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4/11/2003
Stoned on Television :.This is the most shocking article I have read in a VERY long time. Please think long and hard about exposing yourself and or your children to the most ubiquitous drug of them all: Television. This article is almost too much to handle; definite red pill material. This isn't the standard, "Kill your television 'cuz it just spews crap" type of argument. This article discusses the psychological and physiological responses that occur when someone uses television. An absolute, without a doubt, must read: As one might expect, people who were watching TV when we beeped them reported feeling relaxed and passive. The EEG studies similarly show less mental stimulation, as measured by alpha brain-wave production, during viewing than during reading.
What is more surprising is that the sense of relaxation ends when the set is turned off, but the feelings of passivity and lowered alertness continue. Survey participants commonly reflect that television has somehow absorbed or sucked out their energy, leaving them depleted. They say they have more difficulty concentrating after viewing than before. In contrast, they rarely indicate such difficulty after reading. After playing sports or engaging in hobbies, people report improvements in mood. After watching TV, people's moods are about the same or worse than before.
Within moments of sitting or lying down and pushing the "power" button, viewers report feeling more relaxed. Because the relaxation occurs quickly, people are conditioned to associate viewing with rest and lack of tension. The association is positively reinforced because viewers remain relaxed throughout viewing, and it is negatively reinforced via the stress and dysphoric rumination that occurs once the screen goes blank again.
Habit-forming drugs work in similar ways. A tranquilizer that leaves the body rapidly is much more likely to cause dependence than one that leaves the body slowly, precisely because the user is more aware that the drug's effects are wearing off. Similarly, viewers' vague learned sense that they will feel less relaxed if they stop viewing may be a significant factor in not turning the set off. Viewing begets more viewing.
posted by Kevin at 12:58 AM
4/10/2003
Iran and Syria Are Next :.Emboldened by the U.S. military's apparent quick rout of Iraqi forces, conservative hawks in America are setting their sights on regime change in Iran and Syria.
"It's time to bring down the other terror masters," Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute wrote on Monday -- two days before U.S. troops swept into the heart of Baghdad -- in a piece entitled "Syria and Iran Must Get Their Turn."
"Iran, at least, offers Americans the possibility of a memorable victory, because the Iranian people openly loath the regime, and will enthusiastically combat it, if only the United States supports them in their just struggle," he added. "Syria cannot stand alone against a successful democratic revolution that topples tyrannical regimes in Kabul, Tehran and Iraq."
posted by Kevin at 11:31 PM
Ahhh, Liberty: Now Turn in Your Guns :.Gun amnesty launched in Basra: An "amnesty pit" has been created close to one British compound in the city in the hope residents will dump their guns.
Captain Cliff Dare, of 3 Commando Brigade Engineer Group, said: "An amnesty is essential.
"Iraq has a culture of weapons. There are a lot of them around, most held quite legally.
"If we want to give the new Iraq a chance these weapons have to be taken out of circulation."
posted by Kevin at 11:24 PM
Googlewashing: The Second Superpower :.The Internet contains billions of pages of information. Most people, however, including me, use a single search engine to access those billions of pages of information. Google. Google is emerging as the only game in town when it comes to search engines. The obvious danger is that a choke point may emerge to certain types of information. I have personally experienced Google weirdness. They refused to run paid advertising for Cryptogon due to content. While Google simply censored my site, the Googlewashing incident documented here is much more sinister. The "Second Superpower" stunt ammounts to nothing less than outright Orwellian ratf*cking. While lots of people fawn over how great Google is, I would be very cautious about putting all of our search engine eggs in one basket. (Before I get a thousand emails wondering if I know about www.google-watch.org, yes, thanks I do.) From the Register: This year marks the 100th anniversary of George Orwell's birth, and the writer who best explained the power of language on politics would be amazed what can be done with the Internet.
On February 17 a front page news analysis in the New York Times bylined by Patrick Tyler described the global anti-war protests as the emergence of "the second superpower".
Tyler wrote: "...the huge anti-war demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion."
This potent phrase spread rapidly.
Anti-war campaigners, peace groups and NGOs took to describing the global popular protest as "the second superpower" [Greenpeace release]. And in less than a month, the phrase was being used by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. [Financial Times - reg req'd].
And a week ago, a Google search for the phrase would have shown the vigorous propagation of this 'meme'.
Rub out the word
Then came this. Entitled The Second Superpower Rears its Beautiful Head, by James F Moore, it was accompanied by a brand new blog.
The details need not detain us for very long, because the consequences of this piece are much more important than its anodyne contents.
It's a plea for net users to organize themselves as a "superpower", and represents a class of techno-utopian literature that John Perry Barlow has been promoting - the same sappy stuff, but not as well written - for the past ten years.
Only note how this example is sprinkled with trigger words for progressives, liberals and NPR listeners. It concludes - if you can find your way through this mound of feel-good styrofoam peanuts - "we do not have to create a world where differences are resolved by war. It is not our destiny to live in a world of destruction, tedium, and tragedy. We will create a world of peace".
