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Pining for Feudalism as an Antidote for Modernity
I promised a cogent and careful review of Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED: The Motion Picture. And I'll get to it soon. But first, may I unleash an informal screed? One scribbled in rapid response to a manifesto that was posted online a few days ago - one that I found intellectually offensive.
It's an unbelievable essay written - in apparent sincerity - by my colleague John C. Wright (a pretty good author, by the way), in which he asserts that the long darkness called feudalism was admirable, and that - by dismal contrast - we now live in an age that is benighted by crudely materialistic modernity and a shabby shallowness of the soul.
Commenting on the specific stretch of abject misery and ignorance known as the European Dark Ages, Wright redefines it -- "or, as historians call it, ‘Late Antiquity’ or, as we Catholics call it, the ‘Lost, Glorious, Honorable, Ancient and Most Chivalric Golden Age of High Christendom...’"
It's an unbelievable essay written - in apparent sincerity - by my colleague John C. Wright (a pretty good author, by the way), in which he asserts that the long darkness called feudalism was admirable, and that - by dismal contrast - we now live in an age that is benighted by crudely materialistic modernity and a shabby shallowness of the soul.
Fallujah Remembered by a US Marine who Helped Destroy it in 2004
from Truth Frequency News by Nenad
It has been seven years since the 2nd siege of Fallujah — the American assault that left the city in ruins, killed thousands of civilians, and displaced hundreds-of-thousands more — the assault that poisoned a generation, plaguing the people who live there with cancers and their children with birth defects.
It has been seven years and the lies that justified the assault still perpetuate false beliefs about what we did.
The American veterans who fought there still do not understand who they fought against, or what they were fighting for.
I know, because I am one of those American veterans.
In the eyes of many of the people I “served” with, the people of Fallujah remain dehumanized and their resistance fighters are still believed to be terrorists. But unlike most of my counterparts, I understand that I was the aggressor, and that the resistance fighters in Fallujah were defending their city.
It is also the seventh anniversary of the deaths of two close friends of mine, Travis Desiato and Bradly Faircloth, who were killed in the siege. Their deaths were not heroic or glorious. Their deaths were tragic, but not unjust.
How can I begrudge the resistance in Fallujah for killing my friends, when I know that I would have done the same thing if I were in their place? How can I blame them when we were the aggressors?
It could have been me instead of Travis or Brad. I carried a radio on my back that dropped the bombs that killed civilians and reduced Fallujah to rubble. If I were a Fallujan, I would have killed anyone like me. I would have had no choice. The fate of my city and my family would have depended on it. I would have killed the foreign invaders.
Travis and Brad are both victims and perpetrators. They were killed and they killed others because of a political agenda in which they were just pawns. They were the iron fist of American empire, and an expendable loss in the eyes of their leaders.
I do not see any contradiction in feeling sympathy for the dead American Marines and soldiers and at the same time feeling sympathy for the Fallujans who fell to their guns. The contradiction lies in believing that we were liberators, when in fact we oppressed the freedoms and wishes of Fallujahs. The contradiction lies in believing that we were heroes, when the definition of “hero” bares no relation to our actions in Fallujah.
What we did to Fallujah cannot be undone, and I see no point in attacking the people in my former unit. What I want to attack are the lies and false beliefs. I want to destroy the prejudices that prevented us from putting ourselves in the other’s shoes and asking ourselves what we would have done if a foreign army invaded our country and laid siege to our city.
I understand the psychology that causes the aggressors to blame their victims. I understand the justifications and defense mechanisms. I understand the emotional urge to want to hate the people who killed someone dear to you. But to describe the psychology that preserves such false beliefs is not to ignore the objective moral truth that no attacker can ever justly blame their victims for defending themselves.
this article originally appeared on the site of Stop the War Coalition
Haaretz exclusive / How a serial criminal got help from an Israeli government minister
Zionist Al-CIA-da of Libya arming, training and funding Al-CIA-da in Syria
THEY WARNED US! MAYBE NOW YOU WILL LISTEN
from Truth Frequency News by luckee1
NATO not able to undermine Russian strategic deterrent – Pentagon
from Truth Frequency News by luckee1
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the US and NATO have not heeded Russia`s concerns over the European missile defense shield. They participate in a program capable of weakening its deterrence potential
Medvedev gave a list of decisions or threats if there`s no agreement. One of them – he said lastly – potentially deploying cutting-edge ballistic missile systems, providing for total destruction of the US anti-ballistic systems in Europe.
ALERT: Senate To Vote On Legislation That Allows U.S. Military to Detain Americans Without Charge or Trial
from Truth Frequency News by Sheree
In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.
France training rebels to fight Syria
A Turkish news agency claims that Turkey is establishing a “buffer zone” in Syria to provide Syrian rebels with shelter on Syrian soil.
According to Turkish Taraf daily, over 20,000 Syrian dissidents are currently stationed at camps near the two countries border.
The newspaper also pointed out that a number of Syrian opposition groups are currently residing in Turkey.
The claims come as Turkish officials have, on numerous occasions, denied creating a “buffer zone” in Syria.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has already suggested that Ankara might invade the country under the pretext of weeding out Kurdistan Workers’ Party terrorists operating from inside Syria.
This is while secret government cables published by US media had earlier revealed Washington has been funding Syrian opposition groups since at least 2005 and continued until today, the article concluded.
Feeling Thankfully Placid? I Can Fix That. Today's Af-Pak Reading
from (title unknown) by Eric Martin of TPR
During some period of alertness during the turkey-comatose weekend, you might consider reading an essay by Franklin "Chuck" Spinney -- my long-time friend and a former guest blogger -- about the situation in Afghanistan. (It's in Counterpunch. This should go without saying, but I have learned always to say: in endorsing one article from any site or publication, I am not necessarily endorsing everything that appears there.)
Here is how this one begins:
To those readers who disagree with my opening line, I urge you to study Anthony Cordersman's most recent situation report on the AF-PAK War, THE AFGHANISTAN- PAKISTAN WAR AT THE END OF 2011... Reading the report is heavy slogging but I urge readers to download and examine it -- at the very least, take a few minutes to read the executive summary.
read more
Here is how this one begins:
It is becoming increasingly clear that the AF-PAK war will end in yet another grand strategic defeat for the United States. To date, President Obama, has been able to distract attention from this issue, but given the stakes in 2012, that dodge is unlikely to last. Get ready for an ugly debate over "who lost the Afghan War."
To those readers who disagree with my opening line, I urge you to study Anthony Cordersman's most recent situation report on the AF-PAK War, THE AFGHANISTAN- PAKISTAN WAR AT THE END OF 2011... Reading the report is heavy slogging but I urge readers to download and examine it -- at the very least, take a few minutes to read the executive summary.
read more
Gold shipment arrives in Venezuela as Chavez begins to remove reserves from European, US banks
from Truth Frequency News by luckee1
Chavez’s opponents have called the plan costly and ill-advised.
Central Bank president Nelson Merentes said the gold has been held abroad since the late 1980s as backing for loans requested from the International Monetary Fund by prior governments.
With the gold in Venezuela, Merentes said, “it’s a guarantee” for the country.
“If there’s some problem in the international markets, here it’s going to be safe,” Merentes said.
Tax threat to parents who don’t have their children immunised
from Truth Frequency News by luckee1
Old Palestinian man in front of his house demolished by Israel today – in pictures
Israel approved the “Prawer Plan” which means “relocation” of another 57.000 Palestinians / Bedouin from Jordan Valley as well as from the Naqab (Negev) Desert. Exiles did not stop 63 years ago. It goes on, even today. And tomorrow. And the day after if the world keeps silent on ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
A tank tries to run over protesters in Saudi Arabia
from Truth Frequency News by luckee1
Australia picks last possible moment to leap ONTO burning ship
Gillard — the Australian Prime Minister — got the timing perfectly wrong.
Within two weeks of the Carbon Tax finally becoming Law, it’s becoming hard not to notice that the whole Global Scam is fragmenting. This Carbon ship is on fire, the lifeboats are leaving, the rats are jumping, and the Australian team just turned up with the family jewels. Their policies are “take no prisoners” and “bring no life jackets”. Their exit plan is to have No Exit.
blogger-following
1:59 PM (1 hour ago)
Thank You Rachel Corrie
Popout
From: Snordelhans | Oct 6, 2011 | 3,726 views
Heretic Productions present; Lasha Darkmoon’s ode to Rachel Corrie.“We are protecting civilians. We are unarmed. We are no threat to you. Please do not shoot.” (Rachel Corrie)
Video that I have is way too violent for this piece so had to make do with these stills.
1:44 PM (1 hour ago)
Pining for Feudalism as an Antidote for Modernity
I promised a cogent and careful review of Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED: The Motion Picture. And I'll get to it soon. But first, may I unleash an informal screed? One scribbled in rapid response to a manifesto that was posted online a few days ago - one that I found intellectually offensive.
It's an unbelievable essay written - in apparent sincerity - by my colleague John C. Wright (a pretty good author, by the way), in which he asserts that the long darkness called feudalism was admirable, and that - by dismal contrast - we now live in an age that is benighted by crudely materialistic modernity and a shabby shallowness of the soul.
Commenting on the specific stretch of abject misery and ignorance known as the European Dark Ages, Wright redefines it -- "or, as historians call it, ‘Late Antiquity’ or, as we Catholics call it, the ‘Lost, Glorious, Honorable, Ancient and Most Chivalric Golden Age of High Christendom...’"
He goes on:
"No one wants to die at thirty, half a mile from where he was born, unless of course he likes his home, and any patient would prefer antibiotics to leeches, I grant you. But man does not live by bread alone, or even by jet travel and space age medicine. We paid the price to enjoy the mixed blessings of the modern day, and something beyond the price we paid was lost, something precious.
"To look at mankind, who so clearly yearns for some sort of communion or reunion with nature that the pagans people the woods with nymphs and satyrs, or the nursery tales or Aesop fables with talking animals, and conclude the only possible relation between man and elf is mutual genocide is a Darwinian rather than sacramental view of life: it is simply blind to what in man, weak though it may be, is not devout to totalitarian modernism and ideas of total war. It is the world view of François de Robespierre, who guillotined the aristocracy of France like vermin, not the view of Francis of Assisi, who saluted the verminous wolf as his brother."
Woof. Naturally, I am torn. I love a good contrarian! And Wright clearly envisions himself in that role, leveling his lance to charge against the giant, clanking, soul-grinding mill called modernity...
...even though a mere glance at the last 6000 years shows which human phenomenon is standard fare - feudalism, serving the darwinian reproductive success of brutal men - and which type of society (modernity) is the brash upstart, with all odds stacked against it.
Okay, I love a contrarian. And yet, those who have read my denunciations of romantic nostalgia - (respectful denunciation, when I speak of the honest romanticTolkien, but disdainful when it comes to the cosmic ingrate, George Lucas) - won't be surprised to learn that another part of me has no patience for this utter, counterfactual drivel.
Man, oh man. Where to start on this sophistry?? As if the pagan forest-lovers weren't vastly worse-off in the era Wright idolizes? Hounded and burned at the stake by medieval catholic bishops? (OMG, which era produced copious, pastoral-loving fantasy novels?)
