Does anbody get it?

Roy
this particular piece received 2 million, yes, two million global hits!!...a few more than my local news source, about 1,992,000 or so more. gannet wishes, larry fishes. this one....even more.


Arundhati Roy……
The trouble is that once America goes off to war, it can't very well return without having fought one. If it doesn't find its enemy, for the sake of the enraged folks back home, it will have to manufacture one. Once war begins, it will develop a momentum, a logic and a justification of its own, and we'll lose sight of why it's being fought in the first place. The Algebra of Infinite Justice September 29, 2001.

Where there is oppression, it will always be challenged by those of us who will challenge it with greater intensity, you know? So that's why I don't believe that there can ever be peace without justice, you know? The two go together. And there cannot be peace in the world with full-spectrum dominance or, you know, nuclear warfare or any of those things. They won't help, because always there will be people who demand dignity, who demand justice, who demand their rights.

She goes on to say "Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead."

I expect the dems will go for a tandem American leadership where the line between veep and la’ prez get blurry, post convention. They know for sure they can win popular in landslide fashion and the media cannot stop it, save self destruction. The dems also have populace Edwards for a “kenedi-esq.,” wild card, if either obami or hilly are too damaged post convention.

The thing that bothers me about the split ticket pez, truth is….. they make the most ripe targets for assassins, by so many different factions, together someone could make it happen. Mydoom martyrdom, sort of a bloodless French revolution….ghandi-mlk style. Obama-Billery ticket.

If we have a McCarthy like era targeted at the media, audio visual, news print photo editors, could get messy, considering all the lies and incompetence. Like I said before…this gross breach of public trust cannot easily be repaired. I have nothing to hide, but am bound by conscience to speak out when I witness something unjust, and certainly not knowingly or fraudulently finance some dubious enterprise…

To advocate withholding almost thousand year old magna carta rights? Attention media…did you really think the public was that stupid? Just remember, none of us are as stupid as all of us without your (mainstream media’s) help…you might want to report information as fact before someone comes for you and you have no oracle to speak.

“…It explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects, whether free or fettered — most notably the writ of habeas corpus, allowing appeal against unlawful imprisonment. The magna is the historical default document for handling humans when one kingdom or city state conquers or surrenders another.”


As far as I know, as long as there is a monarchy, then it is still on the books and in full effect, to this day, in both England and whales. I thought ours, the us constitution and the bill of rights, was even better at protecting humans. At least more humane, advanced further than medieval Spain.
Justice for Dead Journalists | War on Iraq | AlterNet Justice for Dead Journalists

By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate. Posted May 15, 2008.
A military whistle-blower has come forward with information that contradicts the government's official story about the deaths of two journalists.

This is why I am ashamed of my government, because this does not represent me, the is not what my own government taught me. Yes, I was mad when I realized I had been duped by the people I trusted……but I can get over that. What I cannot let go of is the fact I can no longer trust my government to tell me the truth. That is what makes me want to rebel, this is where I have a problem controlling my passions, when I see cover-up and collusion by institutions I plead my loyalties, was willing to bleed and die for those ideals.

(my guess is the pharma industry has a pill for truth long developed by now, negating the need for torture! Which is more profitable?, the rack or the apothecary? KBR…Kellogg-brown-root or ely lilly, s.c Johnson, dow?)

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.".... Marcus Tullius Cicero


The Communist regime of the Soviet Union has been considered to be evil by a number of western liberal democracies, especially under the rule of Joseph Stalin for its mass persecutions of political opponents, religious, and cultural minorities (e.g. the Cossacks). Also the political writings of Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince often used by Hitler and Mussolini, are considered to be a source of evil in politics, as they often speak of ignoring accepted morals for the pursuit of ultimate power, as "the ends justifies the means".

Machiavelli favored a prince creating a climate of fear in order to rule a population, rather than relying on popular support. Machiavelli supports the use of deception and manipulation as means to increase a prince's personal power. The following statements in The Prince on how to gain control of a principality show little concern for traditional moral and ethical considerations.

Will history add George W. Bush to the list? ...the ends justifies the means... The world consists mainly of vulgar people and the few who are honorable can safely be ignored when so many vulgar rally around the prince….' '…..Benefits must be conferred gradually so they are appreciated more thoroughly and harm should be inflicted all at once. Both harm and benefits should not serve as quick solutions to problems. Force is the most effective and efficient means to do something and the virtuous prince will employ its leverage. History marches on….truth is truth, a duck is……..to deliberately lose a trick; a cunning action or plan that is intended to cheat or deceive.


