Give Disney the Brush; Not Because of a Tragedy, But Because of Old Walt

 “To create a land that would make this dream reality, we pictured ourselves far from civilization, in the remote jungles of Asia and Africa.” WALT DISNEY 

“We knew that Disney was aware that this was a problem, and yet they encourage people to be there,”  Disney Guest in the wake of the horrific death of a toddler at Disney Resort 

To be perfectly fair, Old Walt intended to have guests be awed by mechanical plastic alligators in Anaheim.  Disney today is a very far stretch from Walt's vision - it is a corporate banana republic.

Disney will do everything to keep the horrific death of a baby snatched by one of Florida's ubiquitous alligators - in The Happiest Place on Earth's controlled environments - out of Court.  No signs for alligators?  Why worry.  Disney has plenty of worry and well it should.

I expect the Disney guest, quoted above, will get a threatening call from the suits for " The Happiest Place on Earth - that you can shell out a year's salary for you and the family."

Already there are voices calling for 'examination of parents,' as in the recent Cincinnati Zoo incident when a toddler managed to get into the gorilla exhibit and escaped only because of the quick thinking zoo response team. The magnificent Silverback was killed and the world seemed to want to lynch the parents of the little boy.  Now, Disney ranked the 66th on the Forbes 500  appears to be at DEF CON Six.

Disney's beaches remained closed on Thursday and the company was "conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols," Jacquee Wahler, vice president of Walt Disney World Resort, said in a statement Thursday.
"This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings," she said in the statement.
There was a "no-swimming" sign near the water, but there were no alligator warning signs where the attacked occurred, a Disney spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.

Disney, like McDonald's, is not my cup of tea -flying, steaming, or otherwise.



McDonald's lost any and all appeal for me when it exchanged the winking fat guy, "Speedee" for the predatory child molesting Ronald McDonald. I refused to take my kids to McDonald's ( 1984-Present) and encouraged them to consume products made by Mom & Pop joints in the neighborhood.  Primarily because the corporate culture creeped me out.

Likewise, Disney went south for me during the late 1970's and 1980's when the oily suits replaced lovable Old Walt and anyone else with his DNA. Yet I am widowed Dad who was joyfully married to an artistic woman who loved her Mickey and Minnie. The Dude abides.

My kids loved Disney!  What little kids do not?  I have probably the most comprehensive and thoroughly useless VHS collection of the Disney Canon from Steamboat Willie to Lilo and Stitch. We even went to Orlando on two occasions.  They sold beer at Epcot. I joined a Universal Brotherhood of Disney Dad's in Tow!

I friended Dad's from France, an Orangeman from Belfast, a Sikh and a Latvian auto dealer.  At Disney Resorts you can hear -

"Maintenant écoute. Rapide les pleurs . Tout le monde doit attendre en ligne . Ce voyage côte votre maman et moi un poumon . Maintenant , éteignez les ouvrages hydrauliques!" French

"Tagad klausīties . Quick raudāšana . Ikvienam ir jāgaida rindā . Šis ceļojums krasts jūsu Mamma un Me plaušu . Tagad , izslēdziet ūdens darbus Latvian

In every tongue!  Translated to - " Now listen. Quit the crying. Everyone must wait in line. This trip cost your Mom and Me a lung. Now, turn off the water works!"

To which, in every tongue, wives would override with " Lighten up! For Once?  Okay?"

I make light of Disney . . .they can take it.

They dish it out aplenty, as well.

I do not make light of the horrific loss of a sweet angel to Melissa and Matt Graves of Nebraska.  My God, there is nothing so horrific as the loss of a child.

My hope is that maybe families will begin to see the World of Wonder dreamed up by the Chicago North Side Irishman, back in the 1950's.  Go to places where America's past is honored. Go to places that give children a sense of wonder - right in their own backyards,  No lines and you won't have to cough up a lung.

My kids seek out great hamburgers, because they know what they are and who makes them.  If they want toys, take them to a toy store; Top Notch throws together some serious burger over on 95th Street.

Disney and McDonalds are business; not family.

Walt said it best, “A man should never neglect his family for business."

The Egyptian Darkness of Progressive Chicago - FOX 32 Chicago's Dane Placko Helps Torch Free Speech

And no power of fire could give them light, neither could the bright flames of the stars enlighten that horrible night. The Book of Wisdom XVII, 5.