As if the aristocracy of 1790 France were prime examples of humanity, of wisdom and charity, instead of monstrous persecutors who stupidly hand-crafted their own fates? Or as if 99% of the noble-born Assisi's peers were anything other than drooling-evil horrors, who only paused in their relentless reciprocal treachery long enough to join forces in a grand overall program of oppressing the serf-masses, cauterizing every low-born child's dreams?
Zoom in upon Wright's claim that those who criticize nostalgist romanticism "...conclude the only possible relation between man and elf is mutual genocide is a Darwinian rather than sacramental view of life: it is simply blind to what in man, weak though it may be, is not devout to totalitarian modernism and ideas of total war."
Oh cripes. Where to begin. First. We owe absolutely nothing to $%#! elfs or wizards who clutch secret "wisdom" (what we moderns call "information about the world") to themselves for thousands of years, leaving men and women to flounder in miserable ignorance, when they might have opened a college in Lothlorien Forest, so we'd have flush toilets and palantirs on every desktop. Oh, thank God such creatures are mythological, because Tolkien himself opined that they were - in truth - the enemies of humankind.
Evidently, Wright swallows the romantic turd-wallow that things are better when knowledge is mysterious. Or, as the wise authors of BORED OF THE RINGS put it:
"Rings go better with hocus pocus."
(All right, you have to be over 50 to get that joke. But trust me: BORED OF THE RINGS is every bit as sagacious and insightful as the tome that it satirizes!)
Total war? Oh Jesus, John, you dare to lecture us about TOTAL WAR? Sorry, I do like you and you write well, but anyone who thinks we've gotten worse in our brutal savagery is simply a historical ignoramus. I mean an ignoramus of historical proportions, who knows nothing of what the Assyrians did to the lost ten tribes of Israel, or the Romans to Judea, or the Mongols to Poland, or the Spanish to every native population they encountered. Or the Polynesians to each other, every year. Do you doubt that I could go on with this list? All day and all week? Can you cite counter-examples? Sure, but not many.
By comparison, ever since the heroes of the democratic enlightenment conquered Mordor... I mean toppled the Nazi uber-romantics, who Tolkien himself diagnosed as super-examples of the nostalgic way... ever since George Marshall's brave men of the west pounded those monsters into dust, the per capita rate of violence on planet Earth has plummeted every single decade.
Don't believe it? Watch this: Stephen Pinker on the Myth of Violence. Then ponder the most marvelous irony: that you think modernity is more violent and cruel only because modernity has succeeded in raising our standards of decent behavior, making us more self-critical about the travesties that remain. Crimes that are so much milder than our ancestors commited routinely, without a twinge.
Oh, oh, the irony! Only... it gets richer:
"But we all know, or should all know, that modern society for all its hard and metallic glories and all its cold and soaring skyscrapers, and for the miracles of moonshots and penicillin shots, and the blessings of good plumbing and the opium of twenty-four-hour television, has lost something. Anyone who does not sense or suspect that modernity is missing something, something important, has no heart and no taste for High Fantasy."
No heart. What miserable donkey-hockey! John Wright suggests that everybody, across those dark millennia, spent their time - while hunkering in frigid huts - thinking noble thoughts and experiencing wondrous insights of soul-expanding wisdom, instead of grunting like beasts and knifing each other for scraps. What a reach! Based on what evidence? Just because one priest per generation scribbled something poetical by candle light?
Good lord! Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. Show ushow grinding poverty and ignorance have ever elevated great numbers of human souls. Ever. And I mean ever. You don't have to prove it, just show us any correlation. Any at all!
Let's see. Who wrote - during those long, awful centuries - the fine, poetically wise things that John Wright admires? From Augustine to Aquinas to Assisi... to Maimonides, Lao Tze and Buddha? Aristocrats, all! Men who had free time and plenty of food and access to every scrap of "media" available during their era. And yes, the low-brow media too, that Aristotle and Archimedes and Socrates all enjoyed, attending every bawdy play they possibly could. As did Shakespeare, Goethe and Voltaire.
So... because there is vastly more media crap around today, that means we should ignore how much more good stuff we also have at-hand? Every glimmer of wisdom that survived the burning of the Alexandrine Library or being hidden in wizard grimoires is now available. And those who choose to explore it all now can.
Um, instead of proclaiming that poverty and ignorance made our ancestors wise... perhaps... might one venture to suggest an alternative, vastly more realistic hypothesis? That as we increase the percentage of humanity who have surfeited bellies and disposable incomes and free time, then perhaps we might also see a commensurateincrease in the percentage who feel the stirring of God's Second Greatest Gift?
What gift am I talking about? One that comes in second only to compassionate love? The attribute that comes closest to making us just like God....
The gift called curiosity.
Oh, sure, the fraction who engage in wonder, while trawling today's internet, is far from a majority. Perhaps it always will be. But to deny that the number who actually ponder and wonder and who compassionately care about the suffering of those who dwell very far away is vastly, profoundly, overwhelmingly greater than it used to be, during epochs of tooth-and-claw, is just plain pathetic.
Is there more diversity in their glimpses of the sublime? Do these millions who are liberated by modernity contemplate -- and argue over -- a wider range of marvelous thoughts than just the virgin birth? Sure! Does that make us lesser beings, as John Wright presumes? Or does it make us incrementally more like the God who conceives an entire cosmos, filled with marvelous contradictions? The latter, you betcha.
Lost something? John are you serious? Trotting out the old "lost something" cliche?
John Wright beckons us with the sweet-sick smugness of the Zero Sum Game. The notion that we cannot gain the treasures of modernity without giving away something precious in return. A sourpuss idee fixee that was well-distilled by Walt Whitman in his despicable poem: "When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer." As if the man of science does not also stare skyward, in wonder. Take it from this "learn'd astronomer": you can scrutinize the cosmos and stare at it in aesthetic joy. You can do both.
It is this rejection of the Enlightenment's Positive Sum Game that makes an ingrate of John Wright. And ingratitude -- toward the generations who strove so hard to lift their children, one rung at a time, to better and more sagacious lives -- is the most churlish human habit. This is not reverence of our ancestors, but the most atrocious way to insult them!
In contrast, I am the one here who honors the men and women of the middle ages, along with all the brutal centuries that both preceded and followed. I honor them because I admit and avow that, amid all of that horror, some of them built more than they tore down, That - amid terror and ignorance - they managed to conceive and labor and give birth - generation by slow generation - to a marvel. To a miracle. To us.
Moreover, the geas that this lays upon us - to raise kids who are better still - is the greatest duty and burden we could possibly take upon our backs.
Oh, sure, I recognize this snarky grouchiness as what it is... part of today's viciously treasonous phenomenon called "culture war." It all fits into a tsunami of know-nothing rage expressed by the Murdochians, their anti-science, anti-progress rejection of all possibility of human improvability. Their hatred of this spectacular civilization that Ben Franklin and George Marshall helped us build with our own hands. Their blatant putsch to re-establish feudalism.
But let me make plain that this is not a matter of mere politics alone. Indeed, there are anti-tech, pastoral-mystical troglodytes on the left, as well!
No, it goes far beyond mere politics. This fever is an immune response against modernity, by a portion of our genes that arose out of the harems of feudal lords. The dank, pitiable part of our human soul that yearns for hierarchy and prim order and mystically secretive gate-keepers of knowledge. A spiteful grudge against modernity's level playing field and wide-open frontier of opportunity.
If I might borrow and adapt a metaphor from H.G. Wells -- although today's major villains are the murdochs, there is plenty of the same sickness among our eloi friends on the other side. This isn't left-versus-right. It is about personality.
The crime, the betrayal of hope, is the same at both extremes. It lies in their cultish mystifying and worshipping - without a scintilla's evidence or proof - a golden past that irrefutably wasn't, and a cruel darkness that only now is parting from before our eyes.
It's an unbelievable essay written - in apparent sincerity - by my colleague John C. Wright (a pretty good author, by the way), in which he asserts that the long darkness called feudalism was admirable, and that - by dismal contrast - we now live in an age that is benighted by crudely materialistic modernity and a shabby shallowness of the soul.
He goes on:
"No one wants to die at thirty, half a mile from where he was born, unless of course he likes his home, and any patient would prefer antibiotics to leeches, I grant you. But man does not live by bread alone, or even by jet travel and space age medicine. We paid the price to enjoy the mixed blessings of the modern day, and something beyond the price we paid was lost, something precious.
"To look at mankind, who so clearly yearns for some sort of communion or reunion with nature that the pagans people the woods with nymphs and satyrs, or the nursery tales or Aesop fables with talking animals, and conclude the only possible relation between man and elf is mutual genocide is a Darwinian rather than sacramental view of life: it is simply blind to what in man, weak though it may be, is not devout to totalitarian modernism and ideas of total war. It is the world view of François de Robespierre, who guillotined the aristocracy of France like vermin, not the view of Francis of Assisi, who saluted the verminous wolf as his brother."
Woof. Naturally, I am torn. I love a good contrarian! And Wright clearly envisions himself in that role, leveling his lance to charge against the giant, clanking, soul-grinding mill called modernity...
Okay, I love a contrarian. And yet, those who have read my denunciations of romantic nostalgia - (respectful denunciation, when I speak of the honest romanticTolkien, but disdainful when it comes to the cosmic ingrate, George Lucas) - won't be surprised to learn that another part of me has no patience for this utter, counterfactual drivel.
Man, oh man. Where to start on this sophistry?? As if the pagan forest-lovers weren't vastly worse-off in the era Wright idolizes? Hounded and burned at the stake by medieval catholic bishops? (OMG, which era produced copious, pastoral-loving fantasy novels?)
As if the aristocracy of 1790 France were prime examples of humanity, of wisdom and charity, instead of monstrous persecutors who stupidly hand-crafted their own fates? Or as if 99% of the noble-born Assisi's peers were anything other than drooling-evil horrors, who only paused in their relentless reciprocal treachery long enough to join forces in a grand overall program of oppressing the serf-masses, cauterizing every low-born child's dreams?
Zoom in upon Wright's claim that those who criticize nostalgist romanticism "...conclude the only possible relation between man and elf is mutual genocide is a Darwinian rather than sacramental view of life: it is simply blind to what in man, weak though it may be, is not devout to totalitarian modernism and ideas of total war."
Oh cripes. Where to begin. First. We owe absolutely nothing to $%#! elfs or wizards who clutch secret "wisdom" (what we moderns call "information about the world") to themselves for thousands of years, leaving men and women to flounder in miserable ignorance, when they might have opened a college in Lothlorien Forest, so we'd have flush toilets and palantirs on every desktop. Oh, thank God such creatures are mythological, because Tolkien himself opined that they were - in truth - the enemies of humankind.
Evidently, Wright swallows the romantic turd-wallow that things are better when knowledge is mysterious. Or, as the wise authors of BORED OF THE RINGS put it:
"Rings go better with hocus pocus."
(All right, you have to be over 50 to get that joke. But trust me: BORED OF THE RINGS is every bit as sagacious and insightful as the tome that it satirizes!)
Total war? Oh Jesus, John, you dare to lecture us about TOTAL WAR? Sorry, I do like you and you write well, but anyone who thinks we've gotten worse in our brutal savagery is simply a historical ignoramus. I mean an ignoramus of historical proportions, who knows nothing of what the Assyrians did to the lost ten tribes of Israel, or the Romans to Judea, or the Mongols to Poland, or the Spanish to every native population they encountered. Or the Polynesians to each other, every year. Do you doubt that I could go on with this list? All day and all week? Can you cite counter-examples? Sure, but not many.
