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1/17/2004



U.S. Dollar Plunge Could Lead to Full-Blown Financial Crisis :.

I was at Home Depot today. I was buying 16 foot long 2x12 boards for my garden. Man, that place was packed. All I could think was, "Enjoy it while it lasts, folks." As I was wheeling my lumber around, looking at everyone, it dawned on me that the fact that I could still get material like this is a miracle. I wish there was more time to prepare. I wish I had a few more dollars to set things up properly. Oh well:

There are fears the American appetite for Japanese cars, Chinese clothing and Malaysian electronics could cause a global financial crisis sparked by a run on the US dollar.

This has led to a massive current account deficit of more than US$500 billion (S$850 billion) - a far cry from 10 years ago, when the US enjoyed a trade surplus of US$82 billion.

Its budget deficit could hit US$450 billion this year - another record, and a dramatic turnaround from 2001, when government coffers were in the black.

This has led commentators to lament how America's twin deficits could grow into a 'full-blown, Third World-style financial crisis'.

The logic is simple.

Like Thailand, America's deficits are financed largely by foreigners, particularly Asian central banks that want to keep their currencies weak against the greenback to boost their country's exports.

Any crisis of confidence would see them withdrawing their loans, triggering a fall in American financial markets and then a run on the greenback.

The writing is already on the wall.





Schwarzenegger Budget to Slash Health and Education in California :.

Commentary on this story from What Really Happened:

The US is in the final death-spiral. More and more money is being taken from the people while less and less is given back, all so that those in power can hang onto that power a little bit longer against the coming debt crash.





New U.S. Military Snuff Film: Apache Liquifies People with 30mm Canon :.

Save it locally. Do a right-click-> Save target as. I'm not hosting this, it could disappear at any moment. There are some weird aspects to this video. Who knows what this is... The one thing that is clear is that the marauding hordes of the U.S. military have god-like powers. That thing can strike you dead in the black of night. You don't even see it coming. There is no way to fight back.


1/16/2004



U.S. Responsible for Journalists Deaths :.

I follow the deaths of journalists in war zones. Here's why:

I nearly went to Bosnia, during the bloodbath back in the 1990s. I wound up not going because I learned that the Serb leadership was paying cash for confirmed kills of photographers. I saw a picture of a guy, probably about my age, lying dead on a street, his still intact camera body was next to his head. A young Japanese photographer's Nikon stopped a 7.62mm bullet from passing right through his center of mass; that would have been a fatal injury for sure. His parents made a shrine for the destroyed camera. I took these images in and a little voice told me, "You won't make it out of there alive if you go." I wasn't afraid of dying. I was slightly concerned, however, about dying for nothing. And that was a very probable outcome of anything I would have been up to in Bosnia in the mid 1990s. You see, I had a feeling that I'd buy the farm, not because of photography, but because I would have probably set the camera gear down, picked up an AK-47 and gone off to fight the Serbs along side the Bosniak (primarily Muslim) elements who's people were being systematically exterminated.

I wouldn't have lasted long as a photojournalist. Not in that thing. It's tough to remain neutral in a situation when genocide is the order of the day.

After doing more research on combat photographers, I learned that they generally CAN'T stay away from war zones. It's not that they're adrenaline junkies, or morbid freaks. Seeing what they see changes them. It makes life back in "normal" society extremely difficult. The nightmares and shaking hands probably don't help matters much. (I had them, for a couple of days, after photographing a small plane crash and seeing the mangled, charred remains of a family of four.) They find that the best way to make it through to the next day is to go back to a war zone. Occasionally, of course, they die trying to tell the story, trying to make it through to the next day. People always ask, "Why go back to such dangerous situations?" Each journalist comes up with different reasons, but the folks who say they can't help it are the ones I believe the most.

I never physically traveled to Bosnia, but I went far enough to reach the point of no return:

Washington and senior US commanders in Iraq are responsible for the death of two journalists killed when a US tank crew fired at their hotel in Baghdad last year, Reporters Without Borders has said.

