Category Archives: thoughts

The Caliber.

brain research, civic commentary, commentary, Deep Questions, education, grief, healing, human behavior, musicians, philosophy, political commentary, psychology, public education, slum culture, social behavior, social commentary, sociology, thoughts, Uncategorized, , , ,

I know three important people.

One is an acquaintance; the second, an old friend; and, the third, my beloved.

All of these are individuals of high caliber. Together, they present to all of humankind in this country we call America the beginning, and the end, of the most important argument society faces today.

My acquaintance’s name is Martine. She is a gifted orator, a devoted mother, and an all around creative. Martine was the first to declare to me that statistics show some 80% of those diagnosed with mental illness are non-violent.

My old friend’s name is Joe. Joe is a lifelong performing musician, and dedicated teacher. Joe owns weapons, and publicly defends his right to keep them.

Both of these are law abiding American citizens in my corner of the Commonwealth of PA.

Two days ago, a man with “mental health challenges” who was undergoing treatment for the disease legally purchased an assault weapon, entered the bank where he worked in Louisville, KY and killed 5 people in seconds – critically injuring the first police officer to arrive on the scene, along with 5 more defenseless human beings.

My response to this life-defying impasse is finally clarified. Please, lean in, and hear how.

My beloved’s name is David. Though his life took a far different path, many years ago David trained at the college level to become a police officer. In conversation, the other day, David taught me about what I consider one of the most pivotal points in this national discussion.

Caliber has multiple definitions and applications; but, in the context of this discourse, the term refers to the relationship between the diameter of the bullet which fits the firearm, and the diameter of the bore through which the bullet exits the weapon. Handguns — shotguns; pistols, et al — are high caliber. High caliber causes the weapon to produce strong kickback/recoil, upon firing the bullet, requiring training to control; additionally, such weapons can only release one bullet at a time, only holding a limited number of bullets in their casing.

Assault rifles, by contrast, are very low caliber. They are designed to fire off multiple rounds as quickly as possible without having to reload, such purpose being to neutralize large numbers of enemy combatants during active warfare. And, because of their low caliber, there is no kickback/recoil; the shooter, requiring no highly developed skill controlling the weapon can repeatedly attack – with multiple, automatic rounds of ammunition – in a matter of critical seconds.

So, what did I learn from all three of these important people?

Taken together, they taught me that a mentally ill person who has access to an assault rifle has the potential to use it senselessly (meaning: out of coherent, responsible mind) and, with the ease of its low caliber, kill dozens of people in less than a minute. And, that’s not all.

Readers, hear me: just because most mentally ill are non-violent does not rule out that the remaining minority – some 20% – of those afflicted won’t become a spontaneous threat. Likewise, if a mentally ill individual has legal access to a firearm capable of easily taking the lives of several people in mere seconds, what does this tell US about how laws should be legislated?

What is the caliber of your intellect and moral capacity? I think you can answer both questions, yourself.

Please, do.

It’s important.

.

.

.

.

Copyright 4/12/23. Ruth Ann Scanzillo. Sharing by blog link, exclusively, and that not via RSS feed. Thank you for spreading the word.

littlebarefeetblog.com

There Is Fire In Our Crowded Theater, by Adam Gaertner.

addiction, arts education, CANCER TREATMENTS AND CURES, civic commentary, coronavirus, education, Good Food, grief, healing, health and wellness, medicine, notice, political commentary, psychology, public education, scientific theory, social commentary, sociology, the power grid, thoughts, travelogues, truth, Uncategorized, vacation destinations, , , ,

EXCERPTED from his substack article:

The primary concern is unburned vinyl chloride. The uncontrolled, open-air fire is very highly unlikely to have burned even a majority of it: whilst it is flammable, like any other fire it requires oxygen, and there were no accelerants in the crash. The cars leaked for days before they were set on fire, and holes were made in the tankers: that is plenty of time for vast quantities to have seeped into the ground and surrounding water, which has been confirmed thus far to have contaminated the Ohio River, and will very likely be confirmed to have entered the Mississippi. The intense heat and lack of oxygen at ground zero means that the majority of the vinyl chloride, which boils at 8°F, is highly likely to have been lofted into the air unburned, and is currently being rained down again everywhere from Canada to NY to Kentucky.

