Pentagon Sued Over Mandatory Christianity

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report
Tuesday 18 September 2007

A military watchdog organization filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and a US Army major, on behalf of an Army soldier stationed in Iraq. The suit charges the Pentagon with widespread constitutional violations by allegedly trying to force the soldier to embrace evangelical Christianity and then retaliating against him when he refused.


The complaint, filed in US District Court in Kansas City, by the nonprofit Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), on behalf of Jeremy Hall, an Army specialist currently on active duty in Speicher, Iraq, alleges that Hall's First Amendment rights were violated beginning last Thanksgiving when, because of his atheist beliefs, he declined to participate in a Christian prayer ceremony commemorating the holiday.

"Immediately after plaintiff made it known he would decline to join hands and pray, he was confronted, in the presence of other military personnel, by the senior ranking ... staff sergeant who asked plaintiff why he did not want to pray, whereupon plaintiff explained because he is an atheist," says the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to Truthout. "The staff sergeant asked plaintiff what an atheist is and plaintiff responded it meant that he (plaintiff) did not believe in God. This response caused the staff sergeant to tell plaintiff that he would have to sit elsewhere for the Thanksgiving dinner. Nonetheless, plaintiff sat at the table in silence and finished his meal."

Moreover, the complaint alleges that on August 7, when Hall received permission by an Army chaplain to organize a meeting of other soldiers who shared his atheist beliefs, his supervisor, Army Major Paul Welborne, broke up the gathering and threatened to retaliate against the soldier by charging him with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The complaint also alleges that Welborne vowed to block Hall's reenlistment in the Army if the atheist group continued to meet - a violation of Hall's First Amendment rights under the Constitution. Welborne is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

"During the course of the meeting, defendant Welborne confronted the attendees, disrupted the meeting and interfered with plaintiff Hall's and the other attendees' rights to discuss topics of their interests," the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint charges that Hall, who is based at Fort Riley, Kansas, has been forced to "submit to a religious test as a qualification to his post as a soldier in the United States Army," a violation of Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation said Defense Secretary Robert Gates is named as a defendant in the lawsuit because he has allowed the military to engage in "a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense and the United States military."

The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Welborne from further engaging in behavior "that has the effect of establishing compulsory religious practices" and asks that Gates prevent Welborne from interfering with Hall's free speech rights.

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization that seeks to enforce the law mandating the separation between church and state in the US military, said the lawsuit would be the first of many his group intends to file against the Pentagon.

"This landmark federal litigation is just the first of a galaxy of new lawsuits that will be expeditiously filed against the Pentagon in a concentrated effort to preserve the precious religious liberties guaranteed by our beautiful United States Constitution," Weinstein said Monday. "Today, we are boldly stabbing back against an unconstitutional heart of darkness, a contagion of fundamentalist religious supremacy and triumphalism noxiously dominating the command and control of the technologically most lethal organization ever created by humankind: our honorable and noble United States armed forces."

A Pentagon spokesman said he could not comment on the lawsuit because he has not yet seen it.

Weinstein, a former White House attorney under Ronald Reagan, general counsel H. Ross Perot and an Air Force Judge Advocate (JAG), has been waging a one-man war against the Department of Defense for its blatant disregard of the Constitution. He published a book on his fight: "With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military." Weinstein is also an Air Force veteran and a graduate of the Air Force Academy. Three generations of his family have attended US military academies.

Since he launched his watchdog organization nearly two years ago months ago, Weinstein said he has been contacted by more than 5,000 active duty and retired soldiers, many of whom served or serve in Iraq, who told Weinstein that they were pressured by their commanding officers to convert to Christianity.

The lawsuit also includes examples of other alleged constitutional abuses by Pentagon officials.

Last month, the Pentagon's Inspector General responded to a complaint filed last year by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation alleging that Defense Department officials violated military regulations by appearing in a video promoting a fundamental Christian organization.

The Inspector General agreed and issued a 47-page report that was highly critical of senior Army and Air Force personnel for participating in the video while in uniform and on active duty.

The report recommended that Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, Army Brig. Gen. Bob Caslen, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, and a colonel and lieutenant colonel whose names were redacted in the inspector general's report, "improperly endorsed and participated with a non-Federal entity while in uniform" and the men should be disciplined for misconduct. Caslen was formerly the deputy director for political-military affairs for the war on terrorism, directorate for strategic plans and policy, joint staff. He now oversees the 4,200 cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point. Caslen told DOD investigators he agreed to appear in the video upon learning other senior Pentagon officials had been interviewed for the promotional video.

The inspector general's report recommended the "Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Army take appropriate corrective action with respect to the military officers concerned."

The Army generals who appeared in the video appeared to be speaking on behalf of the military, but they did not obtain prior permission to appear in the video. They defended their actions, according to the inspector general's report, saying the "Christian Embassy had become a 'quasi-Federal entity,' since the DOD had endorsed the organization to General Officers for over 25 years."


Thank you Mikey Weinstein! I can't wait to see what some of the other lawsuits will bring up.
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History Lesson for the Day

Brought to you (once again) by Immortal Technique



Now here's the truth about the system that'll fuck up your mind
They gave Al Queda 6 billion dollars in 1989 to 1992
And now the last chapters of Revelations are coming true
And I know a lot of people find it hard to swallow this
Because subliminal bigotry makes you hate my politics
But you act like America wouldn't destroy two buildings
In a country that was sponsoring bombs dropped on our children
I was watching the Towers, and though I wasn't the closest
I saw them crumble to the Earth like they was full of explosives
And they thought nobody noticed the news report that they did
About the bombs planted on the George Washington bridge
Four Non-Arabs arrested during the emergency
And then it disappeared from the news permanently
They dubbed a tape of Osama, and they said it was proof
"Jealous of our freedom," I can't believe you bought that excuse
Rockin a motherfucking flag don't make you a hero
Word to Ground Zero
The Devil crept into Heaven, God overslept on the 7th
The New World Order was born on September 11

Immortal Technique is so good at nutshells in prose.
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Remembering Jimi Hendrix

Oh, that Jimi Hendrix. But in all seriousness, he is considered to be the most influential guitarist in modern music. Jimi Hendrix perfected the deliberate use of distortion and feedback, using it to complement his natural virtuoso ability. He exuded charisma, raw talent, and creativity to excess, delivering some of the most revolutionary music of the 20th century.

Rest in peace.
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Ultra-Mega-Ignoramus Maximus Prime Supreme Rex

"God Hates Fags"
I had heard of the Phelps family a couple months back when I was flipping through channels and found a hateful (and pretty reptillian-looking) woman on the screen preaching righteous death and fiery hell to all America. I found it resonating in the worst way possible. This family is called the "most hated family in America". One of my friends on MySpace posted this 6-part BBC documentary on them by Louis Theroux which I just finished watching. I would like to share part one with you all and the links to the other 5 parts. (Part 5 has a really funny part in which Fred Phelps, the head honcho pastor, at the church yells "YOU'RE GONNA EAT YOUR BABIES!" during one of the sermons) The worst and most disillusioning part about this documentary and Jesus Camp is always taking a look at the children and how they're being built and fed this sectarian exclusivity to God bullshit. You want to shake them and stop the cycle of detrimental traditions and beliefs of hateful messages and hope that they eventually find common sense and break away if not tear down the whole wall of hatred from the nucleus out. It's ironic how much Shirley Phelps resembles my quintessential anti-Christ.


Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

I highly suggest sitting through the painful reality of these people when you have an hour to spare. Not that they're the ones living in pain, I meant it pains me to see this kind of extremism devoted to an anti-loving cause.
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Manifesto of a Madman Part I

In Isla Vista, a small university community connected to UCSB, there resides a nameless homeless man who, as you might expect, spends his time wandering aimlessly through the streets ranting about the usual issues that concern your average non-working-class bum: the government, the universe, vegetables, etc. Consequently, most of the locals know who he is and have more or less learned to ignore his shenanigans and coexist. Bum-wise he's nothing special, your standard-issue tattered rags with three layers of coats, rusty shopping cart full of treasures, and a hair-do that screams "I just woke up, but I'm totally lovin' it." What sets him apart from your run-of-the-mill derelict, however, is his keen entrepreneurship, which unlike his fashion sense, remained virtually unaffected by poverty.

A few months ago my roommate was finishing up his shift at Orchard Supply and Hardware when he happened upon this broken man wandering through the isles carrying a stack of papers. To his surprise, the man was none other than the infamous bum himself and the papers under his arm were a collection of his ramblings, transcribed and photocopied for distribution. Totaling in at 9 pages in length, at 25 cents a page, my thrifty friend knew it was a bargain hunters dream.

Below is page 1 of 9 of what we have come to call the Manifesto of a Madman. It's understandably erratic and for the most part incoherent, but if anything it offers an interesting glimpse into the mind of this crazy nomad.

This is real by the way...