"Until FOX 32 started asking questions, he was one of the top officials in the office of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez. He made $153-thousand a year as chief of the office's civil division." Dane Placko Fox32 

My rule of thumb, when considering a news item from Dane Placko of Chicago FOX 32, is a Progressive Democrat wants someone dead - metaphorically, socially, politically, economically, but maybe not physically . . .maybe not.

Dane Placko, I have no doubt, got a call from someone in City, or County government and went to work on a man who has been working in the Cook County States Attorney's Office for sometime and has not yet learned that group thought is a 24 hour, 365 days per year unwritten but certainly fully funded mandate. The man, in the cross hairs of Dan Placko's investigation is named Dan Gallagher.  Mr. Gallagher made a comment on Facebook that was deemed 'inappropriate' because First Lady Obama seemed a bit porcine in the photo - Under a Facebook post about the First Lady meeting Pope Francis, a comment by Daniel F. Gallagher says: "I think Moosechelle was hiding a secret service agent in the seat of her dress."

Someone hissed the comment to Dane Placko, a man given to hack journalism only upon people who can be fired in government, but never on anyone who makes  career of lousing up Chicago, Cook County, or the State of Illinois.  FOX 32 has Placko.  ABC7 has Chuck Goudie. Illinois BGA has Andy Shaw ( formerly of ABC 7) protecting the Progressive Democrat Eunuchs ( Proco Joe/Claypool) and Pharaohs (Daley/Rahm/Preckwinkle) who have destroyed our schools, our neighborhoods and our collective safety.

It seems Mr. Gallagher, obviously a white privileged individual and incapable of being a Group Think victim, holds

• Al Sharpton
• Pastor Pfleger
• Hillary Clinton

in scant regard.  Now, had he limited himself to GW Bush, Tea Party People, the Koch Brothers, or the late Cardinal George for criticism, Mr. Gallagher would be receiving support from an obviously gutless Anita Alvarez and a future pay stub.

As it is, Dane Placko has his scalp.

This is Egypt, not Chicago.  If you do not think what you are told to think ( Ain't Rahm Great?  Obama Should be on Mount Rushmore, Bike Lanes Rock! & etc.) you should move to BumTryst, Indiana, Fella.

If work take a check from City, County and State payrolls and you venture a thought critical of a protected Eunuch, much less a Pharaoh, someone will dial up Dane Placko, Chuck Goudie, Andy Shaw, or one of the many purse puppy inkslingers in this sad burg and you will be forced to resign and live out your days in ignominious . . . .light.  Everyone else is way happy in the dark.

Collecting Water Using Only a Beachball, or Dialog With a Progressive

Progressives constantly call people to dialog with them.  Most human beings converse, share ideas, do the old verbal gambit.  There is give and take. The Progressive opens with previously drawn conclusion

• Police torture black people 24/7 and use Homan Square as their Racist Gitmo
• Marriage is only about emotion
• President Obama errs not
• Bicycles and their riders are above the law
• Blackhawks Patrick Kane raped a girl, because it was in the news and he is a sports figure and right-winger . . .on the ice

Disagree and get dismissed. I was told by a very talented and well educated young man with sterling career as a journalist and with whom I have spent some very happy moments, to stay off of his Facebook and other means of communication, because I said that it seemed like the accused but not charged hockey player was being set up for extortion according to eye-witnesses.  That is disappointing.   An educated man not just uninterested in one side of story, but censorious

That is the current spiritus mundi and that person's problem. Emotions are not facts and pre-drawn conclusions not truth.  Truth has always  a moveable feast for Progressives from the day John Dewey shared his treacle become gospel. 

You see, nowadays. there is only group thought ( read Daily Kos or other Progressive site commentaries) and no grey area, no doubts and above all there certainly is no God. Progressives also reject 'shared truths' -apriori. Shared truths are what bring people together.  Without shared truths, politics and government can provide millions of dollars to people who teach, advocate and legislate for the final solution to shared truths.That is why my Eurpean blood kin the  Irish people, who in reality are most welcoming generous and loyal people, rail against the Jew Media and Israel, support Hezbollah, smuggle weapons into Gaza along with Palestinian relief and agree that Pre-Obama America must be brought low. It is a head-scratcher, reading the Kerryman, or the Irish Examiner to find that school children in my grandmother's hometown, Cahirciveen were trained by a teacher to be Jew baiters at Christmas time in 2013.

