Or there and back again: Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few neuroscientists would wish for: she had a stroke and witnessed the boundaries, set by the left cerebral cortex of the brain ..disappear. She experienced the ‘enormous and expansive universe’ where we live through the parallel portals of the right cerebral cortex, which was unaffected by the stroke. She returns to tell an astonishing tale.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
A stroke of insight
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Plastiki
The Plastiki is a 60-foot (18 m) catamaran made out of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other recycled PET plastic and waste products. The craft was built using cradle to cradle design philosophies and features many renewable energy systems, including solar panels, wind and trailing propeller turbines, and bicycle generators. The frame was designed by Australian naval architect Andrew Dovell. The boat's name is a play on the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft used to sail across the Pacific by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, and its voyage roughly followed the same route.
(read more) (theplastiki.com) (video clip) (junk)
Monday, May 16, 2011
Dumki Jacoba & A Carnival of Revolution
Wojciech Jacob Jankowski
Dumki Jacoba via Google translate - -
"Dumki" emerged in 1994 - 99th Then lived in the woods and mountains, away from the noise, crowds, politics itpodobnych attractions. Generally used to be that I could not sleep until they have shed intrusive thoughts down on paper. Most of these tales to keep printed by various newspapers: The Tri-City "Election", "Mac Pariadka," "Vegetarian World", "kayasa Ochi", "Green Brigade". In 1999 Warsaw Publishing Agency "Here," released them as a book. In 2005, Anarchist Initiative Beskidzka styrała paperback resume. And now opened Tezeuszkowa, ecumenical, virtual space.
With hindsight and experience some of these texts seem to me to be naive, wind, and sometimes "haunted". But yes at times earlier, even as you type. And sometimes, years later, the most "haunted" pieces are revived and embarrassing to me as a specific, life science, absolutely, "impersonally."
Being honest with oneself is bad art. Or perhaps the purpose of this journey? I'm glad I did not threw into the furnace of the "failed", bad stories. Because that's what happens sometimes they inspire, not only me, I guess.
Some time ago the phone rang. The guy thanked him, bought the book "accidentally" in a bookstore. I abandoned the thought of suicide. Thanks. On a larger prize, I could not count. Howgh!
... And I am carrying you
winter rose
I know the tricks of time
take it - for the moment
We will not ...
/ Andrzej Sulima-Suryn /
PROLOGUE
Red rocks, mossy paths, streams, rivers, streams. Increasingly rare, rachitic vegetation. The traveler looked around. He sat down.
Musin, Moon Mountain, from a distance looked inconspicuous. Now, when he rested in the middle of the road to the summit, he saw a powerful, autonomous world. Mountain and sky. In the distance, sharp, snow-capped peaks. Somewhere out there - hen! - Ribbon highway. With all the hustle and bustle of civilized - fragile ribbon.
He smiled. It was a strength. And this power was in it. He saw that human problems are only a delusion. Play it cool. The age-old, wonderful music...
> more Dumki Jacoba: polish original | english translation
"Jacob's Retreat"
- from A carnival of revolution: Central Europe 1989,
via Google books
A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989, Padraic Kenney
at Princeton University Press:
"This is the first history of the revolutions that toppled communism in Europe to look behind the scenes at the grassroots movements that made those revolutions happen. It looks for answers not in the salons of power brokers and famed intellectuals, not in decrepit economies--but in the whirlwind of activity that stirred so crucially, unstoppably, on the street. Melding his experience in Solidarity-era Poland with the sensibility of a historian, Padraic Kenney takes us into the hearts and minds of those revolutionaries across much of Central Europe who have since faded namelessly back into everyday life. This is a riveting story of musicians, artists, and guerrilla theater collectives subverting traditions and state power; a story of youthful social movements emerging in the 1980s in Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and parts of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union."
more Dumki Jacoba: polish original | english translation
Sunday, May 15, 2011
freedom riders
Freedom riders were civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia (of 1960). The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.
