Welcome to 1984

Why is Google Earth Hiding Dick Cheney's House?

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:10:00 +0000

By Sharon Weinberger

What the heck is so special about Dick Cheney's official residence that Google feels the need to obscure it? Oh, must the be that secret bunker allegedly built underneath it. But if that's indeed the case, why then is the vice president's home at the Naval Observatory crystal clear on Yahoo Maps?

In an article this month for Discover, I looked at how widely available commercial imagery has affected national security. While governments typically can't force companies to restrict imagery, it's certainly possible for them to coerce or persuade services like Google Earth from posting sensitive images. There have been a number of articles, for example, hinting that Google is trying to avoid stepping on the toes of China's government, which is concerned about sensitive images of its military installations available on Google Earth. But even in the United States, Google may be looking to avoid conflicts with the Pentagon. Google has a growing federal business, including contracts with the Defense Department, and antagonizing your customer is never a good idea.

Earlier this year, Google responded to concerns about personal privacy by obscuring faces of people caught by its Street View cameras, but the only time I know of that Google has publicly admitted to removing imagery at the request of the U.S. government is the case of Fort Sam Houston in Texas. That was reasonably straightforward: camera teams for Google Street View were mistakenly let onto to base and allowed to take panoramic images of the installation (one military official I interviewed called the Street View images the best pre-operational surveillance tool he had ever seen). There have also been reports that Google Earth obscured images of bases in Iraq.

So, how common is it that Google Earth obscures images based on security issues? If you find sensitive areas that Google Earth (or other online services) that seem to have obscured or blocked, leave a comment below or e-mail me at sharonweinberger[at]gmail.com.

[Image: U.S. Government]

9/11 Mystery Plane

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:38:00 +0000

Find more videoslike this on My MysteriousWorld

Voices on Recording May Not Have Been From Iranian Speedboats

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 06:35:00 +0000

"The Iranians have denied using the threatening language and are saying U.S.-released video is fabricated."

Jan. 10, 2008/ABC News

By MARTHA RADDATZ and JONATHAN KARL

Just two days after the U.S. Navy released the eerie video of Iranian speedboats swarming around American warships, which featured a chilling threat in English, the Navy is saying that the voice on the tape could have come from the shore or from another ship.

The near-clash occurred over the weekend in the Strait of Hormuz. On the U.S.-released recording, a voice can be heard saying to the Americans, "I am coming to you. You will explode after a few minutes."

The Navy never said specifically where the voices came from, but many were left with the impression they had come from the speedboats because of the way the Navy footage was edited.

Today, the spokesperson for the U.S. admiral in charge of the Fifth Fleet clarified to ABC News that the threat may have come from the Iranian boats, or it may have come from somewhere else.

We're saying that we cannot make a direct connection to the boats there," said the spokesperson. "It could have come from the shore, from another ship passing by. However, it happened in the middle of all the very unusual activity, so as we assess the information and situation, we still put it in the total aggregate of what happened Sunday morning. I guess we're not saying that it absolutely came from the boats, but we're not saying it absolutely didn't."

The Iranians have denied using the threatening language and are saying U.S.-released video is fabricated. Today, the Iranian government aired its own video of the event on state-run TV there. On the audio, the voice that the Iranians say is the communication from their vessel can be heard identifying itself to the American ship, "Coalition warship No. 73 this is an Iranian navy patrol boat."

The incident ended without shots being fired, but senior defense officials told ABC News that the USS Hopper's gunners were within seconds of firing on the Iranians.

_______________________________________________

Hmmmmm...... interesting. From the minute I saw this story on the news I had a funny suspicion that there was more going on than was being reported. Seriously, even if this did take place as initially reported in the media, how big of a threat can three or four guys in a speedboat really be to a U.S. Navy ship?

Welcome to 2008 - The End of The American Century

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:17:00 +0000

I'm sorry that I haven’t made any postings on here recently. I have been vacationing in Labrador for the past couple of weeks and have been keeping myself busy with a lot of snowmobiling, fishing, hunting, and reading. It's a hard life, but somebody has to do it :-)

So we have finally turned the page and entered into this foul Year of our Lord, 2008. I wish I could muster the strength and inner conviction to wish everyone a happy and joyful new year, but unfortunately the more I look around, the more despair I envision for the future of humanity. It's an unfortunate reality that the greedheads have finally achieved their goal of high jacking the social political and economic institutions that so heavily influence our collective quality of life. Yet when I try to awake (typically apolitical) people from their slumber and warn them about the grim reality (and up hill challenge) that we face as a society, they brush me off and say that all politicians are corrupt and that we cannot make a difference to the society in which we live. Such self-defeating attitudes are the sort that will ultimately lead to the wholesale destruction of democracy and the rights, freedoms, and liberties that our forefathers fought so hard to institute and protect.

As the late great Hunter S. Thompson stated so many times before his death in February of 2005, "the year 2000 marked the end of the American Century", and I believe this also to be true (albeit to a lesser extend) for Canada.

Anyways, enough of my incoherent ramblings. Without further ado I present you with an interesting article I recently read concerning the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson and the deplorable state of the media and presidential politics of our American neighbours to the south.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

by George Giles

George Giles / Lew Rockwell.com | December 31, 2007

Poor Hunter dead and gone left me here to sing his song. Author Hunter S. Thompson (HST), the original Gonzo journalist, died by his own hand in February of 2005. His most famous work was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. It introduced the world to the concept of Gonzo Journalism. After watching the epic Meet the Press interview of Ron Paul last weekend Hunter has been much on my mind, reincarnate as the "filthy bearded raven croaking nevermore."

The campaign kicks into high gear next week as we enter the New Year and it promises to be a real animal act, the kind that Hunter would revel in. The mainstream (straight) press has been voraciously devouring the campaign to date. Like malignant hyenas they are dieting on the bones and gristle of failed and failing policy nostrums from all the usual suspects.

Like Christmas, political campaigns seem to start earlier and earlier in every election cycle. The quest for the Holy Grail of Politics, the American presidential nomination from the major parties is no different. The frenzy is already in full regale as the "leading candidates" swagger, stagger and bluff towards the finish in November. A lot of heat and noise is being generated but little light from what Hunter called the Straight (Linear) Press.

The Democrats, as they have since JFK was assassinated, are dragging up career political hacks with the morals of hammerhead sharks. Edwards, Clinton and Obama are just the latest chapter in an ongoing saga of political devolution and the near suicide of the Democratic party. They offer nothing different than their long line of predecessors: Mondale, Biden, Bentsen, Ferraro, Kerry, Clinton I, Gore and the ubiquitous Hube. A steady dose of statist pablum: soak the rich, help the poor, free health care, lower taxes, higher spending. Roast ducks will fly into the open mouths of the proletariat if they just elect them! Habitual LRC readers and Austrians know that this thin gruel of economy-busting inflationist fiscal policy, taxation, profligate spending, and increased regulation are the recipe for ongoing disaster. The Democrats are truly the party of no ideas. Every one of these "thought leaders" is proffering the eerie reincarnation of Hubert (I was a Jew once myself) Humphrey, a massive dose of prevaricating atavistic swill.

The Dems at least are consistent, reusing, yet again, the same dog-eared and tired platform of the ghosts of elections past. This time they are fielding, in my humble opinion, the least electable candidates yet. This says a lot given that this is the party of LBJ, Humphrey, Mondale, Dukakis and Kerry, career stiffs with the charisma of a wax mannequin. They would have been better off stuffing the corpse of a Democrat that has actually won an election and hiring Disney Imagineers to bring it to life with the desperate hope that 2-minute sound bites, and content-devoid debates, would again fool a dulled and somnolent populace into voting the creaky and soulless party machine back to power.

What about the first Clinton election? Well in my opinion, it was a mass media–orchestrated knee-jerk, socialist, statist, media-crafted platform of the fabric not being Ronald Reagan. Bush the Elder was another unelectable candidate, but ran as 4 more years of Reagan which the country still wanted. The masses always prefer economic growth and lower taxes which is something that the Democrats have failed to learn in the last half century.

An unelectable Democratic candidate is a recurring theme. The successful ’76 campaign of Carter was of not being the Nixon/Agnew/Rockefeller axis. Walter Winchell’s dummy could have beaten that crew. Gerald Ford was dragged in by the party machine as Nixon’s replacement who was squeaky clean (politically), but then the scales of justice would tip in Jack the Ripper’s favor when compared with that Devil’s Trilogy. Ford does occupy a special place in my heart as the President who vetoed more bills than any other in history (a record he still holds). When Blow Dried and Toothy Jimmy had to run on his own merit he was quickly relegated to the dustbin of history. Jimi Hendrix’s leather fringe coat would have won the election of ’76 against the malignant and rotting corpse of Nixon’s disastrous Presidency. Nixon was, after all, the candidate who prolonged the Vietnam War an additional four years just so his mean-spirited cadre could get another 4 years of their hand in everyone’s pockets and rent-free living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Conservative Nixon Presidency that featured wage and price controls continued his folly as Cambodia and Laos got more craters than the moon (Nixon wasn’t bombing he was just relocating scrap steel for the DoD). So much shrapnel was disgorged that magnetometers will never work there. This sideshow brought Pol Pot to power with collapse of the Cambodian government thanks to Nixon’s criminal non-bombing. Sadly in the seventies this was actually understandable given that most everyone was stoned, and relieved that the Vietnam War had finally ground to a halt on the nightly news (even if the forces of socialist darkness were slaughtering millions more as another monument to failed European nation building that had gone completely sideways).

