TURN ON COMPUTER // TUNE IN TO FREED SPIRIT OF INTERNET
// TAKE OVER!
HUNDREDS OF UK AL QUEDA TERRORISTS just 45 minutes away FROM BLOWING US UP! WITH NUCLEAR BOMMS SAYS DODGY BLAIR DOSSIER!
[Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is the son of Leo Blair, a Tory barrister
who was the son of Charles Parsons and Gussie Bridson,
a musical-hall 'turn' in which Charlie took the stage-name of Jimmy Lynton.
Gussie, Tony's grannies, was the daughter of a well-heeled, Lancashire family
who were relatives of the Earls of Strathmore, the Queen Mother's family.
Tony's illegitimate father, Leo Parsons, was fostered out to the family of a Glasgow shipyard-worker,
James Blair, which is where the new name appeared.
A curious tale, full of intrigue, and one that matches the mysteries
of other 'statesmen' of recent times such as Hitler and Clinton.
Perhaps prime-minister, Blair's real name, Parsons, may go some way
to explain his sermonesque, clerical style. But, even more intriguingly,
Blair's probable real name of Parsons is that of the Hell-Firer, G.M. Freemason, Earl of Rosse.
But why should his real grandaddy's alt-mon, Lynton, be so important
that it has been carried through the male line?
http://www.ellisctaylor.com/BITSANDPIECES.html
up!
heres the thing i dont understand, tony. we killed 100,000 iraqis to prevent terrorism, right? so how come u tell us there are hundreds of them in britain now? how many were there B4 we devastated iraq?!
up!
Become The 100th Monkey!
Fraser! Great stuff, as ever!
I too have got soooo pissed off with our blessed leader that I have written to both Number 10 and the Labour Party stating I will never vote Labour while the Tory Blair is in the party. Interestingly, I got a very full and detailed response to the points I made the men in suits are rattled!
Can I suggest that everyone who cares about Britain does the same. Its like water dripping on a rock or the 100th Monkey, one person has no effect but those spinners at Labour count every complaint and so there will come a point when he has to go!!! Can you imagine a Labour party interested in the views of ordinary people in Britain just look at Blair, Jowell, Kelly or Milburn the same New Labour smirk that says we are right and clever, and you are stupid. Write today, become the 100th Monkey!
John Fowler. UK
>> don't agree those new labour clones look smug. they look to me like they're drinking their own urine to stay on board the govt bandwagon and feeling most uncomfortable, even sick, with it
GO TO:
www.number-10.gov.uk
CHOOSE CONTACT BUTTON FOR THE LABOUR PARTY, OR GO TO
www.labour.org.uk
and skip the first page
UP! Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
london
SAT MARCH 19 WERE ALL GOING TO THE
NATIONAL MARCH AGAINST THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ
on the 2nd anniversary of the invasion!
Assemble 12 noon, Hyde Park. Organised by Stop the War (020 7278 6694).
For details of coaches to London from points around the country see
www.stopwar.org.uk/coachdetail.asp?id=13
up!
WED MARCH 16-19 Peace Camp/Trafalgar Square!!!
[sponsored by Stop the War Coalition; CND; Muslim Association of Britain; London CND; Military Families Against the War; Bookmarks; Housmans Peace Bookshop; School Students against the War; Friendship Across Frontiers; Campaign Against Criminalising Communities; Red Pepper; Hampstead and Highgate Woodcraft Folk; Caroline Lucas [MEP], Jean Lambert [MEP], Jeremy Corbyn [MP]; Tony Benn]
Hosted by Stop the War Coalition in the run up to the mass demonstration on March 19th. All supporters of peace and freedom are invited. Some tents can be provided but bring your own if possible.
Each evening of the camp there will be special events:
WED 16 - 5pm - Camp opens. Rhythms of Resistance will perform. 7pm - appearance from Mark Steel.
THURS 17 - 7.30pm - Forum on Bush Wars and Terror Laws, featuring Tony Benn, Shami Chakrabati, Jeremy Corbyn and Lindsey German
FRI 18 6pm - Forum: Military Families speak out. Followed by an evening of music hosted by Peace not War.
Please e-mail the Stop the War Coalition if you are planning to participate. Further info: Andrew Burgin 07939 242229 or Chris Nineham 07930 536519
www.stopwar.org.uk
up!
glasgow
SAT MARCH 19 PROTESTS TO MARK INVASIONS 2ND ANNIVERSARY
Officials Coalition for Justice Not War event.
Assemble South Hanover St, 12 noon for march, followed by rally in St Enoch Square at 1pm.
Autonomous event with open mike: meet 12 noon at Donald Dewar statue, top of Buchanan St
troopsoutglasgow@yahoo.co.uk
FRI MARCH 18 Coaches to London leave at midnight from George Square.
UP! Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
Once the right buttons are pushed, once new Pearl Harbors are manufactured, the Establishment has little problem bringing out their mobilised army of hypnotised primates, millions of citizens mutated by fear, hatred and anger, conditioned into them by the same elite that will begin exploiting their emotions, soon bringing to the surface the ever dangerous, never thinking, blood-thirsty and always self-destructive human animal. Manuel Valenzuela.
http://207.44.245.159/article8227.htm
UP! Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.
Saddam Capture Story was Fiction - Ex-Marine.
Saddam Resisted Fiercely, Killed At Least One American Soldier, And Wasnt Found In A Hole
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A former U.S. Marine who participated in capturing ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said the public version of his capture was fabricated.
Ex-Sgt. Nadim Abou Rabeh, of Lebanese descent, was quoted in the Saudi daily al-Medina on Wednesday as saying: "I was among the 20-man unit, including 8 of Arab descent, who searched for Saddam for 3 days in the area of Dour near Tikrit. We found him in a modest home in a small village and not in a hole as announced& We captured him after fierce resistance during which a Marine of Sudanese origin was killed".
