Remember John Lennon

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia


John Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980)

• Member of the British rock group The Beatles.


• Half of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team.


• Vietnam War protester.


• Returned the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) he received from Queen Elizabeth II "in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing and support of America in Vietnam".
  


• Husband of Yoko Ono.


• Peace supporter.


• Songs: "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Give Peace a Chance", "Imagine"


• 8th place in the 100 Greatest Britons of All Time vote conducted by the BBC in 2002.


• Assassinated by a deranged fan.

We miss you and God knows we need your voice in protest to the egregious actions of this American Administration.

Technorati Categories: Activists, Anniversary, Freedom, Heroes, News, News and Politics, Opinions, Protestors, Random Thoughts, War, Weblog

Pearl Harbor - 65 Years Later

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, leading to America's entry into World War II occurred at 7:55 AM (local time) on this day, December 7, in 1941.

The Washington Post reports:

The Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and other military bases on Oahu lasted two hours, leaving 21 U.S. ships heavily damaged and 323 aircraft damaged or destroyed.

It killed 2,390 people and wounded 1,178.

Why does nobody mention the fact that the attack could have been prevented?! I guess someone believed it would be a better opportunity if it were allowed to happen.

From a September 2004 Common Dreams web site article:

In his 1982 book 'Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath', Pulitzer-prize winner John Toland reveals that almost everything the Japanese were planning to do "was known to the United States" on the morning of the attack, via intercepted messages never communicated to commanders at Pearl Harbor. He cites the case of US counterintelligence translator Dorothy Edgers who uncovered critical Japanese messages days before the assault, including "a scheme of signals regarding the movement and exact position of warships and carriers in Pearl Harbor." But Edgers' boss, Alwin Kramer, seemed "more annoyed than electrified" at the discovery and ordered her to "run along home." Unbeknownst to Edgers, Kramer was part of the subterfuge.

Please join me in a sincere moment of silence for all who were allowed to die senselessly due to the President Franklin Roosevelt's administration's decision not to warn the base of the incoming Imperial Japanese Navy.

Other books and articles:

• Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor
  by Robert Stinnett


• Pearl Harbor: Official Lies in an American War Tragedy?
  from a special program at The Independent Institute


• What We Need to Know About Pearl Harbor and Why
  by Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt, Times Record Contributor


• The McCollum Memo: The Smoking Gun of Pearl Harbor
  What Really Happened web site

Technorati Categories: Conspiracy, Military, News, News and Politics, Opinions, Random, War, Weblog

A Killer Goes Free

An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.

Source: Guardian Unlimited

Another day, another Palestinian child's killer goes unpunished. This is nothing new. It has happened over and over for years.

The manner of Iman's [the young girl] killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was "scared to death", made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died.

An innocent girl whose cold-blooded murder will never receive the attention due the barbaric and needless act. Her only crime was to walk within a security zone on her way to school. A warning would have been appropriate. None was given.

A recording of radio exchanges between Capt R and his troops obtained by Israeli television revealed that from the beginning soldiers identified Iman as a child.

In the recording, a soldier in a watchtower radioed a colleague in the army post's operations room and describes Iman as "a little girl" who was "scared to death". After soldiers first opened fire, she dropped her schoolbag which was then hit by several bullets establishing that it did not contain explosive. At that point she was no longer carrying the bag and, the tape revealed, was heading away from the army post when she was shot.

Palestinian witnesses said they saw the captain shoot Iman twice in the head, walk away, turn back and fire a stream of bullets into her body.

On the tape, Capt R then "clarifies" to the soldiers under his command why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the [security] zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed."

At no point did the Israeli troops come under attack.

Capt R claimed that he had not fired the shots at the girl but near her. However, Dr Mohammed al-Hams, who inspected the child's body at Rafah hospital, counted numerous wounds. "She has at least 17 bullets in several parts of the body, all along the chest, hands, arms, legs," he told the Guardian shortly afterwards. "The bullets were large and shot from a close distance. The most serious injuries were to her head. She had three bullets in the head. One bullet was shot from the right side of the face beside the ear. It had a big impact on the whole face."

The Washington Post reports on the case in a very interesting manner, completely understating the callousness of the action. As a matter of fact, the tone of the entire article is very low-key compared to the Guardian article.

The article states the Israeli officer was acquited by a military court because "she [the girl] was already dead when he shot her". The defendant claimed "he did not identify the figure on the ground as a child" and "I'm happy and satisfied that the truth has come to light, I hope the army will understand its failure, the failure was not on my part."

Alright, so there are a few items making the readers feel he might very well be innocent, but let's see how the Post presents the position of the child:

Soldiers shot 13-year-old Iyman Hams as she approached a military observation post near the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza on Oct. 5, 2004. The soldiers said they thought she was planting a bomb. The girl's family said she was on her way to school.

Then, according to an army indictment, the officer approached the girl's body and fired two more shots _ an illegal practice called "verifying the kill." Palestinian doctors said that at least 15 bullets hit the girl.

Where's the stuff about the child getting up and trying to walk away before being gunned down? How about the bag being shot and not exploding thus proving there was no bomb in the bag? How about the part where witnesses saw the officer turn around and empty his magazine into the child's body after having shot her twice in the head?

I wonder why it is the Post article leaves out quite a bit of the damning evidence lending credibility to the case against the Israeli officer. Why are the facts not more prominently presented? Does the Post not want to foster anti-Israeli sentiment? Well, chew on that for a while, but now, back to this poor girl.

She was no match for young men with rifles and a life's worth of anti-Palestinian programming. Young Israelis are taught Palestinians lives are meaningless. Actions taken against Palestinians will not be punished.

It is sad to see how ethnic and religious differences are used to instill hate, to view others of different groups or beliefs as less than human. When children grow up in environments where this type of brainwashing is promulgated as "normal" behavior, the result is an inhuman being with no empathy toward others. Even though they may function "normally" within their society, they are truly abnormal within humanity.

Comments from an alternative news site:

The girl was clearly no threat. She had been identified by the Israelis as a scared, little girl. The article suggests that the only danger for the Israelis was if she had been sent out to lure them into a trap, which means the way for the Israelis to remain out of danger would have been to stay put. Instead, they go out, are not fired upon, which shows that it was not a trap, and then the accused empties his weapon into her body. However, this hypothesis implies that the Palestinians are such savages that they would risk the life of a small child in such a ploy. Such are the unstated assumptions in much mainstream news reporting on the conflict.

Source: Signs of the Times

Technorati Categories: Israel,
Media,
News, News and Politics, Opinions, Palestine,Politics,
Random Thoughts, Zionist

Veterans Day Speech a Disgrace

On this Veteran's Day, where America honors those who have gone to war in her name, President George W. Bush finds a way to disgrace the meaning of the day by making political statements in defense of the incompetence of his administration. The politicizing of the day detracts from the significance of the sacrifices made by America's men and women of the military.