Israeli journalist, Sarah Honig, was in Ireland to celebrate the mutual love for freedom between the Israelis and the Irish an and learned that the worm had definitely turned. Trocaire a thickly Marxist organization is much like the hijacked former charities here in Chicago ( MacArthur Center for Justice & etc.) dedicated to dividing people and damn the cost.  I read for a living and tend to remember what I read.  More importantly, many former 501(c) 3 charities were boarded and seized by Marxist buccaneers in the late 1980's and 90's and redirected the money of MacArthurs, Annenbergs and others from charitable purposes to identify and agenda political cooperatives. The news media paints these Marxist in inoffensive pink and purple and yellow pastels and the dodge works.  Most people believe the philanthropic dodge and dismiss any thought of chicanery.  Most people are so much nicer than I happen to be, "  The Easter Bunny in front of the Walgreens is really an axe-murderer, but he looks so cute!  Let's take the kids to play with him."

Trocaire and the local school abused kids. 

Santa hat wearing school kids were raising money to be given to Trocaire to plant olive trees for the Palestinians in the town of Daniel O'Connell - The Liberator, explained that Palestinians were suffering at the hands of the evil Jews.  Their teacher had shared his OxBridge BBC Talking Points with these children, which happen to be reinforced by RTE ( Irish Radio and Television) and too many in the Irish Government especially President Michael Higgins, a fierce enemy of Pre-Obama America and Israel.  

Presenting ideas to Progressive, much less gaining any hearing whatsoever, is like collecting water with a beachball.  

WTTW Ventra Town Hall - The Mighty Wind A Blowing for Forrest Claypool!

WTTW is a forum for unified voices - a kind of harmony from one note sung by a chorus of group thinkers.  Last night's Phil Ponce hosted Hootenanny made A Mighty Wind!  Let's see they had Forrest Claypool and a CTA numbers guys, journalists from Chicago's two big newspapers and audience of concerned citizens who appeared to be culled from the last WTTW Pledge Drive, or lured with tote bags away from the early specials line at Heartland Cafe, some kid from Northwestern who loves Ventra Cards and some old guy in a baseball cap who got cut-off.  The twitter was . . .let's say a Mighty Wind in favor of Forrest's continued payday.

Ventra Cards are here to stay . . .Doo Dah, Doo Dah.

Get a load of this pillow talk.  ( Update at 11:05 AM)

Here is the video!



Ripe for satire, but has no shelf life. Check, Please!

Text:

Ventra Special

Chicago Tonight | December 5, 2013 11:00 am

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On a special edition of Chicago Tonight, we take a close look at the CTA’s problem-plagued rollout of its newVentra payment system. Eddie Arruza will look back at some of the issues and commuter complaints that have occurred over the last two months. Then, CTA President Forrest Claypool, along with his Chief Internal Auditor Andrell Holloway, give the first extensive media explanation of what went wrong and how the myriad of glitches are being addressed. We also hear from a live studio audience of CTA riders about their experiences with Ventra.

Related Links: 

Legislation that requires the transfer to an open payment system

Chicago Tribune: Shoppers can avoid Ventra headaches

Chicago Tribune: Ventra users might find wrong card charged

The Chicago Reporter: Ventra system parent company has deep ties to military, national security intelligence

DNAinfo: Ventra, CTA to Face City Council Grilling Under Fioretti Resolution

Chicago Tribune: Ventra outage hits 60 CTA stations, results in 15,000 free rides

Chicago Sun-Times: Some bank customers complain of being charged CTA fares

Ventra Prepaid Debit Fee Schedule

RedEye Chicago: Ventra fails have a new app

iPhone app that allows riders to "check in" where their card has failed

Chicago Tribune article on CTA: Ventra glitches mostly gone but delays remain

Chicago Tribune: What's the risk of 'electronic pickpocketing' for Ventra cards?

Chicago Tribune: Ventra transit benefits program also a problem

Chicago Sun-Times article on CTA boss: Ventra not up to snuff but has seen ‘dramatic’ improvements

Chicago Sun-Times article on Ventra arithmetic: $10 + Ventra vending machine = $40 in CTA fares?

