Sniffing Out The Higher Truth

Political Correctness: An Overview

2017-02-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

Introduction

Political correctness (PC) is a contentious topic and there has been much discussion - in fact, the discussion is ongoing - as to what it is and how to best define. The discussion seems to be even more lively on how to assess it and whether or not PC as a phenomena is harmful or beneficial to our society.

In this article I intend to focus on the former - specifically, what is PC and attendant phenomenon - and largely disregard the latter. Which, naturally, is in no way to discourage the readers from forming their own opinions on the subject.

Definitions And Origins

At present, Wikipedia defines it thusly:

The term political correctness (adjectivally: politically correct; commonly abbreviated to PC[1] or P.C.) in modern usage, is used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society.

This definition seems accurate to me even though it may be a bit simplistic. I would perhaps expand it to say that PC is a set of societal policies and norms aimed at ensuring perceived fairness towards and protection of certain groups perceived to be at a disadvantage, with the implied notion of limiting debate about the propriety of the above-mentioned policies and norms, limiting it strictly to the the matters of applicability and enforcement.

It is difficult to pinpoint precisely what gave rise to PC in its present form. What one can say with certainty is that various frameworks imposing societal norms regarding acceptable discourse, debate and behavior have been with us since the dawn of time. Of that, religious censorship and other restrictions come to mind. So for example Giordano Bruno was executed by burning for little more than expressing scientific discoveries which were viewed as an unacceptable violation of the societal norms of the time
Modern western PC likely has its roots in the sentiment common among the left-leaning intellectuals of the 1970’s that there were groups in the society that were so heavily disadvantaged that in order to do right by them it was necessary to go beyond merely codifying equality into laws and regulations. The idea was to give the disadvantaged groups an extra advantage in the form of affirmative action and extra protections against actions and even words perceived as hostile or detrimental to those groups. The groups to be protected include but are not limited to women, minorities (especially persons of color), the LGBT community, people identifying as other species and potentially other minority groups this author can not think of at the moment.
Additional concepts without which the discussion of PC would be incorrect are Social Justice Warriors (SJW’s) and Identity Politics (IP). The former - as defined for the purposes of this discussion - can be loosely defined as activists fighting to impose PC norms and enforce them. The latter are politics based on group identifiers (gender, skin color, health status) that the individual has little to no control over. As one can easily imagine, in many cases - in fact, in the majority of cases - identity politics and PC can hardly be told apart.

Progression

Having started with various anti-harassment, affirmative action and proper conduct codes implemented by academic institutions, government institutions and businesses PC has grown to include new forms and variations. While initially the prohibited forms of behaviour included mostly intentional harassment, bullying and discrimination the definitions of what constitutes any of these things have shifted from what could at least to a degree be tangible to definitions along the lines of “harassment is anything some member of a protected group, or even some member of the organization where the code is in effect, thinks is harassment”. If one were to think that under a situation like this it is mighty difficult never to end up a harasser one would be entirely correct.
Whole new concepts have merged - such as that of microaggressions, which is to say, aggressions almost imperceptible but yet supposedly harmful to supposed victims. Or that of cultural appropriation - that is, using something originating from the minority culture without belonging to said minority which is equated to treating said group as a commodity.
It appears that in many instances a modern adept of PC, or an SJW, would give priority to PC norms and notions over facts or science.

Positive Outcomes Of PC

PC as part of the culture has changed the way we live in a variety of ways. Some people have clearly benefited from it.
It is difficult to quantify these effects though one does not have to go far to find people who praise these initiatives for establishing workspace conditions that are, at least on the surface, more civil, with less lewd talk and unwelcome comments, of sexual nature or otherwise. Studies exist where people are mostly asked about how they feel about the policies in place and their effect and they do report higher levels of psychological comfort.
Affirmative action has helped some people achieve what they may not have achieved without it. That is hardly in dispute. It has helped some people, perhaps those with relatively low confidence, feel less intimidated and feel more empowered to launch complaints in situations where they feel they have been harassed or otherwise treated unfairly.
Without a doubt, political correctness has improved some people’s situations. It must also be stated that the same can be said of just about any large-scale societal initiative or tendency.

Negative Outcomes Of PC

One of the primary negative outcomes of PC is legitimation of the notion of primacy of emotion over fact and law. The immediate consequence of this is imposition of censorship and self-censorship and narrowing of the public discourse.

PC itself largely started on college campuses. It is on college campuses that one gets to see some of its most outrageous expressions now. For example, in this emotional video distraught Yale University students berate a school administrator for allowing Haloween costumes that they deem inappropriate and that have made them uncomfortable [2]. And an academician describes the current on-campus PC climate thusly [3]:

I once saw an adjunct not get his contract renewed after students complained that he exposed them to "offensive" texts written by Edward Said and Mark Twain. His response, that the texts were meant to be a little upsetting, only fueled the students' ire and sealed his fate. That was enough to get me to comb through my syllabi and cut out anything I could see upsetting a coddled undergrad, texts ranging from Upton Sinclair to Maureen Tkacik — and I wasn't the only one who made adjustments, either.
I am frightened sometimes by the thought that a student would complain again like he did in 2009. Only this time it would be a student accusing me not of saying something too ideologically extreme — be it communism or racism or whatever — but of not being sensitive enough toward his feelings, of some simple act of indelicacy that's considered tantamount to physical assault. As Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis writes, "Emotional discomfort is [now] regarded as equivalent to material injury, and all injuries have to be remediated." Hurting a student's feelings, even in the course of instruction that is absolutely appropriate and respectful, can now get a teacher into serious trouble.

But perhaps nowhere has the situation that has become part of everyday reality on our college campuses been on display more than during the 2015 Mizzou protests [4]. In short, a minority activist group that was receiving support from the administration named Concerned Student 1950 was in danger of losing that support due to the fact that no racist episodes were taking place - and it was founded specifically to resist such episodes in the past. Pretty much immediately after that change became a possibility to events allegedly take place: a swastika made of human feces was painted on a dormitory wall and several Black students were verbally abused by occupants of a passing truck at an off-campus location. Neither event was recorded, hence no proof exists that either one of them did indeed occur. In the case of the “poop swastika” it seems especially bewildering that no one snapped a picture of it with a smartphone camera.

Protests started that were centered around demanding a hand-written apology from the chancellor for failing to anticipate and prevent such awful racist attacks. Even assuming the events did indeed occur, a reasonable person would ask, what could the chancellor do - and inevitably would be forced to answer, next to nothing. The matter, to the best of this author’s knowledge, was indeed referred to the police who naturally discovered nothing to build a criminal case on. Yet the protesters managed to mount enough pressure to get the chancellor to resign thus displaying the incredible power of PC on today’s campuses.
As incredible as the Mizzou protests story may seem, it did not result in any human fatalities. The same can almost certainly not be said of the story of Charles Cullen[5]. Cullen, a killer nurse who while not widely known may be America’s most prolific mass murderer, was able to easily move from job to job even though patients died during his shifts at rates that were positively abnormal and raised serious concerns of the medical institution where he would work. However that same medical institution, for fear of being sued for discrimination, would not inform potential employers of these concerns when those other medical institutions would ask for a reference on Cullen. It is still not known how many people he had killed, and we may never know how many would have been saved had PC notions not infiltrated the medical workplace but we can be all but sure that a significant number of people had left this world earlier than they otherwise would have thanks not only to Cullen’s sick homicidal drive but also to the PC norms. Cullen’s example is obviously extreme but there is little reason to doubt that his story is not unique and other fatalities occurred because of workplaces afraid to report concerns with homicidal, suicidal or just reckless employees who actions, intentional or unintentional, had a great potential of bringing grievous harm to innocent victims.

