get healthy together - HA HA HA
Subject: Importance of Walking....
Importance of Walking
Walking can add minutes to your life.
This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.
************ ********* ********* ********* **
My grandpa started walking
five miles a day when he was 60..
Now he's 97 years old
and we don't know where he is...
************ ********* ********* ********* ****
I like long walks,
especially when they are taken
by people who annoy me.
************ ********* ********* ********* ****
The only reason I would take up walking
is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
************ ********* ********* ********* *****
I have to walk early in the morning,
before my brain figures out what I'm doing..
************ ********* ********* ********* *****
I joined a health club last year,
spent about 400 bucks.
Haven't lost a pound.
Apparently you have to go there.
************ ********* ********* ********* ****
Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise',
I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
************ ********* ********* ********* *****
I do have flabby thighs,
but fortunately my stomach covers them.
************ ********* ********* ********* ***
The advantage of exercising every day
is so when you die, they'll say,
'Well, he looks good doesn't he.'
************ ********* ********* ********* *****
If you are going to try cross-country skiing,
start with a small country.
************ ********* ********* ********* *****
I know I got a lot of exercise
the last few years,......
just getting over the hill.
************ ********* ********* ********* ***
We all get heavier as we get older,
because there's a lot more information in our heads.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
************ ********* ** ************ *********
AND
Every time I start thinking too much
about how I look,
I just find a Happy Hour
and by the time I leave,
I look just fine.
************ ********* ********* ********* *****
You could run this over to your friends,
But just e-mail it to them!
February 2009 Archives
If you don't get 'Free Speech TV' (channel 9415 on DishTV), here's their schedule:
And Link TV (9410):
You might try Press TV, too:
"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.
We, the undersigned, share President Barack Obama's view
that for too long, issues of LGBT rights have been exploited
by those seeking to divide us. It's time to move beyond
polarization and live up to our founding promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect."
Yet, on December 19, 2008, Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund filed legal briefs defending the constitutionality
of Prop 8 and seeking to nullify the marriages of 18,000
devoted same-sex couples solemnized before Prop 8 passed.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on March 5, with a decision expected within 90 days.
We, the undersigned, ask that the Court enforce the equality promised to each of us by our constitution and invalidate Prop
8. So doing will protect all loving, committed couples in
California -- including the 18,000 who said "I do" last year --
and prevent the initiative process from being a tool for
stripping vulnerable minorities of precious constitutional rights.
As Americans who believe in the rule of law and fundamental
civil rights, we know that Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal
Defense Fund's shameful attempt to nullify equal protection
and all these bonded unions will be condemned in the eyes of
history. We know that, ultimately, love will prevail, no matter
how hard they try to fight it.
Sincerely,
353,908 people have signed this letter*.
Please add your name now!
Gee, I didn't know he wasn't *out* before.
Filed under SDS & Weather
Filed under SDS & Weather
HOW A MOVIE CHANGED MY LIFE
by Mark RuddLast November, in a radio interview [WLUW 88.7, "Live From the Heartland] with Mike James of the Heartland Café in Rogers Park, Chicago, I mentioned that the Weather Underground documentary "changed my life." Mike's wife Paige, the editor of Heartland Journal, was watching critically, as spouses and editors do, and afterward asked me the logical follow-up question, "How?" I promised her I would write a reply for the Journal. For the last 30 years or so I've been reluctant to speak in public about the Weather Underground. The reason: it was such a total disaster that I felt I had no right to speak. Also, I didn't know the right words. I couldn't answer the key question in my mind about why I had made such terrible choices.
In the late 80's, during the U.S. war against Central America, I had tried to write about my experiences in the Vietnam anti-war movement and the Weather Underground, but my effort foundered on the question of why I had chosen the stupid, losing strategy of "revolutionary" violence. The best answer I could come up with 15 years ago was to blame my macho desire to be a great revolutionary hero (and martyr), like Che Guevara. But that explanation wasn't quite enough and I hid the 500-page manuscript I produced on a back shelf of my closet.
The Weather Underground documentary, released in 2003 [and nominated for an Oscar in 2004], resurrected that manuscript (some of it became narration in the film) and, even more important, gave me a deeper understanding of my true motivations. I saw shots of myself as a 21 year-old, grief written all over my face. That was what I had forgotten in the intervening 35 years: grief! The grief that came with the knowledge of what our country was doing in our name, a grief so overwhelming it produced the conviction that it was absolutely imperative to act against the outrages of empire. The easiest reaction to grief is anger and violence, both justified back then in the theories of armed revolution. Thanks to the rare opportunity to see myself as a very young man which the movie afforded me, I finally understood why I had acted.
The second revelation granted me by The Weather Underground film was that people, I was amazed to find, wanted to hear what I had to say. The filmmakers had chosen to feature me in the beginning, middle, and end of the movie, which gave the effect of my words serving as a kind of narrative thread. I found people referring to the movie as "your movie," though my part had been only a six-hour interview and I was but one among several former Weather Underground members filmed, each of us with our own perspective, ones which were far from identical. Butmy doubts and self-reflection had jumped off the screen and audiences seemed to perceive me as a sympathetic, approachable kind of character, not one given to radical exhortations.
So I started doing media interviews and attending movie showings followed by question and answer sessions and A in dozens of venues around the country, from Massachusetts to Oregon. This became my anti-war work for the last year. Audiences often contain both young and old, and the ensuing discussions always evolve from questions about movement history to what to do now. Universally, people are desperate for public forums in which to discuss the current situation. They want to talk.
I often find myself in a strange argument with the audience. People will express that I am some kind of hero for having taken on the U.S. government. I say, "No, no, the Weather Underground was a huge fuck-up! We did the work of the FBI by destroying SDS. We accidentally killed three of our own people. We split and undermined the larger anti-war movement." Often these arguments have become heated and people have screamed at me that I'm too hard on myself and on my former comrades. It's an unexpected kind of turn-around. I try to use the discussions to advocate non-violent strategy and tactics because "violence doesn't work." In the end I leave it open to the audience, especially the young people, to decide for themselves about the significance of the Weather Underground.
Several times I've done joint Q and A's with Sam Green, the director of the movie, and each time we reenacted what I call "The Sam and Mark Show," wherein he tells audiences that the message of the movie is that there once were a group of young people so committed to stopping the Vietnam war and the system behind that war that they were willing to risk their lives. I respond by taking the opposite view, that the importance of the Weather Underground was that it was a terrible disaster. "Don't try this at home," I say. I also downplay the courage involved since courage, it seems to me, is spread out evenly across the political spectrum. I tell people it takes courage for American soldiers, no matter how misguided, to face resistance fighters in Iraq, for example., However, I've gradually been won over to seeing Sam's point of view, without giving up my own. The whole Weather episode was quite remarkable, no matter how misguided. Possibly it's inspiring to young people, I don't know. The cumulative effect of watching the film many times and participating in these discussions has been to that of bringing back my voice, after all these years. For this I'm also thankful to Sam and to Bill Siegel, his co-director.
In my home community, this movie has been a kind of coming out for me: I wasn't hiding my past, but neither did I make a big deal about it. Most people in Albuquerque, New Mexico, had never heard of "Mark Rudd." I've made a point of showing the movie to my co-workers and students at the community college where I teach. They've reacted with engagement, interest, and questions. Nothing has changed in my relations with people, but I feel like I'm a more honest member of the community now.
There's yet another level of personal transformation: the Weather Underground film has written an ending to the Weather Underground episode in my family. My brother David, who's eight years older, had never been comfortable with anything about the Weatherman. At the time I treated him contemptuously because he wasn't "revolutionary," and on top of that he had to live with the misery which my parents endured for the seven years I was a fugitive. Over the years our way of dealing with the issue was to not talk about it. But last year, after he saw the movie, David became so smitten with The Weather Underground that he set up two showings, one in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he lives part-time, and the other at a Jewish film festival in suburban Essex County, New Jersey, where our family is from. Both shows were sold out. After thirty-five years the problem of the Weather Underground in our family's history could finally be aired in public and resolved in a thoughtful way. Between us we now have closure, thanks to the film.
About four hundred people attended the showing at the Jewish Community Center in West Orange. My mother, Bertha Rudd, who's 92 years old, was in the second row. After the movie I was answering questions from the audience when my mother waved her hand, interrupting. "I have a question! I have a question!" she shouted. "What's your question, Mom?" I asked.
Her timing was perfect. She paused just long enough for the audience to begin to wonder what she was going to say. "I've waited thirty years to ask you: How could you do this to me?" The audience cracked up.
My mother isn't the only one who's been holding in her questions for thirty years. At the deepest level, the movie has given me back my past, a significant part of which had been lost. I often think that if the Weather Underground film hadn't been made, the history of the Weather Underground would have become totally lost. Does history exist if no one knows about it?
Mark Rudd was the last National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society, elected at the infamous Chicago SDS convention of June, 1969. In 1968, he was chairman of the Columbia University chapter of SDS, and was one of the leaders of the student occupation of the campus and subsequent strike, both aimed at the University's racism and involvement with the war in Vietnam. He was one of the founders of the Weatherman faction of SDS, which morphed, in early 1970, into the Weather Underground. He left the organization by the end of that year but remained a federal fugitive until 1977. He has taught remedial math at the community college in Albuquerque, NM. since 1980, and has been involved in the anti-nuclear, native American solidarity, environmental, peace, and union movements in New Mexico. Mark can be reached via his website, www.markrudd.com
Editor's note [by Paige James]: When I first read the question Mark asks at the end, I wrote him my own reaction, and he encouraged me to run it as a postscript here:
My response to this question is: does history have to be public to exist? Certainly it has continued to be alive, even if buried alive in some cases, in the minds, bodies, and souls of each of the WU members and a wider community of families, friends, and foes, including those not featured in the film. And as it turns out, I think the history of the WU as depicted in the film is multi-faceted and does leave room for moral disagreement about the history, because it contains a wide variety of intellectual and emotional experiences and memories and explanations, some defiant, some remorseful, etc. I do think it's interesting that [directors] Sam & Bill chose your particular personal experience and view to provide some sort of narrative frame, if Sam doesn't agree with your evaluation (wrong means and bad results).
