Palestine

Another blog entry from a friend working with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine:

"The funeral for the Palestinian I wrote about in my last post was on Friday, and on the same day another youth – 17-year old Yousef Ikhleil – was shot by settlers north of Hebron. I wrote that following the first death, it was difficult to ascertain what happened, as the major media sources and local testimonies offered conflicting reports. However, talking to people at the funeral, and speaking with the doctor who performed the autopsy, we were able to gain a clearer picture of how he died. The following is the report a colleague and I put together for the ISM:

On 27^th January, 20-year old Odai Maher Hamzeh Qaddous was killed by settlers whilst farming between the villages of Burin and Iraq Burin, just south of Nablus. According to family sources, the Palestinian youth was alone and gathering wood when settlers – most likely from the nearby, illegal settlement of Bracha – shot Qaddous once through the chest, with the bullet entering his right shoulder and remaining lodged beside his left lung. Sources say that it was over an hour before an ambulance was able to reach him, and he was pronounced dead-on-arrival at the hospital. There was evidence that he was also beaten: his face was covered in blood, and a left-rib broken. Doctors concluded he died of surgical emphysema as a result of the gun-shot wound.

The funeral for the deceased was held the following day in the village of Iraq Burin, and was attended by around 500 people from the villages and surrounding areas. A large police presence followed the procession, which lead from the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus - where the body was being held - to the village. No clashes were reported to have followed the ceremony.

This tragedy comes less than a year after his younger brother, 16-year old Mohammed Ibrahim Qaddous, was killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the same region of the West Bank.

The frequency of killings of unarmed Palestinians by settlers is quite horrific – two in as many days, and six in the last month – and even the Israelis can’t evade acting on these crimes. According to military sources several suspects have been arrested but, really, this means nothing; the settlers – if any have actually been arrested – will walk free within days. Nonetheless, the fact that the Israeli military is even willing to provide lip service to these accusations is I think a signifier that times may well be changing in the occupied territories.

It cannot have escaped your attention that the Middle East - and Egypt in particular - is in a state of revolution. Following the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, talk has been of revolt: since Tuesday, protests in Egypt have been escalating against the corruption, unemployment and rising prices, all of which are blamed on the dictator of 30-years, Hosni Mubarak. Clashes have spread from Cairo, east to Suez and south to Luxor; today, Al Jazeera stated that the army have been deployed in the tourist resort of Sharm-el-Shaikh. The cabinet have resigned, but Mubarak refuses to go. Against such widespread condemnation, however, it is hard to see how he could stay much longer.

Mubarak’s resignation, or his expulsion, would prove disastrous for Israel: the peace treaty signed whilst he was vice-president was not acceptable to the Arab people and would not have been made had Egypt been a democracy. The popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt - echoes of which are being heard in Jordan and Syria - may well be enough to swing the Arab League into taking direct action against Israel, in the form of economic sanctions. Whilst Israel could perhaps weather sanctions coming from the Arab states, it would be increasingly dependent on a United States which is increasingly unable to support it; it will be very interesting to see just how European governments react, whose premiers are not reliant on the pro-Israel vote, but who do gain financially from the economic ties.

We must remember that the South African apartheid was brought to an end by economic sanctions, not military might; the same, I suspect, will be true in Palestine. With luck, we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the dictatorships across the Middle East and, hopefully, with them will fall the Israeli occupation."

AIPAC

This is an eye-opener:

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=13703

USA & Israel

Written by a well-known ex-Jewish writer and musician, Gilad Atzmon:

http://www.redress.cc/americas/gatzmon20110130

Egypt

Worth listening to as an alternative to mainstream media, very interesting stuff:

http://warisacrime.org/downloads/cairo.mp3

Also, reports from Egypt:

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/eyewitnesses-say-state-sponsoring-vandalism

http://allisonkilkenny.com/2011/01/about-those-looters/

Also, about newly-appointed Vice President:

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=13702

Socrates or Goebbels?

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Quote from Joseph Goebbels Hitlers propaganda man.

"the unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates

He ain't dead, he's just asleep

Here's another blog entry from a friend still over in Palestine. An English lad with a good education you have to wonder why he isn't turning a blind eye, and getting on with his life? Maybe he feels enough is enough, and that we have to be the media now?

"This morning we were sat on the balcony of the ISM apartment in Nablus, playing backgammon and drinking coffee. The local coordinator had come round to do an inventory of the flat, and whilst he was there he received a call saying that a Palestinian had been shot by settlers. We dropped what we were doing and left, but he was dead before he got to the hospital. In the chaos, it was difficult to ascertain exactly what happened – even his age seems uncertain. We were told he was twenty; Maan News have him at nineteen; Haaretz just eighteen. What provoked the attack is also unclear: an official for the PA said that he and 70 other villagers were marching towards the Yitzhar settlement when he was shot; Haaretz claims he and his cousin were throwing rocks at the settlers; the people we spoke to at the hospital said he was just out cutting wood for the fire. What is clear though is that the settlers kicked and beat him – his face was covered with blood and his body bruised – and shot him once through the chest. The entry-hole was on his right shoulder, and the doctor could feel the bullet beside his left lung. It was an hour before the ambulance got to him, and now he’s just another permanent victim of the occupation.

We had plans to go to the demonstration in Nabi-Saleh tomorrow, but now we have to go to the funeral. What angers me most about this vicious and pointless killing is that nothing will happen to the criminals: the settlers deny involvement, and the Israeli authorities are not going to bother about one more dead Arab - there have been several killings over the last month, although most by the IDF and border police. The settlers have apparently been relatively calm of late, but recently some were accused of torching a car just south of Yitzhar, and spraying “we won’t forget the evacuation” next to it in Hebrew – a reference to the dismantling of an illegal Israeli outpost near the settlement on January 12^th. This murder will most likely change little, but it will no doubt add to the growing anger in the occupied territories. Today in the centre of Nablus, the PA organised a demonstration against Al Jazeera, accusing them of slander and libel for the publication of the WikiLeaks documents, but this is just a weak publicity stunt to divert attention from the terrible revelations in the Palestine Papers. With arrests becoming more frequent – one of my friends is currently being held in an Israeli cell – and anti-government protests being held across the Middle East, talk of a third intifada is not uncommon. I hope and pray that this does not happen, but only time will tell; things may be heating up here in Palestine and I fear that, before too long, the situation may boil over one more time."

