UFO - The Greatest Story

The Broken Column

Frida Kahlo
The Broken Column (La columna rota), 1944

Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954; born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón) was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán. Perhaps best known for her self-portraits, Kahlo's work is remembered for its "pain and passion", and its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.

Mexican culture and Amerindian cultural tradition figure prominently in her work, which has sometimes been characterized as Naïve art or folk art. Her work has also been described as "surrealist", and in 1938 one surrealist described Kahlo herself as a "ribbon around a bomb".

Kahlo had a stormy but passionate marriage with the prominent Mexican artist Diego Rivera. She suffered lifelong health problems, many of which stemmed from a traffic accident in her teenage years. These issues are reflected in her works, more than half of which are self-portraits of one sort or another. Kahlo suggested, "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best." (read more)

Happy Birthday Frida

James H Kunstler dissects suburbia | Video on TED.com

James H Kunstler dissects suburbia | Video on TED.com

Temptation

Salvator Rosa
"Tentazione di Sant'Antonio Abate"
(Temptation of abbot Saint Anthony)
1645 ca.

Independence Day

You think you have freedom?...

You think you have a democracy?...

You think our government works for us?...

You are a slave...a prisoner of war.

Global corporate fascism is complete...

the new millennium of slavery is here.

It's "Independence Day"...are you "free"?


(from the dictionary)
independence: the quality or
state of being independent :
FREEDOM

independent 1: SELF-GOVERNING;
also : not affiliated with a
larger controlling unit 2: not
requiring or relying on something
else or somebody else 3: not
easily influenced : showing self
reliance and personal freedom
4: not commited to a political
party


What are we fighting for?...are we fighting

for freedom or are we fighting for corporate acquisition?

It's time for a revolution...a revolution for independence.

I advocate for the non-violent removal of all government

and military leaders and the elimination of all corporate

influence in the control of our world affairs...

...it's time for a real "Independence Day" !!!

We can do better...it's time to change the world.

Nation at the Crossroads Part II

How many times has civilization been at a crossroads where critical choices need to be made that determine how the future will unfold? I believe that we are at such a crossroads. There are numerous signs that are indicators that the status quo is unsustainable; that our collective failure to act responsibly to ensure a secure future for our progeny is yielding consequences that are worthy of our collective concern.

The horrendous ecological and environmental devastation that is now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico is such an indicator, but it is only one of many. The haunting and seemingly inexorable progress of climate change is clear and unmistakable; unless, the mind is clouded by denial and the pandering propaganda of those with a vested interest in the current economic paradigm. The science is clear; the data is insurmountable.

The numerous wars the nation has waged ostensibly in the name of freedom but ultimately tied to the fever of our acquisitiveness have left us morally and financially bankrupt. We seem to have a greater fondness for guns than a desire to correct the savage injustices that exist within the fabric of our social order. We appear to be indifferent to the avoidable suffering of those who are homeless or ravaged by the excesses of poverty, especially the children.

We are a nation where 40% of the wealth is hoarded by 2% of the population. It is no wonder that so many people have so little. The mythology of our absolute greatness as a nation and a people continues to dominate the public discourse and drown out meaningful dialog regarding the actual state of our nation. The corporate-controlled media has been quite successful in manipulating the public conversation.

The nation is woefully unprepared for the future of humanity on this beleaguered planet. The choice is ours to make – either we remain in exquisite denial or we move towards reasoned deliberations and arrive at intelligent solutions.

July 4, 2010

Hope Yours Is “Allowed” To Be Happy.
My 63rd Fourth, And My Most Worried-About-The-Future One So Far.



My “worried-about”?  The fact that you allowed this, and are still allowing much more than this, and you will continue to allow. . .  Without any real effort to punish anyone.  Not one person has been fired or punished in any way what-so-ever for any of the destruction of the last 10 years.

Not one - Think about it - You are a nation of cowardly allowers.

The corporatists know you better than you do.  Why do you think they don’t even attempt to hide their bored disdain of you?  Seriously - Think about it, (since obviously you haven’t so far.)

