Don't cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and render you dead.

"Give not that which is kodesh unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and render" you dead.

This 2009 image taken through a microscope and provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, shows the H1N1 strain of the swine flu virus.

The 1918 global epidemic, killed more people (approx. 40 million), worldwide, in 25 weeks, than the total number of people who succumbed to AIDS in 25-years. In other words, pandemics occur with very little warning, and moves with a lightning swiftness that leaves those in power, powerless to stop the disease's deadly rampage. The only way to lessen the impact of a pandemic of this sort is if people visit their doctor as soon as suspicious signs of infection appear.

Currently, the triple hybrid influenza (incorporates human, avian and swine genes in its DNA), or commonly referred to as the swine flu outbreak, has descended upon us, and barring the worst possible scenario - deadly pandemic similar to 1918 - this may prove to be a blessing in disguise. Supposedly, this strain, the H1N1 flu, lacks the deadly characteristics of the strains involved in previous pandemics.

However, flu viruses are known for their unpredictability because they can mutate rapidly at any time, and a new study has found that "some pigs in Indonesia are carrying the H5N1 avian flu virus, which could mutate into a new strain inside the pigs, and the potential new strain could be more virulent than the current outbreak." On the other hand, the virus can also mutate to a more benign form.

Blessing in disguise?

Our nation's lack of health-care insurance and a badly neglected public health-care infrastructure will only discourage people from seeking care until it's too late to contain the virus in the event of a severe pandemic (if that event is not already here). Assuming, this is not the big one, we should heed its warning, and implement universal health-care sooner than possible.

"From SARS to avian flu to the current escalating outbreaks of swine influenza it has become increasingly clear that we are risking a major catastrophe unless we act to restore the safety net, and devote the resources that are needed to protect the public." -- Deborah Burger, co-president, CNA/NNOC

Tracking swine flu cases worldwide.

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War! What is it Good For? Absolutely nothing!

"If we should perish, the ruthlessness of the foe would be only the secondary cause of the disaster. The primary cause would be that the strength of a giant nation was directed by eyes too blind to see all the hazards of the struggle; and the blindness would be induced not by some accident of nature or history but by hatred and vainglory." - Reinhold Niebuhr


"Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight." -- Albert Schweitzer


Iraqi car




Sandstorm in Iraq



IRAQ - American prerogatives. Photographer KAI PFAFFENBACH (REUTERS)

"Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence."


American soldier.

Suicide in the Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy,

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,

And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,

With crumps and lice and lack of rum,

He put a bullet through his brain.

No one spoke of him again.


You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

Sneak home and pray you'll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.

-- Siegfred Sassoon, (1886-1967)

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Did Hollywood Write the PIrate Script?

If so, this would not be the first time Uncle Sam and Hollywood, the master of illusion, collaborated. Yes, our government is supposed to deal in reality, however we know how that goes...Uncle Sam could probably give Hollywood a few tips on how to create a false impression of reality.

Anyway, the article Hollywood, Somalia, And U.S. Foreign Policy explains why we shouldn't buy the "theatrical spectacle" that was Captain Richard Phillip's rescue.

If anyone wants clear proof how 24 x 7 media orgy can dictate foreign policy there's no better evidence than the recently concluded saga of Captain Richard Phillips.

Had it not been for the media frenzy, three of Capt. Phillips' captors would not have been shot by Navy Seals snipers --if indeed they were shot-- and one of them would not have been brought to New York for a show trial.

But once the masses are all riled up, the thirst has to be quenched. So the Hollywood script evolved.

First a recap: Capt. Phillips' captors met their match on his ship the Maersk Alabama. The ship's crew would not yield and allow it to be captured. So, the attackers aborted their doomed mission and ended up escaping with Captain Phillips, in, of all things, a lifeboat.

Here's where critical media sometimes helps. The story fed to the world by U.S. authorities is that the young Somalis still continued to demand for money as ransom for Phillips.

Why do the authorities think the whole world is so stupid? Why do authorities believe all media are as gullible as CNN and The New York Times?

The Somalis needed Phillips to be alive in order for them to also make it out alive. Somalis aren't stupid; they're one of the shrewdest and most entrepreneurial people in Africa.

Please excuse us for not believing the government's tale. Had Capt. Phillips’ captors harmed him, their lifeboat would have been torpedoed or riddled with high-powered bullets.

This much even a grade school student can deduce.

Moreover, the Somalis had no way of escaping --with or without Captain Phillips. They also had run out of food and water. In fact, they had become Captain Phillips' hostages.

Yet, U.S. media had driven the public into an angry frenzy. Rather than starve the Somalis into submission --and who knows, perhaps they were starved into submission-- there had to be a spectacular ending to the ordeal. An ending befitting a power such as the United States.

Enter the Navy Seals marksmen.

Again, excuse us for not believing the government's script, that one of the hungry, tired and defeated captors of Captain Phillips held an AK47 to his back and "was about to pull the trigger."

Why after five days? Why when he was their only ticket for remaining alive? Why toss a Lotto ticket?

But Hollywood had already written the script; so it had to end with the Navy marksmen taking out the three captors. One of Phillips' captors had already surrendered after he had been allowed to board the Navy ship we are told. He is the teenager, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, who is now in New York to be tried.

Three shots; three bad guys dead. Hail to the chief! The stuff of Hollywood.

Did it really happen that way? What is the probability that all three Somalis were in clear view to be picked off at the same time after five days? This is just our critical mind acting up again. We’re also told that at one point –twice in fact—Capt. Phillips actually jumped off the lifeboat and swam towards the Navy destroyer.

Check this out: We’re told that the Navy actually allowed his Somalis captors to pursue him and grab him again; because President Barack Obama had not yet authorized the use of deadly force.

Come now, and American citizen is escaping and members of the military would allow him to be recaptured by armed men again? Whoever buys this story should come and claim their free bridge.