Are Civil Liberties Important?

I've just watched this excellent new film, documenting the incremental loss of our civil liberties with the onset of the so-called 'war on terror', but going back further than that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXc5K8aaXQo&feature=related

A lot of people I know don't seem to mind at all that there are many more restrictions on our movements, etc, but personally I have minded from the beginning. I have not believed the official line for any of these losses of our freedoms, and I never will. I believe people will only start to wake up to the creeping fascism that we are witnessing when these draconian and authoritarian laws start to affect them, and they will. Oh, they will...

The Limits of Autonomy

http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011125135344596198.html

International Solidarity Movement

First they came for the Palestinians, and I did not fight, because I wasn't a Palestinian:

http://palsolidarity.org/

http://www.bdsfrance.org/

The Wall

The Wall

Food Prices

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22948

Limits to Growth (2)

It's not rocket science:

http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/700/1/

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=125498

Palestine

From a friend in Hebron, Palestine:

"Revolution, revelation and the world keeps turning.

The last couple of weeks have been particularly hectic for the political situation in the Middle East. Seemingly out of the blue, the government in Lebanon collapsed, the Tunisian people revolted, and, yesterday, The Guardian and Al Jazeera began a four-day stint of publishing the WikiLeaks documents relating to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Algeria and Egypt are on the edge of meltdown, the people are angry and, for once, the rulers are scared.

After fines, abuse and harassment, and with no politicians or officials willing to listen to his protest, 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi doused himself with petrol and set himself alight outside the government building in Tunis - this is what started their revolution. His act was committed on the 17^th of December, he died January 4^th, and on the 15^th the Tunisian president fled to Saudi Arabia. What’s left is an unpopular interim government: chaotic; already being reshuffled; and a far cry from anything that could be called democratic, but the “Jasmine Revolution” did succeed in ending a 23-year long, hated, authoritarian regime, and this event is the most recent and most dramatic crystallization of the anger and discontent felt throughout the Arab world. In the days that followed the revolution, 11 people set themselves on fire outside government buildings: one in Mauritius, two in Egypt, and eight in Algeria. These copycat actions are clearly an effort to begin a repeat of the revolution in Tunisia; in Bethlehem, a radio station received a call from a man threatening to do the same in Ramallah.

When the WikiLeaks files began to be published, several conspiracy-theorists noted that none of the released files criticised Israel, or came from the embassies in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv; I hope that today they are eating their words. Perhaps the most shocking aspect, though, of the WikiLeaks publications is not the implicit criticism which comes from the belligerent Israeli position, nor the corruption of the Palestinian Authority – we’ve known about both for a long time. What has really struck people is the limits to which the PA have been willing to offer concessions to Israel and to sell out their own people just so that they may continue to hold on to power. The allegations are far too numerous to go into detail here – and they are all available on Al Jazeera and The Guardian websites – but they include offering to concede almost all of East Jerusalem to Israel, the acceptance of all but one of the illegal settlements in the West Bank, and the recognition of Israel as a specifically Jewish state. On the first day of publication, 50 rioters tried to storm the Al Jazeera office in Ramallah, and god only knows what will happen in the wake of these terrible revelations.

This is day two of a four-day release schedule."

The Hutchison Effect

The best two hours you will have ever spent listening to the radio, guaranteed!:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1570615667754851772#

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1570615667754851772#docid=-2169345568485232896

(relevant website: http://drjudywood.com/

also:

http://cui.unige.ch/isi/sscr/phys/antim-BPP.html .)

The Fate of Empires

http://www.arlev.co.uk/glubb/fate.pdf

Japan's Sustainable Society

Fascinating article about the past...and the future?:

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/5140

Understanding the Collapse of Complex Societies

This needs to be read with an open mind and deep comprehension of where we're at - it actually offers some very good pointers on where to go from here. The comments are also great, with much good reading material recommended:

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/

Obama

Born in the USA (not):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH4GX3Otf14

http://thepowerhour.com/news4/obama_kenyan_birth_certificate.htm

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2010/03/chicago-law-professor-on-obama-the-professors-hated-him-because-he-was-lazy-unqualified-never-attended-any-of-the-faculty-meetings/

Angry Yet?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-22/jpmorgan-pays-dimon-s-top-15-executives-73-million-in-shares.html

Russia/Palestine

This is an interesting development:

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7kVzJAHH0PeVREBrXcyZSS1XA%2fCQNrd76pR8AffhhCvL6XL2Cn0yxIMnfL1zTyu1rrGYK4d3D8OCzqKWnCbRlfSj81cTXgHtPIKzcXZOQ7wo%3d

Anarchy

Some interesting explorations of differing ways of organising society:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jvKN64ZT9Q&feature=player_embedded

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/anarchist-utopia.html

Bil'in - The Fight Goes On

An up-date on the situation in Bil'in, where this mother has now lost two children in peaceful demonstrations against the Israeli wall/land grab:

http://www.indypendent.org/2011/01/20/finding-light-in-dark-times/

Act of Faith or Scientific Method?

If you believe the official story of what happened on 911, and you refuse to entertain any other theories, you must have a blind faith that a Government would never harm its own citizens. In the decade since then, with all that has happened, I'm hoping that some people will be more willing to look at the whole story again, with more of a critical eye and using the scientific method of holding official statements up to scrutiny. There is a lot there that deserves scrutiny, and quite simply, doesn't add up. One method that often opens quite a few cans of worms is follow the money:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1t5anm6Uyo

http://dprogram.net/2010/10/14/indian-leader-%E2%80%9Cfrom-the-very-beginning-the-911-attacks-were-very-doubtful%E2%80%A6%E2%80%9D/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Conspiracy Theory...