"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began."

"Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein."

"They believe that America can be made to run again [like in Vietnam], only this time on a larger scale, with greater consequences."

"The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity."

"We must recognize the Iraq war as our central front against the terrorist."

President George W. Bush
11/11/2005 Veterans Day Speech
Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pennsylvania

So the facts are irrelevant! What?! No need to re-write history to more accurately reflect the truth!

Perhaps the times have changed, perhaps not, but when I was growing up, I was taught to always tell the truth. No matter how painful. Withholding the truth, or creating a lie to cover the truth, could prove more costly in the long run.

Now, here is OUR president saying it is "irresponsible" to update the history to accurately report what happened. You see, the problem is that it does not look good for the whole crew who pushed for the war. Not only that, thousands have died as a result of the rush to war, and we have a bunch of boys stuck in Iraq, for who knows how long, witnessing and being asked to do things which they will never forget.

I guess it matters not that facts have been found which point out the deception used to lead the nation to war.

In January and February 2003, President Bush and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell made dramatic assertions that Iraq had ties to al Qaeda and argued for military action to prevent Baghdad from providing its suspected stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

Powell repeated the claim before the United Nations in making the case for the invasion of Iraq.

No such stockpiles turned up after the U.S.-led invasion, and the independent commission investigating al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington found no evidence of a collaborative relationship between the two entities.

Source: CNN

In a statement, Kerry retorted, "I wish President Bush knew better than to dishonor America's veterans by playing the politics of fear and smear on Veterans Day. Instead of trying to salvage his slumping political fortunes, the commander in chief should honor our men and women in uniform with a clear strategy for success in Iraq."

Kerry charged, "This administration misled a nation into war by cherry-picking intelligence and stretching the truth beyond recognition. . . . Today they continue the same games hoping Americans forget the mess they made in Iraq that's cost over 2,000 Americans their lives and their failure to find Osama bin Laden."

Source: Washington Post

So to distract the attention from the source of this entire mess, the administration's rush to war was based on lies and should thus be held accountable for their actions, the topics are manipulated to work on peoples' emotions. Bring up Vietnam, 9/11, how the terrosits are waging a "war against humanity", etc.

But, you know, everything is relative, depending on which side of the issue one supports. One man's terrorist, is another man's freedom-fighter. Here's a quote which could very well be the mantra for Iraqis fighting to rid their land of the invading American forces:

"No act of ours invited the rage of killers and no concession, bribe or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder. Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will never back down, we will never give in, we will never accept anything less than complete victory."

I am so sick of hearing the same old lines used to prey on peoples' emotions. Let emotions overrule the reason one would apply to the arguments and proof of this entire charade. We are all being played under cover of patriotism and religion. God help America. We, as Americans, will get what we deserve if we don't get wise to these ploys.
One final quote with which I whole-heartedly agree:

"Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience must be taken very seriously and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply."

Alrighty then, let's start with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Rove.

UPDATE
As of 12:00 EST, CNN poll results:

Created: Friday, November 11, 2005, at 12:08:26 EDT

Do you think the Bush administration manipulated the prewar intelligence on Iraq?

Yes 74% 93691 votes
No 26% 32407 votes

Total: 126098 votes

Technorati Categories: Ethics, Holidays, Military, News, News and Politics, Opinions, Random, Truth, Veterans, War, Weblog.

Non-Lethal Weapons Proliferation

In my earlier post, where I expressed my concern about the potential future common uses of "non-lethal" weapons systems against ordinary civilians, I mentioned the relationship between the military and academia. Well, today, I come across a New Scientist article which reveals yet another academic institution with a project related to non-lethal weapons. So, how many are involved in this type of research? Here are a few results from a quick search:

• Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project (University of Bradford)


• Institute for NonLethal Defense Technologies (Pennsylvania State University)
• 
  
• Non Lethal Technology Innovation Center (University of New Hampshire)

For a compilation of Internet resources, books, documents, and periodicals, go to this page located at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base web site, "Home of Air University and the 42nd Air Base Wing". There are links to all sorts of useful information:

• Active Denial Technology (Air Force Research Laboratory)


• Active Denial System (Sandia National Laboratories)


• Directed Energy Weapons (Defense Update Online Magazine)

From the amount of work and interest which has existed in the non-lethal weapons technologies, coupled with the fact we are beginning to see news of their use in non-military activities, leads me to believe that not only will the use of these technologies against civilian populations become more prevalent, but, also, that there exist more advanced weaponry which has yet to make it to the public media.

Electromagnetic Pulse weapons are old news:

Earlier this month, the widely respected magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology printed an article stating that "an attack on Iraq is expected to see the first use of high-power microwave weapons..."

The New York Post, citing unnamed U.S. military officials, reported yesterday that a preliminary Iraq battle plan "outlined for President Bush last week calls for the most extensive use of electronic and psychological warfare in history -- including secret new electromagnetic pulse weapons to disable Saddam (Hussein)'s entire command and control structure."

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

So what IS new???

How about Ethnic-Specific weapons? How about a genetically-engineered version of the Spanish Flu?

Nothing surprises me anymore...

Technorati Categories: Health, Military, News, News and Politics, Opinions, Random, Technology, Weapons, Weblog

Sonic Weapons Ward off Pirate Attack

A couple of days ago there was an attack on a cruise ship, the Seabourn Spirit, by a group of "pirates" (I'm surprised they were not labeled terrorists). At first, I thought it interesting a group would be so bold as to attack a ship from such a small boat. Then, the more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense.

What could the pirates have hoped to accomplished? Force the crew to stop the ship by threat of gunfire, then take control of the entire ship and either rob everyone or hold everyone hostage? Perhaps attempt to gain some publicity by conducting some sort of execution in front of the attracted media to serve some cause? Who knows.

Travelers on the ship reported gunfire and at least one explosion from a grenade fired from a grnade launcher. CNN reports:

The Seabourn Spirit had been bound for Kenya when it was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns on Saturday about 100 miles (160 km) off Somalia's lawless coast.

Bob Meagher of Sydney, Australia, said he climbed out of bed and went to the door of his cabin shortly before 6 a.m. after hearing a commotion outside.

"I saw a white-hulled boat with men in it waving various things and shooting at the ship -- at that stage it appeared to be rifle fire," he told Australian radio.

"My wife said, 'Look, they're loading a bazooka,' which we later discovered was called an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher."

"There was a flash of flame and then a huge boom -- a terrible boom sound," he said, adding the grenade hit about 10 feet from where they were.