It’s Not Just The Wind

The fact that acid rain has been reported as far north as Ontario, and as far south as Kentucky, constitutes something of a confirmation of another worst-case scenario: the chemical, which was leached into soil, rivers and groundwater, is evaporating and raining down again, far outside the area which could have possibly been reached by the winds, which are blowing east-northeast. Vinyl chloride takes months to denature when dissolved into water or leached into soil.

Paulsboro train derailment, chemical spill caused health problems in half of residents, DOH reports - nj.com

A much smaller spill in 2012 in NJ. They managed to avoid setting that one on fire.

The Ohio and Mississippi River basins permeate most of the eastern side of the country. There is a smaller area covered by the Tennessee River basin around Georgia; while the contaminated water may or may not directly reach those areas, the prevailing winds are still likely to push the chemical to the east, even that far south. Southern FL might be lucky enough to escape the devastation, but I would not be waiting around to see.

Vinyl chloride is toxic in extremely tiny amounts. Specifically, the metabolite chloroethylene oxide binds to guanine in our DNA, completely and thoroughly destroying any affected DNA. It only takes the tiniest of exposures to be practically guaranteed severe cancers, particularly sarcoma of the liver, which is where that most toxic metabolite is first produced. Untold quantities of dioxin have also been produced: if vinyl chloride is the silver medalist of carcinogenicity, dioxin is the gold, and it is far more persistent in the environment than even the vinyl chloride.

A gigantic bonfire of millions of gallons of vinyl chloride is the single worst chemical and environmental disaster imaginable. If the entirety of Lake Michigan had magically turned into VX gas – a rapidly lethal World War II nerve agent – it still wouldn’t be anywhere near this bad.

Furthermore, there is mounting, albeit strongly circumstantial evidence, that this may have been a deliberate attack after all.

A Deliberate Chemical Weapons Attack?

Image

Video on Twitter

Green water has been reported in East Palestine. Let’s review the chemicals released and produced by burning, and the colors they will turn water upon mixing:

  • Vinyl Chloride (VC): Colorless water (primary product) and colorless to light yellow water (combustion product – hydrogen chloride)
  • Ethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether (EGMBE): Colorless water (primary product) and clear to pale yellow water (combustion product – acrolein)
  • Ethylhexyl Acrylate (EHAA): Colorless water (primary product) and clear, colorless to cloudy water (combustion product – formaldehyde)
  • Isobutylene (i-C4H8): Colorless water (primary product) and clear, colorless water (combustion product – formaldehyde)
  • Butyl Acrylates: Colorless water (primary product) and clear, colorless to cloudy water (combustion product – formaldehyde)

None of these products produce bright green water. How could bright green water possibly have been formed?

3082 is the label for nickel oxide. Fifteen tanker trucks labelled 3082 were seen heading to East Palestine on the 15th of February, and the next day, there was reporting on residents’ bright green tap water. Nickel oxide – up to 150,000 gallons of it, given the capacities of the tanker trucks – produces nickel chloride when it is mixed with vinyl chloride, at atmospheric temperature and pressure, which certainly does turn water green. Nickel chloride is also extremely toxic and carcinogenic, and dissolves in water much more readily than vinyl chloride: if that is indeed what took place, which is not yet confirmed, but seems likely, then it’s that much worse.

Why, for the love of God, would anybody mix fifteen tanker trucks of nickel oxide into the spill? It is not a fire suppressant or dry powder agent like sodium bicarbonate. It is used as a flame retardant in small amounts for plastic mixtures (of which vinyl chloride is a precursor, to PVC), but absolutely not for anything approaching this scale.

Poisoning half the country and destroying a majority of America’s farmland would be a great reason.

Netflix released a movie in December (“White Noise”), playing out precisely what’s taken place here, down to being filmed in the very same town, East Palestine, in which it occurred.

The CDC also “updated” the data on vinyl chloride in late January, before the crash, and after 17 years untouched.