By comparison, ever since the heroes of the democratic enlightenment conquered Mordor... I mean toppled the Nazi uber-romantics, who Tolkien himself diagnosed as super-examples of the nostalgic way... ever since George Marshall's brave men of the west pounded those monsters into dust, the per capita rate of violence on planet Earth has plummeted every single decade.Don't believe it? Watch this: Stephen Pinker on the Myth of Violence. Then ponder the most marvelous irony: that you think modernity is more violent and cruel only because modernity has succeeded in raising our standards of decent behavior, making us more self-critical about the travesties that remain. Crimes that are so much milder than our ancestors commited routinely, without a twinge.
Oh, oh, the irony! Only... it gets richer:
"But we all know, or should all know, that modern society for all its hard and metallic glories and all its cold and soaring skyscrapers, and for the miracles of moonshots and penicillin shots, and the blessings of good plumbing and the opium of twenty-four-hour television, has lost something. Anyone who does not sense or suspect that modernity is missing something, something important, has no heart and no taste for High Fantasy."
Good lord! Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. Show ushow grinding poverty and ignorance have ever elevated great numbers of human souls. Ever. And I mean ever. You don't have to prove it, just show us any correlation. Any at all!
Let's see. Who wrote - during those long, awful centuries - the fine, poetically wise things that John Wright admires? From Augustine to Aquinas to Assisi... to Maimonides, Lao Tze and Buddha? Aristocrats, all! Men who had free time and plenty of food and access to every scrap of "media" available during their era. And yes, the low-brow media too, that Aristotle and Archimedes and Socrates all enjoyed, attending every bawdy play they possibly could. As did Shakespeare, Goethe and Voltaire.
So... because there is vastly more media crap around today, that means we should ignore how much more good stuff we also have at-hand? Every glimmer of wisdom that survived the burning of the Alexandrine Library or being hidden in wizard grimoires is now available. And those who choose to explore it all now can.
Um, instead of proclaiming that poverty and ignorance made our ancestors wise... perhaps... might one venture to suggest an alternative, vastly more realistic hypothesis? That as we increase the percentage of humanity who have surfeited bellies and disposable incomes and free time, then perhaps we might also see a commensurateincrease in the percentage who feel the stirring of God's Second Greatest Gift?
What gift am I talking about? One that comes in second only to compassionate love? The attribute that comes closest to making us just like God....
The gift called curiosity.
Oh, sure, the fraction who engage in wonder, while trawling today's internet, is far from a majority. Perhaps it always will be. But to deny that the number who actually ponder and wonder and who compassionately care about the suffering of those who dwell very far away is vastly, profoundly, overwhelmingly greater than it used to be, during epochs of tooth-and-claw, is just plain pathetic.
Is there more diversity in their glimpses of the sublime? Do these millions who are liberated by modernity contemplate -- and argue over -- a wider range of marvelous thoughts than just the virgin birth? Sure! Does that make us lesser beings, as John Wright presumes? Or does it make us incrementally more like the God who conceives an entire cosmos, filled with marvelous contradictions? The latter, you betcha.
Lost something? John are you serious? Trotting out the old "lost something" cliche?
John Wright beckons us with the sweet-sick smugness of the Zero Sum Game. The notion that we cannot gain the treasures of modernity without giving away something precious in return. A sourpuss idee fixee that was well-distilled by Walt Whitman in his despicable poem: "When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer." As if the man of science does not also stare skyward, in wonder. Take it from this "learn'd astronomer": you can scrutinize the cosmos and stare at it in aesthetic joy. You can do both.
In contrast, I am the one here who honors the men and women of the middle ages, along with all the brutal centuries that both preceded and followed. I honor them because I admit and avow that, amid all of that horror, some of them built more than they tore down, That - amid terror and ignorance - they managed to conceive and labor and give birth - generation by slow generation - to a marvel. To a miracle. To us.
Moreover, the geas that this lays upon us - to raise kids who are better still - is the greatest duty and burden we could possibly take upon our backs.
Oh, sure, I recognize this snarky grouchiness as what it is... part of today's viciously treasonous phenomenon called "culture war." It all fits into a tsunami of know-nothing rage expressed by the Murdochians, their anti-science, anti-progress rejection of all possibility of human improvability. Their hatred of this spectacular civilization that Ben Franklin and George Marshall helped us build with our own hands. Their blatant putsch to re-establish feudalism.
But let me make plain that this is not a matter of mere politics alone. Indeed, there are anti-tech, pastoral-mystical troglodytes on the left, as well!
No, it goes far beyond mere politics. This fever is an immune response against modernity, by a portion of our genes that arose out of the harems of feudal lords. The dank, pitiable part of our human soul that yearns for hierarchy and prim order and mystically secretive gate-keepers of knowledge. A spiteful grudge against modernity's level playing field and wide-open frontier of opportunity.
If I might borrow and adapt a metaphor from H.G. Wells -- although today's major villains are the murdochs, there is plenty of the same sickness among our eloi friends on the other side. This isn't left-versus-right. It is about personality.
The crime, the betrayal of hope, is the same at both extremes. It lies in their cultish mystifying and worshipping - without a scintilla's evidence or proof - a golden past that irrefutably wasn't, and a cruel darkness that only now is parting from before our eyes.
. . ...a collaborative contrarian product of David Brin, Enlightenment Civilization, obstinate human nature... and http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
1:02 PM (2 hours ago)
Fallujah Remembered by a US Marine who Helped Destroy it in 2004
by Ross Caputi
November 24, 2011
US War Crimes - Fallujah, Iraq – December 2004It has been seven years since the 2nd siege of Fallujah — the American assault that left the city in ruins, killed thousands of civilians, and displaced hundreds-of-thousands more — the assault that poisoned a generation, plaguing the people who live there with cancers and their children with birth defects.
It has been seven years and the lies that justified the assault still perpetuate false beliefs about what we did.
The American veterans who fought there still do not understand who they fought against, or what they were fighting for.
I know, because I am one of those American veterans.
In the eyes of many of the people I “served” with, the people of Fallujah remain dehumanized and their resistance fighters are still believed to be terrorists. But unlike most of my counterparts, I understand that I was the aggressor, and that the resistance fighters in Fallujah were defending their city.
It is also the seventh anniversary of the deaths of two close friends of mine, Travis Desiato and Bradly Faircloth, who were killed in the siege. Their deaths were not heroic or glorious. Their deaths were tragic, but not unjust.
How can I begrudge the resistance in Fallujah for killing my friends, when I know that I would have done the same thing if I were in their place? How can I blame them when we were the aggressors?
It could have been me instead of Travis or Brad. I carried a radio on my back that dropped the bombs that killed civilians and reduced Fallujah to rubble. If I were a Fallujan, I would have killed anyone like me. I would have had no choice. The fate of my city and my family would have depended on it. I would have killed the foreign invaders.
Travis and Brad are both victims and perpetrators. They were killed and they killed others because of a political agenda in which they were just pawns. They were the iron fist of American empire, and an expendable loss in the eyes of their leaders.
I do not see any contradiction in feeling sympathy for the dead American Marines and soldiers and at the same time feeling sympathy for the Fallujans who fell to their guns. The contradiction lies in believing that we were liberators, when in fact we oppressed the freedoms and wishes of Fallujahs. The contradiction lies in believing that we were heroes, when the definition of “hero” bares no relation to our actions in Fallujah.
What we did to Fallujah cannot be undone, and I see no point in attacking the people in my former unit. What I want to attack are the lies and false beliefs. I want to destroy the prejudices that prevented us from putting ourselves in the other’s shoes and asking ourselves what we would have done if a foreign army invaded our country and laid siege to our city.
I understand the psychology that causes the aggressors to blame their victims. I understand the justifications and defense mechanisms. I understand the emotional urge to want to hate the people who killed someone dear to you. But to describe the psychology that preserves such false beliefs is not to ignore the objective moral truth that no attacker can ever justly blame their victims for defending themselves.
The same distorted morality has been used to justify attacks against the Native Americans, the Vietnamese, El Salvadorans, and the Afghans. It is the same story over and over again. These peoples have been dehumanized, their God-given right to self-defense has been delegitimized, their resistance has been reframed as terrorism, and American soldiers have been sent to kill them.
History has preserved these lies, normalized them, and socialized them into our culture; so much so that legitimate resistance against American aggression is incomprehensible to most, and to even raise this question is seen as un-American.
History has defined the American veteran as a hero, and in doing so it has automatically defined anyone who fights against him as the bad-guy. It has reversed the roles of aggressor and defender, moralized the immoral, and it has shaped our societies present understanding of war.
I cannot imagine a more necessary step towards justice than to put an end to these lies, and achieve some moral clarity on this issue. I see no issue more important than to clearly understand the difference between aggression and self-defense, and to support legitimate struggles. I cannot hate, blame, begrudge, or resent Fallujans for fighting back against us. I am sincerely sorry for the role I played in the 2nd siege of Fallujah, and I hope that someday not just Fallujans but all Iraqis will win their struggle.
this article originally appeared on the site of Stop the War Coalition
November 24, 2011
US War Crimes - Fallujah, Iraq – December 2004It has been seven years and the lies that justified the assault still perpetuate false beliefs about what we did.
The American veterans who fought there still do not understand who they fought against, or what they were fighting for.
I know, because I am one of those American veterans.
In the eyes of many of the people I “served” with, the people of Fallujah remain dehumanized and their resistance fighters are still believed to be terrorists. But unlike most of my counterparts, I understand that I was the aggressor, and that the resistance fighters in Fallujah were defending their city.
It is also the seventh anniversary of the deaths of two close friends of mine, Travis Desiato and Bradly Faircloth, who were killed in the siege. Their deaths were not heroic or glorious. Their deaths were tragic, but not unjust.
How can I begrudge the resistance in Fallujah for killing my friends, when I know that I would have done the same thing if I were in their place? How can I blame them when we were the aggressors?
It could have been me instead of Travis or Brad. I carried a radio on my back that dropped the bombs that killed civilians and reduced Fallujah to rubble. If I were a Fallujan, I would have killed anyone like me. I would have had no choice. The fate of my city and my family would have depended on it. I would have killed the foreign invaders.
Travis and Brad are both victims and perpetrators. They were killed and they killed others because of a political agenda in which they were just pawns. They were the iron fist of American empire, and an expendable loss in the eyes of their leaders.
I do not see any contradiction in feeling sympathy for the dead American Marines and soldiers and at the same time feeling sympathy for the Fallujans who fell to their guns. The contradiction lies in believing that we were liberators, when in fact we oppressed the freedoms and wishes of Fallujahs. The contradiction lies in believing that we were heroes, when the definition of “hero” bares no relation to our actions in Fallujah.
What we did to Fallujah cannot be undone, and I see no point in attacking the people in my former unit. What I want to attack are the lies and false beliefs. I want to destroy the prejudices that prevented us from putting ourselves in the other’s shoes and asking ourselves what we would have done if a foreign army invaded our country and laid siege to our city.
I understand the psychology that causes the aggressors to blame their victims. I understand the justifications and defense mechanisms. I understand the emotional urge to want to hate the people who killed someone dear to you. But to describe the psychology that preserves such false beliefs is not to ignore the objective moral truth that no attacker can ever justly blame their victims for defending themselves.
