme growth for a disease unknown in the US until 1999, when an outbreak of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) with 88 cases and 9 deaths in the metropolitan NY, NJ and CT alerted us that a little known African and Asian affliction had reached our shores.
The mosquito that may carry the virus is the common Culex, or house variety. The symptoms are those of flu, with mild fever. About 80 percent of those affected do not know that they have had it. Only about one in 150 of the victims becomes seriously ill. As of the moment there are no cures for the WNF, patients are made comfortable until the fever goes away. The risk of major impact increases with age and past history of suppressed immune systems. Most victims are over 50 years old.
What is the reported vicious insect-bird cycle that brings the disease to us? Well, mosquitoes hibernate. When the warmth of the spring wakes up the infected females, they hunt for blood, the meal they need to lay eggs. Birds are the most common source, and those thus infected in Spring pass the virus to new generations of mosquitoes. The virus is deadly to some species of avians, particularly ravens, magpies, crows and jays. Birds, by roosting together, can infect others. Some 90 percent of dead crows in the NY area tested in 1999-2000 have been found to be WNF carriers. Dead birds or animals found should not be touched, and should be reported to local health authorities.
The CDC has issued warnings about this explosive epidemic that has virtually wiped out the crows and blue-jays in some parts of this country, and killed 1/3 of the 15,000 horses known to have been infected. According to research performed on household pets, dogs are safe and cats may have a brief illness from which they will recover. Neither species is likely to transmit the disease.
Spraying programs, such as those of 1999-2000 in NYC that produced great fears of the side effects, are up to the municipalities. Pesticides malathion and naled should be avoided; pyrethroid, a fast acting synthetic that breaks down quickly, has been found to be the best.
Wally Dobelis thanks CDC, the US Geological Survey and, especially, Consumer Reports .
As the Winter hardships subside and nice Spring weather makes outdoor joys accessible to New Yorkers, season-appropriate problems arise. Not like terrorism, the war and SARS, not as in "Houston, I have a..." they are nevertheless real.
My current concern is the little- recognized and rapidly spreading West Nile Virus, borne by an insect well known to local park frequenters, the mosquito. The onset of warm weather brings out the mosquitoes, a few of them WNV infected, who will lay their eggs in trash-filled puddles, rain-filled discarded containers and old tires in abandoned lots, such as those in East Village (check around 12th Street). Gutters filled with decaying leaves, water in dog bowls and birdbaths, flower pot saucers left for more than a few days are their ideal breeding grounds. Note that a clean and chlorinated swimming pool is safe.
The risk increases when we seek relief in the country, where both rain and the spring thaws have left ample wetlands. Cleanup is indicated, as is cautious avoidance of the wetlands until they dry up. As for prevention of bites, repellent sprays help, DEET -based prays are the safest. When going out for a walk between dusk and dawn, the active hours for mosquitoes, wear light and loose-fitting apparel that covers the body (the insects can bite through tight clothes). Spray the clothing with DEET. Although it has been considered safe since its discovery some 50 years ago by the US Army and Department of Agriculture, be cautious in using the spray on bare skin, stay with short-term protective preparations. The May 2003 issue of Consumers Reports lists nine sprays, with their rated hours of use, for both mosquitoes and Lyme ticks. Speaking of the latter, cutting the bright early Spring lawn short and keeping it that way is another way reventing exposure to Lyme disease, keeping both the mice ant ticks down. That's important when our cats and dogs gambol outdoors.
Why this alarm about the WNF? Well, there are the growing numbers and exposures. While there were over 18,000 cases of Lyme Disease reported in 2002, only the Northeast and a couple of Midwest states are actively at risk, while the count of laboratory-positive West Nile cases in the same year has grown to 4,156, affecting 40 states of the US, with 284 deaths. The figures are those published by the Atlanta-based national CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). That is extreme growth for a disease unknown in the US until 1999, when an outbreak of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) with 88 cases and 9 deaths in the metropolitan NY, NJ and CT alerted us that a little known African and Asian affliction had reached our shores.