Other than the obvious questions of why the attack was attempted, a more disturbing question came to mind. What is a cruise ship doing with a sonic weapon? Again, from the CNN article:

The crew of a cruise ship attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia used a sonic weapon to help ward off the attackers, the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line said Monday.

The sonic device, known as a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed for the military after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships.

So, here we have a practical application of a military device, although "non-lethal", which is also very likely in the hands of many other private and public places. Seems like an ideal crowd control device for police as well.

I guess my concern is how non-chalantly this is mentioned in the article as if it were a common item. A toaster it is not!

Perhaps more readers may want to find out what the Pentagon has been developing under the "non-lethal" weapons category. The military has developed microwave "non-lethal" weapons for crowd control.

Non-lethal weapons development is not relegated to the corporations having relationships with military projects, academia has long been used by the military as a source for basic R&D work. For example, there is the Non-lethal Technology Innovation Center, funded by the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD), with the following mission:

The Non-lethal Technology Innovation Center was created by a grant from the Joint Non-lethal Weapons Directorate to effect the next generation of NL capabilities by identifying and promoting the development of innovative concepts, materials and technologies within the academic community.

There even exist ethnic-specific weapons.

None of this is science fiction. It exists today!

The development of these weapons has been underway for quite some time and is now available for agencies outside the military.

What else is labeled as "non-lethal" and coming to a town near you? Keep your eyes open and ears perked for news of how those offering resistance are being treated. These may be the canaries in the coal mine. You will begin to see how non-lethal weapons may become as common-place, and who's use may become as "acceptible", as the stun guns used today.

Technorati Categories: Military, News, News and Politics, Opinions, Random, Technology, Weapons, Weblog

Judicial Preference

Average Americans, when going to court, don't get to select their judge.

Average Joe can't.

Celebrities like Martha Stewart, OJ Simpson, and Michael Jackson can't.

Not even corporate executives.

Unless, you're a politician.

In Travis County Texas, we have a perfect example of what it takes to make it happen. A powerful politican which has built a network of relationships based on money and political favors. Now, it's time to leverage those relationships.

As DeLay tries to find the "right" judge for his trial, more and more links between the politicans and judges are being revealed.

The first judge of DeLay's campaign finance trial, District Judge Bob Perkins, was removed Tuesday at DeLay's lawyer's request because of his contributions to Democrats.

The second judge, Senior Judge Pat Priest, was selected by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson. But, only after Chief Justice Jefferson had been asked to do so after Republican Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub, who was initially named to select a new judge, withdrew his name at the request of District Attorney Ronnie Earle. There was concern over Judge Schraub's political contributions to Republican candidates.

Now there's an issue about Justice Jefferson's links to DeLay which may result in the appointment of yet another judge.
CNN reports:

Jefferson's 2002 campaign treasurer, Bill Ceverha, was treasurer of DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, according to state documents examined by The Associated Press.

The PAC is a co-defendant in DeLay's case and Ceverha was a defendant this spring in a civil trial brought by Democrats who lost state legislative races to Republicans in 2002.

Jefferson also was elected to his seat with the help of a $25,000 donation from the Republican National State Elections Committee, a group at the heart of the money laundering charge against DeLay.

He also received $2,000 from a DeLay-run PAC whose executive director is a co-defendant.

So what's wrong with a judge wanting to make contributions to his favorite policital party or candidate? Nothing, as long as there is no quid-pro-quo for the contribution and no appearance of impropriety.

The tough part is who makes the determination of what, if any, favors are being received as payback for the contributions? One can only make the best judgement with the information at hand. Information withheld is information not considered.

A University of Texas professor summed it up best:

The judicial wrangling is "a great shame," said Charles Silver, a legal ethics professor at the University of Texas Law School.

"It says that the judges who we elect can't be trusted to apply the law neutrally in cases that in some way, shape or form bear on their political beliefs," Silver said. "If that's true, we really need to revamp the whole system."

O what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
Scottish author & novelist (1771 - 1832)

Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics.

Secrecy and National Security

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the CIA has been using secret facilities throughout Eastern Europe and Asia to hide and interrogate captives on the Bush Administration's "War on Terror". Who is being kept and what interrogation techniques are being used? No one seems to know. Answers to questions and requests are readily declined on the grounds of potentially compromising national security.

As I have mentioned previously, "national security" is a fairly common and convenient excuse used by various intelligence and governmental groups to deny allegations and access to information, material, or resources. The reasons somethings are kept secret may be completely unrelated to security. It may very well be due to the legal or ethical ramifications.

From the WP article:

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.

The existence and locations of the facilities -- referred to as "black sites" in classified White House, CIA, Justice Department and congressional documents -- are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.

The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

This appears to be nothing new. The decision to use the secret detention facilities arose from the knee-jerk responses to the September 11th attacks.

"We never sat down, as far as I know, and came up with a grand strategy," said one former senior intelligence officer who is familiar with the program but not the location of the prisons. "Everything was very reactive. That's how you get to a situation where you pick people up, send them into a netherworld and don't say, 'What are we going to do with them afterwards?' "

The article continues:

The idea of holding terrorists outside the U.S. legal system was not under consideration before Sept. 11, 2001, not even for Osama bin Laden, according to former government officials. The plan was to bring bin Laden and his top associates into the U.S. justice system for trial or to send them to foreign countries where they would be tried.

"The issue of detaining and interrogating people was never, ever discussed," said a former senior intelligence officer who worked in the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, or CTC, during that period. "It was against the culture and they believed information was best gleaned by other means."

So, did the president know or not? Back to the article:

The agency set up prisons under its covert action authority. Under U.S. law, only the president can authorize a covert action, by signing a document called a presidential finding. Findings must not break U.S. law and are reviewed and approved by CIA, Justice Department and White House legal advisers.

Six days after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush signed a sweeping finding that gave the CIA broad authorization to disrupt terrorist activity, including permission to kill, capture and detain members of al Qaeda anywhere in the world.

It could not be determined whether Bush approved a separate finding for the black-sites program, but the consensus among current and former intelligence and other government officials interviewed for this article is that he did not have to.

Rather, they believe that the CIA general counsel's office acted within the parameters of the Sept. 17 finding. The black-site program was approved by a small circle of White House and Justice Department lawyers and officials, according to several former and current U.S. government and intelligence officials.

There appears to be legal wiggle room, as always, for those at the highest levels while the Lewis Libbys of the world take the heat. That's not to say those taking the heat are innocent, most likely they were the implementors of the unwritten, verbal signals from on high.

What are others saying about this latest revelation (which is not really a surprise based on all the documentation of illegal renditions having occurred over the last several years)?