The same distorted morality has been used to justify attacks against the Native Americans, the Vietnamese, El Salvadorans, and the Afghans. It is the same story over and over again. These peoples have been dehumanized, their God-given right to self-defense has been delegitimized, their resistance has been reframed as terrorism, and American soldiers have been sent to kill them.
History has preserved these lies, normalized them, and socialized them into our culture; so much so that legitimate resistance against American aggression is incomprehensible to most, and to even raise this question is seen as un-American.
History has defined the American veteran as a hero, and in doing so it has automatically defined anyone who fights against him as the bad-guy. It has reversed the roles of aggressor and defender, moralized the immoral, and it has shaped our societies present understanding of war.
I cannot imagine a more necessary step towards justice than to put an end to these lies, and achieve some moral clarity on this issue. I see no issue more important than to clearly understand the difference between aggression and self-defense, and to support legitimate struggles. I cannot hate, blame, begrudge, or resent Fallujans for fighting back against us. I am sincerely sorry for the role I played in the 2nd siege of Fallujah, and I hope that someday not just Fallujans but all Iraqis will win their struggle.
this article originally appeared on the site of Stop the War Coalition
Fallujah: a lost generation?
Popout1:02 PM (2 hours ago)
’16 armed terrorists killed in Syria’
Sat Nov 26, 2011 presstv
Syrian police armored vehicles are seen in Homs, Syria. (File photo)Syrian security forces have dismantled a terrorist gang, killing at least 16 armed elements and arresting several others in an operation in Syria’s central province of Homs.
The Syrian forces also seized large quantities of arms during the operation which was carried out in the town of Rastan in Homs, AFP reported.Among the seized weapons were rockets, mortars, machine guns and tear gas canisters that were made in Israel.
“The armed men sowed terror in the town,” said a Syrian official, whose name was not announced.
Syrian authorities blame “armed terrorist gangs” for the violence which has swept some parts of the country during the past eight months.
Damascus insists that the unrest in the country has been largely promoted by foreign-linked armed elements who try to incite violence by targeting security forces as well as ordinary protesters.
DB/JG/HJL
Zionist Al-CIA-da of Libya arming, training and funding Al-CIA-da in Syria
10:06 AM (5 hours ago)
THEY WARNED US! MAYBE NOW YOU WILL LISTEN
Will people finally listen and pull their assets out of the banks and pull their heads out of their asses?
Popout
9:08 AM (6 hours ago)
France training rebels to fight Syria
Sat Nov 26, 2011 presstv
Armed Syrian dissident forces are seen in Homs. (File photo)
The report added that the French, British, and Turkish authorities “have reached an agreement to send arms into Syria.”
The Turkish daily said that the three have informed the US about training and arming the Syrian opposition.
According to Milliyet, a group of armed rebels are currently stationed in Turkey’s Hatay Province near the border with Syria.
The report comes as an earlier report had revealed that the British and French intelligence agencies have reportedly tasked their agents with contacting Syrian dissidents based in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli in order to help fuel unrest in Syria.
Reports also said that French intelligence agents have been sent to northern Lebanon and Turkey to build the first contingents of the Free Syrian Army out of the deserters who have fled Syria.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Assad.
Damascus says the unrest has been largely incited by elements that are well-paid and armed by foreign powers. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The opposition and Western countries accuse Syrian security forces of being behind the killings in the country, but the government blames what it describes as outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups for the deadly violence, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.
DB/HGH
The newspaper also pointed out that a number of Syrian opposition groups are currently residing in Turkey.
The claims come as Turkish officials have, on numerous occasions, denied creating a “buffer zone” in Syria.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has already suggested that Ankara might invade the country under the pretext of weeding out Kurdistan Workers’ Party terrorists operating from inside Syria.
This is while secret government cables published by US media had earlier revealed Washington has been funding Syrian opposition groups since at least 2005 and continued until today, the article concluded.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Assad.
Damascus says the unrest has been largely incited by elements that are well-paid and armed by foreign powers. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The opposition and Western countries accuse Syrian security forces of being behind the killings in the country, but the government blames what it describes as outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups for the deadly violence, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.
SZH/JR/HGH
Armed Syrian dissident forces are seen in Homs. (File photo)A Turkish newspaper has unveiled that French military forces are training armed Syrian rebels to fight the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
According to Milliyet, as cited by IRNA, France has sent its military training forces to Turkey and Lebanon to coach the so-called Free Syrian Army — a group of defectors operating out of Turkey and Lebanon — in an effort to wage war against Syria’s military.The report added that the French, British, and Turkish authorities “have reached an agreement to send arms into Syria.”
The Turkish daily said that the three have informed the US about training and arming the Syrian opposition.
According to Milliyet, a group of armed rebels are currently stationed in Turkey’s Hatay Province near the border with Syria.
The report comes as an earlier report had revealed that the British and French intelligence agencies have reportedly tasked their agents with contacting Syrian dissidents based in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli in order to help fuel unrest in Syria.
Reports also said that French intelligence agents have been sent to northern Lebanon and Turkey to build the first contingents of the Free Syrian Army out of the deserters who have fled Syria.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Assad.
Damascus says the unrest has been largely incited by elements that are well-paid and armed by foreign powers. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The opposition and Western countries accuse Syrian security forces of being behind the killings in the country, but the government blames what it describes as outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups for the deadly violence, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.
DB/HGH
‘Turkey harboring Syrian rebels’
Sat Nov 26, 2011 presstvSyrian dissidents in a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey (File Photo)
A Turkish news agency claims that Turkey is establishing a “buffer zone” in Syria to provide Syrian rebels with shelter on Syrian soil.
According to Turkish Taraf daily, over 20,000 Syrian dissidents are currently stationed at camps near the two countries border.The newspaper also pointed out that a number of Syrian opposition groups are currently residing in Turkey.
The claims come as Turkish officials have, on numerous occasions, denied creating a “buffer zone” in Syria.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has already suggested that Ankara might invade the country under the pretext of weeding out Kurdistan Workers’ Party terrorists operating from inside Syria.
This is while secret government cables published by US media had earlier revealed Washington has been funding Syrian opposition groups since at least 2005 and continued until today, the article concluded.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Assad.
Damascus says the unrest has been largely incited by elements that are well-paid and armed by foreign powers. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The opposition and Western countries accuse Syrian security forces of being behind the killings in the country, but the government blames what it describes as outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups for the deadly violence, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.
SZH/JR/HGH
9:08 AM (6 hours ago)
Gold shipment arrives in Venezuela as Chavez begins to remove reserves from European, US banks
( Ariana Cubillos / Associated Press )
- Soldiers stand guard as an armored truck containing gold reserves arrives to the Central Bank in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday Nov. 25, 2011. President Hugo Chavez’s government began repatriating Venezuela’s gold reserves from European banks Friday as the first shipment arrived on a flight from Paris.
- Soldiers stand guard as an armored truck containing gold reserves arrives to the Central Bank in Caracas, Venezuela, Friday Nov. 25, 2011. President Hugo Chavez’s government began repatriating Venezuela’s gold reserves from European banks Friday as the first shipment arrived on a flight from Paris.
By Associated Press, Published: November 25, 2011
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez’s government began repatriating Venezuela’s gold reserves from European banks Friday as the first shipment arrived on a flight from Paris.Troops guarded the shipment in a caravan of at least five armored trucks that carried the gold to the Central Bank in Caracas.
A group of government supporters cheered and waved flags as the caravan passed, with soldiers holding their rifles at the ready. Two light tanks escorted the shipment.
Chavez announced in August that his government would retrieve more than 211 tons of gold held in U.S. and European banks.
Chavez announced earlier Friday that the first of the gold was on its way.
“It’s coming to the place it never should have left. … The vaults of the Central Bank of Venezuela, not the bank of London or the bank of the United States,” Chavez said. “It’s our gold.”
He said that previously the gold was held in Britain. He didn’t specify the bank nor say how much was in the shipment.
The leftist president has said his decision to repatriate the gold reserves is aimed at helping to protect the oil-producing country from economic troubles in the United States and Europe.
Economist Pedro Palma, who is a professor at the Institute of Higher Studies of Administration, said he saw no economic justification for moving the gold.
“From the economic point view, it is the same to have it here as in England. The reserves will not change because of this,” Palma said. He said it seemed to be an attempt to show the public “heroic actions” on the part of the government.
Chavez’s opponents have called the plan costly and ill-advised.
Central Bank president Nelson Merentes said the gold has been held abroad since the late 1980s as backing for loans requested from the International Monetary Fund by prior governments.
With the gold in Venezuela, Merentes said, “it’s a guarantee” for the country.
“If there’s some problem in the international markets, here it’s going to be safe,” Merentes said.
#########################luckee1′s note: folks should take a look at this example. Chavez pulled the gold out, wise people will pull their funds out of central banks too.
A group of government supporters cheered and waved flags as the caravan passed, with soldiers holding their rifles at the ready. Two light tanks escorted the shipment.
Chavez announced in August that his government would retrieve more than 211 tons of gold held in U.S. and European banks.
Chavez announced earlier Friday that the first of the gold was on its way.
“It’s coming to the place it never should have left. … The vaults of the Central Bank of Venezuela, not the bank of London or the bank of the United States,” Chavez said. “It’s our gold.”
He said that previously the gold was held in Britain. He didn’t specify the bank nor say how much was in the shipment.
The leftist president has said his decision to repatriate the gold reserves is aimed at helping to protect the oil-producing country from economic troubles in the United States and Europe.
Economist Pedro Palma, who is a professor at the Institute of Higher Studies of Administration, said he saw no economic justification for moving the gold.
“From the economic point view, it is the same to have it here as in England. The reserves will not change because of this,” Palma said. He said it seemed to be an attempt to show the public “heroic actions” on the part of the government.
Chavez’s opponents have called the plan costly and ill-advised.
Central Bank president Nelson Merentes said the gold has been held abroad since the late 1980s as backing for loans requested from the International Monetary Fund by prior governments.
With the gold in Venezuela, Merentes said, “it’s a guarantee” for the country.
“If there’s some problem in the international markets, here it’s going to be safe,” Merentes said.
#########################luckee1′s note: folks should take a look at this example. Chavez pulled the gold out, wise people will pull their funds out of central banks too.
7:52 AM (10 hours ago)
Breaking News: US-led coalition’s helicopters fired on a checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing 28 soldiers and wounding around fourteen.
Pakistan seals border in response to NATO attack
26 November, 2011, RT
A US Blackhawk army helicopter flies over the mountainous area of Gorbuz district, on the border with Pakistan east of Afghanistan, June 28, 2011. (AFP Photo / Ted Aljibe)
Pakistan has closed a key Afghan border crossing to NATO supplies after the US-led coalition’s helicopters allegedly fired on a checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing 28 soldiers and wounding around fourteen.
Pakistan’s state TV quoted the military as saying the helicopter attack occurred on Friday night in the Mohmand tribal area near the Afghan border.
A customs official has confirmed that he received a verbal order to stop all NATO supplies from moving across the border through the Torkham crossing, reports the Associated Press.
The Alliance’s officials in Kabul said they were aware and are investigating the incident.
Top NATO and US commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen issued a statement Saturday offering condolences to any members of the Pakistan security forces who might have been killed or injured.
