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Hurricane Alley… by J. D. Longstreet

Rid The Sea Lanes Of Piracy.

Rid The Sea Lanes Of Piracy.

I reside just minutes from the Atlantic Ocean and the coast of North Carolina and those barrier Islands along our coast which made for wonderful hiding places for the pirates of yesteryear.  The Coast of North Carolina is drenched in folklore about pirates.  The infamous Blackbeard was captured here and decapitated. The sports teams of at least one noted university here are named “The Pirates.”  So, we Tar Heels have a colorful history of interaction with pirates as does our sister state to the south. .

That was then.  This is now.

Again the high seas are infested with pirates.  Their aim is the same… to rob and steal. But now, they have added ransom.

Recently we heard of an Ocean Liner being attacked, but managing to speed away.  A few days later, in the same waters, a freighter was attacked.  It, too, managed to get away.  As I write, at least one of the largest vessels afloat, an oil tanker, is being held for ransom by a handful of modern day blackhearts in full view of the world, and the world’s navies, including warships of the US Navy.

Our own Caribbean is littered with modern day pirates.  Yachts disappear to show up at some other location, with a different registration, and different name. Sometimes passengers disappear, too.

On at least two different occasions in our history, under two Presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt, the US Navy, and Marines, had to rid the coast of Africa of pirates.  The Barbary Coast Pirates.

I bring up these particular pirates because they were based along the African coast, mainly the North African coast.  The pirates we seem to be having the most trouble with today are also on the African coast, but the east African coast…the coast of Somalia to be more exact.  So far this year, alone, those pirates have attacked over 90 ships.  They have managed to hijack 39 freighters, tankers, and fishing vessels. At least 14 of them are currently anchored, under heavy guard, off pirate villages along the coast of Somalia.  Estimates run as high as 30 million dollars paid in ransom money.

Turns out it is not as easy today as it used to be to take on the pirates.  All sorts of national and international laws tie the hands of governments and makes them less than eager to take on a couple of dozen men with small arms and two or three rubber boats. But there is an outfit, based here in North Carolina, eager to do what the governments of the world sea powers are reluctant to do.  I speak, of course, of Blackwater Worldwide.

Equipped with their own warship, the McArthur, Blackwater is looking to provide a new service to the merchant navies of the world.  Blackwater offers to escort paying customer’s ships through the pirate infested waters, safely.  Their plan is simple:  Issue verbal warnings to approaching vessels which appear to have piracy in mind, followed by a few shots in the air, and if that fails… then the sharpshooters aboard a couple of helicopters, flown from the deck of the McArthur, will do their job by taking out as many barefooted pirates as it takes to discourage the attack.

Already Blackwater is receiving inquiries from dozens of shipping companies and shipping insurance companies concerning Backwater’s services in escorting their ships through the world’s most dangerous waters.

There is an excellent article on all of this at:,1518,592433,00.html

The country of Somalia still has no functioning government and it is a breeding ground for this type of activity.

Teddy Roosevelt, the last President of the United States to deal with Barbary Pirates, had the opportunity to use the big stick he carried and, he did just that.  He sent seven battleships from the Atlantic Fleet to the North African Coast. It worked and the pirates backed down.

This blight on the oceans will not go away if we turn a blind eye.  It will get worse.  Eventually they will manage to stop and board a passenger liner and death and destruction will be the result.  Or, terrorists will seize an oil tanker, sail her into the harbor of one of the world’s great cities, and blow it up with unbelievable death and devastation as the result.

Now is the time to hunt them down and destroy them… even if that means following them to their center of operations in the seacoast villages of the country, or countries, providing them safe haven.

J. D. Longstreet

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We Need Heroes!

Posted in America, Citizenship, Courage, Family, Freedom, Heroes, Leadership, Life, Military, US Citizenship by J. D. Longstreet on November 23, 2008

We Need Heroes!

By J. D. Longstreet

In my youth heroes did abound. There were, first and foremost, the military heroes, then the sports heroes, even the guy down the block who saved the neighbor’s cat by climbing the tree to retrieve the cat, he, too, was a hero. But it is not so, anymore.

Humans need heroes. Heroes remind us that there is a better side to us. Heroes remind us that we DO have it in us to be better than we are… to accomplish what was thought to be the impossible, and that we do have it in us to defend those things most precious to us, like our families and our homes and even our country. But today you would think there are no heroes.

There are the quiet heroes who live among us, even in our very homes, every day. The parents striving to make a living and see that their kids get what they need to create, for themselves, a better life than that of their parents. Rarely are they ever mentioned among the phalanx of everyday heroes.

Military heroes went out of style during the Vietnam War. Although many, many, Vietnam veterans came home as a heroes, they were not accorded that status by their fellow Americans. Many were reviled and even spat upon. Men who had answered their country’s call and gone to war, and had every right to be accorded the status of heroes were, instead, shunned by American society.

When I was a boy, there actually were sports heroes. Oh yes. Joe De Maggio, Ted Williams, and the list goes on and on. No any longer. Professional athletes tell us they have no desire to be a ROLE MODEL, A HERO, if you will. And they aren’t. Many we would silently think of as heroes turn out to be abusing drugs, which brings into questions their athletic triumphs. So, we no longer have sports heroes.

Well, you may ask, what about the neighborhood guy who climbs trees and rescues felines for the neighbors children? What about him, huh? Well, that cat is stranded now, for good and all, except in the rare case where the local fire department will agree to come rescue the critter. Why? Well the neighborhood guy is concerned that if he should climb that tree and break a limb, some enviro- nut group will sue him. If he should accidentally harm the kitty, while in the attempt to rescue her, then the animal welfare groups might sue him, and if the kitty scratches the kids he returns it to, he might well be sued for allowing those children to play with a dangerous animal.

See the direction America has taken… and why, there are no heroes today? It is, indeed, far too risky to be a hero today.

And then there is the “Moral Relativity” problem. Here in America, the Moral Relativity adherents rule the day. Now known as “political correctness”, we are indoctrinated, from day one, that all men are created equal. Well, one can easily put the lie to that… if one wanders into the shower room of any military barracks in the world, or walk down a crowded beach in July. All men are NOT created equal. All men are guaranteed an equal shot at life, and it’s abundance, here in America by the constitution, but that is as far as it goes… or at least, that is as far as it SHOULD go.

Now, if you believe that all men are equal then you cannot have heroes. Because the very nature of heroism means that one person has exceeded the level playing field of equality and has become better than his fellow man in some way.

We used to understand that, in this country, and we celebrated our heroes. Look back at Audey Murphy, the most decorated soldier of the Second World War. A tiny little fellow, unimposing, but the man had the heart of a lion. He was a true hero.

And there was The Duke. Yep, John Wayne. So far as I know Duke never served his country in uniform. Except that, actually, he did. He portrayed such heroes, so often, and so convincingly on the American movie screen, that he became one. He played role after role of a hero in different uniforms of our military service. Those western characters he portrayed paid homage to the early days of America on the frontier. He became a hero. The thing with Wayne was that “what you saw was what you got”. Off screen, he was the same man he played on screen. And that came through, clear as a bell, in the characters he portrayed.

Say what you will about the Duke, but he taught, at least one generation of American men, what it meant to be a man… and even more importantly what it meant to be an American man.

Heroes provide us with role models. “We don’t need role models”, you may argue. Oh, but we do, I would argue back. Role models teach our children important lessons about who they are and of what they are capable.

When I first reported for military training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, back on July 5th, 1959, I had no idea what I was capable of. None. I thought I did. But, boy, how wrong I was.

I weighed approximately 126 pounds. And that was soaking wet! And then they took us up to a place known then as “Tank Hill”. That’s where you went, in those days, when you reported to Ft. Jackson to be whipped into shape as an American soldier. Eight weeks later, having survived pure hell, I left that Army post a brand new American soldier, believing I could lick the world, if necessary, single handed.

How did it happen? One important factor of that training was that there were genuine heroes training us. The Instructor cadres were men who were veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War. Men who had seen the worst the enemy could throw at them and they rose above it… and won!

We had a First Sergeant, with an Irish name, and all the accoutrements, including the blue eyes and red hair. Never saw him that he didn’t have a bayonet scabbard hanging from his web belt. Never. He was a sergeant in the manner of old first sergeants. That guy was something to behold. When he walked into a room, or onto a training field, all the noise became muted and all eyes were on him. He commanded respect. For those of us un-initiated, at the time, there was one huge question we all wanted ask and that was… “Why”? After a few weeks, I screwed up enough courage to ask one of the lowly buck sergeants what it was about the Top Kick that brought all that respect.

The sergeant pointed to the Top Kick’s bayonet. “You see that”, he asked? I assured him I couldn’t miss it. The sergeant went on to say there was a story behind that bayonet. He told me that even though he didn’t know all the details he knew that the Top Kick had saved his squad, in Korea, by charging an enemy machine gun nest with nothing but that bayonet in his hand. He over ran that enemy gun emplacement and put the machine gun out of action and saved the lives of his men. For his actions the Army had award him a medal. His fellow soldiers had awarded him something far more precious… their respect.

As I listened in awe, I came to understand the awe, in which his men held him, that day. And… I had something of an epiphany, and that was… that… even heroes need heroes. The men training me were genuine war heroes, and yet… they looked up to the Top Kick as THEIR hero.

