Thursday, March 14, 2013

UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA ~ MONDAY IS YELLOW: ARE YOU A SYNESTHETE TOO?


For years I've been obsessed with neuroscience, brain science, Einstein's Unified Field Theory, quantum physics, dark matter, metaphysics, the origin of consciousness, Jet Propulsion Laboratory CalTech NASA JPL, Mars Curiosity (I love Curiosity!)  the possibility of extraterrestrial life. I also am into unexplained phenomena and the paranormal. Read my upcoming blog on Art Bell and the strange Nevada site where he reigned for years via a radio signal that created the fantastic late night show "Coast to Coast AM." (I know, I know, this show can be very silly, and honestly I do not believe in Big Foot! Tee hee hee, hahaha. There are a lot of conspiracy theories on this show, including Chem Trails, which I don't actually believe in either. By now, there should be some outrage on a massive scale. But time will tell. I actually believe our thoughts create our reality, and this is an amazing way to live life. What you fear will own you. Fear is "False Evidence Appearing Real." What you focus on grows. Withdraw your attention from your enemies and they will expire from neglect. This is the metaphysical secret of the ancients and the "Christ" truth which is LOVE. Love casts out fear.  

On Science Channel they are finally talking about Synesthesia, which I've always had, but never knew the name for it. I thought everyone had it.  Maybe you have it too. Do you see letters and numbers in color? Do you smell shapes and taste colors? 
My son and I argue over our colors. I have always seen letters and numbers in color and shapes, very specific. For example, Sunday is tall and "root-beer-colored" like a tall rectangle or monolith (2001: A Space Odyssey)  Saturday is equally tall, and white. Monday is always yellow, so every man, moron or Monroe I meet is yellow at first. I can memorize lines more easily as an actress and writer since all the letters and names are color-coded. Tuesday is forest green, Wednesday is grayish-white with faint striped pattern; Thursday is brown, Friday is spinach green (cooked, not raw leaves) and the texture is sort of chaotic, faintly striped. Friday ends with a corner that closes off the week. So Monday thru Friday, the school-week/work-week is a series of colored blocks all the same height, then Friday has a corner at the bottom, which is like a cozy safe wall  
January is burgundy.  
You are encased in Friday afternoon and night has a wall on the right, which is the end of the school week. You can lean on the wall. Look up and you’ll see the next day, Saturday, which is really tall and white — but a subdued white with grayish tones. And again, Sunday is tall, root-beer colored.

Also days of the week and months of the year are different shapes and everything has a certain structure.

C is pink, E is light green, F is dark green, G is chocolate brown, H is light brown, I is white, J is root-beer colored, K is burgundy, etc. 
I only found out a few years ago that others also have this. I always thought everyone had it. I just found out my son has it too. People think I'm crazy. ~ Lydia Cornell 
__________
Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. (from 1 in 20 to 1 in 90 to 1 in 20,000).
___________

Richard Cytowic, MD, is one of the world's leading researchers on synesthesia, a mindblowing neurological condition in which two or more senses are linked so that you might, for example, "taste" sounds or "hear" colors. Cytowic and neuroscientist David Eagleman have a new book out, Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, about synesthesia, exploring the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy, and the subjectivity of reality. Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust Was A Neuroscientist and How We Decide, interviewed Cytowic for Scientific American. From SciAm:

LEHRER: What can synesthetes teach us about the nature of human perception?

CYTOWIC: Far from being a mere curiosity, synesthesia is a consciously elevated form of the perception that everyone already has. Minds that function differently are not so strange after all, and everyone can learn from them.

Synesthesia has opened up a window onto a broad expanse of the brain and perception. Younger researchers are now active in 15 countries. Because the trait runs strongly in families, it is easy to collect DNA from a large number of synesthetic relatives. This means that synesthesia may be the very first perceptual condition for which science can map its gene. This inherited quirk is teaching us that cross-talk among the senses is the rule rather than the exception--we are all inward synesthetes who are outwardly unaware of sensory couplings happening all the time.