However NATO has not officially claimed any responsibility so far.
Reuters reported that Pakistan’s foreign office had called the NATO/ISAF raid “a flagrant violation of sovereignty.”
“The Pakistani government cannot tolerate such actions against its army. God willing, we will take up this issue at the relevant forum. We will not only protest, but we will prove through certain actions that the Pakistani government cannot tolerate such kind of actions,” AP quotes Pakistani Information Minister Firdous Aashiq Awan as saying.
Last year, US helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers near the border, prompting Pakistan to temporarily close its frontier to supplies being shipped through the country to NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Ahmed Quraishi from the lobbying group the PakNationalists forum told RT that public outrage will force Pakistan’s government to react decisively.
“The Pakistani government and military are in a very difficult position. [They] will have to do something that would pacify not just public opinion, but also the soldiers and the officers of the Pakistani army,” he told RT. “The feelings against what the United States [are] doing in Afghanistan, the way the Pakistani interests are being ignored… there is a whole list of grievances and this is just the latest.”
NATO Attack Angers Pakistan
Two military officials said that up to 28 troops had been killed and 11 wounded in the attack on the Salala checkpoint.“Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned in the strongest terms the NATO/ISAF attack on the Pakistani post,” ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said in a statement.
“On his direction, the matter is being taken (up) by the foreign ministry in the strongest terms with NATO and the US.”
Two military officials said that up to 28 troops had been killed and 11 wounded in the attack on the Salala checkpoint, about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the Afghan border.
The attack took place around 2 am (2100 GMT) in the Baizai area of Mohmand.
“The latest attack by NATO forces on our post will have serious repercussions as they without any reasons attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep,” a military official said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
About 40 Pakistani army troops were stationed at the outpost, military sources said. Two officers were reported among the dead.
NATO supply trucks and fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan were stopped at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar hours after the raid, officials said.
“We have halted the supplies and some 40 tankers and trucks have been returned from the check post in Jamrud,” Mutahir Zeb, a senior government official, told Reuters.
Another official said the supplies had been stopped for security reasons.
“There is possibility of attacks on NATO supplies passing through the volatile Khyber tribal region, therefore we sent them back toward Peshawar to remain safe,” he said.
The Afghanistan-Pakistan border is often poorly marked, and differs from maps by up to 5 miles in some places.
A similar incident on Sept 30, 2009, which killed two Pakistani troops, led to the closure of one of NATO’s supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days.
NATO apologized for that incident, which it said happened when NATO gunships mistook warning shots by the Pakistani forces for a militant attack.
Strained Relations
The attack is likely to worsen strained relation between the United States and Pakistan, its ally in the so called war on terror.
“This is an attack on Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty,” said Masood Kasur, the governor of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Such cross-border attacks cannot be tolerated any more. The government will take up this matter at the highest level and it will be investigated.”
A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul said the coalition there was aware of “an incident” and was gathering more information.
The incident occurred a day after US General John Allen met Pakistani Army Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to discuss border control and enhanced cooperation.
Tension has been growing between Islamabad and Washington since the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a US raid on his compound in Pakistan.
The attack has brought the powerful military under mounting pressures over the US violation of Pakistani sovereignty.
6:45 AM (11 hours ago)
Feeling Thankfully Placid? I Can Fix That. Today's Af-Pak Reading
During some period of alertness during the turkey-comatose weekend, you might consider reading an essay by Franklin "Chuck" Spinney -- my long-time friend and a former guest blogger -- about the situation in Afghanistan. (It's in Counterpunch. This should go without saying, but I have learned always to say: in endorsing one article from any site or publication, I am not necessarily endorsing everything that appears there.)
Here is how this one begins:
To those readers who disagree with my opening line, I urge you to study Anthony Cordersman's most recent situation report on the AF-PAK War, THE AFGHANISTAN- PAKISTAN WAR AT THE END OF 2011... Reading the report is heavy slogging but I urge readers to download and examine it -- at the very least, take a few minutes to read the executive summary.
read more
Here is how this one begins:
It is becoming increasingly clear that the AF-PAK war will end in yet another grand strategic defeat for the United States. To date, President Obama, has been able to distract attention from this issue, but given the stakes in 2012, that dodge is unlikely to last. Get ready for an ugly debate over "who lost the Afghan War."
To those readers who disagree with my opening line, I urge you to study Anthony Cordersman's most recent situation report on the AF-PAK War, THE AFGHANISTAN- PAKISTAN WAR AT THE END OF 2011... Reading the report is heavy slogging but I urge readers to download and examine it -- at the very least, take a few minutes to read the executive summary.
read more
6:45 AM (11 hours ago)
No Penance from Khmer Rouge War Crimes Defendants
The first three days of Case 002 of the Khmer Rouge trial have seen both a total lack of penance, and a dogged determination to deflect blame for the death of millions of Cambodians from defendants “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, former foreign minister Ieng Sary, and former Head of State Khieu Samran.
Instead of looking to themselves and their own choices, the three former Khmer Rouge leaders have thus far preferred blame US carpet bombings, Vietnamese incursions into Cambodia, poor conditions created by French imperialists and previous Cambodian governments, and other outside forces for the miserable conditions their people suffered.
Every student of Khmer Rouge history knows the regime’s defining feature was rampant, bizarre paranoia, which spread from Pol Pot all the way down to village cadres. Anything that went wrong in Democratic Kampuchea, as the Khmer Rouge called its nascent nation, was attributed to malignant outside forces, including the US CIA, the KGB, the Vietnamese, or the “new” people (city dwellers, the educated, the wealthy, and anyone else the Khmer Rouge brass didn’t care for).
Although the Khmer Rouge were ousted in 1979, it would seem from the defendent’s courtroom arguments that they have hung onto that xenophobic paranoia.
read more
6:45 AM (12 hours ago)
Onshore Warfare and Offshore Balancing
The use and abuse of terms such as “offshore balancing” in the ongoing conversation about the next American grand strategy is a frequent topic of discussion here. While this can easily become an exercise in military and diplomatic history pedantry, examining what exactly offshore balancing entails should be a necessary prerequisite of adopting such an approach to international politics.
One of the consistent errors of offshore balancing discussion has been the tendency to believe that it necessarily demands there be no military engagement with the world beyond dealing with great powers, and that this military engagement must necessarily not include the use of ground forces, especially outside the core areas of engagement. In the current American context, the combinations of military draw downs in Iraq and eventually Afghanistan, along with the lack of US occupation in the Horn of Africa and Libya, among other locales, and the rise of AirSea Battle as a new concept for future military efforts all give the impression of a US military that will rarely act onshore. At the same time, the so-called “pivot to Asia” and the increasing prominence of offshore balancing in grand strategic discussions all give the impression that the cumulative effect of these operational, strategic, and grand strategic changes will be a US force that rarely, if ever, gets involved in land warfare, and rarely, if ever, gets involved in warfare outside of Asia.
read more
One of the consistent errors of offshore balancing discussion has been the tendency to believe that it necessarily demands there be no military engagement with the world beyond dealing with great powers, and that this military engagement must necessarily not include the use of ground forces, especially outside the core areas of engagement. In the current American context, the combinations of military draw downs in Iraq and eventually Afghanistan, along with the lack of US occupation in the Horn of Africa and Libya, among other locales, and the rise of AirSea Battle as a new concept for future military efforts all give the impression of a US military that will rarely act onshore. At the same time, the so-called “pivot to Asia” and the increasing prominence of offshore balancing in grand strategic discussions all give the impression that the cumulative effect of these operational, strategic, and grand strategic changes will be a US force that rarely, if ever, gets involved in land warfare, and rarely, if ever, gets involved in warfare outside of Asia.
read more
4:56 AM (13 hours ago)
Zionist Al-CIA-da of Libya arming, training and funding Al-CIA-da in Syria
by Nenad Jovanovic
Truth Frequency News
November 26, 2011
After ‘humanitarian mission’ of constant bombardment of civilian populated areas, hospitals, and everything that moves in Libya, Rothschild ‘s Zionist Banking Cartel is now targeting yet another country in the Middle East.
The pattern is the same like in Iraq, Former Yugoslavia, Libya and every other country that was opposing the emerging New World Order, nothing changed in their war tactics or doctrines from the ancient times til now.
For instance, in ancient times when you wanted to conquer a city, first, you set a siege. Today it is calledimposing sanctions. During the day you are intimidating the besieged city by beating war drums. Like the Zionist puppet ‘president’ of France, Nicholas Sarkozy, who is demanding military intervention, and like the puppets in the Arab League are doing by calling for a “buffer zone” inside Syria.
At the same time, you will try to find any hole in the besieged city walls to smuggle in arms, for your agents inside, in the same way like it was done for al-CIA-da terrorists in Libya. This we can see in the BBC reportswhen their “journalists”, MI6 agents, accompanied the al-CIA-da terrorists as they were smuggling guns into the Syrian City of Homs. And they are not even hiding this fact.
Now we have a fresh report from The Telegraph that al-CIA-da terrorists from Libya, at the meeting held in Istanbul, which also included Turkish officials, responded positively to the al-CIA-da terrorists’ requests from Syria, for assistance. Syrian al-CIA-da terrorists will receive weapons, training, funding, and now veteran fighters, from the recently ended conquest of Libya.
In the last eight bloody months of terrorist massacres in Syria, we have reports of 4,500 slaughtered civilians and members of the Syrian army and security forces. The latest heroic act of “unarmed civilians”, who are opposing Assad, was the attack on the pilots and technicians from the army base, which ended with 10 martyred, 6 of which were pilots on their way home from duty.
Turkey, is already housing about 7000 al-CIA-da terrorists, including the leader of the terrorist organization that is calling itself “Free Syrian Army”.
The arms were sent by now from Libya, Qatar, and Yemen. There are also reports about agents of various intelligence services, which include CIA, MI6, Mossad, the French DGSE, Qatari QSS and the GIP of Saudi Arabia, operating on the Syrian borders and inside Syria.
Most of the sniper attacks on the civilian population, army, and security forces, was done by them. Even children are not spared. They are indiscriminately shooting on everybody, trying to destabilize Syria from inside and start a civil war, hoping for the military intervention from the Zionist Fascist Alliance (NATO).
That can make their job much easier, allowing them to repeat mass murders and massacres. We can see what was done recently in Libya. That left around 130,000 civilian dead, over 300,000 wounded, and 7000 imprisoned. It includes the complete destruction of the country’s infrastructure which, until then, was the most developed country of the African Continent.
Hopefully this will not be repeated in Syria. We can see Russia’s moves that can prevent this. Russia recently sent their warships to their Naval Base in Syria. That move was done at the same time when the American 6th Fleet, led by the USS George H.W. Bush, was approaching Syrian Waters. For now the Zionists are forced to withdraw their Aircraft Carrier to the French harbor of Marseille.
Smart move considering the fact that the Syrian Army has in its disposal, missiles that can sink any aircraft carrier. That would be a major environmental disaster that no one wants, because of its nuclear powered motors. The Syrian Army also has in its disposal Russian air defense S-300 systems, and only God knows what the Russians brought with them a couple of days ago, as a “gift” for Islam’s New Year.
Any country in the world finding itself in a situation, like Syria is now, would proclaim martial law because of constant terrorist attacks on its citizens. Also the country would close its borders to prevent more of them from coming in.
