Adam Carolla & Daniele Bolelli

Disinformation author Daniele Bolelli (50 Things You’re Not Supposed To Know: Religion) is the featured guest on Adam Carolla’s podcast this week.

Carolla and his gang talk about Daniele’s strong Italian accent, even though he’s been in the States for 20 years. The guys also go through some of the book’s talking points on religion, and discuss how to start your own cult. Adam then asks Daniele about his black belt, and the guys agree on the simplicity of fighting…

The segment with Daniele starts at about 56 minutes in. Enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window

The Georgia Guidestones are a collection of standing stones near Elberton, Georgia. Built in 1980, they are primarily composed of six slabs of granite: one central pillar, four “major” stones that fan out from the center, and a capstone. The capstone has engravings on all four of its sides in four different ancient languages, all of which read, “Let these be guidestones to an Age of Reason,” when translated. The major stones are each engraved on both sides, and each side contains text in one of eight modern languages asserting ten guidelines.

These guidelines have proven extremely controversial, causing speculation and rumors of conspiracy that go far beyond northeast Georgia.

The Georgia Guidestones are at once a Rosetta Stone, an astronomical observatory, and a road map for rebuilding civilization. Theories of conspiracy, occultism, and apocalypse surround this monument, and it has been called a “prism of meaning” by many who have studied it. At the heart of this confusion is the missing piece of the puzzle: who was the mystery man that designed and funded the project?

Conspiracy theorists surmise a global plot on the part of shadowy group of men to reduce and subjugate the world’s population and create a “New World Order.” Others believe that the man behind the monument was a Rosicrucian, and that the stones are representative of that group’s occult manifestos. Are the stones proof of a Satanic conspiracy or a testament to a Cold War psychology of nuclear annihilation?

Local historian and Georgia native Raymond Wiley was interviewed for The History Channel’s Brad Meltzer’s Decoded about the Guidestones and is a principal expert for a feature-length documentary currently in production. With local writer K.T. Prime he has written the definitive account of America’s most famous megalithic monument.

They covered everything from joining Ron Paul in the 2012 presidential election to the fall of World Trade Center 7 on 9/11, discussing many topics along the way including Colony Collapse Disorder, fluoride in municipal water supplies, legalization of drugs, and much more.

See their earlier conversations at the Russian Tea Room: Part 1 and Part 2.

Episode 10 — Apocalypse in Georgia:

Best-selling author Brad Meltzer and the team search for the true meaning of the mysterious Georgia Guidestones. Often called America’s Stonehenge, this granite monument is located on a remote hilltop outside Atlanta. Brad and the team examine the multilingual messages carved into the stones for any clues to the monument’s anonymous creator, who’s known only by the pseudonym — R.C. Christian. The Decoded team checks out rumors that the Guidestones are really the work of a secretive religious sect called the Rosicrucians, who’ve been accused of practicing alchemy and mind control.

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It’s long been noted that all of us start in the womb as sexless little blobs. We each had the same undifferentiated external equipment (a bud of tissue), plus two sets of internal ducts.

Depending on whether an embryo has a Y sex chromosome or two X’s, during week seven it starts developing into a boy or a girl. That little mound of tissue (the genital tubercle) either opens to form two sets of labia and a clitoris, or it closes to make a penis and testicles. When viewed this way, the similarities between guys’ and dolls’ private parts is obvious and has drawn comments since ancient Greek times.

But there’s a whole lot more overlap than you might suspect. Women aren’t the only ones who have a clitoris. Men do, too.

To fully understand this, it helps to know some things about our naughty bits. In women, the clit is a much larger organ than it generally gets credit for being. That little bit of ultra-sensitive tissue that is the target of so much attention is merely the tip of the iceberg. The visible part that is touched and tasted is the crown, typically 0.25 to 0.75 of an inch in length. Hidden from view is the other 2.75 to 5 inches of the structure! The entire thing is shaped like a Y, with the visible crown leading to the section called the body, which then splits into two legs that hug the urethra and vagina canal.

This 3- to 5.75-inch structure is made of two sandwiched strips of corpora cavernosa, a tissue that engorges with blood and stiffens when its owner is aroused.

Turning to the penis, we see that its insides are made up of two kinds of tissue. The thin corpus spongiosum runs along the underside of the shaft, enveloping the urethra, and accounts for all of the head. This tissue plays a minor role in erections, since a hard-on is due mostly to the two sandwiched strips of corpora cavernosa, which comprise the bulk of the shaft. These taper off internally right as they reach the spongiosum dickhead.

As in women, a man’s cavernosa soaks up blood and becomes erect when sexually excited. As in women, the cavernosa is shaped like a Y with three parts — crown, body, legs. In the case of men, the body accounts for more of the structure, and the legs are relatively stubby. On average, the male cavernosa is typically longer and thicker (which makes sense, since men as a group are bigger than women), and — unlike women — the majority of it is visible.

So here’s what we have: the same tissue forming the same structure in the same place. In other words, it’s the same thing.

A penis is really a clitoris that’s been pulled mostly out of the body and grafted on top of a much smaller piece of spongiosum containing the urethra.

As much as I’d like to be known as the person who first realized that men have clits, the credit goes to psychologist-anatomist-sexologist Josephine Lowndes Sevely for first making this explicit in 1987. Science writer Catherine Blackledge expanded on it in 2004.

References: “Male Clits.” Blackledge, Catherine. The Story of V: A Natural History of Female Sexuality. Rutgers University Press, 2004. § Gray, Henry. Anatomy of the Human Body. 20th ed., rev. and re-edited by Warren H. Lewis. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1918. § Sevely, Josephine Lowndes. Eve’s Secrets: A New Theory of Female Sexuality. Random House, 1987

Contestants across Quebec will compete in diabolical laughter competitions, contagious laughter face-offs, and competitive laughter duels to see who will be crowned the “Best Laugher in Quebec.” The show is a pilot for an eventual international laughter competition to demonstrate that laughter could itself be a competitive sport.