Saddam himself fired at them with a gun from the window of a room on the second floor. They shouted at him in Arabic: "You have to surrender... Theres no point resisting!"
"Later on, a military production team fabricated the film of Saddam's capture in a hole, which was in fact a deserted well," Abou Rabeh said.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/
>> am still predicting they carried out such disgustingly cruel and inhumane torture to find him that all human beings will hang their heads in shame for generations to come.
UP!
Its not that Muslims dont like our values. Its just that we dont apply those values to them. And it isnt that they dont understand us. They understand us. We just dont understand ourselves. James Zogby.
UP!
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u cant understand the world without innerstanding yourself
UP! 227// march 16, 2005
la- la- la- lap-toppling da system!
u cant innerstand yourself without understanding the world
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contents
p.04 Can Progressive Democrats (Or Anyone Else) Overcome "Necessary Illusions?"
p.07 Lambeth Council Trying To Ban 7th Annual Cannabis Festival!
p.09 A STUDY OF THE SUPER-RICH - THEY'RE NOT EXACTLY CRAZY AND THEY'RE NOT EXACTLY EVIL EITHER
p.11 Pot Psychosis Claims Overturned - MORE DODGY PROPAGANDA ON THE OTHER WAR FRONT
p.12 THE TAKE-A-DEEP-BREATH LIST OF WHY THE MIDDLE EAST MIGHT HATE THE US GOVERNMENT
p.14 THE TAKE-ANOTHER-DEEP-BREATH LIST OF WHY THE REST OF THE WORLD MIGHT HATE THE US GOVERNMENT
p.15 Try To Remember Youve Taken It Said Some Girl Called Mercy - FICTION from fraser.
p.17 Senator Byrd Correct to Equate Bush With Hitler - "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" One People, One Government, One Dictator
UP!
****************** WEEK OF MARCH 16 22 *******************
CHALLENGE: HOLD YOUR CENTRE
This is a super-active week.
It includes regeneration of our security bases, high patriotism,
some business moving ahead after a dry period, and other business stalling.
In addition, we experience the balance of Spring Equinox,
when the Light dominates the Dark.
Things might feel - and be - a little shaky.
For more, see
www.daykeeperjournal.com
************************************************************************
UP!
)))))((/
__,,,,_{ô¿ô}_,,,,__ the caravanserai* club
* a hostelry with spacious courtyards where camel caravans put up.
April 15 May 15 (or any part thereof) Arcadia, the Peloponnesian Mountains, Greece
am personally flying april 18 may 20. by easyjet from london/luton athens return £100 all-in.
from athens it's an old style choo choo train across 2 mountain ranges to Tripolis, 5 hours very scenic, OR u can take a bus along the new road and it's 2 and a half hours.
Tripolis is right in the middle of Arcadia.
Arcadia was first mentioned by Virgil as a bucolic place of uncorrupted beauty.
i never know for sure who's coming but i'd guess there'll be up to 20. everybody is totally independent, nothing is arranged by anyone. we're thinking the best way is to hire a little car between a group and explore a valley or three and then return the car and make our way out there by bus and walk and camp out around a temple or oracle for a few days. the temples were placed in power spots so i think hanging around there should soak up some ancient positive energy kinda thing.
it also turns out that greece was until 1930-ish THE major supplier of hashish to north africa and europe at which point it was illegalised. but wild marijuana plants are scattered all over the area and i can't believe the culture itself has died out after thousands of years.
further, one particular temple complex i really wanna spend a week around, Lykosouria, was pre-greek and to the god Pan who came from this region. it had a great tradition for cures, initiations, prophesies etc. also interestingly i found out that the archaeologist who discovered it in 1887 found it by looking for remains of grape vineyards and "wild hashish plants" which confirmed finally in my head that, of course, temples in those days were where all the dope taking went on and that's what people went there for! every temple would have had vineyards to make wine and marijuana plantations. so we'll be doing some temple searching too.
it was also a great hideout for Templars in the middle ages escaping the catholic church.
it's well off most of the tourism because it's mostly inland and not about beaches though there are some areas that have just been opened by winding precipice roads through mountains and they're still pretty unexplored.
The Caravanserai Club - a new kinda clubbing, travel clubbing!
Tripolis - stay @ the Menalon, overlooking Plateia Areos, and dine there too.
More details over next few weeks, including contact fone no.
fraser@parallel-youniversity.com
UP!
Can Progressive Democrats
(Or Anyone Else)
Overcome "Necessary Illusions?"
by Steve Bhaerman
You can wake someone who is sleeping,
but you cannot wake someone who is pretending to be asleep.
In the early part of last century, Jack Johnson was an audacious black man who held the paradigm-busting notion that he could be heavyweight boxing champion of the world. In keeping with the custom of the day, no white fighter of note would agree to a match. Finally, in 1910, Johnson got a match with then-heavyweight champ Jim Jeffries - and knocked him out. While movie newsreels captured the knockout punch, none dared show the white man hitting the canvas.
Lest we chuckle at this quaint and naive attempt to maintain the illusion of white superiority, lets fast forward to the media coverage of election fraud and intimidation in Ohio - or should we say lack of coverage? Despite testimony of voter intimidation, voting machines turning into vote-changing machines, and startling discrepancies in always-reliable exit polls (a University of Pennsylvania statistician declared that the odds of such a discrepancy occurring the way it did were 250 million to one), what should have been front page news was relegated to no-page news. To protect the delicate psyche of the American public (and not incidentally the powers that be in power), representative democracy could not be shown hitting the canvas.
