The VonFrederick     

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November 2006 Volume 3 Issue 11

  Feature Article:

Violence in Iraq, again: A summary for you to understand what is happening there.

Eric Chevreuil, Retired Captain, French Military, The VonFrederick Group

Shiites are killing Shiites; Shiites are also killing Sunnis; Shiites are killing Shiites that kill Sunnis; Shiites are killing Kurds, and Shiites are killing Shiites that kill Kurds. Eventually, Shiites are also killing allied soldiers and killing Shiites that kill allied soldiers. Furthermore, Sunnis are killing Shiites and Shiites that kill Shiites, on top of slaughtering Shiites that kill Kurds and Shiites that kill Shiites that kill Kurds. Eventually, Sunnis are also killing allied soldiers and killing Sunnis that kill allied soldiers. To top it up, Sunni and Shiite suicide bombers are blowing up regular Iraqis. Police forces affiliated to sectarian groups are also in a rampage, when they are not targeted by the “Death squads” of the other groups. Finally, foreign fighters are killing the murderous Shiites and Sunnis for their not forwarding the cause of Islam against the crusaders. 

To make it simpler, Iran is financing the needs of both the Shiites and the Shiites that kill the Shiites, hoping that they will eventually stop fighting each other and will start killing Sunnis. Meanwhile, some crazy clerics, in the name of their own variation of the Muslim faith, are calling for the destruction of the other sects in a bloody race for survival and ultimate power. Caught in the middle of this killing frenzy, allied forces are trying to stabilize a shaky government and impose Democracy on the blood thirsty killers. Now you understand why dictatorship worked in Iraq!

I don’t want to sound like I am bashing the religion described by Iranian President Ahmadinejad as “a peaceful, beautiful and complete religion” but I am fascinated by the obvious contradiction between what we hear and what we see and would love some answers. A local Imam, in Sacramento, claimed that October, the month of Ramadan, was “the month of charity, worship, humility and forgiveness for all Muslims around the globe”, a time “to focus inwardly”. Since then, sectarian violence has increased 43%!

In 1991, in the Middle of the Sahara, South of Libya, after firing a few round of Kalashnikov and after the sunset prayer, my local Muslim guide –and friend- told me that there was only one God and many ways to adore him. Why so much wisdom…and so much violence? 

Churchill once said that America always end up doing the right thing….after trying everything else. What would the right thing be?

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COULD OUR GENES PREDISPOSE US TO VIOLENCE?

Dr. Lionel C.M. von Frederick Rawlins, President & CEO, The VonFrederick Group

It’s tempting to make excuses for violence. The robber came from a broken home and was trying to lift himself out of poverty. The wife beater was himself abused as a child. The juvenile murderer was exposed to 50 cents’ music and Friday the 13th movies. But do environmental factors wholly account for the seven-year old child who tortures cats? The teenager who knifes a teacher? The employee who slaughters workmates with an AK-47? Can society’s ills really be responsible for all the savagery that is sweeping America and the Caribbean? Or could some people be predisposed to violence by their genes? As a forensic scientist, I have extensive knowledge on genes and know how they operate. Scientists tend to support nature (genes) as the root of violence. As a criminologist, I also have extensive knowledge on the behavioral side and how the criminal mind operates. Many in this school of thought believe in nurture (environmental) to be the root. Hence my conflicting dilemma. 

Until recently, scientist had no good way to explore such questions posed above – and little incentive: the issue was seen as so politically inflammatory that it was best left alone. But advances in genetics and biochemistry have given researchers new tools to search for biological clues to criminality. Though answers remain a short way off, advocates of the work believe science could help shed light on the roots of violence and offer new solutions for society.

But not if the research is suppressed. Investigators of the link between biology and crime find themselves caught in one of the bitterest controversies to hit the scientific community in years. The subject has become so politically incorrect that even raising it requires more bravery than many scientists can muster. Critics from the social sciences have denounced biological research efforts as intellectually unjustified and politically motivated. African American scholars and politicians are particularly incensed; they fear that because of the high crime rates in inner cities, blacks will be wrongly branded as a group programmed for violence. 