The Championnat is a based on the revolutionary concept that because laughter is contagious: laughing makes people laugh. It involves games designed to produce natural contagious laughter. The whole event is also being filmed for Rire Extreme, a documentary for CANAL D. I got the idea for my documentary Laughology after meeting Doug Collins, an American who is said to have the most contagious laugh in the world:

I believe that because of Quebec’s tradition of Joie de Vivre and Quebec may have laughers who are as good or better than Collins. This summer Laughter contests where held at major Quebec festivals, including le Festival du Grand Rire in Quebec, The Western Festival of St. Tite and le Festival de Poutine du Drummonville. The winners of those contests have been invited to the Championnat which takes place at in Montreal in a special ring.

We really found some extraordinary laughers. I’m afraid to imagine what happens when we get them all in the same room. I hope that the idea of a laughter competition is to spread the positive, healthy emotions of laughter. And I’m trying to prove that laughter could be a competitive sport.

Contestants are coming from around Quebec however, we have left one spot open for one last great laugher. Auditions will be held on Oct 27th at Salla Rossa at 5 p.m. Please email hey@laughology.info. to be put on the list.

For your viewing and continued commenting pleasure, here’s the 23 most (dis)informing stories disinfo.com visitors were checking out over the last week. If you’re interested in contributing to disinfo.com please contact us here. Enjoy and keep contributing!

Who Parked The Moon?

Despite six announced visits by U.S. astronauts between 1969 and 1972, the Moon remains a riddle to scientists in many regards. The solutions to these riddles could indicate an alien aspect of our familiar Moon…

Pentagon Tries To Stop Book By Buying All Copies

Thanks to Isaac Hils for this. As publishers, this story definitely appeals to us at disinformation: Authors with books the Pentagon wants to stop, take note! From the Guardian…

Relentless Views of The Pope And His Opinions

In a letter to the Guardian, harsh words were written towards the pope’s visit to the country. Disagreeing with his religious and political actions, and lack of actions, the pope is presented in an interesting depiction from the eyes of these English citizens…

Meet Stark County, Ohio’s Phil Davison: A Politician Who REALLY Speaks His Mind

Gabe writes on Videogum: “If you ask me, I think that both of the parties are corrupt and more interested in playing politics with each other than they are in making this country a better place for regular Americans like you and me. Now, what I’d like to see is someone who really speaks his mind…”

Turtles Could Hold the Secret to Human Immortality

Alasdair Wilkins writes on io9: “All animals eventually grow old and die. It’s an inevitable fact of life — except when it isn’t. Some animals, like tortoises and lobsters, never grow old, and learning their secrets could let humans live as long as they want…”

Video Game Players Make Faster Real Life Decisions

Kids, pay attention, here’s some ammo to fire back at your parents when they tell you that you spend too much time playing video games, via Reuters…

Artist Runs Into Tornados

Francis Alÿs runs straight into a tornado in the name of art. The strange thing is, this wasn’t the first time Alÿs willingly put himself in danger. Alÿs’ video installation is coming to New York’s Museum of Modern Art next year. You can view a clip of the video…

U.S Government Clamps Down On Natural Remedies

You knew it was coming — $5 Billion of sales that Big Pharma would like for itself is surely enough to get the U.S. Federal government and its friends in the mainstream media to persuade the public that plant medicines don’t work and are dangerous, despite many centuries of effective use by peoples around the world…

Anti-Masturbation Candidate Christine O’Donnell Wins Republican Senate Primary in Delaware

Oh man, Joe Biden must be loving that anti-masturbation/Tea Party-backed candidate Christine O’Donnell is up for his old Senate seat…

How to Respect Sex Workers

Monica Shores on Alternet writes a great short piece with links for further research on how to…

God Has Poor Penmanship: ‘CAT’ Written in This Cat’s Fur

I guess God/Jesus was getting tired of throwing all the Jesus images all over the place. I like this, it means the Almighty has a sense of humor, but he really does have terrible penmanship…

The Biology of Soul Murder

Shannon Brownlee writes in U.S. News and World Report: “Once viewed as genetically programmed, the brain is now known to be plastic, an organ molded by both genes and experience throughout life. A single traumatic experience can alter an adult’s brain…”

Westerners vs. the World: We Are the Weird Ones

Adam McDowell writes in the National Post: “The Ultimatum Game works like this: You are given $100 and asked to share it with someone else. You can offer that person any amount and if he accepts the offer, you each get to keep your share. If he rejects your offer, you both walk away empty-handed…”

The Banned Pregnant Nun Ice Cream Ad Photo

Pregnant nuns? It’s not like it’s unheard of, but as the UK government tries to pretend it really wants the uber-expensive Papal visit this week, its Advertising Standards Authority has banned the ad. The ice cream maker couldn’t have asked for a better marketing coup…

The Single Biggest Threat to U.S. National Security … Is Its Debt

Washington’s Blog writes: “In February 2009, the head of U.S. intelligence — Dennis Blair — said that the global financial crisis was the largest threat to America’s national security. All of America’s intelligence agencies apparently agreed…”

Religious Search Engines Provide A Blasphemy-Free Internet

A number of websites have sprung up that provide the pious with a way to surf the internet without the threat of un-biblical content. Search for “Obama” on the Christian search engine SeekFind, for instance, and rather than a standard biography, the first result is a page discussing the Antichrist. NPR reports:…

The Loneliest Man In The World

This past month Slate wrote about the “most isolated man on the planet,” the sole remaining member of an Amazonian tribe, living a solitary existence in the jungle. Obviously, dozens of people may be choosing to live in remote locations by themselves — the difference is that this man’s isolation is not a conscious decision. Rather than seeking contact…

