Everything is changing, it's happening now

Sunday April 24, 2009

. . . . .I'm going to update yesterday's post, and leave the news that was up yesterday there along with new updates. There's a reason for that, everything is happening now, not yesterday, not in 2012, not next week, but now, right frakkin' now. What I'm hoping for is to get the words out and on paper as fast as they're flooding in.

. . . .By the way, I've been asked if there was a way to capture or keep the music and little vocal messages that I put out when I post. Yes, there is, quite simple really. Subscribe to this as a feed, and you'll have the podcast of this, the soundtracks and music files captured. Apparently, according to feedback from some of you, I, on a rare occasion, put music up that you've forgotten about, or haven't heard before, and you'd like to keep. So, anyhow, if you have ITunes, go up top to the menus, click advanced and then click "subscribe to a podcast". In the URL box that comes up type in "http://anidiotsravingsattheedge.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default". The intro and the music will then be imported into your ITunes library as a file. Use the same http address that I just gave above for any other RSS feed catcher that you use, like GoogleFeeds or YahooFeeds, if you use FireFox as a browser, you can subscribe right from your toolbar. Anyhow, thought I'd pass that on. If you don't know what I'm talking about, e-mail me and I'll walk you through it, or ask your local 21 year old.

. . . . I was asked a couple of weeks ago by a reader "Who are you? What makes you believe the way you do?"

. . . .I gave the answer but not all of it. Here's the rest. I live in two worlds, and always have. There is the side of me that is very well educated in the laws of mathematics, physics, electricity and engineering. The side that knows that these laws are universal constants that cannot be broken, defeated, cheated or gotten around, and are the same everywhere, regardless, here, on Jupiter, in a distant galaxy or at the center of a black hole. I'm an information sponge that read the Encyclopedia in the summer between kindergarten and first grade, with an eidetic memory and a flair for mathematical formulas, probabilities and equated outcomes. who's always learned to tone that down for the sake of the people around me, and is damn near autistic in his social relationships.

. . . .There's another side of me, just as vital, and just as prescient who has always, repeat always, known that there was something else, some other thing or a world beyond our own. A kid who heard, as a child, what other people were thinking, who could talk to dead people, and still does, regularly. A child who learned to shut it off and out, for the sanity's sake, and was finally able to turn it back on as an adult, when he was given the opportunity and chance to learn how to monitor it, use it, channel it and believe in it. Someone who now has the privilege and opportunity to understand that there really is a world beyond our world, that this world has a Creator, and spirits that live in both worlds, with us. Ceremonies that can touch things inside us and reach beyond this veil, and allow me, us all, the brief moment on occasion to see the Great Mystery, to touch the Face of God.

. . . .Two distinctly different crowds of people, but very good friends in each one, people whom I love, people who I proudly call friend. Two crowds with supposedly diametrically opposed viewpoints, people who cannot understand one another, and here I stand, at that crossroads between them. The place where the rational, scientific world intesects with the world of the mystic and the spiritual, the Crossroads.

. . . . .What's happened is the ability to "see" the connections between apparently unrelated events, to understand the chain of events, to see the nexus points where the information all flows in, creating nodal points (points where the course of human history can be changed). It's allowed me to become someone who lives in both worlds, and sees how the Wakiyan, Anansi, the Orishas, Ochosi, Eleggua & Xango; Fallen Angels, all of them, travel the circuits, the connections and live in the cyberworld, more real than ever. It's allowed me to see how Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed and Buddha are all hanging out a great greasy rib shack somewhere with an incredible band that they've assembled all playing some of the best rock and roll in all of eternity.
. . . .It's the ability to process loads of information rapidly, multiple streams of data and start seeing how it all fits together, what the equations say will occur, since absolutely everything can really be boiled down to an equation. It's unfortunate that we educate our children by having them learn arithmetic first, since once you get through all of it, you begin to understand just how abstract and difficult something like arithmetic and number sets are. The real world operates on the calculus and differential equations, which is what gives us "randomness" and probability, what gives us how large systems with multiple inputs interact, and is much easier to "see".
I'm not unique, there's always someone around like that, just as there are others who have other, different, gifts, all just as real, just as unique.