Why the fuck do you keep “allowing” your own,
(and the rest of ours,) destruction?!?

Problems Ahead

I wrote in this blog about the 1969 catastrophe in Santa Barbara; I did not understand it due to my prejudices. For me then the only problem confronting humanity was man against man, I didn't see the man against Earth, or Gaia, side of things. Even my beloved working class men and women were killing chimpanzees and bonobos in Africa. Now those cousins are about to go the way of the Neanderthals. Even worse: bees, lizards, frogs, my beloved Mexican Axolotls, all are dying in unprecedented numbers,

Now all humans have to own up to the ecological devastation we are all guilty of.

Today during the American Independence Day, I call Americans to stop this war!

More Strange Happenings

Santa Barbara 1969 Chilpancingo 2010

I went to UCSB from 1973 to 1979. Then I knew that something big had happened, the beaches were oily and the Environmental Studies Department was progressive. To me, coming from Mexico, it didn't seem like a big deal. In 1968 the government had massacred 500 + innocent people to proceed with the Olympic Games, that was a big deal. I never got fired up by the ecologists. I went to Garrett Harding lectures, and some other more "progressive" professor debated him. I forgot the name of this opponent. To my mind Harding was a conservative (in my view bad) thinker, more concerned with the welfare of rich elites, than with the suffering of the masses.

More than 40 years later things look different.

If I had only understood "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science, 162 (1243-1248), 1968, then ; now I would be better able to understand the catastrophe coming our way.

Labels, like progressive or reactionary, don't mean squat under the present condition. What we need is clear thinking men and women like Harding and the Ehlrichs, honest towards the truth. I also think that James Lovelock and James Hansen have done their share warning us.

Now it is up to us.

I live in Chilpancingo, in the State of Guerrero in Mexico now. The ecological disaster around here is like a BP catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, but caused by everybody, all the time.

Now I understand what those thinkers were telling me when I was in my twenties. I did not paid enough attention.

Now I see, I do not know if we can do something.

Those tar stains in my feet I got walking barefoot in the beaches at the UCSB campus, were the canary in the mine, I did not get it.

Progression

“The natural progression
Is the coming of your age
But they cover it with shame
And turn it into rage”

To the generation that came of age in the 1950’s, the term ‘progressive’ meant ‘socialism’. That’s because the socialist party in the 40’s and 50’s called itself the ‘progressive party’. I did not know that, which probably says something about my knowledge of history. To the generation that came of age in the 1970’s and 80’s (my generation) ..the term ‘progressive’ meant just what the dictionary says: a keen interest in new developments and fresh ideas ..with all the positive connotations I thought that implied. Since advances in science and technology were progressing at lightening speed, I thought being progressive was a healthy mental outlook. In college, I chose a field of study that allowed me to take courses in psychology, neuroscience and information science. I thought that showed signs of being forward-thinking and progressive. It wasn’t until later, when I joined a political discussion group, that I learned it was also what made me a ‘liberal’, and sometimes even a ‘socialist’, to the people of my father’s generation. I have no such political convictions. I like to consider myself an independent thinker who doesn’t lend himself to labels of a bygone era.

Intrepid Bean… | African Bean, London Queen

Intrepid Bean… | African Bean, London Queen

The Greatest Story Ever Denied

Not With A Bang...

I apologise in advance to this sort-of-a-downer of a post. I believe there are some things that need to be faced head-on, with our proverbial heads out of the proverbial sand.

This is a post I hoped I would never write. As you, my readers, know, I practice the virtue of chardi kala, translated in many different ways, but all having the meaning of eternal optimism and never giving up. I am still practicing, but it is hard.

No doubt by now you have heard about the massive oil spill by British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico in the Caribbean Sea, truly a paradise on earth. Or at least it was until 20 April 2010. On that day the Deepwater Horizon oil rig - owned and run by British Petroleum - exploded, caught fire and began gushing massive amounts of crude oil into the pristine waters around it. Eleven were killed and 17 injured. That was tragic, but it is just the beginning.