A History Of The Iraq War, Through Wikipedia Edits

Here’s how you write history in the contentious twenty-first century. Every edit made to the Wikipedia page “The Iraq War” published as a bound, multi-volume set. Via booktwo…

Jon Stewart is the First “Journalist” To Hold Tony Blair Accountable for His Iraq War Position

Watch the whole thing online (wasn’t aired on TV) and decide. Just because he has a new book out Stewart and The Daily Show are doing the job the American mainstream media should be doing…

Facebook’s Asocial Mark Zuckerberg

Two weeks before the theatrical release of The Social Network, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gets an in-depth interview/profile in the New Yorker. “Zuck” comes across as enigmatic, unfeeling, and awkward — an odd person to be reshaping the nature of social interaction and connection on a global scale…

Is This How the ‘Planet of the Apes’ Begins? Wild Chimps Outwit Human Hunters

Great, now all we need is some virus to kill all the cats and dogs on the planet, so we start taking primates as household pets and they become smarter. Thanks scientists for helping to create our eventual Ape Overlords. Slippery slope, real slippery slope. Matt Walker writes on BBC Earth News…

Is the U.S. Government a Dysfunctional Family?

Anxiety Culture writes: “A branch of psychology called Transactional Analysis (TA) has a diagram called The Drama Triangle which is used for analysing psychological games. Interestingly, this triangle seems equally applicable to political games…”

After Punk: The Story of What Came Next

Simon Reynolds’ acclaimed first volume of post-punk memory sifting — Rip it Up and Start Again — went a long way toward exploring and explaining the various flowerings that bloomed from the bruised and bloodied blossom that was ’70s punk rock. If you thought one volume of exhaustive, evocative reconstructing of the period would suffice, you would be wrong, and Reynolds proves this point…

If you’ve haven’t been here in a while, here’s the 23 most (dis)informing stories disinfo.com visitors were checking out over the last two weeks. If you’re interested in contributing to disinfo.com please contact us here. Enjoy and keep contributing!

The Big Lebowski Matrix Mashup Video

Ever wonder what it would be like to explain The Matrix to The Dude? Morpheus gives it his best….

Rare Hunter S. Thompson Documentary Surfaces on YouTube

It’s been nearly 5 years since the Good Doctor said adiós and pulled that silver trigger, bringing Gonzo to an end for good — or so one would think….

Does The Past Exist Yet?

The future has yet to be determined, but what about the past? This recent Huffington Post piece discusses the possibility that what you do in the present shapes both future and past — “historical events such as who killed JFK, might depend on events that haven’t occurred yet.”…

Why Time Slows Down In Near-Death Situations

Neuroscientist David Eagleman hatched an experiment to learn about why our sense of time slows to a crawl in near-death situations (such as a free fall from a significant height). Disappointingly, it’s not because our abilities of perception kick into Matrix-style hyperdrive. NPR reports:…

Did The CIA Test LSD On An Entire French Town?

For a short, nightmarish period in August 1951, dozens of residents of Pont-Saint-Espirit suffered from extreme hallucinations, leading to five deaths. A newly-unearthed memo hints that it was a CIA experiment, the BBC reports:

One Fifth Of American Adults Don’t Use The Internet

… according to a Pew study discussed in an insightful manner by Erick Schonfeld on TechCrunch. He is asking the fundamental question: Who are these folks who wouldn’t be reading this website, or any website for that matter, at all?

Why Christwire Rocks

Depending on your religious beliefs and affiliations, you may or may not be aware of the megapopular Christwire. The New York Times explains why it’s such a joke…

Intel Developing Computers That Read Minds

Cool news from Intel, so I wonder if Apple is working on an iThink. Richard Gray writes in the Telegraph…

Woman Defies Naysaying Doctors And Grows Back Finger

Never say never — especially when it comes your your health! Elizabeth Cohen reports for CNN…

MIT Unveils Nanotech/Robot Swarm To Skim Ocean Oil

MIT reveals a swarm of autonomous floating robots that can digest an oil spill. The 16-foot robots drag a nanowire mesh that acts like a conveyor belt to soak up surface oil “like paper towels soak up water,” absorbing 20 times its weight and then harmlessly “digesting” the oil by burning it off….

Just Say No To Freedom Of Religion

The inimitable Christopher Hitchens says the taming and domestication of religious faith is one of the unceasing chores of civilization, at Slate…

Canadian Automaker Develops Car Made Of Hemp

A group of Canadian companies have come together to design an electric car, dubbed the Kestrel, with a body sculpted from a super-tough composite produced from mats of hemp. A prototype is being tested, and the first 20 Kestrel cars will be delivered next year. No word on what sort of fumes are emitted by the tailpipe. Via CBC News…

The Atomic Cake Controversy of 1946: A “Mission Accomplished” Photo-Op From Yesteryear

President George W. Bush and many of his top administration officials were often accused of hubris in their eight-year run, but I have to say this incident from 1946 really tops the literal cake. It has the haughtiness of President Bush’s 2003 “Mission Accomplished” photo-op aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, combined with an element as you see below, I can best describe as … callous. From CONELRAD Adjacent…

The Ultra-Rich Are Meaner Than Rest of Us

What a shocker. Matthew Lynn writes for Bloomberg News…

Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig Live Happily Ever After in New Zine

The good people at Microcosm Publishing have sent me a few interesting packages lately and I’ve been sifting through the goodies picking out a few shiny treasures to share with you Disinfonauts…

Two Asteroids Perilously Close To Earth

These ones probably won’t hit, but they show that so-called Near Earth Objects could collide with our planet at any time with precious little warning. From ABC News…

