Renewable Revolution

The World of Bamboo

     by Gib Cooper


Bamboo's natural range includes every continent except Europe and Antarctica.

We once had 5 million acres of an American native bamboo known as Canebrake or Arundinaria gigantea growing in our Southeastern quarter. This bamboo and its ecosystem were soon greatly diminished in area by the migration of settlers in the early 19th century.   :emthdown: The bamboo grew in good soil and was cleared for farmland. Unbelievably, a new species was described for the USA in 2006. Its name is Hill cane, or Arundinaria appalachiana.

Stone Age Asians may have relied heavily on tools they made of materials other than stone. The lack of stone tools of the quality found in Europe in much of Southeast Asia roughly corresponds to the natural distribution of bamboo in the region. It appears that Southeast Asia has been heavily forested for many millions of years. This is still one of the areas of dense bamboo forests remaining in the world. Man may have relied more on bamboo than we know. Based on this theory, bamboo was probably one of the most important materials used by early Asian people. Even today, the use of bamboo has more significance to Asian cultures than any other.

Evidence of bamboo use is found in South America. Some excavations of early dwellings have imprints of bamboo canes and split, woven material preserved in the mud or adobe used in the construction or as protective living stockades around villages.

Bamboo is an incredible grass that has long been in use by people around the globe. In our modern world it is finding a new place in the spectrum of plants, fibers and foods used to enhance the quality of our lives.  :emthup: We are not simply talking about one plant. Bamboo is a large group of giant grasses with over 1,200 species found from the tropics to temperate regions.

Sol Wachtler, former Chief Judge of the State of New York, and my guest today, first roused my own interest in this subject – and my profound concern for its implications for Americans today – in 2002 when the Touro Law Center in cooperation with the Free University of Berlin Law School convened in Berlin, Germany the Simon Bond International Wannsee Seminar on “Tyranny, Justice & The Law: The Nazis and Beyond”.

As the Seminar’s Chair, Judge Wachtler wrote then that it was there in the “Wannsee Villa 60 years before that the political, legal, and judicial functionaries of the Third Reich met to devise an efficient method to resolve ‘the Jewish question’ [what became "The Final Solution" -- extermination of the Jews].

“Participants of that conference where the logistics of mass murder were agreed upon – were lawyers…[Judge Wachtler wrote, and] … Wannsee…serves as a powerful reminder of how fragile ‘the Rule of Law’ can be when threatened by the political power of the state”.

The mission of the Wannsee Seminar, my guest noted, was to impart to members of the legal establishment worldwide “…the relevant warning that when the law and the courts are motivated and dominated by state and political interests above the interests of justice, civilization is doomed”.

SNIPPET 2 (the MONEY QUOTE!  )

WACHTLER: I … actually … when we first thought about the idea of the Conference … and this goes way back to 1968 that I’ve been thinking about this … when I lectured over in Germany on the Constitution of the United States before the prosecutors and judges of Germany … it occurred to me that these prosecutors and judges … back in ’68 … were the same men who were Hitler’s judges and … they were still doing business … and it occurred to me “Where were they? Where were they when Hitler’s ascension brought about chaos internationally? Why didn’t they provide the bulwark that lawyers and judges should provide in order to stem the tide of un-civilization?”

Instead they became handmaidens to tyranny.  They actually assisted Adolf Hitler in his demonic dictatorship.

Agelbert NOTE: Did you GET THAT? Did you NOTICE they DID NOT get disbarred, go to prison or get a death sentence? Did you notice the ones in 1968 were THERE and helped Hitler's rise to power by PLAYING THE GAME of hairsplitting, "if it's legal, it's lawful" BULLSHIT that's getting so much ACCEPTANCE in the USA today?   

it occurred to me that these prosecutors and judges … back in ’68 … were the same men who were Hitler’s judges and … they were still doing business

Snippet 3: The STRONG Rule of LAW in Germany and the PRINCIPLED stand of the Courts and LAWYERS. 

At first the judges protested, they said, “This is wrong.”   

But the head of the judicial conference went to meet with Adolf Hitler and came back and said to his fellow jurists, “This is only temporary, I’ve been assured by the Fuhrer that this will go away soon. But these laws become necessary because we’re living in a time of terror.”   