And then there's the fact of things like Neil Gordon's book (The Company You Keep, see HJ 48 review), Bill Ayers's memoir (Fugitive Days, also reviewed in HJ 48), etc. The stories were going to bubble up. What's good is that the film resurrected, at what serendipitously turned out to be a perfect historical moment (terrorism, war) a new awareness and perhaps understanding of WU from the perspective of 30 years' hindsight, by providing the historical context and getting a few of you to talk about and reflect on it. It became a good opportunity to have these public discussions that people who believe in real democracy so long for and need.
Filed under Violence and Non-Violence
REPORT FROM ISRAEL/PALESTINE: FAMILY TRIP (2005)
by Mark RuddMarla and I just returned from eight days in Israel and Palestine. This is a quick description of our trip for family and friends. Oy vey iss mir!!!
The original purpose of the visit, as proposed by my brother and sister-in-law, David and Sue, was to attend the Macabiah Games (Jewish Olympics) in which my nephews were playing on the U.S. masters' (over 35) soccer team. Michael is the captain of the team and Danny is another one of the stars. Also, Sue and David felt that if we could experience Israel as they do, we would soften our opinions about Israeli policy. I decided to go in order to pay respect to their perspective and to root for Michael and Danny. Also, not least, I felt I should actually see Israel for the first time, so I'd know a little bit more about what I've been shooting my mouth off already for decades. Marla went as my minder to keep me from getting in trouble. The trip was amply financed by my mother, Bertha
CO-alerts
In Reply to: Origin of An apple a day keeps the doctor away posted by Gordon Ueland on November 05, 1999
: Looking for the origin of subject phrase.
From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman (1996): "An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Eating fruit regularly keeps one healthy. First found as a Welsh folk proverb (1866)" 'Eat an apple on going to bed,/ And you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread.' First attested in the United States in 1913..."
Health Benefits
Easy on the digestion, apples contain malic and tartaric acids that inhibit fermentation in the intestines. Their high fiber content adds bulk that aids the digestive process, making elimination natural and comfortable. Apples contain pectin, a soluble fiber that encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract.
Apples contain flavonoids, antioxidants that improve immune function and prevent heart disease and some cancers.Green apples act as a liver and gall bladder cleanser and may aid in softening gallstones.Because of their high water content, apples are cooling and moistening and aid in reducing fever. Simply grate them and serve them to feverish patients. Steamed apples sweetened with honey are beneficial for a dry cough and may help to remove mucous from the lungs.Hippocrates (circa 400 BCE), the Greek physician considered the father of medicine, was a proponent of nutritional healing. His favorite remedies were apples, dates, and barley mush.Today medical practitioners are beginning to recognize that the apple's abundant quantity of pectin is an aid in reducing high cholesterol as well as blood sugar, a wonder food for people with coronary artery disease and diabetes.If these aren't enough reasons to "eat an apple a day," there's more. Eating raw apples gives the gums a healthy massage and cleans the teeth. This popular fruit is said to have properties that are a muscle tonic, diuretic, laxative, antidiarrheal, antirheumatic, and stomachic.
Nutritional Benefits
Unpeeled apples provide their most plentiful nutrients just under the skin. Apples are a good source of potassium, folic acid, and vitamin C.
A medium apple, approximately 5 ounces, has only 81 calories and a whopping 3.7 grams of fiber from pectin, a soluble fiber. A medium apple supplies 159 mg of potassium, 3.9 mcg of folic acid, 7.9 mg of vitamin C, and 9.6 mg of calcium.Additionally, there are trace amounts of B vitamins, iron, magnesium, and zinc
You might not have thought of this (since that was part of the plan) but by NOT discussing the *other* major economic theory on Earth, we missed seeing this coming (or am I wrong in interpreting this as *exactly* correct).
Monopoly Capital
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order is an essay from 1966 by Paul Sweezy and Paul A. Baran. It made a major contribution to Marxist theory by shifting attention from the assumption of a competitive economy to monopolistic aspects of giant corporations that dominate market life.
Argument
Big business can maintain selling prices at high levels while still competing to cut costs, advertise and market their products. The economic surpluses which result cannot be absorbed through consumers spending more. The concentration of the surplus in the hands of the business elite must therefore be geared towards imperialistic and militaristic government tendencies, which is the easiest and surest way to utilise surplus productive capacity.
Exploitation focuses on low wage workers and groups at home, especially minorities. Average earners see the pressures in drive for production destroy their human relationships, leading to wider alienation and hostility. The whole system is largely irrational, since though individuals may make rational decisions, the ultimate systemic goals are not. The system continues to function so long as Keynesian full employment policies are pursued, but there is the continued threat to stability from less-developed countries, throwing off the restraints of neo-colonial domination.
[edit]
IT'S SO SIMPLE.
Next time you're wondering when your parents might land a job again, consult this chart.
Watch the episode with Uncle Jay's complete explanation:
Department of Public Works truck driver James Curtis was sentenced to three years of probation for his guilty plea to a charge of second-degree aggravated harassment. The charge stemmed from an incident at the DPW garage in August 2008 when Curtis posted a whites-only sign above a drinking fountain.
"Although Mr. Curtis did something stupid, he never meant to hurt anyone," defense attorney Harvey Siegel told Chief City Court Judge Mark Violante before his client was sentenced. "Mr. Curtis did something foolish and he's regretted it ever since."
Curtis, 54, 218 80th St., was originally charged with second-degree aggravated harassment as a hate crime. The charge was later reduced and the hate crime designation dropped, after prosecutors said they believed Curtis' actions were not racially motivated.
"I'm terribly sorry for what happened," Curtis told Violante.
"It isn't a joke and it shouldn't be considered a joke," Violante told Curtis. "Think of what you have placed at risk for this act of foolishness."
Curtis, a 26-year DPW veteran, has been suspended from his job since his arrest and faces an effort by the city to have him fired.
Siegel showed Violante a letter, signed by 44 other DPW employees, asking that Curtis not be fired and suggesting that racial and ethnic jokes were not uncommon in the department. The letter was signed by six African-American DPW workers, including Hugh Leftwich one of the Niagara Falls 6, a group of black employees suing the city over alleged racism in their workplace.
The letter called Curtis "a friend to all of us" and said "we believe (posting the sign) was a joke, as we all joke about our nationalities."
Violante said he considered the letter in determining Curtis' sentence, but was not particularly swayed by it.
"The fact (that DPW employees engage in racial and ethnic humor) doesn't make this act one to be tolerated," the judge said. "I take offense to this."
Siegel asked Violante not to impose any penalties against Curtis.
"He has been, from day one, remorseful and sincere," Siegel said.
In addition to the three years of probation, Violante ordered Curtis to perform 50 hours of service in the Niagara County Sheriff's Department Work Program. The judge also ordered Curtis to attend diversity and sensitivity training programs and to undergo random drug and alcohol testing.
Lawyers for the city observed the proceedings. They are now expected to move ahead with an effort to fire Curtis.
"I thought (the sentence) was appropriate under the circumstances," Siegel said. "I don't think anyone is going to be joking like that at the DPW again and that's probably good."
Tickets to SNWMF 2009 On Sale Now!!!
About This Year's Artists:
|
The Sierra Nevada World Music Festival typically has dozens of reggae and world beat bands performing each year, and 200From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bloody Island Massacre (also called the Clear Lake Massacre) occurred on an island called Bo-no-po-ti, Badon-napo-ti, or "Old Island", at the north end of Clear Lake, Lake County, California on May 15, 1850.[1][2]
A number of Pomo Indians, primarily members of the Hoolanapo clan, had been enslaved and abused by settlers Andrew Kelsey -- whose name is still attached to the town of Kelseyville today -- and Charles Stone. Kelsey and Stone had purchased a cattle ranch from Salvador Vallejo in 1847. They captured and impressed local Pomos to work as vaqueros on the ranch. Their treatment of the Pomo were more brutal than Vallejo's. Families starved on meager rations, as the men only provided four cups of wheat a day for a family. One young man was sent by his family to ask for more wheat and Stone killed him.[3]
In the fall of 1849, Kelsey forced 50 Pomo men to work as laborers on a gold seeking expedition, and only one or two men returned alive.[4]
After this travesty, Stone and Kelsey beat and even shot Pomo men and raped Pomo women. The wife of Chief Augustine was raped, and the tribe responded with an attack. Augustine's wife poured water onto the two men's gun powder, rendering it useless, then warriors, including Pomo men Suk and Xasis, attacked the house at dawn, immediately killing Kelsey with an arrow. Stone jumped out a window and tried to hide in a stand of willow trees, but Augustine founded him and killed him with a rock. Then the Pomo men took food back to their families.[3]
A 1st Dragoons Regiment of the United States Cavalry contingent under General Nathaniel Lyon, who at that time was still a lieutenant, and Lieutenant J. W. Davison[2] tried in vain to located Augustine's band to retaliate.
Instead they came upon another group of Pomos on Bonopoti or Bloody Island and slaughtered almost the entire population of the island,[2] including women and children. Some of those killed were relatives of the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake[1] and Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California. Estimates of the number of people killed on the island vary between 60 and 400. The army then killed 75 more Indians along the Russian River.[3]
One of the few Pomo survivors of the massacre was a 6-year-old girl named Ni'ka or Lucy Moore. She survived by hiding under the lake waters and breathing through a tule reed. Her descendants formed the Lucy Moore Foundation.[3]
Later, the Pomo were forced to live in small "rancherias" set aside by the federal government. For most of the 20th century, the few Pomo people left had to live on these tiny reservations in poverty. It should be noted that very few textbooks on California history even mention the Bloody Island incident or the subsequent abuse of native Californians.
