In a beautiful remote corner of the world there is a vast and deep gorge separating this side from that side. A grand old oak tree swirled in a coat of wet fog stands at the nearest edge. As you approach you breathe in deeply. The air is fresh and electric and the sound of a rushing river below rebounds off patches of thick, clinging fog. You've come to the edge.

Just like I told you, it is there. A great rope bridge that spans the width of the canyon. It is strong and secure, very well made. It seems magical hanging there. How did humans make this and manage to get it across this vast separation of land masses?

You are not afraid as you step onto the rope bridge and place your hand on the edge to guide you. You begin to walk. You came a long way to get here. It's a moment you've been waiting for all your life. As you walk through the fog your footsteps gently echo off the rock walls of the gorge. The mist of a waterfall brushes against your cheek. Just keep walking.

While you walk, I'll talk. I want to tell you something.

This may sound odd but it's still true. I have never fully been here, on earth, until now. I've been here physically. I've been here mentally. But an entire huge, fundamental and most important part of me has not been here.

All my life I sensed this but could not know it and no one I could have asked, if there was a way to ask, would have known what I was talking about. Because by and large, the people who comprised my life experience before now did not have this part of their being with them either. Their experience was exactly the same as mine, not in the physical details but due to unrecognized yet inescapable applied methods and their inevitable results. I think this applies to most everyone and I also think that very few people are ever allowed to be fully here, much to our personal detriment, and definitely to the general serious detriment of planet earth.

We hear of the soul, of the mind, of consciousness and higher self. There are all kinds of words that mean all kinds of things that just don't explain anything very well. What do they mean when they say soul? The word 'mind' is so dry and generalized what does it mean? What about extra sensory perception? Precognition? Knowing when someone is lying or telling the truth? The spectrum of emotions that accompany every moment of our lives, where does that come from?

Because all these words tend to confuse more than clarify I use the term "invisible self" and allow that to mean the whole of my being that is not strictly physical and measurable. Because truly it is everything beyond that which is physical and measurable that is who we are. That is where the rubber hits the road so to speak. That people have physical bodies and limbs and that we can observe that people are conscious, can do math, can memorize things and learn how to spell and read says literally nothing about who they are. Not a single thing.

I am much more than that stuff and everyone I know is more than that. But the sad fact is that we are given to believe that who we are stops there, at physical form and education levels and that whatever else there is beyond that is mostly superfluous. But it's not superfluous, it's the whole point I exist. Everything beyond that stuff is who I really am. It is me.

This is the part that is castrated by the demands of social conformity; the part that is rejected by authority and doctrine and those who would be our gods on earth. And there's a reason for that. It's the part that threatens every established thing in the world. It could threaten every established authority, every rule and law, every social standard, and every perspective on life and the way things are in this world. This is the part where the most important and meaningful work happens in the course of an individual human being's life. It's the only place, the only part of our being where we can evolve.

This part of our invisible self is where we are creative and noble and wise. Where all facets of our being can be unleashed free of influence from others. It's like a grand private workroom where everything we know and learn and experience is stored and we can go in there and put all these pieces together, in our own way, without anyone else butting in or being involved or being able to control us. This is where we apply imagination to what is already known to see new things and see old things in new ways. It's where we can explore the entirety of who we are and do the ongoing work of creating ourselves; and in so doing we can and will bring new influences to the world.

I've come not just to believe this but to know it as fact, that there are entities, forces, people, call them whatever you like, who don't want mankind to know about this denied part of ourselves. It totally threatens the stranglehold these forces have on the world in literally almost every detail. They are working tirelessly around the clock too, with unlimited funding, recruiting the finest scientific minds to figure out how to make sure that humanity is once and for all cut off from that part of themselves. Only in so doing can these interests be certain that they will not be challenged and revealed for who and what they are.

Only if people are taught to disregard any notions of there being more than what can be measured and tested can people be led away from fully existing. If people are taught to laugh at and put down as idiotic anyone's assertions that things exist beyond what we can see, then people can be led away from being fully human and fully existing in their one short lifetime. We are told there's nothing out there, there is nothing more to our minds or beings when the reality is that there is everything beyond those falsely asserted cut off points. Everything we are and ever can be lies beyond those fake imposed boundaries.

Getting past those boundaries is the furthest thing away from mysterious and spooky, it requires no special skills or teaching. Every child is born easily and joyously existing in their full being. The job of greater society is to coax every one of us out of our creative centers, out of the grand workrooms of self and life and all that matters most, and to shut the door behind us, and pull the drapes across it and to never mention it again.

That part of self is not gone. It is abandoned and unused, it may be atrophied and dormant. But because it is a living thing, a part of the invisible self it can be resuscitated and rejuvenated. The windows can be thrown open to let the sunshine in and it can very much feel like home. It can hurt because it means we must at times reject what everyone else believes and go against the grain. This often causes tension and worse and that has to be less important to us than taking full possession of our true and full potential. What "everyone believes" is often wrong and is the major roadblock between us and ourselves and if we really want to get there we have to remove the roadblock.

I said it was hard but as far as I'm concerned it's so worth it it's not even funny. I feel anger and resentment that it took so long for me to find this out and I had to do it myself and it was the hardest work I've ever done. But the pay offs have been more than I ever knew were possible. Not doing this would have been to waste my entire life, and what a terrible, painful shame that would have been. One has to fully be here to exist or you're just showing up in a shell, a costume, and playing a role on a stage for someone else's benefit. We might as well be made of cardboard and stood up in a corner for all that's worth in the course of a lifetime.

Our disconnection from the whole of ourselves is something we're all perfectly aware of. It's that restlessness inside that never goes away even when we have what we want and need. It's that empty hole that's like a hunger for more, for meaning, for something else, for substance and it can't be filled by buying something or by taking drugs or drinking or sleeping around or extreme bowling or being a fanatic star struck follower of fashion. No external label we try to apply to define ourselves will fill that hole because that hole cannot be filled by anything outside of ourselves. The fact that you feel the hunger, the emptiness, the need for something else exposes a truth. Allowing yourself to reopen that closed down part of your invisible self will be the
challenge and reward that will feed you again and again. It's not a one time thing, nothing about staying alive is a one time thing. This, like every part of yourself, is something you incorporate seamlessly and use every day of your life. It's not separate from you, it is you.

What's missing from your life is you. A part of you that you've been told can't exist, but there it is anyway. It's you. An unused, unrecognized and truly not wanted by external forces major part of you. The real you. It's not a secret or a sin or anything to apologize for, it's you.

I do believe that people will stop searching externally and in vain for all of their answers once they realize how much of their search is for that lost
and buried part of themselves. There are external answers to be sure, but if there are external answers then there must also be internal ones. We do become conditioned to think in terms of there being nothing more of ourselves, that any more is undesirable or problematic, that we have no intrinsic value or creativity or power beyond our physical possessions, and that only certain specific others and types of others who are officially condoned and certified, have all the answers and all the importance. It's a total crock.

Why are we so strongly encouraged and pushed to only believe others and go to others for every answer and direction? It makes us neurotic and insecure, obsessive and depressed. It doesn't work. If it did this should be the healthiest, strongest most thriving society on the face of the earth. It's not. It's coming apart at the seams and that's in direct measure to how much experts have taken over our minds and how much conformity and "political correctness" has come to dominate the society. These are tools to shut down original sources, to vilify unique thinking, to frame both personal and natural social evolution as dangerous negatives.

