Santa Claus

Well, once again Christmas is just around the corner, let’s see, this will be number Sixty-one for me. Funny, but Santa Claus doesn’t bring me anything anymore, and hasn’t in a long time.

Did you ever believe in Santa Claus?   What a lie, huh? And to tell little kids, and lead them to believe such things.… Ever wonder why we do that? I bet most people couldn’t tell ya today.

My daddy lied to me all the time, it was terrible… And every now and then, mama would tell a whopper! I use to wonder, why in the hell would they lie to me? I mean? I’m their kid!

Now don’t get me wrong. They loved me. There was never any doubt of it. I knew that. It showed. They took good care of me, put clothes on me, educated me, and for a big part, did so themselves. So, why would they lie to me so damn much?

It took me awhile, but I finally figured it out…  Santa Claus.

Santa Claus is the first Big Lie… And you as the child, using information you gather, are left to figure otherwise. They are simply teaching you to 'think for yourself.'  And the myth of Santa Claus is a good foundation for critical thinking.

Another important lesson, is teaching the ability to challenge authority (the parents) when the child draws a conclusion.

Notice there is no reward when the child figures it out, but nor is there a punishment. Thinking for yourself… is its own reward. ©

George Henry Nichols 

Flip a Switch Christmas...

“What are the single most important words in the Bible?” What’s your answer??? Ever thought about it??? There’s an interesting man… Dennis Prager, who gave a most intriguing answer, and then backed it up with a good argument,  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BqWdu1BnBQ

Genesis I-I “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth,” To Quote Dennis Prager, “If this isn’t true, then nothing else matters. This is the very foundation of what we believe.” (?)

Therefore the single most important date in all of history… Is when this God, who created the heavens and the earth, became a Man and dwelt among us... Duhhhh….  

Now I admit, it’s not the most important feast in the Church… That would be Easter… But Christmas is the most important date in history….

And we as modern Americans, how do we celebrate it???  “With a Flip a Switch Christmas” ©

We pull the non-flammable fake tree out of the attic, spray it with Christmas smell, stick it in its spot, hang its decorations on it and plug that sucker in… Along with the tree, we drag the rest of the Christmas shit out of the attic and hang the wreath on the door, plug it in, hang the lights on the house, plug them in… Put the Christmas tablecloth, center piece and assorted Christmas crap on the table. Then stand back, flip a switch and wa-la it Christmas… Fa-la-la and the whole works…

We watch an Andy Williams Christmas, We watch a Charlie Brown Christmas… A Grinch Stole Christmas….on and on and poor ole Morley was dead as a doornail….

We buy a shit load of a crap, give it to each other…. Go to each others parties… piss and moan about our lives and speak of Christmas Cheer… And feel all warm and fussy and Christmassy Ahhhhh…..

We sit around in our easy chairs, with a beer in one hand, turkey leg in the other, a 60’ Flat Screen deluxe HD 4-on-the-floor type Boob Tube… (ya know there’s a reason they call it that).  And bitch about paying too damn many taxes, supporting too many freeloaders, Them sons-of-bitches better not try and take my guns, ya know they shouldn’t be aborting all them babies. Damn money ain’t any good anymore, I just need to win the lottery, are all these people stupid??? Damn schools don’t teach anything anymore…. And the Media is so full of shit…

And I bet you think you’re one of the good guys too, I vote republican, I tote a gun, and I’m for the constitution. Oh…

All the hoop-la that goes on this time of year, all the going into debt to buy a mountain of crap that nobody wants, and the parties and the patting each other on the back and telling ourselves how great we are… Wishing each other happy holiday or Merry Christmas, depending on who they are? And what they believe?

And so we celebrate the single most importance date in history by flipping a few switches and saying… “it’s Christmas”…ta-daaaa ” Happy I know its somebody’s birthday.  (?) Let me at the cake…”

Whatever this glaring display of lights and wan-ton blaring of music.… is????

What ever all this is???

