Open Thread
Silent weekend - man alive, I'm burnin' up on my brain. - Bob Dylan
I was hoping to post today, but we're in a canyon of boxes here, and I'm afraid I don't have the time or the attention to apply myself to it. So please, talk amongst yourselves, and I'll see you after the weekend.
posted by Jeff Wells at 6/30/2006 09:12:00 AM
72 Comments:
I would like to start by saying how much I love each and every one of you.
Do you really love me? Or are you just saying that...
I will not allow myself to be ensnared by that false duality trap.
ha ha just kidding...chick games
i so feel the love.
Wish I had time to comment on this. It looks like the abduction and execution of the two soldiers last week may have been vigilante justice.
U.S. troops accused of killing Iraq family
BEIJI, Iraq - Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday.
The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of raping.
Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of coalition troops in Baghdad, had ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged killing of a family of four in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. It did not elaborate.
"The entire investigation will encompass everything that could have happened that evening. We're not releasing any specifics of an ongoing investigation," said military spokesman Maj. Todd Breasseale.
"There is no indication what led soldiers to this home. The investigation just cracked open. We're just beginning to dig into the details."
However, a U.S. official close to the investigation said at least one of the soldiers, all assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, has admitted his role and has been arrested. Two soldiers from the same regiment were slain this month when they were kidnapped at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah.
At least four other soldiers have had their weapons taken away and are confined to Forward Operating Base Mahmoudiyah south of Baghdad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The official said the killings appear to be unrelated to the kidnappings but that a soldier felt compelled to report the killings after his fellow soldiers' bodies were found.
The killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity," the official said. The soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.
Associated Press
I'm so glad I'm not working outside Ft Benning anymore; I'm just so tired of seeing these kids come home saturated in from the Iraqi death-wave..It's like the entire country is one giant sacrificial alter that renders any flesh or mind within reach of it..
200+ in your myspace network and counting, btw. Looks like RI's quietly growing it's own ameoba..
Lift from the knees, not the back,
D
Et in Arcadia said:
"I'm just so tired of seeing these kids come home saturated in from the Iraqi death-wave..It's like the entire country is one giant sacrificial alter that renders any flesh or mind within reach of it.."
And I'm tired of NOT seing the ones that come home in the rectangular boxes...
Death in vain just isn't a pretty picture I guess. Not much PR value in it either.
At this point, I'd be willing to say that the average insurgent in Iraq views everything they do to fight the occupation as vigilante justice. Not that I think any of the readers here would, but lets not forget that for every one of these 'Cimes of opportnity' there are almost certainly many, many more that do not. Actully, I'd say that 'Crime of Opportunity' is a pretty fair representation of this whole murderous enterprise.
Ah, the sweet smell of decrepitness as it seeps over the newswire. Look, we should not be surprised by any of these horrible actions that these soldiers commit in this war. These guys are PTSD all the time and they are encouraged by the Occultic Elite Commanders to go out and savage the locals in any way they can.
They come from a country that on the one hand waves bone-thin women on TV at them while on the other chides them to behave piously 'because jesus won't let you into heaven if'n you have lust in your heart'.
Please. Lets all get REAL about this war. There was some kind of decision made, probably long ago, that Iraq was going to be a US satellite nation and that it would be O.K. to do whatever we wanted there. How many journalists have died there? only the ones that discover some disturbing truth. How many contract security guys are running around capping locals and raping children? I am sure the number is huge.
If We The Sheeple are unwilling to march on Washinton and burn that fucking place down, then we we can't have a legitimate gripe when evil is being done in our names. I am sick of this whole digusting parody of a nation.
Oops, that shoulda been:
"for every one of these 'Cimes of opportnity' that get reported...."
What was the name of that MySpace group?
nice graphic today! it would make a great coffee cup in the RI Gift Shop...
It looks like the abduction and execution of the two soldiers last week may have been vigilante justice.
I don't know if vigilante is appropriate for that mess over there. It was justice, for sure, bu labeling it as vigilante gives the impression that it was illegitimate, when in fact the whole damn quagmire is illegitmate, IMHO.
I thought it was interesting that the MSM made such a big deal about these two soldiers. My thought was "Big Fuckin Deal." I mean, it's not some new revelation. People are dying every day over there, including American Soldiers, so why the particular fuss about these two?
Interesting now to consider the details of the soldiers' torture and mutilation, as reported with jingoistic delight June 21 by FoxNews:
I'm mad.
The New York Times wants Gitmo closed. The San Jose Mercury News claims that Gitmo nurtures a culture of death. The Cleveland Plain Dealer wants Gitmo closed. Journalists and editorial staffs are up in arms that there might possibly be some kind of torture occurring.
So what do they say when torture OBVIOUSLY occurs? How do they react when two U.S. servicemen — in Geneva Convention-approved uniforms — have their hearts cut out, their testicles cut off, their penises cut off and stuffed in their mouths, arms contorted and eyes gouged?
"What was the name of that MySpace group?"
http://myspace.com/rigorousintuition
Shrub: Good point about 'Vigilante' being a loaded term, though it didn't start out that way, and I'd say it's a good candidate for perceptual rehabilitation. I'm willing to bet that it's no accident that the concept has grown direputable, as the PTB have quite the vested interest in maintaining the perception that when people take the 'law' into their own hands, injustice is always the result. They seem to prefer that they be the sole providers of injustice, and thus be assured that said 'injustice' is not visited upon themselves.
Jeff: Thanks for the reminder as to why I do my best to avoid any contact with the highly toxic Fox news.
Luposapie,
I agree with you completely.
It's so very convenient this fog called war. Lest we forget Fallujuh and the phosphorus night of the long knives?
For those of us who remember how the Vietnam war escalated while civilian casualties grew exponentially along with it,(total Vietnamese casualities were "conservatively" estimated at 3 million), the Viet Cong soon developed a penchant for dismembering and scattering the body parts of any white American servicemen they killed in battle. Blacks, however, they simply left where they fell.
The time and effort that kind of mutilation takes, not to mention the added risks involved, sent a pretty clear message that racism wasn't just a strong factor, but was seen as a primary motive behind how the (mostly white) American administration and Pentagon brass chose to prosecute their war against the Vietnamese people as a race.
War, of course, can cause either side to latch on to any kind of discrimination to demean, villify, or attempt to dehumanise their opponents.
Of course the stupidity of underestimating any human capabilities, or being lulled by a false sense of your own superiority in any area ought to go without saying.
The same racial overtones and disregard for civilian life that the US displayed in Nam were quick to reassert themselves again in Iraq. The price for doing that may not be identical, but I wouldn't place any bets on it.
Anyone read or skimmed Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse book? Now I'm not one to believe in such a thing as elites having only ONE plan at a time, but I thought the discussion on oil was interesting.
According to Palast, there were two "official" administration plans:
1. Neocon plan: Privatize Iraqi oil, ramp up production, smash OPEC, and particularly, Saudi Arabia.
2. State Dept, Saudi OPEC, Oil Conglom. plan: Nationalize Iraqi oil, keep production in line with OPEC to preserve status quo.
Apparently, the Plan 2 won out over Plan 1, or at least was winning at the time of the book's publishing.
But I feel like I have a more solid understanding of the oil industry, although in retrospect, had I thought about it, I might have come to the same conclusion.