...or history?

What is the difference? Are you really trying to tell me that there were no conspiracies, historically?

In the old days, it was called 'critical thinking' or 'investigative journalism', but now you cannot question the present narrative. Self-censorship is the order of the day.

Are people who shout 'conspiracy theorist' the loudest actually afraid of an intellectual, intelligent, investigation of what is actually going on? Surely this is what intellectual, intelligent and investigative people do, non?

Food Stamps

Would you be surprised to find out that JPMorgan benefit from food stamps?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zf8v7RYk6Y&feature=player_embedded#!

Nothing new under the sun!

Webster Tarpley

This weeks show is a show stopper! Tarpley is a political historian and knows how Washington works. Here he outlines very clearly that the shadow US Government is alive and well, and behind many of the odd deaths happening Stateside recently:

http://tarpley.net/world-crisis-radio/

(PS I don't like Phil Berg, whom he interviews in the middle of his show, as I think he has another agenda, but it's interesting to hear that Obama has never presented his birth certificate).

Financial Collapse?

I follow a lot of financial blogs, and many pundits are warning of systemic breakdown, mainly because the original problems have never been fixed, just papered over...literally.

Buy gold, buy silver, buy food, buy seeds, buy land, buy time.

http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-51-is-available-Systemic-global-crisis-2011-The-ruthless-year-at-the-crossroads-of-three-roads-of-global-chaos_a5775.html

Alternative Information Centre - Israel

After the headlines, here's a great interview with the AIC, where the spokesman tells it like it is: the soldiers and settlers are out of control and the Israeli Government has no desire or ability to reign them in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5_9yHxGV88&feature=player_embedded

(12.5% of Israel's GDP is dedicated to security, the largest proportion in the world. It's a war economy, which doesn't come as a surprise to any of us who have been there).

New Language

It's been fun learning this new language lately:

algorithmic trading; short swaps; naked short swaps; derivatives; credit default swaps; fractional reserve banking; site accounts; gold/silver ratio; arbitrage; backwardisation; position limits; high frequency trading (HFT); over the counter (OTC); BIS; COMEX; CFDC; LBMA; and not forgetting: market manipulation!

BTW, there is apparently supposed to be 8000 tonnes of gold in Fort Knox, USA, and 3000 tonnes of gold held by China. Word on the street is that China are trying to take delivery of physical by shorting the market and therefore keeping the prices down, until all the physical (actual) silver and gold is gone, then the prices will rocket.

Catherine Austin Fitts

Well worth finding an hour to listen to this smart lady. She describes the current financial system as the 'tapeworm economy', and she describes it in understandable terms. You just know she's right:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5kEYF1FcEU

The Heart of the Beast?

Difficult to drum up much sympathy:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110118/ap_on_re_us/us_cheney

Offshore Tax Havens

These sums are as staggering as they are disgusting. I like the whacky idea that we should tax these people, however. How novel!

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0719/opinions-taxation-tax-havens-banking-on-my-mind.html

More Proof of Weather Modification

Still many people out there who prefer not to know what we, collectively, are up to, and I agree it is a terrible thing to come to terms with. Nevertheless, here is a Senate Bill (S601) being presented about 'weather mitigation' (which in itself implies that weather is bad, and needs modifying):

http://agriculturedefensecoalition.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/5_1_2010_U.S._Senate_Weather_Mitigation_Bill_S601_CRS_Summary_March_8_2010.pdf

http://agriculturedefensecoalition.org/?q=weather-modifications

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20369

Martin Luther King Jr

A great article about a great man. Interesting that as soon as someone prominent and charismatic begins to speak out against the injustice of the power structure, they are assassinated. Coincidence?

http://redactednews.blogspot.com/2011/01/martin-luther-king-jr-and-tools-of.html

Also, a video about new evidence on the assassination:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB97scdSAX4&feature=player_embedded

Tzipi Livni

War criminal or Politician? Seems they are becoming synonomous:

http://redactednews.blogspot.com/2011/01/south-african-group-shows-balls-that-us.html

Hebron

A short video by the same friend in Hebron, interviewing the teacher of a school that was demolished by the IDF:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qONNzac2bX0&feature=player_embedded

Hebron

Here is a blog entry from a friend of mine, acting as international witness to what's going on in Hebron and around:

"It is January 11th, I have been in Hebron for two days now working with an international movement which will here remain unnamed, it is around 7;30am, Juan - my room mate - receives a call from a contact and wakes me from my aching slumber, he has heard that an Israeli demolition squad has been seen assembling outside a small village in the desert south of Hebron, we gather ourselves as quickly as we can and leave at once with the intention of reaching the target before the bulldozers.


We are told to head for a town called Yatta and await further directions, we hurriedly oblige but before we make our destination our taxi hits a large boulder on an unlaid stretch of road, its engine is critically holed but even as the hot oil spews from its sump we successfully flag down a passing local who takes us enthusiastically to our first destination. From there we acquire further direction and another hard negotiated taxi which whisks us to the edge of nowhere and then a little further, finally leaving the road at its end and hopping the rocky desert toward our goal.


Our journey has taken us well over an hour to this point and our nerves are on edge, it seems that we have invested a lot in getting this far and this may be our first opportunity to engage in actively hampering the efforts of the IDF and could easily lead to our arrest and possible deportation. As we crest the final hill before the village though we are forced off the track by the yellowing girth of a bulldozer as it passes, it is followed by several more and then a monumental snaking cavalcade of military hardware which seems to take minutes to pass. The traffic is all heading out of town and I am - at once - relieved and disappointed not to be opposing them.


