Words That Matter, Still .... Aesop

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop  600 B.C.

Words That Matter, Still .... Socrates

"I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.” -  Socrates 470 BC-399 BC

Words That Matter, Still .... Politicians

"All politicians are liars and thieves; differing only in degree." - Luhrs

Life at its Best .... Optimism

In life, there are only two things to worry about, either you are well, or you are sick.

     If you are well, there is nothing to worry about, 

but if you are sick, you have two things to worry about; either you will live, or you will die.

     If you live, there is nothing to worry about, 

but if you die, you have two things to worry about; either you will go to heaven or to hell.

     If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about, 

but if you go to hell, you'll be so busy shaking hands with all your friends, 

     you won't have time to worry!

Words That Matter, Still .... Wilde

We are all of us in the gutter -

     But some of us are looking at the stars.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) on drinking and mankind

Life at its Best .... Gender

Here's to the women that I've loved and all the ones I've kissed. 

     As for regrets, I just have one  - that's all the ones I've missed. 

Oh, womens' faults are many, we men have only two: 

     Every single thing we say, and everything we do.

Words That Matter, Still .... Cicero

 "Never, was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves." -- Marcus Tullius Cicero, 1st Century B.C.

Life at its Best .... Ten Toes

Here's to the game of "Ten Toes",

     That's played all around the town,    

The Lassies play with ten toes Up,

     And the Laddies play with ten toes Down !

History of the Preparation of Insulin - Homemade Insulin, Part 3….Did Eva Saxl mean Bergmann not Beckman ? Jensen's text

In the book, “Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes”, the author, James Hirsch recounts how Eva Saxl, an insulin diabetic and her husband, Viktor, managed to produce a homemade insulin using information from a medical text called “Beckman’s Internal Medicine”. They did this under duress in World War II in China during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Not only were they able to keep Eva alive with the homemade product but also another 200 diabetics in the Shanghai Ghetto where they lived.

Eva herself retold the story but with no mention of the Beckman’s medical text, shortly after the war, in the 50’s for Edward R. Murrow’s radio broadcast, “This I Believe.” - http://thisibelieve.org/essay/16957/   .  Eva Saxl died in 2002 in Santiago, Chile. 


There do not appear to be any records showing such a medical text “Beckman’s Internal Medicine” ever existed either in English or German (Innere Medizin). What does exist are medical textbooks published by Bergmann in Munich at the same time. Especially notable was the volume, “Insulin”, by Grevenstuk and Laquer, published by Bergmann in 1925. The book was written in German. Eva was an accomplished linguist, fluent in 5 languages. It was referenced by J.J.R. Macleod a professor of physiology in Toronto and one of the prominent researchers involved the development of Insulin, in his book “Carbohydrate Metabolism and Insulin”, published in 1926 by Longmans, Green, and Co. Ltd. of London.

Some of the difficulties and uncertainties encountered by the Saxls had to do with purification and potency of their homemade insulin.

Another early researcher of insulin, H. F. Jensen, authored a text entitled "Insulin" in 1938, published by The Commonwealth Fund, New York in which he described the early research and difficulties associated with the preparation of insulin. His work was referenced by numerous other investigators and authors.

What follows are excerpts from Jensen’s book for information purposes and is intended only to relate to the story of the historical development of Insulin.

Chapter 2. Preparation of Insulin

Page 27 Methods of Purification

"In the purification of insulin, the following methods are generally employed: a) isoelectric precipitation, b) precipitation as a salt, c) adsorption, and d) fractional precipitation with organic"

Page 28

"solvents. Somogyi, Doisy, and Shaffer (67) observed that most of the active principle can be precipitated from aqueous solutions by adjusting the hydrogen ion concentration of the solution to about pH 5. The precipitate contains the insulin in a very active form. Waldo (65, 66) independently made the same observation. This isoelectric method of purifying insulin is generally used: however, the potency cannot be increased beyond a certain stage even with repeated isoelectric precipitations.

     Dudley (29) purified the crude insulin, prepared by Collip's method, by precipitating the active material from aqueous solutions with picric acid. The insoluble picrate was then converted into a soluble hydrochloride by means of an alcoholic solution of hydrochloric acid.
    
     Boivin and his associates (17, 18) have apparently obtained very pure amorphous insulin preparations by a further purification of the picrate by isoelectric precipitation. Funk (34) employed flavianic acid as a precipitant and claimed to have isolated the hormone as a a flavianate. Dickens and his collaborators (21)have described a method for the purification of insulin consisting in the precipitation of the active material with a 2 per cent trichloracetic acid and the salting out of the insulin from the acid solution of the precipitate. This was followed by precipitation as an oxalate at pH 2.42 -3.7 by the addition of N/8 potassium oxalate to the solution of insulin hydrochloride. Purified insulin preparations were also obtained in the same way by various other workers (3, 17, 20, 55).