It ain’t Christmas… ©

George Henry Nichols 

What is Christmas

Christmas… What is Christmas? I’ve heard a lot of things… It’s about giving….It’s about family…It’s about receiving…. It’s about forgiving… It’s about Santa Claus…. And a Sleigh full of toys, for the children the world over….

Sounds pretty good… Oh yea… it’s somebody’s birthday…. Our Lord Jesus Christ…

Who was this man, who’s birth we celebrate every year… Year after year for centuries???

A singular man who impacted history, like no other man ever…. To the point, we celebrate the winter solace, as the beginning mark for the bleak winter ahead…. Around this man’s birthday…. 

Who was this man? Well I stand with Saint Peter and say, he is the Son of the Living God….The God, who made the heavens and the earth….

So Christmas is the time we mark, as the time “The Christ” was born…. The, without dispute, most important date in man’s history.

And so we should indeed, celebrate Christmas, but we should do so in humility…. Considering the gift Christ is to the world, redemption...

We have gotten carried away with ourselves, and our own ideas, clinging to forgotten traditions, and distorting them beyond recognition, to somehow fit our own idea of what Christmas is suppose to be…

Whoooaa…. Wait just a minute there…

It wasn’t your idea…. It was the idea of the Almighty God…. It was God’s idea to come and walk among us… and God’s alone…. 

Bring this idea into your hearts and homes and the ideas of giving, of family, of receiving, of forgiving… will begin to take hold, and you will find comfort.

The Idea of Santa Claus comes from several traditions; (most of which served the same purpose), the one I grew up with was Saint Nicholas.... The idea is to introduce and create a desire in the child to search for and seek out the truth… Santa Claus is very much like Christ… He is always there; he knows all about you, he comes in the bleak of winter spreading joy and good cheer, all in reference to the birth of the Christ…

Through critical thinking on the part of the child, we realize that Mom and Dad are Santa Claus… and this tradition of searching for the truth, of critical thinking continues… serving a man his entire life. And any search for truth will lead to Christ.

So this Christmas, take a lesson from Charlie Brown, read the gospels for yourselves (Luke & Matthew), and return to the true meaning of Christmas this year… And the gift Christmas (Christ) truly is…..

And…ahhhh….. don’t buy so damn much junk! ;)

Indeed a Time to rejoice

Merry Christmas

George Henry Nichols   

My Fellow Patriots,

My fellow patriots,

I think we have reached a point where the game has changed. We are so tangled in the tar baby we are failing to see the truth. We are no longer a political movement, we are enemies of the state. We are the problem… The question is…? Are we Christians? Because that’s what it’s going to come down to. Are you a Christian? For I assure you, we live in Biblical times.

I fail to see why you are timid… Does not Christ stand before you, sword drawn in your defense…? Where is your sword? Is it not sharp? Is it not tempered? Are you not ready for battle? (In the 1660’s, an Englishman caught with a failed pistol was subject to forty lashes). It’s your responsibility to keep your sword sharp and your gun loaded and yourself ready for battle.

Again… Why are you timid? If you take an honest look at the evidence presented… It all points to God… to Christ. All the sciences point to a creation. Geology, Biology (including DNA research), Astronomy, Cosmology and even Quantum Physics. Even genealogy leads us to Mount Ararat and a hand full of people.  

The second law of Thermo-dynamics dictates a creation. Educate yourselves, sharpen your sword, temper the steel, and prepare for battle, for the enemy lurks just over the hill. 

The only thing that will save America now… Is a full blown revival. As was in the 1830's, when the Bible became widely read in this country. Instead of trying to sell your own damn book, trying to have your own say… Promote the Bible, read the Bible…

Might I suggest…. You read it like a novel… accept the premise laid out in chapter one, for indeed it is a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. It is a story of triumph and despair, of sex and barbarism, of being lost… and being save.

If you like Science Fiction… you’ll like the Bible… If you like Fantasy…you’ll like the Bible… If you like Murder and Mayhem…you’ll like the Bible…and we Christians know it’s all true…

So… if you are indeed Christians, might I suggest, turning off your television, put down your Twitter and Facebook, and come out from your air-conditioned homes and churches, and into the streets, make yourselves known to one another, Baptists and Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherans, if we are Christian, let us gather and know one another. But above all, make yourself known to God. Let the world know…you are not ashamed of the Almighty…  For a man must be diligent in watching the walls of his house, lest a strong man comes in the night and carries it all away.