Momentarily I assume that they have been rebuffed by the locals but as the dust settles on their departure I see a settlement littered with flattened buildings and I can almost hear the air escaping my soul as my spirit deflates, this is a low. As we eventually exit the cab and enter the village we are swamped in a sense of utter loss, defeat and anger, the UN are there, they could do nothing, the EAPPI are there, they could do nothing, ISM are there, even they could do nothing and all anyone can do now is record the aftermath and intrude upon this tragedy by gently throwing questions at the the bedouin inhabitants. This is a low indeed, this is what it feels like to lose, to be squashed, to understand how utterly powerless we all are in the face of such unassailed might, as individuals and collectively. At the same time though I am pricked by the awareness that we came so close, we were so nearly there first and this stirs the hope within me that we can make it next time and even if we cannot prevent such an abominable act of mean spiritedness, we can at least witness it on behalf of the world and share the truth through images and words. (see video above)


As a result of the occupation the majority of Palestinians must seek planning permission from Israel before building any new structure, even in their own country and on their own land, in almost every case (94%) this is refused meaning that existing towns can neither expand or develop, this is one way in which the zionists seek to ethnically suffocate the West Bank of its inhabitants and seize land for its own settlements. Many Palestinians are thus forced to build without seeking permission, resulting in hundreds of demolitions each year.

Geoenginering Studies

Here is a recent hour-long film by an American Farm Loss Adjuster, who knows who and what to ask in the ultra-secret world of global weather-modification tests. Well worth the time to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTxvWLrUeE8&feature=related

Conclusion: they are either military aircraft, funded out of the defence budget in an attempt to control the weather or private corporations who will make money out of the effects they bring about. A chilling awakening to the insanity that is the human race today.

Israel & Democracy

http://www.shovrimshtika.org/post_e.asp?id=30

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iAnAauIuFPGD2olBzfyzXIR2buKg?docId=CNG.1013bcd54f88cdb52e0ba01db945fb52.ff1

http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/israeli-society/3184-struggle-for-democracy-in-israel

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-may-be-on-the-eve-of-revolution-1.337445

This last article very interesting. There is a whole section of the Israeli population who feel disenfranchised by their political class, and who want peace with the Palestinians.

And finally a short video by 'Breaking the Silence'. Uncomfortable watching, and reminiscent of some of the awful Abu Graib photos. Why aren't we ALL out on the streets protesting that this sort of inhumane treatment of our fellow humans stops?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY7zi2E-x2Y&feature=player_embedded#!

Peak Oil

Quelle surprise! Predictions of oil discoveries off Norway are down, by over 20%!:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110113-711021.html

Benazir Bhutto

Ms Bhuto gives an interview with David Frost in which she admits that she had written a letter to the powers that be (she mentions Scotland Yard and the FBI) asking for an investigation into the backers and perpetrators of one of the many massacres in Pakistan that killed 300 people, that was blamed on terrorists. In this interview she says who she thinks killed Osama Bin Laden.

Shortly afterwards she was assassinated.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4xi1e_benazir-bhutto-says-bin-laden-is-de_news

Clue: there is a pattern here!

Financial Sense Newshour

Here's a great interview with the author of a book that looked into the Federal Reserve and its antics, as far back as 1994. Now in its 29th re-print, and up-dated, it looks like what Griffin predicted is coming to pass. It's very important to understand that when we're told that loans are being re-paid by companies that were bailed out by TARP, they are actually being bailed out by the Federal Reserve, without oversight by the US Government nor the need for disclosure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He6IyP6JwmE&feature=player_embedded

Tunisia - Gold

Question: if gold is in a bubble, which is what the main-stream media is trying to tell us, why do deposed dictators use it as their currency of choice when fleeing the angry mob?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/deposed-tunisian-president-ben-ali-said-have-fled-country-15-tons-gold

Plus, India pays for oil in gold:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/india-offers-pay-iran-oil-gold

PNAC

The original document entitled 'Product for a New American Century' was a defence review, a blue-print on how to take over the world by stealth, but which necessitated the covert overthrow of certain regimes and a few false-flag operations thrown in for good measure. Well now this 'non-profit' organisation is back, bigger, better and in your face! The Authors obviously believe there will be little opposition now:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

Here is the original document, written in 2000, where they lay out the future. Cheyney is one of the team, as is Kristol and Bolton. On page 8, they are worried about cuts in the defence budget:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

RFID

Think having these implants is sci-fi or conspiracy theory? The technology has been up and running for some while, they just need to work out how to sell it to you. Bingo! Let's work on the duel scares that work every time: your health, and your security. Here's an insidious little clip from a main-stream TV programme, using a sing-song voice, and bimbo presenters to sell you this technology. Coming soon, to an arm near you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfF5i3o61PY&feature=player_embedded#!

...and here is the latest press release, selling it to you as 'the wireless body'. Launched in Italy, of course:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40231824/ns/business-press_releases/

Haiti

These poor people, suffering barely-disguised neo-colonialism:

http://uruknet.info/?p=m73971&hd=&size=1&l=e

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.9964072691a62252d0a98b0308fb8063.ca1&show_article=1

(oh by the way, oil has been discovered off the West coast...)

Illegal Israeli Settlements

This is why there is a raft of Countries recognising Palestine as a State, as the Israeli Government have never had any intention of committing to the peace process:

http://uruknet.info/?p=m73964&hd=&size=1&l=e

JPMorgan Chase

Christmas comes early for the Banksters, again:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/14/jp-morgan-bankers-share-10bn

Greece

In trying to understand the fiscal mess many states of the EU are in, it helps to understand how they got to where they are now in the first place and who helped them. One name keeps cropping up: Goldman Sachs:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/justifying-hedge-fund-groupthink-goldman-butchers-greeks-again

US Drug Running in Afghanistan

The money made from the export of drugs from Afghanistan covers the presence of the US troops:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Kl7a7E3KE&feature=player_embedded

Unlikely Heroes (3)

...although unfortunately this one just got shot. This Judge was was the first person to stand up to Obama giving permission for the States of the Union to confiscate the retirement pensions of its workers. He stood up for the rights of the people, and looks like he paid the ultimate price:

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/154262

It's becomng more and more dangerous to disagree with the Government.

Buy Silver: last chance!