Boynton v. Virginia had outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines. Five years prior to the Boynton ruling, the Interstate Commerce Commission had issued a ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company that had explicitly denounced the Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of separate but equal in interstate bus travel, but the ICC had failed to enforce its own ruling, and thus Jim Crow travel laws remained in force throughout the South.
The Freedom Riders set out to challenge this status quo by riding various forms of public transportation in the South to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation. The Freedom Rides, and the violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement and called national attention to the violent disregard for the law that was used to enforce segregation in the southern United States. Riders were arrested for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with other alleged offenses.
Most of the subsequent rides were sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), while others belonged to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "Snick"). The Freedom Rides followed on the heels of dramatic sit-ins against segregated lunch counters conducted by students and youth throughout the South and boycotts beginning in 1960.
The United States Supreme Court's decision in Boynton v. Virginia granted interstate travelers the legal right to disregard local segregation ordinances regarding interstate transportation facilities. But the Freedom Riders' rights were not enforced, and their actions were considered criminal acts throughout most of the South. For example, upon the Riders' arrival in Mississippi, their journey ended with imprisonment for exercising their legal rights in interstate travel. Similar arrests took place in other Southern cities. (read more) (american experience)
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
The Ino's Blog: Study Hall - Shobogenzo
...what you receive with trust is your one verse or your one phrase. Do not try to understand eighty thousand verses or phrases... ~ Dōgen Zenji
Study Hall - Shobogenzo -
Friday, March 11, 2011
"Know that as there are many aspects within the treasury of the true dharma eye, you cannot fully clarify it. Yet the treasury of the true dharma eye is expounded. There is no way you cannot have trust in it. Buddha sutras are like this. There are a number of them, but what you receive with trust is your one verse or your one phrase. Do not try to understand eighty thousand verses or phrases..."
- The Ino's Blog (San Francisco Zen Center)
"Ino" means "director of the meditation hall; supervises, attends, and assigns staffing for all sesshines and ceremonies." The ino leads the chanting service and recites the dedication of service...
正法眼蔵
Shōbōgenzō
(lit. "Treasury of the True Dharma Eye") The term Shōbōgenzō has three main usages in Buddhism: (1) It can refer to the essence of the Buddha's realization and teaching, that is, to the Buddha Dharma itself, as viewed from the perspective of Mahayana Buddhism, (2) it is the title of a koan collection with commentaries by Dahui Zonggao, and (3) it is used in the title of two works by Dogen Kigen... (more @Wikipedia)
Photograph of the title page of the Edition Honzanban (1811) of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō
Dogen's Two Shōbōgenzōs
In Japan and the West, the term Shōbōgenzō is most commonly known as referring to the titles of two works composed by Japanese Zen master Dōgen Kigen in the mid-13th century.
The first, written and completed in 1235, the Shinji Shōbōgenzō, also known as the Mana Shōbōgenzō or Shōbōgenzō Sanbyakusoku, is a collection of 301 koans (public cases) and is written in Chinese, the language of the original texts from which the koans were taken. In this Dōgen was content simply to record the stories without interjecting his own remarks. A few years later, however, he embarked on a major project to develop extended commentaries on many of these and other passages from the Ch'an literature. The fruit of this project was his masterpiece--the remarkable collection of essays known as the kana, or "vernacular", Shōbō genzō.
道元禅師
Dōgen Zenji (also Dōgen Kigen 道元希玄, or Eihei Dōgen 永平道元, or Koso Joyo Daishi) (19 January 1200 – 22 September 1253) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher born in Kyōto, and the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under the Chinese Caodong lineage there. Dōgen is known for his extensive writing including the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma or Shōbōgenzō, a collection of ninety-five fascicles concerning Buddhist practice and enlightenment.
The later Kana Shōbōgenzō consists of an overlapping assortment of essays and commentaries written in Japanese; different versions of the Kana Shōbōgenzō contain different sets of texts. (See: Heine, Dogen and the Koan Tradition)
When referring to Dogen's works, the term Shōbōgenzō by itself more commonly refers to the Kana Shōbōgenzō.