The amount of oil gushing into the Gulf is estimated at somewhere between 1,475,000 and 4,200,000 gallons per day ( 5,583,432 and 15,828,729 liters/day). No one knows how much oil is in this well, how long it can keep gushing. Years or decades, if it is not somehow stopped. So far nothing has worked. In fact, efforts have actually made it worse.

Here's a nice little widget to help you calculate.

Those are pretty dry figures for most people, so here's a more graphic look. This is what the spill looks like right now (30 June 2010):

I realise that most of my readers really can't relate to southern Louisiana, so here is the spill in other locations where I have readers:

If I happened to miss your locale, go to Ifitwasmyhome to move the spill to wherever you live.

Perhaps you'd like to see it as it happens.

If that's not enough to bring it home to you, here are a few oil-soaked pelicans. I find this horribly painful to look at.

In addition, massive amounts of methane gas has been released into the water. This may well turn out to be even more dangerous than the oil. The methane depletes the water of oxygen, leaving all the sea life devoid of the element that is necessary to all life on earth. It is feared that the methane will cause a dead zone where nothing can live, possibly for decades. Also, scientists believe that a huge methane bubble is forming under the water. When it bursts, it could release a tsunami of 20-60 ft (6.1-18.3 m), certainly enough to engulf most of the Caribbean islands. For more information on the gas leak, go here:
Gas Leak 3000 Times Worse Than Oil.


And, by the way, with our current technology we have no way to cap or contain the methane.

I guess that's not enough bad news. It is now hurricane season. (For those of you in Asia, those are typhoons.) There will be hurricanes. In fact, the first one is blowing right now. Hurricane Alex did not move close to the spill, but there will be another hurricane and another and another.


The next thing to consider is the ocean currents. The Gulf Stream is an ocean river that runs from the Caribbean to Europe.

Eventually this oil and methane and all their problems will reach Europe. They will also travel up the Atlantic coast of North America all the way to Canada and all points north. No one knows how much of the ocean will die. Certainly a large part of the Caribbean Sea will and it will take decades to recover. In the meantime the many people who make their livings along the Gulf, either fishing or in the tourist trade, have lost their means of livelihood. It is even possible that the land they live on will become uninhabitable. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana has been alerted that a mass evacuation may become necessary, if a hurricane again hits the state. It is likely that once gone, the people will not be allowed to return due to the toxic oil and gas along the coast.

The earth is one big ecosystem, based primarily on our oceans. If a large part of one ocean dies, that will have a cascade effect on the rest of the planet. How far could this go? Worst case scenario: Bye-bye. "Not with a bang, but a whimper." If you don't recognise those lines, they are the conclusion of T. S Eliot's poem, The Hollow Men. To hear the whimper go to Power Without Petroleum and listen hard at 0:25.

Best case scenario: the southern coast of the United States becomes uninhabitable for a period of time and much of the sea life in the Gulf of Mexico dies, with devastating consequences to the people who now live there. As it is impossible that there be no hurricanes in the season, we can be sure that the winds will carry the oil throughout the region, damaging all it touches. That damage cannot be estimated at this time, except to say it will be extensive.

This morning (1 July 2010), going through my inbox, I found this article in the daily UN bulletin:

Biologists find 'dead zones' around BP oil spill in Gulf

Methane at 100,000 times normal levels have been creating oxygen-depleted areas devoid of life near BP's Deepwater Horizon spill, according to two independent scientists

As long as I can remember, the scientists have been screaming "Wolf!" alerting us to this or that which they claim is going to wipe us out. As I child I grew up with "nuclear annihilation." That was the biggie. There have been others: the hole in the ozone layer, swine flu (twice), bird flu, global climate change and I'm sure others that I have forgotten. And it seems, life causes cancer. There is truth in all these scientific assertions, but there was also something we could do to stop or at least alleviate the disaster. As I see it, this is different because we are helpless to do anything except pray. Of course, I am not a scientist, and the only way I see out of this is divine intervention. Even if the spill can somehow be stopped, we can do nothing about the methane. This is the time more than ever before that we need to dig deep within ourselves and find the high spirits, the chardi kala, that is a part of us. It takes courage to look tragedy in the face and carry on without panic or depression.

