“...drawing on historical experience, I will argue that there is absolutely no reason to believe that a world in which nuclear weapons belong to an exclusive ‘club’ of powerful nations is any safer or more stable than a world in which nuclear weapons can be obtained by all. Indeed, it may well be less so. Nuclear proliferation may, in fact, be a prerequisite for nuclear disarmament.”

“Same thing they did in Iraq. The US army tanks were moving in the streets and they are ready to crush any civilian car moving near them with a family inside. They did that many times. They paid 2000$ per victim family as compensation.

“It looks that army leaders advise their soldiers to deal with the people as they are insects or animal. Just crush them without mercy. Thats why many many of American soldiers return back home with psychological problems because of feeling of guilty about crimes they done there. Some of them wrote books and described what bloody mistakes they done or seen in front of their eyes.

“All of that should stop for ever.”

“moral injury is huge with the conflict with Iraq and Afghanistan and I think that has a direct reflection with the extremely high suicide rate that we see that is estimated about 22 per day. ... That’s a tremendously high number.

“We’re sold the idea of, hey, we’re going to go liberate a people. We’re fighting terrorism and then we get in the mix of things and realize we’re the ones terrorizing the people there. That really torments you psychologically. I’ve lost a few friends due to suicide.”

“Time is running out; this occasion must not be wasted, lest we have to face God's judgment for our failure to be faithful stewards of the world he has entrusted to our care.”

“And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.”
—Genesis 19:27-28 (KJV)

“The ironic twist of not just Powell’s career but also the careers of so many American generals is that they abjectly lacked, when the moment called for it, the one thing that soldiers are supposed to possess in abundance: courage. The history of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is filled with U.S. generals who were lauded as heroes but lacked the guts or honesty to stand up to the whims and dictates of their superiors. Millions of people have been killed and injured on their failed watch since 9/11.”

“And oh, what they did! Their geopolitical dreams couldn’t have been grander or more global. (Let’s avoid the word 'megalomaniacal.') They expected to pacify the Greater Middle East, garrison Iraq for generations, make Syria and Iran bow down before American power, 'drain' the global 'swamp' of terrorists, and create a global Pax Americana based on a military so dominant that no other country or bloc of countries would ever challenge it.

“It was quite a dream and none of it, not one smidgen, came true.”

“Oh God! They made the battle of Falluja as a video game? It was the worst memory in our mind after 2003 invasion. How many innocents were killed. How many deformed kids were born after that war on Falluja? How much destruction they done to the infrastructure of that city? And why? Because they show their resistance to the invasion and Abo Graib prison scandal! Who will accept this story and have fun playing it as a game? It is shame on the group who designed and marketed this game. I guess all activists in the US should stand together and refuse the marketing of this game. It will ruin the minds of American youth. ...”

“You are - as I usually [] think - spot on here Yusha. ...”

“Thank you for sharing Rolla Peace Newsletter. I did not know it exist. ... I also wanted to mention that the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq was not only illegal but it fell within the definition of Crimes Against Peace that Nazi German leaders were tried for at Nuremberg in 1946. ...”

“The only thing the people of Fallujah did was defend their city against imperialist thugs . . . I remember being particularly horrified at the US Marines use of white phosphorus — ‘shake and bake’ they called it paired with artillery. That was just one more war crime. The legions of Rome were no more brutal.”

“Yes. I guess somewhere in this world, we should build a museum of war crimes. And add the story of Falluja to it. Then we can add war crimes committed in Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, ... long list!”

“Yes, that museum would cover acres. I wonder if there has ever been a country of any power that did not commit what we now consider war crimes.”

“I was in Falluja with Iraq Water Project a few months before the second invasion. This was the one and only place we Americans encountered obvious hostility from the locals. Unlike in other parts of Iraq, here we felt decidedly unwelcome and were the none too grateful recipients of universally understood obscene gestures. The US had some time before accidentally (I believe) bombed the Falluja market place and killed a lot of people. Relatives of these collaterals did not forget. ...”

“It was always my guess that Colin Powell, in spite of grievous doubts about the integrity of US intelligence, succumbed at last to the prevalent military obligation to obey chain of command priorities. I assume that in every military, ours no exception, the model soldier salutes and dutifully carries out the assigned task. ... [He] brought shame upon himself and the rest of us. How Colin Powell dealt in the recesses of his heart with this omission only he himself knew.”