. . . . . Don't get all of that? OK, here's the first reading assignment from the Angel, there are 6 books altogether by William Gibson, who was, and is, one of the best futurists to ever put together a novel. I said futurist, I use language very intentionally and specifically. Gibson had, and has, the uncanny knack to see exactly what was coming. So . . .click the link, get yourself over to Amazon, and order yourself up: Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Virtual Light & All Tomorrow's Parties. You'll get "it" eventually.

. . . .Chaos theory is definitely misunderstood by both the crowds that I run with, and as a result, I'm not always understood. The distinct possibility for that, I suppose, is it's name. It's not really about chaos at all, but only what appears to be chaos upon casual observation. It's a mathematical system for probabilities in complex systems, such as our society, our Nation, or our own Earth. To understand it completely, the fractals, the differentials, the potential probabilities; the equations behind it does take quite a bit. To understand it's essence is actually incredibly simple. It's understanding that nothing that happens is random, that everything, absolutely everything is predictable. It's also understanding that within those nodal points I referred to earlier, those points where the entire course of human history can be changed, where everything shifts lie infinite possibilities. It's understanding that there is absolutely nothing that is an inevitable outcome, that there is no such thing as an unavoidable doom, that there is no such thing as guaranteed salvation. The guarantee of chaos theory is that the one constant in a system is change, change that may seem to be beyond our ability to shape or influence, but if the nodal points can be understood and seen, if there is at least one person who has a glimpse of the mathematical possibilities and probabilities, then the direction of that change can be influenced and shaped, and all it takes is subtle nudges, of any kind, thus always there is hope, always hope that the direction taken, the outcome, is one that will (a) always be predictable, even though the mathematics of that prediction may be hard to comprehend or figure and (2) even in the midst of seeming disaster, there is a chance that those disastrous conditions actually may lead to a desirable outcome.

. . . .So. . . . .I hope that you all are beginning to see why, at least for me, I do this. The more that facts are known, the more that the shape of things begins to come clearer, the more defined the connections are, the sharper the image becomes. If we truly believe that we are all related, that we are all connected, not just us, but everything in the world, then it becomes obvious that we are part of picture. We, the collective we, created a mantra last summer, last fall, a prayer, a koan all centered around the word "change" and we sent that forth. The election was only a part of that, we sent that mantra, that thought, that prayer out into the world, and it had a lot of energy behind it. Well, folks, be careful what you ask for, change we have, and in abundant fashion. So, yes, there really is a relationship between increased and more severe storms, climate change, a financial crisis of unprecedented proportions, societal upheaval centered around gay marriage and race relations, with the right wing pushing back hard; a fear about food supplies; a reshaping of the political system; a religious war that rages unabated in the Mideast that we have the barest comprehension of, and a pandemic, deadly flu virus that appeared out of nowhere not during flu season, that is a heretofore unknown genetic mix of swine flu, avian flu and human flu, an unknown strain, that there are no vaccines for, and that is now killing people and in 24 hours has vectored uncontrollably and wildly. The basic thought pattern behind chaos theory is that no change is entirely unexpected, although sometimes wildly improbable, but there is still the chance inside a nodal point that it could happen, so it does. That's the nature of mutation, or intuitive leaps, or improbable happenings. They are real, and they do happen.

. . . . .Remember that language is symbolic, it's not only the letters coming together to make words and sentences. It's the soundtrack, it's the colors, it's the font, it's the way the breeze is blowing while you read, the colors around you, the thought that goes behind everything. It's not just the words and letters.

. . . .Why does this become important and count, and have a need to be understood and comprehended? Because we're in desperate trouble here on this beautiful little blue marble, that's why. As the evidence mounts, it would take the most stone-headed of "those who would deny" to try and ignore or refute the dramatic evidence mounting everyday of dramatic and catastrophic climate change going on around us every day.

- The Chicago Tribune turns this one in on a report called The Environment America study, based on government and university data. The report comes to the conclusion that American corn (the most important crop in the cycle of life on this planet) yields alone will be reduced by 3 percent due to rising temperatures, with Illinois and Iowa hit the hardest, and as a nation, we will lose $1.4 billion in corn revenues. The report does not even attempt to calculate the losses from storms, floods, ozone pollution or increased insect damage due to those same rising temperatures, but only quantifies based on sub-par growing conditions due to the temperature increase.

- Researchers with NASA and The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado report that Arctic Sea Ice is at it's thinnest levels in over 30 years. More than 90 percent of sea ice in the Arctic is only 1 or 2 years old.

- From the BBC, this video of an ice bridge breaking up in the Antarctic, which linked an ice shelf the size of Jamaica to two islands in the Antarctic. The scientists who released it say it's proof that the climate is changing much more rapidly than thought or predicted.

- From CNN, this report on a village of Upik's having to abandon their village and their homes due to climate change:

The community of the tiny coastal village of Newtok voted to relocate its 340 residents to new homes 9 miles away, up the Ninglick River. The village, home to indigenous Yup'ik Eskimos, is the first of possibly scores of threatened Alaskan communities that could be abandoned.
Warming temperatures are melting coastal ice shelves and frozen sub-soils, which act as natural barriers to protect the village against summer deluges from ocean storm surges.
"We are seeing the erosion, flooding and sinking of our village right now," said Stanley Tom, a Yup'ik Eskimo and tribal administrator for the Newtok Traditional Council.
The crisis is unique because its devastating effects creep up on communities, eating away at their infrastructure, unlike with sudden natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes or hurricanes.
Newtok is just one example of what the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns is part of a growing climate change crisis that will displace 150 million people by 2050.

- This one developed rapidly over the day on Saturday and I've included Sunday's update below it. When I first tuned in CNN Saturday morning, there were 60 reported deaths in Mexico City from an outbreak of swine flu. By the end of the day, going into the late afternoon, there are now 68 confirmed deaths from this flu, with over 1,000 confirmed infected in Mexico City alone. This morning, there were no confirmed cases in the States. Again, by late afternoon, there are 2 confirmed cases in Kansas, 8 confirmed in Texas and California, and an outbreak in a private school in New York City. This can't be taken lightly, and yes it ties in. We cannot continue to destroy the ecosphere and not expect some reaction to those actions. This is very serious, deadly strain of flu, that CDC officials say genetically has strains of swine flu, avian flu and a third flu. It genetically altered to adapt, there aren't any vaccines right now, and no, it's not flu season in North America right now. WHO officials and CDC officials are very concerned that this is the "pandemic" flu that has been predicted for some time now. As I wrote above about the length of time (less than 8 hours) and the particular locations, the disease vectors on this are taking off in some wild directions.

Sunday Update

- The White House held a press briefing today on the flu: It's not time to panic

"We do think this will continue to spread but we are taking aggressive actions to minimize the impact on people's health," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."We're preparing in an environment where we really don't know ultimately what the size or seriousness of this outbreak is going to be," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters.Earlier, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the outbreak was serious, but that the public should know "it's not a time to panic." He told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Obama was getting updates "every few hours."There is no vaccine against swine flu, but the CDC has taken the initial step necessary for producing one _ creating a seed stock of the virus _ should authorities decide that's necessary. Last winter's flu shot offers no cross-protection to the new virus, although it's possible that older people exposed to various Type A flu strains in the past may have some immunity, CDC officials said Sunday.

- The United States has declared a public health emergency, and is likening it to preparing for a hurricane:

The U.S. declared a public health emergency Sunday to deal with the emerging new swine flu, much like the government does to prepare for approaching hurricanes.

Officials reported 20 U.S. cases of swine flu in five states so far, with the latest in Ohio and New York.

