The Siege of Tripoli

Qaddafi’s Missing Legions…

Tripoli – This observer’s tentative appraisal of Tuesday’s events along the north Tripoli port area as of late afternoon 8/23/11 is that the “65,000 well trained and well-armed troops” hyped Sunday by the Gaddafi government don’t in fact exist and that the pockets of government troops here in Tripoli and across Libya that do, will continue to resist what it views as NATO aggression designed to usurp the country’s oil and add Libya to Africom.

NATO is widely viewed in Tripoli as having violated the three main terms of UNSCR 1973, to wit, NATO did engage in regime change, it did take sides in a civil war, it did arm one side, and it did refuse to allow a negotiated diplomatic settlement which many here and internationally believe could have been achieved by early April, thus saving hundreds Libyan lives.  NATO’s  more than 160 days of bombing are seen as egregious violations of UNSCR 1973, Article 2 (7) of the UN Charter and numerous provisions of  international law,  all part of its campaign to secure Libyan oil and this rich countries geopolitical cooperation  for the US, UK, France, Italy and their NATO allies.

I am told that some Gaddafi loyalists are headed to the colonel’s home town of Serte to prepare to defend it. Some of my reasons for these tentative conclusions include the no show government troops, the intensifying NATO bombings of Tripoli, which is the only reason the rebels have not negotiated an end to this conflict last April, and my tentative conclusion that there is no reason for massive numbers of government troops, if they existed, not to challenge the increasing numbers of NATO rebels who appear to be sitting ducks as they tool around Tripoli’s troops. According to journalists who arrived at this hotel yesterday from the west, south and east, there appear to be no government forces moving toward Tripoli to join in an Alamo type last stand battle.

During the early afternoon of 8/23/11, power and Internet were cut from our hotel and again the sealed windowed rooms heated up fast and had to be essentially vacated unless one stayed in the bathtub filled with tepid tap water. We currently have no local or international phone service or information from outside Libya or any knowledge of what is being reported internationally about Libya.

On Monday night August 22, 2011 I met with Saif al Islam.  He was not captured and he is not dead. At least not as of 11 p.m. 8/22/11 or roughly 24 hours after the NTC and the ICC claim he was captured and was being prepared for transport to The Hague. Saif was defiant and he gave assurances that his family was safe and that NATO would be defeated politically for its crimes against Libyan civilians.

Saif took a western camera man and reporter on a short tour of Tripoli showing them that NATO was not in control—not 95% in control of Tripoli  as the NTC rep in London has been claiming since Sunday night and not 80% in control of Tripoli as the White House & NATO’s “Operation protect the  Libyan civilians” CEO, Rasmussen, has claimed. But the rebels do appear to currently control large swatches of Libya’s capitol.  A journalist  from the UK Independent who has been with the rebels for the past more than two months and who  seemed to literally  sort of stumble into our hotel yesterday told me this morning that  NTC claims made during the period he was with them were “complete bullshit.”

Saif, Colonel Gaddafi’s onetime heir apparent, was in good spirits and exuded confidence. In conversation with one Yankee who he knew earned his PhD at the London School of Economics, that contrary to media reports last spring that Saif bought his PhD from LSE, that it’s not true and he in fact worked hard for nearly three years researching and writing his doctoral dissertation on community development. He was offended by reports than he did not.  I tend to believe him because I found the LSE academically tough and my advisor Professor David Johnson and his Thesis Examination Committee trio, to my chagrin, went over my dissertation, Pollution as a Problem of International Law, for nearly three hours, paragraph by paragraph during my oral Thesis defense, more than two decades ago.  I am thinking and assuming that LSE has not lowered its academic standards since the days of Harold Laski and David Johnson.

My new “office” is located in the outside patio area above the swimming pool and gardens of the “7 star” Corinthia hotel.  Wonderful sea view overlooking Tripoli harbor to the north and the old city of Tripoli to the south. When a bomb hits or sustained gunfire erupts the office quickly moves just inside the glassed in restaurant which features the ONLY ‘hot’ electric plug among the more than 6000 currently dead ones in this hotel. Nobody knows when the hotel generator will crash ending the last of the wattage here and exhausting laptop and mobile phone batteries.

The inside of the hotel is sweltering having had no A/C for more than 48 hours. Wanting some fresh air, I prop open a door to the former Japanese Sushi Bar on the outside patio, but Miss Lorraine, the hotel manager, scolds me.  “You bloody American”, she seethed at me yesterday. “First your bloody government brings NATO to bomb us to pieces and now you fill my hotel with birds!  Damn all of you!”

It’s true that Lorraine sometimes gets a little upset when a bomb goes off and some of the birds from the hotel garden fly into the hotel’s  two level grand lobby complete with lots of plants and palm trees where the poor frightened birds seek safety.  They seem to like it inside our hotel.

Concerning the outdoor hotel garden, for some reason the garden lights are always on (last night the only ones in all of north Tripoli that I could see) and the garden fountains continue pumping which of course uses up quite valuable generator fuel oil.  Lorraine laments:  “As you know Mr. Lamb, the staff has abandoned me and I don’t know where the switch is—I would be ever so grateful if you could find it. I think it’s out there in the garden somewhere, and turn it off. Really I would!”   Well, I did find the switch, turned off the fountains and the garden lights and Lorraine suddenly likes me again. Would that all women were so easy to please.

Yesterday one of the few staff people around here offered me the leaders framed picture (way too big to transport!) and a green flag that had been removed from outside the hotel’s main entrance.  Miss Lorraine became distressed because she thought if I was caught with a green flag I could be in trouble. So as not to cause her more stress I declined with the knowledge that I already have a few packed away as gifts for friends.

The green flags and the gold frame picture of Gaddafi that were removed two nights ago suddenly returned overnight.  There had been a heated discussion by remaining senior hotel management staff— numbering two it appears– about the wisdom of removing them. For now they are back where they were.

9:25 a.m.  Two NATO bombs blast nearby. Three “security guys” from resting on a lobby couch run outside to see what happened. More birds come in and I again move my table away from the patio door.

9:43 a.m. Anti-aircraft gun fire hits the side of the hotel chipping the concrete siding near the garden entrance so I move one flight downstairs to the lobby.

10:20 a.m.  A very long convoy of 237 rebel pickups, some with mounted anti-aircraft guns and filled with young fighters with RPG’s and AK-47’s and heavier guns, pass within 100 yards of me and the hotel balcony above the swimming pool and the seaside road– driving east along the sea front.  They passed in front of the Marriott and Bab al Bahar (“gate to the sea”) hotel complex of five tall buildings, apparently unaware that yesterday at about the same time 22 truckloads of government troops turned right into that same complex and at least some of them went underground.  Last night there was gunfire from the government troop location but as of this moment the government troops are undiscovered (if they did not redeploy overnight) and did not fire on the passing rebel convoy although the rebels slow moving convoy must have presented an attractive target. Again one wonders if the government’s troops are laying an elaborate trap for their enemies or if they have decided to sit out this phase and wait to learn whether Gaddafi’s regime can hang on. Of if they even exist in significant numbers.

The three “battle hardened journalists” who just arrived at this hotel are debating if the rebel’s convoy was in retreat or was advancing.  My own two cents worth is that they were advancing toward the Bab al Azizya (“splendid gate”) Gaddafi barracks which as of this morning NATO has bombed a reported 144 times.  I base my view on the serious looks on the rebel’s faces, their evident adrenalin, the fact that their advance is slow and fairly ordered including five ambulances bringing up the rear and the fact that some of them seem to be checking their weapons and ammunition belts  as if preparing for a firefight. Some fighters eye us sternly seemingly unsure whether we are friend or foe. We wave at them and some wave back. However, moments later we hear gunfire from our rear and it appears that someone is firing at us thinking we are supporting the rebels. Kim and I duck into the hotel foyer but he goes back out.

10:40 a.m. Heavy gunfire is heard from the direction of Bab al Azizia Kaddafi barracks.

10:55 a.m. 20 minutes of heavy small arms and mortar rounds erupt and appear to be fired toward Gaddafi’s compound. Maybe it is from the rebel’s convoy that just past but the three battles hardened journalists, including the UK Independent’s Kim, who I have joined up with for the time being, are debating the subject.  Very close AK-47 gunfire.  We come back inside.

12:35 p.m. Two “rebel representatives” arrived at the main entrance of our hotel and caused a stir inside the lobby at the front desk.  This hotel has zero security now, the last two uniformed security guys left early yesterday.  The two “rebel” guys offered protection for the handful of us here.  There was shouting as the front desk guys refused their offer.  Eventually the “rebels” left. The hotel guys said the visitors were indeed local rebel “criminals” and that they had come to loot the hotel and not to protect it. However, there are exactly 8 rooms currently being occupied and one of the journalist’s claims he was already robbed on route from Zawiyeh yesterday just in front of the hotel. His laptop and his cash were stolen. Front desk hotel staff claims that today the “rebels” stole one car, tried but failed to hot wire two others, and stole ten computers from the hotel office.  They also reportedly set up a rebel checkpoint at Gate Two outside our hotel and replaced the green flags with rebel tricolors. I declined to go check.

The AP’s man, Martin, who also arrived yesterday, just told me that the rebels now control the North Tripoli port area where our hotel is situated. My thoughts move to the 22 truckloads of government fighters who I saw disappear yesterday morning among the seaside hotels near our hotel. Meanwhile, the UK Independent’s men Kim reported that visas are no longer required to enter Libya from Tunisia.

12:50 p.m. A shorter convoy of 47 rebel vehicles passed the hotel.  Maybe part of the earlier group on a victory lap or just patrolling or flaunting their control or perhaps it was a new group.  They did not appear in a hurry or very anxious.  We photographed them without their objection as they waved and drove into West Tripoli.

1:30 p.m. Three rockets hit near what appears to be Bab al Azizia.  Heavy gunfire and two more rockets or mortars follow. AP’s Martin and the Independent’s Kim go out to look.  Two more mortars appear to hit in the direction of Bab al Azizia. Kim reported that for some reason no one seems to need a visa to enter now from Jerba, Tunisia and he also thinks that perhaps the Kaddafi regime may have set a trap and will close it when his forces see the whites of rebel’s eyes.