From the Scotsman article "Terror suspects held in secret CIA prisons":

The CIA is already known to use Glasgow and Prestwick airports to stop off en route to other destinations when transporting prisoners who have been snatched under its programme of "extraordinary rendition". The US is understood to use the programme to transport prisoners to countries which are prepared to use unconventional methods, including torture, to extract information.

US planes have landed at a number of UK airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, but Prestwick - with 75 recorded flights - and Glasgow - with 74 - are among the most popular stopping-off points.

From the ABC News article "EU Probing Report of Secret CIA Prisons":

The governments of the EU's 25 members nations will be questioned informally about the allegations, EU spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing said.

"We have to find out what is exactly happening," Roscam Abbing said. "We have all heard about this."

He said such prisons could violate EU human rights laws and other European human rights conventions. The commission is responsible for ensuring that EU rules are followed.

"As far as the treatment of prisoners is concerned … it is clear that all 25 member states having signed up to European Convention on Human Rights, and to the International Convention Against Torture, are due to respect and fully implement the obligations deriving from those treaties," Roscam Abbing told reporters.

He cautioned, however, that the EU head office could not take action against member states if they violated human rights codes.

From an AFP article "US on the defensive over reported secret CIA prisons":

The White House refused to confirm or deny that the CIA operates secret prisons, known as "black sites," for al-Qaeda captives in eastern Europe and other countries around the world.

"I am not going to discuss any specific intelligence activities," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "I would say that the president's most important responsibility is to protect the American people."

The refusal to discuss the matter was echoed by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Central Intelligence Agency.

And these are not actions which occurred in the past. Note the following from the above article, this is still going on!

Czech Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan was quoted by the on-line news outlet Aktualne.cz as saying that the Czech Republic recently turned down a US request to set up a detention center on its territory.

"The negotiations took place around a month ago," he was quoted as saying. The Americans "made an effort to install some of the sort here, but they did not succeed."

It appears as if this is the case. The CIA does have secret detention facilities and continue to actively use them, yet it may prove to be a challenge to get the governments to take any action against the agency to cease the activity, never mind to be held accountable for any humanitarian violations which most likely occurred during the period since September 11th.

Technorati Categories: Bush Administration, CIA, Current Affairs, Human Rights, Intelligence, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics, Tortune, War.

Taxes and Iraq

Recommendations were published yesterday by a presidential commission to "simplify" the federal income tax system. The process, from recommendation to approval to implementation, would normally take quite some time, usually several months to years, to finalize. Although, my instincts tell me the changes are not so much about simplicity or fairness, they are more about funding for the continued presence in the Middle East and other future preemptive military actions, therefore, we will likely see this move along on the fast-track.

There are two proposals: a simplified version of the existing income tax and the beginnings of a consumption-based system. Read the following Business Week article, "The Nuts and Bolts of Tax Reform", for more detail.

In either case, the result will likely be higher taxes for the average Joe, bigger breaks for those with bucks. The New York Times reports in the article "Higher Tax Rates for Most, Breaks for Some":

The biggest new tax breaks in the main proposal would go to stock market investors. They would collect most dividends free of tax, as opposed to the 15 percent tax rate that now applies to most dividends.

In addition, 75 percent of profits from the sale of stocks held for more than a year would be tax-free. The effect would be to nearly halve the rate for the highest-income taxpayers, to 8.25 percent from 15 percent.

The commission emphasized that its rationale for such changes was to get Americans to save more and borrow less. Such policies could prompt a one-time rise in share prices to adjust for the tax benefits.

So, companies get a boost from new investors. Monies which should be going into savings are being used to raise the stock price of companies whose major shareholders will then make profits, while the average Joe bets on the future of his "savings" (now in the stock market) assuming all the risk.

Investors who put their money into assets other than stocks would not fare so well. Gains from the sale of all other assets, including businesses, farmland and paintings, would be taxed at the same rate as wages.

Thus, a taxpayer in the top bracket who sold stocks for a $1 million profit would pay no more than $82,500 in taxes, while someone who made the same profit from selling a business, a farm or a Monet would pay four times as much. Under current law, most investors would pay $150,000.

Scott A. Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit group that seeks lower taxes, called the proposal "an incentive to buy stocks and a disincentive to be an entrepreneur."

And, what about the tax rate implications for Average Joe?

The panel would also raise to 15 percent from 10 percent the tax rate on the first $7,300 of taxable income this year for individuals and $14,600 for married couples. Taxpayers with incomes higher than this would also be affected by this higher rate.

The panel would also raise to 30 percent, from 28 percent, the rate that this year applies to individuals making as little as $70,000 and couples making as much as $178,000.

The 35 percent tax rate, which applies only to the top 1 percent of taxpayers (incomes above $326,450 now), would be cut to 33 percent.

However, for individuals, the 33 percent rate would begin at a much lower level of income, $100,001 instead of $150,150. Therefore, people in this income range would be paying a higher rate on their last dollars of income. In short, there would be higher marginal rates for most people making less than $326,450.

I guess the alternative to raising taxes, which is cutting spending, is not an option.

Today's Washington Post article, "Commission Recommends Overhaul of Federal Income Tax", warns of the impact to the housing market:

Still, the National Association of Realtors said "the value of the nation's residential property could decline 15 percent or more" if the panel's mortgage proposals become law. Gerald M. Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders, criticized the measures as "the biggest tax hike for homeowners ever considered."

Also, a warning of the impact to retirement and pension plans:

Life insurance companies and agents were also upset, fearing that the savings proposals could supplant or compete with their products. A coalition of life insurance associations called the plans "a retreat from America's historic commitment to helping Americans achieve financial and retirement security." The American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries said the plans would be "devastating to the retirement security of millions of American workers."

And, just to entice companies to expand their revenues outside the domestic US:

Both plans would assess companies only on their domestic profits, ending the United States' long-held policy of taxing income wherever it originates.

Onto Iraq...

The Senate went into a closed-door session yesterday as the Democrats pressed the Republican majority for an investigation into the intelligence the White House used to justify going to war with Iraq.

From a CNN report:

Democrats demanded that Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts move forward on a promised investigation into how Bush administration officials handled prewar intelligence about Iraq's suspected weapons programs.

The Democrats appear to be taking advantage of the series of events which have destabilized the White House. Will anything come of it?

Here are some comments from Republican Senator Bill Frist who, along with a whole lot of other politicians, should be nominated for an acting award:

Frist said Democrats had "hijacked" the Senate...

"This is an affront to me personally," said Frist, a Tennessee Republican. "This is an affront to our leadership. It is an affront to the United States of America, and it is wrong."