     Moloney and Findlay (49, 50) purified insulin by making use of the fact that the hormone is adsorbed by benzoic acid and by charcoal. Dingemanse likewise found charcoal a good adsorbent (22, 23), whereas Sandberg and Brand used kaolin (60). Alumina evidently cannot be employed for this purpose (24).

     Shonle (65) has described the method used for large-scale pro-"

Page 29

"duction of insulin at the Eli Lilly Research Laboratories. The fresh glands, finely ground, are extracted with alcohol containing one per cent sulfuric acid, and the alcoholic extract of the gland is concentrated in vacuo at 25 . After the fat has been removed, alcohol is added to the solution until the alcohol concentration reaches 80 per cent. The concentration of the alcohol in the filtrate from the inert protein material is then increased to 93 per cent; this causes the precipitation of insulin together with much inert protein material. The precipitate is further purified by isoelectric precipitations. In this way the insulin is secured for clinical use.

     Scott and Parker (63) have outlined the procedure followed at the Connaught Laboratories for preparing a highly purified insulin preparation. Fresh ox pancreas is dropped into acid aqueous alcohol and allowed to stand overnight. After centrifugation, the extracts are made alkaline with ammonium hydroxide (pH 8), the filtrate is reacidified, and the alcohol is distilled off in vacuo. The concentrate should have a pH of about 2. The protein material in the filtrate from the lipoid material is separated by salting out with 25 per cent sodium chloride. The precipitate is then dissolved in water and the protein reprecipitated by the addition of sodium chloride to 15 per cent concentration. The insulin protein precipitate is dissolved in dilute hydrochloric acid. The solution is brought to pH 5 by the addition of 5 N sodium hydroxide and allowed to stand a 2  for one week. The precipitate which settles out is centrifuged off and dissolved in water containing sufficient sulfuric acid to bring the reaction to pH 2. Four volumes of absolut alcohol are added; after standing at room temperature for two days, the solution is filtered and absolut alcohol and ether are added to the alcoholic filtrate. The insulin protein is thus precipitated out and is further purified by isoelectric precipitation at pH 5. The isoelectric insulin precipi-"

Page 30

"tate is dissolved in dilute hydrochloric acid (pH 2.8) and sterilzed by means of a Seitz filter. It can then be used for therapeutic purposes.

     The first steps of Gerlough and Bates' (35) method are similar to those of Best and Scott's procedure (cited above). For further purification, the crude defatted insulin preparation is dissolved at pH 2.5-2.8, and the insulin protein is salted out by 16 per cent sodium sulfate. The precipitate is taken up in 60 per cent alcohol and the insulin precipitated from the filtrate by the addition of alcohol to a concentration of 90-92 per cent. Three isoelectric precipitations at pH 5.0 are made to remove any inert, soluble protein. In this way, products assaying 21-24 units per milligram have been obtained. In another scheme of purification, these investigators apply their observation that the solubility of insulin in aqueous alcohol is affected by the presence of certain inorganic salts.

Abel and Geiling (1) purified commercial insulin (iletin) by repeated precipitation with N/6 pyridine solution from dilute acetic-acid solution. The dry precipitate thus obtained was next extracted with 90 per cent phenol, in which the hormone is soluble. The insulin was then precipitated from the phenol solution by the addition of either dry ether or absolute alcohol. In this way these investigators were able to raise the rabbit unitage considerably. It was such a preparation which Abel and his associates first employed in the crystallization of the hormone.

     The data concerning the chemical and physical properties of insulin obtained by the study of these incompletely purified preparations are naturally inexact and therefore not reported here, but certain references are made to them in the chapter dealing with the physical and chemical properties of crystalline insulin. a description of the earlier chemical work may be found in various handbooks and reviews (25, 37, 43, 65, 72). Certainly,"

Page 31

"the early chemical work on these preparations already indicated the protein nature of the hormone ( 29, 66, 67 )."


Chapter 4 Standardization of Insulin

Page 78 (to be continued ......) 



Links -
Wikipedia - Protein Precipitation
Isoelectric point precipitation

The isoelectric point (pI) is the pH of a solution at which the net primary charge of a protein becomes zero. At a solution pH that is above the pI the surface of the protein is predominantly negatively charged and therefore like-charged molecules will exhibit repulsive forces. Likewise, at a solution pH that is below the pI, the surface of the protein is predominantly positively charged and repulsion between proteins occurs. However, at the pI the negative and positive charges cancel, repulsive electrostatic forces are reduced and the attraction forces predominate. The attraction forces will cause aggregation and precipitation. The pI of most proteins is in the pH range of 4-6. Mineral acids, such as hydrochloric and sulfuric acid are used as precipitants. The greatest disadvantage to isoelectric point precipitation is the irreversible denaturation caused by the mineral acids. For this reason isoelectric point precipitation is most often used to precipitate contaminant proteins, rather than the target protein. The precipitation of casein during cheesemaking, or during production of sodium caseinate, is an isoelectric precipitation.