Within the tar-baby, you’re thinking the strong man’s in Washington… He’s not, he’s right outside your walls… Realize… there is no reason, you are wrestling a tar-baby, barking dawgs don’t bite. That’s why they keep you barking…

If you strip away the details… Then you know what I say is true… Remember, ‘the devil is in the details’… and the Emperor is Naked as a Jay-Bird, and Bier Rabbit is tangled in the Tar-Baby, and Bier Fox and Bier Bear are fixing to eat him up.

Wake up, free yourselves of the Tar-Baby, expose the naked Emperor and scatter the Fox and Bear. Uncle Remus was a wise old feller.

Reflect on your parents and grandparents, for this is what I am doing, and seeing things as they are. And not as I am being told.

When I was a young feller, about twenty, I asked my father about church, and did he really believe all that stuff… cause none of it makes any sense with what they’re teaching in the schools… (?) and he said… “I hope you live long enough son… cause you’ll find it’s the only thing that does makes sense.” And damned if I didn’t live long enough, and damned if he wasn’t right. It is indeed, the only thing that makes any sense. And now… if you look hard enough… you’ll find the sciences are all telling us the same thing. It happened, just like the Bible says. Facts are facts, they don't admit it, they haven't in years....But facts are facts. 

George Henry Nichols

“Life is real! Life earnest!

          And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

          Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

          Is our destined end or way.

But to Act, that each tomorrow,

          Finds us farther than today.

Art is long, and time is fleeting

          And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave. 

In the World’s broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

          Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, howe’er pleasant!

          Let the dead past, bury its dead!

Act – act in the living present!

          Heart within, and God o’er head.!

Lives of great men all remind us

          We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave footprints in the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

          A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again…

          Let us then be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

          Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor, and to wait…

                   *

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807 - 1882

In His Own Image

I would like you to go through a little exercise with you. An exercise in thinking…

I want you to clear your mind… No politics, no religion, no agenda, clear your mind… let yourself see what's there, and what’s actually going on… No more, just see what’s there…

This first is no more than a light box, it is covered with sand… sand… There is an intelligent being moving this sand about… With design to entertain, to tell a story, and least I forget, the show off the skills of the artist… But… remember, it is sand atop a light box.

http://youtu.be/8CHe9Am68wc

And this second one… Let’s just say, if you don’t get it…you’re not going to.

http://youtu.be/M1Q-EbX6dso

And He created them in His own image, male and female He created them…

George Henry Nichols  

Noah and the Culture

Any of you who actually follow me and have a look at what I put up on Twitter, know that I put up a lot of foreign entertainers.  From Japan, Russia, France, Venezuela, ect… Well… I’m going to try and explain why. But foremost, let it be said in the beginning, it’s because I like them, as, entertainers.

Stay with me here… Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Didn't say that about his kids and their wives… Now. Don’t go to an extreme, that’s not to say they were bad people, or evil people, but they weren't Noah, Noah got it. They built the Ark at Noah’s direction. They may very well have thought Noah was nuts… Also keep in mind, there was quite a civilization going on prior to the flood. One ‘the kids’ may have been getting along in fairly well. As many of us do today. People are people. (We are talking educated people, they built a boat 500 ft. X 75 ft. X 30 ft.)

So when the rains came sure enough, and it was all washed away… All of it!  When they came out of the Ark, it was a holy mess, (so to speak) indeed. It was muddy, it was muggy, foggy, and with all the evaporation going on, it was cold. There were no trees, there was only rock, mud and a bit of fresh vegetation. You know what else there was a lot of, resentment. At God! They (the kids) knew God was real now for sure… and they had just seen what he had done. They were pissed!

But kept in mind, they were still educated, they knew how to get things done, and how to do them. Well as we all know, life can be pressing, and so things have to get done.  And (very important), they didn't have 'nothing,' they had the Ark. God had given them the Ark. There it was, with all its woods, metals, stores and pottery.  