It is the nature of the human beast. We need “markers” to show us what we can achieve. Those who rise above the rest ARE those “markers” and we call them heroes.

America has become a nation in limbo. Having no markers, no heroes, to look to we are wandering about in a sea of disillusionment, not knowing who we are. Oft times we are discouraged from accomplishments, which exceed the norm. We are told it is better to remain a non-entity than to accomplish more than one’s neighbors, and rise above them, for in so doing we make those who seek to remain equal feel ashamed, or less important that we.

To that I say… “Tough!” It is that kind of thought that is killing the American spirit. It is that kind of thought that is killing America… period! It is that kind of thought that is ushering in socialism in America with Mr. Obama at the point of the socialist spear.

America used to be a “can do” nation. Now we are a “can you do it for me?” nation. We have not yet recognized that those who willingly “do it” for us will soon reign over us. Why, the naysayers have us believing we can actually lose the war in Iraq! They have us believing we can’t fight two wars, on two fronts, and win! We’ve already put the lie to that argument. We fought the Germans, the Italians, and the Japanese, all at the same time, and came away victorious over all of them. And we fought, not just in two relatively small countries in the same region, but all over the GLOBE!

Regardless of what you may think, or you may have been taught, there are persons among us who are heroes. These are persons who have risen above and simply not been recognized by a society that has chosen to hide itself in the mire of equal aspirations based upon our society’s lowest common denominator.

We desperately need a hero to lead this nation through the dark decades ahead. We are facing an enemy, which wants us dead and will stop at nothing to wipe us out. We need a leader who is not afraid of taking the tough stands, and making the hard decisions, which may lead to the deaths of countless numbers of our enemies, but, in the end, save the USA.

But can a man, such as that, be elected in America anymore? Probably not. Can a man, such as that, be found among us? Oh yes! But I must warn you… they are few and far between. You see… some say America stopped producing “real men” in the 1960’s. And those of the male persuasion, who survived the ‘60’s, are now teaching our male children what THEIR definition of a real man is and, dear reader, it is far from what nature created the human male to be.

So what are America’s options? Frankly, I don’t see any. We, as a nation, are destined to ride this train to the end of the line. You see, when a people, voluntarily, choose to emasculate themselves, they must pay the price. America has only begun to pay that price.

J. D. Longstreet

America’s Group Hug About To End

America’s Group Hug About to End

BY J. D. Longstreet

As I watch, read, and listen to the MsM report the news of Obama’s selection of those people he wants to serve in his administration, it occurred to me that the change he had promised was simply a change… back to the Clinton Administration.

Remember how it is when you begin watching a TV show that is a rerun, but you are not aware of it in the opening moments?  As the characters begin to flash onto the screen and the plot becomes more and more familiar it slowly dawns on you that you have seen this show before.  As I watch Obama gather his merry band together, that is exactly the feeling I get.  I have seen this show before.  Eight years ago.  So… it IS “Change BACK”!

Well, what about HOPE?  Remember… Bill Clinton was “The Man From HOPE!”

Look, the dems are nothing if they are not persistent.  They don’t seem to have had a NEW idea in decades.  They are still running elections with the same promises and pledges and even the same phraseology in their speeches that FDR used in his. So it should not be surprising that the Obama Administration looks so very much like the Clinton Administration because, for all intents and purposes, it IS the same.  All Democratic Party Presidential Administrations are the same.

As soon as Americans stop slapping themselves on the back and congratulating themselves for making history, and overcoming “White Guilt”, and ending racism, and all that baloney, it will dawn on them that they have been had… again.

Soon, it will become clear that Americans, well, SOME Americans, are expecting entirely too much of Obama. Too much was promised and too little will be delivered.

Lowering expectations is the order of the day on the democratic side of the aisle.  Very serious democrats, in and out of the Mainstream Media, and in and out of the Democratic Party apparatus, are telling us to not expect so much from Obama.  Of course, that is exactly the opposite of what they were telling us just a few weeks ago.  Way back then they were promising miracles, hinting that Obama could heal the sick, make the lame to walk, the blind to see, the mute to speak, and there was a better than 50/50 chance that Obama could walk all the way across the Potomac… on his bare feet!  And yet, today, we are told that we should lower our expectations. This is all a bit much.  But this is what you get when the candidate is a blank slate upon which the voters can write their own expectations, their own desires, and, yes, their own fantasies.

That American group hug, we mentioned at the beginning of this article, is slowly breaking apart as Americans begin to look up and cast their eyes in the direction of Obama’s selectees for his cabinet.  There’s some anxiety about its reflection of the Clinton Administration.  Then, too, the confirmation that among Obama’s foreign policy plans is one to lean on Israel to retreat back to it’s borders as they were before they were attacked by their Arab neighbors in 1967 and had to fight for their very existence.  In the war that ensued, Israel recaptured the old city of Jerusalem thereby reuniting it.  Now, apparently, the US is going to insist Israel turn it back over to the people who call themselves Palestinians. This has caused a stir in Israel and there is now some strain between Jews in Israel and those Jews in America who supported the Obama campaign.  They are NOT a happy bunch, at the moment. Neither are the Evangelical Christians in America and around the world.  But, then, Evangelical Christians did not support Obama and won’t.

And there is more, much, more to come.

Too much is being expected of Obama by the Germans, the Iraqis, the Afghanis, the Georgians, most of eastern Europe, and all of Africa.  Here at home, in America, too much is being expected of Obama by the African-Americans, the White Americans, the Spanish-Americans, the Gay Americans, the unborn Americans, the poor Americans, the sick Americans, the old Americans, the young Americans, even those busy breaking into America across our wide open southern border in hopes of change with Obama.

Disappointment comes first.  Then comes dissatisfaction. Then comes disaster. After all, Obama is but a man. How he handles these three “D” words will define him for history.

Unlike George Bush, or any Republican President, Obama will have the added luxury of a Mainstream Media to justify his mistakes, his shortcomings, his disgraces, etc, to the nation and the world. After all, he is THEIR man and they will not allow him to fail.

Clear thinking Americans, both republican and democrats, know whom America elected and they are worried.  They have reason to worry. America is as vulnerable as it was before World War Two… and every bit as naive.  In a country like America, vulnerability and naiveté can bring on disaster.  Anything can happen. Like a blind man negotiating a minefield, America must tread softly, and carefully, over the next few years.  Inexperienced leadership was not what the country needed, but that is what we have. Americans are now trusting in blind luck to get us through.

Me?  I pray a lot.

J. D. Longstreet

Controlling A Nations Economy Means Controlling That Nation’s People.

Controlling A Nations Economy Means Controlling That Nation’s People.

The title to this article was taken from one of Ronald Reagan’s speeches. It is as true as truth gets. Ronald Reagan, the icon of the conservative movement in America, understood the fundamental truth of the Founding Fathers of America.

 The Founding Fathers of America understood that a strong central government would never work in a republican form of government, the form of government they gave the American people.  They knew that.  They had just declared the independence of Americans from the  “strong central government” of King George of Great Britain. They understood that for Americans to thrive and become a great nation of great people the government should provide one thing… freedom.  They knew the American government should provide security from any and all enemies that presented a threat to the freedom of the American people so the American people could make the seeds of liberty grow and flourish.

Meeting in Philadelphia in 1776 they labored to create a constitution, the bedrock foundation of this nation, dedicated to the idea that the people would control their own destiny, not the government, that the people would make or break this experiment in democracy, not the government, that the labors of the people, known as business, would be free to create and manufacture, to sell, and to create wealth and keep that wealth or distribute it as they chose, not the government.

The constitution is as simple a governing document as has ever been written. It was drawn up to protect the people of this country from its government.  Our Founding Fathers had just turned their backs on government which had  insinuated itself into the lives and businesses of its colonists to the point that those colonists rebelled and said: “No more!”  With the constitution, the Founding Fathers put in writing the limits of the new American government.

For the past 232 years the constitution has been a fly in the ointment to the political left everywhere on earth.  When a people yearning to breath free, anywhere on the globe, look for a way, for a pattern, for directions on how to set up a non-repressive government, they turn to the US Constitution.  There must be a reason.  There is.  Because it works!

Today, however, Americans themselves are ready to toss the constitution overboard and cling to a government, drunk on power and ready to do exactly the same thing King George did , insinuate itself into every aspect of the American people’s life. So bent on desecration of the constitution are they, that 52 % of the American voters cast their ballots for a man who has declared his allegiance to creating a strong central government, which will take away the freedoms, the liberty,  our forefathers fought, bled, and died to give us.  They have declared their overwhelming willingness to toss the democratic form of government in favor of a socialist form of government, which will guarantee cradle to the grave security.  They voted “yes” to exchanging liberty for security. They voted to turn their backs on all the heroes of American history to follow in the footsteps of the Pied Piper of Socialism the now President-Elect of the United States of America.

Again, let’s turn to Ronald Reagan for clarity.  In 1964 Reagan said the following:

“It’s time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, “We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government.”

This idea? That government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. “

Reagan went on to say: “The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

…….. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, “The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.”

“Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, “What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.” But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.”

On taxation, Reagan said this: “We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him…. But we cannot have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure….”

Reagan asked these essential questions: Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor’s fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can’t socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he’ll eat you last.”

About financial security, Reagan had this to say: “There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.”