“Colin Powell was the famous face of the Bush administration. But he was only one part of a bigger deeply involved team that formed Project for the New American Century in 1997 in DC, where ten of the 25 founding members of the above-mentioned think tank became essential figures of the George W. Bush Administration, promoting US global leadership by means of what they called [preventive] wars.”

“Nothing was achieved from these dreams. None of them makes America more powerful or more happy!”

“Who will keep these people accountable for the crimes they done?”

“‘Bang, you're dead!’ we said. ‘I got you!’ we said. When we played, it was always war. A bunch of us together, one-on-one, or in solitary fantasies—always war, always death.

“‘Don't play like that,’ our parents said, ‘you could grow up that way.’ Some threat—there was no way we would rather be. We didn't need war toys. Any old stick became a weapon in our hands, and pinecones were bombs. I cannot recall taking a single piss during my childhood, whether outside or at home in the outhouse, when I didn't choose a target and bomb it. At five years of age I was already a seasoned bombardier.

“‘If everyone plays war,’ said my mother, ‘there will be war.’ And she was quite right—there was.”

—Sven Lindqvist (A History of Bombing, p1)

Note: Lindqvist is a Swedish writer. He turned five in 1937, shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He died in 2019. In his writings, he argued that the racist brutality of European imperialism led to the dark horrors of the 20th century and survived into the 21st.

*       Does it teach that the invasion of Iraq was illegal under international law?

*       Does it teach that the invasion of Iraq was preceded by United Nations sanctions (Yes, the United Nations!) that destroyed Iraq's ability to provide clean water to the extent that 5,000 children under five years of age died of water-borne disease each month (above what would have been expected from historical data)?

*       Does it teach that two successive UN Humanitarian Coordinators for Iraq resigned because of the inhumanity of the sanctions regime?

*       Does it teach that the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, that Iraq threatened the United States with weapons of mass destruction, was a deliberate lie?

*       Does it teach that even if you argue (FALSELY!) that the invasion was legal because Iraq might have had weapons of mass destruction; troops should have been withdrawn immediately upon ascertaining that Iraq had nothing of the kind, long before the Rape of Fallujah?

*       Does it teach that the Rape of Fallujah was a War Crime and a Crime Against Humanity?

*       Does it teach that the United States and allied troops lay siege to the city of Fallujah before subjecting it to intense bombing?

*       Does it teach that hospitals and ambulances were attacked in violation of international law?

*       Does it teach that copious amounts of radioactive munitions (U-238) were used against Fallujah causing elevated rates of cancer and congenital birth defects?

*       Does it teach that incendiary weapons (white phosphorus, napalm and its derivatives) that can stick to the skin and can burn clean to the bone were used against Fallujans?

*       Does it teach that thousands died in the Rape of Fallujah?

*       Does it teach that Fallujans trying to escape the city by swimming the Euphrates while holding a white flag were shot dead in the water?

*       Does it teach that US troops would fire into houses without even an attempt to ascertain if children were inside?

*       Does it teach that in January 2020 the Iraqi Parliament voted to expel US troops from Iraq? (They are still there today, 17 years after the Rape of Fallujah.)

*       Does it teach that today many US veterans of the War Against Iraq suffer from moral injury, and that many have suicided?

*       Does it teach that Fallujah is often compared to Guernica for its monumental inhumanity, brutality and stupidity?

Note: Dahr Jamail was one of the few “unembedded” Western journalists on the ground during the War Against Iraq. Visit his website. Read his description of the Rape of Fallujah through Iraqi eyes.

“... those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads. But, for mine own part, it was Greek to me. ... Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.”
—William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar 1:2, spoken by Casca)

“The first person to take a serious look at the origins of the SARS2 virus was Yuri Deigin, a biotech entrepreneur in Russia and Canada. In a long and brilliant essay, he dissected the molecular biology of the SARS2 virus and raised, without endorsing, the possibility that it had been manipulated. The essay, published on April 22, 2020, provided a roadmap for anyone seeking to understand the virus’s origins.”