3D Model Babcock Style Manual Lab Centrifuge

Manual Hand Crank 4 Tube Lab Centrifuge

DIY Dremel Lab Centrifuge 

Honeycomb Extractor Centrifuge 

 

US County Sheriffs .... Standing Firm for Constitutional Rights.

Across the Nation, County Sheriffs are sending a strong message to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Michael Bloomberg, Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton and all the other gun grabbing progressives.

"We took an oath to uphold the Constitution and that includes the 2nd Amendment - Don't try to bring unconstitutional laws or executive orders to our jurisdictions because we won't enforce them !".

In a letter sent to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sheriff Jon Lopey of Siskiyou County, California wrote:  "Our founding fathers got it right and many politicians are getting it wrong."

In the face of hysterical anti-gun measures the tide of pro-gun sentiment is snowballing with many law enforcement officials telling members of their communities to buy guns and get training to defend themselves because personnel and budget cutbacks are compromising their ability to provide police services to protect the public.

"An enslaved people don't own guns - A free people do." - anon  

Support your Local Sheriff - words of encouragement ARE appreciated!

Listing to date of State Sheriff’s Associations and Sheriffs who have publicly vowed to uphold the Constitution against unlawful gun control measures. Is your county sheriff among them, if not, why not ? 

Utah Sheriff’s Association
New Mexico Sheriff’s Association (30 out of 33 sheriffs)

Sheriff Glenn E. Palmer - Grant County, Oregon
Sheriff Gil Gilbertson – Josephine County, Oregon
Sheriff Tim Mueller – Linn County, Oregon
Sheriff Adam Christianson – Stanislaus County, California
Sheriff Brad A. DeLay – Lawrence County, Missouri
Sheriff Charles M. Heiss – Johnson County, Missouri
Sheriff Steve Cox - Livingston County, Missouri
Sheriff Jon Lopey – Siskiyou County, California
Sheriff Craig Zanni – Coos County, Oregon
Sheriff John Hanlin - Douglas County, Oregon
Sheriff John Bishop – Curry County, Oregon
Sheriff Larry Blanton - Deschutes County, Oregon
Sheriff Jim Hensley – Crook County, Oregon
Sheriff Denny Peyman – Jackson County, Kentucky
Sheriff Roy Klingler – Madison County, Idaho
Sheriff Blake Dorning – Madison County, Alabama
Sheriff Justin Smith – Larimer County, Colorado
Sheriff Al Cannon – Charleston County, South Carolina
Sheriff Ana Franklin – Morgan County, Alabama
Sheriff Andy Hughes – Houston County, Alabama
Sheriff Stacy Nicholson – Gilmer County, Georgia
Sheriff Robin Cole – Pine County, Minnesota
Sheriff Bill Snyder – Martin County, Florida
Sheriff Ed Kilgpore – Humboldt County, Nevada
Sheriff Tom Bosenko – Shasta County, California
Sheriff John D’Agostini – El Dorado County, California
Sheriff David Hencraft – Tehama County, California
Sheriff Dean Growden – Lassen County, California
Sheriff Dean Wilson – Del Norte County, California
Sheriff Mike Poindexter – Modoc County, California
Sheriff Thomas Allman - Mendocino County, California
Sheriff Mike Downey - Humboldt County, California
Sheriff Larry Smith - Smith County, Texas
Sheriff Kieran Donahue - Canyon County, Idaho
Sheriff Margaret Mims – Fresno County, California
Sheriff Pat Garrett – Washington County, Oregon
Sheriff Dan Staton – Multnomah County, Oregon
Sheriff Scott Mascher - Yavapai County, Arizona
Sheriff Micahel A. Helmig - Boone County, Ohio
Sheriff A.J. Rodenberg - Clermont County, Ohio
Sheriff Terry Maketa - El Paso County, Colorado
Sheriff John Cooke - Weld County, Colorado
Sheriff Scott Berry - Oconee County, Georgia
Sheriff Frank Denning – Johnson County, Kansas
Sheriff Stan Hilkey – Mesa County, Colorado
Sheriff Terry Box – Collin County, Texas
Sheriff Chuck Wright - Spartanburg County, South Carolina
Sheriff Greg Hagwood - Plumas County, California
Sheriff Frank McKeithen - Bay County, Florida
Sheriff Roger Garrison - Cherokee County, Georgia
Sheriff Tony Desmond - Schoharie County, New York
Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. – Otsego County, New York
Sheriff Bruce Haney – Trinity County, California
Sheriff Wayne DeWitt - Berkeley County, South Carolina
Sheriff Bob ‘Big Block’ Colbert – Wagoner County, Oklahoma
Sheriff Joel W. Richardson – Randall County, Texas
Sheriff Mike Scott – Lee County, Florida
Sheriff Mike Winters – Jackson County, Oregon
Sheriff Brian Wolfe – Malheur County, Oregon
Sheriff Cameron M. Noel – Beaver County, Utah
Sheriff Tom Rummel – Sanders County, Montana
Sheriff Jeff Christopher – Sussex County, Delaware
Sheriff Brad Rogers, Elkhart County, Indiana
Sheriff David Edmunds – Summit County, Utah
Sheriff James Tracy – Utah County, Utah
Sheriff Robert Dekker – Millard County, Utah
Sheriff Frank Park – Tooele County, Utah
Sheriff J. Lynn Yeates – Box Elder County, Utah
Sheriff G. Lynn Nelson – Chache County, Utah
Sheriff James Cordova – Carbon County, Utah
Sheriff Jerry Jorgensen – Daggett County, Utah
Sheriff Todd Richardson – Davis County, Utah
Sheriff Travis Mitchell – Duchesne County – Utah
Sheriff Greg Funk – Emery County, Utah
Sheriff James D. Perkins – Garfield County, Utah
Sheriff Steven White – Grand County, Utah
Sheriff Mark Gower – Iron County, Utah
Sheriff Alden Orme – Juab County, Utah
Sheriff Lamont Smith – Kane County, Utah
Sheriff Blaine Breshears – Morgan County, Utah
Sheriff Marty Gleave – Puite County, Utah
Sheriff Dale Stacey – Rich County, Utah
Sheriff Rick Eldredge – San Juan County, Utah
Sheriff Brian Nielson – Sanpete County, Utah
Sheriff Nathan Curtis – Sevier County, Utah
Sheriff Jeff Merrell – Uintah County, Utah
Sheriff Todd Bonner – Wasatch County, Utah
Sheriff Cory Pulsipher – Washington County, Utah
Sheriff Kurt Taylor – Wayne County, Utah
Sheriff Terry Thompson – Weber County, Utah