Reagan wound up this jewel of a speech by saying the following: “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”

As I view the America the voters of this nation created on November fourth, I am inclined to say that, indeed, we have, just as Reagan warned, sentenced our children to a thousand years of darkness.

J. D. Longstreet

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Americans Arm Themselves At A Record Pace

 Americans are arming themselves to the teeth, after the election, because they fear what they feel is coming from an Obama Administration and from the underlying fear that something very bad is about to happen that will affect the whole world.

First, take a look at this AP article by Dena Potter entitled: “Fears of Democrat crackdown lead to gun sales boom.”  You’ll find it at:  This was as predictable as sunrise. We told you a number of times to expect this. But, as with so many things, the Mainstream Media is blindsided by it.

Here’s another report on Americans rushing to arm themselves in advance of the Obama Administration. It’s from CNSNEWS.COM.  It’s titled:

“Gun-Shop Business Booms in Advance of New Administration”

Here is a brief excerpt:  “……..Gun shops and gun shows are running out of inventory as Second Amendment enthusiasts prepare for Barack Obama to become the new president.”  You’ll find the full story here:

Here in “Gun Territory”, just minutes from my home, folks are hurrying to purchase a gun. The gun stores are forced to add new salespeople to handle the increase in customers.  You can read the story titled: “Gun Sales Booming After Election,” by John Ramsey, at the Fayetteville Observer site at:

You may ask why American individuals are buying so many firearms per person.  Simple.  Some will be used, others will be hidden… concealed. If anyone asks about them they will have been lost, stolen, or destroyed in some kind of catastrophe such as a fire, etc.

Americans are scared witless that the democrats, under the Obama leadership, will make a determined effort to seize their guns.  The democrats, including Obama, say they are for “Common sense” gun control.  The definition of “Common sense” is what scares gun owners. I mean, when a Congress, so devoid of knowledge about firearms, outlaws an entire type of rifle because it LOOKS scary,” that tells you all you ever need to know about their “common sense.”

Remember those scary weapons?  No amount of talking or demonstrating could convince the Congress that the weapons they outlawed were simply weapons designed merely to look militaristic, to look scary.  Many hunting rifles carry the same ammunition as those “scary” weapons.  The only difference is in the appearance of the weapons. But the “girlie” men in the Congress, and some of the “girlie” girls in the Congress were frightened by the appearance of those weapons… thus… they outlawed them.  Talk about “common sense.”

There is a very real concern they will go after concealed weapon laws in the various states that have concealed carry permit laws such as my state, North Carolina. Here in the Tar Heel state one can obtain a concealed carry permit after you have completed a course in handling your firearm and in firearm safety.  However, you don’t need a permit of any kind if you carry the weapon in plain sight.  Yes, dear reader, you can carry your pistol in a holster, on your belt, in plain sight, and be legal in this state.

We gun owners are not relying on the Supreme Court to preserve our 2nd amendment rights.  True, they did just rule that the 2nd amendment means what it says… but… and this is a big BUT… Obama is going to have the opportunity to replace at least two of those justices and, frankly, I cannot see him, or the Senate, approving anyone for the court who is a solid believer in the 2nd amendment.  Thus, the fear that soon, our right to guns will be curtailed.

Another thing they have apparently not considered is… a cottage industry springing up in the manufacture of firearms.  They are relatively easy to produce in most home workshops.

The majority of Americans now understand, at some level, that America now has a socialist government in power in Washington, DC. They also understand that socialism resembles a whited sepulcher.  It may be beautiful on the outside but inside it is filled with the corpses of the dead.  Socialism’s outside is layered with promises of all things beautiful but inside there resides the dead bodies of truth. Most Americans know that our new leaders cannot be trusted. That means that the American citizen is vulnerable. That vulnerability is the key to the insecurity that is driving the purchase of weapons.

We are entering a perilous time IN America and FOR America.  Already our traditional enemies are moving and positioning their armed forces to areas and positions strategic to their plans for expansion.  They know America’s new government will not have the will or the fortitude to stop them and they will have a free hand, especially in Eastern Europe.  In the Middle East the Arabs are positioning troops for another onslaught against our only real friend in the area, Israel. Without America’s assistance, Israel will rely on her nuclear arsenal to defeat those age-old enemies.  Israel has stated, unabashedly, she will employ her nukes to preserve her freedom, indeed her continued survival.

As US troops begin leaving through Iraq’s front door Iranian troops will likely begin entering the back door.  Soon after all US troops are out of Iraq, Iran will, most likely, invade and easily conquer Iraq before another strongman regime can be instituted by the Iraqi people themselves.

Afghanistan will bleed our treasury dry while we have another try at “Nation Building” in a country with a people who have no concept of a nation, only tribes. The Afghanis will simply wait for us to give up and go home before they resume their centuries old way of life groveling in the dirt before the meanest man with the biggest gun.

And these are just the bright spots.

Yes, Americans are arming themselves because they fear what is coming… and with good reason.

J. D. Longstreet

Afghanistan Will Be Another Vietnam … by Alan Caruba

Afghanistan Will Be Another Vietnam

By Alan Caruba

The next President of the United States of America must decide whether to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan or expand our involvement there. Having lived through the long years of the war in Vietnam, I can tell you that Afghanistan looks and smells like Vietnam. It is the classic wrong war in the wrong place.

In late October, I read a small news item about Parwiz Kambakhsh, 24, an Afghan journalism student who had downloaded and circulated an article about women’s rights under Islam. The news was that his sentence of death had been overturned by an appellate court that reduced it to a mere twenty years in prison on the charge of blasphemy. He can still appeal to the Supreme Court of Afghanistan. This is the state of freedom of speech, press, and thought in Afghanistan.

If you want to know what life was like in the seventh century, Afghanistan is the place to go. It is largely devoid of anything passing for modernity, by which we mean medical facilities, schools, roads, and such. Never mind the telephones and other detritus of modern life, the conversations have not changed in centuries.

Afghanistan shares a long border with Pakistan and Iran. Also bordering it is Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Turkistan, and Tajikistan. None of these places is a tourist destination. All are Islamic.

The only reliable element of Afghanistan’s economy is poppy cultivation for the opium trade which the CIA estimates generates “roughly $4 billion in illicit economic activity.” This is another way of saying that none of this money reaches what passes for a central government except in the form of bribes. It is a major source of funding for the Taliban.

Few Americans were interested in Afghanistan until September 11, 2001. We have had a military presence there for seven years, along with NATO nation components. Much like the “military advisors” that initiated our involvement in Vietnam, today’s generals are calling for more troops.

Afghanistan has been conquered and occupied since the days of Alexander the Great. Nothing much comes of it. It remains a mystery why they bothered. Putting too few or too many troops into Afghanistan does little except to demonstrate the futility of trying to impose one’s will on people who have resisted every such effort for centuries.

Founded as a nation in 1747 when Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes, Afghanistan was primarily seen as a buffer between the British and Russian empires. Democracy, as in most Middle Eastern nations, has never taken root there.

It became the graveyard of the Soviet empire after they intervened militarily in 1979 to support a tottering Afghan Communist regime. After they withdrew in 1989, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. It is now known as the Russian Federation. It is still run by the former KGB. And one wonders why anyone in the U.S. government thinks any good can come of being there?

The Taliban took control after the Russians left and Osama bin Laden found a congenial place in which to plan 9/11. That’s why the first U.S. response to the attack occurred in Afghanistan as U.S., allied, and an anti-Taliban Northern Alliance of tribes were able to drive the Taliban across the border into the frontier provinces of Pakistan and elsewhere.

The U.S. effort to create a democratic government there began with a new constitution and, in December 2004, the election of Hamid Karzai as president. He barely controls Kabul, the capitol. The southern and eastern regions are still beyond control.

In essence, the rule of law barely exists in Afghanistan, if at all, unless you factor in Sharia law which reflects a seventh century approach to justice. The government and all aspects of official life in Afghanistan are so corrupt that even President Karzai’s brother is allegedly on the take.

I am not a military strategist, an expert in foreign affairs, or can lay claim to much more than common sense, so I confess it defies my understanding why the United States and our NATO allies are in Afghanistan. Expecting democracy to succeed in such a primitive and hostile place seems more a justification for military occupation than anything else. The whole place is tribal.

Other than his distaste for our invasion of Iraq and disposal of Saddam Hussein, it is baffling that Barack Obama says that Afghanistan is the “central front” against al Qaeda. The CIA says it has no bases there. The Taliban—outsiders just like us–have their own agenda as seen in their effort to render the place a complete and total Islamic hellhole.

Little wonder, therefore, that word keeps getting out that both English and French military leaders regard Afghanistan as virtually beyond any hope without putting a far greater number of troops there. Millions are being spent as it is. Between 2002 and 2007, Germany spent $80 million to reform its police corps. The U.S. has budgeted $800 million for 2008 to assist its security forces.

In early October, General Jean-Louis Geogelin, France’s military chief, confirmed that British Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith remarks that “there is no military solution to the Afghan crisis” reflected his own views. The Brigadier recommended that NATO lower its expectations regarding a happy outcome to the conflict. It was, he said, “unrealistic and probably incredible” to think that the multinational forces in Afghanistan could rid the country of armed bands.

There are two occupations available to the Afghans. One can either be a farmer raising poppies or one can join an armed band, be it either the government’s, one’s tribe, or the Taliban’s.