So… What did Noah’s kids tell their kids…? Same as we do today, what they knew… They told the stories of the Golden Age, and how it sank beneath the waves. How God wiped it all away, and these stories may have been told with a certain amount of resentment. These stories are the source of all the mythologies, which tend to be similar in there content....  

This is why they built the Tower of Babble. As an act of defiance… The rebellion of a child. This was the first post flood culture, the ‘rebellion of a child.’ And all of one family, (?) of one tongue and culture, just like it was before the flood, and was ripe pickings for Satan, and who would soon destroy themselves.

So God dispersed them by confusing there language... But he didn't take their knowledge, they still knew, what they knew. This is where Egypt, the Inca’s, the Mayan’s, the Celtics, China’s first dynasty, ect… This is why all ancient cultures start with the story of a flood. You need to think about this… All that crap about evolution and deep time is just that…Crap (modern gods), and they are teaching it to your kids, and testing them on it. It’s an act of rebellion, of resentment… Ever notice how there is a certain amount of resentment in these people… its inherent. They seem to want to worship anything but God…

Keep in mind how big and how small it all seems to be. For it is just as small under a microscope as it is big in the telescope.  God created it… it belongs to Him… it sits on His coffee table… It seems to reason, He’s not going to be on your side, seems to me the thing to do, is be on His side…

Back to the videos… When I was a kid… Our family would go camping, to places like Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, ect… As we traveled the road, we went through a lot of little towns. They all were pretty much alike, insomuch as they all had gas stations, motels, restaurants, yet at the same time, each town was its own place, with its own flavor.

Whereas today, they are all of the same flavor, same restaurants, same motels, same gas stations… “Well if there isn't a McDonald’s, keep going,” is heard often… I’m sure… Have we lost our flavor?

If you notice in the videos I put up… it seems to be happening the world over. When I was young, when we talked about culture, we spoke of what the people ate, what they wore, their music, their dances… Get my point…

There are McDonald’s all over the world… You can get a coke most anywhere… and look at the entertainment… Hummm…  Are we losing our flavor as a world?  For Christ said.... "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." 

Satan has been working very hard since the flood to get us all under one roof… Keep in mind, Satan can only be in one place at a time. So as long as we are scattered, he can’t control us all… “The New World Order,” ring a bell. Have you read ‘1984’ yet? ‘Animal Farm?’

George Henry Nichols 

Another letter by the teenage girl from Wales

I asked her for permission to print this letter, She made one stipulation: 
(Thank you for your response.

OK.  With one proviso.  Since things are changing by the minute, put the time and date I wrote it (4:22 am 2/27/14 my time (Donetsk) -- 6:22 pm 2/26/14 your time CST (US)).)

Since November of last year, I have been monitoring the Ukraine situation with deep interest and concern, especially the last three weeks plus.

          There have been three modes of information source available which I utilized to keep current with events.

          First, of course, are numerous relatives, friends and acquaintances "on the ground" in various parts of the country who are experiencing first hand what is transpiring.

          Additionally, thanks to the internet, there are various "news" outlets (TV, radio, print and websites) both in Ukraine and other parts of Europe which supply needed information.  However, you have to know which ones because of extreme bias.  Out of the United States, about the only reliable entity is Fox News.  And I can't leave out the various bloggers and tweeters.

          Then there are (were) a couple live web cams which showed overall panoramas of Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) and Mariyinsky Park (Constitution Square), both in Kiev, 24 hours a day showing all that was happening.

          While most of the coverage concerns the actions in Kiev, protests and demonstrations were occurring all over Ukraine, including Donetsk.

          Of all those in Ukraine I worry about, the three you are most aware of are my grandparents in Kiev, and AK in Donetsk.

          So what is this all about ??  It is about alignment, personal freedom, political and economic corruption, and social degeneration.

          Of everybody involved, there are five names which you should focus upon:  (Ex) President Viktor Yanukovych, former president Yulia Tymoshenko, 
Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaliy Zakharchenko, Oleksandr Turchynov, speaker of the Parliament, and 
Vitali Klitschko, leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform.  (If Vitali Klitschko's name sounds familiar, he just recently retired as the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion.)          