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You Say You Want a Revolution

It's too long to post here but please follow this LINK for encouragement. I'd like to thank Syl for first introducing Revolution Newspaper, it's absolutely fascinating.

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In the Valley of Elah

From Dennis Kucinich's newsletter urging people to see this anti-war movie (premiering this Friday) because it's about the psychological effects on veterans. I think I will. I think some of you should join me, it looks pretty interesting. I'll try and review it once I do see it.


[ahem]James Franco as Sergeant Dan Carnelli[ahem] Read more!

Inherent Greed and Disregard for the Value of Human Life

21st Century Slavery Under Global Capitalism

TODAY, IT IS ESTIMATED THAT 27 MILLION people in Africa, Asia and Latin America work WITHOUT PAY—AS MODERN-DAY SLAVES.

Women are bought and sold in the trafficking of sex slaves. Bonded laborers are forced to work without pay and with no rights, to pay off debts. Children work with no pay and are sold into sexual slavery.

If things could talk…much of your clothes, your car, your food, your rugs…could tell you they were made with the use of modern-day slave labor.

*****

The fishing industry in Lake Volta, Ghana. Children, as young as three, mend, set and pull nets, and clean fish. Weights are tied on them so that when they dive into the lake to retrieve snagged nets, they will descend more quickly. A lot of this goes on at night, and in the dark depths these children get tangled and trapped in the nets and drown. Their bodies wash up on the shore. The ones who survive get little food. Two boys said when they ate some of the fish they netted, their master beat them with a cane.

Brick kilns in Pakistan. Whole families are lured into the work with promises of good pay. But then end up trapped in bondage – the whole family working for free in order to pay off their debts. Armed guards severely punish any worker who disobeys. A 30-year-old man has old and new scars from such treatment. Once he was beaten unconscious, then locked in a small shed. After three days he was brought out in front of the other workers, hung upside down by a rope and beaten.

A mining town on the Amazon River. Gold from here goes to the biggest banks in the world. Wilma Huamani Sacsi cries when she thinks about her son, Luis Alberto, who never saw his second birthday. With all the workers, he lived in the most unsanitary conditions and had little to eat. When his belly swelled up from a kidney infection, Wilma asked the boss for money to go to a health clinic. But he just told her to go back to work. Holding her son, Wilma set off on foot to the nearest clinic—14 miles away. A doctor there said Luis needed to go to a hospital. Wilma begged in the streets to pay for the trip. But by the time she got enough, Luis was dead.

WHAT KIND OF SYSTEM PRODUCES SUCH HORRORS?

A CAPITALIST-IMPERIALIST SYSTEM WHERE COMMODITY PRODUCERS WILL ALWAYS STRIVE TO FIND THE MOST PROFITABLE WAY TO MAKE THEIR PRODUCTS. And slave labor—not paying workers -- is VERY PROFITABLE.

*****

Along the Amazon River in Brazil, thousands of bonded laborers produce charcoal by burning pieces of hardwood. Recruiters target desperate people in impoverished cities with the promise of jobs with pay. But people end up thousands of miles away into the jungle, working with no pay and no rights because of an endless debt for things bought from the company store – like food, clothing and supplies, even tools, boots and gloves they need for the job.

These slaves work in 95-degree heat and suffer from malaria and chronic coughs. They live in shacks made from plastic sheeting. They are fed rancid meat. Drinking water is contaminated. Latrines are just holes in the ground. Deep in the jungle, they can’t leave even if they want to. They don’t have money to make the trip home and armed guards threaten them if they try to escape.

Charcoal from these camps is used to make pig iron, a basic ingredient of steel. Brokers from steelmakers and foundries buy this pig iron. Then it’s purchased by some of the world’s largest companies to produce things like cars, tractors, sinks, and refrigerators. Companies like Nucor Corp., the second-largest U.S. steel company. Carmakers like Ford, General Motors, Nissan, and Toyota. Producers of appliances like Whirlpool and Kohler.

THE MOST PRIMITIVE AND BARBARIC FORMS OF LABOR SERVE THE INTERESTS OF THE LARGEST AND MOST MODERN CAPITALIST CORPORATIONS IN THE U.S. AND AROUND THE WORLD—which are driven by the need to maximize profit and to come out on top in the cut-throat competition with other capitalists.

The Brazilian government raids slave labor camps and frees people. But as long as Brazil is subordinate to imperialism, it can’t escape the logic of capital. And no matter how many slave labor camps are shut down, they will keep re-emerging—because this system will continue to produce desperate people with no way to survive and capitalist vultures looking to maximize their profits by maximizing exploitation.

*****

Ideologues of globalization extol subcontracting and outsourcing. But in fact what this provides are two valuable things for the capitalists: 1) it cheapens production immeasurably and 2) it provides them with PLAUSIBLE DENIAL that distances them from the brutal, inhuman and murderous production process in which the lives of hundreds of thousands of human beings are violently crushed.

And all this is happening under the dominance of U.S. imperialism, the direct and indirect involvement of major global corporations, and the enforcement of IMF and World Bank policies.

What does it say about this system that here in the 21st century you have the most high-tech knowledge and industrial capacity existing alongside the most barbaric, primitive and inhuman slave-like conditions of labor? It may seem like these two things are worlds and centuries apart. But in fact they are part of the integrated system of contemporary global capitalism. A system completely outmoded and unnecessary. [Source]


"The more you know, the harder it is to sleep at night." Oy. Greed officially rules the world.
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Blackwater (A Compliment to the Previous Post)

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Blackwater Havoc

Iraq Shootout Firm Loses License
BBC News
Monday 17 September 2007

Iraq has cancelled the licence of the private security firm, Blackwater USA, after it was involved in a gunfight in which at least eight civilians died.

The Iraqi interior ministry said the contractor, based in North Carolina, was now banned from operating in Iraq.

The Blackwater workers, who were contracted by the US state department, apparently opened fire after coming under attack in Baghdad on Sunday.


Thousands of private security guards are employed in lawless Iraq.

They are often heavily armed, but critics say some are not properly trained and are not accountable except to their employers.

The interior ministry's director of operations, Maj Gen Abdul Karim Khalaf, said authorities would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force.

"We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime," he told the AFP news agency.

All Blackwater personnel have been told to leave Iraq immediately, with the exception of the men involved in the incident on Sunday.

They will have to remain in the country and stand trial, the ministry said.

US Investigation

The convoy carrying officials from the US state department came under attack at about 1230 local time on Sunday as it passed through Nisoor Square in the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Mansour.

The Blackwater security guards "opened fire randomly at citizens" after mortars landed near their vehicles, killing eight people and wounding 13 others, interior ministry officials said.

Most of the dead and wounded were bystanders, the officials added. One of those killed was a policeman.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Baghdad later confirmed there had been an incident in which state department security personnel reacted to a car bomb "in the proximity", and that they had been shot at.

"We are taking it very seriously indeed," she told the BBC, adding that discussions were still taking place about Blackwater's status now that they had been ordered to leave.

When asked if Blackwater was complying with the order, the spokeswoman said she could not comment because the investigation into the incident was still in progress.

The BBC's Hugh Sykes in Baghdad says it is generally assumed that Iraqi courts have no authority over foreign private security contractors.

However, the US embassy spokeswoman said the question of their immunity from prosecution was "one of the many issues" raised by the incident.

Blackwater has not yet commented on the incident.

Civilian Toll

Sunday's violence followed the publication of a survey of Iraqis which suggested that up to 1.2m people might have died because of the conflict in Iraq.

A UK-based polling agency, Opinion Research Business (ORB), said it had extrapolated the figure by asking a random sample of 1,461 Iraqi adults how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes.

The results lend weight to a 2006 survey of Iraqi households published by the Lancet, which suggested that about 655,000 Iraqi deaths were "a consequence of the war".

However, these estimates are both far higher than the running total of reported civilian deaths maintained by the campaign group Iraq Body Count which puts the figure at between 71,000 and 78,000.

BLACKWATER USA FACTS

* Founded in 1997 by three former US Navy SEALs

* Headquarters in North Carolina

* One of at least 28 Private Security Companies in Iraq

* Employs 744 US citizens, 231 third-country nationals, and 12 Iraqis to protect US state department in Iraq (May 2007)

* Provided protection for former CPA head Paul Bremer

* Four employees killed by mob in Falluja in March 2004

* Personnel have no combat immunity under international law if they engage in hostilities [Source]


Not to mention Private Contractors don't belong in war zones to begin with. These "workers" are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I really don't blame the messenger. It's our civilians killing their civilians. Why? Because no one said they couldn't. If they had at LEAST been properly trained and educated on the situation, at least on a relative scale, and not just used as pawns to gain federal funding and maybe help some CEO-type put an elevator in his or her house in Washington, this could have been avoided in every sense. Though that's not the ideal, the ideal is that there not at all be a Gestapo type "keeper of the peace" that do not keep nor bring peace to this already tarnished region of the world. We don't need another army. The corporation cannot serve as anything but a further instigator of more violence to come. So Iraq's decision is essentially something good. It's only a shame that it had to take more deaths to come to that sane conclusion. No more statistics. Up Yours, Blackwater! Bring your greedy ass home!