We do have video images of Capt. Phillips once he's on board after his rescue. Where is the video image of the Navy Seals shooting the Somalis? Where are the bodies of the three Somalis for that matter?

Are there other possible more realistic scenarios?

Since Capt. Phillips’ captors had been supplied food from the Navy destroyer, is it not possible that they might have been drugged and were actually asleep? Wouldn't any sensible American –even without Presidential authorization—have put something in the captors’ food and water to knock them out?

Is it possible that this in fact is what happened? This is of course a less glorious but to us a more credible ending.

We don't have the resources of CNN or The New York Times. Hint, hint: Feel free to borrow these questions from us and ask the authorities.

Moreover, the Navy would have been better off dropping the captured Somali youth off to Kenya, where the court system there has been handling such cases. But again, Hollywood took over and demanded that he be brought here for a theatrical spectacle of a trial. So from now on, will every captured Somali be brought for trial here? And given the contentious relations between Somalia and the U.S. in the past will this invite retaliation and future trial in Somalia if any American has the misfortune of being captured by Somalis? Will al-Qeda exploit this development to incite more Somalis against the US?

It's all well and good that Capt. Phillips and the rest of his crew have returned safely. But delicate foreign policy should never be ceded to Hollywood and media frenzy.

Moreover, swashbuckling pirate tales are just that, tales, created by the 18th-century British state in order to galvanize its people behind them in order to protect their financial foundation. The Treaty of Utrecht granted the British slave-trading rights with Spanish America. However, by the 1720s, the slave trade was in the process of being destroyed by piracy, according to the book,
by Marcus Rediker, a history of piracy, focusing on the "golden age of piracy" (1650 to 1730) that emphasizes how common seamen who turned pirate built for themselves a multicultural, democratic and egalitarian society.

A pirate captured and brought to Alexander the Great in the 4th B.C:

Alexander the Great: "What do you mean by keeping possession of the sea?"

Pirate: "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor."

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Should We Control Anonymous Propaganda?

After all, it's always good to consider the source, but how can you consider the source when the source is anonymous or assuming a different identity?

The unique characteristics of Internet communications present new challenges to the issue of anonymity, the "concealing of one's identity while communicating, thus enabling the expression of political ideas, participation in the government process, membership in political associations, and the practice of religious belief without fear of government intimidation or public retaliation."

The Internet offers individuals with very little money or political power the vehicle to potentially reach large audiences and make a real impact, thus leveling the playing field. Although the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment guarantee free speech, that does not protect individuals with unpopular opinions from retaliation (loss of job, anonymous threats, etc.). Anonymity is often the only protection in many cases.

As is the case with all personal freedoms, anonymity on the Internet is often used to inflict harm...for example, posting an individual's private information, spreading false or damaging statements, etc. However if whatever is spread causes harm, liability and monetary damages may be awarded.

Proving "harm" is another story. First you must hire an attorney to file for a subpoena to serve upon the ISP in order to reveal the identify of the "defamer", who then has the right to file a "motion to quash." The burden of proof is on the person defamed, so he or sher must present "prima facie" evidence that the accused did inflict harm. The inconvenience and cost can be prohibitive, leaving most of us at the mercy of anonymous evildoers lurking amongst us.

Then, there is the propaganda mill. It's bad enough when we can the "who" behind the information designed to mislead or persuade us, but when the propagandist conceals his identity, the impact could be that much greater. Wikipedia is one example where the "anonymous" go to propagandize. However, as in the case of Wikipedia, most *wikis track the editor's ip address, so, it' fairly simple to see that much of the so-called anonymous editing is coming from Congress, the CIA, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

In addition, large corporations get in on the act: "Someone from Halliburton deleted key information from an entry on war crimes; someone from Diebold, an electronic-voting machine manufacturer, deleted sections of its entry about a lawsuit filed against it. Someone at Pepsi deleted information about health problems caused by the soft drink. Somebody at The New York Times deleted huge chunks of information from the entry on the Wall Street Journal." And of course, the CIA has been editing the entry on the Iraq war.

Fortunately, Wikiscanner and other similar tools allow us to search the millions of edits across the wiki spectrum so that we may consider the source. And, it's never been easier to do our own research for verification purposes.

The idea of government legislating against anonymous Internet posting, editing, etc. is unconstitutional and creates more problems than it solves. Enforcing it alone would be impossible and extraordinarily time consuming and costly. So, since we, the people have the tools to do our own research and check the sources of our information, anonymous propaganda is not all that troublesome . As for the other issues, it's the price we pay for living in a free society.

"Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views . . . Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society." -- 1995 Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission

The Changing Web and Copyright.

*In a nutshell, a wiki is a collection of collaborative Web pages that allow users to modify entries, thus, a wiki is constantly changing depending on who creates or revises the entries.

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Are the Somali Pirates the Only Pirates?

Yarrgh! Ahoy me matie! Shiver me timbers, there be pirates hiding everywhere, so keep yer wits about ye!

Pirates hiding everywhere? And, if so, are the Somali pirates the only pirates?

In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed, leaving in its midst, nine million people near starvation, and without a united state that is represented in the UN or any other international body, Somalia was left vulnerable to European, Asian and Arabian piracy and their illegal dumping of nuclear waste off the coast of Somalia - "much of this can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply".

Since last year alone, 80% of the Somali people are in need of emergency relief - due, in large part, to the illegal fishing and toxic dumping- yet despite their contribution to the plight of the Somalis, the European, Asian and Arabian governments did nothing to help.

This massive “Global Armada” invasion is carried out on the pretext to protect the busy shipping trade routes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean from Somali shipping piracy, which threatens to disrupt these international lifeline sea ways. While there are two equally nasty, criminal, inhuman and exploiting gangs of pirates in Somalia, only one of them is publicized by the western media: the Somali shipping pirates attacking merchant shipping in these sea lanes, where the illegal poachers are also actively operating.