Welcome to what Noam Chomsky calls necessary illusions. For the same reason the apocryphal little boy tugged at Shoeless Joe Jacksons sleeve in the wake of the Black Sox scandal pleading, Say it aint so, Joe, for the same reason that people reportedly killed themselves when they believed Orson Welles radio broadcast of War of the Worlds was a real newscast, for the same reason a grown-up confronted with the proven perpetrations of our current administration said without a trace of irony, It may be true, but I dont believe it, seemingly-awake human beings cling to the thinnest of evidence to support belief systems they mistake for reality.
Thats why people agreed to believe the single-gunman theory of the Kennedy assassination. Thats why no mainstream reporter wondered in print after 9/11 how a massive Boeing 757 could disappear through a 25-foot wide hole in the Pentagon. Thats why no one seemed to blink when newspapers dutifully reported that exit polls (which we rely on internationally as a litmus for election fraud) were flawed due to their hiring too many young people and Kerry supporters being too willing to proclaim their support. Thats why two thirds of Republicans (and one third of Democrats) in a December Pew research poll believe we should support our country at war, even when we are wrong.
Novelist Arundhati Roy has said, You can wake someone who is sleeping, but you cannot wake someone who is pretending to be asleep. So, how do you wake the sleeping and tear down the wall of necessary illusions that those feigning unawareness hide behind?
UP! Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich!
Psychedelic Information Theory.
Shamanism in the Age of Reason
by James Kent
Psychedelic Information Theory: Shamanism in the Age of Reason is a landmark text in the field of psychedelic study. Written by James Kent, former Editor of Psychedelic Illuminations
>> which once ran an interview with me, calling me Captain Trippes as i recall J
and publisher of Trip Magazine, this book spans the chasm between science and mysticism, and fully deconstructs the magic of the psychedelic experience in a way that promises to satisfy both sceptics and true believers alike.
James Kent has been studying psychedelics, mysticism, neuroscience, and psychedelic culture for over 15 years, and now presents the culmination of his research in one epic volume. In addition to the most complete neurological deconstruction of various psychedelic mind states ever compiled, Kent also provides an exhaustive analysis of the way information is generated within the psychedelic state, and how that information transcends the personal mind and influences human culture at large.
Finally, Psychedelic Information Theory examines the scientific basis of traditional shamanic powers and techniques, and frames a new model for shamanic practice and clinical therapy in the modern world. Destined to become a classic within the field, Psychedelic Information Theory blows the lid off the psychedelic experience and demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt the impact psychedelics continue to have on global culture. If you ever wished for a single book that described exactly how psychedelics worked and just why they are so important, then this is the book you have been waiting for!
Preview of Table of Contents and First Six Chapters
http://www.tripzine.com/pit.asp?id=pit_to
UP! In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
Lambeth Council Trying To Ban
7th Annual Cannabis Festival!
Lambeth Council has decided to ignore the agreed public events policy and try to ban the annual Cannabis March and Festival on SAT May 7 because of cannabis dealers at last years Festival.
Instead of the application for a licence being taken by the relevant licensing committees the decision has been made by Cllr Clare Whelan, Tory Executive member for Environment and ratified by the Executive. This is contrary to Cllr Whelan's statement to the Executive on 4th November 2004. "If an application is received the outcome will be determined in line with the events policy and the decision of the relevant quasi-judicial Licensing Committee". The Police and festival organisers were not consulted on the ban.
SIGN THE PETITION!
The Brixton Cannabis Coalition request that their application is dealt with in the normal way. They ask supporters to sign the petition at www.thecannabisfestival.co.uk
While acknowledging and sharing Council concerns regarding cannabis dealers during the march and festival, they say this is a problem for any large open access event in Brockwell Park. The organisers have requested police action, as in previous years, to deter dealers, but have ultimately no direct control over what they do or how they prioritise the issue of dealers.
Political Football In Lambeth
Over the last 6 years the Council have taken the Festival to court twice for alleged minor licencing violations, and both times they were found not guilty. The council then doubled the cost of using the Park by charging a commercial price. This year the Council has not even allowed them to put their proposals before the Licencing Committee. This is against the agreed Parks event policy. This is political football in Lambeth.
Last year the Cannabis festival attracted only 4 public complaints, - based on noise, 7 arrests - one for dealing, and was enjoyed by many thousands of people. They think there is a question of balance. In a sane and tolerant society theyd be consulted and recognised for putting on a safe and free event, instead Lambeth Council have made no attempt to overcome this problem but simply use it as a means to prohibit the Festi.
Indeed they say that Cllr Whelan and the Executive may have more than technical problems, and suspect their reasons may be political. The Festi may not fit in with their politics, their corporate, public relations driven, glossy vision of Lambeth.
The influx of West Indians from the 50's, young urban professional clubbers, and pragmatic policing in the 90's, has given Lambeth a reputation as a progressive, culturally rich and diverse area. The festi ia part of this diversity.
They invite the Council to work with them and the police to overcome these issues, however if they refuse and simply try to prohibit the festival then they accuse the Executive of being intolerant of diversity.
We note the media's reaction to the Council's ban has already increased the size of the march. Presumably people will want to do something after the march. The question for the Executive is do they want it done licenced or unlicenced. A bit like the sale of cannabis really.
They ask supporters to sign the petition at
www.thecannabisfestival.co.uk
NOTE. Lambeth Council is run by the Lib Dems and the Tories. Tory policy is to re-classify cannabis back to class B.
UP!
DEA Don Dismisses Ecstasy-Rave Connection
Ex US Drugs Enforcement Agency boss Robert Bonner announced this week that ecstasy is no longer primarily found at clubs and raves in America, significantly departing from the stance maintained by his former employers.
"In the past, ecstasy was most commonly associated with the big-city club scene and popular all-night dance parties known as raves. This is no longer the case," Bonner declared. "Ecstasy use has spread to bars, college campuses, and high schools and junior high schools across the country."