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Take Note

There is hope for modern music, and thank god.



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Jesus in India

Documentary from the BBC

Part 1


Part 2



Part 3


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Hurricane Katrina

I attended this talk a few days ago on Law and Social Justice concerning Hurricane Katrina and I want to share the following powerpoints with you all.

http://law.loyno.edu/~quigley/flash.php?id=katrina_18mos.swf

http://law.loyno.edu/~quigley/flash.php?id=katrina.swf

http://law.loyno.edu/~quigley/flash.php?id=Racism_07.swf

Sorry, my link tool doesn't seem to be working.

P.S VIVA MEXICO!

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Bob Dylan and Joan Baez at the March on Washinton, 1963

Before Martin Luter King Jr. spoke, they sang

"When The Ship Comes In"


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El Grito de Dolores

When I was younger I would spend my summers in El Paso which is basically a continuation of Juarez. On September 16th when I was about 9 there was a huge celebration going on all over with drunken yelling Mexican people everywhere. It was explained to me why and I feel compelled to share the answer with you now. Just to get a peek into my heritage...

Mexican Independence Day
16 de Septiembre:
El Grito de Independencia
by May Herz

El Grito every 16th of September is the Mexican Fiesta par excellence! On this day Mexicans all over the world celebrate Mexico’s independence from Spanish rule.

As you know, indigenous peoples were the first to inhabit what is now known as Mexico. They created great civilizations such as the Olmec, the Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec, and of course the most powerful of all, the Aztec Empire.

After Christopher Columbus “discovered” America, the Spaniards carried out expeditions to find gold and riches from these faraway lands. In 1521, about 500 Spanish soldiers arrived in Mexico, headed by an ambitious man: Hernán Cortés. At this time, the Aztecs had built a great empire that ruled over all Mesoamérica. So the Spaniards decided to direct their attacks towards them.

The indigenous nations that were under the Aztec rule were tired of the physical and economic hardships imposed upon them by this empire. This circumstance made them think that by helping the Conquerors defeat the Aztecs, they would be better off. So they decided to aid the Spaniards.

This is how the Conquest of what is now Mexico began.


On the 13th of August 1521, Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor was captured. The indigenous allies of the Spaniards raided Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec empire.

They didn’t know it at the time, but they had been liberated from one oppressor and fallen in the hands of a much more powerful authoritarian.

This was the beginning of three centuries of Spanish rule. The new colony was named Nueva España, New Spain.

The years that followed were devastating. The conquerors brought with them diseases unknown to the natives. The epidemics that broke out as well as the merciless workload imposed upon the natives dramatically diminished the Indian population. There were approximately 20 million Indians inhabiting this territory before the Conquest, and after just one century of Spanish rule there were only 1 million left!

Colonial society was highly stratified. Spaniards born in Spain, occupied the higher echelons, followed by Criollos, those born in Mexico from Spanish parents; Mestizos, the mix- blood offspring of Spaniards and Natives; Indios, Native Indians; Negros, African slaves.

Each socio-ethnic group had different rights and duties. The privileged were the peninsular Spaniards. Discontent steadily grew, especially amongst the Criollos, who were always treated as second-class subjects of the Spanish Crown. It is no surprise then, that Criollos were the spark that ignited the Independence movement.

In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain, and decided to impose his brother José Bonaparte, as king of Spain (1808-1810). The Criollos found in this circumstance the opportunity to seek their independence form Spain.

Influenced by the concepts of liberty, equality and democracy proposed by the French philosophers Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and by the war of Independence of the United States, they decided to start a revolt. It was 1810, and their plan was to start the war on the 2nd of October. Unfortunately, their plans were discovered in early September. The movement was in trouble. They had two alternatives; either abandon their plans, or move faster and start the revolt immediately. Fortunately for our country they decided upon the second alternative.

In the early hours of September 16, 1810, father Hidalgo, accompanied by several conspirators –Iganacio Allende, Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez- rang the bell of his little church, calling everyone to fight for liberty. This was the beginning of the Independence War, which lasted 10 years.

And this is the moment that every 16th of September is re enacted in every plaza or zócalo of Mexico, and commemorated by Mexicans all over the world.

Streets, houses, buildings and cars are decorated everywhere in the country. On every street corner there are vendors selling flags, balloons, sombreros and rehiletes -shuttlecock, all with the green, white and red, our National Colors.

Flags wave from practically every house and building.

Lighted decorations are set up in every city, the most spectacular being those of the Zócalo, main plaza, in Mexico City. This main plaza of every town and city is the place where the great 16 De Septiembre celebrations take place. People of all ages come to this fiesta, to take part in the collective gaiety!

Food is always a very important part of these festivities. Literarily hundreds of stands are set up several days before and offer the traditional antojitos, most aptly described as a variety of finger foods, Mexican candies, and punch. Punch. ponche, is a drink made of fruits that are in season: guayabas, sugarcane, raisins and apples, and such a delicious aroma!

During September, Mes de la Patria, the month of our nation as it is called in Mexico, restaurants serve traditional Mexican dishes, such as Mole Poblano, Chiles en Nogada, Guacamole and chips.

During the evening of September 15, people start gathering in the zócalo. Many people walk around dressed in typical Mexican dress: men as Charros and women as China Poblanas, or indigenous dresses. Those who don't own a typical outfit, at least dress find something to wear in the colors of the flag.

Live Mariachi Music bands play to the delight of all present. There are also photography stands where one can have a picture taken, attired with a sombrero and atop a wooden horse!

The euphoria is collective and all are prepared to shout, yell and make as much noise as possible with fake trumpets, noisemakers and whistles!

As the evening advances, the plaza gradually fills with more and more people; suddenly there is practically no room to move. Excitement and euphoria reach a crescendo at the culminating moment when a government official arrives in the zócalo, at 11:00 P.M. to give the grito or cry of Independence. This ritual recreates the moment in which Father Hidalgo, gathered his followers in Dolores Guanajuato.

It is customary for our President to deliver the grito in Mexico City’s zócalo. It is in this plaza, atop Palacio Nacional, the National Palace -a beautiful colonial building where the President’s offices are located-, that the original bell rung by Hidalgo is placed. And this is the bell that is rung
every 16th of September.

The ceremony reaches the high point when the crowd joins in proudly shouting out the names of the heroes of our Independence, to end with the exciting VIVA MÉXICO!

When the grito ceremony ends, the sky lights up with multicolored rockets that shower our hearts with the pride of knowing that we are a free and independent nation.
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Fidel Castro, Essay: "They Will Never Have Cuba"

They Will Never Have Cuba!

By Fidel Castro Ruz

Global Research, July 1, 2007
Socialist Voice


I hope that no-one says that I am gratuitously attacking Bush. Surely they will understand my reasons for strongly criticizing his policies.
Robert Woodward is an American journalist and writer who became famous for the series of articles published by The Washington Post, written by him and Carl Bernstein, and which eventually led to the investigation and resignation of Nixon. He is author and co-author of ten best-sellers. With his fearsome style he manages to wrench confessions from his interviewees. In his book, State of Denial, he says that on June 18, 2003, three months after the Iraq war had begun, as he was on the way out of his White House office following an important meeting, Bush slapped Jay Garner on the back and said to him:

“Hey, Jay, you want to do Iran?

“Sir, the boys and I talked about that and we want to hold out for Cuba. We think the rum and the cigars are a little better...The women are prettier."

Bush laughed. “You got it. You got Cuba.”

Bush was betrayed by his subconscious. It was in his mind when he declared what scores of dark corners should be expecting to happen and Cuba occupies a special place among those dark corners.

Garner, a recently retired three-star general who had been appointed Head of the Post-War Planning Office for Iraq, created by secret National Security Presidential Directive, was considered by Bush an exceptional man to carry out his war strategy. Appointed for the post on January 20, 2003, he was replaced on May 11 of that same year at the urging of Rumsfeld. He didn’t have the nerve to explain to Bush his strong disagreements on the matter of the strategy to be pursued in Iraq. He was thinking of another one with identical purpose. In the past few weeks, thousands of marines and a number of US aircraft carriers, with their naval supporting forces, have been manoeuvring in the Persian Gulf, a few miles off the Iranian territory.

It will very soon be 50 years since our people started suffering a cruel blockade; thousands of our sons and daughters have died or have been mutilated as a result of the dirty war against Cuba, the only country in the world to which an Adjustment Act has been applied inciting illegal emigration, yet another cause of death for Cuban citizens, including women and children; more than 15 years ago Cuba lost her principal markets and sources of supply for foods, energy, machinery, raw materials and long-term low-interest financing.

