12/24/2005
Bill Would Allow Arrests for No Reason in Public Places
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Can you feel the liberty? A bill on Gov. Bob Taft's desk right now is drawing a lot of criticism, NewsChannel5 reported.
One state representative said it resembles Gestapo-style tactics of government, and there could be changes coming on the streets of Ohio's small towns and big cities.
The Ohio Patriot Act has made it to the Taft's desk, and with the stroke of a pen, it would most likely become the toughest terrorism bill in the country. The lengthy piece of legislation would let police arrest people in public places who will not give their names, address and birth dates, even if they are not doing anything wrong.
WEWS reported it would also pave the way for everyone entering critical transportation sites such as, train stations, airports and bus stations to show ID.
"It brings us frighteningly close to a show me your papers society," said Carrie Davis of the ACLU, which opposes the Ohio Patriot Act.More: Alex Jones CoverageResearch Credit: inthewake.org
posted by Kevin at 3:17 PM
Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20
Regular Cryptogon contributor, MW, sent $20! Thanks, MW!
posted by Kevin at 3:10 PM
If the NY Times Can't Say ECHELON They Should Shut the F Up!
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Why can't they just say it? Two pages of this worthless crap article and I guess nobody at the New York Times has ever heard of Nicky Hager or James Bamford or the word ECHELON. What the F do you think the NSA does all day?! If you crackpot limo-libs think this is a George Bush thing, you better WAKE UP! This is old news. This has been going on for decades. Why are They making so much noise about this now? And why is the New York Times afraid of mentioning the names of the companies involved? Here are some of the largest Tier 1 carriers who MUST be involved: AT&T Level 3 NTT / Verio Qwest Sprint UUNET Savvis SBC Cogent XO The bottom line is this: George Bush didn't wake up one morning and tell the NSA to knock on the door of a Level 3 data center and ask them to borrow a cup of sugar. Yet, ask someone---who's pissed about George Bush spying on Americans---if they have ever heard of ECHELON... "What's that?" will be the response. Correction: The NY Times Did Mention ECHELON, as Part of a Fluff PieceThe NSA is the most benevolent of all intelligence agencies, don't ya know!? Those lunatics with their ECHELON stories, those are the people you need to be worried about. Don writes: Hey Kevin,
Well those f*ck-wits at the NY Times actually said the word, of course only to deride its existence:
"Exaggerated reports on an agency program called Echelon asserted that the agency and its counterparts in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia somehow intercepted all world communications."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/politics/22nsa.html
At least they are maintaining their status as a newspaper of "record" and a lying record at that. Thanks for that, Don! More: The Inspiration for Dan Brown's Digital FortressDigital Fortress was a stupid novel, but for our purposes, the author's account of the following incident is interesting: A few years ago, I was teaching on the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. One Spring day, unannounced, the U.S. Secret Service showed up and detained one of our students claiming he was a threat to national security. As it turned out, the kid had sent private E-mail to a friend saying how much he hated President Clinton and how he thought the president should be shot. The Secret Service came to campus to make sure the kid wasn't serious. After some interrogation the agents decided the student was harmless, and not much came of it. Nonetheless, the incident really stuck with me. I couldn't figure out how the secret service knew what these kids were saying in their E-mail. I guess the New York Times would have us believe that a little bird whispered into the ears of the Secret Service.
posted by Kevin at 12:39 AM
12/21/2005
Britain to Monitor Every Car Journey
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This is the .com version of Darkness at Noon, with the gulag turned inside out: Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.
Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.
The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.
posted by Kevin at 7:15 PM
12/20/2005
Stalin's Half-Man, Half-Ape Super-Warriors
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THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.
Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior.
According to Moscow newspapers, Stalin told the scientist: "I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat."
In 1926 the Politburo in Moscow passed the request to the Academy of Science with the order to build a "living war machine".Related: DARPA, Monsters Inc.Pentagon dark lord Donald Rumsfeld is shoveling billions of tax dollars into the research furnaces of federal laboratories and private universities across the land in the wide-ranging effort to spawn "super soldiers," fired by drugs and electromagnetic "brain zaps" to fight without ceasing for days on end. The work is being directed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)...
The DARPA "war fighter enhancement" programs -- an acceleration of bipartisan biotinkering that's been going on for years -- will involve injecting young men and women with hormonal, neurological and genetic concoctions; implanting microchips and electrodes in their bodies to control their internal organs and brain functions; and plying them with drugs that deaden some of their normal human tendencies: the need for sleep, the fear of death, the reluctance to kill their fellow human beings.
The research is "very aggressive and wide open," says Admiral Stephen Baker of the Center for Defense Information. Indeed, the U.S. Special Operations Command envisions the creation of "iron bodied and iron willed personnel" who can "resist the mental and physiological effects of sleep deprivation" while relying on "ergogenic substances" to "manage" the "environmental and mentally induced stress" of the battlefield. Their bodies juiced, their brains swaddled in Prozacian haze, the enhanced warfighters can churn relentlessly, remorselessly toward dominion.