Police Raid The Headquarters Of PRQ, Webhost Of Pirate Bay And Wikileaks

Police in several European countries are coordinating a fight against a certain “radical conception of freedom,” embodied by Wikileaks and Pirate Bay. Rogue euronerds beware, French paper-of-record Le Monde writes…

A Happy Meal 137 Days Later

Artist Sally Davies runs the classic, terrifying “McDonald’s burger time-lapse” experiment. The goal of course is to see how long it takes food from McDonald’s to alter in appearance even the slightest bit. At 137 days and counting, this meal looks identical to how it did at the time of purchase. Via Refinery 29…

Blackwater’s Back-Channel Deals With U.S. Government

In one of the better pieces of investigative reporting seen in the New York Times of late, James Risen and Mark Mazzetti reveal the continuing close relationship between the U.S. Government and the disgraced mercenary group Blackwater (now re-named Xe, but they’re not fooling anyone)…

Using Psychedelics To Treat Depression

It’s been a long struggle, more or less since the days of Timothy Leary and Albert Hofmann in the ’60s, but doctors and scientists are finally being allowed to treat depression with some of the most effective drugs known to them: psychedelics. Anne Harding reports for CNN/Health.com…

How Much Money Do You Need To Be Happy? $75,000 Per Year

For residents of New York City it’s going to be considerably more than that! From the Los Angeles Times…

The German Military Believes ‘Peak Oil’ May Bring About the End of Democracy and Free Markets

Der Spiegel reports that a German military think tank believes ‘peak oil’ may occur this year, and that it could cause the collapse of both democracies and free markets within 30 years….

Another Ex-Scientologist Publishes Damning Tell-All

The Village Voice writes: “Adding to Scientology’s woes, some of the people who have been making defections in recent years are turning around and writing damning tell-alls…”

Here’s the complete schedule of Atlanta-based events, please RSVP on Facebook if you can make it. Hope to see you there!

EYEDRUM ATLANTA More info at www.eyedrum.org.
Date: Friday 9/3 Time: 8 PM

Graham Hancock, bestselling author of Fingerprints of the Gods and Supernatural, will be appearing at Eyedrum on Friday, September 3 in support of his new book, Entangled. Randall Carlson from Sacred Geometry Atlanta will be the opening speaker. Admission is $5.

If you can invite fifty over more people in Atlanta over Facebook to this event over Facebook your admission is free. Please contact programs [at] disinfo.com for more info.

FIVE DRAGON*CON 2010 EVENTS!!! Full schedule at www.DragonCon.org.

Panel: Hollywood vs. History History doesn’t always translate well to the silver screen — or does it? Participants discuss films in a fast-paced, round-robin format. Panelists: K. Hinds, E. Flint, S. M. Stirling, A. J. Hartley, G. D. Falksen, G. Hancock Date/Time: Friday, 9/3 5:30 PM Location: Westin International C

Panel: Far Be It From Me… A rousing debate on revisionist vs. ‘traditional’ history and the evolution of historical presentation.. Panelists: B. Linaweaver, E. Flint, S. M. Stirling, A. J. Hartley, G. Hancock Date/Time: Saturday, 9/4 4:00 PM Location: Westin International C

Panel: 2012 Theories and myths surrounding 2012 from various cultures. Is there hope? Is it real? Are we doomed? Panelists: E. Donald, E. Dunin, M. B. Weston, G. Hancock, K. Brewer, G. Baddeley, R. Carlson Date/Time: Sunday, 9/5 4:00 PM Location: Marriott L508

Presentation: Aliens, Angels and Ayahuasca Graham Hancock will take you on a mind-trip through history showing evidence that alien encounters & UFO’s are nothing new… ? Location: Westin International C

Autograph Session: Come meet Graham in person! Date/Time: Monday, 9/6 11:30 AM Location: Marriott 301–304

We will be listing more events here on disinfo.com and Facebook and look for Entangled: The Eater of Souls this fall in a bookstore near you.

Here’s the 23 most (dis)informing stories disinfo.com visitors were checking out last week. If you’re interested in contributing to disinfo.com please contact us here. Enjoy!

Florida Baby Facebook Photo Sparks Controversy

Michael Phelps got caught through Facebook, why not a baby! They do say a picture is worth a thousand hits, um, words. CBS News reports…

Zombie Ants!

The zombies have come, but it’s not exactly the apocalypse. Carpenter ants being taken over by fungi sounds like the beginning of a Science-Fiction film, but this time it’s just Science. From Discovery Magazine…

The Skateboarding Priest Video

“Come on kiddies, you’re safe with me — I can skate!” … Hmmm, I’m not sure this Hungarian priest looks like someone I want my kids to skate with, but believe it or not Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45, who lives and preaches in Redics, a small village on Hungary’s border with Slovenia, has become a YouTube sensation!

Why Did the Nazis Film the Dying Jews of Warsaw?

Sharon Waxman on her blog WaxWord: “In a French-themed café a block from the teeming beach, producer Noemi Schory explained why her new Holocaust documentary, An Unfinished Film, did not deserve the R rating that the MPAA handed down last week after a final appeal…”

Jupiter Swallowed A Super-Earth: It’s One BAMF

Everyone knows Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, but new research suggests it was the baddest MF around, knocking off its competition before it could grow. David Shiga writes in New Scientist…

Jon Stewart On The Ground Zero Mosque (Video)

Is the Burlington Coat Factory hallowed ground?