Some of the distrust is understandable, given the tawdry history of earlier efforts to link biology with crime. A century ago, Italian physician Cesare Lombroso claimed that large sloping foreheads, jutting chins, flaring nostrils and big lips were signs of born criminals. In the 1960s, scientists advanced the now discounted notion that men who carry an XXY chromosome pattern, rather than the normal XY pattern, were predisposed to becoming violent criminals. 

There are factors in American society and some parts of the Caribbean – such as the availability of guns, economic inequity and a violence saturated culture – that are not rooted in human biology. Nevertheless, a susceptibility to violence might partly be genetic. Errant genes play a role in many behavioral disorders, including schizophrenia and manic depression. In virtually every behavior, genes have an influence – one person will behave one way; another person will behave another way. It stands to reason that genes might contribute to violent activity.

Some studies (University of Colorado’s Institute for Behavioral Genetics) of identical twins who have been reared apart suggest that when one twin has a criminal conviction, the other twin is more likely to have committed a crime than is the case with fraternal twins. Other research with adopted children indicates that those whose biological parents broke the law are more likely to become criminals than are adoptees whose natural parents were law-abiding. No one believes there is a single “criminal gene” that programs people to rape, maim, or murder. Rather, a person’s genetic makeup may give a subtle nudge toward violent actions. For one thing, genes help control production of behavior-regulating chemicals such as the neurotransmitter, serotonin.

Some critics see the current interest in heredity as part of an ugly political trend. Even staunch believers in heredity’s influence do not discount the environmental influence. In fact, the two are intimately entwined, and separating cause and effect is not easy. Biology may affect behavior, but behavior and experience also influence biology. Serotonin levels, for example, are not only controlled by genes but, according to research in monkeys, they can be lowered by regular exposure to alcohol. By the same token, a child with a fearless personality may turn into a serial violent criminal if reared in a chaotic home, but given a stable upbringing, he could well become CEO of a Fortune 500, a test pilot, an entrepreneur, a nation’s Prime Minister or President, or even the next Bill Gates.

No one thinks that discovering the roots of violence will be that simple, or become the next panacea. There may be as many causes as there are crimes. The issue is whether to explore all possibilities – to search for clues in both society and biology. What say you?

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I remember as a budding college student in Dr. Lionel von Frederick Rawlins’ bio-chemistry class [yes, he taught me in college], the wife of one of my fellow students came into the lab and began to pummel her husband with a rock. Bleeding and almost unconscious, he could not protect or defend himself yet, when it was over, he was arrested for the simple fact that he was a male and perhaps provoked the female to such actions. Once again, the myth of the evil, brutal male perpetrator and the perfect innocent female victim is being broadcast and written about as gospel. The discussion is national. The rage and sorrow, palpable. Only when we come to terms with the fact that domestic violence is the responsibility of both men and women, however, can we put a stop to this horrible nightmare.
Domestic violence is not an either-or-phenomenon. It is not either the man’s fault or the woman’s. It is a both-and- problem. Both the male and female are bound in their dance of mutual destructiveness; their incapacity for intimacy and appreciation of differences. They need each other to perpetuate personal and collective dramas of victimization and lovelessness, and so, regrettably, neither can leave.

This is a very untidy idea for people who have grown up with movies in which the “good guy” triumphs over the “bad guy” and rescues the damsel from distress. But to tackle the plague of domestic violence, we must alter our perspective. Facts:
Forty-one percent of spousal murders are committed by wives (U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004). Women and men were physically abusing one another in roughly equally numbers. Wives reported that they more often were the aggressors, using weapons to make up for the physical disadvantage (National Family Violence Survey, 2002). While 1.8 million women annually suffered one or more assaults from a husband or boyfriend, 2 million men were assaulted by a wife or girlfriend (Journal of Marriage and Family, 1996). The study also found that 54% of all violence termed “severe” was by women. Among teenagers who date, girls were violent more frequently than boys (Journal for the National Association of Social Workers, 2000). Mothers abuse their children at a rate approaching twice that of fathers, according to the Children’s Rights Commission. Because men have been taught to “take it like a man” and are ridiculed when they reveal they have been battered by women, women are nine times more likely to report their abusers to authorities.