And what caused all this? Of course it was British Petroleum cutting corners on safety to save money and increase profit. It was Pres. Clinton who authorised the deep sea drilling. It was Pres. George W. Bush who so favoured the oil interests and permitted a lack of oversight to allow BP not to follow the safety measures. It was Pres. Obama who did not immediately step in to correct this corruption from the previous administration. But it was also all of us who are dependent on petroleum, who refuse to cut back on our usage, we who demand more and more. In the end, if we had not demanded this oil, if we had lost our lust it, BP wouldn't have been able to make the profit that drove them to build this rickety structure upon the rickety structure of our economy. So what now? We have learned why greed is such an evil thing. Whither our good, green beautiful earth?

I keep thinking about the ending of Dr. Strangelove. (A great movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you see it while you still can.)

Remain in chardi kala, my dear brothers and sisters!

pictures:

the fire - United States Coast Guard (via Wikipedia)
dead fish - Sean Gardner (Reuters)
the pelicans - Charlie Riedel (AP)
the earth - courtesy of NASA

Ocean's Lament

There was a time
not long ago
before avarice
before greed
before the onslaught of
tireless acquisition
when the oceans were
filled with the living and
death did not run rampant.

There was a time
not long ago
when sticky strands of
black death and
balls of tar
did not foul the
beaches and marshes,
places of birth and renewal.

There was a time
not long ago
when the birds that feasted
upon ocean’s bounty were not
consumed by human folly.

There was a time
not long ago
when expansive islands of
Styrofoam and the detritus of
the modern age
did not awaken
itinerant sailors
to our cumulative stupidity.

What do you know about the moon?

(download pdf book)

(video clip)

(watch moon rising)

Stargate Project

stargate project

first earth battalion

movie trailer

Afghan

I wouldn’t ordinarily be writing about the situation in Afghanistan, but since I am familiar with one of their chief exports, hashish ..I have been following the war kind of closely. I think there’s a story here. Or some half-baked ideas. I can never tell. But I was wondering, since when is it the role of army generals to build stable communities when all they’ve been trained to do throughout history is knock them down. So now we’ve put them in charge of ‘social engineering’ ..a practice we abhor in the west ..and rightly so. It doesn’t lead to ‘participatory’ government. Instead, it contributes to feelings of helplessness by replacing traditional customs with circumstances that the local population had no hand in creating ..and over which they have no control.
 

There’s another mission that’s equally unclear to me “Our goal is to break Taliban momentum.” What the hell does that mean in a town where the Taliban have already seized the means of production, which in addition to producing hashish, means subsistence-level bakeries. You think the villagers want to participate in U.S efforts to ‘break Taliban momentum’ when their survival instincts fill them with a sense of foreboding.
 

Last week Obama sacked a commanding general for using the term ‘diplomatic incoherence’ to describe the difference between what is happening in Afghanistan ..and what the U.S government would have us believe is happening in Afghanistan. Call me a cynic, but I don’t believe that giving the military contradictory goals like ‘building stable communities’ and ‘breaking Taliban momentum’ is going to lead to anything like the ‘progress’ I’ve been hearing about from politicians. I’m hunkering down for a long-term disruption in the supply of hash from Afghanistan..

"Repeat after me: I am free"

Strange happenings...

Orgasmic

Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897 – November 3, 1957) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry. He was the author of several notable textbooks, including The Mass Psychology of Fascism and Character Analysis, both published in 1933.