Snippet 4: The STRONG Rule of LAW in Germany was LEGALLY made UNLAWFUL. 

BAZYLER: When the Nazis first came to power they ended up promulgating a number of laws that incrementally deprived Jews and other persecuted minorities, of civil rights. These incremental steps that we’re talking about … that results in the Final Solution … were all legal steps.  I mean you can trace this, you can trace the Holocaust as a legal event.   
 

No pattern here... Nothing to see... Move along... wave that flag and, well, you get the idea.  Everything is going to be just fine. Sleep well, our courts will always be there to give you your DAY in court (and a job and three meals a day in a "gated" community  ). Gott mit uns!

Under Pennsylvania law, you may not use force to resist a legal or illegal       arrest. Remember you have the right to contest the validity of your arrest later on in court. 
http://www.twpusc.org/police/what-to-do

This is an EXCELLENT example of a Corrupt Court System. 

A dissenting opinion, even from a Reagan appointee, will do NOTHING but put a "the Court System works"  bright and shiny, BUT FALSE, paint job on our fascist enabling system of juris-imprudence.  Enjoy! 

the "brilliant jurist" cred   

Possibly the most well-known jurist in the country, the Reagan-appointed, conservative Posner is not only an accomplished Circuit Court Judge, he is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and the author of nearly 40 books.  He is 75 years old and were it not for a penchant for raising hackles of the legal community with his acute opinions, he would likely be on the Supreme Court right now.

 The Los Angeles Times' Michael Hiltzik accurately describes the regard the legal and judicial community holds towards Posner:


Posner, 75, is no wooly-headed liberal, but a card-carrying conservative who was appointed to the circuit bench by Ronald Reagan in 1981. He's widely regarded as the smartest jurist in the federal judiciary, and was identified in 2000 by Fred Shapiro of Yale Law School as the most-cited legal scholar of all time.

Posner authored the Opinion in the decision of Crawford v Marion County, the 7th Circuit decision in 2008 that upheld Indiana's "Voter ID" law, and which was, in turn, affirmed by the Supreme Court. The case involved the Constitutionality of the first such law in the country, the seminal Voter Suppression statute that spawned so many imitations in other states.   

Posner, joined by four Judges on the Seventh Circuit, authored the opinion requesting a rehearing en banc by the entire Seventh Circuit Court of appeals in Frank v Scott Walker et al, the recent case assessing the validity of the Wisconsin "Voter ID" statute.  A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit had already cleared the way for the Wisconsin law to go into effect prior to next month's elections.  :evil4: Posner's request for rehearing split the Judges of that Circuit 5-5, and thus no rehearing was granted. Posner's opinion, which eviscerates every rationale promoted in support of these suppression laws, was relegated to a "dissent."  But unlike most other "dissents," this opinion is likely to reverberate throughout the Judiciary and will be closely scrutinized by the Supreme Court, which stepped in and suspended the law's validity just last week. 

"There is only one motivation for imposing burdens on voting that are ostensibly designed to discourage voter-impersonation fraud," [Posner] writes, "and that is to discourage voting by persons likely to vote against the party responsible for imposing the burdens." More specifically, he observes, photo ID laws are "highly correlated with a state's having a Republican governor and Republican control of the legislature and appear to be aimed at limiting voting by minorities, particularly blacks."

"There is compelling evidence that voter-impersonation fraud is essentially nonexistent in Wisconsin." Assertions about voter fraud are "a mere fig leaf for efforts to disenfranchise voters." He adds that "some of the 'evidence' of voter-impersonation fraud is downright goofy, if not paranoid, such as the nonexistent buses that according to the 'True the Vote' movement [a voter suppression organization originating in the tea party movement] transport foreigners and reservation Indians to polling places."

Posner also sarcastically eviscerates the argument that "Voter ID's" are easy to obtain, are inexpensive, or are somehow akin to "showing an ID" when one boards an airplane. In a final flourish of judicial contempt, Posner characterizes the arguments of the Wisconsin law's proponents as inhabiting a "fact-free cocoon". 

appears to appreciate   

even as he lays their invention at the feet of his own Republican Party.   

here.     