In an October 1, 2008 Christian Science Monitor article, it was reported that “The U.S. military is working to put a new strategy in place for Afghanistan and Pakistan that could allow it to expand airfields, preposition military forces and equipment, and prepare for a more robust effort soon against Islamist extremists in the region.” Four more U.S. brigades are poised to be sent to Afghanistan, including one that will deploy in January.

I have my own military strategy. Let’s pull our troops out of Afghanistan and, with their permission, let’s keep enough troops in Iraq to ensure that its government can maintain its security and as a deterrent for any conflict Iran might initiate in the region.

The United States of America has a full plate of problems right now. Expending troops and treasure in Afghanistan strikes me as a bad investment in a very nasty place. It is an invitation to repeat the all the errors of Vietnam.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, He blogs daily at

© Alan Caruba, November 2008

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I Overestimated My fellow Americans … by J. D. Longstreet

Some of us have been screaming from the rooftops, for nearly 2 years now, that Mr. Obama is a socialist. Only now, just days before the election, are people beginning to take notice. Why? It is there for everyone but the deaf, dumb, and bind to see.

America has been slowly but surely headed toward a socialist government since FDR’s “New Deal.” In the 1960’s it was Lyndon Baines Johnson and the “Great Society”, and now, the crowning touch, Barack Hussein Obama and the… what…”Spread the Wealth Around” government?

The Left in America knows they have not succeeded in convincing us all to buy into their “Demand whatever the country can do for you” approach to government. You see, there are a heck of a lot of folks, like me, still roaming around, out here in the hinterlands of America, who see them for what they are, who recognize their scheme to lock down a democratic majority, forever, in Washington by making every single American dependent on the government for their very existence. Folks like me are a threat to them and their plans.

That is why Obama has run a stealth campaign. Think back. Obama has not told us a single thing, in concrete terms, he will do for you. Oh sure, he has given us great oratorical flourishes that spellbind those who wish to be spellbound. Watching an Obama event is much the same as watching the old medicine shows of the 1800’s. His snake oil is his promise of change, of hope, of (—–) whatever you wish to place in the blank.

People, like me, pay attention to what is going on about them. We are aware of what our government is doing. We feel that the government is answerable to us, as the voter, and, equally important, we also feel we have a responsibility to watch the government and make sure they stay within the guidelines of the constitution. That is the way a free people stay free. Never, ever, trust your government.

It is we the left is afraid of. The fact that we continue to agitate and call attention to Obama’s obvious socialism grinds on them every second of every day. They fear that our collective voices may eventually cut through their carefully constructed façade and actually draw your attention to every thing that is wrong with the fine print in the Obama promise. First and foremost where is the money going to come from to finance Obama’s expanded government? Secondly, who is going to protect us from all this nations enemies now salivating at the expectation that such a weakling as Obama will assume the office of Commander-in-Chief of the US military? Apparently, everyone already knows that no amount of talking, and jawboning, with the Islamofacists, with Russia, with North Korea, with Iraq, with Iran, with Afghanistan, with Venezuela, and the host of nameless enemies we face daily will do any good, at all. Everyone, that is, but Obama. They look on, as Americans flock after this empty suit, in disbelief at their good fortune. They are ecstatic that America is about to be handed to them on a silver platter.

Our forefathers must be spinning in their graves. The blood, sweat, tears, and providential intervention they, and those who followed them, spent in building a nation unlike any on the earth is all for naught. For if the people have no more love of their country, no more pride in who they are as Americans, no more belief in themselves than those who follow Obama, then, I must tell you, we don’t deserve the country they gave us.

It would seem that I have overestimated the intelligence of the American people. It would seem that I have overestimated my fellow Americans’ love for freedom. My error, apparently, was in believing that a people grown from the stock of patriots who fought kings and world superpowers for their freedom, and created a country in which the citizens were limited only by their own imaginations and ambitions would naturally want to preserve this precious land and all the freedom if offers. My mistake. It is a mistake I will not make again.

J. D. Longstreet

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America Does Not Need A Weak, Timid, President… by J. D. Longstreet

I came across something President Dwight Eisenhower said a few decades back. He said: “History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid.” When Ike said it… it was profound. It is even more profound, if that is possible, today.

Ike was, of course, correct. If history teaches us anything it is that if a nation is to remain free that nation must remain strong and, equally important, that nation cannot be timid about using it’s strength in defense of freedom, it’s own as well as the freedom of others.

Today we find ourselves on the brink of the election of a new President. A man, who will, under our law, become the Commander in Chief of all the US military forces. Already those forces are at war, openly, overtly, in two nations in the Middle East and in sundry other nations, around the globe, that only those in positions of high authority in our military and our government know about.

Someone once said: “Freedom is not free.” No truer statement has ever been made. We don’t know whom to credit for those words of wisdom, but whoever said it was absolutely correct. There is a cost. Usually, the cost is paid in blood.

These are the words of one of the men running for the high office of President of the US and Commander in Chief of our military forces: “I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems. I will institute an independent Defense Priorities Board to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary defense spending … I will set a goal for a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal: I will not develop nuclear weapons.” Those are the words of Mr. Barrack Obama, democratic Candidate for President. You can watch the video here:

Before proceeding I would refer you all the way back to the quote by President Eisenhower: “History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid.” What immediately leaps off the page when reading Mr. Obama’s words are timidity and weakness.

It is frightening for those of us who were born before the Second World War and have lived the history of this nation through all the wars we have been involved in since. We know the danger, we know the cost, and we know the lengths to which a nation must sometimes go to insure the safety of its citizens. We know the horror of killing hundreds of thousands of our enemy in a single hour with a single blow. It is a measure of the price we pay for our freedom. We also know that had we been timid, had we been weak of fortitude or military might, we would not be free people today.

Allow me, please, to pass on the words of John Stewart Mill: “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

I would remind you that TWO wars are raging even as you read this. Not only is Mr. Obama assuring us he will order our troops off the battlefield and cede the war to the enemy, he is said to be considering reducing the military budget by 25%. If anything the size of the US military should be doubled and billions more spent in new equipment, new weapons, and new weapons systems. Just a few days ago Mr. Obama’s own vice presidential candidate assured us we could expect to be hit by our enemies within six months of Mr. Obama’s taking office. I believe him. Except, I think we will be hit sooner, much sooner.

Mr. Obama has missed making a connection with what the people of America want with our military in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Yes, Americans want their sons and daughters home. But they want them to come home victorious, having won the war; with their heads held high as the heroes we know them to be.

Mr. Obama should heed the words of Earnest Hemmingway: “Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.”

As we are mere days from Election Day, I fear for my country. I fear that Mr. Obama may indeed win and become my President. I will not rest easy a single night he occupies the Oval Office.

J. D. Longstreet

Sarah Palin For President in 2012

Sarah Palin for President 2012.

There is a movement “aborning” to support Sarah Palin for President in 2012.

At first glance it would seem too early to consider supporting anyone this far out from the election in 2012.  But, since the Clintons introduced America to the “Never-Ending Campaign for President”, some feel conservatives had better go ahead, right now, and get the ball rolling.

There is already a website for the Sarah Palin for President campaign at:

Go over and take a look.  Leave a comment, if you like, and if you have a blogsite of your own, you are invited to link to the Vote for Sarah site and alert others to its existence.

It is said that small increments of time (such as weeks or months) in politics, is a lifetime. That may be, and, certainly, much can, and does, happen in the world of politics… even in hours.

With the current election “seemingly” already decided in favor of Obama, and, taking into consideration the dastardly way conservatives have been treated by the GOP in this election cycle, more and more conservatives are looking for a future candidate they can get behind early and, in doing so, serve notice on the GOP that their support (conservative support) is going to THAT candidate… and if… IF… the GOP wishes to have any support from Conservative voters… then the GOP will have to follow the conservative lead, or… just get out of the way.

Now, as a conservative, myself, I am not deceiving myself by believing the GOP will actually wake-up and see the error(s) of their way(s).  See, I don’t think the GOP, in their minds, made an error!  I think the GOP set out, from the very beginning in this election, to discard the conservative wing of their party and push McCain through with the belief, the conviction, if you will, that they could win this election with the support of only liberal and moderate republicans, plus the independent voters. That move was doomed to failure right from the start.  But, the oh, so intelligent elite, in the Republican Party, wanted their party back, and now… they have it… for what it is worth.

For 46 years I have voted a conservative ballot.  My belief in conservative values has not changed one iota in all that time. I have seen the GOP win when they placed those conservative values first and foremost in their candidate and their campaigns.

But it is clear that since 1994 the elite in the GOP have been gnashing their teeth at the mention of “conservatives” in what they truly believe is THEIR party.  No matter that their liberal and moderate values had kept the republicans on the backbenches in both houses of the Congress for decades. Apparently, they liked it there… for they sure as heck seem to be bound and determined to return to those same backbenches ASAP.

Rejection is a difficult thing for the human animal to deal with.  Some are just overwhelmed by it.  Others become depressed and wallow in that depression, while others accept it for what it is, choose not to dwell upon it, and move on continuing to strive for bigger and better things.  I sincerely hope the bulk of conservatives will accept the GOP rejection of our values and move on to form our own political party, separate from the Republicans, into which we can pour our energies and our collective talents in an effort to build a better America.

J. D. Longstreet

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.