Yet the more we are required to conform the sicker and weaker we become. Clearly something is not right. Something is missing. Something we're being told isn't true. We will never get everything we truly need from out there. All we'll get is a pathetic one size fits all crutch for our crippled selves that will make our existence feel stunted to pointless. We are doing it wrong. It is supposed to be much better than this and we all know it. It can be and it is when we reclaim our mental real estate and begin to figure out the world and ourselves for ourselves.

We need our own culture, we need many diverse cultures, the more the better. We must make our own music and sing songs together instead of buying songs and never singing. We must dance instead of watching experts dance. We don't need to care about doing it right, we need to care about doing it even if we're not experts at it. Who cares about experts? What good do experts really do us? Good for experts but we've got our own thing and theirs isn't a part of our personal lives. We need to live life ourselves.

It's quality not quantity. It's participation, not perfection. It's experiencing, not hoarding. It's caring, not turning our backs. It's having time, not rushing. It's having enough, not too much and not too little. It's about connecting, not separating. Kindness, not cruelty. Courtesy, not rudeness. We count. We all matter. Diversity draws us closer, it does not break us apart. There is no such thing as only one right way. We should be able to see that by now. We should also know that any imposed "one world order" will surely kill us all.

What is all this one world order stuff anyway? This already is one world. What are they babbling about when they say that? It makes no sense. What are they trying to pull? It's a word game, a trick of mind. This has always and only been one world. It's already unified. We already get along. We already have trade and spiritual beliefs and dance and food. What seems to be screwing it up is what power imposes on us, what power demands and inserts and insists upon. Money and power monopoly is the dark interference, the war, the terror and economic blight. I don't think we need no stinking one world order. In fact I'm sure we don't. It's the last thing we would ever want because it will demand complete and total conformity, the diminishment of all diversity. One world dogma insists that we decrease ourselves and each other, reduce our minds and bodies, become irrelevant and unimportant. In a great sea of conformity no one stands out. Who wants to live in a world like that?

External forces have outlined and ushered in somebody else's version of what life on earth is "supposed to be". It's one thing to offer and suggest new things but it's a whole 'nother thing to force them down our throats at gunpoint, especially with so much underhanded lying and subterfuge. Their ideas are not explained, but hidden. Their purposes are veiled. Secrecy is becoming the norm of power, money and corruption are inseparable, and violence and force have replaced justice. We are being led to a cage where we will be forced to comply or die. Their ideas are crap. We don't need them or want them.

The idea of success itself is an external one and the definition of success is completely externally created and imposed. That doesn't make it right or real or all that desirable. The definition of education is wholly made up by others and imposed. How much of what you think of yourself is based on someone else's imposed definitions? No one has the legitimacy to define anything for anyone else, that's square one and people have always known that much. It's taken many years and much underground effort and cash to slowly convince the world that we should all follow and only official others should be the leaders.
They are selling us bullshit. It doesn't stand up when looked in the eye. It's all crap. Today, all officialdom is crap.

We're not to think this way, at least that is the message every single one of us has somehow managed to have deeply implanted within us. We think it wrong and naughty to have our own opinions and we'd never boldly speak them in defiance of set standards of thought and opinion. At least a lot of people don't. And they don't because somewhere deep inside we have actually accepted the false assertion, the strange notion that someone else's so called expert or official opinion has more validity than our own. That speaks to how little we think of ourselves, and how subjugated and servile we have slowly become, to the point that by and large this society is mentally pathetic and shut off and stuck in rote circular movements that take us nowhere. Except to work each day, and then we die. By listening to and believing only outside sources we are learning to cease to exist. That's a big red flag, as I see it.

I would say there is more to life than what we're given and expected and pressured to believe. A hell of a lot more. I think it's time we flung open those doors within our minds, the doors that so many others have forced shut and locked and covered with curtains until we forget those doors are there. I say rip away those dusty old drapes and toss them out of your head. Open that door and walk right on through. You get to be, to become, you get to be who you are, why wouldn't you? Who says you shouldn't or can't? Who are they to say such stupid things? Our masters? Our owners? Our bosses? I don't think so. I know nobody's my master, no human being can be more than my equal. I won't live on my knees to anyone, why should I? Why should you? Why should anyone be expected to? What nonsense.

It's no wonder that our self esteem is so damaged in this society, it is devastating to have the bulk of ourselves and what really matters forcibly closed down as we grow up. All we get are messages of conformity and the expectation to conform. We are rewarded and approved of when we conform, and when we're super conformers we get a gold star. This is true in kindergarten and it stays true throughout any professional career. Conformist thinkers, conformist workers, supporters of the powers that be, those who excuse the obvious inequities and flaws and abject failures and crimes of the status quo, who are blind to being used and used up by those in control of our lives, they are patted on the head and told "good girl" and "good boy". The rewards don't go much beyond that. It just goes to show how desperate we become for approval and notice when who we are is defined by outside sources instead of the only
source that really matters.

Nothing comes without a downside though, and there's no exception here. We don't get through life alone. We need others. We very much need good guidance, we need to be taught many important things, and we unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be, usually don't have any choice about who those teachers are or what they teach. Good parents teach us right from wrong, not under threat but by explaining why. They teach us how to think past the obvious, think
for ourselves, and encourage us to be independent while at the same time achieve a balance that allows us to work and live and be with others and respect them.

It takes skill and conscious work to become a decent human being. And that's why I say I haven't really been here, even though I seemed to be. I didn't know that there was more than achieving conformity or that I wouldn't begin to exist until I shrugged off that erroneous belief and got to work on finding out who I am and what life is about for myself. No one ever said as much or explained the fact that it was a life long, ongoing job, and a hard one, to make myself into who I am and who I want to be. Someone I am not ashamed of or embarrassed about, not based on external standards which are meaningless, but based on my own values and beliefs. Beliefs that aren't just handed to me and absorbed without thought but which I pull apart and explore and test until I get it and see the value in them and own them myself. It would have been nice to get the heads up on this before so much of my life had gone by.

That is the insidious nature of believing without questioning and it is all but impossible to refuse to conform when everyone around you is a true believer in conformity. Even when you can see that none of them have ever thought it through, that they've simply taken on as their own what someone else devised not for the greater good of society but to enrich themselves at everyone else's cost, very few will stop to hear you out. But better late than never at all. It's great to find out that there is always room for self correction and improvement and that's a good thing, not evidence of being flawed, and that it's never too late, too much to ask, or unnecessary to face yourself and fix what's in the way of being a real person. We're not perfect, but we are always capable of self repair and growth and even great change if we desire it. It is the hardest work we can ever do, but it's work worth doing. At least that's what I've come to see. Without doing the hard work of really finding out what we're made of and who we really are, we can be no more than what our external generic society demands of us, and that's just not enough for me. I realize it is more than enough for some people, and I have to say I feel sorry for those people. But it's not my call what they choose for themselves. If being what others dictate makes them happy, then who am I to criticize? But I doubt very much they are happy. I doubt very much their deepest inner hunger is ever fed.

This is why people search for answers, knocking on the doors of every religious establishment and spiritual theory hoping to find a resonance that feels like self. But of course it's no where out there, it's inside them. When they have that then they can likely go to any religion or spiritual school and benefit from it, but likely not before and not without. They'd only forever have questions, and not really understand the teachings. Someone would always be their master when they are supposed to be their own master. These are my beliefs, not facts, I can't prove them. I observe these things and I have questions about it all and I spend lots of time in my own workroom hammering out answers, fitting the pieces together and coming back out with a section that fits in here and one that fits in there as I slowly grow the overall picture to completion. Or at least the first picture. There are likely many more.