Let me correct Senator Frist, if I may. Being led into war with Iraq by an administration who knowingly lied to the American people and the world is an affront to the United States of America. What you are doing, Mr Frist, is an affront to the people of the United States and all the things for which the United States of America stand for.

Get out of the way, Mr Frist and fellow deceivers ...

Technorati Categories: Current Affairs, Iraq, Media, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics, Taxes, War.

Halloween Story: American Blindness and the Road to Hell

For Halloween, I will merely provide one snippet and a link to begin or continue your search into the current human condition in America, today, and potentially for the world, in the near future:

Q: What was that again?
A: You pay attention.
Q: (L) What else is going to happen?
A: Seattle buried; Japan buckles; Missouri shakes; California crumbles; Arizona burns.
Q: [Unknown question.]
A: Go to Denver airports.
Q: (L) When is all this going to happen?
A: Scandal - Scandal - Denver Airport.
Q: (L) What about the Denver airport?
A: Scandal.
Q: I don't understand.
A: New Denver airport.
Q: I don't understand.
A: Pay attention.
Q: Okay, we are paying attention. What are you trying to tell us?
A: Denver new airport big big big big scandal.
Q: (L) What kind of scandal?
A: Government.
Q: (L) Specifically what?
A: You will see Dallas airport is secret base Orlando too Miami too.
Q: (L) What about Denver airport and how does it relate to prophecies?
A: Denver reveals the government Look for it Pay attention.
Q: (L) What else do you have to tell us?
A: Montana: Experiment with human reproduction All people there - rays - radon gas.
Q: (L) How are they doing this?
A: Compelled - Don't trust Don't ignore too strong urges sinister plots.
Q: (L) What do you mean? I don't understand?
A: Strong urge is directed by sinister plot.
Q: Plot by whom?
A: Consortium.
Q: (L) Who are the members of the consortium? Aliens? The government?
A: All.
Q: (L) All who?
A: Government and other.
Q: (L) Who is the other?
A: Unknown.
Q: (L) Why can't you tell us who is the other?
A: You know who.

Signs of the Times - Halloween 2005 Edition.

Mars, Halloween, and the Fall of Atlantis

The planet Mars, named after the Roman god of war, is known astrologically as "The Bringer Of War" . Many stories have been written about Mars by authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, and H.G. Wells, to name a few.

On Sunday, October 30, Mars' path will be the closest to Earth in years as it comes within 69 million km. About two years ago, on August 27, 2003, Mars was 56 million km from Earth, the closest it's been in recorded history. Next time Mars will come this close will be in 2018.

Others have written about the significance of Mars' proximity to Earth and current events. Interestingly, this time it is occurring very close to Halloween, which serves as an astronomical holiday of sorts. Halloween is a cross-quarter date which sits between an equinox and a solstice:

Long ago, "the Celts of the British Isles used cross-quarter days to mark the beginnings of seasons," says John Mosley of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. "Winter began with Halloween, [or as they called it, 'Samhain']. Halloween marked the transition between summer and winter, light and dark -- and life and death."

Source: NASA

Recently, I have noticed excitability in my children and other children. Increased stress in the parents, actions trigerring responses which seem to be ignored, merely adding fuel to the fire. Events in the world are also showing similar signs. A macro representation of our microcosm.

There has been increased tension between Iran and Israel as Iran's president talks of wiping Israel off the map and anti-Israel demonstrations take the streets. Reports of initial movement for military action in Syria. In addition, there exists tension in Washington, specifically the White House, over Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's imminent indictments.

There has also been talk about the influence of Mars during the historical Noah's flood, also having occurred around the time of our modern Halloween. Discussions of the fall of Atlantis around the same time.

Q: (L) Was the story of Noah's flood the story of the breaking up of Atlantis?
A: Yes. But symbolic.
Q: (L) How many people were on the planet at that time?
A: 6 billion.
Q: (L) Out of this six billion people, how many survived?
A: 119 million.
Q: (L) Was Noah's flood caused by the close passage of another celestial body?
A: Yes.
Q: (L) Which body was that?
A: Martek.
Q: (L) Do we know this body in our solar system now?
A: Yes.
Q: (L) What name?
A: Mars.

Click here for more...

What does all this mean?

Well, I'll leave you with just a few snippets of a scary Halloween tale ...

During the final days of the Great Battle Between Good and Evil, the receding armies of the Mad Magician, Supreme Leader of the Dark Side, left behind agents in the formerly occupied lands. The liberating armies enclosed the Evil Doers from two sides, the East and the West. Although these two groups were Allies against the Darkness that was now surrendering, having been temporarily thrown together to fight a common enemy, they had themselves longstanding differences, differences that would soon come to the fore as the common threat was vanquished.

Those of the West, known by the name of Atlantis, decided it would be strategically advantageous to make an alliance with the former members of the Evil Empire against the new "Threat from the East." Thus, after the war, rather than arresting and bringing to trial the former Evil Doers who remained in the West, the Leaders of Atlantis made peace with them and integrated them into their intelligence system.

These men and woman were known as the "Stay-Behinds."

Click here for the rest of the story.

Technorati Categories: Astrology, Astronomy, Halloween, Media, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics, Random Thoughts, Space

The Fight for What is Right

Yesterday, Rosa Parks died at the age of 92. It was through her courageous refusal to succumb to the order of a public bus driver to move to the back of the bus, to give her seat to a white person, that the wheels of segregation began to lose their grip on the road to contiued black submission to whites.

Local community black leaders met to decide how to respond to her arrest. The decision was made to peacefully respond to her arrest by boycotting the use of public buses. The entire black community boycotted public buses for 381 days until the law legalizing segregation in public buses was lifted.

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., one of the leaders involved in the movement, wrote in his book "Stride Toward Freedom":

"Mrs. Parks’ arrest was the precipitating factor rather than the cause of the protest. The cause lay deep in the record of similar injustices...Actually no one can understand the action of Mrs. Parks unless he realizes that eventually the cup of endurance runs over, and the human personality cries out, 'I can take it no longer.'"

Thanks to Rosa Park's courage to stand for what is right, battles against segregation were won and huge progress was made in achieving equality for blacks. Todays African-Americans have benefitted from the brave efforts of individuals like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

Related to the fight for what is right, federal prosecutor and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald continues his investigation into the Plame scandal, putting all the pieces together in his fight for justice. A news item published today reveals Vice President Dick Cheney has been identified as the top level leak of the identity of a CIA asset, Valerie Plame, to his cheif of staff I. Lewis Libby. The latest news comes on the heels of continued pressure on the Bush Administration as Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to President Bush, has been called back for additional grand jury testimony. According to the AP article, both Rove and Libby "face the possibility of indictment".