The EPA has also been very obviously falsifying air and water tests, and let’s not forget the reporter that was arrested for trying to investigate.

The conspiracy theorists are 60-nil these days, so I think Hanlon’s Razor is inverted until further notice. There’s no coincidences anymore.

Also notable is Deagel’s 100 million population prediction. This is the first event that could conceivably reach that number in the allotted time, by 2025; with 250 million people east of the Mississippi River, and the untold devastation knocking on to affect the rest of the country, this could easily do that.

Deagel Makes Mysterious Changes To 2025 Population Forecast For America As Bill Gates Launches 'Grand Challenge': The 'Holy Grail Of Influenza Research' And 'Bridging The Valley Of Death' | Algora Blog

He Said, She Said.

addiction, arts education, contemplation, Deep Questions, education, grief, healing, human behavior, love, medicine, musicians, personal testimony, psychology, relationships, sociology, The Independent Party, thoughts, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , ,

He said God didn’t interact in the lives of humans.

She was sure that God did, though she wasn’t clear on exactly how, or when, or what God was doing.

He was a Democrat, but didn’t vote. She was a registered Independent, voting whenever she could choose a viable candidate.

He believed in abortion as part of a woman’s right to choose, and had encouraged women he knew to have them in the past.

She was fervently pro-life, and considered the right to choose a foil for the right to abort.

He had chosen vasectomy as his means of birth control. She’d used the sympto-thermal method, which had included periodic abstinence.

She loved to walk outdoors, but her profession kept her inside 90% of the time. When he wasn’t cooking, he was outside.

He loved dogs, cats, and birds. Her cat allergy was prohibitive and, though she’d always wanted a dog, both her neighborhood and property were not amenable.

He was built of short, bulk muscle, and preferred large motor activities like weight lifting, sailing, and heavy land maintenance. Hers was a small motor gift, expressed on musical instruments and utilizing the tools of visual art.

He was open ended, preferring to go with the flow. She needed closure, almost obsessively so, not resting until achieved.

He enjoyed hip hop and other contemporary music styles. She would choose country over hip hop, every time, but preferred everything from the classical masterworks to ballads to blues.

He was a medical professional. She was a creative and educator.

Her love expressions were gifting, problem solving, and verbal encouragement. While his love language included gifting his was almost exclusively physical release, and she could count on one hand after six years the number of times he complimented her even if strangers lavished praise.

He liked the house cool to cold, often complaining of feeling hot. She had a bit of Reynaud’s, and required a warm indoor environment to keep her fingers fully functioning.

He was a recreational alcohol and drug user, and self medicated regularly. She took prescriptions to treat migraines, one of them with a history of altering mood.

He was an introvert. She was an ambivert.

He regarded talking as a one sided means to vent. She preferred productive conversation and active dialogue.

He enjoyed reading about history and the care of animals. She preferred reading about the current states of society, health, and the cosmos.

He addressed multiple tasks as they came to mind. She made lists, and crossed off tasks as they were completed.

He preferred keeping his personal life details private. Her imagination led her to question the veracity of his disclosures.

He was fiercely in need of making all decisions on his own, including those which she believed were her exclusive domain. She was the most independent woman she knew.

He preferred to live within a small sphere of his own influence, rarely seeking answers. She was constantly curious, attracted to the speculative universe of unexplored possibility.

He resisted all forms of perceived control. She perceived his resistance as a stubborn need for absolute power.

His behavioral standards were focused on self comfort and sustenance. Hers were built around self protection and preservation.

His, from early childhood; hers, from every aspect of her social realm, theirs was a trauma bond.

He said. She said.

In spite of everything and against overwhelming odds, they had found themselves unable to break free of that which had kept them intersecting in each other’s lives.

To call this a relationship was to stretch the limits of human definition. Only God could name it.

He said God wouldn’t. She was still waiting.

.

.

.

.

Copyright 1/21/23 Ruth Ann Scanzillo . All rights those of the author, whose personal story it is and whose name appears above this line. No copying, in whole, or part, or by translation. Sharing by blog link exclusively, and not via RSS feed. Thank you for valuing the rights of original material.

littlebarefeetblog.com