The Distant Ocean

Antidote

If you haven't already, odds are good you're going to have someone point you to this wretched bit of Obamaphilia in the next few months (I warn you that clicking through may cause nausea, vomiting or uncontrollable seizures).

The first time I saw that I thought that someone really needed to put together a corrected version—and happily, someone did (thanks, the Internet!).  Bookmark it now and you won't have to track it down later when some Democratic hack coughs up that first link.

Taking Responsibility (part 6: the Church of the Nativity)

[ Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5.  The comment thread for all parts is available here.  If you're wondering about the lack of photos in this final installment, the Israeli military took my last roll of film and never returned it; the images I've included below came from other sources.  If you're curious you can read more accounts of the action at the Church of the Nativity here, here or here. ]

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I checked in to the hostel in Jerusalem, feeling a bit adrift and melancholy.  Everyone I had been traveling with up to that point had either left or had drifted off to other areas, and there were few internationals in the hostel that early in the afternoon.  I was just thinking about going out for lunch when I decided to give Huwaida Arraf of the ISM a quick call, to see if there were any actions planned in the next few days.  She said there was an action planned, at the Church of the Nativity, but not in the next few days—they were set to head out to Bethlehem in two minutes.  I blanched.  It would be a 15-minute walk at least to where the buses were staging, and I really did need to take a day off; would it even be worth trying to make the walk?  I told her I would try, but in fact I was still trying to make up my mind about it.

Then my conscience kicked in.  This was exactly why I'd come to Palestine, and I'd been hoping to be involved in an action at the church ever since I'd arrived.  The Israelis had put the church under siege in the first days of their invasion after some Palestinians sought refuge there, and they had maintained the siege over the protests of the international community and the Catholic Church.  The people inside—including nuns, priests, and monks in addition to the Palestinians—were running out of food and water, and the situation for them was desperate.  Israeli snipers had killed several people in and around the church, including the bell ringer.  The people trapped in the church needed whatever help they could get.  So I threw my things back into my bag and headed over to Jaffa gate, fully expecting that they would be gone by the time I got there.  But they weren't—the buses were just filling up with a good-sized group of internationals.  I had made it in time.  I didn't realize it then, but at that moment my fate was sealed.

We headed over to Bethlehem and met up with more people near the Indymedia offices there.  I was happy to see Jeff standing there—we had lost track of each other in Hebron, and it was good to be back together for this action.  All told there were about 25 of us, and we began making plans for the action.  We would split into three groups: a group who would be trying to get inside to act as human shields for the people there, a "media" group, and a group which would act as support for the entry group.

I was in this third group; our purpose would be to stand in front of the door, blocking the view of any Israeli snipers as the entry group made its way inside, so that the snipers would not be able to get a shot at anyone inside the church.  All of us would be carrying food and water for the people inside.

Taking Responsibility (part 5: Khan Younis, Rafah and Hebron)

[ Part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.  The comment thread for all parts is available here. ]

We set out south for Khan Younis early in the morning.  To get to Khan Younis we had to pass the Abu Houli checkpoint; like Erez, this was no makeshift checkpoint along the lines of those in the West Bank, but rather a fortified military position.  Sniper towers were in evidence all around it.  Abu Houli is one of the most notorious checkpoints in Gaza or the West Bank, and with good reason.  It marks the intersection of the main Palestinian road in Gaza with an Israeli settler-only road, and priority is given to the Israeli settlers and military traffic.  It is only opened twice a day for Palestinian traffic, once in the morning and once in the evening, and then for only an hour or so each time.  Cars stack up, sometimes for up to two miles on either side of the checkpoint, filled with people waiting to pass to the other side of Gaza.

The actual times at which it will be opened for Palestinians are unpredictable, and sometimes the Israelis do not open it at all.  When that happens, Palestinians trapped there in the press of cars have a choice: try to walk back to their homes (assuming they're on the right side of the checkpoint, are within walking distance, and are in good enough health to do so), or sleep in their cars overnight and hope that the checkpoint will be opened in the morning.  And all the while they are waiting, either choking on the constantly blowing sand and dust or sweltering in their closed cars in order to avoid it, they can watch Israeli settlers drive by at high speed along the settler-only highway.