Bloody Island (Bo-no-po-ti)
Inscription. One-fourth mile west is the island called Bo-no-po-ti (Old Island), now Bloody Island. It was a place for native gatherings until May 15, 1850. On that date, a regiment of the 1st Dragoons of the U.S. Cavalry, commanded by Capt. Nathaniel Lyon and Lt. J.W. Davidson, massacred nearly the entire native population of the island. Most were women and children. This act was in reprisal for the killing of Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone who had long enslaved, brutalized, and starved indigenous people in the area. The island, now a hill surrounded by reclaimed land, remains a sacred testament to this sacrifice of innocents. 
By Karen Key, September 17, 20061. Bloody Island (BO-NO-PO-TI) Marker
Run From The Cure: How Cannabis Cures Cancer And Why No One Knows
by Rick Simpson. Posted on Friday, March 7 2008 12:00:00 AM
My name is Rick Simpson. I have been providing people with Hemp Oil medicines, at no cost, for about three years. The results have been nothing short of amazing. Throughout man's history hemp has always been known as the most medicinal plant in the world. Even with this knowledge, hemp has always been used as a political and religious football. I want this knowledge out there for everyone to learn! Watch the documentary Run From The Cure to understand more about using cannabis as a cure for cancer and other medical problems!
The current restrictions against hemp were put in place and maintained, not because hemp is evil or harmful, but for big money to make more big money, while we suffer and die needlessly. Look at a proposal such as this; if we were allowed to grow hemp in our back yards and cure our own illnesses, what do you think the reaction of the pharmaceutical industry would be to such a plan?
Many large pharmaceutical companies that still exist today sold hemp based medicines in the 1800's and early 1900's. They knew then what I have recently found out. Hemp oil if produced properly is a cure-all that the pharmaceutical industry can't patent.
To learn more about my and hemp oil, visit www.PhoenixTears.ca and watch the documentary Run From The Cure. Below the posted videos you will find more studies and research about cannabis curing cancer!
Rick Simpson outside court, 2007RUN FROM THE CURE: A Film By Christian Laurette
After a serious head injury in 1997, Rick Simpson sought relief from his medical condition through the use of medicinal hemp oil. When Rick discovered that the hemp oil (with its high concentration of T.H.C.) cured cancers and other illnesses, he tried to share it with as many people as he could free of charge, curing and controlling literally hundreds of people's illnesses... but when the story went public, the long arm of the law snatched the medicine - leaving potentially thousands of people without their cancer treatments - and leaving Rick with unconsitutional charges of possessing and trafficking marijuana!
Canada is in the middle of a CANCER EPIDEMIC! Meet the people who were not allowed to testify on Rick's behalf at the Supreme Court of Canada's Infamous Rick Simpson Trial on September 10, 2007... INCLUDING A MAN WHO WAS CURED OF TERMINAL CANCER USING HEMP OIL!
Want to read more about Cannabis and Cancer? Check out these incredible studies and news stories!
Marijuana May Fight Lung Tumors
Cannabis Compound Slows Cancer Spread In Mice, Researchers Say - April 17th 2007
Study Finds No Lung Cancer-Marijuana Connection
May, 2006 - Washington Post
Cannabis and Cancer Studies from SafeAccess.ca
safeaccess.ca/research/cancer.htm
THC for Tumors
March, 1999
US Federal Report Backs Medical Pot
May, 1999
Cannabinoid Research Around The World
July, 1999
THC Destroys Brain Cancers
May, 2000
Pot Shrinks Tumors
June, 2000
THC-Tumor Research Funding Cut
February, 2001
Cannabinoid Treats Tumors
January, 2002
Cannabinoid Anti-Tumor Effect
July, 2003
Cannabinoids Destroy Cancer
February, 2004
THC May Fight Lung Cancer
April, 2007
Iran's UN envoy has criticized the new US ambassador, who accused Tehran of supporting terrorism and attempting to develop nuclear weapons.
In a speech to the UN Security Council during a session on Iraq, Susan Rice said once the US withdraws its troops from Iraq, it would 'seek an end to Iran's ambitions to acquire an illicit nuclear capacity, and its support for terrorism'.
Iran's UN envoy, Mohammad Khazaee, said Rice's remarks were a repetition of the same 'groundless accusations' against Iran that the previous US administration had made.
"It is unfortunate that, yet again, we are hearing the same tired, unwarranted and groundless allegations that used to be unjustifiably and futilely repeated by the previous US administration," Khazaee said in a letter to the council's president, Japanese Ambassador, Yukio Takasu.
"Instead of raising allegations against others, the United States had better take concrete and meaningful steps in correcting its past wrong policies and practices vis-à-vis other nations, including the Islamic Republic of Iran," Khazaee added.
Khazaee said that Iran's nuclear program 'has been, is, and will remain, absolutely peaceful and Iran has never tried nor will ever try to acquire nuclear weapons'.
Iran announced on Wednesday that it has launched the test-stage of its first nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr and that the nuclear facility had entered its preliminary phase operation.
Rice's comments come a day after the US State Department spokesman, Robert Wood, said the test did not cross the boundaries of peaceful nuclear technology as fuel arrangements for the nuclear facility were made with Russia.
Iran's UN envoy said Tehran was a victim of terrorism and Rice's charge of Iran's support of terrorism was 'equally baseless and absurd'.
Rice also said that Washington would urge Iran and Syria to become 'constructive regional actors' and the US will deepen ties in the region to pursue a 'broad and sustained peace'.
Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
US President, Barack Obama and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton have vowed to begin direct talks with Iran to thaw relations between the two countries and resolve Iran's nuclear issue.
Tehran has maintained that it is open to fair talks while demanding fundamental changes in US policy.
In a speech to the UN Security Council during a session on Iraq, Susan Rice said once the US withdraws its troops from Iraq, it would 'seek an end to Iran's ambitions to acquire an illicit nuclear capacity, and its support for terrorism'.
Iran's UN envoy, Mohammad Khazaee, said Rice's remarks were a repetition of the same 'groundless accusations' against Iran that the previous US administration had made.
"It is unfortunate that, yet again, we are hearing the same tired, unwarranted and groundless allegations that used to be unjustifiably and futilely repeated by the previous US administration," Khazaee said in a letter to the council's president, Japanese Ambassador, Yukio Takasu.
"Instead of raising allegations against others, the United States had better take concrete and meaningful steps in correcting its past wrong policies and practices vis-à-vis other nations, including the Islamic Republic of Iran," Khazaee added.
Khazaee said that Iran's nuclear program 'has been, is, and will remain, absolutely peaceful and Iran has never tried nor will ever try to acquire nuclear weapons'.
Iran announced on Wednesday that it has launched the test-stage of its first nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr and that the nuclear facility had entered its preliminary phase operation.
Rice's comments come a day after the US State Department spokesman, Robert Wood, said the test did not cross the boundaries of peaceful nuclear technology as fuel arrangements for the nuclear facility were made with Russia.
Iran's UN envoy said Tehran was a victim of terrorism and Rice's charge of Iran's support of terrorism was 'equally baseless and absurd'.
Rice also said that Washington would urge Iran and Syria to become 'constructive regional actors' and the US will deepen ties in the region to pursue a 'broad and sustained peace'.
Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
US President, Barack Obama and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton have vowed to begin direct talks with Iran to thaw relations between the two countries and resolve Iran's nuclear issue.
Tehran has maintained that it is open to fair talks while demanding fundamental changes in US policy.
Yesterday the House Passed 2009 Plan Mexico Funding Despite Mexico's Failure to Comply with the 2008 Funding's Human Rights Conditions
The US House of Representatives passed the "omnibus" spending bill yesterday, which reportedly increases federal domestic spending by 8%. Democrats celebrated the bill as having "reversed the Bush cuts on domestic priorities." The bill will now head to the Senate.
However, $410 million was tucked away in the bill to provide 2009 funding for the military and law enforcement aid package known as the Merida Initiative or Plan Mexico. The House version constitutes a 25% decrease from former president George W. Bush's original proposal of $550 million for 2009.
Under the House version, Mexico would receive $300 million in Plan Mexico funds, which is $100 million less than last year. Central America would receive $105 million, which is a significant increase over the $60 million it received last year. Haiti and the Dominican Republic's funding remains the same at $2.5 million each.
Of Mexico's proposed $300 million, $15 million falls under the Economic Support Fund (ESF) for "economic assistance and civil society institution building." Last year Mexico received $20 million under the ESF, which in large part when to help the Mexican government implement its new judicial reforms, many of which were undertaken in response to the US government's leveraged encouragement. 2008 ESF funds were also used to expand a program operated by a CIA-affiliated NGO that will attempt to "influence attitudes about the rule of law" through media and NGOs. It also included funds to train Mexican human rights organizations to "properly" monitor human rights.
Mexico would receive $246 million in International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) funding under the House bill, a slight decrease from the $263.5 million it received last year. While the House bill does not specify what exactly 2009 INCLE funds would pay for (the spending plan that is due 45 days after the president signs the bill into law would go into more detail), the 2008 funds paid to expand Mexico's ability to track and detect undocumented immigrants in Mexico, effectively conflating undocumented immigrants with drug traffickers. 2008 INCLE funds also paid to expand various Mexican agencies' domestic spying capabilities. They also provided "technical assistance in prison management" and an unspecified amount of money for drug treatment in Mexico.
The House version of Plan Mexico also proposes $39 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which will pay for three Bell-412 helicopters. Mexico was slated to receive $116.5 million in FMF last year under Plan Mexico, which were supposed to pay for up to five Bell-412 helicopters and other other armament. However, 15% of the funds were withheld because Mexico has failed to comply with human rights conditions included in Plan Mexico. FY 2009 funding appears to attempt to fill the gap left by Mexico's disregard of the human rights conditions and purchase the remaining helicopters.