America has passed way beyond the Do Long Bridge! This brings focus to the mainstream Republicans: Thompson, McCain, Huckabee, Romney and Giuliani leapfrogging one another in taking up the mantle of Bush the Lesser. Bush II’s presidency has been a cruel charade of Nixon/ Kissinger diplomacy with lie and kill in center ring as the main event, second only to borrow, borrow, and borrow again. As if the 4 trillion dollars in additional debt that the Neocon-Military-Congressional-Complex has yoked Americans with isn’t enough. These candidate golems are playing the foolish and desperate game of trying to one-up one another in offering acts III and IV of the same debacle. Numerous LRC contributors have beaten this platform into dust; I’ll spare readers kicking up any more here. Which brings me around to the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson, aka Dr. Gonzo.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail was Thompson’s finest work. During the presidential campaign of 1972 Hunter diligently filed bi-weekly reports on what the candidates, the press corps, their entourages and fellow travelers were doing. It was later packaged as a book replete with Eagleton breakdowns, Muskie’s ibogaine allegations, backroom/bar-room shenanigans and Peter Sheridan as the first evangelical neo-con to trash a hotel room. The work had brilliant allegorical references to the deviant behavior that Hunter watched, and whole-heartedly participated in, as all concerned showed how low they could stoop on the road to becoming Potus Imperious. While Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas proved to be a self-indulgent and empty diatribe against Thompson’s perception of American Corporatism, it did awaken a journalist spirit to strike at the enemy ("I kicked Nixon … every chance I could") hard and often. Dr. Gonzo’s obituary is a classic bile-filled screed against the Nixonian monstrosity. The current campaign trail goes from a footpath to a superhighway this January. This necessitates full Thompsonian disclosure to cut through the fog of the Linear Press. It’s hard to tell if they (linear press) are drunk or just stupid as they witlessly perform the Ruling Party’s attempt at suppression of dissent and the promulgation of relevant ideas. Neocons, like Nixon, do not see dissent, they see criminals when they look beyond their many moat’s at the rebelling populace.

Nixon may be dead, but his legacy of hate and malfeasance lives on in the mainstream Ruling Party in both of their malignant wings with Bush the Lesser as Nixon reincarnate.

Still Hunter Thompson was a pitiable soul. His multi-faceted addictions were a poor compensation to his awareness of the deconstruction of the American dream. His prose brought this to millions, as he wielded the adjective like a double-edged sword. As his Gonzo became integral to the process that it was observing, it perturbed both outcome and observation such that the vision of the potentialities got obscured. As criticism it lacked the essential ingredient of offering an alternative. As the years went on he sunk deeper and deeper into a drug induced fog. His writing became schizophrenic as he was able to produce less and less as time marched on. He could still occasionally spit out epiphanies but they were often lacking in wisdom. As a methodology his results were nil, even if the process became hilarious (try reading Campaign Trail in public, you’ll soon be "cackling like a hen full of amyls"). The only real benefit was inculcating readers in the quest to seek the reality lurking beneath the increasingly crude façade. This quest is become a conflagration igniting countless blogs, web sites, and grassroot candidacy worldwide.

In college I tracked down and read every single word he had written for publication, and savored most of them many times. He still had his talent. Hunter and his Gonzo methodology had brought into the media spotlight an arena that had assiduously shunned it for almost a century. Yet Hunter never saw the bigger picture that was grounded in ironic perception, revisionist understanding of history and the Austrian economic policy that is the logical end result of the same. The spotlight turned from his writing to his behavior, and his message got lost for a time. His suicide was his last futile, poignant but nihilistic vanguard of Gonzo.

Hunter died unaware that the Internet was a reincarnation of his Gonzo method. Still his Great Shark Hunt lives on. The Internet is streaming uncensored information at light speed around the planet and is starting to drive the media and the campaign process. It is now continuously available to billions almost everywhere. Uncountable numbers of blogs are the vigorous implementing the HST vision of Gonzo. The Ruling Party with its opposing wings are cranking up the volume on their one-note song: Blue State Socialists want two clicks of the statist ratchet of ruining this country while the Red State Fascisti are determined on ruining all others. The cacophony of their death throes will be deafening as the reigns of power slip from their claw-like grasp.

Power, like a championship fight, must be taken from the titleholder. The Ron Paul revolution has the ruling elite on their heels, back to the ropes, weakening with every blow. Last weekend bore witness to something previously never thought possible in the age of media-controlled candidacy and disinformation dissemination: a viable candidate at the national level discussing actual issues, with thought-provoking and cogent arguments based on both a moral and a historically accurate basis.

Dr. Ron Paul represents a limited government conservative, classically liberal. The only platform of consistent and ideological Republicanism. This is the American Dream that Hunter longed for; it is not dead. This is what HST wanted Gonzo to be, a viral force that changes the process yet does not get compromised from the participation. He wanted a free America, free of war, free of racism, free of corporatism, free of fear and devoid of loathing.

The viral Ron Paul revolution is gaining momentum everywhere but in the linear press (whose audience dwindles daily), which is still working overtime denying the viability of the candidacy. Dr. Paul is viral on Meet the Press (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV)

Ron Paul Presidency is a head-on assault to the Ruling Party, government bureaucrats and their many supplicants. It is where Hunter Thompson wanted to go. I urge you all to join me in supporting him in the Republican primaries and, if he is nominated, the general election.

In closing I quote HST from his last great work:

Jun 16, 1994

MEMO FROM THE NATIONAL AFFAIRS DESK

DATE: MAY 1, 1994

FROM: DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON

SUBJECT: THE DEATH OF RICHARD NIXON:

NOTES ON THE PASSING OF AN AMERICAN MONSTER... HE WAS A LIAR AND A QUITTER, AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED AT SEA... BUT HE WAS, AFTER ALL, THE PRESIDENT.

"And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is becoming the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." ~ REVELATION 18:2

Richard Nixon is gone now and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing – a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family. Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon."

Res Ipso Loquitor

Alberta Government Admits NAFTA Superhighway

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:45:00 +0000

"The continued denial of a NAFTA superhighway by establishment media hacks proves that they are not journalists, but instead are bought and paid for propagandists who are too lazy to do basic research."

roguegovernment.com/December 5, 2007

Alberta's government web site admits to the existence of a NAFTA superhighway. While establishment media hacks continue to deny plans for a continental highway, it is curious that a government web site would openly admit to the existence of it. It is also curious how these liars can get away with calling presidential candidate Ron Paul a conspiracy theorist for citing readily available information. One of the driving forces behind the formation of a NAFTA superhighway is NASCO a non profit organization dedicated to expanding our current highway infrastructure so goods can be more easily traded within the coming North American Union.

What's funny about NASCO's web site is that they deny the existence of a continental superhighway but openly admit to it at the same time. Take for example the following taken from their myth vs fact section.

MYTH: NASCO is spearheading the creation of a NAFTA Superhighway?

FACT: Founded in 1994, NASCO is a nonprofit organization that is working to bring together the public and private sectors along a common corridor. The organization is striving to:

1) solve critical infrastructure problems in innovative ways;
2) maximize the efficient use of our existing resources;
3) better utilize critical diminishing funding for transportation infrastructure; and,
4) employ technology along our existing infrastructure to improve security.

How is it a myth if the goal of this organization is to expand and make improvements on I-35 which is referred to by the Alberta government as the NAFTA superhighway? Why is it that they have a logo that represents the flags of Mexico, Canada and the U.S.? This is a clear cut case of double think. They deny the existence of a NAFTA superhighway, but admit openly that they are doing all sorts of things to ensure that I-35 is improved upon to be used as the NAFTA superhighway.

Here they openly admit that existing highway infrastructure is to be used as the NAFTA superhighway. Below is an excerpt.

"NAFTA Superhighway" - As of late, there has been much media attention given to the "new, proposed NAFTA Superhighway". NASCO and the cities, counties, states and provinces along our existing Interstate Highways 35/29/94 (the NASCO Corridor) have been referring to I-35 as the 'NAFTA Superhighway' for many years, as I-35 already carries a substantial amount of international trade with Mexico, the United States and Canada. There are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway - it exists today as I-35.