One rebel media representative who re-defected back to the Gaddafi regime from the rebels is being interviewed by a journalist this afternoon.  He told us that the NATO office in Naples is writing or vetting all NTC communications and that they have on their staff Israel Defense Ministry of Information psych-warfare specialists who are producing “panic causing leaflets & mobile phone messages” as well as putting out false claims at key moments for maximum impact on  international and local  public opinion.

I’m not sure if NATO recalls how during the July 2006 war in Lebanon, Hezbollah took IDF and US Israeli lobby psych-war propaganda and wrapped it around Israel’s neck during the 33 day war. However, it appears from here that the West is gobbling up the fake NTC (NATO) “media advisories” being regurgitated by “Libya experts” interviewed ad nausea on CNN, BCC, FOX and other MSM outlets who pontificate about the NTC’s democrats stunning achievement.

The above noted interviewee also claims that he heard rumors that NATO has dropped hit teams to control the messages coming from non MSM reporters who depict NATO and rebel activities in a negative light.  Time may tell.

4:14 p.m. It appears that the hotel generator crashed so there is currently no power whatsoever at the hotel including no elevator. I am not relishing the 18 floor hike up to my room especially given my throbbing right leg.

6:15 p.m.  The young man who let me borrow his bicycle rushed into the Corinthia hotel to tell us that Gaddafi’s compound at Bab al Azizia has been taken by “NATO rebel” forces following the nearly 9 hour battle. A high ranking Gaddafi official advised me last night that he expected Gaddafi’s compound would be taken and that the Colonel will not be easy to locate and will  continue to galvanize a counter revolution in the coming days. He also told me that during the night of Saturday August 20, 2011 Kaddafi issued orders for his troops and supporters not to bomb and fire tanks inside Tripoli for fear of killing civilians and destroying civilian houses.

California: The Titanic of Immigration

“Captain Edward John Smith steamed the Titanic into the iceberg- filled North Atlantic as if he were cruising through the Bahamas.  History tells us he made a grave mistake.”

At one point, California boasted itself the most beautiful state in the Union.  In 1950, it housed a reasonable 10 million people.  Known as the land of milk and honey—California’s mountains, coastline and weather beckoned.  California condors soared through limitless blue skies.  Yosemite National Park, giant Sequoia redwoods, whales and seals along its coastline, Hollywood and 77 Sunset Strip—created the California mystique.

Sixty-one years later, 38 million people cram, jam, gridlock and fume in their fumes on  “forever” crowded freeways.  Growing at 1,700 people daily and over 600,000 annually—California expects an added 21 million people within 35 years. (Source: www.capsweb.org)

What caused California’s overload?  Answer: legal and illegal immigration.  Latest estimates show in excess of four million illegal aliens call California home.  Anywhere from five, ten to twenty million more, my estimate, constitute legal immigrants.

To illustrate environmental refugees, we discover 40 percent of Los Angeles residents were born outside the U.S.  (Source: www.cis.org) They arrived from Mexico, Korea, China, Central and South America, Middle East and Asia.

Result?  Massive subdivision housing sprawl!  Roads, malls, schools, churches, firehouses and homes devour land like Kansas wheat combines.  Developers demolish nature.  They guzzle water.  They vomit black smoke into the air.  Cars whiz around like mad hornets.  The more compacted the traffic, the more drivers suffer road rage.   Few smiling faces can be seen on California freeways.  Drivers busy themselves trying to stay alive.

Joe Guzzardi, a writer and college professor in Lodi, California, recently moved to Pennsylvania, said, “If we continue our suicidal immigration path, whether the inevitable development takes the form of sprawl by building on a city’s periphery or landfill by building inside the city limits, the net result will be the same—an eroded quality of life and a vanished sense of place.”

California’s developers brag ‘smart growth’, however, whether that means ‘slow growth’, ‘managed growth’, ‘brilliant growth’, ‘dumb growth’, ‘fast growth’, or ‘snail’s pace growth’—it equals up to 20 million more people swarming all over California in 30 years. (Source: Fogel/Martin, March 2006, “US Population Projections”)

Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state treasurer Phil Angelides stuffed themselves into the pockets of developers.  Angelides said, “We are a state of 26 million cars, SUVs and trucks that travel 314 billion miles a year and burn 15 billion gallons of gas.  We are on a path over the next 20 years to become a state with 36 million cars that travel 446 billion miles and burn nearly 18 billion gallons.  We must choose to grow smarter, to give Californians more transportation options, the choice to drive fewer miles and burn fewer gallons of fossil fuel.”

That sounds like an idiot talking to a moron who then relays the story to an imbecile.  Even Goober on “Mayberry RFD” possessed more common sense.

Some choice!  How intelligent is Angelides’ statement?  To top it off, former President Bush, in his last State-of-the-Union speech said, “In the next 10 years by 2017, the United States will reduce oil consumption by 20 percent by using conservation, hybrid cars and ethanol.”

He forgot to report America adding 30 million people via immigration in that 10 year span.  Therefore, our consumption can only rise by a factor of 30 million people using gas, coal, natural gas and wood for energy.

Journalist Joe Guzzardi said, “If people would contemplate the additional 100 million people coming our way in the not too distant future, and our current gluttonous land use, then they might become more alarmed.  In a word, the problem is population.  If it can be stabilized through sensible immigration policies, then we have a chance to level off growth.  We’d have a chance to save our state and the United States.”

This journalist has bicycled the length and width of California five times in the past 25 years.  I’ve seen it change from paradise to hell on earth.  Too many people fill its parks with too much trash.  Its ocean beaches suffer dying seals and seabirds from too much sewage, plastic, glass and aluminum pollution.  CBS News reported, fish stocks dropped 90 percent in the past decade.  California skies fill with toxic smoke too thick to breathe.  Yosemite National Park suffers wall-to-wall crowding.  Millions of cars create a kind of insanity of movement far removed from the natural world.  Condors no longer soar in pristine skies because the last of them perch in cages built to save their species.

Constant tension fills places like Los Angeles and San Francisco.  You cannot avoid the crowding, metal, concrete, glass, wires, buildings, roads and loss of sense of place.

One of my favorite writers, a Californian, John Muir said, “Tell me what you will of the benefactions of city civilization, of the sweet security of streets—all as part of the natural up-growth of man towards the high destiny we hear so much of.  I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.  If the death exhalations that brood the broad towns in which we so fondly compact ourselves were made visible, we should flee as from a plague.  All are more or less sick; there is not a perfectly sane man in all of San Francisco.” (September 1874, JOM, page 191-92.)

If the United States can be compared to the Titanic, our country steams into dangerous waters, much too fast and overloaded with too many immigrants to stay afloat.  California might be the bow of our ship and, as it begins failing, its own environmental refugees cannot help but abandon ship like rats in a hurricane.  Had the Titanic been able to stop the in-flooding of the North Atlantic, it would not have become the greatest seagoing catastrophe of the last century.

However, few want to speak up or take action.  I am confounded that no national leaders step into the center ring to call for a national immigration moratorium—especially with 14 million Americans unemployed.  None talk about stopping the in-flooding of humanity with the simple choice of reasoned action—as Congress pumps 200,000 legal immigrants into the USA every 30 days without end.

It didn’t make any difference on the Titanic if you were first class, third class or shoveling the coal in the boilers.  When the ship sank, everyone became a victim in one form or another.   As California fails in areas of water shortages, diminished farmland, toxic air pollution, horrific crowding and mind-numbing expansion away from nature—where will anyone make their escape?

At the current legal immigration rate, we expect an added 72 to 75 million third world legal immigrants within 24 years.  Is Congress, the president and average Americans stupid or what?  Answer: really stupid.   I don’t think  Americans, our Congress or the last five presidents understand they are pushing our country toward collapse.  If they do understand, like passengers on the Titanic, they will go down with us.  London’s eruption two weeks ago is just a taste of what we are facing.  All it takes is a spark of angry minorities in our big cities.

Part 2: The 7th Billion Human on Earth—Frog in the pot metaphor

“Somehow, we have come to think the whole purpose of the economy is to grow, yet growth is not a goal or purpose. The pursuit of endless growth is suicidal.”  David Suzuki

In October of 2011, the 7th billion human being will land on this planet.  From that threshold, humans will continue multiplying by 1.0 billion every 13 years to reach more than 10 billion within 39 years at the mid century.  The ramifications stagger the mind of any thinking American.  This series will give you an idea of what our civilization faces.

From 1964 to 2006, the United States, via mass immigration, grew from 193 million to 300 million.  It added over 100 million people in a 40 year span.  Today, America stands at 312 million people in 2011.  It adds 3.1 million people annually.  It races toward adding 100 million people by 2035—a scant 24 years from now.

In many ways, the American public cannot fathom its own critical condition as to overpopulation.  Americans charged onto the North American continent with unlimited topsoil, trees, fresh water, resources and unimaginable spaces.

If truth be told, the Native Americans kept it perfectly intact for thousands of years of ecological balance and harmony. They also kept their own numbers in equilibrium with nature.  Birds, ducks, geese, deer and buffalo numbered in the millions while clear skies and crystal clean streams offered unlimited food, shelter and clothing.

But starting in 1850, Europeans fled from potato famines, wars and diseases to stampede into America by the millions.  They brought horses, farms, locomotives, chemicals, booze, diseases, factories and the Industrial Revolution with them.  They blasted, mined, poisoned and trashed the national landscape. If you look along America’s highways, lakes, streams and farms, you will see billions of pieces of trash and dumps covering the land.  Americans individually or collectively show no responsibility for picking up after themselves.

Over the last 150 years, Americans enjoyed no end to water, energy and resources.   A sense of cultural entitlement runs through this society with the idea that all these resources available today will be there tomorrow.