The former secret police chief urged his successors to take even harsher measures against drugs, in stark contrast to business guru Christopher Farrell who this week called for a 'new kind of drug war'.
"It's time to consider a dramatic shift in policy. Instead of the battle cry 'war on drugs,' let's try the mantra 'legalization, regulation, and taxation'," Mr Farrell suggested in his column in Business Week. "We should regulate narcotics just as we do cigarettes and alcohol, restricting sales to minors and imposing steep excise taxes.
"Indeed, the model for dealing with alcohol is instructive. Banning alcohol outright in was a public policy disaster. Ending Prohibition quickly cleaned up the liquor industry. Gangsters were denied a lucrative source of income, and violent crime associated with the business fell."
His suggestions echoed the stance taken by the even more respected publication The Economist who several years ago compared the US authorities' current approach to a 'medieval witch hunt'.
"The Economist has long argued that drugs should be decriminalised. But a policy of increased repression will surely result in thousands of people being thrown in prison for sins that are little worse than those alleged of the youthful George Bush: being young and irresponsible."
http://www.fuoriluogo.it/speciali/arlacchi/economist.htm
[skrufff.com]
UP! Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
In response to a call from the city to reduce water consumption,
the super-rich residents actually increased their water consumption.
Why?
A STUDY OF THE SUPER-RICH
THEY'RE NOT EXACTLY CRAZY AND THEY'RE NOT EXACTLY EVIL EITHER
"New scientific evidence indicates that many global ecosystems are reaching dangerous thresholds that raise the stakes for policymakers. The Arctic ice cap has already thinned by 42%, and 27% of the world's coral reefs have been lost, suggesting that some of the planet's key ecological systems are in decline..."
In the face of so many such facts, the Bush-Cheney administration shows every sign that its intention is not only to halt moves to more sustainable economies, but to intensify reliance on the very technologies that are to blame! They actually seem to believe that, by putting higher gates on their communities and hiring more security guards, they'll be protected from the effects of a declining global ecology.
WEALTH ADDICTION/IDENTIFICATION
Before we decide that they're idiots or insane or evil, we must realise that their picture of reality is actually a logical extension of a coherent, if twisted, worldview possessed by almost all the globally super rich elite who presently 'run' things. Science fiction abounds with examples of the difficulties inherent in recognising a profoundly alien intelligence as being intelligent at all!
While living in a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles during an extended drought, writer Philip Slater observed that, in response to a call from the city to reduce water consumption, the super-rich residents of this suburb actually increased their water consumption. Why? Intrigued, he began to investigate the psychology of the super-rich. The end-result is his book 'Wealth Addiction.'
1. Wealth, it turns out, becomes so inextricably mixed with its holder's identity that any threats to that wealth are perceived as threats to the holder's person. Moreover, the continued growth and expansion of this wealth becomes, likewise, so bound up with personal identity and self-esteem that threats to continued profit are perceived as personal attacks.
In this light, the efforts of environmentalists to curb petrochemical consumption take on a positively sinister aspect to oil company stockholders, and provoke the most Machiavellian responses in what feels to them like a desperate fight for personal survival.
2. Environmental threats, on the other hand, seem like relative phantasms. Actual physical threats are not part of the experience of the mega-wealthy and are not likely to be taken seriously. As Slater observed, "Learning and growth are very difficult with wealth because they depend on experiences in real life, and wealth enables one to buy out of life."
"If they fall, they fall on cushions." R.H. Tawney
Never having had the experience of being materially affected by forces beyond one's control, actual physical threats like climate destabilisation and nuclear war seem weirdly unreal.
HOW THE SUPER-RICH VIEW THEMSELVES
The emotional misidentification of threats to one's accumulation of wealth as physical threats, however, and the inability to recognise actual physical threats, are not enuff to explain the ruthlessness apparent in the actions of the money elite. For that it is necessary to look to the rationale by which the elite explain their position in society.
Surveys of students in exclusive private schools show that the number of silver spoons protruding from his mouth doesn't hinder a young persons articulation of the belief that he owes his privileges in life to his own merit.
Further, since the pursuit of additional wealth leaves little time for the pursuit of knowledge, the rich are no better prepared than us to deal with the statistical complexities of science. Thus, while prey to every pseudo-scientific theory promising to bolster their belief in their own divine right to rule, they have the extra 'advantage' of an unshakable confidence in the superiority of their own perceptive powers. And there's never a shortage of scientific hucksters, eager to market their flattery to those with the deepest pockets.
Thus, The Struggle for Profit takes on the aspect of a desperate, even holy endeavour in which they, the most human expressions of humanity, are working to build a tower above the ocean of the genetically inferior masses. The poor are impossibly remote, not only in economic circumstance, but also in the very fabric of their humanity. In this context, not only is it acceptable to incarcerate the poor, or to send them off to war to protect corporate profits, its a scientific imperative in order to improve the species.
"IF HE'S SICK LET'S HELP HIM; BUT FIRST GET HIM OFF THE ROAD."
- Anti-drunk-driving ad.
Given this understanding of the mental afflictions of the power elite, we won't be surprised when the present administration proves impervious to scientific fact and insensitive to injustice.
But neither should we be tempted to demonise them, however dangerous and destructive their actions. It will be sufficient to lead them gently aside and relieve them of their excessive power burdens.
Especially at this moment, as the citizenry increasingly rejects the demonisation of drug users in favour of a more compassionate and effective attitude, let's guard against the temptation to repeat the mistakes of the past. It need not be through force that we take back the reins of power.
up!
NOW AVAILABLE FREE ON LINE!
Self-Help Association for a Regional Economy (SHARE)
Imagine a world where we no longer see ourselves as passive "consumers," but instead create an economy which supports the life of our community. Not all of us are destined to be entrepreneurs, but we can all participate in supporting the businesses that provide the products and services we need.