First the socialist bloc collapsed followed almost immediately by the USSR, dismantled piece by piece. The empire tightened and internationalized the blockade; the proteins and calories which were quite well distributed despite our deficiencies were reduced approximately by 40 percent; diseases such as optical neuritis and others appeared; the shortage of medicines, also a result of the blockade, became an everyday reality. Medicines were allowed to enter only as a charitable act, to demoralize us; these, in their turn, became a source of illegal business and black-market dealings.

Inevitably, the “special period” struck. This was the sum total of all the consequences of the aggression and it forced us to take desperate measures whose harmful effects were bolstered by the colossal media machine of the empire. Everyone was awaiting, some with sadness and others with oligarchic glee, the crumbling of the Cuban Revolution.

The access to convertible currency greatly harmed our social consciousness, to a greater or a lesser degree, due to the inequalities and ideological weaknesses it created.

Throughout its lifetime, the Revolution has taught the people, training hundreds of thousands of teachers, doctors, scientists, intellectuals, artists, computer engineers and other professionals with university and post-graduate degrees in dozens of professions. This storehouse of wealth has allowed us to reduce infant mortality to low levels, unthinkable in any Third World country, and to raise life expectancy as well as the average educational level of the population up to the ninth grade.

By offering Cuba oil under favourable terms of payment at a time when oil prices were escalating dramatically, the Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution brought a significant relief and opened up new possibilities, since our country was already beginning to produce her own energy in ever-growing amounts.

Concerned over its interests in that country, the empire had for years been planning to destroy that Revolution, and so it attempted to do it in April 2002, as it will attempt to do again as many times as it can. This is why the Bolivarian revolutionaries are preparing to resist.

Meanwhile, Bush has intensified his plans for an occupation of Cuba, to the point of proclaiming laws and an interventionist government in order to install a direct imperial administration.

Based on the privileges granted to the United States in Bretton Woods and Nixon’s swindle when he removed the gold standard which placed a limit on the issuing of paper money, the empire bought and paid with paper tens of trillions of dollars, more than twelve digit figures. This is how it preserved an unsustainable economy. A large part of the world currency reserves are in US Treasury bonds and bills. For this reason, many would rather not have a dollar crisis like the one in 1929 that would turn those paper bills into thin air. Today, the value of one dollar in gold is at least eighteen times less than what it was in the Nixon years. The same happens with the value of the reserves in that currency.

Those paper bills have kept their low current value because fabulous amounts of increasingly expensive and modern weapons can be purchased with them; weapons that produce nothing. The United States exports more weapons than anyone else in the world. With those same paper bills, the empire has developed a most sophisticated and deadly system of weapons of mass destruction with which it sustains its world tyranny.

Such power allows it to impose the idea of transforming foods into fuels and to shatter any initiative and commitment to avoid global warming, which is visibly accelerating.

Hunger and thirst, more violent hurricanes and the surge of the sea is what Tyranians and Trojans stand to suffer as a result of imperial policies. It is only through drastic energy savings that humanity will have a respite and hopes of survival for the species; but the consumer societies of the wealthy nations are absolutely heedless of that.

Cuba will continue to develop and improve the combative capacities of her people, including our modest but active and efficient defensive weapons industry which multiplies our capacity to face the invaders no matter where they may be, and the weapons they possess. We shall continue acquiring the necessary materials and the pertinent fire power, even though the notorious Gross Domestic Product as measured by capitalism may not be growing, for their GDP includes such things as the value of privatizations, drugs, sexual services and advertising, while it excludes many others like free educational and health services for all citizens.

From one year to the next the standard of living can be improved by raising knowledge, self-esteem and the dignity of people. It will be enough to reduce wastage and the economy will grow. In spite of everything, we will keep on growing as necessary and as possible.

“Freedom costs dearly, and it is necessary to either resign ourselves to live without it or to decide to buy it for its price”, said Martí.

“Whoever attempts to conquer Cuba will only gather the dust of her soil soaked in blood, if he does not perish in the fight”, exclaimed Maceo.

We are not the first revolutionaries to think that way! And we shall not be the last!

One man may be bought, but never a people.

Fate decreed that I could survive the empire’s murderous machine. Shortly, it will be a year since I became ill and, while I hovered between life and death, I stated in the Proclamation of July 31, 2006: “I do not harbour the slightest doubt that our people and our Revolution will fight until the last drop of blood."

Mr. Bush, don’t you doubt that either!

I assure you that you will never have Cuba!

That's all he wrote. Read more!

Assembly Approves Chavez Reforms

Venezuela's national assembly has approved for the second time changes to the constitution that aim to make the country more socialist.
President Hugo Chavez has proposed a series of reforms that he says will give more power to the people.

His critics say they are a thinly veiled attempt to concentrate power.

Once the assembly, which is dominated by Mr Chavez's supporters, agrees on a third and final draft, the reforms will be put to a national referendum.

All the seats in the assembly are held by pro-Chavez parties as a result of an opposition election boycott in 2005.

Among the main changes to the constitution proposed by Mr Chavez last month were:


Removing term limits for the presidency, and extending the term of office from six years to seven

Bringing in a maximum six-hour working day

Increasing presidential control over the central bank

Strengthening state economic powers, allowing the government to control assets of private companies before a court grants an expropriation order.
Mr Chavez is also giving a formal role to what he calls "people power", says the BBC's James Ingham in Caracas.

Community councils will be able to apply to the president's commissions for funds and manage those funds themselves for projects that they believe are important.

Collective property will also be recognised within community groups and cooperatives will play more of a role in the economy.

Re-election:
Opponents have voiced concern at reforms which they say are forcing everyone into one way of doing things.

Mr Chavez's critics are also against the change to a number of terms a president can serve.

Current rules mean Mr Chavez is unable to seek re-election and will have to step down when his term ends in 2012.

After being overwhelmingly re-elected last year, Mr Chavez has pushed for key changes to bring about what he calls a 21st Century socialist revolution.

The opposition has questioned the president's intentions, arguing a new constitution is not needed as the current one was only drafted eight years ago.

Nevertheless, recent opinion polls suggest Mr Chavez is likely to win a referendum on his proposed reforms.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6989788.stm

End of Post. Read more!

a HA and HA and HA

So the first one's probably the best. I don't need words for the second. The best part of the third one is the faces the "David Blaine" makes.





Read more!

::ATTENTION:: The Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007

Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007: Model Resolution for State and City Councils

Setpember 5, 2007 (LPAC)--Implement the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007!

Whereas, the onrushing financial crisis engulfing home mortgages, debt instruments of all types, and the banking system of the United States threatens to set off an economic depression worse than the 1930s; and

Whereas, millions of American citizens are threatened with foreclosure and loss of their homes over the upcoming months, according to studies released by Realty Trac and Moodys Economy.com; and

Whereas, this financial crisis is now threatening the integrity of both state and federally chartered banks, as typified by the run on deposits of Countrywide Financial in California during the month of August; and such a banking collapse would wipe out the life savings of American citizens, and drastically undermine the economic stability of our states and cities; and

Whereas, in a similar financial crisis in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt intervened to protect banks and homeownners; for example in April, 1933 he introduced legislation as a declaration of national policy that the broad interests of the Nation require that special safeguards should be thrown around home ownership as a guarantee of social and economic stability, and therefore,

Be it Resolved, that the State of /City of/ hereby endorses the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007, as initiated by economist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. This crisis is such that it requires emergency action that only the United States Congress has the capability to enact. Congress must move quickly to keep people in their homes and avert social chaos. This act includes the following provisions:

1. Congress must establish a Federal agency to place the Federal and state chartered banks under protection, freezing all existing home mortgages for a period of how ever many months or years are required to adjust the values to fair prices, and restructure existing mortgages at appropriate interest rates. Further, this action would also write off all of the speculative debt obligations of mortgage-backed securities, derivatives and other forms of Ponzi Schemes that have brought the banking system to the point of bankruptcy.

2. During the transitional period, all foreclosures shall be frozen, allowing American families to retain their homes. Monthly payments, the equivalent of rental payments, shall be made to designated banks, which can use the funds as collateral for normal lending practices, thus recapitalizing the banking systems. These affordable monthly payments will be factored into new mortgages, reflecting the deflating of the housing bubble, and the establishment of appropriate property valuations, and reduced fixed mortgage interest rates. This shakeout will take several years to achieve. In the interim period no homeowner shall be evicted from his or her property, and the Federal and state chartered banks shall be protected, so they can resume their traditional functions, serving local communities, and facilitating credit for investment in productive industries, agriculture, infrastructure, etc.

3. State governors shall assume the administrative responsibilities for implementing the program, including the rental assessments to designated banks, with the Federal government providing the necessary credits and guarantees to assure the successful transition. And therefore,

Be it Further Resolved, that a copy of this resolution shall be forwarded to members of Congress from the state of and also be delivered to the President of the United States for immediate implementation.


To listen to LaRouge speak of this Act and further action... please listen to the MP3.



We need an emergency implementation of this Act or else it's too late. Get in contact with your congresswoman or man and talk to them about the issue. Make them listen!

Source: http://www.larouchepac.com Read more!