Reich worked with Sigmund Freud in the 1920s and was a respected analyst for much of his life, focusing on character structure rather than on individual neurotic symptoms. He tried to reconcile Marxism and psychoanalysis, arguing that neurosis is rooted in the physical, sexual, economic, and social conditions of the patient, and promoted adolescent sexuality, the availability of contraceptives, abortion, and divorce, and the importance for women of economic independence. His work influenced a generation of intellectuals, including Saul Bellow, William S. Burroughs, Paul Edwards, Norman Mailer, and A. S. Neill, and shaped innovations such as Fritz Perls's Gestalt therapy, Alexander Lowen's bioenergetic analysis, and Arthur Janov's primal therapy.

Later in life, he became a controversial figure who was both adored and condemned. He began to violate some of the key taboos of psychoanalysis, using touch during sessions, and treating patients in their underwear to improve their "orgastic potency." He said he had discovered a primordial cosmic energy, which he said others called God, and that he called "orgone." He built "orgone energy accumulators" that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about "sex boxes" that cured cancer. (read more)

Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897 – November 3, 1957)

Love Is All You Need

My Birthday

This is a photograph of me

when I was young and beautiful...

I was twenty nine.

Today is my birthday...

I'm fifty six years old...

I didn't think I'd live this long.

Get busy living...or get busy dying...

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont. It is an adaptation of the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film stars Tim Robbins as Andrew "Andy" Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding.

The film portrays Andy, who spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison, a fictional penitentiary in Maine, and his friendship with Red, a fellow inmate.

Despite a lukewarm box office reception that was barely enough to cover its budget, the film received favorable reviews from critics, multiple award nominations, and has since enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. This revival is reflected in its high placement on various lists of great movies.

Chicago Sun-Times film reviewer Roger Ebert suggests that the integrity of Andy Dufresne is an important theme in the story line, especially in prison, where integrity is lacking.

The Shawshank Redemption is an allegory for maintaining one's feeling of self worth when placed in a hopeless position.

Angus C. Larcombe suggests that the film provides a great illustration of how characters can be free, even in prison, or unfree, even in freedom, based on one's outlook in life. (read more)

UFO by George Adamski

(proof)


(proof)


(proof)


(proof)


(proof)

deepwater kill

Why We Fight

If you love America...

this is the most important documentary

you will ever watch.

Happy Father's Day

Have Sympathy For The Devil

Is It Only About BP?

It seems that the horrendous environmental tragedy that surrounds the destruction of the deep water oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico has deteriorated into an endless stream of inane sound bites that seek to portray some villain whether it be BP, the oil industry, President Obama or the U.S. Government. Even environmentalists have been tossed into this caldron of anger and hostility.

Everyone seems to be evading and avoiding the fundamental issues that present themselves to us in such a graphic form. At the very heart of this disaster there exist a number of factors that belie the world view that is a fundamental aspect of modern industrial, technological and capital-driven civilization. Primarily, we have come to regard the individual pursuit of happiness as defined by and through material acquisition as being of absolutely critical importance. This is so fundamental to our collective conception of self that the rest of the living world and even the less “fortunate” members of our species are seen as essentially expendable in relation to this goal. Secondarily, our awareness of the biologically diverse and vibrant planet upon which we live has become deadened and eviscerated by our destructive allegiance to the idea of progress that we hold so dear.

The death of so much vital living abundance not only on the Gulf Coast but also of those creatures who navigate through that vast body of water poisoned by the human thirst for energy and all our various commodities that are fashioned by so-called “black gold” does not seem to be understood. There is no great outcry regarding this monumental desecration; there is no mass protestation in favor of life and a sane and viable future for those that follow us. I do not hear any call for us to recognize our own participation in this madness.

It seems to me that there is an important object lesson in this disaster. We need to reorder our priorities and incorporate the entirety of the living world in our understanding of ourselves and the way we do business. If we go on as before, we will risk the future of our species. Are we capable of this level of intelligence, or will we continue to allow our behavior to be directed by avarice and fear and the destructive emotions they engender?

The Power Of Acceptance

(trailer)

(V saves Evey)

Diagnosis of Mortality

When we accept


our mortality...


we become fearless !

