Sunday, April 30, 2006
Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Fuck the Government. I should.
"How does it become a man to behave toward the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also."
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Love and Harmony, by William Blake
Friday, April 28, 2006
Latin Kings
Energy Blues
*
(Yawn!)
Energy...
Sometimes I think I'm runnin' out of energy
Seems like we use an awful lot for
Heatin' and lightin' and drivin'
Readin' and writin' and jivin'
Energy ... You'd think we'd be savin' it up.
Energy ... You can get it by dammin' up a river
Energy ... A windmill can make the breeze deliver
But even with millin' and dammin'
Our needs are so much more demanding
For energy ... We have to use some kind of fuel.
Chop, chop, chop, he cavemen used wood to start
their fires.
Chop, chop, chop, they made all the tools that
they required.
Chop, chop, chop, inventions got more and more
inspired.
The fires got higher and higher,
And clearings got wider and wider.
Energy ... They were burnin' 'bout all their wood
up.
Then one day men discovered that coal would do it
better
Miners dug, and it looked like it might just last
forever.
It seemed like the final solution.
It started the Industrial Revolution.
Energy ... We could just keep on diggin' it up.
Now in 1859 - way out in western Pennsylvania -
A man had built a rig that got some laughs from
folks who came there
But suddenly, a mighty roar came up from under
the ground.
And soon a gusher, gushin' oil, soaked all who
stood around.
Now no-one knew, when that gusher blew,
The petroleum years were on us,
Or that so many cars and trucks would come to
cause a crisis.
Energy ... We're looking to try and find some new
kinds.
Energy ... Exploring to try and make a new find.
Nuclear and thermal and solar,
If we miss we'll get colder and colder.
Energy ... We've gotta stop usin' you up.
So don't be cross when momma says turn that extra
light out.
Just turn it off till we find us a fuel that
never runs out.
If everyone tries a bit harder,
Our fuel will go farther and farther.
Energy ... We're gonna be stretchin' you out.
*
Music & Lyrics: George R. Newall
Performed by: Jack Sheldon
Sweet Jesus I Hate the United States Government, II
...
Starting a new agency, the National Preparedness and Response Authority, from scratch would be the better option, the panel concluded.
"We propose to abolish Fema and build a stronger, more capable structure within (the Department of Homeland Security)," the report was quoted as saying.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4950026.stm
*
[Great! I propose abolishing the entire government and starting from scratch too... Nice to know they're open to the whole idea of starting over... :) ]
Sweet Jesus I Hate the United States Government, I
US Imperialism Brings World to the Brink, by Workers Party of Ireland
At the same time as the US attempts to limit global action to prevent harm to the environment and to cut international commitment to the reduction of poverty, the US Ambassador to the UN has objected to language which urges nations to observe a moratorium on nuclear testing and to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. While choking developing countries with economic pressure the US is simultaneously and aggressively building up its military forces and presence throughout the world.
The US military budget request for the fiscal year 2006 is $4,416 billion. The current US military budget is almost as much as the rest of the world combined. The US and its allies account for between two-thirds to three-quarters of all military spending. By contrast the United Nations and all its agencies and funds spend about $10 billion every year.
Despite this the United Nations has faced a financial crisis which has forced it to cut vital programmes and which has inhibited its work. In 1997, for example, half of the US aid was military-related. When the tsunami struck South Asia, US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said that aid to the region was part of the US "global war on terror".
...
*
Darfur food rations cut in half
The UN is cutting in half its daily rations in Sudan's Darfur region due to a severe funding shortfall.
"This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever made," James Morris, head of the UN's World Food Programme, said.
From May the ration will be half the minimum amount required by each day. The cut comes as the UN said Darfur's malnutrition rates are rising again.
Nearly 3m in Darfur are totally reliant on food aid after being driven off their land by three years of conflict.
Despite a ceasefire and on-going peace negotiations, large areas of Darfur are now affected by fighting between government forces, militias and rebels.
This is also hampering the delivery of food and other aid operations.
...
The UN is cutting in half its daily rations in Sudan's Darfur region due to a severe funding shortfall.
"This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever made," James Morris, head of the UN's World Food Programme, said.
From May the ration will be half the minimum amount required by each day. The cut comes as the UN said Darfur's malnutrition rates are rising again.
Nearly 3m in Darfur are totally reliant on food aid after being driven off their land by three years of conflict.
Despite a ceasefire and on-going peace negotiations, large areas of Darfur are now affected by fighting between government forces, militias and rebels.
This is also hampering the delivery of food and other aid operations.
...Thursday, April 27, 2006
When I have fears, by John Keats
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Dying to Live
SDS and the struggles of the 1960s
GEOFF BAILEY tells the history of Students for a Democratic Society, the organization came to symbolize the explosion of dissent and protest on college campuses during the 1960s.
...
Many SDS activists had become disillusioned by the Democratic Party’s repeated betrayals of the civil rights movement in the South. But Johnson was running against the right-wing lunatic Barry Goldwater, who was infamous for calling for the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam. Johnson, running as a “peace candidate,” seemed to be the “lesser of two evils.” SDS adopted the ambiguous slogan, “Half the Way with LBJ.”
In November, Johnson was elected president. In January, he began aerial bombing and a massive military build-up in Vietnam.
...
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Thanks 4 Tha Vizual
TV seance: Lennon asks for...peace
Monday, April 24, 2006
.:collective community of cooperative amoebic consciousness:.