The Self-Help Association for a Regional Economy (SHARE) is a model community-based nonprofit that offers a simple way for citizens to use their savings to make micro-credit loans available at manageable interest rates to businesses which traditional lenders often consider "high risk". Local SHARE members make interest-earning deposits in a local bank; these deposits are then used by SHARE to collateralise loans for small businesses that have a positive community impact.
SHARE depositors live in the same community as the business owners they support -bringing a human face back to lending decisions. The SHARE program of the Southern Berkshire region existed from 1981 to 1992, collateralising 23 loans with a 100% rate of repayment - surprising the bankers but not the SHARE depositors who personally knew the community businesses they supported. Members of SHARE pointed to Rawson Brook goat cheese or Jims draft horses or Martys Washing Machine Repair Service or Bonnie¹s wool-knit sweaters and knew where their savings were at work. They had a true picture of the social and environmental effect of their investments, a picture not available from an abstract bank statement merely showing a standard rate of return.
When Sue's house burned to the ground at Rawson Brook Farm, SHARE members thought it natural to extend her loan, and members individually donated clothes, household items, and time to help rebuild. The visibility and good will generated toward a community-collateralised business thus helps ensure its success.
The SHARE model is a useful and simple-to-operate tool that allows citizens to make affordable loans available to businesses that cannot secure loans at reasonable rates for a variety of reasons. For example, there may be community members who don't have a good credit history, or women who raised children and didnt built credit. There may be entire communities, especially low income communities, where banks are wary to invest or where local banks don't exist. There may also be new and innovative business ideas that aim to preserve resources or enhance the community in ways banks are unfamiliar with and therefore less likely to fund.
The power of SHARE is that it allows the community to decide what types of businesses it wants, and leverages the community's capital to make those businesses possible.
The E.F. Schumacher Society, originator of the SHARE model, has now made the background and organisational documents available online so that others may replicate SHARE in their communities.
www.smallisbeautiful.org
http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/frameset_share.html.
UP! Why does a slight tax increase cost you 200 dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you 30 cents?
MORE DODGY PROPAGANDA ON THE OTHER WAR FRONT
Pot Psychosis Claims Overturned
Civil liberties experts from the Marijuana Policy Alliance have comprehensively trashed a widely reported study linking cannabis smoking with psychosis, pointing out that levels of the mental illness are broadly similar to the 60s when vastly fewer young people used marijuana.
Psychology professor Mitch Earleywine and Bruce Mirken, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, also discovered serious flaws in the study, including both the criteria used to judge psychosis and the question of whether the symptoms were simply the 'normal, passing effects of marijuana intoxication'.
"The researchers seem not to have considered that what might be an indication of psychosis in other circumstances could be an entirely normal reaction for people who use marijuana" said the Professor. Consider: Someone using an illegal and socially frowned-upon substance almost by definition has "ideas or beliefs that others do not share." This is not a sign of mental illness. It's a sign of a rational person realistically assessing his or her situation . . . roof' that marijuana makes you psychotic? No. Not even close. But don't expect the mainstream media to figure this out."'
In fact, British newspapers including the Standard and Daily Mail immediately embraced the suspect study with The Mail using it to call for cannabis laws to be toughened up even further.
"Disturbing new research by eminent medical specialists - reported for the first time in the Mail today - reveals just how much damage cannabis can do to young people," the tabloid snarled. "Cannabis can have devastating long-term effects. It is widely blamed for leading to the use of other stronger narcotics."
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/21436
[skrufff.com]
UP! All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
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TEXT JOCKEY // TJ PHRASER (Fraser Clark) & THE MEDIA EVOLUTION
MIXING THE TRACTS LIVE ON THE KEYBOARD
@ A MEDIA-MEME RATE OF 160 IPP *
* Ideas Per Paragraph
TO SUBSCRIBE SOMEONE, WRITE I wanna get UP! TO fraser@parallel-youniversity.com
TO UNSUBSCRIBE, HIT REPLY WITH REMOVE IN THE SUBJECT BOX
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THE TAKE-A-DEEP-BREATH LIST
OF WHY THE MIDDLE EAST
MIGHT HATE THE US GOVERNMENT
See&. What&. You&. Think&.
The following statements are facts. They are in the public domain and can be checked. None is "hidden" as such, it is simply ignored by the Western Press, and not actively dug out by its citizenry.
The TAKE-A-DEEP-BREATH LIST actually excludes Israel's actions in which the U.S. is indirectly implicated - for many years Israel has been the leading or second-ranking recipient of its aid and weapons, and has benefited from its vetoes in the Security Council.
"Ask not what your country can do for you: ask rather what your government, big business, and secret services have been doing in your name, without your knowledge or resistance, at home and abroad, that provoke such acts of vicious barbarism".
1949: CIA backs military coup deposing elected government of Syria.
1953: CIA helps overthrow the democratically elected Mossadeq government in Iran (which had nationalised the British oil company) leading to a quarter-century of dictatorial rule by the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi.
1956: U.S. cuts off promised funding for Aswan Dam in Egypt after Egypt receives Eastern bloc arms.
1956: Israel, Britain, and France invade Egypt. U.S. does not support invasion, but the involvement of NATO allies severely diminishes Washington's reputation in the region.
1958: U.S. troops land in Lebanon to preserve "stability."
1960s (early): U.S. unsuccessfully attempts assassination of Iraqs leader, Abdul Karim Qassim.
1963: U.S. reported to give Iraqi Ba'ath party (soon to be headed by Saddam Hussein) names of communists to murder, which they do with vigour.
1967-: U.S. blocks any effort in the Security Council to enforce SC Resolution 244, calling for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the 1967 war.
1970: Civil war between Jordan and PLO. Israel and U.S. prepare to intervene on side of Jordan if Syria backs PLO.