Basically, the Saudis and oil companies don't like cheap oil, they like oil at a price that will maximize their profits. Peak Oil, something, in my opinion, which could be "made real" enough in a Big Con, does not really exist at this point, although it would seem plausible that we would run out of oil eventually.
According to Palast, historically, we've been having Peak Oil since we drilled it out of whales. It keeps prices up. Apparently, during the Kennedy administration, the Iraqis got mad because the oil companies were committing fraud with their drilling. They would drill shallow wells, or would pretend to drill. They kept discovering oil reserves, but found that it would lower prices if they drilled them all. So they would get reserves just to keep other people from drilling them and driving down prices in a "free market" race to the bottom.
This makes perfect sense when you consider the "efficient" refineries that were shut down in California, and the lack of relative apocalypse after Katrina. There's always more oil to be had, if the oil companies want to preserve some semblance of the status quo, while still reaping profits.
Additionally, the motive for Iraq, according to Palast, was that Saddam kept yoyoing the oil prices, up one week, down another week; and then he threatened an embargo with Libya, which led to the aborted coup on Chavez, because Chavez wouldn't bail out the U.S. like Venezuela had done during the previous embargo.
So, the war is about OIL, but not about getting the last dregs, although its useful for the public to believe that, because they'll think it's necessary for us to "maintain our WAY OF LIFE" while we transition to alternative fuel sources.
Instead, it's all about keeping the cartel stable.
Oh, and apparently OPEC was created by the Oil companies to skirt trust laws. Private cartels are illegal. Cartels composed of sovereign governments are not. The Saudis helm OPEC, and dole out quotas like a feudal king; giving Iraq and Iran the lowests quotas, and hanging the threat of bankruptcy via market flooding over their heads.
Let's see, what else . . . Palast still "buys" or "preserves" the 911 myths, although he does discuss the Michael Moorian, they knew it was coming but did nothing tropes, and he also alleges to have some quotes from OBL and Al Qadea docs that purport to show that OBL wants his militants to preserve the oil fields so that he can one day establish on Oil Caliphate from Afghanistan to Sudan.
Just thought I would share.
Any thoughts?
"out there in the field,things get kind of confused" Rape is an accepted practice of war in Africa and yet the cultural shame in Islamic Culture must be immense.
China has generated $78 billion in trade in the first five months of this year.
$9 billion of this is going to Nigeria and somalia? as aid.
Never before has a non democratic state been so wealthy.Ladies and Gentlemen this is just foreplay the culling is coming
Some say 'Don't mess with Texas'
Thanks for sharing your summary of Palasts book. It is really bizarre for Palast to pull punches (i.e., not research) 9-11 thoroughly. When he knows so much about the Bush family recidivism, surely he's being choosy on what he researchs. He's probably marked for death anyway by the Bush family mafia, though his name in the spotlight keeps him out of it. So, he should press further on 9-11 I say.
This is going to piss everyone off but I don't care. First Haditha now the rape, murder and burning of this woman and the slaughter of her family and all of the other "incidents" we hear and don't hear about. I am sick of this. The American troops are not defending my freedom or the freedom of America. They are murdering for BushCo. I don't care how many of them want to be there, want to "fight for our freedom" or are there for the promise of college tuition money. Everey soldier needs to turn their weapon on their superiors right now and force their way back home or they can all just die in that fucking desert of a country. Fuck the troops. I don't support anyone there.
Amen, Anonymous 6:51.
We just got back from Home Depot and they announced over the PA System that enlisted me defending our country get 10% off for July 4th weekend.
I'm sick of this shit.
Oh, I almost forgot. I hate this freakin Holiday, especially in the past several years. The wife and I and the two kiddies are going to burn a flag, I think. We figure we might as well before it becomes illegal.
I think I'll watch The Deer Hunter this weekend to keep the spirits high.
Luposapien: I'm interested in exactly the kind of analyses you mentioned in the last thread, "apocalypse" simply being a test case. If you read the rest of my blog, I have several other examples, including some financial.
I'm looking for other test cases, so if you have a particular analysis you want done, send me an email and I'll see what I can do for you. I'm very interested in pushing this forward.
Dr. Theopolis said...
If We The Sheeple are unwilling to march on Washinton and burn that fucking place down, then we we can't have a legitimate gripe when evil is being done in our names. I am sick of this whole digusting parody of a nation.
I hear ya, Doc, and I share your sentiments. Well said.
Good Night, and Goog Luck.
I agree with what ought to be done in Washington. I just read this at Wayne Madsen Report.
"June 29, 2006 -- The anti-Iraq war group, Military Families Speak Out (www.mfso.org), is conducting a vigil outside the Cannon House Office Building. Anne Roesler of California, whose son will be soon serving his third Iraq tour with the 82nd Airborne Division, and Elizabeth Frederick of New York, whose boyfriend is serving in Iraq with the New York National Guard, are receiving some surprising comments and rather lukewarm support from Senate and House members, Republican and Democratic. Although the group, which has placed boots and shoes representing dead U.S. military members and Iraqi civilians near the House office buildings, has received support from a few Democrats, the reaction to their vigil by some, including California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, has been hostile. One House member passed their display of boots and shoes and turned around and shouted, "Just get over it!" Another staffer said, "don't you people remember what happened on 911?" There were no connections between 911 and Iraq."
Just get over it? Just get over it? That attitude seems to be pervasive in Washington. Damn right! Someone needs to level the place.
I own the TV
'cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor
It happens to be
Like:
"Killed by the husband"
"Drowned by the ocean"
"Shot by his own son"
"She used the poison in his tea
and he kissed her goodbye"
That's my kind of story
It's no fun til someone dies
Don't look at me
like I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie
While the mother, holds her child
Watches him die
Hands to the sky cryin,
"Why, oh why?"
Cause I need to watch things die
From a distance
Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
You all need it too - don't lie.
Why can't we just admit it?
Why can't we just admit it?
We won't give pause until the blood is flowin'
Neither the brave nor bold
Will write us the story so
We won't give pause until the blood is flowin'
I need to watch things die
From a good safe distance
Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same so
Why can't we just admit it?
Blood like rain fallin' down
Drown on grave and ground
Part vampire
Part warrior
Carnivore and voyeur
Still have the trance, mental sync
to the death rattle
Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men.
But pull your head on out
Your head please , and give a listen
Shouldn't have to say it all again
The universe is hostile
So impersonal
Devour to survive
So it is, so it's always been ...
We all feed on tragedy
It's like blood to a vampire
Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I.
Tool
Happy Dead Meat Barbecue Beer Gut Bloated Boom Boom-ba-de-Boom Holiday Weekend
Hi All
I beeb watching the "GRAND CONJUNCTION" and studying the stars and planets this week
I would suspect that "Armageddon" is well under way...
That GWBush is really an inverse "W" for M in the Nostradumus name of the current Anti-Christ "MaBus" (google it. okay???) and that
the AntiChrist spoken of in Revelations of John (who some believe was really Lazarus who Jesus brought back from the Dead) identifies the AntiChrist is that man who was in power over the world on 6-06-06 (2006) 2000 years or two millenia after Jesus (aka Issa) was born thereabouts and the beginning of the New Millenium of our lifetime and several generations as Issa was back then and
that
the Grand Conjunction (the lining up all day and all night for a few days of the Summer Somstice Sun, mercury, Mars, Venus, Saturn, the brand spankin' New Moon, and Jupiter and her moons) is thesignal for the new era of the defeat of the AntiChrist and the emergence of a Harmonic convergence of Peace
As a pacifist, I say that they should be tried for treason and imprisoned (not to mention Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide, and War Crimes) for as long as it takes for the people of the world to forgive them.