Study Hall - Shobogenzo
Friday, March 25, 2011
'Face-to-Face Transmission', 'Menju', is a lot of fun; Dogen gets personal, both for himself, and with an ad hominem section in the postscript:
If you do not realize the fruit at this moment, when will you realize it?
If you do not cut off delusion at this moment, when will you cut off delusion?
If you do not become a buddha at this moment, when will you?
If you do not sit as a buddha at this moment, when will you practice as an active buddha?
Diligently examine this in detail...
TAG THIS PHOTO
see also -
• Shōbōgenzō @Wikipedia
• Shobogenzo links at "Hey Bro! Can You Spare Some Change?" (top of right column)
• diamond sutra at whats more blog
• dharma wheel at whats more blog
• more about Buddhism at whats more blog
• The Ino's Blog: Counting To Nine | Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind at whats more blog
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
the spectacle
With the term spectacle, Debord defines the system that is a confluence of advanced capitalism, the mass media, and the types of governments who favor those phenomena. "... the spectacle, taken in the limited sense of "mass media" which are its most glaring superficial manifestation...".
The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which "passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity". "The spectacle is not a collection of images," Debord writes. "rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images." (read more)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
mother kisses
Mother and Child
Pablo Picasso 1922
"From woman, man is born;
within woman, man is conceived;
to woman he is engaged and married.
Woman becomes his friend;
through woman, the future generations come.
When his woman dies,
he seeks another woman;
to woman he is bound.
So why call her bad?
From her, kings are born.
From woman, woman is born;
without woman, there would be no one at all.
O Nanak, only the True Lord is without a woman"
......Guru Nanak......
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Learning from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster?
Miraho -Nie chcemy atomu (DiesProduction).avi
We do not want atom
what's on your mind?
self portrait, roseadjoa
Roseadjoa says waking up isn't easy when living a nightmare ♥
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Physicians for Social Responsibility Press Conference 4/26/11
Chernobyl. Fukushima. Indian Point?
A team with radiation monitoring equipment highlight the threat to millions of people from New York's Indian Point nuclear plant. 17 million people live within 50 miles of Indian Point, an old nuclear plant in an active seismic zone just north of New York City. If an accident or terrorist attack led to a catastrophic release of radiation, evacuation would be impossible. Nationwide, 1 in 3 Americans live within 50 miles of a nuclear plant. Greenpeace is calling for the shut down of the Indian Point nuclear plant, and the replacement of dangerous nuclear power with safe solutions like renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Put an end to the NRC's rubber stamp!
The NRC will decide the fate of more than a dozen aging nuclear reactors any day now. Write your letter to the NRC TODAY and tell them to halt all re-licensing!
Unsafe at Any Dose
Op-ed by Dr. Helen Caldicott
In a stellar op-ed in the May 1st edition of the New York Times, renowned pediatrician and anti-nuclear activist, Dr. Helen Caldicott, calls on doctors to act against nuclear power.
As she writes: "There’s no group better prepared than doctors to stand up to the physicists of the nuclear industry." The article concludes: "Physicists had the knowledge to begin the nuclear age. Physicians have the knowledge, credibility and legitimacy to end it." Read the full article. Dr. Caldicott is the founding president of Beyond Nuclear and currently heads the Helen Caldicott Foundation for a Nuclear-Free Planet.
Beyond Nuclear | Full article, PDF
NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW
"the fountain" - Nguyễn Văn Lém
Nguyễn Văn Lém (referred to as Captain Bảy Lốp) (died 1 February 1968 in Saigon) was a member of the Viet Cong who was summarily executed in Saigon during the Tet Offensive. The execution was captured on film by photojournalist Eddie Adams, and the momentous image became a symbol of the inhumanity of war.
On the second day of Tet, amid fierce street fighting, Lém was captured and brought to Brigadier General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, then Chief of the Republic of Vietnam National Police. Using his personal sidearm, General Loan summarily executed Lém in front of AP photographer Eddie Adams and NBC television cameraman Vo Suu. The photograph and footage were broadcast worldwide, galvanizing the anti-war movement; Adams won a 1969 Pulitzer Prize for his photograph. (read more)
think for your self
The truth is like pornography...
i don't know what it is but...
i know it when I see it...
think for your self...