1972: U.S. blocks Sadat's efforts to reach a peace agreement with Egypt.
1973: U.S. military aid enables Israel to turn the tide in war with Syria and Egypt.
1973-75: U.S. supports Kurdish rebels in Iraq. When Iran reaches an agreement with Iraq in 1975 and seals the border, Iraq slaughters Kurds and U.S. denies them refuge. Kissinger secretly explains that "covert action should not be confused with missionary work."
TAKE-A-DEEP-BREATH
1978-79: Iranians begin demonstrations against the Shah. U.S. tells Shah it supports him "without reservation" and urges him to act forcefully. Until the last minute, U.S. tries to organise military coup to save the Shah, but to no avail.
1979-88: U.S. begins covert aid to Mujahedin in Afghanistan six months before Soviet invasion. Over the next decade U.S. provides more than $3 billion in arms and aid.
1980-88: Iran-Iraq war. When Iraq invades Iran, the U.S. opposes any Security Council action to condemn the invasion. U.S. removes Iraq from its list of nations supporting terrorism and allows U.S. arms to be transferred to Iraq. U.S. lets Israel provide arms to Iran and in 1985 U.S. provides arms directly (though secretly) to Iran. U.S. provides intelligence information to Iraq. Iraq uses chemical weapons in 1984 U.S. restores diplomatic relations with Iraq.
1987 U.S. sends its navy into the Persian Gulf, taking Iraq's side; an aggressive U.S. ship shoots down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing 290.
1981, 1986: U.S. holds military manoeuvres off the coast of Libya with the clear purpose of provoking Qaddafi.
In 1981, a Libyan plane fires a missile and two Libyan planes were subsequently shot down.
In 1986, Libya fires missiles that land far from any target and U.S. attacks Libyan patrol boats, killing 72, and shore installations. When a bomb goes off in a Berlin nightclub, killing two, the U.S. charges that Qaddafi was behind it (possibly true) and conducts major bombing raids in Libya, killing dozens of civilians, including Qaddafi's adopted daughter.
1982: U.S. gives "green light" to Israeli invasion of Lebanon, where more than 10,000 civilians were killed. U.S. chooses not to invoke its laws prohibiting Israeli use of U.S. weapons except in self-defence.
TAKE-A-DEEP-BREATH
1983: U.S. troops, sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force, intervene on one side of a civil war. Withdraw after suicide bombing of marine barracks.
1984: U.S.-backed rebels in Afghanistan fire on civilian airliner.
1988: Saddam Hussein kills many thousands of his own Kurdish population and uses chemical weapons against them. The U.S. increases its economic ties to Iraq.
1990-91: U.S. rejects diplomatic settlement of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (for example, rebuffing any attempt to link the two regional occupations, of Kuwait and Palestine). U.S. leads international coalition in war against Iraq. Civilian infrastructure targeted. To promote "stability" U.S. refuses to aid uprisings by Shi'ites in the south and Kurds in the north, denying the rebels access to captured Iraqi weapons and refusing to prohibit Iraqi helicopter flights.
1991-: Devastating economic sanctions are imposed on Iraq. U.S. and Britain block all attempts to lift them. Hundreds of thousands die. Though Security Council stated sanctions were to be lifted once Hussein's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction were ended, Washington makes it known that the sanctions would remain as long as Saddam remains in power. Sanctions strengthen Saddam's position.
1993-: U.S. launches missile attack on Iraq, claiming self-defence against an alleged assassination attempt on former president Bush two months earlier.
1998: U.S. and U.K. bomb Iraq over weapons inspections, even though Security Council is just then meeting to discuss the matter.
1998: U.S. destroys factory producing half of Sudan's pharmaceutical supply, claiming retaliation for attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and that factory was involved in chemical warfare. U.S. later acknowledges there is no evidence for the chemical warfare charge.
The TAKE A DEEP BREATH LIST above presents only specific incidents of U.S. policy. It actually minimises the grievances against the U.S. because it excludes long-standing policies, such as its backing for authoritarian regimes (arming Saudi Arabia, training the secret police in Iran under the Shah, providing arms and aid to Turkey as it attacked Kurdish villages, etc.).
ANOTHER PRESIDENT, ANOTHER TIME?
"Ask not what your country can do for you: ask rather what your government, big business, and secret services have been doing in your name, without your knowledge or resistance, at home and abroad, that provoke such acts of vicious barbarism".
up!
THE TAKE-ANOTHER-DEEP-BREATH LIST
OF WHY THE REST OF THE WORLD
MIGHT HATE THE US GOVERNMENT
IN THE SPACE OF TWO GENERATIONS, US FOREIGN POLICY HAS:
# - maintained itself as the worlds biggest arms dealer
# - dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan, killing 100,000+ people
# - waged war on Korea splitting the country in two
# - waged 10 year war on peasant army and villages of Vietnam killing 1.5 million+ people
# - bombed Cambodia, another Buddhist country, killing 2 million people
# - conducted a secret war in neighbouring Buddhist Laos
# - supported numerous repressive regimes like Chile, El Salvador, Argentina, Philippines
# - manipulated the economies/debts of Africa through backing World Bank and IMF
# - ordered a fatal helicopter raid on Iran and ignored diplomacy
# - conducted an aerial attack on the Libyan president and his family
# - made total war upon a plimsolled army and infrastructure of poverty stricken Iraq
# - supported the Israel armys invasion of Lebanon costing the lives of 17,000 people
# - ignored Palestinians rights of nationhood, ignored assassinations/shooting of children
# - ignored countless UN resolutions concerning human rights and international law
# - bombed Kosovo and Chinese Embassy in Belgrade
# - funded, trained and armed foreign armies and underground organisations
# - destroyed half of Sudans tiny pharmaceutical industry by bombing their main factory
# - sold $trillion weaponry to corrupt, undemocratic regimes in Arab world to secure cheap oil
# - demonised the Muslim world as fanatics. (Are Catholics all fanatics because of the IRA?)
# - pushed through global capitalism that exploits people and environment of poor nations
# - mercilessly cut off aid for years to poor nations, if they do not agree to US demands
# - rejected the Kyoto agreement to help protect people and the environment
# - ejected well-established international treaties on nuclear weapons
[sent in by penny gray]
up!