For example, sight, sound, and movement normally map to one another so closely that even bad ventriloquists convince us that whatever moves is doing the talking. Likewise, cinema convinces us that dialogue comes from the actors' mouths rather than the surrounding speakers. Dance is another example of cross-sensory mapping in which body rhythms imitate sound rhythms kinetically and visually. We so take these similarities for granted that we never question them the way we might doubt colored hearing.

Previously:
                          Hearing-motion synesthesia - Boing Boing
                          These words taste blue: Synesthesia in SciAm - Boing Boing
                          Technological synaesthesia - Boing Boing


Famous People

Some celebrated people who may have had synesthesia include:
 Vasily Kandinsky (painter, 1866-1944)
 Olivier Messiaen (composer, 1908-1992)
 Charles Baudelaire (poet, 1821-1867)
 Franz Liszt (composer, 1811-1886)
 Arthur Rimbaud (poet, 1854-1891)
 Richard Phillips Feynman (physicist, 1918-1988)
It is possible that some of these people merely expressed synesthetic ideas in their arts, although some of them undoubtedly did have synesthesia.

The Biological Basis of Synesthesia

Some scientists believe that synesthesia results from "crossed-wiring" in the brain. They hypothesize that in synesthetes, neurons and synapses that are "supposed" to be contained within one sensory system cross to another sensory system. It is unclear why this might happen but some researchers believe that these crossed connections are present in everyone at birth, and only later are the connections refined. In some studies, infants respond to sensory stimuli in a way that researchers think may involve synesthetic perceptions. It is hypothesized by these researchers that many children have crossed connections and later lose them. Adult synesthetes may have simply retained these crossed connections.It is unclear which parts of the brain are involved in synesthesia. Richard Cytowic's research has led him to believe that the limbic system is primarily responsible for synesthetic experiences. The limbic system includes several brain structures primarily responsible for regulating our emotional responses. Other research, however, has shown significant activity in the cerebral cortex during synesthetic experiences. In fact, studies have shown a particularly interesting effect in the cortex: colored-hearing synesthetes have been shown to display activity in several areas of the visual cortex when they hear certain words. In particular, areas of the visual cortex associated with processing color are activated when the synesthetes hear words. Non-synesthetes do not show activity in these areas, even when asked to imagine colors or to associate certain colors with certain words.

Synesthesia and the Study of Consciousness

Many researchers are interested in synesthesia because it may reveal something about human consciousness. One of the biggest mysteries in the study of consciousness is what is called the "binding problem." No one knows how we bind all of our perceptions together into one complete whole. For example, when you hold a flower, you see the colors, you see its shape, you smell its scent, and you feel its texture. Your brain manages to bind all of these perceptions together into one concept of a flower. Synesthetes might have additional perceptions that add to their concept of a flower. Studying these perceptions may someday help us understand how we perceive our world.


Hear IT!SynesthesiaLimbic

Synesthesia Experiment

  1. Read a list of random numbers between 0 and 9 at a rate of about one every 3 seconds. For example: 7, 9, 4, 0, 3, 8, 2, 5, 1, 6.
  2. After each number is read, ask people to write down the number and what COLOR that they associate with each number.
  3. Collect the answers. These will be called "Answers #1".
  4. Two to three weeks later, repeat the experiment, but change the order of the numbers. For example: 3, 6, 5, 9, 4, 1, 7, 0, 5, 2, 8.
  5. Collect the answers. These will be called "Answers #2".
  6. Compare Answers #1 with Answers #2. A person with synesthesia will have all or most of the same number-color pairs on both Answers #1 and Answers #2.This experiment can also be done using letters instead of numbers.