--The stronger help the weaker and in so-doing, all become stronger.--
Consumer's Cooperation, 1942
Community Intelligence
The next level of evolution will endorse that cooperation among the “cells,” in contrast to the current notion of competition, is the ultimate step to our evolution and survival.
Harmonics of Consciousness
Matric Integral
Co-Intelligence and the Holistic Politics of Community Self-Organization
The Consciousness of the Atom, Alice Bailey
"One of our immediate educational objectives must be the elimination of the competitive spirit, and the substitution of the cooperative consciousness."
-The Tibetan
Muzical Interlude
Son House Plays
Son House Talks
Blues Videos, including Son House w/Bukka White, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Sunday, April 23, 2006
VIDEO: 60 Minutes: A Spy Speaks Out
From FreeDemocracy.blogspot.com
60 Minutes: CIA Official Reveals Bush, Cheney, Rice Were Personally Told Iraq Had No WMD in Fall 2002 Tonight on 60 Minutes, Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of the CIA’s Europe division, revealed that in the fall of 2002, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others were told by CIA Director George Tenet that Iraq’s foreign minister — who agreed to act as a spy for the United States — had reported that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction program
LINK
And Here
LINK
US can still save this world
by Syed Atiq ul Hassan
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the forces of United States dropped a nuclear bomb, named as ‘Little Boy’ over the city Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, while watching the complete annihilation of Hiroshima, they dropped another nuclear bomb, named as ‘ Fat Man’, over the city of Nagasaki. More than 200, 000 people died instantly and many hundred thousands either died or disabled over the period due to nuclear radiation. The initial heat blast was 900 times hotter than the sun. Bodies were vaporised underneath the bomb blast.
Still the signs of mass destruction of humanity can be felt in the climate and among the people of present generation of these two cities of Japan. Aiming to give a lesson to Japan once and forever, US used the most dangerous weapons ever built weapons using nuclear technology while the world experienced an unbelievable extermination of entire creatures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The incident shook the world. Certainly, the use of the atomic bomb eventually paid victory to US and its war-partners and bowed down many nations, however, it initia ted the new trend among other nations to go after same technology and weapons supposedly to prevent them from nuclear threats and to provide them safety. One after the other most of the western countries, Russia and China succeeded to own nuclear technology. Apparent justification and claims of having nuclear technology were reasons of achieving more energy for peaceful purpose. Nevertheless every country developed atomic arsenals. These nations along with the US acknowledged as superpowers. Consequently, despite of their limited resources, the third world nations also jumped into the race. Pakistan, North Korea and Israel quietly succeeded to secure with nuclear technology with the development of atomic bombs and long range nuclear loaded missiles.
According to a report as of January 2005 there were approximately 5,300 operational nuclear warheads in the US. The stockpile included 4,530 strategic warheads and 780 non-strategic warheads and almost 5,000 additional warheads were retained as a ‘responsive reserve force’ – enough to destroy the entire globe within minutes.
Unfortunately, since the last 2 decades or so, the Washington, DC has been controlled by the imperialistic minded lobby. They want to see the world accepting US as a modern day empire who would decide other States’ destiny.
Recently, the Bush Administration has revealed a blueprint for rebuilding America's decrepit nuclear weapons complex, including restoration of a large-scale bomb manufacturing capacity. The plan calls for the most sweeping realignment and modernisation of the nation's massive system of laboratories and factories for nuclear bombs since the end of the Cold War. Bush administration wants the capability to turn out 125 new nuclear bombs a year by 2022. The Pentagon also has planned to retire older nuclear bombs and produce 150 new atomic bombs.
While United States is advising every other nation to reduce the build-up of nuclear and dangerous weapon – the Bush government has added $48 billion in the war and defence budget in 2002 with extension in budget every year. By 2007, the annual US defence budget will be nearly $500 billion.
In the last decades or so Bush government has ignored United Nation, Security Council and other International economic and monetary organisations when they ac ted against the will of the government of United States. The frequent statements of George Bush like ‘The great nation on earth’, ‘America the most powerful nation on earth’ addressing to the people of United States in various international conflicts and US militarily operations and then rising behaviour of totalitarianism and unilateralism are due to its supreme military might, state of the art technology, global surveillance on other countries through satellites and possession of most modern, sophisticated and dangerous nuclear arsenals.
In September, 2004, Bush administration released a 33-page document, titled ‘The National Security Strategy of the United States’. The document revealed that President Bush had no intention of allowing any foreign power to catch up with the huge lead the United States has opened since the fall of the Soviet Union more than a decade ago and US would never allow its military might to be challenged the way it was during the Cold War. The document also disclosed how US would exploit its military and economic power to encourage "free and open societies" which it defines as ‘a distinctly American internationalism’.
Much of the document focuses on how public diplomacy, the use of foreign aid, and changes in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank can be used to win what it calls a battle of competing values and ideas – including what it calls "a battle for the future of the Muslim world". Defining the strategic control over the world and deal with remaining powers, it says, with Russia no longer able to come close to matching US military spending, the doctrine seems aimed at rising powers like China. The document affirms that US forces are strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equalling, the power of the United States . It also says that US will never subject its citizens to the new International Criminal Court, refers to it as ‘whose jurisdiction does not extend to Americans’.
After the World War II and during the cold war, Soviet Union was a threat for United States being a rival superpower. Defeating Russia in Afghanistan - which resulted break-up of Russia - through Islamic fundamentalist Taliban and the fighters of Osama Bin Ladin whom former President Ronald Reagan referred as ‘Brave Freedom Fighters’, this imperialist minded lobby in white house seemed more faithful on US unique military might and technological supremacy in suppressing any rising power that could confront with United States, in future. It is worth remembering here that Bush regime includes many former members of the Reagan and Bush Sr. administration. Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and other holdovers played key role in supporting Taliban’s militant in war against Russia in Afghanistan.