A CULTURAL PARADIGM OF NO END TO PLENTY OF EVERYTHING

Four things operate in the American mind in the 21^st century: 1. Religion  promotes “Go forth multiply and take dominion over the land.” 2. Capitalism  promotes unlimited growth, production and consumption—that demands ever increasing human population expansion. 3.  No limits to water, energy and resources. 4. Technology will solve any problem.

Man! Are we in for a rude awakening or what?!  One look at one billion humans living in misery and squalor around the planet today renders a hint and harbinger as to America’s future.

Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed, offers a sobering reality check to those four aforementioned myths. “In his brilliantly written Collapse, Diamond examines in fascinating historic detail why past societies succeeded or failed. He then connects these stories to troubling scenes from 21^st century in Rwanda, Australia, China and Montana—and extracts practical lessons for a world that desperately needs to redefine progress.” James R. Karr

As it stands today, Australia may be the first “First World” country that exceeds its carrying capacity.  With 96 percent of that continent covered in desert sand, it lacks water and arable soil.  A new book, Overloading Australia, by Mark O’Connor and William Lines, points out the obvious facts that Australia cannot support its current 21 million population let alone its immigration-driven projections to add 20 million by mid century.  Additionally, it suffers accelerating carbon emissions and unsustainable ecological footprint dilemmas—that can only worsen with population growth.

Another book, The Collapse of Complex Societies, by Dr. Joseph Tainter, illustrates how highly multifaceted civilizations fail.  If not for the 70 percent importation of oil burned in the US daily, our civilization would fall within days. Astoundingly, U.S. leaders push for population growth by pressing for more immigration.

Ironically, those immigrants flee already overloaded civilizations that expand by 78 million annually.  Startlingly, no one possesses the ability to connect the dots at the national, local or personal levels.  Societal ethnocentrism!

In “On American Sustainability—Anatomy of a societal collapse”, by Chris Clugston, “Most Americans believe that we are ‘exceptional’—both as a society and as a species.  We believe that America was ordained through divine providence to be the societal role model for the world. We believe through our superior intellect, we can harness and even conquer nature in our continuous quest to improve the material living standards associated with our ever-increasing population…we now find ourselves in a predicament. We are irreparably overextended—living hopelessly beyond our means ecologically and economically…we are about to discover that we are another unsustainable society subject to the inescapable consequences of our unsustainable resource behavior—societal collapse.”

HOW DID WE GET TO THIS POINT AND AVOIDANCE OF REALITY? 

Dr. Jack Alpert, www.skil.org, wrote, “Think better or perform genocide”, “When you lower a frog into a pot of boiling water, it feels the heat and jumps out. When you lower a frog into a pot of cold water and then place the pot on the stove and heat it, the frog does not feel the heat, does not jump out, and boils to death.  It appears a frog gathers, processes and values, the available information well enough to save its life in the first case, but not in the second.

“Is it possible that humans think like frogs?  When immersed in our environment, we cannot appreciate our dangerous destination and cannot identify or change our behavior that would avoid it.  Consider that we are experiencing ever increasing social conflict and cannot see it.  We are experiencing ever diminishing wellbeing and cannot see it.  That our progeny will live an animalistic life near subsistence and we can’t see it.”

The question I ask: will we awaken as a civilization before Mother Nature becomes the grim reaper of the 21^st century on a scale far greater than ever experienced in history?  It will be up to the thinkers and doers at this point in time.  You are one of them if you’re reading this series.

Part 1: The 7th Billion Human on Earth—Our Perilous Future

Nahida the Exiled Palestinian: Jewish Voice for Peace? Really??

Gilad Atzmon: This is a very important informative piece. I suggest anyone who is interested in Palestine  to take the time and follow the links. Once again, a Palestinian identifies  the enemy within.

Source: http://uprootedpalestinians.

Nahida the Exiled Palestinian:

It appears that, yet again, Anti-zionist Jewish organizations are trying to silence Palestine’s supporters, to frame the debate, tosecure the future of their brethren in occupied Palestine and to steer the course of Liberation of our Homeland

I would invite people to hear a Palestinian voice, here:

A strategy of liberation requires emancipation

* No decent human-being would demand to live on STOLEN land and still claims to have a fiber of morality.

* No decent human-being could claim that the perpetrator should have the same rights as the victim while claiming to be a humanist.

* Palestinians are under no obligation to hold back their march for freedom, to curtail their aims or to smother their rights for the sake of accommodating and not offending their Jewish supporters.

* Palestinians are always grateful and appreciative of the hard work and dedication of all their supporters whomever they are, however, Palestinians have NO obligation to adopt the aims and objectives of the anti-zionist Jewish supporters instead of their own.

* Dismissing the Palestinian voice as radical, reactionary, intolerant, or unreasonable, and requiring instead the Jewish-anti-zionist stamp of approval to have legitimacy to speak for Palestine, is preposterous and contradicts basic concepts of human rights and does not do justice to Palestinians.

* Palestinians have the ultimate right to choose their vision for their future, of a FREE and sovereign Palestine including the type of government, the writing of constitution, the construction and implementation of their legal and juristic system, which stems from and corresponds to their ethics and reflects and protects their culture.

* Palestinians have the ultimate right to make the final decision on who is allowed to stay in liberated Palestine and who is not, using the legal procedure of their own choice.

* The future of the Palestinian struggle and the aim of liberation of Palestine should not be designed to shield the occupier from paying the full price of his crimes; including the punishment of all those who participated in transgression, and the deportation of the illegitimate Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who colonized Palestine forcefully and were engaged in acts of aggression against Palestinians including serving in the IOF.

* All refugee and their descendents have the unconditional right to come back home, they as the rightful indigenous owners are also entitled to the reinstatement of ALL confiscated (stolen) land and property, compensation for all their losses over the many years of exile and they are also entitled to Palestinian citizenship wherever they are.

* The aims and aspirations of most Palestinians are not confined to the change of zionist regime or the vacuous declaration of abandonment of zionism by the Jewish-zionist occupiers, but rather to the FULL Liberation of Palestine and the restoration of all their rights.

* It is the privilege of Palestinians to decide who should stay in their homeland and who not.

* After a century of terror, theft and crimes; had the Zionist shown any signs of remorse, respect or willingness to be decent guests, had they embraced with open arms the hospitable people of Palestine rather than destroying them with fire-arms; they might have had a chance to be accepted and forgiven. Not any more, as far as I am concerned. They have lost that opportunity.

As a Palestinian, I see the role of any ”Jewish voice for peace” who sincerely desire to contribute to the Liberation of Palestine and justice for Palestinians, and who desire to be identified through their contributions “as Jews”, then their role ought to be focused on cleaning their own house before sorting other people’s houses; i.e. that is to exclude any major role in influencing, leading or directing the Solidarity and/or Liberation Movement of Palestine.

Through taking a leading role in campaigning to blacklist publications, label intellectuals and limit the spectrum of debate by censoring topics which they deem “controversial”; by framing the debate they act against intellectual integrity, box Palestinians and their supporters mentally and knowingly or not act as gatekeepers. They force people to self-censorship to avoid been accused of antisemitism; hence preventing them from acquiring, sharing or discussing information freely that would allow them to make their own informed decisions.

Palestinians’ grievances against the zionist theft of their land do by no means justify antisemitism accusations, Palestinians and their supporters are no lesser human beings, they are well capable to sieve through information and make their own evaluation, henceforth it is completely unacceptable that some of our anti-zionist Jewish supporters try to dictate to Palestinians:

who they should accept as a supporter and who should they boycott;

what speaker to invite and whose lecture to avoid;

who they should consider progressive and who can be labeledreactionary;

what religion and religious group are above all criticism and what faith is deemed to be “backward looking and inherently unable to deliver progress”;

what books should be read, and which articles should be thrown away;

what narrative of events should be adopted as “reasonable” and which should be considered a “conspiracy theory”;

what chapter of history should be seen as a “dogmatic unquestionable religion”; and which one should be seen as “hoax”or as a “useless hateful rumors”;

what course of action should be taken and which one should be dismissed a “distraction”;

Furthermore, when censorship is practiced, when some books become forbidden and certain speakers are silenced, it appears to any self-respecting free-thinker that their brain, their ability to analyze and evaluate are being demeaned and patronized.

Rather than wasting their energy campaigning to ostracize or silence some of the most outspoken allies and honest supporters of Palestine, they should rather direct their efforts towards theirOWN communities where the rot is anchored and festering: wheresupremacist ideologies reign supreme, chauvinistic anti-humanist beliefs flourish, delusional concepts entrenched and fostered, and criminal Mossadic activities thrive, and where mossers areostracized and sayanim are promoted.
This ought to be our Jewish allies’ battlefield.

It is only in this specifically Jewish frame of activity, that separate organizations identified as exclusively Jewish can affect significant change and eventually their claim to speak in the name of their Jewishness be vindicated.

On the contrary, when specifically Jewish organizations or activists ubiquitously claim to be the true representative of Jewish people, or the voice of Judaism, whereas they are but a tiny, minute, insignificant and ineffective minority, and what is more an ostracized and despised minority amidst their larger Jewish communities, then these Jewish organizations by making their false claim of representing Jews or Judaism as they bravely expose Israeli crimes, are projecting nothing less than a smoke screen deflecting from the sinister racist ideology which hasproduced Zionism in the first place.

Since it is quite obvious that the Jewish members of organizations who claim to be Anti-Zionist, rarely are -if ever, active members of their local Jewish communities and when they try to reach out, they are generally rejected;

since they pretend that exposing the ideologies and activities of their community is a “distraction”;

since they accuse of being “anti-semite” whomever questions the thriving racism and the powerful lobby within the Jewish communities and

since they fail to infiltrate the nefarious Judeo-Zionist network in order to affect real change from within:

therefore the claim that they speak for the Jewish people or Judaism is invalid, and the only reasonable consequence is to dissolve their separate “Jewish only” Anti-Zionist or Pro-Palestinian organizations, in order to become an integral part of the Solidarity Movement.