 References and more information on synesthesia, see:
  1. Cytowic, R., Synesthesia: Phenomenology and Neuropsychology, A Review of Current Knowledge. Psyche: An interdisciplinary journal of research on consciousness.
  2. Synesthesia Test
  3. Mixed Signals
  4. Synesthesia Links
  5. American Synesthesia Association
  6. Synesthesia and the Synesthetic Experience
  7. Richard E. Cytowic Web Site
  8. Nunn, J.A., Gregory, L.J., Brammer, M., Williams, S.C.R., Parslow, D.M., Morgan, M.J., Morris, R.G., Bullmore, E.T., Baron-Cohen, S., and Gray, J.A. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of synesthesia: activation of V4/V8 by spoken words, Nature Neuroscience, 5:371-375, 2002.
  9. Palmer, T.J., Blake, R., Marois, R., Flanery, M.A., and Whetsell, Jr., W., The perceptual reality of synesthetic colors, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 99:4127-4131, 2002.
  10. Lemley, B., Do You See What They See? Discover, Vol 20, No. 12, December 1999.
  11. Cytowic, R.E., The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998.
  12. Cytowic, R.E. and Eagleman, D.M., Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2009.
  13. Cytowic, R.E. Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2002.
  14. Duffy, P.L., Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds, New York: WH Freeman & Co, 2001.
  15. Mass, W., A Mango Shaped Space, Boston: Little, Brown, 2003.
  16. Hearing Colors, Tasting Shapes - Ramachandran, V.S. and Hubbard, E.M., Scientific American, Vol 288 Issue 5 (May 2003), 52-59.






66 comments:

  1. KODACHROME WORF9:39 PM

    Reading the article made me feel blue.

    ReplyDelete
  2. THE COLOR WORFLE9:45 PM



    Just kidding, but I did read about the syndrome after reading the article. Interesting.

    I don't have that but you know how they say we dream in black and white?

    I KNOW I don't. My dreams are specifically in color, in fact color often plays a role in my dreams.

    Some dreams I've had actually focus on color. One dream I had as a kid that always stuck with me was my father and I standing outside our house at night, looking up at the sky. The planets were hanging down, almost as if on strings. They looked like large colored styrofoam balls.

    What the dream meant, I still haven't figured out. A few of my dreams as a boy had meaning to me later in life, one actually proving prophetic, actually playing out exactly as in the dream.

    But this one I've yet to figure out, if it means anything at all. But what I do remember is the bright, bold colors of the planets in the dark night sky. Vivid yellow orbs, PURPLE, blue, ....very vivid.

    Weird huh?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, very weird. I watch Science Channel and NASA TV and they are discovering so many things about consciousness and the brain its mind-boggling.

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1:03 AM

    Only after drinking mushroom tea.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mariane Nicosia1:14 AM

    All I can say Lydia! I am impressed that you are highly intellectual mind that loves astronomy and science.

    Kudos

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you!

    Hey, who made the mushroom tea comment? Sounds familiar.. lol tee hee

    Is it one of my .. experts? team mates?

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Do you see letters and numbers in color? Do you smell shapes and taste colors?"


    Weird!Sounds like something someone experiencing a bad acid trip would say.....lol!

    Interesting!!

    I dream in color too however its dreaming tiny snippets of the future that freaks me out???

    ReplyDelete
  8. Clippy1:25 PM

    Clif hears colors

















    Clif sees imaginary people, and he talks to them.









    ReplyDelete
  9. WORFEUS THE SEER2:02 PM

    What do you think it did to me Johnny?

    When I was a boy I had a dream, where a spaceship flew out of the night sky and crashed into the side porch of our house.

    I walked over to the ship, which was smoldering, and there was a glass bubble cockpit that had cracked. It opened and inside the pilot looked familiar, very familiar but I couldn't quite place the face. 17 years later, I realized the face was mine, at 26.

    In the same dream, I went up to the attic of our house. The house seemed abandoned and run down. It was dark, I flipped the lightswitch but the power was out.

    I suddenly had a flash light, and I shined it on the floor. Scattered across the floor was "baseball cards". Lots and lots of baseball cards.