Additionally, it must be noted that the prevalence of PC in the educational system not only stifles debate and drives down the quality of education but also creates a generation after generation of people used to “echo chambers”, “safe spaces” and perceiving a free society as an anomality - and a dangerous one at that. Those people are prone to push for more and more PC, and while clearly in their mind they benefit from it one would not be wrong to ask whether or not this phenomena is of a circular nature, a vicious circle of PC generating demand for more PC, much like drug addiction generates more demand for drug addiction. And while a drug addict would believe themselves being happy due to drugs, and demand more drugs for themselves, sane and sober people would likely question the wisdom of such a choice.

Conclusion

Political correctness is a complex and multifaceted phenomena. It can be viewed as a societal experiment and metrics can be developed to assess its effectiveness. However, at present there is no genuine debate going on whose purpose would be to assess the effectiveness and propriety of PC as a societal practice. The reason for that appears to be, for the most part, the rejection of the very necessity of debate by the adept of the PC doctrine.

The opponents of it, on the other hand, seem to be mostly willing to argue, and they seem to operate with facts rather than feelings.The debate is way past due and in this author’s opinion we can not have it soon enough.

References

[1] Political correctness
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness

[2] Yale University Students Protest Halloween Costume Email (VIDEO 3)

TheFIREorg
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IEFD_JVYd0

[3] I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me

Edward Schlosser
Vox

June 3, 2015

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323/college-professor-afraid

[4] 2015–16 University of Missouri protests

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9316_University_of_Missouri_protests

[5] Charles Cullen

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Cullen

Video of rooftop helicopter rescue in Japan's tsunami-hit town

2011-03-13T11:08:00.002-04:00

9500 People Missing In ONE Japanese Coastal Town

2011-03-13T10:47:00.001-04:00

Tent cities in America - here's one of them, complete with photos

2011-03-13T10:23:00.002-04:00

While Americans argue amongst themselves over wages, union bargaining rights, government spending, monetary easing, and a host of other issues, including who’s to blame for the country’s malaise, Minister Brigham and his community trudge on, despite what’s happening outside of their neighborhood microcosm. As millions struggle to hold on to the American Dream, the residents of this New Jersey “Tent City” have already experienced loss, and the emotional roller coaster that inevitably follows. They’ve gone through the first four stages of loss – denial, anger, bargaining, depression. In a situation where everything has been lost, and hope seemingly doesn’t exist, only the fifth stage, acceptance, becomes applicable. These individuals and families have accepted what has happened, and understand that they have a choice. Either give up and wallow in regret and blame. Or, empower oneself, and those around you, and move forward by whatever means are available.

A Visit to an American Tent City
Mac Slavo, March 11, 2011

Jared Loughner: new charges

2011-03-06T11:01:00.003-05:00

A federal grand jury handed up a lengthy superseding indictment against shooting suspect Jared Loughner, accusing him of a variety of federal crimes in the Jan. 8 melee outside a Tucson-area supermarket that left six dead and 13 wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

In an unexpected development, the new indictment includes 49 counts stemming from crimes against all of the victims, rather than solely those five victims who were federal employees.

Feds' new indictment charges Loughner with 49 counts
Michael Kiefer, The Arizona Republic, March 5, 2011

Sounds like a clear case of federal overreach. Mr Loughner stands accused of commiting multiple counts of Murder One which is a capital offense in Arizona. Yet the Feds want to take control right from the get-go.

Jobs may be out there but they don't pay

2011-03-05T23:43:00.002-05:00

But to get to the most important trend you have to dig under the job numbers and look at what kind of new jobs are being created. That’s where the big problem lies.

The National Employment Law Project did just that. Its new data brief shows that most of the new jobs created since February 2010 (about 1.26 million) pay significantly lower wages than the jobs lost (8.4 million) between January 2008 and February 2010.

While the biggest losses were higher-wage jobs paying an average of $19.05 to $31.40 an hour, the biggest gains have been lower-wage jobs paying an average of $9.03 to $12.91 an hour.

In other words, the big news isn’t jobs. It’s wages.

For several years now, conservative economists have blamed high unemployment on the purported fact that many Americans have priced themselves out of the global/high-tech jobs market.

So if we want more jobs, they say, we’ll need to take pay and benefit cuts.

And that’s exactly what Americans have been doing.

Employers have demanded wage and benefit concessions from their unionized workers and often got them. Detroit is creating auto jobs again — but new hires are getting about half the pay that auto workers were getting before. Airline workers are taking home 30 to 50 percent less than they did years ago. And so on.

The Real News on Jobs
Robert Reich, Truthout, March 4, 2011

This matches perfectly with this author's everyday impressions. There seems to be an awful lot of service jobs around which pay wages at around $10 per hour. Quite laughable especially in large metropolitan areas. And by "laughable" I certainly don't mean "funny".

For now what we seems to be doing is just watching the people lose their faith in honest work, lose their hope, their work ethics... What's next? A crime wave? Riots in the streets? Police oppression? All of the above?

Hiding Details of Dubious Deal, U.S. Invokes National Security

2011-02-21T08:37:00.005-05:00

“Dennis would always say, ‘My technology is real, and it’s worth a fortune,’ ” recounted Steve Crisman, a filmmaker who oversaw business operations for Mr. Montgomery and a partner until a few years ago. “In the end, I’m convinced it wasn’t real.”

Government officials, with billions of dollars in new counterterrorism financing after Sept. 11, eagerly embraced the promise of new tools against militants.

C.I.A. officials, though, came to believe that Mr. Montgomery’s technology was fake in 2003, but their conclusions apparently were not relayed to the military’s Special Operations Command, which had contracted with his firm. In 2006, F.B.I. investigators were told by co-workers of Mr. Montgomery that he had repeatedly doctored test results at presentations for government officials. But Mr. Montgomery still landed more business.

In 2009, the Air Force approved a $3 million deal for his technology, even though a contracting officer acknowledged that other agencies were skeptical about the software, according to e-mails obtained by The New York Times.

Hiding Details of Dubious Deal, U.S. Invokes National Security
Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, New York Times, February 19, 2011

Now this is a real gem. What were Mr Montgomery's technology credentials? How was the effort overseen and supervised? I obviously wouldn't know but as someone who spent close to 3 years as a government parasite I wouldn't be surprised if no one in the government ever read a line of computer code this supposed "security expert" wrote.

So that joker collected millions off Joe The Taxpayer? Good for him - that's what suckers are for! What he did wrong was gamble it away - he should've just stashed it in some safe offshore haven and he would've now been looking at lounging on the beach as opposed to facing charges and dealing with all those legal problems.

Also note the government officials' ubiquitous use of national security as a way to keep things out of public scrutiny. Things being what they are, I am surprised we ever learned of the Deepwater Horizon disaster among other things. So perhaps I should keep quiet about this sort of thing lest our servants and protectors get some funny ideas.