Monsters And Brothers - Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden is dead.
Repoublished from The Road To KhalistanA simple statement. The new reality.
Osama bin Laden is dead. The boogie man is no more.
Who was Osama bin Laden and how can I react? Was he a monster as so many believe?
There are several sorts of monsters. Some live in the dark. You know the type. They hide in the closet or under your bed – or in the deepest recesses of your mind – until the lights are turned off. Then you must protect yourself by pulling the covers up over your head and lying very, very still. These monsters disappear you pull the covers away and confront them directly and you find they were nothing more than creations of your own mind.
Then there are the monsters who are invisible, living among us, unseen. Child molesters and rapists not yet caught, undiscovered serial murderers, corrupt and dangerous politicians and cops, more that you can add to the list. These monsters, unlike the first type are real and they know who they are. I do not know whether they choose to be monsters or are forced by some inner compulsion to do their evil deeds.
There is another type of monster, the kind that has no idea that s/he is a monster at all. The next door neighbour who hates Hindus or Christians or Muslims or Sikhs or Jews is a very naive sort of monster. Perhaps the hatred is directed at black people or brown people or yellow people or pink (white) people. (Those called “red” are really brown.) Maybe the prejudice is aimed at girl children and women, or at men. Then, of course, there are the xenophobes, those who hate foreigners or indeed strangers of any sort. For my readers specifically of Indian background, I would include caste prejudice in this unsavoury list. I suspect that more of us are this sort of monster than would care to admit it. Perhaps, even I sometimes am a naive monster.
It is possible for the naive monster to act on her/his prejudices and become a full-blown bigot and a genuine, visible monster.
Then there is the monster who so deeply believes in a cause that s/he will do whatever is necessary to realise that cause. No matter if civilians are killed by accidents (collateral damage) or on purpose (terrorism). No matter the damage done because the cause is all. The end justifies the means. Was Osama bin Laden this sort of monster?
Or was he the worst sort, the most evil who cynically leads others in a cause – perhaps for power and glory – that he himself had ceased to believe in or had never believed in?
I have no way of knowing which of these monsters he was.
Or perhaps he wasn’t a monster at all. Perhaps he was a soul who got lost in the swirling changing mass of stuff around us that we call the World or Maya.
Whatever he was I am not sorry he is dead. He was a scumbag and I think the world is better off without him. My entire being, however, is repelled at public celebrations of his death. I understand them. I myself felt like celebrating when Indira Gandhi was killed. I did not celebrate, but that might have been simply because circumstances prevented it. I was wrong then, as people celebrating now are wrong now.
However evil and vile his deeds, are we just mouthing platitudes when we say all people are children of the same Parent, whatever name you personally use for the Creator? I have lost a brother. A brother who did evil deeds, a brother I am glad to be rid of, a brother I did not love, but a brother nevertheless. It is at times like this that I find it necessary to deeply examine my own beliefs and I find myself not without hypocrisy. I know that Indira Gandhi is my sister, but I am not yet ready to feel it.
John Donne’s immortal lines, which I have heard no one quote at this time, come to my mind.
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
I must ask myself how does the death of this man, Osama bin Laden, diminish me. I am not yet able to answer this.
 |
| OSAMA BIN LADEN in 1998 |
Friday, May 6, 2011
All work and no play...
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Eric Arthur Blair - 1984
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense, revolutionary opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language and a belief in democratic socialism.
Considered perhaps the twentieth century's best chronicler of English culture, Orwell wrote fiction, polemical journalism, literary criticism and poetry. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949) and the satirical novella Animal Farm (1945). They have together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author. His Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences as a volunteer on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, together with his numerous essays on politics, literature, language and culture, are widely acclaimed.