Remember it was the US who trained and armed all these terrorist groups. They backed them to fight against communism. The Taliban for instance were an American creation to get rid of the Russians in Afghanistan.
Terror as a technique has a historical tradition in US foreign policy. For instance the assassination of Indonesian generals in the sixties. This was blamed on the communist party in Indonesia. It was the sign for radical Islamic groups to start a genocide against left wing forces (500 000 were butchered, prudent estimate). The generals were killed by CIA. So the whole thing was orchestrated.
The CIA admits this today and even says "it was a big mistake"...
They have done similar things during the Vietnam war as well as in several Third World countries, supporting murderous suppressors, whenever there was an uprising against the ultra Right Wing oppressors, like Hitler, Bush and many others of the same evil disposition.
Bush continues to play this kind of game of lies, murder, oppression and torture today. Bloody chess for World domination...
He is the most evil resident of the White House ever. "Not by their words, but by their actions shall you know them".
[Little Thor]
UP! Some people are like Slinkies... not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
Try To Remember Youve Taken It
Said Some Girl Called Mercy
A short story by fraser, first published in Soft Secrets.
E
verything would stop being in its perfect place if I opened my eyes, thats all I knew, though I didnt know there was an I, nor anything to know. Soon as I did, of course, and saw a female human watching me, I remembered I was a person too! Which is when I remembered Id lost my memory!
I was lying back on cushions in some kinda tecno studio, or hospital ward. Violet electric veins slithered constantly all over my companions body, though after a while I hardly noticed them.
Making psychedelics obligatory, as advocated by the New Liberal New Labour
Greentheogenic Coalition, puts everything at risk!
Who are you? I asked her.
Im Mercury Seventeen. Im your& Doorway.
Where.. is this? Is that a tv? The set was easier on my eyes, it was 3D. Some politician type was giving a speech: In conclusion, Fellow Governors, ever since our society rejected the Church of Sciences moral anarchy which was devastating our planet, and re-instated Magic Mother Mushroom at the heart of its spiritual life, the sociopathy of ego has largely disappeared from public life.
What?! Whos he, Mercury?! Leader of the biggest Opposition Network? The Ethical Conservatives. She was pretty, beneath the electric clouds. We seemed to have been here a couple of hours already.
Psychic nutrition he was continuing, is indicated for most forms of hyper-competitive behaviour. Most Anti-Socials prefer moral/mystic training to confinement. We were exploring each others bodies in a light show cavern beneath the blankets, still somehow receiving the speech.
But the New Liberal New Labour Greentheogenic Coalitions proposal to make psychedelics obligatory puts everything at risk! Surely we can pity, not fear, the dinosaurs who hark back to the anti-nature alienation that so damn near destroyed us. This First True Democracy of ours will become the first Tyranny of the Majority if we start chemically kidnapping them for their own good! Wed be no more enlightened than the 2nd Millennium Priest Politicians who used to demonise their shamanic citizens! We must treasure our diversity!
Is this the future, Merc? Her veins, when our passions had reached their peak, had rippled like a pools sunlight reflections, strobing blindingly in the final seconds. Of course not! Then why cant I remember my name? She licked my dick, shrugging. So when did all this happen? I asked her big green eyes.
The 2nd Millennium had shown everyone one thing. It was next morning, I had her spread-eagled on the bed. No idealistic social model can work on its own. Your administrators are always open to temptation. Right? Nose deep in her doorway I was in no position to disagree, but I winked my assent. So, in the 20s, when the Anti-Nature Wars of the Dark Ages were finally grinding to a stalemate& So this was the future! For me! I had a memory flash of when I lived. & the UN declared the Age of Representative Democracy over, and devised responsive models of the next - Participative Democracy - where the people make virtually all the decisions. Everything blipped, then again, Id been hanging with Mercury for weeks.
But what training could protect our administrators from temptation, right? Things were starting to blur, to telescope back and forwards. The churches wanted the role, but wed seen past that one! I remember marching with a huge banner: WHO CONFESSES THE PRIESTS? She giggled, as things started blurring as well as blipping
But with the total information access of a Participative Democracy, everyone pretty soon realised what had gone wrong. When Science had replaced the Churchs corrupt brand of Spirituality, it had thrown out the original Great Spirit too who was blameless! And lived in Nature! Who was talking? And Anthropology showed that Spirit had first entered Ape history through the Psilocybin Mushroom.
I wrote that! Is it Mercy reading my article?
So regular psychedelic ingestion was the answer. Whoosh! Since 2038, all volunteers for public service have had to undergo a year of Mystic Initiation Training. I remember who I am! Its 2005! Nowadays the systems run by a class of psilocybin-trained samurai administrators, committed to a life beyond personal power or greed! Its Now! Today! And whats Mercy saying (she looks like Mercury): You gobbled M17, baby, did you remember?
[end]
UP! Life is sexually transmitted.
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Senator Byrd is Correct to Equate Bush With Hitler
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer"
One People, One Government, One Dictator
by Harvey Wasserman
The U.S. Senate's senior Constitutional scholar equated Bush with Hitler, and the usual attack dogs are howling. But theyre wrong, and Americans must now face the harsh realities of an increasingly fascist and totalitarian GOP.