Doctors engaged in widespread medical fraud at Madison protests with fake doctor's notes

2011-02-21T08:10:00.003-05:00

If you're an eighth grader and you show up to school with a fake doctor's note excusing your suspicious absence the day before, you would probably face detention or some other punishment, including a possible investigation for truancy. But if you're a teacher and you call in "sick" with a fake doctor's note handed to you at a protest in Madison, Wisconsin, then that's apparently okay... because that's what countless public school teachers have been doing the past week.

Masterminding the effort are rogue medical doctors committing medical fraud by carrying out obviously contrived conversations with protestors then writing them doctors' notes to excuse them from work for such things as "fatigue" or "emotional stress."

What we have, then, is a tag team of fraud: The teachers who have abandoned their public duties and abandoned their students by calling in "sick," and the medical doctors who are promoting the whole charade by pretending to diagnose these teachers with some sort of ailment that gets them off the hook.

This sends a really powerful message back home to all the students in the Madison public school system: "Do as we say, not as we do."

Doctors engaged in widespread medical fraud at Madison protests with fake doctor's notes
Mike Adams, Natural News, February 20, 2011

545 vs. 300,000,000 People - By Charlie Reese

2011-02-21T08:03:00.003-05:00

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

545 vs. 300,000,000 People - By Charlie Reese
This is billed as Charlie Reese's final column. I don't know whether it is or not - but it certainly is an all-time classic. Few people can match Reese in clarity of thought.

And yes, do check out this poem, allegedly also penned by Reese:

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won't be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he's laid...

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
'Taxes drove me
to my doom...'

When he's gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.

A typical "guns are awful" article

2010-02-11T23:53:00.004-05:00

So you're at your neighborhood Starbucks, maybe with your kids, and you notice a man sitting at the next table with a revolver strapped to his waist. The man next to him has a pistol. In fact, you realize as you look around, there's a table full of gun-toting customers just a few feet away, sipping coffee and doing nothing to conceal their deadly weapons. Aside from steering clear -- or else getting the hell out of there -- what can an unarmed citizen do?

Starbucks' Cop-Out to Gun Nuts: Customers Served Coffee While Strapped
Liliana Segura, AlterNet, 9 February 2010

Note the way the whole debate is being framed: you can either "steer clear" or "get the hell out of there". Well, I can see several other options - such as realize that you may just have found yourself the safest spot within 20 miles to have your cup of coffee.

Clarification: I am not saying that the presence of weapons always makes a location more secure. I am most certainly not attempting to state the reverse either. I am just attempting to show that articles like that are based on assumptions that are not grounded in factual reality.

Northeast 9/11 Truth Conference

2010-01-29T05:30:00.002-05:00

Via an e-mail distribution.
Boris Epstein

Northeast 9/11 Truth Conference

January 31, 2010

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Boston, Massachusetts

Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Avenue, 5^th floor

(near corner of Harrison and Beach; 5 minute walk from either the Orange Line Chinatown T stop or the Green Line Boylston T stop)

Registration Donation to Defray Expenses: $10

Call Richard Krushnic (617-276-7839) or Chris Gruener (617-965-6552) to preregister—preregistration appreciated.

Schedule

10:00 – 10:45 Registration, Brunch

10:45 – 11:00 Discussion of revisions to the following suggested agenda.

11:00 – 11:30 Evaluation of the previous day’s New England Regional Antiwar Strategy Conference and the participation of 9/11 Truth advocates in the conference.

11:30 --1:30 Hearing From Each Other: Short presentations of varying lengths, with brief questions and discussion following each presentation.

1:30 – 1:50 Break, Snacks

1:50 – 2:35 General discussion: Where does 9/11 Truth go from here?

2:35 – 3:20 General discussion, kicked off by Lenny Mather of the Greater Boston Alliance for 9/11 Truth and Justice and Bill Woodward of Seacoast 9/11 Truth: Organizing a Northeast 9/11 Truth Network and mutual support organization.

3:20 – 4:00 Open. Use of this time will be decided during the proceedings of the conference.

Presenters in the “Hearing From Each Other” part of the program:

This list of presenters is open to change, and the topics listed below are suggested topics, also open to change. In some cases the presenters have agreed to the topics, in others they may decide to alter their presentation. If you would like to have a topic or a presenter included, that can be proposed at the conference, but it would be appreciated if you would send in your suggestion in advance to rkrushnic@gmail.com.

Paul Zarembka, professor of Political Economy, SUNY Buffalo, ed. The Hidden History of 9/11:

The erroneous presentation of the “Institutional Analysis” debunking of 9/11

Truth as presented by Noam Chomsky and Michael Alpert, and the absurd “guilt by association” debunking of 9/11 Truth by Chip Brulet. Paul will also comment on 9/11 Truth in Buffalo.

Barrie Zwicker, editor of Global Outlook, producer of first documentary questioning the official version of 9/11, aired on Canadian TV. Barrie lives in Toronto.

Overview of 9/11 Truth in Canada. Mass Media and 9/11 Truth in Canada.

Peter Dale Scott, author of The Road to 9/11, and many books on “deep politics”—the covert operations and secret strategies of the ruling corporate and government elite, including the assassination of President Kennedy and other assassinations, and US Government involvement in and regulation of the global illegal narcotics trade.

Vice President Cheney’s role in 9/11. What will the next false flag operations be? Thoughts on where 9/11 Truth should go from here.

Bill Woodward, professor of Psychology at University of New Hampshire, leader of Seacoast 9/11 Truth.

Overview of Seacoast 9/11 Truth. Experience of a public university professor fighting to speak out and keep his job.

Alfonse Olszewski, founder of Veterans for 9/11 Truth. Alfonse lives in St. Louis, MO.

Overview of Veterans for 9/11 Truth.

Conal Foley, member of Smedley Brigade of Vets for Peace, operator of a Winthrop, Mass. Cable TV weekly 9/11 Truth program for four years.

The experience of operating a weekly local 9/11 Truth TV program for four years.

Sander Hicks, Canvassing Director for NYCCAN (New York City Coalition for Accountability Now), author of The Big Wedding: 9/11, the Whistleblowers, and the cover-Up, producer and interviewer for TV program INN World Report (look Sander up on Wikipedia).

Review of NYCCAN’s efforts to get a truly independent New York City investigagion of the events surrounding 9/11, until Sander left NYCCAN in 2009. Where to from here?

Chris Gruener, founder of the Greater Boston Alliance for 9/11 Truth and Justice, psychotherapist.

Overview of Greater Boston 9/11 Truth.

In addition to the above, we hope that we can hear from some or all of the following, who are not yet confirmed for participation:

Wayne Madsen, author of the blog Wayne Madsen Report, and Washington, DC-based free-lance journalist, whose articles have appeared in many key regional newspapers. Former Navy anti-submarine warfare officer. Following his Navy career he worked on National Security Administration contracts for RCA Corp. and the US State Dept., among others (look him up on Wikepedia).

False flag operations, viewed by a former military and intelligence insider.

Barry Kissin, Attorney living in Frederick, Maryland, location of Fort Detrick, US Army Research Labs.

The post-9/11 Anthrax false-flag operation by the Army’s Fort Detrick Labs. What’s it like to publicly debate the District Attorney regarding a front-page news false flag operation?

Gerhard Bedding, from Keen, New Hampshire, leader of Monadnock 9/11 Truth.

Overview of Monadnock 9/11 Truth.