    Then I heard a noise, looked out the window, it was daylight and there was what looked like a county cop car (had the county seal on it) but no bubble lights on top. Then the dream ended.

    17 years later, when I was 26, I went back to my old house one night just for fun. It was abandoned. I snuck in through an open window and went up stairs to the attic. It was dark, I flipped on the light switch but the power was out. So I shined my flashlight on and started looking around.

    I realized there was something on the floor that I'd been walking on, so I aimed the flashlight on the floor, and the floor was covered with hundreds of baseball cards.

    I decided to grab the sleeping bag out of my jeep and ended up spending the night.

    The next morning I woke up to a noise outside. I looked out the window and there was what looked like a county cop car, (had the county seal on the side) only it didn't have the bubble on top.

    It was the city building inspector and a realtor coming to check out the house. I snuck out the back and slipped away.

    That was my dream.

    There is some I'm leaving out, some significance that's only significant to me, but those are the key points that always "freaked me out".

    To this day I cannot explain how I had that dream when I was only 9 years old. But it always stuck with me.

    Believe it, don't believe it, doesn't matter to me. Its true. It really happened.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have absolutely 100% dreamed the future,Worf. Out of perhaps 10 instances only one was of significance. However,and this is kinda funny,when someone like you shares a similar story I'm like......"Yeah,right!"

    It just doesn't seem believable when you hear it from someone else.

    Nevertheless,I believe you wholeheartedly as I have known you for years.

    Ultimately,such occurrences make me very intrigued with the notion of causality.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Clippy

    You are an alright guy,but try to stay frosty man.......this is chill time!

    Of course Lydia's turban is always up for grabs.As a matter of fact where is she? I have a ton of laundry that needs cleaning!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF WORFEUS2:49 PM

    Well you're safe trusting me on that one because if I were going to invent something, I'd invent something much more profound and meaningful than finding baseball cards, or seeing a city inspector.

    Seemingly insignificant events only they held significance for me at the time.

    I just can't explain how I dreamed that, 17 years earlier.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Actually, I dream in Technicolor on a Cinemascope screen...

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'M A DREAMING WORF8:29 PM

    Thanks for losing the hat. It is much easier to like you now.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Now if we could just work on the lust for mass genocide you might even turn into a nice guy.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Oh Worf, I don't want to kill anyone who doesn't want to kill or enslave me...

    ReplyDelete
  17. I just wish you guys were half as worried about militant Islam as you are about Christianity...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mark Greune9:50 PM

    Like the stars outnumber grains of sand. Inner space will take longer to explore than the vast outer space. Great article. I don't believe I am one, I do however dream and see color. I dream in black and white if the subject matter calls it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. WORRY WORF10:06 PM

    I'm not "worried" about either.

    Unlike Clif I leave no one behind and my life's about lived so....

    Its the youth who need to worry.

    ReplyDelete
  20. BLACK AND WORF10:08 PM

    Mark Greune said...


    I dream in black and white if the subject matter calls it.


    Me too, when I dream about Zebras.

    ReplyDelete
  21. ONWARD WORFIN SOLDIERS10:12 PM

    And given the new Pope, I wouldn't be too concerned about Christianity.

    Looks like its finding its way back to its roots.

    But "MILITANT" Christianity, the one you left out,..that's something folks should be taking note of.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Go f@ck yourself anonymous and take your trash with you ya two-bit worthless piss-ant lowlife.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Just ignore him Johnny. Lydia will delete his nonsense as soon as she sees it.

    ReplyDelete
  24. WAITING WORFY11:36 PM

    ...which apparently may be a while.

    : |

    ReplyDelete
  25. Worf, you mean you dreamed that when you were 9, then went back "in person" (not dreaming) 17 years later?

    I was confused that you dreamed it twice.. the experience spending the night in the house.