The liberal left or the religious right are not off the hook…..Authoritarian, totalitarian, and elements of religious fundamentalism regimes tend to hold a common view that liberal-democratic regimes are evil and blame liberal democracy for high crime rates, profiteering, corporate crime, materialist individualism replacing common bonds of similar people, destruction of culture and its replacement with sleaze. All of which, the regimes claim will result in the destruction of humanity if liberal democracy is not restrained. Therefore, liberal democracy provides the ideal environment for corruption to thrive, greed at all levels of society becomes to rule rather the exception. In other words, we become so open-minded our brains fall out, leaving a fertile breeding ground for state sponsored exploitation of the masses. This is why the u.s. constitution is so important. The constitution protects 'we the people' from our own government. The bill or rights is the guarantee.

Machiavelli wrote: "...there will be traits considered good that, if followed, will lead to ruin, while other traits, considered vices which if practiced achieve security and well being for the Prince," (dub'ya) truth is truth. A duck is….is found all over the world, with the exception of Antarctica, but the prince doesn't care, for that reason we should send him there. History marches on….

The international relations theories of neo-conservatism (neocon), advise politicians to explicitly disavow absolute moral and ethical considerations in international politics in favor of a focus on self-interest, political survival, and power politics, which they hold to be more accurate in explaining a world they view as explicitly amoral and dangerous. Neocons usually justify their perspectives by laying claim to a "higher moral duty" specific to political leaders, under which the greatest evil is seen to be the failure of the state to protect itself and its citizens, not protecting the citizens from the state. Truth is truth, a duck is…. what ever the state labels it. History marches on……


There is a back door to circumvent free speech and the original ideals America was founded on. Dumb down America by omission of certain schools of thought, thereby limiting critical thinking to only the facts presented and imbedded in the education system as a whole. One of the best tools is to limit the information being taught in public schools is not to teach it to the teachers to teach. Every generation is gradually being short changed. I clipped the next piece a couple of years ago to research, some of the items may be dated. I have added to it from things I have found, reading a few books, rereading history, hundreds of hours on the internet, but things have only gotten worse.

I found this trend startling and set out to disprove, I could not, I have now not only confirmed this downward spiral, it is one of the main reasons I have become so political to do my part to reverse this national (international?) conspiracy.

Just because we are told America is number one does not make it so. This is why I stress independent thinking and common sense (rational thought), and the need to become better informed in all areas. Like I said before above: we have become so open-minded that our brain fell out, and developed and an appetite for destruction of the truth. Go look for yourself like I did, a caveat: government statistical data is not a reliable source, tends to only report the positive, withholding negative data is the norm because of political and bureaucratic job security.

Truth is truth, a duck is a….what's a duck? What's that quacking nose? A duck is what politicians do to avoid answering tough questions, avoid lying or telling the truth, whatever is convenient to conceal or promote hidden agendas, dedicated to self service. History marches on….

credit steve ventura....for education work, all verifiable data. my vetting process is much simpler, does what i see match what i hear against what i know? truth somewhere there?

Statistics on American education tell a dreadful story. No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable.

We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in: the story of an advanced technological society slipping back to a state of ignorance and superstition. If that sentence seems extreme, consider these facts:

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

"The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

"The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

"Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).

Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.

"The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.) That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.

"U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.

Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).

The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2006).

"Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time. Economic slavery.

"Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).

"Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).

The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2004). Since 04, who knows? Government data lag time 2 years, estimates range from 3 to 7 million jobs, depends which duck is quacking, today 07 estimates are conservative. This includes jobs created minus jobs lost, the trend is about 2 million net loss per year and dropping, that is jobs lost increasing. Accurate data impossible to confirm. Shush, don't tell nobody, might create a panic. 17 million illegals just might have jobs here, ya think? Most of them pay federal income tax, is I should say the tax is deducted from their paychecks most of the money stays with the employer who knows the undocumented worker will not file for refunds with the feds, and actively reminds Pedro to do so risks deportation by the la migra offeciosos. Por qua? No la guardia, see.

Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005). Does not count illegals and those that quit looking, also day labor, nor those working for cash, drug trade, e.g.

Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom (bust today) to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture. American poison toys, conspiracy? To narrow trade gap, who knows, more to the point who's not telling? Wal-Mart toys Chinese lead, ignorant children, stupid adults: connection or coincidence?

Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). Rainforest is the planets lungs, declining at 10%(?) annually feeding fat Americans.

As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). Relabeled and sent back as u.s. relief aid, you think I'm kidding. Go look. Product of china, labeled u. n for relief not to be sold. I have got a feeling the food stuff is relabeled again and sold back to us, that one boat load of rice has been around the world ten times, meanwhile fewer hungry, less humans, bigger banks, morbidly obese Americans.

Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate. Al Gore won the last one here. Us *plebs still lost. *….common people of ancient Rome: the ordinary citizens of ancient Rome, as distinct from the (re)patricians, wealthy

One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).

"Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28). Future native American survival.

"Nearly one out of four Americans believe that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32) that one already got his that way.

Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004). As long as it's not themselves,100% agree torture hurts.

"Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004). These are only what's reported to social services. Dead ones don't count, 70% plus of incarcerated adults where also neglected or abused. Psychological abuse accounts for 80% of mental illness, including addictions. Allowing children to be raised by schools and television is abuse and the root cause to me.