Now the left over Taliban fighters and Osama’s militants in Afghanistan who had established a vision of extremism and fanaticism using the name of Islam during their 10 years war against Russia to defend Afghanistan became a threat for US administration. In late 1990s, former US President Bill Clinton tried to kill Osama Bin Ladin by missile attacks but failed.
Further, the increasing awareness in the Muslim world on their geo-political issues mainly the liberation of Palestine and on US control of middle oil resources has been taken Washington as a biggest threat for US. Similarly, expanding capabilities of frontline Muslim countries towards the nuclear technology where Pakistan has already succeeded to become a nuclear power and Iran has been another Muslim hardline country inline to have nuclear arsenals were the issues which required to be dealt US establishment in white house.
Then on the morning of Tuesday September 11, 2001, the world witnessed a new act of coordinated terrorist attacks on United Stated where commercial airliners were hijacked and crashed into New Yorks twin tower - symbol of US economic power - and Pentagon – symbol US military power, resulting nearly 3,000 dead and many thousand brutally injured. The incident of 9/11 (2001) has changed the atmosphere internationally. President Bush announced the incident as ‘Attack on America’.
Now, without going into controversial documentaries on 9/11 (2001) terrorist attack which has been published since the incident occurred one thing has remained unresolved in the minds of many intellectuals and wise people that instead of sole focus on the incident and to reach to the bottom of the incident, the reasons and investigate culprit behind this horrific incident within the country, Bush administration ignoring the will of majority of the people in and outside of US, contemning UN agreements and neglecting the advise of US own friends launched attack on Afghanistan and having the so-called agenda unfinished in Afghanistan Iraq was attacked on so-called issues of Saddam Hussain’s WMD, Osama’s Al-Quaida network and so on. It is also important to remember that launching military operation in Afghanistan, President Bush had said that this war is a different kind of war it could go another 50 years. Saddam Hussain was captured; Iraq was totally under control of US-led forces and WMD never found and Saddam Hussain was refused to bring in the international court of justice to prove the allegations on him. On the other hand, the world is helplessly watching the every day killings of civilians, ethnic clashes, terrorists attack and so on. The entire infrastructure of Iraq has been collapsed, there has been total anarchy in the country, even the US seems to be helpless to find peace in stability in Iraq, yet, the Bush administration is now planning to deal with Iran with another military action on Iran’s nuclear issue.
Unfortunately, the game is now at this dangerous level. The people around the world are helplessly and fiercely counting which might be the ending days of this planet. This is the time when Bush administration not only listen the voice of the silent majority but also learned the lesson from its accomplishments in Iraq and Afghanistan . Bush government must consider before launching any future adventure that the world has changed now. Even the act of terror has changed. Every thing impacts globally. When President Bush talks about global economy and global peace he must also not forget that whatever action is taken would have a global impact too. The technological advancement which mostly is a gift of US to this world, made this world as a global village. Small piece of news, plan or action is disclosed to millions throughout the world just in few minutes through internet and mass communication. You can not play games anymore using fake stories or by utilising militarily power and assume that the world will remain hushed and unaware from the ground realities. Modern technology makes mass murder and terrorism so ridiculously easy that just about anyone can do it. It cannot be stopped by military might. On the other hand, no one, neither the people of United States nor any single nation that black history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki may be repeated.
Well it is a very serious test for the policy-makers in Washington particularly in relation to dealing with Iran. Whatever decision they take, they must think twice keeping in mind the consequences of their action. It is very vital and in the interest of not only for the people of United States but for the peace of world that Bush government should accept the need of the time, the demands of the changing world and resolve the matters of the principle of live and let the others live. Even if policy maker in Washington to remain on top, it has to come with fairness and accepting others.
The only hope, the world can think of are the people of United States. They can still save the world and maintain peace on this planet which has already been drifting towards end due to increasingly lack of natural resources and the climate adversities. No doubt, there are strong lobbies, groups, senators, activist, journalists and people of other walk of life who have been opposing the use of force against other nations. The people of United States showed great courage and sincerity when they carried out demonstrations of millions of people against the war on Iraq. There are strong senators and politician who openly condemned the policies of Bush administration relation to use of forces against Afghanistan and Iraq. The strong human rights activist in United States strongly condemned the US military tortures in Abu Ghuraib (Iraq) and establishment of Guantanamo Bay torture cells. Recently, very boldly and negating to their army-protocol former military generals came out in media and revealed the situation in Iraq and accept the US army failure in Iraq. The media in United States is one of the strongest media power in the world and there is no question and doubts on the freedom of speech in US. In the current Iran’s nuclear issue once again the people in United States are strongly opposition any possible military operation.
As a matter of fact, whenever US government has planned to execute military operations against any state the peace loving citizens of US – intellectuals, human rights activist, journalists, ex-politicians, former military officers and so on – actively opposed their government decisions through demonstrations and protests. Now, this is the time when more peace loving campaign, demonstrations and display of world unity required by the people of Uni ted Sates in order to pressurize and compel Bush administration to listen to the voice of majority in and outside US. The non-governmental organizations, non-political institutes and the media other phenomenal of the society are required to come forward with more dedications and commitments in the interest of the United States and the rest of world for peace once and forever. More sincere, courageous and influential activists, ex-politicians and ex-military officials will have to devote their time to save our world.