          The beginning of all this actually goes back to the fall of the Soviet Union.  Then the Orange Revolution of 2004.  However, this is no time for a history lesson.
 
          Alignment.  The question:  Should Ukraine associate itself (economically, socially and politically) with the "European Union" and the West, or with Russia ??  A large majority of Ukrainians chose Europe and the West, as most still remember its long occupation and suppression by the USSR.  Through the democratic process, an agreement (contract) was passed stating Ukraine would join the EU.  Appeared everything was settled, however, President Yanukovych (long known as a puppet of Russia's president Putin) at the last minute discarded the agreement in favor of aligning with Russia.

          Personal Freedom.  Though Ukraine was no longer under the thumb of the USSR, government control had steadily crept back into people's lives under Yanukovych, mainly enforced by the Titushky, 
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the Berkut.

          Political and Economic Corruption.  I am ashamed to admit it, but Ukraine is one of the most corrupt nations of the world. 
          Social Degeneration.  Because of the government's involvement and protection of organized crime, Ukraine has become the center of sexual trafficking, prostitution, child pornography, smuggling, and other activity.     

          Seeing all this unfolding before my eyes, I could not stay away.  Fortunately, much has been resolved.  Yanukovych has been removed from office.  The Constitution has been restored to its prior status before he took power.  Yulia Tymoshenko has been released from prison (she is the former Prime Minister and leader of the Orange Revolution who was imprisoned byYanukovych's courts on false charges), couple days ago the Berkut was disbanded, all USSR monuments have been destroyed, close to a hundred governmental officials have been arrested and charged for "organizing the killing of protesters, and again making Ukrainian the official language of the nation.

          Euromaidan (anti-communist, pro European seizing of government buildings) "occupations" have taken place in most Oblasts.

          Yanukovych and several other officials are now fugitives.  He and some others tried to escape by flying out of Donetsk, but were denied.

          Donetsk is in the eastern part of the country.  This eastern part is where the highest degree of Russian is spoken, though not necessarily supportive of Russia itself.

          The Kharkiv Oblast (province north of Donetsk) declared "separation" from Ukraine.  However, its governor (Mikhail Dobkin) and its city's mayor (Hennadiy Kernes) have fled to Russia.

          In the south (Sevastopol and Simferopol) pro-Russian separatists and Crimean Tatars(with help from the Russian military) have held protests to secede.   Russian soldiers have already been sighted in the Crimea.

          There are still huge demonstrations all over Ukraine, especially here in the east.  Thousands of protesters on both sides fought in Kharkiv and Donetsk just yesterday.  But the main tension all over Ukraine is the uncertainty of what Putin will do.  Rumors everywhere.  Most believe he will invade (at least in the East first) as he is not likely to lose Ukraine.  He did it in Georgia.  We all know the USA will do nothing because Obama is weak, cowardly, inept and incompetent.  All talk.  Probably as corrupt asYanukovych.  He is deemed more irrelevant than anything.

The Girl From Wales 

The Environmental Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of

The fighter jets and military planes that blast into the skies each day above Albuquerque’s Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) consume millions of gallons of jet fuel each year. In order to serve this fleet, the Air Force stores enormous amounts of fuel and distributes it throughout the base via a network of tanks, pipes and pumps. In the early 1950s, the base replaced leaking tanks and aging pipelines with a new fuels facility it promised would modernize and make more safe the handling and distribution of jet fuel. The facility received its first trainload of jet fuel and aviation gas in 1953. Almost immediately, and for the next 45 years, it has leaked jet fuel into the surrounding soil.