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/us-mint-reports-unprecedented-buying-spree-physical-silver

Unlikely Heroes (2)

Blimey, two in one day, and the US EPA at that!

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/01/14/west.virginia.epa.coal/index.html?iref=allsearch

Thorium Reactors

A solution to the energy crisis?

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-08/thorium-reactors-could-wean-world-oil-just-five-years

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHs2Ugxo7-8

Unlikely Heroes

Hopefully this will be the beginning of a series:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/16/swiss-whistleblower-rudolf-elmer-banks

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Exbanker-says-hes-giving-apf-4023317377.html?x=0&.v=8

Israeli Demolitions

Here is a video made by a friend of mine in Palestine, where he interviews a teacher whose school is partially demolished by Israeli bulldozers, under the watchful eye of the UN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qONNzac2bX0&feature=player_embedded

Life's Rich Cycle

A year in two minutes, in Norway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkY3JGDqMT8

BP from an Australian Perspective

This is comedy.........I think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSujCHfvTb0&feature=related

Ron Paul

One of life's few heroes, still willing to talk truth to power (paying for pipelines!). He has now (as of December 2010) been put in charge of oversight of the Federal Reserve, although many think it's too late. In this 2008 video, he lays out where he thinks the US has gone wrong, and two years on he was right on many points. With a long track record, he is someone we should all be listening to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD4kayWV1tk&feature=related

Aaron Russo

Once a friend of Nick Rockefeller, he died young but told us all some very interesting information whilst he was still here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nD7dbkkBIA

Plus, this film says it all:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#docid=-1656880303867390173

(note: 38 minutes into this film, a Mr Cohen, a former Tax Commissioner who now works for a prestigious Law Firm, actually threatens Russo in Yiddish, saying "nothing will help you"! Again, this is an old film, and Russo has since died, but a lot of what he uncovers has come to light since. Incidentally Bill Cooper also refused to pay his taxes until they could show him the law, and he was shot by the IRS late at night outside his home. Bill Cooper was also onto a few other things too...).

Geo-engineering Abu Dhabi

If here, why not Australia, where they have had drought for ten years? Am I the only sceptic out there? Note the 'rain from clear skies' comment: we experienced that a few years ago, here in the Pyrenees:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/unitedarabemirates/8236350/Abu-Dhabi-weather-project-creates-man-made-rainstorms.html

The Cold Chain

A few winters ago I taught English in Belluno, a small town in the foothills of the Dolomites, in North-East Italy. I drove out to factories where the workers were offered free English lessons by the bosses. The factories made all sorts of things, from socks to industrial cranes to freezers. Getting in the car every morning and driving on freezing roads covered with ice, along with 100s of other drivers already confirmed my suspicions that I was witnessing the beginning of the end of an unsustainable system.

One of the factories was the largest local employer, and as such the workers felt grateful to be employed, and worked at all costs to keep the factory alive, often coming in at weekends for no salary. All well and good, especially for the bottom line, but with its own very obvious and real problems: they were busy producing hi-tech freezers for the food industry, which has been gradually converting our food away from fresh to frozen produce for the last decade or so.

Sales were drying up, as were payments for their goods, so settlement dates were extended and the freezers piled up - literally! They had at least 5,000 freezers in the warehouse, worth millions. Truckers would arrive from Russia and Eastern Europe, full of stories of their own problems regarding fuel, check-points, delays, bribes, etc. These trucks carried these heavy freezers all over Europe and beyond. They were shipped out from ports to the Middle East, where believe it or not, the market was growing...

You can call this progress or sheer insanity: I'm in the latter camp. Not only do we have refrigerated trucks and warehouses, we have refrigerated ships and even - get this - the ability to reverse refrigeration to keep food from freezing by warming it up (but not too much). This is just one aspect of what we call 'Western Civilization' and it is as foolish as it is unsustainable. It is, however, popular, and growing. That is, until it bursts, sometime soon.

The way forward for food production is to do what we did before this whole system came along: grow fresh food locally, eat, distribute and sell it locally. Amazingly it is still not too late to act: get some land, get some books and learn what grows well in your climate. Spring is nearly here, why not try some organic seeds?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chain

The American Dream

Doesn't quite deal with the energy problems confronting us, but gives quite a good history of the financial problems that confront us. A condensed history of banking, cartoon-style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AirhUmpNm0&feature=player_embedded

Richard Heinberg

He wrote a great book 'The Party's over'. Here's an interesting 30-minute video that explains the peak oil problem, and the problems to come:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeRTCepmkqQ&feature=player_embedded#!

The End of Growth

Thank Goodness! I don't mean to be flippant, but over the last few decades we really have (collectively) lost the plot, and we are refusing as a species to realise and understand the quite simple implications of peak oil. We seem to prefer, instead, to believe politicians who use soundbites that offer us something intangible like 'change'. Well we certainly will have change, although not quite in the way everyone was hoping.

We have abdicated our responsibilities to think for ourselves, as children look to their parents, and it is time to grow up. The big difference is parents most often have your interests at heart, whilst the politicians do not:

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-01-12/peak-oil-crisis-civil-unrest

Israeli Settlements

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159576.html

Buy Silver!

Here's Part 3 of the insider information about the silver market, and it's fascinating. All of the physical silver is being withdrawn from the COMEX whilst the prices are kept artificially low (by naked shorts on the market i.e. worthless bits of paper with 'promise to pay' on them, much like fiat currencies, i.e. un-backed), until all the physical is gone, then the price will rocket. It doesn't really matter if we don't understand it all, just try to get hold of some physical silver. According to this insider info, the price will be held low for another two months maximum. Also, he mentions the new world currency that is being hinted at in financial circles, namely SDRs. If they ever get introduced, we are all toast! More on that later.

You'll have to excuse the swearing, I suppose that's stock market language, and BTW, BJLewinski is Bill Clinton!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AId_UiPtPpQ&feature=player_embedded

Also, keep an eye on this website for constant up-dates on what's really going on:

http://www.zerohedge.com/

Just for some background:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/coming-financial-tsunami

In short, get physical!