The bottom line is that a NAFTA superhighway will be formed by making improvements to existing highway infrastructure. Technically, there is no new NAFTA superhighway because the NAFTA superhighway will be built around what is already there. NASCO admits this openly on their web site, and the Alberta government actually states that I-35 is the NAFTA superhighway. The continued denial of a NAFTA superhighway by establishment media hacks proves that they are not journalists, but instead are bought and paid for propagandists who are too lazy to do basic research.

Naomi Wolf: America's Fascist Coup Owes Legacy To Bush's Nazi Grandfather

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:11:00 +0000

"When I started reading, not only are tactics and strategy being reproduced exactly right now by the Bush administration - but actual sound bytes and language and images and scenarios are being reproduced," she added.

Jonesreport.com/November 29, 2007

Author Naomi Wolf, who made headlines earlier this year after she identified the ten steps to fascism that were being followed to a tee by the Bush administration, spoke publicly for the first time yesterday about the origins of what we see unfolding today, Prescott Bush's attempt to launch a Nazi coup in 1930's America.

Speaking on the Alex Jones Show, Wolf said that she was first alerted to begin researching America's slide into fascism when her friend, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, warned her that the same events that laid the foundations for the rise of the Third Reich in early 1930's Germany, when it was still a Parliamentary democracy, were being mirrored in modern-day America.

"A small group of people began very systematically to use the law and dismantle the Constitution and put pressure on citizens to subvert the law - and that opened the door for everything that followed," said Wolf.

"When I started reading, not only are tactics and strategy being reproduced exactly right now by the Bush administration - but actual sound bytes and language and images and scenarios are being reproduced," she added.

Wolf's essay, Fascist America, In 10 Easy Steps, has received plaudits for how it succinctly describes the ways in which dictatorships the world over throughout the 20th century have evolved by following the exact same blueprint for tyranny that we see unfolding in America today.

"Everybody that wants to close down a Democracy does the exact same ten things, the same classic steps and unfortunately we're starting to see these ten steps being put in place in the United States," said Wolf.

For the first time publicly, Wolf traced the origins of contemporary developments back to President Bush's Nazi grandfather, Prescott Bush, and his plan to launch a fascist coup in the 1930's.

"There was a scheme in the 30's and Prescott Bush was one of the leaders of this scheme, an industrialist who admired fascism and thought that was a good idea - to have a coup in the United States along the lines of the coup they saw taking place in Italy and Germany," said Wolf, referring to the testimony of Marine Corps Maj.-Gen. Smedley Butler, who was approached by a wealthy and secretive group of industrialists and bankers, including Prescott Bush - the current President's grandfather, who asked him to command a 500,000 strong rogue army of veterans that would help stage a coup to topple then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

A recent BBC radio report confirmed that there was an attempted coup led by Prescott Bush.

"Smedley Butler had been involved with violent regime change throughout his career, but he was approached by these conspirators, including Prescott Bush, and he outed them and he testified to Congress that they were planning a coup in the United States - it's in the Congressional record," said Wolf, adding that the coup was being bankrolled by German industrialist and one of Hitler's chief financiers Fritz Thyssen.

"What is amazing to me and resonant to me is that when the Nuremberg trials were finally put in place, these Nazi industrialists, some of whom had colluded with Americans including IBM, were about to be brought to trial and sent to prison - there was a moment at which they were going to look into turning the spotlight on their American partners," said Wolf.

The author added that laws such as the Military Commissions Act of 2006 were consciously designed to protect current President Bush and his co-conspirators from being indicted for war crimes, harking back to Prescott Bush's history.

"The family history is that you can make so much money uniting corporate interests with a fascist state that violently represses people, that's why when I saw the recycling of so much Nazi language, Nazi tactics, Nazi strategies, Nazi imagery in the Bush White House and then finally belatedly people brought to me this history of Prescott Bush's attempted coup and Smedley Butler's revelations - it gives me absolute chills," said Wolf.

The fact that Bush's grandfather was a Nazi cannot be presented alone as proof that President Bush is carrying on the legacy, but his policies and rhetoric, which in her essay Wolf clearly documents are borrowed from the Nazi playbook, and in particular the recent move to smear administration critics as potential terrorists, are evidence that George W. Bush is the figurehead for a modern-day fascist coup in America led by the Neo-Cons.

Wolf concluded that history shows the only safe course for preserving freedom in such a climate is to prosecute and jail the protagonists of the coup as early as possible, a process many would argue should have been enacted several years ago.

Chris Colepaugh Kicks Ass!!!

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:37:00 +0000

“However, some of the less visible guitar influences are George Harrison and, my main influence—and the reason I now play guitar—Stephen Stills. Not a lot of people recognize Stephen Stills’ genius, but I think he is one of the most underrated guitar players out there.”

Gibson.com/November 26, 2007

There may be a very simple reason for the influx of Canadian musical talent into the United States. Just ask fellow northern neighbor Chris Colepaugh, recently signed Gibson artist who, along with his band, Cosmic Crew, are quickly establishing themselves among the ranks of successful Canadian acts to cross the border.

“Because of the cold winters, we spend a lot of time inside performing—whether onstage, in rehearsals, or in the studio,” Colepaugh said. “It makes us tougher and stronger as musicians.”
Simple as that.

Colepaugh is part of the jammier vanguard of Canuck musicians heading south in search of wider audiences, closer proximity of venues, and more like-minded musicians.

“Canada is very supportive of emerging music, but geographically it is always a challenge to tour,” says the New Brunswick-native. “Most big cities are about eight hours from each other. When we head south, and have a three-hour drive from city to city, it’s a real treat.”

Colepaugh and the Cosmic Crew are a power trio in the most traditional sense: guitar, bass, and drums cranking out chunky riffs and exploratory improvisations that fit the mold of Jimi Hendrix and Cream, to modern incarnations like Gov’t Mule (though, truth be told, his compositions and vocals have a certain kinship to Umphrey’s McGee and Blues Traveler).

“I come from a very musical family,” Colepaugh said. “My father’s side of the family all played an instrument, and my mother’s side all sang. There was never a moment without music in the house.

“My early musical influences were my parent’s collection of big band music from the '30s and '40s and their rock albums of the '60s and '70s,” Colepaugh continued. “When I got into my own music, I started listening to Kiss. My first heavy metal album was Ozzy Osbourne's Speak of the Devil. It was when I was in high school that I started listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and that turned me on to the whole Southern rock scene.”

This matrix of influences is heard over the course of Colepaugh’s two albums, In Time and the more recent In Your Backyard. Melody and composition are given equal weight to unbridled rocking and jamming—and the songs aren’t overly wrought. “Caught Up To You” is a prime example: Punchy and crunchy with enough lyricism to keep the head and feet moving.

“For guitar playing, there are the standards I’m influenced by—Hendrix, Clapton, and Page,” Colepaugh said. “However, some of the less visible guitar influences are George Harrison and, my main influence—and the reason I now play guitar—Stephen Stills. Not a lot of people recognize Stephen Stills’ genius, but I think he is one of the most underrated guitar players out there.”

Like Stills, Colepaugh is a big Gibson fan, and it all started with his first guitar, an ES-335. The love affair has progressed steadily ever since. His arsenal includes a variety of Gibsons, including the Les Paul Standard.

“I’ve been playing Gibsons since 1995,” Colepaugh said. “I initially saw my ES-335 late in the summer at a secondhand shop, went in, and played it every single day. After several weeks, the owner said he had a buyer and had to sell it. I managed to scrape together enough cash to get it the next day, and it’s been my soul ever since. When we played with Gov’t Mule in September, I asked Warren Haynes if he’d sign it. It meant a lot.”

But given that his heroes played mostly Les Pauls, why the ES-335?

“I find that the ES-335 is a multipurpose guitar,” Colepaugh said. “You can get it to feed back, and rock out in a rock environment. But it can also mellow out and play jazz and country too. It’s a very versatile guitar.”

What’s perhaps his most versatile guitar is his Gibson EDS-1275 double neck. It’s a guitar he has very specific reasons for playing, but it’s also his personal homage to Page.

“I write a lot of my songs in open tunings,” he said. “On the albums, I record the rhythm tracks open, and the solos I do in regular tunings. The double neck allows me to have all these options when I play live. I can have the 12-string in an open tuning, and then have the six-string tuned two flat. This allows me to play all my solos in the regular keys while having access to the 12-string for rhythm. I can flip back and forth between the two, and it gives me a fuller live sound.”
Colepaugh shrugs off the suggestion that maybe the double neck and its iconic history puts added pressure on him.

“All Gibsons have long-standing histories in music,” Colepaugh said emphatically. “It’s what you do with the guitar that counts, and I try to make it my own.”