We were lucky to arrive in the morning shortly before Abu Houli opened; we would not be so lucky in the afternoon.  The taxi driver dropped us off well short of the checkpoint and we had to continue on foot toward it.  However, since everyone who goes through Abu Houli must be in a vehicle, we had to find cars or trucks along the way to take us through and drop us off on the other side.  As always, it was no problem to find someone willing to help.

Taking Responsibility (part 4: Gaza City)

[ Part 1, part 2 and part 3.  The comment thread for all parts is available here. ]

We traveled back to Jerusalem, staying the night with a wonderful Palestinian family in Taibe and enjoying one of the best meals I could remember.  We never lacked a place to sleep or something to eat.  Other internationals told me how they would travel the countryside freely without concern for shelter, knowing that the Palestinians in the villages, towns, and even (especially) the refugee camps would be gracious and friendly and make sure they were accommodated.  It is difficult to overstate the generosity of the Palestinian people, always willing to share what they have no matter how little that may be.

Arriving in Jerusalem again, we all faced the choice of what we wanted to do next.  The news had been filled with speculation about an imminent Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip (largely due to belligerent statements to that effect made by Ariel Sharon), and at the moment there were few or no internationals in Gaza to try to help if the attack came, so I felt that Gaza was the most important place to be.  If the Israelis attacked, we could station ourselves in the refugee camps there to act as human shields, as other internationals had done throughout the Israeli assault on the West Bank.  Jeff felt the same way that I did, but others in the group weren't yet prepared to head out on another trip and some were nearing their departure dates, so it would be just the two of us.  Some of our friends were concerned for us; Gaza is essentially a huge concentration camp, incredibly densely populated, and they felt it could be dangerous for us to go.  They also felt that unlike the West Bank, in Gaza the Israelis would not show as much concern for Western lives.

These were all genuine possibilities and we certainly didn't know what to expect, but we did know how we would feel if an Israeli invasion happened and we had chosen not to go—especially because it would be impossible to enter Gaza after the start of an invasion, since the Israelis would doubtlessly close off any and all access.  I met a few other internationals later who were going as well, and we agreed to meet up with them the next day and take the trip across Israel to Gaza.

Even though we had only been together for a few days our group had formed surprisingly strong bonds, and it was a bittersweet goodbye.  We promised to try to stay safe and return soon, and to meet them back here when we did.  The next morning, with a now-familiar mixture of exhilaration and apprehension, we set off for the Gaza Strip.

Taking Responsibility (part 3: Jenin)

[ Part 1 and part 2.  The comment thread for all parts is available here. ]

The route to Jenin was circuitous, to say the least.  We had to go from Jerusalem deep into Israel, drive north, and then head back into the West Bank.  It would have been much easier and (in a sane world) much quicker as well to drive directly north from Jerusalem to Jenin—but it was effectively impossible because we would have hit an endless array of Israeli checkpoints, one every few miles, any of which could have ended our trip.  As we drove along I thought about what life must be like for the many Palestinians who have family and relatives in other towns.

We re-entered the West Bank and drove the last few miles toward Jenin.  We approached a makeshift Israeli checkpoint—really just an APC parked in the middle of the road, with soldiers stationed around it.  They called in our identification and then denied us passage; when we asked why, they said they were just following orders.  We drove away and approached Jenin from another direction, and again encountered Israeli soldiers along the road, but our luck was better this time—these were younger soldiers, more casual, and after a few questions they let us through.  The taxi took us another mile or so and then dropped us off.  We said our goodbyes to the driver, who now seemed like an old friend, and then we hiked a short way down a hill and across a soccer field to where another van was waiting to pick us up and take us into Jenin.  We shared the ride with doctors from the group Physicians for Human Rights, just one of many humanitarian organizations that were coming to document the results of the brutal Israeli assault on the refugee camp.