Ultimately, though, that is the Creators' decision (the Elohim)
Watch this Grand Conjunction as it dissipates and watch the spiritual powers go to work to unravel the Beast.
Or maybe it was just one too many Cuervo-Guava-banana-coconut-key lime- pineapple - triple sec- grand marnier- and Rose's Lime Juice (and Key West Lime Juice) with Ginger, Cloves, and Nutmeg -
Margaritas
and playing with the blooming buds of the Tuliptree (aphrodisiac), roots of ginger and ginseng and astragalus, and bark and leaf of Ginko in my morning tea with some Eleuthro, hops, chamomile and passionfloer with feverfew and caps of saw pametto and evening primrose...
Or maybe I really could hear the vibration of the stars and they were saying:
Be Righteous dude...(dudes and dudettes)
and ALL the MAGIC will HAPPEN!!!
pAX vOBISCUM ALL
and
JUST TO PISS YOU ALL OFF:
Read this propaganda war on the destruction of our Constitutional Right to Privacy (what utter propaganda bullshit-stinky)
:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002764884
and the
To RDR, Richard, Shrubagiddo, Syndie Sell, 7thsnot, SillyRabbite, et alii:
You are all a bunch of useless, raving loonies, and malevolent, violent sickos to boot.
Therefore I give you all the boot, and bid you permanent A Dieu.
Seventhson said
"That GWBush is really an inverse "W" for M in the Nostradumus name of the current Anti-Christ "MaBus"
I thought I was the only one who caught that. Somewhere the letters were inverted. Notice how the "a" looks like a "g" when flipped around, and of course the "m/w" that you mentioned. One letter off, just like "Hister". I've never placed too much credence on Nostrodamus, but I'm sure of this, the clock is winding down.
-tlg
To the defender of fascism at 6:29:
Compare the population figures for European Jewry from before 1933 and after 1945: where do you think they all went?
Go to Dachau near Munich and look at the pictures of American GIs forcing citizens of Dachau (the town) to view the piles of corpses after the camp was liberated: were these staged?
Go to Auschwitz and tell the guides there what the incinerators there were really used for, or where the cannisters of Zyklon-B on display really contained, or who all of those suitcases really belonged to.
Visit the ornate and beautiful synagogue on Oranienburger Straße in what is now the middle of Berlin and ask yourself why such a massive synagogue is necessary for such a relatively small current Jewish population in Berlin.
Or, rather, don't--"just take your tired ass home," to quote the great George Clinton.
There is no doubt that the Palestinians have suffered and continue to suffer mightily--not merely since 1948, but beginning with the rise of militant Zionism in the late 19th century. But I'm sorry: "credible historian" and "Holocaust denier" are mutually exclusive terms.
I love this site primarily for its Jeff's overarching philosophy of anti-fascism. Can't wait to have you back!
USSR and Israel most prominently, gets a free pass on this site.
You have got to be kidding.
In the previous thread, luposapien wrote:
. . .just yesterday morning. . . I was jotting down ideas of how to construct just such a network. . . a web of connections surrounding specific individuals and events connected with the conspiracy/high-wierdness type situations that get discussed here
. . . I was imagining a web that could distinguish between different types of relationships (financial, philisophical, romantic) and also indicate the direction that power flows in particular connections. My main probelm being that I have neither the technical skill, time, or means to produce such a work. . .
That sounds like a mighty fancy chart there, mister!
If you haven't already heard of him, perhaps you will gain inspiration from the art of Mark Lombardi, possibly the only artist whose work attracted the interest of the FBI. In fact, I'm surprised I haven't seen Lombardi's name come up in RI, especially since he's on the long list of people who, after making brilliant "big picture" connections, decide to commit suicide (hell, maybe it was just his artistic temperament).
Kisses to Shrub.
Peace, out--
Oops-- Jeff did write a post on Lombardi in November 2004, and now I'm going to read it.
Me again--
Yes, three comments in a row on a Saturday afternoon. But I'm packing and cleaning for a trip and can never complete a chore without frequent breaks.
There's a lot of sick-and-tiredness floating to the surface in this open thread. Eventually, as on most of these threads, someone will come along and say “Why are you all just sitting there clustered around this blog like old men muttering into their pints about the mess the world is in. You're being contained!” Or something to that effect. This indignation presupposes that if you weren’t on the blog, you’d be protesting, buying powdered milk for your bunker, or teaching your kids how to survive in the wilderness— concrete measures. I, for one, however, would probably be reading Vogue or watching movies instead of reading this blog. That’s why I like it— because it’s like mind candy but has some nutritional value, and makes me think about and read things that raise my awareness, rather than dull it.
One exciting characteristic of a blog is that it brings a lot of diverse minds together and focuses their brainpower on one topic.
So why shouldn’t we use this "containment" of mental energy to our advantage. Why shouldn't the topic be: creative ways to _____.
Creative ways to stop the war?
There are a lot of very bright, creative people here. Slomo’s memetic analyses are a trip. Starroute and silverfox seem very well-read. And I imagine, Richard, that anyone who works with retarded children and then comes home to his own kids has to have a pretty flexible mind.
So since this is an open thread, and I can’t be accused of hijacking the conversation, maybe some of you would like to brainstorm ideas about creative actions we can take, either on our own or as a group, to stop the war.
I’ll break the ice with this suggestion:
Using My Space, some kids in Philadelphia organized a flash mob. In this case, the theme was whimsical— bring a pillow and dash to Love Park for a half-hour pillow fight, then promptly melt back into the city once the event is over. The beauty of this event was the element of surprise: no one in downtown Philly knew what was going on, as the event was not publicly advertised. Something similar could be organized for a more practical purpose.
How about a flash mob that calls the Homeland Security Squeal Line, and site the Bush Administration as the REAL TERRORISTS, and keep calling and calling and calling.
The next day, call CNN and do the same thing.
The next day, call Fox.......etc. etc.
There's nothing illegal about flooding phone lines.
I don't know how many of you caught David Icke on Coast to Coast the other night. It may have been a rerun. I know that much of what Icke says must be taken with a rather large grain of salt. However, what he was saying about DNA being an antennae and his ideas about a holographic universe and what holds the matrix together were well worth considering. From the calls he was recieving, it seems a lot of fundamentalist Christians share at least some of his beliefs but he parts company with them when they start to wax too dogmatic. No stranger to the plant medicine experience, Icke has a pretty good handle on the Empire's agenda from a macro-dimensional perspective.
The program that governs our reality can be over- ridden but, in my opinion, the ability to quiet the mind is essential if you want to poke a hole in the tape that's running. That hole or gap sits at the crosshairs where the time and space bound universe meets the timeless, spaceless stillness of eternity or the Ground of being if you will. Whoever runs the control mechanism would like to keep us separate from the Gound which we can call God or true nature or Essence. The paradox is that it is all God play, even our failure to recognize it.
I have seen the beauty of the truth of creation and it is a thing of almost unbearable joy/bliss/happiness.
The fabric of creation is living love but don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself.