Peak Oil

All the 'low hanging fruit' has gone folks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUmwy0VTnqM&feature=player_embedded

Raising The Debt Ceiling (USA)

March 20, 2006:

This was the last stand-alone debt limit vote on which then-Senator Obama voted. He was one of 48 members to vote against the increase, which passed with 52 votes.

He said: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better"

Sen. Obama, Congressional Record, S.2237-8, 3/16/06

Well, well, well!

Raising the debt ceiling is tantamount to defaulting on your debt, or in layman's terms, upping your overdaft limit. Financial pundits are predicting an ugly outcome if the vote gets passed this time, as the debt ceiling will be above US GDP. Tantamount to spending more than you earn. Stand well back!

Tear Gas in Bil'in

Bil'in - and the world looks on...

Here's a blog entry from a friend of mine still in Palestine, who has been attending the peaceful protests in Bil'in against the Israeli land-grab. It speaks for itself:

"As some of you will have read, on New Year’s Eve, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces: one, a 24 year-old student at a checkpoint near Nablus; the other, a 36 year-old woman at the weekly demonstrations in Bil’in.

Jawaher Abu Rahma was watching the protest but collapsed after inhaling large quantities of tear gas – a ‘non-lethal weapon’ used regularly by the IDF – and later died in hospital. An investigation is underway as to the cause of her death, but as it is being held by the Israeli army we may be sceptical as to any conclusions drawn. Already, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon, the commander of the IDF in the West Bank, has claimed she probably died of ‘other medical complications’ rather than as a result of the actions of the IDF. Many who were at the protests on New Year’s Eve claim that the tear gas used was more potent than normal – due to the larger-than-normal crowd expected at the final protest of the year – but whilst this may well be the case, it would be difficult to prove. Regardless of the noises made by either side, the fact remains that following the peaceful protests and violent retaliation a woman lost her life. The story is made all the more tragic by the fact that one of her brothers was killed in 2009, when he was hit by a high-velocity tear gas canister during a similar protest.

This week, the protest in Bil’in was held in Jawaher’s memory, and we had to go along. The plan was that the march would start at noon as usual – just after the midday prayer – and the women would lead, preceded by a truck on which Jawaher’s mother was standing and speaking to the large crowd. Around 300 people attended, but the number would surely have been higher had the Israeli army not installed flying checkpoints around the city and blocked entrance to any car carrying internationals. Indeed, I was extremely happy to note the high number of Israeli women who had made it through the blockade, and at times it seemed that Israelis and other internationals were actually in the majority at the march – a sure sign of the growing distance between Israel’s government and her people, and their discontent at having a government murder in their name.

The march proceeded very smoothly at first; unlike the last time I was here, the protestors reached the wall without being fired upon. It was obvious that due to the tragedy of the previous week the army were unwilling to be seen to be using tear gas too aggressively – and certainly not in front of the world’s media, who had turned out in droves (which, oddly enough, included a reporter from Fox News). In Bil’in, the Separation Wall is actually a high fence, and once the protestors reached it, they began to attack it with wire-cutters - this, it should be noted, is viewed as both a legal and legitimate form of protest against occupation under international law. Only a few feet from the soldiers, you could see them holding tear gas grenades and waiting for the command. They didn’t throw them, but there was a roar of an engine, and all the shabab started to run. If I could give one piece of advice to anyone going to a protest in the West Bank, it would be that when the shabab – the Palestinian kids with the rocks – start to run, fucking leg it, because they know something bad is coming.

And they were right... From behind the fence came an armoured-van with a water cannon that sprayed the crowd with a bright green, vile-smelling torrent of liquid. This ‘skunk-juice’ is some of the most foul stuff I have ever come across – like a fetid mix of shit and rot and sewage – which makes you choke nauseously if you even get near the spray. If it touches you, it stays on you for weeks, and if it gets on your clothes or hair, you’re better to throw the clothes out or shave your head. I can only imagine what it does to the land. Fortunately, I managed to avoid the shower of filth, but the stench lingered in the air. I must say that this liquid seemed a much better deterrent than tear gas; unlike the gas, it doesn’t make you hurt and angry, just revolted and sick. The van continued to spray the crowd, and kept them back from the wall. The kids, however, moved faster than the van, and before long were at the fence further down and cutting the wire; it was at the kids they launched the first tear gas, but after the first had been launched, the cannisters came falling down like hail. So much for restraint: the army quickly ramped up the assault, and before long, and in a haze of gas, the IDF were on the Palestinian side of the fence. The shabab hurled rocks, the IDF hurled grenades; the protestors retreated, and the press went home.

All this mess, with its choking gas and rotten stench, lasted less than a couple of hours, but the protests have gone on for years. Another week passed in Bil’in, and now, less than a day later, all the holes in the fence will be fixed. Next week will bring more of the same, and we can only hope that last week’s events do not happen again. Knowing the belligerence of the IDF, I am not optimistic. We came back to Nablus, tired and hungry, and crashed back into our world. For the kids of Bil’in, this struggle is everything they know."

His blog: 'http://winterinpalestine.blogspot.com'

JFK

This is an incredible speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlghYpDx0f4&feature=related

Vietnam

Afghanistan and Iraq were not the first invasions based on a web of lies. Here is a BBC documentary about how the Vietnam war was started, more false flags:

http://vimeo.com/10540038

(note: Kissinger seems to get everywhere, doesn't he?)

mia culpa, mia culpa, mia maxima culpa

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.


statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

We are all guilty of turning a blind eye to atrocities visited upon Muslims, and I'm shocked at the number of people who have swallowed the party - oops I mean Government - propaganda...