The Paris-based media watchdog branded the US government's response to the incident as a "lie".



"The Reporters Without Borders enquiry shows there was lying, as well as three levels of responsibility," said the report, written by a journalist for the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateu on Thursday.

The 30-page document entitled Two Murders states that while US soldiers who fired the single tank shell that killed the two journalists and injured three others at the Palestine Hotel on 8 April could not be held accountable for the tragedy, their superiors did bear responsibility.


1/15/2004



Arizona Makes Secession Preparations :.

This is an oldie, but a goodie, worth keeping in mind:

An Arizona state legislative committee has approved a resolution calling for the dissolution of the federal government in the event that it abolishes the U.S. Constitution, declares martial law or confiscates firearms -- scenarios some say are not unrealistic. Critics of the resolution, however, call the measure a "total waste of time."

By adopting HRC 2034, Arizona states its intention to dissolve the current federal government with the approval of 34 other states and, in essence, start over. Participating states would re-ratify and re-establish the present Constitution "as the charter for the formation of a new federal government, to be followed by the election of a new Congress and President and the reorganization of a new judiciary," in keeping with the original intent of the "founding fathers." Individual members of the military will return to their respective states and report to the governor until a new president is elected.

In addition, each state will assume a prorated portion of the national debt and will own all land within its borders. After the new government is formed, the remaining 15 states will be permitted to join the revised union upon application, as was the case with the original union.

A three-year veteran to the Arizona Legislature, Johnson told the Sierra Times the resolution is "insurance policy."

"If the federal government declares martial law or attempts to confiscate guns, the states shouldn't have to put up with that," she said.





Neem: An Effective Form of Contraception?

Class, today we're going to talk about contraception.

Pharmaceutical contraception is one of the great scams in conventional medicine. The pharmaceutical companies wage chemical warfare on the female body, while lifting her wallet each month. Not only is this insane and dangerous, but because it's a multi billion dollar business, it's standard operating procedure for millions of women.

The LADY-COMP is an electronic device that is extremely effective for preventing (actually, naturally avoiding) pregnancy. (An ex girlfriend and I used this for nearly a year and she didn't get pregnant.) Designed by researchers in Germany, and built to medical device standards, the LADY-COMP is approved for use by women all over the world.... but not in the United States! I'd like to see your doctor explain his/her way out of why this isn't readily available in the U.S. Those people are the tools and vassals of pharmaceutical companies. End of story.

But wait: It gets better. Have you ever heard of neem?

I'm going to copy some of the information here because there is an obvious effort underway to disappear this information via the Google memory hole functionality. If you're interested in learning more about neem as a potential form of contraception, this info should be enough to get you searching in the right direction:

From http://www.drdo.org/labs/dls/dipas/tech.shtml:

Neem Contraceptive

An indigenous contraceptive derived from Neem oil, NIM-76 as the active ingredient, has been developed and registered as `Concept`. This is approved as an ayurvedic product by the Drug Controller of the Government of Tamil Nadu. SIRI Ltd, a Hyderabad-based bulk drug manufacturing company has accepted commercialisation of the Neem contraceptive.


From http://www.barnard.columbia.edu/health/well_woman/qa/3_01d.htm:

Q:What is neem oil? Can it be used as a contraceptive?

A: Neem oil comes from the Neem tree, an evergreen tree found in both India and Burma invested with medicinal qualities. Most recently, neem oil has been found to be a very powerful spermicide- able to kill sperm within 30 seconds of contact. Trials on lab animals showed that a small amount of the oil in the uterus of the animal could provide contraceptive protection for up to 180 days. Further study involving the Indian Army and soldier's families provided validation of the initial laboratory claims.