*
(The writer is a Sydney-based journalist and a media analyst).
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Earth Day 2006
Homage to John Gilbert
World renown luthier John Gilbert has written a series of articles for guitarists and guitar makers.
- Selecting a Guitar
- A Guitar Stringing Method
- Stringing Method Visual Tutorial
- Choosing Face Wood
- Intonation and Fret Placement
- John Gilbert Lutherie Tools and Techniques
- Fret Buzz Locating Tool
- Gilbert Tuning Machines
- Gilbert Saddle Pin Bridge
- Gilbert "T" bracing
- Inside a 1983 John Gilbert guitar
Friday, April 21, 2006
A day late....whatever....
HEMP HOP
1 Bob & Tom – Weedies
2 Double D – Blaze A Blunt
3 B-Legit – The Hemp Museum
4 Eazy E – Down 2 Tha Last Roach
5 Iconz – F Heron
6 RBL Posse – Smoke A Blunt
7 Project Pat – Blunt To My Lip
8 Redman – How To Roll A Blunt
9 Total Devistation – Hemp Rally
10 Krayzie Bone – Smoken Budda
11 Warren G – Indo Smoke
12 Warren G – Smokin’ Me Out
13 Luniz – 20 Blunts A Day
14 Luniz – Got 5 On It
15 Trick Daddy – Weed Song
16 Dayton Family – Philly Blunt
17 Andre Nickatina – Smoke Dope And Rap
18 Dr. Dre – Blunt Time
19 Schoolly D – Smoke Some Kill
DREAM CONSTELLATIONS, by Irene Plazewska
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Untitled One
Artist S. Rajam depicts Lord Siva in His Himalayan abode, seated on a tiger skin by a mountain stream in yoga posture. As Nandi the bull looks on, He creates the cosmic rhythm on His drum as two devotees play the mridanga and three others dance exuberantly nearby.
Dancing with SivaWednesday, April 19, 2006
US Shoots More Afghan Innocents
Kabul
Apr 18
A newborn and a five year old, along with four others, were wounded when US soldiers opened fire on their vehicles in southeast Afghanistan when the drivers didn´t heed their orders to stop.
An Afghan man explained that on Monday, his young daughter had given birth in the car on the way to the hospital and a few hours later they were behind a US military caravan when returning from the provincial clinic.
When they reached their turnoff point for home, the US soldiers stopped them and opened fire. The babe received facial and hand injuries from the broken glass while the mother and two other women were hit by the bullets.
A similar incident occurred Tuesday, also in southeast Khost Province, when a man and little boy were shot by US soldiers when he failed to stop at a checkpoint.
Local Police Chief Mohammad Ayoob explained that the US patrols write in large letters on their vehicles that no one can pass, the problem is most of the local residents are illiterate.
Both incidents occurred three days after seven civilians and several Afghan police were murdered by "friendly fire" in an operation led by the US Army against the Taliban Movement.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked the US-led coalition forces to control themselves as these massacres are unacceptable.
Fire and Ice, by Robert Frost
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Thanks 4 Tha Vizual / Spirit Teachings, by William Stainton Moses, 1870's
Monday, April 17, 2006
A is for :A:N:A:R:C:H:Y:
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Of My Soul
*
Life's Tragedy, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
*
It may be misery not to sing at all,
And to go silent through the brimming day;
It may be misery never to be loved,
But deeper griefs than these beset the way.
To sing the perfect song,
And by a half-tone lost the key,
There the potent sorrow, there the grief,
The pale, sad staring of Life's Tragedy.
To have come near to the perfect love,
Not the hot passion of untempered youth,
But that which lies aside its vanity,
And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.
This, this indeed is to be accursed,
For if we mortals love, or if we sing,
We count our joys not by what we have,
But by what kept us from that perfect thing.
*
Beautiful Maria of My Soul
*
Saturday, April 15, 2006
A 19th Century Paradoxical Poem
*
Ten weary, footsore travellers,
All in a woeful plight,
Sought shelter at a wayside inn
One dark and stormy night.
'Nine rooms, no more,' the landlord said
'Have I to offer you.
To each of eight a single bed,
But the ninth must serve for two.'
A din arose. The troubled host
Could only scratch his head,
For of those tired men not two
Would occupy one bed.
The puzzled host was soon at ease -
He was a clever man -
And so to please his guests devised
This most ingeneous plan.
In a room marked A two men were placed,
The third was lodged in B,
The fourth to C was then assigned,
The fifth retired to D.
In E the sixth he tucked away,
In F the sventh man.
The eighth and ninth in G and H,
And then to A he ran,
Wherein the host, as I have said,
Had laid two travellers by;
Then taking one - the tenth and last -
He logged him safe in I.
Nine singe rooms - a room for each -
Were made to serve for ten;
And this it is that puzzles me
And many wiser men.
*
Milan Wants CIA Agents Extradited
Rome
The Milan, Italy prosecutor´s office said it will press ahead for the extradition of Central Intelligence agents that operated illegally in Italy.
The CIA agents were apparently involved in the 2003 kidnapping of terror suspect Egyptian Iman Asan Mustafa Osama Nasr, alias Abu Omar, from Milan and his transfer to Cairo through Germany.
The media gave the case broad coverage in 2005 amid denouncements of secret CIA flights and prisons in third countries when Abu Omar denounced that he was tortured by his guards.
Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro, in charge of the probe into CIA covert operations in Italy, said he will confirm the extradition request to the government taking office in May.