    In any case, this is an amazing, prophetic dream. It proves what we've long known and this article shows -- that time is not linear. Of course it's not! THE FUTURE CREATES THE PAST.

    Think about it.

    The present -- how you view your past "mistakes"and how much you look back with regret or shame or horror or pride - influence how the present reality unfolds. You can recreate your own health by not holding onto the past. Forgive self and move forward and learn.

    But beyond all this, I really know for a fact that we can sculpt matter.

    More later
    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  26. Men and their fear. I'm warching a special on St. Patrick and the way fear deformed men of the early f--ing church: they made the woman into a demon snake -- becaue they shaped the Adam and Eve story this way, out of fear of demons and women.

    sick Church

    ReplyDelete
  27. Call no man "Father upon the Earth.

    How can the Catholic church call priests father in direct contradiction to Christ's own words? How can they refute his statements: "Take no thought of what you eat or wear...

    ReplyDelete
  28. Lydia Cornell1:55 AM

    Thank you Mark! Very poetic.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous1:58 AM

    "Any person who has been in any way successful, will evoke in others -- envy and jealousy. Either because they have not used their own gifts yet, to honor God, or feel inadequate." - a quote from a priest on H2

    ReplyDelete
  30. One thing for sure,I am definitely not "The One" when it comes to bowling.

    : |

    Went bowling Saturday night with some church group (via a buddy) and got my bowling turban ripped good by some god fearing folk. But,I haven't played in like thirty five years so I forgive myself.


    : )



    ReplyDelete
  31. WORFEUS AND HIS MAGIC PEEPSTONE9:05 AM

    Fans and Friends of Lydia Cornell said...

    Worf, you mean you dreamed that when you were 9, then went back "in person" (not dreaming) 17 years later?

    I was confused that you dreamed it twice.. the experience spending the night in the house.



    Its true Lydia. I dreamed that dream when I was 9 years old.

    Then it actually HAPPENED, 17 years later. Exactly as I saw it in the dream.

    Freaked me out.

    : |

    In fact it freaks me out talking about it. I've never told ANYONE that story, other than family.

    ReplyDelete
  32. BOWLING FOR WORFYS9:14 AM

    GutterBall Johnny said...

    One thing for sure,I am definitely not "The One" when it comes to bowling.

    Well, one could argue you're not the one when it comes to lots of things...like science...debating....dog breeding...lol...

    But bowling? Now I know one area where I'd clean up with you. I do pretty good there.200's on average, although admittedly I haven't bowled in years.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Clippy1:16 PM

    I have never understood why women can't be priests...they have the same qualities as men.

    Priests should be referred to as "Reverend", not "Father", just like the Protestant faith.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous2:35 PM

    Clippy doesn't know what he's saying,women are subserviant to men, that's why the Catholics know what they are doing.

    ReplyDelete
  35. SIGMUND WORFEUS3:26 PM

    Anonymous is subservient to his schizophrenia.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Well,your better than me when it comes to bowling Worf..........my score is so low I'm embarrassed to post it.......lol!

    Of course I am still "The One" despite this trivial matter.

    BTW,whats your opinion on North Korea? Send them flowers and lotsa love or blow them up good?

    ReplyDelete
  37. THE 23RD WORFEUS5:09 PM

    Well Johnny, given our dads fought a long and grueling, bloody conflict with them and couldn't beat them then and had to call it a draw and given their current state of readiness and our military's current state of depletion and exhaustion, I'd not be too keen on sending our people over their to be killed unless I was willing to put on a uniform and join them.

    Of course being a chickenhawk was never in my family history.

    ReplyDelete
  38. WORFBEATER5:10 PM

    Also, I wouldn't be so chickenhawkish as to paint diplomatic efforts and sanctions as "giving them flowers", which of course is the talk of namsy pansy chickenhawks who like to "play war" from the safety of their living rooms while beating their chests for others to go.