"As we continue to look for cases, we are going to see a broader spectrum of disease," predicted Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We're going to see more severe disease in this country."

At a White House news conference, Besser and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to assure Americans that health officials are taking all appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the outbreak.

- From CNN:
- Canada has found it's first case
- Now, along with Texas, California and New York, Kansas and Ohio have reported cases.
- And in the sincerest case of buffoonery and hypocrisy yet, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, who last week was making very sincere and real statements about secession, has now asked for Federal help in dealing with his borders and the flu outbreak.

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- To go along with the massive disappearance of frogs (more on that below, and it's significance), now scientists are concerned about the large numbers of honeybees, bumblebees and butterflies that are simply missing, and the large dieoffs in those populations. This ties in with the corn problem that I talked about above, without bees, we lose our most important pollinators, which leads to no crops. With crops already threatened with flooding, the loss of fresh water reservoirs and the increasing loss of arable land to desert, the loss of bees as pollinators could severely threaten our ability to keep a food supply going.
- The problem of the disappearing frogs continues to plague scientists. Since frogs bridge the gap between water and land, they are the "first responders" of ecosystem changes. With disappearing wetlands, and increasingly polluted fresh water, the frogs are acting as our canaries in a coal mine, letting us know that the ecosphere is increasingly becoming unbalanced.

. . . .How serious is it? Serious enough that Al Gore addressed Congress on Friday on the issue of climate change and the need for sweeping action. Serious enough that Congress is now beginning to move on legislation, starting this last week with the hearings that Gore addressed, that will rival the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts passed in the 70's. Serious enough that back on Wednesday, Earth Day, Energy Secretary Chu laid out a climate change doomsday scenario in a press briefing at The Summit of the Americas:

And so let me remind you that the Earth has already warmed up by about 0.8 degrees Centigrade; that the experts acknowledge that there is another 1 degree Centigrade already built into the system, even if humans stopped carbon emissions today flat. That's because we put enough greenhouse gases up into the atmosphere, the sun continues to warm up the Earth, and until you reach a new equilibrium or the heat from the Earth then reaches the equilibrium -- what's coming in and what's getting reflected back -- there's 1 degree change already; that there's a reasonable probability we can go above 4 degrees Centigrade to 5 and 6 more. That means we have a -- there's a reasonable probability, and certainly in business-as-usual scenario, we can go to 5 or 6 degrees Centigrade.
Now, what does that mean? The last ice age, we were 6 degrees Centigrade colder than we are today -- a very different world. Okay, only 6 degrees Centigrade means, in North America, ice sheet from Canada down to Pennsylvania, Ohio -- year round in ice. So imagine a world 6 degrees warmer. It's not going to recognize geographical boundaries. It's not going to recognize anything. So agriculture regions today will be wiped out. Yes, there are parts of Canada will be -- can grow more food, but, you know, the other thing is, the Earth is spherical and the sun hits at an angle up north. So there are going to be huge consequences if we go up to that 4, 5, 6 degrees.

I think the Caribbean countries face rising oceans and they face increase in the severity of hurricanes. This is something that is very, very scary to all of us; that if you consider what has been happening, especially in the polar regions in the north, and you look at the predictions of the IPCC beginning in 1990, this is something they didn't do so well. It's melting considerably faster than anyone predicted ten years ago.
So we are terribly afraid there will be an increase in temperature if the ice in the Antarctica and Greenland melt. This is bad news. If Greenland melts -- it's two or three kilometers thick -- we're looking at a seven-meter sea level rise around the world. Some island states will disappear.