The mosquito that may carry the virus is the common Culex, or house variety. The symptoms are those of flu, with mild fever. About 80 percent of those affected do not know that they have had it. Only about one in 150 of the victims becomes seriously ill. As of the moment there are no cures for the WNF, patients are made comfortable until the fever goes away. The risk of major impact increases with age and past history of suppressed immune systems. Most victims are over 50 years old.
What is the reported vicious insect-bird cycle that brings the disease to us? Well, mosquitoes hibernate. When the warmth of the spring wakes up the infected females, they hunt for blood, the meal they need to lay eggs. Birds are the most common source, and those thus infected in Spring pass the virus to new generations of mosquitoes. The virus is deadly to some species of avians, particularly ravens, magpies, crows and jays. Birds, by roosting together, can infect others. Some 90 percent of dead crows in the NY area tested in 1999-2000 have been found to be WNF carriers. Dead birds or animals found should not be touched, and should be reported to local health authorities.
The CDC has issued warnings about this explosive epidemic that has virtually wiped out the crows and blue-jays in some parts of this country, and killed 1/3 of the 15,000 horses known to have been infected. According to research performed on household pets, dogs are safe and cats may have a brief illness from which they will recover. Neither species is likely to transmit the disease.
Spraying programs, such as those of 1999-2000 in NYC that produced great fears of the side effects, are up to the municipalities. Pesticides malathion and naled should be avoided; pyrethroid, a fast acting synthetic that breaks down quickly, has been found to be the best.
Wally Dobelis thanks CDC, the US Geological Survey and, especially, Consumer Reports .
Thursday, April 17, 2003
Paulp Berman exposes the theory and dangers of radical Islam
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The war against Iraq has deeply split the liberal community. The stalwart anti-Vietnam War protester Nat Hentoff, in a Village Voice article “Why I Didn’t March This Time “ describes the inhumanities of the Saddam regime that make his removal imperative. Human rights activist Michael Ignatieff and other liberals do likewise, some quoting Amnesty International’s citations of tortures and execution
A most potent exposition of the philosophies that created the MidEast dictatorships and alQaeda, as well as of the future expectations in our relationships with the Muslim countries comes from Paul Berman, political and cultural critic (New Republic, NYTimes, Slate). In Terror and Liberalism (W.W. Norton, 2003, $21) he traces the origins of the MidEast conflict to the same roots that tore up Europe in the 20th century, in the battles between liberalism and its totalitarian enemies, and gives insights into a magisterial opus, the inspirational basis for Muslim terrorist activities and their denial of Western values.
At the heart of al Qaeda is the formidable Qur-an interpretation of Sayyid Qutb (KUH-tab), the philosopher of Muslim Brotherhood. He was hanged by Egypt’s Pan-Arabist leader Abdul Gamal Nasser in 1966, after 12 years in prison, during which he wrote a 15-volume commentary on Qur-an. To summarize, he places the heart of civilization in Jerusalem, not ancient Greece, as the Occidentals do. The Jews had divine revelation from Moses, but let it wither into “senseless ritual.” Jesus tried to breathe spirituality back into it, but failed, due to squabbles with the Jews, and the message of the Gospels was distorted. Christianity failed, by dividing the world into the sacred and the secular (“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”}, to placate rulers. Only prophet Mohammed in the 7th century restored the unity of the spiritual to the physical world, and Arab scientists at Islamic universities opened the way to a unified scientific method, subsequently usurped by the Christians. The progress of science further separated the two sides. European scientific and technological discoveries allowed them to dominate the world, and export their “hideous schizophrenia” through the world. The Muslim countries remained relatively spiritually intact. When in 1924 the Turkish leader Ataturk overthrew his Ottoman rulers and installed secular modernity, certain Muslims were prompted to follow his example. The birth of Muslim Brotherhood in the 1930s was an attempt to get Arabs back on the right spiritual path.
