OK, you're going to think I have taken the plunge into fringe world, and perhaps I have on this issue. But allow my alarmist tendencies to come to the front for a moment, and consider this juxtaposition: The words of Elder Pasios the New and a portion of the film by Aaron Russo "Freedom To Facism" on the National ID card. As fringe as this would seem, this is an actual issue now!

Exhibit #1: A clip of the film: Freedom To Facism by Aaron Russo 

Exhibit #2: The words of Elder Paisios on National ID Cards (below):

 

 

 

 

In Charleston Park, amidst the buildings of the Google campus (what used to be SGI and Sun Microsystems), people set down their lawn chairs, coolers and signs, and listened to Ron Paul and supporters make the case for Paul's presidential bid. Paul had done an extensive interview for Google employees the day before (view here). Now on a makeshift stage in the park, he gave a rousing speech after four of his supporters. The first four speakers were:

Dr. Clark Carlton, author of The Faith book series, as well as several good essays and articles around the net and podcaster for Ancient Faith Radio, has sent an open letter (pdf)  to fellow Orthodox Christians about the presidential election of 2008. Being Dr. Carlton, he does not leave ancient Orthodox history out of the discussion, but the discussion ends up coming to the same conclusion that I have: “We need a Ron Paul in the White House more desperately now than we ever have at any time in our history.” Read the open letter (pdf) here.

While not condoning the sort of forced eco-facisms and questionable science proclamations that seem to be in vogue, I *DO* heartily support voluntary eco-responsibility as the best long term developmental solution to all sorts of problems.

A quote: "If Americans were to switch just 10% of their total mileage to scooters, they would consume 14 - 18 million gallons less fuel per day and carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 324 million pounds per day as well. (Source ICR survey, May 2006) On a personal level, they could also reduce fuel consumption by approximately 58%, carbon dioxide emissions by 80%, and significantly reduce traffic congestion."

I initially intended to keep politics out of this blog. I hate the fact that the campaigning starts earlier every time. It occurred to me that by the time the campaigning is at it's peak, most of the good candidates are gone, and I always end up thinking I want to vote "none of the above".

So I am jumping into the fray, and jumping early. I am hereby endorsing Ron Paul for president in 2008 and I will only make one request of you my readers: check him out as thoroughly as you like before you decide on anyone else. Check out the principles he is endorsing (and has consistently stood by for his entire congressional career). I think he ought to generate bipartisan appeal for several reasons, although he is a classical conservative (and therefore also a classical liberal) with strong libertarian sensibilities where it counts. This is the first presidential candidate I have seen for a long time that I didn't think was merely the lesser of candidate evils.

Ah the wonders of spring cleaning! Here is a poem I wrote after a return from Israel and Greece back in 1995, that I had entirely forgotten about:

Via Dolorosa

A  moment unfolds into history;
a mountain, a shore, a person, a word;
within an hour glass, movements leave marks;
eroded hillside and sunken city.
A stone is not left upon another,
but where a footprint was, a fragrance lingers.

A net is cast upon the morning sea.
The ripples spread like an echoing voice,
calling a name beyond tides of ages,
leaking from stone cisterns of fallen kings;
a patch of green is found in the desert.

From the EFF newsletter:

"Proposed Bill Aims to Save Music Webcasters A new bill in Congress could help save music webcasting. Due to a recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board, the government-set rates that most Net radio providers pay to license sound recordings will radically increase. This ruling threatens small and non-commercial webcasters as well as commercial services like Pandora, and it could take away the broad diversity of stations that exists online but never has been available through traditional broadcasters. If passed, the "Internet Radio Equality Act" would nullify the royalty ruling and bring some sensible changes to the standards used to set rates in the future. This bill's introduction has been driven by the massive grassroots outrage among webcasters and listeners, and you can help keep that momentum going. SaveNetRadio.org is among the many great sites that have helped spearhead this activism -- go there to learn more and take action now: http://www.savenetradio.org"

I'm not about to turn this blog into a big global warming resource center or debate, but while I'm still on the topic, I thought I would post another film link. While not as good as "The Great Global Warming Swindle", "Doomsday Called Off" is still of interest:

 

Here are some resources related to the Great Global Warming Swindle:

• http://www.junkscience.com
• http://www.globalwarming.org

junkscience.com is a particularly good general resource, where you can take a short course on spotting junk science, called "junk science judo".

I am interested in conservation of the natural world, which apparently is something different from being an environmentalist, according to my environmentalist friends.  In any case, I have been alarmed by an increasing number of discussions with fellow conservationists or environmentalists who seem to be greatly distracted by a number of things "in the air" at the moment, such as global warming. Those of us old enough to recall the global cooling alarms of yesterday, find it equally difficult to get to the bottom of the climatological science, which is surely there underneath the many shrill voices. Here is a video I came across on youtube, which at least poses enough questions to cause one to pause, and hopefully redirect one's distractedness to more urgent (real) concerns: