Archive for July, 2010
Karl Rove: ‘My Biggest Mistake in the White House’
With a title like that who can resist reading? Bound to disappoint of course… From the Wall Street Journal:
Seven years ago today, in a speech on the Iraq war, Sen. Ted Kennedy fired the first shot in an all-out assault on President George W. Bush’s integrity. “All the evidence points to the conclusion,” Kennedy said, that the Bush administration “put a spin on the intelligence and a spin on the truth.” Later that day Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle told reporters Mr. Bush needed “to be forthcoming” about the absence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Thus began a shameful episode in our political life whose poisonous fruits are still with us.
The next morning, Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and John Edwards joined in. Sen. Kerry said, “It is time for a president who will face the truth and tell the truth.” Mr. Edwards chimed in, “The administration has a problem…
Glenn Beck Sez, “The Jews Killed Jesus”
Yes, it’s another day and another piece of drivel from the mouth of Glenn Beck. This time it’s one of the bedrocks of antisemitism — that the Jews killed Jesus. How much longer until this guy overstays his welcome? Does his audience have an infinite capacity to absorb this stuff?
Here’s the story at Gawker:
Dream presidential candidate Glennifer Beck was on his television program last night talking about liberation theology and religion and stuff and he dropped some theological-historical knowledge on us: The Jews killed Jesus! Haven’t you missed that old saw?
Yeah, the “Jews killed Jesus” thing is one of the bedrock “arguments” of antisemitism and Glenn Beck, known Mormon, just up and said it…
John Pilger on Barack Obama and American Empire
Though this clip is almost a year old, journalist John Pilger sums up the Obama problem succinctly and accurately. His insight on Obama speech reminds me of a word to have only recently entered the English vernacular: obamalize–the act of saying one thing when your intentions are the exact opposite.
J. D. Salinger – With Love and Squalor, For Esmé
1951 picture of Salinger, photographed by Maurey Garber 1953 and later donated to the University of New Hampshire. Copyright is held by Lotte Jacobi Collection, University of New Hampshire.
1951 picture of Salinger, photographed by Maurey Garber 1953 and later donated to the University of New Hampshire. Copyright is held by Lotte Jacobi Collection, University of New Hampshire.
This essay will explore the relationship of America’s most famous recluse to The CIA, George H.W. Bush and the MK-Ultra mind control program.
In his celebrated story For Esmé – With Love and Squalor, Salinger, trying to get a grip on life, most probably is talking about himself when he starts a correspondence with a thirteen-year-old British girl in 1948. A Perfect Day for Bananafish is another story about his struggle with suicide.
“In Search of J. D. Salinger” by Ian Hamilton recounts Salinger’s experiences in the employ of United States Defense Intelligence, during and after World War II, serving with the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC).
His time was spent mainly in the interrogation of captured Nazis. However, toward the end of the war, he was…
Lunargate!
Disinfo.com editor’s note: This classic report by former editor Alex Burns was originally published on this site on Aug. 13, 2002. Some external links may have changed.
In a now infamous 1961 speech, US President John F. Kennedy pledged that America’s space program would “place a man on the moon before the decade’s close.”
At the heart of cold war battles for geopolitical supremacy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs also became the vehicle for inculcating domestic populations with American values and belief systems.
NASA’s growing power, its protection by the Kennedy administration, and the rise of the Right Stuff astronaut as celebrity hid the steady growth of the Military-Industrial Complex that Eisenhower had warned about.
These anxieties–of monolithic social institutions controlling information, and the decline of US global empires–are the core of conspiracy theories claiming the historic Apollo moon landings were elaborately faked. The world was hoaxed.
Anatomy of a Faked…
Rubber Fetus Ban Taken To Court
Rubber fetuses given out by pro-life students at high schools in Roswell, New Mexico were banned because they were “distracting the educational environment.” The want for the ban to be overturned has created a court case bringing to question where the first amendment lies in the situation. Matt Reynolds of OnPoint details:
The suspensions of seven pro-life students at two Roswell, N.M., high schools for distributing rubber fetuses have given birth to a lawsuit that takes the First Amendment protections for student speech into uncharted territory.
The students, who belong to a religious youth group called Relentless in Roswell, sued school officials last month, alleging their suspensions were unconstitutional. They were disciplined in February after they handed out hundreds of fetus dolls at Goddard and Roswell High Schools before classes.