However, parallel to Muslim Brotherhood, rose a latecomer secularist pan-Arab movement, originating in the early 1940s.This was in emulation of the Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler and other European leaders’ revolutions, bringing national pride back to their countries ( Berman cites a long lead-in history of revolutionary assassins of monarchs who turned into Anarchist terrorists, supporting the philosophical turning away from Russian and other monarchies, starting in the mid 19th century, that evolved into attacks on liberal democracies.) This, the Ba’ath movement in Syria and Iraq, initially suppressed after the Axis powers lost WWII, was revived in the 1950s. Nasser’s 1952 United Arab Republic’s union with Syria did not last long, and all three countries went their own secularist ways, at times cooperating with the USSR.
Qutb, who learned the Qur-an by heart at ten, and earned an MA at the Colorado College of State Education in the 1940s, was horrified of the corruption of Western life. His persuasive condemnations inspired the terrorists who act to preserve Koranic purity in the Muslim world. In the main as well as in his lesser works the manic Qutb blames Christianity and, particularly, Judaism, for plotting to destroy Islam and its spiritually principled life. Enemies abound:: feminism detracts from the spiritual function of childbearing and rearing; liberals gladly confine Islam to the spiritual, yet bar its participation in the activities of life, and deny it its rightful predominance of every secular human activity.
Qutb’s arrest in 1953 was due to the Islamists’ attempt on Nasser’s .life. The voluminous “In The Shade of the Qur-an,” only partially translated in English, was written in jail, between tortures, and is taught in Saudi and other universities by such as Qutb’s brother Muhammad, a distinguished professor and teacher of young Osama bin Laden . It matches the Saudi fundamentalist Wahhabi teachings.
Berman’s dazzling analyses of public opinion spins by Sharon, the terrorists, and of suicide as the ultimate PR tool (my term) need to be read. En passant, he skewers Noam Chomsky, both as a geopolitician and linguist. His solutions of “new radicalism” and US involvement are worth exploring.
The war against Iraq has deeply split the liberal community. The stalwart anti-Vietnam War protester Nat Hentoff, in a Village Voice article “Why I Didn’t March This Time “ describes the inhumanities of the Saddam regime that make his removal imperative. Human rights activist Michael Ignatieff and other liberals do likewise, some quoting Amnesty International’s citations of tortures and execution
A most potent exposition of the philosophies that created the MidEast dictatorships and alQaeda, as well as of the future expectations in our relationships with the Muslim countries comes from Paul Berman, political and cultural critic (New Republic, NYTimes, Slate). In Terror and Liberalism (W.W. Norton, 2003, $21) he traces the origins of the MidEast conflict to the same roots that tore up Europe in the 20th century, in the battles between liberalism and its totalitarian enemies, and gives insights into a magisterial opus, the inspirational basis for Muslim terrorist activities and their denial of Western values.
At the heart of al Qaeda is the formidable Qur-an interpretation of Sayyid Qutb (KUH-tab), the philosopher of Muslim Brotherhood. He was hanged by Egypt’s Pan-Arabist leader Abdul Gamal Nasser in 1966, after 12 years in prison, during which he wrote a 15-volume commentary on Qur-an. To summarize, he places the heart of civilization in Jerusalem, not ancient Greece, as the Occidentals do. The Jews had divine revelation from Moses, but let it wither into “senseless ritual.” Jesus tried to breathe spirituality back into it, but failed, due to squabbles with the Jews, and the message of the Gospels was distorted. Christianity failed, by dividing the world into the sacred and the secular (“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”}, to placate rulers. Only prophet Mohammed in the 7th century restored the unity of the spiritual to the physical world, and Arab scientists at Islamic universities opened the way to a unified scientific method, subsequently usurped by the Christians. The progress of science further separated the two sides. European scientific and technological discoveries allowed them to dominate the world, and export their “hideous schizophrenia” through the world. The Muslim countries remained relatively spiritually intact. When in 1924 the Turkish leader Ataturk overthrew his Ottoman rulers and installed secular modernity, certain Muslims were prompted to follow his example. The birth of Muslim Brotherhood in the 1930s was an attempt to get Arabs back on the right spiritual path.