The request, made last December along with 22 INTERPOL arrest warrants, prompted the resignation of Justice Minister Roberto Castelli.
The European Parliament is also investigating illegal CIA actions and subversion in Europe.
Italian Intelligence Director Nicolo Pollari said he was unaware of the CIA activities in Italy and that he learned of Abu Omar's abduction through the press.
Pollari claimed that secret services from third countries, even the US, circulate throughout Europe without supervision and absolute impunity.
European Council General Secretary Terry Davis revealed in Strasbourg, France, that one of its 46 member countries handed in terror suspects to the CIA.
In November Davis set a three-month deadline to submit information on the suspected CIA network of secret prisons in Europe for alleged Al-Qaeda members.
Davis' spokesman Matjas Gruden said the information will be released in two weeks.
US Ploy Will Fail, Says Iran (The Ayatollah, Actually)
Friday, April 14, 2006
Tell Me Why
Tell me why, I love you like I do,
Tell me who, Can stop my heart as much as you,
Tell me all your secrets and I'll tell you most of mine,
They say nobody's perfect but it is really true this time,
I don't have the answers,
And I don't have a plan,
All I have is you,
So darling help me understand,
What we do,
You can whisper in my ear,
Where we go,
who knows what happens after here,
Let's take each other's hands,
As we jump into the final frontier,
I'm mad about you,
I'm mad about you,
so mad about you...
Thursday, April 13, 2006
My Fairy, by Lewis Carroll
Selling the War against Iran
by Ghali Hassan
While U.S. forces and their allies are continuing the destruction of Iraq and torture of cvilians , the phantom of Iran “threat” is being amplified across the world. Speculations about possible U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran have reached a stage of war propaganda by Western media and Western pundits. The aims are: to demonise Iran and keep the public in state of war, and create a smokescreen to divert the public from greater war crimes in Iraq and Palestine.
Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector in Iraq turned “anti-war” activist wrote on 05 April, 2005 that in June 2005 there will be a “massive aerial attack against Iran.” Ritter alleged that his information come from “someone close to the Bush administration”. When Ritter asked his source: “Why June 2005?” His answer was that, the “Israelis are concerned that if the Iranians get their nuclear enrichment programme up and running, then there will be no way to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon. June 2005 is seen as the decisive date”. We all know that June had passed and there was no “massive aerial attack against Iran”. Let’s hope Ritter’s next prediction of an attack on Iran will be wrong too.
Gerard Baker, the Times Online U.S. editor is more bellicose. Baker wrote on 27 January, 2006: “The unimaginable but ultimately inescapable truth is that we are going to have to get ready for war with Iran … If Iran gets safely and unmolested to nuclear status, it will be a threshold moment in the history of the world, up there with the Bolshevik Revolution and the coming of Hitler”. It should be remembered that, in 2003, Baker was part of the international criminal gangs that advocated and later celebrated the illegal war against Iraq.
Mike Whitney, a knowledgeable critic of U.S. policy, predicted in recent internet postings that “Iran will be attacked without pretext and without congressional or UN authorization invoking the executive authority to prosecute the war on terror by ‘all necessary and appropriate means’”. The fraudulent ‘war on terror’ is the usual cliché that justifies every U.S. attack on a sovereign nation. Citing Zoltan Grossman, Whitney added; “Khuzestan [the province neighbouring Basra] will become the next front in the war on terror and the lynchpin for prevailing in the global resource war. If the Bush administration can sweep into the region (under the pretext disarming Iran’s nuclear programs) and put Iran’s prodigious oil wealth under U.S. control, the dream of monopolizing Middle East oil will have been achieved”. However, Whitney failed to tell the reader how a dying sardine fish sandwiched between two hard rocks in a rough sea will extract itself alive. And will the people of Iran welcome the Bush gang? We know the Iraqis didn’t.
The ongoing fabricated Iran “crisis” is nothing more and nothing less than a “collection of misinformation, disinformation, misunderstanding, miscalculation, egregious prognostications, boo-boos, and the occasional just plain lies”, wrote Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky. This has allow the U.S. and Israel to “mobilize the UN and NATO allies to focus on, browbeat, and threaten Iran to abandon its [peaceful] nuclear activities or face some kind of retaliation”, wrote Edward Herman and David Peterson.
This somehow ‘successful’ propaganda campaign which portrays Iran as a pariah state and a “threat” is based on a distorted and carefully orchestrated U.S.-Israeli propaganda. Iran right to acquire nuclear energy through peaceful research is deliberately ignored, even as the U.S. and Israel threaten to attack Iran with nuclear weapons. Iran is being singled out and threatened with destruction by the U.S. and Israel is absent in Western media. In addition, Iran fear of U.S. and Israeli attacks may motivate Iran to build a deterrent – similar to that of North Korea – against this real threat also remains hidden from the public.
According to the Geneva Convention and the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is not doing any thing illegal. There is no evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program, and Iran has not threatened anyone. By contrast, the U.S., Britain and France are promoting the spread of nuclear weapons by supporting the expansion of Israel’s and India’s weapons production and encouraging Pakistan and China to do likewise. In fact, the U.S. is openly increasing the threat of nuclear war and violence.