As we drove into town, the evidence of the invasion became apparent: utility and phone lines had been cut just outside the camp.  On the walls and on the doors of houses, about every 10 or 15 feet, the Star of David had been spray-painted in black paint.  Some of the stars had exclamation points or "#1!" written inside of them.  The message of humiliation and control was clear; Israeli troops here had been marking their territory, making a racial and religious statement to every person in the town.  Thoughts of Kristallnacht came unbidden to my mind, and the irony was palpable.  The media had been in the Jenin camp for almost a week now, and I had followed the stories closely in print and on television, yet I had never seen or heard about these disgusting images.  I wondered what the response would be if people around the world could see this for themselves.

Taking Responsibility (part 2: Ramallah)

[ Part 1.  The comment thread for all parts is available here. ]

Back at the hospital we waited anxiously for a phone call or any news from the other group.  After what felt like hours, they came through the front door of the hospital—and they were smiling.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  They told us that six of the group had managed to make it inside, including four Americans; this was crucial, because up to that point there had been no Americans in the compound.  Because the US was Israel's benefactor, protector and ally, having American citizens inside the compound would make it extremely difficult for the Israelis to launch an assault.  I had an anxious moment as I tried to find out what had happened to my roommate Nikolaj, a Dane, and nobody seemed to know where he was—but then I finally found someone who verified that he had been among the group that made it inside.  I wasn't surprised.  Nikolaj was a scout, always full of energy, and he walked twice as fast as anyone else in our group.  I'm sure he was the first one to the door.  All in all, the action had been a great success.

Some of the group headed back to Jerusalem or to houses where they'd been staying in Ramallah, while many of us remained in the hospital overnight.  This was not simply a matter of accommodations: the IDF frequently raids hospitals, taking injured men out of their beds or sometimes out of live operating theaters (as I was to learn later from a doctor in Hebron)—just one among a litany of violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention committed on a regular basis in the West Bank and Gaza by the Israeli occupiers.  ISM volunteers would frequently stay in hospitals to attempt to stop this from happening, or failing that to at least act as witnesses.  We were placed in two rooms and given mats and blankets to spread on the floor.  We were also given a dinner by the hospital staff, cooked especially for us.  I had heard about the graciousness and hospitality of the Palestinians, and now I was experiencing it firsthand.

We talked with the hospital orderlies, and they told us some of what had been happening during the Israeli invasion over the past few weeks.  One older woman had come to visit the hospital; the cast on her leg was causing her pain, and she could no longer bear it, so she broke the curfew to come and have it looked at.  As she left the hospital, leaning on her cane for support, she was shot by an Israeli sniper.  She cried out for help, but when the hospital staff tried to go outside to bring her back inside the snipers would fire at them as well, driving them back.  They continued trying to help her but the Israelis would not let them reach her, and eventually she bled to death—within a few feet of a hospital entrance.

Taking Responsibility (part 1: Jerusalem and Arafat's compound)

It's hard to believe it's been a decade since I traveled to the West Bank and Gaza during Israel's 2002 invasion (dubbed "Operation Defensive Shield" in proper Orwellian style), but the calendar is adamant on that point.  After I returned I wrote an account of my experiences there, and though an edited excerpt was published in the book Searching Jenin I've never published the essay in its entirety—despite my own good intentions and some requests from readers here.  So ten years on, here it is, along with photos I and others took.  It was written for a general audience so you may already be familiar with some of the background information, and in some cases events have overtaken the narrative, but I'm presenting it just as I wrote it at the time.  Also, since each installment is fairly long and contains quite a few images I've broken them up so they won't appear in their entirety on the front page; just click the "Continue reading..." link at the bottom of each post to see the rest.

Without further ado, here's part 1, and when I've finished publishing the other parts I'll update this posting with links to them as well.

(As promised....)