The Art of Sound and Vibrations

Notice there is always a perfect circle exactly in the center.

sand


water
Read more!

Freeway Blogger

I found this website the other day that I've been meaning to post. It's so simple, this approach to spreading a message. We should have been doing this long ago. When do we begin? Here's an interview with Patrick, the Freeway Blogger himself.

Cosmik: When were you motivated to become "The Freeway Blogger," and why?

Freeway Blogger: I became motivated after the Gore vs. Bush decision, when I found they weren't going to count the votes. Gore vs. Bush pissed me off. I'd always been taught that democracy was a place where you counted the votes. I was taught by my father, a liberal Connecticut law scholar who loved his country. If he was still alive I don't know if I'd have put that much into it, but he was dead and for some reason the dead can place a bigger burden on you than the living, and so I decided to fight for democracy for his sake.

Cosmik: When did you hang your first sign, and where? What did it say?

FB: The first sign I put up was a mattress beside an on-ramp just after the Gore vs. Bush decision in 2000. It was lying on the side of the road and I had a can of black spray paint in my car so I spray-painted "1776 - 2000...R.I.P." onto the mattress and propped it up against a tree. It didn't look exactly like a tombstone, but I think the point was made. When I came back a few hours later it was still standing there. I couldn't believe it. A few thousand cars had passed by and not one of them had pulled over and knocked the thing down, which is all it would've taken. It was amazing to me that, during that politically charged time, in San Diego (predominantly Republican), not one person would've bothered to pull over, walk twelve paces and knock it down. Then it occurred to me - it was an onramp, they were accelerating... they all saw what it said but couldn't be bothered to stop. That was someone else's job... probably the guy right behind them. And it happened time after time after time for a couple of hours. Go figure.

Cosmik: How did you start researching the laws regarding "sign placement" in your local area? In other words, where did you get that information?

FB: Legally I knew if all those people were allowed to stick flags over the freeway, I was allowed to put up my own patriotic messages. The Case "Brown vs. CalTrans (9th Federal Circuit Court)" re-affirmed it. CalTrans still considers it their right to take down the signs, even though they still don't take down the flags, and I say let them. There's plenty more where that came from. I dare them to arrest me for putting them up in the first place though. This is America, not North Korea...not yet.

Cosmik: It appears from your site that you haven't been caught yet. How close have you come?

FB: After hanging over 2,000 signs I've been caught three times, twice with reporters, which made the police much more docile. The other time is reported in the Weblog "100 signs, 1,000 soldiers." It was pretty funny, actually. The cops don't want to fuck with me -- they just want me and my sign out of there. I'm happy to oblige them!

Cosmik: Do you have a team of folks by now (since your website went up), or are you still a "loner" in this endeavor?

FB: There are over 1200 of us now, thanks primarily to organized actions like Freeway Free Speech Day. At first I thought the movement would grow organically just on the strength of people seeing the signs and thinking "Hey! I can do that too!" It didn't happen. I'm still not sure why. Visits to the website, fueled by media and web publicity, got a few people to do it. Large organized actions really set the ball rolling, though.

Cosmik: What kind of response have you been getting to your website, and has it seen an increase in traffic since November 2?

FB: In the month before the election we had a huge spike in visitors, about a quarter of a million. Since the election it's tapered down. People are re-evaluating where to go from here. I don't blame them. Read more!

Alex the Parrot, an Apt Student, Passes Away

All Things Considered
September 10, 2007
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14293868

Alex the famous African gray parrot, renowned for the landmark cognition research conducted by owner Dr. Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D., has died at the age of 31. By learning elements of the English language to identify shapes, colors and sizes, Alex shattered the notion that parrots are only capable of mimicking words.

According to Pepperberg who is a faculty member at Brandeis University, Alex was able to identify 50 different objects, seven colors and shapes, and quantities of up to six. Alex also understood the concept of bigger and smaller and same and different. Pepperberg says they were in the midst of learning basic mathematics skills.

"This was a very amazing creature," she says.

Alex also had the emotional level of a 2-year-old child, Pepperberg says. After repeating some learning trials dozens of times, Alex would become tired and throw objects off the trays with his beak. When visiting the veterinarian, Alex would go back in his cage and slam the door.

How would Alex say goodbye? Pepperberg says that she imagines it would sound something like what Alex would say to her every night before going to bed: "You be good. I love you. See you tomorrow." Read more!

Aha!

When some things distract and blind us from the beauty of life, we either live in illusion, illiminate the distraction, or learn to see the real nature of things in common reality. Often times, we must do that second one before the third. But in turn, treat every thing as though it were yourself.


"Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and
increase, always sex,
Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a breed of
life.
To elaborate is no avail, learn'd and unlearn'd feel that it is so.

Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well
entretied, braced in the beams,
Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,
I and this mystery here we stand.

Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not
my soul." Read more!

The First Message

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ram Bahadur Bomjon, please visit here (1st, 2nd)to understand the context this speech is presented in.

The following is a translation of Ram Bahadur Bomjon's speech given on August 2nd, 2007. The translation was provided by the good folks at Paldendorje.com, a newborn site dedicated to distributing the messages of this phenomenon. A video of the speech can be found at site.

"A message of peace to the world… murder, violence, greed, anger and temptation has made the human world a desperate place. A terrible storm has descended upon the human world, and this is carrying the world towards destruction. There is only one way to save the world and that is through ‘dharma” (religious practice.) When one doesn’t walk the righteous path of religious practice, this desperate world will surely be destroyed. Therefore, follow the path of religion and spread this message to your fellows. Never put obstacles, anger and disbelief in the way of my meditation’s mission. I am only showing you the way; you must seek it on your own. What I will be, what I will do, the coming days will reveal. Human salvation, the salvation of all living beings, and peace in the world are my goal and my path. “Namo Buddha sangaya, namo sangaya.” I am contemplating on the release of this chaotic world from the ocean of emotion, on our detachment from anger and temptation, without straying from the path for even a moment, I am renouncing my own attachment to my life and my home forever, I am working to save all living beings. But in this undisciplined world, my life’s practice is reduced to mere entertainment.

The practice and devotion of many Buddhas is directed at the world’s betterment and happiness. It is essential but very difficult to understand that practice and devotion. But though it is easy to lead this ignorant existence, human beings don’t understand that one day we must leave this uncertain world and go with the Lord of Death. Our long attachments with friends and family will dissolve into nothingness. We have to leave behind the wealth and property we have accumulated. What’s the use of my happiness, when those who have loved me from the beginning, my mother, father, brothers, relatives are all unhappy. Therefore, to rescue all sentient beings, I have to be Buddha-mind, and emerge from my underground cave to do “vajra” meditation. To do this I have to realize the right path and knowledge, so do not disturb my practice. My practice detaches me from my body, my soul and this existence. In this situation there will be 72 goddess Kalis. Different gods will be present, along with the sounds of thunder and of “tangur ,” and all the celestial gods and goddesses will be doing “puja” (worship.) So until I have sent a message, do not come here, and please explain this to others. Spread religious knowledge and religious messages throughout the world. Spread the message of world peace to all. Seek a righteous path and wisdom will be yours"

P.S - I'm gonna try to find out what these phrases and words mean. Please feel free to help out.
“Namo Buddha sangaya, namo sangaya.”
"Vajra" Meditation
"Goddess Kalis"
"tangur"
"puja" Read more!

Manna From Heaven-Addition

This is in address to an earlier post that was not commentable. While I personally support the use of psychedelics for spiritual experience up to a point, I do personally believe that the drugs do cause one to focus on a certain dimension of existence, and while you can experience God there, a full experience of God should happen in sobriety, in order to have no conflict with the sober state of mind, and to be complete enough for complete faith in God. While the Bible may not say anything directly against it, the Bhagavad Gita does, and, this book has been around much longer than the Bible: in fact, the Hindus claim it has been around longer than humans could have by Darwin's evolution model, since they believe humans did not evolve from the ocean, but that all creatures have simultaneously been in existence since the beginning. I find the Vedic scriptures to be much more fulfilling and accurate, based on a science and philosophy that is clearly logically argued. In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9 verse 18, it states:

"Those who study the Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship me indirectly. Purified of sinful reactions, they take birth on the pious, heavenly planet of Indra, where they enjoy godly delights."


Verse 19:

"When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus those who seek sense enjoyment by adhering to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and death."

Verse 20:

"But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form - to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have."


Soma, for those who don't know, is the most ancient of psychedelics, a mushroom used since the beginning of what we are aware of. Now, this does not contradict with achieving God from the Christian standpoint. If what you seek is heaven you shall get it, but it is temporary due to the impure method of achievement. The hindu's viewed the purpose of spiritual life at the end to be freedom from all attachment except that directly pertaining to Krishna, or God. This can only be done when one realizes God in every facet of their existence. You were not born, nor did you live your life, on psychedelics, therefore, your realization on them will not apply to all of your memory, leaving some subconscious doubt, whether or not you firmly know it applies to all these dimensions. Read more!