In common with the genre, there's no social or political context, although the author offers a single specific instruction that is very jarring in the surrounding blandness: we must co-operate with The World Bank. Huh?
It's politics with the politics taken out: in short, it's "revolution lite".Update: Google Just Googlewashed the Register! :.Google has made its own statement on the 'Googlewash': by making The Register story that coined the phrase disappear from its search results.
Not all the search results, mark you, but a very specific one. When you search for the word "Googlewash" (as at 9pm Pacific Time last night) around a hundred results are returned by default. Our story, which is where the word was coined, isn't among them.
We found it, eventually, but it was very difficult.
posted by Kevin at 5:30 PM
Hide and Seek...and then Bomb/Liberate? :.Where are those pesky Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? You're going to love this. Maybe they were shipped to other Axis of Evil states! HAHAHA! Can you see the cracked lightbulb above Rumsfeld's head? Rumsfeld, asked today about the level of concern within the Bush administration over the existence of WMD in Iraq, replied: "You bet we're concerned about it."
He said: "The nexus between terrorist states with weapons of mass destruction, in this case chemical and biological and nuclear technologies and knowledge, and terrorists groups, networks, is a critical link."
The possibility that "some of those materials could leave the country and (get into) the hands of terrorist networks would be a very unhappy prospect," he said.
posted by Kevin at 5:10 AM
FBI Counter Intelligence Agent Does Double Duty :.A retired FBI agent who allegedly had an affair with a suspected Chinese double agent while he was in charge of the FBI's Chinese counterintelligence operation in California is under arrest, charged with gross negligence, federal officials said. [Let that sink in for a few moments, and then read it again.] The former agent, identified as James Smith, allegedly had a sexual relationship with Katrina Leung, a Republican Party activist in California, officials said. Smith, 59, who retired from his job in the bureau's Los Angeles office in 2000, had been in charge of the office's China counterintelligence squad and was Leung's primary "handler" in her work for the United States, law enforcement officials said.And Now: Making the Patriot Act Permanent
posted by Kevin at 4:59 AM
Carlyle Group Heads for Lisbon :.Top of the meeting�s agenda is expected to be the company�s involvement in the rebuilding of Baghdad�s infrastructure after the cessation of current hostilities. Along with several other US companies, the Carlyle Group is expected to be awarded a billion dollar contract by the US Government to help in the redevelopment of airfields and urban areas destroyed by Coalition aerial bombardments.
The Group is managed by a team of former US Government personnel including its president Frank Carlucci, former deputy director of the CIA before becoming Defence Secretary. His deputy is James Baker II, who was Secretary of State under George Bush senior. Several high profile former politicians are employed to represent the company overseas, among them John Major, former British Prime Minister, along with George Bush senior, one time CIA director before becoming US President.
The financial assets of the Saudi Binladen Corporation (SBC) are also managed by the Carlyle Group. The SBC is headed up by members of Osama bin Laden�s family, who played a principle role in helping George W. Bush win petroleum concessions from Bahrain when he was head of the Texan oil company, Harken Energy Corporation - a deal that was to make the Bush family millions of dollars. Salem, Osama bin Laden�s brother, was represented on Harken�s board of directors by his American agent, James R. Bath.
posted by Kevin at 4:06 AM
4/9/2003
Thank You for Not Breeding :.The majestic stork, dropping little bundles of oblivion all over the land: Grieg's Morning (Pier Gynt) plays over a classically animated stork carrying a bundle in its bill. As it sails over a peaceful natural setting of trees, rivers, and wildlife, another stork appears, then another and another. The formation of storks drops a bundle on the unsuspecting landscape: it explodes like a bomb, leaving not a crater, but a tract home and SUV. More storks assemble into warplane formations, and dropping bundles turn forests into cookie-cutter housing developments. We pull out to a growing flock of storks from above, over a satellite image of a sprawling city. From outer space the Earth grows redder and hotter, until a final explosion reduces the planet to a cute smiling baby head.
posted by Kevin at 6:13 PM
Making the Patriot Act Permanent :.Congressional Republicans, working with the Bush administration, are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping anti-terrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said Tuesday.
The move is likely to touch off strong objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress who believe that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans.
The landmark legislation expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects. When it passed in October 2001, moderates and civil libertarians in Congress agreed to support it only by making many critical provisions temporary. Those provisions will expire, or "sunset," at the end of 2005 unless Congress reauthorizes them.
posted by Kevin at 4:14 PM
Blood Splattered Camera
posted by Kevin at 5:39 AM
4/8/2003
Good Chomsky Interview :.Definite red pill material: The trial run is to try and establish what the U.S. calls a "new norm" in international relations. The new norm is "preventive war" (notice that new norms are established only by the United States). So, for example, when India invaded East Pakistan to terminate horrendous massacres, it did not establish a new norm of humanitarian intervention, because India is the wrong country, and besides, the U.S. was strenuously opposed to that action.
