Wednesday, November 4, 2009

4 Nov - A Little Scripture on Floods and Folly

The Delegitimization of Karzai
Why the Crisis Isn't Going Away
'size of the financial system grossly exceeds the productive capacity of the underlying economy'
Katrina and the Paralysis of Fear
The Army Corps of Engineers says it cannot protect New Orleans from storm surges of hurricanes
( Levees.org has a good deal to add )

Levees.Org Expands National Presence by Establishing Its Sixth Chapter: New York

Expansion to Increase Awareness and Issues of the Nation's Levee Systems

NEW ORLEANS, LA--(Marketwire - September 9, 2009) - Levees.org, a New Orleans-based non-profit formed after Katrina with a mission of raising awareness about the nation's levee systems, today announced the opening of its sixth chapter. The New York chapter joins existing chapters in Louisiana, Florida, California, Illinois and Oregon, boasting in total over 24,000 supporters.

"Forty three percent of the American population lives in counties protected by levees," said Sandy Rosenthal, Founder and Executive Director of Levees.org. "The failures that occurred during Katrina could happen elsewhere. With over 300 supporters in New York, a chapter there, which is vulnerable to storm surge, has been a priority since our inception in 2005."

"The opening of a New York chapter will be critical in helping us to raise awareness that the flooding caused to the New Orleans metro area during Hurricane Katrina was not merely the result of the hurricane itself, but the worst civil engineering failure in our nation's history."

( I'll offer a note that checking will find information that Bu$hCo's political allies in Florida have provided defective pumps to NOLA, installed over objections of the Army Engineers, AFTER Katrina.... Oops. See Zemanta links! )

The Af-Pak Unpack
http://americanfootprints.com/wp/2009/10/the-af-pak-unpack
The New York Times, to its credit, attempts to dispel some of the stubborn misinformation concerning the interchangeability (or lack thereof) of the Afghan Taliban faction and Pakistani Taliban faction. Contrary to popular and pervasive fictions, these two groups are quite distinct in terms of strategy and objectives.
It would be foolish in the extreme to ignore the fundamental differences between the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban factions, and the significance each holds for Pakistan. In this, we can inform our understanding by observing the policies of the Pakistanis – who are able to grasp, and take advantage of, these distinctions.
For Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban are a useful proxy, and a means of creating regional balance with India. The Pakistani branch is a nuisance in that Pakistani factions have begun to clash with Pakistani state forces in recent years, with such clashes in reaction, at least in part, to armed incursions in their territory by US and Pakistani military. Thus, key elements of the Pakistani state continue to support the Afghan Taliban, while the Pakistani factions are targeted (but even then, only half-heartedly) by that same state.
Because the Afghan Taliban is animated by a desire to regain control of Afghanistan, because it has little interest in conquering Pakistani territory (and, more importantly, it lacks the ability) and because it recognizes that its survival is dependent on support from the Pakistani government, the Afghan Taliban does not and will not turn on its benefactor in order to take up the cause of the Pakistani militants. If anything, tensions have grown between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliba.
Establishing a baseline understanding of the make-up and motivations of the various militant factions is essential to devising a plausible strategy for stabilizing the region.
( Ahem. As opposed to allowing the locals to actually do it. )

How Shit Became Shinola:
Definition and Redefinition of Space Opera
http://www.sfrevu.com/ISSUES/2003/0308/Space%20Opera%20Redefined/Review.htm
( If you don't see the connection with the previous article, look again. Fiction is as fiction does...right in the headline. )

brainwashed
( Despite my disagreements with Tom on homosexuality as being dealt with in Gospel - he hasn't shown me anything I can agree with - there are times a well-informed rant is in order. )

"How do you feel about the use of torture against suspected terrorists to obtain information about terrorism activities?" That was a question posed in the Roper poll of May 28-June 1, 2009. The results show spiritual decay:

Often be justified 20%
Sometimes be justified 32%
Rarely be justified 18%
Never be justified 29%
Don't know 1%
Refused *

(1,000 adults; Margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level)
29% gave the Christian response, not that all who hold against torture hold with all things Jesus. The rest are holding with evil here.
Now, torture should never be used; however, notice that the rest are willing to use torture on mere suspects. How would they each feel being suspected (not all who have been tortured were even suspects) and then tortured? They would be indignant. They would be violated. They would be dehumanized. They would suffer the results of having been abused by those they trusted to look out for them.
People who support torture are being stupid and selfish, which is always shortsighted and unable to put itself in other people's shoes before experiencing the abuse firsthand. Get with it. Wake up. Develop a working conscience.
...
What evil minds are those that come up with the idea that divulging atrocities endangers American troops and therefore should be censored and denied.
Here's the Christian truth to you Bill O'Reilly, Joe Lieberman, Lindsey Graham, and Barack Obama.
If the truth of atrocities endangers U.S. troops then those troops are working evil and need to stop. It's that simple. Yes, it's righteousness; and it's not reckless, Dick Cheney. It's call sanity. It's morality. It's called what will truly win hearts and minds and bring peace and safety and security if practiced without any hypocrisy throughout the whole of society. If you don't like it, too bad for you. May God have mercy on your soul because Satan won't and you're all headed right through his sieve and into his mouth.

According to the RLC Church, Isaiah/Jesus-Liberal Theology can be unfolded starting with certain verses in The Book of Isaiah and cross-referencing key words and ideas or themes that flow through The Bible. The key verses are 1 through 8 of messianic (prophesying about the savior) Chapter 32 and are as follows:

Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.

And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. [Emphasis added]

For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.

But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.

Keywords are "liberal" and "churl." The false-liberal is the one who speaks villainy, works iniquity, practices hypocrisy, utters error against God, and leads the people astray into spiritual and physical depravation. The churl is the stingy soul synonymous with conservative capitalists. Today, we hear the churls spewing many lies selfishly designed to keep the poor downtrodden and to even kill them off (via droughts, starvation, and wars, etc.) for the sake of the wealthy. They also claim to be the source of wealth benefiting the many (benefactors bringing forth bounty), whereas they are truly a negative (a drain on the whole)—just look at them destroying the Earth.
...

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Matthew 12:34 (KJV).
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Matthew 13:12 (KJV).
["Abundance of the heart" means compassion, love, and the giving-and-sharing spirit.]
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. Proverbs 11:25 (KJV).

Monarch Chapter 3C- Ewen Cameron
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4muf0_monarch-chapter-3c-ewen-cameron-politics
Chapter 3C: Ewen Cameron

The only legal challenge to MK-ULTRA that has succeeded in 60 years of operations. Ewen Cameron was the world's most influencial psychiatrist, and a CIA contractor for MKULTRA. He experimented on how to wipe
the human mind clean and then program it using electroshock therapy, LSD, sensory deprivation,

videos related to Monarch Chapter 3C- Ewen Cameron

Monarch Chapter 4A - MKULTRA 1960-1970's