Orwell's influence on contemporary culture, popular and political, continues. Several of his neologisms, along with the term Orwellian, now a byword for any draconian or manipulative social phenomenon or concept inimical to a free society, have entered the vernacular. (read more)
"Nineteen Eighty-Four"
WATCH OUT FOR THE BOGYMAN DEPT.
by Jim Marrs on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 12:58pm
The surest way to control a free people is to initiate a war. But to have a war requires an enemy. In recent years, America’s great enemy has been Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, but this has turned out to be a Bogyman -- a false and ethereal image to provoke fear.
“There are people within the US intelligence community who doubt that the hijacker list from 9/11 has much truth in it,” said one unnamed intelligence source quoted by investigative reporter and publisher Jon Rappoport, who has built up many sources in his more than 20 years of experience. “They see it as a more-or-less invented list. They know that if you start with men showing false passports (or no passports) to get on four planes on 9/11, you can’t assemble a correct list of nineteen suspects within a few days—especially since all those men are presumed dead and missing, untraceable. Al Qaeda is being used as a term to convince people that these terrorists are all connected in a vast, very well-organized network that is global in reach, that has a very sophisticated and far-flung communication setup, that issues orders from the top down to cells all over the world,” stated the intelligence source. “There are a number of people inside the US intelligence agencies who know this is a false picture. They know that false intelligence is being assembled in order to paint a picture which is distorted, so that the American people will have a single focus on one grand evil enemy.”
If one doubts this source, consider this video of author researcher Jason Burke:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/59.html
Supporting the claim that the terrorist organization is a fabrication is the fact that not one of the accused 9/11 hijackers’ names appeared on the passenger lists made public by American or United airlines. In fact, as many as seven of those named as the culprits in the attacks were soon found alive and well in the Middle East. These included Saudi pilot Waleed al-Shehri, identified by the US Justice Department as one of the men who crashed American Flight 11 into the WTC. But a few days later, Waleed al-Shehri contacted authorities in Casablanca, Morocco, to proclaim that he was very much alive and played no part in the attacks. Another man identified as one of the hijackers of Flight 11, Abdulaziz al-Omari, also turned up alive in the Middle East, telling BBC News that he lost his passport while visiting Denver, Colorado. Actually two turned up, as yet another Abdulaziz al-Omari surfaced in Saudi Arabia very much alive and telling newsmen, “I couldn’t believe the FBI put me on their list. They gave my name and my date of birth, but I am not a suicide bomber. I am here. I am alive. I have no idea how to fly a plane. I had nothing to do with this.”
Yet another man identified as one of the hijackers of United Flight 93, Saeed al-Ghamdi, was reported alive and well and working as a pilot in Saudi Arabia. “You cannot imagine what it is like to be described as a terrorist—and a dead man—when you are innocent and alive,” said al-Ghamdi, who was given a holiday by his airline in Saudi Arabia to avoid arrest. At least three other named 9/11 hijackers surfaced to proclaim their innocence in the attacks but none of this was widely reported in the US corporate mass media.
In October, 2004, the BBC in England broadcasted a documentary entitled The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear, a three-hour documentary that challenged the Bush administration’s stated concept of al Qaeda as a multi-faceted globe-spanning octopus of terrorism. The documentary raised questions such as:
Why has the Bush administration, after rounding up hundreds of suspected terrorists and using torture during interrogation, failed to produce any hard evidence of al Qaeda activities?
Of the 664 suspected terrorists detained in Britain, why have only 17 been found guilty of crimes? Why have none of these men been proven to be members of al Qaeda?
Why has the Bush administration prompted so much frightening speculation over “dirty” radioactive bombs when experts have stated that public panic over such devices will kill more people than any radioactivity caused by one?
Why did Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claim on Meet the Press in 2001 that al Qaeda controlled massive high-tech cave complexes in Afghanistan, when none were later found following the military invasion?
While it is clear that groups of disaffected Arab Muslims do exist, the BBC documentary nevertheless convincingly argued that “the nightmare vision of a uniquely powerful hidden organization waiting to strike our societies is an illusion. Wherever one looks for this al Qaeda organization, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the ‘sleeper cells’ in America, the British and Americans are chasing a phantom enemy.”