There is no doubt that the political turmoil and humanitarian devastation in war-torn Somalia, "where an unpopular U.S.-backed central government is fighting an Islamist-led insurgency," according to the humanitarian news agency Inter Press Service (IPS) is directly related to the increase in Somali piracy. What began as the Somali people trying to defend themselves against massive corporate interests, unfortunately, transformed itself into full blown piracy, as one can imagine after getting a taste of the wealth and luxury they've never known.

In January of this year, after Ethiopian troops withdrew their forces from the country, a new government was formed - Somalia's best opportunity in almost 20 years. However, this government continues to be violently opposed by various Islamic groups, most notably al Shabaab, and the new government has not been able to establish itself in order to provide civilians with protection or meet the needs of the people.

Some American hawks are claiming that Al Shabab is working closely with Al Qaeda. Now, considering that not too long ago, we heard the repeated charge that Saddam Hussein was in cahoots with Osama bin Laden, we, the people should make sure this is the case before allowing our government to jump the gun and create a new military action.

"We've been here before. Since 2001, in an effort to provide a distinguished pedigree for the Global War on Terror and prove the superiority of war over diplomacy, conservative pundits and historians have regularly tried to compare al-Qaida to the Barbary pirates of the 1800s. They were wrong then. And with the current conflating of terrorism and piracy, it's déjà vu all over again."

Nuclear Waste Dumping, Fish Poaching and U.S.-Backed Proxy War Drive Somalia's Coastal Crisis

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Warming the Ocean One Teapot at a Time.

Yeah, I know, we're supposed to be cooling it off, but whatever...


Most of the time, as I surf the net, I feel like this guy trying to warm the ocean with a teapot of boiling water. In other words, I'm accomplishing nothing, and many times this is true. But every once in a while, the boiling water I pour, travels an infinitesimally short distance, before assimilating itself, and either provides warmth for - or death, more than likely - a one-celled, planktonic marine organism. The most recently discovered is something called a choanoflagellate.

Yep, that's what I discovered today, the choanoflagellate. It doesn't sound all that interesting, but it most certainly is, as incredible organism is "already telling scientists about the evolutionary changes that accompanied the jump from one-celled life forms to multicellular animals like ourselves." What could possibly be more important?

"Choanoflagellates are the closest living unicellular relatives of animals and, as such, can help us learn about our history and the history of life on Earth, which has been dominated by one-celled organisms." -- Nicole King, Biologist at University of California, Berkeley

Here's the thing: Yes, I could have used the time it took to discover this fascinating knowledge, to, let's say, get off my ass and add a few more greenbacks to my 401K, however, talk about warming up the ocean with a teapot...

Anyway, this new fact cannot be taken away from me. Yes, of course I will forget all about choanoflagellates in the next few minutes. If someone were to approach me today, and ask me about choanoflagellates (ko AN oh FLA je let) called Monosiga brevicollis, and their first comparisons with the genes of multicellular animals, the so-called metazoans...more than likely, I will stare at him as if he were speaking Chinese. That is, until, he says - "Yeah, I discovered this important food source for krill, which are the main source of food for baleen whales, and that by consuming large quantities of bacteria, they, choanoflagellates, play a major role in the carbon cycle of the oceans," on this blog, Smoke and Mirrors - and then, I will, no doubt, retrieve that information as if it were never lost.

Of course, then this guy, whoever he is, will tell me that the link that he discovered - on my blog - will most definitely provide the catalyst needed for him to go on and discover a cure for cancer. This sort of thing happens to me all the time.

So, you see, taking time to surf the net is not so wasteful, after all.

Another problem with the net is that it’s still ‘technology’, and ‘technology’, as the computer scientist Bran Ferren memorably defined it, is ‘stuff that doesn’t work yet.’ We no longer think of chairs as technology, we just think of them as chairs. But there was a time when we hadn’t worked out how many legs chairs should have, how tall they should be, and they would often ‘crash’ when we tried to use them. Before long, computers will be as trivial and plentiful as chairs (and a couple of decades or so after that, as sheets of paper or grains of sand) and we will cease to be aware of the things. In fact I’m sure we will look back on this last decade and wonder how we could ever have mistaken what we were doing with them for ‘productivity.’ -- Douglas Adams, How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet

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Law: Choosing Between the Lesser of Two Evils.

How do we decide when something should be outlawed? How do we decide that something is wrong? Those two questions are not one in the same. Take the issues of premarital sex, alcohol consumption, smoking, excessive Twinkie feasting, etc, all of which render consequences far greater than that of ingesting marijuana, which the decision was made to outlaw, long ago. Why is that? The toxicity of smoking, alcohol, and Twinkies should be obvious, and as far as premarital sex goes, although in and of itself, it is not toxic, the results can be quite stressful to society, financially and socially. However, we do not outlaw those behaviors because the cost would far exceed the benefits, as is the case with marijuana, yet very little is done to decriminalize this plant.

The study, Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws by Jon Gettman published in Forbes magazine estimates the overall retail value of the felonious marijuana market is $113 billion. That's right, oftentimes viscous criminals; rake in the cash, while we, the taxpayers, pay out approximately $41 billion per year to enforce the prohibition of this semi-toxic substance. I say semi-toxic because marijuana is known for its medicinal properties as well as its toxicity. Twinkies, as far as I know, are pure toxicity, and the same can be said for smoking. Most of the prescription drugs on the market, are far more toxic than marijuana, and probably have less medicinal value, yet we don't outlaw them.

Government reports indicate that the nation's marijuana laws cost taxpayers $41.8 billion annually. This calculation is based on (a) a reconciliation of estimates of the annual supply of marijuana in the United States and estimates of its overall value and (b) Office of Management and Budget (OMB) data on the share of the Gross Domestic Product diverted by regulatory taxes to US Government budgets. Government reports from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Library of Congress, and other sources indicate that the supply of marijuana in the United States is 14,349 metric tons, or 31.1 million pounds. Various price indexes from public and private sources produce a retail price of $7.87/gr or $3,570/lb, setting the overall retail value of the illicit marijuana market at $113 billion.