50 Things Every American Should Know About The Collapse Of The Economy

Right now, we are witnessing a truly historic collapse of the economy, and yet most Americans do not understand what is going on.  One of the biggest reasons why the American people do not understand what is happening to the economy is because our politicians and the mainstream media are not telling the truth.  Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke keep repeating the phrase “economic recovery” over and over, and this is really confusing for most Americans because things sure don’t seem to be getting much better where they live. 

There are millions upon millions of Americans that are sitting at home on their couches right now wondering why they lost their jobs and why nobody will hire them.  Millions of others are wondering why the only jobs they can get are jobs that a high school student could do.  Families all across America are wondering why it seems like their wages never go up but the price of food and the price of gas continue to skyrocket.  We are facing some very serious long-term economic problems in this country, and we need to educate the American people about why the collapse of the economy is happening.  If the American people don’t understand why they are losing their jobs, why they are losing their homes and why they are drowning in debt then they are going to keep on doing all of the same things that they have been doing.  They will also keep sending the same idiot politicians back to Washington to represent us.  There are some fundamental things about the economy that every American should know.  The American people need to be shocked out of their entertainment-induced stupor long enough to understand what is really going on and what needs to be done to solve our nightmarish economic problems.  If we do not wake up enough Americans in time, the economic collapse that is coming could tear this nation to shreds.

The U.S. economy was once the greatest economic machine in modern world history.  It was truly a wonder to behold.  It worked so well that entire generations of Americans came to believe that America would enjoy boundless prosperity indefinitely.

But sadly, prosperity is not guaranteed for any nation.  Over the past several decades, some very alarming long-term economic trends have developed that are absolutely destroying the economy.  If dramatic changes are not made soon, a complete and total economic collapse will be unavoidable.

Unfortunately, the American people will never agree to fundamental changes to our economic and financial systems unless they are fully educated about what is causing our problems.  We have turned our backs on the principles of our forefathers and the principles of those that founded this nation.  We have rejected the ancient wisdom that was handed down to us.

It has been said that those that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.

We are about to experience the consequences of decades of really bad decisions.

Hopefully we can get the American people to wake up.

The following are 50 things that every American should know about the collapse of the economy….

#1 Do you remember how much was made of the “Misery Index” during the presidency of Jimmy Carter?  At that time, the “Misery Index” was constantly making headlines in newspapers all across the country.  Well, according to John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, if we calculated unemployment and inflation the same way that we did back during the Carter administration, then the Misery Index today would actually be higher than at any point during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.

#2 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of about 5 million Americans were being hired every single month during 2006.  Today, an average of about 3.5 million Americans are being hired every single month.

#3 According to the Wall Street Journal, there are 5.5 million Americans that are currently unemployed and yet are not receiving unemployment benefits.

#4 All over America, state and local governments are selling off buildings just to pay the bills.  Investors can now buy up government-owned power plants, prisons and municipal buildings from coast to coast.  For example, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey recently sold off 16 government buildings (including the police and fire headquarters) just to pay some bills.

#5 When Americans think of “government debt”, most of them only think of the federal government, but it is not just the federal government that has a massive debt problem.  State and local government debt has reached an all-time high of22 percent of U.S. GDP.

#6 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#7 Credit card usage in the United States is on the increase once again.  During the month of March, revolving consumer credit jumped 2.9%.  Sadly, it looks like Americans have not learned their lessons about the dangers of credit card debt.

#8 Last year, Social Security ran a deficit for the first time since 1983, and the “Social Security deficits” in future years are projected to be absolutely horrific.

#9 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year.

#10 Right now we are watching what could potentially be the worst Mississippi River flood ever recorded play out right in front of our eyes.  One agricultural economist at Mississippi State University believes that this disaster could do 2 billion dollars of damage just to farms alone.

#11 The “tornadoes of 2011” that we just saw in the southeast United States are being called the worst natural disaster that the U.S. has seen since Hurricane Katrina.  It has been estimated that up to 25 percent of all of the poultry houses in Alabama were either significantly damaged or destroyed.  It is also believed that millions of birds were killed.

#12 The economic effects of the BP oil spill just seem to go on and on and on.  The number of very sick fish in the Gulf of Mexico is really starting to alarm scientists.  The following is how one local newspaper recently described the situation….

Scientists are alarmed by the discovery of unusual numbers of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and inland waterways with skin lesions, fin rot, spots, liver blood clots and other health problems.

#13 The number of “low income jobs” in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years and they now account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.

#14 All over America, hospitals that care for the poor and needy are so overwhelmed and are so broke that they are being forced to shut down.  Recently, a local newspaper in Florida ran an article about two prominent charity hospitals in Illinois that have served the poor for more than 100 years but are now asking for permission to shut down….

Two charity hospitals in Illinois are facing a life-or-death decision. There’s not much left of either of them – one in Chicago’s south suburbs, the other in impoverished East St. Louis – aside from emergency rooms crowded with patients seeking free care. Now they would like the state’s permission to shut down.

#15 The U.S. dollar is in such bad shape that now even Steve Forbes is predicting that the U.S. is “likely” to go back to a gold standard within the next five years.

#16 Most Americans don’t realize how much the U.S. dollar has been devalued over the years.  An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 would cost you $115.93today.  An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 would cost you $454.36 today.

#17 Over the past 12 months the average price of gasoline in the United States has gone up by about 30%.

#18 U.S. oil companies will bring in about $200 billion in pre-tax profits this year.  They will also receive about $4.4 billion in specialized tax breaks from the U.S. government.

#19 It is being projected that for the first time ever, the OPEC nations are going to bring in over a trillion dollars from exporting oil this year.  Their biggest customer is the United States.

#20 According to the Pentagon, there are minerals worth over a trillion dollars under the ground in Afghanistan.  Now, J.P. Morgan is starting to tap those riches with the help of the U.S. military.

#21 Speaking of J.P. Morgan, most Americans don’t realize that they are actually the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States.  In fact, the more Americans that go on food stamps the more money that J.P. Morgan makes.

#22 When 2007 began, there were about 26 million Americans on food stamps.  Today, there are over 44 million on food stamps, and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#23 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#24 Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year.  That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

#25 The financial system is more vulnerable today than it was back in 2008 before the financial panic. Today, the world financial system has been turned into a giant financial casino where bets are made on just about anything you can possibly imagine, and the major Wall Street banks make a ton of money from this betting system.  The system is largely unregulated (the new “Wall Street reform” law has only changed this slightly) and it is totally dominated by the big international banks. The danger from derivatives is so great that Warren Buffet once called them “financial weapons of mass destruction”. It is estimated that the “derivatives bubble” is somewhere in the neighborhood of a quadrillion dollars, and once it pops there isn’t going to be enough money in the entire world to bail everyone out.

#26 Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars with the rest of the world, and the U.S. has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976.

#27 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and the U.S. trade deficit with China is now 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#28 In 2010, the number one U.S. export to China was “scrap and trash”.

#29 All over the United States, many of our once great manufacturing cities are being transformed into hellholes.  In the city of Detroit today, there are over 33,000 abandoned houses, 70 schools are being permanently closed down, the mayor wants to bulldoze one-fourth of the city and you can literally buy a house for one dollar in the worst areas.

#30 During the first three months of this year, less new homes were sold in the U.S. than in any three month period ever recorded.

#31 New home sales in the United States are now down 80% from the peak in July 2005.

#32 America’s real estate crisis just seems to get worse and worse.  U.S. home prices have now fallen a whopping 33% from where they were at during the peak of the housing bubble.

#33 According to a new report from the AFL-CIO, the average CEO made 343 times more money than the average American did last year.

#34 The European debt crisis could cause a global financial collapse like the one that we saw in 2008 at any time.  The world economy is incredibly interconnected today, and the United States would not be immune.  A recent IMF report stated the following about the growing sovereign debt crisis in Europe….

Strong policy responses have successfully contained the sovereign debt and financial-sector troubles in the euro area periphery so far. But contagion to the core euro area and then onward to emerging Europe remains a tangible risk.

#35 According to one study, the 50 U.S. state governments are collectively 3.2 trillion dollars short of what they need to meet their pension obligations.

#36 A different study has shown that individual Americans are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.

#37 The cost of college tuition in the United States has gone up by over 900 percent since 1978.

#38 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980.  Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

#39 One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#40 The combined debt of the major GSEs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae) has increased from 3.2 trillion in 2008 to 6.4 trillion in 2011.  Thanks to our politicians, U.S. taxpayers are standing behind that debt.

#41 The U.S. government is over 14 trillion dollars in debt and the budget deficit for this year is projected to be about 1.5 trillion dollars.  However, if the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion each and every year.

#42 Most Americans don’t understand that the Federal Reserve and the debt-based monetary system that it runs are at the very heart of our economic problems.  All of this debt is absolutely crushing us.  The U.S. government spentover 413 billion dollars on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2010, and it is being projected that the U.S. government will be shelling out 900 billion dollars just in interest on the national debt by the year 2019.

#43 Standard & Poor’s has altered its outlook on U.S. government debt from “stable” to “negative” and is warning that the U.S. could soon lose its AAA rating.

#44 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.  Today, government transfer payments account for 18.4% of all income.

#45 U.S. households are now receiving more income from the U.S. governmentthan they are paying to the government in taxes.

#46 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another.

#47 According to Gallup, 41 percent of Americans believed that the economy was “getting better” at this time last year.  Today, that number is at just 27 percent.

#48 The wealthiest 1% of all Americans now own more than a third of all the wealth in the United States.

#49 The poorest 50% of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

#50 The percentage of millionaires in Congress is more than 50 times higher than the percentage of millionaires in the general population.

Source: The Economic Collapse

Industry’s war on nature: ‘What are the bees telling us?’

While industries continue to pollute the planet with their toxic chemicals, toxic waste and toxic spills, Earth’s pollinators sing a swan song that leaves no doubt as to the folly of modern civilization. Our ability to hear and appropriately respond to the crisis of declining pollinators will determine humanity’s survival.

“In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian scientist, philosopher and social innovator, predicted that in 80 to 100 years honeybees would collapse.” Queen of the Sun

Steiner believed the industrialization of bees would lead to their demise. It looks like he was right. In the past two decades, the United States has lost 100-300 billion bees, and the problem has spread to Europe and beyond. While industrialized beekeeping operations do kill millions of bees each year, several other factors contribute to their massive die-off.