Obama .... Can't decide - Syria or the Congo?

Obama said in a New Republic magazine interview that he's struggling to decide about intervention in Syria where Syrian President Assad has slaughtered tens of thousands of his own people for nearly the last 2 years in a desperate attempt to maintain his power.

Both Secretary of State Clinton and Obama had earlier made a big issue about Assad using any of the chemical weapons stockpiled in his country, calling it a "red line" that if crossed would prompt an immediate and swift response by the US to remove Assad.

So much for the big threat against Syria used by the pair to placate the Israelis who also planned to attack Syria over the chemical weapons issue.

In December Assad used chemical weapons to attack opposition forces in the city of Homs and both Hillary and Barack know it happened from intelligence reports.

And the swift retaliation from the US for Assad violating Obama's "red line" ?  Well, Obama's still struggling with that one.

"And how do I weigh tens of thousands who've been killed in Syria versus the tens of thousands who are currently being killed in the Congo?" he said.

Here's a rather straightforward clue for you Barack - 

THEY DON'T HAVE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN THE CONGO THAT THREATEN THE REST OF THE WORLD !!!
 
Obama, you bear the largest share of responsibility for this mess and the few options remaining with your half-assed "lead from behind" and "sometimes they're going to go sideways" foreign policy.

You set the stage and directed the players and now you're whining about what to do about it as it all unravels throughout the entire mid east and northern Africa.

The Israelis tired of the broken Obama promises concerning their security and existence have promised that if the WMD's fall into the hands of terrorists, Israel will attack. 

And unlike our White House those guys do have both the resolve and the balls!

Hillary Clinton .... My Record of Accomplishment !

"My list of Accomplishment As Secretary of State by Hillary Clinton."

“Because of my influence Barrack Obama appointed 25 female ambassadors and cheap cookstoves can be found around the world”

"I got Osama bin Laden, making the world a much safer place." 


 or some similar drivel ....

I must admit I missed the Obama / Clinton farewell Tete a Tete at the White House where apparently once erstwhile political enemies are now fast bosom buddies - but then apparently I've also missed all of Clinton's accomplishments as Secretary of State for the last 4 years.

I imagine though, as she prepared the listing herself for her biography to be used as part of the official State Department archives and for her future political career narratives, it went sort of like this:

I maintained our alliance with Pakistan, uhh maybe shouldn't talk about that one since my boss, Obama is under investigation now by the UN for war crimes because of drone attacks indiscriminately  killing civilians and children. The Pakistani's aren't too happy about us right now, either. Nope, better cross that one off.