Chicago Sun-Times : RTA chief orders Ventra audit

RedEye Chicago: CTA solicits feedback on why some riders have not switched to Ventra

Gapers Block: Ventra's Parent Company: An International History of Fare Card Glitches

Gapers Block: Why Did We Even Get Ventra? Ask The RTA

ChicagoNow: 3 reasons why the CTA is switching to Ventra card payment system

ChicagoNow article on CTA Ventra card: What to do if you STILL haven't received yours

ChicagoNow: What the CTA is doing to demand better Ventra customer service

Business

Death Penalty Ban - It Happened and No Surprise :Same Old Same Old Solipsism.

Pat Quinn signed the death penalty ban yesterday. He was going to do it. Like Civil Unions for same sex couples the corporate media pushed for the GLBTQ Activists is cause to celebrate - The Tribune, The Sun Times, NPR, told you to celebrate no get to celebrating.

You have been told what is Justice. Celebrate.

I was used to think that the death penalty was a bad a thing. I used to argue with people much smarter than me that God did not put Cain to death after the murder of Abel,. How's that for a head scratcher? I really had 'em on the run. The very same manner solipsism appears on editorial pages, columns, and heart-tugging shout-outs on NPR. On all issues.

This is vacuum packed thought - group thought. Here is Justice, We say so; deal with it.

Solipsism comes from the Latin for Self (solus) Alone (ipse) - or in Irish Sinn Fein.
Solipsism gives the individual or the group the full reign of the universe - that is why the young love it. Begin at point A and end at point A - short journey. Mumia is innocent, Burge is a monster, Same Sex Sex is Human Right, Death Penalty is Wrong, only people who listen to NPR are smart, religion causes all of the world's woes, Catholics need to disappear with Israel, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, Michael Moore is not obese - believe it.

Ourselves alone! Yep, and that is what God left old Gramps Cain - alone after his murder of Brother Abel. Solipsism worked fine for the old vegetable grower, now that he busted a cap in the shepherd's ass. Cain begot aplenty and the fine family of man pumped out the blood of Cain's mom and pop - the apple eaters Adam and Eve.

Now, the old death penalty issue did not come on the screen until Moses trotted out the tablets with Old Number 6 - Thou Shall Not Kill Murdering a human being is a capital sin. Jews and Christians had a problem with murder.

Like I said, your humble correspondent had a problem with society putting a murderer to death, until Danny Edwards and Nancy Rish plotted for months to cold-bloodily kidnap, bury and murder Stephan Small - a wealthy Kankakee businessman. Small's neighbor Governor George Ryan was involved and so was I.

A few month before the murder, my wife Mary and I sat on a picnic table with Danny Edwards, who happened to be a cousin of the people throwing a fourth of July picnic in the Kankakee Riverside neighborhood. Danny was celebrated pot-head and loser, whose parents happened to be very nice and good people. Danny imagined himself and projected the image of a drug-kingpin. He was a snotty, simpering and obnoxious jerk. I thought two of his cousins were going to pound him into atoms. Danny departed the party to which he had brought nothing but his stoned to the bone asininities.He had an electricians card, but his real game was dope or so he proclaimed.
Mary and I had met the weasel on a few occasions. Every family seems to have one.

Kankakee is a small town and it is wonderful place to live. People look out for one another. Steve Small was the grandson of an Illinois Governor and heir to a media empire that covered Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. Kankakee had recently become headquarters for the new national tabloid - USA Today. Steve Small was in real estate.

One morning, Mary Jo Warmoth, a wonderful Math teacher at Bishop McNamara, where Mary and I taught appeared shaken to her marrow - Steve Small is missing. Mary Jo and Ray Warmoth were neighbors of Steve Small. Over the next few days the mystery of the cold-blooded and calculated murder unfolded.
Here it is in summary:

Around 12:30 a.m. on September 2, 1987, someone claiming to be a Kankakee police officer called the Small home and told Stephen Small that a burglary had occurred at the Bradly House. Small got dressed and left his home. Around 3:30 that morning someone called the Small residence and told Stephen's wife, Nancy, "We have your husband." Nancy then heard her husband say that he had been handcuffed inside a box underground. Small told his wife to obtain $1 million in cash. The caller directed Mrs. Small not to report the matter to the police. The matter was reported to the authorities, however, and devices were connected to the Smalls' telephone line to record incoming calls and to determine their origins. At 5:03 that afternoon, the same person called again, asking Mrs. Small how much money had been collected. This call was placed from a telephone located at a Phillips 66 gas station in Aroma Park. Edwards was seen there at that time, in the company of a blonde-haired woman. At 5:40 p.m., Jean Alice Small, Stephen Small's aunt, telephoned the Small residence to tell them of a call she had just received. Jean said that the caller had told her that he knew that Nancy Small's telephone was tapped. After telling Jean that the victim was buried, the caller threatened to kill Jean's husband. Nancy Small received another telephone call from the kidnapper at 11:28 that night. This call originated from a telephone at a Sunoco station in Aroma Park, where an FBI agent saw a white male at a telephone, and a blonde-haired woman in a car that was later identified as belonging to Nancy Rish, Edwards’ girlfriend; Rish had blonde hair. The caller played a tape recording of Stephen Small's voice. On the tape, Stephen provided instructions for delivering the ransom. After audio enhancement, a voice in the background could be heard threatening Small.

Tracking and Arrest of Edwards and Rish
Nancy Small received one more telephone call from the kidnapper, at 11:46 that night. The call was placed from a Marathon service station in Kankakee. The caller accused Nancy of having notified the police and refused her offer of the ransom. Minutes later, at 11:50 p.m., an Illinois state police officer saw Rish's car, with its trunk partly open, driving from Kankakee toward Aroma Park. Law enforcement officers then placed Edwards’ home under surveillance. They saw a dark-colored Buick, with its trunk partly open, arrive at the house in Bourbonnais where Edwards and Rish lived. Edwards and a white woman with blonde hair left the car and went inside. Officers carried out a search of the residence later that morning, on September 3, Rish and Edwards were arrested at that time. Later that day, Edwards led law enforcement officers to the site where the victim was buried. There, officers dug up a wooden box and found the victim's body inside. The box measured about six feet long and three feet wide, and was constructed of plywood. It contained a light connected to an automobile battery, a one gallon jug of water, candy bars, gum, and a flashlight. A medical examiner later determined that the victim died of asphyxiation caused by suffocation. The medical examiner believed that the victim would not have survived more than three or four hours inside the enclosed box. The medical examiner noted that the pipe extending from the box into the open air was too long for its diameter to serve as an adequate air-exchange system.

Edwards Trial
The State presented other evidence connecting Edwards to these offenses. On the night of the victim's disappearance, around midnight, a neighbor of Edwards heard Edwards say, "Let's go, let's hit it," get into his car, and drive off. Also, two neighbors of the Small family saw Edwards’ van, or one similar to it, parked in their neighborhood after midnight on September 2. One neighbor also noticed a mid-sized car at that time, heard two car doors slam, and saw the car and Edwards’ van drive away with their lights off. Several witnesses saw Edwards constructing a wooden box in his garage during summer 1987, preceding the offenses here. Edwards gave various explanations for the project, saying that it would be used for a lemonade stand, or by his brother for transporting things, or at his brother's pool in Florida. A neighbor of the Smalls had seen a white van similar to Edwards’ van driving through an alley next to the Small's home about 10 times that summer. While Edwards and Rish were visiting a boat store that summer, Edwards saw Stephen Small leaving the store in a sports car; Edwards was heard to say, "Boy, it sure would be nice to afford stuff like that." The search of Edwards's residence at the time of his arrest turned up a Kankakee telephone book with the name "Small" circled. Edwards' boots were found behind a washer and dryer at the residence, and soil on the boots matched a sample from the location where the box was buried. Soil in Edwards’ van also matched the sample. White caulking material on gloves found in Edwards’ trash had the same chemical composition as the caulking material used to fill in the seams of the wooden box in which the victim had been buried. Edwards' fingerprints were found on PVC pipe and duct tape recovered from the box. A person who owed Edwards money had had a pair of handcuffs stolen from him, and the same pair was later discovered on the victim. Another person who owed Edwards money had had a gun stolen, and it was found by investigators in the countryside near Aroma Park. Edwards purchased a battery that was found in the wooden box. Bolt cutters belonging to a company owned by Edwards’ brother were found at a point between where the box was uncovered and where the victim's car was found, and they could have been the implement used to cut the chain connecting the handcuffs on the victim's wrists.