Since President Barack Obama took office stating that he will not use federal marijuana laws to override state laws, as the Bush administration did, requests for Medical marijuana have increased 300%. President Obama said he saw no difference between using medical marijuana and other pain control drugs. Considering the side effects, the addiction and the "street value" of certain pain control substances, medical marijauna looks benign in comparison.

What if, instead of allowing hardened criminals, access to the billions of dollars the marijuana industry brings in, we, the taxpayers had benefit of that money to execute our own "war" on drugs and addiction? If we took, even half the revenue generated, from taxing and regulating the marijuana industry, and invested it into drug prevention education, and drug rehabilitation programs, we could eventually decrease drug use and at the same time, reduce the amount of crime associated with marijuana, making more resources - including severely limited prison space, - available for housing more dangerous criminals and the funds and manpower to combat other crimes.

Without an official cost-benefit analysis of existing prohibition policy and legislation, what is our government's justification for pouring so much money into what appears to be a relatively innocuous substance? Especially, when pharmaceutical companies are allowed to distort scientific evidence to get dangerous drugs approved.

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Commemorating Carl Walker's Birthday. The National Day of Silence.

Approximately one week ago I blogged about how children bullying other children can mutilate a child's spirit which can lead to bullicide (suicide by bully), as it did in Carl Walker's case. Sexual orientation is cited as the second most common reason given for bullying after appearance.

Yesterday, April 17, which would have been Carl Walker's 12th birthday, had he not taken his own life, also marked the National Day of Silence. This day is supposed to "bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Each year the event has grown, now with hundreds of thousands of students coming together to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior."

Essence Magazine interviewed Carl's mother who provided more details of her son's tragic death. Although Carl, only 11-years old, had not declared his sexuality, he was teased for what the other children perceived to be his sexuality.

"He told me that he was being called names and the kids were saying, "You're gay; you act like a girl."

It can't be emphasized enough that 30% of GLBT youth successfully take their own lives, and all of those deaths can be attributed to the acceptance of homophobia throughout all areas of our society. Unfortunately, this includes the child's own family, and friends. Unlike other minorities, who can seek comfort or support within the family, church, or many times, their community, children who are either gay, or perceived to be gay - sometimes before they even know that they are - have no support system whatsoever.

Is it any wonder that the suicide rate is so high within this group of young people?

Homophobia is Killing Our Youth

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President Obama: Visual Aid for Hate Groups?

Prior to the November election, in October of 2008, I remember listening to radio (NPR) show that was discussing the new, more "evolved" "progressive" white supremacists, who planned to vote for President-elect Obama. Of course, my first reaction was disbelief until I heard the reason why they - Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Movement, the Creativity Movement, the National Alliance, American White Knights, and some skinhead groups - planned on voting for Obama, and it made perfect sense.

You see, according to Ben Klassen, founder of the Creativity Movement, and author of several books espousing the white supremacist philosophy that states "the natural destiny of the White Race is to rule the world and thus fulfill the purpose of the universe", an African American president fits right into their overall vision, as he will provide the spark for the "all-out war with the 'mud races' (people of color, homosexuals, Jews, most Christians, especially Catholics, and White "race traitors").

Candidacy Fits Into Ideology

Part of the problem is that Obama is playing into the neo-Nazi and white supremacist narrative, said Brian Levin, who studies hate and extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

What the groups were saying — "Jews and blacks coming out of the urban areas are going to take over this white nation of ours" — has occurred, he said.

You only have to look to the Internet to see how white supremacist leaders such as David Duke are using Obama to rally their troops. Duke has called Obama a "visual aid for hate groups."

He says an Obama presidency would provide indisputable proof that whites have lost control of America.

"This is a cultural and racial battlefront," said Levin. "Barack Obama is symbol No. 1 of the worst the future has to offer."

While Obama may be an easy focus of discussion for haters, he hasn't unified them. In fact, in many ways, he has managed to divide the movement.

Catalyst For A Race War

Tim Zaal, a former white supremacist from Los Angeles, says the split Obama has created is almost generational — between old-school Ku Klux Klan types who are viscerally against a black man running for president and a new wave of haters.

"You have the more — kind-of strange to say it — progressive white attitude: The worse it gets, the better," said Zaal.

Zaal says the new generation is particularly focused on what they see as the coming race war. They have been trying to spark one for years. Some think, even hope, that an Obama presidency will do just that.

Zaal says some will actually vote for Obama to send the country into a tailspin. "The faster this country falls, the sooner white revolution will arise," he said.

That mindset is all over the neo-Nazi Web sites. On one, a man with the pen name "LastOfMyKind" wrote, "Could it be that the nomination of Obama finally sparks a sense of unity in white voters? I would propose that this threat of black rule may very well be the thing that finally scares some sense back into complacent whites."

This is what worries the police and the FBI.

Fast forward to April 7, 2009 and the Department of Homeland Security is reporting that "right-wing extremists in the United States are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the first black U.S. president."

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If Big Banks Are Terrorists, It's Even More Important We Don't Give In.

In an attempt to explain why the government needed to bail out the troubled banks, President Obama said that AIG is like a suicide bomber.

“We had to step in, it was the right thing to do, even though it is infuriating. The same is true with AIG. It was the right thing to do to step in. Here’s the problem. It’s almost like they’ve got — they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger. You don’t want them to blow up. But you’ve got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger.

While that may be true, it is the policy of the United States not to give in to terrorism. We've already eased their fingers off the trigger. At this point, as we enter the second or third phase of the bailout, it's important that we, the people take a stand and tell the financial sector that they do not run this country. We can start by standing up to Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America.

