Wednesday, July 21 2010
by Elaine Brower
July 18, 2010
WorldCantWait.net
Editor’s Note – on July 15, radical lawyer and War Criminals Watch Advisory Board member Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In February 2005, Lynne had been convicted on 7 counts of “conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, and defrauding the U.S. government”.
The government had alleged that Lynne had facilitated communication between a man she was defending in court, fundamentalist Islamic cleric Omar Abdel Rahman, and people in Egypt. The judge in Lynne’s trial sentenced her to 28 months in prison. An appeal to the conviction and sentencing resulted in a different judge upholding the conviction, while ordering a re-sentencing that was not “trivial”, since Lynne had “indicated a lack of remorse”. After her sentencing, her prosecutor praised the work of the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force for its role in the persecution of Lynne Stewart, and thanked U.S. Bureau of Prisons for its assistance.
Words Lynne Stewart spoke after her original conviction still ring true: “I see myself as being a symbol of what the people rail against when they say our civil liberties are eroded. This case could be, I hope it will be, a wakeup call to all of the citizens of this country and all of the people who live here that you can’t lock up the lawyers. You can’t tell the lawyers how to do their job. You’ve got to let them operate. And I will fight on. I am not giving up. I know I committed no crime. I know what I did was right.”
Today, Thursday, July 15, at United States District Court in downtown Manhattan, around the corner from where I work, I witnessed the sentencing hearing of attorney Lynne Stewart. I only had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Stewart five years ago, along with Ralph, her jovial and loving husband. I never had the honor of her defending me, but during the course of the last 5 years, I met many people who did. The courtroom today was packed, leaving 2 overflow rooms, which were also filled to capacity.
Walking into the marble and mahogany building, which I am no stranger to since I work next door, gave me a never before eerie feeling. A bronze “Lady Justice” 2 story high statue sat in the main entrance way, greeting everyone who entered. But it did not give me comfort, it only once again reminded me of the many icons of worship this country erects to deflect the true nature of the beast underneath. I thought to myself “I’d love to hang a huge banner right in the middle of her 2 story chest with a big $ sign!”
Sitting in the elaborate overflow room, with all of Lynn’s supporters, then gave me comfort. Watching Lynne on the 2 screens in front of the room was very sad. She looked weak, pale and broken. She pleaded for the court’s mercy by presenting her statement to the judge. In it, she declared that she no longer had a relationship with her grandson, who could not visit her any longer in the horrible prison. She said she felt alone, and withdrawn. Only when her friends and family came to visit for one hour a week did she rejuvenate for a short period, but then would retreat back into somberness and sadness. At one point she choked up when saying that if the court decided to sentence her to anytime longer than the original 28 months, it would be a like imposing the “death sentence”. She reiterated that many times, in so many different ways. She threw herself at the “mercy” of the judge.
I thought to myself this is not the Lynne Stewart that I knew, if only for a short time. She was always vibrant and unafraid. She stood for true justice for the people who went unrepresented in a system that would make every attempt to smash them. Why was she begging for mercy? It broke my heart.
Then the US Attorney stood up and for 30 minutes recounted the details of the entire trial, repeating hundreds of times “we were attacked on 9/11”, and “Ms. Stewart gave comfort to Islamic terrorists.” These references were the cornerstone of the prosecution’s argument, and he couldn’t say it enough. In every way, he connected Lynne with the terrorist “murder groups”, and in reality made her the real terrorist. He said “the government trusted her as a lawyer, and she shouldn’t have been trusted.” He referred endless times to the DVD of her press conference prior to her remand to prison in 2009, and referenced her statements that she had “no remorse.”
Lucky for me I was in an overflow room. I commented, loudly, how I hoped this guy would get the pox, and I wasn’t alone. People booed, and said he better not come into their neighborhoods. How could he sleep at night? I would be embarrassed to be in his shoes. Is there no dignity?
Well, I will answer my own rhetorical questions. There is no dignity in this system. There is no justice in this system. There never was, and never will be. There is only hatred, fear, and an elite system of injustice. The judge is only a puppet of the state and did what he was told to do. The prosecutor is a prostitute and regurgitates enough bullshit to make people afraid enough to go home and lock their doors so they too won’t wind up like Lynne Stewart. When she was wrongfully sentenced to 10 years behind bars, there should have been a riot in the courtroom. Instead, everyone left.