Women initiate and carry out physical assaults on their partners as often as men. Despite the much lower probability of physical injury resulting from attacks by women, assaults by women are a serious social problem, just as it would be if men “only slapped” their wives or “only slapped” female fellow employees and produced no injury. One of the main reasons “minor assaults” by women are such an important problem is that they put women in danger of much more severe retaliation by men. They also help perpetuate the implicit cultural norms that make the marriage license a “hitting license”. To end “wife beating,” it is essential for women also to end the seemingly “harmless” pattern of slapping, kicking, or throwing things at male partners who persist in some outrageous behavior and “won’t listen to reason.”

Why does our culture refuse to hold women as well as men accountable for their participation in domestic violence? Some laws have been passed that allow both male and female to be arrested but societal perception still reigns. All of such women’s behavior, whether perpetrator or victim, is understood and passed off as the byproduct of socialization or poor economic status. On the other hand, men are held fully accountable for all their behavior – despite the tough-guy stereotype all boys are encouraged to embody and the abuse many bear as a “normal and loving” part of their upbringing. 

Some will argue that women fall into “spousal abuse syndrome,” in which female passivity is explained as the result of the male brainwashing the female into believing that she is the cause of his violence. Consequently, she is powerless to alter the situation. But the truth is that most females receive some form of the following lesson: “You must cater to a man’s ego,” “You are nothing without a man,” and “It’s just as easy to love a rich man.”

Girls often acquire this garbage from insecure mothers who believe that they are doing what is best for their daughters. If women are not expected to think and act for themselves, if their self-esteem is in shambles and their dependency is characterized as “feminine,” the fault cannot be laid at the feet of men.

The women’s movement claims its goal to be equal rights for women. If that is so, then women must share the responsibility for their behavior and their contributions to domestic violence. Otherwise, we remain in a distortion that overshadows the truth. Only the truth will show us the way out of this epidemic of violence that is destroying our families and our world.

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A wise sage once said you can know a tree by its fruits; but how would the sage identify what a terror proof financial portfolio would look like?

The likelihood of a tragedy greater than 9/11 occurring in the future is almost guaranteed. Perpetual hatred for Americans by terrorists insures the next wave of destruction will be greater as wisdom and technology emerges. Terrorist groups have embedded the values and beliefs of hatred in their children towards United States citizens; and the next generation of terrorist will be the fiercest seen to date in history. The youth of our country are attending universities to bring value to society, while our counterparts are educating their youth at the age of 7 in terrorism youth training camps. We can’t ignore 1,300 years of historic rage, and continue to practice financial mediocrity for long-term protection. 

Investors typically change their financial portfolios directly after times of turmoil, which is counterproductive in most cases. The most common event is exiting the equities market to purchase debt instruments such as “A” rated corporate or municipal bonds for safety. Some short the equities market and others withdraw completely from the market and stash their cash under the proverbial bed as was practiced after the 1920’s stock market crash. 

Determining the effects of the economy in a crisis situation is a difficult process if not impossible. A terror proof financial portfolio is created before a catastrophe; not after. Damage comes in many shapes and forms, and the element of surprise is a terrorist's playground. 

The Germans used anthrax in WWI to infect their opponents (covert biological campaign) by infecting draft horses and mules used by their allies. Once again in WWII the Germans dropped potato beetles in England’s agricultural fields, ruining their primary food source. Will our future problems occur with the nations food supply chain, or will the next assault be an infection of salmonella, small pox, cyanide, or chemical and biological contamination? The debt and equities markets are directly affected by any event, and savvy investors realize these factors. 

In a crisis situation, the financial markets will be impacted, and at some point it may be too difficult to get to your finances. The NYSE was closed for 6 days after 9/11 and all trading was halted. Countries that are more conducive to military wartime do not take the same measures, such as Israel, which will not close their respective exchange after acts of terrorism. Monitoring financial conditions and taking some proactive steps through asset diversification can reduce the threat of these unpleasant realities. 

A balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, and cash should be maintained at all times.

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Submitting to the Fatigue of War Equals Defeat

 George A. Torres, MBA, Law Enforcement Specialist, The VonFrederick Group

It has been five years since Islamic Fundamental Fascist attacked U.S. soil on 9/11 and murdered 3,000 innocent people. Americans have not suffered another attack at the hands of Islamic terrorist on American soil. The short term memory of affluent American’s is troublesome. It seems too many have forgotten the horrible scene of their fellow citizens jumping to their deaths from the World Trade Center towers.