The “leak” continued, undetected, until 1992 when workers observed a huge surface plume in the soil surrounding the fuel facility. The Air Force largely ignored requests by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate the plume’s source and extent and instead, in 1994, gave itself a waiver from conducting military-mandated tests of the facility pipeline. Under pressure from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), the Air Force finally conducted pressure tests of the pipelines in 1999. They failed spectacularly. The added pressure blew massive holes in the pipeline. The test appeared to prove the pipes were leaking. In a comic/tragic, nothing-to-see-here moment in May 2000, Mark Holmes, a civilian project manager for Kirtland’s environmental unit, told the Albuquerque Journal that everything was fine: The 100,000 gallons of missing fuel could be explained by a simple accounting error. NMED staffer Dennis McQuillan, however, told the Journalthat if it were a 100,000 gallon spill, it “would be a big spill, one of the biggest” in state history.

For comparison's sake, the KAFB spill is larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which dumped more than 12 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, killing an estimated quarter-million seabirds, 3,000 otters, hundreds of harbor seals and bald eagles and nearly two dozen killer whales.

They were both wrong. In 2006 an Air Force contractor drilled an exploratory well in southeast Albuquerque’s Bullhead Park, just outside the base's northern boundary. He found four feet of jet fuel floating on top of the aquifer. Additional monitoring wells found a plume of jet fuel slithering northeast from the original spill location and well beyond the northern boundary of the base. Kirtland estimated the plume at between one and two million gallons, but NMED raised that estimate to eight million gallons. Two years later, with more monitoring and evidence of the true scale of the spill, NMED revised the estimate dramatically to 24 million gallons, an amount 240 times larger than the 2000 estimate.

For comparison's sake, the KAFB spill is larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, which dumped more than 12 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, killing an estimated quarter-million seabirds, 3,000 otters, hundreds of harbor seals and bald eagles and nearly two dozen killer whales. The KAFB jet fuel spill—the Air Force calls it a “leak”—is the largest toxic contamination of an aquifer in US history, and it could be twice the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster.

The KAFB jet fuel spill—the Air Force calls it a “leak”—is the largest toxic contamination of an aquifer in US history, and it could be twice the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster. And that’s bad enough, but it’s the good news compared to what follows.

And that’s bad enough, but it’s the good news compared to what follows.

Unlike the crude oil in the Exxon Valdez disaster, jet fuel and aviation gas contain a variety of toxic chemical compounds, including benzene, toluene and various aliphatic hydrocarbons, and these are all found in the plume—in varying concentrations—at every depth. Among the toxic chemicals contaminating the aquifer, one poses the most serious threat to both human health and the challenge of remediation: ethylene dibromide or EDB.

The EPA banned the commercial and industrial use of ethylene dibromide more than 40 years ago. Prior to its ban, the US produced 300 million pounds of EDB annually, with most used as an additive in leaded gasoline. Every gallon of aviation gas included enough EDB to contaminate millions of gallons of drinking water. In addition, 20 million pounds of EDB was used each year as an agricultural fumigant. Nearly 40 crops were routinely sprayed with EDB. Farmworkers—often with little or no protective equipment—fumigated fruit and citrus trees. They sprayed it on stored grain and the milling equipment that made the bread that stocked grocery store shelves. They saturated soil with EDB after harvests.

Among the toxic chemicals contaminating the aquifer, one poses the most serious threat to both human health and the challenge of remediation: ethylene dibromide or EDB. ... The HERP index, a measure that translates cancer risks in rats to humans, ranks EDB as the most dangerous rodent carcinogen to human health.

When EDB is released into soils, it almost always makes its way into groundwater. It is highly soluble and stable and persists in soils and underground water. It’s hard to find and even harder (and more expensive) to get out. By the early 1970s, concerns about EDB’s risk to human health surfaced after laboratory tests of rodents identified it as a potent carcinogen and mutagen.

In 1973 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued regulations that led to the reduced use of leaded gasoline—and thus EDB—but the agency continued to allow agricultural use of EDB. The National Cancer Institute first issued a notice on EDB in 1975, reporting that it induced cancer in laboratory animals. Following that warning, EPA conducted a six-year review, culminating in September 1983 when it suspended all agricultural uses of EDB pending further scientific study. Laboratory tests quickly confirmed previous reports that EDB caused cancer and reproductive disorders in laboratory animals. Meanwhile high concentrations of EDB were found in drinking water in California, Florida, Hawaii and Georgia. The EPA issued an emergency ban on all agricultural use of EDB in February 1984.