The Reptilian Within

Recent research into addiction has shown where in the brain drugs work. The drug in the brain does not affect, as previously assumed, the frontal cortex, or the section of the brain located at the third eye (right behind the forehead above the eyebrows) to cause the selfish and seemingly insensitive behavior of the drug addict. The frontal cortex is the part of the brain that assigns meaning to anything we perceive. For example, you see a chair, and you realize its shape, the fact that you can sit on it, or perhaps use it to stand on to put a painting on the wall. But the frontal cortex is what allows you to also perceive that chair metaphorically, such as, the chair of the philosophy department at a university, or allow you to attach personal emotion to that object. The chair was your grandfather's, and he would read in it every day, etc. Instead, the drug affects the midbrain, or the part that decides instinctually, immediately, in terms of survival, before you get to think a thought. For example, you see that chair, and in an instant, decide whether or not to kill or fuck it, right off of the bat. This is why an addict can profess all the deepest desire to change and perform well for the rest of their lives and sincerely mean it, but when they see that crack pipe, it all goes out the window. It has become a problem of survival: Right now they have to have that drug! It is a deep painful craving, and they want that drug just like someone would want to back away from the edge of the empire state tower. INTERESTINGLY enough, this part of the human brain is identical, or developed directly from, that of the REPTILE, from an evolutionary standpoint. The snake thinks and acts entirely on this dimension: something fuzzy: kill, eat. Another snake, male or female: fuck it. Hey, 50/50 chance right? This is also why the snake is the fastest attacking animal that we are really aware of. No hesitation. I remember watching the doors movie, and there is a part where Jim is guiding the band through a poyote trip. "Kiss the snake, kiss the snake... but if he senses fear, any fear at all, he will consume you, instantly!" There is a reason Jim called himself the Lizard King, he spent much time mastering this instinctual nature, for he decided he was going to enlighten through the midbrain, as opposed to the frontal cortex, or in conjunction with. This instinct from a spiritual perspective, when pure, can be flawless at interpreting people, even from a few seconds of interaction, or knowing what to do in a situation where there seems to be no way to come to a logical conclusion, at least that fast, or with an inadequate amount of information. Basically, we are all part Reptilian, a very important part. We need to integrate perfectly our frontal cortex's reasoning and spiritual belief abilities with our own innate instincts. This requires complete self-awareness, and complete self-trust. I believe the human way to do this is to lead or suppress the midbrain, the reptilian, until the frontal cortex comes to complete realization. I believe the Reptilian way is to follow the midbrain until realization is obtained through sheer experience. This is why the Reptilians might be perceived as evil: they can kill with little or no regard. I should note that apart from the above about the research, this is all my own speculation. Unfortunately, I think we all hit walls were we can't understand anymore, at least not within this lifetime, or without dying and directly experiencing the seperation from the material world. This is when we have to let go, as the buddhists or zen monks say, and simply allow the instinctual side to take over. I remember a story of a man going up to a zen monk and asking him to help him find his true self. The zen monk ignored him, completely. The man asked repeatedly and repeatedly, and still, was ignored. Finally, the man simply said, "Well screw you man! I'm out of here!" The monk promptly turned and said, "There! There is your true self!" Become an observer of the self, not a controller so much. So how do we do this without becoming the evil reptilian? We purify our intent, not just based on belief, like, I want the world to be happy and everything is one, because these are thoughts that come AFTER the midbrain functioning process, not before. You need to either see without a doubt or have a profound experience that changes your perception of this reality to such as that our oneness is the only logical, rational conclusion that you can see at all, and I mean oneness more from the scientific perspective, for this is all inclusive by nature. Then you let the instincts take over. You may still do things that the old self would have considered negative, or bad, but in the end, I believe, if you truly have had this deep realization, and have truly surrendered to a higher will, they are in accordance with that higher will. In Hindu mythology, there is Sri Caitanya - Caritamrta, a Jesus basically, a direct manifestation of Krishna, or God. He is known for bringing the Hari Krsna movement to us in this age, or for saying that the purest way to enlightenment is through chanting the Lord's name(s). There is a section where his guru growing up describes to him, as he is passing this knowledge on, to the awakening of a true love of God, which I believe is a syncronization of the frontal cortex with the midbrain, and he says such as follows:


"The conclusion of all revealed scriptures is that one should awaken his dormant love of Godhead..." "It is a characteristic of love of Godhead that by nature it induces trancendental symptoms in one's body and makes one more and more greedy to achieve the shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord." "When one actually develops love of Godhead, he naturally sometimes cries, sometimes laughs, sometimes chants and sometimes runs here and there just like a madman."


This is also I believe the purpose of most shamanistic rituals, tribal dancing, etc. This type of action requires amazing amount of detachment, because you cannot be second guessing yourself: the moment you do, you have lost the ability to instinctually interact to that situation. Read more!

"The Final Corporation"

I've been making a mental note to watch this movie for too long. Maybe this weekend.



Arthur Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal -- that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and A T & T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war and famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale.

- Arthur Jensen, Network (1976) [Source] Read more!

Six Organs of Admittance

Read more!

Fraudulent Elections

I always liked that one joke: You elected him! Oh wait no, you didn't.



"It's no secret -
the election was a fraud

George Bush has shredded the Constitution; bankrupted the country; blackened our reputation as a people; and lied us into an illegal, immoral, self-destructive military operation in Iraq.

And he was never elected president.

Not in 2000. Not in 2004.

And the news media, Congress, and the Democratic Party have never even attempted to do anything about it.

If you're living in America, that's the kind of country you're living in now.

It's not a question of when or if we'll lose our democracy, it's been gone a long time. The only question is what we're going to do to get it back." [Source] Read more!

Troubles In Palestine

Palestine: A History of Occupation and Resistance


Recent events have focused new world attention on Palestine: the killing of seven Palestinians at a Gaza beach by Israeli artillery shells (and the Israeli government’s outrageous attempts to deny responsibility); the clashes between Palestinian groups, in particular Hamas and Fatah; and the intense suffering of the Palestinians because of the cut off of international aid. Revolution will analyze developments in occupied Palestine more in future issues. In this issue, we present a basic fact sheet on the history of Israeli occupation and Palestinian resistance.
A central reality about the state of Israel is that it serves as an attack dog for U.S. imperialist interests. In the Middle East, those interests focus on controlling this strategic crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa and its vast oil reserves.

Without U.S. backing, the state of Israel could not survive. The U.S. gives Israel $2 to $3 billion a year in aid, allowing Israel to build up one of the most powerful armies in the world. The book Deadly Arsenals estimates that Israel has 100 short-range and medium range missiles that are nuclear capable. And Israel has nuclear weapons that could be delivered from fighter jets or launched from ships.

Israel is a direct oppressor of the Palestinian nation. It has also carried out many vicious assaults on the masses and other crimes in the region and around the world on behalf of imperialism. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1976—and again in 1982, killing over 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians. In 1982 Israeli warplanes bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq. In 1991 and 2003 Israel supported U.S. wars against Iraq. Israeli agents have trained torturers from Guatemala to South Africa and sold weapons to reactionary pro-U.S. governments all over the world.

Imperialism, Israel, and the Palestinian People
From the 1500s up until World War 1, Palestine was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. In the course of resistance to Ottoman rule, the modern Palestinian nation was forged with a common culture, contiguous (connected) territory and a truncated, but coherent national economic life based on agriculture and processing agricultural products (like olive oil). At the end of World War 1, in 1918, there were 680,000 Palestinians and 56,000 Jews (some of whom were refugees from pogroms in Europe) living in Palestine, and Palestinians owned 97 percent of the land.

After World War 1, imperialist powers carved up the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine. The rivalry was intense because oil was now a precious economic and military commodity. In 1922 Britain got a League of Nations “mandate” to rule Palestine as a colony. Between 1933 and 1945, the British imperialists, along with the U.S., severely restricted Jewish immigration into their own countries in order to push Jews toward Palestine—at a time when Jews in Europe faced the Holocaust.

Zionist Jews from Europe began to colonize historic Palestine (what is today Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank) in the late 1880s. The Zionist movement arose in part as a response by sections of Jews to their persecution in Europe. But, in opposition to forces - often led by communists (who also had a significant following among Jews) - that were fighting to forge opposition to reaction and fascism, Zionist leaders instead offered to set up a settler-state in the Middle East in service of various imperialist powers. When British imperialism took up this offer in the early 1900s, a wave of Zionist settlement began.

In 1936 Palestinians launched an armed uprising against the British and the Zionist settler-colonialists. The British brutally crushed the uprising in 1939 and passed emergency laws condemning to death any Palestinian found with a gun.