There is so much loneliness, anguish and resentment out there; and violence and depravity are springing up like weeds in the absence of real people growing real selves. People have been lied to and confused and now they think that sex is love and are confounded when they find out it isn't, because it's supposed to be. There's nothing else out there, the external sources assert through pictures and movies and pornography and books, that's supposed to do it. You need "good looks" and six pack abs and a nice car and you have to work out and have your hair cut just so and wear the right clothes and have the right job and feel sexually attracted to someone and that's supposed to do it. But none of that has a thing to do with love.

It's no big shock that this society is busted apart and lonely, separated and silent, afraid and starving with no end in sight. Love is a place, not a thing, and true beauty comes after love, not before, but we aren't told about any of that. We aren't told the truth about anything in fact. I fear for the future of mankind. I fear that it won't be long before our inner starvation allows us to accept being modified and chipped and augmented until there is no more humanity. Until we are all products that perform functions and don't care about love or meaning or that part of ourselves that won't just be hidden but will finally be forever gone.

Should man create other men? Should mankind take it upon himself to make other men into his own image? Or shouldn't each person make himself into a better person, his own way, with his own mind? We have yet to reach our full potential as human beings and external augmentation is not the means to get there, that is only the final detour. That is the final path away from being everything we can be as human beings. What a shame that someone out there, some group of very strange people, have such a strong driving need to destroy mankind, to undermine humanity, to enslave it and humiliate it, and teach us all to believe that we have no value and we don't matter and we can't think for ourselves or be more than we are. I don't know what would posses these powerful people to so despise the world, but they do. And we are endangered to the literal edge of our extinction. The wars and genocides are all a part of some grotesque greater plan, and separating the human being from himself is the beginning and end of hope for our species.

In case it needs to be said, we don't have to go along with anything that we know is evil or wrong or destructive. We do not ever have to choose to be devalued and disrespected by anyone who claims to be more important than ourselves. They can only be more important if we choose to believe they are and thus deny and subjugate ourselves. But it must be asked, why would we do that? When anyone says that we must be less than we are because they say so we already know they're lying. We already know that no legitimate being would tell us to be less than we are so they can be happy. That's not love. That's not respect. It's not even reasonable. It's the overt demand that we stop existing. That's slow death from the inside out. On a vast scale when all of society gets down on its knees to mere men who say they must it is spiritual genocide. We are free to stop doing it anytime.

No part of ourselves can be taken from us by someone else, it can only be destroyed or undermined. No one else can reduce us, we can only reduce ourselves when we believe the exquisite lies we are told. Perhaps a simple rule of thumb that might expose those who claim to be our betters is to notice if what they ask of us makes us less or more than we already are. If it makes us less, then it is a part of the incremental destruction of mankind. Little by little, bit by bit, it's hardly painful, at least not right away. But cumulatively over decades humanity is changed, reduced, lessened, weakened, lost, dependent and finally ceases to exist.

We are up against something so evil that it's hard to believe it could exist. But it does. We have only to look around us to see that it exists. I don't know why and I don't know much else about it, but I can see that much with the naked eye. I feel the outrage they evoke with their endless insults against my kind, humanity, with their endless removal of justice and fairness, with their disrespect and lies, and their endless assertions that money is king and all important and the measure of a man.

They are sheer evil and we are up shit creek if we don't wake up and tell them where to shove it. We must create ourselves. We have to know the difference between real teachers and real leaders and fake ones. The ones who make life better and bring us more are the real deal. The ones who don't should be rejected, shamed and exposed.

By the way, that rope bridge you're walking on, that's your bridge, and you should have guessed by now where it goes. What's on the other side is the rest of you, and nobody gets to say you can't go there. Of course you can. The real complaint is that those who want you to cease to exist, they can't go there. Thank God for that.

It is always and only your choice to keep walking or turn back and blend in with the rest of conforming society. You will always be rewarded for conforming. It's a guaranteed paycheck, albeit a wholly inadequate one. I would not be able to resist exploring what I found in my own private world. I couldn't bear never knowing who or what I could be, what I'm made of, how I really think and feel about things. I see every single thing I thought I knew completely differently now. All I had to add to the mix was my whole being. It is my sincere wish that everyone would cross their own bridge and find the most amazing and wonderful part of themselves, and own it and enjoy it and live life empowered and strengthened by it. Everything there is, is over there to discover. It's a very interesting place to be.

Be advised that bridge is the most hated enemy of those who would be earth's new rulers. They're cutting away the ropes you know, chewing through the fibers one by one. Bit by bit lengths of rope are falling off, down into the water below. There will come a time when you no longer have the option of crossing your own bridge. They don't want you to have that option. They don't want you to go over there. They don't want you to know yourself or any other truth about anything. They don't want you asking your own questions and providing your own answers. They don't want any of us to get it into our heads that they are not our owners. They want us to sit down and shut up and do as we are told.

If that works for you then you'll be fine. Don't do a thing, it's coming. If it doesn't work for you, you might want to keep on walking. If you do keep
on walking, after you get there and after a while, when you're settled in and feel quite at home, would you do something for me? Drop me a postcard. I love getting postcards.

"Originally Posted by Ang on TOBE" No Trackbacks

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Friday, 21 July 2006

Lebanese children slaughtered by Israel's genocidal armed forces."All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke

It is virtually impossible for anyone closely following current events, not to get very, very angry, extremely worried or utterly depressed. Even when just
listening to mainstream media, sky-rocketing oil prices, trade deficits, disappearance of blue collar and management jobs due to globalisation and cost-cuttings, the never ending war of terror, the escalating conflicts in the Middle-East, it all adds up.

For those of us, who distrust mainstream media, things are even worse. False flag terrorism and illegal spying, systematic use of torture, falsification
of election results with electronic vote counting machines and de-registration of hundreds of thousands of voters, blackmailing and bribing of elected
officials by ruthless lobbyists, slandering and ruining of people who dare to speak out, unrestraint greed and compulsive lying of our political and business leaders, unscrupelous aggression against defenceless countries for thinly veiled geo-political and selfish economic reasons, slaughtering and displacement of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, totally irresponsable use of depleted uranium coated ammunition, disfiguring tens of thousands of new born babies, the list goes on and on.

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There's no turning back. It's time to learn a new lesson: We no longer recognize the State of Israel. We could not recognize the apartheid regime of South
Africa, nor did we recognize the Afghani Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing.
We need to get used to the idea: The State of Israel, in its current form, is history.

We don't believe in the notion of God's Chosen People. We laugh at this people's capriciousness and weep at its misdeeds. To act as God's Chosen People
is not only stupid and arrogant, but a crime against humanity. We call it racism.

Limits to tolerance

There are limits to our patience, and there are limits to our tolerance. We do not believe in divine promises as a justification for occupation and apartheid.
We have left the Middle Ages behind. We laugh uneasily at those who still believe that the god of flora, fauna and the galaxies has selected one people
in particular as his favorite and given it silly, stone tablets, burning bushes and a license to kill.

We call baby killers "baby killers" and will never accept that people such as these have a divine or historic mandate excusing their outrages. We just say:
Shame on all apartheid, shame on ethnic cleansing and shame on every terrorist strike against civilians whether carried out by Hamas, the Hezbollah or
the State of Israel!