I have never posted here yet but I have been a fan for many months.
Somewhere Nostradamus said something about the third and final Anti-Christ wearing a blue turbin. OK so all these neo christian conservitives have jumped all over this as meaning Saddam or some other Muslim of the week is the Anti-christ.
Well recently I was reading the Richard Burton Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments. In it there is a story about this guy that finds a lake with fishes of four different colors-White,Red, Yellow, and Blue. This was supposed to be symbolic since the fish were the transformed people of a town that had been enchanted.
The colors were based on a law at one time where ones faith was displayed in the color turbin you wore:
White=Muslim
Yellow=Jewish
Red=Magi
and
Blue= drumroll please
Christian!
could it be that the vision Nostradamus had was of an Anti-christ that was posing as a christian?
Who knows.
Personnaly I think Dwelling on an impending apocolypse is pointless and too many would give up actualy leading a life in favor of dwelling on the end of the world.
And so it goes...
"...a web of connections surrounding specific individuals and events connected with the conspiracy/high-wierdness type situations that get discussed here"
Civilian PROMIS anyone? Maybe even with a GUI modeled on the the artwork of Mark Lombardi? Maybe with a function that has different pieces of evidence and historical records duel it out with each other to receive the victorious and most probable outcome or reality. Who here are the programming and desing geniuses that have the will to do it? If it's executed properly, it might just be enough to get you assassinated.
P.S.
I'm almost surprised that PROMIS hasn't shown up on BitTorrent anywhere yet? Has it?
P.P.S.
SillyRabbit,
The Final Fantasy characters comment was some funny business.
since this is an open thread, and I can’t be accused of hijacking the conversation, maybe some of you would like to brainstorm ideas about creative actions we can take
I haven't seen many references to 2012 here but if nothing else, the conspiracy apologists for Armagedden have given "you" your warning and a bit of lead time. What do you plan to do with it? May I suggest you "compost"? That dirt you got around you ain't gonna feed you unless you feed it.
Jeff -
I went back and read your Nov 2004 blog on Mark Lombardi and noticed that the comments seemed to contain many thousand words of nonsense. I wonder it this is what might have caused the "spam blog" moniker to have been used in regards to RI? I would hate to think someone is methodically corrupting all you old posting's comments.
Did you see Wired's article on My Space?
Oh, welcome to Dixie. Hope you are acclimating!
"Oh, welcome to Dixie. Hope you are acclimating!"
No, that Dixie home is et in arcadia ego's, who's the proprietor of the unofficial RI myspace site. We're still in Toronto. (Though it feels at times as hot as Alabama.)
I would be cautious about overly interpreting anti-Christ (or, if you are non-Christian, whatever monster plays the same role in your eschatological narrative) as an individual human being. It can easily be something much larger than a human being: i.e., a system.
If you're reading out of Revelations and looking for "666", I would start with UPC codes. (Snopes, which I usually respect, is a bit disingenuous with the guard bars, which really do look like 6's). Our food production system is more corrupt than many realize, not to mention the mindless consumerism that permeates the marketplace.
Conversely, I would caution against looking to a savior for rescue.
Salvation comes by replacing old, murderous systems with new ones that offer interdependent life and mutual cooperation.
Slomo,
Great point, and one I have contended myself on many occasions.
Superman hit $52 Million at the Box Office this weekend. WooHoo!!!
We are the Beast as the following quote so aptly describes:
Beware the beast man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or
lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in
great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him, for he is the harbinger of
death.
Any takers on the origin of that one? I know you're watching Atem.
slomo, your blog and that Lombardi thing... remind me of some crap I was spouting on another RI blog thread.
The one about magic and ritual and saving the world.
The process of art is creative, it mirrors the creation of the universe and can allow people access to sacred space etc etc.
All indigenous magical ceremonies (and all non indigenous ones I am aware of) take place as a creative ritual that involves parts of drama, song, dance, poetry, often painting and sculpture in various forms.
It refelects the culture and reinforces its dominant memes.
And as anon 6.51 said... bring back fragging.
Re the holocaust.
Im not denying it, but it often makes me wonder.
I have met more people whose ancestors were killed in the holocaust that were not Jewish, than ones that were. Let me rephrase that. I have met more people that said their non Jewish ancestors were killed in the holocaust, than Jewish people who have mentioned it.
I mentioned this once to a mate who was Jewish. He got really upset, not necessarily with me, but with the thoughts of the past. He told me about the tattoo his grandfather had shown him...
These days I figure most Jewish people don't want to talk about the holocaust in their family. Too painful and messed up a situation to contemplate...
RAW used to say that the actual holocaust death toll was 15 million. 6 million "Jews" included. (Not necessarily Jewish people btw, people defined by the dominant power as "Jew", I dopn't think you had to be a practising Jew, or even a family member of a family that practisied their religion. People who ae of Jewish descent today may not identify as jewish, yet they would still be considered Jewish by the standards of the Nazi's.)
Thats not even half the total deaths. Has anyone seen the footage of the shootings, supposedly of Jews, (I am not saying it wasn't Jews, but I have to wonder if it was only "Jews"), where people are lined up by pits and shot in the head. hundreds of people standing in line, hundreds of others lying in pits and the looks on their faces. Hopeless and empty. It is one of the most disturbing things I have seen. to deny it happened seems abhorrent to me.)
Not to mention the footage of the guys who liberated some camps.
The eyes of those soldiers in that footage as they inspect the camps.
They fought through europe in a bloody shitfight, but the faces on those battle hardened men when they are in the camp, not sure which one...
They have seen a horror the like of which I never want to see.
I dunno the footage, where to find it, just seen it on the telly over the years. it has piles of bones and clothes and tuff, any of which could be faked.
But the eyes of those soldiers. That is something you can't fake.
I have only seen something similar on one other occasion.
poe says:
I think you'll appreciate this.
47 Reasons To Avoid The Democratic Party
1) The Democrats are just a faction of the enemy -- not allies in any sense. They are not the "lesser evil;" they are an auxiliary subdivision of the same evil. They have betrayed us beyond all possible reconciliation, and are more truly allies of the Republicans than they are "friends" of ours.
2) It's just a fallacy to believe that the Democrats can somehow be transformed into a political force defending the interests of the broader public. That's not what they are. That they dare posture as the "party of the people" is an insult to our collective intelligence. In reality, they use this tattered & tired popular image to collude with the rightwing, confuse the public, & sell us out at every turn.
3) I encourage you to rethink your well-intentioned support of Democrats. (The writing of Howard Zinn is useful, in this connection.) The history of the Dem Party is one of deep partnership with Republicans, not of genuine opposition. The ballyhooed "rivalry" is just on the surface -- essentially, just a deception. The Dems were full co-partners in building the military-industrial complex and the national security state; in inflicting criminal wars in SE Asia & Latin America, etc etc. And since 2000, they have outdone themselves in shameless unprincipled collusion.
4) This is a party ready for the dustbin of history. The only "help" we should give them is helping them get there. We should focus on laying the groundwork for a party that genuinely represents our interests, not helping to resurrect a disgraced & decaying enemy.
5) The Kuciniches and McKinneys are different from the Hillary types -- but there are compelling reasons not to get too excited about them, either. First of all, they are used by the party as a "Left decoration," simply to keep potential left defectors in tow. Secondly, the party power brokers will NEVER in a million years let the Kucinich-McKinney faction have any real power.