However, parallel to Muslim Brotherhood, rose a latecomer secularist pan-Arab movement, originating in the early 1940s.This was in emulation of the Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler and other European leaders’ revolutions, bringing national pride back to their countries ( Berman cites a long lead-in history of revolutionary assassins of monarchs who turned into Anarchist terrorists, supporting the philosophical turning away from Russian and other monarchies, starting in the mid 19th century, that evolved into attacks on liberal democracies.) This, the Ba’ath movement in Syria and Iraq, initially suppressed after the Axis powers lost WWII, was revived in the 1950s. Nasser’s 1952 United Arab Republic’s union with Syria did not last long, and all three countries went their own secularist ways, at times cooperating with the USSR.
Qutb, who learned the Qur-an by heart at ten, and earned an MA at the Colorado College of State Education in the 1940s, was horrified of the corruption of Western life. His persuasive condemnations inspired the terrorists who act to preserve Koranic purity in the Muslim world. In the main as well as in his lesser works the manic Qutb blames Christianity and, particularly, Judaism, for plotting to destroy Islam and its spiritually principled life. Enemies abound:: feminism detracts from the spiritual function of childbearing and rearing; liberals gladly confine Islam to the spiritual, yet bar its participation in the activities of life, and deny it its rightful predominance of every secular human activity.
Qutb’s arrest in 1953 was due to the Islamists’ attempt on Nasser’s .life. The voluminous “In The Shade of the Qur-an,” only partially translated in English, was written in jail, between tortures, and is taught in Saudi and other universities by such as Qutb’s brother Muhammad, a distinguished professor and teacher of young Osama bin Laden . It matches the Saudi fundamentalist Wahhabi teachings.
Berman’s dazzling analyses of public opinion spins by Sharon, the terrorists, and of suicide as the ultimate PR tool (my term) need to be read. En passant, he skewers Noam Chomsky, both as a geopolitician and linguist. His solutions of “new radicalism” and US involvement are worth exploring.
Sunday, April 06, 2003
Thoughts of the old, hopes for the new
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
In need for a positive fix, I broached some friends, neighbors and local dignitaries for good news, local, city, state and world variety. Herewith the first installment.
Louise Dankberg, a distinguished local politico, District Leader of the Tilden Democratic Club, is pleased with the victories of local Democratic candidates, making our town's delegation fully of that persuasion, in City Council, assembly and state senate. She regrets the loss of Carl McCall in the governorship race, and sees it as the result of bad campaigning. Local issues such as rent regulation were not addressed early enough.
As for 2003, she sees the city and state in a troubled condition, with backbreaking taxes imposed to keep us afloat. Lower and middle income people have no place to go, outer borroughs are as expensive as Mnhattan. Education and housing will be suffering. The mayor is remote and aloof, although not an authoritarian of the early Giuliani stripe, but whether his austerity measures, such as the 18% tax, address the issues adequately is moot. If you ask him, he wants to make the city whole, but politically this NYC Democrat is making common cause with Pataki and Bruno, whose interests are biased toward upstate. On the bright side, the Tilden Club will be celebrating its 50th anniversary the whole year. It was founded as one of the original Reform or anti-Tammany clubs, and several of its founding members will participate in the festivities - such as Ida Malbin, Barbara White, Audrey Kasha, and the original district leaders Margot Gayle and retired Judge Millard Midonick, now in private practice.
Asked about expectations and favorite candidates in the 2004 Presidential race, Louise suggests that interested parties come to the club meetings, where such matters will be discussed.
Karen Shaw, Executive Director of the 14th Street-Union Square LDC/BID, and Joe Tango, its Director of Operations (that's Safety and Sanitation) had the most positive outlook. Last year's recovery from the terrible business slump following 9/11 has been almost miraculous. The restaurants are full, once more, in the best-tasting-neighborhood in the city (I write 'em as I hear 'em, folks), the reconstructed park is more beautiful than ever, the summer concerts attract big lunchtime crowds, the four-day market schedule brings in shoppers from far away (noted, some Kiwis with World Cup signs, and an Aussie playing the didgeridoo), the off-Broadway theaters are a major attarction, and the neighborhood is safe! Safe? Yes, a safe haven! The public safety officers, although without authority to arrest, cooperate with and are the eyes and ears of the 13th, 9th and 6th Precincts and Transit Division 4, all of which have responsibilities in the BID. You may want to look for the BID's banners, announcing events and openings.