Danny Schechter, author of Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception. "The News Dissector," is an independent filmmaker, writer and activist who specializes in economic and media issues. He is executive editor of MediaChannel.org, the world's largest online media issues online network. Produces the News Dissector Blog. He spent many years in Boston area media at WBCN, WGBH, and WCVB. He worked for CNN and ABC News, has written ll books on social and political issues, and directed 30 documentaries including his latest, Plunder: The Crime of Our Time, on the financial crisis as a crime story.

What has this all-around media activist been able to say through the media about 9/11? Can 9/11 Truth break through the not-online mass media wall?

NOTE: This Northeast 9/11 Truth Conference on Sunday at Encuentro 5 in Chinatown follows the New England Regional Antiwar Conference on Saturday at MIT. Some Presenters are presenting in both Conferences.

A Few Bios Follow:

[ C. V. | Events | Politics: Iraq, al-Qaeda, 9/11 | Selected Writings | Complete Bibl ]

(This page, and my Curriculum Vitae, are not copyrighted. They are available for legitimate public use or reproduction, though not for private gain.)

For those primarily interested in my recent political prose, go to My Politics webpage, formerly entitled "Iraq, al-Qaeda, 9/11". For those primarily interested in my poetry, go to My Selected Writings webpage. In fact the two genres inter-relate, as exhibited by both my most important prose book, The Road to 9/11, and my most important book of poetry, Minding the Darkness.

Click here to learn about a symposium, two all-day seminars on my work, and a poetry reading on March 13, 14, 17, and 20, at the Open Center, 22 East 30th Street, New York, Ny 10016.

Biography

Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is a poet, writer, and researcher. He was born in Montreal in 1929, the only son of the poet F.R. Scott and the painter Marian Scott. He is married to Ronna Kabatznick; and he has three children, Cassie, Mika, and John Scott, by a previous marriage to Maylie Marshall.

His prose books include The War Conspiracy (1972), The Assassinations: Dallas and Beyond (in collaboration, 1976), Crime and Cover-Up: The CIA, the Mafia, and the Dallas-Watergate Connection (1977), The Iran-Contra Connection (in collaboration, 1987), Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America (in collaboration, 1991, 1998), Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993, 1996), Deep Politics Two (1994, 1995, 2006), Drugs Oil and War (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, March 2003), The Road to 9/11 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), and The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War (Ipswich, MA: Mary Ferrell Foundation Press, 2008).

His chief poetry books are the three volumes of his trilogy Seculum: Coming to Jakarta: A Poem About Terror (1989), Listening to the Candle: A Poem on Impulse (1992), and Minding the Darkness: A Poem for the Year 2000. In addition he has published Crossing Borders: Selected Shorter Poems (1994), published in Canada as Murmur of the Stars. In November 2002 he was awarded the Lannan Poetry Award. A new book of poems, Mosaic Orpheus, will appear in Spring 2009 from McGill-Queen's University Press.

An anti-war speaker during the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, he was a co-founder of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at UC Berkeley, and of the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA).

His poetry has dealt with both his experience and his research, the latter of which has centered on U.S. covert operations, their impact on democracy at home and abroad, and their relations to the John F. Kennedy assassination and the global drug traffic. The poet-critic Robert Hass has written (Agni, 31/32, p. 335) that "Coming to Jakarta is the most important political poem to appear in the English language in a very long time."

If you have any comments or questions, I would be glad to hear from you at pdscottweb@hotmail.com.

Please click here if you have written to me and failed to receive a reply.

This website is dedicated to helping to promote an informed public opinion that is both local and international. I particularly want to thank those who have sent me supportive or informative emails from 37 countries: Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, South Africa, Pakistan, Singapore, China, Japan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Canada (plus 3 more from visitors in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nepal). Special thanks to the visiting professor in Singapore, who said that he was forwarding this URL to his friends in China. I wish also to thank friends who have forwarded useful material, such as the important Irish Times story on bin Laden, the US, and oil, that first reached me via Indonesia from Qatar.

I do believe that international public opinion, when it becomes powerful enough, will become the most effective restraint to the excesses and follies of particular governments.

Barrie Zwicker

An esteemed Canadian [author, broadcaster, investigative journalist and media critic] since at least 1970, Barrie Zwicker was born in Nova Scotia in 1934, but was raised in rural Manitoba (very near the provincial boundary with Saskatchewan); he began his journalism career working for his local paper from the age of 16, right in the tiny hamlet of Russell, Manitoba.

Thereafter, he studied journalism in college at the University of Michigan (in Ann Arbor), and in 1967 earned a Southam Fellowship, which allowed him to work directly with the great pioneer of media analysis, Marshall McLuhan, renowned author of "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man" (in which the phrase was first introduced, "the 'Medium is the Message' "), at St. Michael's College in Toronto.

From St. Michael's College, he went on to a series of staff-writing assignments in both the U.S. and Canada, including The Toronto Globe and Mail; the Toronto Star; the Vancouver Province; the Sudbury Star; the Detroit News and the Lansing State Journal. During his seven years in Toronto with the Globe and Mail, he won numerous awards with the Education Writers' Association of North America.

For seven years, Zwicker taught a course at Ryerson University in Toronto, on "Media and Society."

For the better part of 15 years, that is from the inception of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation's "Vision TV" in the fall of 1988, until 2003, Barrie Zwicker was the program's in-house, resident "media critic." In the 2001-2002 TV season, Zwicker hosted VisionTV's "Insight: the 'MediaFile' Edition" (a weekly half-hour commercial-free alternative look at the media), moderated its media panel, and provided commentary for each program. Six of his "MediaFile" commentaries that season -- a series titled "What Really Happened on Sept. 11th?" - made him the very first mainstream television journalist in the world, to go on air and [deeply question] the official story of the events of September 11th. The commentaries elicited the greatest response of any programming in the channel's history, which was literally 99% positive. The series became known as "The Great Deception," and was released on video under that title. The updated version (available on VHS and DVD) contains seven segments.

Understandably, he's drawn widespread comparisons to Michael Moore, having in common their mutual penchant for strongly articulating outspoken viewpoints, and for his similar approach to documentary film-making.

He was the very first journalist from the mainstream press (on either side of the U.S./Canadian border) to have voiced an opinion (during a live broadcast) that, the "Terrorist Attacks of Sept. 11th were indeed (and in fact) an inside job" when, on January 21st, 2002, and on national (Canadian) television, he challenged both the U.S. & Canadian media to inquire, and to focus upon.... the following unasked questions:

* Why didn't the president give any orders for 140 minutes after the first plane had been hijacked?

* Why didn't he make a statement in the first 165 minutes after the first plane had been hijacked?

* Why did not a single American Air Force plane make a single interception during these two hours?

In 2002, Zwicker's first documentary on 9/11 aired on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation's "Vision TV." Titled, "The Great Deception," it was the first North American documentary, critical of the mainstream media's "public" discussion about 9/11.

"The Great Conspiracy: The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw," is a 70-minute [sequel] to what was his earlier-produced "The Great Deception." This film premiered at the The Citizens' Commission on 9-11.

In this work, Zwicker contends that "fear" was the tool systematically employed, by which the aftermath of the public's reaction to the events of 9/11 was stage-managed, manipulated and controlled, and argues that the "War on Terror" is indeed a "mechanism," or strategic ploy, by recourse to which the actual perpetrators have undertaken a transformation of all the most fundamental, of our socio-economic and political circumstances by which to implement an agenda, to accelerate plans for their own widespread, deep and long-lasting social and political control. He also analyses the military failures and breakdowns on the day of 9/11, and observes how strangely and inappropriately the president and his aides had acted, that entire day. Throughout, mainstream media is held to account for being either compliant with, or complicit in.... systematic, willful and calculated deceit of the general public.