Western Scientists Finally Tell Patients Why Tai Chi Is Good For Them

The Chinese have known this for thousands of years. Better late than never, I suppose! From WebMD…

TorrentReactor Buys and Renames Russian Town

Ernesto writes on TorrentFreak: “TorrentReactor, listed among the five most popular torrent sites on the Internet, has surprised friends and foes by acquiring a small town in central Russia…”

The Price of Truth

Adrian Lamo’s critics faced him down at a hacker’s conference. Lamo sat on the stage, placid, blinking pronouncedly as his hecklers continued. They prodded him, asking if he would have been tempted to release the data that a man who contacted him had sworn upon threat of military legal prosecution never to release…

The New Villains of New Media: Apple, Google & Facebook

Brent Lang explains why for The Wrap: “They’re supposed to be the good guys, right? No longer. Over the past year, several technology giants have begun to shed their status as white knights…”

The Kult oV MONITOR

[Editor's Note: Must See to Digest]

Scientists Develop A Vaccine For Stress

Is this a step on the path to a Brave New World? The head of a research team at Stanford says he is on the verge of producing a vaccine that would deactivate the brain’s stress-causing chemicals. For the first time, people could shut off the fight-or-flight mechanism…

Soak The Very, Very Rich

A sensible suggestion from the capable mind of The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki, but what are the chances that our government will implement it, one wonders (whilst thinking of all those campaign contributions made by the very rich)…

Who Owns You? 20% of the Genes in Your Body are Patented (Video)

Drew Halley writes on Singularity Hub: “Here’s a disconcerting thought: for the past thirty years, genes have been patentable. And we’re not just talking genetically modified corn — your genes, pretty much as they exist in your body, can and have been patented…”

New Jersey Bans The Word ‘Retarded’

One is tempted to say that this new law in New Jersey is, um, mentally challenged. Story from NJ.com…

Virtual Reality Asks Tough Behavior and Anxiety Questions

Ever wonder what it was like to be the opposite sex? Ever wonder what it was like to be the opposite sex and abused? Virtual reality may be the key to engaging in such questions. BBC News reports…

Richard Hoagland Reveals The Secret War In Space

Richard Hoagland tells interviewer Dr. Steven Greer about a secret war in space. I really don’t know what to make of his claims — any suggestions?

Pea Found Growing In Man’s Lung

Jill Blocker writes on Eat, Drink & Blog: “The old wives’ tales about swallowed gum staying in the stomach for 10 years and swallowed watermelon seeds growing in bellies just got a little truth attached to them, after a pea seed was found growing inside a man’s lung…”

How to Spot a GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) in the Grocery Store

The Suburban Jungle writes: Are you eating Genetically Modified Foods? Do you know how to tell? I recently found out that you can easily tell whether the produce you purchase at the grocery store is a GMO just buy looking at the PLU (price look up) code.”

1 in 5 Americans Think Obama Is Muslim

Most of the news media seem to think this is a bad thing. Personally I think it’s great – a significant number of Americans voted for a man they thought was Muslim when electing their president. Story from NPR…

Google CEO To Young People: You’ll Be Able to Get a New Identity When You Reach Adulthood

Check out Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s solution for privacy advocates in this Wall Street Journal article over the weekend. Suddenly that Google Chrome logo looks like an all-seeing eye to me instead of some futuristic Simon…

What Else Is Built In The Shadow Of Ground Zero?

Is Lower Manhattan hallowed ground? The blog History Eraser Button presents photos of the other businesses and organizations located directly by the World Trade Center site, as near as the proposed “Ground Zero mosque” is slated to be…

A Fun New (Old) Game to Play While Drinking

While the readers — and writers — on this site are no strangers to a good time, even the heartiest of partiers can find themselves stranded in a rut caused by lack of novelty. We’ve all known the soul-crushing boredom that results from having the same conversation with the same people in the same place again…

Hope you like what you read, for more about me, please check out my blog at www.mickeyz.net.

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If you were to open your mouth and belt out the words “this land is your land,” you could rest assured that someone nearby would add: “this land is my land.” The chorus to Woody Guthrie’s 1940 classic is common knowledge … as are the first couple of verses.

But it isn’t until you get to the later verses — the verses often omitted from official versions — that you start comprehendin’ what good ol’ Woody (1912–1967) had in mind:

As I was walkin’ I saw a sign there
And that sign said “No tresspassin’”
But on the other side, it didn’t say nothin’
Now that side was made for you and me

In the squares of the city / In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office, I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me

Let’s not forget that Guthrie penned the song in response to Irving Berlin’s saccharine “God Bless
America.” Let’s also not forget the words he scrawled on his guitar:

“This machine kills fascists.”

Woody said: “This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin’ it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, ’cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.”

Guthrie laid the foundation for generations of American singer-songwriters to use their lyrics to challenge the saccharine platitudes of pop music. From Bob Dylan in the 1960s to Ani DiFranco today, American folk singers have provided a Greek chorus of protest and outrage to keep us all more honest and aware.

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Above: Photo by Al Aumuller, courtesy of the United States Library of Congress

The above is a chapter from  50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed To Know: Reclaiming American Patriotism. For more about the author, please check out www.mickeyz.net.

Really surprised to see the site still up, I didn’t realize the group was still in “existence” after the March 1997 mass suicide.

In case you haven’t gotten your dose of massive creepiness today, here’s an initiation tape from Heaven’s Gate’s Marshall Applewhite. Still creepy after all these years. Thanks to Tim Pugh for creeping me out even more…

From Egyptian mythology to Jewish mysticism, Rome and Greece to the Druids and the Gnostics, Tim Wallace-Murphy exposes a fascinating lineage of hidden mysteries and secret societies, continuing through the Templars, Rosicrucians and Freemasons to our modern visionaries. This hidden stream of spirituality and that of sacred knowledge are inseparably entwined to form the single most important continuous strand in the entire Western esoteric tradition.

This tradition exerted a seminal influence on the thinking of the builders of the great cathedrals, leading teachers in ecclesiastical schools, on philosophers, playwrights and poets such as Shakespeare, Goethe, Blake and W. B. Yeats, on artists and renaissance giants such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. It is also the root from which sprang alchemy and modern science.