Just imagine that all that we have described in this article was happening in the United States, the UK, France, or any other western country. I bet you my life that after martial law, closing borders, and cleaning the country of terrorists, they will launch war against the country responsible for doing it.
U.S. led NATO countries are well known for their cowardice. They are only capable of bullying and attacking far less defensible countries and lands than their own.
Syria and other countries, which are not yet under the Zionist New World Order control, can now take a deep breath of relief after the Russian Bear was woken, after 30 years of hibernation. The last true American President warned us a long time ago about the Zionist threat:
… and we are as a PEOPLE inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings...JFK
…For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence — on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.
… man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.
4:56 AM (13 hours ago)
Americans Combat Over X-Boxes For Thanksgiving, Won’t See IDF Demolishing Palestinian Homes. Gratitude? Riiiiight!
Old Palestinian man in front of his house demolished by Israel today – in pictures
November 24, 2011 by occupiedpalestine
An old Palestinian man infront of his house demolished by Israely Army today beit Hanina Tahta – Nov 24, 2011
Source.
Watch: Ethnic cleansing in Palestine…[at the end of the article]
IDF On Thursday Demolished Four Houses For Palestinians Bedouins Lives Between Bir-Nabala And Biet Hanena Al-Tahta Towns near Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank
Video By Fadi Arouri, Pictures by Fadi Arouri & Haitham Katib
This was only one home.
Israel approved the “Prawer Plan” which means “relocation” of another 57.000 Palestinians / Bedouin from Jordan Valley as well as from the Naqab (Negev) Desert. Exiles did not stop 63 years ago. It goes on, even today. And tomorrow. And the day after if the world keeps silent on ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Previously in 2005
An advisor to Shimon Peres told US (being well aware of these illegal practices) that “Negev development” plan meant “relocation” of 65,000 Bedouin citizen. What the real “relocation” implicates you watched above or you can watch more pictures of “relocation” here.
This was the home of 1 Family.
Are you going to stay silent about the other 57.000 people, families and their homes? 57.000 people to be exiled. The greatest ethnic cleansing operation of the “State of Israel” since the Nakba.
Save yourself time, Forget all details. It is only about this : Ethnic Cleansing
Below more information, mainly from Israel’s own resources to show you, Israel is not looking for peace at all. If you watched these photos, videos, the information:
Share if you Care.
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.
Israel’s Jerusalem municipality plans to build more than 50,000 new homes in the city’s occupied eastern sector over two decades:
- 23,628 homes have already been approved, 20,263 in East Jerusalem and 3,365 in the west.
- 13,824 are pending review, 12,819 in East Jerusalem and 1,005 in the west.
- 23,266 housing units are still in planning stages, 19,281 in the east and 3,985 in the west.
Of these, the municipality plans:
- 10,366 homes in northern East Jerusalem, including illegal Israeli settlement Pisgat Zeev and Palestinian town Beit Hanina.
- 5,239 homes in southern East Jerusalem, including Gilo settlement and Palestinian district Beit Safafa.
- 4,886 new units in central eastern Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan and Jerusalem’s Old City.
Besides this, Israel approved plans to ethnic cleanse 57.000 bedouin from Palestine
- Report B’Tselem
- The Unrecognized – video
Save yourself time. It is only about this : Ethnic Cleansing
1:50 AM (17 hours ago)
Chavez Price Caps Spark Panic Buying of Coffee, Toilet Paper
via blacklistednews.com
November 25, 2011, 2:47 PM EST
businessweek.com
By Nathan Crooks and Jose Orozco
(Updates with comment from President Chavez in fifth and sixth paragraphs.)
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s move to expand price controls this week sparked panic purchases by consumers, leading to shortages of everything from coffee to toilet paper.
People are buying more than they need to stock their homes and resell the products at a profit in the black market, Food Minister Carlos Osorio said yesterday on state television. The authorities are visiting stores to ensure the availability of regulated products, he said.
“I’m buying everything that’s on the price control list that’s going to be regulated,” retired schoolteacher Elena Ramirez, 56, said in an interview at a Dulcinea supermarket in Caracas where she bought 12 packages of toilet paper, each with four rolls. “Everyone is in the same game. It’s madness.”
Under regulations that took effect on Nov. 22, the government can fix the price of 15,000 goods in an attempt to slow inflation that reached 26.9 percent in October, the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Chavez immediately ordered a freeze on the price of 18 personal care items ranging from toothpaste to deodorant until mid-January to prevent monopolies from “ransacking the people.”
Speaking on state television today, Chavez said that he had detected “capitalists” hoarding thousands of kilograms of powdered milk, coffee and cooking oil and threatened to nationalize companies and factories caught stockpiling goods.
Chavez Leads
“I’m at the front of this operation, and we’re going to occupy factories and companies,” Chavez said. “We’re going to nationalize what needs to be nationalized. The bourgeoisie hoard milk, sugar and cooking oil and then blame me. But it’s their fault, the hoarders.”
The price freeze affects U.S. consumer companies including New York-based Colgate-Palmolive Co., Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati, and New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, said Ali Dibadj, a consumer analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., in a Nov. 23 report.
Colgate, Avon Products Inc. and Clorox Co. depend on Venezuela for 5.2 percent, 4.1 percent and 2.1 percent of total sales, respectively, according to Dibadj.
Jennifer Cherlune, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail and phone message seeking comment. Tom DiPiazza, a spokesman for Colgate- Palmolive, also didn’t return a phone message, and Bill Price, a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson, couldn’t be reached by telephone a day after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Dulcinea
Cars at the Dulcinea market, located in the Los Chaguaramos neighborhood of Caracas near two universities, were parked two rows deep and spilled into the sidewalk in front of the store. Shelves normally stacked with toothpaste, soap and toilet paper were being depleted by customers too quickly to restock.
“We heard rumors that there’d be shortages of toilet paper and toothpaste and all basic hygiene products,” Jonathan Maestracci, a 24-year-old accounting student, said while shopping at Dulcinea. “Finding coffee now is practically impossible. It’s better to buy in big quantities thinking about what could happen. If nothing happens, you just keep it.”
Under guidelines published in the Official Gazette Nov. 18, companies must register with the national price regulator and disclose information about production, distribution and commercialization costs as well as details of local and international suppliers and sources for raw materials. The regulator will then fix prices.
“The law of supply and demand is a lie,” Karlin Granadillo, the head of a price control agency set up to enforce the new regulations, said yesterday on state television. “These are not arbitrary measures. They are necessary.”
‘Complex Law’
Venezuela’s government will have a difficult task to monitor and regulate the price of the 15,000 products sold in the country, said Armando Leon, a director at the central bank.
“It’s a very complicated, complex law,” Leon said in a Nov. 22 interview on state television. “It needs to be evaluated very well or it could have a boomerang effect because an economy can’t be subject to a mechanism of price laws.”
While fixing prices, Chavez’s government is printing money and raising spending.
The central bank has more than doubled the amount of money circulating in the Venezuelan economy since November 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fiscal spending leaped 22 percent this year after accounting for inflation, according to an e-mailed report by Bank of America Corp. economist Francisco Rodriguez.
Mounting shortages may hit the poor hardest, said Elsy Valladares, a 50-year-old publicist.
“There’s still going to be speculation and shortages, and who will suffer the most? He who has the least,” Valladares said while shopping at the Dulcinea supermarket. “If you have money, you can buy a little more. But what about those people who live on minimum wage or work by the day, do you think they can come and load up on stuff?”
–With assistance from Corina Pons and Daniel Cancel in Caracas. Editors: Philip Sanders, Adriana Arai
To contact the reporters on this story: Nathan Crooks in Caracas at ncrooks@bloomberg.net; Jose Orozco in Caracas at jorozco8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net
November 25, 2011, 2:47 PM EST
businessweek.com
By Nathan Crooks and Jose Orozco
(Updates with comment from President Chavez in fifth and sixth paragraphs.)
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s move to expand price controls this week sparked panic purchases by consumers, leading to shortages of everything from coffee to toilet paper.People are buying more than they need to stock their homes and resell the products at a profit in the black market, Food Minister Carlos Osorio said yesterday on state television. The authorities are visiting stores to ensure the availability of regulated products, he said.
“I’m buying everything that’s on the price control list that’s going to be regulated,” retired schoolteacher Elena Ramirez, 56, said in an interview at a Dulcinea supermarket in Caracas where she bought 12 packages of toilet paper, each with four rolls. “Everyone is in the same game. It’s madness.”
Under regulations that took effect on Nov. 22, the government can fix the price of 15,000 goods in an attempt to slow inflation that reached 26.9 percent in October, the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Chavez immediately ordered a freeze on the price of 18 personal care items ranging from toothpaste to deodorant until mid-January to prevent monopolies from “ransacking the people.”
Speaking on state television today, Chavez said that he had detected “capitalists” hoarding thousands of kilograms of powdered milk, coffee and cooking oil and threatened to nationalize companies and factories caught stockpiling goods.
Chavez Leads
“I’m at the front of this operation, and we’re going to occupy factories and companies,” Chavez said. “We’re going to nationalize what needs to be nationalized. The bourgeoisie hoard milk, sugar and cooking oil and then blame me. But it’s their fault, the hoarders.”
The price freeze affects U.S. consumer companies including New York-based Colgate-Palmolive Co., Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati, and New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, said Ali Dibadj, a consumer analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., in a Nov. 23 report.
Colgate, Avon Products Inc. and Clorox Co. depend on Venezuela for 5.2 percent, 4.1 percent and 2.1 percent of total sales, respectively, according to Dibadj.
Jennifer Cherlune, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail and phone message seeking comment. Tom DiPiazza, a spokesman for Colgate- Palmolive, also didn’t return a phone message, and Bill Price, a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson, couldn’t be reached by telephone a day after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Dulcinea
Cars at the Dulcinea market, located in the Los Chaguaramos neighborhood of Caracas near two universities, were parked two rows deep and spilled into the sidewalk in front of the store. Shelves normally stacked with toothpaste, soap and toilet paper were being depleted by customers too quickly to restock.
“We heard rumors that there’d be shortages of toilet paper and toothpaste and all basic hygiene products,” Jonathan Maestracci, a 24-year-old accounting student, said while shopping at Dulcinea. “Finding coffee now is practically impossible. It’s better to buy in big quantities thinking about what could happen. If nothing happens, you just keep it.”
Under guidelines published in the Official Gazette Nov. 18, companies must register with the national price regulator and disclose information about production, distribution and commercialization costs as well as details of local and international suppliers and sources for raw materials. The regulator will then fix prices.
“The law of supply and demand is a lie,” Karlin Granadillo, the head of a price control agency set up to enforce the new regulations, said yesterday on state television. “These are not arbitrary measures. They are necessary.”
‘Complex Law’
Venezuela’s government will have a difficult task to monitor and regulate the price of the 15,000 products sold in the country, said Armando Leon, a director at the central bank.
“It’s a very complicated, complex law,” Leon said in a Nov. 22 interview on state television. “It needs to be evaluated very well or it could have a boomerang effect because an economy can’t be subject to a mechanism of price laws.”
While fixing prices, Chavez’s government is printing money and raising spending.
The central bank has more than doubled the amount of money circulating in the Venezuelan economy since November 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fiscal spending leaped 22 percent this year after accounting for inflation, according to an e-mailed report by Bank of America Corp. economist Francisco Rodriguez.