“But perhaps the most important difference is that furin is also present inside the cell, so it can cut the S protein immediately after virion assembly, thereby providing new virions with the ability to merge with new cells right off the bat (no pun intended).”

“How I Learned to Hate the GOF [Gain of Function]
“I hope this post is not used to prematurely assign blame or propagate one-sided theories. What I do hope it highlights is the scale of dangerous gain-of-function research that has been and is going on in virology. The Covid-19 pandemic really exposed its huge risks in the face of few benefits: GOF research hasn’t protected us from this outbreak, hasn’t provided us with any effective treatments or vaccines in time to save hundreds of thousands of lives lost to CoV2, and if there is even a 0.1% chance GOF research caused the whole thing, that chance is too high.”

“The rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its [SARS-CoV-2's] origins. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”

“Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
... God, God forgive us all! ...”
—William Shakespeare (Macbeth 5:1, spoken by doctor attending Lady Macbeth)

About the author: Tom (Yusha) Sager, is a retired mathematician and computer scientist. Most of his writings on COVID-19 appear here in reverse chronological order. He strongly *FAVORS* the *CONJECTURE* that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered in a laboratory and released in China in an act of sabotage.

“I wonder if Cuba will be willing to accept foreigners for vaccination. They have in the past taken non-Cubans for other treatments. It is not free, and the price charged helps support the Cuban medical system. People from wealthier countries of course will not do this, as there is not an availability problem, but a few might do it just for the political message.”

“Always an interesting read. Pfizer and Moderna have been enjoying all the good news of them as saviors, but as you point out, it's more complicated (and profit driven) than that.”

“The obvious gap between ‘what the CDC says’ and ‘what we see, hear and read’ has left a large space for grifters, self-styled experts, and conspiracy theorists to thrive, especially among the large group of vaccine-hesitant (often vaccine-terrified) Americans. The whole thing might have gone better had we stuck to telling the truth as we knew it.”

1. My decision to forego vaccination and double-down on avoiding risky behaviors by going double-masked in public and avoiding crowds and, as much as possible, people in general, probably leaves me at least as well protected against COVID-19 as one who is double vaccinated and has thrown caution to the winds.

2. Losing 25 pounds might protect me against serious COVID-19 infections about as much as a vaccination, and protect me against other serious illnesses to boot.

3. Nevertheless, a vaccination would certainly add an extra measure of protection to the above safe behaviors.

4. With folks in wealthy countries receiving booster shots, while less than 2% of Afghans are fully vaccinated, I now find the thought of getting vaccinated even more repugnant than I previously found it.

“I read an article today from WaPo [The Washington Post] about a project in Pakistan to plant trees. Lots of trees. Ten billion of them, to be precise. I knew nothing about this project. Turns out it's been around for about six years. It started in a province with a one-billion-tree goal, was successful there, and was expanded to include the whole country. The idea behind it is to fight global warming. Nice that somebody is trying to do something about it.”

“Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.”

“I still don't know if the original invasion of Afghanistan was justified. Perhaps it was, but we certainly should have gotten out quickly. However, it seems to me that the one bright spot in the occupation was the improvement of the condition of women there. Things are rarely totally black and white. Sometimes there are shades of gray. I feel that after the inevitable victory of the Taliban, the condition of women there will deteriorate. I would like to see you write about this in an upcoming Peace News.”

“From a personal viewpoint I saw the stone Buddhas in Bamiyan when I was in Afghanistan. These were cultural treasures. My thought upon hearing that they were destroyed by the Taliban was that these people are f---ing crazy. But they are more than crazy. I think they are evil.”

“I did not want to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. In fact, some foreigners came to me and said they would like to conduct the repair work of the Bamiyan Buddha that had been slightly damaged due to rains. This shocked me. I thought, these callous people have no regard for thousands of living human beings—the Afghans who are dying of hunger, but they are so concerned about non-living objects like the Buddha. This was extremely deplorable. That is why I ordered its destruction. Had they come for humanitarian work, I would have never ordered the Buddha's destruction.”

“Ring the bells that still can ring;
Forget your perfect offering;
There is a crack, a crack in everything;
That's how the light gets in.”
—Leonard Cohen (Anthem)

“The cynical part of me wants the public to understand that it’s your fault; we are all complicit in all of this horror. I don’t need other people to experience my pain, I need other people to understand that they are complicit in my pain.”