Unscrupulous art of war

We acknowledge, and pay heed to, Europe's deep responsibility for the plight of the Jews, for the disgraceful harassment, the pogroms and the Holocaust.
It was historically and morally necessary for the Jews to get their own home. However, the State of Israel, with its unscrupulous art of war and its disgusting
weapons, has massacred its own legitimacy. It has systematically flaunted International Law, international conventions, and countless UN resolutions and
can no longer expect protection from the same. It has carpet bombed the recognition of the world. But fear not! The Tribulation will soon be over. The
State of Israel has seen its Soweto.

We are now at the watershed. There's no turning back. The State of Israel has raped the recognition of the world and shall have no peace until it lays down
its arms.

Without defense, without skin

May the spirit and the word blow the apartheid walls of Israel down. The State of Israel does not exist. It is now without defense, without skin. May the
world therefore have mercy upon the civilian population; for our prophecies of doom are not aimed at the civilian individuals.

We wish the people of Israel well, nothing but wellness, but we reserve the right to not eat Jaffa oranges as long as they are foul tasting and poisonous.
It was endurable for some years to live without eating the blue grapes of apartheid.

They celebrate their triumphs

We don't believe that Israel grieves any more for the forty killed Lebanese children than it has wailed over the forty years spent in the desert three thousand
years ago. We note that many Israelis celebrate such triumphs in the same manner they once cheered the plagues of the Lord as "fitting punishment" for
the people of Egypt. (In that tale, the Lord God of Israel appears as an insatiable sadist.) We ask ourselves if most Israelis think that one Israeli life
is worth more than the forty Palestinian or Lebanese lives.

For we've seen pictures of little Israeli girls writing hateful greetings on the bombs about to be dropped on the civilian populations of Lebanon and Palestine.
The little Israeli girls are not cute when they strut with glee at the death and torment on the other side of the fronts.

The retribution of blood vengeance

We do not recognize the rhetoric of the State of Israel. We do not recognize the spiral of retribution and blood vengeance that comes with "an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth." We do not recognize the principle of ten or a thousand Arab eyes for one Israeli eye. We do not recognize collective punishment
or population thinning out as a political weapon. Two thousand years have passed since a Jewish rabbi criticized the ancient doctrine of "an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth."

He said: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." We do not recognize a state founded on anti-humanistic principles and on the ruins of an archaic
national and warlike religion. Or, as Albert Schweitzer expressed it: "Humanitarianism consists of never sacrificing a human being for a cause."

Compassion and forgiveness

We do not recognize the old Kingdom of David as a model for the 21st century map of the Middle East. The Jewish rabbi claimed two thousand years ago that
the Kingdom of God is not a martial restoration of the Kingdom of David; the Kingdom of God is within us and amongst us. The Kingdom of God is compassion
and forgiveness.

Two thousand years have passed since the Jewish rabbi disarmed and thoroughly humanized the old rhetoric of war. Even in his time, the first Zionist terrorists
were operating.

Israel doesn't listen

For two thousand years, we have rehearsed the syllabus of humanism, but Israel doesn't listen. It wasn't the Pharisee who helped the man who lay by the
wayside, having fallen prey to robbers. It was a Samaritan; today we would say, a Palestinian. We are humans firstly - then Christian, Muslim, or Jew.
Or as the Jewish rabbi said: "And if you greet your brethren only, what more do you do than others?" We do not accept the kidnapping of soldiers. But neither
do we accept the deportation of whole populations or the abduction of legally elected parliamentarians and government ministers.

We recognize the State of Israel of 1948, but not the one of 1967. It is the State of Israel that fails to recognize, respect or defer to the internationally
lawful Israeli state of 1948. Israel wants more - more water and more villages. To obtain this there are those who want, with God's assistance, a final
solution to the Palestinian problem. 'The Palestinians have so many other countries', certain Israeli politicians have argued; we have only one.

The U.S. or the world?

Or as the foremost protector of the State of Israel puts it: "May God continue to bless America." A little child took note of that. She turned to her mother,
saying: "Why does the President always end his speeches with 'God bless America'? Why not, 'God bless the world'?"

Then there was a Norwegian poet who let out this childlike sigh of the heart: "Why doth Humanity so slowly progress?" It was he who wrote so beautifully
of the Jew and the Jewess. But he rejected the notion of God's Chosen People. He personally liked to call himself a Muslim.

Calmness and mercy

We do not recognize the State of Israel. Not today, not as of this writing, not in the hour of grief and wrath. If the entire Israeli nation should fall
to its own devices and parts of the population has to flee their occupied areas into another Diaspora, then we say: May their surroundings stay calm and
show them mercy. It is an eternal crime, without mitigating circumstances, to lay hand on refugees and a stateless people.

Peace and free passage for the evacuating, civilian population no longer protected by a State. Shoot not at the fugitives! Take not aim at them! They are
vulnerable now -- like snails without shells, vulnerable as slow caravans of the Palestinian and Lebanese refugees, defenseless as the women, children
and elderly of Qana, Gaza, Sabra and Shatilla. Give the Israeli refugees shelter; give them milk and honey!

Let not one Israeli child pay with his life. Far too many children and civilians have already been murdered. No Trackbacks

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08/14/06 "
The Nation" -- -
An evil symbiosis does exist between Muslim terrorists and American politicians, but it is not the one Republicans describe. The jihadists need George
W. Bush to sustain their cause. His bloody crusade in the Middle East bolsters their accusation that America is out to destroy Islam. The president has
unwittingly made himself the lead recruiter of willing young martyrs.

More to the point, it is equally true that Bush desperately needs the terrorists. They are his last frail hope for political survival. They divert public
attention, at least momentarily, from his disastrous war in Iraq and his shameful abuses of the Constitution. The "news" of terror--whether real or fantasized--reduces
American politics to its most primitive impulses, the realm of fear-and-smear where George Bush is at his best.

So, once again in the run-up to a national election, we are visited with alarming news. A monstrous plot, red alert, high drama playing on all channels
and extreme measures taken to tighten security.

The White House men wear grave faces, but they cannot hide their delight. It's another chance for Bush to protect us from those aliens with funny names,
another opportunity to accuse Democrats of aiding and abetting the enemy.

This has worked twice before. It could work again this fall unless gullible Americans snap out of it. Wake up, folks, and recognize how stupid and wimpish
you look. I
wrote
the following two years ago during a similar episode of red alerts: "Bush's ‘war on terrorism' is a political slogan--not a coherent strategy for national
defense--and it succeeds brillantly only as politics. For everything else, it is quite illogical."

Where is the famous American skepticism? The loose-jointed ability to laugh at ourselves in anxious moments? Can't people see the campy joke in this
docudrama
called "Terror in the Sky"? The joke is on them. I have a suspicion that a lot of Americans actually enjoy the occasional fright since they know the alarm
bell does actually not toll for them. It's a good, scary movie, but it's a slapstick war.

The other day at the airport in Burlington, Vermont, security guards confiscated liquid containers from two adolescent sisters returning home from vacation.
The substance was labeled "
Pure Maple Syrup."
I am reminded of the Amish pretzel factory that was put on Pennsylvania's list of targets. Mothers with babes in arms are now told they must take a swiq
of their baby formula before they can board the plane. I already feel safer.

The latest plot uncovered by British authorities may be real. Or maybe not. We do not yet know enough to be certain. The early reporting does not reassure
or settle anything (though the Brits do sound more convincing than former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who gave "terror alerts" such a bad reputation).
Tony Blair is no more trustworthy on these matters than Bush and Cheney. British investigators are as anxious as their American counterparts to prove their
vigilance (and support their leaders). The close collaboration with Pakistani authorities doesn't exactly add credibility.

