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Many Americans will remember the Corningware brand of kitchen cookware, a top quality range of products that withstood quite intense heat without cracking. It was first produced in 1958.

Not being American, I wasn’t familiar with the product until about two years ago. It was just prior to Christmas. My wife being rather partial to a very chocolatey festive pudding that requires pressure cooking, I went in search of ramekins.

I found them in a local supermarket, Kroger, and purchased the last six on the shelf.

They appeared to perform admirably, and as we like a small piece of dark chocolate after our meal each evening, they became the repository of said cocoa product on our daily dinner trays.

This meant they were washed frequently in the dishwasher. After some months had passed I noticed the glaze on the bottom of the ramekins had worn away exposing a dark under-layer, with the exception of one ramekin which remained as white and smooth as the day it was bought.

It was something of a mystery. Each ramekin was used, and washed, as frequently as the others, yet one was untouched by the dishwasher while the others were decidedly tarnished. I determined to get to the bottom of this enigma.

“Getting to the bottom,” proved to be more than an over-used idiom, as turning all the pots upside down rapidly revealed the cause.

The five offending ramekins are all stamped, “Corningware”. The embossed writing on the sixth pot is more difficult to make out, but by clicking on the image to enlarge it, then clicking on it again to full size, its just possible to make out the name, “Corningware” on this one also.

Apart from the obvious difference, that five of them had the name stamped on the bottom prior to firing, while the embossed letters of the sixth were likely done in a mold, there is another factor that may not be so obvious from the images.

The five stamped, inferior, ramekins are clearly marked, “Made in China,” but even at the webpage resolution of the image below, on a large computer screen it’s not difficult to make out, across the center of the sixth pot, the words, “Made in USA”. (if you’re reading this on a laptop, click on the image to enlarge it).

Wikipedia informs us that Corningware was bought out by World Kitchens Incorporated, of Reston, Virginia. Following that takeover, two factories – in Pennsylvania and Illinois – were closed. The reason given by World Kitchens, Inc was:

…….as part of a program designed to reduce costs through the elimination of under-utilized capacity, unprofitable product lines, and increased utilization of the remaining facilities.”

Or, to put it more succinctly, the Chinese will make us a totally inferior, though similar looking product, for a fraction of the price, and American customers will never know the difference.

Well, until we come to wash them a few times.

Of course, we all know it’s not just the quality of ramekins that has suffered from the greedy profit-taking of the corporates. Almost everything bought in America these days is labelled, “Made in China”, and it’s all rubbish.

Once again, we are confronted with irrefutable proof that the powerful, wealthy, corporates are selling America down the Yangtze River to line their own pockets.

These are the people our politicians, particularly Republicans, have sold out to. They stand with hands on hearts and declare their patriotism, while engaging in anti-American activities.

They may feign loyalty to their America, but they are nothing less than traitors to the America people.

America is in hock to China for billions of dollars, while China unloads its cheap tat on the US public. Meanwhile, US Corningware workers continue to draw their unemployment benefit.

The enigma of the ramekins may have ramifications for us all.

Filed under: Hardly a Ming

The protests in Wisconsin and other US states will continue to escalate, so long as the desires of the wealthy take precedence over the needs of the poor.

Since man came down from the trees, he has been in competition with his fellows for survival and comfort. That is as it should be; nature’s laws are quite specific. Survival of the fittest is how evolution works.

The system man has devised, however, is more in defiance of, rather than in sympathy with, nature’s laws. In modern-day Homo sapien societies, any suggestion that survival of the fittest is a suitable rule to apply, would be rightly frowned upon, yet American society has probably come closer to applying that rule than any other nation in the ‘civilized’ world.

Throughout this land, any mention of assisting the under-privileged through taxation, or similar collective forms of wealth distribution, is met with howls of disgust reminiscent of a wolf pack baying for blood at the full moon of a desolate winter’s night.

American capitalism is survival of the fittest refined to a degree that nature never intended.