• Part 2: Ramallah
• Part 3: Jenin
• Part 4: Gaza City
• Part 5: Khan Younis, Rafah and Hebron
• Part 6: The Church of the Nativity

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Taking Reponsibility: In the West Bank and Gaza

At the end of March 2002, the Israeli army launched a massive assault on the West Bank.  Yasser Arafat's compound was put under siege and much of it was reduced to rubble.  The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF—the misnomer by which the Israeli army is known—were systematically attacking city after city, refugee camp after refugee camp, throughout the Occupied Territories.  The professed purpose was to stop terrorism, but reports coming from the Territories told of the wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure, the targeting of ambulances, the bulldozing of houses, the killing and wounding of civilians, the cold-blooded executions of Palestinian policemen.

I followed these horrifying events in the news with a rising sense of frustration, outrage and helplessness.  This was an attack by one of the most powerful armies in the world against an almost completely defenseless civilian population.  And how had Israel come to have such a powerful military?  As an American citizen who follows foreign policy closely, I knew all too well: because of the infusion of $3 billion in military and economic aid each year from the United States, along with billions more in loan forgiveness, military support through the Pentagon budget, loan guarantees, and other financial incentives.  The total amount of aid the US has given to Israel over the years is staggering—well over $90 billion, the bulk of which has been direct military aid.  This is money provided directly by US taxpayers to the state of Israel, and it is used by Israel to finance its ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.  It was my money being used to destroy these cities and towns and terrorize these people, and I watched and read about what was happening with that fact always foremost in my thoughts.

The breaking point for me came when I saw the Israelis begin their assault on the Jenin refugee camp.  Here was a group of 14,000 people who were already victims—refugees—under assault by the most advanced weaponry US money could buy.  I felt sickened as I watched the images of a US-supplied Apache helicopter hovering over the camp, launching Hellfire missiles down into the crowded streets and strafing houses and cars with cannon fire, and read the accounts of bulldozers laying waste to the center of the camp, in some cases burying people alive beneath the rubble of their destroyed homes.  The Israelis had closed Jenin to "outsiders" so that they could carry out their violence without any witnesses; they had gone so far as to bar the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations from entering the camp to help the people inside.

But one group had managed to place people inside the camp, to document the atrocities and report back to the outside world: the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a loose coalition of people dedicated to assisting the Palestinians in resisting the Israeli occupation.  I heard the reports from ISM volunteers around the world who had picked up and left their homes to follow their consciences and put their bodies on the line in a struggle that was not their own.  I watched as ISM volunteers marched into Arafat's compound, in between tanks and APCs (armored personnel carriers), with bullets flying over their heads, to act as human shields in order to protect the hundreds of Palestinians trapped inside.  I was amazed at their bravery and inspired by their example.  I realized then that I could do something to help, simply by going to the West Bank to witness, to document, and if necessary to put myself between the Israeli tanks and the Palestinian civilians.  It was a difficult decision to make, but in the end the images coming out of the West Bank were too horrific for me to choose otherwise.  I arrived in Israel on April 19th and began one of the most important experiences of my life.

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My first stop was East Jerusalem, the gathering point for ISM volunteers (or just "internationals").  We were waiting for training before going out "into the field", and so we stayed in and around Jerusalem itself for the day.  I went out to see the town with a group of new friends, expecting a relatively quiet day since Jerusalem itself was not part of the invasion; but I quickly learned that even in this seemingly calm place, the effects of the occupation were quite visible.

As I was walking back to the hotel with my friends, we saw a police van with blue lights flashing and Israeli flags flying.  Four police (men and women) were standing at points around the van with their automatic weapons raised and aimed at a nicely dressed Palestinian man who looked to be in his 30's.  I immediately took out my camera to get a picture, in case the worst happened and this man ended up like many others who've been similarly detained by the Israelis.  My friends and I took up a position where we could witness what was happening.  The police were shouting commands at the man, and he was holding his jacket open, apparently to let them see if he was wearing a bomb vest.  He put his briefcase down on the sidewalk and began emptying some of the contents from it, moving slowly and deliberately.  I watched the gun barrels—they appeared to be aimed directly at his head.  I imagined, with a twist in my stomach, what would happen if he made any move that startled them.  The tension in the air was palpable.