Octogenarian Senator Robert Byrd made the equation in the context of Bush's attack on Senate procedures which might slow or halt his on-going attempt to pack the courts with extreme right-wing fanatics. Byrd said Bush's moves to destroy time-honoured Senate rules parallel Hitler's ramming fascist legislation through his gutted Reichstag. "Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality," said Byrd. "He recognised the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."
Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman has played the holocaust card for the Republicans, saying "It is hideous, outrageous and offensive for Senator Byrd to suggest that the Republican Party's tactics could in any way resemble those of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party .
But Byrd is one of the few in either house of Congress to truly understand the Constitution and to advocate for the Bill of Rights. He points out that, like Hitler, Bush is pursuing a strategy designed to win absolute rule by one party and one leader. Hitler's central slogan "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" -- one people, one government, one dictator -- accurately describes the current GOP strategy of Karl Rove, Bush's Goebbels.
Now the Republicans have renominated extreme right-wing judges to high courts from which they were barred prior to the 2004 election. With enhanced majorities in Congress, the GOP is moving to gut rules put in place to protect the rights of minorities within the government. For the GOP, as for Hitler, such safeguards are annoying barriers to absolute power.
These judges are consistent in their eagerness to protect the power and privilege of private corporations at the public expense, while simultaneously promoting the invasion of individual rights by the government. Masquerading as "free market/small government" advocates, GOP conservatives -- like Hitler's Nazis -- promote an all-powerful central government run by and for the corporations that sponsor them while crushing individual rights and liberties.
While Bush advocates for "democracy" overseas, the GOP is crushing it at home. These judicial nominees mean to further solidify Republican control of the court system, adding it to their grip on the Executive, both houses of Congress and the media. The GOP is also gutting safeguards within the FBI and CIA, turning them into a personal police force that could parallel Hitler's Gestapo.
Wrapping itself in the rhetoric of Americas democratic roots makes it emotionally difficult for American citizens to equate Bush with Hitler. He is not, after all, running death camps like the ones Hitler used to exterminate millions of Jews, Gypsies, gays, unionists, Jehovah Witnesses, the elderly and infirm, birth defected and handicapped. But the distinction may be lost on the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have died in the wholesale slaughter there, and whose land has been carpeted with depleted uranium which will kill for centuries.
Bush is now operating a classic concentration camp in Guantanamo. This infamous holding centre operates entirely outside the rule of law, with prisoners held without charge, without evidence, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world.
At Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere -- including the US "civilian" prison system -- the door has been opened onto the Nazi world of officially sanctioned torture and systematic human degradation. The new Attorney General of the United States has explicitly endorsed their use. Despite some phoney genuflections to the contrary, Bush has renounced the Geneva Accords and has clearly stamped this most notorious Nazi trademark on a party also in love with the death penalty.
Bush now holds some 2.2 million prisoners in the US gulag, the world's biggest prison population since the Nazis, and thats both by absolute number and by percentage of population. At least 800,000 Americans are held for victimless "drug" crimes, including marijuana. Thousands die each year from torture, rape, suicide and treatable disease. The system is designed to remove from the political process and, in many cases, exterminate people of colour, alternative life style and political dissidence.
Is this worthy of the Nazi label?
Fascism has long been clearly and simply defined as corporate control of the state, with strong totalitarian, militaristic, anti-feminist and anti-gay characteristics.
Both Mussolini's Fascist's and Hitler's Nazis used acts of terror and alleged terror to grab absolute power. Ranting at Bolshevism as the GOP now does against Islam, the Nazis used the burning of the Reichstag much as the GOP has capitalised on September 11.
George W. Bush does not spellbind huge Goebbels-massed rallies as Hitler did. But he does not tolerate groups that might ask embarrassing questions. Rove uses the mass media to manipulate and deceive in ways suited to the trappings of American culture as surely as Goebbels shaped Hitler's speeches to the German volksgeist.
Bush has courted both people of colour and Jews. But his far right fundamentalist backers see all non-believers as children of Satan who must ultimately perish in a "cleansing" Armageddon that will allow only the chosen few into Heaven. Amidst the psychotic twists of the Book of Revelations, these are people who love Israel but hate Jews and all the other "un-saved." At its core, there is little to distinguish today's far-right Christian fundamentalism from Hitler's Aryan master racism.
The Bush/Rove view of science parallels that of Stalin. The Soviets slaughtered researchers whose data failed to confirm their theories. Today's GOP demands scientists fit their findings to the Bush/Rove gospel. The Bush EPA, Fish & Wildlife Service and other agencies routinely assault those who challenge corporate destruction of the earth. Despite the long-standing consensus on global warming, Bush's faith-based corporate-sponsored climatology insists CO2 emissions are no problem, the scientific equivalent of claiming the Nazi Holocaust never happened.
Like Hitler, Bush believes he talks to and for God. He has said at least twice in public that he does not oppose dictatorship as long as he can be the dictator. His family has long, well-documented financial and political ties to the Nazi regime, as well as to Osama bin Laden and a long list of oil-rich Islamic fundamentalists.
Senator Byrd's invocation of the Nazis to describe the Bush regime may be considered impolitic. But it's folly to avoid the important parallels.
By all accounts American democracy is hanging by a thin thread which Bush/Rove is labouring mightily to cut.
Sen. Robert Byrd is a conservative, uniquely learned man. When he equates Bush with Hitler, he speaks with great sadness and scholarship -- and must be heeded.
As those "W" bumper stickers morph into swastikas in the killing fields of Guantanamo and Iraq, we must, at Sen. Byrd's urging, revive recent history's most vital vow: "Never Again."
[HW is an editor, author, and father of five. Many of his relatives perished in the Nazi holocaust. His HISTORY OF THE US is at
www.harveywasserman.com
UP! Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. Ive come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
a l l g o o d t h i n g s c o m e t o a n e n d
which don't justify nuttin'
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___________________________________
I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!