6) In other words, the progressive Dem faction is cynically used as a marketing tool by the national party. They are dangled before your eyes to make you think that the Dems are still the "lesser evil" (since the Republicans offer no such Left decorations).
7) But the real face of the Democratic Party is revealed, for example, by the way they had police drag people out of the 2004 convention for wearing anti-war tee-shirts. Or by John Kerry, who tried to pretend during the entire campaign that his connection with Vietnam was just that he "served" -- trying to hide the fact that he'd been an outspoken OPPONENT of a criminal war.
8) In other words -- don't be fooled by the existence of a few decent Dems. They make no real difference in the overall alignment of the party, and will never be internally influential. They are a distraction.
9) Taking over" the party is a naive illusion. Both parties are dominated and driven by the interests of huge corporations and plutocrats. Neither gives the slightest hoot about the well-being of the general public -- which, as both of them well know, is utterly defenseless, politically. Both parties regard the public as a lamb to be fleeced on behalf of their (the parties') patrons. This condition is non-negotiable & not subject to alteration by ordinary well-meaning people.
10) Both parties represent little more than the will of giant oil, banking, media and defense corporations. The only way they differ is in marketing strategies, target populations, rhetorical style, & external fluff.
11) You make the oft-cited argument that the Republican Party was "taken over." This is not quite true. The Republicans were always the party of Wall Street & Northern manufacturing. The Democrats were the party of the Southern slaveocracy. When the national Democrats defied southern racism by passing the Civil Rights Acts in the mid '60's, the southern states bolted, destroying the Democratic coalition. The Republicans profited from this by adapting to southern tastes, values, & religious/cultural conceptions.
12) In other words, neither party is particularly virtuous, and both are merely fronts for coalitions of big-money interests. The Republicans weren't virtuous before they merged with the Religious Right out of self-interest, and they aren't virtuous now. The Democrats weren't virtuous when they were allied with Southern racists, and they aren't virtuous now. Virtue has nothing to do with it.
13) Together, the 2 parties form a governing structure that responds only to the needs of American capitalism. If you go to the Dem Party "pooh-bahs" and say, "I have some nice ideas for peace, housing, environment, and education," they'll laugh in your face. If you go and say, "I have a $10 million donation for you from ExxonMobil, if you just relax a wee little regulation about mileage standards," they will say, "Please come into my office. I believe we can do business."
14) The point is that both US parties are big-business parties, responsive ONLY to the needs & desires of corporations. The personnel of both parties are tightly linked to lobbyists. Both parties are stuffed to the gills with consultants, fund-raisers, careerist apparatchiks, connections in the MSM, & so on. All together, this forms an institutional structure that is completely unresponsive to the needs and aspirations of ordinary people.
15) When you try to sell the feel-good idea of "Let's take over the Dem Party," you're in effect proposing a project that ignores the true nature of the Dem Party. This is too big a thing to overlook. The far right was able to take over the Republican Party because that kind of alliance was always very much in the nature of the Republican Party anyway. It was compatible with, not contradictory to, the big-business nature of the Republican party. Forming an alliance with fascists, racists & religious zealots ADVANCED the big-business agenda.
16) But your idea of taking over the Dem Party -- & presumably using it as a force for defending the interests of ordinary people against the depradations of the giant corporations -- is diametrically at odds with the true corporate nature of the Dem Party. That's why there is precisely zero chance that it can be done. (And in fact, if you tried to do it, and you started having any slight success, your "friends" in the Dem Party would move against you -- just as they gave the cold shoulder to Feingold last week, just as your creepy Congressman Rahm Emanuel has moved against real progressive candidates in Illinois, & as the Dem poo-bahs barely tolerated Kucinich's antiwar positions in 2004.)
17) Do you understand the difference between a nice feel-good movie like Mr Smith Goes to Washington, and the far uglier reality of how things actually work in Washington? A Dennis Kucinich can win only in a feel-good movie -- only in your (or my) dreams.
18) But outside of dreams, it's a matter of consultants, corporate donations, favorable mainstream media treatment, approval of career party apparatchiks, and so on. A candidate that has the media against him, the military against him, and corporate American against him -- is not even a faint possibility.
19) To ween liberals away from their addiction to Democrats, an immense shift of consciousness is required; this is not yet nearly in place. I think that everyone who does understand the mechanisms that make the Dem Party so pernicious should try to transmit this understanding whenever possible. If you are a writer, a film-maker, someone in a position to spread political ideas, I think this kind of thing should be done. If you simply have friends and family with whom you can exchange ideas, I think discussing the rottenness of Democrats whenever possible is an important activity.
20) One of them is this: there are concepts involved in understanding just why the Democrats are not a potential vehicle of change (& in fact, are a primary obstacle to it). There are concepts involved in understanding just what the Dems' real function in the mechanism of society is. These concepts, and the relevant supporting history, are not obvious. Some of them are counter-intuitive. They must be studied & learned before one really gets the idea, and as of right now, most people -- even most opponents of Bush -- do not remotely have the conceptual basis for understanding them.
21) Even on a board like PI, there is way too much reflexive fondness for Democrats. People talk about "taking our country back," or "taking our party back," or "working within the party to bring about change," etc. This all reflects continued illusions in the Democrats -- even if the person who says it is "nice" and "sincere."
22) The Democratic Party is one of two big business parties. Together, the 2 parties own a complete monopoly of the political system, & they use this monopoly to maintain ruling-class dominance. To believe that the slightly-less-evil of these parties can ever be a tool for freeing the great majority of the population from ruling-class control -- is utterly ludicrous. One can only accept such nonsense if one is brainwashed (as all of us in this country are, from birth), then refuses to open one's eyes.
23) Let me try to rephrase it one more time, to try to get the absurdity across: Maintaining a belief in Democrats means you expect that a big business party whose function is ensuring continued ruling-class dominance, is going to fight to keep you safe from the depredations of this ruling class. And it means you are ignoring all the history that demonstrates beyond any doubt that Democrats will not do this.
24) Real change can't come until people cease nurturing illusions in Democrats. And when large numbers of people finally get angry enough to throw the Democrats overboard, the time for change will be nigh.
25) The real danger of voting for a Democrat doesn't come from the physical act of pulling the lever (or pressing the Diebold key , to update that old phrase). It comes from the perpetuation of illusions, which in turn, tends to promote the undeserved & unfortunate general sense that the public is reasonably content with the choices that it's offered.
26) Conversely, a mass defection from the Dem Party would be a development of the greatest importance; it would represent a popular repudiation of the official political setup.
27) What's to be gained by clinging fearfully to a party as demonstrably spineless and corrupted as this one?
28) If you look at the last 5 years (and actually, at the last 40), what additional proof could you require of the worthlessness of the Dem Party? How could they possibly have accomplished less? Their "big success" was that Clinton won twice -- and he gave away the store to the corporations, supports the Iraq War, and now spends all his time at Daddy Bush's vacation homes.
29) By arguing for "saving" the Dem Party, you are encouraging people in the illusion that staying inside this society's traditional institutions will allow ordinary citizens to make far-reaching & fundamental changes in the way society is organized.