Folks, it has always been like this. I didn’t live through the McCarthy era, and was happy I didn’t. I am a child of the 60’s and the radicalness of the 70’s. I thought, in my naivté, that this country stood for something good, and protected freedom of speech, the rights of people of color to live and work without the threat of police oppression, and most of all, it was a nation that was accepting and tolerant of those who came here from all over the world to experience the “American dream.”
What a bunch of crap. It has always been a bad system. Sometimes there would be breakthroughs in civil rights, or womens’ rights, but those where aberrations. Not the norm. The system would again rise up to take it all away, because it wasn’t meant to be fair and just for all people, only those who are the elite in this society. It always brings me back to how this country was founded, on the blood of those who already lived here.
And so it goes, we see the true face of American justice. Take a good look while the veil is lifted, because it will be dropped again, and you will be fooled into thinking if only we had more hope.
read more
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Paul Craig Roberts on Glass-Steagall, Free Trade and the Dangers of an Evolving 'Oligarchy of Private Interests'
Sunday, July 18, 2010 – with Ron Holland
Paul Craig Roberts
The Daily Bell is pleased to present an exclusive interview with Paul Craig Roberts (Photo left).
Introduction: Paul Craig Roberts is an economist and a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as a co-founder of Reaganomics. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service. Roberts has been a critic of both Democratic and Republican administrations. He has written or co-written eight books, contributed chapters to numerous books and has published many articles in journals of scholarship. He has testified before congressional committees on 30 occasions on issues of economic policy. His writings frequently appear on OpEdNews, Antiwar.com, VDARE.com. Lew Rockwell's web site, CounterPunch, and the American Free Press.
Daily Bell: This interview will review material that you've gone over in your books and articles, but we hope you will answer the questions nonetheless as some in our audience are not aware of your works or point of view. But let's start at the beginning. Are you a libertarian? Can you briefly describe the belief structure from which you write?
Paul Craig Roberts: I am a libertarian in the sense that I am certain that there must be moral and constitutional limits on power as exercised by both government and private institutions. I am a conservative in the sense that I believe that reform of society must be piecemeal and based on good will. Progress has to be incremental. Reform cannot be achieved by violent revolution in one fell swoop.
Daily Bell: How did you come to your sociopolitical conclusions?
Paul Craig Roberts: During most of my life government power, the power of government bureaucracies, was excessive. The Soviet government was the epitome of unaccountable government power. In the US, government power over business and individuals grew.
Daily Bell: Is that still the case?
Paul Craig Roberts: In recent years there has been a redistribution of power in the US from government to private. The US now resembles an oligarchy of private interests. The most powerful ones are Wall Street, AIPAC, the military/security complex, the oil industry, agri-business, insurance and pharmaceuticals. These private interests control economic and foreign policy, write the legislation that Congress passes and the President signs, and have achieved the monopolization of the US economy by large-scale commercial organizations. As far as I can tell, traditional conservatives scarcely exist in the US today. They have been eliminated by the neoconservatives, essentially militarists committed to US world hegemony.
Daily Bell: That doesn't sound like a very healthy evolution.
Paul Craig Roberts: There's another. The Republican Federalist Society has succeeded in enhancing the powers of the executive over the co-equal branches of government. Many federal judges and Department of Justice appointments are drawn from the membership of the Federalist Society, thus putting in place ideologues to advance executive power. Once executive power becomes dictatorial, we will have lifetime rulers and growing conflict between the executive and private oligarchic interests.
American elections are meaningless as the vast majority of those elected are dependent, or become dependent, on the campaign contributions from the private oligarchic interests. Today government bureaucracies (Child Protective Services and police, for example) have unaccountable power over private individuals, but the power of government over organized private interests has been beaten back. Today the private interests rule the state.
Daily Bell: Can you give us some other examples?
Paul Craig Roberts: The examples are endless. President Obama broke his campaign promises and renewed America's aggression against Afghanistan, because that was what the military/security complex demanded. The health care "reform" was written by the private insurance companies and was designed to provide the insurance companies with 30 million involuntary new customers. Environmental restraints on deep-water drilling were removed at the instruction of the oil industry, resulting, for example, in the extraordinary environmental destruction in the Gulf of Mexico. Wherever one looks, the external costs that private companies are able to impose on others are rising.