"The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the Bush administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004). The plan is working.

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.
The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion. Denial
The United States once ranked first in the world in high school graduation rates. We have slipped to 17th (the New York Times, Feb. 1).

Respect for the free exchange of ideas is dimming among our young. USA Today, Jan. 31: "One in three United States high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more thought the government should approve newspaper stories before people read them." Which means that our Bill of Rights often is taught poorly or not at all--a very dangerous sign for the future of our liberties.

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). Those who can read and don't are equal to the man that cannot read.

We rank 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). Accounts for acceptance of the 38% tax rate, that's means you only get to keep 62 dollars for every $100 you earn. If you tithe faithfully you get to keep$56 gross dollars or $52 net to buy food, shelter, clothes, heat, electric, petrol, insurance, health care…add sales tax….wondering why you can't save anything or seem to get ahead? If you forgot to vote, that's ok they assume you don't mind the taxes then.

"Our students, a new report has found, are lagging far behind the pace set by scientific whiz kids in Europe and Asia, and the number of Americans choosing science as a career continues to dwindle" (Los Angeles Times, quoted in The Week, Jan. 14).

Thomas L. Friedman reports "a mounting crisis" (NYT, Dec. 5, 2004). "Because of the steady erosion of science, math, and engineering education in U.S. high schools, our Cold War generation of American scientists is not being fully replenished. We've been filling the gap with Indian, Chinese, and other immigrating brain-power. But...many of those foreign engineers are not coming here anymore." He adds that many who had emigrated here have recently chosen to leave, and there aren't enough Americans with sufficient knowledge to replace them. The Chinese lead toy generation.

The Christian right's influence in Congress is no doubt the source of headlines like this: "Money to Fix Space Telescope May Be Cut by House" (NYT, Jan. 23). The Hubble is our most successful space project to date. The Hubble "established the age of the universe at 13 billion years.... Every week, the Hubble transmits about 120 gigabytes of data...the equivalent of 36,500 feet of books on a shelf. More than 2,600 scientific papers based on these findings have been published so far" (The Week, Jan. 21).

Hostility to science exists at the highest levels of our government. "With rising intensity, scientists in and out of government have criticized the Bush administration, saying it has selected or suppressed research findings to suit preset policies, skewed advisory panels or ignored unwelcome advice, and quashed discussion within federal research agencies" (NYT, Oct. 19, 2006).

These stats combine to paint the portrait of a poorly educated people seeking to compensate for their ignorance with beliefs that spread such ignorance further--while the rest of the developed world laughs in pity or contempt, and leaves us behind.

I believe one cannot claim to be a cultured human being without knowledge of the great religions, their histories, and scriptures. The Bible hit America's shores 300 years before the Constitution and no one unfamiliar with the Bible can claim to understand America (which disqualifies many so-called intellectuals). The great religions should be required study in every high school and college, if only because there is no greater historical force than religious passion. But religion should be taught as religion, not as science. Interesting to note the last pope, John Paul II, held the position that creation and evolution do not conflict with current Catholic doctrine.

Makes no difference to me when we got here only what we can do to stay here and advance our society. How to keep adapting to our changing environment with a moral compass pointing toward goodness, the light, away from darkness and ignorance. Hostility to science is spreading, like an infection, to history...

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, by Thomas Woods Jr., "is being snapped up on college campuses and helped along by plugs on Fox News... Was No. 8 on the New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list." The book features far-right revisions of the Civil War, the Marshall Plan, Jim Crow, and the New Deal . It is "one of a wave of books like this." They include Michelle Malkin's In Defense of Internment, which claims that the World War II internment of California's Japanese-Americans was justified and benign; also, a booklet used in a North Carolina school called Southern Slavery: As It Was, claiming slavery to have been "a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence." This isn't history. This is propaganda. You don't justify old internment camps unless you hope to build new ones. That's how I found that list from the friends of liberty website, newly built idle camps waiting to be housed, no one told me I had to go find the truth.

The teaching of history is usually slanted one way or another, but not long ago the blatant distortion of science would have been unimaginable. The Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Maoist China excluded or distorted whole branches of science that conflicted with their ideologies; not long ago no thinking person imagined it could happen here. But it is happening. On a massive scale. From the highest levels of government to the littlest rural school. Power-savvy factions are spreading an easy-to-digest but ultimately fatal ignorance. Poorly educated, well-intentioned, fearful people, craving order in a chaotic world, are eating it up. They're no more or less stupid than the well-informed, but they haven't the resources for research and they've no body of knowledge by which to weigh what they're told. The poorly skilled and scantily educated have nothing to judge information by except whether it satisfies their emotions. If it makes them less afraid, it must be right.

Sam Adams, like many of our founders, believed democracy would flourish "as long as education was extended to the masses." An ignorant people cannot remain a free people.

keep fighting the good fight, with your minds as weapons!!
...............................kosmicdebris.....................................................................