30) This simply cannot be. Our society is the way it is, precisely because it has been organized to function in the interests of a narrow slice of the population at the top. By definition, a "traditional" institution in this society (like the Dem party, or the media) is PART of the very machinery that permits society to function like this. These institutions work to maintain the social order -- not to change it. They are against meaningful change.
31) Aside from the New Deal, the Democrats have never been allies of the "little guy." They've merely pretended to be this. The history of the party, if you subtract out the New Deal (and this was a special case, because it was required to save the capitalist system from major social upheaval), is quite undistinguished, & frequently despicable. The party started out as the political arm of the Southern slaveocracy. It was represented by corrupt big-city machines like Tammany Hall. It won elections by holding the allegiance of southern racists until the mid 1960's. It was in office when the CIA and national security state -- some of your personal favorites, I believe! -- came into existence in the late '40's. It was more responsible for Vietnam than the Republicans were. What the hell is the attraction of a record like this?
32) And there has probably never been a party in all of history more spineless and impotent than the Democrats of the last 30 or so years. They back little Bush at every step. You know this as well as I do.
33) It's not the case that the "the Democratic Party has been infiltrated." Rather, they are, and have always been (except for the special case of the New Deal & its political sequelae, aka Medicare) a faction of the enemy. They play a highly treacherous role in the system -- that of the common man's false friend. They have not been infiltrated -- they are simply a degenerated institution that has generally served elite interests by pretending to be "the party of the people."
34) Not only is it wrong to fight to save them -- the truth is, no progress can be made until the Democratic Party has been completely discredited & abandoned. It it nothing but a Pied Piper that leads people off into directions where they are guaranteed to be impotent in terms of challenging the status quo.
35) They want "progressives" to be toothless, gutless, polite, and quite harmless to the powers that be. That's what the Democratic Party is -- the social mechanism charged with ensuring that even people enraged by the status quo can only find political expression via a "party" whose real mission is to cripple, frustrate & defang them.
36) It's like a big machine: into one end, you feed millions of people who might potentially support radical change. You march them through the Democratic Party, and out the other end comes people who are tamed, docile, & politically disoriented. They might want universal health care & major cuts in defense spending, so they get seduced into supporting the Kerrys & Hillarys based on cheap lines about "progressives focused on the common good." And in a twinkling of an eye -- they find themselves sold out by these cynical charlatans.
37) As you so accurately put it, the whole M.O. of the Democratic Party is not about being on our side, but about convincing us that they're on our side, without even seriously discussing just what that might entail.
38) Right now, "our" (ie, the broad public's) general perspective is not valid. In general, people don't even understand where the problem is really coming from. Many think it's just Bush, or just the Republicans, or just this group of Republicans, etc. Some think it's the 2-party system; some think it's the underlying foundation of our society & economic system -- ie, capitalism. And even among those who think it's capitalism, there are differences of opinion about how a better system could be implemented.
39) If one's fundamental analysis is wrong, most action based on that analysis will also be wrong. Suppose you think the whole problem is just Republicans. Then it is logical to work for the Democrats in the next election. But if your analysis is wrong, working for the Democrats will not help -- even with the best intentions in the world, and tons of practical action.
40) The game changes when large numbers of people begin to develop an accurate shared analysis of where the roots of the crisis lie. Then it's time to start planning practical action. Only then will it have the power that comes from a valid underlying perspective.
41) Right now, we are limited to well-intentioned but largely impotent protest. The individual protests are scattered and uncoordinated. Anti-war groups, labor groups, environmental groups, independent media groups, 3rd party groups, honest election groups, 9-11 truth groups, etc etc are all working separately. This, despite the fact that they all have the same enemy, and largely common interests.
42) You are passively going along with what a corrupt power structure wants you to do, much like German citizens in the 1930's.
43) Our leaders are murderers, looters and destroyers. Right now they are concentrating on killing Iraqis, but they will come for us next. In all of this, the Democrats are their partners.
44) There is a long established history that richly illustrates that political parties which have become grotesquely corrupted CANNOT be "reformed." This entire line of thought is a waste of time and energy -- and we don't have that much time.
45) You say, as an excuse to continue supporting Democrats, "I think we'll all be too afraid to trust that our votes won't be thrown away.." Do you imagine your vote is NOT being thrown away when you vote for a Democrat? Even a contemptible weasel like Kerry, whose policies were 98% the same as Bush's -- if you voted for him in Ohio, the Republicans quite likely literally threw out your vote -- and Kerry himself didn't even have the balls to demand a serious inquiry into it! How is voting for someone like that NOT seeing your vote thrown out?
46) To know the first thing about politics is to know that primaries and general elections are not decided by "the people." They are decided by media propaganda and official opinion makers. How do you suppose Kerry won the nomination? Because the media told people that he was the only "electable" one.
47) Most people are too ignorant or frightened to vote on the merits of positions and issues. For the very same reason that people like you remain in the Democratic Party (ie, it's "practical;" only major-party candidates "can win," etc), most people will only vote for candidates that the media tells them are "electable."
These are of course all quotes by RichM-a force of nature.
These are intended to sharpen the Dems' message, defining what they stand for and how they’re different from Republicans.
1. "We Surrender."
2. "Please don't yell at us, we're frightened."
3. "Would you like us to roll over on our backs now, or do you prefer that we remain on our knees?"
4. "Let's bomb Iran."
5. "We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the President."
6. "We stand for rule by a kinder, gentler military-industrial complex."
7. "What's good for MobilExxon, Citicorp, and Northrop-Grumman is good for America."
8. "If you like venal cowards and betrayal, vote for us!"
9. "Please don't ask us to stand up to the Republicans. They get very angry if anyone opposes them -- and it's really scary!!
- RichM
Whonnnnnngk.
Click.
Beep.
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...
If you would like to pursue reform from within the Democratic Party, press 1.
If you would like to effectively counter the DLC within an existing mainstream political party, press 2.
If you would like to help with DFA, press 3.
If you miss the seventies and want to join the DSOC/DSA discussion group, press 4.
If you would like to feel "underground" from the comfort of rightward-drifting centrism that calls itself "left," press 5.
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only permissible focus
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- Iverson
http://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=32876&mesg_id=32876
The other time I saw that look was in a photo.
- two photos actually, hopefully of the same person (cos I hope it only ever happened once.)
It was a head and shoulders portrait of a guy in a military uniform. All the visible skin on his head was gone. There was only red flayed flesh, and a pair of eyes sticking out.
The next photo was a head (the same one I hope, not someone else) with the flesh removed. Just a skull sticking out of a green (and red) uniform. Just two eyes staring out of the skull.
Sometimes its easier to believe that cthonic octopoid aliens from the nether dimensions of hell are responsible for horrors, than to remeber there is no justice.
Just us.
US Justice - whats Just about that?
BTW Is a holocaust a burnt offering to God?
I am openly pointing this out because the holocaust probably did happen, as far as I am concerned it did (I wasn't there in this life so I can only go on what I have heard and seen), but like 911 it is tied up in so much emotional trauma and modern political interest...
As bad as Palestine is, it is understandable. Jews have had 2000 years of crap from the world. Its no surprise that it eventually gets payed back, (physical violent) child abuse is often passed on from generation to generation, as a part of the trauma.
Micheal ventura has a quote from a piece he wrote.
I'll dig it up.
to JULES:
There's a new, appreciative reply to your post on magic from "Mojo F." at the next to the last post (#117 of 118) at the end of the Mind over Mind string from last week. Please read it if you have a chance.