This change has occurred more quickly than libertarians have been able to adjust. Historically allied with private interests against government, libertarians have been slow to acknowledge the rise of unaccountable private power.
read more
Paul Craig Roberts
The Daily Bell is pleased to present an exclusive interview with Paul Craig Roberts (Photo left).
Introduction: Paul Craig Roberts is an economist and a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as a co-founder of Reaganomics. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service. Roberts has been a critic of both Democratic and Republican administrations. He has written or co-written eight books, contributed chapters to numerous books and has published many articles in journals of scholarship. He has testified before congressional committees on 30 occasions on issues of economic policy. His writings frequently appear on OpEdNews, Antiwar.com, VDARE.com. Lew Rockwell's web site, CounterPunch, and the American Free Press.
Daily Bell: This interview will review material that you've gone over in your books and articles, but we hope you will answer the questions nonetheless as some in our audience are not aware of your works or point of view. But let's start at the beginning. Are you a libertarian? Can you briefly describe the belief structure from which you write?
Paul Craig Roberts: I am a libertarian in the sense that I am certain that there must be moral and constitutional limits on power as exercised by both government and private institutions. I am a conservative in the sense that I believe that reform of society must be piecemeal and based on good will. Progress has to be incremental. Reform cannot be achieved by violent revolution in one fell swoop.
Daily Bell: How did you come to your sociopolitical conclusions?
Paul Craig Roberts: During most of my life government power, the power of government bureaucracies, was excessive. The Soviet government was the epitome of unaccountable government power. In the US, government power over business and individuals grew.
Daily Bell: Is that still the case?
Paul Craig Roberts: In recent years there has been a redistribution of power in the US from government to private. The US now resembles an oligarchy of private interests. The most powerful ones are Wall Street, AIPAC, the military/security complex, the oil industry, agri-business, insurance and pharmaceuticals. These private interests control economic and foreign policy, write the legislation that Congress passes and the President signs, and have achieved the monopolization of the US economy by large-scale commercial organizations. As far as I can tell, traditional conservatives scarcely exist in the US today. They have been eliminated by the neoconservatives, essentially militarists committed to US world hegemony.
Daily Bell: That doesn't sound like a very healthy evolution.
Paul Craig Roberts: There's another. The Republican Federalist Society has succeeded in enhancing the powers of the executive over the co-equal branches of government. Many federal judges and Department of Justice appointments are drawn from the membership of the Federalist Society, thus putting in place ideologues to advance executive power. Once executive power becomes dictatorial, we will have lifetime rulers and growing conflict between the executive and private oligarchic interests.
American elections are meaningless as the vast majority of those elected are dependent, or become dependent, on the campaign contributions from the private oligarchic interests. Today government bureaucracies (Child Protective Services and police, for example) have unaccountable power over private individuals, but the power of government over organized private interests has been beaten back. Today the private interests rule the state.
Daily Bell: Can you give us some other examples?
Paul Craig Roberts: The examples are endless. President Obama broke his campaign promises and renewed America's aggression against Afghanistan, because that was what the military/security complex demanded. The health care "reform" was written by the private insurance companies and was designed to provide the insurance companies with 30 million involuntary new customers. Environmental restraints on deep-water drilling were removed at the instruction of the oil industry, resulting, for example, in the extraordinary environmental destruction in the Gulf of Mexico. Wherever one looks, the external costs that private companies are able to impose on others are rising.
This change has occurred more quickly than libertarians have been able to adjust. Historically allied with private interests against government, libertarians have been slow to acknowledge the rise of unaccountable private power.
read more
Friday, July 16, 2010
Red Ice Creations - David Icke - Origins and Symbolism of the EU - Part 1
We discuss the Origins and the Symbolism of the European Union with David Icke. The EU is the reemergence of the (Holy) Roman Empire. We talk about the Catholic/Vatican influences in the EU and the Royals, especially the Hapsburgs, who are behind its inception. We talk about Religious Symbolism and the Babylonian/Sumerian Origins of those Symbols. Where is the EU heading with the Lisbon Treaty?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Dr Robert M. Bowman Talks "9/11 Truth To Power" on Visibility 9-11
Wed, 9 June 2010
Dr Robert M. Bowman Talks "9/11 Truth To Power" on Visibility 9-11
Interview by John Bursill
Visibility 9-11 welcomes for the first time a tireless campaigner for peace, justice and liberty for the American People, hero and patriot Bob Bowman. In my opinion and from what Bob has achieved on shoe string budget over the last six years, it is fair to say he would have in all likelihood become the current President of the USA in a different and truthful world. That is a world where we had a free and honest press in the US and had the truth of the 9/11 attacks exposed to all. Bob is the man that best represents the phrase speaking truth to power and was the man that brought that term to the 9/11 Truth Movement through speeches throughout America and the world!