Additionally, the oil has not been associated with any of the negative side effects common to many vaginal contraceptive creams and it has shown promise as emergency contraception. Scientists in India are working to develop a contraceptive cream for public use, however as of now the cream is not yet available in the U.S. Neem oil has not yet been processed through FDA safety and efficacy standards required before it can be used for medical purposes in the US. We can expect to see more studies over the next few years, and Well Woman will keep you informed of the latest developments.



From: PubMed:

Contraception. 1994 Feb; 49(2): 161-9.

Long-term contraceptive effects of intrauterine neem treatment (IUNT) in bonnet monkeys: an alternate to intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUCD).

Upadhyay S, Dhawan S, Sharma MG, Talwar GP.

National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India.

Antifertility effects of intrauterine neem treatment (IUNT) was studied in bonnet monkeys. A single administration of 1 ml of neem oil by an intrauterine insemination catheter blocked fertility for 7 to 12 months. The effect was, however, reversible as all the animals became pregnant subsequently and delivered normal babies. The neem oil treatment had no adverse effect on menstrual cyclicity and ovarian functions. The uterus of neem-treated animals showed normal morphology. Immunohistological studies, however, demonstrated a significant increase in the number of MHC-II antigen-positive cells in the uterine endometrium following neem treatment, indicating enhanced antigen-presenting ability of the uterus; a feature that may be related to the observed antifertility effect of neem oil. The present investigation demonstrates that an IUNT can be used for long-term, reversible contraception, without any apparent side effects, and that the method could provide an alternate to currently used intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUCD).

PMID: 8143455 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


I find it absolutely fascinating that a google search for neem contraceptive produces top results for companies selling conventional, pharmaceutical contraception!

Research Credit: JH





Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage :.

There is no way this is happening. It can't be real:

Administration officials say they are planning an extensive election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples, and they are weighing whether President Bush should promote the plan next week in his State of the Union address.

For months, administration officials have worked with conservative groups on the proposal, which would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain "healthy marriages."





$58 Billion Bank Deal Set :.

Two of the most corrupt organizations in the world clinging to each other for dear life as the entire thing goes down. Touching:

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has agreed to buy Bank One Corp. for about $58 billion in a merger that will combine two of the biggest banks in the United States, the companies announced Wednesday.

The merged entity would rank as the nation's No. 2 bank behind Citigroup, with assets of $1.1 trillion and 2,300 branches in seventeen states.


1/14/2004



Mobile Phones Cause Brain Damage in Rats :.

Remember the smoking ads from the 1950s? Smoking is sexy and cool! Companies are pushing mobile phone use in the same way. But ask yourself: How is strapping a microwave transmitter to your skull not going to cause problems!? Here's another observation. Have you ever noticed that people who spend a lot of time on mobile phones are usually complete basket cases!? I have no idea if it's the lifestyle that requires people to be on the phone all the time, or the physiological effects from the phone, but something is wrong with those people. I use the hands-free headset thing when I use my mobile phone (not bluetooth). I just hope that the wire isn't acting as a waveguide for that microwave energy. Oh well:

Last summer neurosurgeon Leif Salford and colleagues at Lund University in Sweden published data showing for the first time an unambiguous link between microwave radiation emitted by GSM mobile phones (the most common type worldwide) and brain damage in rats. If Salford's results are confirmed by follow-up studies in the works at research facilities worldwide, including one run by the U.S. Air Force, the data could have serious implications for the one billion?plus people glued to their cellphones.

His team exposed 32 rats to 2 hours of microwave radiation from GSM cellphones. Researchers attached the phones to the sides of the rats' small cages using coaxial cables -- allowing for intermittent direct exposure -- and varied the intensity of radiation in each treatment group to reflect the range of exposures a human cellphone user might experience over the same time period. Fifty days after the 2-hour exposure, the rat brains showed significant blood vessel leakage, as well as areas of shrunken, damaged neurons. The higher the radiation exposure level, the more damage was apparent. The controls, by contrast, showed little to no damage. If human brains are similarly affected, Salford says, the damage could produce measurable, long-term mental deficits.





How Many Windmills Would $87 Billion Buy? :.

Officials at Alpine Power Co. of Roseburg want to spend $23 million to install 51 windmills near La Grande. Altogether, these windmills would generate some 92 megawatts of electricity. Assuming that they could be run about one third of the time (full windpower is not always available), each windmill would produce about 5265 megawatt-hours of electricity per year.

How many windmills could we have built and how much pollution-free electricity could be generated by those windmills if we could have used just the extra $87 billion that was recently appropriated for Iraq?

At the costs projected by Alpine Power Co, $87 billion would buy 192,904 windmills. The total resulting electricity production, again assuming each windmill can run one third of the time, would come to more than 1,015 billion kilowatt-hours per year. This amounts to about more than a quarter of all U.S. electricity consumption in 2000.





Another Microbiologist Killed :.

A reward of up to $20,000 was announced Thursday for tips leading to the arrest and charges of a hit-and-run motorist who killed a chemist walking in the Texas Medical Center.

Robert Leslie Burghoff, 45, a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine's molecular virology and microbiology department, was walking to his car Nov. 20 when he was hit from behind by a white or light-colored cargo van that jumped the sidewalk in the 1600 block of South Braeswood.

Burghoff, a father of three who lived in The Woodlands, had been studying the Norwalk virus plaguing cruise ships.


More: Microbiology: The Most Dangerous Area of Inquiry in the World





Big Brother Britain, 2004 :.

More than four million surveillance cameras monitor our every move, making Britain the most-watched nation in the world, research has revealed.

The number of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras has quadrupled in the past three years, and there is now one for every 14 people in the UK. The increase is happening at twice the predicted rate, and it is believed that Britain accounts for one-fifth of all CCTV cameras worldwide. Estimates suggest that residents of a city such as London can each expect to be captured on CCTV cameras up to 300 times a day, and much of the filming breaches existing data guidelines.


1/13/2004



Important Article on Seed Catalogs :.

If you need seed, check out this article. This is so important, I felt obligated to host it locally:

Here are profiles of 29 of my favorite mail-order companies. In most cases (except where noted), their catalogs are free--all you have to do is ask. These seed catalogs offer an unbelievable selection of enticing varieties you simply cannot find elsewhere. The folks at these companies are on the cutting edge of bringing the newest and best to home gardeners everywhere. In many cases, they also pack lots of great growing advice into their catalogs. You easily can learn as much browsing through these catalogs as you would studying many gardening books.

More: Suppliers of Seed for Certified Organic Production





U.S. Ammunition Plant Reaching Its Limit :.

The Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo., is producing four million rounds per day for the U.S. military! And the military is having to buy more ammo from civilian markets?! Can someone tell me how anywhere near four million rounds per day are going up in smoke or into storage?! I wonder if it's like Vietnam, where commanders were told to shoot off everything they had into the jungle just before the resupply showed up.

What about strategic reserves? There must be hundreds of millions of rounds mothballed somewhere. The military's position is that they are replenishing these reserves. Think about four million rounds per day, though!

Ongoing combat operations, that we hear about, can't account for much more than several thousand rounds per day, on average. It's probably not even that many. Factor in training and qualification, etc. I mean, just go nuts and say one million rounds are blown off per day. It can't be that, but say it's a million. What in the hell are they doing with the additional three million rounds per day!?

But wait, there's more: consider contracts to Winchester and IMI to produce a combined 140 million rifle cartridges per month, starting in June! Something is just totally weird here.... Unless they're building up for the next war, or maybe the establishment of martial law in the U.S.:

The U.S. military's only plant making small-arms ammunition is running at near capacity, 4 million rounds a day, and the United States still is forced to look overseas and to the recreational industry for ammunition for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and those training to deploy there soon.