This film was followed by another documentary he made (and which was released in 2004), titled "Deep Complicity: 9/11 and The Media."

His book, "Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9/11," was published by New Society Publishers in September of 2006.

"Even skeptics like myself will find much in Barrie Zwicker's book to ponder, enjoy and, yes even embrace. Interestingly researched and well written, a valuable aid to correct thinking about conspiracy theory." - Michael Parenti, author of "Culture Struggle and The Assassination of Julius Caesar."

Zwicker was also involved (as the host) in the video documentary called, "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream," first broadcast on VisionTV, and earned a number of awards from local film and video festivals, for his contributions.

* In 1977, Zwicker created a directory of contacts for editors, reporters and researchers, called Sources; and, in 1994, a Canadian government directory called Parliamentary Names & Numbers. He subsequently sold them in 1999.

* In 1996, he founded a media relations newsletter and Web site called HotLink.

* In 1991, he was awarded an honorary membership in the Media Club of Canada.

* Zwicker is also the director of an alternative information web site, 911inquiry.org

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Exactly six months after September 11th, Barrie Zwicker remarked during a live (national) broadcast on VisionTV, i.e., on live national (Canadian) television,

broadcast March 11th, 2002,

and which may be found at:

http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/Prog_Archives/GreatDeception/ArchiveMarch11.html

All printed transcripts from "The Great Deception: What really happened on Sept. 11, 2001," which aired on CBC's VisionTV program called "Insight Media," and was regularly hosted by Barrie Zwicker, who was their in-house "Media Analyst,"

are available online from the website of VisionTV....

which may be found at:

http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/prog_archives_greatdeception.html .

Part One from this transcript,

may be found at:

http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/Prog_Archives/GreatDeception/Archive1.html

Part Two from this transcript,

may be found at:

http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/Prog_Archives/GreatDeception/Archive2.html

Part Three from this transcript,

may be found at:

http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/Prog_Archives/GreatDeception/Archive3.html

Part Four from this transcript,

may be found at:

http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/Prog_Archives/GreatDeception/Archive4.html

Part Five from this transcript,

may be found at:

http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/Prog_Archives/GreatDeception/Archive5.html

Part Six from this transcript,

may be found at:

http://www.visiontv.ca/Programs/Prog_Archives/GreatDeception/Archive6.html

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An article about Zwicker's program on CBC's VisionTV was published in the Toronto Star, May 11th, 2003,

which then reappeared on the Common Dreams website,

and may be found at:

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0511-04.htm

Paul Zarembka

Paul Zarembka is a professor of Economics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Since 1977, he's been the general editor for a series of volumes, called "Research in Political Economy"; he's authored "Toward a Theory of Economic Development"; edited "Frontiers in Econometrics"; and he co-edited a volume titled, "Essays in Modern Capital Theory."

The text is pasted below, which is taken from both the "Abstract" and the "Introduction," appearing on the draft of a paper which is dated this past October 17th (2009), which along with his co-author he recently presented at the annual conference (held in Amherst, Mass. this past Nov. 5th - 8th) which was sponsored by the journal "Rethinking Marxism"; this paper was co-authored by Dr. Zarembka (who's a Political Economist in the Economics Department with "S.U.N.Y." at Buffalo), along with Canadian (fellow Marxist) Sociology Professor, David MacGregor (who's with the University of Western Ontario in London) - the title of their paper is: "Marxism, Conspiracy, and 9/11."

The "Abstract" for the paper ("Marxism, Conspiracy, and 9/11"), follows below:

While left commentators typically agree on the convenience for the U.S. ruling class of the outcomes of 9-11, such as the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the demonization of the wider Muslim world, many are unwilling to question whether the attacks actually conformed to officially validated accounts. After recalling a prescient comment by Adam Smith that capitalist interests habitually engage in secret combinations, this paper discusses Karl Marx's account of the hidden machinations behind the rise of Louis Napoleon, an understanding now widely accepted but not at the time. Three twentieth-century examples of a public/conspiratorial dichotomy of state actions are then surveyed -- the role of British bankers in the rise of Hitler, the failed attempt to overthrow President Roosevelt, and the work of Peter Dale Scott regarding the JFK assassination.

The paper thus becomes prepared to review evidence about 9-11, evidence that has cast significant doubt toward the official version. The authors give particular attention to the collapses of three WTC buildings, the numerous war games that were scheduled for the same day, and the evidence regarding the identities of the alleged hijackers. The authors also note how Marxist theory contends that the state operates in the interest of the dominant economic class, yet fails in containing an articulated conceptual distinction between acts of the state that are public and open to direct investigation, and those that are concealed, secret, and indeed conspiratorial.

A few paragraphs from his "Introduction" are next

(Quoting first, from Adam Smith):

"Back at the time of the initiation of the American Revolution against British colonialism, Adam Smith presciently commented that...."

....The workmen desire to get as much, the masters to give as little as possible. The former are disposed to combine in order to raise, the latter in order to lower the wages of labour. It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a compliance with their terms. The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily; and the law, besides, authorities, or at least does not prohibit their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen....

We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and every where in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate. To violate this combination is every where a most unpopular action, and a sort of reproach to a master among his neighbors and equals. We seldom, indeed, hear of this combination, because it is the usual, and one may say, the natural state of things which nobody ever hears of. Masters too sometimes enter into particular combinations to sink the wages of labour even below this rate. These are always conducted with the utmost silence and secrecy, till the moment of execution, and when the workmen yield, as they sometimes do, without resistance, though severely felt by them, they are never heard of by other people. Such combinations, however, are frequently resisted by a contrary defensive combination of the workmen; who sometimes too, without any provocation of this kind, combine of their own accord to raise the price of their labour. Their usual pretenses are, sometimes the high price of provisions; sometimes the great profit which their masters make by their work. But whether their combinations be offensive or defensive, they are always abundantly heard of. In order to bring the point to a speedy decision, they have always recourse to the loudest clamor, and sometimes to the most shocking violence and outrage. They are desperate, and act with the folly and extravagance of desperate men, who must either starve, or frighten their masters into an immediate compliance with their demands...."

The above citation is sourced at:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN3.html#B.I,

Ch. 8, "Of the Wages of Labour" (paragraphs 11, 12, and 13)

Dr. Zarembka then amplifies below:

What can be noticed in Smith is the observation that owners and workers both combine, but owners do so in secret, while workers do not. Thus, workers are not in fact "conspiring" (acting together in secret), while capitalists do "conspire." If Smith's understanding of the class practices is correct, we can say that general opposition to theories of a conspiracy, without considering the merits of a particular argumentation, is a bourgeois construct. That is, the bourgeoisie recognizes that workers do not conspire (as the word is understood) yet take care to ascribe - to ideologist - the same non-conspiracy to themselves. This ideological works most effectively with those who don't experience working-class life and its direct experience of hostility from the capitalist class, i.e., the petit bourgeoisie (including the academic world).