Unbelievably, there may be a way out of criminal charges for Cheney. Again, from the AP article:

Disclosing the identify of a covert CIA agent can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent is classified as working undercover.

The Times quoted lawyers involved in the case as saying they had no indication Fitzgerald was considering charging Cheney with a crime.

We will have to wait and see whether Cheney has the political clout and relationships to get him out of this one.

Additional pressure on the Bush Administration is coming in the form of criticism to the policies leading to the war in Iraq. Brent Snowcroft, former National Security Advisor, expressed his disagreements in interviews with The New Yorker. Quotes below from Washington Post article "CIA Leak Linked to Dispute Over Iraq Policy":

"The case that I saw for four-plus years was a case I have never seen in my studies of aberrations, bastardizations, perturbations, changes to the national security decision-making process,"

"What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made."

Lawrence B. Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

(Note: Humor below.)
Perhaps what is happening in Washington is due to the latest CDC Report on a new STD pandemic:

THE CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL has issued a no-nonsense, albeit delayed warning about a new, highly virulent strain of socially transmitted disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior.

The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "Gonna Re-elect him"). Many victims have contracted it after having been screwed for the past 4 years, in spite of having taken measures to protect themselves from this especially troublesome disease.

Cognitive sequellae of individuals infected with Gonorrhea Lectim include, but are not limited to, anti-social personality disorder traits; delusions of grandeur with a distinct messianic flavor; chronic mangling of the English language; extreme cognitive dissonance; inability to incorporate new information; pronounced xenophobia and homophobia; inability to accept responsibility for actions; exceptional cowardice masked by acts of misplaced bravado; uncontrolled facial smirking; total ignorance of geography and history; tendencies toward creating evangelical theocracies; and a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing behavior.

The disease is sweeping Washington. Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed and baffled that this malignant disease originated only a few years ago in a Texas bush. Please inform any of your friends and associates who have been acting unusual lately.

Technorati Categories: America, Courage, Dissent, Humanity, Media, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics, Racism

Courage to Speak

During these trying times for what was once the "Great American Dream", with increasing energy prices, weakening dollar, and widening trade and budget deficits, it is disheartening to continue to witness the attacks on those who have the courage to speak the truth. Whether the truth be about the current economic woes, corporate greed, inept government leadership, or lack of accountability for failed policies and crimes against humanity, those individuals who speak the truth risk public attacks, personal and on their character, humiliation of being treated as an outcast within your own country, and even detention without charge or access to legal counsel.

This is not the America in which we grew up. Ideals of fair play, respect for human life, protection of individual liberties, land of opportunity, protector of those unable to defend themselves against the bellicose and belligerent acts of bully governments or leaders, these are now gone after the events of nine-eleven, the Iraq War, and proof that our government has been involved in continued torture of individuals. A country we onced loved, believed in, and defended against criticisms no longer exists. And you can thank your fellow Americans for allowing this to happen.

I present excerpts from an article by Doug Soderstrom, a psychologist, who writes in "The Mindless American: A Tragedy in the Making" about the sad and pathetic condition of the American mind.

As a result of nine-eleven’s jarring impact upon our nation, journalists have discovered a near paranoid rise in retaliation against individuals attempting to expose governmental malfeasance. Increasingly government officials have begun punishing individuals for nothing more than reasoned attempts to inform the American public concerning: How the military has systematically abused (tortured) foreign detainees; How the government intentionally withheld evidence suggesting that an attack upon the United States by Al Qaeda had been eminent; How the military has begun to wage war upon soldiers who, in good conscience, have come to believe that it is wrong for them to kill in a war that, according to international law, is illegal, one that, the reasons for going to war, were fabricated by the President of the United States; How the United States has a sixty-year history (1945- 2005) of assassinating foreign leaders who have chosen not to support the government’s foreign policy goals, initiating the overthrow of duly-elected foreign democracies, while simultaneously supporting brutal authoritarian dictatorships all in order to fill the coffers of America’s military-industrial complex, an egregious imperialistic force with but one goal: To take command of the world economy.

As a result, many of these individuals have been incarcerated, accused of being a traitor, of having sided with the enemy, told that their career will be destroyed, and threatened with extended imprisonment. Accordingly, on September 21, 2005, U.S. immigration officials banned Robert Fisk, an internationally renowned British journalist, on his way to deliver a speech in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from entering the United States of America due to incisive criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war. No doubt such a scenario has, and is, being repeated many times over in our country. A rather sad fact for a president who has chosen to make such a big deal about the oft-quoted ideals of “freedom and democracy!”

But even more shameful is the fact that there are people who seem not to care that such things are taking place in our country; a rather ignorant crowd of jingoes more comfortable choosing to sit back pretending that everything will be just fine, a people with apparently little regard for the facts. As a behavioral scientist, I am grieved at what appears to be a near pandemic of disinterest in what is happening to our country.
...
However, now that I am well into my seventh decade of life and very near retirement, I have come to the conclusion that the world basically sucks, that there are few who seem to have the investigative courage to take a good hard look at things that, if discovered, would no doubt destroy one’s image of a land that can do no wrong, one that they believe has somehow received the eternal blessing of God. So I must ask: How is it that we have become such a mindless nation, a society populated by deadheads, folks who seem to have little desire to look beyond the thinly-veneered surface of life?

As a behavioral scientist, it appears that a vast share of folks in our nation have chosen to relinquish a quality no doubt essential to authentic human life….. an existential responsibility to think for themselves, an ontological need to discount the petty concerns that drive the minds of those directed by triviality. It seems that such individuals have become so fantastically preoccupied with, essentially enamored by, the norm of what others think, they have effectively relinquished, through a process of cognitive foreclosure, the capacity to think for themselves. Having become so extremely alienated from the core of their own being, they have little choice but to follow the crowd’s madding need to forge a symbiotic attachment to, in essence relationship with, a society, that for all practical purposes has become the basis of their own identity, the bedrock of their very being. Having done so, the image they have forged for themselves (who they believe themselves to be) has become every bit as fabricated, every bit as disconnected from reality, as their image of society. So in wanting to have at their disposal a more a positive image of themselves, they have been left with little choice but to construct a glorified image of society; an image of what they wish society would have been rather than what it has, in fact, turned out to be. Something like having chosen to have built an ego-incased frame constructed upon the shifting sands of inane social rumor and outright public lies…… truly a flight of fancy bordering on the absurd!