One question to ask is: Why now? The police have had a "mole" inside this operation since late 2005, but have yet to explain why they felt the need to swoop
down and arest alleged plotters at this moment (two days after the Connecticut primary produced a triumph for anti-war politics).

The early claim that a massive takedown of a dozen airliners was set for August 16 is "rubbish," according to London authorities. So who decided this case
was ripe for its public rollout? Blair consulted Cheney: What did they decide? American economist Jamie Galbraith was on a ten-hour flight from Manchester,
England, to Boston on the day the story broke, and has wittily
reflected
on other weak points in the official story line.

The point is, Americans are not entirely defenseless pawns. They can keep their wits and reserve judgment. They can voice loudly the skepticism that Bush
and company have earned by politicizing of the so-called "war" from the very start. Leading Democrats are toughening up. Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid
uses plain English to explain what the Republicans up to--using genuine concerns of national security "as a political wedge issue. It is disgusting, but
not surprising."

Instead of cowering in silence, the opposition party should start explaining this sick joke. Political confusion starts with the ill-conceived definition
of a "war" that's best fought by police work, not heavy brigades on a battlefield. Forget the hype, call for common sense and stout hearts.

All we know, for sure, is that Bush and his handlers are not going to back off the fear-and-smear strategy until it loses an election for them. Maybe this
will be the year.
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08/14/06 "
Information Clearing House" -- --

I was in China when a July Harris Poll reported that 50 percent of Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when Bush invaded that
country, and that 64 percent of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links with Al Qaeda.

The Chinese leaders and intellectuals with whom I was meeting were incredulous. How could a majority of the population in an allegedly free country with
an allegedly free press be so totally misinformed?

The only answer I could give the Chinese is that Americans would have been the perfect population for Mao and the Gang of Four, because Americans believe
anything their government tells them.

Americans never check any facts. Who do you know, for example, who has even read the Report of the 9/11 Commission, much less checked the alleged facts
reported in that document. I can answer for you. You don’t know anyone who has read the report or checked the facts.

The two co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission Report, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, have just released a new book, “Without Precedent: The Inside Story of
the 9/11 Commission.” Kean and Hamilton reveal that the commission suppressed the fact that Muslim ire toward the US is due to US support for Israel’s
persecution and dispossession of the Palestinians, not to our “freedom and democracy” as Bush propagandistically claims. Kean and Hamilton also reveal
that the US military committed perjury and lied about its failure to intercept the hijacked airliners. The commission even debated referring the military’s
lies to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. Why should we assume that these admissions are the only coverups and lies in the 9/11 Commission
Report?

How do you know that 9/11 was a Muslim terrorist plot? How do you know that three World Trade Center buildings collapsed because two were hit by airliners?
You only “know” because the government gave you the explanation of what you saw on TV. (Did you even know that three WTC buildings collapsed?)

I still remember the enlightenment I experienced as a student in Russian Studies when I learned that the Czarist secret police would set off bombs and then
blame those whom they wanted to arrest..

When Hitler seized dictatorial power in 1933, he told the Germans that his new powers were made necessary by a communist terrorist attack on the Reichstag.
When Hitler started World War II by invading Poland, he told the Germans that Poland had crossed the frontier and attacked Germany.

Governments lie all the time--especially governments staffed by neoconservatives whose intellectual godfather, Leo Strauss, taught them that it is permissible
to deceive the public in order to achieve their agenda.

Some readers will write to me to say that they saw a TV documentary or read a magazine article verifying the government’s explanation of 9/11. But, of course,
these Americans did not check the facts either--and neither did the people who made the documentary and wrote the magazine article.
Scientists and engineers, such as Clemson University Professor of Engineering Dr. Judy Woods and BYU Professor of Physics Dr. Steven Jones, have raised
compelling questions about the official account of the collapse of the three WTC buildings. The basic problem for the government's account is that the
buildings are known to have fallen at free fall speed, a fact that is inconsistent with the government's "pancaking" theory in which debris from above
collapsed the floors below. If the buildings actually "pancaked," then each floor below would have offered resistance to the floors above, and the elapsed
time would have been much longer. These experts have also calculated that the buildings did not have sufficient gravitational energy to accommodate the
government's theory of the collapse. It is certainly a known and non-controversial fact among physicists and engineers that the only way buildings can
collapse at free fall speed into their own footprints is by engineered demolition. Explosives are used to remove the support of floors below before the
debris from above arrives. Otherwise, resistance is encountered and the time required for fall increases. Engineered demolition also explains the symmetrical
collapse of the buildings into their own foot prints. As it is otherwise improbable for every point in floors below to weaken uniformly, "pancaking" would
result in asymmetrical collapse as some elements of the floor would give sooner than others.
Scientific evidence is a tough thing for the American public to handle, and the government knows it. The government can rely on people dismissing things
that they cannot understand as "conspiracy theory." But if you are inclined to try to make up your own mind, you can find Dr. Jones' and Dr. Woods’ papers,
which have been formally presented to their peers at scientific meetings, on line at
http://www.st911.org/

Experts have also pointed out that the buildings' massive steel skeletons comprised a massive heat sink that wicked away the heat from the limited, short-lived
fires, thus preventing a heat buildup. Experts also point out that the short-lived, scattered, low-intensity fires could barely reach half the melting
point of steel even if they burned all day instead of merely an hour.
Don't ask me to tell you what happened on 9/11. All I know is that the official account of the buildings' collapse is improbable.

Now we are being told another improbable tale. Muslim terrorists in London and Pakistan were caught plotting to commit mass murder by smuggling bottles
of explosive liquids on board airliners in hand luggage. Baby formula, shampoo and water bottles allegedly contained the tools of suicide bombers.

How do we know about this plot? Well, the police learned it from an “Islamic militant arrested near the Afghan-Pakistan border several weeks ago.” And
how did someone so far away know what British-born people in London were plotting?

Do you really believe that Western and Israeli intelligence services, which were too incompetent to prevent the 9/11 attack, can uncover a London plot by
capturing a person on the Afghan border in Pakistan? Why would “an Islamic militant” rat on such a plot even if he knew of it?

More probable explanations of the “plot” are readily available. According to the August 11 Wayne Madsen Report, informed sources in the UK report that
“the Tony Blair government, under siege by a Labor Party revolt, cleverly cooked up a new ‘terror’ scare to avert the public’s eyes away from Blair’s increasing
political woes. British law enforcement, neocon and intelligence operatives in the US, Israel, and Britain, and Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire cooked
up the terrorist plot, liberally borrowing from the failed 1995 ‘Oplan Bjinka’ plot by Pakistan- and Philippines-based terrorist Ramzi Ahmad Yousef to
crash 11 trans-Pacific airliners bound from Asia to the US.”

There are other plausible explanations. For example, our puppet in Pakistan decided to arrest some people who were a threat to him. With Bush’s commitment
to “building democracy in the Middle East,” our puppet can’t arrest his political enemies without cause, so he lays the blame on a plot.

Any testimony against Muslim plotters by “an Islamic militant” is certain to have been bought and paid for.

Or consider this explanation. Under the Nuremberg standard, Bush and Blair are war criminals. Bush is so worried that he will be held accountable that
he has sent his attorney general to consult with the Republican Congress to work out legislation to protect Bush retroactively from his violations of the
Geneva Conventions.

Tony Blair is in more danger of finding himself in the dock. Britain is signatory to a treaty that, if justice is done, will place Blair before the International
Criminal Court in the Hague.