While Americans tire of war, liberals attempt to manipulate this fatigue for their political gain. They use the “same old method” of advocating surrender with the help of the liberal media that saturates the American public with messages that America is losing the war, can not win the peace and must withdraw the troops. 

The following is excerpts of an article about troops returning from the war. “The lieutenant comes out with his conclusion: “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” You hear these two phrases again and again…The troops returning home are worried. “We’ve lost the peace,” men tell you. “We can’t make it stick.”… A tour of the beaten-up cities… six months after victory is a mighty sobering experience for anyone… Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American. They cite the evolution of the word “liberation.”… You try to explain… that they expected too much. They answer that they had a right to… America was the hope… Never has American prestige… been lower. People never tire of telling you of the ignorance… of American troops. They say that the theft and sale of Army supplies by our troops is the basis of their black market. They blame us for the corruption and disorganization… They blame us for the fumbling timidity of our negotiations… They tell us that our… policy… is producing results opposite to those we planned.”

The exclusions in this article are the references to Europe. You see this is an article titled “Americans Are Losing the Victory in Europe” published in LIFE Magazine, January 7, 1946. The liberal democrats of today are the same defeatist of yesteryear. They have not changed. 

Fatigue with war is especially characteristic of a democratic nation and a free people and tiring of war is not unique to today’s generation of Americans. A review of our history would bare this out. General Washington had to overcome war fatigue of the colonist during the American Revolution. President Polk had to deal with war fatigue during the war with Mexico, which caused the war to become politicized and unpopular. President Lincoln was confronted with war weary Northerners during the War Between the States. Presidents Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon suffered the same dilemmas. 

The fatigue suffered by the American people in the war on terror is compounded by a new kind of enemy with new strategies and tactics. Some factors, like the fewer number of troops involved and the fewer number of casualties suffered; cause less of a strain than in previous wars. However, the asymmetric strategies that causes increases the duration of the struggle cause more of a strain. But, conceding is perilous.

History has illustrated that appeasement and negotiation equals defeat. In 1864 the appeasers called themselves “Peace Democrats” and ran against President Lincoln on the “Chicago Platform”, which abandoned the struggle and “compromised with the South”. Can you imagine what America would look like today had the democrats won?

Like their “Peace Democrat” ancestors, today’s liberals legitimize and elevate the enemy. Compare an 1864 democrat poster showing the union soldier weaker than the confederate soldier, the “useless war” on the tomb, the upside down flag and the grieving widow with the rhetoric uttered by the liberal politicians and liberal media.

Today’s liberal democrats are as dangerous to the survival of America as were the democrats of 1864 and pacifist advocating appeasement with Hitler in 1938. Today’s liberal democrats are delusional if they think they can negotiate a peace with Islamic Fascist. If America is to survive the onslaught by this determined enemy, the people must be strong and willing to endure the fatigue of war. Tiring of war is tolerable but submitting to the fatigue would be devastating.

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Did You Know? Michelle Glisan Blevins       

• That aside from the WWII Italian occupation from 1936 to 1941, Ethiopia has maintained self rule while the rest of the continent succumbed to colonial rule- making Ethiopia the oldest country in Africa

• That the life expectancy in Ethiopia is just under 50 years of age

• That Rastafari movement (which began in 1930s Haiti) considers Ras Taffari Makkonen, the former Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, the messiah

• That some believe the biblical Ark of the Covenant is stored within a chapel at Saint Mary of Zion church in Axum, Ethiopia

• That even though the country is plagued by frequent droughts, they have an agricultural based economy with coffee being their primary export
  

The Ethiopian flag has three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands; and the three main colors of her flag were so often adopted by other African countries upon independence that they became known as the pan-African colors

AMELIA EARHART

Amelia Mary Earhart

July 27, 1897 to (went missing on) July 2, 1937

Born on her grandparent’s farm in Kansas, this tomboy- who at the age of ten saw her first airplane and described it as “…a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting”- went on to become a world famous aviator. In 1917 she trained as a nurse’s aid and worked as a nurse in a military hospital. Later Amelia attended Columbia University to study pre-med, only to leave one year later to be with family- shortly after this she took her first flight and decided to become a pilot. In 1925 Amelia found work as a social worker, though she continued to fly and promote flying. She frequently wrote articles for Cosmopolitan magazine and other publications, wrote two books (a third credited to her was published after she disappeared), spoke publicly, and in 1935 she became a counselor on careers for women at Purdue University..