    ReplyDelete
  39. And given the Chinese might be none too keen on another war with them and no doubt would arm and support them as they did in 53, ...again I'd think twice before writing a check with a chickenhawk's mouth that our military has to cash.

    ReplyDelete
  40. FIELD MARSHALL WORFEUS5:17 PM

    Of course I'd not take this new little tyrants threats lightly either.

    And while ignorant Republican senators falsely claim that North Korean missiles can reach the US (hint, they can't, its over 6000 AIR miles to Seoul and that doesn't factor in a ballistic missile needing the fuel to make it into space first) they can cause a lot of trouble in that region, so I'd keep options on the table for air strikes like we were giving Saddam before the Chickenhawk in Chief Bush gave up and decided to play war.

    You'll find the CIA and our Air Force can do a pretty good job without starting a war, of putting dictators like Kim Jong Dumbass in their place, without the need of a ground offensive.

    The trick is to take out their artillery on the DMZ first, along with their troops their from the air, so as to not permit them to do what we know they'd do and overrun Seoul.

    However, again that's just an "on the table option", not a game plan.

    The game plan should be diplomatic efforts followed by sanctions followed by subversive efforts to overthrow the little punk internally and unite the two Korea's.

    ReplyDelete
  41. WORFEUS5:40 PM

    Our only option might be letting the CIA putt a bullet (or a bunkerbuster) in this fat, pudgy little tyrants head.

    He's starving millions of people, while he gets fat and lives in luxury. He's threatened to nuke Washington (something Saddam never did) and he's declared the Armistice ended and the war back on.

    So if diplomacy fails, and if sanctions fail, I'd let the CIA go in and do what they do best. Take him and his cabinet out, while subverting his influence over the people.

    I think if we did the people "may" jump at the chance for a united Korea and the prosperity it would bring, of course. No guarantee mind you, but its different than Iraq.

    Iraq was not annexed, and didn't have millions of people longing to reunite with their families.

    So its possible that if things break down, our best and only alternative might be to let the CIA do what they do best.

    One things for sure. We cannot let a country who is actively threatening to nuke America, develop nuclear weapons.

    The problem is, we SQUANDERED that argument with Iraq, so it will be a hard sell thanks to the boy's who cried wolf.

    But NK is running commercials right now showing DC burning from a nuke that they launched, so there is no question that we are justified in stopping them from developing nukes.

    Iran hasn't made that threat, ever. Iran only threatens to defend itself.

    NK is actively threatening us.

    But at the end of the day I think sanctions and diplomacy as well as the old "carrot and stick" method may work.



    ReplyDelete
  42. Send them flowers and lotsa love or blow them up good?

    Typical right wing false dichotomy.

    Same type of false dichotomy that lead to the illegal immoral war with Iraq.

    Shows mook mook knows NOTHING about North Korea except for what ever drivel he absorbs from the MSM.

    Blow them up?

    Exactly how??????

    A nuke, actually more than one if that is what you are suggesting, is not only insane, but a war crime. And one that cannot be swept under the rug like the War crimes of the Bush Administrations illegal invasion of Iraq have been.


    And sending them flowers?

    I guess that is the limits of your cranial functioning mook mook.

    We actually can do neither.

    During the Korean War the uS against the North Korean army did quite well, until MacArthur's hubris got the better of him and he tried to push the Communists back into China, and he got his ass handed to him by the Chinese.

    Don't think exactly the same thing wouldn't happen a second time if we tried.

    We struggle to field an military to fight against the Iraqi insurgents and Afghan Taliban at the same time.

    They have no advanced weapons and use unconventional warfare tactics.

    The Chinese on the other hand can field the largest standing Army on the planet. Not to mention they could march to Korea, not have to travel 6000+ miles over an ocean to get there.

    They also have a very robust manufacturing infrastructure, like we did before WW2. We handed it to them (actually Wall Street did) but it's gonna be hard finding second sources for those things we rely on them for when they cut us off.