Now, as more people than ever are looking to find alternatives to the dominant religions and dogmas that have told us what to think and how to behave, as faith has been questioned by religious scandals, economic meltdowns and environmental catastrophes, Wallace-Murphy reveals the secrets of the masters, including invaluable spiritual insights to everyday life that have been hidden throughout the ages. He shows us who kept this spiritual tradition alive despite appalling persecution, so that we in the 21st century might benefit from its accumulated fruits and ennoble our lives by emulating their example.

More info at www.hidden-wisdom.com.

Technoccult is now running dossiers like those of Disinfo-Past. The first three up are: William S. Burroughs, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. Enjoy!

Thursday, May 6, 2010: East West Living Bookstore and Cafe

Saturday, May 8, 2010: New York Theosophical Society

Monday, May 10, 2010: Livingston Masonic Library

Whether you can make it or not, here’s the first five chapters of Hidden Wisdom available on Scribd:

From Egyptian mythology to Jewish mysticism, Rome and Greece to the Druids and the Gnostics, Tim Wallace-Murphy exposes in Hidden Wisdom a fascinating lineage of hidden mysteries and secret societies, continuing through the Templars, Rosicrucians, and Freemasons to our modern visionaries. This hidden stream of spirituality and that of sacred knowledge are inseparably entwined to form the single most important continuous strand in the entire Western esoteric tradition.

More info at www.hidden-wisdom.com.

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In this episode, Panopticon speaks with our esteemed guest, Raymond Wiley of Disinformation, about the Georgia Guidestones: a mysterious, granite monument in northeastern Georgia.

Some think the Georgia Guidestones are a sort of ten commandments of the New World Order, and some think they’re a means of navigating a post apocalyptic world.

What do you think? Super fun and super informative!

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In this episode we speak with Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall about Jesus, Rocks, and Bigfoot.  Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall are the former co-hosts of Out There Radio, a 50-episode podcast of interviews and discussions covering topics related to the occult, conspiracy theory and the paranormal.

Raymond and Joe have been in podcasting since 2005, having started Out There Radio shortly after they met and realized their shared interest in fringe topics.  The are currently the hosts of Disinformation: The Podcast and Disinformation World News.

The following is the first chapter from my bite-size Disinformation book 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know, published in 2003.

For more on me, check out this website, The Memory Hole.

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First Amendment battles continue to rage across the US over the posting of the Ten Commandments in public places — courthouses, schools, parks, and pretty much anywhere else you can imagine.

Christians argue that they’re a part of our Western heritage that should be displayed as ubiquitously as traffic signs. Congressman Bob Barr hilariously suggested that the Columbine massacre wouldn’t have happened if the Ten Commandments (also called the Decalogue) had been posted in the high school, and some government officials have directly, purposely disobeyed court rulings against the display of these ten directives supposedly handed down from on high.

Too bad they’re all talking about the wrong rules. Every Decalogue you see — from the 5,000-pound granite behemoth inside the Alabama State Judicial Building to the little wallet-cards sold at Christian bookstores — is bogus. Simply reading the Bible will prove this. Getting out your King James version, turn to Exodus 20:2-17. You’ll see the familiar list of rules about having no other gods, honoring your parents, not killing or coveting,
and so on. At this point, though, Moses is just repeating to the people what God told him on Mount Si’nai. These are not written down in any form.

Later, Moses goes back to the Mount, where God gives him two “tables of stone” with rules written on them (Exodus 31:18). But when Moses comes down the mountain lugging his load, he sees the people worshipping a statue of a calf, causing him to throw a tantrum and smash the tablets on the ground (Exodus 32:19).

In neither of these cases does the Bible refer to “commandments.” In the first instance, they are “words” which “God spake,” while the tablets contain “testimony.” It is only when Moses goes back for new tablets that we see the phrase “ten commandments” (Exodus 34:28). In an interesting turn of events, the commandments on these tablets are significantly different than the ten rules Moses recited for the people, meaning that either Moses’ memory is faulty or God changed his mind.

I. Thou shalt worship no other god.

II. Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

III. The feast of unleavened bread thou shalt keep.

IV. Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest.

V. Thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest,
and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

VI. Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God.

VII. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.

VIII. Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

IX. The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.

X. Thou shalt not seethe a kid [ie, a young goat] in his mother’s milk.

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Look for more 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know in the next 50 days under the tag “50 Things” on disinfo.com.

Above Image: Moses with the Ten Commandments by Rembrandt (1659).

Learn more about the popular cable TV series in this behind-the-scenes interview with June Sarpong from Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.

Disinformation founder Gary Baddeley chats with June about her research for the show, HAARP, and working with Jesse.

About Conspiracy Theory: Jesse Ventura and a team of expert investigators are on a mission to examine some of the most frightening and mysterious conspiracy allegations of our time. They examine available evidence as well as talking to experts and eyewitnesses to learn more about such topics as global warming, possible 9/11 cover-ups, secret government weapons and apocalyptic prophecies.

We’ve built a brand new website with mobile integration for this 50 episode series about the occult, conspiracy theories, and other bizarre undercurrents of the human psyche.

While you are there, make sure to take a look at Raymond’s Ultimate Conspiracy Video List.

The list contains nearly 100 full length films, many of which are sources for episodes of Out There Radio.

With your help, we were able to reach our Kickstarter goal. I’ve been receiving some questions on whether you can still donate, and the answer is a resounding YES!

If you donate $20 or more by February 3rd, you will receive name credit on the “Plunder” DVD and on the film’s website.

So go here to donate, and if you’re still wondering what this is all about, read this.

Wall Street is NOT too big to JAIL.