Ok, I successfully stopped North Korea's aggression against South Korea and their pursuit of ICBM’s that could reach the US Mainland. There was that nasty little matter of both exchanging artillery fire but nobody got killed. And the North Koreans said their last missile launch was just to put a satellite in orbit, but I know how they lie.

I successfully stopped a ground war invasion by Israel into Gaza, sort of. And I brought a lasting peace to Palestine and Israel with a settlement freeze but it has so many loopholes you can't really say it means anything. I kept Hamas from shelling Israel with rockets from the south – yeah, that’s been real iffy too. You’d think that Netanyahu would be grateful, but Noooo, he just keeps pushin and pushin. I mean what’s it going to take to satisfy that man?  Another crusade ?

I prevented the Iranians from enriching nuclear material for a bomb they want to use to blow the Israelis to smithereens with – at least until this week when they announced they were not slowing down but moving full steam ahead again. And then they went ahead and just launched their own ICBM capable rocket - Crap, everyone's squirming about that one!

I helped the anti Assad Syrian forces who just happen to be Al Qaeda from Libya get weapons by way of Turkey with secret meetings arranged by Ambassador Stevens- then that whole thing blew up in our faces in Benghazi with Stevens getting killed. Damn that Rand Paul for asking about weapons going to Syria through Turkey anyway, he can just go knocking on the CIA’s door. I’m not saying any more. And the whole mess, at this point, just what does it matter anyway ? And I know a lot of people are dying over there but just as many are dying in the Congo and we're not doing anything for them either.

Let's see, hmmm, I didn't really do anything about the drug cartel violence in Mexico and the US - skip that one …. except maybe help shepherd along a gun grab and gun ban in the United Nations - that worked out pretty well postponing the UN treaty so Obama could get re-elected and then having him call the delegation on his election night to go ahead with the treaty anyway. But that's not until March and I'll be long gone by then.

I got that sissy Obama to finally move on Libya and get rid of Qaddafi for his human rights atrocities but that hasn't worked out too well either because the "freedom fighters" who are actually terrorists themselves are committing worse atrocities and human rights violations than Qaddafi did. Then there are all of those weapons that got stolen by the terrorists right under our noses - Gawd, that’s gonna blow up in our faces everywhere someday - the Jordanians already intercepted some that were going to be used to blow up our embassy there - but there was that awful Algerian attack and killing of all those hostages in the natural gas fields.

And that Egyptian idiot Morsi after all we've done for him he’s still stirring up trouble with the Israelis and his own people  - trying to do a power grab of the government by coming up with his own constitution  - just who does he think he IS .... Obama ?   Probably can't use that one either since we didn’t support the "green" protests in Iran when those protestors unfortunately got killed. Or, the protests in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Bahrain either.

Let's see there was that “red line” thing that I and Barrack made such a big deal about  Syria not using chemical weapons or they would really, I mean really regret it cause we have troops over there in Jordan just waiting for a “go’ signal – and then those bastards used chemicals in December - Now the Israelis are all hot and bothered again saying they’ll go to war with Syria - good thing we can count on the press, they sure helped us play that down - otherwise both Obama and I would have to make good on our promises to go in get Assad for crossing the red line. Nope, don’t wanna talk about it. Oh well, Kerry can clean that mess up too.

Let’s see hmmm, I haven't done anything about the growing tensions over the Falkland Islands again, or about China and Japan pissing over property and mineral right in the Senkaku Islands.

The Chinese and Russians keep trying to knock off our dollar as the world's reserve currency but I don't understand all that mumbo jumbo financial stuff Bernanke’s always spouting about anyway - all I know is I'm a progressive and all progressives know that the interest piling up on all of our debt isn’t a good thing because it robs us of money that we could be spending. We have to get the deficits under control and the only way to do that is tax more so we have more money to pay off the interest so we can borrow more and keep on spending - and the Republicans, hah, they just want us to stop spending - what do they know anyway, they don't know anything about big government.

Women's rights now that has been a big thing for me - having Obama appoint 25 female ambassadors and getting cookstoves for the developing world. But that shooting of a 14 year old girl in the head by the Taliban, well all that did was only to remind everyone just how little meaningful progress there has really been in the plight of women worldwide.

My leadership at State is the reason we brought down the number 1 terrorist in the world - Osama bin Laden. Ok, maybe it was the CIA and Pentagon, but I was there in the situation room when the SEALS killed Bin Laden - There's a photo that proves it! Yeah, this one definitely stays in.




My list of Accomplishment As Secretary of State by Hillary Clinton.