In this interview Bob talks about issues and ideas never before raised with him on air. This interview is a must listen!
Dr Robert M. Bowman is a former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force in the Ford and Carter administrations, and a former United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He holds a PhD in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Cal Tech. He has been a long time peace activist (30+ years) and was directly involved in preventing nuclear war by exposing the crazies in the White House and in the Military Industrial Complex for the idiocy they represent. Bob has found himself fighting those same people today as part of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
In this interview we cover a lot of new ground and new approaches to 9/11 Truth. Bob talks to us about infiltrating the halls of power with our message within the existing two party structure and the ways we can achieve our goals. He also gives a look into past meetings and attempts to encourage the Peace Movement to realize the power of questioning 9/11.
As has been a theme since I stepped in for Michael as the show host, I ask Bob about some controversial issues that plague the 9/11 Truth Movement. Including the recent unsupported accusations blaming Israel as the mastermind of the 9/11 Attacks. Bowman has a strong view that US policy towards Israel needs to change and is acutely aware of the situation as a half Jewish man who wants peace in the Middle East.
Bob is calling for support of his massive Westcoast Tour this summer so please get involved and support this outstanding man on a mission to educate, stimulate and encourage the people to speak truth to power!
Contact: bob (at) thepatriots.us
Web Site: www.thepatriots.us
Some of the insights that a man of Bowman’s caliber can give us are simply so motivating and stimulating it can’t be overstated. We wish Bob all the best and we hope the American People get behind a man of such great wisdom and light in a dark, dark world!
Music by Jesse Goplen.
Direct download: visibility911_bursill_bowman.mp3
Dr Robert M. Bowman Talks "9/11 Truth To Power" on Visibility 9-11
Interview by John Bursill
Visibility 9-11 welcomes for the first time a tireless campaigner for peace, justice and liberty for the American People, hero and patriot Bob Bowman. In my opinion and from what Bob has achieved on shoe string budget over the last six years, it is fair to say he would have in all likelihood become the current President of the USA in a different and truthful world. That is a world where we had a free and honest press in the US and had the truth of the 9/11 attacks exposed to all. Bob is the man that best represents the phrase speaking truth to power and was the man that brought that term to the 9/11 Truth Movement through speeches throughout America and the world!
In this interview Bob talks about issues and ideas never before raised with him on air. This interview is a must listen!
Dr Robert M. Bowman is a former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force in the Ford and Carter administrations, and a former United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He holds a PhD in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Cal Tech. He has been a long time peace activist (30+ years) and was directly involved in preventing nuclear war by exposing the crazies in the White House and in the Military Industrial Complex for the idiocy they represent. Bob has found himself fighting those same people today as part of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
In this interview we cover a lot of new ground and new approaches to 9/11 Truth. Bob talks to us about infiltrating the halls of power with our message within the existing two party structure and the ways we can achieve our goals. He also gives a look into past meetings and attempts to encourage the Peace Movement to realize the power of questioning 9/11.
As has been a theme since I stepped in for Michael as the show host, I ask Bob about some controversial issues that plague the 9/11 Truth Movement. Including the recent unsupported accusations blaming Israel as the mastermind of the 9/11 Attacks. Bowman has a strong view that US policy towards Israel needs to change and is acutely aware of the situation as a half Jewish man who wants peace in the Middle East.
Bob is calling for support of his massive Westcoast Tour this summer so please get involved and support this outstanding man on a mission to educate, stimulate and encourage the people to speak truth to power!
Contact: bob (at) thepatriots.us
Web Site: www.thepatriots.us
Some of the insights that a man of Bowman’s caliber can give us are simply so motivating and stimulating it can’t be overstated. We wish Bob all the best and we hope the American People get behind a man of such great wisdom and light in a dark, dark world!
Music by Jesse Goplen.