Gen. Paul Kern, commander of the Army Materiel Command, said Friday that giving those units priority ensured they had enough small-arms ammunition. "Everyone else will have to pay the price" and wait for it, he said.

The increased demand for ammunition for combat shooting and intensified training has made deep inroads in the nation's war reserves of ammunition, Kern said.

The sole plant making small-arms ammunition, the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo., is running three eight-hour shifts a day, six days a week. The plant provides 5.56 mm rifle, 7.62 mm and .50 caliber machine gun as well as 9 mm pistol cartridges for all branches of the military.

Because of the increased demand for ammunition since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kern said the Army in late December let two supplemental contracts to Olin Winchester of East Alton, Ill., and Israeli Military Industries for each to produce 70 million rifle rounds per month starting in June.


1/12/2004



Parmalat's Tanzi, the Mafia, Secret Trips to Libya and God's Helicopter :.

I didn't know how long it would take for the Catholic Church to start cropping up in the Parmalat fraud; I just knew that it would. It didn't take long! The Church is too old, too big and too evil not to be involved in the major planetary swindles. Of course, this scandal has something to do with some other big can-o-worms related to Libya and secret U.S. backchannels. Then there are shady mafia ties...nothing proven, of course. (wink, blink, nod) I don't even want to know what goes on inside that Vatican. Do you think it involves a trandimensional portal, or not? Where was Cheney when all of this was going down? Forget it. I don't want to know:

Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi ferried prelates and politicians on his fleet of planes and yachts and supplied the executive jet that flew a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican on a secret, unauthorized trip to Libya in 1986, officials told The Associated Press.

From the early 1980s until last year, the reserved and media-shy Tanzi kept up his high-powered connections, although now he is behind bars, accused in the massive fraud case that has bankrupted the Italian dairy giant.

The Parmalat helicopter was known as "God's helicopter'' because it frequently ferried Roman Catholic clergy, including the Vatican's former No. 2 official, then-secretary of state Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, to a lecture near Genoa in 1993, church officials told the AP.





RFID Industry Plan to Smear Katherine Albrecht Blows Up in Their Faces :.

What a bunch of idiots! Do these people urinate on their shoes when they try to walk and chew gum at the same time?

The Grocery Manufacturers of America this week inadvertently sent an internal e-mail to CASPIAN suggesting it was looking for embarrassing information about the group's founder, Katherine Albrecht.

The e-mail, written by a college intern at GMA, reads, "I don't know what to tell this woman! 'Well, actually we're trying to see if you have a juicy past that we could use against you.'"

The intern earlier had asked Albrecht to produce her personal biography, "as part of an RFID research project," and became frustrated when Albrecht asked what GMA planned to do with the information, according to GMA spokesman Richard Martin.





SurePrep: How Is This Legal!?

SurePrep specializes in offshoring accounting jobs from the U.S. to India. This represents the epitome of profligate greed and shortsighted, predatory, race-to-the-bottom tactics running through corporate culture at this time. This is a recipe for how to destroy the United States and profit handsomely... well, for a few moments before this entire thing collapses.

I won't even mention the potential security problems related to their "business" model. (We don't want any lawyers getting any funny ideas.) The issues should be obvious to anyone with a background in information security. Like all big money psychopaths, they fail to understand the human element in their operation, and this will probably lead to their downfall.

Here's a PDF of SurePrep's FAQ, including such burning questions as: What do I tell my clients about who is doing their return? HAHA! Don't count on this information remaining up, I'll probably be served with a cease and desist notice from some filthy lawyer who's wearing a suit that cost more than I made in 2003. So, if you want it, save it locally. (I'm not linking directly to their site, because I don't want to tip them off to the fact that someone is shining a light on their despicable operation. By the time they figure it out, you guys will have spread this info all around and they won't be able to disappear it. Just go to sureprep.com if you want to see it for yourself.)