Through World War 2, the U.S. emerged as the top imperialist power in the world and moved to replace Britain as the main power in the Middle East. In November 1947, a U.S.-backed UN resolution partitioned Palestine into a Zionist state and an Arab state. At that time, the Palestinians outnumbered Zionist settlers two to one and owned 92 percent of the land. But the partition gave Israel 54 percent of the land. In May 1948—after the Palestinians and the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition—Israel launched a war against Palestinians. Israeli forces massacred 250 villagers in Deir Yassin, including 100 women and children. Israel used this atrocity to spread terror among the Palestinian people, and many fled their homes in panic. By the war’s end in January 1949, nearly 800,000 Palestinians—two-thirds of the population—had been driven into exile; Israel had seized 77 percent of the land.

The 1960s saw a revolutionary upsurge among Palestinians. Palestinian guerrilla organizations launched armed struggle against Israel in 1965, with the aim of creating a democratic, secular (non-religious) state throughout Palestine. In March 1968 Palestinian fighters held off a major Israeli attack at Karameh, Jordan. In 1967 the Israelis launched the “Six Day War” and seized the remaining 23 percent of historic Palestine—the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem—along with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights.

UN Resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from all areas seized in the 1967 war. But the Israelis began to build heavily armed settlements in the occupied areas. Since 1967, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have been under harsh military occupation, denied basic rights and unable to develop any viable economy.

The Deadly “Peace Process”
The Palestinian intifada (uprising) that erupted the late 1980s deeply shook Israel and the U.S. imperialists. In addition to outright bloody suppression, the U.S. and Israel initiated a so-called “Peace Process.” A key part of U.S. strategy has been the “two-state solution”: official Palestinian “recognition” of Israel and end to all resistance, in return for a small state in the West Bank and Gaza. By the late 1980s Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had basically agreed to this.

The U.S. and Israel have never intended to allow a truly independent Palestinian state. Under the Oslo “peace process” begun in 1993, Israel transferred about 40 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority (PA). But this PA territory is only about 10 percent of historic Palestine and consists of small disconnected pieces of land surrounded by areas under Israeli control. The main roads, key water resources, and access to neighboring countries and the sea are all controlled by Israel. And the Oslo agreement made no provisions for the four million Palestinian refugees living outside of Israel, West Bank, and Gaza. During the years of the “peace process” (1993 through 2000), the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank doubled.

The U.S. and Israel dropped this “peace process” and pursued even more unrestrained tactics after the year 2000. Meanwhile Israeli settlements have multiplied, now numbering hundreds, with Israeli troops protecting their land grab and aggression.

Since the late 1980s Israel has at times promoted the growth of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas as a countervailing force against secular forces and to stoke clashes among Palestinian groups. Hamas, with its reactionary ideology, is in some ways a perfect foil for the U.S. and Israel, who try to portray themselves as modern democracies confronting obscurantist theocracies. (Enlightened people in the West who want to oppose fundamentalist theocracies can start at home: the U.S. has a president who is deeply connected to Christian fascist theocrats.) The U.S. and Israel have used the victory of Hamas in the recent Palestinian elections to justify intensifying brutality against the Palestinian people by further embedding these attacks in the overall rationale of the “war on terror.”

Intensifying Brutality of Occupation

Israeli brutality against the Palestinian people became even more deadly after Ariel Sharon—the man responsible for the 1982 massacre of hundreds at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon—was installed as Israel’s prime minister in 2001.

In 2002 Israel began erecting a fortified barrier—concrete walls, electrified fences, electric sensors, razor wire, trenches, and watchtowers—across more than 400 miles of Palestinian land in the West Bank. This apartheid wall further isolates many Palestinian towns, separates farmers from their fields, and steals more land from the Palestinians.

In September 2005 Sharon carried out a “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip, dismantling Israeli settlements and military installments—as part of a plan to make Gaza into a big prison for the 1.4 million Palestinians there, while moving to annex more land in the West Bank. Sharon’s successor, Ehud Olmert, has continued on this path, announcing a plan for “unilateral withdraw” from the West Bank—which means consolidating Israeli control over the most valuable and strategic territory, while intensifying the siege around the scattered Palestinian enclaves.

Further adding to the misery of the Palestinian people, the U.S. and European powers invoked Hamas’ victory in the elections for the Palestinian legislature in early 2006 to cut off or restrict aid to the Palestinian Authority. This economic strangulation is having a traumatic effect on the Palestinian people. More than half of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza now live below the international poverty line of $2 a day. The UN’s World Health Organization has warned of a “looming” health crisis, with hospitals and clinics running out of medicine, fuel, and other vital necessities. [Source]

So those are the facts. Now we can talk about HOPE for the Palestinians who are not standing down anytime soon. I learned that from this article. Read.

[p.s. I'll shorten this later. We reset the template temporarily.] Read more!

We The People Have Been Taunted and Tantalized

Rant Transcript Here

::Applause, Encore!:: I was going to comment on the topic but I think he's said it all. This is one of my if not ultimate favorite direct rants he's done. Keith Olbermann is my favorite journalist. That's the kind of quintessential representation and articulation of a people's frustration and outrage I want to see more of in the media. Mr. Olbermann would have to be one of the 5 people at my birthday party, MisterBarbarian. Read more!

Afghanistan and the World's Opium Supply

Let Afghanistan Grow the World's Opium Supply
By Ethan A. Nadelmann, AlterNet. Posted August 31, 2007.

Given that farmers are going to produce opium -- somehow, somewhere -- so long as the global demand for heroin persists, maybe the world is better off, all things considered, with 90 percent of it coming from Afghanistan.

It's easy to think that eliminating opium production in Afghanistan -- which today accounts for 90 percent of global supply, up from 50 percent a decade ago -- would solve a lot of problems, from heroin abuse in Europe and Asia to the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan. I'm not so sure.

The current dilemma for the U.S., NATO and the Karzai government is clear. The best way to reduce opium production in Afghanistan is with an aggressive campaign of aerial fumigation -- but that would cause massive economic dislocation and even starvation in a country where the opium trade accounts for roughly one-third of GDP. The second best, now under way, is manual eradication, but the result this past year was a net increase in opium production nationwide. Either way, these options play very much into the hands of the Taliban, who gain politically wherever farmers fear or witness the destruction of their livelihoods.

But imagine if the entire crop could be eliminated by a natural disaster such as a drought or blight. The United States, NATO and the Karzai government would be blameless -- although no doubt many Afghans would blame the CIA -- a reasonable suspicion given support in some U.S. circles for researching and employing biological warfare in the form of mycoherbicides. The Taliban would suffer doubly, losing both revenue and political advantage. And the United States and NATO could follow up emergency assistance with investment in alternative agriculture and economic development without having to compete with black market opium. Outside Afghanistan, heroin would become scarcer and more expensive; fewer people would start to use; and more addicts would seek treatment. Seems like an ideal scenario, right?

Think again. Within Afghanistan, the principal beneficiaries would be the warlords and other black market entrepreneurs whose stockpiles of opium would shoot up in value. Millions of Afghan peasants would flock to cities ill prepared for them, with all sorts of attendant social problems. And many would eagerly return to their farms next year to start growing opium again, utilizing guerrilla farming methods to escape intensified eradication efforts. But now they'd be competing with poor farmers elsewhere in the world -- in Central Asia, Latin America or even Africa -- attracted by the temporarily high return on opium. This is, after all, a global commodities market like any other.

And outside Afghanistan? Higher heroin prices typically translate into higher rates of crime by addicts working to support their habits. They also invite more cost-effective but dangerous means of consumption, such as switching from smoking to injecting heroin, which translates into higher rates of HIV. And many drug users will simply switch to pharmaceutical opioids or stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine. All things considered, wiping out opium in Afghanistan would yield far fewer benefits than is commonly assumed.

So what's the solution?

Some have revived an idea first proposed during the 1970s when southeast Asia supplied most of the world's heroin: Just buy up all the opium in Afghanistan -- which would cost a lot less than is now being spent trying to eradicate it. That might provide a one-year jolt, but over time it would simply become a price support system, inviting farmers inside Afghanistan to save a portion for the black market and others outside Afghanistan to start growing opium. Then there's the Senlis Council's "Poppy for Medicine" proposal, which would license Afghan villages to grow opium and convert it into morphine tablets for domestic and international markets. It's been widely criticized as unworkable -- but the same can be said of current policies.

Or, given that farmers are going to produce opium -- somehow, somewhere -- so long as the global demand for heroin persists, maybe the world is better off, all things considered, with 90 percent of it coming from Afghanistan. Think of international drug control as a global vice control challenge, and the opium growing regions of the country as the equivalent of a "red light" zone. The United States, NATO and the Karzai government could then focus on "regulating" the illicit market and manipulating the participants with the objective of advancing broader political and economic objectives. They might even find ways to tax the illicit trade.

This is one of those proposals that sounds unworkable -- until it's compared with all the others. It surely wouldn't be the first time U.S. or other government officials have gotten their hands dirty dealing with criminal entrepreneurs to advance broader political objectives. And if this particular heresy becomes the new gospel, it opens up all sorts of possibilities for pursuing a new policy in Afghanistan that reconciles the interests of the United States, NATO, the Karzai government and millions of Afghan citizens.