Thank you, God, for saving me from your lightning strike

How I've always wished I could get people to apply this kind of reasoning to me:

A Wichita man was hit by lightning on Thursday night just hours after buying three tickets in the record-setting $656 Mega Millions lottery, drawn on Friday. [...] "But for the grace of God, I would have been dead," Isles said. "It was not a direct strike."

But unfortunately for me and my secret desire to push a tiny boy into a river and then fish him out and have everyone call me a hero for the rest of my life, rationalizing at this level is reserved for deities, whether imaginary or earthbound.  Who was it who said of Obama, "Much like God—in fact, exactly like God—he's never held responsible for even his worst crimes and betrayals"?  Oh, right.

I like Mark Weisbrot

Whenever I see an article by (or interview with) Mark Weisbrot I'm always impressed by how well-informed and perceptive he is; he's definitely on my short list of people whose every opinion is worth listening to.  He's also one of those rare leftists who manage to pull off the whole suit-and-tied think tank wonk thing without mealy-mouthing his points into a bland paste.  Here's a recent example:

Iran, which even the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has acknowledged is not pursuing a nuclear weapon, is portrayed as hell-bent on getting one. And why? So they can nuke Israel and become the first nation on Earth to commit mass suicide, since Israel has enough nuclear weapons to kill every Iranian several times over. It all makes sense, if you assume that mass suicide is Iran’s deepest national aspiration.

Nice (and I don't just appreciate it because I've said the same thing myself).  And:

Back to the U.S.:  The good news is that Israel will not attack Iran before the U.S. presidential election. Many people see Obama as a pushover – he got rolled by his generals in Afghanistan, by Wall Street on financial reform, etc.  But woe unto him who tries to mess with Obama’s re-election.  He will crush them. And a war with Iran – no matter who starts it -- is much too risky for an election year. It’s a safe bet that Obama reminded the Israelis who is boss, and who gives billions of dollars annually to whom.

I think Weisbrot is right that the mixed signals the U.S. has been sending about an attack on Iran are mainly about timing.  It's true that an unprovoked assault on yet another country would probably be wildly popular with the public, but as illustrated in Iraq and Afghanistan (and even Libya) you can choose when your war will start but you may not get to choose when it'll end.  Obama's already vaporized enough human beings to establish his national security credentials; why throw the dice again this close to the election?  And it's not as though he doesn't have a history of tailoring bloodletting to his own political fortunes.

If you need more Mark Weisbrot in your life (and who doesn't?), read the rest or take a trip through his archives.

Missing hammer

Truer words were never spoken:

[T]he Obama administration ... has brought more prosecutions against current or former government officials for providing classified information to the media than every previous administration combined. [...] Mr. Corallo, who served under Mr. Bush’s attorney general John D. Ashcroft, said he was “sort of shocked” by the volume of leak prosecutions under President Obama. “We would have gotten hammered for it,” he said.

The lesson: if you're going to leak information, do it while a Republican is president.

CLARIFYING: Since 100% of the people I've asked have given this a reasonable interpretation that's not the one I intended: not because a Democrat is more likely to prosecute you, but because when you're prosecuted you'll have that many fewer people on your side.  As inspiring as the support for Bradley Manning has been, imagine what it would have looked like if he'd been thrown in prison and given the full torture-that-leaves-no-marks treatment by Bush instead of Obama.  The moral cretins who rationalize away their selective lionization by convincing themselves that Manning's no Daniel Ellsberg are right in one sense, anyway: Ellsberg had the good fortune to be persecuted by a Republican.

Not a sparrow falls

This is just one of the ways you can tell that the U.S. is backing a coup:

A visiting U.S. official said Saturday that the Maldives wasn't ready for early elections as a way out of its political crisis as the Indian Ocean nation's new president agreed to an independent investigation into his takeover of power. ... [U.S.-backed usurper Mohammed Waheed Hassan] said Saturday there wasn't a need for "a snap election," saying that "the country is deeply divided and the political landscape has many potholes."