Take Goldman Sachs, who wants to pay back the $10 billion it borrowed from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Sounds like a good thing, right?

Wrong, according to former International Monetary Fund chief economist, Simon Johnson, currently Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT's Sloan School of Management, in addition to senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, co-founder of BaselineScenario.com, and a member of the Congressional Budget Office's Panel of Economic Advisers

Initially, the government wanted to carefully manage the flow of information regarding the results of the stress tests that Obama ordered on 19 banks, because any time that kind of sensitive information is revealed, the risk of destabilizing the markets becomes much greater, and increases the pressure on rival banks, who are not ready to pay back TARP funds, by undermining their business models and hindering thier ability to raise capital, possibly putting them in a position of needing more TARP money.

Goldman Sachs, by announcing that they plan to pay back the TARP money, contingent upon the results of the stress test, sent a strong signal that they were going to ace it. This, of course would greatly tilt the playing field to Goldman Sachs' advantage, something we don't want at a time when "too big to fail" is something we are trying to discourage, especially considering that big financial players are even bigger now that Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. have been eliminated.

Goldman Sachs still receives government assistance created last Fall when the crisis came to a head, that take several forms - access to credit from the Federal Reserve made possible by government allowing them to change legal forms in the midst of the crisis; government (FDIC) backing or guarantee of loans; $13 billion dollars that they received through the AIG bailout, due to thier counter party status to AIG that Goldman will never have to pay back, etc. At the same time that Goldman Sachs receives the continuing support of the government, by paying the TARP money back, Goldman Sachs can remove all the constraints set by the government, including the restrictions on executive pay, the very thing that contributed to the current finanical meltdown.

The very nature of these compensantion schemes encouraged and greatly rewarded the risk taking that brought our financial system to the brink of disaster.

In Simon Johnson's article "The Quiet Coup" in the May issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Johnson explains that in order to improve our economy, we must break the power of the financial oligarchy that is blocking reform. If we do not break this power structure, and allow the financial sector to take back its authority America could face a crisis that in Johnson's words, "could, in fact, be worse than the Great Depression — because the world is now so much more interconnected and because the banking sector is now so big."

"We face at least two major, interrelated problems. The first is a desperately ill banking sector that threatens to choke off any incipient recovery that the fiscal stimulus might generate. The second is a political balance of power that gives the financial sector a veto over public policy, even as that sector loses popular support." - Simon Johnson

If we've learned anything from this financial crisis, it should be that big business is only interested in bigger business, nothing else, therefore we should ask Goldman Sachs, "What's in it for you, and what do we have to lose?" The answer is: everything... to both questions.

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Imagine U.S. Without Texas.

Warning: This is mostly a "rant". If you're easily offended or love the state of Texas, DON'T READ the following.

* A fourth-grade teacher from Texas, asked her students to imagine themselves as AIG employees. She asked them to imagine a situation where they had not directly involved in the deals that ruined the company, but were left to clean up the mess. She asked them to imagine having to pay back money they felt they had earned. She asked them to imagine themselves and their families receiving death threats.

One boy raised his hand and asked if they could write notes to tell them it's going to be okay.

The teacher said they could and the class wrote sympathy notes to all the top executives.

According to employee Patrick O'Neil, who responded on behalf of AIG, this act of kindness made the executives break down and cry.

"There were more than a few moist eyes and tight throats. To have reached out to us in such a heartfelt way is really a testament to your individual and collective humanity."

In addition, Gerry Pasciucco, the current leader of AIG-FP, also wrote to say that the "gesture had deeply touched his battered staff."

It's clear that this group of elites who participated in causing the collapse of our financial markets are only concerned about one thing, themselves. This act only convinced them further that they are the ones to be pitied.

Imagine if this teacher, had, instead, explained how the behavior of this company, not only contributed to leaving tax payers with an enormous debt, that they will have to pay, but that billions of people around the world are suffering, and will continue suffering as the ripple effects of this crisis continue to billow outward.

It is estimated that ten million additional people will die of starvation around the world because of this crisis. That doesn't account for the numerous people who will descend into a deeper poverty. What about their sympathy notes?

And what happened to Texas' - the death penalty capital of the country - hard line ultra punitive politics that drive its tougher than tough system of law and order? Obviously, this "off with their heads" mentality only applies to the little people...the people who can't defend themselves. These people, the recipients of this outpouring of compassion can more than defend themselves, so they're above the law, in the eyes of Texas, anyway.

It's too bad Texas is so big, because without this "magnificent" state, our nation's map would resemble the bottom-toothless smile of the Calgary Flames's power forward, Todd Bertuzzi and we can't have that. So, despite its severe flaws, we can't let Texas secede.

Anyway, how could this country go on without the Dallas Cowboys? As much as I "loathe" Texas, I love the Dallas Cowboys.

* Although, my feelings about Texas (although I hear Austin, TX is a pretty cool place) and this situation are real, I do realize this teacher's actions do not represent the state of Texas, and that maybe's she's right...when children show compassion...it's important to take advantage of that opportunity. I just wish she had provided more options.

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Is It Possible to Overcome the Tragic Legacy of War?

W. Eugene Smith's "Wounded, dying infant found by American soldier in Saipan Mountains" 1944 © [1944], 2008 The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith
Past traumatic experiences can invade an individual's present with the same psychological level of destructive force that occurred at the time of the actual incident.

The loss of feeling safe, or the absence of safe haven amidst an environment of chaos and violence, and the lack of a support structure after the traumatic event, are key causal factors involved in producing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

PTSD is very high among our coalition forces, not to mention, Iraqi civilians - including a great number of children - mainly because of the aforementioned factors. The lack of boundaries - for example, IEDs on the roadside and undetectable suicide bombers, etc. meaning the enemy could literally be anywhere - and the lack of a firm foundation and easy to manage infrastructure ready to handle the profound consequences of our soldier's brutal experiences has been strongly linked with greatly increased divorce rates, increased incidence of alcohol and drug abuse, and an increased rate of suicide amongst our soldiers once they come home.