The agency determined the maximum safe level of EDB in drinking water—the level at which no adverse effects would likely occur—is zero. In other words, the EPA considers no amount of EDB in drinking water safe for human health. Despite EPA standards, NMED permits EDB in drinking water at levels at or below 50 parts per trillion (ppt).

In the wake of the ban, more studies examined EDB's effect on animals. In some laboratory animals, EDB is a reproductive toxin. It inhibits the ability of rats, rams and bulls to produce sperm, and it interrupts the fertility of fowl. It binds itself to DNA and rewrites genetic information causing mutation. It is a potent carcinogen in rats and mice. When exposed to skin, it produces widespread lesions and tumors; when given orally, tumors develop in the stomach and lungs. Inhalation results in tumors in the nasal cavity and circulatory system.

Current estimates suggest a plume of EDB-contaminated groundwater 1,000 feet wide and more than a mile long is moving northeast from the base; according to a 2009 KAFB memo, it's advancing as much as 385 feet per year. Most of that plume—80 percent of which is now beyond the boundary of the base—is headed directly for the Ridgecrest neighborhood.

Untold thousands of laboratory animals were killed by exposure to EDB; this, in order to show that EDB is fatal in high doses while low-level longterm exposure causes renal and liver failure, cancer and mutation. Its effect on humans is more difficult to determine. The HERP index, a measure that translates cancer risks in rats to humans, ranks EDB as the most dangerous rodent carcinogen to human health. Toxicologists differ on whether the data on human mortality to EDB is statistically significant.

A 1990 study by the California Department of Health Services found that citrus workers “had essentially a 100 percent chance of contracting cancer.” A 1984 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported on deaths of two agricultural workers: One worker died of liver failure 12 hours after collapsing while cleaning inside an empty tank, found later to contain EDB residues; another worker died of renal failure 64 hours after trying to rescue the first worker. A 1980 mortality study of 161 workers employed at two EDB manufacturing plants—including one owned by Dow Chemical—identified a pattern of malignancies and exposure fatalities among workers, but also concluded mortality was lower than expected given human risk assumed by animal studies. In other words, EDB causes fatal renal and liver failure in high doses, and it's a human carcinogen in low-level, longterm exposure, but not at a rate greater than statistically expected.

NMED Environmental Health Division Director Tom Blaine ... [assured] attendees of a public meeting that KAFB will absolutely “remediate the site. This isn’t our first rodeo.” But there’s little strategy or past action to justify this confidence.

However, these studies were enough to convince the EPA to act. The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 required that the EPA determine safe levels of various chemical contaminants in drinking water. The agency determined the maximum safe level of EDB in drinking water—the level at which no adverse effects would likely occur—is zero. In other words, the EPA considers no amount of EDB in drinking water safe for human health. Despite EPA standards, NMED permits EDB in drinking water at levels at or below 50 parts per trillion (ppt). The most recent data from KAFB’s plume-monitoring wells find EDB concentrations in shallow wells on the base at concentrations of 240,000 ppt, a concentration nearly 5,000 times greater than the 50 ppt standard. Monitoring wells on and off base have found EDB in shallow, intermediate and deep wells at all depths in concentrations significantly higher than NMED’s standard.

The presence of EDB in the plume at such alarming concentrations reveals two inconvenient facts for the Air Force. First, it has made it more difficult for Kirtland to minimize the significance of the spill. At a public meeting last week, KAFB Colonel Jeff Lanning admitted that “fuel has been leaking for a long time,” and since the Air Force discontinued use of leaded aviation gas in 1975, the presence of EDB suggests the spill began “possibly as early as the 1950s.” Current estimates suggest a plume of EDB-contaminated groundwater 1,000 feet wide and more than a mile long is moving northeast from the base; according to a 2009 KAFB memo, it's advancing as much as 385 feet per year. Most of that plume—80 percent of which is now beyond the boundary of the base—is headed directly for the Ridgecrest neighborhood. The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority operates a series of wells in the Ridgecrest area that pump so much water for the city that they produce a cone of depression that acts like a straw, sucking the plume ever closer.