Mounting shortages may hit the poor hardest, said Elsy Valladares, a 50-year-old publicist.
“There’s still going to be speculation and shortages, and who will suffer the most? He who has the least,” Valladares said while shopping at the Dulcinea supermarket. “If you have money, you can buy a little more. But what about those people who live on minimum wage or work by the day, do you think they can come and load up on stuff?”
–With assistance from Corina Pons and Daniel Cancel in Caracas. Editors: Philip Sanders, Adriana Arai
To contact the reporters on this story: Nathan Crooks in Caracas at ncrooks@bloomberg.net; Jose Orozco in Caracas at jorozco8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net
1:50 AM (17 hours ago)
Tax threat to parents who don’t have their children immunised
Mark Metherell
November 25, 2011 smh.com.au
About nine in 10 children are immunised, and not being immunised “is a real risk” … Health Minister Nicola Roxon. Photo: Alex EllinghausenFrom next July, the government is axing the $258 ”maternity immunisation allowance” paid irrespective of income to families of fully immunised children aged up to five. Instead the government will require parents have their children fully immunised or forgo three payments of $726 available under the family tax benefit A end of year supplement.
The family tax benefit A goes to about 90 per cent of families with young children and the payment provisions will apply for the financial years when the child is one, two and five years of age.
The Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, and the Families Minister, Jenny Macklin, yesterday said the scheme provided ”stronger immunisation incentives”, but also delivered savings of $209 million over four years. About nine in 10 children are immunised now and not being immunised ”is a real risk” to the child’s health and that of others, Ms Roxon said.
The government has also announced a mailout campaign to promote whooping cough (pertussis) vaccinations as Australia experiences its highest levels of the disease in two decades. Notifications of whooping cough cases have risen from 4864 in 2007 to 34,785 last year.
Under expanded measures, a new immunisation check will be introduced for one-year-olds to supplement existing checks at two and five.
Children for the first time will be required to be vaccinated for meningococcal C, pneumococcal and varicella (chicken pox).
The new vaccines will bring to 12 the number of diseases covered by the immunisation scheme, although the introduction of new combination vaccines reduces the number of actual jabs that children have to undergo.
But the immunisation program now means the number of vaccination sessions rises from five to six, with a new session at 18 months to accommodate changes in the schedule. A new combination vaccine which will replace individual doses for measles, mumps and rubella, as well as the new varicella dose, will be given at 18 months instead of the present four years.
The whooping cough campaign follows the deaths of seven infants, all aged eight weeks or less, from the disease between January 2008 and July this year.
But the vaccinations do not provide lifelong protection from whooping cough and children should have booster shots at age four and then during teenage years, Ms Roxon said.
1:50 AM (17 hours ago)
This Gibson Kills Fascists
Friday, 25 November 2011 11:21
If you buy a guitar this Christmas buy a Gibson
Gibson has been profitably building wonderful guitars in this country for generations but currently it is under assault by the federal government.Gibson has hired new people in Nashville in the manufacturing sector during a time of extreme economic challenge. Yet the DOJ wants to enforce an international logging law that it looks like Gibson didn’t even violate. The fact that Gibson’s rivals gave money to the Obama administration and the fact that Gibson is a non-union shop has nothing to do with the heat it is feeling of course.
Let’s send a message to the feds. If they go after a company that is committed to doing business the right way, we the consumers will support that company and help them defeat the siege on their business.
Every guitar player should have at least one Gibson. This Christmas pick one up and help support property rights and a great American company.
By the way, Woodie Guthrie used to play a Gibson. You’d think that alone would keep the lefties at bay. But fascism has a new face these days.
12:39 AM (18 hours ago)
NATO not able to undermine Russian strategic deterrent – Pentagon
Nov 24, 2011 10:29 Moscow Time
John Kirby. © Photo: www.defense.gov
This is Diana Ray from Voice of Russia talking with John Kirby – he is the spokesperson for the Pentagon.
Earlier today Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the US and NATO have not heeded Russia`s concerns over the European missile defense shield. And Russia said. They participate in a program capable of weakening its deterrence potential. Does this missile defense shield threaten Russia`s security?
No, absolutely not. We`ve made it very clear to the Russian leaders both on the civil and the military side. We`ve no internal desire to threaten Russian missiles or Russian strategic deterrent. Which, we agree, would behave a destabilizing.
The NATO system does not and will not have the capability to undermine Russian strategic deterrent.
Medvedev said, this shield is capable of deterring Russia`s strategic defense capability in 6 to 9 years.
I would just say that through technical briefings and senior level consultations bilaterally and on the NATO-Russia council we`ve been very open and transparent with Russia on what this missile defense system be capable of and frank with what it will not be capable of. And again I would stress that it`s not going to be capable to undermine Russia`s strategic deterrent.
And how do you take this insistence from Russia, this repetitive insistence that it does threaten it?
We`ve made it very-very clear and at several levels and across the board in multiple engagements what this is about and again what it is on about. And I don`t know that we can make it any more clear. We think that the best way we can reassure Russia that this system is not a threat through concrete missile defense cooperation that will give Russia inside into the system. So, by cooperating with us, we believe, that Russia will be able it gain the confidence that we want them to have – that future deployments of the ballistic missile defense system will have neither sufficient numbers of interceptors nor the technical capability to undermine Russia`s strategic deterrent.
And the last: Medvedev gave a list of decisions or threats if there`s no agreement. One of them – he said lastly – potentially deploying cutting-edge ballistic missile systems, providing for total destruction of the US anti-ballistic systems in Europe. Well, what`s the Pentagon`s response to that?
Surely, Russia is a sovereign nation with the right to do what they believe they need to do for the national defense. We believe that since this does not pose a threat, there`s really no need for that activity. But again, these are the decisions that Russian leaders have to make for themselves.
All I would say in sum is that again this system poses no threat; it is intended primarily to help defend our interests and our lives against the ballistic missiles that are coming from Iran.
This is not aimed at Russia. So, we don`t believe that those fears are warranted.
Earlier today Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the US and NATO have not heeded Russia`s concerns over the European missile defense shield. And Russia said. They participate in a program capable of weakening its deterrence potential. Does this missile defense shield threaten Russia`s security?
No, absolutely not. We`ve made it very clear to the Russian leaders both on the civil and the military side. We`ve no internal desire to threaten Russian missiles or Russian strategic deterrent. Which, we agree, would behave a destabilizing.
The NATO system does not and will not have the capability to undermine Russian strategic deterrent.
Medvedev said, this shield is capable of deterring Russia`s strategic defense capability in 6 to 9 years.
I would just say that through technical briefings and senior level consultations bilaterally and on the NATO-Russia council we`ve been very open and transparent with Russia on what this missile defense system be capable of and frank with what it will not be capable of. And again I would stress that it`s not going to be capable to undermine Russia`s strategic deterrent.
And how do you take this insistence from Russia, this repetitive insistence that it does threaten it?
We`ve made it very-very clear and at several levels and across the board in multiple engagements what this is about and again what it is on about. And I don`t know that we can make it any more clear. We think that the best way we can reassure Russia that this system is not a threat through concrete missile defense cooperation that will give Russia inside into the system. So, by cooperating with us, we believe, that Russia will be able it gain the confidence that we want them to have – that future deployments of the ballistic missile defense system will have neither sufficient numbers of interceptors nor the technical capability to undermine Russia`s strategic deterrent.
And the last: Medvedev gave a list of decisions or threats if there`s no agreement. One of them – he said lastly – potentially deploying cutting-edge ballistic missile systems, providing for total destruction of the US anti-ballistic systems in Europe. Well, what`s the Pentagon`s response to that?
Surely, Russia is a sovereign nation with the right to do what they believe they need to do for the national defense. We believe that since this does not pose a threat, there`s really no need for that activity. But again, these are the decisions that Russian leaders have to make for themselves.
All I would say in sum is that again this system poses no threat; it is intended primarily to help defend our interests and our lives against the ballistic missiles that are coming from Iran.
This is not aimed at Russia. So, we don`t believe that those fears are warranted.
12:39 AM (18 hours ago)
Libyan Rebels Fought the Globalists’ War
After it was revealed that the newly unelected “PM” of Libya, Abdurrahim el-Keib, is in fact a long time servant of Western powers, in particular, oil giants British Petroleum (BP), Shell, France’s Total, the Japan Oil Development Company, and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, it is now revealed that his government is moving swiftly to exclude the most vicious fighters involved in his NATO-backed ascension to power
In Anglo-American Nation Building Projects, decades of underhanded double dealing of CIA, DIA, MI5, MI6, NATO Intelligence Services, et al. often have the effect that persons that have been convenient assets, are being maneuvered into places of power and public attention. When public attention results in investigative journalism, an asset can become a public relations liability. No other recent case demonstrates it as obviously as that of Abdelhakim Belhadj, aka Hasidi, aka Abu Abdulla al-Saddiq, aka… :
“Who is the mask behind the many men”.
Belarus Strikes Head of US Color Revolution Snake
US-funded agent of sedition Ales Bialiatski now resides safely behind the bars of a Belarus prison. Bialiatski was vice president of the sedition-sowing FIDH, an umbrella organization that has fomented US-backed unrest from Tunisia to the borders of Russia and China.That Freedom House calls the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of one of their agents of sedition a “human rights abuse” illustrates just how credible their entire “human rights” agenda turns out to be, i.e. not credible at all.
The Plot To Make Hillary President
Deadline Live
PersonalLiberty.com
Here’s some news that could turn the entire election upside down. Leading Democrats are urging Barack Hussein Obama to withdraw as a candidate for re-election in 2012, as Lyndon Baines Johnson did almost 50 years ago.
The campaign to get Obama to quit the race kicked into high gear on Monday, when influential Democratic leaders Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen wrote a lengthy piece for The Wall Street Journal on why Obama should withdraw. Here’s part of what they said:
“[Obama] should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president’s accomplishments.”
Who would they have run instead? Get ready for their totally predictable pitch:
“He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”
I’ll spare you the hundreds of words that follow as the two Democratic pollsters make their case “as patriots and Democrats.” Let me go directly to their conclusion:
“If President Obama is not willing to seize the moral high ground and step aside, then the two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, must urge the president not to seek re-election—for the good of the party and most of all for the good of the country. And they must present the only clear alternative—Hillary Clinton.”
Click here to read more…
November 25, 2011 by Jack Blood
Hey Barry – Might want to beef up your security man…
PersonalLiberty.com
Here’s some news that could turn the entire election upside down. Leading Democrats are urging Barack Hussein Obama to withdraw as a candidate for re-election in 2012, as Lyndon Baines Johnson did almost 50 years ago.
The campaign to get Obama to quit the race kicked into high gear on Monday, when influential Democratic leaders Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen wrote a lengthy piece for The Wall Street Journal on why Obama should withdraw. Here’s part of what they said:
“[Obama] should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president’s accomplishments.”
Who would they have run instead? Get ready for their totally predictable pitch:
“He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”
I’ll spare you the hundreds of words that follow as the two Democratic pollsters make their case “as patriots and Democrats.” Let me go directly to their conclusion:
“If President Obama is not willing to seize the moral high ground and step aside, then the two Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, must urge the president not to seek re-election—for the good of the party and most of all for the good of the country. And they must present the only clear alternative—Hillary Clinton.”