Los Angeles Times political columnist Robert Scheer said that the documentary makes “a powerful case that the Bush administration, led by a tight-knit cabal of Machiavellian neoconservatives, has seized upon the false image of a unified international terrorist threat to replace the expired Soviet empire in order to push a political agenda.” He pointed out that everything we know about al Qaeda comes from only two sources, both with a vested interest in maintaining the concept of a well-financed and deeply entrenched enemy— the terrorists themselves and military and governmental intelligence agencies. “Such a state of national ignorance about an endless war is, as The Power of Nightmares makes clear, simply unacceptable in a functioning democracy,” Scheer wrote.
In Britain it has been suggested that al Qaeda is not a real organization, but rather a computer list of Arab freedom fighters or terrorists available for hire. British commentator Robin Cook, who served as Foreign Secretary from 1997 – 2001 and as Leader of the House of Commons from 2001 – 2003, has suggested that “Bin Laden …was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda, literally ‘the database,’ was originally the computer file of the thousands of Mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.”
Ironically, supposed enemies are often two sides of the same coin. Author Thom Hartmann pointed out that both Bush’s neocons and Muslim terrorists operated from similar ideologies— though the specifics may differ, both groups believe the end justifies the means and that people must be frightened into accepting religion and nationalism for the greater good of morality and a stable state.
Now, we are told that Osama bin Laden has been killed in a Pakistani firefight, yet controversy sprang up immediately.
Why did it take 10 years to find the man when an errant taxpayer can be found by computer within minutes? Why did government sources claim Osama hid behind his wife, who was then killed only to retract those statements later? Why were the American people told his body was buried at sea as a Muslim custom when there is no such custom in Muslim countries, most of which are desert nations? Why did a photograph purporting to be the body of Osama prove to be a composite forgery? Why did “official sources” claim Osama died at least nine times during the past 10 years? Why did several sources, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, say Osama died years ago but would be preserved until he could be brought public at the proper time? Has anyone in authority discussed rescinding the PATRIOT Act, the Military Commissions Act, the Real ID Act or any of the other Constitution-shredding legislation passed by a panicked and cowardly Congress who by several accounts never even read these laws before passing them?
This whole issue smells like a barrel of dead fish yet do not expect to hear any truth concerning this on our corporate-controlled mass media. This scam, along with the growing defense and TSA budgets, must be continued.
FALSE PICTURE OF AL QAEDA -- sources
Unnamed intelligence source: Jon Rappoport, “Briefing on Al Qaeda,” StratiaWire (Sept. 5, 2002)
Accused 9/11 hijackers turned up alive: Editors, “Hijack suspects alive and well,” BBC News (Sept. 23, 2001)
Al Qaeda an illusion: http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/11/opinion/oe-scheer11
Al Qaeda as CIA database: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jul/08/july7.development
Enemies operate from same ideology: http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=%2Fviews04%2F1207-26.htm
Obama on intelligence estimates and more troops: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BUR20090329&articleId=12943
Obama sends 30,000 troops but pledges withdrawal in 2011: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/12/01/obama-afghanistan001.html?ref=rss-
Northern Command: http://www.northcom.mil/About/index.html
Jim
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
On the Death of Osama Bin Laden
Osama Bin Laden was discovered and killed in Pakistan on May 1, 2011 by U.S. CIA-led forces. The taste of revenge and retribution may prove to be temporarily satisfying to a hurt and troubled nation, but the real resolution to the endemic problem of global terrorism may prove illusory. What it does affirm is the reality of blood lust that remains very much a part of the human psyche.
It may be comforting to embody the image of Osama Bin Laden with all the aspects and characteristics that we define as evil. It may lead some to conclude that evil has been vanquished much like the fiery dragon of a bygone era. This event may distract the population from considering the unmistakable reality that the possibility of evil is within all of us and that the nation that so proudly claims to have defeated a devil has a history resplendent with evil deeds and their horrific consequences. We seem unable to acknowledge all the needless death and destruction throughout the world that have been a direct consequence of the unabashed use of American military power.