I first heard the story on NPR. There will always be a black market for drugs, especially in places where a full 90% of the supply comes from. Rock and a hard place. Druglords and opium farmers need to eat too, you know. Read more!

Revolution Newspaper

A challenge to revolutionary-minded people:

The situation we face—the situation the whole planet faces—cries out for change. Urgently.

As Revolution Newspaper stated recently: The "conventional wisdom" says that fundamental change is unrealistic, even impossible. But in reality the most "unrealistic" thing in the world is to hope to touch things up around the edges, to put your trust in official channels and established authority, while things continually get worse. If a different—a better—world is possible, you've got to struggle to understand how and fight to bring it into being.

We've met a lot of passionate people lately (many at the Rock the Bells concert...see VIDEO of Zac from Rage challenge us all) who are deeply disturbed at the direction this country is going in, and also sense the shallowness and complicity in 'politics as usual' even among the "left".

People want to DO something...and they can and should. Resistance is needed, and resistance can happen on a scale large enough to make a difference if we continue to organize and act in defiance of this system with the goal of real change always in mind. So...we are challenging all of you who see the need for real change to get down with Revolution newspaper and become emancipators of humanity.

How to do that? There are lots of ways to get active on your campuses or workplace.

1) Be a Revolution Newspaper distributor: Spread real revolutionary consciousness, form networks, open up a whole new kind of debate and discourse
2) Donate to the $500,000 fund drive...
The ability to place major ads in and around hubs of revolutionary people like they did in Los Angeles (check out inspiring "Next Stop...Revolution" Youtube of it)
3) Take advantage of the special offer of Revolution DVD ($25 for 4discDVD + 10wk. subscription to paper) and host a video showing
4) Get down with Revolution Books ( in Berkeley, www.revolutionbooks.org discussions are every Sunday at 6PM) also stores around the country (Los Angeles, NYC, Atlanta, Seattle, etc.) for discussions, movie showings, etc.
5) GET IN TOUCH WITH US! Let us know what your questions are and how things are going!

*KEEP CHECKING THE REVOLUTION WEBSITE: (This week's issue is a special one about the 2 year anniversary of Katrina and the systemic failures of this system...also a special 'back-to-school' supplement on the suppression of critical thinking on campuses)

*add the RevolutionDVD to your myspace page: www.myspace.com/revolutiondvd

*Download FREE mp3 talks by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP, on www.bobavakian.net
(He's an innovative and critical thinker who has taken Marxism to a new place; he's a provocative commentator on everything from basketball to religion, doo-wop music to science and he's a pit-bull fighter against oppression who's kept both his solemn sense of purpose and his irrepressible sense of humor)

"In a world marked by profound class divisions and social inequality, to talk about "democracy"— without talking about the class nature of that democracy and which class it serves—is meaningless, and worse. So long as society is divided into classes, there can be no "democracy for all": one class or another will rule, and it will uphold and promote that kind of democracy which serves its interests and goals. The question is: which class will rule and whether its rule, and its system of democracy, will serve the continuation, or the eventual abolition, of class divisions and the corresponding relations of exploitation, oppression and inequality." -Bob Avakian Read more!

Did Princess Diana Die AGAIN?

If not, then I don't understand the commotion. So it's been 10 years. She's dead and she was dead 10 years ago and since. That's all that needs to be said. I really don't care what she did 1 minute before she died. 2 minutes. 3 hours. The route she took. What she was wearing. Who drove by the wreckage. Who built the tunnel. Diana herself is turning in her grave at the publicity her 10 year anniversary is being given. So much for anyone meaning "Rest In Peace". Rest in everlasting scrutiny, morelike. The media is doing nothing to respect her memory with any kind of memory respect paying. Real respect would be knowing that Diana's work was all about influencing peace in the world and helping others and social justice and then featuring stories that promote that. But no, let's talk about the prospect that this one woman, out of the millions that die regularly, might have been pregnant the night she died. WHO CARES?!

I'm also partial because I saw the movie The Queen yesterday and I rather sympathize with Queen Elizabeth II's wish that D's death be considered a private matter and rejection to make any statement to the press. The British people were outraged that the royal family weren't making flashy shows of grief like the people that didn't even know this woman. It's sad, this modern world. Read more!

Weekly Review

By Claire Gutierrez
Harper's Magazine
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/WeeklyReview2007-08-28


Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned.1 The CIA's inspector general released a report recommending that former CIA director George Tenet and other senior officials be held accountable for failing to prepare for the threat of Al Qaeda before the September 11 attacks,2 and the Pentagon announced it would close Talon, the database created after September 11 to monitor and store information about security threats and peace activists. 3 Grace Paley died.4 In a motion filed by the Justice Department, the Bush Administration argued that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, even though the office is listed as one of six presidential entities subject to FOIA on the White House website.5 The American Psychological Association ruled that many of the interrogation techniques used against detainees at U.S. facilities—including mock execution, simulated drowning, sexual and religious humiliation, stress positions, sleep deprivation, hooding, forced nakedness, exposure to extreme heat or cold, physical assault, and the use of mind-altering drugs—are immoral.6 At the court-martial of Army Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, the only officer to be charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal, witnesses for the prosecution said that Jordan did not “sign off on anything,” and that he had “nothing to do with the interrogations,” and “nothing to do with those detainees being abused.” The prosecution later rested its case.

Two humanitarian groups in Iraq announced that the “surge” in the number of American troops has led to a large increase in the number of Iraqis fleeing their homes, furthering the country's division into sectarian enclaves, and a new National Intelligence Estimate predicted that Iraqi politicians would be unable to fix sectarian rifts any time soon. 1 2 Returning from a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan, Senate Chairman of the Armed Services Carl Levin (D., Mich.) declared the Iraqi government “non-functional” and recommended that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his cabinet be replaced. “We care for our people and our constitution,” said Maliki, who was visiting Syria, “and can find friends elsewhere.”3 4 The U.S. Justice Department released documents showing that Dr. Ayad Allawi, Maliki's chief opponent and the man most likely to replace him as prime minister, is paying the G.O.P. firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers $300,000 to lobby on his behalf.5 Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards dubbed himself the “candidate for change,”6 and the hip-hop magazine Vibe dubbed Barack Obama “B-Rock.”7 As part of President Bush's $15 billion anti-AIDS program, the United States will begin paying for African men to be circumcised,8 and researchers in Uganda said that washing the penis after sex increases the risk of HIV infection. “Don't just finish and jump out of bed,” advised Dr. Ronald Gray, co-author of the study. “There ought to be a little time left for postcoital cuddling.”9 Bob Allen, the Florida state representative who was arrested in July after offering to fellate an undercover police officer, was stripped of his legislative-committee appointments but remained unfazed. “I'm waiting,” he said, “for the politics to say it's okay to hug Bob Allen again—and they will.”10 Patrick Leahy, the 67-year old Democratic senator from Vermont who as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is pressing the Bush Administration to turn over documents relating to its warrantless wiretapping program, revealed that he has a small part in the upcoming Batman movie, and that he had to let his remaining hair grow out for the role.11 Researchers found that cornrows can cause permanent bald patches.12

Two bears at the Belgrade Zoo, Masha and Misha, spent the annual beer-festival weekend feasting on a 23-year-old Serb, who was discovered naked, dead, and half-eaten in their cage. “Only an idiot,” said zoo director Vuk Bojovic, “would jump into the bear cage.”1 Melting ice in the Arctic revealed previously unknown islands that have yet to be claimed.2 Studies in the U.S. showed that one in four adults read no books last year, that white youths are happier than the youths of other races, and that senior citizens are enjoying an active and varied sex life that includes masturbation, vaginal intercourse, and oral sex.3 4 5 After waiting 55 years for a Purple Heart, Nyles Reed, a 75-year-old Korean War veteran and former Marine, received a form letter from Navy Personnel Command saying the medal was out of stock and suggesting that he buy his own.6 Vacationers aboard a Taiwanese airliner in Okinawa slid down escape chutes and sprinted to safety moments before the plane exploded. “I ran so hard,” one passenger said, “my sock tore.”7 Scientists in England determined that Tyrannosaurus rex would have been able to outrun a professional soccer player.8 Thirty years after murdering six people, David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer, sent a letter to amNew York in which he apologized for his misdeeds,9 and previously unpublished letters by Mother Teresa revealed that beginning in 1948 and continuing until the end of her life in 1997 she was unable to sense the presence of God. “Repulsed—empty—no faith—no love—no zeal,” she wrote. “Heaven means nothing.” 10 Scientists found a very big hole in the universe.11 Read more!

Meditation and Violence

The first part of this video is part of a William Buckley interview with Allen Ginsberg in which he reads a poem he wrote while on LSD. The second part of the video is audio taken from the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. While protestors and police fought, Ginsberg chanted Om over the microphone. And of course, sock puppets.

Read more!