Direct download: visibility911_bursill_bowman.mp3
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Prophet and Loss
Brooksley Born warned that unchecked trading in the credit market could lead to disaster, but power brokers in Washington ignored her. Now we're all paying the price.
BY RICK SCHMITT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIKA LARSEN
Shortly after she was named to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1996, Brooksley E. Born was invited to lunch by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.
The influential Greenspan was an ardent proponent of unfettered markets. Born was a powerful Washington lawyer with a track record for activist causes. Over lunch, in his private dining room at the stately headquarters of the Fed in Washington, Greenspan probed their differences.
“Well, Brooksley, I guess you and I will never agree about fraud,” Born, in a recent interview, remembers Greenspan saying.
“What is there not to agree on?” Born says she replied.
“Well, you probably will always believe there should be laws against fraud, and I don’t think there is any need for a law against fraud,” she recalls. Greenspan, Born says, believed the market would take care of itself.
For the incoming regulator, the meeting was a wake-up call. “That underscored to me how absolutist Alan was in his opposition to any regulation,” she said in the interview.
read more
BY RICK SCHMITT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIKA LARSEN
Shortly after she was named to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1996, Brooksley E. Born was invited to lunch by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.
The influential Greenspan was an ardent proponent of unfettered markets. Born was a powerful Washington lawyer with a track record for activist causes. Over lunch, in his private dining room at the stately headquarters of the Fed in Washington, Greenspan probed their differences.
“Well, Brooksley, I guess you and I will never agree about fraud,” Born, in a recent interview, remembers Greenspan saying.
“What is there not to agree on?” Born says she replied.
“Well, you probably will always believe there should be laws against fraud, and I don’t think there is any need for a law against fraud,” she recalls. Greenspan, Born says, believed the market would take care of itself.
For the incoming regulator, the meeting was a wake-up call. “That underscored to me how absolutist Alan was in his opposition to any regulation,” she said in the interview.
read more
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Toronto G20 Riot Fraud: Undercover Police engaged in Purposeful Provocation
At Tax Payers' Expense
By Terry Burrows
Global Research, June 27, 2010
Toronto is right now in the midst of a massive government / media propaganda fraud. As events unfold, it is becoming increasingly clear that the 'Black Bloc' are undercover police operatives engaged in purposeful provocations to eclipse and invalidate legitimate G20 citizen protest by starting a riot. Government agents have been caught doing this before in Canada.
read more
read: Canada paid $930m for security at the G20, yet the weekend saw chaos in downtown Toronto. What did we pay for, exactly?
By Terry Burrows
Global Research, June 27, 2010
Toronto is right now in the midst of a massive government / media propaganda fraud. As events unfold, it is becoming increasingly clear that the 'Black Bloc' are undercover police operatives engaged in purposeful provocations to eclipse and invalidate legitimate G20 citizen protest by starting a riot. Government agents have been caught doing this before in Canada.
read more
read: Canada paid $930m for security at the G20, yet the weekend saw chaos in downtown Toronto. What did we pay for, exactly?
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Readying Americans For Dangerous, Mandatory Vaccinations
Readying Americans For Dangerous,
Mandatory Vaccinations
By Stephen Lendman
13 June, 2009
Countercurrents.org
At least three US federal laws should concern all Americans and suggest what may be coming - mandatory vaccinations for hyped, non-existant threats, like H1N1 (Swine Flu). Vaccines and drugs like Tamiflu endanger human health but are hugely profitable to drug company manufacturers.
The Project BioShield Act of 2004 (S. 15) became law on July 21, 2004 "to provide protections and countermeasures against chemical, radiological, or nuclear agents that may be used in a terrorist attack against the United States by giving the National Institutes of Health contracting flexibility, infrastructure improvements, and expediting the scientific peer review process, and streamlining the Food and Drug Administration approval process of countermeasures."
In other words, the FDA may now recklessly approve inadequately tested, potentially dangerous vaccines and other drugs if ever the Secretaries of Health and Human Services (HHS) or Defense (DOD) declare a national emergency, whether or not one exists and regardless of whether treatments available are safe and effective. Around $6 billion or more will be spent to develop, produce, and stockpile vaccines and other drugs to counteract claimed bioterror agents.
read more
Mandatory Vaccinations
By Stephen Lendman
13 June, 2009
Countercurrents.org
At least three US federal laws should concern all Americans and suggest what may be coming - mandatory vaccinations for hyped, non-existant threats, like H1N1 (Swine Flu). Vaccines and drugs like Tamiflu endanger human health but are hugely profitable to drug company manufacturers.
