Opening Quotation: Alex De Tocqueville, in his famous book Democracy in America, had the following warning on the development of bureaucracy, a warning which seems appropriate to recount in view of the efforts of bureaucracies in three different communities in the St Pete area to stamp out pigeon-feeding:
"[Bureaucracy] covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, guided. Men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence, it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."
Note: When we have documentation, it is given as an URL or in parentheses - complete references are given at the end of the Fact Sheet
Quotes by experts are given at the URL below:
URL: PigeonsDoNotSpreadDisease.html
(a) They were a vital part of the communication network of the Roman empire, and have remained important for communication until recently. (Smits)
(b) Their droppings were so valuable as a source of nitrites for making gunpowder that the droppings of pigeoncotes in France at one time were legally regarded as special property of the king. (Smits)
(c) Pigeons have served as food for most of mankind's history, and were a major industry until only 50 years ago when they were replaced by meatier but much less flavorful and much stupider chickens. (Levi)
(d) Pigeons are a cultural fixture in many countries, including Germany, Holland and India.
(e) Many famous men have been pigeon-fanciers
URL: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/4497/famousfanciers.html
(a) The incredible flying and homing ability of pigeons makes them important in times of war or other crises when ordinary means of communication may not be available. Many pigeons have been awarded medals by the armed services of various countries for their successful delivery of messages under fire in wartime.
URL: http://home2.planetinternet.be/rice1/military.htm
(b) The homing ability of pigeons is not yet understood by scientists, and may yield important biological information.
(c) Unlike other birds, pigeons have a special rapport with man; and because of this, as well as because of their high intelligence, charming behavior and easy care, they make wonderful pets.
(d) Their droppings are prized as the highest quality fertilizer.
(a) Most birds familiar to Americans nest in (and thus spend their time near) trees, and for this reason their droppings and those of their young usually fall into grassy areas and go unnoticed. Pigeons are different from most birds, however, in that they prefer to nest in buildings; and this means that their droppings are more likely to get on these buildings, and hence to be noticed. Also, the droppings of young pigeons accumulate in the nest, and this gives the impression that the nest is 'dirty' whereas in reality the high-protein droppings quickly harden into a sort of cement which solidifies the nest. But because the droppings are easily washed off by rain or eventually crumble to dust when dry, all droppings eventually disperse. (Personal observation).
(b) Pigeons are not dirty. They spend much time grooming, and bathe regularly when water is available. Pigeons have no odor at all unless one puts his nose into the feathers, and this odor is not 'dirty', but rather very mild and inoffensive. (Personal observation)
(c) The natural food of pigeons is grain. However, city pigeons are often forced to scavenge for food left by humans because grain is unavailable. Pigeons, then, are not 'messy'; rather it is humans who are messy, and it is pigeons who clean up the mess.
References:
Britannica: Encyclopedia Britannica, "Pigeons", 1963
Levi: Wendell M Levi, The Pigeon, 1981
URL: http://hometown.aol.com/duiven/books.htm
Smits: Jimmy Smits (narrator), Oldest Feathered Friend (video), 1998
URL: http://www.paccomfilms.com/films/pigeons.html
POSSIBLE MOTIVES OF THOSE PRESSING FOR THE ANTI-BIRD-FEEDING AGENDA
* Irrational hatred of pigeons
* Irrational fear of germs
* Resentment against an 'outsider' (from a couple of miles down the road) using 'their' park.
* Revenge against me for shaming them in front of their neighbors by pointing out their lies and ignorance, and for successfully thwarting their improper use of the police and the courts to deny me my rights under the St Pete Code.
* An effort by wealthy men to exercise their naked power over someone they probably saw initially as an easy target.
* An attempt to hurt me because of my politically-incorrect views, and particularly my criticisms of Jews. Here is some evidence for this latter point:
(a) Several years ago my wife was told by Ruth Gewurz, a Jewish acquaintance and co-resident of our condominium, that "We [Jews] like you", but that I was not to criticize 'the Jews', tho it was OK to criticize 'individual Jews'. The suggestion here -- tho somewhat ambiguous -- was that I might experience some kind of 'trouble' if I did not heed the warning. (It may be noted that my wife and I continued to remain on friendly terms with Ruth until her death, and that I may actually have avoided violating the rule she set down, inasmuch as my criticisms of 'Jews' are generally if not completely directed against the Jewish Establishment, and not against Jews as a whole.)
(b) As a result of my criticism of Jews I stirred up a hornet's nest on two different occasions in the legendary high-IQ society Mensa, of which I am a member. The first incident was in the local organization, Tampa Bay Mensa, and this incident was the subject of a book I wrote called Political Correctness, Censorship and Liberal-Jewish Strongarm Tactics in High-IQ/Low-Morals Mensa. The second incident was in the national Mensa organization, and complete details are given on my webpage under "Mensa Flap" in the Jewish Question section.
(c) One of the neighborhood residents who has been deeply involved in the actions against me is a self-identified Jewish man named Mark [don't know his last name], who lives at 222 Sunset Drive and owns a large white poodle. Mark has spoken several times to me, and once summoned the police to stop and harass me.
(d) The commissioner most active in supporting the ordinances against me, Richard Kriseman, is Jewish, altho neither the location where we do our feeding nor the residences of the people who have protested my feeding are in his district, at least according to a map on the home page of the St Petersburg city website, http://www.stpete.org/council.htm . This strongly suggests that the people who are pushing for this ordinance went to Kriseman precisely because they thought someone Jewish would be hostile to me.
(e) The Jews have a well-known motto: "Never forgive, never forget."
(f) The founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, once spoke of "the terrible power of the [Jewish] purse" in referring to the way in which Jews typically wielded power over gentiles.
(g) Altho I have fed birds for more than FIVE YEARS at Sunset Park, my first encounter with harassment over my bird-feeding occurred only about one month after I put up a controversial and very politically-incorrect website, www.TheBirdman.Org, which regularly directs considerable criticism toward Jews and Israel.
(a) Urine is virtually sterile at the time of leaving the body. (The only time urine has any significant microbe content is at the time of a urinary tract infection.) The URL below gives the following statement: "...fresh urine is sterile and loaded with pain-killing quaternary amines that also facilitate rapid wound healing."
URL: http://www.voiceofwomen.com/VOW2_12150/newhope.html
(b) The principal component of urine is urea, after which urine is named, and urea is a fertilizer which is made commercially.
URL: http://www.deexports.com/ureainfo.htm
More information about urine as fertilizer can be found at the following location:
URL: http://www.iees.ch/EcoEng011/downloads/EcoEng011_F3.pdf
(c) In Roman times, urine was regarded as a valuable cleaning agent. It was collected from public urinals and sold to launderers. The emperor Vespasian was involved with this practice, and for this reason public restrooms are still known in some places as Vespasians.
(d) It makes no sense to be concerned about humans 'dumping urine' in a public park when dogs are allowed to do it in great quantities.
(e) Drinking one's urine is a very ancient health practice, and is advocated today by many naturopathic MDs and other health practitioners. It has frequently been used to cure cancer as well as many other diseases. Here is an in-depth discussion by an American doctor:
URL: http://www.mrbean.net.au/~wlast/urine.htm
Here is a discussion of urine therapy by a doctor from India:
URL: http://www.healthlibrary.com/reading/yod/may98/Not-Uns.htm
The following are two books on this subject:
Martha M Christy, Your Own Perfect Medicine, 1996
Manav Mootra, Auto-Urine Therapy, 1994
URL: http://www.addall.com/Browse/Detail/0846448203.html
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