The complaint describes the dolls as two inches in length and “the actual size and weight of a developing unborn child at 12 weeks’…
BP Says They’ve Stopped The Oil
Don’t get too excited now, this is only a test. The well has been temporarily sealed, successfully stopping the flow of oil. This provisional solution will allow tests to be conducted to determine the details of BP’s next plan to redirect and capture the oil. BBC covers:
It is the first time the flow has stopped since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig on 20 April.
The well has been sealed with a cap as part of a test of its integrity that could last up to 48 hours.
BP executive Kent Wells said the oil had been stopped at 14:25 local time (1925 GMT) and he was “excited” by the progress.
“It is very good to see no oil go into the Gulf of Mexico,” said Mr Wells.
But BP is stressing that even if no oil escapes for 48 hours, that will not mean the flow of oil and gas has been stopped…
Historians Claim to Have Found King Arthur’s Round Table — And It Seats 1,000 People
Detail of the Round Table inside Winchester's Great Hall showing King Arthur on throne, painted in Tudor times, Winchester, Hampshire, England.
Martin Evans writes in the Telegraph:
Researchers exploring the legend of Britain’s most famous Knight believe his stronghold of Camelot was built on the site of a recently discovered Roman amphitheatre in Chester.
Legend has it that his Knights would gather before battle at a round table where they would receive instructions from their King. But rather than it being a piece of furniture, historians believe it would have been a vast wood and stone structure which would have allowed more than 1,000 of his followers to gather.
Historians believe regional noblemen would have sat in the front row of a circular meeting place, with lower ranked subjects on stone benches grouped around the outside. They claim rather than Camelot being a purpose built castle, it would have been housed in a structure…
Robot Border Patrol at DMZ
Photo: Samsung Techwin, SGR-1 gun bot
South Korea has begun using robots to survey and, if necessary, fire at intruders crossing the DMZ line from the North. It is operated by soldiers who verify intruders through audio visual equipment. It is designed to “detect threats,” but with the reliance on human operation, there is just as much room for error as a solider standing guard. From the Telegraph:
The 400 million won (£220,000) unit was installed last month at a guard post in the central section of the Demilitarised Zone which bisects the peninsula, Yonhap news agency said.
South Korea is also developing highly sophisticated combat robots armed with weapons and sensors that could complement human soldiers on battlefields.
The robot uses heat and motion detectors to sense possible threats, and alerts command centres, Yonhap said.
If the command centre operator cannot identify possible intruders through the robot’s audio or video communications system, the operator…
Social Physics with Kyle Findlay
Via Technoccult:
Klint Finley: What, as a “social physicist,” do you actually do?
Kyle Findlay: Well, at the moment I’m on my own in this “field,” if you can call it that. It just seems like the best description of what I do and what interests me so hopefully it sticks.
Basically, my interest is in understanding how people act as groups. As emergent entities that have their own (hopefully) predictable and describable topological forms. That’s the lofty idea anyway. And the tools of chaos theory, systems theory, network theory, physics, mathematics, etc. help describe this.
Do you have a background in physical sciences?
None at all. I studied “business science” at the University of Cape Town. My first job was for a company with a strong academic background, started by a professor of religion and a professor of statistics. They used a 5-dimensional catastrophe cusp model to describe people’s relationships with ideas.
The moment I…
Retelling the Past, Reimagining the Future : A 2012 Dialogue with Daniel Pinchbeck & Graham Hancock
This unique dialogue brings together two leading counterculture thinkers, Daniel Pinchbeck author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age, and Breaking Open the Head, and Graham Hancock author of Fingerprints of the Gods, Supernatural and most recently the fantasy adventure novel Entangled. Pinchbeck and Hancock discuss the implications of the Mayan Calendar “end-times” date 2012 which Hancock first drew to the attention of his readers in Fingerprints of the Gods published in 1995.
Hancock’s evidence for a great lost civilisation wiped out in a global cataclysm 12,500 years ago is explored in depth…
Teenagers Using “Digital Drugs” To Get High?!?
I’m finding this, strange. Maybe I am old-fashioned about so-called drug use … but where there is a perceived threat to young people, your local TV news folks will be on the story. Ryan Singel writes on WIRED’s Threat Level:
Kids around the country are getting high on the internet, thanks to MP3s that induce a state of ecstasy. And it could be a gateway drug leading teens to real-world narcotics.
At least, that’s what Kansas News 9 is reporting about a phenomenon called “i-dosing,” which involves finding an online dealer who can hook you up with “digital drugs” that get you high through your headphones. And officials are taking it seriously.