Colepaugh and his Cosmic Crew will be on tour across North America throughout 2008. Click here http://www.colepaugh.com/ for the latest updates, music and more.

Saudi Minister Warns of U.S. Dollar Collapse as OPEC Ponders Decreased Reliance on the Greenback

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 17:03:00 +0000

"My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries."

thebusiness.co.uk/November 17, 2007

The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal was overheard ruling out a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to discuss pricing crude in a private meeting at the oil cartel's conference.

In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, ministers' microphones were not cut off during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: "My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries. "There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don't want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec."

After around 40 minutes press officials cut off the feed, which had been accidentally broadcast to the press room.

Prince Al-Faisal added: "This is not new. We have done this in the past: decide to study something without putting down on paper that we are going to study it so that we avoid any implication that will bring adverse effects on our countries' finances."

Iran and Venezuela have argued that the meeting's final communique should voice concern about the level of the dollar, which has recently fallen to new record lows against the euro. They are pushing for oil to be denominated against a basket of currencies.

The greenback also weakened slightly against the pound, although sterling's own recent weakness has pushed it down from $2.10 to $2.0457 during the week.

Nigerian finance minister Shamsuddeen Usman said that Opec could declare in the communique that: "While underlining our concern for the continued depreciation of the dollar and its adverse impact on our revenues, we instruct our finance ministers to study the issue exhaustively and advise us on ways to safeguard the purchasing power of our revenues, of our members' revenues."

Chancellor Alistair Darling will today urge his fellow finance ministers at a major G20 summit to increase investment in oil production and refinement.

RIP Norman Mailer

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:43:00 +0000

In memory of the late Norman Mailer who passed away this past Saturday, I present you with some of his unique wisdom.

"A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped."

"Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men."

"Culture's worth huge, huge risks. Without culture we're all totalitarian beasts."

"Each day a few more lies eat into the seed with which we are born, little institutional lies from the print of newspapers, the shock waves of television, and the sentimental cheats of the movie screen."

"I don't think life is absurd. I think we are all here for a huge purpose. I think we shrink from the immensity of the purpose we are here for."

"Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.

"You must blow against the walls of every power that exists the small trumpet of your defiance."

“Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation.”

"Once a newspaper touches a story the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists."

Mounting Research Proves Stoned Drivers are Safe Drivers

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:50:00 +0000

by Dana Larsen

Cannabis Culture/11 Jan, 2005

Two decades of research show that marijuana use may actually reduce driver accidents.

The effects of marijuana use on driving performance have been extensively researched over the last 20 years. All major studies show that marijuana consumption has little or no effect on driving ability, and may actually reduce accidents. Here's a summary of the biggest studies into pot use and driving.

A 1983 study by the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) concluded that the only significant affect of cannabis use was slower driving - arguably a positive effect of driving high.

A comprehensive 1992 NHTSA study revealed that pot is rarely involved in driving accidents, except when combined with alcohol. The study concluded that "the THC-only drivers had an [accident] responsibility rate below that of the drug free drivers." This study was buried for six years and not released until 1998.

A 1993 NHTSA study dosed Dutch drivers with THC and tested them on real Dutch roads. It concluded that THC caused no impairment except for a slight deficiency in the driver's ability to "maintain a steady lateral position on the road." This means that the THC-dosed drivers had a little trouble staying smack in the center of their lanes, but showed no other problems. The study noted that the effects of even high doses of THC were far less than that of alcohol or many prescription drugs. The study concluded that "THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small."

A massive 1998 study by the University of Adelaide and Transport South Australia examined blood samples from drivers involved in 2,500 accidents. It found that drivers with only cannabis in their systems were slightly less likely to cause accidents than those without. Drivers with both marijuana and alcohol did have a high accident responsibility rate. The report concluded, "there was no indication that marijuana by itself was a cause of fatal accidents."

In Canada, a 1999 University of Toronto meta-analysis of studies into pot and driving showed that drivers who consumed a moderate amount of pot typically refrained from passing cars and drove at a more consistent speed. The analysis also confirmed that marijuana taken alone does not increase a driver's risk of causing an accident.

A major study done by the UK Transport Research Laboratory in 2000 found that drivers under the influence of cannabis were more cautious and less likely to drive dangerously. The study examined the effects of marijuana use on drivers through four weeks of tests on driving simulators. The study was commissioned specifically to show that marijuana was impairing, and the british government was embarrassed with the study's conclusion that "marijuana users drive more safely under the influence of cannabis."

According to the Cannabis and Driving report, a comprehensive literature review published in 2000 by the UK Department of Transportation, "the majority of evidence suggests that cannabis use may result in a lower risk of [accident] culpability."

The Canadian Senate issued a major report into all aspects of marijuana in 2002. Their chapter on Driving under the influence of cannabis concludes that "Cannabis alone, particularly in low doses, has little effect on the skills involved in automobile driving."

The most recent study into drugs and driving was published in the July 2004 Journal of Accident Analysis and Prevention. Researchers at the Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research analyzed blood tests from those in traffic accidents, and found that even people with blood alcohol between 0.5% and 0.8% (below the legal limit) had a five-fold increase in the risk of serious accident. Drivers above the legal alcohol limit were 15 times more likely to have a collision. Drugs like Valium and Rohypnol produced results similar to alcohol, while cocaine and opiates showed only a small but "not statistically significant" increase in accident risk. As for the marijuana-only users? They showed absolutely no increased risk of accidents at all.

LINKS AND REFERENCES

1983 National Highway Transportation Safety Administration study: Stein, AC et al., A Simulator Study of the Combined Effects of Alcohol and Marijuana on Driving Behavior-Phase II, Washington DC: Department of Transportation (1983)
www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_myth12.shtml

1992 National Highway Transportation Safety Administration study: The Incidence and Role of Drugs in Fatally Injured Drivers, by K.W. Terhune, et al. of the Calspan Corp. Accident Research Group in Buffalo, NY (Report # DOT-HS-808-065)
www.drugsense.org/tfy/nhtsa1.htm

1993 National Highway Transportation Safety Administration study: Marijuana and actual Driving Performance, By Hindrik WJ Robbe and James F O'Hanlon. Institute for Human Psychopharmacology, University of Limburg
www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_driving4.shtml

1998 University of Adelaide and Transport South Australia study:
www.ukcia.org/research/driving4.html

1999 University of Toronto Study, Marijuana Not a Factor in Driving Accidents:
newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bin/19990329a.asp

2000 UK Transport Research Laboratory study on Cannabis and Driving:
www.mapinc.org/newscc/v00/n1161/a02.html

2000 UK Department of Transportation's Cannabis and Driving report:
www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_rdsafety/documents/page/dft_rdsafety_504567.hcsp

2002 Report of the Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs
www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ille-e/rep-e/repfinalvol1part4-e.htm

July 2004, Journal of Accident Analysis and Prevention, Psychoactive substance use and the risk of motor vehicle accidents.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15094417

For a less scientific and more amusing study of the combination of drugs and driving, go here:
www.techno.de/mixmag/interviews/Driving_on_drugs.html

A BETTER WAY TO TEST

Performance testing is better than drug testing
Cannabis Culture, January 2005
cannabisculture.com/articles/4130.html

Alternatives to Drug Testing: Performance testing Non-testers List
www.nontesterslist.com/nontesters/ptest.html

Performance testing can add an extra measure of safety
HR Magazine, February 1996
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_n2_v41/ai_18159115

An Alternative to Drug Testing
Inc Magazine, April 1995
www.inc.com/magazine/19950401/2235.html

MEDIA REPORTS ON "DRUGGED DRIVING" LAWS

UK Launches Drug Driving Tests
Daily Telegraph, December 22, 2004
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v04/n1821/a02.html

Drug Office Out To Convince Teens Pot Impairs Driving
Lexington Herald-Leader, December 3, 2004
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v04/n1726/a05.html

Growing danger: Drugged driving
USA Today, Oct 21, 2004
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-21-cover-drugged-driving_x.htm

Zero-tolerance drugged driving law doing the job
The Daily Press, July 8, 2004
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v04/n977/a05.html

Lawmakers Aiming for 'Zero Tolerance' Of Pot-Smoking Drivers
The Athens News, May 5, 2004
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v04/n683/a02.html

Drugged Driving Statutes Pushed
Boston Globe, March 21, 2004
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v04/n464/a02.html

New Legislation To Allow Police To Conduct Roadside Tests for Drug Impaired Drivers
Ottawa Citizen, February 23, 2004
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v04/n319/a07.html

Too Many One Toke Over Line, Police Say
Globe and Mail, February 1, 2003
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v03/n173/a01.html

Drug Czar, Prohibition Establishment Seek 'Zero Tolerance' for 'Drugged Driving'
The week online with DRCNet, November 22, 2002
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v02/n2157/a04.html

British Police Plan New Drug Tests For Drivers
Reuters, August 3, 2000
www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v00/n1105/a12.html

Marjiuana Report Too Hot Too Handle
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, October 1998
www.norml.org.nz/Marijuana/Driving.htm#abc981014b

"Steer Clear of Pot" Media Campaign
US Office of National Drug Control Policy
www.mediacampaign.org/steerclear/index.html

The American empire is falling with the dollar

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:21:00 +0000

"The Romans brought on their own demise, but it took them centuries. Bush has finished America in a mere seven years".