Human Rights Conditions
The House passed 2009 funding for Plan Mexico despite the fact that the US government is still withholding 15% of the 2008 funds because Mexico has still not complied with Plan Mexico's human rights conditions. The other 85% of the funds are unconditional.
In the House version of the 2009 bill, the human rights conditions remain the same. The Me xican government must:
- improve the transparency of police forces by establishing a commission or commissions to receive complaints regarding the police and carry out investigations,
- consult regularly with Mexican civil society organizations regarding the implementation of the Merida Initiative,
- assure that federal police and soldiers accused of human rights violations be tried in civil courts with the full cooperation of military and police officials,
- and enforce the prohibition on the use of testimony obtained through torture or other ill-treatment.
The Mexican government seems to have significant difficulties with the last two human rights conditions: that military and federal police be tried in civilian courts and that testimony obtained under torture not be used in criminal cases. In November, Narco News published a translation of a Proceso article that documented that the three suspects arrested in the Morelia Independence Day grenade attack were tortured, either by a drug cartel or by the Mexican government. The men claim they were tortured into confessing to throwing the fragmentation grenades into a crowd of civilians. The government has not explained how the men were inured.
Narco News has also published military authorities' outspoken opposition to trying soldiers accused of human rights violations in civilian courts. Mexican Secretary of Defense Guillermo Galván Galván used his Military Day address to argue against "those who demand that Military Jurisdiction be abolished," claiming that military trials are "never a cover for impunity." Aside from increased debate over the issue, the Mexican government has taken no steps to begin trying members of the military in civilian courts if they are accused of human rights violations.
This is a true story, proving how fascinating the mind of a six year old is. They think so logically.
A teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs to her class. She came to the part of the story where first pig was trying to gather the building materials for his home. She read 'and so the pig went up to the man with the wheel barrow full of straw and said: 'Pardon me sir, but may I have some of that straw to build my house?'
The teacher paused then asked the class: 'And what do you think the man said?'
One little boy raised his hand and said very matter-of-factly ...'I think the man would have said - 'Well, I'll be damned!! A talking pig!'
The teacher had to leave the room.
from http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=849
This was suggested by one of Katlyn's relatives:
On May 2, 2005, Marlene Braun, the manager of the Carrizo Plains National Monument in California killed herself, leaving a suicide note citing abuse, humiliation and unprofessional conduct by her chain-of-command. The Inspector General "Report of Investigation", dated April 19, 2006, found that "BLM did not take action to resolve longstanding differences...or to diffuse inter-office conflict, despite the availability of alternative dispute resolution methods." As a result, the report concludes "a breakdown in trust, communication and cooperation...adversely affected management of the Carrizo Plains..."
The report, extracted by PEER nine months after its first Freedom of Information Act request to the Inspector General's office, leaves lingering questions:
- Why did the Bakersfield Field Office manager not make a 911 call when he was unable to contact Braun after receiving her email?
- Who delayed "emergency medical personnel" from immediately responding to Braun's house, requesting that they await "the arrival of law enforcement" because "Braun was known to possess firearms"? Braun was alive as emergency responders arrived but died an hour later;
- Why did the BLM officials first dispatched to check on Braun seize her computer and other materials from Braun's house and then "failed to properly inventory the removed property or document their actions as required by BLM policy"?; and
- What, if any, changes will Interior consider adopting to prevent future such tragedies?
I have to point out that these bolded items aren't normal for a suicide. Generally, one wants to *ensure* the survival of the patient, not wait for them to die, and ransacking their belongings has a process called 'probate' that is normally at least polite to participate in (not like the dead person is going to take off with any of their stuff, yano?).
 |  Mark Schapiro's new book Exposed investigates how corporations intent on thwarting stricter environmental and health guidelines here in the U.S. are forced to meet new demands by the European Union to improve their products. The resulting global economic power shift places Brussels, not Washington, in the driver's seat. VIEW: Selected sources for Exposed LISTEN: An Interview with Mark Schapiro on KQED's Forum BUY: Exposed on Amazon.com |
BY JIM SANDERS
THE SACRAMENTO BEE
Smoke weed -- help the state?
Marijuana would be sold and taxed openly in California to adults 21 and older if legislation proposed Monday is signed into law.
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said his bill could generate big bucks for a cash-starved state while freeing law enforcement agencies to focus on worse crimes.
"I think there's a mentality throughout the state and the country that this isn't the highest priority - and that maybe we should start to reassess," he said.
Critics counter that it makes no sense for a Legislature so concerned about health that it has restricted use of trans fats in restaurants to legalize the smoking of a potentially harmful drug.
"I think substance abuse is just ruining our society," said Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley. "I can't support that."
"I think it's a slippery slope," Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, said of easing pot laws. "We'll do everything we can to defeat it."
Medical use of marijuana already is legal in California, but the new legislation would go a step further by allowing recreational use.
Assembly Bill 390 would charge cannabis wholesalers $5,000 initially and $2,500 annually for the right to distribute weed.
Retail outlets would pay fees of $50 per ounce of cannabis to generate revenue for drug education programs statewide.
The bill would prohibit cannabis near schools. It also would ban smoking it in public places or growing it in public view.
Before California could sell marijuana openly, however, it would have to persuade the federal government to alter its prohibition on pot.
- #1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation
- # 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA
- # 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business
- # 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?
- # 5 Seizing War Protesters' Assets
- # 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
- # 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking
- # 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly
- #9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify
- # 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture
- # 11 El Salvador's Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror
- # 12 Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind
- # 13 Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq
- # 14 Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste
- # 15 Worldwide Slavery
- # 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights
- # 17 UN's Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights
- # 18 Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers
- # 19 Indigenous Herders and Small Farmers Fight Livestock Extinction
- # 20 Marijuana Arrests Set New Record
- # 21 NATO Considers "First Strike" Nuclear Option
- # 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid
- # 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs
- # 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror
- # 25 Bush's Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer
by Khaled Amayreh / February 24th, 2009
In an apparent effort to sound "balanced" and "unbiased," the London-based human rights group, Amnesty International (AI), has urged the international community to halt arms sales to the Israeli apartheid regime and the Palestinian Islamic liberation movement, Hamas. A report issued by the group on Sunday, 22 February, pointed out that arms supplied to "the two sides" were used in attacks on civilians and civilian objects" which constituted war crimes.
Nonetheless, a careful examination of the report shows a clear propensity on the part of AI to create a false symmetry between Hamas, a small liberation movement resisting a decades-old Nazi-like foreign military occupation, and Israel, a manifestly criminal state armed to the teeth, which has been committing every conceivable crime under the sun for the purpose of maintaining its colonialist occupation and brutal domination over the Palestinian people.
To be sure, no one claims that Hamas is completely blameless. Targeting innocent civilians is unacceptable. However, equating the resistance of a long-persecuted people languishing under an evil military occupation, even if wrongs are done, with an immensely superior state terror unjustifiably perpetrated by an occupying power is morally unconscionable, to say the very least. Indeed, doing so would be analogous to equating European resistance to the attacking Nazi armies during the Second World War, with the Nazi aggression itself.
Well, with all due respect to AI and its efforts to safeguard and defend human rights, there is no legal or moral equation between a rape victim's right to defend herself against her attacker and the criminal act initiated by the rapist. I am using this analogy because the enduring Israeli oppression meted out to the Palestinian people is an enduring act of rape. Yes, firing home-made and other comparatively primitive projectiles on Israeli civilians is a regrettable act. However, the firing of these projectiles, which killed a few Israelis in ten years of hostilities (virtually one Israeli per year), can't be compared with the nearly complete annihilation of Gaza's civilian infrastructure and wholesale murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children. The excessive, disproportionate and often pornographic use of deadly violence against an essentially imprisoned and unprotected civilian population is more than just a mere miscalculation or faulty reasoning. It is rather a deliberate war crime the perpetrators of which are vile war criminals who ought to be prosecuted and punished for their crimes.
Well, with all due respect to AI and its efforts to safeguard and defend human rights, there is no legal or moral equation between a rape victim's right to defend herself against her attacker and the criminal act initiated by the rapist. I am using this analogy because the enduring Israeli oppression meted out to the Palestinian people is an enduring act of rape. Yes, firing home-made and other comparatively primitive projectiles on Israeli civilians is a regrettable act. However, the firing of these projectiles, which killed a few Israelis in ten years of hostilities (virtually one Israeli per year), can't be compared with the nearly complete annihilation of Gaza's civilian infrastructure and wholesale murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children. The excessive, disproportionate and often pornographic use of deadly violence against an essentially imprisoned and unprotected civilian population is more than just a mere miscalculation or faulty reasoning. It is rather a deliberate war crime the perpetrators of which are vile war criminals who ought to be prosecuted and punished for their crimes.
More to the point, it is imperative that one gives context if one is truly interested in producing an honest and objective analysis of the recent outrage in Gaza. Hence, one must be honest enough to remember that Israel had been forcing the 1.5 million Gazans to choose between dying quietly by succumbing to a genocidal hermetic siege that pushed most of the region's inhabitants to the brink of a silent holocaust, or fighting back, using whatever primitive and extremely limited means at their disposal. I strongly believe it is absurd and ludicrous, if not outright malicious, to compare Hamas with Israel as far as the use of violence is concerned.
Hamas is a small movement of persecuted Palestinians who have been on the receiving end of Israeli persecution and repression. Hamas poses no real or strategic threat to Israel, a military superpower which also, to a large extent, controls American politics and policies. In its recent genocidal onslaught on Gaza, Israel used the deadliest weapons of death, including F-16 warplanes, apache helicopters, Merkava tanks, heavy artillery, depleted uranium, chemical agents that eat through the human flesh and eventually cause death, white phosphorus, dart shells and a variety of other lethal weapons. On the other hand, Hamas used notoriously primitive weapons, mainly to deter Israel from carrying out a genocide on a wider scale.