Pollinators are sickened by lack of a diverse diet from the tens of millions of monoculture acres. By ingesting genetically modified crops, pollinators also ingest GM microbes, to their detriment. By and far, though, agrochemicals contribute most to pollinator decimation. In a last ditch effort to save the hive, some bees seal off hive cells that contain inordinate amounts of pesticide. But even these hives eventually die.

Bolstering industry’s multi-factor assault on nature, the ubiquitous communications industry adds electromagnetic pollution, causing bees (and birds) to lose their ability to navigate. Taking advantage of weakened, disoriented bees, exotic pathogens like the Varroa mite, imported via globalized trade, suck the remaining life out of them. And, so, we see the collapse of the honeybee and North American bats.

Much of this we learn in Taggart Siegel’s part philosophical love story, part documentary, Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us?Theatrically released on March 25, the award-winning film is further supported by a newly released report from the United Nations Environment Programme, Global Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators.

A sure way to collapse an ecosystem is to decimate a keystone species – one from which the entire localized web of life radiates. Pollinators contribute nearly ten percent to the global food economy, or about $218 billion USD (€153 billion) a year. Of the 100 or so crop species that provide 90% of the world’s food, bees pollinate 71 of them, according to UNEP’s report. Among the 20,000 known bee species worldwide, the honeybee, Apis mellifera, is most important, contributing between $33 and $82 billion annually (€22.8 to €57 billion).

So while we are witnessing the planet’s sixth extinction spasm (popularly detailed in Ed Wilson’s The Diversity of Life), it is the bee that garners our deserved attention.

“Bees are the legs of plants,” Michael Pollan explains in Queen of the Sun. They co-evolved so that the sessile organism feeds the aerial one in exchange for propagation. That mutualism supports much of life today. Without pollinators, crops will collapse. As crops collapse, myriads of species, including humans, will starve.

When pollinators go, so will flowering plants. The chain reaction collapse can easily then lead to the end of the Age of Mammals. This would be similar to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. The “terrible lizards” will have outlasted us by 100 million years. Only about half of all species survived that last extinction spasm – notably alligators and crocodiles. But human survival is hardly guaranteed if 40% of our food sources vanish. While gators and crocs can go a year or more without eating – and this survival mechanism vastly contributes to the species’ longevity – humans cannot.

The UNEP report lists eight reasons for colony collapse disorder: Habitat destruction, invasive species (like the parasitic mite, Varroa destructor), air pollution, electromagnetic pollution, pesticides and other chemical pollution, industrial transport (where a million bees die each year), colony splitting, and diet. The report does not mention genetically engineered crops as a contributing factor to bee decline, but does attack monocultures:

“It is increasingly difficult for pollinators to obtain sufficient pollen sources for all their essential amino acids. Consequently, this can weaken the insects’ immune system, making them more vulnerable to various pathogens.”

In Queen of the Sun, several speakers have no doubt. When plants are genetically altered (via a crude gun method), the process is so unreliable that only one out of thousands of cells transmutes. Dr Vandana Shiva explains that, because of this, antibiotic resistant genes and viral promoters have to be added. “Every genetically engineered seed is a bundle of bacteria, toxins, and viral promoters.”

These GM bacteria, toxins, and viral promoters are transferred into our gut (and that of bees), where they continue to function within the host. Only now, we’re the host. The bee is the host. And bees aren’t doing so well. Science has shown that high fructose corn syrup, a GM product fed to bees, inhibits genetic expression of immunity and detox functions.

Queen of the Sun highlights the delicate balance among the various members of an ecosystem, making the point that genetic integrity is required for the system to work. In order for the bee (or the flowering plant) to be the best at what it does, its DNA must remain intact.

Both the film and the UNEP report leave no doubt that the collapse of pollinators is the most urgent problem facing humanity today. Both make several suggestions to agribusiness and individuals, including: Stop (or greatly slow) the use of pesticides, grow bee friendly crops, buy organic, provide habitat and fresh water, and become a sustainable beekeeper. The UNEP report notes that pollinator conservation efforts should also plan nursery habitats, since the requirements of larval stages differ from winged adults.

Given that bee and bat decline is most severe in the United States, which has the longest history of deploying GM crops and which uses more agrochemicals than any other nation, the culprit seems pretty obvious. The top six agrochemical companies, Syngenta, Bayer CropScience, BASF, Monsanto, Dow Agrosciences, and DuPont, also spread genetically modified crops.

Pollinators are keeping score of the corporate war on nature. They are telling us that pesticides, biotechnology, and cell phones are winning. The tragedy is that when pollinators go, so will flowering plants and, likely, the Age of Mammals.

Check here for a list of upcoming screenings and see this list of 10 things you can do to help bees.

On Jewish Intolerance

In a New Statesman article, law professor John Dugard ,who was a Judge on The International Court of Justice as well as being Special Raporteur for United Nations Commission on Human Rights, summarises the Goldstone apology saga : ‘there are no new facts that could possibly have led Richard Goldstone to change his mind about the UN-backed investigation into Israel and the conflict in Gaza.’

While Goldstone claimed that the Israeli investigations produced some results also recognised by a follow-up UN committee report chaired by Judge Mary McGowan Davis, Dugard stresses that the McGowan Davis report was actually very critical of the Israeli investigations, finding them to be “lacking in impartiality, promptness and transparency.”

According to the McGowan Davis report, the Israeli ‘probe’ has resulted in “two convictions; one for theft of a credit card, resulting in a sentence of seven months’ imprisonment, and another for using a Palestinian child as a human shield, which resulted in a suspended sentence of three months.”

Dugard is clearly bewildered by Goldstone’s latest zigzag: “Richard Goldstone is a former judge and he knows fully well that a fact-finding report by four persons cannot be changed by the subsequent reflections of a single member of the committee.”  What made Goldstone change his mind “remains a closely guarded secret,” says Dugard.

Dugard is clearly frustrated, and, somewhat cynical here. But I guess that we all know the answer, because for some time now, we have witnessed Goldstone being subjected to relentless measures of exclusion and abuse from his Zionist brethren.

As a matter of fact, intolerance towards critical voices is inherent within Jewish culture, identity, and politics, for Zionism is clearly a demand for ideological collectivism.

But interestingly enough, Jewish anti Zionism is also no different in its modus operandi : all too often we come across a Jewish ‘progressive’ poisonous smear campaign against one ‘Jewish self-hater’ or another.

Jewish ‘cultural heritage’ could be presented as a chain of different attempts to silence, and even eliminate dissidence: some Jews were nailed to wood; some were assassinated ; others were stoned, and a few were excluded or excommunicated. Many lost their jobs and many others were subject to endless slander.

As tragic as it may sound, Jewish identity politics is an exercise in some different variations of collective hatred; hatred towards the Goyim, but also towards Jewish dissidence.

The Goldstone saga is then, an opportunity to peep into contemporary Jewish political intolerance, and Goldstone emerges as a tragic figure: he sacrificed his professional name for the sake of just a little Jewish empathy.

Yet he clearly forgot that forgiveness is not at all a highly regarded value within the ghetto walls — I learned yesterday that a group of American Jewish lawyers are preparing a civil lawsuit against Goldstone for libel.

I guess that revenge may as well unite them all.

As we are becoming accustomed to Zionism being the biggest threat to world peace, it is also interesting to learn how hostile Jews are towards each other.

Occult Pagan Revival Signals Death of America and the West

More than eighty years ago, America began moving away from its’ founding Biblical-based worldview to what President Calvin Coolidge identified as “pagan materialism.”  Fearing for the future of our Constitutional Republic he said in a speech delivered on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926:

“Democracy is Christ’s government in church and state,” said Coolidge as he quoted John Wise (1710).  ”Here was the doctrine of equality, popular sovereignty, and the substance of the theory of inalienable rights….When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should open with a reference to Nature’s God and should close…with an appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world and an assertion of a firm reliance on Divine Providence…In its main feature the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document.  Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man—these are not elements which we can see and touch.  They are ideals. They have their source and roots in the religious convictions.  They belong to the unseen world. “   (Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance No Longer Tolerates Religion, William J. Federer, pp. 270-271)

The “pagan materialism” Coolidge warned against is evolutionary materialist scientism, also known as Secular Humanism.  Materialism is neither new nor scientific.   In the main, it is ancient Epicurean Atomism revamped and dressed up as modern science.   Materialism teaches that all that exists is merely material or energy which is impersonal, totally neutral to any moral system or any interest in man as man. In this view, there is no basis for law, and no basis for man as unique and important.

Materialism is of the world view of monism which teaches that all that exists is “one self-creating, self-sufficient substance” which may be divine spirit (pantheism) or spiritless substance (materialism).
Monism is held in common by materialism, pantheism, and spiritualism and dates back to pagan antiquity and was or is taught by all non-biblical thought systems from Buddhism to Epicureanism, Gnosticism and today’s New Age Cosmic Humanism.

Monism teaches that all things, including mankind, are merely diverse parts of the one-substance.   God is acceptable to this monistic frame of mind only if He is not something outside of and superior to the one-substance but one with it.  In other words, God must be dispersed throughout the whole substance.

In his book, “Utopia: The Perennial Heresy,” Thomas Molnar explains that evolution, whether Darwinian or a spiritual conception such as Teilhard’s idea, serves as an imaginary mechanism of perfection for both man and the one-substance:

“Through evolution the world substance becomes progressively pure, homogenous and perfect until the terminal point is reached…”  (p.235)   At that point, there is either a perfected non-spiritual substance (materialism) or a perfectly spiritualized substance (pantheism).  For utopians this means a heaven on earth ruled by perfected god-men.