Furthermore, the recent attack on Muslims in Europe, who were rightly protesting against the rise of European fascism and anti-Muslim hatred – shown in the depiction the Prophet Mohammed as a “terrorist” –, is a racist campaign to incite racism and justify war of aggression against Muslims world-wide. It has nothing to do with “free speech”. There is no “free speech” in Europe; it has to do with colonial oppression of minorities. In addition to the huge propaganda campaign against Iran, Western politicians, Western media and pundits have used the demonstrations to promote the war against Iran. At the same time, the U.S. and its European vassals are unjustifiably accusing Iran and Syria of “inflaming the situation” in the Muslim world. The purpose of the current war propaganda is a deliberate distortion designed to fool the world, soften public opinion and start a psychological war against the people of Iran before an actual war is started.
As a result of this war propaganda, a majority of people in the West, Americans in particular, not only see a U.S. war of aggression against Iran is inevitable, but also support it. A recent Gallup Poll reveals that Americans not only think Iran will develop nuclear weapons but also use them against the U.S. The poll also reveals eight out of 10 U.S. respondents predicted Iran would provide a nuclear weapon to terrorists to attack the U.S. or Israel. Six out of 10 respondents said Iran itself would deploy nuclear weapons against the U.S. Furthermore, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found that 57 per cent of Americans favour military intervention in Iran. The poll suggests that the crimes committed by U.S. forces in Iraq have not turned the American people against the possibility of military actions elsewhere in the Middle East.
A report by the Oxford Research Group revealed that any bombing of Iran by U.S. forces, or by their Israeli allies, would result in the unnecessary death of many innocent lives. “A US military attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure would be the start of a protracted military confrontation that would probably involve Iraq, Israel and Lebanon as well as the United States and Iran, with the possibility of western Gulf States being involved as well. Military deaths in (the) first wave of attacks against Iran would be expected to be in the thousands, especially with attacks on air bases and Revolutionary Guard facilities”, said the report by Paul Rogers of the University of Bradford. ”Civilian deaths would be in the many hundreds at least,” said the report. “If the war evolved into a wider conflict, primarily to pre-empt or counter Iranian responses, the casualties would eventually be much higher”.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, U.S. occupying forces and their vassals continue their murderous campaign. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children have been murdered by the occupying forces. Tens of thousands more have been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured to death. Ongoing humiliation, sadistic torture, rape and abuse of Iraqi civilians, including children as young as 8 years old, is a daily “sport” practiced by U.S. soldiers and their vassals. “The extent of the abuse shown in the photos suggests that the torture and abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib in 2004 is much worse than is currently understood”, reported the Australian Special Broadcast Services (SBS) TV. According to producer Mike Carey of SBS TV, the new photos show that “homicide, torture, criminal abuses, rapes and sexual humiliation” of Iraqi civilians are common practices by the occupying forces. "We actually did not broadcast some of the photographs because we thought they were too extreme” added Carey. Iraqis human rights have never been violated in such criminal ways before. No wonder why so many people around the world have resented the criminal nature of the Bush-Blair “shared values”.
Outside the countless U.S. and British-run prisons and fortified torture chambers, which the so-called “sovereign” Iraqi government has absolutely no control over, the Iraqi economy had fallen below that of pre-war levels (Financial Times, 16/02/06). The living conditions of ordinary Iraqis have worsened many folds since the 2003 illegal and criminal invasion of the country. Iraq which once enjoyed a reasonable standard of living is descended into extreme poverty toady. Illegitimate and fraudulent elections were cleverly used as a cover up to legitimise not only the Occupation, but also the presence of violent militia groups and U.S.-trained death squads brought into Iraq on the backs of the invading forces.
Fratricidal killings and murder of innocent Iraqis, including the deliberate murder of thousands of prominent politicians, scientists and professionals by U.S.-trained and financed death squads and criminal gangs have instilled fear and terror among the Iraqi population. The independent British journalist Felicity Arbuthnot wrote recently: “In the distorted horrors of today's Iraq, many never make it home: disappeared, kidnapped, shot by the occupying forces for driving, walking, and playing, in familiar venues. Iraqi lives are the earth's cheapest”. The number of Iraqis killed by U.S. forces has increased dramatically as a result of U.S. self-induced immunity from prosecution. In addition, Western-induced corruptions and looting of the country’s wealth have plummeted and destroying the Iraqi society. All these war crimes are masquerading in the West as “freedom” and “democracy” that the Iraqi people have long been denied.
Further away from Iraq, in Palestine, Israel is speeding up its overt theft of Palestinian land in contravention of international laws and UN resolutions. Israel has just “completed a process of sealing off the eastern sector of the West Bank from the remainder of the West Bank. Some 2,000,000 Palestinians, residents of the West Bank, are prohibited from entering the area, which constitutes around one-third of the West Bank, and includes the Jordan Rift, the area of the Dead Sea shoreline and the eastern slopes of the West Bank mountains”, reported the Israeli journalist Amira Hass of Israel’s daily, Ha’aretz. “The prohibition also applies to thousands of residents of towns and villages in the northern West Bank like Tubas and Tamun, most of whose lands are in the Jordan Valley, and some with residents who have been living there for many years’, added Hass.
In addition, Israel has encircled and isolated Jerusalem from the rest of the Occupied Territories, making the creation of a viable Palestinian “state” impossibility. More than 3.5 Palestinians are living in prison under unbearable apartheid system of control, checkpoints, road blocks and walls. And with the elections of Hamas, Israel is increasing the terror against the Palestinians from all sides. Thousands of Palestinian men, women and children are still imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces without charge. Of course, Western governments, the U.S. in particular, provided the financial “aid” and political support for Israel’s terror and violations of international law.
Let’s hope that those who think the next war on Iran is inevitable are wrong, and that common sense will prevail over violence. Furthermore, in its entire history of aggression, the U.S. chose its defenseless targets carefully. Iran may be able to defend itself.