This haunting legacy of war leaves soldiers with, not only the traumatic, unrelenting, brutal images of bloody battlefields, mutilated civilians and soldiers, but, in addition, they are left with the "blood guilt", the psychologically costly endeavor of having to kill.

The high level of death and destruction experienced during war can undermine the individual's brain's ability to verbalize what he's been through, however this Vietnam veteran was able to articulate the terror he had to relive on a daily or nightly basis:

Links:

A Soldier's Legacy "Don’t ask, don’t tell, but Alan Rogers was a hero to everyone who knew him."

Jumbo jet will carry fallen soldier's legacy to Iraq - More than a year after 2nd Lt. Peter Burks was killed by a roadside bomb blast in Iraq, his father continues to send care packages to soldiers and Iraqi children — so many that American Airlines is donating a plane to fill from top to bottom. It's a partnership with Operation Iraqi Children, a charity founded by actor Gary Sinise.

U.S. Soldier's Legacy Lives On. - The "Christopher Van Der Horn Military Survivors Mental Health Access Act," which doubles the number of mental-health visits without pre-authorization to 16.

In Remembrance

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The Last Time Pirates Attacked the US Navy Was Born

The last time an American ship was attacked by pirates - Muslim pirates, that is - was in 1804, during the first of the Barbary Wars (1801–1805).

Much like today, the U.S., in its infancy, found itself dealing with a form of terrorism, and the principles of the Muslim religion. The result was the birth of the United States Navy.

While it's doubtful, something as massive in scale as the U.S. Navy will emerge from this pirate attack, there are methods private merchant ships can use to prevent further attacks:

The ships take protective measures themselves, either by their speed or by maneuvers, a big ship, when it maneuvers and makes sharp turns, can create a huge wake and swells that make it difficult for the little motor boats to approach.

Further things that have been recommended -- in some cases installed -- are vessels have fire hoses that they can use to fend off the attackers. And even to the point of the recommendation that the railings around the ship's deck be electrified, which would prevent the boarding from the small vessels.

So all of those have been recommended, and in some cases, in a few cases, they are in place.

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Justice, Illusion and The Tricked Brain

How does the brain create its sense of reality? Or, as the character Morpheus, from the movie, The MATRIX, asks,

"What is real? How do you define real? If you are talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, and then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

We begin to evolve our sense of reality by taking "snapshots" of our surroundings and the people we pass by, or meet. However, once that "snapshot" is taken, emotion, preconceived notions, and our other senses kick in to interpret, and ultimately "photoshop" that "snapshot", until it no longer accurately represents the physical reality.

Countless numbers of techniques have been devised to “trick” the brain, to increase the quality of our lives. It is the job of the artist, interior decorator, hair stylist, etc. to deliberately create illusion. However, like anything else, that which can be used to improve can also be used to worsen.

There is no place for illusion in our justice system, yet techniques devised to "trick" the brain are used all the time. The process of taking eyewitness accounting of what they saw is one example. Investigators, attorneys, etc., invested in the outcome of a case, can use numerous techniques that "trick" the brain of the eyewitness into believing an alternative reality.

Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, collaboratively authored by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton tells the saga of one woman's brutal rape that she suffered as a 22-year-old college student, and her eyewitness testimony that sent Ronald Cotton to prison not once, but twice, for crimes he did not commit, the final result: two life sentences, plus. Eleven years later, DNA evidence cleared him of the crime.

Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, the victim, had the presence of mind to deliberately remember everything she could about her attacker as she was brutally raped. She made it a point to remember his height, the shape of his eyes, his cheekbones, his voice, etc. So, how is it possible to finger the wrong guy after staring directly into your perpetrator's face? The intensity of the horror alone, should be enough to clearly and cleanly burn that person's face into your memory as if branded in with a hot iron.

After working with the composite sketch, choosing the nose, eyes, hair, and the features (very limited choice) that best represented that of her assailant, piecemeal, Cannino, was presented with a photograph of Cotton from several years prior. Why several years prior? Because his hair was much shorter then, hence, much closer to the way Cannino originally described her assailant. Cannino's real attacker, Bobby Poole was not even present in the line-up. So, in a state of sheer terror, she directly faced all the men, in the line-up - no two-way mirror like in the movies - and she chose the person she was convinced attacked her.

So, Ronald Cotton, an innocent man, was tried for the brutal rape of not just one woman, but two. All the "evidence" - fingerprints, blood, inner cushion of his shoe - the prosecution claimed to have in their possession, never saw the light of day, because it did not exist.

After he was convicted, and subsequently sent to prison, he met up with Bobby Poole, who was serving time for other offenses in the same jail as Cotton. After recognizing him from the composite sketch, Cotton confronted Poole and asked him if he raped the two girls he was accused of raping. Poole denied everything. Fortunately, later, another inmate told Cotton that Poole confessed both crimes to him. Cotton asked for a new trial, and received it, but was convicted again, this time receiving two life sentences.

Then, eleven years later, Ronald Cotton was cleared of all charges based on DNA test results. However, Ronald Cotton is one of very few men who get the chance to prove their innocence. Most convicted prisoners claiming innocence never get any attention, and even if they are heard, they usually lack the money and support to do anything about it. Ronald Cotton is an unusual man, almost "saintly". It could be that this "saintly" manner attracted the support he needed, and he did have a very supportive family who fully believed in his innocence.

The Innocence Project estimates at least 10% (a very conservative estimate) of all convicts are innocent, and approximately three-quarters of that percentage, were wrongly convicted because of mistaken eyewitness testimony.

"Flawed" human perception should be enough to abolish capital punishment. manipulative techniques The application of capital punishment is "deeply flawed and can be irreversibly wrong, is prone to errors and is biased by factors such as race, the quality of legal representation and where the crime was committed."