Osama Bin Laden was, without doubt, a crazed yet charismatic psychopath obsessed with a radical and extremist agenda. He is a man responsible for extraordinary suffering and death throughout the world. His death by violent means was inevitable, but in the final analysis, he is but one man. The institution he helped construct cannot endure for long; because, the belief system that sustains it is untenable. Eventually it will collapse and be replaced by other groups driven by hatred and vengeance. Unfortunately, the cycle remains unbroken.
As a people, we would be better served if we could collectively become more self-aware and look critically and honestly at our own behavior as a nation. When all the elation and self-praise begins to dissipate as it must, we are still left with the institutions, infrastructure and weaponry that are conducive to death and destruction that we have dutifully fashioned over the many years of our national history.
It may be comforting to embody the image of Osama Bin Laden with all the aspects and characteristics that we define as evil. It may lead some to conclude that evil has been vanquished much like the fiery dragon of a bygone era. This event may distract the population from considering the unmistakable reality that the possibility of evil is within all of us and that the nation that so proudly claims to have defeated a devil has a history resplendent with evil deeds and their horrific consequences. We seem unable to acknowledge all the needless death and destruction throughout the world that have been a direct consequence of the unabashed use of American military power.
Osama Bin Laden was, without doubt, a crazed yet charismatic psychopath obsessed with a radical and extremist agenda. He is a man responsible for extraordinary suffering and death throughout the world. His death by violent means was inevitable, but in the final analysis, he is but one man. The institution he helped construct cannot endure for long; because, the belief system that sustains it is untenable. Eventually it will collapse and be replaced by other groups driven by hatred and vengeance. Unfortunately, the cycle remains unbroken.
As a people, we would be better served if we could collectively become more self-aware and look critically and honestly at our own behavior as a nation. When all the elation and self-praise begins to dissipate as it must, we are still left with the institutions, infrastructure and weaponry that are conducive to death and destruction that we have dutifully fashioned over the many years of our national history.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
The Battle for Tomorrow - special offer
“Teen fights for equality in power-packed novel”
My new book (a novel) went up on Amazon today. It’s about a sixteen- year-old girl who participates in the blockade and occupation of the US Capitol.
As the story begins, Angela Jones is the primary caretaker of her invalid mother. Having taken on the responsibilities of an adult, she is still treated as a child by law. A 23-year-old political activist opens her eyes to the urgent issues facing humanity, including the sinking economy and catastrophic climate change, problems that will have devastating consequences for Ange’s future.
Ange is arrested during the protest and winds up in a juvenile detention facility. While there, she finds herself fighting for the right to live independently, in opposition to laws that require her to be released to a parent or guardian.
Living overseas has really highlighted for me the massive age discrimination experienced by US teenagers. In most developed countries the school leaving age is 16, also the age when most working class youths get full time jobs and move into their own flats and apartments. In many countries, sixteen-year-olds (as full fledged taxpayers) are allowed to vote. I blog about this at http://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.com/2010/07/17/election-2010-lowering-the-voting-age/
I suspect The Battle for Tomorrow will be controversial because it talks frankly about teen sexuality, contraception and abortion. Americans don’t believe in talking about sex to teenagers, which may be the reason the US has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 43% of girls and 39% of boys have had sex by age 18 (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_024.pdf).
I believe The Battle for Tomorrow will be the 21st century Catcher in the Rye, only the hero is a sexually active female and the action takes place in the streets of Washington DC.
To celebrate my new book, I am offering a 2 for 1 offer (expires May 14th) – a free ebook version of The Battle for Tomorrow with purchase of new, used or ebook version of my memoir The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee. Email receipt to stuartbramhall@yahoo.co.nz for coupon code for a free download.
Links for The Most Revolutionary Act
(winner of 2011 Allbooks Review Editor’s Choice Award):
New and used print copies: Amazon
ebook (all formats) for $5.99:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/55477
Links for The Battle for Tomorrow
softcover $18.95: www.thebattlefortomorrow.com
ebook (all formats) $5.99: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/51531
Link to audio file of Battle for Tomorrow (Chap 1)
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