It also depends on people in the West and the American people in particular. Are they happy with war crimes committed in their name? Do they want to live in a peaceful world with the rest of humanity or continue on the path to war, violence and destruction?
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Prosecutors Drop Appeal in Librarian Case
STAMFORD, Conn
Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they will no longer seek to enforce a gag order on Connecticut librarians who received an FBI demand for records about library patrons under the Patriot Act.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought a lawsuit on behalf of the librarians, said it will identify them once court proceedings are completed in the next few weeks.
U.S. District Judge Janet Hall ruled last year that the gag order should be lifted, saying it unfairly prevented the librarians from participating in a debate over how the Patriot Act should be rewritten.
Prosecutors appealed, but U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said Wednesday that the appeal no longer made sense.
The librarian has already been identified in news reports and the Patriot Act was changed to include a procedure to request an exemption from the nondisclosure requirement, he said.
Metaphysical Chaos AD - Fusion Anomaly.net
http://fusionanomaly.net/chaoslinguistics.html
metaphysics
The Metaphysics of 
Information
…Chuang Tzu not only has no metaphysics, he actually condemns and derides metaphysics. Supernaturalism and materialism both appear equally funny to him. His only cosmogonic principle is "chaos". Oddly enough the only philosophical tool he uses is logic -- although it is the logic of dream. He makes no mention of divine principle, of the purpose of being, or personal immortality. He is beyond Good and Evil, sneers at ethics, and even makes fun of yoga…
While the old technology produced and distributed material resources, the new technology produces and disseminates information. The resources marketed in high technology are less about matter and more about mind. Under the impact of high technology, the world is moving increasingly from a physical economy into what might be called a "metaphysical economy." We are in the process of recognizing that consciousness rather than raw materials or physical resources constitutes wealth.
- Peter Lamborn Wilson - _Info Wars_
Does Taoism
have a "metaphysics"?
…Chuang Tzu not only has no metaphysics, he actually condemns and derides metaphysics. Supernaturalism and materialism both appear equally funny to him. His only cosmogonic principle is "chaos". Oddly enough the only philosophical tool he uses is logic -- although it is the logic of dream. He makes no mention of divine principle, of the purpose of being, or personal immortality. He is beyond Good and Evil, sneers at ethics, and even makes fun of yoga…
Chuang Tzu has no interest in why humans are so inept (no concept of "sin"); his only concern is to reverse the process and "return" to the flow…
*
Metaphysics This nOde last updated June 20th, 2003 and is permanently morphing... (3 Lamat (Rabbit) / 16 Zots (Bat) - 68/260 - 12.19.10.6.8)
metaphysics metaphysics (mèt´e-fîz´îks) noun
Abbr. met., metaph.
1.(used with a sing. verb). Philosophy. The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute, fact and value.
2.(used with a pl. verb). The theoretical or first principles of a particular discipline: the metaphysics of law.
3.(used with a sing. verb). A priori speculation upon questions that are unanswerable to scientific observation, analysis, or experiment.
4.(used with a sing. verb). Excessively subtle or recondite reasoning.
[Pl. of Middle English methaphisik, from Medieval Latin metaphysica, from Medieval Greek (ta) metaphusika, Greek (Ta) meta (ta) phusika, (the things) after the physics, the title of Aristotle's treatise on first principles (so called because it followed his work on physics) : meta, after. meta- + phusika, physics. physics.]
metaphysic
metaphysic (mèt´e-fîz´îk) noun 1.a. Metaphysics. b. A system of metaphysics. 2.An underlying philosophical or theoretical principle: a belief in luck, the metaphysic of the gambler.
[Middle English methaphisik, metaphisik.]
metaphysical
metaphysical (mèt´e-fîz´î-kel) adjective
1.Of or relating to metaphysics.
2.Based on speculative or abstract reasoning.
3.Highly abstract or theoretical; abstruse.
4.a. Immaterial; incorporeal. synonyms at immaterial. b. Supernatural.
5.Often Metaphysical . Of or relating to the poetry of a group of 17th-century English poets whose verse is characterized by an intellectually challenging style and extended metaphors comparing very dissimilar things.
[Middle English metaphisicalle, from Medieval Latin metaphysicâlis, from metaphysica, metaphysics. See metaphysics.] - met´aphys´ically adverb
Metaphysics
Metaphysics, branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of ultimate reality. Metaphysics is customarily divided into ontology, which deals with the question of how many fundamentally distinct sorts of entities compose the universe, and metaphysics proper, which is concerned with describing the most general traits of reality.
The subjects treated in Metaphysics by Greek philosopher Aristotle (substance, causality, the nature of being, and the existence of god) fixed the content of metaphysical speculation for centuries. Thirteenth-century Scholastic philosopher Saint Thomas Aquinas declared that the knowing of god was the aim of metaphysics. The central figure in metaphysics, however, was 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Before Kant, metaphysics was characterized by a rationalistic method of inquiry based on a priori principles- that is, knowledge derived from reason alone. This method may be subdivided into monism, the belief that the universe is made up of one fundamental substance; dualism, the belief in two such substances; and pluralism, the belief in many fundamental substances.
The monists, agreeing that only one basic substance exists, differ in their descriptions of its principal characteristics. In idealistic monism the substance is believed to be purely mental; in materialistic monism it is held to be purely physical; and in neutral monism it is considered neither exclusively mental nor physical. The most famous dualist was French philosopher René Descartes, who maintained that body and mind, radically different entities, are the only fundamental substances in the universe. German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a prominent pluralist.