In that materialism excludes the transcendent Creator, angels, demons, heaven, and hell it must also explain away man’s God-given individual spiritual endowments –soul, mind, free will, and conscience– attributes defined by the Founders as self-evident truths, for it is self-evidently true that all men  think, choose, and feel guilt.    In short, in denying the existence of God the Father and man’s supernaturally endowed attributes,  materialist scientism abolishes our unalienable rights, thereby making worthless both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

It was for this reason that Coolidge warned against pagan materialism:

“Unless the faith of the American in these religious (Biblical) convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We cannot continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.”  (ibid, p. 265; emphasis added)

Despite the valiant efforts of Pres. Coolidge and many other men of integrity to edify Americans, the consensus in contemporary America and the western world is no longer Biblical but pagan, that is, Cosmic Humanism (Eastern/Gnostic occult New Age) and Secular Humanism (materialist scientism).

In practical terms, this means that through the goetia (black magic) of  Darwinian transformism “we the people” have been speculatively reduced to aggregates of matter, subsumed into the “one substance” and now have solidarity (oneness) with apes, rocks, trees, fish, tumblebugs, pond scum, and dirt.   Individual salvation has become collective salvation, individual rights are now group rights,  male-female created distinctions have been melted down into androgyny, and monogamous marriage has become a sexual free-for-all.

Law, foreign affairs, taxation, politics, immigration, morality and all other important decisions are now decided by a small group of “elites,” many of whom are New Age spiritists led by spirit guides and Transcended Masters, and what they decide at any given moment is supposedly for the common good of society.  These all-powerful individuals are America’s Ruling Class, and in back of them, the U.N., NGOs,  and other powerful global organizations.

The Return to Paganism

C.S. Lewis  observed in The Abolition of Man (1947) that Cosmic and Secular Humanism  appeared in Western history in the heart of Christendom during the Renaissance.   The Renaissance reawakened a magic view of the world closely connected with  pagan Gnostic sectarianism, Eastern pantheism as well as alchemical-scientism.  Along with Eastern pantheism came spiritual evolution, reincarnation, karma and occultism, which means that evolutionary conceptions  existed long before Darwin.

Early on Lewis understood that Cosmic  and Secular Humanism  were merely two sides of the same revival of pagan monism. Thus he argued, Cosmic and Secular Humanism are not enemies in principle but rather cooperating philosophies united against the transcendent Creator, Christianity and Christian-based civilization.

Brooks Alexander also identifies both Cosmic and Secular Humanism as the two sides of pagan monism.   And because they are from the same root they tend to cross-pollinate and:

“mingle, producing a brood of offspring that exhibits the genetic heritage of its parents in a confused and confusing array.  Soon it becomes impossible to say whether a given movement, trend or school of thought is a secular impulse that has absorbed Eastern/occult values, or an Eastern/occult teaching that has dressed itself in secular language.”  (The Rise of Cosmic Humanism: What is Religion?” Brooks Alexander,  SCP Journal, 1981-82, p. 2)

“Ye Can Be As Gods”

The powerfully seductive Big Lie  underlies both Cosmic and Secular Humanism.   This thought is expressed openly in the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and  Dr. Beverly Galyean, leading exponent of occult New Age confluent education:

“The Buddhists and the Jains do not depend on God; but the whole force of their religion is directed to the great central truth in every religion: to evolve a God out of man.” (Inspired Talks, Ramakrishna Vivekananda Center, 1958, p. 218)

“Once we begin to see that we are all God, that we have the attributes of God, then, I think the whole purpose of human life is to reown the Godlikeness within us…So my whole view is very much based on that idea.”   (Galyean quoted by Francis Adeney, Educators Look East, Radix 12, No. 3, Nov-Dec. 1980, p. 21)

This same idea expressed in secular terms  such as self-realization and self-actualization (a term coined by Abraham Maslow) underlies many contemporary psychotherapies.

In carefully couched terms, the  ”Humanist Manifesto” (1973) also declares autonomous man’s godhood:

“We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience.  Ethics is autonomous and situational…life has meaning because we create and develop our futures.”

The conclusion of both Cosmic and Secular Humanism is the same: human beings can be as God and invent their own “ten commandments.”

Another key point at which Cosmic and Secular Humanism intersect  is evolution.    Secular Humanism adopted the Gnostic myth of biological (Darwinian) evolution as an explanation both for the origin and development of life as well as for the perfecting of the one substance and mankind.  Cosmic Humanism springboards off of Darwinism into imaginary spiritual conceptions such as  Teilhard de Chardins’  idea.   The apostate French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) taught that God emerges from matter.  According to him, this evolution of God from the world results in evolution becoming “conscious of itself” and  ultimately, in the transformation  of all matter into “Christ consciousness” or “pure spirit.” He called this final stage the “Omega Point” or “the cosmic Christ.”

New Age  techniques to get in touch with the “Christ consciousness” include physical exercises, special diets (especially vegetarianism),  biofeedback, chanting, psychodrama, consciousness-raising strategies, hypnosis and self-hypnosis, centering, body disciplines and therapies such as hatha yoga and aikido as well as sensitivity groups and encounter groups, Zen, Tibetan Buddhism and transcendental meditation and yoga.    Former guru Rabindranath R. Maharaj, now a committed follower of Jesus Christ, describes his former transcendental meditation ritual and its’ terrifying consequences:

“Nothing was more important than our daily transcendental meditation, the heart of Yoga, which Krishna advocated as the surest way to eternal Bliss.  But it could also be dangerous.  Frightening psychic experiences awaited the…meditator, similar to a bad trip on drugs.  Demons described in the Vedas had been known to take possession of some Yogis.  Kundalini power, said to be coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine, could produce ecstatic experiences when released in deep meditation–or…it could do great mental and bodily harm.  The line between ecstasy and horror was very fine…During daily meditation I began to have visions of psychedelic colors, to hear  unearthly music, and to visit exotic planets where the gods conversed with me, encouraging me to attain even higher states of consciousness.   Sometimes in my trance I encountered the same horrible demonic creatures…depicted by the images in Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, and other religious temples.  It was a frightful experience, but the Brahmacharya explained that it was normal and urged me to pursue the quest for Self Realization.   At times I experienced a sense of mystical unity with the universe.  I was the universe, Lord of all, omnipotent, omnipresent.  My instructors were excited at this.  I was obviously a chosen vessel, destined for early success in the search for union with Brahman.  The Forces that had guided my father were now guiding me.”  (Death of a Guru, Rabindranath R. Maharaj, pp. 56-57)

Dying Materialism Opens Door To Occult Forces

“Unless we are mistaken…the twentieth century…is to witness a gigantic conflict of spirits…More serious and fiercer than ever before, the conflict is between the old and the new worldview.”   Herman Bavinck, Christian theologian, 1901

Materialist scientism has always been utterly repugnant to more spiritually sensitive people.  With its’ nihilism, mindless mechanistic universe, reductionism, moral anarchy and irrationalism, it has generated its own crisis of credibility. However,  as a universal alchemical-solvent that has broken down the West’s Biblical-based worldview, it has served to throw wide the door to equally irrational but far more dangerous occult New Age Cosmic Humanism, which as a spiritual force began to emerge in the United States around 1965.

By the mid-1980s,  a bright “new” spirituality began to seductively beckon demoralized, restless, narcissistic, consumerist Westerners.  Promising personal “spiritual” power, peace, unending pleasure, and oneness with the Divine, it enticingly whispers, “you can become god.”

In Marilyn Ferguson’s book, “The Aquarian Conspiracy,” she identifies the “new” spirituality as New Age and says that this movement of spirit is poised to radically transform our culture.  Western society is at a pivotal point, said Ferguson in reference to what she called the “Emergent Culture” of New Age.

Ferguson called it the Aquarian Conspiracy for two reasons.  First, astrology foretells the end of the Age of Pisces (the fish).  Astrologically the fish symbolizes the Christian Age, which is finally giving way to the New Age of Aquarius.  Second, she calls it a conspiracy in recognition of a spiritually-cohesive, vast interlocking-network of individuals, grassroots initiatives, and thousands upon thousands of formal New Age organizations at every level of society, from the lowest level to the highest global corridors of political, spiritual, and economic power that link this movement both nationally and internationally.

As occult spirituality moved with great speed and force over and across post-Christian America, mainstream media took note and reported:

“Neopaganism Growing Quickly: Numbers Roughly Double Every 18 Months in United States, Canada, and Europe.”   Denver Post, June 26, 2008 (How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces that are Transforming America, David Kupelian, p. 115)

“Sorcery Sells, and the Young are Buying”   Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 10, 2007 (ibid)

“Wicca is Believed to be One of the Fastest-Growing Religions Among High School and College Students”    National Public Radio, May 13, 2004  (ibid)

In his book, “America’s Schools: The Battleground for Freedom,” Allen Quist warns:

“New Age religion is now aggressively being taught in our nation’s public schools.”  A model curriculum has been developed that “is clearly centered on pantheism.”  ”Much of what passes for environmental education and multiculturalism is really indoctrination in pantheistic/New Age theology.  The ACLU and other similar organizations have no objections to (pantheistic indoctrination).  It is only Christianity that these organizations object to.”  (p. 51)

Tom DeWeese, President of the American Policy Center, has also been following the rise of occult pagan spirituality.  In a work entitled, “Teachers, Preachers and Greens: The Unholy Alliance to Transform America,”  DeWeese reveals the existence of a well-funded yet covert effort to paganize American society through an assault on schools and churches.  He reveals that the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City is the home of the enormously influential Gaia Institute as well as the  Temple of Understanding— a politically influential U.N. Non-Governmental Organization.   DeWeese describes a pagan “church service” at St. John the Divine:

“As the congregation sit in their church pews in the great Cathedral of St. John, the Divine in New York City, the priest stands at the alter, ready to receive a procession of animals for the annual Feast of Saint Francis blessing. Down the aisle comes a procession of elephants, camels, donkeys, monkeys and birds. These are followed by members of the congregation carrying bowls of compost and worms. Next, to the sounds of music, come acrobats and jugglers. In the pulpit, former Vice President Al Gore delivers a sermon, saying, “God is not separate from the Earth.” (http://www.federalobserver.com/2010/11/14/teachers-preachers-and-greens-the-unholy-alliance-to-transform-america/)