I can't believe they were so blatant about discussing their practices in the first place. There's no mention about how all the fired U.S. accountants are supposed to pay their mortgages or buy food. I guess they could grow their own food, like I'm doing.

And before I get any email messages wondering if I have gone insane for defending accountants, save it. Yes. I think the entire accounting industry is a scam. I say, eliminate the need for accountants completely. So, either way, U.S. accountants better warm up those shovels and wheelbarrows before the Grapes of Wrath scenes begin to unfold.

This is from SurePrep's homepage:

What if you could prepare a thousand more tax returns without adding even one more staff member? And what if you could prepare those returns for up to 50 percent less than what it costs you right now? You can with SurePrep. And with virtually unlimited ability to prepare and process returns, you can increase volume, multiply profits and grow your practice.

With a large staff of Chartered Accountants located offshore, SurePrep enables you to prepare far more tax returns at up to half the cost without sacrificing quality or control. SurePrep Chartered Accountants average five years of professional tax and accounting experience. They also receive continuing education from U.S. tax professionals to keep current on the latest changes in U.S. tax code. The net effect is a gain in experience that results in the highest quality returns as well as increased client satisfaction. And with a standard turnaround time of just two to three business days?and as little as one business day when needed?SurePrep also offers the advantages of greater speed and increased efficiency.





The Second Great Depression Will be Brought to You Live :.

The entire story may not be televised, but you're participating in it:

Take a moment to consider that you are now living history . It is an amazing time to be alive and witness never before seen events unfold, if you only had the time. As a period of transition, this will be the greatest period of wealth destruction the world has ever seen. It will also be the greatest opportunity for building wealth in our lifetimes. It is nothing less than a turning of the earth, a changing of the guards. The rich have gotten as rich as possible, and now the times are changing. This is creative destruction in real time.





Air Travel Lockdown Continues :.

This is a soft approach to getting people to comply with more invasive surveillance. They aren't going to hold a gun to your face and say you can't fly. (Well, most of the time they won't do that.) They will just make your experience a living hell if you try to fly WITHOUT GOING ALONG WITH THE NEW VOLUNTARY INFORMATION DISCLOSURE PROGRAM. Watch how voluntary that thing winds up being in practice. The next thing you know, everyone who refuses to submit biometric/other information will automatically be classified as a suspected terrorist:

Despite stiff resistance from airlines and privacy advocates, the U.S. government plans to push ahead this year with a vast computerized system to probe the backgrounds of all passengers boarding flights in the United States.

The government will compel airlines and airline reservations companies to hand over all passenger records for scrutiny by U.S. officials, after failing to win cooperation in the program's testing phase. The order could be issued as soon as next month. Under the system, all travelers passing through a U.S. airport are to be scored with a number and a color that ranks their perceived threat to the aircraft.

Another program that is to be introduced this year that seeks to speed frequent fliers through security lines in exchange for volunteering personal information to the government.

The two new initiatives will augment a system introduced last week to fingerprint and photograph millions of foreign visitors on arrival in the United States.





White House Activates Components of Martial Law Contingency Plan :.

Which presidential executive order allows them to take control of information dissemination? I read this stuff over 10 years ago; now it's happening. Someone help me out with those executive order numbers:

Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment.

The OMB also wants to manage scientific and technical evaluations - known as peer reviews - of all major government rules, plans, proposed regulations and pronouncements.


1/11/2004



A Shovel, a Wheelbarrow and a Pile of Dead Leaves

It may not look like much now, but just wait... I'm turning to small scale agriculture in the space I have available in my backyard. I'm following Candide's maxim: All that's left to do is, "cultivate our garden." I shall need an ugly wife, however, to help with the pastry baking. If you have a sister, friend or cousin named Cunegund, have her drop me a line. ;)

I'm going to build a 16x6 foot raised bed, along with separate Earthbox type self-watering containers. I'll add more as I gain experience.