By J. D. Longstreet

“And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand”.  From the Bible, Matthew 12:25.

The schism that slices through America today has been widening since the 19th century.  Little by little, decade-by-decade, year-by-year it has continued to get ever wider and ever deeper.  It has nothing to do with geography.  It has nothing to do with slavery… and, yet, it has everything to do with slavery.

What, you say?  Didn’t we put the slavery issue to rest with a war in the 1860’s?  The truthful answer is NO, we did not. We put to rest the issue of whether or not a man could hold another man in bondage in this country. What we did not put to rest, however, is the question of whether this country’s government could hold its citizens in bondage.

The founders of this country intended to set up a government with very little power. They intended the government to have only the power the citizens allowed it to have. Almost instantly the power struggle began between those who wanted a strong central government and those who wanted strong states and a weak central government.  After all, it was The States that created the Federal Government… as a utility of the states.  Not the other way around.  Look it up.

In 1860 there were 33 states in the so-called United States of America.  I do mean “so-called” because they were anything but UNITED.  By the spring of 1861 thirteen of those states had had enough of being dictated to by a dictatorial federal government wielding powers the constitution did not grant it, so they waved goodbye and took their leave of the United States. They created a country of their own with a constitution (mostly copied from the original constitution of the US) and they became a separate country.

A few Americans today actually know what caused that split. A handful of Americans understand what the ensuing war was fought about

A few million Americans still feel the sting of being forced, at the point of a government bayonet, to be a part of a country their ancestors had forsaken in order to set up a government in the image of the government the Founding Fathers of America had given the United States.

A few million Americans who either live in, or hail from, the only portion of this country to ever be invaded, conquered, and occupied by a foreign power, understand what is happening in America today, not because we learned it in school, no… because we learned it from the stories our families have handed down from generation to generation and from our own research into what happened to a country which had, less than a hundred years before, won it’s Independence from the Mother Country.   We are scattered all over America today.  We see where America is headed… and we fear for our fellow Americans because they/we are not ready for the cost of what is about to happen to her.  None of us are.  What America is facing, in the next few years, will make the American Civil War seem like a Sunday School picnic.

Yes, I am referring to SLAVERY. Voluntary slavery to begin with… then involuntary slavery… when it is then too late. The socially accepted word for it these days is… SOCIALISM.

In just a few days Americans will go to the polls to exercise a right granted them by their states… not the federal government. The issue we will be voting for, or against, is slavery.  Whether America should stay free, or whether America should give up the freedom so many have fought, bled, and died for, and assume the yoke and chains of slavery under socialism.

Make no mistake.  SOCIALISM IS SLAVERY.  Under socialism you will give up all your rights… all your freedom for security guaranteed by the Central Government.  Believe me, if you think democracy is expensive; wait ‘til you have to pay for all those FREE programs.

All my instincts tell me that Americans are willing to give up everything for the promise of security.  Of all things “un-American”… that is the MOST un-American. But, that is what I expect to happen on Election Day.

Do not expect the half of the country who stands solidly against socialism to go along, quietly, into the self inflicted slavery of this hell-spawned form of government we call socialism.

If the country votes in favor of socialism, on November 4th, all bets are off. The word “United” can be dropped from the country’s name.  The country will be torn in two.   And there will be no compromise. It cannot be healed, ever, again. Two peoples, this diametrically opposed, cannot share the same space. Only the most naive among us cannot understand where this argument over how we are to be governed will eventually wind up. Americans have been there before. More Americans died in the first American Civil War than in all the wars in which America has fought since her founding.  And today, at least half of this country is deadly in earnest about their love of freedom and are willing to sacrifice, as their forefathers did, to preserve it.

Yes, we are in dangerous times. Extremely dangerous. If you have not taken the time to consider, seriously, how you will vote then may we suggest you do so, and do so prayerfully.

J. D. Longstreet

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Author: Viktor Nadein-Rayevsky

(By Viktor Nadein-Rayevsky, senior research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economics and International Relations. RBC Daily, Nov. 9, 2016, p. 5. Complete text:) The wave of enthusiasm in Turkish society about joining the European Union has been replaced by disappointment after peaking in 2005. For its part, Europe, which is experiencing a surge of anti-immigration sentiment, is leaning toward suspending [accession] negotiations with Turkey.

A recent demarche by the European Parliament against continuing negotiations on Turkey’s EU accession seriously offended [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and his team. European Parliament deputies expressed their discontent with the Turkish leadership’s "inappropriate" response to an attempted coup [see Current Digest, Vol. 68, No. 29, p. 3 - 8], including mass arrests of both military personnel and civilians, and persecution of opposition media. However, the European Parliament deputies’ declaration aside, relations with [Turkey’s EU] partners have been far from rosy.

Readers are reminded that the Turks have sought to become part of the European project for over 50 years. Way back in 1963, Turkey signed an agreement with the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the EU, recognizing the country’s right to join that organization.

Turkey got a chance to do so in 1978 - 1979, when it was invited to join the EEC together with Greece, with which it has had openly hostile relations since the Turkish Army occupied Northern Cyprus. The Turks refused to compromise back then.

The 1980 military coup and ensuing mass arrests on both the left and right affected the association process. The EEC suspended negotiations, which did not resume until after 1983, and without much success. You can understand [the trepidation of] the Europeans: A country with a rapidly growing population, deficient agriculture and an inefficient economy did not inspire enthusiasm, and the EU even refused to accept Turkey as an EU candidate member ...

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Approaching sustainability in built environment, L Bragança, C Araújo, G Castanheira