[url=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/13/1336362/-Highly-Respected-Conservative-Judge-Rips-Voter-ID-Laws-and-the-GOP-in-Blistering-Opinion]http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/13/1336362/-Highly-Respected-Conservative-Judge-Rips-Voter-ID-Laws-and-the-GOP-in-Blistering-Opinion

an·tith·e·sis anˈtiTHəsəs/ noun noun: antithesis; plural noun: antitheses a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else. "love is the antithesis of selfishness"
 
synonyms:   (complete) opposite, converse, contrary, reverse, inverse, obverse, other side of the coin; informal flip side "friends of the actress say she is quite the antithesis of her giddy and frivolous character"   

“Legal” is the antithesis of equitable,  and the equivalent of constructive. 2 Abbott’s Law Dic. 24

eq·ui·ta·ble ˈekwədəb(ə)l/ adjective adjective: equitable
1. fair and impartial. "an equitable balance of power"
 
synonyms:   fair, just, impartial, even-handed, unbiased, unprejudiced, egalitarian; More disinterested, objective, neutral, nonpartisan, open-minded; informal fair and square "a plan to distribute the burden of taxes in an equitable way"   
 
antonyms:   unfair     

2. Law    valid in equity as distinct from law. "the beneficiaries have an equitable interest in the property" 

Agelbert note: Isn't it just AMAZING  how the LAWYERS managed to ADJUST  the definition "1" of equitable so as to split a few hairs in order to LEGALLY (definition "2") take someone's LAWFUL  EQUITY away? Yes, of course I sense a bit of table pounding on the way which will be heralded with several colorful adjectives disdaining as surreal, ridiculous, hypocritical (and so on) the data I am providing you here with links. Well, as they say in da show biz, any publicity is good publicity. 

You know, the Scribes and Pharisees lawyers are really 'good' at what the DO, aren't they?  It makes you wonder about the REASON the word "Code" was morphed by the etymology challenged  (or fiendishly Orwellian!) Legal establishment to mean laws , don't it?  Mens Rea? Nahh.

But that would be a silly "conspiracy theory", now wouldn't it? After all, lawyers don't have a secret handshake, do they?    Well then, they are just trying to make things CLEAR for us, not trying to set up their own private language so they are the only ones that can A) make money from da law business and B) screw someone with all the proper color of law.    There is NO history of chicanery among lawyers. Oh no!

Lawful matters are ethically enjoined in the law of the land—the law of the people—and are actual in nature, not implied. This is why whatever true law was upheld by the organic Constitution has no bearing or authority in the present day legal courts. It is impossible for anyone in “authority” today to access, or even take cognizance of, true law since “authority” is the “law of necessity,” 12 USC 95. 

Therefore, it would appear that the meaning of the word “legal” is “color of law,” a term which Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, defines as:

Color of law. The appearance or semblance, without the substance, of legal right. Misuse of power, possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because wrongdoer is clothed with authority of state, is action taken under “color of law.”    Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, page 241.
http://famguardian.org/subjects/LawAndGovt/LegalEthics/LegalVLawful.htm

Tell me, dear readers, does the above statue of Lady Justice speak of Legality or of EQUITABILITY (the antithesis of legality)? See Color of Law. 

“Every society rests on the death of men,” he liked to say. If a nation needs soldiers, it seizes young men and marches them off to war at the point of a bayonet. If an epidemic breaks out, it forces the public to get vaccinated.

The language of judicial decision is mainly the language of logic. And the logical method and form flatter that longing for certainty and for repose which is in every human mind. But certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.

Law is not being based on logic, but on experience.

Most of the things we do, we do for no better reason than that our fathers have done them or our neighbors do them, and the same is true of a larger part than what we suspect of what we think.

A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles.

Young man, the secret of my success is that an early age I discovered that I was not God.

Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been c ocksure of many things that were not so.

Any two philosophers can tell each other all they know in two hours.

Don't be 'consistent,' but be simply true.

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at the touch, nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.

Every event that a man would master must be mounted on the run, and no man ever caught the reins of a thought except as it galloped past him.

Man's mind, stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.

Beware how you take away hope from any human being.

The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power.

The defense rests.