Onlinejournal.com/November 8, 2007/by Paul Craig Roberts

The US dollar is still officially the world's reserve currency, but it cannot purchase the services of Brazilian super model Gisele Bundchen. Gisele required the $30 million she earned during the first half of this year to be paid in euros.

Gisele is not alone in her forecast of the dollar's fate. The First Post (UK) reports that Jim Rogers, a former partner of billionaire George Soros, is selling his home and all possessions in order to convert all his wealth into Chinese yuan.

Meanwhile, American economists continue to preach that offshoring is good for the US economy and that Bush's war spending is keeping the economy going. The practitioners of supply and demand have yet to figure out that the dollar's supply is sinking the dollar's price and along with it American power.

The macho super patriots who support the Bush regime still haven't caught on that US superpower status rests on the dollar being the reserve currency, not on a military unable to occupy Baghdad. If the dollar were not the world currency, the US would have to earn enough foreign currencies to pay for its 737 oversees bases, an impossibility considering America's $800 billion trade deficit.

When the dollar ceases to be the reserve currency, foreigners will cease to finance the US trade and budget deficits, and the American Empire along with its wars will disappear overnight. Perhaps Bush will be able to get a World Bank loan, or maybe one from the "Chavez bank," to bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Foreign leaders, observing that offshoring and war are accelerating America's relative economic decline, no longer treat the US with the deference to which Washington is accustomed. Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, recently refused Washington's demand to renew the lease on the Manta air base in Ecuador. He told Washington that the US could have a base in Ecuador if Ecuador could have a military base in the US.

When Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez addressed the UN, he crossed himself as he stood at the podium. Referring to President Bush, Chavez said, "Yesterday the devil came here, and it smells of sulfur still today." Bush, said Chavez, was standing "right here, talking as if he owned the world."

In his state of the nation message last year, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Bush's blathering about democracy was nothing but a cloak for the pursuit of American self-interests at the expense of other peoples. "We are aware what is going on in the world. Comrade wolf knows whom to eat, and he eats without listening, and he's clearly not going to listen to anyone." In May 2007, Putin criticized the neocon regime in Washington for "disrespect for human life" and "claims to global exclusiveness, just as it was in the time of the Third Reich."

Even America's British allies regard President Bush as a threat to world peace and the second most dangerous man alive. Bush is edged out in polls by Osama bin Laden, but is regarded as more dangerous than Iran's demonized president and North Korea's Kim Jong-il.

President Bush has achieved his dismal world standing despite spending $1.6 billion of hard-pressed Americans' tax money on public relations between 2003 and 2006.

Clearly, America's leader and America's currency are poorly regarded. Is there a solution?
Perhaps the answer lies in those 737 overseas bases. If those bases were brought home and shared among the 50 states, each state would gain 15 new military bases.

Imagine what this would mean: The end of the housing slump. A reduction in the trade deficit. And the end of the war on terror.

Who would dare attack a country with 15 new military bases in every state in addition to the existing ones? Wherever a terrorist turned, he would find himself surrounded by soldiers.

All of the dollars currently spent abroad to support 737 overseas bases would be spent at home. Income for foreigners would become income for Americans, and the trade deficit would shrink.

The impact of the 737 military base payrolls on the US economy would end the housing crisis and bring back the 140,000 highly paid financial services jobs, the loss of which this year has cost the US $42 billion in consumer income. Foreclosures and bankruptcies would plummet.

If this isn't enough to turn the dollar around, President Bush's pledge not to appoint an attorney general if Michael Mukasey is not confirmed offers more promise. If the Democrats will defeat Mukasey's nomination, there are other superfluous cabinet departments that can be closed down in addition to the US Department of Torture and Indefinite Detention.

The American empire is being unwound on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The year is two months from being over, but already in 2007, despite the touted "surge," deaths of US soldiers are the highest of any year of the war.

The Taliban are the ones who are surging. They have taken control of a third district in Western Afghanistan. Turkey and the Kurds are on the verge of turning northern Iraq into a new war zone, another demonstration of American impotence.

Bush's wars have endangered America's puppet regimes. Bush's Pakistani puppet, Musharraf, is fighting for his life. By resorting to "emergency rule" and oppressive measures, Musharraf has intensified his opposition. When Musharraf falls, thanks to Bush, the Islamists will have nukes.

American generals used to say that the wars Bush started in the Middle East would take 10 years to win. On Oct. 31, General John Abizaid, former commander of US forces in the Middle East, put paid to that optimistic forecast. Speaking at Carnegie Mellon University, Gen. Abizaid said it would be 50 years before US troops can leave the Middle East.

There is no possibility of the US remaining in the Middle East for a half century. The dollar and US power are already on their last legs, unbeknownst to Democratic leaders Pelosi and Reid who are preparing yet another blank check for Bush's latest request for $200 billion in supplementary war funding.

There isn't any money with which to fund Bush's lost war. It will have to be borrowed from China.

The Romans brought on their own demise, but it took them centuries. Bush has finished America in a mere seven years.

Even as Gisele throws off the dollar's hegemony, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Columbia are declaring independence from the IMF and World Bank, instruments of US financial hegemony, by creating their own development bank, thus bringing to an end US suzerainty over South America.

An empire that has lost its backyard is finished.

Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration.

Overcoming Indifference - A Work in Progress

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:16:00 +0000

This is quite possibly the only poem that I have ever written. I may try and make this into a song of some sort in the future. To be honest with you I don't even know where it came from. I was just sitting here reading the news and thinking about the state of the world and I thought I'd do something different than my standard commentary on the state of the world. I hope you enjoy it....and please (as always) leave comments.

Overcoming Indifference - A Poem

Apathy and indifference have become our new creed,
while the masters of war still plot and deceive.

As I look all around me with disgust and distain,
I can't help but wonder if we're all going insane.

The rich become richer at the expense of the weak,
yet it's frightening to see how so few people speak.

If knowledge is power and we hold the key,
how is it that the elite maintain their grip on you and me?

Has history taught us nothing about the perils of war?
How did we let these scumbags get richer at the expense of the poor?

Don't let them deceive you into thinking your worthless and weak,
for with a new dawn brings new opportunity to rise up and speak.

Our freedom is precious and cannot be ignored,
So stand up and defend it, you have been forewarned.

American Lockdown: Law Enforcement Out Of Control

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 05:48:00 +0000

The greater the extent of the empire's collapse, the greater the intensity of the shock applied to those who reside within the belly of the beast.

Scoop/Carolyn Baker

In my recent article "The End Of America: The Police State Is Right Here, Right Now" I included experiences of escalating intimidation on the part of law enforcement in the United States within recent months. I must confess that when I cite such incidents, I fear that in a few days or weeks, it will all go away, and everyone else, myself included, will begin to question the validity of the examples, breathing a heavy sigh of relief and rejoicing that the situation isn't nearly as dire as I'm asserting it is.

This time, however, I have nothing to fear because since that article was posted, the ante of out-of-control law enforcement in America appears to have been upped with a rapidity that I could not have imagined just a few weeks ago.

Have we not all heard about the New York woman on her way to rehab who passed through the Phoenix airport, became distraught when she had just missed her flight, and was arrested for disorderly conduct by airport police? The suspect, Carol Ann Gotbaum, was handcuffed and then placed in a holding cell and left alone. According to police, when they returned, she was dead. At this writing, Gotbaum's family and officials are awaiting the autopsy report-the "official" cause of death.

Just a few days later, again in Phoenix, a male suspect was handcuffed after an on-foot chase by police, and shortly after being handcuffed, according to police, he lost consciousness. He was then taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

In today's New York Daily News, the story "Science teacher's brush with police ends in heart attack" relates an incident that happened back in June of this year when an African American Brooklyn high school teacher was mistaken for a perpetrator by police, suffered a heart attack, and was left on his own by the street cops who accused him of "acting."

As outrageous as these incidents may be, the most chilling event appeared on networks across the nation this morning with the story of a twenty year-old Wisconsin sheriff's deputy who shot and killed six young people at a party Saturday night. The most obvious question: How is it that a community of citizens allows a twenty year-old to become a deputy sheriff? Why not give an M-16 to a third-grader?

Nevertheless, all of these stories are connected by a common thread: Law enforcement in the United States, whose duty it is to "protect and serve" have now become not just part of the problem but in fact, predatory devourers of those they are sworn to keep safe.