Tags: sustainability, urban areas, sustainability assessment, Environment, sustainability assessment tools, assessment tools, public transport, urban regeneration, sustainable urban, [email protected], Barcelona, urban area, Public transportation system, European cities, Urban Network, urban sustainability measures, Urban Planning, economic viability, economic dimension, sustainable building, public transportation systems, Sustainable Buildings, functional aspects, economic concerns, green spaces, Sustainability Indicators, sustainability measures, urban sprawl, Dimension Category ID Indicator, energy efficiency, Energy I13 Energy Efficiency, Construction and Demolition Waste, Renewable Energy I15, sustainable cities, thermal energy, urban sustainability, building sustainability, assessment, sustainability principles, Local Economy, promotion
Content: Approaching sustainability in built environment Luнs Braganзa1,a, Catarina Araъjo2, Guilherme Castanheira2, Josй Amarilio Barbosa2, Patrнcia Oliveira2 1 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarгes, Portugal, 4800-058 2 Building Physics & Construction Technology Lab., Univ. of Minho, Guimarгes, Portugal, 4800-058 a [email protected] ABSTRACT This paper analyses the current trends in sustainability implementation. An analysis of the most important sustainability assessment tools indicates that after about 15 years from their launch the recent tendency in sustainability assessment tools development aims at the sustainability assessment of urban areas. Independently of the development of these new tools, a significant number of cities in Europe and around the world are implementing sustainability measures. Although these cities are not being subjected to sustainability assessments, it is noticed that successful sustainability measures that are being applied in these cities have common principles to those assessed in the sustainability assessment tools. This way, as the paradigm of the sustainability assessment tools is changing from the building scale to the urban and the city scale, this new generation of sustainability assessment tools can be used to guide and to help cities and urban areas towards sustainability. KEYWORDS: Urban sustainability assessment, sustainability assessment tools, sustainable cities 1. INTRODUCTION Since 1996, with the launch of BREEAM (Building Research Establishment's environmental assessment Method), a significant number of building environmental and sustainability assessment tools (BSA tools) have been developed. Tools such as BREEAM, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and SBTool (Sustainable Building Tool) constitute the basis for all the other tools and initiatives used throughout the world (Braganзa et al. 2010). Usually these methods are characterized by evaluating a series of partial and aggregate features of construction, resulting in environmental ratings or sustainability scores (Assefa et al. 2010). According to Haapio (2008), the existing building environmental assessment methods and tools should not be underestimated, however should not be considered the only possibility for sustainability assessment, one must widen the viewpoint. The requirements for BSA tools have increased and nowadays it is not enough to evaluate building components or the building separately (Haapio, 2012). The built environment, neighbourhoods, public transport and services, should also be considered simultaneously in these assessments, since the number of people living in urban areas is high and increasing rapidly. Current trends predict that this number will keep rising, reaching almost 5 billion by 2030 out of a world total of 8.1 billion (UN-Habitat, 2007). The incorporation and integration of the urban dimension has been gaining importance over the last decades due to the process of building of the sustainable development paradigm. Thus, emerged different methods, techniques and tools for urban sustainable assessment, seeking to discover how cities can become more sustainable (Rosales, 2011). It is believed that cities will give answers to a sustainable future, since they are the largest resources consumers of the planet and the largest generators of waste (Souza & Awad, 2012) but cities are also the place where it is possible to act more effectively to save the planet from ourselves (Khanna, 2010).
2. FROM SUSTAINABLE BUILDING TO SUSTAINABLE CITY 2.1 Buildings sustainability assessment The first available environmental assessment tool for buildings was the Building Research Establishment Assessment Method (BREEAM, 2013). This method was established in the UK in 1990 and together with the following two rating and certification systems provided the basis for the other approaches used throughout the world: Sustainable Building Tool (SBTool), developed through the collaborative work of representatives from 20 countries (iiSBE, 2013a); and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), developed in the U.S.A. (USGBC, 2013). In Portugal, a building sustainability assessment method has been developed: SBToolPT (Mateus & Braganзa, 2009). Sustainable Building Tool Portugal (SBToolPT) was developed by Laboratory of Building Physics & Construction Technology of the University of Minho, in coordination with nonprofit association iiSBE-Portugal (International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment-Portugal) and the private consulting company Ecochoice SA. The results of these assessments tools are contributing to understand the impacts of the building sector. Assessment tools are proven to provide unique opportunities for designers, owners, contractors and users to make decisions and choices during the project and construction of buildings, in order to increase their sustainability level (Mateus & Braganзa, 2011). 2.2 From building sustainability assessment to urban planning assessment The impacts of the building sector are a very well documented fact, which can be addressed throughout measures that are included in building sustainability assessment tools. However, these impacts can be addressed in a much adequate way if the sustainability measures are implemented in a larger scale such as the urban planning. Additionally, urban expansion, rapid growth of cities as well as urban regeneration of degraded and abandoned areas are the current concerns of authorities, both international and local. These concerns have directed the focus on developing assessment frameworks and tools for urban communities, such as: BREEAM Communities (BRE, 2012), LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development) (US Green Building Council, 2012), SCTool (Sustainable Communities Tool  in development) (iiSBE, 2013b), CASBEE-UD (Urban Development) (CAASBE, 2013), EarthCraft Communities (EarthCraft, 2013) or Green Star Communities (GBC Australia, 2013). The interest in evaluation systems is increasing among authorities, investors and especially developers (Haapio, 2012), since these systems allow the comparison of municipalities and urban areas, serving to support decisionmaking processes, benefiting authorities, planners and designers during this process. These tools were designed to give opportunity for projects to demonstrate their environmental, economic and social benefits to the local community, in all the planning stages of development processes. These tools' system consists of frameworks with several indicators, which are grouped into categories. These tools, while evaluating and ranking the sustainability of urban developments, are also instruments that guide and encourage the process of design and development of sustainable, smart and high quality communities throughout the promotion of reference best practices. 2.3 Sustainability Assessment Tool for urban planning: SBToolPT-PU One example of the evolution of the focus of sustainable assessment tools from buildings to urban planning operations is the Portuguese sustainability assessment method, SBToolPT. A sustainability assessment tool for urban planning operations is being developed under the scope of the urban scale, SBToolPT Urban Planning. This tool encompasses twelve categories under the scope of the main sustainability dimensions, environment, society and economic. Additionally, an extra category is considered covering the sustainability of buildings and Environmental Management. The forty one indicators included in this tool, as well as the respective categories and dimensions, are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. SBToolPT Urban Planning  Structure and Indicators.
ID Indicator
C1. Urban Form
I1 Passive Solar Planning
I2 Ventilation Potential
I3 Urban Network
C2. Land use and Infrastructure
I4 Natural Land Aptitudes I5 Density and Flexibility of Uses
I6 Reuse of Urban Areas
I7 Built Environment Rehabilitation
I8 Technical Infrastructures Network
C3. Ecology and Biodiversity
I9 Distribution of Green Spaces I10 Connectivity of Green Space
I11 indigenous vegetation
I12 Environmental Monitoring
C4. Energy
I13 Energy Efficiency
I14 Renewable Energy
I15 Centralized Management of Energy
C5 - Water
I16 Consumption of drinking water
I17 Centralize Management of Water
I18 Management of Wastewater
C6. Materials and Wastes
I19 Sustainable Materials I20 Construction and Demolition Waste
I21 Management of Urban Solid Waste
C7. Comfort of Outdoor I22 Air Quality
I23 Outdoor Thermal Comfort
I24 Acoustic Pollution
I25 Light Pollution
C8. Safety
I26 Safety in the Streets
I27 Natural and Technological Risk
C9. Amenities
I28 Proximity to Services
I29 Entertainment Equipments
I30 Local Production of Food
C10. Mobility
I31 Public Transportation
I32 Pedestrian Accessibility
I33 Cycle Paths Network
C11. Local and cultural I34 Public Spaces
I35 Heritage Valuation and Landscapes
I36 Integration and Social Inclusion
C12. Employment Promotion and Investment
I37 Economic Viability I38 Local Economy I39 Employability
I40 Sustainable Buildings I41 Information and Communication Technologies
The structure of this methodology is being developed and adapted to the Portuguese context by the authors, based on the work of Serge Salat (Salat et al. 2011) and on the work of iiSBE SCTool (SBTool Urban), which is also in development. A cooperative effort is being made for the improvement of these methodologies taking into account the latest scientific developments in sustainability at the urban scale. In the first category on this methodology, Urban Form, there are accessed aspects such as: the passive solar planning, considering the suitability for thermal energy conservation and the production of renewable solar energy; the promotion of natural ventilation of urban spaces, taking into account the dominant winds of the geographic area; and the urban network, to promote connectivity between routes of different hierarchies, to a human scale, reducing distances and travel times in order to facilitate the movement and commuting on foot and bike lanes. In category 2, Land use and Infrastructure, it is
assessed how the urban spaces are defined in conformity with the natural land aptitudes, promoting land use efficiency. There is also a promotion of flexibility of uses of the different areas, as well as an incentive to reuse and rehabilitate or regenerate pre-existing urban areas such as abandoned urban centres. The objective is to avoid urban expansion or urban sprawl that has many impacts such as the construction of long networks of technical infrastructures, which encompasses high environmental impacts. Category 3 is related to Ecology and Biodiversity. The assessment of this category covers the management of green spaces, promoting the protection and increase in local biodiversity by rewarding varied distribution of green spaces within the urban fabric and designing of urban green spaces network articulated with ecological corridors. It is also promoted the selection of indigenous species for plants and vegetation in these green spaces, as well as the development of an environmental management plan. The energy related indicators are aggregated in category 4 "Energy". The main aspects of the assessment methods are related to the implementation of measures that improve energy efficiency of the public energy consuming equipments and of systems that produce energy from renewable sources. It is also promoted the central management and monitoring of energy consumption in order to identify problems in time and to disclose consumption data so that decision making and problem solving are made based in knowledge of inhabitants and enabling attitude changing by the population. In category 5, all the aspects related to water are evaluated. The maim aspects in consideration are the assessment of drinking water consumption and the treatment of wastewater, while there is also promoted the central management of water. The objective is to reduce the water consumption in public spaces through the use of efficient equipments. This will reduce the production of wastewater and reduce the pressure on the drainage systems. Local treatment of effluents will also be promoted, as well as the implementation of a monitoring system. The indicators related to the materials' life cycle are included in category 6 "Materials and wastes". In this category it is accessed the responsible selection of sustainable materials and the destiny of construction and demolition wastes, as well as the management of urban solid wastes. It is promoted the selection of materials with lower life cycle environmental impacts and the reuse and recycling of RCD's, as well as the selective separation of urban wastes. The objective is to lower the landfill of residue and to reduce the need for the extraction of raw materials. Category 7, in the social dimension, is related to the health and comfort of inhabitants regarding the air quality, thermal, acoustic and visual comfort. In this category it is promoted the reduction of pollutants and odours in the public spaces (including the use of transportation using alternative fuels), the reduction of the heat island effect and the application of rain protection systems, the reduction of exterior noise and the reduction of glare and nocturnal light pollution. The safety of inhabitants is addressed in category 8, where it is assessed the pedestrian safety and crime prevention through urban design, by promoting and providing the correct distribution and orientation of streets as well as adequate nocturnal illumination levels and the safety against natural or technological disasters. In category 9: "Amenities", it is accessed the proximity between the residential areas and working places to key amenities (basic necessity goods), as well as for entertainment equipments. The assessment is related to the promotion of the reduction of travel distances and consequently travelling times, contributing to the easy access of inhabitants to services. It is also promoted the creation of public spaces dedicated to the production of organic food, such as community gardens. The mobility scheme is also assessed in this methodology, in category 10 "Mobility". This category assesses the promotion of public transport and thus the reduction of the need for the use of private vehicles. With this objective, it is also promoted the creation of a pedestrian network and cycling networks that not only increases inhabitants' satisfaction but are also good for the environment. Category 11 addresses the issues related to the cultural identity of the urban spaces. In this category it is promoted the maintenance of key identified architectural styles in existing heritage locations, as well as the improvement of the use and stimulation of these public spaces. It is also promoted the existence of housing affordable to a wide spectrum of social classes (also age, religion, race, genre...) and the civil participation in public affairs.
The economic dimension is assessed in category 12 "Employment Promotion and Investment". Aspects such as the economic viability of constructions, including the analysis of life cycle costs, the promotion of the local economy and the creation of local opportunities for employment and professional education are assessed in this category. Additionally, another two indicators are assessed in the methodology in an extra category. This category was created in order to promote some measures that are good to the sustainability of urban areas but that are more difficult to implement. To achieve a good grade in these indicators will improve the sustainability rate of the urban area. The first indicators in this category is "Sustainable Buildings" and its goal is to promote the buildings sustainability through the implementation of sustainable building assessment tools. With the "Information and Communication Technologies" it is intended to promote the integrated management of the functional aspects of the city in order to facilitate the urban functions and to improve the quality of life in cities. 2.4 Assessing intervention strategies with or without Sustainability Indicators: the case of [email protected] Cities have been suffering shape influences from urban planning throughout their history. Although the sustainability assessment tools are more in "vogue" nowadays, this fact does not mean that social, environmental and economic concerns constitute something new on urban strategies of today. As an example, in the urban plan of Cerdб for Barcelona, developed in the nineteenth century, concerns related with coordinating spatial and physical aspects with functional, sociological, economical and administrative were considered, treating the city as a complex and integrator organism of several systems (Lamas, 1993). Such concerns allowed a quick upgrade of Barcelona urban areas. Looking to the Project [email protected], perfectly integrated on urban fabric planned by Ildefons Cerdб, it can be easily seen that Cerdб, without the application of sustainability assessment tools, was capable to support in a very flexible way the successive territory updates. This project arises from the need of a reconversion of Poblenou area of Barcelona (Sales, 2008). It seeks to meet the needs of economic and social dynamics on Poblenou creating a compact and miscellaneous environment. It contemplates for a high quality urban model, mixed, eco-efficient and considerably more economically influent, reflected on productive activities with neighbourhood lifestyle. The development also provides a variety of social opportunities for local inhabitants, while providing new professional opportunities. Nevertheless, it is also important to emphasize that transport network, its infrastructure and public space links the neighbourhood and the district to city centre in a short path. Sustainability on built spaces is not only affected by thinking on the immediate consequences, it is necessary to explore long-term solutions and it is also needed that these solutions are reliable to be implemented without affecting the life of future generations. Although the [email protected] project has not been subjected to a sustainability assessment, some of the measures implemented in it, can be analysed by the nowadays sustainability assessment tools, such as public transportation systems or public spaces diversity. 2.5 Urban and city scale as the path to approach sustainability Besides [email protected], there are numerous cities around the world, mainly in northern Europe, that are implementing urban regeneration plans taking into consideration sustainability measures. A common example is the city of Stockholm in Sweden, which was considered by the European Commission as the first European green city (EC, 2010). Some measures implemented by Stockholm are: 95% of the population lives less than 300 metres from green areas and from public transport with an hourly or more frequent service; all trains and inner city buses run on renewable fuels; the greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 25 % since 1990 and the city has the target of becoming totally fossil fuels free by 2050; 68% of all trips within the city centre are made on foot or by bicycle and 78% of all trips to the inner city are made by public transport; 40% of the Stockholm cars are clean vehicles.
Other European cities have been implementing some sustainable measures. Hamburg in Germany has set the goal of reduce its CO2 emissions to 40% by 2020 and to 80% in 2050. Hamburg citizens also have access to optimal public transport within 300 meters of their location. Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Spanish Basque Country has a high proportion of green public areas, ensuring, like Stockholm, that all citizens live within 300m of an open green space. Vitoria-Gasteiz has implemented measures in order to reduce the water consumption with the goal of reduce this consumption to below 100 litres per capita per day. In France, Nantes has 60% of the urban area occupied with agricultural, natural and green areas. Their inhabitants also live very close to public transportation facilities and to green areas. Copenhagen, in Denmark, performed notable efforts regarding the use of bicycles by their citizens and it is considered the world's best city for cyclists. The goal of this city is to have 50% of people cycling to their place of work or education by 2015. This value was already 35% in 2010. With these measures, Copenhagen aims to be CO2 neutral by 2025. Another goal of Copenhagen is to achieve 90% of organic food consumption. In England, the city of Bristol has committed a budget of 500 M for transport improvements by 2015 and up to 300 M for energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2020. Bristol is also making a great investment in a green economy. The target is to create 17,000 new jobs in creative, digital and low carbon sectors by 2030. Additionally, other examples of cities that are recognized as sustainable, since they adopted or are currently implementing sustainability principles are, among others, Gothenburg and Hammarby in Sweden, Leicester Middlesbrough in England, Rotterdam in The Netherlands, Ballerup and Frederikshavn in Finland, Oslo in Norway and Frankfurt, Friburg and Kronsberg in Germany (EC, 2013). The study of the regeneration plans of these cities often include the production of renewable energy, energy and water saving solutions, traffic reduction strategies such as promotion of public transport, cycling promotion and green areas, as well as other measures that increase the life quality of inhabitants, while reducing the environmental burden. It is also possible to verify that there are many similarities between these measures and those that are addressed in the new generation of sustainability assessment tools. Consequently, a comparative study was made to verify how the measures that were applied in these cities are similar to the indicators that are normally considered in those tools (Table 2).
Table 2. Examples of urban sustainability measures taken into account in some European cities.
Stockholm Hamburg Vitoria-Gasteiz Nantes Copenhagen Bristol
Public transportation system