The Project BioShield Act of 2004 (S. 15) became law on July 21, 2004 "to provide protections and countermeasures against chemical, radiological, or nuclear agents that may be used in a terrorist attack against the United States by giving the National Institutes of Health contracting flexibility, infrastructure improvements, and expediting the scientific peer review process, and streamlining the Food and Drug Administration approval process of countermeasures."
In other words, the FDA may now recklessly approve inadequately tested, potentially dangerous vaccines and other drugs if ever the Secretaries of Health and Human Services (HHS) or Defense (DOD) declare a national emergency, whether or not one exists and regardless of whether treatments available are safe and effective. Around $6 billion or more will be spent to develop, produce, and stockpile vaccines and other drugs to counteract claimed bioterror agents.
read more
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Atheist buses denying God's existence take to streets
Atheist adverts declaring that "there's probably no God" have been placed on 800 buses around Britain after an unprecedented fundraising campaign.
By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Published: 3:43PM GMT 06 Jan 2009
Organisers originally hoped to put the message on just a handful of London buses, as an antidote to posters put up by religious groups which they claimed were "threatening eternal damnation" to non-believers.
But after the campaign received high-profile support from the prominent atheist Prof Richard Dawkins and the British Humanist Association, the modest £5,500 target was met within minutes and more than £140,000 has now been donated since the launch in October.
Enough money has now been raised to place the message – "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" – on 200 bendy buses in the capital for a month, with the first ones taking to the streets .
read more
view video
By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Published: 3:43PM GMT 06 Jan 2009
Organisers originally hoped to put the message on just a handful of London buses, as an antidote to posters put up by religious groups which they claimed were "threatening eternal damnation" to non-believers.
But after the campaign received high-profile support from the prominent atheist Prof Richard Dawkins and the British Humanist Association, the modest £5,500 target was met within minutes and more than £140,000 has now been donated since the launch in October.
Enough money has now been raised to place the message – "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" – on 200 bendy buses in the capital for a month, with the first ones taking to the streets .
read more
view video
Maybe religion is the answer claims atheist scientist
The world may have to turn to God to save itself from climate change, claims one of Britain’s most eminent scientists.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Sep 2009
Lord May, the president of the British Science Association, said religion may have helped protect human society from itself in the past and it may be needed again.
Speaking on the eve of the association’s annual conference, the committed atheist said he was worried the world was on a “calamitous trajectory” brought on by its failure to co-ordinate measures against global warming.
He said that no country was prepared to take the lead and a “punisher” was needed to make sure the rules of co-operation were not broken.
The former Government chief scientific advisor said in the past that was God and it might be time again for religion to fill the gap.
read more
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Sep 2009
Lord May, the president of the British Science Association, said religion may have helped protect human society from itself in the past and it may be needed again.
Speaking on the eve of the association’s annual conference, the committed atheist said he was worried the world was on a “calamitous trajectory” brought on by its failure to co-ordinate measures against global warming.
He said that no country was prepared to take the lead and a “punisher” was needed to make sure the rules of co-operation were not broken.
The former Government chief scientific advisor said in the past that was God and it might be time again for religion to fill the gap.
read more
Some Big Lies of Science
By Dr. Denis G. Rancourt
2010-06-08
“[T]he majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.”– Harold Pinter, Nobel Lecture (Literature), 2005
The maintenance of the hierarchical structures that control our lives depends on Pinter’s “vast tapestry of lies upon which we feed.” Therefore, the main institutions that embed us into the hierarchy, such as schools, universities, and mass media and entertainment corporations, have a primary function to create and maintain this tapestry. This includes establishment scientists and all service intellectuals in charge of “interpreting” reality.
In fact, the scientists and “experts” define reality in order to bring it into conformity with the always-adapting dominant mental tapestry of the moment. They also invent and build new branches of the tapestry that serve specific power groups by providing new avenues of exploitation. These high priests are rewarded with high class status.
read more
2010-06-08
“[T]he majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.”– Harold Pinter, Nobel Lecture (Literature), 2005
The maintenance of the hierarchical structures that control our lives depends on Pinter’s “vast tapestry of lies upon which we feed.” Therefore, the main institutions that embed us into the hierarchy, such as schools, universities, and mass media and entertainment corporations, have a primary function to create and maintain this tapestry. This includes establishment scientists and all service intellectuals in charge of “interpreting” reality.