Deepening collapse will be attended by manifestations of the unraveling of all institutions, one of the most frightening examples being law enforcement's hysterical repression of citizens.

Although we are seeing more media attention given to private security companies such as Blackwater, we should not assume that the power and funding granted to these firms will dissipate anytime soon. They are an integral part of the Shock Doctrine brilliantly analyzed by Naomi Klein in her new book of the same title. The greater the extent of the empire's collapse, the greater the intensity of the shock applied to those who reside within the belly of the beast. From those shocks flow not only increased terror and social control, but flourishing profits for private security companies.

The U.S. government is making it unmistakably clear that it intends to use every avenue of power at its disposal to lock down the nation. A story sent to my subscribers today from the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) reveals that in its correspondence with the Treasury Department "The Treasury Department was surprisingly candid in that correspondence, asserting the U.S. Government's authority, in declared emergencies, to confiscate precious metals and to restrict ownership of mining shares -- and to confiscate and restrict every other financial asset as well."

Almost daily we hear of increased surveillance of Americans as well as unprecedented restrictions on travel, not only on persons entering the U.S. but on persons traveling within the country and on dissenters who attempt to enter other countries as in the case of two activists, Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright who were denied entrance into Canada on Thursday "because their names appeared on the FBI's National Crime Information Center database."

Another relevant story relinked today pertains to the anti-terrorism Vigilant Shield 2008 exercise of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) "The series of exercises is mandated by the US government to prepare, prevent and respond to any number of national crises that would call for the use of the military inside the United States. Vigilant Shield 2008 builds a scenario of a domestic disaster in the US (terrorist attack or natural disaster). It posits the domestic use of the US military including a special role for the US Air Force." As we know, a precedent for using the U.S. military inside the U.S. was set in the aftermath of Katrina in 2005.

For those considering expatriation, it will soon be too late to leave. For those who choose to remain within this increasingly locked down nation, it will be necessary to acquire survival skills, a strong community of friends, and a great deal of stealth in order to navigate this empire's exacerbating Orwellian treachery.

Ron Paul on Jay Leno

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:15:00 +0000

Bush Furthers Dictatorship Agenda

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:36:00 +0000

"If this type of thing continues, Bush could in fact become a dictator unless something is done immediately to impeach him and his criminal administration".

Intelstrike.com/Lee Rogers/October 31, 2007

George W. Bush continues his quest to turn the President’s office into a full dictatorship. The Washington Post recently reported that due to Congress’s failure to approve specific pieces of legislation, Bush will use more executive orders over the upcoming months to get things done. Bush has already seized additional powers through a series of draconian laws like the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act as well as through the use of unconstitutional executive orders and directives like NSPD-51/HSPD-20 which gives Bush the power of a dictator in the case of a catastrophic emergency.

From the Washington Post:

The White House plans to try implementing as much new policy as it can by administrative order while stepping up its confrontational rhetoric with Congress after concluding that President Bush cannot do much business with the Democratic leadership, administration officials said.

According to those officials, Bush and his advisers blame Democrats for the holdup of Judge Michael B. Mukasey's nomination to be attorney general, the failure to pass any of the 12 annual spending bills, and what they see as their refusal to involve the White House in any meaningful negotiations over the stalemated children's health-care legislation.

White House aides say the only way Bush seems to be able to influence the process is by vetoing legislation or by issuing administrative orders, as he has in recent weeks on veterans' health care, air-traffic congestion, protecting endangered fish and immigration. They say they expect Bush to issue more of such orders in the next several months, even as he speaks out on the need to limit spending and resist any tax increases.

The Washington Post article refers to administrative orders that Bush will use to influence the political process. Upon researching these specific administrative orders, it is clear that they are referring to executive orders and use the term administrative orders to sound more politically correct and less alarming. They specifically cite a so called administrative order on endangered fish. That so called administrative order which can be viewed via this link is actually an executive order.

This report from the Washington Post is incredibly disturbing considering the previous history of this criminal administration seizing power through draconian laws, executive orders and more. The fact that White House aides are openly stating that they expect Bush to issue more executive orders in the next several months in an effort to influence the political process is completely insane and unconstitutional. It is a clear violation of the separation of powers and should be addressed by Congress immediately.

Unfortunately, we probably won’t see Congress do anything to stop Bush on his quest to become a dictator. In fact it appears as if Congress is on the same team as Bush after the House of Representatives passed HR 1955 which gives the government a blank check to classify anything including thought crimes as homegrown terrorism by a 404 to 6 margin. Congress has also done nothing to stop Bush's previous unconstitutional executive orders and directives, so expecting them to stop future Presidential edicts is nothing more than a pipe dream. If this type of thing continues, Bush could in fact become a dictator unless something is done immediately to impeach him and his criminal administration.

War Criminal on the Run - Rumsfeld flees France to Avoid Arrest

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:55:00 +0000

"Rumsfeld must be feeling how Saddam Hussein felt when U.S. forces were hunting him down,"

Alternet.org/October 29, 2007

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of "ordering and authorizing" torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. military's detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.

U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush's "war on terror" for six years.
Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil.

According to activists in France, who greeted Rumsfeld, shouting "murderer" and "war criminal" at the breakfast meeting venue, U.S. embassy officials remained tight-lipped about the former defense secretary's whereabouts citing "security reasons".

Anti-torture protesters in France believe that the defense secretary fled over the open border to Germany, where a war crimes case against Rumsfeld was dismissed by a federal court. But activists point out that under the Schengen agreement that ended border checkpoints across a large part of the European Union, French law enforcement agents are allowed to cross the border into Germany in pursuit of a fleeing fugitive.

"Rumsfeld must be feeling how Saddam Hussein felt when U.S. forces were hunting him down," activist Tanguy Richard said. "He may never end up being hanged like his old friend, but he must learn that in the civilized world, war crime doesn't pay."

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights (LDH) filed the complaint on Thursday after learning that Rumsfeld was scheduled to visit Paris.

Martin Sheen Questions Official 9/11 Story

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:18:00 +0000

"However, there have been so many revelations that I have my doubts, and chief among them is Building 7 - how did they rig that building so that it came down on the evening of the day?" said Sheen.

PrisonPlanet.com/Paul Watson/Oct. 29, 2007

Actor Martin Sheen questioned the official 9/11 story, as well as the collapse of Building 7 and Larry Silverstein's "pull it" comment during an anti-war march this past weekend in Los Angeles, saying that recent revelations about the attacks had caused him to have doubts.

Sheen was interviewed by We Are Change L.A. along with fellow actor Mark Ruffalo during an event hosted by the ANSWER Coalition at which around 20,000 people attended.

Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Martin Sheen, star of blockbuster films like Apocalypse Now and The West Wing, follows in the footsteps of his son Charlie Sheen, who publicly spoke of his doubts about the official 9/11 story back in March 2006.

"I did not want to believe that my government could be involved in such a thing," said Martin Sheen, "I could not live in a country that I thought could do that - that would be the ultimate betrayal," he added.

"However, there have been so many revelations that I have my doubts, and chief among them is Building 7 - how did they rig that building so that it came down on the evening of the day?" said Sheen.

Though Fox News and other attack dogs are likely to seize upon Sheen's comments and run hit pieces, the National Institute of Standards and Technology itself had to admit recently that the total collapse of the twin towers at free fall speed could not be explained.

NIST also promised to investigate whether explosive devices were involved in the collapse of Building 7 in August last year.

The issue of Building 7 stoked controversy earlier this year when archive footage from news networks including BBC and CNN emerged that showed correspondents reporting the collapse the 47-story skyscraper over 20 minutes before it fell, leading some to charge that people with foreknowledge of the collapse were feeding networks a script as the events of 9/11 unfolded.

Sound Familiar? UN Atomic Watchdog Chief Says There Is No Evidence To Suggest That Iran Is Building Nuclear Weapons!

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:28:00 +0000

AFP/October 28, 2007

UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday he had no evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons and accused US leaders of adding "fuel to the fire" with recent bellicose rhetoric.

"We haven't received any information there is a parallel, ongoing, active nuclear weapon program," the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency told CNN.

"Second, even if Iran were to be working on nuclear weapons ... they are at least (a) few years away from having such weapon," he said, citing Washington's own intelligence assessments.

"My fear (is) that if we continue to escalate from both sides that we will end up into a precipice, we will end up into an abyss. The Middle East is in a total mess, to say the least. And we cannot add fuel to the fire."

The White House Friday rejected any parallels between its Iran rhetoric and the run-up to the Iraq war, after fresh sanctions on Tehran and escalating US warnings fueled comparisons to the months before the 2003 invasion.

"We are absolutely committed to a diplomatic process," spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.