Sustainable mobility

Energy efficient mobility

Local amenities

Green areas

Biodiversity promotion

Management of urban solid waste

Waste-water treatment

Minimization of energy demand

Greenhouse gases

Renewable energy

Energy centralized management

Land use efficiency

Reuse of urban areas

Thermal quality

Acoustic quality

Air quality

Water quality

Water consumption reduction

Night-time lightning pollution

Efficient telecommunication system

Local food production

Organic food consumption

Environmental awareness

Environmental management Population engagement Investment Catchment Local employment

This study concluded that the measures that are currently being implemented in sustainable cities are very coincident to the indicators that are assessed in sustainability assessment tools. In Table 2 it is shown that in 28 selected indicators, 61% of the city measures can be correlated with these sustainability indicators. This means that the regeneration plans of these cities could be assessed by sustainability assessment tools, which could guide even further these plans in the achievement of even higher goals. Nevertheless, it is not mentioned that these urban regeneration plans had been subject to any sustainability assessment, despite the fact that the sustainability principles used in those cities are the same that are assessed in sustainability indicators. Instead, the cities often limit the focus of such intervention plans on the achievement of some target values. These public and semi-private initiatives to increase sustainability levels at a broader scale, when compared to building sustainability, clearly indicate that the current trend in sustainability implementation is related to the urban and to the city scale. Sustainability assessment tools must consequently adapt to this new and emergent reality. While there are some tools available in the market that already assess sustainability in urban areas, SBTool international, as well as SBTool PT (Portugal) are examples of sustainability assessment tools that are being developed to include these principles, confirming this emergent trend. The above mentioned cities implemented some sustainability measures that are addressed by some sustainability assessment tools, even as no tool was used in the development of their regeneration plans. However, these tools are very important in order to have a much clear idea about how to address sustainability and can boost the current results by indicating how well some measures are being implemented. The technical design teams and in many cases politicians can be aware of some measures that can improve the urban planning quality, but the use of the new generation assessment tools will allow to improve sustainability of the built environment and to evaluate the performance of each measure in comparison to performance benchmarks in order to understand if there is still space for improvement, while allowing the selection of the best solutions.
3. CONCLUSIONS Sustainability principles can and are leading some cities towards sustainability, despite the fact that the majority of cities' regeneration plans are not subject to sustainability assessments. This indicates that urban sustainability tools can be improved by being transformed in sustainability guides for the improvement of cities or urban areas, while providing at the same time assessment methods that allow the comparison and consequent selection of the best sustainable solutions. This conceptual change in sustainability assessment tools (from building to urban and from assessment focus to best practice manual/guiding focus) allow not only boosting their application but would also improve the sustainability of the built environment, guiding and helping designers, engineers, architects and politicians to develop urban regeneration plans, defining sustainability principles/indicators that should be addressed and allowing the comparison of different measures.
REFERENCES Assefa, G., Glaumann, M., Malmqvist, T. & Eriksson, O., 2010. "Quality versus impact: Comparing the environmental efficiency of building properties using the EcoEffect tool." Building and Environment, 45(5), pp. 1095-1103. Braganзa, L., Mateus, R. & Koukkari, H., 2010. "Building Sustainability Assessment". Sustainability, 2010, 2(7), 2010-2023; DOI:10.3390/su2072010.
BREEAM, 2013. BREEAM - The world's leading design and assessment method for sustainable buildings [Online]. Available at: Accessed June 2013. BRE, 2012. BREEAM Communities Technical Manual. CASBEE, 2013. CASBEE - Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency [Online]. Available at: Accessed June 2013. Corduente, A.L., "El proyecto [email protected], Un programa de trasformaciуn urbana, econуmica y social" available online at: a.pdf checked on 10-05-2012 EarthCraft, 2013. The EarthCraft Communities Program [Online]. Available at: Accessed June 2013. EC, 2010. Green Cities Fit for Life [Online]. European Commission. Available: EC, 2013. Environment: European Green Capital [Online]. European Commission. Available: 2013]. GBC Australia, 2013. Green Star  Communities [Online]. Available at: Accessed June 2013. Haapio, A., 2012. "Towards sustainable urban communities." Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 32(1), pp. 165-169. Haapio, A. & Viitaniemi, P., 2008. "A critical review of building environmental assessment tools." Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 28(7), pp. 469482. iiSBE, 2013a. iiSBE  International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment, SB Method and SBTool [Online]. Available at: Accessed June 2013. iiSBE, 2013b. International Initiative for a Sustainable Built Environment: Working Groups [Online]. iiSBE. Available: Accessed June 2013. Khanna, P., 2010. "Beyond City Limits." The Global Cities Issue, Foreign Policy. Lamas, J.M.R.G., "Morfologia Urbana e Desenho da Cidade", Fundaзгo Calouste Gulbenkian, 1993, pp. 564. Mateus, R. & Braganзa, L., 2011. "Sustainability assessment and rating of buildings: Developing the methodology SBToolPT-H." Building and Environment, 46(10), pp. 1962-1971, ISSN 03601323, DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2011.04.023. Mateus, R. & Braganзa, L., 2009. SBTool  Ferramenta para a Construзгo Sustentбvel. Guia de Avaliaзгo SBToolPT-H. Ediзхes iiSBE Portugal. 2009. Rosales, N., 2011. "Towards the modeling of sustainability into urban planning: Using indicators to build sustainable cities." Procedia Engineering, 21, pp. 641-647. Sales, M., 2008. "Territуrios de intermediaзгo, Uma hipуtese para a anбlise e o projeto da cidade contemporвnea" Ph.D thesis, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de Sгo Paulo, Sгo Paulo, pp. 297, 2008. Salat, S., Labbe, F. & Nowacki, C., 2011. "Cities and forms - On sustainable urbanism", Edt. Hermann, Paris, ISBN: 9782705681111. Souza, C. L. & Awad, J. M., 2012. "Cidades Sustentбveis, Cidades Inteligentes." Bookman, Sгo Paulo. UN-Habitat, 2006. "State of the world's cities 2006/7." Earthscan, London. USGBC, 2013. LEED [Online]. Available at: Accessed June 2013. US GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL 2012. LEED 2009 for Neighborhood Development Rating System. US Green Building Council.