Very few would disagree with the proposition that in Hitler’s Germany there was a determined effort to brainwash the people so they might support Mein Fuhrer’s efforts to conquer the world. However, what if one were to suggest that much the same is occurring in the United States of America, that there has been a determined effort through the socializing influence of our schools, the government, the mass media, the churches we attend, even that of our own parents, to pressure us into believing (just as Hitler) that our country has received the blessing of God, and because of this, we therefore have not only the right, but more importantly, through the use of military weapons, a divine responsibility to see that the world acquiesces to our needs and expectations. Just as Hitler in the 1930’s prepared his countrymen to accept the authoritarian control of the Nazi government, much the same may well be occurring in the United States. Just as Hitler indoctrinated his people to believe that Germany had the right to conquer the world, George Walker Bush “in the name of freedom and democracy” may well be doing the same (preparing the American people to support his administration’s imperialistic drive to dominate the world).

Behaviorally, it is clear that citizens, from cradle to grave, are primed to conform to the dictates of those in power, instructed never to question the validity of what those who would like to take control of our lives have to say. Most Americans have no idea; that what we are fed by the news media (televised and paper-print news) is nothing more than a portrayal of what powerful corporations (those who pay the salaries of those who run mass media) want us to believe, that what happens to pass as education is as often as not mere propaganda (e.g. that Americans are the good guys and their enemies are, without exception, always the bad guys), that what we learn in church may have very little or nothing to do with the truth, that what our parents teach us may be nothing more than an accumulation of their own personal biases…… no doubt a rather subtle modification of what they were taught by their parents. And through such a process, governments and nations around the world wield control as to what their citizens, believe, value, and do.

And, of course, in our own society, the primary way most of us are controlled, the way the vast majority of us are forced “to tow the line,” is through the ominous threat of being fired. Something like this: If you are interested in keeping your career on track, that you would like to keep your job, then you ought to consider the following in order to assure your employer that you deserve the right to keep your job; get married and have a couple of kids, become a member of a social club (such as the Lions Club, the Kiwanis Club, or the Rotarians), be a good capitalist, be a patriotic citizen who loves his country, and make sure that you attend a local church so that everybody will know that you believe in God almighty. However, if, for whatever reason, you decide that you would like to become a rebel, that you would like to begin thinking for yourself, then you’d better brace yourself for trouble, because there is a reasonable likelihood that you will be fired! You see, in America, there is a rule of thumb concerning the working world which basically says that those who do what they are told to do are likely to keep their jobs, whereas those who tend to think for themselves, tend to buck the system, (tend not to do what they have been told to do) end up jobless, powerless, and left to fend for themselves on the mean streets of society.

But why? Why does such a thing occur? Why would America the beautiful, land of the free, do such a horrible thing to its own citizens? The answer is quite simple: Knowing that knowledge is power; the secret is control, controlling the out flow of information, making sure that citizens know no more than they “are supposed to know,” making sure that they remain relatively uninformed, making sure that they are given “just enough” that they will go along with, peacefully accept, the premise that they are well informed, that they have a good idea of what is going on. It is necessary then that the government keep the people from learning the truth. Keep them from even wanting to know the truth. Put the fear of God into them to the extent that they will never question what they have been told to believe. You see, those in power may say that they want their citizens to be educated, to be well informed as to what is going on, however, such is simply not the case. Ask yourself this question: What happens to those of us (teachers, preachers, philosophers, writers, journalists) who do not “tow the line,” those intent upon proposing alternate ways of looking at the world? Look at what happened to Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, even Socrates. I mean, really now, who among us wants to be crucified, assassinated, forced to drink hemlock……. wants to risk the possibility of losing one’s job, the ability to put food on the table for one’s family? However, just in case you do not believe me, try this on for size…… the next time you go to work tell the boss that you are an infidel (that you have grown up and no longer believe in God), that you have decided to become a socialist (that capitalism essentially sucks), that you no longer give a shit about your country (that you have decided to become a rebel, an actively-participating antiwar protestor), and then see what happens. Do you get the point?

There are many (Robert Fisk, Cindy Sheehan, Sybil Edmunds, Bunnatine Greenhouse, Coleen Rowley, Captain Ian Fishback, Col. Anthony Shaffer, Kevin Benderman, Jeremy Hinzman, Brandon Hughey, Camilo Mejia, among others) who have illustrated the courage to risk their jobs, their careers, their reputations, their marriages, their wealth, imprisonment, and, in some cases, even that of their own sanity. But the sad fact is that for every hero out there, there are literally thousands of citizens (each who no doubt consider themselves to be conscientious, hard-working individuals who have a sincere belief in God and a loyal commitment to their country) who yet, for whatever reason, detest men and woman such as these who have shown the moral gumption to put their lives on the line for no other reason than to make a stand for that which is right, a willingness to tell anyone, everyone who is willing to listen, that it is a far better thing for one to have sacrificed his own life so that others might see, than to have chosen to remain silent ensuring the blind pretense that all is well, that there is nothing to worry about, that Big Brother will no doubt take good care of us as long as we simply keep our mouths shut and do exactly as we are told.

Technorati Categories: America, Courage, Dissent, Humanity, Media, News, News and Politics, Opinion, Politics

Perspectives Shape our Landscape

In an earlier post (Small Revolutionaries: Environmental and Political), I commented on a column written by Joe Mozdzen in the bimonthly Making Waves publication from the Surfrider Foundation*.


Well, Joe once again does an excellent job in communicating how significant each of us is to the overall well-being of our planet and quality of life of our fellow inhabitants.

Joe refers to lessons learned while reading a large book of microscopic photography, France Bourely's "Hidden Beauty: Microworlds Revealed" (2002).

Here are some extracts from Joe's editorial titled ""Perspectives Outside the Comfort Zone"":

It is a good thing to regularly renew the limits of our perceptions and our senses.

Bourely reminds us of our many self-imposed obstacles to vision. The prejudices inherent in having fixed perspectives, fixed beliefs, and rock-solid insistance that we are right. These things that seem so solid now can change drastically with a shift in scale and perception.

Oh how, as a youth, I knew it all! The naivete of youth, the confidence to take on the world, yet lacking the wisdom to know how to appropriately proceed. Some outgrow this belief as they encounter life experiences where it becomes obvious there is much to learn, and ultimately understand we live in a school where there are many lessons to learn.

Ours is not always the winning perspective, nor does our perspective often include that which is not visible to the naked eye.

Our passion for protecting what we love must not be weakened by limiting our perspective to dogma, nostalgia or narrow perspective. If we make other perspectives -- the tinier view, or the bigger view -- irrelevent, we have lost.

We, all of humanity, lose whenever our perspective is limited by bias of any sort, whether religious, political, socio-economic, or intellectual.

There is no us and them, there is only us. Everything else is scale and viewpoint.

The mindset of "You're either with us or with the enemy" or "You're either with us or against us" is divisive. A problem or condition must be evaluated objectively from ALL sides. Anything less serves only those who wish to divide and rule.

* Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's waves, oceans and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education.