This is not pre-emptive war; there is a crucial difference. Pre-emptive war has a meaning, it means that, for example, if planes are flying across the Atlantic to bomb the United States, the United States is permitted to shoot them down even before they bomb and may be permitted to attack the air bases from which they came. Pre-emptive war is a response to ongoing or imminent attack.
The doctrine of preventive war is totally different; it holds that the United States - alone, since nobody else has this right - has the right to attack any country that it claims to be a potential challenge to it. So if the United States claims, on whatever grounds, that someone may sometime threaten it, then it can attack them.
The doctrine of preventive war was announced explicitly in the National Strategy Report last September. It sent shudders around the world, including through the U.S. establishment, where, I might say, opposition to the war is unusually high. The National Strategy Report said, in effect, that the U.S. will rule the world by force, which is the dimension - the only dimension - in which it is supreme. Furthermore, it will do so for the indefinite future, because if any potential challenge arises to U.S. domination, the U.S. will destroy it before it becomes a challenge.
posted by Kevin at 5:57 PM
Editorial NoteI'm only posting the most off-the-rails stories at this point. I need to spend more time NOT working on this site. Anyway, if you don't get it by this point, you never will.
posted by Kevin at 5:09 AM
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome :.You guys may or may not have noticed that I haven't posted a single story on the SARS thing. From day one, it reeked of a scam, but I didn't have much to go on besides the standard puke put out by the usual suspects. I thought I'd wait for Leonard Horowitz to sound off, because, while he may sound like a lunatic to the uninitiated, I think the guy is dead on. I didn't have to wait long: This spreading scourge of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome stretching from Asia to North America has all the earmarks of a novel social experiment in population manipulation aimed to culture the mass mind for the arrival of "the Big One"-a biological agent that will facilitate decimation of approximately a third to half of the world's population, in keeping with current official population reduction objectives.
Naturally you would be disinclined to believe the above sentence. Open-mindedness in this domain threatens exposure to a "Twilight Zone" of knowledge in which reality is far stranger than fiction. Your first instinct, therefore, might be to close this page in favor of the next SARS site that promises more of the standard treatments broadcast on every official news page and government report on this subject. But, if you choose to have your worldview shattered by considering the little known truths surrounding Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, then continue reading....
posted by Kevin at 5:06 AM
Israel: U.S. Peace Activist Shot in the Face :.An American peace activist volunteering as a human shield in the West Bank was seriously wounded on Saturday when Israeli troops allegedly opened fire on him.
Brian Avery, 24, from Albuquerque, N.M., heard shots fired and came out of his apartment building in Jenin to investigate just as an armored personnel carrier rounded a corner, said Tobias Karlsson, a fellow activist from Sweden.
Avery and Karlsson are members of the Palestinian-backed group International Solidarity Movement. Members of the group often insert themselves between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers to try to stop Israeli military operations.
"We had our hands up and we were wearing vests that clearly identified us as international workers when they began firing,'' Karlsson said. "Brian was shot in the face, and it looks like he was hit by a heavy caliber bullet because of the extent of the wound.''Flashback: The Murder of Rachel Corrie
posted by Kevin at 4:18 AM
U.S. Prisons, Jails Now Hold Two Million Inmates :.Attention corporate executives: Fire those pesky employees making minimum wage or more and lease a prisoner for three bucks per day! Behold: The Prison Industrial Complex: With the federal government leading the way, the number of inmates in American prisons topped 2 million for the first time, the Justice Department reports.
posted by Kevin at 4:05 AM
Police Attack California Anti War Protestors :."Non-lethal" bullets routinely kill people: Police opened fire with non-lethal bullets at an anti-war protest at the Port of Oakland Monday morning, injuring several longshoremen standing nearby.
Police were trying to clear protesters from an entrance to the docks when they opened fire and the longshoremen apparently were caught in the line of fire.
Six longshoremen were treated by paramedics and at least one was expected to be taken to a hospital. It was unclear if any of the protesters was injured.
"I was standing as far back as I could," said longshoreman Kevin Wilson. "It was very scary. All of that force wasn't necessary."More: Indymedia Coverage (Graphic injury images)
posted by Kevin at 3:18 AM
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:. Reading
 Fatal
Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell
Readers will come to see
that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest"
- fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors
such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way
into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff
from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to
genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield
monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our
farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate
farms.
 Friendly
Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross
This is a relatively
short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise
of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th
century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward;
the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and
military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined
to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly
persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans
through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.
 The
Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing Helen
and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land
movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based
on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating,
timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging
philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.
 Silent
Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd
In Silent Theft, David Bollier
argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering
privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are
engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we
collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs,
software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative
works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often,
however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps
give away our assets. Amazingly,
the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed
because we have lost our ability to see the commons.
 The
Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics
Guide by John Seymour The
Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that
teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony
with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops
and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and
wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.
 When
Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten
When Corporations
Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated
the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets
and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It
documents the devastating human and environmental consequences
of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct
values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their
own narrow ends.
 The
New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques
for the Home and Market Gardener
This expansion
of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended
for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes
practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables,
with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock,
the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other
topics.
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