Next, a caution for car owners. If you drive fast, be careful not to whizz through traffic lights. There are some 50-60 traffic light cameras scattered throughout the five boroughs, and the fines imposed for a red light transgression have risen from $55 to $105. Some of the locatons are 42th and 2nd Ave (South-bound), Houston and 1st (W/B), Amsterdam and 72nd (N/B), 72nd and 3rd (N/B), and consider yourself lucky that this offense is not costing you points and an increase of the insurance premium (it is treated as a parking offense, since the camera cannot tell who's driving). This is advice from Matthew Weiss, Esq., a Park South/20s lawyer specializing in defending drivers. Also, remember, no single occupant vehicles (SOV) are permitted at five key crossings (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburgh bridges, Brooklyn Battery and Hudson tunnels) 6-10AM on weekdays, and no turnoffs are permitted off express ("through") avenues (3rd to 6th, except Park)) on many blocks in midtown, 36th to 60th.
Next news, for the subway users. Through a glass, darkly, is the view of civic activist Jon Schachter, our train-watcher (and police-watcher, noise-pollution watcher and unlicensed-premises watcher). His attitude is colored, for the moment, by the proposed closing, subject to hearings, of the part-time MTA subway change booths at 16th and Broadway (BMT), 14th and 3rd Ave (L train), 22nd and Park (both sides of the street), and the off-and-on proposed 23rd and Broadway (N,W R lines, both sides of the street). What happens presently, when part-time booths close at 9PM, and before the gates close at 11PM, is that "card swipers" disable the card dispenser machines, and stand at the gate, offering to let through the transit users who have no card or tokens, for the standard $1.50 (they'll make change). How? They have bought "unlimited use" cards! The TA police force is reduced, down from 4,000 to 2,500, and unable to monitor all of the frequent crime situations, and booth closings will cost MTA lost revenue. Jon has seen a "swiper" do 14 quick transactions in the lag hours at a part-time booth; imagine the results if the booths are closed all day and night, without adequate police presence! He advises us to look at the the token/card machines, as we pass by. They are marked green when fully operational; yellow means that a part (single fare, multi-dollar etc) is vandalized; red means the entire machine is vandalized. At some of the above locations there have been weekly vandalizations. Good wuck, New York.
I did not escape a share of black humor. Asked for good news, a bookstore man replies: "Tell 'em books about Iraq sell well." And a religious source: " The good news is that the Buccaneers won." And from a theater -person: "cheer up, tickets are easy for any show, get them before the shows close."
But there is a silver lining. Jeff, a student at Stuyvesant High, is totally positive. The school has won, first time in five years, the national Intel (formerly Westinghouse) Science Talent Search. More than half of the 300 semi-finalists are from New York, and Stuy Hi has 19 of them, first again (it has been first six out of the past 10 years, although a second in 1998-2002). That speaks well for his scholarship search. Yo, Jeff, stay on the track.
In need for a positive fix, I broached some friends, neighbors and local dignitaries for good news, local, city, state and world variety. Herewith the first installment.
Louise Dankberg, a distinguished local politico, District Leader of the Tilden Democratic Club, is pleased with the victories of local Democratic candidates, making our town's delegation fully of that persuasion, in City Council, assembly and state senate. She regrets the loss of Carl McCall in the governorship race, and sees it as the result of bad campaigning. Local issues such as rent regulation were not addressed early enough.