Technorati Categories: Humanity, Opinions, Photography, Science, Thoughts

Mother Nature Reflects the Human Condition

How possible is it that our planet may possess the ability to "sense" the stress currently weighing heavily on humanity? And, could this planetary "sensing" ultimately lead to a reflexive action to expunge the planetary body of the stress via some form of natural event?

Last week held several such significant events.

The torrential rains brought upon Guatemala from Hurricane Stan last week led to landslides and mudslides which resulted in the deaths of hundreds, possibly over 1,000 people. Mass graves are what's left where communities once existed.

Also last week, a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan has resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 people. The earthquake, so strong that it was felt across South Asia, from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh, was the worst earthquake on record for Pakistan.

International links to articles about the Pakistan earthquake:
AFP: Pakistan says 40,000 feared dead amid anger over slow aid
Aljazeera: Pakistan: Quake toll reaches 30,000
BBC: Aid begins arriving in quake zone
CNN: Quake toll soars above 30,000

Coming after the tragic Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the culturally-rich city of New Orleans and many Gulf cities in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and Hurricane Rita, which devastated the natural gas production and oil refining capabilities of the United States. One has to ask if this is the beginning of a period where Mother Earth begins to assert herself in her rejection of the current state of the human condition.

Are we entering a cleansing period where we will see more of these types of large-scale events?

Would these events be naturally-occurring without any external influence?

Could man's impact on the environment influence the frequency and/or intensity of these events?

Could man's treatment of one's fellow man and the dire condition in which a large percentage of the world's population lives have a cummulative effect causing an imbalance in the natural frequency within which both man and nature coexist?

Is there a possibility there may exist some external force(s) influencing our planet?

Q: (A) Now, about the relation between the phenomenon of physical disasters that are going to happen and psychic changes related to the realm border. What is cause and what is effect?
A: One precedes the other.
Q: (L) Okay, so disasters happen and then the reality changes in psychic terms?
A: Yes.
Q: (T) Is the approach of the realm border, is the change in the magnetic field... does the reversal of the poles and the broadening of the magnetic field, is that going to be before the realm border crossing?
A: Intersection.
Q: (L) So, in practical terms, it may be that, what we observe will be a series of cataclysms, disasters, the 'cleansing' of the Earth...
A: This has already begun.
Q: (L) So, it is already happening. It will accelerate and intensify. And what we will observe is all of these things happening. And, as a result of the intersecting of these various energies, this realm border, this reality change, this change in the magnetics because of the interaction with the comet cluster, the sun's companion, the realm border, and so forth, it will then have an effect upon the people left on the planet who will then change in some way as a result of this, is that correct?
A: Your Bible says that there will be many wonders on the Earth and in the Heavens in the last days.
Q: (L) Okay, this period of time after this realm border, is this period a preliminary to the total end of the Earth and all life on it?
A: No.
Q: (L) After all of this change, those people who continue to be on the Earth will be in a new environment, and it will be almost like having to grow gills to live in water, and some people will have the ability and some will not. Is that it? It will be more gradual in terms of individual physical structures and psychic structures?
A: No.
Q: (L) It will be a sudden, total change? Like flipping a switch and everything is going to be different?
A: The key is awareness.

Source: Cometary Showers, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

I guess we will find out ...

Technorati Categories: Disasters, Earthquakes, Humanity, Media, News, Opinion, Theology

Voices in his Head

"Voices Inside My Head" by The Police
Album: Zenyatta Mondatta

Voices inside my head
Echoes of things that you said
(Repeat over and over)

Aren't people who hear voices considered in need of psychiatric help or evaluation? At least, that's what I always thought was the proper course of action for anyone having those experiences. Hearing voices has been regarded by psychiatry as 'auditory hallucinations', and in many cases a symptom of schizophrenia.

Well, maybe so for most people, unless you are the President of the United States with a die-hard, faith-based support infrastructure. Anyone else would be considered a candidate for a psychiatric consultation.

How about others who have heard voices? Others like Jennifer Cisowski, Teresa Ann Archie, and Henry Glen West whom God has spoken to and resulted in the deaths of others? Why is it any less disturbing? Is it merely because he is WHO he is?

A young mother maintained that voices in her head told her to test her faith in God, causing her to repeatedly slam her infant son to the ground and down a flight of stairs. Jennifer Cisowski, 21, of Connecticut, killed her 8-month-old son Gideon Fusscas in his grandmother's upscale Florida home on Aug. 21, later saying she believed he would rise from the dead if her faith were strong enough.
Source: Tampa Tribune, Aug. 22, 2001

A Talladega County jury in August found Teresa Ann Archie, 40, guilty of the 1996 murder of her daughter Shavon Jackson. Archie, a paranoid schizophrenic, chased her daughter through their home, shooting her twice in the back after becoming convinced her 16-year-old was possessed by Satan, and that God wanted her to cleanse her home of all Satanic influence. She told police Shavon's last words were: "Mama, don't shoot me, I love you." She replied, "I know, Baby, but I have to do the Lord's will."
Source: The Daily Home, Aug. 15, 2001

God made him commit a crime spree was the defense of bible-toting Henry Glen West, sentenced by an Okahoma County judge in April to two life terms. During West's 5-hour crime spree in January 1998, he severely beat his brother, raped his brother's girlfriend, broke into a house, robbed a convenience store clerk and then tried to run her over twice. At a second convenience store, he repeatedly shot the husband-and-wife owners.
Source: Daily Oklahoman, April 21, 2001

Is it really God speaking in George Bush's head, a symptom of schizophrenia, or something more sinister? I guess in order to explain away what could be generally considered a psychiatric condition, one could attribute the voice to God or some higher being. It is better to believe one has been chosen by God as "special" and worthy of His communication, then to accept there may be some sort of psychological problem. Also, one man's God-speaking-in-his-head could very well be another man's, or intelligence agency's, implantation of subliminal thoughts or transference of mental control.

According to today's Guardian Unlimited Special Report, George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq', President Bush told a Palestinian foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, that not only was he on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but that it is his "moral and religious obligation" to create a Palestine state and ensure Israel's security.

Mr Bush went on: "And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And, by God, I'm gonna do it."

Mr Bush, who became a born-again Christian at 40, is one of the most overtly religious leaders to occupy the White House, a fact which brings him much support in middle America.

Let's hope we are not actually witnessing a modern-day religious crusade. If so, the bloodbath has just begun.

Community Service Message
If you are hearing voices you can go to one of the following websites:

• Hearing Voices Network


• American Psychological Association


• American Pshychiatric Association

Technorati Categories: Bush, Christian, Christianity, Extremism, Media, Opinion, Politics, Psychiatry, Psycho, Religion, Theology