“Because of my influence Barrack Obama appointed 25 female ambassadors and cheap cookstoves can be found around the world”

"I got Osama bin Laden, making the world a much safer place."


Yep, lots of activity Hillary, but real short on success. Underwhelming hardly covers it. You and Barrack can be so proud.

Thank God For The Party Of "Nope"....
Obama, Benghazi, Al Qaeda, CIA, Syria, Turkey, Israel, Iran and Russia ......what if ?
“Obama Bin Laden’s” gun walking scheme …. Bob Schieffer got it right ?
Obama, the Art of the Lie .... not one dime!
US Dollar .... The beginning of the end ?
What Harry Reid Thinks of Americans …. You Stink!
Obama's Deadly Use of Drones .... UN opens War Crimes Inquiry 
Obama, the Art of the Lie …. Hillary Clinton’s UN Gun Ban Treaty

Obama's Deadly Use of Drones .... UN opens War Crimes Inquiry

The United Nations announced 2 days ago that it is opening an official inquiry into the legality of the United States' use of armed drones as a weapon of war due to the purported high numbers of civilian casualties, which the US describes as "collateral damage". 

The US has also employed a "double tap" tactic wherein the drones remain on station after the initial attack and then attack again, assaulting those who show up to give aid to the victims of the first strike. The US position is that those who arrive to provide aid must themselves be terrorists as well. 

International law labels the deliberate targeting of relief workers a war crime.

Recent CIA director nominee, John Brennan, previously described the civilian deaths as "exceedingly rare" and only the "bad guys" are getting killed but among the casualties have been the deaths of at least 176  innocent children and 700 or more civilians.

The consequence of which has caused understandable animosity toward the United States and its personnel by the people and government of Pakistan where most of the drone strikes have taken place.

President Obama presides over secret meetings known as "Terror Tuesdays" among White House staff in which he personally assigns, selects, and authorizes the lethal air strikes against human targets using the drones.

 

The British and Israelis both have and employ armed drones in their arsenals as well and will be part of the same UN investigation.

It is unlikely, due to political pressure that the UN will ever label Obama as President of the United States a war criminal, no matter how compelling the evidence may be against him - though at the very least it is clear due to his personal responsibility for the deadly carnage among innocent civilians, that the Nobel Peace Prize committee should withdraw the Peace medal they so prematurely awarded in 2008 !

See also -

Pakistan Drones .... Blood on Obama's hands?

US Dollar .... The beginning of the end ?

Germany has been quietly repatriating its gold reserves from around the world - pulling over 670 tons of its holdings out of the New York Fed, and all of it from both London and Paris depositories and shipping it back to Germany. At 3,396 tons of the precious metal, Germany's gold reserves are the second largest in the world, lagging only behind the US reserves which are believed to be twice as large. The New York Fed holds 45 percent of Germany's gold. The transfers will take several years for completion. Ostensibly, Germany says that the repatriation is to boost confidence of its citizens in the accuracy of their country's gold reserves.

Is this the beginning of the end for the US dollar as the world's fiat currency ?

Do you recall how Treasury Secretary Geithner, touting the Obama administration position when he was first appointed as Secretary, openly speculated about whether or not it would be such a bad thing afterall, if the US dollar was no longer the world's reserve currency .... and just how quickly he changed tune and reversed position after being rebuked by Wall Street insiders and the Federal Reserve for his naivete ?

As the US Fed has printed and put into circulation more phony "de novo" dollars since, through its Quantitative Easing (QE) programs and variants, the price of gold - the antithesis to a paper dollar - has steadily risen in price while the world's supply of funny money dollars has ballooned.

Throughout there has been speculation as to whether or not the US actually had the gold bullion reserves it claimed since abandoning the gold "standard" in the 70's in favor of the fiat paper US dollar.

Rumors circulated that Ft. Knox was literally empty with most of the reserves being sold off and liquidated secretly during the George H W Bush and Bill Clinton presidencies or that they were replaced with "fake" bars of bullion.

Congressman Ron Paul, never a fan of the Federal Reserve, introduced legislation to force the Fed to submit to a Congressional audit - which in turn would have ended that controversy, as well as others, as to whether or not the reserves and, or their presumed quality actually existed. The legislation never passed into law.

Then a few years ago questions arose again as to whether or not and how much of the gold bullion in central bank depositories around the world might actually be "counterfeit" - nothing more than bars of tungsten clad in layers of gold. Claims were made that London "good" delivery bars - those of 500 troy ounces - salted with tungsten were turning up in Asian central banks.

To the extent the concerns were taken seriously, for about two years it was virtually impossible to find capacity at London assay offices (where most of the world's gold bullion is traded) since they were committed to physical audits of the world's bullion reserves for central banks. This year the Fed conducted its own physical audit and test drilled gold bars to look for tungsten. The results have never been publicized. Though the Fed promised to release them by the end of 2012. They didn't.