As for 2003, she sees the city and state in a troubled condition, with backbreaking taxes imposed to keep us afloat. Lower and middle income people have no place to go, outer borroughs are as expensive as Mnhattan. Education and housing will be suffering. The mayor is remote and aloof, although not an authoritarian of the early Giuliani stripe, but whether his austerity measures, such as the 18% tax, address the issues adequately is moot. If you ask him, he wants to make the city whole, but politically this NYC Democrat is making common cause with Pataki and Bruno, whose interests are biased toward upstate. On the bright side, the Tilden Club will be celebrating its 50th anniversary the whole year. It was founded as one of the original Reform or anti-Tammany clubs, and several of its founding members will participate in the festivities - such as Ida Malbin, Barbara White, Audrey Kasha, and the original district leaders Margot Gayle and retired Judge Millard Midonick, now in private practice.
Asked about expectations and favorite candidates in the 2004 Presidential race, Louise suggests that interested parties come to the club meetings, where such matters will be discussed.
Karen Shaw, Executive Director of the 14th Street-Union Square LDC/BID, and Joe Tango, its Director of Operations (that's Safety and Sanitation) had the most positive outlook. Last year's recovery from the terrible business slump following 9/11 has been almost miraculous. The restaurants are full, once more, in the best-tasting-neighborhood in the city (I write 'em as I hear 'em, folks), the reconstructed park is more beautiful than ever, the summer concerts attract big lunchtime crowds, the four-day market schedule brings in shoppers from far away (noted, some Kiwis with World Cup signs, and an Aussie playing the didgeridoo), the off-Broadway theaters are a major attarction, and the neighborhood is safe! Safe? Yes, a safe haven! The public safety officers, although without authority to arrest, cooperate with and are the eyes and ears of the 13th, 9th and 6th Precincts and Transit Division 4, all of which have responsibilities in the BID. You may want to look for the BID's banners, announcing events and openings.
Next, a caution for car owners. If you drive fast, be careful not to whizz through traffic lights. There are some 50-60 traffic light cameras scattered throughout the five boroughs, and the fines imposed for a red light transgression have risen from $55 to $105. Some of the locatons are 42th and 2nd Ave (South-bound), Houston and 1st (W/B), Amsterdam and 72nd (N/B), 72nd and 3rd (N/B), and consider yourself lucky that this offense is not costing you points and an increase of the insurance premium (it is treated as a parking offense, since the camera cannot tell who's driving). This is advice from Matthew Weiss, Esq., a Park South/20s lawyer specializing in defending drivers. Also, remember, no single occupant vehicles (SOV) are permitted at five key crossings (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburgh bridges, Brooklyn Battery and Hudson tunnels) 6-10AM on weekdays, and no turnoffs are permitted off express ("through") avenues (3rd to 6th, except Park)) on many blocks in midtown, 36th to 60th.
Next news, for the subway users. Through a glass, darkly, is the view of civic activist Jon Schachter, our train-watcher (and police-watcher, noise-pollution watcher and unlicensed-premises watcher). His attitude is colored, for the moment, by the proposed closing, subject to hearings, of the part-time MTA subway change booths at 16th and Broadway (BMT), 14th and 3rd Ave (L train), 22nd and Park (both sides of the street), and the off-and-on proposed 23rd and Broadway (N,W R lines, both sides of the street). What happens presently, when part-time booths close at 9PM, and before the gates close at 11PM, is that "card swipers" disable the card dispenser machines, and stand at the gate, offering to let through the transit users who have no card or tokens, for the standard $1.50 (they'll make change). How? They have bought "unlimited use" cards! The TA police force is reduced, down from 4,000 to 2,500, and unable to monitor all of the frequent crime situations, and booth closings will cost MTA lost revenue. Jon has seen a "swiper" do 14 quick transactions in the lag hours at a part-time booth; imagine the results if the booths are closed all day and night, without adequate police presence! He advises us to look at the the token/card machines, as we pass by. They are marked green when fully operational; yellow means that a part (single fare, multi-dollar etc) is vandalized; red means the entire machine is vandalized. At some of the above locations there have been weekly vandalizations. Good wuck, New York.
I did not escape a share of black humor. Asked for good news, a bookstore man replies: "Tell 'em books about Iraq sell well." And a religious source: " The good news is that the Buccaneers won." And from a theater -person: "cheer up, tickets are easy for any show, get them before the shows close."