    BTW, they also bankrolled Bush's military adventures, so I guess if we wanted to oppose then in North Korea asking them to bankroll it is out of the question.


    NO Mook Mook we cannot send them flowers since it is the Chinese economy they depend on, even more than we do.


    However, the Chinese do want something from them that isn't compatible with the bellicose statements from the dictator of North Korea.

    Stability in the far east, so the Chinese can continue to develop their economy and growth.

    Given this fact we could work in conjunction with the Chinese to put the dictator back in his box.

    Or quietly remove him if he refuses to accept the realities of the situation.

    This is how things actually happen, no flowers or nukes needed.

    ReplyDelete
  43. I agree.

    I get tired of hearing that diplomatic efforts are somehow "giving them flowers" or weak.

    They said the same thing about Iraq had Al Gore been President during 911, that Gore would have been an "appeaser to the terrorists", which is stupid since Iraq wasn't the terrorists (the right wing always conveniently omits that fact, as if we're all as stupid as them).

    I don't like this new dictator anymore than the old one. And when I say the CIA could take him out, I'm talking about how they went after Saddam with bunker busters. Remember how he had to sleep in a different palace each night to avoid them? They were getting closer and it was just a matter of time. But Bush couldn't wait so now a quarter of a million dead people, 30,000 wounded GI's and for WHAT?

    Nothing. That's what.

    But I'm of course saying as a LAST resort we might want to try that with North Korea, if all else fails. We can't obviously let them keep developing nukes so as a LAST DITCH effort I'd let the CIA do it rather than start a war with them.

    But North Korea has been blowing off steam like this for the last half century and DIPLOMACY usually works.

    So trying diplomacy is not giving them flowers or "love". Its using our freaking heads for something besides a hat rack.

    ReplyDelete
  44. DIPLOMACY usually works.

    Especially if the North Koreans see the Chinese carrying the big stick in their direction ...... the dictator ain't no where as afraid of anybody in Washington as they are of pissing off Beijing.

    They know how they keep their cloistered country running, they ain't complete fools.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Please read this letter.

    To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
    From: Tomas Young


    I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

    I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

    I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

    Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

    I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

    I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

    My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.




    He very eloquently states why I oppose illegal wars of choice like Iraq;

    ReplyDelete
  47. Chris Matthews did a big segment tonight on the lies told by the Bush administration to deceive us into the war in Iraq and I guess that special was on although I don't have regular tv anymore so I didn't see it but its called "Hubris".

    Matthews pointed out how growing up people from my generation (and his) were taught that aggressive war is evil. He referenced everyone from Tojo hitting us at Pearl Harbor to Hitler invading Poland.

    We hung the Nazi's for what Bush did to the Iraqis.

    The Iraqis were Bush and Cheney's Jews, and everyone who supported Bush and Cheney.

    They went in, butchered a quarter of a million people, and got away with it.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Lest we forget;

    Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

    Dick Cheney
    Speech to VFW National Convention
    August 26, 2002


    Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.

    George W. Bush
    Speech to UN General Assembly
    September 12, 2002


    If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.

    Ari Fleischer
    Press Briefing
    December 2, 2002


    We know for a fact that there are weapons there.

    Ari Fleischer
    Press Briefing
    January 9, 2003


    Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.

    George W. Bush
    State of the Union Address
    January 28, 2003


    We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.

    Colin Powell
    Remarks to UN Security Council
    February 5, 2003


    We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.

    George W. Bush
    Radio Address
    February 8, 2003


    If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since (UN Resolution) 1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the suggestion that we are doing this because we want to go to every country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not correct.

    Colin Powell
    Interview with Radio France International
    February 28, 2003


    So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? . . . I think our judgment has to be clearly not.

    Colin Powell
    Remarks to UN Security Council
    March 7, 2003


    Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.

    George W. Bush
    Address to the Nation
    March 17, 2003


    Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.

    Ari Fleisher
    Press Briefing
    March 21, 2003


    There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.