But last year a 1 kilogram gold ingot turned up in England that had been counterfeited with tungsten replacing 40 percent of the gold.

Recently, fake retail size 10 oz bars of gold of the Pamp Swiss brand have surfaced in New York's jewelry district.

So, have central banks dodged this bullet or have their bullion reserves too fallen as prey to tungsten substitution ?

There have been claims made that the fake gold originated in the US during the G H W Bush term as part of an elaborate effort to destabilize the economies of foreign governments hostile to US interests and foreign policy goals.

China, for a time and perhaps still the largest US creditor, was owed more than 1 trillion dollars by the US and holding the largest foreign currency reserves in the world of US dollars, enacted laws that prohibited Chinese producers from exporting gold out of that country. China's central bank, as well as others around the world have been steadily buying gold bullion since to boost their reserves of the metal.

China also has been very vocal about establishing it's own currency, the "yuan" as a world fiat currency to replace the US dollar. China and some of its trading partners have entered into agreements which permit each country to use the other's currency to settle debts without having to use US dollars. Russia, too, has taken a position questioning the wisdom of the US dollar remaining the fiat currency.

Germany, which has been very dubious all along about measures in the US by the Fed, and the Obama administration's and Congress inability to curtail spending and get its financial house in order, has its own legacy of hyperinflation and the destruction of its currency to contend with. During the Weimar Republic the German Deutschmark became worthless and directly led as a consequence to the rise of the Nazi's. German authorities have vowed to never allow the same economic conditions to prevail again.

Germany's high court has ordered a physical audit of all of Germany's gold bullion reserves in part to rule out tungsten "adulteration" and over the next 7 years the New York Fed will send back to Germany a portion of the bullion it has held in trust for the German government. Why so long and why only 20 % of their holdings - presumably because the Fed is calling the shots - and the speculation is that the Fed doesn't have all the gold the Germans want back. After all, logistically the Germans could transport all of their gold holdings in a week back to Germany. But the Fed will have to purchase it without causing disruptions in the markets.  The Germans haven't been able to demand their gold, they've had to petition the Fed for it.

But in view of liberal progressives, especially administration darling economist Paul Krugman, in the US openly contemplating the issuance of a pretend trillion dollar platinum coin to resolve its debt crisis rather than coming to grips with the resolve necessary to reduce spending, analysts see the German repatriation of gold as an extraordinary breakdown in the trust among central banks and nations. Saying it's a sign that the fall of the US dollar as the world's fiat currency has officially begun.

Krugman and Obama were rebuked mid-January by the Fed and Treasury issuing a statement - "Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit," said Treasury spokesman Anthony Coley.

But according to a senior administration official it was the Fed that actually  killed the proposal telling Obama, in effect, "to take a hike!". The REAL boss, the Fed, has spoken.... saying it would not have credited the US Treasury’s accounts for the vast sum for depositing the bogus coin.

And just why would the Fed even care ? Because since its inception the Fed has had a virtual monopoly on the US money supply and its creation and by extension after the institution of the US dollar as the world's fiat currency, incredible influence and sway with the economies and politics of other nations. They aren't about to allow an uninformed nitwit in the White House to interfere with or jeopardize that authority and power.

Ever since its creation in 1913 the Fed was nothing more than an elaborate device for extracting the wealth of the United States by underwriting its debt. The interest on that debt was the mechanism for money to flow to the bankers and central banks of any foreign countries holding the US debt.

And it all worked fine. As long as the economy (GDP) of the US continued to grow and the debt didn't outpace either the growth rate or the ability of the US government to pay off its debts. Everything was sustainable. Now, however it is not. 

Deficit spending has skyrocketed during the George H. Bush and Obama terms. Revenues to the US government have fallen - two short term offsets to this financial mess have been the successful implementation of depressed interest rates and the printing of money by the Fed - but neither are sustainable indefinitely, and each carries significant consequences for the long term. The Fed, in turn, has repeatedly warned Congress that it must get its fiscal irresponsibility under control. And, their warnings have been ignored by a polarized Congress and a socialist ideologue in the White House.

In addition to the Fed much of the rest of the world's central bankers understand how precarious the financial situation is in the US because of the political gamesmanship underway with the Obama administration.

 “The US government is now trying to repay old debt by borrowing more; in 2010, average annual debt creation (including debt refinance) moved above $4 trillion, or almost one-quarter of GDP, compared to the pre-crisis average of 8.7% of GDP" - China's Macroeconomic Research Platform

Our debt now today only 2 short years later is far worse at 103 % of GDP.