But there is a silver lining. Jeff, a student at Stuyvesant High, is totally positive. The school has won, first time in five years, the national Intel (formerly Westinghouse) Science Talent Search. More than half of the 300 semi-finalists are from New York, and Stuy Hi has 19 of them, first again (it has been first six out of the past 10 years, although a second in 1998-2002). That speaks well for his scholarship search. Yo, Jeff, stay on the track.
Thursday, April 03, 2003
Is this Saddam Hussein's manual of warfare? asks Dr. Paranoia
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Dr. Paranoia claims that he has gained telekinetic access to Saddam Hussein's secret "Dictator's Handbook." Whether authentic or not, he provides some excerpts from it:
The purpose of the ruler is to assert the supremacy and glory of his nation. Protecting the ruler is the only principle that matters in the existence of a nation. But no ruler is safe against internal subversion. To assume and hold the power in a divided country, control of one party is paramount. The members of such a party, proclaimed the true patriots, can be induced to liquidate the leaders of other parties, eventually giving the ruler total control. Chemical and biological weapons may be used in mass extermination of enemies [e.g. "Chemical Ali" Hassan al Majid at Halabja]. The blood shed will unite the ruler's death squad against the opponent populace. An opponent should be captured, tortured and his family threatened, to induce him to denounce his collaborators, and actually participate in killing them . After that, he is yours, he has no place else to go.
Be suspicious of everyone. Do not turn your back on converted enemies; liquidate them after they are no longer useful. Suspect those who express too much enthusiasm for your government, they are waiting to take over. Get rid of those of your comrades who have gained too much popularity, or tend to take control; liquidate them under a pretense, in faked accidents [e.g. Adnan Khairallah] or illness [e.g. Hassan al-Bakr].
Reward your death squad, they are your best defense. Give them privileges; let them terrorize the populace, suppress expression of opinion and kill the people who speak out or talk to foreigners. The squad members are united in fear; if you are deposed, the populace will rise and destroy your henchmen. Your survival is the killer squads' only means of staying alive. But do not let them come too close, someone in the squad may try to assassinate the ruler to buy forgiveness from the oppressed populace.
If a war comes and armies of liberation try to depose the ruler, there are no limits to the defenders' tactics. Killing one's own civilians works well. Send lightly armed soldiers, civilians and children against armor [e.g. Iranians in 1980]. The more civilians die in protecting the ruler, the better the chances of his government's survival, through the creation of outrage against the armies of liberation throughout the world. This is the age of information; use the media, distribute the TV pictures of dead and injured civilians and bombed buildings to the world. "Create" pictures, deny guilt. The softhearted of the world will protest and stop the "outrages," and send volunteers.
Save your soldiers, but do not worry about them dying. If you characterize your enemies as anti-Islam devils determined to destroy the true believers, volunteers from Islamic countries will come to take the soldiers' place. Claim that the opponents are out to grab control over the oil, that will enrage more Arabs.
The Geneva Convention is for the weak. Use what the Convention calls "perfidy;" these are important strategies for winning the war. Dress your fighters as civilians, hide them within a group of hijacked locals pretending to greet the enemy, then ambush. This demoralizes the enemy. If they start killing the mixed group indiscriminately, protest the "outrage." Claim that the ambushers are angry patriotic volunteers, outside the military's control.
Use hostages - your own people, foreigners or captured soldiers - as human shields, protecting military assets. Force the parents to fight by threatening their children; make boys use guns by holding the parents as hostages. Make schools, hospitals and civic buildings the hiding places for arms. This will prompt the enemy to bomb them and create more civilian deaths, and a reaction in the world. Killing captured enemies will create anger among them, leading to true counter-atrocities. Blame outraged civilian patriots for the killing of captives.
Destroy your own resources - oil wells and refineries - and blame the enemy. Destroy the electric facilities and water supply of your own people to create a reaction of outrage and incite the civilian population. If the civilians are Shiites or Kurds, anti-government people, so much the better that they die.