— Ralph Bernardo, The Disinformation Company

This blew my head off!

#97 Head Transplants on Monkey Have Already Been Performed

Think of all the nerves and structures in the upper spine that need tying to the ones coming out of the head. Spaghetti junction.

Check out the rest of the comments at AboveTopSecret.com.

It’s a new week, a new year, and some, erroneously believe a new decade. What’s not new is the stranglehold the banks have on our economy, quietly stashing billions for more bonuses, while still restricting the flow of credit. Bad loans have been supplanted by no loans.

Writers on the left continue to go after one bankster — the one we love to hate: Goldman Sachs, which has become the poster child for profiteering and even serving bad coffee in their cafeterias. Most ignore the rest of the avaricious industry which is still volatile with big pockets of insolvency and dependence of government bailout funds.

While the media has recently focused on the terror threat posed in Detroit, the terrifying reality in Detroit is generally ignored. The Associated Press reports:

DETROIT – One measure of how tough times are in the Motor City: Some of the offenders in jail don’t want to be released; some who do get out promptly re-offend to head back where there’s heat, health care and three meals a day.

“For the first time, I’m seeing guys make a conscious decision they’ll be better off in prison than in the community, homeless and hungry,” said Joseph Williams of New Creations Community Outreach, which assists ex-offenders.”

With TV pumping out a steady diet of football, foolishness and constantly shifting breaking news, the people broken by the economic crisis are largely being ignored.

Read more of Danny Schechter’s article on the Huffington Post

“I used to think of Wall Street as a financial center.
I now think of it as a crime scene.”
– Filmmaker Danny Schechter, Plunder (2009)

I am an old-fashioned “follow-the-money” journalist. As I’m writing this, most economists have learned to downplay fear and panic and up-play the “resilience” of the market. It’s a belief that all we need is confidence and then, all will be right with the world. Sadly, journalism has gone along with this charade by first denying the crisis and then avoiding investigating its architects and beneficiaries.

Three years ago, by choosing to be an “investigative” journalist, I made the film In Debt We Trust, with the idea in mind that I was examining “America before the Bubble bursts” (the subtitle of that film). My hope was I could transcend any political, partisan quibbles over the issue by warning of a credit crisis that would hurt people regardless of their politics. My effort was to examine how our economy had been restructured away from one that “makes things” into a service culture where credit card companies and mortgage firms finance our lifestyles—even when we can not afford them.

I did discover and illustrate in this film how subprime loans were ensnaring poor people, resulting in displacement and massive foreclosures. I even turned my continuing concern into a book called Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity. In this, I warned of greater trouble ahead. The book came out in 2008, a week before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

After the so-called [stuff] hit the fan, what really tormented me was how poorly and superficially these issues were being covered by the mainstream media. Today more people, myself included, can confidently argue that Big Media was complicit in the crisis—by not reporting on what was really going on, and more so, taking billions in advertising revenues from dodgy lenders and greedy credit-card companies. The media was, without question, part of the problem.

And lately, the greatest media insult to inquiry came from Time magazine, by honoring Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as 2009’s “Man of the Year”—not for bringing the crisis to an end but for ensuring it didn’t get as bad as it might have been. Never mind Bernanke’s refusal to act on the subprime, or rather “subcrime,” crisis when he had the chance to.

As I continued to re-examine my own view of this crisis, I asked myself and others informed on the subject—how could this happen?!? I began looking at the possibility that it was really a crime story, not just a business problem.

Not too long after I took this approach, “Ponzi King” Bernie Madoff surfaced as a bona-fide, white-collar criminal running a $65 billion-dollar scam. Madoff’s crimes started decades before our current global financial crisis, but his admission that “I knew what I was doing was wrong, indeed criminal” helped to foster my belief that this was crime, and not some “natural” economic event.

It was at this point I had enough conviction to start working on a documentary titled Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time—to make the case that our media and even our legal system are both ignoring. My approach is not to go after “bad men,” but a rotten system of fraudulent mortgages that first ripped off homeowners and then were bundled, securitized and resold with false values to banks and financial institutions. In the end, this gigantic complicated mess was insured by companies like AIG for the sole reason that they could be leveraged and borrowed against (in other words, to make tons of money).

This whole Three-Card Monte game ended up costing trillions of dollars to hundreds of millions of Americans who had no say in how this corrupt system really worked. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter aptly charged: “Never before have so few done so much to so many.” This is why I describe my current documentary as the “Crime of Our Time.”

My partners at GlobalVision and I have almost finished the film, and I’m very thrilled that The Disinformation Company is going to release Plunder in stores and online in April 2009. But before that can happens I need your help…

Plunder desperately needs a sound mix, color correction, the creation of DVD extras and authoring, all of which costs real money. The Disinformation Company is kicking in some of the funds, but with $3,000 more, we will be able to deliver the project, as we’d like to, for release.

If the guilty parties on Wall Street and in Washington are to be brought to justice and serve jail time, we must put maximum pressure on lawmakers, regulators, and attorney generals while the paper trail of evidence is still hot.

The recession may have been artificially-shortened and sweetened by the stimulus package, but thousands of people are still losing their jobs and their homes as a result of the fraudulent bailout, every day.

Please join me in pushing for a JAILOUT, not another bailout, for these criminals.

With as little as $20 you can really make a difference. Depending on your pledge I’ll give you anything from a free DVD of the finished film, to lunch with me on Wall Street (where I will gladly share my experience of making this film).

Thank you for your support,

Danny Schechter
News Dissector, Mediachannel.org

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This episode features an interview with Robert Greenwald, head of Brave New Films and the director of the new Disinformation-distributed documentary Rethink Afghanistan.  We also discuss Robert’s previous films, including Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers.

Disinformation Podcast T-shirts available here!