L Bragança, C Araújo, G Castanheira

File: approaching-sustainability-in-built-environment.pdf
Title: Microsoft Word - SB13_Approaching sustainability in built enviroment V14
Author: L Bragança, C Araújo, G Castanheira
Author: JABarbosa
Published: Tue Feb 23 12:06:29 2016
Pages: 8
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WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Add Extensions

This is where it gets interesting! The CKAN software can be customised with ‘extensions’. These are a simple way to extend core CKAN functions.

Extensions allow you to customise CKAN for your own requirements, without interfering with the basic CKAN system.

This is an advanced topic.

Choosing Extensions

All CKAN extensions are listed on the official Extension listing on the CKAN wiki.

Some popular extensions include:

Those marked with (x) are ‘core’ extensions and are shipped as part of the core CKAN distribution

  • ckanext-stats (x): Statistics (and visuals) about the datasets in a CKAN instance.
  • ckanext-apps: Apps and ideas catalogue extension for CKAN.
  • ckanext-disqus: Allows users to comment on dataset pages with Disqus.
  • ckanext-follower: Allow users to follow datasets.
  • ckanext-googleanalytics: Integrates Google Analytics data into CKAN. Gives download stats on dataset pages, list * of most popular datasets, etc.
  • ckanext-qa: Provides link checker, 5 stars of openness and other Quality Assurance features.
  • ckanext-rdf: Consolidated handling of RDF export and import for CKAN.
  • ckanext-wordpresser: CKAN plugin / WSGI middleware for combining CKAN with a Wordpress site.
  • ckanext-spatial: Adds geospatial capabilities to CKAN datasets, including a spatial search API.

Installing an Extension

You can install an extension on a CKAN instance as follows.

‘Core’ extensions do not need to be installed – just enabled (see below).

  1. Locate your CKAN virtual environment (pyenv) in your filesystem. It is usually in a directory similar to this: /var/lib/ckan/INSTANCE_NAME/pyenv

If it is not here, to get the definitive answer, check your CKAN Apache configuration (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled) for your WSGIScriptAlias (e.g. /var/lib/ckan/colorado/ which has an execfile instruction. The first parameter is the pyenv directory plus /bin/ e.g. /var/lib/ckan/colorado/pyenv/bin/ means the pyenv dir is: /var/lib/ckan/colorado/pyenv.

  1. Install the extension package code into your pyenv using pip.

For example, to install the Disqus extension, which allows users to comment on datasets (replacing “INSTANCE_NAME” with the name of your CKAN instance):

sudo -u ckanINSTANCE_NAME /var/lib/ckan/INSTANCE_NAME/pyenv/bin/pip install -E /var/lib/ckan/INSTANCE_NAME/pyenv -e git+ --log=/tmp/pip-log.txt

Prefix the source URL with the repo type (hg+ for Mercurial, git+ for Git).

The dependency you’ve installed will appear in the src/ directory under your Python environment.

Now the extension is installed, so now you can enable it.

Enabling an Extension

  1. Add the names of the extension’s plugins to the CKAN config file in the ‘[app:main]’ section under ‘ckan.plugins’. e.g.:

    ckan.plugins = disqus

    If your extension implements multiple different plugin interfaces, separate them with spaces:

    ckan.plugins = disqus amqp myplugin

    Finding out the name of an extension’s plugins: this information should usually be provided in the extension’s documentation, but you can also find this information in the plugin’s file under [ckan.plugins].

  2. To have this configuration change take effect it may be necessary to restart WSGI, which usually means restarting Apache:

    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Your extension should now be enabled. You can disable it at any time by removing it from the list of ckan.plugins in the config file.

Enabling an Extension with Background Tasks

Some extensions need to run tasks in the background. See Background Tasks for how to enable background tasks.


text:
Groups and projects are synonymous terms. Your {GROUP-ID} is the same as your project id. For existing groups, your group/project id remains the same. This page uses the more familiar term group when referring to descriptions. The endpoint remains as stated in the document.

Name Description
Hosts Retrieves and edits the MongoDB processes in your deployment.
Disks Retrieves the disks and disk partitions on which MongoDB runs. Available only on Automated deployments.
Databases Retrieves a host’s MongoDB databases.
Clusters Retrieves and edits the deployment’s replica sets and sharded clusters.
←   Root Hosts  →


text:
We have 25 Bernese Mountain Dog Pictures:

Switch Breeds:

Bernese Mountain Dog Appearance

The Bernese Mountain Dog, sometimes called a “Berner,” is a large breed. They weigh between 75 and 100 pounds and can be as tall as 27 inches. Their coat is tricolored. They are primarily black, with rust coloring around their mouth, legs, and above their eyes, and white on their paws and chest. They have a thick double coat, shed frequently, and require frequent brushing.

Bernese Mountain Dog Temperament

Bernese Mountain Dogs are good natured and confident, neither particularly aggressive or too shy. They are patient around children and very affectionate towards their family. Owners should be prepared to give this bulky dog plenty of space to move around in. However, while they can show high levels of energy, it's usually short lived: Berners have famously low stamina.

Bernese Mountain Dog Fun Fact

Bernese Mountain Dogs are gentle, but also intensely strong, able to haul up to 1000 pounds. In their native Switzerland, they are attached to small carts and used to haul cheese.

Search our database for Bernese Mountain Dog puppies and Bernese Mountain Dog breeders!


text:
ABSTRACT WATCH: Lactation and Incidence of Diabetes After GDM

Original Research

Lactation and Incidence of Diabetes After GDM

Erica P. Gunderson, PhD, MPH, MS, RD; Shanta R. Hurston, MPA; Xian Ning, MS; Joan C. Lo, MD; Yvonne Crites, MD; David Walton, MD; Kathryn G. Dewey, PhD; Robert A. Azevedo, MD; Stephen Young, MD; Gary Fox, MD; Cathie C. Elmasian, MD; Nora Salvador, MD; Michael Lum, MD; Barbara Sternfeld, PhD; Charles P. Quesenberry, Jr., PhD;

Ann Intern Med. 15 December 2015,163(12):889-898

Background: Lactation improves glucose metabolism, but its role in preventing type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) after gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) remains uncertain.

Objective: To evaluate lactation and the 2-year incidence of DM after GDM pregnancy.

Design: Prospective, observational cohort of women with recent GDM. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01967030)

Setting: Integrated health care system.

Participants: 1035 women diagnosed with GDM who delivered singletons at 35 weeks’ gestation or later and enrolled in the Study of Women, Infant Feeding and Type 2 Diabetes After GDM Pregnancy from 2008 to 2011.

Measurements: Three in-person research examinations from 6 to 9 weeks after delivery (baseline) and annual follow-up for 2 years that included 2-hour, 75-g oral glucose tolerance testing; anthropometry; and interviews. Multivariable Weibull regression models evaluated independent associations of lactation measures with incident DM adjusted for potential confounders.

Results: Of 1010 women without diabetes at baseline, 959 (95%) were evaluated up to 2 years later; 113 (11.8%) developed incident DM. There were graded inverse associations for lactation intensity at baseline with incident DM and adjusted hazard ratios of 0.64, 0.54, and 0.46 for mostly formula or mixed/inconsistent, mostly lactation, and exclusive lactation versus exclusive formula feeding, respectively (P trend = 0.016). Time-dependent lactation duration showed graded inverse associations with incident DM and adjusted hazard ratios of 0.55, 0.50, and 0.43 for greater than 2 to 5 months, greater than 5 to 10 months, and greater than 10 months, respectively, versus 0 to 2 months (P trend = 0.007). Weight change slightly attenuated hazard ratios.

Limitation: Randomized design is not feasible or desirable for clinical studies of lactation.

Conclusion: Higher lactation intensity and longer duration were independently associated with lower 2-year incidences of DM after GDM pregnancy. Lactation may prevent DM after GDM delivery.

Primary Funding Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

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