salviad
The Solution to our Environmental Woes is to End Prohibition
via chycho
The best solution to our environmental problems is to end prohibition. There is no other viable option short of the immediate end to military conflict that will have the same positive impact on the ecosystem. Our first step towards a sustainable existence should begin with cannabis. Its assimilation into our civilization is the safest, simplest, most efficient immediate solution that we can implement in time to prevent an ecological catastrophe.
Cannabis is a plant, and its use is as old as civilization itself. It has thousands of immediate and potential applications. Its cultivation rejuvenates the soil, it can replace wood products, it’s medicinal, and it can be used as building material, textiles, paint, plastic, fuel, paper, food and body care. It is one of the most important bounties of nature. It’s a plant that we were meant to use.
So what’s the hold up? The short answer is America’s “War on…
In Reaction to Marc Emery’s Extradition
via chycho
Civilizations are remembered based on how they treat the most vulnerable in their society, and based on our performance so far, history will not have a favorable record of us, if any.
We have allowed greed, ignorance and apathy to victimize our children, to discard our elders, to brutalize our delinquents, and to dehumanize our invalid. Fear has consumed our collective. Its toxicity has rotted our humanity, which is why compassion seems to have vanished from our vocabulary.
What Happens in Society when Personal Data Becomes Readily Available
via chycho
I came across the following post on AskReddit that I wanted to share since it has been one of the main themes on this site.
It is from an individual asking a question from the community regarding the ethical and legal nature of his or her actions. It is a perfect example of what happens in society when personal data becomes readily available.
I have also included four replies from other users to the question. There were over eleven hundred replies, and I chose the ones that I agreed with. There are other points of view.
As for my personal take on this issue, I believe the person is a piece of shit, and as one of the comments pointed out, nothing more than a kapo.
Edited Tapes of Oklahoma City Bombing Released, But Where are the Pentagon Tapes?
From chycho:
A must read for every citizen of the United States of America is Gore Vidal’s “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated.” It is a short read that provides a lot of information and raises many important questions about the American Empire.
Do You Want to Know Why Iran has a Nuclear Program?
By chycho:
I had an American friend tell me that she was fascinated with Iran, and wanted to know my opinion regarding Iran’s nuclear program, especially since a so-called new plant was just announced, or “revealed”, depending on your perspective and source of information.
Below you will find my reply to her question, and a re-post of the first article. Please note that these articles were written over the last few years so there is some repetition between them. Facts do not disappear over time, so I believe it’s always a good idea to repeat some of the important points.
Just to make sure that the most recent US accusations at the UN regarding Iran’s nuclear program are put into context, it’s important to know that CNN has revealed that “The United States was aware of Iran’s unfinished uranium enrichment site for several years.”
My email reply, links to previous posts, and a re-post…
“The lie of the powerful”: The Battle of Algiers
Considering our most recent topics of discussion and our current geopolitical situation, I thought the following 7-pages from “Ordinary Victories” by Manu Larcenet would be appropriate to share, not to mention extremely relevant considering the number of countries that are presently occupied by foreign powers.
The pages deal with the consequences of atrocities committed for lies. Ignore the period referenced if you wish, project to the date of your choice, and adjust the scale of the atrocities accordingly.
To help put the pages into context, you may wish to watch the following movie first, The Battle of Algiers, embedded below. It is a cinematic masterpiece and “the only film in Oscar history to be a nominee in two separate non-consecutive years”.
Tit for Tat: “Suicide bombers hit Somalia peacekeeping base in Mogadishu; witness says 11 dead”
Islamist suicide bombers in explosives-laden cars with U.N. logos drove onto the main base of African Union peacekeepers Thursday and triggered two massive blasts that a witness reported killed at least 11 people, blew out windows and shrouded the sky in black smoke.
“I have counted the bodies of 11 people, Somalis and peacekeepers,” the witness said, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The AU said peacekeepers were wounded in the attack at Mogadishu’s airport, but did not elaborate. The African Medical and Research Foundation, which operates a flying doctors service, said the U.N. has asked for help evacuating 15 “critically injured” people.
An Islamist insurgent group claimed responsibility for the attack and said the targets were senior peacekeeping officials and Somali government officials who were meeting there. The attack came two days after al-Shabab vowed revenge for a U.S. commando raid that killed al-Qaida operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Somalia.
A Taste of AFRICOM: Some History on Somalia to Put the Most Recent U.S. Attacks into Perspective
American commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa, in a daylight raid in southern Somalia on 15 September 2009. This attack is a good “indication of the Obama administration’s willingness to use force against Al Qaeda’s growing influence in the region.”…
Some have been heralding this as a great achievement, while others, including myself, see no difference between what the Bush administration was doing and what the Obama administration is now doing, other then escalating the war by putting ground troops in Somalia, which this attack just did…
So while our Western Mainstream Media continues to feed us government sanctioned propaganda, we should remember why and how Somalia became a failed State, some of the reasons as to why Somali pirates became so active in the region, and what the real agenda is for Africa.
BBC’s ‘Dangerous Knowledge’: The Reason Why the UK Government Apologized to Alan Turing
On 10 September 2009, the government of the United Kingdom apologized to Alan Turing, five decades after his death. Turing was a mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, computer scientist, and a World War II war hero who allegedly committed suicide “55 years ago after being sentenced to chemical castration for being gay.”…
My first introduction to Turing was last year when I came across a BBC documentary entitled “Dangerous Knowledge”. It featured Alan Turing along with three other great visionaries from our civilization.