    Gen. Tommy Franks
    Press Conference
    March 22, 2003


    I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.

    Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman
    Washington Post, p. A27
    March 23, 2003


    One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.

    Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark
    Press Briefing
    March 22, 2003


    We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

    Donald Rumsfeld
    ABC Interview
    March 30, 2003


    Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.

    Neocon scholar Robert Kagan
    Washington Post op-ed
    April 9, 2003

    ReplyDelete
  49. But make no mistake -- as I said earlier -- we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found.

    Ari Fleischer
    Press Briefing
    April 10, 2003


    We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.

    George W. Bush
    NBC Interview
    April 24, 2003


    There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.

    Donald Rumsfeld
    Press Briefing
    April 25, 2003


    We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so.

    George W. Bush
    Remarks to Reporters
    May 3, 2003


    I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now.

    Colin Powell
    Remarks to Reporters
    May 4, 2003


    We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country.

    Donald Rumsfeld
    Fox News Interview
    May 4, 2003


    I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program.

    George W. Bush
    Remarks to Reporters
    May 6, 2003


    U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction.

    Condoleeza Rice
    Reuters Interview
    May 12, 2003


    I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden.

    Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne
    Press Briefing
    May 13, 2003


    Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found.

    Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps
    Interview with Reporters
    May 21, 2003


    Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.

    Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
    NBC Today Show interview
    May 26, 2003


    They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.

    Donald Rumsfeld
    Remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations
    May 27, 2003


    For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.

    Paul Wolfowitz
    Vanity Fair interview
    May 28, 2003

    It was a surprise to me then — it remains a surprise to me now — that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there.

    Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
    Press Interview
    May 30, 2003

    Do I think we're going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do, because I think there's a lot of information out there."

    Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, Defense Intelligence Agency
    Press Conference
    May 30, 2003


    Those are the lies they told to murder a quarter of a million people and maim well over a million .... and of course waste trillions of dollars.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Those are the lies,

    that stole Tomas Young's life,

    from him ............

    ReplyDelete
  51. Hey "anonymous", (aka clippy), how does it feel to know that the comments you take the time to write out, no matter how sick or twisted you try to make them, are just going to "disappear" as if they were never here?

    ReplyDelete
  52. WORFY4:42 PM

    Hey Clif, you're in Kentucky right?

    Ashley Judd, hubba bubba!

    ReplyDelete
  53. I just read his letter online too Clif. There's a big article about it right now. Amazing. What's even more amazing is the right wing goons telling him to stop "whining".

    The guy's dying.

    Incredible.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Right wing goons????

    You mean gutless chicken-hawks who made sure people like Tomas Young and my daughter went in their place .......

    ReplyDelete
  55. Yes, them.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Who would sit on the internet and give a dying soldier crap?

    Agree with him, don't agree with him, but damn. Show some respect or at least some humanity.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Because they have no empathy for those who served in their place, being the gutless cowards they are, introspection isn't one of the character traits they practice, for the obvious reasons.

    They laugh and taunt to make themselves feel better about their hollow souls.

    ReplyDelete
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  59. Okay, SPAMMER - you are taking away our freedoms.

    I have to now lock out the accounts and put a "verification code on the comment section.

    sorry everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  60. HA HA HA WE CAUGHT THE SPAMMER

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    YOU ARE GOING TO BE VERY SORRY NOW.

    ReplyDelete
  61. WORFY8:08 AM

    Finally. I wonder if this rube realizes the SEVERE penalties for SPAM? Which can include jail time. Hmmmmmm

    ReplyDelete
  62. WORFY8:11 AM

    And don't be sorry Lydia, its fine with me. About time we started weeding out the scum in here who try to ruin the blog just because their own lives are so WORTHLESS and MEANINGLESS.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Hey, just put up a new post about NASA "Ancient Light" -- please leave comments over on the new thread, thank you. Luv xo

    ReplyDelete
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