And the term "creation" is not just fanciful rhetoric: Some of the research now under way involves actually altering the genetic code of soldiers, modifying bits of DNA to fashion a new type of human specimen, one that functions like a machine, killing tirelessly for days and nights on end. These mutations will "revolutionize the contemporary order of battle" and guarantee "operational dominance across the whole range of potential U.S. military employments," the DARPA wizards enthuse.
posted by Kevin at 8:42 AM
12/19/2005
Dr. Bruce Lipton: The New Biology
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UPDATE: This is one of the most incredible presentations I have ever heard. If you have MP3s of this show, please let me know. I've been listening to Dr. Bruce Lipton on Coast to Coast tonight. This is absolutely fascinating stuff! Check it out: Recent advances in cellular science are heralding an important evolutionary turning point. For almost fifty years we have held the illusion that our health and fate were preprogrammed in our genes, a concept referred to as genetic determinacy. Though mass consciousness is currently imbued with the belief that the character of one's life is genetically predetermined, a radically new understanding is unfolding at the leading edge of science.
Cellular biologists now recognize that the environment (external universe and internal-physiology), and more importantly, our perception of the environment, directly controls the activity of our genes. The lecture will broadly review the molecular mechanisms by which environmental awareness interfaces genetic regulation and guides organismal evolution.
The quantum physics behind these mechanisms provide insight into the communication channels that link the mind-body duality. An awareness of how vibrational signatures and resonance impact molecular communication constitutes a master key that unlocks a mechanism by which our thoughts, attitudes and beliefs create the conditions of our body and the external world. This knowledge can be employed to actively redefine our physical and emotional well-being.
posted by Kevin at 11:49 PM
Testing Drugs on India's Poor
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...Multinational corporations are riding high on the trend toward globalization by taking advantage of India's educated work force and deep poverty to turn South Asia into the world's largest clinical-testing petri dish.
posted by Kevin at 11:06 PM
Book Request Earns Dartmouth Senior Visit from the Feds
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Update: THIS STORY IS A HOAXThe UMass Dartmouth student who claimed to have been visited by Homeland Security agents over his request for "The Little Red Book" by Mao Zedong has admitted to making up the entire story.Supersize your freedom fries: A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."
Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.
The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.
The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list," and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.
posted by Kevin at 10:20 PM
12/18/2005
IDIOT COLLEGE GRADS CAN'T READ OR WRITE
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Finally, there's solid proof that today's college graduates are morons.
According to a shocking new federal report, just 25 percent of new grads are proficiently literate. That means three-quarters of this country's university students are sent off with little more than basic skills in reading, writing and comprehension.
It's hardly better for the "smarties" who go on to graduate school: Just 31 percent of tomorrow's doctors, lawyers and PhDs can competently deal with the English language.
"Scores fell from 1992 to 2003 for virtually every educational level, and the declines were steepest, by and large, the further up the ladder one moved," the online magazine Inside Higher Ed reported.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy tested 19,000 Americans in 2003 -- the first nationwide study of America's literacy rates since 1992. As an increasing percentage of Americans earn college degrees, more of them are leaving with diplomas they can barely read.Related: The Underground History of American Education
posted by Kevin at 2:15 PM
Israel Prepares to Attack Iran... When the Euro-Based Energy Exchange Opens
Remember this Times UK article from a few days ago: ISRAEL'S armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed. Take a guess on when the Iranian Oil Bourse is scheduled to open? From Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse: In essence, Iran is about to commit a far greater "offense" than Saddam Hussein's conversion to the euro for Iraq's oil exports in the fall of 2000. Beginning in March 2006, the Tehran government has plans to begin competing with New York's NYMEX and London's IPE with respect to international oil trades - using a euro-based international oil-trading mechanism.
...
The most recent news reports indicate the oil bourse will start trading on March 20, 2006, coinciding with the Iranian New Year. The "nuclear Iran" story is a red herring.
posted by Kevin at 2:10 PM
Syriana
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It's good. Check it out, or at least add it to your Netflix queue for the future. I got a funny feeling, however, that people will just walk out of the theater thinking, "It's just a movie. Stuff like that doesn't really happen." I'm quite sure that some professor around here offered extra credit to his/her twit students to go see that film. There were lots of late teens/early twenties people in the theater, and that was probably the last night to get the extra credit. I wouldn't imagine that this film is on the social calendar of the local Xtreme, hip, cutting edge youth... Unless there's extra credit involved and a chance of a C or a B- in a useless PoliSci class. When the Robert Baer character was having his fingernails pulled out, I heard a girl say, "Like, oh my God, that's so gross." Someone else was frantically text messaging. I tried to visualize the professor: Late 40s or early 50s. Volvo (with a Kerry or Nader sticker on the ass end). Pretty much broke. Drinks a lot of cheap wine. Eats anti-depressants like candy. Donates to public radio. Desperate to make some kind of impression on the sprawling mass of young people, the professor knows they don't (and probably can't) read. Not really. With all the video games, sports on TV and drinking to be done, who has time to read much of anything? In desperation, the professor thinks, "Maybe I'll offer extra credit to them if they see Syriana. Maybe they'll get something out of it."
Take another sip of cheap wine, man, and slap another bumper sticker on the ass end of your Volvo. It was probably a coincidence that so many students were in the theater, but I couldn't help thinking about that would-be professor. That's mostly what was on my mind when I was watching Syriana. These types of films are good, but, for people like me (and you), it's more of an excuse to get out of the house. It was good to see something that had an interesting plot, wasn't too loud and didn't involve CGI actors. ;)
posted by Kevin at 12:55 PM
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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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