This book, published a few months ago, should be a must read for anyone concerned with peace and justice. Bittman has written many books about food, mostly cook books, and for years he wrote a food column for the New York Times. In a fairly short book, about 300 pages, Bittman first talks about the history of agriculture. Then he talks about the monoculture that characterizes US industrial agriculture, and the pesticides and fertilizers necessary to to make this system work. He mentions the poor conditions of farm workers.

He talks about the hyper-processed junk foods that line the supermarket shelves. He mentions that the food advertising budget in the US is $14 billion while the budget for health promotion is $1 billion. He points out that in poorer areas there are less healthy food choices available. Finally he talks about some possible solutions.

Since, as Bittman says, “We are all eaters,” I highly recommend the book.

“And all the rain falls down, Amen,
On the works of Last Year's Man.”
—Leonard Cohen (Last Year's Man)

“We'll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb.
Who's next?”
—Tom Lehrer (Who's Next?)

South Asia: partitioned between India and Pakistan
Korea: partitioned between North and South.
China: partitioned between Mainland and Taiwan
Palestine: partitioned between Palestine and Israel
Yugoslavia: partitioned among multiple entities
Vietnam: partitioned between North and South (reunited after a decade of bitter warfare)

Note: Scroll half-way down the Bright Line Watch article for discussion of secession. There is also a short discussion of this article in The Hill.

“Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;”
—William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar: III,1)

“When we liberate Taiwan, if Japan dares to intervene by force, even if it only deploys one soldier, one plane, and one ship, we will not only return reciprocal fire but also start a full-scale war against Japan. We will use nuclear bombs first. We will use nuclear bombs continuously until Japan declares unconditional surrender for the second time.”

“If this sounds dystopic to you, then I would suggest putting aside your divisive politics and learning to get along with one another. We're all in this together. If we can't learn to get along and share, there won't be much left for anybody.”

Note1: The historic data above are from Wikipedia and may be disputed.

Note 2: There is an interesting discussion of the phrase, cry havoc here.

Note 3: Here is a part of Antony's soliloquy which includes the “cry havoc” phrase:

“Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.”

Open Letter to President Joseph Biden of the United States of America

Dear Mr. President:

I read that you have labeled Cuba a “failed state.”

Please explain how a “failed state” could produce two of the world's five most effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic. I'd like to know.

You then offer to “look into the possibility of sending vaccines to [Cuba].” Mr. President, Cuba has no need for your vaccines. They have their own. Send your vaccines to Palestine and Africa where they are wanted and needed. However, if you wish to help the Cuban people, you could relax the 60-year-old blockade, so Cuba could more easily import syringes for mass vaccinations.

Also, Mr. President, instead of knocking Cuba, you might pay attention to your own country. The COVID pandemic is making a comeback in every state.

Sincerely,
Tom (Yusha) Sager

“And this mess is so big
And so deep and so tall,
We can not pick it up.
There is no way at all!”
—Dr. Seuss (The Cat in the Hat, p55)

“The United States, which created the Afghan issue in the first place, should act responsibly to ensure a smooth transition in Afghanistan. It should not simply shift the burden onto others and withdraw from the country with the mess left behind unattended.”

“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

“And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

“The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

“The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

“Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.”

—Isaiah 24:1-6 (KJV)

“Good point in paragraph one. The photos are very effective.

“I hadn't thought about what sea intrusion will do to subsoil structures. Might not be a good time to start a career in Miami real estate.”

“You compensate with beautiful promises that someone in the future will somehow undo your actions. And when your empty words are not enough, when the protests grow too loud, you make protests illegal.”

“Perhaps playing a role helps you sleep at night.”

“You can and will continue to pretend, but nature and physics will not fall for it. Nature and physics are not entertained nor distracted by your theater. The audience has grown weary. The show is over.”

“I have been to the darkest corners of government, and what they fear is light.” —Edward Snowden

“Those who have claimed that a natural origin is the only viable hypothesis overlook the extensive research activity that was underway in the field and in laboratories on SARS-like viruses, including in Wuhan, China, where the first outbreak was identified, and in the United States.”