What better justification for the two war criminals’ illegal actions than the need to foil dastardly plots by Muslims recruited in sting operations by
Western intelligence services? The more Bush and Blair can convince their publics that terrorist danger abounds, the less likely Bush and Blair are ever
to be held accountable for their crimes.

But surely, some readers might object, our great moral leaders wouldn’t do something political like that!

They most certainly would. As Joshua Micah Marshall wrote in the July 7 issue of Time magazine, the suspicion is “quite reasonable” that “the Bush Administration
orchestrates its terror alerts and arrests to goose the GOP’s poll numbers.”

Joshua Micah Marshall proves his conclusion by examining the barrage of color-coded terror alerts, none of which were real, and, yes, it all fits with political
needs.

And don’t forget the plot unearthed in Miami to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. Described by Vice President Cheney as a “very real threat,” the plot
turned out to be nothing more than a few harmless whackos recruited by an FBI agent sent out to organize a sting.

There was also the “foiled plot” to blow up the Holland Tunnel and flood downtown New York City with sea water. Thinking New Orleans, the FBI invented
this plot without realizing that New York City is above sea level. Of course, most Americans didn’t realize it either.

For six years the Bush regime has been able to count on the ignorant and naive American public to believe whatever tale that is told them. American gullibility
has yet to fail the Bush regime.

The government has an endless number of conspiracy theories, but only people who question the government’s conspiracies are derided for “having a conspiracy
theory.”

The implication is even worse if we assume that the explosive bottle plot is genuine. It means that America and Britain by their own aggression in Iraq
and Afghanistan, and by enabling Israel’s war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon, have created such hatred that Muslims, who identify with Bush’s, Blair’s,
and Israel’s victims, are plotting retaliation.

But Bush is prepared. He has taught his untutored public that “they hate us for our freedom and democracy.”

Gentle reader, wise up. The entire world is laughing at you.
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Monday August 14, 2006

So, Osama Walks into This Bar, See? and Bush says, "Whad'l'ya have, pardner?" and Osama says...

But wait a minute. I'd better shut my mouth. The sign here in the airport says, "Security is no joking matter." But if security's no joking matter, why
does this guy dressed in a high-school marching band outfit tell me to dump my Frappuccino and take off my shoes? All I can say is, Thank the Lord the
"shoe bomber" didn't carry Semtex in his underpants.

Today's a RED and ORANGE ALERT day. How odd. They just caught the British guys with the chemistry sets. But when these guys were about to blow up airliners,
the USA was on YELLOW alert. That's a "lowered" threat notice.

According to the press office from the Department of Homeland Security, lowered-threat Yellow means that there were no special inspections of passengers
or cargo. Isn't it nice of Mr. Bush to alert Osama when half our security forces are given the day off? Hmm. I asked an Israeli security expert why his
nation doesn't use these pretty color codes.

He asked me if, when I woke up, I checked the day's terror color.

"I can't say I ever have. I mean, who would?"

He smiled. "The terrorists."

America is the only nation on the planet that kindly informs bombers, hijackers and berserkers the days on which they won't be monitored. You've got to
get up pretty early in the morning to get a jump on George Bush's team.

There are three possible explanations for the Administration's publishing a good-day-for-bombing color guidebook.

1. God is on Osama's side.

2. George is on Osama's side.

3. Fear sells better than sex.

A gold star if you picked #3.

The Fear Factory

I'm going to tell you something which is straight-up heresy: America is not under attack by terrorists. There is no WAR on terror because, except for one
day five years ago, al Qaeda has pretty much left us alone.

That's because Osama got what he wanted. There's no mystery about what Al Qaeda was after. Like everyone from the Girl Scouts to Bono, Osama put his wish
on his web site. He had a single demand: "Crusaders out of the land of the two Holy Places." To translate: get US troops out of Saudi Arabia.

And George Bush gave it to him. On April 29, 2003, two days before landing on the aircraft carrier Lincoln, our self-described "War President" quietly put
out a notice that he was withdrawing our troops from Saudi soil. In other words, our cowering cowboy gave in whimpering to Osama's demand.

The press took no note. They were all wiggie over Bush's waddling around the carrier deck in a disco-aged jump suit announcing, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED."
But it wasn't America's mission that was accomplished, it was Osama's.

Am I saying there's no danger, no threat? Sure there is: 46 million Americans don't have health insurance. IBM is legally stealing from its employees' pension
plan and United Airlines has dumped its pensions altogether. Four-million three-hundred thousand Americans were injured, made sick or killed by their jobs
last year. TXU Corporation is right now building four monster-sized power plants in Texas that will burn skuzzy gunk called "lignite." The filth it will
pour into the sky will snuff a heck of a lot more Americans than some goofy group of fanatics with bottles of hydrogen peroxide.

But Americans don't ask for real protection from what's killing us. The War on Terror is the Weapon of Mass Distraction. Instead of demanding health insurance,
we have 59 million of our fellow citizens pooping in their pants with fear of Al Qaeda, waddling to the polls, crying, "Georgie save us!"

And what does he give us? In my own small town, the federal government has paid for loading an SUV with .50 caliber machine guns to watch for an Al Qaeda
attack at the dock of the ferry that takes tourists to the Indian casino in Connecticut. The casino dock is my town's officially designated "Critical Asset
and Vulnerability Infrastructure Point (CAVIP)." (To find the most vulnerable points to attack in the USA, Al Qaeda can download a list from the Department
of Homeland Security -- no kidding.)

But that's not all. Bush is protecting us from English hijackers with a fearsome anti-terrorist tool: the Virginia-class submarine. The V-boat was originally
meant to hunt Soviet subs. But there are no more Soviet subs. So, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin have "refitted" these Cold War dinosaurs with new
torpedoes redesigned to carry counter-terror commandoes. That's right: when we find Osama's beach house, we can shoot our boys right up under his picnic
table and take him out. These Marines-in-a-tube injector boats cost $2.5 billion each -- and our President's ordered half a dozen new ones.

Lynn Cheney, the Veep's wife, still takes in compensation from Lockheed as a former board member. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this multi-billion
dollar "anti-terror" contract.

Fear sells better than sex. Fear is the sales pitch for many lucrative products: from billion-dollar sailor injectors to one very lucrative war in Mesopotamia
(a third of a trillion dollars doled out, no audits, no questions asked).

Better than toothpaste that makes our teeth whiter than white, this stuff will make us safer than safe. It's political junk food, the cheap filling in the
flashy tube. What we don't get is safety from the real dangers: a life-threatening health-care system, lung-murdering pollution production and a trade
deficit with China that's reducing mid-America to coolie status. Protecting us from these true threats would take a slice of the profits of the Lockheeds,
the Exxons and the rest of the owning class.

War on Terror is class war by other means -- to keep you from asking for real protection from true menace, the landlords of our nation give you fake protection
from manufactured dangers. And they remind you to be afraid every time you fly to see Aunt Millie and have to give up your hemorrhoid ointment to the underpaid
guy in the bell-hop suit with a security badge.

Oh, hey, you never got the punch line.
So, Osama Walks into This Bar, See? and Bush says, "Whad'l'ya have, pardner?" and Osama says, "Well, George, what are you serving today?" and Bush says,
"Fear," and Osama shouts, "Fear for everybody!" and George pours it on for the crowd. Then the presidential bartender says, "Hey, who's buying?" and Osama
points a thumb at the crowd sucking down their brew. "They are," he says. And the two of them share a quiet laugh.