During that blitz, Israel knowingly and deliberately targeted civilian neighborhoods, apartment buildings, private homes, mosques, college dorms, university buildings, UN-run schools, grocery stores and businesses. It was a no-holds-barred rampage of murder and terror against an imprisoned and thoroughly starved civilian population. As a result, as many as 7,000 Palestinians were murdered, or maimed and injured, many with life-long deformities. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of other Gazans suffered long-lasting psychological trauma.
On the Israeli side, we are talking about a dozen Israeli fatalities, some of whom killed or injured by "friendly fire." So, we are dealing with an extremely lopsided situation where the death ratio is nearly 1:100. Needless to say, one doesn't have to be a great military expert to realize that this is not really a war; it is rather a huge massacre.
This is why, AI is called upon to call the spade a spade and refrain from hiding behind technical jargons that not only fail to communicate the facts about what really happened in Gaza but also give a false impression of symmetry in guilt between Israel and Hamas. More to the point, it is important to remember that Israel didn't impose the draconian blockade of Gaza as retaliation for the largely innocuous firing of projectiles onto Israel. The criminal blockade was imposed, first and foremost, as a cruel punishment of Palestinians for electing a political party that Israel didn't like. Hence, the imposition of the siege, which is continuing unabated, is per se a war crime or a crime against humanity.
The world betrayed them, the Arab world stood silent, with some Arab regimes even colluding with Israel to perfect the siege in the hope that Gazans would turn against Hamas and bring it down. And the hypocritical West had the audacity to blame the victims while babbling, as usual, about Israel's right to defend itself. This happened while an entire people was being imprisoned, starved, tormented and quietly exterminated, mainly for political reasons pertaining to Israeli territorial aggrandizement.
In short, it was the Nazi-like Israeli savaging of the Palestinians that made Palestinian resistance inevitable. The Palestinians, long tormented by this cruel occupation, have every legal and moral right to resist, using whatever means available to them. Indeed, instead of blaming the victims for resisting their oppressors, the world, including AI, ought to tell Israel that it can't just incarcerate 1.5 million civilians within the confines of an open-air prison, surrounded by barbed wire, watchtowers, tanks, landmines, and other state-of-the-art machines of death, and then expect the victims to display love and understanding toward their tormentors and oppressors.
Israel did transform the Gaza Strip into a real concentration camp, by denying the prisoner population access to fuel, electricity, food, medicine, medical care, and basic consumer products. Meanwhile, the Israeli death machine never stopped murdering innocent Palestinians, nearly on a daily basis. It is essential that AI and other human rights groups take these facts into account when dealing with the situation in Gaza. Failing to do so, by cowering before Israeli pressure, would further corrode AI image as the world's premier human rights organization.
Khaldi, Ishmael -- Israeli Diplomacy
Contrary to what people might assume, not all diplomats representing the State of Israel are Jewish. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Ishmael Khaldi the Deputy Consul General from the State of Israel and based in San Francisco, California. Ishmael Khaldi is a Muslim who was born and raised in a migrant Bedouin community in Galilee in northern Israel. Ishmael Khaldi is the first Bedouin diplomat and the first Muslim in the Israeli Foreign Service. In this interview he shares his journey from his migratory tribal roots to northern California as the deputy consul general, and some of the Israeli proposals for resolving the present day internal conflicts. Ishmael Khaldi visited the studios of Radio Curious, in Ukiah, California on February, 12th 2009. Our conversation began when I asked him how he defines his identity, being both a Bedouin Muslim and deputy consul general for the State of Israeli.
I set up a temporary mailing list at KMEC to cover for the main mailing list which has been inoperable since the hacking of their server two weeks back, and it was hacked this weekend
I've got plenty of data logged now, and I'm discussing the matter with Sid.
In the big scheme of things, I'd say this is a notable, but not salient item.
A 'salient' item would be (for example) the 'Elvis 30 #1 Hits' CD that was inserted into my desktop machine at my house over the last few days (dunno when, I noticed it when I rebooted the machine yesterday).
In order for that to occur, they have to have a key to my house. While this wouldn't be the first time I've been 'visited' in my life (fourth major one by my count), it's certainly surprising to find that this little podunk place merits that much professional attention.
I don't think we need to sweat the front-door combo, in other words. It won't be 'secret' past the first use, IMHO. Locks really do only keep honest people honest.
This is hard-ball, as I understand it. I don't know yet what the source is, but the methods are *decidedly* professional. If it's not the government, it's someone with a LOT of money. You don't get people like me working for free (well, not often, and only when their brains have been softened by cannabis use, apparently).
I noted that "Elvis #1 Hits" was in my computer.
Honestly, I don't even know where the CD sleeve for that might be. I think it's upstairs.
There's like, zero percent chance that I 'accidentally' put in a disk to my machine that I wouldn't know where to find if queried.
Anyway, it's interesting. I suppose it's a message to let me know that "I'm under their thumb," however, that's been my point for fifteen years since they lied to my landlady to get her to let them ransack my house in Austin.
I'm not terribly impressed. If they hadn't listened to the show, the 'Judi Bari Immediate Retirement Plan' appeals to me.
It's *REALLY* big. Click if you dare (and have time). It's detailed enough you can read some of the spines of the books on the shelf.
I posted two entries, and they are 'there' but not 'here' (front page).
What's up with that?
Rootless Root
A stranger from the land of Woot came to Master Foo as he was eating the morning meal with his students.
"I hear y00 are very l33t," he said. "Pl33z teach m3 all y00 know."
Master Foo's students looked at each other, confused by the stranger's barbarous language. Master Foo just smiled and replied: "You wish to learn the Way of Unix?"
"I want to b3 a wizard hax0r," the stranger replied, "and 0wn ever3one's b0xen."
"I do not teach that Way," replied Master Foo.
The stranger grew agitated. "D00d, y00 r nothing but a p0ser," he said. "If y00 n00 anything, y00 wud t33ch m3."
"There is a path," said Master Foo, "that might bring you to wisdom." The master scribbled an IP address on a piece of paper. "Cracking this box should pose you little difficulty, as its guardians are incompetent. Return and tell me what you find."
The stranger bowed and left. Master Foo finished his meal.
Days passed, then months. The stranger was forgotten.
Years later, the stranger from the land of Woot returned.
"Damn you!" he said, "I cracked that box, and it was easy like you said. But I got busted by the FBI and thrown in jail."
"Good," said Master Foo. "You are ready for the next lesson." He scribbled an IP address on another piece of paper and handed it to the stranger.
"Are you crazy?" the stranger yelled. "After what I've been through, I'm never going to break into a computer again!"
Master Foo smiled. "Here," he said, "is the beginning of wisdom."
On hearing this, the stranger was enlightened.
"You have been lied to" Joined: Jul 26, 2008 Comments: 370 |
Soros sees no bottom for world financial "collapse"
How bank nationalization would workNEW YORK (Reuters) - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis.
Soros said the turbulence is actually more severe than during the Great Depression, comparing the current situation to the demise of the Soviet Union.
He said the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September marked a turning point in the functioning of the market system.
"We witnessed the collapse of the financial system," Soros said at a Columbia University dinner. "It was placed on life support, and it's still on life support. There's no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom."
His comments echoed those made earlier at the same conference by Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who is now a top adviser to President Barack Obama.
Volcker said industrial production around the world was declining even more rapidly than in the United States, which is itself under severe strain.
"I don't remember any time, maybe even in the Great Depression, when things went down quite so fast, quite so uniformly around the world," Volcker said.
(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa and Juan Lagorio; Editing by Gary Hill)
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This petition is to help get attention on the need for justice in the death of 22 year-old Katlyn Long. Katlyn's death is still being listed as "under suspicious circumstances" with her ex-boyfriend being the "person of interest."
There are many facts that can not be released at this time because there is an active investigation. However, Katlyn's life ended on May 29, 2008, and those that want to see justice done, who know the facts of the case, are getting very concerned that there may never be Justice for Katlyn.
This petition will be given to the District Attorney's office of Mendocino County, CA. We want to show them that there are lot of citizens that will not rest until justice is served, and who will be watching this case. Katlyn was a lover of life, who had a pure, kind, bright spirit.
Those of you who know about domestic violence, know that it is when the abused person leaves the reltionship that the violence escalates. Please pass this petition on to everyone you know, and ask them to do the same, so we can tell the District Attorney's office that many, many eyes are watching what they do with this case. Justice for Katlyn!
signature
goal: 1,000
BTW, the title refers to the thread on the Ukiah Daily Urinal's Topix Blog (which will not permit the use of the girl's name--it masks it as if it were fuck or shit).
Phosphate Rock Fertilizer: Toxic Metals, Radiation Hazards, Fluoride, and Organic Growing
from: organicconsumers.org
George Glasser - Ros Jones
National Pure Water Association
Campaign for Safe Drinking Water
Founded in England, 1960
http://www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk/organic.html
The NPWA has a long-standing concern about the phosphate fertiliser industry. Fluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6), used to fluoridate drinking water, is derived from the pollution scrubbing operations at those facilities. We have built up a considerable understanding of phosphate rock (PR).
The raw rock (which during phosphate fertiliser production is extensively processed) is contaminated with heavy metals, radionuclides, other toxic metals and fluorides. It is recommended for use as an organic fertiliser in its raw state.
In the process to make the raw rock into green phosphoric acid, some of the fluorides are driven off as silicon tetrafluoride gas and a good amount of the toxic metals/radionuclides are carried away in the gypsum waste stream. http://www.npwa.freeserve.co.uk/pollution.htm
PR is referred to in geological terms as fluorapatite. Depending on the region of the world it comes from, the rock can contain anywhere from 2.0% to 5.0% fluoride. At five percent, one kilogram contains enough fluoride to fluoridate 50,000 litres of drinking water.