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How To Survive A High-Rise Hotel Fire

Always treat a hotel fire alarm seriously, and exit following hotel procedure. If the fire is nearby, use the following procedure.

1. Feel your hotel room doorknob with the back of your hand.
   If the doorknob is hot to the touch, go to step 2 and then skip to step 5. If it is not hot follow the steps in order

2. Partially fill the bathtub with cold water 
   Soak towels, washcloths, bedsheets, and blankets in the water. If the water is off, use water from the toilet tank. Put a wet washcloth over your mouth and nose and a wet sheet or towel over your head.

3.  Open the door.
   Select a way out that is not easily observed. Exits include windows, vents, or even the roof. 

4. If the hallway is smoke-filled, get as low as possible- one to two feet above the floor.
   Make your way to an emergency exit. Never use the elevator.

5.  If the door or doorknob is hot, do not open the door.
   Wedge wet towels in the crack under the door to keep smoke out.

6. Try calling the front desk or rooms on other floors to check on conditions in other areas.

7.  Turn off fans and air conditioners that could draw smoke into the room, and open the window slightly
   If the fire is on a floor below you, smoke may enter the room through the window, so keep the opening narrow. If the fire is not below you, open the window a third or halfway..

8. Make a tent of wet towels and sheets at the window.
   Do not build the tent if smoke is billowing into the room. Hold or attach one side of the towel or sheet to the window and allow the other side to fall behind you, so you are protected from smoke and are breathing outside air. The towels should help to cool the air and make it easier to breathe.

9. Signal rescue personnel with a white towel or a flashlight.
   Wait for rescue.

10. If the air in the room is getting worse, breathing becomes difficult, and no rescue is forthcoming, try to kick through the wall into the adjacent room. 
    Closets are the best locations to try to break through. Sit on the floor of the closet, and knock on the wall until you hear a hollow sound. (Wall studs are normally spaced 16 inches apart.) Use both feet to kick through both surfaces of drywall. You may survive by using this as a breathing hole, or you may need to continue breaching the wall until you can escape into the next room.

11. If you cannon breach the wall, go to a window and look at the outside of the building.
    If the rooms have balconies that are close together, consider climbing to another balcony on the same floor. If there are no neighboring balconies, you can tie bedsheets together and climb to a balcony directly beneath yours. Use square knots (the first step in tying your shoes, done twice) and lower yourself one floor only. Consider this option only as a last resort, and only do it if you are attempting to escape an immediate danger or to reach rescue personnel.

Be Aware

• Ladders on fire trucks usually reach only to the seventh floor of a high-rise building. Consider booking a room below this level.
• Poolside or courtyard rooms are likely to be inaccessible to ladder trucks, even if they are below the seventh floor. Consider staying in a streetside room.
• Upon check-in, make sure the hotel has smoke detectors and fire sprinklers.
• Count the doors between your room and the nearest fire exit. This will help you get out safely if smoke reduces visibility.
• Keep your room key where it can be found in the dark.
• Never jump from a height of more than two floors or you risk death.

(Piven and Borgenicht)

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The VonFrederick Group

Phone: (877) 207-1300
Fax:     (916) 488-7531
Email:

Dr. Lionel C.M. von Frederick Rawlins
Lionel@VonFrederick.com

Dr. Melissa K. Luke
Melissa@VonFrederick.com

George A. Torres, MBA
George@VonFrederick.com

Eric Chevreuil
Eric@VonFrederick.com

Pat McLane
Pat@VonFrederick.com

Albert Globus, MD
Al@VonFrederick.com

General Clifford L. Stanley, Ph.D.
Cliff@VonFrederick.com

Michelle Glisan Blevins
Chelle@VonFrederick.com

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reading at VonFrederick.com

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