“Kids are going to flock to these sites just to see what it is about and it can lead them to other places,” Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward told News 9.
I-dosing involves donning headphones and listening to “music” — largely a droning noise — which the sites peddling the sounds promise will get you high. Teens are listening to such tracks as “Gates of Hades,” which is available on YouTube gratis (yes, the first one is always free).
Pentagon Asks Troops How Gross It Would Be To Shower With A Gay Person
Alex Pareene writes on Salon.com:
The Pentagon is surveying 400,000 active troops on how they would handle a potential repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It is kind of a mess.
Some gay rights groups are concerned that the gay and lesbian service members could inadvertently out themselves by filling it out. The survey is sorta-mostly anonymous, but the Defense Department will not provide immunity to anyone outed. On the other hand, if LGBT service members don’t fill it out, the results could be weighted in favor of semi-anonymous homophobia.
As for the content of the survey? Well, it’s got questions like this:
“If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed and you are assigned to bathroom facilities with an open bay shower that someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian Service member also used, which are you most likely to do? Mark 1.”
- “Take no action;
- “Use the shower at a different time than the…
Too Much Fat in London’s Pipes
Agence France-Presse via the Raw Story reports an interesting story about the London sewage system. A buildup of solidified cooking fat has become a hindrance in the flow of the city’s piping:
“A team of workers sporting breathing apparatus and carrying shovels has started clearing around 1,000 tonnes of fat from sewers around London’s Leicester Square, a water company said Tuesday.
Cooking fat being poured down drains under one of the city’s main tourist attractions is thought to be causing blockages.
Leicester Square borders London’s Chinatown and its bustling restaurants and cafes, as well as the West End and Soho entertainment districts.
The clean-up, which could take up to two months, is described as the biggest ever of its kind by Thames Water, the firm organising it.
Danny Brackley, one of those involved in the clean-up, said they could not even access the sewers at first as they were blocked by a four foot (1.2 metre)…
Does Your Spouse Hate That You Want To Be Cryogenically Frozen?
The New York Times has an intriguing article on the tension that often arises between people that want to be cryogenically preserved after death and those people’s loved ones. Is it a selfish act to hope for the revival of your frozen brain centuries into the future? Or are the rest of us just jealous of cryogenics enthusiasts’ cheery refusal to accept death as inevitable?
Robert Ettinger is the father of cryonics, his 1964 book, “The Prospect of Immortality,” its founding text. “This is not a hobby or conversation piece,” he wrote in 1968, adding, “it is the struggle for survival. Drive a used car if the cost of a new one interferes. Divorce your wife if she will not cooperate.” Today, with just fewer than200 patients preserved within the two major cryonics facilities, the Michigan-based Cryonics Institute and the Arizona-based Alcor, and with 10 times as many signed up to be…
Real-Life Superhero Defends Tennessee Town
Via NBC News:
COLUMBIA, TN (NBC) — In a town where they’ve engraved “justice” and “honor” on the public square, a new word, a new name is the talk of Columbia.
Bike shop owner A.C. Howell said, “The Viper, I believe. Isn’t he the Masked Viper?”
Yes, the Viper. He’s a man police found patrolling the public square with an arsenal of equipment, including plastic sticks and ninja throwing stars. His goal? Find crime and report it to police. Officers spotted him outside the wheel last week.
The bike shop’s owner couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I don’t know. He needs something to do. Probably needs a job. I hope he’s looking out for my benefit. I hope he’s guarding my store,” said Howell.
Peanut Butter: Proof Evolution Doesn’t Exist
Fundamentalist Christians’ newest real-world example that shows conclusively that evolution is a lie: peanut butter. Don’t know how the unbelievers will be able to answer this one.
Does An Orderly and Safe Way to Fundamentally Change the U.S. Government Exist?
This article below is a sequel to my essay, “Defeating the New World Order and Creating a New Society That Allows Capitalists and Communists to Live Together in Peace After Establishing a New Constitution,” posted previously to disinfo.com.
Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government … to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
If you look at the Constitution of the United States, there is only one paragraph (Article V) that tells how we can change our government. But Article V only discusses how to propose and then ratify amendments. It does not say anything about the procedures to rewrite the entire Constitution. At their website, an organization called Friends of the Article V Convention has verified that there have been over 700 petitions for a constitutional convention…