"We would never take options off the table, but the diplomatic process is what we want to move forward with," he said, calling it "unwise" to rule out the use of force.

His comments came as US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been sharply ramping up their rhetoric about Iran, leading some critics to draw parallels with the late 2002 verbal escalation against Iraq.

In recent months, Bush has predicted "nuclear holocaust" and "World War III" if Tehran gets atomic weapons, while Cheney has warned of "serious consequences" for Iran if it defies global demands to freeze uranium enrichment -- echoing the UN resolution that Washington says authorized war in Iraq.

Iran insists that it is enriching uranium only for nuclear energy and denies US charges that it is seeking the bomb.

ElBaradei has been vindicated in his pre-war belief that Iraq was not resuming its own nuclear arms program, contrary to claims by Bush and Cheney.

However, he said that in the current dispute, "we cannot give Iran a pass right now, because there is still a lot of question marks."

"But have we seen Iran having the nuclear material that can readily be used into a weapon? No. Have we seen an active weaponization program? No."

Merely "exchanging rhetoric" would not resolve the Iranian nuclear case, the IAEA chief said, adding that "the earlier we follow the North Korean model, the better for everybody."

North Korea has already detonated a nuclear device. But under six-nation talks, the Stalinist state has agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for a broad package of economic and diplomatic incentives.

ElBaradei said it is time "to stop spinning and hyping the Iranian issue because that's an issue that could have a major conflagration, and not only regionally but globally."

"It could even accelerate a drive by Iran, even if they are not working on a nuclear weapon today, to go for a nuclear weapon," the IAEA chief said.

"So we can talk about use of force as and when we (have) exhausted diplomacy ... but we are far, far away from that stage."

Foreign ministry officials from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States are preparing to hold new discussions about stronger UN sanctions against Iran, possibly as early as Friday in London.

Meanwhile one of ElBaradei's deputies, Olli Heinonen, is due to hold fresh talks in Tehran on Monday.

Heinonen clinched a deal in August for Iran to answer outstanding questions over its atomic program so that the IAEA can conclude a four-year investigation.
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Call me crazy but doesn't this sound eerily similar to the evidence (or lack thereof) presented by UN weapons inspector Hans Blix prior up to the Iraq war??? When will people finally wake up and realize that these slimbags in the White House are murderous crooks who are hellbent on preventing peace at all costs and actively seeking to create a worldwide fascist government?

Alex Jones Exposes the Elite's Sinister Plan for Humanity in His Latest Film: Endgame!

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:40:00 +0000

"The eugenics movement never went away, it simply re-packaged itself to be more palatable to an increasingly skeptical public".

Infowars.net/October 24, 2007

Alex Jones' brand new documentary Endgame charts the history of the elite blueprint for social domination and control, outlining the ultimate plans that those who consider themselves the anointed have for our planet.

The first section of the film documents the rise of the banking cartels, who since 1800 have funded both sides of almost every war. Endgame charts the usurpation of the British economy by the Rothschild family who went on to bankroll all factions during the first world war providing armaments companies through banks in France, Austria, Germany and England.

Endgame then documents the fallout of the great war and the attempts to form a controlling League of Nations, which was ultimately blocked by Congress. Such frustration on the part of the elite led to the rise of two factions, fascists and Fabian socialists. Endgame documents how bankers again funded both sides during WW2 which ultimately led to the creation of the UN and the beginning of the movement to implement three power blocs via incremental globalism.

The second section of the film covers the Bilderberg group and Alex's documentation of the elite group at the 2006 meeting in Ottawa. It covers Alex's detention on the Canadian border at the behest of Bilderberg insiders themselves. Alex and his crew describe how they were interrogated for nearly twelve hours before finally being allowed entry into the country.

Featuring extensive interviews with Jim Tucker and Daniel Estulin, veteran reporters who have been covering the meetings for 27 and 15 years respectively, Alex reveals how it is an offence for any member of the federal or state government to meet with foreign power brokers without the express authority of the president or Congress.

Endgame then shifts focus to the impending movement towards a North American Union, presenting reports and documentation relating to the efforts toward regional harmonization between the US Mexico and Canada at the secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summits, which refer to an "evolution by stealth" agenda.

The later parts of the film deal firstly with the hijacking of the environmental movement. Experts and former insiders describe how there has been a long term goal spanning back decades to use an exaggerated threat from mother nature in order to control energy markets, regulate the progression of lesser economies and increase the rich poor divide by pricing out the middle classes.

This then dovetails with the ultimate endgame, the depopulation agenda. The film's gripping climax delves into the history of eugenics mindset. Endgame lays out the evidence that humans are being portrayed as a virus upon the earth, as we are increasingly being told to believe by cultural and academic kingpins.

From the teachings of "Dr Death" Eric Pianka, to German film fest cartoons, to New York Times best selling books, we are being saturated with the idea that humanity itself must be culled in order to save mother earth.

Endgame reveals how The eugenics movement never went away, it simply re-packaged itself to be more palatable to an increasingly skeptical public.

Looking more slick and professionally produced than ever with an intense soundtrack and filmed in super quality high definition, Endgame is a must watch for anyone seriously concerned with the world we live in today.

ALEX JONES' ENDGAME will be released on the WEB OCT. 26 and on DVD on NOV. 1. View High Quality Trailers at http://www.endgamethemovie.com/trailer.html

The Goose Bay Military Base Continues to Play a Key Role in Protecting Canada's Arctic Sovereignty

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:09:00 +0000

"Clarke predicted that the value of CFB Goose Bay will become more important as Arctic sovereignty becomes a bigger issue".

CBC News/October 24, 2007

Canada has stationed several fighter jets at a central Labrador air base to prepare for a possible response to Russian military exercises in the Arctic.

About six CF-18 fighter jets have been stationed at 5 Wing Goose Bay this week, on standby to intercept any Russian military aircraft that may come close to Canadian or U.S. airspace.

Russian bombers have been testing the North American air defence response, and though the action has not been seen as hostile, Lt.-Col. Brian Bowerman, the acting wing commander, said the Canadian force is alert.

"You have to be ready, and this is what they're doing," he said. "They're practising to be ready if they need to intercept [Russian] aircraft."

The Canadian jets, which have been flying missions from Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay for the last five days, are expected to stay at the base for several weeks. About 50 support personnel have accompanied them.

The base was once busy with fighter jet training, especially during the Cold War, but diminishing activity in recent years has called into question whether the base is still viable.

Dean Clarke, a town councillor in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, said the presence of the CF-18s proves that the base still has strategic importance.

"They're a lot closer [now]. They have better legs and flying ability from Goose Bay, where we're northerly located," he said.

Clarke predicted that the value of CFB Goose Bay will become more important as Arctic sovereignty becomes a bigger issue.

He said the town council will use this exercise to remind the federal government of the value of having fighter jets based in the region permanently.

Loose Change Final Cut - Movie Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:51:00 +0000

Anita Thompson discusses the Life and Legacy of Hunter S. Thompson

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:12:00 +0000

CNN.com/October 12, 2007

It wasn't a reckless obsession with liquor, drugs and gunplay that made the late Hunter S. Thompson the undisputed king of Gonzo journalism, his wife says. Instead, it was old-fashioned principles such as working hard and telling the truth, enlivened by the glee Thompson took from learning and from being right.

"I don't deny his lifestyle, because his lifestyle was pretty extreme," Anita Thompson told The Associated Press, but that lifestyle was made possible by his success as a reporter and writer, not the other way around.

In her new book, "The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," Thompson says her husband built his career with a tireless dedication to the craft of reporting, a keen awareness of his own shortcomings and his personal blend of patriotism: loving his country while mistrusting authority.

And in a wide-ranging interview, she spoke about a rift between her and Hunter Thompson's son and the agonizing doubts that dogged her in the days after her husband's suicide.

Thompson shot himself in the kitchen of his home outside Aspen in February 2005 at age 67.

He had established himself as an original and riveting voice with "Hells Angels," published in 1966, and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in 1972. It was Gonzo journalism -- irreverent, outlandish and unapologetically personal. The image it projected, coupled with his undisguised love of guns and explosions, gave Thompson a reputation as an unbridled outlaw surfing on a wave of drugs and excess.

After his death, Anita Thompson said, she got stacks of e-mails and letters from young people who thought they could duplicate his success by mimicking his infamous consumption.

"They wrote me these letters about drinking bottles of Wild Turkey and doing grams of cocaine," said Thompson, a tall, outgoing, slender woman with shoulder-length dirty blond hair and a ready smile who munched on a salad during an interview at a Denver hotel. "And I realized, OK, I need to correct that."

Don't Miss
Hunter S. Thompson dead at 67
Her book, published by Fulcrum Publishing, depicts the man who used the pseudonym Raoul Duke in his famous "Fear and Loathing" as a relentless researcher and a voracious reader. He viewed politics as both worthy and necessary to get things done, the book says, and he believed nothing could be accomplished without friends and allies.