Bil'in

I just got this from a friend in Palestine. I posted a couple of days ago about the lady who died from inhaling tear-gas, and I experienced it myself when demonstrating against this Israeli land-grab:

"we went to be'lin again yesterday. the gas had killed a woman last week so the demo was very big and at first considerable restraint, no tear gas and people got to the fence, but then they set of a cannon of the most gross smelling stuff imaginable, aparently if you get it on your clothes you just have to chuck them away, no one we knew did tho. then the tear gas began, this was about 40 mins later and someone said that some of the arab members of the kenesset had been there, so maybe they waited until they had gone! k and I got caught between two lots of gas and just had to hunch down and wait for it to go away."

Limits to Growth

Another brilliant post from the Archdruid:

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/

George Carlin (2)

Here, here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KPEJNGAlqw

Peak Oil

Below is a comment posted on Max Keiser's website. It's intelligent, articulate and well worth reading:

'The late Matt Simmons correctly pointed out as the price of oil increases so does the cost of getting the oil out of the ground. Also there is a total lack of maintenance in oil infrastructure. Rust never sleeps and as cheap oil disappears society doesn’t have the spare resources or finances to keep things running. How expensive would it be to replace the Alaskan pipe when oil is costing $150 per barrel? Could it even be financed? A couple of years ago part of the Alaskan pipe was shut down because it rusted out. The company slapped on a few patches and called it done. what about the rest of the pipeline?

Those who deny peak oil (production) assume technology will save us so we need not worry. The problem is that the USA has used everything technology known to man and still they can not raise American domestic oil production. Arguments that environmentalists are preventing the USA from getting at the trillions of barrels of oil under their feet is total hogwash. The environmentalists would be pushed aside in seconds if there was easy to get at oil. The real reason is that most unused oil discoveries are not economical but the oil companies don’t want to say that.

I have friends who have been in the oil business for over 30 years and worked in the Arctic in the 70s and 80s. The company they worked for gave up on the Arctic because there was no commercially viable oil fields found. These guys have worked all over the world including the cleanup on the BP blowout in the Gulf as I write. Most of the time the new oil fields being discovered are not paying for the special rigs that have to be built. The drop off rate of offshore oil fields is enormous. It is real hard to make money in the offshore oil discovery business. That is why the oil exploration companies are big into 3D seismographic exploration as drilling a well is very costly. Even when they do drill they do very little testing so estimates of recoverable oil are more marketing hype than geological fact.

We should be using the last of the cheap oil to develop a more robust energy infrastructure. We should not rely too much on any one source of energy. OK yes it is pie in the sky. However, where I live only fools have one source of heat. Each source of heat (oil, gas, electricity) has fail in the last couple of decades and a few days with no heat in the middle of -20C gives you a whole new outlook on robust infrastructure.

Here are some of Matt Simmons presentations.
http://www.oceanenergy.org/matthew_simmons_2010.asp
I miss Matt. RIP'

Extremophiles

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-01/07/russians-penetrate-lake-vostok

Ditto

Ditto

Le Guerrat Harvest 2010

911

Nothing much new here for those of us who looked into the events on and after that fateful day, but there are still many people who have no idea that the 2 people put in charge of the 911 Commission Report later wrote a book of their own telling how they were obstructed every step of the way:

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011/01/06/the-%E2%80%9Cexceptionally-%E2%80%9Credacted-911-commission-interview/

http://www.interlinkbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=983

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/05/terror/main1868087.shtml

I'm not going to go into details about building 7, nanothermite, Silverstein, etc. It's all there for those who have an interest and half an hour to spare!

Money Laundering

Here's proof that the banksters are up to their necks in dirty deals, including drugs dealing and money laundering. And no-one goes to prison, just slap on the wrist. You couldn't make this stuff up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLf3ax3Ie9o&feature=player_embedded

Tesla

I've been interested in Tesla and his free energy inventions for a while now. A lot of us are hoping there will be some secret free energy to be drawn out of the hat when peak oil really kicks in, but will it be for all, or just some? I bet I can guess.

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/20101227/karpen-039pilebattery-produces-energy-continuously-since-1950-exists-romanian-museum.htm

Helen Thomas

Welcome Back!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110106/ts_yblog_thecutline/helen-thomas-returns-to-journalism

Geoengineering (again!)

Sorry folks, but this is a very important topic - would you agree?

http://www.economist.com/node/17414216

Revolution

A Poem:

Is Dilution,
a Solution?
Or is Revolution,
our Evolution?
and what does the suffix
'-tion' mean anyway,
and is it Latin or Greek?


Blimey, doesn't get much better than this, penned this morning....

President Andrew Jackson

In 1835, President Andrew Jackson declared his disdain for the international bankers:

"You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning."8

There followed an (unsuccessful) assassination attempt on President Jackson's life. Jackson had told his vice president, Martin Van Buren, "The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me...."9

http://www.rense.com/general86/pres.htm

President Abraham Lincoln

"The money power preys upon the nation in time of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of our country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed. "4

Lincoln continued to fight against the central bank, and some now believe that it was his anticipated success in influencing Congress to limit the life of the Bank of the United States to just the war years that was the motivating factor behind his assassination.

President James A Garfield

"Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all
industry and commerce...when you realize that the entire system is very easily
controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not
have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate."
— James A. Garfield

(in case you haven't guessed, he was assassinated a few weeks after saying this!)

Geo-engineering Above Our House!

The History of Money

I doubt many people have enough time or interest to watch this film for three hours, but it's the sort of information we should have been taught in school, instead of all that boring Kings and Queens stuff...

If you don't have much time, the first ten minutes will basically explain where we're at now, with the rest going on to explain how the fractional reserve system originated. Some fascinating info here, and this was made 3 years ago. The system is creaking and groaning a lot more now:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#

Market Manipulation of Gold Prices

This is another excellent video explaining exactly what is going on in the global financial markets. The voices and delivery are bizarre, as the voice is disguised using a computer. Again, however, the content is deadly serious, and I'd advise everyone to get hold of some gold or silver, if possible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKTQze2UKWc

Net Energy - The Charts

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7282

http://gregor.us/oil/the-decline-of-available-energy-to-society/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Gregorus+%28Gregor.us%29

http://www.safeenergyassociation.org/ad/eroi.pdf

EROEI = Energy Return on Energy Invested (in other words, it sometimes takes 1 barrel of oil invested to get 1 barrel of oil out......., or water, or gas, etc).