One ounce @ 5.0% fluoride (about the amount used to fertilise one organic tomato plant as recommended by some organic growers) contains about 1.4 grams of fluoride, which is enough to kill a small child.
Fluoride is also toxic to many plants (phytotoxic).http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/jws/jsfa/2003/00000083/00000013/art00012,http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/plantsci/landscap/pp744w.htm,www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_ file&file_id=SR00036.pdf
Aside from fluorine pollution, Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) is the major concern of most government environmental agencies regulating pollution and phosphorgypsum waste from the manufacture of phosphoric acid.
Again, depending on geographic location where the PR is mined, it can contain from 50 - 200 ppm of uranium. PR is the major source of 'yellow cake' (uranium oxide) for nuclear weapons and the nuclear power industry.
PR is notorious for its radioactive constituents. The risks it poses are most threatening to people who come into direct contact with it - eg. organic growers. However, organic growing organisations seem to be oblivious to these health hazards - despite the information having been available for many years.
Where there is uranium in natural rock formations, there will also be all its carcinogenic decay rate products; such as radium, radon, radioactive lead, polonium, thorium, etc.
There are also toxic metal contaminants such as beryllium, manganese, arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium and vanadium.
The tailings from phosphoric acid production (phosphate fertiliser), phosphorgypsum, are so radioactive that they are not allowed to be used for wall-board or road beds in the US and Canada - because it is considered a radiation hazard. However, organic growers are allowed to treat their fields with the raw, unprocessed product once every six years, with none of the contaminants processed out.
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/neshaps/subpartr/more.htm
http://www.efma.org/Publications/BAT%202000/Bat04/section04.asp
Taking a closer look at this 'natural' PR mix, we find for example polonium-210:
One particle of polonium-210 gives off 5,000 times more alpha radiation than the same amount of radium. Damage occurs in the body from complete tissue absorption of the energy of the alpha particle. Polonium-210 can be carcinogenic to people exposed to more than 0.03 microcuries (6.8 trillionths of a gram). Polonium-210 has a half-life of about 138 days.(There are also high levels of Radium and Polonium- 210 in granite dust, which is used by organic farmers is some parts of the world as a soil conditioner).
Half Life: Half of the polonium gives off intense alpha radiation for 138 days until it turns into regular lead and becomes stable. However, half the polonium still remains, emitting alpha radiation for another 138 days; then a quarter of the original amount, and so on and so on.
Polonium is found in tobacco grown with phosphate fertilisers. Studies have suggested that radioactive polonium may be the primary cause of smoking-related cancers.
Polonium is carried throughout the body in the blood. It has been linked to more soft-tissue cancers than bone cancers; typical sites are the liver, spleen and kidney.
Radon is also given off from PR and ground granite. Radon is second only to smoking as the leading cause of lung cancer in the UK.
Radon is an important environmental hazard, due to its release of alpha particle radiation. It has a half life of 3.8 days.
Radon is also soluble in water.
http://www.physics.umaine.edu/radiation/radon.htm
http://energy.cr.usgs.gov/radon/georadon/3.html
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/radon/pubs/physic.html
Radon, in and of itself, is not a carcinogen. It is the decay products of radon that are the problem.
If organic growers are using PR or ground granite, they are being exposed to these radioactive elements, especially radon. It is important to note that these do not simply dissipate from the product in a few days, months or years - these products will emit radon for many thousands of years.
NPWA would strongly recommend organic growers to purchase a radon detector/s. PR dust can be brought into the home on clothes and shoes.
Also, greenhouse growers should check for radon build-up.
If you use PR or ground granite for indoor plants, it would be wise to purchase a radon detector and to re-pot your plants.
NPWA believes that the promotion of PR and ground granite soil conditioners by organic growers' organisations endangers the health and well-being of their members and of people who follow their advice.
NPWA also believes that the use of raw phosphate rock and ground granite for fertiliser and/or soil conditioner should be banned for health and safety reasons.
Other reasons for NPWA opposition to the use of PR are as follows:
1. The use of phosphate fertilisers is a major contributor to environmental pollution.
2. The act of mining PR causes ecological devastation in many regions of the world.
http://www.banaban.com/pmining.htm
http://www.waterconserve.info/articles/reader.asp?linkid=42311
http://www.americanrivers.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr005=qn4zxbzm41.app14a&abbr=AMR
_&page=NewsArticle&id=6697&news_iv_ctrl=-1
3. Concern about up-take of fluorides, toxic metals and radionuclides in produce grown with phosphate fertilisers..
(http://www.medvarsity.com/vmu1.2/dmr/dmrdata/cme/fluorosis/Fluorosis.htm
http://www.floridacenter.org/publications/02_04shiralipour.PDF)
4. The health and wellbeing of growers who have not been informed about the dangers in using PR.
Further Reference Material:
http://www.greenpeace.to/publications_pdf/LCC_2002.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/neshaps/subpartr/more.htm#how_much_radioactivity
http://lqma.ifas.ufl.edu/PUBLICATION-subject.html
http://www.purewatergazette.net/fluorideandphosphate.htm
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/uranium.htm
http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2
http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/chem/issues/kim-99-23-3/kim-23-3-6-98063.pdf
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~geology/rocks_for_crops/16car.PDF
http://www.webspawner.com/users/radioactivefood/
http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q25.html
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iop/jrp/2000/00000020/00000001/art00305
http://www.acsa.net/HealthAlert/RadioFood.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11379072&query_hl=2
Phosphates - http://www.uic.com.au/nip59.htm
Phosphate rock used for fertiliser is a major NORM due to uranium and thorium. Australian phosphate rock contains up to 900 Bq/kg and that imported is about twice this, yielding about 1000 Bq/kg in phosphogypsum waste stream and up to 3000 Bq/kg in the superphosphate product. In the USA some 50 million tonnes per year are produced and state figures (UNSCEAR 1977) average up to 10,000 Bq/kg of total radioactivity. Processing this sometimes gives rise to measurable doses of radioactivity to people. Phosphate rocks containing up to 120 ppm U have been used as a source of uranium.
European fertiliser manufacturing gave rise to discharges of phophogypsum containing significant quantities of Ra-226, Pb-210 and Po-210 into the North Sea and North Atlantic. This has been overtaken by offshore oil and gas production in Norwegian and UK waters releasing some 10 TBq/yr of Ra-226, Ra-228 & Pb-210 - contributing 90% of alpha-active discharges in those waters (two orders of magnitude more than the nuclear industry, and with this NORM having higher radiotoxicity).
Also see: http://www.corpwatch.org/print_article.php?&id=555
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010134hopkins/010134ch3.html
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/radon.htm
http://web.em.doe.gov/idb97/chap7.html
http://www.geo.tu-freiberg.de/umh/Abstract_View/falck_15_abstract.pdf
http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/007/y5053e/y5053e0d.htm
http://www.schundler.com/florides.htm
http://www1.fipr.state.fl.us/PhosphatePrimer/0/684AE64864D115FE85256F88007AC781
http://www.rdsenvironmental.com/hazmat.radon.html
http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/0/80256ad8005545498025678d0035fa7d?OpenDocument
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Fertilizer.abstracts.1990-.htm
http://static.highbeam.com/a/australianjournalofsoilresearch/may012001
Yeah, I figured I'd take a page from their playbook. You can link back to the original if you care to see all the Mexican Government propaganda I cut.
Drug War Protesters Block Mexico-US Border
by BBC News. Posted on Wednesday, February 18 2009 06:27:49 PM
Protesters gathered in border towns across northern MexicoHundreds of people in Mexico have blocked key crossings into the US in protests against the deployment of the army to fight drug traffickers.
Traffic was brought to a halt on a number of bridges in several border towns in northern Mexico.
The protesters accused the army of abuse against civilians.
Some 40,000 troops have been deployed since 2006.
In some parts of the country, the army has taken over the role of the police, which have often proved easily corrupted when bribed or threatened, says the BBC's Stephen Gibbs in Mexico City.
Calderon's vow
The protesters blocked bridges in Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa.
They chanted "Soldiers out!" and "Stop abuse by the PFP [Federal Preventative Police]!"
The demonstrators also shut roads in the industrial city of Monterrey.
Many of the protesters said border towns had become more dangerous since President Felipe Calderon sent the army in.
Human rights activists say there are legitimate complaints about reported abuses by the troops, including alleged cases in which army patrols have fired on civilians at checkpoints.
Not Enough Evidence To Charge Phelps, Sheriff Says
by CNN. Posted on Tuesday, February 17 2009 01:37:04 PM
Michael Phelps admitted "regrettable behavior" after a photo of him using a bong was published.Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps will not face criminal charges in connection with a November party at which he was photographed using a bong, a South Carolina sheriff said Monday.
"We do not believe we have enough evidence to prosecute anyone" who was at the party in Columbia, South Carolina, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told reporters, adding that authorities are ending their investigation into Phelps.
"We had a photo, and we had him saying he was sorry for his inappropriate behavior," Lott said. "That behavior could have been going to a party. ... He never said, 'I smoked marijuana.' He never confessed to that. We didn't have physical evidence. We didn't have enough where we could go arrest him."
Pot Protects From Workplace Accidents
by Cannabis Culture. Posted on Wednesday, February 18 2009 10:51:14 AM
Another one of the overhyped stereotypes around marijuana users has just bitten the dust. For years people assumed that getting 'stoned' made you either lazy or careless. The bleary-eyed stoner getting into mishaps is the stuff of much comedy. But what if marijuana use actually made you more careful and less likely to screw up and hurt yourself?
A new Swiss study published at Bio-Med Central concludes exactly that: marijuana can protect you from injury. The study, titled "Alcohol and cannabis use as risk factors for injury - a case-crossover analysis in a Swiss hospital emergency department" compared the injuries that required hospitalization. The authors' conclusions were surprising: marijuana use is not only NOT associated with increased risk of injury - marijuana users actually get injured less than sober people: "The results for cannabis use were quite surprising. [...] The present study in fact indicated a 'protective effect' of cannabis use in a dose-response relationship."