Men Have Souls …and Demons Exist

Today anthropologists, scientific psychiatrists, and other professionals from the counseling and medical field take very seriously the fact that something frightening and unexplainable by Western science is going on here in America and throughout the West.  In their search for answers they are jettisoning as useless materialist explanations. A “new” consensus is emerging:  Men have souls and demons exist:

“…we need to understand a number of different concepts in order to comprehend the worldwide phenomenon of possession and exorcism. On the psychological level, we have come to know the notion underlying all possession, namely, that the body is a shell, inhabited by a soul, and that this shell may on occasion be surrendered to an intrusive alien entity. ” (How about Demons? Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World, Felicitas Goodman. IndianaUpress:1988)

“Dr Frank Lake in a talk on the demonic recalled the occasion when ‘Hans Rudi Weber was giving a talk on Christ’s Victory over the Demonic Powers to this large gathering of psychiatrists and theologians. It was quite amusing to see how uncomfortable the theologians were at this strange exhibition of what I think they regarded as Medievalism from a distinguished member of their own theological group. It was as if they were apologizing to the scientific psychiatrists present that a theologian had returned to the era of demons and evil possession. By contrast the psychiatrists were in fact leaning forward eagerly recognizing that the collective demonic is something with which they are continually dealing. As they said afterwards, ‘Why didn’t some theologian tell us about this before? We know what he’s talking about, we live with it.’” (But Deliver us From Evil: An Introduction to the Demonic Dimension in Pastoral Care, John Richards, London, Dartman, Longman and Todd,1974)

Possession takes two forms, communal and individual:

“…central possession is communal, strongly institutionalized, and ritualistically induced, but peripheral possession is more normally individual and spontaneous.” (Demonic Possession: A Medical, Historical, Anthropological, and Theological Symposium, John Warwick Montgomery (ed.), Bethany,1976)

“In later life, Jung admitted that he was open to the ideas that all these metapsychic phenomena could be explained better by the theory of spirits ….in the long run (he said) I have to admit that the spirit hypothesis yields better results in practice than any other.” (The New Age Movement and the Biblical Worldview: Conflict and Dialogue, John P. Newport, Eerdmans,1998)

Dr. Carl Raschke also notes with alarm America’s downward spiral into the madness of occult spirituality.  He points out that the decadence, pornography, mass murders, criminality, the  ’new religions,’ and Satanism in American culture have certain social and spiritual ties that bind them together, revealing that they are part of a similar spiritual genus.   In “Satanism and the Devolution of the ‘New Religions,’” Raschke notes that Satanism is so widespread today that there are even U.S. military personnel who are members of secretive Satanist groups.

Raschke concludes that the “upsurge of Satanist practices…must be interpreted not as some kind of odd wrinkle…but as a culminating phase of the “New Age” movement…The Satanist mindset is not “religion” in the regular sense of the word, but a mystification of the most corrupt secular passions and values…Satanism is but the spiritual Frankenstein created by a social order that has attempted to sustain itself without God.”  (Satanism and Witchcraft: The Occult and the West–Part 6, Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon)

“All the gods of the pagans are demons” Psalm 96:5

New Age Cosmic Humanism has infused and spiritualized secular materialism, transforming it into an agency for the transmission of ultimate values and revelations from the unseen realm….from powers and principalities.   As a result, in the space of a few short decades, occult pagan spirituality has made profound inroads.  Its upsurge manifests itself in the form of everything from UFO channeling cults, ghost-hunting, necromancy, goddess worship, shamanism, light-bearers, spirit guides, transcendental meditation, labyrinth walking, yoga, Wicca, revitalized Norse paganism, the annual Burning Man Festival (now televised)  and the proliferation of  Satanic cults.

From England to Australia, from New Zealand to South America, Canada and the United States, occult New Age spirituality is quickly becoming the West’s dominant orthodoxy.

The End of the West?

Evolutionary conceptions, monism, empiricism, reductionism, determinism, positivism, materialism, pantheism, socialism, and the ‘new religions,’ in the words of Calvin Coolidge, are not “elements which we can see and touch,” but religious convictions, aspirations, ideals, and ideas in the minds of men.  As the great apocalyptic prophet Fyodor Dostoevsky clearly understood, they are a madness-inducing “fire in the minds of men” that comes from the “unseen world.”

This being the case, political fixes and Republicans in control will not cure what ails America because  Americans by and large, are spiritually diseased.   This means that our primary battle is spiritual, for we are not “contending against flesh and blood, but against the (evil spirits)….against spiritual wickedness in the high places.” (Eph. 6:12)

Occult spirituality always surfaces at the end of a civilization.  It heralded the end of Babylon, Rome and the Aztec civilization.  It came at the end of the medieval world and now it has come at the end of  the post-Christian West…” a social order that has attempted to sustain itself without God.”

During Rome’s darkest, most evil hours, early Christians—thousands of whom were cut in half, used as human torches, and crucified upside-down—nevertheless successfully forced occult forces underground, thus allowing for Christendom and later on America to arise.

America is the West’s last best hope.  But do contemporary Christians and like-minded Americans possess the undying faith, unfaltering courage, love of Truth, rock-solid conviction, perseverance and will to engage this spiritual war?

Additional Sources:

Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, Fr. Seraphim Rose

Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America, Peter Jones

“…is there evidence for the existence of “spirits” and some “spiritual dimension”? http://christianthinktank.com/eyesopen.html

Secrecy, Propaganda, and Ignorance

Recipe for Oppression…

The Evil One is secretive.  Pictures of aborted babies are never published by our press or media.  We do not see the wounded and maimed soldiers returning from the Middle East nor are we shown the terror that accompanies constant exposure to lethal violence.   The bodies of women and children that fall victim to our bombs and drones are neither seen nor reported.  We are not told that the ratio of civilian to military casualties is about nine to one.

Following the strange events of September 11, 2001 the Administration of President George W. Bush created the largest incursion into our personal freedom and privacy in the history of our nation. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) abolished freedom in our airports, Homeland Security gutted the Constitution, the CIA expanded, the FBI grew, and numerous other secret agencies sprang into existence.

Security and intelligence gathering have become malignancies in our government.  If you haven’t kept track, reliable sources count 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies working on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence in 10,000 United States locations; 84,000 thousand people have top secret security clearance; they are housed in buildings that total 17 million square feet; and every year they publish 50,000 intelligence reports.

Following are some (but not all) of the Top Secret organizations.

CIA Central Intelligence Agency

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation

DOD Departrment of Defense

NCTC National Counterterrorism Center

XOIWS Air Force, (what it stands for is secret)

DIA Defense Intelligence Agency

NSA National Security Agency

OHS Office of Homeland Security

ODNI Office of Director of National Intelligence

SAP Special Access Programs

NGA National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Intelligence gathering is so vast that finding the detail that requires action is almost impossible. A high ranking official concerned with the highly classified Special Access Programs said, “There’s only one entity in the entire universe that has visibility on all SAPs – that’s God.” This tangled mass of overlapping agencies failed to restrain U. S. Army Major Nedal Malik Hasan, the Egyptian shrink who killed 13 and wounded 30 at Fort Hood in Texas.  Neither did they respond to a father’s report that his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had succumbed to radical teachings in Yemen.  Airplane passengers did what billions of dollars worth of government intelligence could not do, they subdued young Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber.

Like a cancer the complex continues to grow with new buildings just finished or under construction.  ODNI, with cloudy responsibilities, moved into a new complex at Liberty Crossing;     XOIWS recently constructed its own unmarked building; NGA is working on a new $1.8 billion structure; NSA a new $1.7 billion home; construction is scheduled for a massive headquarters building and a separate operations center at the U. S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, a 270,000 square foot intelligence office is already underway; a new Joint-Use Intelligence Analysis Facility is under construction; DHS is building a massive new complex and there is another $3.4 billion security structure in the works.  All of this space gets filled with paid workers.

The Federal Government now employs over 2 million people not including the CIA, NSA, DIA, and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.  It is the nation’s largest employer.

We are also building abroad, gigantic multi-million dollar projects are going up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

American citizens are not privy to the functions of the thousands of people working inside these buildings.  Their work is secret and they work for a government that fosters secrecy.  Our government claims secrecy is needed for national security reasons.  The security of the United States of America is complicated.  If we minded our own business as our founders recommended life would be much simpler!  Always belligerent we became interested in dominating other nations in the early Twentieth Century.  Secret manipulations of foreign governments were the rule throughout the 1900s.

Much of the intervention was a result of the business interests of American corporations in foreign nations.  We control many of the nations in our hemisphere: Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba (Until Castro), Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, and Venezuela.  We have troops in 140 nations and those defeated in WWII remain faithful allies.  Following manipulation by Europe’s empires we began dallying in Middle Eastern affairsmaking enemies in Iran before our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Support for the incursion of neo-Israel into Arab territory aroused Muslim wrath and now, the presence of our troops in the Middle East guarantees eternal Muslim enmity.

Foreign intrigues that consume our government seem remote to most of our citizens.  Our knowledge is limited by a controlled press and a propaganda campaign that coaxes citizens into supporting blunt aggression.  Our opinions are irrelevant.  We will become entangled in world government whether we like it or not.  Few Americans seem to care.  They dislike what is happening but they would rather believe the propaganda and vent emotional patriotism than confront the awful evil happening before their eyes.

My last essay emphasized the duty of Christians to confront evil (evil is disobedience to God’s Law).  That essay drew some approval but far more silence.  Silence seems to indicate disagreement without solid rebuttal – it could mean a copout, a person who believes support for God’s Law is too radical; a pragmatist; a compromiser who believes obedience to God’s Commandments is too much to expect.