Peter Kropotkin

Kropotkin also contended that we have a predisposition to help one another, and we do so without governmental coercion. A centralized government is not necessarily needed to set an example or to make people do the right thing. People were doing so before the rise of the State. In fact, Kropotkin maintained that it is government that represses our natural tendency for cooperation. He accused historians of giving little attention to the lives of the masses and their inclination to help each other, offering up instead a distorted view of civilization through a series of "epic poems, the inscriptions on monuments, the treaties of peace - nearly all historical documents bear the same character; they deal with breaches of peace, not with peace itself" (Kropotkin 1989, 117). Mutual Aid.

(my emphasis!)

Martin Luther King Jr

'A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.'

'An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. '

'Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. '

'He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.'

John Lame Deer, Sioux Indian

Quote from his book:

"Before our white brothers came to civilize us we had no jails. Therefore we had no criminals. You can't have criminals without a jail. We had no locks or keys and so we had no thieves. If a man was so poor that he had no horse, tipi, or blanket, someone gave him these things. We were too uncivilized to set much value on personal belongings. We wanted to have things only in order to give them away. We had no money, and therefore a man's worth couldn't be measured by it. We had no written law, no attorney or politicians, therefore we couldn't cheat. We were in a really bad way before the white man came and I don't know how we managed to get along without the basic things which, we are told, are absolutely necessary to make a civilized society."

JFK

Here's my first venture into the JFK debate...

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message998603/pg1

And a film you possibly haven't seen on the subject. Enjoy!

http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=4330031689287456187#

Weather Modification (2)

Just in case there is still anyone out there who does not believe this is happening, here is proof:

http://www.weathermodification.com/

They sound great, don't they? Give 'em a call, they'll answer all of our problems.

Also, as predicted, the BBC had a radio programme on the World Service just before Xmas, gently breaking the news that these secret trials have been going on for some while, under the guise of ameliorating 'climate change':

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00chrk9/One_Planet_2050_An_Earth_Odyssey/

What The Green Movement Got Wrong

It's been quite a while since I've seen such an obviously dishonest programme, but maybe that's because I don't have a telly! They 'covered' three subjects: nuclear energy, genetically-modified food and geo-engineering. It was the most thinly-disguised piece of propaganda for Monsanto that I've ever seen, and was full of half-truths, lies and exaggerations. Awful.

Happily, the debate afterwards (on Channel 4) actually had some excellently-articulate people who were able to take the programme apart, piece by piece, statement by statement. It unfortunately shows, however, the power of corporations that we're up against.

Monsanto's genetically-modified seeds have been proven to create infertility, as well as causing internal organ damage. We are also, of course, unable to save the seeds, year on year, and finally they encourage us to use more pesticides, which continue to kill the biodiversity around us. Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. Either take my word for it, or listen to Max about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiK_RF3ioRw&feature=player_embedded#!

Mobile Banking

Beware this new convenient form of banking: ostensibly there to make your life easier, it is actually a way to completely remove cash/currency from circulation, and give ALL power and control over your lives to the Banksters.

If you don't believe me, just think about it for a minute: what if your bank decides that they don't like something you're about to buy; something you've signed up to on the web; someone you've corresponded with; some idea you've had which you're cirulating. In today's inter-connected world, it is easier than 1,2,3 to stop your line of credit, to block a card, or in this case, to send you a brief 'tranaction not approved' message to your mobile 'phone.

You will no longer be able to dip into your wallet or purse for that twenty quid to pay for some petrol, when you're in the middle of no-where, it's getting dark and you're miles from home....

It reminds me of that scene by those two blokes 'Computer says No', but it's much, much more sinister. It also reminds me of Huxley's 'Brave New World', as well as Orwell's '1984'. Welcome to the future, indeed.

Adbusters

Can't be all bad if they're calling for a world-wide ban on Starbucks: good start!

There is a quote in the book I just mentioned by Kalle Lasn, founder of this influential magazine, and I thought it worth repeating:

"...we got rich by violating one of the central tenets of economics: thou shall not sell off your capital and call it income. And yet over the past 40 years we have clear-cut the forests, fished rivers and oceans to the brink of extinction and siphoned oil from the Earth as if it possessed an infinite supply. We've sold off our planet's natural capital and called it income. And now the Earth, like the economy, is stripped."

http://www.adbusters.org/

The Moneyless Man

Just finished reading this book, by Mark Boyle, and although it was pretty light on the philosophy, it still contained quite a lot of interesting information. He managed to live for a year without using money, and there's lots of useful contacts in it to help get you started, if this is an idea that appeals.

He points out what has become obvious to those of us who have been studying the criminal world of finance over the last few years: that all money created these days is actually debt and the increased use of credit and debt is one of the major causes of our awful environmental legacy: if people and corporations hadn't been able to borrow so much they wouldn't have been able to increase their consumption so much, which has in turn led to the resource depletion we see all around us today. If we had all had to live within the 'don't spend more than you earn' principle, the world would be a different place.

I also read an interesting article recently (can't remember where, New Statesman? New Internationalist?) which said for the Western world to reduce its carbon use by 80%, we would have to turn the clock back to........1972! Yes, it was only that recently that we use to live more-or-less within our means, and I remember it well! I remember when credit cards came in, hole-in-the-wall convenience banking, massive consumerism and in-your-face advertising all started. And now look at the mess we're in. Although I haven't got much sympathy for the banksters, I must admit to being very interested to see how they're going to try to get out of this one!

Some useful info gleaned from the book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism

http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/

http://www.wildmanwildfood.com/

It will be interesting to see whether the collapse of the fiat currency system actually helps the human race out of its present debt-induced stupor. Let's hope so!

For Hire: Tin-Pot Dictator. All Offers considered.

Tear Gas Kills

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=347087