Green Party Siren Jodie Emery Targets Wally Oppal The Prohibitionist
by Matthew Burrows. Posted on Thursday, February 19 2009 02:25:05 PM
She's an editor of Cannabis Culture magazine, she's 24 years old, she supported U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul, and she's married to pot crusader Marc Emery. She's Jodie Emery, and the Georgia Straight has learned that she will run for the B.C. Green party against B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal in Vancouver-Fraserview in May.
"There is a lot that needs to be said that he needs to hear," Emery told the Straight by phone. "He used to be a bit more progressive, but he's since turned to become more prohibitionist and [is] supporting the policing, even though he and everyone can see that hasn't worked thus far. I think I will have a good time discussing some of these issues--gang violence and prohibition and organized crime--with Wally Oppal. I am quite excited about it."
B.C. Green party deputy leader Damian Kettlewell, who confirmed he is running in his newly created home riding of Vancouver-False Creek, said Emery "has got the full package".
DMV Sued Over Medical Marijuana
by Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times. Posted on Monday, February 16 2009 11:45:26 AM
Americans for Safe Access has sued the Department of Motor Vehicles, asking for a written policy that says medical marijuana should be treated the same as prescription drugs. The suit contends that the DMV has a pattern of investigating and suspending the driver's licenses of people who use pot on the recommendation of their doctors.
Reporting from San Francisco - When Matt Vaughn was pulled over for speeding on Interstate 5 in Northern California early on a Sunday morning, he had a bag of marijuana on the passenger seat.
The California Highway Patrol officer smelled the weed, searched the car, took the marijuana and pipe and gave Vaughn a sobriety test, which he passed. An angry Vaughn showed the officer his doctor's recommendation to use marijuana for glaucoma. The officer was unimpressed.
"He said, in Glenn County, they don't recognize those kinds of things," said Vaughn, 55, who has a long ponytail, mustache and beard. "He was not very friendly about it."
The 2005 incident cost Vaughn a speeding ticket, his 1 1/4 ounce of pot and his driver's license -- and nine months of fighting the California Department of Motor Vehicles -- before he prevailed.
Yes, there is apparently a danger associated with it. The danger appears to be that in considering it, one becomes feeble-minded.
To wit: the opponents of this technology keep mis-inserting radioactive elements *INTO* the food, when it's nothing of the sort (the irradiated items never come into direct contact with anything radioactive).
Now, I have to say I agree with them when they point out that it's a lazy solution to a lazy problem (food cleanliness).
However, unless we want to pay for food inspection, it's much more to the *real* point (that we'd just as soon not get sick from eating).
Whether or not it's *safe* will take a generation, but preliminary reports appear that it's not only safe, but harmless.
I should point out that my research in this field didn't start on listening to the fear-mongers on KMEC. I read an article in Cannabis Culture magazine about these guys, who pointed out that they wanted to provide safe, legal, *irradiated* cannabis (since many of the recipients may well be immune compromised).
Ale Yarok
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ale Yarok | |
 | |
| Leader | Gil Kopatch |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Jerusalem |
| Ideology | Liberalism, Environmentalism |
| Website | |
| www.ale-yarok.org.il | |
Ale Yarok (Hebrew: עלה ירוק, Green Leaf) is a minor liberal political party in Israel best known for its ideology of decriminalizing cannabis. To date it has had no representation in the Knesset.
Contents[hide] |
[edit]History
The party gained 1% of the vote in the 1999 elections,[1] and 1.2% in the 2003 elections,[2] but both times failed to pass the 1.5% threshold for representation in the Knesset. After failing to make it into the Knesset in the 2003 elections, the chairman of Ale Yarok, Boaz Wachtel announced that he was giving up the leadership of the party, but remained in the position due to party members requests.
And I thought free flights to Vegas were cheesy.
Watch this Zionist pig hit people with rocks (and claim it's the 'right thing to do').
An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandson about life.
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves."
"One is evil -- he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego."
"The other is good -- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
"This same fight is going on inside you -- and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."
BETA-BLOCKERS ERASE EMOTION OF FEARFUL MEMORIES
Memory remains, but feeling of fear is less or gone, shows experimental study in people
Web edition : Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Text SizeThe first experimental study in humans connecting beta-blockers and memory suggests these drugs, usually taken to treat heart conditions, can also wipe away the emotions associated with frightening memories. The power of such memories could be dampened when a person thinks about the traumatic events after taking the drugs, scientists say.
Clinical psychologist Merel Kindt of the University of Amsterdam and her colleagues report the new finding online February 15 in Nature Neuroscience.The research builds on a clinical study published in the May 2008 Journal of Psychiatric Research that suggested beta-blockers helped patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD.
"Kindt's work confirms our clinical results and goes further by showing beta-blockers also have this effect" on people who had no previous history of mental health issues, comments Alain Brunet, psychiatrist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute at McGill University in Montreal and a coauthor of the PTSD study.
Kindt and her colleagues showed subjects a photograph of a spider, which was accompanied by an electric shock, conditioning the participants to have a fearful memory of the image. Later, some participants were given a beta-blocker drug, propranolol, and others were given a placebo before being exposed to the image again. The beta-blocker group's fear response was greatly reduced or even eliminated when the subjects were shown the spider photograph 24 hours after taking the drugs. "The people did not forget seeing the photograph of the spider," Kindt says. "But the fear associated with the image was erased."
On the other hand:
| ||||||
|
Playing Tetris after traumatic events could reduce the flashbacks experienced in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), preliminary research by Oxford University psychologists suggests.And then, there's:
Since 1995, The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has disbursed over three million dollars to worthy research and educational projects. We need your support because only together we can make a difference. Donations can be restricted to specific project funds or given to MAPS' general operational fund. |
| MDMA Psychotherapy Research |
MAPS has a comprehensive $5 million, 5-year strategy, outlined in a Clinical Plan to develop MDMA into an FDA-approved prescription medicine as an adjunct to psychotherapy. Developing MDMA into an FDA-approved prescription medicine is MAPS' top priority, for reasons fully discussed in the Clinical Plan. MAPS' MDMA psychotherapy research agenda was featured most recently in a thorough and remarkably favorable cover article in the November 25, 2007 issue of the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, with the article entitled, "The Peace Drug." Prior to that, MAPS MDMA research has been discussed in an April 1, 2004 news story on ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, in a May 13, 2004 report in the scientific journal Nature, in a May 2, 2005 article in Newsweek, Ecstasy: A Possible New Role for A Banned Club Drug and in a May 15, 2006 article in the Boston Globe, A Good Death. For 2008, MAPS is seeking to raise an additional $50,000 for writing up the results of our US MDMA/PTSD study being conducted in Charleston, SC by Dr. Michael and Annie Mithoefer, for refining our treatment manual and for developing our therapist training program. Donations of any amount are most appreciated. This study is designed to explore the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in 21 subjects with treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was approved after 18 years of long and expensive struggle.This is the first FDA-approved study of the therapeutic use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. The final subject will be treated in July, 2008. Then we'll analyze the data and write up the results for publication. |
Internationally, MAPS is sponsoring an MDMA/PTSD study in Israel in subjects who have war and/or terrorism-related PTSD, led by Moshe Kotler, MD, former chief psychiatrist of the Israeli Defense Forces. This study is has full government approval and has already enrolled the first subject.
And (lastly) from Joan Bello:
For everyone who suffers from PTSD - for whatever reason - Marijuana Therapy has been shown to be very effective and safe. Not like the talking therapies which have a dismal record of helping trauma victims, and nothing like the dangerous, numbing, and addictive, but legal drugs that cost a fortune and deaden one's mind. BTW: it just so happens, that starting in 2004, the Israeli army began to conduct controlled studies with Marijuana Therapy for PTSD. They heard tell from their soldiers that it worked. Preliminary findings actually resulted in government-issue THC for their soldiers. That's right!! Israeli soldiers are given THC as part of their rations!
Kerry is in Israel touring the devastation that Hamas wreaks on Israel.
I watched him going past a big pile of missiles that were stacked up on display.
Now, THINK about this.
The missiles are *stacked up* (all bent, broken, rusted, but *present*).
If they are sitting there in piles for tZippi the Pinhead to show off to JFK, they didn't really blow much else up, did they?
Which would be quite expectable...
The right-hand blog main-screen pane shows a link:
"Be one of writch's wranglers"
(that's pronounced: "Be one of WRITCH'S WRANGERS!")
If you were perhaps lysdexic, adn were'nt reallly srue if there wass a DoG.
Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 9:13 am | By: "Radical" Russ
San Francisco, CA: A majority of west coast voters support regulating the sale of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol, according to national poll of 1,053 likely voters by Zogby International and commissioned by California NORML and Oaksterdam University.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents residing on the west coast agree that cannabis should be "taxed and legally regulated like alcohol and cigarettes." Only thirty-six percent of west coast respondents oppose regulating the sale of marijuana for adults.
Nationally, support for taxing and regulating cannabis stands at 44 percent. Among likely voters on the east coast, 48 percent endorse legalizing marijuana. Respondents' support fell to approximately 37 percent in the southern and central regions of the United States.
Earlier this month, a national CBS/New York Times poll reported that 41 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana - up from just 27 percent in 1979.
General Motors, once the symbol of American industrial might, is now 1/25th the size of Toyota, and smaller than Bed Bath & Beyond.
Fashion designer Claudia Escobar sells an ultra-mini-bikini made out of salmon skin for $495.
After three months of testimony costing taxpayers over $1 million, a mistrial was declared in a drug conspiracy prosecution in Sydney, Australia, after it was discovered that five of the jurors spent most of their time in court playing Sudoku.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined the KISS Fan Club and was given a backstage pass.