*****

Greg Palast is the author of the just-released New York Times bestseller, "
ARMED MADHOUSE:
Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class
War" from which this is adapted. Go to
www.GregPalast.com. No Trackbacks

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Pyongyang, August 13 (KCNA) -- It is preposterous for the U.S. imperialists to resort to a false propaganda against other countries, lording it over
in the international arena and this is nothing but a mockery of humankind. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed article.
It goes on:
The West is engaged in a ceaseless false propaganda in a bid to isolate Iran in the international arena by branding its peaceful nuclear activities
as ones for "the development of nuclear weapons" and seek a regime change.
They are bringing such groundless charges as "violation of human rights", "development of nuclear weapons" and "terrorism sponsorship" to other countries
by spreading sheer lies and misinformation in a bid to mislead the international public opinion, find a pretext for aggression and war and justify their
moves.
It is a vicious, crafty and trite method for them to resort to a false propaganda prior to aggression and war.
The U.S. imperialists' invasion of Iraq patently proved that they are the outrageous aggressors who do not hesitate to fake up lies and resort to any
false propaganda in order to achieve their sinister purpose of aggression.
They are now engrossed in a vicious anti-DPRK smear campaign based on sheer lies.
They are foolish enough to tarnish the international prestige of the DPRK while going busy infiltrating reactionary bourgeois ideas and culture into
its society in a bid to destabilize it. All sorts of false propaganda conducted by them against the DPRK are aimed at serving this purpose. It is an operation
to be carried out by them prior to invading it by force of arms.
In fact, they are staging large-scale military exercises one after another after massively bringing aggression forces and modern military hardware into
south Korea and its vicinity under the pretext of the non-existent "threat from north Korea" and the like.
They are planning to conduct "Ulji Focus Lens" joint military exercises in the wake of "RIMPAC-2006" joint war maneuvers. These reckless moves against
the DPRK have created such a tense situation on the Korean Peninsula that a war may break out there any moment.
Progressive mankind is called upon to heighten the vigilance against the U.S. imperialists' sheer false propaganda, aware that it is bound to be followed
by military aggression. No Trackbacks

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Maybe Nothing Changes

By Punkerslut

[Author's Note: Written on Wednesday, September 14, 2005. This piece is based on true events happening today in Germany.]

For the Batko...

"These Nazis are being hung up, so that the townspeople can spit on them and beat them... They will be unhooked in one or two days," he told me. I looked on. There were three white males chained to a fence. All of them bore the Swastika on their clothing.

"What... for?" I asked, "That doesn't seem like modern German due process of law."

"The Nazis killed millions," he told me, "They worked some to death, tortured others to death, and killed others in the middle of the street. It is not 1940 any more. We are a long ways from that time. But whenever we see some proud, Aryan youth, bearing a symbol of hate and cruelty, we must stop him."

"I still don't understand," I asked, "Do you seriously think that Nazism poses a threat to modern Germany today?"

"No," he replied, "That's not the point."

"What is the point?" I asked, "Nazis today are probably
outnumbered a thousand to one, at the least. Why are you torturing these men?"

"Because their political ancestors tortured Jews, Communists, Homosexuals, and other socially constrained groups."

"They are your ancestors, too," I replied, "During the Reich, men could openly beat and kill Jews. And today, men are allowed
to openly beat and kill Nazis. The operations of torture and persecution are set in place by the police. And in both cases, the media has remained completely silent. What the public knows will hurt the possibility of change."

"Do you know what the Nazis --"

"The original Third Reich isn't really in consideration here," I replied, "The original Jews were led by Moses to slaughter, enslave, and rape thousands of innocents. I'd ask why you don't torture and kill Jews openly here in the streets of Germany for that, but that would only be bitterly ironic. You're only torturing and killing the Nazi youth of today for having ideas. Perhaps it doesn't bother you, that by doing this so-called 'justice,' you're only agitating Racists, and causing more hate
crimes against the innocent. The end result of your action is more Jews, Blacks, and other minorities, killed and tortured. If
the crowd can abuse these men for having ideas, what is to say that the Communists, or other radical thinkers will not be next? If a crowd can be moved to stone men to death for believing in Nazism, will they not be accustomed to the police organizing public murders? They will come for the Communists, retelling old war stories of Soviets killing Jews and other innocents in the
USSR. And next, they'll come for the Socialists, the advocates of Democracy, the journalists, the union organizers, the
Liberals, the Leftists, everyone with an opinion that goes
against the grain of society... and somewhere, I think
everyone's missed the whole fucking point."

"Millions dead!"

"And you're all just adding more bodies to the heap!" I
replied, "Maybe one day, there will be people to torture the torturers of Nazis, just as the Nazis were the torturers of
people once associated with torturing the entire Middle Eastern population. At what point do you think this is justice? Sure,
you spit, kick, and punch these men as they are chained to posts in the public. Perhaps you should take a soldering iron to their
skin, or better yet, to their eyes and tongue. Maybe you could hear the pains of screaming, see their writhing and their paining, listen to their quieted moans, as they try to show you as much as possible that they're not in pain, and they are unwilling to submit. Can you really openly brutalize a defenseless man in a collective, and honestly tell me, that you're doing this out of.... some apparently obscure sense of justice?"

"I have no answer for you," he replied.

I turned, paced back and forth, and returned. "Again," I said, "Germany doesn't want the world to know what it's doing. It's ashamed. The broadcasters will not publish this information. Nobody will talk about what's happening. There are the same hushed voices, the same crowd being motivated to the same ends. Just like the Holocaust, everything is kept quiet, and nobody is
allowed to talk about what is going on in the middle of our streets in broad daylight." I paused... I asked: "Isn't there going to be a day when people stop asking 'who should we torture?' and start asking 'is it right to torture?'"

"That is purely a pipedream," he reminded me. The painful
aftertaste of irony lingered for several days.


For Life, Punkerslut

About the author:
Punkerslut (or Andy Carloff) has been writing essays and poetry
on social issues which have caught his attention for several
years. His website provides a complete list of all of these writings. His life experience includes homelessness, squating in New Orleans and LA, dropping out of high school, getting expelled from college for "subversive activities," and a myriad of other revolutionary actions. No Trackbacks

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THIS IS NOT ABOUT 'WHITE OR BLACK' IT'S ABOUT BEING A GOOD
AMERICAN!

While I am on a roll and thinking about what Taxpayers should do
before the Tax and Spend politicians finishing bankrupting
America, I'm going to point out a few critical issues. But
first, I have to address today's article "NAACP is needed to
protect rights of black Americans". Does this mean it's o.k. for
White Americans to have a NAAWP to protect their rights and
collect Taxpayers money, also, so they no longer have to work at
a real job? Frankly, I don't care, either way, but I'm fed up
with Taxpayers footing the bills for any of these racist and
hatred groups in the name of civil rights! Before the 1960's,
Whites and Blacks worked together. Why, all of a sudden, 'it's a
white and black' thing?' I feel sorry for people who use this as
an excuse. Don't you understand that all Taxpaying Americans'
civil rights are being violated by the greed of the politicians?
The NAACP is just one of the non-profit organizations I've been
talking about getting Taxpayers monies without working. If NAACP
was helping anyone but themselves, they'd be in all
neighborhoods, stopping illegitimates from having more
illegitimates. Don't you think this is causing prostitution,
incest, run-down housing,drugs, rape, stealing and killing? Why
do you think your honorable and good neighbors are trying to
'take back the schools, streets and neighborhoods?" Because they
know the problems the terrorism and destruction that's been
caused by this way of life! Once again, this isn't about Black
and White, it's about being a good American! If you can broaden
your thinking, start listening instead of criticizing, you'd
know this!