In the introduction the producer and presenter, David Malone states the following:
“…this is my homage to four great thinkers, who without most of us even having heard of them, have profoundly influenced the nature of our age, and who’s stories have, I think, an important message for us today.”
Meet the New Boss: ‘The Object of Torture is Torture. The Object of Power is Power.’
The word from The White House’s Briefing Room is that Obama is going to continue the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001 by the Bush administration.
The full briefing is available below, but before reading it, it might be worth while reading the following quote from George Orwell’s 1984, it should help put things into perspective.
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently… All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives…. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes…
Meet the new boss: “The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”
The word from The White House’s Briefing Room is that Obama is going to continue the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001 by the Bush administration.
The full briefing is available below, but before reading it, it might be worth while reading the following quote from George Orwell’s 1984, it should help put things into perspective.
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the…
The Truth About 9/11 is the Big Bad White Elephant in the Room, and It’s Not Going Away Any Time Soon
What will make or break the United States of America is the truth about 911, not its monetary policy, its fiscal irresponsibility, its inability to liquidate bad assets, its lack of transparency, its corporate run mainstream media, or even its inadequate health care. The truth about what transpired on 11 September 2001 will decide the fate of the United States. Everything else is secondary…
The “official” story that the US government has been peddling has completely fallen apart, and the reality that there is something very wrong with the so-called “War on Terror” is beginning to destabilize the United States. Americans are beginning to accept the fact that there is a lot more to 911 than their government will admit, and they are looking for answers.
68.4% of Weapons Sold to Foreign Powers are Supplied by the U.S.: ‘Quit Arming the Fuck’n World Man!’
The business of death and destruction is booming for weapons manufacturers operating in the United States of America.
As reported in the New York Times, according to a new Congressional study, “the United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar.” This is 10-times more than their closest rival, Italy, at $3.7 billion…
As Bill Hicks would say, “Quit arming the fuck’n world Man!”
The Comic Book Industry: The Brilliance of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol: Introducing Mr. Nobody
One of the most important contributions the United States of America has made to modern civilization is the creation and the popularization of the comic book genre. It is widely accepted that the present form of comic books, in which word balloons are used, began in New York in 1896 with ‘The Yellow Kid’. This simple comic about a “snaggle-toothed child with a goofy grin” was the genesis of what has become a multibillion-dollar sector of commerce…
Like many of the great pleasures in life, this art form has spread far and wide across the globe.
One of the major players in this realm has been the United Kingdom, and one of its most important periods occurred in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s with the British Invasion of American comic books. This period saw the influx of British comic creators, most of whom initially worked for DC Comics. Creators such as;…
The Internet is Being Censored, Filtered, and Throttled: Governments Trying to Control Information
There is a very good possibility that the World War III option is an attempt to control the Internet by eliminating Net Neutrality and online free speech. It appears that the boundaries set between countries through treaties are vanishing due to the exponential dissemination of information through the Net. This is in conflict with the wishes of the oligarchy who are willing to do anything to maintain control. After all, it is, in large part, our technological evolution that is bringing about our socioeconomic metamorphosis that we see manifesting itself as a global financial crisis.
The attack on the Internet use to be just three-pronged; bandwidth throttling by ISP’s, Internet censorship by governments, and the oligarchy trying to prevent Network Neutrality. However, as of this year, we can now add a new category to this list, autocratic control over the Internet.
House of Saud Assassination Attempt Took Place on August 28th
“Prince Muhammad bin Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, escaped an assassination attempt on Thursday night when a wanted terrorist blew himself up inside the prince’s house.”
He was treated at a hospital for minor injuries after the incident. “The prince, who is the son of interior minister Prince Naif, the third in line to the throne, was shown on Saudi television on Friday sitting with King Abdullah, who had gone to the hospital … This is the first known assassination attempt against a member of the royal family since a group affiliated to al-Qaeda started a campaign to destabilise the house of Saud in 2001.”
As for the House of Saud and their relationship with the ruling class in the United States, the following PBS Frontline documentary is a good, albeit an incomplete, introduction to the topic.
A very important event took place in Saudi Arabia on August 28: Assassination attempt Saudi Royal
“Prince Muhammad bin Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs, escaped an assassination attempt on Thursday night when a wanted terrorist blew himself up inside the prince’s house.”
He was treated at a hospital for minor injuries after the incident. “The prince, who is the son of interior minister Prince Naif, the third in line to the throne, was shown on Saudi television on Friday sitting with King Abdullah, who had gone to the hospital… This is the first known assassination attempt against a member of the royal family since a group affiliated to al-Qaeda started a campaign to destabilise the house of Saud in 2001.”…
As for the House of Saud and their relationship with the ruling class in the United States, the following PBS Frontline documentary is a good, albeit an incomplete, introduction to the topic.
Why David M. Walker Compared the Collapse of the United States to the Fall of Rome
As many are aware, in March 2008, David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office, resigned his commission 5 years before the end of his 15-year term expired. His reasons for resigning were that he was limited to what he could do and that the United States was in danger of collapsing in much the same manner as the Roman Empire.
“Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were ‘striking similarities’ between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome…”
For months before his resignation he traveled the country educating Americans about the financial crisis and the pending bankruptcy of the United States.
An Iranian Perspective: What You Need to Know About Iran So That You Can Filter Out The Noise
It is crucial to know the following facts about Iran to be able to understand its relationship with the United States and its significance on the geopolitical landscape, as well as being able to engage in any productive discussion about the current situation:
1) In 2007 US Congress approved $400 million for the CIA to destabilize Iran — “Late last year (2007), Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.”
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