Invoke patriotism. Encourage suicide bombers. Fight in the streets. It will create civilian deaths and patriotic outcry, and prompt more world opinion. The enemy's technological superiority will not help in beating back determined guerilla street fighters. Kill the enemies, they are unable to take death of their young men and women, and will give up the war. Remember Somalia.
Dr. Paranoia claims that he has gained telekinetic access to Saddam Hussein's secret "Dictator's Handbook." Whether authentic or not, he provides some excerpts from it:
The purpose of the ruler is to assert the supremacy and glory of his nation. Protecting the ruler is the only principle that matters in the existence of a nation. But no ruler is safe against internal subversion. To assume and hold the power in a divided country, control of one party is paramount. The members of such a party, proclaimed the true patriots, can be induced to liquidate the leaders of other parties, eventually giving the ruler total control. Chemical and biological weapons may be used in mass extermination of enemies [e.g. "Chemical Ali" Hassan al Majid at Halabja]. The blood shed will unite the ruler's death squad against the opponent populace. An opponent should be captured, tortured and his family threatened, to induce him to denounce his collaborators, and actually participate in killing them . After that, he is yours, he has no place else to go.
Be suspicious of everyone. Do not turn your back on converted enemies; liquidate them after they are no longer useful. Suspect those who express too much enthusiasm for your government, they are waiting to take over. Get rid of those of your comrades who have gained too much popularity, or tend to take control; liquidate them under a pretense, in faked accidents [e.g. Adnan Khairallah] or illness [e.g. Hassan al-Bakr].
Reward your death squad, they are your best defense. Give them privileges; let them terrorize the populace, suppress expression of opinion and kill the people who speak out or talk to foreigners. The squad members are united in fear; if you are deposed, the populace will rise and destroy your henchmen. Your survival is the killer squads' only means of staying alive. But do not let them come too close, someone in the squad may try to assassinate the ruler to buy forgiveness from the oppressed populace.
If a war comes and armies of liberation try to depose the ruler, there are no limits to the defenders' tactics. Killing one's own civilians works well. Send lightly armed soldiers, civilians and children against armor [e.g. Iranians in 1980]. The more civilians die in protecting the ruler, the better the chances of his government's survival, through the creation of outrage against the armies of liberation throughout the world. This is the age of information; use the media, distribute the TV pictures of dead and injured civilians and bombed buildings to the world. "Create" pictures, deny guilt. The softhearted of the world will protest and stop the "outrages," and send volunteers.
Save your soldiers, but do not worry about them dying. If you characterize your enemies as anti-Islam devils determined to destroy the true believers, volunteers from Islamic countries will come to take the soldiers' place. Claim that the opponents are out to grab control over the oil, that will enrage more Arabs.
The Geneva Convention is for the weak. Use what the Convention calls "perfidy;" these are important strategies for winning the war. Dress your fighters as civilians, hide them within a group of hijacked locals pretending to greet the enemy, then ambush. This demoralizes the enemy. If they start killing the mixed group indiscriminately, protest the "outrage." Claim that the ambushers are angry patriotic volunteers, outside the military's control.
Use hostages - your own people, foreigners or captured soldiers - as human shields, protecting military assets. Force the parents to fight by threatening their children; make boys use guns by holding the parents as hostages. Make schools, hospitals and civic buildings the hiding places for arms. This will prompt the enemy to bomb them and create more civilian deaths, and a reaction in the world. Killing captured enemies will create anger among them, leading to true counter-atrocities. Blame outraged civilian patriots for the killing of captives.
Destroy your own resources - oil wells and refineries - and blame the enemy. Destroy the electric facilities and water supply of your own people to create a reaction of outrage and incite the civilian population. If the civilians are Shiites or Kurds, anti-government people, so much the better that they die.
Invoke patriotism. Encourage suicide bombers. Fight in the streets. It will create civilian deaths and patriotic outcry, and prompt more world opinion. The enemy's technological superiority will not help in beating back determined guerilla street fighters. Kill the enemies, they are unable to take death of their young men and women, and will give up the war. Remember Somalia.