Dear Jules: Yes, the atrocities against the Palestinians must be justified. After all, they have the continued audacity to want to live in their homes and till their olive and citrus orchards. They had the nerve to be living peacefully for centuries on land that European colonizer / banker tools wanted to give to someone else. Yes, the vicious slaughtering and daily humiliation of them MUST be justified, because somebody else, somewhere else, sometime else, did something to piss off the torturers, abusers, and takers. Oh yes, I understand now. It’s perfectly justified, and all ok. Thank you so much for clarifying that in my mind. I was so confused before now.
Here's part of why the Holocaust 911 thing is so interesting to me as a connection between trauma and challenging fascist power:
"I've driven 800 miles since dawn and I can't seem to stop. the ground war has started. the speaker system in this Nashville restaurant is tuned to an Associated Press radio special; you can hear it in the bathroom. There's a call in guy from Vermont. He's furious. Why aren't we trying to kill saddam Hussein personally? "Five, ten years from now this guy'll be dropping bombs on New York City." If I had the time or mental energy I'd try to differentiate between all the different types of ignorance needed to make that staement. But it seems all I can do is drive, burning Eden with a vengeance, until finally, another 220 miles down the road, I start seeing the Little People."
Micheal Ventura, March 15 1991.
The Ides of March - beware them.
But if you can't see the seeds of the future in the past, then you certainly won't recognise them in your present.
Anyone read any German newspapers from the 30s?
To Shrubaggedon:
You are gentleman & a scholar. A tip of the hat to you for your "grace in times of friction."
Does anyone know how reliable Bloomberg.com is because they're posting this:
"The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court."
I know, I know, GW was just being an 'always be prepared' boy scout right?
It's amazing how right on target their pre-911 preperations were, don't you think?
Preparing for war in Afghanistan
Preparing for war in Iraq
Laying the old 'domestic spy-plan' groundwork.
It...it almost seems like they had (gasp) foreknowledge.
As far as plans go , I've been thinking about that for a while. The thing that I keep getting hung up on is how do you define today's anti-war counter-culture?
In the 60's, it seemed that music was a rallying point, but today I'm not so sure. In Pgh. we have an 'alterna-rock' station that one would think would embrace alternative thinking, but alas, this just ain't so joe.
Not only is it typical corporate play-list radio, but it's DJs are prone to incredibly right wing rants. As an exampl, when the NSA spying hoo-ha hit the press, I heard one of their DJs rambling on for quite awhile about the Echelon program & how it has been around since the end on 2nd world war & how they've been spying on us since then & everyone knows it so why oh why are people getting upset about this now.
So if anyone could help me out I'd appreciate it.
This is for the NSA:
Yes, my 8 year old son checked some Arabic language tapes out of our local library but I guarantee that he's never once mentioned suicide bombing or al-queda . The little tyke's just fascinated with languages. Honest injun.
& the only bombs we have around the house are all usually contained in my 2 year old's diapers. TRue, these can be deadly in enclosed spaces, but the only mass destruction they could inflict is a huge collective peeeeeeeee-yooooooo from a crowd.
Thank You.
& then there's this lovely nugget from New Scientist.com
""I AM continually shocked and appalled at the details people voluntarily post online about themselves." So says Jon Callas, chief security officer at PGP, a Silicon Valley-based maker of encryption software. He is far from alone in noticing that fast-growing social networking websites such as MySpace and Friendster are a snoop's dream.
New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals.
Americans are still reeling from last month's revelations that the NSA has been logging phone calls since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The Congressional Research Service, which advises the US legislature, says phone companies that surrendered call records may have acted illegally. However, the White House insists that the terrorist threat makes existing wire-tapping legislation out of date and is urging Congress not to investigate the NSA's action.
Meanwhile, the NSA is pursuing its plans to tap the web, since phone logs have limited scope. They can only be used to build a very basic picture of someone's contact network, a process sometimes called "connecting the dots". Clusters of people in highly connected groups become apparent, as do people with few connections who appear to be the intermediaries between such groups. The idea is to see by how many links or "degrees" separate people from, say, a member of a blacklisted organisation.
By adding online social networking data to its phone analyses, the NSA could connect people at deeper levels, through shared activities, such as taking flying lessons. Typically, online social networking sites ask members to enter details of their immediate and extended circles of friends, whose blogs they might follow. People often list other facets of their personality including political, sexual, entertainment, media and sporting preferences too. Some go much further, and a few have lost their jobs by publicly describing drinking and drug-taking exploits. Young people have even been barred from the orthodox religious colleges that they are enrolled in for revealing online that they are gay.
"You should always assume anything you write online is stapled to your resumé. People don't realise you get Googled just to get a job interview these days," says Callas.
Other data the NSA could combine with social networking details includes information on purchases, where we go (available from cellphone records, which cite the base station a call came from) and what major financial transactions we make, such as buying a house.
Right now this is difficult to do because today's web is stuffed with data in incompatible formats. Enter the semantic web, which aims to iron out these incompatibilities over the next few years via a common data structure called the Resource Description Framework (RDF). W3C hopes that one day every website will use RDF to give each type of data a unique, predefined, unambiguous tag.
"RDF turns the web into a kind of universal spreadsheet that is readable by computers as well as people," says David de Roure at the University of Southampton in the UK, who is an adviser to W3C. "It means that you will be able to ask a website questions you couldn't ask before, or perform calculations on the data it contains."
I guess George has seen the enemy & it is us.
Anyone getting through Morris Berman's Dark Ages America? He's not made specific forecasts, but Nostradamus aside, someone gotten to the next floor (before that pancakes)?
And what is this TV spiritualism, the glass bowl that holds it all apart from usn's before chthontic pod people gum the doors and windows? Seen that before, yes.
This looks like an interesting book.
As A longtime reader of R.I from London only some of the posts really get my interest ( U.S polotics allthough facinating is just so much rhetoric and lies much the same as everywhere else)High weirdness? now thats something I could read all day - and frequently do at my P.C. But here's the thing, I dOn't like the war, mans inhumanity to man, disease, bullying... ect but what do I do about it ? jack- like most who post here i get angry about whats going on but what can I DO. In london we had 1 million people (and me) take to the streets to say to our gov'n 'dont go to war'- and what did that achieve??? so if marching and protesting doesnt work whats next?unfortunatly I think it has to be civil disobedience that more than likely progresses to civil war- strong remedy I know but what else is there to do. Over here in the U.K we are having our civil liberties eroded on a daily basis- it use to be 'an english mans house is his castle' not any more baliefs can now break in to your house to take goods for unpaid fines etc- this is just one, how about not being able to have more that 2 people together without risking arrest .... it goes on...
Anyone read any German newspapers from the 30s?
Yes. It is uncanny, isn't it?
"Gog and Magog are two of the traditional monikers taken by newly-inducted members of the Skull and Bones Society.
On an initiate's first day in the Skull and Bones society, they are assigned a name, which they will be known as for the rest of their life. Two of the names that are regularly used are: Magog, which is assigned to the initiate with the most experience with the opposite sex; Gog, which is assigned to the least sexually experienced."
Funny how everything seems to be a metaphor for something else lately.
Are we just making this up as we go along? Or are we all actors in a play within in a play?
Anonymous said...
poe says:
I think you'll appreciate this.