Edwards Sentence
At the close of evidence, the jury found Edwards guilty of first degree murder and aggravated kidnapping. A capital sentencing hearing was then conducted. At the first stage of the hearing, the jury found Edwards eligible for the death penalty because of his commission of murder during the course of another felony, aggravated kidnapping. [2]

Nancy Rish
On September 2, 1987, during the kidnapping and murder of Kankakee business man Stephen B. Small, the investigation focused on Danny Edwards and Nancy Rish, who lived together in a townhouse in Bourbonnais. On September 4, a search warrant was executed for the townhouse. That evening, Edwards led the police to a rural area where Small's body was recovered. It appeared that Small had been placed in a wooden box which had been fitted with a PVC pipe designed to give him air for 24 to 48 hours. Small's wrists were handcuffed and the box was buried. The coroner later determined that his death was caused by "asphyxia due to suffocation." That same night, the police arrested Rish and held her at the station for questioning. Rish requested a specific attorney, J. Scott Swaim, who had previously represented her, and she was given an opportunity to obtain his counsel. Rish did not know that Swaim was friends with the victim. For the next four days, between September 4 and September 8, the police questioned Rish with counsel present. Eight statements were elicited concerning her knowledge and actions in the early days of September. None of the statements was totally consistent with any other.

Rish Trial
On October 1, Rish was charged by indictment with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnaping for her alleged role in Small's death. On November 2, 1988, Rish was tried by a jury. No direct evidence was presented linking her to the kidnaping or death of Small. However, the State was able to enter Rish's eight inconsistent statements into evidence. Witnesses were also presented who testified that they had seen her at various times with Edwards when he was purchasing some of items that were ultimately found with Small's body. Other witnesses reported that they had observed her at various related locations during the course of the kidnaping and ransom calls. Lastly, the State submitted evidence that Edwards had used their garage to build the box in which Small's body was found. The jury found Rish guilty on both counts, and the trial court sentenced her to a term of natural life imprisonment and a concurrent 30-year term. [3]

Ryan Commutation
On January 11, 2003, Illinois Governor George Ryan, a native of Kankakee, commuted all death row sentences in Illinois to life imprisonment. This act commuted the sentence of Danny Edwards who had murdered Ryan’s next-door-neighbor Stephen Small. This is what Ryan had to say about the Small case at the time of the commutation. “I grew up in Kankakee which even today is still a small midwestern town, a place where people tend to know each other. Steve Small was a neighbor. I watched him grow up. He would babysit my young children – which was not for the faint of heart since Lura Lynn and I had six children, five of them under the age of 3. He was a bright young man who helped run the family business. He got married and he and his wife had three children of their own. Lura Lynn was especially close to him and his family. We took comfort in knowing he was there for us and we for him. One September midnight he received a call at his home. There had been a break-in at the nearby house he was renovating. But as he left his house, he was seized at gunpoint by kidnappers. His captors buried him alive in a shallow hole. He suffocated to death before police could find him. His killer led investigators to where Steve’s body was buried. The killer, Danny Edwards, was also from my hometown. He now sits on death row. I also know his family. I share this story with you so that you know I do not come to this as a neophyte without having experienced a small bit of the bitter pill the survivors of murder must swallow. My responsibilities and obligations are more than my neighbors and my family. I represent all the people of Illinois – like it or not. The decision I make about our criminal justice system is felt not only here, but the world over.” [

Danny Edwards and Nancy Rish willingly murdered a good man, because they could then have more money to expand Danny's drug business. They were not impoverished minority persons. Rish and Edwards did not kill Steve Small in a bar fight. They planned stalked, kidnaped and murdered a man for money without regard for consequences or justice.

Solipsism works great with group thinkers. One world and one answer. Solipsism works great in politics and law - lawsuits. Beat drums loud and long.

There is a reason for human society to execute, not murder, people who slaughter.

I'll celebrate Justice 24/7 - I will not play solipsism anymore. Steve Small smothered to death. Solipsism buries thought.