[U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert] Blake endorsed Hassan's position not to hold early elections and urged Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party to join the proposed coalition.

"Members of the civil society told me that the country is not ready for early elections now because the police, election commission and judiciary are not sufficiently prepared to ensure free and fair elections," Blake said, urging the formation of a broad coalition to enable those institutions to be reformed.

(Apparently "members of the civil society" does not include deposed president Mohamed Nasheed and the people who elected him, who are calling for the early elections; funny how that works.)

The mechanisms of democracy prevention do vary depending on the country and the situation.  In this case helping the favored coup government solidify its grip on power means blocking elections, but other times it means pushing for sham elections and blocking attempts to invalidate them:

In Honduras this past summer and fall, the U.S. government did everything it could to prevent the rest of the hemisphere from mounting an effective political opposition to the coup government in Honduras. For example, they blocked the Organization of American States from taking the position that it would not recognize elections that took place under the dictatorship. At the same time, the Obama administration publicly pretended that it was against the coup.

What's interesting here isn't so much the standard backing of a violent anti-democratic coup or the minutiae of how that support is being carried out, though, but the presumptive reason why the Obama administration is backing this particular coup: because Nasheed was one of the most outspoken proponents of real action on global warming.  More than anything else, the U.S. backing for the Maldives coup is another illustration of just how determined the Obama administration is to do nothing at all about climate change.

ADDING: Good luck getting a liberal to understand that.  The U.S. position on global warming has remained perfectly consistent from Clinton/Gore to Bush to Obama; the only difference has been how it's publicly represented.  But all it takes is the most perfunctory rhetoric—even when it's entirely at odds with concrete evidence—to convince liberals that the Democrats are on their side.

Deuce coup

No one saw this coming:

The United States on Thursday recognized the new government of Maldives President Mohamed Waheed as legitimate and urged him to fulfill a pledge to form a national unity government. [...] "We do," Nuland told reporters when asked if Washington recognizes the new government as the legitimate government of the Maldives. She called Waheed the president and Nasheed the former president.

Hey, at least they're consistent.  (And half credit for this, but it would have ruined the title.)

Deposed underwater president Mohamed Nasheed outlines the way that the government the Obama State Department is so eager to pronounce "legitimate" took power:

[M]y government asked the United Nations to help us investigate judicial abuses and ordered the arrest of Abdulla Mohamed, the chief judge of the criminal court, on charges of protecting the former president and corrupting the judicial system. However, in a dramatic turn of events on Tuesday, the former president’s supporters protested in the streets, and police officers and army personnel loyal to the old government mutinied and forced me, at gunpoint, to resign. To avoid bloodshed, I did so. I believe this to be a coup d’état and suspect that my vice president, who has since been sworn into office, helped to plan it.

Choosing to stand up to the judge was a controversial decision, but I feel I had no choice but to do what I did — to have taken no action, and passively watched the country’s democracy strangled, would have been the greatest injustice of all.

I forget: which dimension are we on now in that chess game?  5th?  8th?  Because man, the 11th is going to be one hell of a show.

SPEAKING OF DENIAL: Here's Bill McKibben—whose never-wavering faith in his hero Barack would touch the stoniest heart—speaking (before the above announcement, one assumes) about the Obama administration's reaction to the coup:

JUAN GONZALEZ: And Bill, the denial of the State Department that this is even a coup?

BILL McKIBBEN: You know, it’s so depressing to hear that. Let’s hope that the State Department is getting new information. [...] It’s just the saddest of thoughts to think that we might be moving backwards and that the State Department—I mean, one trusts that they’re not—you know, that they’re taking this seriously. Clearly, in certain ways, Nasheed was a thorn in their side, because he kept bringing up the topic of climate change, a topic they’re not that keen on. On the other hand, he, almost to a fault, was cooperative with U.S. efforts to try and do something—you know, what little we’re doing—about climate change. The State Department owes him, and I hope that they take this seriously.