. . . .None of this is meant to be doomsday, or to scare anyone, but I hope you're scared. As scared as I am. It's scientific research, and it's fact. It's meant to give you some factual basis to have a discussion with someone, anyone, who isn't a believer yet, or is still a skeptic. It's happening, and it may seem overwhelming, but there are things we can do, a lot of things. So. . . . In that vein, how about a list of resolutions that you and I can do each and every day to help make things a wee bit better. I know it's overwhelming, and it may seem like you or I can't make a big difference, but each little thing adds up to a big thing and it all helps. From Planet Green, Cara Smusiak over at NaturallySavvy.com put together this list of resolutions that you or I can do:

• Ditch plastic wrap (some of it contains PVC—yikes!)
• Stop using paper plates. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. It's wasteful and completely unnecessary. If you're worried about family time, make washing dishes or loading the dishwasher a rotating chore that you do with one of your kids each evening.
• Use public transit
• Walk or take your bike whenever possible
• Stop using chemical cleaners. Switch to natural products or homemade solutions.
• Choose organic foods—particularly when it comes to pesticide-heavy produce and genetically modified foods.
• Grow your own fruits and vegetables to eliminate pesticides and a huge part of your carbon footprint.
• Start composting!
• Stop using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. There are tons of natural alternatives on the market and all sorts of home remedies. (Trust me, people with chemical sensitivities will thank you.)
• Use cloth diapers.
• Volunteer with a local recycling program or environmental group.
• Paper or plastic? Neither. Always take along a reusable bag when you leave the house.
• Learn one new thing about the environment every week, then pass it on. Knowledge is power.
• Reduce your garbage to a maximum of one bag per week. (It's the limit in my town, and with four people in my house, we rarely fill the bag.)
• Send one letter or postcard to a politician—local, state, federal or international—each month concerning an environmental issue. A politician once told me that one letter or postcard represents about 50 people who feel the same way. Politicians won't take the environment seriously unless you show them you do.
• Cut your paper footprint and switch to recycled paper products—paper towels, toilet paper, printing paper.
• Ditch wrapping paper and paper gift bags in favor of eco-friendly and reusable alternatives.
• Refuse to use polystyrene (Styrofoam). If a restaurant or take-out joint uses it, point out that it's unhealthy and bad for the environment.
• Don't buy products made with PVC (polyvinyl chlorate). PVC is difficult to recycle and a recent study links the phthalates in vinyl flooring to autism. Other places PVC is lurking include: shower curtains, rain gear...
  

. . . .The popular myth is that being green, that going green is expensive. Wrong, as this video (click the link) shows, back during WWII, the entire nation went green in a business model that demanded that resources needed to be put into tank, gun and plane manufacturing. It wasn't expensive to do it then, it's not expensive to do it now.

. . . .One of the best ways to go green at home, to start getting ready for solar, is to get more efficient, less costly in our use of energy at home. From Intent.com, this article that says the first step in going solar is to cut your energy use now, first, while hooked 100% into the existing grid.

. . . . .I was reflecting today on the changes in weather patterns that seem to have accelerated the last couple of years. The heavy flooding in North Dakota last month, Iowa last year. The tornados last week in Columbus, Georgia. The harsh winter up throughout the Great Lakes, and the extreme cold that hung in from the Great Lakes to the East Coast until today. Due to the places that I live and work, and where my friends are, I get it all. If I look at the cycle starting it right now, it's flood season up in the Great Lakes, with tornadoes through the South. Soon, it'll be tornados up North in the Great Lakes, and from there I'll go to work into hurricane season, and after that, well, it'll be ice storm, then blizzard season back up in the Great Lakes.
. . . .It does make me think of something, and give some advice. As the storms get more severe, it's important to keep yourself and your family prepared. Keep a battery operated radio on hand at home, one that can get weather alerts and AM news. Keep good flashlights with fresh batteries around, at least 3 days worth of fresh drinking water, and of course some food that will stay fresh. (I have no problem with Spam, but at least keep something around that has a long shelf life). This one is important, learn to text on your cell phone, if you don't know how, ask your teenager. A text message, straight data, will go through when voice calls won't. I'm going to repeat that, learn to text, a text message will go through when voice calls won't.
. . . .I'm not suggesting that cell towers and power lines from the fragile electrical grid will still be up, but if they are, voice won't always go through if there's damage.