Fly Your Freak Flag

(make a wish)

Civilian Conservation Corps

"I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects. I call your attention to the fact that this type of work is of definite, practical value, not only through the prevention of great present financial loss, but also as a means of creating future national wealth"...Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men age 18-24, providing unskilled manual labor related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural areas of the United States from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed to provide relief for unemployed youth who had a very hard time finding jobs during the Great Depression while implementing a general natural resource conservation program on public lands in every U.S. state, including the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The CCC became the most popular New Deal program among the general public, providing jobs for a total of 3 million young men from families on relief. Implicitly the CCC also led to awareness and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources, especially for city youth. The CCC was never considered a permanent program and depended on emergency and temporary legislation for its existence. On June 30, 1942 Congress voted to eliminate funding for the CCC, formally ceasing active operation of the program.

During the time of the CCC, volunteers planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide that would become the start of most state parks, developed forest fire fighting methods and a network of thousands of miles of public roadways, and constructed buildings connecting the nation's public lands. (read more)

We should restore the CCC, it was a good thing.

I Wanna Do Everything

(crimson and clover)

BP Death

Ahh Ha Haa Haaa...


You want oil ???


I'll give you oil !!!

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

(11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997)

was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist,

filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and

researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water.

He co-developed the aqua-lung,

pioneered marine conservation and

was a member of the Académie française.

He was commonly known as "le Commandant Cousteau"

or "Captain Cousteau".

Happy 100th birthday,

from the people of earth.



(read more)

Drill Baby Drill

One State Solution

I have a simple solution to the

Israeli-Palestinian Debacle...

take down all the walls and declare

the population there in as Israeli citizens.

Arab and Jew, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Samaritans.


...but nobody ever listens to me...

Emilie Autumn

This performance fascinates me

Lady of Shallot

Four grey walls, and four grey towers,

Overlook a space of flowers,

And the silent isle imbowers

The Lady of Shalott.

~ Lord Tennyson

Signs

All of these monuments are signs

they are messages


messages for a generation

who has eyes to see and


a brain to think and who has

the knowledge to decipher the message


(click title)

Roy Orbison

The Long War

World War Two lasted 44 months.

The American Civil War lasted 48 months.

The Vietnam War went on for 103 months.

U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001.

As of today, the war will complete its 104th month.



(you are a prisoner of war)

The Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. It is believed the pyramid was built over a 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC. Khufu's Great Pyramid originally rose 479 feet but has been reduced to 449 feet with the loss of its limestone casing.

The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes. The volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic meters. Based on these estimates, building this in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day. Alternatively looking at the construction from another angle, since the Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, completing the building in 20 years would involve moving little more than 12 of the blocks in place each hour, day and night, during the 20 year period.

The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimeters in length. The base is horizontal and flat to within 21 mm. The sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points (within 4 minutes of arc) based on true north, not magnetic north, and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc. The completed design dimensions equate to π/2 to an accuracy of better than 0.05% (corresponding to the approximation of π as 22/7).

Based on measurements taken on the north eastern casing stones, the mean opening of the joints are only 0.5 millimeters wide (1/50th of an inch). The largest granite stones in the pyramid, found in the "King's" chamber, weigh 25 to 80 tonnes and were transported more than 500 miles away from Aswan. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.
(read more)

Revelation of the Pyramids

They've given you a number

(tv show intro)

Agent For Change

Coleen Rowley (born December 20, 1954) is a former FBI agent and whistleblower, and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district, one of eight congressional districts in Minnesota in 2006.

Shortly after she became a Special Agent with the FBI, Rowley was assigned to the Omaha, Nebraska and Jackson, Mississippi Divisions. Beginning in 1984, she spent six years working in the New York Office on investigations involving organized crime. She also served in the U.S. embassy in Paris, and the consulate in Montreal. In 1990, she was assigned to the FBI's Minneapolis office where she became the chief legal adviser to the office.