47 Reasons To Avoid The Democratic Party
9:44 PM
Fantastic Post!! Thanks.
Exactly my sentiments and exquisitely articulated.
Joe Kennedy was a Nazi Supporting, Fascist Bastard, and his family has been holding their smiley faces out there for the past 60 years.
Paradigmatic Change
3.) Avoid, at all costs, the entrenchment of Dynastic Power and Influence. In fact, abort this fetus before it ever takes it first breath.
More on The Home Depot issue. We were there to buy paint when I heard the annoucement over the PA System. Since then, my wife and I discussed it and we decided that we will no longer patronize Home Depot as the result of this policy. I'll be damned if my purchases are going to subsidize the abominations conducted by these bastards in Iraq. Since when is what they're doing considered "defending our country?" Give me a break, unless, of course, torture, rape and murder are "defending your country."
However, it's easier said than done. We head on over to Lowes, and before we get the paint, I checked to see if they have the same Military Family Discount Program Home Depot does, and they do. So now I'm really screwed. I don't shop at Home Depot or Lowes that much, especially compared to most folks in the neighborhood, but they have garnered the market on certain items, thus eliminating viable options, and that's fucked up. We are getting the paint at Shewrwin Williams, by the way.
However, it all seems in vain if 1 million more aren't doing the same thing I am, and that's where the feeling of hopelessness sets in. "They" have you coming and going, and sometimes it feels like there is no way out.
Slomo: Promise I wasn't ignoring you (or should that be PROMIS wasn't ignoring you), just no computer access on weekends. I do plan on checking out more of your blog. I don't have any specific suggestions for analysis yet, but I'm mulling it over.
Silly Rabbit: Thanks for reminder on Mark Lombardi (and link to the article). I remembered running across Jeff's post on him a few months ago, while working my way through the achives, and had it in mind when I was considering my network idea, but couldn't remember his name, and didn't have the time at work on Friday to dig it up. I'd forgotten that he was another 'suicide'.
Raul: Very much the idea I was getting at. Invisioning sort of a visual database that you can move through chronologically to see how/where the connections form and develope. But, like I was saying earlier, I'm not exactly in the programming genius catagory (or even novice, for that matter).
I watched a documentary on PBS this weekend about Jefferson, and I couldn't help but ponder our propensity to idol worship. We seem incapable, as a society, of separating the words from the man.
He was certainly erudite and articulate, and it would be futile to claim otherwise, but that's where it ends. We used some of his writings because so few could express themselves as he could at the time, not to mention the exposure he received due to his inherited economic standing in society.
I was disgusted by how the Historians fawned over him like a fan fawns all over their favorite ballplayer. George Will, for example.
Also, I deplore the term Founding Fathers. It denotes Paternalism, and we are to have any meaningful pardigmatic change in this society, we need to eradicate Paternalism.
I know this is off topic, but has anyone seen this yet?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/06/28/russia.putin.reut/index.html
It's just a little strange.
That Russian boy's parents must be sweating bullets!!
Regarding Anonymous' 47 Reasons To Avoid The Democratic Party:
www.wsws.org
R. Crumbs comic depiction of Phillip K. Dicks awakening experience. Quite good!
http://www.philipkdickfans.com/weirdo/weirdo8.htm
"And that completes my final report until we reach touchdown.
We're now on full automatic, in the hands of the computers.
I have tucked my crew in for the long sleep,
and I'll be joining them soon. In less than an hour,
we'll finish our sixth month out of Cape Kennedy.
Six months in deep space... by our time, that is.
According to Dr. Haslein's theory of time,
in a vehicle traveling nearly the speed of light,
the Earth has aged nearly 700 years since we left it,
while we've aged hardly at all.
Maybe so.
This much is probably true...
the men who sent us on this journey
are long since dead and gone.
You who are reading me now are a different breed...
I hope a better one.
I leave the 20th century with no regrets.
But one more thing...
if anybody's listening, that is.
Nothing scientific.
It's purely personal.
But seen from out here everything seems different.
Time bends.
Space is boundless.
It squashes a man's ego.
I feel lonely.
That's about it.
Tell me, though.
Does man, that marvel of the universe,
that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars,
still make war against his brother?
Keep his neighbor's children starving?"
"I'm a seeker too.
But my dreams aren't like yours.
I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe
there has to be something better than man.
Has to be."
"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"
"Oh my God.
I'm back.
I'm home.
All the time, it was...
We finally really did it.
You maniacs!
You blew it up!
Ah, damn you!
God damn you all to hell!"
Shrubageddon's quote was also from Planet of the Apes (1968),
spoken by Cornelius played by Roddy McDowall.
Now...
source these three quotes, and name the scientific principle
to which all three can be applied most aptly:
"Gods are selfish beings who fly around in little red capes
and don't share their power with mankind."
"In this place it takes all the running you can do,
to keep in the same place."
"In an evolving universe, who stands still moves backwards."
(Bonus: give this quote's preceding line)
If you are confident you named the correct principle...
Give Rush lyrics (excluding The Trees)
to illustrate this principle.
Consider that last part a "Rorschach Test" ;-)
"Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici"
"Do Ut Des"
It's not the heat
It's the inhumanity
Plugged into the sweat of a summer street
Machine gun images pass
Like malice through the looking glass
The slackjaw gaze
Of true profanity
Feels more like surrender than defeat
If culture is the curse of the thinking class
If culture is the curse of the thinking class
Ceiling unlimited
World so wide
Turn and turn again
Feeling unlimited
Still unsatisfied
Changes never end
The vacant laugh
Of true insanity
Dressed up in the mask of Tragedy
Programmed for the guts and glands
Of idle minds and idle hands
I rest my case -
Or at least my vanity
Dressed up in the mask of Comedy
If laughter is a straw for a drowning man
If laughter is a straw for a drowning man
Ceiling unlimited
Windows open wide
Look and look again
Feeling unlimited
Eyes on the prize
Changes never end
Winding like an ancient river
The time is now again
Hope is like an endless river
The time is now again
Adapt, or Perish.
The Red Queen Principle of Evolutionary Theory
anon 9:44
Thanks for that post, especially
40) The game changes when large numbers of people begin to develop an accurate shared analysis of where the roots of the crisis lie. Then it's time to start planning practical action. Only then will it have the power that comes from a valid underlying perspective.
Refer to New Outlook Society.
Thank you for your time.
Atem,
I share your sentiments, and I think a Rush song that is in keeping with this spirit is Closer To The Heart
And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart
The blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
They forge their creativity
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart
Philosophers and ploughmen
Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart
You can be the captain
I will draw the chart
Sailing into destiny
Closer to the heart
Although, I believe the statement "and the men who hold high places" needs to be clarified and/or amended.
However, as you probably have gathered, I am a proponent of creating new realities and paradigmatic change, and wihtout a doubt, those new realities and paradigms should be Closer To The Heart.
But then there's that inconvenient obstacle known as The Crucible, and it appears that in order to Break On Through (The Looking Glass) To The Other Side, a certain stipend of flesh, blood and spirit must be rendered in teeth gnashing style.
The home of the infamous european toxic clan, psycho urban fraggers that pawn the virtual return to castle wolfenstein enemy territory battlefields.
Just Pub, a dumb return to castle wolfenstein enemy territory comic strip by feuersturm.
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