"The Hunter I want people to understand is hardworking, righteous and a patriot -- a bedrock patriot and loyal to his country and loyal to his friends," Anita Thompson said. Even his most savage political commentary was written in hopes of inspiring change: "He believed we were better than what we were electing."

Thompson also knew his faults and either compensated for them or harnessed them, his widow said. He thought he was lazy, so he worked hard. He could be angry and violent, so he poured that energy onto the page.

But not all of it ended up there.

"Sometimes, it felt like the walls of the cabin would come down when we would get into our big fights," she said. "Things would fly, grapefruits and a lamp would fly -- a lot of shouting."

Their marriage worked, she said, because she fought back, and he was never physically violent toward her.

"To me he was a great husband. He could be scary at times ... but so could I," she said, laughing.

The 35-year age difference between them -- she was 32 when he died -- enriched their relationship. Thompson described Hunter as her teacher, boss and best friend, while she sometimes played the role of designated grown-up.

"He was such a child at heart that I was often the adult between the two of us," she said.

Anita Thompson was born in Fort Collins, about 130 miles northeast of Aspen. She attended the University of California at Los Angeles but got so heavily involved with environmental groups on the campus that she burned out. She moved to Aspen in 1994 for what she thought would be a one-semester break, but it stretched into years.

She went snowboarding every day during ski season and was working as a nanny and a ski shop bookkeeper when a friend introduced her to Hunter. They became friends, and he asked her to go to work as his editorial assistant on a book of his letters.

They fell in love. She moved in with him in late 1999 and they married in April 2003.

Writing "The Gonzo Way" has helped her heal from his suicide, she said, but the path has been uneven. The first few weeks were especially dark, complicated by a split with Juan Thompson, Hunter's son from a previous marriage.

Twice before the suicide, Juan and his wife had asked Anita to leave Hunter, said Thompson, who does not know why and refused to consider it.

"I had no intention of leaving him," she said. "He was the love of my life and he was sick at the time." Hunter Thompson had undergone a hip replacement and back surgery, and had suffered a broken leg.

After the suicide, Juan told her his father had wanted to end the marriage, and that a paper found near his body was a divorce document, she said. She didn't believe it, but then recalled a note her husband wrote two weeks earlier saying, "I love you enough to set you free." She had asked what he meant but he didn't want to talk about it.

"So when Juan said that 'My dad wanted a divorce,' I thought maybe Hunter did want me to go," she said. "I had to requestion everything -- my place there, if my being there maybe caused Hunter to do it."

Relief came three weeks later, she said, when she got a photograph taken by investigators that showed the paper found near Thompson's body was not a divorce document but an amendment to his will.

"I know Hunter didn't want a divorce. I know that," she said.

Anita Thompson said Juan won't discuss the document with her.

Juan Thompson declined to discuss the assertions, saying they involved "very personal issues."

"If we're going to talk about Hunter, I think we should talk about Hunter's accomplishments and writing rather than his personal life," he told the AP.

Like many others who knew the writer, Anita Thompson said she was not surprised that he committed suicide, because he had spoken more than once about ending his life on his own terms, when he thought it was time to go.

"I have accepted his decision with an open heart. But I do feel it was a mistake. I believe he did it too soon," she said.

Now 35, Thompson said she is doing her best to move on. She is finishing her undergraduate degree in American studies at Columbia University in New York and is considering graduate school.

She may pursue a career in public education, but, she said, "I will always work for Hunter, or at least for the things he thought were important, because they're important to me, too." One of those causes is working with a marijuana-law reform group.

Her family sometimes worries that she is "still orbiting around Hunter." But that's all right with Thompson.

"It's like Venus -- doesn't want to lose the sun. One day you wake up and the sun is gone. What do you do?" she said with a laugh.

Vote for Ron Paul

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:28:00 +0000

Can global consciousness predict the future?

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:22:00 +0000

"The results suggest that mind and matter are linked in some fashion-that human consciousness can indeed influence..."

socyberty.com/September 5, 2007

The Global Consciousness Project utilizes random event generators (REGs) in an effort to tap a postulated human consciousness field that may encircle the Earth. The REGs have been operating in the background, all around the world, for seven years running.

This project is a multidisciplinary collaboration among approximately 100 scientists, engineers, artists and others, to study the effects of consciousness and how it interacts with physical systems.

REGs use computer technology to generate ones and zeros in random sequences. The numbers are printed on a graph. The laws of chance dictate that equal numbers of ones and zeros should be churned out, represented by a nearly flat line on the graph. Any deviation would show as a curve or a spike.

Testing

During the late 70s, Prof Jahn carried out tests to determine whether the power of human thoughts could impact on the output of an REG. Test subjects were asked to direct their minds on the machine.

The results were astonishing. Ordinary people, using their thoughts or intention, could influence the REG. It responded by spitting out unequal numbers of ones or zeros, producing significant fluctuations on the graph.

Dr Nelson enlarged on Prof Jahn's work by taking the machines to group meditations. Once again, dramatic shifts were seen in the patterns of numbers.

Dr Nelson connected 40 REGs to his laboratory computer in Princeton. On September 6, 1997, the graph catapulted upwards; his machines reported a huge deviation from the norm. That day, an estimated one billion people around the world watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, at Westminster Abbey.

In 1998, Dr Nelson gathered together scientists from all corners of the globe to analyze the phenomenon. Subsequently, the Global Consciousness Project was born.

Fast Facts

Data has been collected since 1998

The network embodies 65 host sites around the world

Data is transmitted to a server in Princeton, NJ, USA

The data comprises a database of synchronized parallel sequences of random numbers

The Objective

To determine if the REGs show a deviation when major events impact on many people

The REGs will ultimately demonstrate the validity and presence of consciousness in the world
Interestingly, when a significant event occurs, the REGs display patterns that should not exist in random sequences. This was noted with 9/11 and the tsunami that rocked the Indian Ocean.

Certain events even appear to have been predicted by the generators! Preceding 9/11, a bizarre spike of non-random activity was noted 4 hours before the attacks on the Twin Towers.
Investigators have examined the REGs' output before, during, and after highly focused group events, such as the Academy Awards or New Year's celebrations. When millions of people share similar emotions or intentions, this outpouring shows a correlation in regard to non-random activity in the REGs.

The results suggest that mind and matter are linked in some fashion-that human consciousness can indeed influence, with resultant non-random fluctuations in streams of truly random data.

If this is true, it would explain psychic ability. If consciousness can be tapped into and also transmitted, then precognitive ability and telepathy, remote viewing and remote influencing become believable and tenable.

Article written by Athlyn Green.

Putting it into Perspective: We Don’t Know How Good We Have It

noreply@blogger.com (MOB) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:49:00 +0000

I stumbled upon this short article the other day while reading through a number of articles on Digg.com and I wanted to post it on here because I think that it really puts things into perspective. This article reminds us that it's important to remember that as bad as things get and as much as we complain about life and/or money (and I'm as guilty as the rest) that there are literally billions of people out there who don't have the same opportunities as us and who live their entire lives without the same luxuries that we take for granted.
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We Don’t Know How Good We Have It
by Brandon Kumm

Sometimes we need to stop and think about about how good we have it. We tend to complain about this thing and that thing, but we don't think about the luxuries we have.

I got to thinking the other day about living somewhere other than here in the United States. After thinking about it for awhile I decided that most of us don't know how good we have it.

What We Have

For the vast majority of Americans, we don't have any idea how good we have it. I was watching a television show about people living in Afghanistan and it got me to thinking. When I'm hungry, I don't have to kill my food or harvest anything unless I want to. I go to the store or a restaurant and get something to eat. Or I just open up my refrigerator and pull out some food and heat it up in the microwave. When it's dark, I turn on the lights. When I'm thirsty I get a glass of fresh, clean water out of the tap. If the water isn't cold enough I get an ice cube. When I'm tired, I lay down on my clean, soft bed and go to sleep. If I'm cold, I turn on the furnace. If I'm hot, I turn on the air conditioner. If I have to go to the bathroom, I go into a room dedicated to that purpose. If I'm dirty, I take a shower using clean, hot water. If I'm sick I go to the doctor. If I need to travel, I drive my car. If my clothes are dirty, I don't have to go down to the river, I wash them in my washing machine. I consider it a pleasure to hang clothes on the line, but when it's too cold or too wet to dry them outside, I use my dryer. If I want music, I turn on my radio. If I need information, I go to the Internet. If I need money, I get a job.

In many places on Earth, these things aren't the birthright of every person, they are unimaginable luxuries. So, the next time you start complaining because your TV isn't big enough or you have to do laundry or you need to make supper or you have to go to the doctor, just think about the fact that all of those things are there for you to complain about.

We don't know how good we have it!