Like all major terrorist incidents, 9-11 sustained social re-direction by instilling widespread fear in the public and inviting retaliation against an alleged enemy. 225 years after Smith remarked upon secret collusions by capitalists, the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., were presented as motivation for retaliatory military adventures, and an ideological campaign that transformed the social and political landscape. Besides dissolving the anti-globalization movement, so strong after Seattle, these attacks made possible a sequence of events that conformed to prior plans set forward by the Bush II White House and its affiliated right-wing think tanks. The plans included encirclement and isolation of Russia and establishment of an American bulwark in Muslim-dominated areas of the globe, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. The project is an extension of US support for the mujaheddin, which, under President Reagan, helped topple the Soviet Union and, during the Bush I and Clinton Administrations, assisted in dismembering and ultimately destroying Yugoslavia. However, given the unsatisfactory character of the official story, the evidence regarding 9-11 has also sustained the charge that it was a form of state terror, a 'false flag' terrorist event that one of us has elsewhere called Machiavellian state terror (MacGregor 2008).

Distance from the version proselytized by U.S state is not a calling card of many "left" U.S. publications. In a 2006 issue, the otherwise critical journal CounterPunch announced that it would not contemplate carrying articles that deny the official story of 9-11, and labeled those who questioned the official story as "conspiracy nuts." Thus, an important left periodical made belief in Washington's account of the fall of the Twin Towers the gold standard for oppositional thought. Rolling Stone pointed readers to one of its own authors dismissing alternative versions of 9-11 as "clinically insane" (see Taibbi, 2006). "Enough of the 9/11 conspiracy theories, already" admonishes Matthew Rothschild (2006), editor of The Progressive. Terry Allen (2006), for In These Times, makes an astonishing comparison to HIV and AIDS: those "who deny that HIV is responsible for AIDS, for example, have contributed to unnecessary infections and deaths." Responding to such presentations, Barrie Zwicker (2006, pp. 190-224) considers the lamentable record of left icon Noam Chomsky (and his multitudinous followers) who denies any problems with the standard narrative of the events of 9-11. Chomsky's resistance to alternative perspectives on the terror attack on the U.S. recalls his stubborn, decades-long battle against critics of the 1964 Warren Report on the assassination of President Kennedy -- an event many compare in its world-historical significance to the 2001 aerial attack on New York and Washington.

Marxist theory of the state has always understood that the state operates in the interest of the dominant economic class, whether the approach has been an instrumentalist view or a structuralist perspective (the latter originating most clearly from the work of Nicos Poulantzas, 1968 and 1970). However, it has no articulated conceptual distinction between acts of the state that are public and open to direct investigation, and acts of the state that are concealed, secret, and indeed conspiratorial. While Marxist commentators typically agree with the outcomes of 9-11 mentioned above, many are unwilling to grant that 9-11 occurred in a manner not officially validated by US authorities, that is, they dismiss the possibility of a conspiracy by the capitalists and its state. While the terrorism on 9-11 offered a reason for US military-state action, it is not investigated as a product of the state apparatus itself. Yet, if Marxism had already included a conceptual distinction between the public and the conspiratorial, at least study of the two possibilities could have become a mandated research topic, whatever the conclusion reached.

Actually, Marx himself was sensitive to the conspiratorial. The most famous example, which we describe in our first section, is Marx's riveting yet under-appreciated account of the rise to power of Louis Napoleon in which there clearly emerges a profound distinction between the public and the conspiratorial. The second section of this paper mentions three twentieth-century examples of the conspiratorial aspect of state actions, the conspiratorial background to the rise of Hitler, the failed attempt to overthrow President Roosevelt in 1933-34, and Scott's (1993) study of the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy introducing his concept of 'deep politics.' Finally, we turn to 9-11 and discuss the some of the overwhelming evidence for state-sponsored terrorism....

1. Marx and Conspiracy

There is hardly space here to provide a fully detailed account of Marx’s recognition of a public/conspiratorial divide, although his work relies partly on a conspiratorial approach to government. Symptomatically, Marx himself warmly embraced one of the most fantastic conspiracy theories of his day, that Lord Palmerston, the charismatic English Foreign Secretary, was a Russian agent who sought to extend Czarist influence during his long term of office. And the fundamental Marxist notion that the capitalist state itself is a masked form of bourgeois rule, a covert meeting of minds among landed property owners, financiers and industrialists to monopolize the means of power, hints rather strongly at conspiracy.

The clearest example of Marx's methodological approach to the public/conspiratorial divide may be his classic, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon." Every page in this account is concerned with covert machinations among various political contenders for power in France but the most prominent motif is the conscious intent of Louis Napoleon and his lumpen-proletarian followers, from the beginning, to bring about, by whatever illegal and covert means, the fall of republican rule in France and its replacement by a dictatorship. Although we now take this conspiracy for granted, given the persuasiveness of Marx's account, it was hardly the conventional view of the period. As Marx points out, one of the most influential voices of the time, the London Economist, portrayed Louis Napoleon as a staunch defender of parliamentary governance who, against his own better judgment, was forced by events beyond his control to seize the helm. While it is true that Marx's chronology of parliamentary seizure relies on a sophisticated and then-unrivaled appreciation of complex social class forces at work in France, especially the cowardice of various factions among the parliamentary bourgeoisie, the dark, conspiratorial figure of Louis Napoleon is an overwhelming presence....

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Buffalo is home to three State University of New York (S.U.N.Y.) institutions. Combined, they account for roughly 40,000 students in the area.

Following are links for two pages from the Wikipedia, that are specific to Paul Zarembka's academic institution, S.U.N.Y. (the State University of New York) at Buffalo,

which may be found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_University_of_New_York

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_at_Buffalo,_The_State_University_of_New_York

Next is the official website of S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo,

which may be found at:

http://www.buffalo.edu/

Here's a link for the webpage of the Department of Economics for S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo,

which may be found at:

http://www.economics.buffalo.edu/

Next is a link for a (*.pdf) map of the "North Campus" (location of the Econ. Dept. at S.U.N.Y. Buffalo), separate from both the "South Campus," and the "Downtown Campus,"

which may be found at:

http://www.buffalo.edu/buildings/maps/NorthCampus.pdf

Then we have a link for Paul Zarembka's own "Faculty Profile" page, in the Department of Economics with S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo,

which may be found at:

http://www.economics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/zarembka/

Next are links for Paul Zarembka's own author page on the university's website that's dedicated to the Department of Economics, for S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo,

which may be found at:

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~zarembka/

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~zarembka/7S9-11.htm

Danny Schechter

"the News Dissector," is an independent filmmaker, writer and activist who specializes in economic and media issues. He is executive editor of MediaChannel.org, the world's largest online media issues online network, and recipient of many awards including one for his News Dissector Blog. He spent many years in Boston area media at WBCN, WGBH, and WCVB. He worked for CNN and ABC News, has written ll books on social and political issues, and directed 30 documentaries including his latest, Plunder: The Crime of Our Time, on the financial crisis as a crime story.

Oh the heights of irony...

2009-10-12T10:24:00.004-04:00

Supposed experts interviewed by ABC News claim it is unethical to refuse the vaccine. “Does Americans’ right to determine what is best for themselves and their families trump the federal government’s efforts to head off what it believes could be a flu pandemic?” writes Patrick Jonsson for ABC News. “The US government says it has no intention of forcing vaccinations, but its entire flu strategy could be undermined – endangering public health, they say – if a substantial portion of the US population opts out of the $3 billion program.”

The corporate media’s own polls reveal that around two-thirds of parents have serious reservations about the vaccines’ effectiveness and safety. Millions of people simply distrust the government and do not buy into the propaganda.