The type of metaphysics that asserts that knowledge of reality is obtained not from a priori principles but from experience is called empiricism. Another school of philosophy maintains that, although an ultimate reality does exist, it is altogether inaccessible to human knowledge. This view is known as skepticism or agnosticism with respect to the reality of god.
Kant combined several major metaphysical viewpoints, developing a distinctive critical philosophy called transcendentalism. His philosophy is agnostic in denying the possibility of a strict knowledge of ultimate reality, empirical in affirming that all knowledge arises from experience, and rationalistic in maintaining the a priori character of the structural principles of empirical knowledge. Kant sought to reconcile science and religion in a world of two levels, comprising noumena, objects conceived by reason although not perceived by the senses; and phenomena, things that appear to the senses and are accessible to material study. He maintained that because god, freedom, and human immortality are noumenal realities, these concepts are understood through moral faith rather than through scientific knowledge.
Some of Kant's most distinguished followers, including German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, developed an absolute idealism in opposition to Kant's critical transcendentalism. Notable among later metaphysical theories are radical empiricism, or pragmatism, adapted as instrumentalism by American philosopher John Dewey; voluntarism; phenomenalism; emergent evolution, or creative evolution; and the philosophy of the organism.
In the 20th century the validity of metaphysical thinking has been disputed by logical positivists, who assert that expressions that cannot be tested empirically have no factual cognitive meaning, and by Marxist dialectical materialism, which asserts that the mind is conditioned by and reflects material reality. Therefore, speculations that conceive of constructs of the mind as having any other than material reality are themselves unreal. Existentialist philosophers have contended in turn that the questions of the nature of being and of the individual's relationship to it are extremely important and meaningful in terms of human life; therefore these questions are considered valid whether or not their responses can be verified objectively.
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Reality
In the American metaphysic, reality is always material reality, hard, resistant, unformed, impenetrable, and unpleasant. Lionel Trilling (1905-75), U.S. critic. The Liberal Imagination, "Reality in America" (1950).
Imagination
To regard the imagination as metaphysics is to think of it as part of life, and to think of it as part of life is to realize the extent of artifice. We live in the mind.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), U.S. poet. The Necessary Angel, "Imagination as Value" (1949; repr. 1951).
The Metaphysics of Information
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The physics of information ultimately leads people into deeper questions, including the one raised originally - about eschatology or the fate of the universe. Some physicists suggest the universe has only two possible fates available to it, depending on the curvature constant of spacetime: continual expansion, in which case it will spread out into entropic heat death; or recollapse, into the Big Stop, which might possibly be the seed of a succeeding Big Bang. But this pondering of the fate of the universe doesn't take into account a third possibility. Some physicists like Frank Tipler suggest that at the last possible moment, all conscious life with unite into one "Omega Point" supermind, and place the cosmos under its control, annulling heat death. This viewpoint is the inverse of Deism, essentially postulating the Creator at the end of time rather than at the beginning.
- trip hop acid jazz track _Heat Death Of The Universe_ MP3 by Fila Brazilia off of _Luck Be A Weirdo Tonight_ CD on Twentythree #008 (1997)
Tipler's assumption is that various negentropic processes are actually driving the universe toward improbability - in this case, the most improbable thing imaginable, a Universal Mind. But one can take a sort of "weak" position with regard to Tiplerian theory, and merely state that the universe is becoming more and more self-aware (through the sense organisms of conscious life), and, as a result, a more self-organizing system, reducing its own entropy. (Whether it ever becomes totally self-aware can be left to the mystics.) That is to say, the universe isn't a box which requires a Maxwellian demon roaming about. The box is the demon, becoming more and more aware of what's inside of it, and also what's outside.
…Chuang Tzu not only has no metaphysics, he actually condemns and derides metaphysics. Supernaturalism and materialism both appear equally funny to him. His only cosmogonic principle is "chaos". Oddly enough the only philosophical tool he uses is logic -- although it is the logic of dream. He makes no mention of divine principle, of the purpose of being, or personal immortality. He is beyond Good and Evil, sneers at ethics, and even makes fun of yoga… - _Aimless Wandering: Chuang Tzu's Chaos Linguistics_ by Hakim Bey from Fringeware Review 10:12
While the old technology produced and distributed material resources, the new technology produces and disseminates information. The resources marketed in high technology are less about matter and more about mind. Under the impact of high technology, the world is moving increasingly from a physical economy into what might be called a "metaphysical economy." We are in the process of recognizing that consciousness rather than raw materials or physical resources constitutes wealth.
- Peter Lamborn Wilson - _Info Wars_
- 604 release _Resonance Metaphizix_ CDx2 by In R Voice on Optica #002
- 1. _Docklands Anomaly_ MP3 (192k)
- Metaphysical art: Giorgio de Chirico
- track _Metaphysical_ MP3 by Handsome Boy Modeling School
- track _Metaphysical_ MP3 by Single Gun Theory off of _Flow, River Of My Soul_ (1994)
- techno track _Untitled_ MP3 by Oliver Ho off of _Meta Physical_12" on Meta (1999)
- industrial noise track _Metaphysical Infection (live at The Conundrum)_ MP3 (192k) by Baal
- abstract techno track _Metaphysical_ MP3 (160k) by Titonton off of _Embryonic ep_ 12" on Metamorphic #160 (1995)
- 604 track _Metafizix_ MP3 (192k) by Hopefiend
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