Second, the chemical properties of EDB make it as elusive as it is dangerous. Its solubility means that it dissolves easily in water and thus separates from aviation gas and quickly contaminates aqueous systems like underground aquifers. Its chemical stability means that it doesn’t easily biodegrade. Figuring out how much aviation gas KAFB spilled and how much EDB is in the aquifer is therefore important information. But the Air Force doesn’t really seem to care. When asked at a community meeting how much jet fuel spilled, Lanning dismissed the question. “When my kid spills Kool-Aid on the carpet, I’m less concerned about how much he spilled than I am about how to get it cleaned up.” Lanning’s glib dismissal of the size of the plume might reflect less a folksy charm and more a calculated public relations stance. If KAFB can take the focus off the spill's size, it can be represented as a simple remediation project rather than an environmental disaster. And so the Air Force distributes maps of the plume at public meetings—maps that confidently depict EDB far from municipal well fields. But decades after the spill, the Air Force has yet to model the hydraulic properties of the aquifer. And so these maps—overconfidently representing a reality we can't know—are more reassuring fiction than sound hydrological science. If in the decades EDB lurked in the aquifer, it migrated into existing drinking water wells, we wouldn’t know. There is no medical test to determine human exposure and none of the drinking water wells have the technical capacity to meaningfully measure levels of EDB.

None of this seems to concern NMED. The same staffer who called the possible 100,000 gallon spill in 2000 “one of the biggest spills” ever now calls the 24 million gallon spill just another plume. “There are plumes in Roswell, Las Cruces, all over the state. It takes years to clean these things up, but we have clean, closed sites [in New Mexico].” NMED Environmental Health Division Director Tom Blaine echoed McQuillan’s certainty, assuring attendees of a public meeting that KAFB will absolutely “remediate the site. This isn’t our first rodeo.” But there’s little strategy or past action to justify this confidence. There is no plan in place to remove EDB from the aquifer. And in the 60 years since it first spilled jet fuel into Albuquerque’s aquifer, KAFB has yet to remove and treat a single gallon of contaminated groundwater. Meanwhile, as Dave McCoy, executive director of the environmental watchdog group Citizen Action New Mexico told me, the plume keeps moving and “it’s headed directly for you.”

As taken from the 'Alibi' 

I am at a Loss...

I am at a loss!  What do I have to say? Quit playing politics and look at what’s going on. You, happily grazing cattle are being led by utopia loving, intellectually lazy, power grubbing fools into the hands of Satan.

Where are the Christians? Where are you now? Did you not found your country on the divine providence of God?  On Jesus Christ, and his Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob..? Is this not so? Why do you dishonor God so, when He led you dirt farmers and built you up into a great nation; a beacon to the world, and where are you now?

Your father’s father, the ones who fought in the Great War to rescue the God’s chosen people, (did not at the time know what they were doing… but at the divine direction of God, were God’s people rescued. By the Lamb of God, they were rescued. And thus, God settled them back in the homeland, as God said He would do), did not put up with the Nazis, they stomped them into the dirt, as evil should be stomped into the dirt. Where is that spirit among you today? Where are your leaders? Is everything for sale? If everything is for sale, where is the treasure?   

When was the last audit of Fort Knox.? Hummm??? Do you even know?

Does not the geological record witness to the judgment of Noah’s day? Does not the fossil record witness to the giants and the great dragons in the days of yore? Have you not found Jericho and David’s Palace? Have you not found the Red Sea crossing? Does not the skies declare the Glory of God; are there not signs of the appointed times written there? Can you even see the sky?

There is a blood moon on the rise and the clock is ticking. The time of the gentiles is over.  If you were smart… You would not abandon God’s chosen people.

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? Were there no just men to be found? None? Have you not, in your studies, found the ashes? Lot flee! Least ye be caught up in the judgment. But you grazing cattle will be told to remain quiet, by your master, and ye of little faith, will remain quiet…

George Henry Nichols