Sunday Update

. . . . .On the economic front, most of the experts, real ones, people who are respected, still don't have a real rosy outlook.
. . . Over at the Economist, Robert Reich gave an interview to Democracy in America and gives his reason for still being pessimistic;

DIA: You say on your blog that "we're not at the beginning of the end" of this downturn, and perhaps not even "at the end of the beginning". Why so pessimistic?

Mr Reich: I do believe we're approaching the end of the beginning, but I see little reason for optimism over the next 12 to 18 months. Aggregate demand is so far short of total capacity that we're still caught in a vicious cycle in which employers have to continue to cut payrolls, which shrinks consumers' wallets and forces them to buy even less and postpone payments on their loans, which causes more layoffs and generates more bad loans. The stimulus is a step forward but it's less than what's needed, and it doesn't really take full effect until the middle of 2010.

. . . . . .Dr. Nouriel Roubini, the "Dr. Doom" who was discredited by other economists back in 2006 when he saw this crisis coming, in Newsweek this week has some kudos for the current administration, Geithner, Summers and Obama in how they've handled it so far:

The rate of economic contraction you have seen in the last two quarters—6 percent annualized—is going to slow down. The optimists are already talking about the "green shoots" of spring, about economic activity becoming positive. [They say] we will have positive growth in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter we will grow 2 percent over the previous quarter. They expect that next year, growth will go back to above 2 percent.

Compared with this optimistic consensus, I believe that the rate of economic contraction is going to slow from minus 6 percent in the last two quarters to minus 2 percent by the fourth quarter. Next year, I believe that the growth rate is going to be 0.5 percent for the U.S. average. Even if we are technically out of a recession, we are going to feel like we are in a recession. The bottom of the economy is not going to be in three months, but rather toward the beginning or middle of next year.

So you are still Dr. Doom?
No, I am not Dr. Doom. I am Dr. Realist. I don't believe we are going to end up in a near depression. Six months ago I was more worried about an L-shaped near depression. Today, after the very aggressive policy actions taken by the U.S. and other countries, the risk of that near-depression L has been reduced from 30 percent to 15 or 20 percent. We are instead in the middle of a U.

You think the Obama administration is on the right track?
I have to give credit to the administration. Within 30 days of coming to power, they did an $800 billion stimulus package, a new program to deal with mortgages and foreclosures, and also a bank plan that when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner came with details, made the markets rally sharply. Each one of these three programs has some flaws. The fiscal stimulus could have been more front-loaded. For the mortgages, eventually you are going to need a reduction of the face-value principal of the mortgages. And on the banks, I believe after the stress tests it is going to be obvious that even some of the largest banks are so fundamentally in trouble that you cannot buy their toxic assets. You need to take over these banks on a temporary basis, clean them up and then sell them back to the private sector.

. . . .As you can read, he is a little more optimistic than Reich, but his timing matches that of Reich's almost exactly.

. . . .The World Bank met on Sunday, in an unprecedented unscheduled meeting, urging banks to move more money to the poorest countries, as the poor and those living in poverty are increasingly threatened by what is occuring.

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. . . .I have to thank my son Cody for this awesome video and the even better news that came with it. Henry Rollins wrote a Love Letter to Ann Coulter that has to be seen and heard, it's great. I love Henry Rollins, and the even better news, picked up on Kurt Sutter's blog, is that Henry Rollins has been signed for the 2nd season of Sons of Anarchy, one of the best shows ever put on TV, as the new antagonist for SAMCRO.

. . . . .I have to thank the lovely and talented LuLu, down at Red Queen Tattoo in Chattanooga, TN (on Lee Highway) for the video found at this link here. It's Michael Franti with a Barack Obama song. I love Michael as is, and the video and song make it even better.

. . . .John Lee, who has great insight into men's issues as we face them here in the 21st Century, has written a novel, When The Buddha Met Bubba, under his pen name, Richard Dixie Hartwell, available on Amazon, I recommend it, you can pre-order it at Amazon by clicking the link and ordering it up.

