Star News Top Stories

January 14, 2010

Writer responds to supervisor’s rebuttal
In the original article pertaining to the veteran’s service officer issue printed in the December 17th issue of The Star News, the article stated that “Seidl said he has conducted his own survey and concluded the veterans service office needs .6 people to run the office.” This was the information I used to create my first vox pox in which I said that “[Seidl] has suggested that Dave’s replacement should only be allowed to devote 60 percent of his or her time to serving veterans. The remainder of this person’s time would be spent as a counselor for the Human Services Department.”
In Seidl’s response to my article he gave more details about the personal survey by stating that “I found [this statistic] several years ago when I conducted a study to determine how the staffing level in our Veterans Service Office compared to other counties. Using the veteran population and staffing level in each of the other counties in the state I found that our veteran population using state averages would authorize us six tenths of one position. Since we have two full-time positions we are confident we have more than adequate staff.” However, according to the initial article, it was also stated that “larger Wisconsin counties also have one CVSO [County Veterans Service Officer], with deputies, who do not have to be veterans.” Given that Taylor County is a medium-sized county (compared to other counties), and that larger counties generally have one full-time officer with multiple deputies, we can conclude that Taylor County should have at least one full-time officer (with potentially one or more deputies). This article also stated that “[Jerry Polus, the Brown County CVSO] said there is no statewide trend for reducing the position to half-time as the new generation of American veterans is filling the ranks as older veterans pass away.”
Furthermore, WI Statute 45.80 specifically states that the “[Veterans Service Officer will] perform the duties prescribed by law, including those duties under pars. (a) to (d), separately and distinctly from any other county department” (my emphasis). It is possible to circumvent this state statute by hiring one person to do two separate part-time jobs, but this is precisely what I have been arguing against from the beginning. Dave Thomas should be replaced by a new, full-time Veterans Service Officer, not by someone who would be treating both this position and the counseling position as part-time jobs (as I asserted with my initial interpretation of Seidl’s personal survey). In doing so we would accomplish two things: first, and more importantly, we would be serving our veterans to our best ability; second, we would be upholding the statute without circumventing it.
Again, I realize budgetary issues are difficult, but the cuts should not be taking place within the veterans’ sector. Furthermore, the counseling issue is important as well, so we should do the best we can for our civilians as well. However, these are two separate issues that should be addressed separately.
--Jeffrey R. Lange, Medford

Worries about fate of America under Obama
Each day as I read the paper I see our great country slipping more and more. Once the giant of the industrial world, it seems we have become a service nation. Rail cars from South Korea, new cars being made in Turkey. Our stimulus money goes to Toyota and the highway patrol rides Hondas.
I am livid to see my tax dollars making foreign companies richer while we Americans go bankrupt, and if not that we all get that these displays of a non-secular kind are attempts to proselytize us while he escapes to Hawaii. This opulence and grandeur are lovely to behold.
The only thing we have that they can’t take from us is faith in ourselves.
— Gerald Gums, Santa Ana, Calif

Peterson says Vox Pop writer’s ideology reflects globalization
Once again Linda Osolkowski is portraying her political opponents as religious and political extremists by attempting to associate their ideology to that of the Taliban, a regime which governed by blurring the line of church and state. She presents the Iraq war as an exhibit of such extremism. Osolkowski’s revisionism is remarkable. She omits that many democrats voted for the war. Of course their decisions were based upon faulty intelligence reports, the same reports republicans were asked to consider. The intelligence was provided by Britain’s Tony Blair, President Bush’s closest friend and ally. Tony Blair and George Bush are both globalists so it is important to examine their actions through the prism of the global lens, i.e., new age politics.
Once the United States was well into the Iraq war, Blair’s message shifted from regime change to advocacy for the Alliance of Civilizations initiative. Blair called for an alliance for global values to straighten out the “clash about civilizations.” His change of opinion was not sudden for he had long held new age views. Blair had undergone a rebirthing ceremony to become “One” with “Mother Earth,” a.k.a., the goddess Gaia. Both Bush and Blair are on record as Universalists, a doctrine, though hostile to Christianity, has been welcomed into many of the apostate churches. The Universalist value of “we all religions worship the same God but follow different paths” is part of the global value system. Today Blair’s faith foundation is housed at Yale University where he teaches Alliance of Civilizations doctrine. The Bush Administration was also a supporter of the Alliance.
As long as there is religious freedom homosexuality and abortion will be debated as moral issues. But for new age politics expression of those views are considered to be an assault against the new civilizations’ “common value system.” Opposition is portrayed as “hateful” ideologies which lead to violent radicalization. This strategy steps beyond the suppression of legitimate debate for UN counter-terrorism measures labeled dissenters as “strategic terrorists.” Everywhere within “the Strategy” one can find these well-defined goals: set aside the separation of church and state; and, through interfaith dialogue, “use religion to combat religion.” The Nazis are known for their attempts at eliminating confessional divides and converging religion.
While Osolkowski’s portrayal of Christians as extremists reflects the New Age political strategy, it might behoove her to examine her support of the goddess cosmology which openly calls for global genocide. A good starting point would be with the most influential organizations in shaping the global spiritual-political landscape. I refer to Lucis Trust, the United Nations’ spiritual foundation, which intricately ties liberation of the goddess to the “doctrine of the coming one.” The coming one—Maitreya—has a mission: unite humanity with the fallen goddess and in the process fulfill all religions’ messianic expectations. Universalism will have served its role as religions are required to converge into “One.” Maitreya’s opposition — the resistant form—must be destroyed. As written in the Great Invocation “Let Light and Love and Power and Death fulfill the purpose of the Coming One.” The process of destruction is what the New Age visionaries say is an integral part of “conscious evolution.”
December was a good month for Lucis Trust initiates. They are proclaiming the star which heralds in Maitreya’s arrival appeared over the Norwegian skies. While the press reported this “star” spiral as a failed Russian missile, Theosophists and Gaia hopefuls insist it was one of several spaceships placed around the world. Perhaps immature Pleiadians (the goddess’ keepers) could not wait for their 2012 cosmic party to razzle and dazzle with their props. Some point out that the timing coincides with the mid-2009 World Invocation Day which called upon Maitreya’s arrival and the ushering in of his 1,000 year Reich (oops, era of peace, light, and love).
Some world leaders point out that 2010 is the first full year of global governance (which Maitreya is supposed to lead). The country that architected the Alliance of Civilizations is to preside over the European Union’s rotational presidency during the first semester. Spain has announced it intends to advance existing clearly-defined objectives: replacement of the world’s existing economic system; strengthen the United Nations; and solidify the Alliance of Civilizations’ power. The envisioned economic system is “earth-centric” and requires those participating to recognize “Mother Earth”—the goddess—as creator.
One might be inclined to dismiss this New Age politic because it is so bizarre. Doing so would be a mistake. The Alliance of Civilizations has been incorporated into NATO military doctrine and some of its aspects can be found in U.S. military doctrine. NATO is scheduled to announce a new strategic concept in 2010. I’ve seen an emblem incorporates the EU and NATO flags, a fragmented U.S. flag, and three sixes (the number of initiation which New Age visionaries have been teaching is a requirement for transcendence).
What the Alliance of Civilizations proposes is fascism in its ugliest form. Osolkowski’s ideology reflects much of the same. One could say she has more in common with Bush and Blair than she could have imagined.
Then perhaps she may be what I refer to as one the nice New Agers—the uninitiated; the hypnotized—who is just coming to the realization of what is involved with conscious evolution.
— Richard Peterson, Medford