In fact, the scientists and “experts” define reality in order to bring it into conformity with the always-adapting dominant mental tapestry of the moment. They also invent and build new branches of the tapestry that serve specific power groups by providing new avenues of exploitation. These high priests are rewarded with high class status.
read more
Denis Rancourt
Denis Rancourt is a physics professor at the University of Ottawa known for his unorthodox views on student grading - he believes that grades interfere with the learning process and reinforce unequal power relationships.
read more
Denis Rancourt on Academic Freedom [Part 1/3]
Denis Rancourt on Academic Freedom [Part 2/3]
Denis Rancourt on Academic Freedom [Part 3/3]
read more
Denis Rancourt on Academic Freedom [Part 1/3]
Denis Rancourt on Academic Freedom [Part 2/3]
Denis Rancourt on Academic Freedom [Part 3/3]
Sebastian Junger as a Propagandist for Aggressive Warfare in the Era of Barack Obama's Presidency by Anthony J. Hall
Has Sebastian Junger been cast as a front-line propagandist in the ongoing psychological operation of poisoning public consciousness so that citizens will support the Obama regime’s unconscionable extension and escalation of the 9/11 wars? It certainly seemed to me during my recent trip to California that the telegenic Junger is busily engaged in pumping out a potent mix of strategic disinformation on behalf of the world’s most lethal and unbridled war machine. These days one of the main imperatives of this war machine’s media manipulations must be to assuage the constituency that voted for Obama so that aroused public opinion in the so-called Homeland will not get in the way of the military superpower’s most recent rounds of Eurasian invasion.
imgres.jpgI think I witnessed Junger and his publicity team deploy all their war-promoting guile at an extremely well crafted presentation underneath the Hollywood Hills at the Central Public Library in downtown Los Angeles. Junger took center stage to promote his new book entitled, simply, War [1]War’s text is based on Junger’s five interludes as a so-called embedded journalist with a small combat unit of US special forces in 2007 and 2008 in the Korengal Valley region of eastern Afghanistan. The book is one part of a larger media push. The centerpiece of this propaganda effort is Restrepo, a documentary film by Junger and British photographer, Tim Hetherington.Restrepo captured the Grand Jury prize for best documentary at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah.
In the book and in the accompanying documentary film, Junger’s technique is to concentrate on human interest stories that put in the best possible light the personal attributes and experiences of US soldiers. He told the audience at the Los Angeles Public Library that he wanted to be “embedded emotionally” with his armed brethren on the most extended frontiers of US military power. As stated by one of Junger’s handlers at the Sundance Film Festival, the war reporter’s goal is to spin a narrative of “pure experience,” one that treats “political context” as being “beside the point. [2] While Junger’s primary focus is to lionize America’s fighting men, the author does not miss the opportunity to direct verbal assaults at those opposing the foreign military occupation of Afghanistan.
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imgres.jpgI think I witnessed Junger and his publicity team deploy all their war-promoting guile at an extremely well crafted presentation underneath the Hollywood Hills at the Central Public Library in downtown Los Angeles. Junger took center stage to promote his new book entitled, simply, War [1]War’s text is based on Junger’s five interludes as a so-called embedded journalist with a small combat unit of US special forces in 2007 and 2008 in the Korengal Valley region of eastern Afghanistan. The book is one part of a larger media push. The centerpiece of this propaganda effort is Restrepo, a documentary film by Junger and British photographer, Tim Hetherington.Restrepo captured the Grand Jury prize for best documentary at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah.
In the book and in the accompanying documentary film, Junger’s technique is to concentrate on human interest stories that put in the best possible light the personal attributes and experiences of US soldiers. He told the audience at the Los Angeles Public Library that he wanted to be “embedded emotionally” with his armed brethren on the most extended frontiers of US military power. As stated by one of Junger’s handlers at the Sundance Film Festival, the war reporter’s goal is to spin a narrative of “pure experience,” one that treats “political context” as being “beside the point. [2] While Junger’s primary focus is to lionize America’s fighting men, the author does not miss the opportunity to direct verbal assaults at those opposing the foreign military occupation of Afghanistan.
read more
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