If we consider most other forms of animal life on this planet, we find those who form groups or communities to be far more considerate of their fellows than are Homo sapiens. Among the primates is a degree of equality lacking in their human cousins. While males may vie for position as leader of the group, and squabble over the attentions of females, there is no species that allows one sector to become so powerful it separates from the rest and dominates entirely for its own benefit, to the detriment of the rest of the group.

The human being is probably the only mammal on the planet to take the natural survival instinct and turn it into a weapon with which to attack his fellow beings. That weapon has a name; it’s called, greed.

No-one would deny that nature created ‘pecking-orders’. Every wolf pack has its alpha male. But whereas the leader of a wolf pack will care and nurture the group by finding prey and ensuring full bellies, our species’ evolutionary ability to think coherently has only managed to separate its leaders from the ‘pack’. They use their power to further their own interests and comforts, to the detriment of the rest.

Nowhere is this more obvious today than in America. Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, is pretending to be a leader, an alpha male, when in reality he is merely a lowly pawn doing the bidding of those above him. One only has to hear him talk to realize there is more of the weasel about him, than the wolf.

So, are those who truly hold the reigns of power in the world our alpha males? In most cases, no. The leader of the wolf pack gains his status through physical strength and endurance. Those who rule in Homo sapien world are generally weak and enfeebled individuals, empowered by unearned, or ill-gotten, wealth. They need to pay heavily for protection from their fellows, rather than reign supreme by virtue of respect.

Where would Muammar Gaddafi be today without his mercenaries?

Most other forms of animal life long ago settled on the best way to run their societies for the well-being of all. The wolf pack, for example, has existed in similar form for thousands of years. Homo sapiens still cannot agree on how its societies should function. Wars are waged to force one form of societal structure onto another, different, form. The long-running battle of capitalism over communism is a perfect example.

Distribution of wealth is the stumbling block for human society. It should be easy to construct a set of rules ensuring every one individual has sufficient, yet no one gets too much and any surplus is used for the benefit of all. The great human failing is its inability to achieve that. Our societal systems are doomed to failure simply because those charged with defining the rules begin by twisting them to their own, individual, benefit.

Man has converted the law of nature into a selfish, self-centered, ideology. Nature’s ‘survival of the fittest’ rule bears no relation to the, ‘Stuff you, I’m alright, Jack’, philosophy that abounds in America today among those considered the ‘better off’.

It is for this reason alone that no societal structure, whatever its form, can work. The failure of communism, and now capitalism, to create a fair and just society, is the fault – not of the systems, as those holding the reigns of power would have us believe – but of those charged with running and regulating the systems.

Until they, in their turn, are regulated by the rest of us, any societal system is doomed to failure. It may supply plenty in the short term, but the intrinsic greed of its ruling group will eventually force it into failure.

In Wisconsin, the wolf pack has rightly turned on its leader, and is baying for his blood. While Scott Walker pretends to be an alpha male wolf, his weasel mentality will inevitably precipitate failure, providing, of course, the pack keeps up the pressure.

Homo sapiens continue to defy the laws of nature at their peril. Unless we stop twisting the rules to satiate our own individual lusts, at the expense of our fellows, this planet may find the dominant species is once more the wolf pack baying at the full moon of a desolate winter’s night, and Homo sapiens the victims of their own, self-imposed, extinction.

Filed under: One way ticket

The thousands of workers presently demonstrating in Wisconsin over the blatant efforts of that state’s governor to suppress the unions, have more in common with the Arabs on the streets of Tripoli and Cairo and Amman, than may be obvious to a casual observer.

Egyptians, Libyans, Jordanians, and other Arab populations, have long been under the thumb of dictatorial regimes imposing harsh measures to ensure their citizens toe the line. Now, the wire holding the pin in the grenade of revolution has finally rusted through; an explosion of civil unrest is echoing around the Arab world.

In America, the tide is flowing in the opposite direction. Americans are used to freedom. Indeed, they’ve lauded the virtues of freedom far and wide. Yet, even while so doing, the freedoms of the American people are being steadily eroded, and it’s been happening since the 1980s.

On August 5th 1981, then President Ronald Reagan sacked 11,345 striking air traffic controllers, members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, for daring to strike in favor of better pay and conditions. Reagan argued that the law of the time banned strikes by government workers. But it was more than that. It was the first move, initiated by a corporate sponsored world leader, designed to set a precedent that would snowball and eventually break union power throughout America, and ultimately, the world.