Gerald L.K. Smith, a Disciples of Christ minister and white supremacist, pioneered the field of Holocaust Denial when he said that most of the Jews alleged killed by the Nazis in death camps were actually alive and well in New York City.
Televangelist Jack Van Impe says that the United Nations is placing secret codes on the backs of national highway signs in order to reveal the locations of believers, so that the New World Order can persecute them.
Texe Marrs, head of Power of Prophecy Ministries in Spicewood, Texas, claims that Jimmy Carter, the PTA and the Masons are involved in a conspiracy to destroy the American government, and that the conspiracy was discovered by Pat Robertson, who is also now part of the conspiracy. Marrs previously claimed that Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno were involved in a lesbian plot to destroy Christianity.
I found the most *amazing* coincidence (sure to be fodder for some lame-brained theorist if they just try). This is a P&G product I'm unfamiliar with:
The funny part (for the theorists) is that if you look up the same product on P&G's Israel web site, they've turned the 'star' on it's side:
So, is it "Ariel Sharon"? From the wiki:
Sharon served as Prime Minister from March 2001 until April 2006, though he was unable to carry out his duties after suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006, when he fell into a coma and entered a persistent vegetative state.
Would that fit that, "One of the beast's heads looked like it had sustained a mortal wound..." stuff? I mean, his party is *still* running the show (tZippi the Pinhead is his current replacement till he 'gets better').
Hmm, ink-wired minds are the double's workshop.
About this time a year ago I was coughing up toothbrush bristles.
I realized something mildly funny about the "Dr John's" (later Crest) Spinbrush that came apart when the wrong toothpaste was put on it.
The 'wrong' toothpaste?
It's from the same company that owns the Spinbrush now (can you guess?):
Now, the weirdest part here is that the company that makes the Crest toothpaste, Proctor & Gamble, isn't the company that makes the Crest Spinbrush.
You might recall them by their old logo:
Isn't the little red '666' in it just charming?
That's likely an Amway production (at least, they were the ones that were found to be spreading the rumors that it was a *satanic* symbol).
Amway had to pay $19m.
So, now, when you see the 
logo, you'll know for sure you don't know whose product it really is.
logo, you'll know for sure you don't know whose product it really is.Incidentally, PG stock is currently at $51.16 a share, however, if you have stock with the *old* logo, *that* stock is running at $249 (on sale)
Procter & Gamble Company with Moon and Stars Vignette - Ohio 1976 |
Why does everybody hate America?
Images of U.S. soldiers tying up frightened little girls in rooms enraged world opinion.
Well, first of all, they don't hate all of America or all Americans, they just hate the very worst kinds of Americans, ones like Bush who are sociopathic little yuppie creeps who have no regard for life, except their own.
Every night all the other news organization throughout the world show the horrors of US occupation of Iraq - The images of the kids with their arms or legs blown apart or killed by a US raid. Every night the people of the world are angered at these real images on the their TVs of real kids whose lives are mangled and destroyed.
U.S. soldiers frisk children violating the deepest traditions and religions of the people
But we can't see these images here in the United States because our leaders and media think that by showing us the REALITY of our actions that we would not support the looting rampage that Bush and his buddies are subjecting the world to. This is why the world hates us. You see, in the modern world only scum hides from the truth. And Bush and the scum in the media who is colluding with Bush know that their most important objective is to assure that he truth doesn't get shown to the American people. But for the rest of the people of the world - As soon as the images of all the dead and mangled kids starts circulating around the world - the war has already been lost, by both sides.
Now, there is no good will throughout the world for America - The whole world knows the truth about Bush and his gang. Bush and his dad and all their buddies in the defense establishment are making a fortune - they are cashing in BIG TIME. And US soldiers are paying the price. And innocent women and children are being slaughtered.
Who thinks for a minute that these rampant war profiteers in Washington care one bit about the suffering of these children in Iraq whose arms and legs are being blown from their bodies? Who actually believes that these old geezers in Washington have even the capability to understand the human tragedy they are inflicting on others when the specter of rampant war profiteering looms in every crevice of their cold clammy bodies and screams out "I AM A WALKING TALKING CONFLICT OF INTRESTS."
That's another reason why the people of the world hate us. Because they know that the Bushes are merely war profiteers and looters, oh and more thing - Genocidal Murderers.
These Bush types are totally engorged in their orgy of commerce and militarism. Cheny, Haliburton, Carlyle and all the rest - it's disgusting, and it's right in EVERYBODIES FACE. Everyone see it. Everyone understands what a CONFLICT OF INTEREST is. But we are being lied to and brainwashed into thinking that we really don't mind all this RAPE that is going on in our name. It's chilling to see Bush feign concern for the suffering of this or that victim. He's as fake as they come. A little child with both his arms are blown off at the same time as both his parents are killed - It means nothing to Bush - Nothing.
Not with all the defense industry profits to worry about and inside deals going on, and all the favorable defense procurement contracts to dole out and all the avenues of kickback to manage and follow up on. It's not easy RAPING the world AND America. It is a monumental full time effort. It requires the utmost attention to the detail of strategic killing and strategic lying. And this Bush crew is not very good at it. These Bushes are unique in their ability to initiate the chaos - The problem is, that the Bushes never did figure out how to finish what they started. And so their specialty is to just ram the thing straight into the ground and extract as much cash from it as it is crashing. That's their specialty, that's what the Bushes do - That's all they have ever done.
You can see it in Bushes whole demeanor when they wheel him out to get up there and fake concern for some devastated person or people whose lives are devastated by the US war machine, I cringe, because I know that behind his eyes, visions of the next looting spree, dance in this mental midget's little mind.
An orgy of killing - A mountain of dead children - Now Bush has put America neck and neck with Israel as the two most hated nations on earth. Congratulations America, we are the new "jews." The cold FACTS of the matter are that - America is now as reviled in the community of nations and in the heart and minds of the people of the world, as is Israel. Only George Bush could have done this to America.
Lets all remind Bush and all who represent him, that the images of dead children - yes, even if they are "only" Palestinian and Iraqi Kids will be remembered. Kids are all the same. If if you hit them with bombs you must pay the price. I am sure that Americans would gladly pay the few extra nickels for their gas and oil to avoid being UNIVERSALLY HATED throughout the world. But with the Bushes this vision is not in their game plan. For these Bushes ONLY MAKE MONEY WHEN THERE IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN AMERICA. They are spoiled rich little sociopathic yuppies. These types don't have souls, they are spoiled little privileged rats who never knew a moment without luxury and privilege. They are the very essence of what evil really is because they never did a good thing in their life. They fake everyone out by pretending to be religious. They are too rich to be religious. One can not make as much money off the war machine as the Bushes do and still claim to actually believe in god. In order to be like the Bushes you must really celebrate the darkness and evil of the world. They understand exactly who you are working for, when their bombs rip through the lives of women and children everywhere and they cash in. They are working for lucifer. They are the very face of death these Bush types. And they frighten and repulse the world.
And every night, here in America, by omission, the US media perpetrates the most flagrant affronts to our society, by NOT showing us what's really happening, by NOT showing us what the whole world is seeing on their nightly news. By lying.
It's a total black-out.
The information "Clampdown" here in the US is nearly complete. Except for the few rays of light like voxfux.com that still flicker their way out of the dark swarming ocean of lies.
Know Your Enemy
Activate
Get off your fucking knees and fight back.
They can't kill us all
From: drugwar.com
How the Money Works in the Illicit Drug Trade
By Catherine Austin Fitts
Special to the Narco News Bulletin
Narco News Publisher's Note: Catherine Austin Fitts is a former managing director and member of the board of directors of Dillon Read & Co, Inc, a former Assistant Secretary of Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner in the first Bush Administration, and the former President of The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc. She is the President of Solari, Inc, an investment advisory firm. Solari provides risk management services to investors through Sanders Research Associates in London.
"The Latin American drug cartels have stretched their tentacles much deeper into our lives than most people believe. It's possible they are calling the shots at all levels of government."
- William Colby, former CIA Director, 1995
A simple framework:
The Solari Index and the Dow Jones Index
The Solari Index is my way of estimating how well a place is doing. It is based upon the percentage of people in a place who believe that a child can leave their home and go to the nearest place to buy a popsicle and come home alone safely.
When I was a child growing up in the 1950's at 48th and Larchwood in West Philadelphia, the Solari Index was 100 percent. It was unthinkable that a child was not safe running up to the stores on Spruce Street for a popsicle and some pin ball. The Dow Jones was about 500, the Solari Index was 100 percent and our debt per person was very low. Of course I did not think about it that way at the time. All I knew was that life on the street with my buddies was sweet.
Today, the Dow Jones is over 9,000, debt per person is over $100,000 and the my favorite hairdresser in Philadelphia, Al at the Hair Hut in West Philadelphia, and I just had a debate yesterday afternoon while Al was cutting my hair about whether the Solari Index in my old neighborhood was 0 percent (my position) or 10 percent (Al's position). Men always think it is higher than women.
Gilad Shalit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Shalit" redirects here. For other uses, see Shalit (disambiguation).
| Gilad Shalit | |
|---|---|
| Born August 28, 1986 | |
 Gilad Shalit (image courtesy of the Shalit family) | |
| Place of birth | Nahariya, Israel |
| Allegiance | Israel |
| Rank | Staff Sergeant[1] |
| Unit | Armor Corps |
| Battles/wars | Operation Summer Rains |
Gilad Shalit (Hebrew: גלעד שליט, born 28 August 1986) is an Israeli soldier who was captured in a cross border raid on the crossing Kerem Shalom from the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006 and has been held hostage byHamas since.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Shalit, a soldier of the IDF's Armor Corps, held the rankof corporal at the time of the incident but has since been promoted to staff sergeant.[8]
He became the first Israeli soldier