6/5/2003
War Profiteers Card Deck :.The War Profiteers Card Deck exposes some of the real war criminals in the US�s endless War of Terror. This is no Sunday bridge club. These are individuals and institutions that stack the deck against democracy in the rigged game of global power. Exposing their place in the house of cards illuminates the links among corporations, institutions, and government officials that profit from endless war. The US War of Terror is not about liberation, democracy, or UN resolutions. Plainly put, the War of Terror--whether in Iraq, Colombia, Afghanistan, or the USA--is about subjugation, resource extraction, and opening markets: a practice once referred to more honestly as colonialism.
posted by Kevin at 6:11 PM
6/4/2003
Escape from the Petro Prison :.This is an essay I wrote for PrisonPlanet.com, but for some reason, they decided not to run it: For at least the past 100 years, the world has been trapped in a prison built out of oil. Indeed, the primacy of oil in the domestic and foreign affairs of industrialized states is without question. But if one thinks the petroleum paradigm endures because there are no viable alternatives, one would be wrong. The barriers to the wide adoption of alternative sources of energy are political and economic in nature, not scientific or technical. This essay describes a clean, electrically generated synthetic fuel that could allow for a grass roots transformation of the global political and economic system; a system ruled by a corporate oligopoly who�s interests are inimical to those of people everywhere.Related: Hydrogen Economy, It's Nuclear :.In the above essay, Escape from the Petro Prison, I wrote that hydrogen is part of the energy problem, not part of the solution. I didn't realize how chillingly accurate that statement was until I read the following from the Village Voice: On a sunny Saturday morning 30 years from now, you may decide to take your family for a ride to the country. You'll still be driving a car, and you may still get stuck in traffic. But that's OK, because the only thing you'll be breathing in is water vapor from the car in front of you.
Welcome to the seemingly benign "hydrogen economy" President Bush has touted over the past year. Pollution-free cars. Abundant fuel. A cleaner environment.
But there's one factor the president isn't talking much about: the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new nuclear power plants his administration imagines making all of that hydrogen.
The Bush administration and Senate Republicans want to give billions of taxpayer dollars to the nuclear industry to make high-temperature, gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), which�theoretically�can co-generate electricity and hydrogen, side by side, inside cheap modular reactors. Advocates of the plants say they wouldn't need the expensive protections required for traditional models.Please, I implore you: Start getting the word out about this dangerous and unnecessary swindle! When the oil and gas run out, they will try to con us all into believing that nuclear power is the only option. The reality is that nuclear power is the only option that will insure elite control over power generation and distribution. More: Noam ChomskyI never shared this with any of you, but I have been in contact with Noam Chomsky. He doesn't see the need to dwell on the alternative energy issue because he feels that the subject requires specialist knowledge that he doesn't have. Again, specialists like hydrogen-as-an-alternative-fuel, are parts of the problem, not the solution. This was my response: Professor Chomsky,
Thank you for responding. Alternative fuels are way out of my line, too. My degree is in international relations and I have no background in science at all. The people who should be working on emerging forms of energy are too afraid of losing grant money. Those of us not bound by dogma must take up this work because the culture of establishment scientific research is not willing to question the underlying assumptions of their worldviews. As a result, the amazing stuff, the paradigm shifting stuff, remains obscure.
Politics is not your line, one might argue, since you are a professor of linguistics. Yet, you are the preeminent voice of political dissent on the planet. I first heard you on 90.7fm KPFK in Los Angeles when I was 17. That was 14 years ago. As I was getting my degree at [university name deleted], I kept asking myself: Why do I keep referring to the political writings of a linguist, rather than someone more "qualified" in international relations? Obviously, international relations, as an area of inquiry in universities, is a total fraud. These departments exist by ignoring the prima facie truths presented by you and others.
I'm afraid that the same self inflicted blindness that occurs in international relations is increasingly present in physics, chemistry and engineering circles. Indeed, what would happen to the millions of dollars worth of oil money (as grants) if researchers began to dismantle the petroleum based system in which we exist? Professor Brian Martin states, "An old saying is that 'The one who pays the piper calls the tune.' This applies to knowledge as much as to anything else." (Information Liberation, Chapter 7: The Politics of Research, http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/98il/il07.html) What scientist is going to get a grant to develop a viable fuel based on tap water? Hydrogen research is creaking along only because it is a costly, far-off-in-the-future route that allows elites to maintain control. Aquafuel is nothing like hydrogen, and that's why hardly anyone has ever heard of it.
I'm not suggesting that you should become the underground God of physics and chemistry, like you did with politics. :) But I know you know people. Lots of people. From the fringes of the fringe, all of the way on up the social ladder. If you require a more polished and less abrasive approach than my web site is able to provide (sorry, I'm just too pissed to maintain appearances) please direct interested parties to these papers:
The Novel Magnecular Species of Hydrogen and Oxygen with Increased Specific Weight and Energy Content by Ruggero Maria Santilli
http://www.i-b-r.org/docs/magneh.pdf
and
AquaFuel, an Example of the Emerging New Energies and the New Methods for Their Scientific Study by Ruggero Maria Santilli
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/9805/9805031.pdf
Marching, demonstrating, etc. is not working. And violence is not an option. Energy anarchy would threaten the regime in a powerful new way. The average person on the street doesn't understand the true nature of economics and politics, and probably never will. Ask a thousand people, chosen at random, to define oligarchy. How many could do it? It's probably less than 1%. But even the serious knuckle draggers can comprehend, "Free gas." Look what happens when gas stations pull stunts that involve selling gas for a penny per gallon. They line up for blocks and wait for hours. I'm focusing on this type of sentiment because striking at core elite revenue streams is the only way I can see of affecting any meaningful changes.