Clearly they do, Bill.  How about you?

Obligatory

Expecting me not to link to an article that calls out "repulsive progressive hypocrisy" is like expecting a panda bear to forgo that sweet, sweet bamboo, so here you go.

ADDING: Hypocrisy doesn't interest me in and of itself, but seeing what really motivates people interests me quite a bit, and genuine examples of hypocrisy are an ideal guide to that.  "Progressives" who excoriated Bush's detainee policies and drone bombings but who now give Obama a pass for the same (or worse) are just letting us know what they really are: robotic partisans, whose professed values are purely contingent.  That's useful and important information, especially for anyone whose belief to the contrary leads them to mistake those people for genuine allies.

Linus Pauling was right

Every once in a while I get the urge to do a posting that might actually help someone somewhere, and this is one of those times.  You've probably heard that vitamin C can help you avoid a cold, or at least lessen the severity.  While the results of controlled studies are mixed at best (I tend to think they're doing it wrong), I can tell you it works wonders for me and for friends I've encouraged to try it.

Here's what I've found is the key: you must start taking vitamin C the moment you suspect that you're about to get a cold.  You know that little catch in your throat you get a day or so before you even have a sore throat?  The one you desperately try to convince yourself is really nothing?  Yeah—right then.  You've got to set aside the denial and instantly start in with the C.  If you wait until you've got full-blown cold symptoms it's too late.

So how much?  I start out with 2000mg every hour for three hours and then 1000mg every hour after that for a day or more.  I'll also often do another 2000mg dose when I'm going to bed and when I wake up in the middle of the night, to give my system a boost while I'm sleeping.  You can expect some gastric excitement at these levels (15-20,000mg or so a day, depending on how careful you are about keeping up with it), but it's more entertaining than anything else and you won't be doing it for long—at some point in the second day I typically scale it back to just a few 1000mg doses, since by that time the die seems to be cast.

What kind of results can you expect?  I've found that if I felt I was headed for a minor cold I can often head it off entirely—I just don't get sick.  If I think I've gotten a more serious bug (based on the symptoms of the person I think I've gotten it from or the strength of the initial hints of symptoms I see in myself), I may still end up getting sick, but the symptoms are far less serious when I do.  I haven't had a truly miserable cold since I've been doing the vitamin C trick; the last time I got sick I had just a mild sore throat one day and some fairly benign coughing, and never even had a runny nose.

One downside is that while you can escape minor colds, you'll often find that your body can't entirely knock out the tougher ones, so instead of being miserably sick for a few days you'll feel like you're at 95% for as much as a few weeks.  Sometimes in those situations I feel like I'd be better off just having the damn cold and getting it over with, but...not really.  Another downside is that I find I have to rest just as though I'd gotten the cold (i.e., avoiding the cold doesn't mean I can go for a 10-mile hike)—which again sometimes makes me wonder if it's worth it.  But I'd rather be resting relatively comfortably by choice than being forced to do it because I'm wracked by violent coughing and sneezing fits.

Is there any danger?  It does concern me to take doses this big, but supposedly your body will just eliminate whatever it doesn't use.  If you read up on vitamin C toxicity you'll see that it may cause kidney stones and other long-term issues, but problems like these have been observed only very rarely and the connection is inconclusive (Pauling supposedly took tens of thousands of milligrams of vitamin C all the time without apparent ill effects).  Still, I do drink lots of water when I'm doing it, and I also try to taper off as soon as I feel it's not making a major difference anymore.

You can decide for yourself if it's worth the risk (and compare that to the side effects of other medicines you might take...), and if your retinas detach or your brain explodes don't even think about suing me for it.  But the reason I'm posting about this is that I'm in the process right this very moment of using vitamin C to prevent myself from getting a serious cold, and (as usual) it's helping immensely.  So given that it's cold season, I thought I'd spread the love to y'all as well.