Here's the dilemma confronting the US - the only way we can continue to fund our 16 trillion dollar national debt is for the interest rate on that debt to remain artificially low. But the only way the interest rate can remain that low is for the U.S. dollar to remain absolutely dominant in demand in economic trade the world over. And when the rest of the world rejects the U.S. dollar as its fiat currency then the game here in the US is over. 

At 2000 interest rates around 6.5 % our interest cost on our 16 trillion dollar national debt would be a staggering 1 trillion dollars a year ! Can the Fed keep interest rates as low as they are long enough for a US economic turnaround ? Clearly they think they can but will Obama and the Tax and Spend Democrats screw it all up ? (witness the past and future threats by the credit rating agencies to further downgrade the US credit rating because of Congressional inaction)

But if the world decides it no longer needs or wants to rely on US dollars, then interest on the US debt will rise, and quickly, and painfully ....

BZZZZTT ! You Lose ! Thanks for playing. Try Again ?

And to the consternation of the Fed much of the world is posturing and in some instances already moving away from the US dollar.

The German gold repatriation isn't helping from the Fed's perspective, but the Germans aren't stupid, either. They understand that the United States is no longer politically or financially secure - we're headed further down a path that ends in catastrophe - Superstorm Sandy showed New York's vulnerability to the forces of nature; 911 demonstrated its vulnerability to terrorism and New York remains acknowledged as a prime terrorist target still; and the potential for financial upheaval from US partisan politics - no one knows.

Germany parked its gold in New York after World War 2 as a safeguard against being overrun by the Soviets - now they're asking themselves where is the greater threat - Russia or impending financial, political and societal disaster in the US ? It's pretty clear that they've decided it's better to start putting their gold in their own country than risk not having access to it in ours.

And, following the Germans, the Dutch now propose to repatriate their gold from the New York Fed where they have the majority of their 610 tons of gold bullion reserves on deposit, making the Netherlands one of the top 10 gold reserve nations.

Whose next ?

In the late 60's France withdrew its gold reserves out of England and the New York Fed and the Bretton Woods currency crisis erupted with Great Britain ultimately being forced to devalue its currency or watch its economy collapse all together.

Disorderly gold repatriation is like a depositor "run on a bank" - imagine that if any of the world's gold reserves are actually adulterated with tungsten to a significant degree then the supply of gold is less than what is thought to exist - and with nation's demanding their deposits of gold those who hold the reserves in trust, like a bank short on cash, will have a difficult time making good on the deliveries they are obligated to make. And once made public a difficult situation in the financial markets will go quickly from simply bad to very, very dangerous.

Can any paper currency backed by the "faith and credit" of its government, in other words trust, survive that kind of crisis with all its implications, when its government has been less than forthright all along ?

Yes, imagine that .... the folks at the Fed do !

Obama, Harry Reid, Superstorm Sandy Aid....Hey ! We'll get around to it.

At the same time the House of Representatives was deliberating financial aid for Superstorm Sandy victims, Barrack Obama /jarrett signed legislation giving himself secret service protection for life.

It's now 10 days after the House approved the aid AND HARRY REID has yet to call a vote on the same measure in the Senate.

You might also recall that Obama /jarrett in media coverage BEFORE the election promised he would follow through on his promise to make sure our government "was there" in support for the superstorm victims.

Yeah, Obama sure made it sound like we're gonna take care of you folks because it was the right thing to do; damn the expense and effort cause it's urgent we restore your lives and community; and, by God we can, and so can you, count on Obama being fully behind the commitment to do it ! 

So let's get this straight .... while the homeless in Staten Island and elsewhere due to the storm, FREEZE their asses off, Obama fails to make good on his promises by letting that SOB Reid sit on his own fat ass and delay the vote in the Senate.

And then last week Obama preoccupied with his inauguration blew at least $170 million of treasury for himself and his friends to celebrate his election with a big blowout party - while the victims wait. 

At least maybe someone at FEMA remembered to set up communal flat screen TV's so everyone up there could watch the inaugural and parade - that would have been such a thoughtful and surely appreciated touch.

Hell... thinking about it, it's clear now why the Senators couldn't vote, they were all at the inaugural services and the parties afterwards !

"And I don't want you to worry, once we get other priorities out of the way, like me making sure my own ass is taken care of for life with secret service protection, we're gonna jump right back on the effort to help all you needy folks in New Jersey, and New York.

Honest, I promise.....unless something else comes up !"

Obama, The Art of the Lie ..... All Comfy and Cozy While Staten Island Freezes

I dunno' .... if guns kill people

Seriously ... If guns kill people, how does anyone get out of a gun show alive ?

Ok .... I get it, Guns don't keep us safe .... that's it, right ?

Just depends upon who YOU are - Yeah, thought so !