The last thirty years has ushered in a particularly harsh era of punishment that does not consider the limits and fragility of human perception. This highly punitive penal code that American society has adopted, does not consider the strong emotional and psychological forces intrinsic to any system of justice, that only serve to further distort and skew the reality, so important to the lives of the many individuals whose very survival depends on its accuracy.

After all that Ronald Cotton went through, he received $500 for every year he was wrongly imprisoned. I guess he should just be thankful his punishment was not irreversible.

Take the eyewitness test.

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Public Private Partnership Program Scheme

Will taxpayers end up owning even more of these troubled assets, thanks to the Public-Private Partnership Program introduced by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner?

This program intends to give out loans with very easy terms to hedge funds in order to encourage them to buy up toxic assets from banks. The addition of private investors will undoubtedly inflate the price of these assets well above the market price. Why can't we figure out the true cost of these toxic assets and pay the price? Could it be because the true price is not high enough for the almighty banks? This is just another attempt to subsidize the banks at the taxpayers expense.

How come the government forces out the CEO of General Motors, yet has no problem with the CEO of Citigroup? Why don't we treat the banks like we treat the auto makers?

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Rise of Sovereign Wealth Funds

"Assets held by sovereign wealth funds increased by 6pc last year despite a massive decline in the value of their investments, as governments created new vehicles and increased the money available to existing funds.

Total funds under management by all sovereign wealth funds increased to $3.22 trillion from $3.05 trillion last year, according to research by Preqin. Sovereign wealth funds assets dwarf the $1.3 trillion held by the private equity industry and experts say they could be used to help fund private equity acquisitions while credit markets remain frozen."


Follow the Money.

Click here for full size graphic,

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Forcing Democracy and the Tragic Results

Pressured into prostitution by his impoverished circumstances, as are many children in Iraq, 14-year old Ahmed Khalil, was executed for homosexual behavior in 2006.

He sold his body only to help his impoverished family survive, and the Iraqi police shot him at point-blank range, pumping two bullets into his head and several more bullets into the rest of his body.

Saddam Hussein was the worst kind of tyrant, however, homosexuality was usually tolerated. At the very least, gay people were not in danger of being assassinated by fundamentalist death squads.

Fast forward to current day Iraq, and the security situation has vastly improved, however, it continues to become less secure for some, in particular, men, women, and even children suspected of homosexuality, in what was started as a sexual cleansing process four years ago.

Praised by President Bush as a leading moderate, the U.S. backed Iraq's leading Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, even after he issued, in 2005, a fatwa urging the killing of LGBT people in the "worst, most severe way" possible.

The kidnapping and executing of people suspected of homosexuality (even young children) prostitutes, unveiled women, sellers and consumers of alcohol and people with Sunni-sounding names ensued as it was condoned and encouraged by this Shia spiritual leader, another consequence of imposing democracy on another culture very unlike our own. However, "imposing democracy" is far from the real reason we started this war.

The US has been arming and training both the Sunnis and the Shiites at the same time, all along, fully realizing the hatred each group has for the other...fully realizing the collateral damage this tactic would inflict. Why? Because creating volatile and instability, and creating a fractured division in Iraq is essential to conquering the most oil rich region in the world. The Iraqis, or as one woman describes, *the beast (over one million and counting, not to mention all the injured, poverty stricken Iraqis) had to be sacrificed.

The story of 14-year old Ahmed Khalil:

“Ahmed Khalil was a likeable, playful 14 year old boy, born in the southern Iraqi town of al-Ammara. The eldest child, he came from an uneducated family who lived in great poverty.

After the 2003 US-led invasion, the Iraqi economy collapsed, causing widespread unemployment and the disintegration of social services. With no income or welfare support in al-Ammara, Ahmed's family moved to Baghdad a couple of years ago, after the fall of Sadaam Hussein.

His father wanted to find a job to support his wife, two sons and daughter. The family settled in al-Dura, a very poor southern district of Baghdad.

Ahmed's father worked as a night watchman on a building site for the pitiful wage of $10 dollars a month, plus permission for him and his family to live on the site until the construction of the new houses was completed. They lived in the shell of the unfinished buildings. It was a life of desolation and destitution.

Ahmed was often bullied by the neighborhood boys for being poor. He had no one to protect him. It is unclear whether Ahmed was gay or not. He had sex with men, often in exchange for small amounts of money and food. He did this in order to help his family financially. Sometimes they were so desperate, he had sex for a few potatoes or some bread.

Ahmed's ‘gay' reputation spread all over his neighborhood, causing great scandal. His behavior was reported to the police by informants in the community. In early April 2006, Ahmed was found dead on the doorstep of his house. He had been shot, with two bullets in the head and several bullets in the rest of his body.

According to a neighbor, who saw Ahmed's execution from his bedroom window, four uniformed police officers arrived at Ahmed's house in a four-wheel-drive police pick-up truck. The neighbor saw the police drag Ahmed out of the house and shoot him at point-blank range.

Several other neighbors confirm this account, although they did not see the actual shooting. They say they heard gunshots and saw the police leaving the scene. They then found Ahmed's body lying on the ground outside his house. Ahmed was executed by the police.

Two days before Ahmed's execution, his father was arrested and interrogated by the police. They demanded to know what he knew about Ahmed's sexual activities and blamed Ahmed for corrupting the community. Officers eventually released Ahmed's father. His son was killed soon afterwards.

Both Ahmed's mother and father wept over their sons' brutal killing. Even though homosexuality is taboo, they did not agree he deserved to die. The family see him as a victim of poverty and police murder.

Because they are so poor, the family could not afford a funeral for their son.

The day after Ahmed was murdered, his family moved out of the area, fearing police retribution and denunciation within the local community. The family's whereabouts and fate is unknown.