I was happy to find that the unkept nature of my backyard and patio turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Leaves were piled everywhere, up to a foot thick is some places. The entire area is essentially a large compost heap. In some areas, at the bottom, there was rich, black earthy smelling humus. I collected several wheelbarrow fulls of well composted material. I'm very excited.

The pile is alive. It moves on its own. Slowly. A little bit at a time. Beetles, spiders, earthworms and creatures of every description are running around in that thing. I just stood there and marveled at it.


The pile has grown about 4x from the time this picture was taken. It's now nearly the size of a Volkswagen Rabbit! I have watered the pile and covered it loosely with a black tarp to cook. I'm going to have to go shopping for a nice pitchfork when it comes time to turn that thing.

This work just feels right. Even though there is dirt all over the place, it doesn't feel dirty, like working in an office for corporate criminals. Actually, it feels more than just right. I haven't felt this relaxed in.... I don't know how long. Watching the creatures scurry about in my pile seemed to make more sense than just about anything our so-called "advanced civilization" has managed to produce over the last few generations. Nature just goes about all of THAT on its own. But THAT wasn't good enough for us, I guess.*

We're so God damned smart that we had to go and wreck everything by blindly accepting every new technological marvel that came along. Fawing over useless gadgets, slaving away in jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need! Guess, what? That ring serves only one master, and it's not you. So, enough. Enough already. Use technology that helps you obtain and maintain freedom and independence. As for the rest of it, ignore it, don't use it, don't buy it, and, to the extent you are able, walk away from it.

Of course, you realize that what I'm saying is more dangerous than 10,000 Bin Ladens, attacking from all directions on magic carpets with all of the weapons of mass destruction not found in Iraq! And don't think that They're not paying attention. I happened to be watching CNBC the other day. A Goldman Sachs analyst was on. He was saying that millions of people are giving up on finding jobs. They're dropping out of the system. "This is a very disturbing trend," he said, "We're loosing track of what they're up to." HA! We're grabbing shovels, buddy, we're playing in the dirt, we're growing food. Put that in your Excel spreadsheet and smoke it.

In case you're wondering how a lifetime computer nerd and someone with no experience with gardening at all learned how to go about all of this, here's a hint: Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Pauline Pears. If you're an organic gardener and know of some good books or must-see web sites, please let me know. Pathtofreedom.com is a site that literally causes my heart to skip a beat each time I visit.

* I don't want any emails from people blaming Eve for the predicament in which we find ourselves. Give poor Eve a break and read, Myth of the Machine: Technics and Human Development by Lewis Mumford.





Plan Now for a World Without Oil :.

The world faces a stark choice. It can continue down the existing path of rising oil consumption, trying to pre-empt available remaining oil supplies, if necessary by military force, but without avoiding a steady exhaustion of global capacity. Or it could switch to renewable sources of energy, much more stringent standards of energy efficiency, and a steady reduction in oil use. The latter course would involve huge new investment in energy generation and transportation technologies.

Research Credit: K





Oil, Gas Prices Shoot Up :.

Oil and natural gas prices climbed to their highest levels in more than nine months Friday as traders responded to colder weather in the Northeast, tight supplies and rising demand.

The weak dollar is also pushing energy prices higher, analysts said.

''It gives OPEC countries less buying power and literally no incentive to make any increases in output,'' of crude, which is denominated in dollars, said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York.





High Schools Roll Over, Spread Legs for Corporations :.

Madness:

"First and foremost, our schools are struggling," the National School Boards Association's Dan Fuller said. "Many districts are engaged in this (commercialism) because of the dire straits they're in. This presents a real opportunity and a trend that will continue and possibly grow."

As a result, corporate advertisements are cropping up on everything from high school scoreboards to the sides of school buses. A Dr Pepper billboard is atop a Texas school, earning that school district millions of dollars.


The next thing you know, cop cars will have advertising on them! Oh, woops, that's already happening.




Google


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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.