. . . .I have always been a fanatical and loyal Michael Stanley Band follower. He still makes music, and is distributing it as an independent label. Click the link here, buy his new CD and support songwriters who still believe in the power of words, and in the magic of music. If you grew up in the Midwest and were a teenager in the 70's, you knew who the Michael Stanley Band was, and he did have as large a following in the Midwest as Bob Seger or Grand Funk. Still makes great music, give it a try.

Sunday Update

. . . .Another component of this whole connect-the-dots picture remains in the Mideast, where we still face a war in Afghanistan, and the violence in Iraq increases every day we get closer to withdrawing. One of the problems that we face, as a people, and as a society, is that we don't know understand those we are fighting and what motivates them. One of the best I've read in a while is a recent book written by Reza Aslan titled How To Win A Cosmic War: God, Globalization and the End of the War on Terror. Courtesy of the Daily Beast, where Aslan is also a writer, is this excerpt:

Muslim cosmic warriors legitimize their attacks against both military and civilian targets, against both Muslims and non-Muslims, by dividing the world into what bin Laden calls “two separate camps, one of faith…and one of fidelity”: alwala’ wa-bara’. They rely on the doctrine of takfir to justify the slaughter of women and children, the elderly, and the ill. Although they are mostly holed up with the remnants of the Taliban in the tribal regions of the North-West Frontier Province on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, unlike the Taliban, they have no nationalist ambitions. Their jihad is not a defensive struggle against the occupying power but an eternal cosmic war that transcends all earthly ambitions. As [Ayman] al Zawahiri declared, “Jihad in the path of God is greater than any individual or organization. It is a struggle between Truth and Falsehood, until God Almighty inherits the earth and those who live in it. [Taliban commander] Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden—may Allah protect them from evil—are merely two soldiers of Islam in the journey of Jihad, while the struggle between Truth and Falsehood transcends time.”
For the jihadist militants of al Qaeda, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become central fronts in what bin Laden calls a “Third World War, which the Crusader-Zionist coalition began against the Islamic nation.” But while these wars, and the human-rights abuses at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, have provided jihadist ideologues with an invaluable example, one perhaps on a par with the occupation of Palestine, for those Muslim youths who identify with global jihadism as a social movement there is no central front to the war on terror because their identity cannot be confined to any territorial boundaries. Rather, theirs is a transnational identity linked together not by language, ethnicity, or culture but by a set of grievances—both local and global, real and imagined—that has created a shared narrative of oppression and injustice at the hands of the West. The threat of terrorism from jihadist groups like al Qaeda may never fully dissipate. As is the case with any international criminal conspiracy, it may take years, perhaps decades, of cooperation among the military, intelligence, and diplomatic apparatuses of nation-states around the globe to put an end to jihadist militancy. But to adequately confront the social movement that Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri inspired a decade ago will require more than military might. It will require deeper understanding of the social, political, and economic forces that have made global jihadism such an appealing phenomenon, particularly to Muslim youth. This battle will take place not in the streets of Baghdad or in the mountains of Afghanistan but in the suburbs of Paris, the slums of East London, and the cosmopolitan cities of Berlin and New York. It is a battle that will be waged not against men with guns but against boys with computers, a battle that can be won not with bullets but with words and ideas.

. . . .I hope that you all are beginning to see the connections, the nodal point that is happening now, yes it appears chaotic and scary, but within it lies all possibilities, and if we can influence the things working within that nodal point, nudge things the right direction, who knows? All things are possible.

. . . .Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do. Seize the precious moments before they slip through your hands. This rodeo is a one-way ticket and no one gets out alive, and none of us gets to dictate the terms and conditions of how the ticket gets punched. It's not about tomorrow or yesterday, and it's senseless to live with regret and guilt over things in the past you can't do anything about. This ain't no dress rehearsal, it's about right here, right now. Change yourself, change your life, make a difference and change the world.
- Outta here, love you all, got your back

The Desolation Angel