Month: October 2014

America’s Most Prominent Southern Secession Group Forms Paramilitary Unit for Action

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America's Most Prominent Southern Succession Group Forms Paramilitary Unit for Action (1)
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A previously vocal but nonviolent neo-Confederate group–the League of the South (LOS), the most prominent Southern separatist group in the US–has begun training a uniformed paramilitary unit for any-means-necessary style action, according to civil rights watch group Hatewatch, Michael Hillwhich based its revelations on leaked internal documents and sources within the LOS.

“We are for the survival, well-being, and independence of the Southern people,” said LOS president Michael Hill of the movement. “And when we say ‘the Southern people,’ we mean white Southerners.  We are an ethno-nationalist movement and we want a free and independent South for our people, as our homeland.  That’s pretty much what we are fighting for.”

The move to train a paramilitary unit comes after years of rhetoric threatening violence, Hatewatch reported. The unit has been named “The Indomitables” and is comprised of former Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis, Hatewatch reported.

The unit was conceptualized at a LOS meeting earlier this year, according to Hatewatch. The lead trainer for the unit is US Army and Navy veteran Floyd Eric Meadows, 43, of Rome, Ga., whose online name is Eric Thorvaldsson.

America's Most Prominent Southern Succession Group Forms Paramilitary Unit for Action (3)

 

Hill responded to the SPLC revelations on his blog, “Even if we are–and you really have no idea on earth if we are or not–setting up a Southern militia or some other form of paramilitary organization, we are doing nothing that free men have not done for centuries. Deal with it and stop your whining.

“The primary targets will not be enemy soldiers; instead, they will be political leaders, members of the hostile media, cultural icons, bureaucrats, and other of the managerial elite without whom the engines of tyranny don’t run.”

Of LOS’s motives, Hill has stated, “We desire that our women and children be warm and snug while the world outside rages. And as our due for that we must face the world.”

The current roster of the group is as follows:

America's Most Prominent Southern Succession Group Forms Paramilitary Unit for Action (1)By Sid Douglas

 

Public Votes Pluto Is a Planet at Harvard-Smithsonian Meeting

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International Astronomical Union Meets to Define Planets, Votes Pluto Should Be a Planet Again
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The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics held a meeting last week to discuss the definition of what a planet is, and whether Pluto–which had its planet status removed in 2006 after a vote by the International Astronomical Union (IAU)–should be considered a planet. Three experts paneled the meeting, and each argued for or against Pluto as a planet. The audience then voted.

Pluto has not been considered a planet since 2006, when the IAU met for the same purpose.

In 2005, the discovery of an object, later called Eris, which was farther out than Pluto, and which was larger and more massy than Pluto, disrupted the nine-planet concept of the Solar System. Astronomers met to make a final decision on the definition of a planet at the 26th General Assembly of the IAU in the summer of 2006.

At the 2006 meeting, astronomers voted on the definition of a planet and the status of Pluto. They had three options: maintain the traditional nine-planet Solar System, add three planets of similar size to Pluto–including Eris and Ceres–or remove Pluto and adopt an eight-planet Solar System.

Controversially, they voted for an eight-planet system. Pluto and Eris became “dwarf planets.”

The IAU decided three criteria needed to be met to be considered a planet: the object must orbit the sun, it must have sufficient gravity to pull itself into spherical shape, and it must have “cleared the neighborhood” of its orbit. Pluto had not achieved the last of these criteria.

Today, many astronomers and the public are still uncertain about what exactly defines a planet, but the meeting last week reconsidered the definition, and Pluto.

Three experts presented their case, and the audience voted on the status of Pluto.

One expert, Gareth Williams, associate director at the IAU Minor Planet Center, who was opposed to making Pluto a planet, argued, “Jupiter has cleared its neighborhood. Earth has cleared its neighborhood. Ceres, which is in the main asteroid belt, hasn’t. Pluto hasn’t. In my world, Pluto is not a planet.”

However, the two other experts thought Pluto should be a planet. Historian Owen Gingerich thought that the concept of “planet” is one that is culturally defined and changes over time, and Dimitar Sasselov, director of Harvard’s planetary program, thought that a planet was the smallest spherical lump of matter formed around stars or stellar remnants, so Pluto qualified as a planet.

The audience voted, and found in favor of Pluto being counted a planet.

By Joseph Reight

The Full Debate About Planets and Pluto:

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RNGSuFqmro”]

More information: Universe Today