“declared that there was overwhelming evidence that SARS-CoV-2 originated in wildlife and that alternative theories of a research-related release of the virus amounted to ‘conspiracy theories’.”?

“We have learned that much of this work ... that was underway in the US, China, and elsewhere, both in collecting viral samples from the field and in studying their infectivity and pathogenicity (ability to cause disease) in the laboratory ... can be classified as ‘gain of function’ ... research.”

“the tools of genomic manipulation have advanced so rapidly that the potential to create new deadly pathogens in the laboratory and accidentally or even deliberately release them is a very serious concern. The world currently lacks adequate international and national safeguards and transparency on such dangerous work, and the risks are compounded by the secretive bioweapons research programs several governments sponsor that help to sustain it.”

“Neither the US nor Chinese authorities have yet been sufficiently forthcoming to date to enable researchers to advance our understanding of the origin of
SARS-CoV-2.”

“Many biosafety experts have long argued that such work ...requires much greater oversight, control, and scrutiny,”

“In connection with your comment on the Canadian tar sands, I tried to find some photos I had of this area in Alberta province. ... Truly dismaying what we are willing to do to nature for our selfish convenience.”

“Greed and stupidity make a lethal cocktail.” —Dave Jorgenson

“It must be mighty discouragin'
To lie to the left of the origin.”
—Tom Lehrer

“Why would anyone want to create a novel virus capable of causing a pandemic? Ever since virologists gained the tools for manipulating a virus’s genes, they have argued they could get ahead of a potential pandemic by exploring how close a given animal virus might be to making the jump to humans. And that justified lab experiments in enhancing the ability of dangerous animal viruses to infect people, virologists asserted.”

“So let's assume for now that the COVID-19 virus was created in a laboratory. And let's assume the secret gets out.

“So far, 540 thousand have died of COVID-19. People all over the world have lost family and friends to this virus. Folks have had their whole lives disrupted. How are they going to respond to the knowledge that this scourge was visited upon them by a handful of scientists? Might they not torch a few ivory towers? Might they not liberate a few laboratories? Might they not scourge a few scientists?

“Indeed, scientists have a very strong interest in keeping the public from believing that they hold any responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Religion without sacrifice.
Politics without principle.

“It must be mighty discouragin'
To lie to the left of the origin.”

“It’s difficult to persuade someone to make a deal, if he is certain you’re planning to kill him, no matter what he does.” —Robert Alvarez

“We live in a post-truth era, where facts don’t matter anymore.” —Damien Spleeters

“Now, unfortunately, you [Biden] are writing history with your bloody hands with this event. Gaza is being attacked with seriously disproportionate force causing the martyrdom of thousands of people. You have forced us to say this.”

“The failure of the United States to stand up for the rule of law, to demand that the Palestinians, powerless and friendless, even in the Arab world, be granted basic human rights mirrors the abandonment of the vulnerable within our own society.”

“Colonial occupiers have long claimed a ‘right’ to defend themselves from the resistance of native communities, including by committing mass murder. The history of African colonisation is littered with the corpses and mass graves of those who dared to resist the militarily superior Europeans.”

“The idea that imperial land grabbers have the right to terrorise, brutalise, torture and murder those whose land they steal under the rubric of ‘self-defence’ flies in the face of UN General Assembly Resolution 37/43 of 1982 which recognised ‘the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle’. That resolution specifically reaffirmed this right in the case of the Palestinian struggle.”

“While wealthy countries rush to vaccinate their populations against COVID-19, 130 of the World's poorest countries have not received a single dose of vaccine. Frontline medical workers in Zimbabwe are dying for lack of protection, while ‘lawmakers’ and hospital administrators in the United States cut to the front of the line. Israel is vaccinating its entire population while ignoring the needs of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation for over half a century.

“I think I'll pass on getting vaccinated. Send my vaccine to Zimbabwe or Palestine instead.”

“Maybe when all the teachers and homeless people are vaccinated and Zimbabwe and Palestine are getting their fair share of vaccine — maybe then, if I'm still around, I'll get in line for a vaccination.”