Ahmed is one of many hundreds of teenage boys and girls in Iraq who sell their bodies to survive and support their impoverished families." -- Ali Hili, an exiled gay Iraqi who is Middle East Affairs spokesperson for the London-based gay human rights group OutRage!.

*A view from Iraq:

[...]When the sacrificial beast falls, the knives multiply.And Iraq was seen as a "beast" to be sacrificed. "Beast" in the positive sense.A beast is strong, has good survival instincts, is sturdy, can defend itself, has developed capacities and skills to remain alive in a jungle it knows all too well.And like in a Corrida, the minute the bull falls, the arrows multiply. And it kicks and fights back till its last breath and more arrows fall down upon it, until it is inert, immobilized on the grounds...This is exactly what happened to Iraq. The "beast" had to be sacrificed.And the Matadors multiplied their spiky arrows. All kinds of spiky arrows...Strip it naked and finish it off...

Fire from the skies and from the grounds. Bombs, DU, Napalm, Bullets...destroy homes, buildings, schools, universities, hospitals...segregate, ghettos...check points, id's, digital prints, biometric measures, numbers...ransack homes in the middle of the night, strip people naked, steal their belongings, rape their women...detain, blindfold, tie, abduct, kidnap...prisons, camps, detention centers, dungeons....torture till they go blind, paralyzed, amputated...or insane. Rape and sodomize them - men, women and children...steal and destroy the history, the monuments, the art, rip away the genius, tear apart that creativity, smash that contribution to civilization...go for the heads and the hands that produced it. Steal, steal and steal some more. Steal the treasury, the arts, the antiquities, the universities, the oil, the savings, the ratios...Burn...burn the culture, the manuscripts, the books, the libraries, burn the fields, the land...burn it...burn it...desecrate the sacred, the holy places, the spaces of worship, the holy books...desecrate nature, pollute it, soil it, poison it -- all of it..the sky, the earth, the water...uproot them, exile them, cut away their ties, abandon them, let them wander in the wilderness...Oh God this is too much.

Now they are naked and vulnerable...so prey on their last breath...prey on any point of strength they may have left...and go for that too.Dump on them...dump on them your anger, your hatred, your envy, your frustrations, your rage, your lust, your covetousness, your greed, your sadism, your unnamed desires, your beastly instincts, your death instincts, your moral depravity, all the "stuff" you don't allow yourselves to do in your "respectable homes and countries", all the "stuff" you don't allow yourselves on your own grounds, because you try so hard to appear and give the best, the famous facade of your civility...dump on them and exploit them even more...dump on them your shadows, your evilness, those parts of yourself you cannot own, cannot face...dump on them...the beast has fallen, multiply your knives.

Exploit them even more...they are vulnerable, as vulnerable and as naked as you want them to be. Go ahead, pontificate and justify to them...rationalize it away, smile while reading your essays and think hard while writing your articles...go ahead refine the deceit, refine it...find a thousand reasons why it is the way it is...and exploit them some more...Exploit their refugees with high prices, with their begging for permits, with their hunger, with their desperation...exploit their needy women, exploit their widows...exploit their orphans, street kids, traffic them, prostitute them for your porno rings...go ahead do more...They are all naked in front of you...dump some more...what else do you envy and you want to strip from them ? What else is left ?

What is there to strip from people who have reached the point of selling their organs for survival ? what is there to steal from people who no longer go to schools, who no longer read and write ? what is their left to destroy from homes, monuments, sites, buildings and hospitals when they are already in shambles ? what is there left to erase and burn when there is no history and no books left ? What is left to rape from diseased bodies ridden with poison and cancerous tumors...What is there left ?

The passion has turned to a never ending grief, the generosity has become a beggar, the pride and the honor a naked woman reaching out for a cloth to cover herself and the intelligence, a burning, raw, survival instinct, gasping for its last breath...Is there anything left to prey on, to destroy, kill, torture, rape, use and abuse steal, plunder, pillage...exploit...is there anything else you need to dump ?Iraq has become your mirror Ladies and Gentlemen. Look at Iraq and you will see yourselves. All of you. Individually and collectively.We look into the mirror....I look into the mirror and we, I, see nothing but You.And all I need, want, desire -- is to throw up the garbage, the rejects of "humanity", to vomit "human" kind." -- Layla Anwar

Links:
Gays Without Borders
Web of Deceit: Part 1

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The High Cost of Maintaining American Arse.

15 million trees are sacrificed each year so that we the people can wipe! That's a hell of a lot of trees.

Honestly, I've never given the subject of anal cleansing much thought. But, after hearing about the number of trees that must be pulped on a loggers segment on NPR's Here and Now, I thought I'd look into it.

In addition to the 15 million trees, it takes 473,587,500,000 gallons of water, 253,000 tons of chlorine (for bleaching purposes) to manufacture that which we cannot live without, toilet paper . And that's only the production cost. The entire process, which includes the energy and materials for packaging and transporting the toilet paper uses about 17.3 terrawatts of electricity annually. That's what it takes to produce, package, ship and sell 36.5 billions rolls of toilet paper in the U.S. each year.

And what about after the deed is done? City sewer systems, water treatment plants, septic tanks, clogged pipes, etc. increase the cost even more.

Is there a solution? I don't know, but I do know that not talking about it will prevent a solution for sure.

I don't know what you do with those stones in the picture below, but obviously alternatives to paper exist. Although it doesn't exactly offer the squeezable comfort of Charmain, maybe it's time we look into the possibility of toilet stones. We can resurrect Mr. Whipple. I'm sure he could sell America on whatever those stones do and make it sound squeezably soft.

At the very least, let's try maximize the use we get from this extraordinarily costly product. Suduko, crossword puzzles, tic tac toe, ect. are some ideas. Here's an idea... we could eliminate newspapers all together, something that might happen anyway, and print out newspaper articles on toilet paper rolls. Merge the toilet paper industry with the newspaper industry...

If you are so inclined you can click here for more information regarding the alternatives shown in the picture.

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