Click here to read more…
12:39 AM (18 hours ago)
ALERT: Senate To Vote On Legislation That Allows U.S. Military to Detain Americans Without Charge or Trial
The Intel Hub
By Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
November 25, 2011
Urge the Senate to Oppose Indefinite Military Detention
Remember that debate between Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, where Mr. Gingrich suggested we should expand and strengthen the Patriot Act in the name of protecting US citizens from terrorists?
Mr. Gingrich indicated that there exists a line between criminal law and the war on terror, and that we need not worry the government will overstep its bounds.
While Americans enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend and join the annual running of the bulls celebration at malls and retail outlets, something sinister is taking place in Congress – and it should scare the hell out of you.
If the President and Senate have their way, your front lawn will soon become a battlefield, and you’ll be subjected to military, not criminal, law.
From the ACLU Via The Daily Sheeple:
The Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
…
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate.
Click here to read more…
By Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
November 25, 2011
Urge the Senate to Oppose Indefinite Military Detention
Remember that debate between Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich, where Mr. Gingrich suggested we should expand and strengthen the Patriot Act in the name of protecting US citizens from terrorists?Mr. Gingrich indicated that there exists a line between criminal law and the war on terror, and that we need not worry the government will overstep its bounds.
While Americans enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend and join the annual running of the bulls celebration at malls and retail outlets, something sinister is taking place in Congress – and it should scare the hell out of you.
If the President and Senate have their way, your front lawn will soon become a battlefield, and you’ll be subjected to military, not criminal, law.
From the ACLU Via The Daily Sheeple:
The Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
…
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate.
Click here to read more…
12:39 AM (18 hours ago)
Echoes of the Great Depression: Dow has worst Thanksgiving week since 1932
The Extinction Protocol
Posted on November 25, 2011
November 25, 2011 – NEW YORK – Stocks closed in negative territory in thin, shortened trading Friday as investors were reluctant to go long ahead of the weekend and amid ongoing worries over the euro zone. The Dow and S&P posted their worst Thanksgiving week since the Great Depression on a percentage basis. “Again, we’re trading on very thin volume—You’re going to have continued downward pressure over the next 30 days,” said Todd Schoenberger, managing director at LandColt Trading. “It’s very difficult to be long this market because you have so many issues—there’s more potential for negative headlines than positive ones.” In Europe, S&P downgraded Belgium one notch to AA from AA-plus, further underscoring worries over the euro zone debt contagion. Earlier, EU officials said euro zone member states were discussing dropping private sector involvement from the permanent bailout mechanism. An Italian T-bill auction offered a fresh indication of investors’ lack of confidence in the country’s newly-appointed government and broader fears that the euro zone debt crisis cannot be contained. Yields shot up to new euro era highs. -CNBC excerpt
Do not pass go- do not collect $200: The financial system that underpins the Eurozone is, itself, unraveling. A slew of downgrades by Western rating agencies leveled at sovereign countries have made the risk of borrowing in the face of rising bond yields that much riskier. This week, Portugal credit rating was slashed to junk status by Fitch. Similarly, this week, Hungary was downgraded to junk by Moody’s. Today, the hammer also fell on Belgium as its credit rating was downgraded by Standard & Poor from AA+ to AA. France could be next and still more nations like the UK could follow where debt to GDP ratio is already pushing 65%. It goes without saying that there are inertia forces at work, whether by design or circumstance, to unravel the financial skeleton whereby European countries swap loans between each other and trade debts to service the Euro. -The Extinction Protocol
Financial doomsday looms for 2012: The good news is that if we get through 2012 without the financial collapse of a big bank or a Eurozone government, our economy will probably muddle through, flatlining rather than falling back into acute recession. The bad news is that 2012 is the year of greatest risk that a bloated bank or over-extended government will be unable to repay its debts – because it is a year when a frightening volume of the loans that were taken out in the boom years fall due for repayment. In private equity, for example, much of the money that was borrowed to finance the buyouts of big companies from 2005-7 has to be paid back in the coming year. In practice, it would mean replacing old debts with new debts – borrowing new money to repay existing creditors. That said, the amount of debt maturing for private-equity owned companies pales into insignificance compared with the debts of banks that have to be repaid or refinanced in 2012. -BBC
Spain is crumbling: No one has grasped yet the seriousness of where this crisis is at. For all practical purposes, Spain is already in a depression. Spain’s unemployment rate is already 22%- 3 points from the peak high seen in the U.S. during the Great Depression in 1933: “From an estimated annual rate of 3.3 percent during 1923-29, the unemployment rate rose to a peak of about 25 percent in 1933. The economy reached its trough in 1933; but although unemployment had reached its peak, economic recovery was slow, hesitant, and far from complete.” In 1930 the unemployment rate was 8.9 percent, or equal to today. By 1931 it was nearly 16 percent. Then, after peaking at nearly 25 percent in 1933, the unemployment rate slowly abated…yet it was still nearly 15 percent in 1940.
12:39 AM (18 hours ago)
Senators Demand the Military Lock Up American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window
The Intel Hub
ACLU.org
November 25, 2011
While nearly all Americans head to family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans.
The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
Senators need to hear from you, on whether you think your front yard is part of a “battlefield” and if any president can send the military anywhere in the world to imprison civilians without charge or trial.
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate.
The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.
The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday.
The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.
I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States?
Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?
The answer on why now is nothing more than election season politics. The White House, the Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General have all said that the indefinite detention provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act are harmful and counterproductive.
The White House has even threatened a veto. But Senate politics has propelled this bad legislation to the Senate floor.
But there is a way to stop this dangerous legislation. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is offering the Udall Amendmentthat will delete the harmful provisions and replace them with a requirement for an orderly Congressional review of detention power. The Udall Amendment will make sure that the bill matches up with American values.
In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.
Click here to read more…
ACLU.org
November 25, 2011
The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
Senators need to hear from you, on whether you think your front yard is part of a “battlefield” and if any president can send the military anywhere in the world to imprison civilians without charge or trial.
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate.
The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.
The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday.
The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.
I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States?
Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?
The answer on why now is nothing more than election season politics. The White House, the Secretary of Defense, and the Attorney General have all said that the indefinite detention provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act are harmful and counterproductive.
The White House has even threatened a veto. But Senate politics has propelled this bad legislation to the Senate floor.
But there is a way to stop this dangerous legislation. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is offering the Udall Amendmentthat will delete the harmful provisions and replace them with a requirement for an orderly Congressional review of detention power. The Udall Amendment will make sure that the bill matches up with American values.
In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.
Click here to read more…
Nov 25, 2011 (20 hours ago)
Australia picks last possible moment to leap ONTO burning ship
Gillard — the Australian Prime Minister — got the timing perfectly wrong.
Within two weeks of the Carbon Tax finally becoming Law, it’s becoming hard not to notice that the whole Global Scam is fragmenting. This Carbon ship is on fire, the lifeboats are leaving, the rats are jumping, and the Australian team just turned up with the family jewels. Their policies are “take no prisoners” and “bring no life jackets”. Their exit plan is to have No Exit.
Sergey Abramov (ship, 1960) ...By Leksey
It’s hard to imagine how the timing could have been more quintessentially insane, or their “Leadership of Clean Energy” more poignantly inane.
Within two weeks of the Carbon Tax finally becoming Law, it’s becoming hard not to notice that the whole Global Scam is fragmenting. This Carbon ship is on fire, the lifeboats are leaving, the rats are jumping, and the Australian team just turned up with the family jewels. Their policies are “take no prisoners” and “bring no life jackets”. Their exit plan is to have No Exit.
Sergey Abramov (ship, 1960) ...By Leksey
It’s hard to imagine how the timing could have been more quintessentially insane, or their “Leadership of Clean Energy” more poignantly inane.
Nov 25, 2011 (yesterday)
Implantable Microchips and Cyborgs are No Longer Conspiracy Theories
Moral debates there may be, but there is also no doubt that the world is more and more readily coming to accept biological intrusion and top-down control as a result of their constant training at the hands of the television, video games, and indoctrination at the hands of the education system. One need only take a look at the behavior of anyone under the age of thirty in the presence of any modern interactive technology to see the writing on the wall.
In this regard, The Singularity Movement is a perfect example of the coming scientific dictatorship and the enthusiasm of some to accept it. Singularity can be defined, very simply, as the moment when human and machine merge together. It is a philosophy that is gaining more and more steam with the general public as a result of its gradual introduction and promotion by the media (television, games, etc.) and prominent individuals like Ray Kurzweil and Rodney Brooks.
Time magazine’s Lev Grossman discussed Singularity in this way:
Maybe we’ll merge with them to become superintelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities. Maybe the artificial intelligences will help us treat the effects of old age and prolong our life indefinitely. Maybe we’ll scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. Maybe the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us. The one thing all these theories have in common is the transformation of our species into something that is no longer recognizable as such to humanity circa 2011. This transformation has a name: Singularity.
Singularity is obviously a movement that has been promoted from the top-down. This is easily seen by the fact that the backers of the Singularity movement are the usual suspects including NASA and GOOGLE, as well as individuals like Bill Gates in addition to Ray Kurzweil. Not only that, but major governments have been preparing for the eventuality of a massive merger between man and machine for some time.
For instance, in a report by Richard Norton-Taylor, written for The Guardian in 2007, entitled “Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future,” Norton-Taylor relays the findings of a 90-page report administered and released by the British Ministry of Defense. The research team was tasked with describing a future “strategic context” that the British military might encounter in the coming years.
Norton-Taylor writes:
By 2035, an implantable ‘information chip’ could be wired directly to the brain. A growing pervasiveness of information communications technology will enable states, terrorists or criminals, to mobilize ‘flashmobs,’ challenging security forces to match this potential agility coupled with an ability to concentrate forces quickly in a small area.
Singularity is also a movement that has its roots in eugenics and the desire of the ruling elites for complete control over the mind, body, and soul of every human being on the planet. Oddly enough, while some may dispute this claim, this movement’s roots in eugenics is relatively open. Consider the comments made by the RAND corporation in its 2001 report, “The Global Technology Revolution: Bio/Nano/Materials Trends and Their Synergies with Information Technology by 2015″. It says,
The results could be astonishing. Effects may include significant improvements in human quality of life and life span . . . continued globalization, reshuffling of wealth, cultural amalgamation or invasion with potential for increased tension and conflict, shifts in power from nation states to non-government organizations and individuals . . . and the possibility of human eugenics and cloning. [Emphasis added]
With this in mind, the developments presented in the Singularity Hub article which I discussed early on, take a more sinister tone.
As the RAND corporation states in its report, the introduction of Singularity will most likely involve a great improvement in living standards for the handicapped. At least it will at first. Eventually, the movement will begin to encompass convenience and will come to be seen as trendy and fashionable. Once merging with machines has become commonplace and acceptable (even expected), the real tyranny will begin to set in. Soon after, there will be no opt-outs allowed. Related articles
- David Brin's Take on Income Inequality (wcward57.wordpress.com)
- Short Reads: David Brin on Science Fiction (readmorebooks.wordpress.com)
- CATHY YOUNG: The Rise Of Ayn Rand On Campus. "The question of Ayn Rand in academe has been made pa... (pjmedia.com)
- David Brin tells us how the history of "class warfare" informs us about today (amanwithaphd.wordpress.com)
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