“To rely on the wisdom of the people in power is the worst thing you can do.” —Howard Zinn

Note: Unitedstatesian is hard to say and doesn't sound nice. I like the Spanish word, Estadounidense. It flows easily off the tongue (once you get used to it) and has a nice sound to it. I think we should adopt it. Here are a few other words we have adopted from the Spanish language: mosquito, guerrilla, pronto, rodeo, El Niño. There is a much longer list here.

“[We] are reading a book called Ban This Book. ... I think you might like. ... A parent [Trey's mom] pushes the school board to ban a variety of books (all of which are real books and have been banned at some point) in the school library, and the students set up a hidden library of the books in a locker and loan them out. The students' interest in the books grew because they were banned. ... Trey doesn't like it and starts filling out forms to ban ALL the books as a protest and to show that what his mom is doing is ridiculous. The line ‘Once you ban one book, you can ban them all’ stuck with me. And then the kids start getting creative about banning others: stories about lions? Too gory.”

“We have totally banned religion from our public schools. Maybe if schools would teach the many and important similarities among religions, we wouldn't be plagued with so much religious hatred and deadly attacks upon houses of worship. But teaching religion in a fair, impartial, non-judgmental manner is VERY DIFFICULT. It's much easier to just ban the subject entirely.”

“You sound as if you think the Taliban taking over is a good thing. ... My understanding is that the Islam of the Taliban is a disaster for women. ... From what I've read, women have had more rights under the American occupation of Afghanistan than under the Taliban. I fear this progress will be erased once the Taliban takes over again.”

Military Budget:

Taiwan:

Ukraine:

(Which is Dr. Seuss's and which is mine?)

(Incidentally, worms don't have eyes, although they can sense light and dark.)

Oh, the world is so full of a number of books;
Read one or two and you might find you're hooked;
And that's why I think that I do nothing wrong,
When I wait for the sunrise, reading Seuss all night long.

“Are you familiar with the British author T.H. White? His most famous work is The Once and Future King, a retelling of the Arthurian legends recorded by Sir Thomas Mallory. T.H. White's version is charming and highly fanciful, not a children's book, but one I suspect you might well approve.

“White was a writer of pacifist tendencies, and his final section of the novel called The Book of Merlin was excisioned and set aside at the time of publication, when England was under heavy danger of invasion by Nazi Germany. The Book of Merlin was discovered among his posthumous papers some years ago and published separately by the University of Texas, the current owner of all his manuscripts.

“If you have not read this remarkable work, I highly recommend it. I happened to be attending the University of Texas about the time it came out and ran across it in a bookstore. I am rereading the entire novel all these years after, and with every pleasure I enjoyed at the first.”

“[We] are reading a book called Ban This Book. ... I think you might like. ... A parent [Trey's mom] pushes the school board to ban a variety of books (all of which are real books and have been banned at some point) in the school library, and the students set up a hidden library of the books in a locker and loan them out. The students' interest in the books grew because they were banned. ... Trey doesn't like it and starts filling out forms to ban ALL the books as a protest and to show that what his mom is doing is ridiculous. The line ‘Once you ban one book, you can ban them all’ stuck with me. And then the kids start getting creative about banning others: stories about lions? Too gory.”

“I agree wholeheartedly with your defense of Dr Seuss. What are we doing right now that future generations may one day condemn and insist our whole culture must be cast in the river? I can hear it now: Do you know what these ignorant ancestors did? They raised animals, fed them and cared for them, and then--brace yourself--ATE THEM. Don't shake your head in disbelief, look it up!”

“Do you know what these ignorant ancestors did? They made bombs that could destroy all human life on Earth. And then they threatened each other that if they didn't get their way they would explode them!! Don't shake your head in disbelief, look it up! It's a miracle that any of us are still alive today.”

Sam is on his way to school. It's his first day of kindergarten and he's dressed in his new clothes. He meets four tigers. Each one growls, “Grrrr, Sam I'm going to eat you for breakfast.” Sam gives each tiger an article of clothing and exclaims, “Oh, Mr. Tiger, you're the best dressed tiger in the whole jungle.” The tiger is proud of his new clothes and doesn't eat Sam. (By time we get to the third tiger, most of the class has these two lines down pat.)