“Many of the concerns by parents are based on the perception that this vaccine has been rushed into production and may not be safe,” Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman, told Fox News. “We understand parents’ concerns – they want what is best for their children. We often tell people the best antidote for fear is information. And we ask them to really seek out sound and reliable information from sources they trust.”

According to the CDC, parents need to stop listening to a large number of doctors and virologists who say the vaccines are dangerous and instead get their information exclusively from the corporate media.

Corporate Media: Is Not Taking the Vaccine Unethical?
Kurt Nimmo, Infowars, October 12, 2009

I honestly don't even know where to begin... So the same media outlets that for years have been lying about things they did report on while covering up other things they had an obvious ethical obligation to report on are now trying to tell me what's ethical and what is not. The same people who have no problem quoting unnamed anonymous sources as if their words were the Gospel are now trying to teach me ethics.

Hey, ABC, where were you for Ellen Mariani? Because, see, your viewers may have cared to know that some of the victims of the crime of the century were less than happy about the story they were told about that crime. They may have also cared to know that the most serious post-9/11 terror attack on the US soil was planned not by a Muslim group but by American-born White anti-government extremists. Or those of your viewers who are concerned about their finances -and who isn't? - might want to know what their money is really worth. To that end would be nice of you to try and give them an idea as to what the Federal Reserve is all about. Strangely, I can not recall you ever covering the topic.

Just to clarify things a bit - this rant is not exclusively directed at the ABC News as pretty much all the major news outlets in the US and in much of the Western World act rather similarly. Well, they seem to be owned by pretty much the same group of players so why should that not be so?

Be that as it may - I would very much rather have an old whore extol the virtues of chastity to me than have mainstream media tell me what is or is not ethical for the simple reason that I expect the former to be far more entertaining than the latter. OK, mainstream media, now that you've heard this little rant - carry on. Keep on doin' Pravda and Der Sturmer proud!

The mainstream media: what - or who - is it made of?

2009-10-10T23:17:00.005-04:00

This is just another perfect example of how uninformed these journalists are. But thinking back to my own education, I now see that there is method to this madness.

I graduated from the University of Miami with a BS in Broadcast Journalism. In my four years of "higher learning," never once do I recall a professor telling us to be even remotely skeptical of government mouthpieces. Never do I once recall a professor insisting that we do our own research. In fact, everything was about reading AP stories off the wire and re-writing them for our own purposes. It was about using correct grammar... saying "alleged" when appropriate... and meeting deadlines.

From what I have seen, today's journalists aren't doing any research. They are sitting in front of their computers, pulling stories off the wires and regurgitating facts while intermittently inserting their own opinions.

Whole Country "Saw" Plane Hit the Pentagon?
by Sean Wheeler
Wednesday, April 19, 2006

A nice flashback. Covers both the 9/11 and the media - a very well thought out view, in my humble opinion.

My short response to Ms Stillwell's article can be found here:
The Truth About 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

"I Love My Country" by Larken Rose

2009-10-10T22:31:00.002-04:00

YouTube link

Ain in-depth comment by the author:

About the only complaint, which I got second hand, was that someone didn't like me making fun of his flag and his freedom. Well, the song doesn't make fun of the flag, but it does make fun of his LACK of freedom. What I suspect the person actually felt was that I was mocking his version of patriotism. And in a way, I probably was.

Occasionally someone tells me I'm a "true patriot." I assume they mean it to be nice, but I'm not fond of "patriotism" at all. What I'm loyal to, and what I love, is not about an imaginary line around a piece of dirt, or about people who live inside such a line. It's not about any flag, or any republic "for which it stands." What I care about is humanity, which requires free will, which in turn requires liberty. I don't much care WHERE it happens, or to whom it happens. I don't want freedom any less for the guy in Alberta than I do for the guy in New Mexico, nor do I feel any special connection or bond to one over the other.

The trouble is, what most people call "patriotism" is nothing but mindless pack mentality. They "love" what they call their country based purely on the ACCIDENT of where they were born. So, it follows, if they were born in Germany in 1900, they would have ended up as "patriotic" Nazis. What would be good about that?

Other people, when they speak of "patriotism," mean loyalty to the idea of FREEDOM, because of the role that idea played in the creation of this country. Okay, THAT is something worth feeling attached to, even if the idea was mangled and corrupted along the way (from the very beginning, actually). But I think the difference in how people react to my silly video depends upon WHAT they are loyal to. If they are loyal to a flag, or a piece of dirt, they will probably feel insulted by it. And they should be. If, on the other hand, they are loyal to the idea of FREEDOM, I think they will completely approve of the message.

Sincerely,
Larken Rose
http://www.larkenrose.com

9/11: Blueprint For Truth - The Architecture of Destruction

2009-10-09T07:09:00.002-04:00

Reprinted from Boston 9/11 Truth

Richard Gage to Appear in Three New England Area Events

South Church,
229 State Street, Portsmouth NH
Friday October 9th,
8 PM
For more information: Email
or call: 603-866-3254

First Church of Northhampton,
129 Main Street, Northampton, MA
Saturday October 10th,
7 PM
For more information: Email
or call: 413-584-9392

First Parish Church,
Mass Ave and Church St., Cambridge MA
Sunday October 11th,
4:30 PM
For more information: Email
or call: 617-965-6552

Richard Gage invites you to attend an important presentation on the collapse of the 3 World Trade Center high-rises on 9/11.

I am the founder of the organization Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth which is a fast-growing collaboration of 899 architectural and engineering professionals and 4,945 other supporters. The last few years have witnessed the emergence of mounting scientific evidence that the collapses of the Twin Towers and WTC Building 7 were not adequately explained by the official theories outlined in the 2002 FEMA and 2005 NIST reports. The Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth call for a new, fully funded unimpeachable Congressional investigation with subpoena power.

We are dedicated to presenting the evidence that supports our call in this fascinating and myth-shatteringeducational event:

Come to any of our three New England area events. We will lay out the abundant evidence found at the 3 WTC high-rise “collapses”. Please attend and engage in the Q&A to follow.

What the Evidence Shows

Sounds of explosions coming from each of the WTC Twin Towers were heard well before the collapses began. These were reported by over 118 first responders in the FDNY recorded “oral histories” (the release of which was resisted by the City of NY until forced by a New York Times FOIA filing). Numerous accounts of “flashes of light” which commonly accompany the detonation of demolition charges were also reported. Video footage reveals the striking symmetry, explosiveness and rapidity of the Towers’ destruction. This differed from the more classic controlled demolition of WTC 7 in its extreme explosiveness.

Each rubble site contained tons of molten metal “flowing like lava” in the basements – as observed by Leslie Robertson, WTC structural engineer, and numerous other first responders. The temperatures of these flows were far in excess of anything possible from a jet fuel fire or from the burning contents of the buildings. Scientists have determined conclusively that thermate – a high-tech incendiary - was used. Chemical traces of thermate were found in the steel and dust. Each “collapse” exhibited thick billowing pyroclastic dust clouds that rapidly expanded to over ten times the volume of the buildings. Each also showed squibs (explosive ejections of pulverized building materials) easily observed in many of the videos. The twin towers were explained to have “pancaked” down, however there was no stack of floors found at the bottom – nearly everything was blown outside the footprint of the towers in a symmetrical pattern extending 1,200 feet in diameter around each building – and 90,000 tons of concrete , metal decking and floor trusses were completely missing from the debris field.