Public Records show thousands of non-profit organizations
getting Taxpayers money. Guess who's listed as Agent? Check out
Secretary of State and Tax records. I bet then you'd find some
one to vote for that doesn't have non-profits and other groups
to take your hard-earned money! THINK ABOUT IT!

Discrimination against hard-working Taxpayers: a] County
Commissioners using Taxpayers money for Cell phones burning air
time, because the politician 'just wanted some time off!" Cell
phones used in Hawaii! Taxpayers want cell phones and other
freebies discontinued immediately! b] Any politician using
Taxpayers money for going out of town should be stopped. We all
know, these 'elbow-bending' trips are for fun nor learning. Been
there, done that, but on my dime! c] Term Limits MUST be set for
Guilford County Commissioners and other public positions. d]
Voting laws must be changed! Why should we allow people who
don't work, live on welfare and social programs, to vote? Why
should we allow people to be in public office who use Taxpayers
monies to support themselves and their businesses? e] Why should
Taxpayers foot the bills, pay the rent, salaries, etc. for the
20 or so employees of Civil Rights Organization? As I've stated
before, A & T has an elegant memorial honoring the "Sit-In
Movement"! TIME TO END THE CHARADE!. f] Why should Taxpayers
foot the bills & mortgage payments for the Woolworth building?
Check who owns building! g] Why do racist and hate groups keep
doing 're-enactments'. It's only creating more terrorism, of
what they're calling "history"?

WAKE UP, FOLKS!

About the author:
Artist, Activist,Environmentalist. Author of several published
articles. No Trackbacks

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This article does not discuss the legalities of affirmative action, I leave that to the courts. This article is solely about
the philosophy of affirmative action.

According to Wikipedia, affirmative action "is a policy or a program promoting the representation in various systems of people of a group who have traditionally been discriminated against, with the aim of creating a more egalitarian society".

In my opinion, affirmative action, at least as it has been instituted in this country, is wrong, harmful, racist and prejudicial. Affirmative action, at least in this country, seems to be based, solely, on race or gender.

In example, take two male high school students, both attend the same low income area high school, one is 'black' and one is 'white'. The 'black' student's family, immigrated to this country from Canada fourteen years ago, his father works full time and his mother is a 'stay at home mom'. The 'white' student's ancestors immigrated to this country eighty years ago, his father was killed, in a home invasion robbery, when he was
six years old and his mother works part time as a waitress in a diner. The 'black' student has a grade point average of 3.05 with an S.A.T. score of 1085. The 'white' student has a grade
point average of 3.55 and a S.A.T. score of 1270. Both students are polite and well mannered. Neither belongs to a gang or has any criminal record. Both want to go to a good university so both apply to U.C.L.A.. Under affirmative action, which student would be accepted?

The 'white' student would not be covered under affirmative action, as 'whites' have not traditionally
been discriminated against, and no duty is owed him for being poor and fatherless (being poor and fatherless is not considered disadvantaged and the fact that he attended the same low income school as the 'black' student is also not considered a disadvantage for a 'white'). The 'black student, however, is considered disadvantaged and is considered to come from a race
that has traditionally been discriminated against (The fact that his family recently came here from Canada, the fact that he has a parent that works full time and the fact that he has not suffered racial discrimination does not matter.). Under affirmative action, the 'black' student would not only be accepted, he would be eligible for financial aid. The 'black'
student would go to U.C.L.A. and the 'white' student would
probably end up at a community college.

Change the above example to a 'black student and a 'hispanic' student and the 'black' student would be accepted because 'blacks' rank higher on the disadvantaged charts. Between a 'hispanic' and a 'white' the hispanic would be accepted because 'whites' don't rank on the chart, neither do 'orientals', South East Asians or Jews. The fact that Orientals, South East Asians and Jews have been discriminated against in this country doesn't matter as the 'political correctness' police in this country do not consider them, to have traditionally been discriminated against enough, to be disadvantaged. The only student that would be ranked higher on the disadvantaged chart would be a 'black' female student. Furthermore, a rich 'black' student who attended the best schools would rank the sames as a poor 'black' student who attended a low income school.

Some universities are no longer allowed to use affirmative
action as a criteria so they now use 'cultural diversity' as their criteria. To me affirmative action and cultural diversity are the same thing. Both use racial and gender profiling in order to decide who is accepted. This is America and everyone is supposed to be equal and recieve equal treatment. Racial and gender profiling tells people that some races and females are less capable than others and therefore need special help in reaching their potential. Profiling harms this country by telling people that they are not all equal under the eyes of the
law. Profiling tells some people that they are not as intelligent or as capable as other people and that they can't make it without help. It tells other people that because they are 'white', they don't deserve help. It rewards some people while punishing other people. This divides the country and causes, in effect, class warfare.

America is a land of immigrants who should have been melded into one great class of people, Americans. To tell them that 'blacks', whites', 'hispanics', 'orientals', etc. are all different and have different abilities keeps this country from being united. To grant advantages to one group over another is discriminitory and divisive. To tell 'blacks', 'hispanics' and others that they can't make it without outside help is to tell them that that they are not as capable as 'whites', 'orientals' and others.

Some of you may be wondering why I keep placing single quotation marks around certain words like 'black', 'white', etc.. It is because I do not like using labels like 'black' and 'white' to describe people. Other words like 'hispanic' are, in my opinion, used improperly as they tend to catagorize people from many
different countries or groups into one group.

All 'blacks' are
not the color of black, all 'whites' are not the color of white and all 'hispanics' are not necessarily of Spain or Spanish speaking (Brazilians, for example, are classified 'hispanic' even though they speak Portuguese and most are descended from Portugal or some African country.). As far as I am concerned all people that are American citizens (naturalized or other) or live permanently in the United States Of America are either American citizens or American residents. To label them otherwise is to denigrate, isolate and seperate them from each other. Discussing concepts, like affirmative action and cultural diversity, force the use of such labels.

The people of this country need to be brought together, not seperated. Being proud of your ancestors and your heritage is one thing, being rewarded, punished or seperated because of your ancestors or heritage is something else entirely. Being rewarded
because others of your race or gender were mistreated in the past is wrong and being punished for what others of your race or gender did in the past is equally wrong. How would you like to be fined for horse stealing because you are a 'white' male and some other 'white' male stole a horse over fifty years ago or even last week? Untill all people in this country are treated
equally, and with the same respect, and are given the same
chances, we will never be "One nation under God, indivisable, with liberty and justice for all". Discrimination is wrong, no matter who is being discriminated against.

Note: For any of you that object to my keeping the phrase "under God" in that last quote, tough. That is the way I say it. If you
don't want to say it that way, then don't. Just don't try to tell me that I can't say it that way. To those of you that object to my using the word 'black' instead of the words 'African-American', again I say tough. To me 'African-American' is just as much a misnomer as 'Hispanic'. I believe that the
word 'black' is improper, however, I hate to use the word
American when there is a hyphen before it. To me an American is an American. I didn't write this article to be 'politicaly correct', I wrote this artice in order to say what I think. If you want 'political correctness', go elsewhere.

About the author:
David G. Hallstrom, Sr. is a retired
private investigator and currently publishes several internet directories including
resourcesforattorneys.com. a legal and lifestyle resources directory for attorneys, lawyers
and the internet public. For more lifestyle
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