The tigers get to fighting over who's the best dressed tiger in the jungle. They take Sam's clothes off the better to fight. Sam puts on his clothes and goes to school. The tigers get overheated fighting each other and melt into a pool of butter. Sam loves school. He's the best dressed kid in his class. Dad finds the pool of butter and takes it home. Mom makes pancakes that come out golden brown with black stripes, just like the tigers. Sam is never bothered by tigers again.

Tonlu works the family farm with father, mother and her five younger siblings. The farm is on the side of a steep mountain. At the top of the mountain live the immensely wealthy cloud dragons. When Tonlu finds out the merchant will foreclose on their farm unless she marries him, she decides to steal treasure from the cloud dragons to pay the merchant.

Two cloud dragons are squabbling over who makes the best soup and Tonlu shows them how mixed together their two soups are even better than either one separately. The dragons are so thankful they give her treasure to pay father's debt and fly her around the world.

An old woman with no children to care for her adopts a young polar bear. The polar bear grows up quickly and becomes the best provider of fish and seal meat in the village. Even after the villagers drive the bear out, the polar bear son continues to catch fish and seal for his mother.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” —Albert Einstein

“And I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty,
You keepers of truth, you guardians of beauty,
Your vision is right, my vision is wrong,
I'm sorry for smudging the air with my song.”
—Leonard Cohen (A Singer Must Die)

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” —Albert Einstein

“Oh, the sea is so full of a number of fish,
If a fellow is patient, he might get his wish!
And that's why I think that I'm not such a fool,
When I sit here and fish in McElligot's Pool.”

King Derwin wants something new to fall from His sky. He calls his royal magicians and they make oobleck fall. Oobleck is green, gooey and sticky. There seems to be no way to stop the oobleck until the page boy, Bartholomew, gets the king to cry, “It's all my fault and I'm sorry. I'm awfully, awfully sorry!” Then the oobleck magically stops falling and melts away.

“While wealthy countries rush to vaccinate their populations against COVID-19, 130 of the World's poorest countries have not received a single dose of vaccine. Frontline medical workers in Zimbabwe are dying for lack of protection, while “lawmakers” and hospital administrators in the United States cut to the front of the line. Israel is vaccinating its entire population while ignoring the needs of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation for over half a century.

“I think I'll pass on getting vaccinated. Send my vaccine to Zimbabwe or Palestine instead.”

“The trouble with passing on your vaccination is that it's not really yours. You can't pass it on to Palestine or Zimbabwe or anyplace else for that matter. In fact, if you don't take it when it's your turn, it may just go bad and be thrown away. Also, you just might get COVID and be put in a hospital, taking up space that somebody else might need for an unrelated matter. And then who would write the Rolla Peace News? So I urge you to please take it.”

“you have packed so much into this week's edition. The Heart of Darkness quotes (I remember the first one). The Over the Edge Piece which was profoundly moving and left me searching to learn more about Afghanistan. The statistics on where our vaccines are going, a new perspective I hadn't yet heard but which does impact whether I would want to get the vaccine. I appreciate the wisdom you share, Yusha, thank you. Wishing you well this evening.”

1. I'll probably only be around for a few more years at most. Seems a shame to waste scarce vaccine on giving someone who sleeps most of the day a possible year or two more of life. Wouldn't it be better to give “my vaccine” to my daughter and son-in-law who are raising four children, one less than six-months-old?

2. I have a home where I can shelter-in-place and not spread disease among the general population. Wouldn't it be better to give “my vaccine” to a homeless person or a prison inmate who can't shelter-in-place?

3. I rarely go out and when I do I am double-masked and come in contact with few people. Wouldn't it be better to give “my vaccine” to a pre-school or kindergarten teacher who comes in close contact with twenty children five days a week for seven hours a day?

4. With so many people, so much more needy than I am, in so many corners of the world, I would feel like an accomplice, if I accepted scarce vaccine from the same system that denies that same vaccine to those most in need.

“The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there—there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly.”
—Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)

“And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect.”

“An isolated incident is business as usual that has been detected.” —Fred Reed

“humanity is ripe for a major epidemiological catastrophe” and the United States is “perhaps particularly vulnerable [to SARS-CoV-19]. We've gutted our public health infrastructure in favor of for-profit health care. When people are afraid to seek medical help because they might end up paying for it for the rest of their lives, how are we to keep contagious disease from spreading?”