Blueprint For Truth - The Architecture of Destruction Produced by Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth (www.ae911Truth.org), this powerful documentary film presents explosive new evidence of controlled demolition in the 2001 attacks upon World Trade Centers 1, 2 and 7!

Most damaging to the official story, WTC building 7 was a 47-story high-rise not hit by an airplane and yet became the 3rd modern steel-framed skyscraper to collapse symmetrically at near free-fall speed on 9/11 – in the exact manner of a controlled demolition with explosives. It collapsed into a neat, compact pile, exhibiting ALL the classic features of controlled demolition:

Rapid onset of “collapse”
Sounds of explosions at ground floor – seconds prior to collapse initiation
Symmetrical “collapse” – through the path of greatest resistance – at near free-fall speed (i.e. the core columns offered no resistance)
“Collapses” into its own footprint – with the steel skeleton broken up for shipment
Massive volume of expanding pyroclastic dust clouds
Tons of molten metal found in basement by demolition workers
Chemical signature of thermate (a high-tech incendiary) found in slag and dust samples
Rapid oxidation and intergranular melting found (by FEMA) in the structural steel samples
Expert corroboration from controlled demolition professionals
Foreknowledge of “collapse” by First Responders, media, NYPD, FDNY, etc.

You can review all of this evidence and much more online at www.AE911Truth.org.

Thank you - we look forward to meeting each of you!

Sincerely, Richard Gage, AIA,

Architect Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth

Vincent Caroll of "The Denver Post" trying his hand at hit pieces

2009-09-27T13:28:00.003-04:00

The coincidence last Saturday was both ironic and nauseating. At the very moment when authorities were unearthing what could be the most sinister case of domestic terrorist activity since 9/11, with alleged links to the group that took down the World Trade Center, a local public television station blithely devoted much of its schedule to propaganda claiming al-Qaeda did no such thing.

Carroll: Public TV and the Truthers
Vincent Carroll, The Denver Post, Saturday, 26 September 2009

Oh, propaganda... I see, Mr Caroll. And of course all the many statements the government has made on the subject through its many mouthpieces have been all unadulterated truth, the whole truth and nothing but... Even when those statements happened to contradict each other. Even when they were later declared to be false, by none other than the very people whose job it was to come up with the governments official interpretation of the events... Yes, Mr Caroll, I mean the members of the 9/11 Commission.

At any rate, maybe I will write to Mr Caroll and see if he cares to expand on this. For now enjoy the article, the comments (where the author's profound lack of knowledge is exposed, as usual) as well as the discussion on The 9/11 Blogger.

Zero: an investigation into 9/11

2009-09-27T12:37:00.004-04:00

Google Video link

Zero's home website

This is a professional grade documentary examining the many aspects of 9/11 the US government and mainstream media have chosen to ignore, distort or conceal. Highly recommended.

Sicko

2009-08-23T16:40:00.002-04:00

Michael Moore's documentary film on the state of the US healthcare. A must-see in this author's humble opinion.

Razing entire neighborhoods?

2009-06-12T20:18:00.002-04:00

As reported by The Telegraph (US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive, June 12, 2009) about Flint, Michigan:

In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens are homeless. But instead of allowing them to find shelter in abandoned buildings we destroy the buildings. The accepted excuse is safety and health concerns. Is facing the elements safer? Try that out one fine Michigan winter...

The Emerging Gitmo Model?

2009-05-16T10:29:00.004-04:00

While much of the "torture debate" has emphasized the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" defined by the twisted legal framework of the Office of Legal Council memos, IRF teams in effect operate at Guantánamo as an extrajudicial terror squad that has regularly brutalized prisoners outside of the interrogation room, gang beating them, forcing their heads into toilets, breaking bones, gouging their eyes, squeezing their testicles, urinating on a prisoner's head, banging their heads on concrete floors and hog-tying them -- sometimes leaving prisoners tied in excruciating positions for hours on end.

Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama
Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet, May 15, 2009

Here's how your truly commented on this article in a private email:

Personally, I don't think even for a minute that this is about Gitmo, Al Qaeda, fighting terrorists, etc. as much as it is about developing and expanding totalitarian law enforcement and penal methods. Everybody and their brother knows that most of those people at Gitmo can be let go and nothing will change; at least, they can be treated with reasonable dignity and chances are they will be quite manageable. Give them their books, let them write letters home and receive letters, feed them three squares, and chances are there won't be any more problems than in any good ole' county jail.

Then what gives? What gives, I think, is that Gitmo is but a prototype, with a view of every police station and every county jail in the US of A being eventually gitmoized. And while they ain't there yet, not by a long shot, I can't help but say that some progress is apparantly being made in that direction.

Funny crimes of our times...

2009-03-14T15:33:00.002-04:00

Boston Police said they made an unusual find after a drug raid Friday on a Roxbury apartment: counterfeit money.

Robert White, 50, was charged with possession of counterfeit money after police allegedly found 14 bogus $20 bills. He also faces a charge of knowingly being present where heroin is kept.

The money was funny: Boston man charged with possessing counterfeit money, The Boston Globe, Saturday, March 14, 2009

14 $20 bills is a grand total of $280. I don't know how well the counterfeiters knew their trade but it is entirely conceivable that they were at least good enough to make the bills look genuine to an untrained eye. And if Mr White was into counterfeiting himself I would guess the amount he would produce would likely exceed $280. So quite likely he is just being charged with not being a currency expert.

As for "knowingly being present where heroin is kept"... Doesn't that have somewhat of a ludicrous ring to it? I used to live in dormitories on campus, I knew there were drugs there... What was I supposed to do - sleep out in the cold?

And what if all that bad stuff was not off-limits?

2009-03-14T12:45:00.003-04:00

In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs, a distinction which continues through to the present. Last year, working with the Cato Institute, I went to that country in order to research the effects of the decriminalization law (which applies to all substances, including cocaine and heroin) and to interview both Portuguese and EU drug policy officials and analysts (the central EU drug policy monitoring agency is, by coincidence, based in Lisbon). Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense.

Glenn Greenwald, The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal, Saturday, March 14, 2009

By the way, here in the US no drug laws existed prior to 1913 if memory serves. And best I know it's not like everyone here just became a junkie. A nation of junkies would hardly have been as powerful as successful as the US at the time.

New US$1 design

2008-10-09T20:14:00.001-04:00

Unfortunately, I don't know who the author is of this design as it came to me via email but I would be delighted to give that author credit should I find out who that is.
Boris Epstein

U.S. Army prepares to invade U.S.

2008-10-09T19:59:00.000-04:00

The plans to implement martial law in America have been taking shape for decades, hidden behind "Continuity of Government" contingency planning. Now, with public outcry over the banker bailout bill at fever pitch, all of the pieces are in place for the U.S. Army to start policing American citizens.

For more information and analysis, please visit

http://www.corbettreport.com

YouTube link

$700 billion is nothing

2008-10-05T12:13:00.000-04:00

Voters are rightly furious at the proposal to spend $700,000,000,000 that the government doesn't have to bail out Wall Street bankers who created the current economic crisis in the first place. But why then aren't we concerned about the trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve is pumping into the system? Or the trillions missing from the Pentagon? Or the quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble.

For more news and economic analysis, visit:

http://www.corbettreport.com

YouTube link