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, Rowley wrote a paper for FBI Director Robert Mueller documenting how FBI HQ personnel in Washington, D.C., had mishandled and failed to take action on information provided by the Minneapolis, Minnesota Field Office regarding its investigation of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. This individual had been suspected of being involved in preparations for a suicide-hijacking similar to the December 1994 "Eiffel Tower" hijacking of Air France 8969. Failures identified by Rowley may have left the U.S. vulnerable to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Rowley was one of many agents frustrated by the events that led up to the attacks, writing:

During the early aftermath of September 11th, when I happened to be recounting the pre-September 11th events concerning the Moussaoui investigation to other FBI personnel in other divisions or in FBIHQ, almost everyone's first question was "Why?--Why would an FBI agent(s) deliberately sabotage a case? (I know I shouldn't be flippant about this, but jokes were actually made that the key FBI HQ personnel had to be spies or moles, like [Robert Hanssen], who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden to have so undercut Minneapolis' effort.)

Rowley testified in front of the Senate and for the 9/11 Commission about the FBI's internal organization and mishandling of information related to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Mueller and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) pushed for and got a major reorganization, focused on creation of the new Office of Intelligence at the FBI. This reorganization was supported with a significant expansion of FBI personnel with counterterrorism and language skills.

Rowley retired from the FBI in 2004 after 24 years with the agency.

Rowley jointly held the TIME "Person of the Year" award in 2002 with two other women credited as whistleblowers: Sherron Watkins from Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom. She also received the Sam Adams Award for 2002. (read more)

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot"

"Hubris"

The Gulf Oil Spill - An Environmental Catastrophe

According to Doctor Samantha B. Joye, from the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, involved in gathering data from the Gulf oil spill, “There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water.” She went on to say that, “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.” These plumes were discovered by scientific investigators from a number of universities working from aboard the Pelican, a research vessel.

The controversial chemical dispersants that have been used by British Petroleum (BP) to break the oil down into small droplets may have contributed to the creation of these plumes. The naturally occurring oil-eating bacteria “feeding” on this oil are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, for as they rapidly grow and divide they are consuming oxygen. Doctor Joye said the oxygen had already dropped 30 percent near some of the plumes in the month that the broken oil well had been flowing and, “If you keep those kinds of rates up, you could draw the oxygen down to very low levels that are dangerous to animals in a couple of months. That is alarming.” In addition, the natural rate of replenishment of oxygen in deep water from the surface is a slow process.

In my estimation this oil spill will prove to be an ecological disaster of immense proportions if the flow of oil is not stopped in a timely fashion. The fowling of the gulf with oil will add an additional insult to the acidification of the oceans that is a direct result of the ever-increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

In my mind, there is a powerful connection between the state of the natural environment as evidenced by the horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and prospects for a peaceful planet. The seemingly constant cycle of violence and retribution throughout the world diverts humanity's focus from the real issues that require our immediate and concerted effort.

AJ Muste - The Voice of Pacifism

Abraham Johannes (AJ) Muste was born in the Zierikzee province of Zealand in the Netherlands on January 8, 1885. His parents, Martin Muste and Adriana Jonker, immigrated to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1891. Their transit to the United States was not particularly pleasant; they were crowded into steerage on a two week journey in hostile seas.

As a young boy in America he was captivated by the image of Abraham Lincoln. This interest inspired him to explore the life of this illustrious American president, and was moved and influenced by what he had learned. His family was conservative in politics and orthodox in religion. Although his family was devoutly religious, Muste was never exposed to hellfire preaching growing up in the church. In spite of the fact that his father was not particularly happy with his son’s avowed political beliefs, Muste eventually persuaded his father to accept the idea of pacifism

For half of a century, Muste was a radical activist with an untiring devotion to the causes of peace and social justice. He was, in fact, one of the pioneers of non-violent resistance as a technique for social action. In fact, he was referred to as the “American Gandhi”; Gandhi was an inspiration to him. Muste was so influential and charismatic that his followers were called, “Musteites.” During his long personal history of social action, he went through a number of stages during the maturation of his personal philosophy.