The Sisterhood of the Rose Will Save The World @disinfo #books #FreeFriday #Sisterhood http://bit.ly/70s4p0

And yes, the more you tweet this, the greater your chance is of receiving a free book.

For more information about The Sisterhood, please check out the companion website, www.SisterhoodoftheRose.org, and read this special message from the author.

Here’s a trailer we made the book:

Jim Marrs will be doing some radio interviews where he’ll discuss his new book, we’ll definitely keep you posted. He’ll be on Coast to Coast AM on Saturday, December 19th. In the meantime, the first FIVE chapters are available on Scribd for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

In this 25-page article, this archetypal gray-haired granny simply reads the New Testament — particularly the Gospels — and reports what she finds about Jesus: his insults and angry words, his deceptions, his impatience, his contradictions, his hellfire and damnation preaching, his braggadocio, his purposely confusing parables, his refusal to heal a little Gentile girl, his failure to condemn slavery, his horrible treatment of his own family, etc., etc. The results will be shocking to most Christians, and even non-Christians will be stunned to learn that everything they knew about Jesus is wrong. Here are some tasty bits from this epic article:

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Jesus bases his ministry upon the assumption that the end of the world is imminent and that he will return shortly and establish the king­dom he preaches. In the Gospel of Matthew alone, Jesus refers to this con­cept at least six times. “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). These words of warning are an exact repetition of those of John the Baptist, whom many mistake for the Messiah (Matthew 3:2).

Sending his Disciples out onto the circuit, Jesus reminds them: “For ver­ily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come” (Matthew 10:23). Again Jesus asserts: “There shall be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28). He makes it clear, after describing his early triumphant return: “This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34).

In Galilee Jesus repeats: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). “The hour is come, and now is, when the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God” (John 5:25). Finally: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” (John 21:22). Here Jesus speaks of the Disci­ple John to Peter. Paul and the other evangelist Apostles take up Jesus’ clar­ion prediction, still echoed today.

As a natural accompaniment to the wording of impending doom, verbal pictures of the End are majestically painted by Jesus on several occasions. His second coming will bring about the redemption of the Jews from the Gentiles, and the establishment of the Jewish kingdom of God.

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Despite belief to the contrary prevalent today, Jesus was not a booster for family life. In the scriptures he treats his mother and siblings with something less than affection and respect. He does not marry or father children. After laying down rules about adultery and divorce, he proceeds to predict some rather astonishing effects that belief in him will have upon the family as an institution: “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:35, 36). From the time he is twelve years old and doesn’t bother to tell his moth­er that he is remaining in the temple, he seems to have no close ties to his family and discourages his converts from having any with theirs.

He demands that they drop everything immediately to become his fol­lowers: “And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead… And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but first let me go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:59-62). Two of his disciples actually leave their father mending the fishing nets (Matthew 4:21, 22).

It is a real puzzle where Christians today get their exalted view of the Christian family. And few Bible readers will understand the worshipful position accorded to Mary, for Jesus was rude to his mother at the marriage feast: “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” (John 2:1–4). And he was even more uncivil when she and his brothers waited at the edge of a crowd to speak to him, posing a question to his Disciples: “Who is my mother? And who are my brethren?” and indicating that the Disciples were now his family (Matthew 12:46–49). Then he added that all who do the will of God, “the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

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Before he departed this vale of tears, as God’s habitat for humanity this side of the grave has been described, the Savior of the entire world might have been expected to leave very lucid instructions as to how salvation might be achieved. And from his lips on various occasions do fall words that supposedly pinpoint “the way.” Such words should leave not the smallest doubt, for they deal with everlasting happiness or inevitable everlasting torment. Let these words be examined!

When a lawyer questions Jesus about the requirements for eternal life (in heaven, one assumes), Jesus asks the lawyer what “the law” says, no doubt referring to the Mosaic law. The lawyer answers: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Jesus replies: “Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:25–28).

No mention of belief in himself as the Son of God or the Redeemer of the world from sin! In other words, one does not have to be a Christian to be saved. Love for God and fellow beings suffices.

Consider, then, Jesus’ words at another time: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). To Nicodemus, Jesus also expounded: “He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:17, 18).

No mention of love of God and neighbor! Unquestioning belief is all that is necessary for salvation. There are no other stipulations.

Jesus’ above statements are categorical, but in at least one sense the two requirements are at odds, for Deism and Christianity are not one and the same in every case, not by far. For, although Christianity may imply love of God and one’s neighbor, such love does not necessarily imply Christianity. Thus, Jesus himself is presented in the scriptures as denying the need of anyone for a Savior.

But that is not yet the end of the puzzle. Jesus continues to put up con­flicting guideposts: “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrec­tion of damnation” (John 5:28, 29). No mention of belief in Jesus Christ or of love of God and neighbor! Now only good deeds assure one of “life.” No need here, or in above rules, to be reborn!

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Read the entire article in the Disinformation anthology Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion, edited by Russ Kick, available on Amazon and in all good bookstores.

About the Article’s Author: Ruth Hurmence Green (1915–1981). The Iowa native received a journalism degree from Texas Tech in 1935, married, had three children, and settled in Missouri. Ruth, a “halfhearted Methodist,” first plodded through the bible when convalescing from cancer in her early sixties, calling the shock she suffered from reading the book worse than the trauma caused by her illness. “There wasn’t a page of the bible that didn’t offend me in some way. There is no other book between whose covers life is so cheap,” Ruth discovered, prompting her to write the enduring modern freethought classic, The Born Again Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible (1979). When terminal cancer developed in 1981, Ruth, who always insisted, “There are atheists in foxholes,” took her own life, swallowing painkillers. In her last letter to Anne Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation on July 4, 1981, Ruth wrote: “Freedom depends upon freethinkers.”