I know you're busy. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Best regards, Kevin
posted by Kevin at 6:23 PM
6/3/2003
Oregon: GPS in Every Car :.No, brother. This will not stand: Oregon wants to know more about where people are driving -- a lot more. And it's looking at some high-tech ideas to generate tax revenue by billing drivers for every mile they travel on the state's roads.
The Oregon Department of Transportation is evaluating a scheme that uses the global positioning system to keep track of the distance every car travels in order to impose a road-use tax.More: GPS Jamming for $50
posted by Kevin at 11:05 PM
Irradiated Beef Okay for National School Lunch Program :.The U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted its ban on irradiated ground beef in the national school program last week, a move that drew sharp criticism from some public health groups who do not believe safety concerns have been addressed. The USDA's decision means that school districts will be allowed to purchase irradiated meat starting in January 2004.
posted by Kevin at 10:55 PM
6/2/2003
IBM Says SEC Probing Its Accounting :.Come on Big Blue, let's go: International Business Machines Corp. on Monday said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had begun a formal investigation of how the world's largest computer company accounted for some revenue in 2000 and 2001.And, as an added bonus: CIA Says al Qaeda Ready to Use Nukes :. Al Qaeda terrorists and related groups are set to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in deadly strikes, according to a new CIA report.
"Al Qaeda's goal is the use of [chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons] to cause mass casualties," the CIA stated in an internal report produced last month.
posted by Kevin at 11:50 PM
Cops = Terrorists :.�It was early evening on a November day five years ago when Oliverio Martinez, 29, rode his bicycle down a path and across a vacant lot toward a row of small homes.
Two officers, Andrew Salinas and Maria Pena, had stopped to question a man they suspected, wrongly it turned out, of selling drugs. When they heard a squeaky bike approach in the dark, they called for the rider to stop.
Martinez dismounted and put his hands over his head. In a leather sheath on a waist band, he carried a long knife that he used to cut strawberries.
When the officer patted him down and grabbed for the knife, Martinez tried to run. Salinas tackled him and tried to handcuff him. As they struggled on the ground, the officer called out that the man had a huge knife. Pena moved closer and fired.
One bullet struck Martinez near the left eye and exited behind his right eye. A second hit his spine. Three more shots hit his legs.
posted by Kevin at 11:41 PM
Milk = Poison :.WARNING: You probably shouldn't visit notmilk.com if you plan on having a productive day.
posted by Kevin at 11:35 PM
Protesters Attempt to Get G8 States to Turn the Other Cheek :.More pictures of the antics are here. It's too bad that all of this will never amount to anything. There is, however, something refreshing about seeing some freak spray painting, "All cops are bastards," on a wall and a naked woman with anti corporate slogans all over her backside. Ahhh, oblivion, it's lovely this time of year: Anti-G8 protesters have blocked bridges with burning tyres in Geneva and French police have fired teargas at activists who were trying to bar the way to the town of Evian, hours before the start of a summit of world leaders there.
In Lausanne, across Lake Geneva from Evian and another protest hotspot, a few hundred demonstrators, many wearing balaclavas and masks, marched through the Swiss city smashing shop windows and looting two petrol stations.
"No blood for oil," the Lausanne protesters, wearing the trademark anarchist black T-shirts, chanted in a clear reference to the United States' invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Police also used teargas and water cannon at one point in Lausanne to force back a group of demonstrators who tried to approach hotels where some developing country leaders invited to the summit were staying.
The small French border town of Annemasse and nearby Geneva, home to the World Trade Organisation and United Nations agencies, along with Lausanne, became the focus of anti-summit protests after French police and troops sealed off the spa town of Evian with a ring of steel.
French and Swiss police have been on high alert after the mayhem that rocked the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, two years ago when one protester was shot dead by police.
posted by Kevin at 2:19 AM
Iraqi Intifada? :.An intifada is brewing in Iraq, and American troops are about to stop being liberators and will be forced to embrace their inner occupiers. And many Americans don�t give a damn.
Twenty soldiers have died in fighting or accidents since May 1, the day Bush declared the major fighting over. Five have died this week alone.
posted by Kevin at 2:15 AM
Ted Turner: Monopoly or Democracy? :.I find this entire discussion ridiculous. Let them merge into a single corporation for all I care. What difference does it make? The media has been usless in this country for longer than I've been alive (31 years), so why not just let it fester into a larger pustule of lies and deceit? At some point, people will need to realize that trying to fix something that is hopelessly broken is a waste of time. Stop consuming their nonsense. Turn off your television. Cancel your newspaper subscription. Grow some vegetables. Make some nice tasting tea. And just let the system collapse. It's near to the end. There's no sense in getting upset about it: On Monday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to adopt dramatic rule changes that will extend the market dominance of the five media corporations that control most of what Americans read, see and hear. I am a major shareholder in the largest of those five corporations, yet -- speaking only for myself, and not for AOL Time Warner -- I oppose these rules. They will stifle debate, inhibit new ideas and shut out smaller businesses trying to compete. If these rules had been in place in 1970, it would have been virtually impossible for me to start Turner Broadcasting or, 10 years later, to launch CNN.Research Credit: JM
posted by Kevin at 2:13 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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