As a young man, Muste entered Hope College and ultimately pursued a career in the ministry, training at the Graduate Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church in America and the Union Theological Seminary. In 1909, he was ordained minister of the Reformed Church. During his sojourn as minister, World War I broke out in Europe. Despite intense pressure from his contemporaries, Muste stubbornly held on to his pacifist beliefs. Ultimately, his convictions led to his ejection from the ministry. He was forced to resign from his church in Newtonville, Massachusetts. The fact that the church sided with the government in this regard and abandoned what Muste believed was fundamental Christian principles left Muste considerably disheartened.
Muste ultimately drifted away from religion and began to embrace political action around the area of social justice. He became involved in the struggles of labor during the tumultuous era when workers were attempting to organize into labor unions as a way of forcing changes in the abysmal nature of labor conditions at that time. He became General Secretary of the Amalgamate Textile Workers. He held this position from 1921 through 1933.

During this period, he became the Director of the Brookwood Labor College – an institution dedicated to the training of militant and progressive labor leaders. In the course of his work he was attracted to Trotskyist-Marxist ideas in regards to the plight of workers and the need to organize labor. During this era, the communists were very much involved in the early formation of labor unions. He became involved in numerous strikes, including the Toledo Auto-Lite, GM and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber strikes.

Ultimately, Muste became disenchanted with communism; he found the tactics that the party employed were disingenuous and heavy-handed. He came to see Trotsky as yet another dictator not unlike Lenin or Stalin. In 1936, he rejected Marxist-Leninism and rejoined the non-violence movement.

In 1940, he became Executive Secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in the United States. He held this position until 1953. Muste became convinced that in order to achieve a just society, major social dislocation is necessary. In 1962, he wrote, “We are now in an age when men will have to choose deliberately to exchange the values, the concepts of security, and much else which characterizes contemporary society, and seek another way of life. If that is so, the peace movement has to act on that assumption, and this means that the whole picture of our condition and the radical choice must be placed before people – not a diluted gospel, a program geared so that they are ready to “buy now.”

Seeing the inevitability of the American entrance into what would be referred to as World War II, Muste refuted the argument that governments are sometimes called upon to resort to war to oppose an “aggressor” nation. In his book entitled, Non-violence in an Aggressive World (1940), he claimed that “The line-up in the world is read in terms of “peace-loving” versus “persistently aggressive” nations. That is superficial and misleading. It is the same reading that brought us disaster twenty years ago. The real line-up is between satiated powers, determined to hang on to the 85 percent of the earth’s vital resources which they control, even if that means plunging the world into another war, and another set of powers equally determined to change the imperialist status even if that means plunging the world into another war.” He went on to caution that as soon as a nation finds itself on the path of war preparation, it strengthens the forces on the right and moves the society towards fascism.

In regards to war preparations prior to World War II, A. J. Muste further stated, “The United States is not ready for disarmament and war-renunciation. What then shall we propose? A little war-preparation, purely defensive preparation, refined economic warfare which can be safely waged at a distance against supposedly sinful nations? Surely they are no alternatives at all (such as moderate war-preparations in this day!), or they are alternatives which lead straight to disaster.” As a result of these strong convictions, he advocated total draft refusal. This was a remarkably courageous stand in terms of the strong national sentiment that slanted towards war.

Following the Great War, Muste became deeply concerned over what he saw was the drift towards a nuclear holocaust. He became the Chairman of the Committee for Nonviolent Action, a member of the executive committee on the War Resister’s League and a participant in Omaha Action, a group dedicated to nonviolent action against nuclear policy. As a member of the latter group, he was arrested in 1959 for climbing over a barbed-wire fence at the Atlas missile base near Omaha, Nebraska. He became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, and editor of Liberation Magazine.
In his life, Muste underwent a number of personal transformations, but a tenacious adherence to the causes of peace and social justice resided at the core of his being.

AJ Muste died on February 11, 1967. One of Muste’s cohorts in the pursuit of peace through nonviolent action made the following comment, “A.J. is the spiritual chairman of every major pacifist demonstration in the country and often is the actual chairman. He’s the number one peacemaker in America.”