Greed is the potent force driving the corporate controllers of political power in this country along a route many have taken before. Throughout history, the lust for power and wealth has caused kings and dictators to lead their nations into catastrophe. America is somewhat different. America has the means, not only to destroy itself, but the rest of the world.

The gap separating rich and poor in America has never been wider, and it’s growing ever broader. At a time of crisis in this country, its elected leader appears to concern himself more with the constitutional vagaries of same-sex marriage, than the events occurring before his eyes in the nation he supposedly leads.

Arabs are finding their way forward out of dictatorship and into the light of democratic freedom. America is about to extinguish its light. And, if it does, it may never burn bright again.

Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, says he needs to balance the state budget. Through a clever ruse, it was revealed that Walker’s aims go much further than that. Walker is just part of an organized, nationwide, scheme devised by top corporate controllers like the Koch brothers, to bring the workers of America to their knees, to subjugate them by a steady decline of wages and living standards in this country.

Meanwhile, the wealthy will become ever richer and more powerful.

There is little doubt the main factor fueling this process is climate change. Our corporate controllers have ample access to scientific facts. They are well informed. They know climate change is a scientific reality, despite protestations to the contrary.

The global warming ‘debate’ is just another concoction of the corporate controllers. Like the ‘Tea Party’, it was invented for a purpose. The truth is there is no ‘debate’ about climate change. Global warming is real; scientifically proven. It’s happening.

By casting doubt on the scientific evidence, those at the top knew sufficient numbers of the less-educated populace would leap on that bandwagon and perpetuate it for them, thus providing them with the excuse to block all efforts at environmental legislation. While their factory chimneys are belching carbon dioxide, and other even more noxious chemicals; while the mountains of Virginia and Tennessee are being blown apart for more coal to fire them, they – the corporate controllers – continue to make vast sums of money.

When the effects of climate change really begin to bite, food resources will be limited. Areas of the globe, particularly around the equator, will become uninhabitable. Vast numbers of economic migrants will begin to move around the planet. Life for the ordinary, middle class (or, more accurately, ‘working class’) citizen will become extremely difficult, if not downright dangerous.

For those with vast fortunes, life will be much easier. Enclosed within gated communities, their huge quantities of hoarded supplies hidden underground and guarded by private armies, they will expect to live out the crisis in luxurious ease. It won’t last forever. After all, when half, or three-quarters, of the world’s population is dead and those who survived are forced to live a primitive existence, the climate will probably begin to right itself fairly quickly – within a few lifetimes.

It started in the early 1980s. When it will end is anyone’s guess. Unless, of course, the citizens of the world do something to prevent it.

They are already, in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Wisconsin. Yet, they don’t even realize what they’re doing.

But, don’t take my word for it. Listen to what Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University said on ‘The Last Word’ this week.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

He doesn’t quite speculate the future to the extent I do, probably because he didn’t wish to be viewed as totally mad. I am less concerned about what others think of me, but remember this:

Back in June 2006, CommonDreams.org ran an article entitled, “New American Century Project Ends With A Whimper”. The thrust of the piece was that the PNAC was ‘dead in the water’ following the failure of the invasion of Iraq.

Nearly two years later, I wrote an article on Sparrow Chat in which I contested the views of the writer, Jim Lobe. Here’s one paragraph from my post:

CommonDreams was probably accurate, so far as concerted action by the group was concerned, but a large number of individuals were involved with the PNAC, and when one delves beneath the surface, to those areas the US media fails to visit, a picture emerges suggestive of a more vaporous, but still highly active and subversive force for world dominance.^[1]

That “still highly active and subversive force for world dominance” now has a new name. It calls itself the “Foreign Policy Initiative”. Behind the scenes, though, is another much more powerful organization. It has no name, and no face. It has no known leader; it is bound by no law. Yet, it is real, and a threat to us all.

^{[1] “Dead In The Water? Hardly…” Sparrow Chat, April 11th 2008}

Filed under: The faceless ones