Twenty years ago I became disillusioned with the Charismatic Movement because two decades of generous conversions had failed to impact the culture.  Literature from Chalcedon helped me to understand that antinomianism had de-fanged Christianity by removing its only defense against evil humanistic laws.  That understanding placed me in the Reformed camp and I began to learn about United States Reformed Christianity.  I was disappointed to find that the same lack of unity that plagues Evangelicals also plagues the numerically challenged Reformers.  There are various kinds of Reformed churches.  In some the women wear head covering and the music is restricted to singing Psalms; some hold to a Dispensational framework; Baptism procedures differ; many shun Christmas and Easter; some are stridently rigid and overtly rude; most preach to small congregations and like their Evangelical competitors seek to avoid controversy.  Though many believe in the efficacy of God’s Law few have the temerity to urge its application in our society.

Reformed Christianity has the theological tools needed to bring lasting liberty to the culture but without unity they, too, are useless.

While our cancerous government responds to the human lust for power by attempting to control the world, Christianity provides a flaccid source of entertainment. Islam is a cultish competitor but its followers not only have a world view but law to back it up.  While our government continues to add evil laws to our already inscrutable humanistic system American Christians are terrified that Muslims might succeed in bringing Sharia law into the United States.  We have been brain washed into hating God’s Law and cleaving to human law.  When reminded that the Bible (and the Koran) advocates stoning as a method capital punishment, Christians cringe.  There is more resistance to God’s law than there is to human torture; which is now supported by our government.  Islam is a dangerous, ancient enemy but, unfortunately, it is a much stronger antagonist to world government than Christianity!

If Satan can succeed in keeping things hidden his purposes can be realized.  He has succeeded in creating a secretive government and a lazy church that reclines into easy Pietism instead of developing its legal muscle.  These two Satanic triumphs have set the stage for tyranny.

Much of the information in this essay came from an article in the Washington Post. Read it here.

Doom And Gloom

From: The Economic Collapse…

Have you noticed that most Americans seem to know far more about American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Justin Bieber and their favorite sports teams than they do about world affairs?  Most Americans cannot even find Tunisia and Algeria on a map, and if you told them that food riots are happening in those nations right now most of them would not even care anyway.  We have become a very self-centered, self-involved and self-absorbed nation.  Quite a few people have accused this column of being obsessed with “doom and gloom”, but the truth is that the world really is falling apart out there.  What are we supposed to do?  Are we all supposed to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is going to be okay?  Should we all not try to warn others so that they can prepare for what is coming?  Until people understand that we are facing absolutely massive problems they are not going to be motivated to take significant action, and hopefully those of us that are proclaiming “doom and gloom” are doing a good enough job of describing what is really going on out there that some people are starting to wake up and actually make changes.

Most Americans may not care, but the food riots that are starting to erupt around the globe are actually very serious.

Do you remember what happened back in the summer of 2008?

That summer, the price of oil spiked to an all-time high of $147 a barrel and that caused a substantial increase in the price of food all over the globe.  Suddenly millions of poor people couldn’t afford to feed themselves anymore and food riots erupted all over the world.

Well, here we are in 2011 and the price of oil hasn’t even reached $100 a barrel, and yet the food riots are already beginning.

Violent food riots are being reported in Tunisia, in Algeria, in Chile and in Mozambique.

In Tunisia, the riots have been so intense that the President of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has been forced to step down and flee for his life.

Yes, that is how serious things are getting already.

Unfortunately, it looks like the global food situation is only going to get even worse.

Australia is a major food producer and right now they are experiencing flooding of Biblical proportions.  In fact, it has been reported that at one point the flooding covered an area greater than France and Germany combined.

In Brazil, another major food producer, horrific flooding has killed more than 500 people so far.  This flooding is being called the “worst-ever natural disaster” in the history of Brazil.

Meanwhile, record cold temperatures and record snowfalls are playing havoc with winter crops all over the Northern Hemisphere.

But even before all of these weather disasters struck the price of food had been going up significantly.  The UN recently announced that the global price of food hit an all-time high during the month of December, and world leaders all over the globe are openly expressing concern about what 2011 is going to bring.

Sadly, the truth is that there has been a trend of rising food prices for quite some time. According to Forbes, corn is up 94% since June, soybeans are up 51% since June, and wheat is up 80% since last June.

As one of my readers recently pointed out to me, it usually takes about six months for the prices of agricultural futures to filter down into the supermarkets.  So the very high prices for agricultural commodities that we are seeing right now should really start to be felt around the globe by the middle of 2011.

In addition to everything else, reports continue to come in of thousands of birds and millions of fish suddenly dying all over the globe, and nobody seems to really know what is causing it.

Do you want some more doom and gloom?

*There are reports of “panic buying” of silver and other precious metals right now.

*Investors are bailing out of municipal bonds at an absolutely staggering rate.

*S&P and Moody’s have both warned once again that the United States is in danger of having its credit rating slashed if it does not get government debt under control.

*U.S. housing prices have now fallen further during this economic downturn than they did during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Meanwhile, America’s economic infrastructure continues to be taken apart piece by piece.

The United States is losing more jobs to China.  In fact, the United States is losing more high technology “green jobs” to China.

Evergreen Solar, a company that manufactures solar panels, is closing their factory in Devon, Massachusetts and they are moving their production facilities to China.  This is going to result in the loss of 800 good American jobs.

The following is what the company had to say in a statement about the move….

“Solar manufacturers in China have received considerable government and financial support and, together with their low manufacturing costs, have become price leaders within the industry.”

Is it any wonder that a recent survey found that 47 percent of Americans now believe that China is the world’s leading economic power while only 31 percent still believe that the United States is the world’s leading economic power?

As America continues to lose good jobs, millions of Americans find themselves simply unable to pay the bills.  In fact, at this point one out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government-run anti-poverty program.

As things have fallen apart in the United States, many private citizens have tried to step forward and do what they can to help people, but now in many areas of the country the government is actually stepping in and shutting down these private avenues of assistance.

For example, in the city of Houston, Texas a couple named Bobby and Amanda Herring has been feeding homeless people for over a year.  They never left behind any trash and no trouble was ever caused.

But now the city of Houston is shutting them down.

Why?

Because they don’t have a permit.

So will they be able to get a permit?  Well, it turns out that city officials are saying that this “Feed a Friend” effort most likely will be denied one.

Apparently the city “officials” believe that the homeless “are the most vulnerable to foodborne illness” and that therefore the warm meals that the Herrings were providing for them were potentially dangerous.

Can you believe this?

This is what happens when political correctness and bureaucracy get wildly out of control.

Now it is illegal to go out and feed homeless people?

What is American turning into?

As the economy continues to fall part, the iron grip of the government is likely only going to get tighter as it desperately tries to keep order.

But do we really need to be giving tickets to 6-year-olds?

Yes, you read that correctly.

According to one recent report, police in Texas have given “1,000 tickets to elementary school children in 10 school districts” over the past six years.

For more examples of how America is turning into a police state, please see my recent article entitled “Almost Everything Is A Crime In America Now: 14 Of The Most Ridiculous Things That Americans Are Being Arrested For“.

America is rapidly becoming a very dark place.

The truth is that there is a reason why so many websites are now reporting so much “doom and gloom”.  Things really are getting bad out there.

Sadly, most Americans have only known tremendous prosperity all of their lives, so they can’t even conceive of what it would be like to go through difficult times.

Most Americans have been conditioned to believe that while we may have brief “recessions” once in a while, in the end our economy will always get better and the good times will continue to roll.

But the good news is that an increasing number of Americans are waking up and are trying to warn their family and friends about what is coming.

The 10 Leading Theories For Dead Birds And Fish

Nicholas West and Zen Gardner | Activist Post…

As the mainstream media attempts to downplay the latest die-off event, which has now gone global, it is worthwhile to keep track of the story lines.  Feel free to add your own to the comments section, and we will update accordingly.

Mainstream Explanations: Lightning, hail, mid-air collision, power lines, and New Year fireworks for the birds . . . but disease for the fish.  This is even rolling eyes in the mainstream media.  Birds are incredibly sensitive to their environment (think Canary in the coal mine), and the thought that they were caught by surprise, or that they “fowled” up their flight pattern is patently ridiculous.  And where are the roasted birds from this lightning strike?  And what about fish dying in the same region?  Just a “disease” coincidence.  One mainstream headline has to be enshrined as the saddest attempt at sensationalism, while revealing an obvious natural conclusion Falling Birds Likely Died From Massive Trauma.  Really?

Meteor showers: We are in a period of intense seasonal meteor showers, and several perennial YouTubers reported hearing sonic booms in the area that could have indicated a local shock wave.  This would be one non-conspiratorial, natural cause that actually makes sense, but it is hard to connect to both birds and fish, unless it produced a disabling frequency.  There were indeed other sound anomalies according to the report highlighted above.

New Madrid Fault Line: An excellent article by The American Dream collated data about the recent earthquake activity along this fault line that runs along the mid-eastern section of the U.S.  Combined with gas fracking, the immense geological activity in the region, and the BP oil drilling disaster, which off-gassed the dispersant, Corexit, into the atmosphere, and we should be wondering about any mass deaths in the region.  Nevertheless, this has turned into a global event, so the above could be a side effect of something larger, or a direct contributing factor.

Government testing: The long history of government testing has been exposed by many researchers.  The strange component to this die-off is that only certain species have been affected, but within the entire region.  And some reports have indicated that the organs of these birds were liquefied, which could indicate a possible virus. Could this implicate species-specific bio-weapons? It is on record that discussions have taken place about race-specific bio-weapons; perhaps this is a test of delivery capability?

GMO mutation: Mike Adams of Natural News sets forth an interesting theory: this latest event is local, but the die-offs are happening across species as bee populations and bats are also declining.  Adams points out that Monsanto has a corporate office in Arkansas.  Just wondering.

Geoengineering: Could spraying in the area have caused this type of fallout?  Perhaps something new added to the mixture? Chemtrails have quickly moved from conspiracy theory to documented fact.  So much so, that the powers-that-be have had to admit to the program, but a beneficial one in their view.  Between cloud seeding and possible connections to HAARP, chemtrail fallout must be considered, especially as it is being conducted nearly worldwide.  Rosalind Peterson has been at the forefront of connecting geoengineering to GMOs as a combined source for oxygen-depleting algae blooms that very well could affect a wide spectrum of natural systems. Furthermore, some believe that the delivery system for chemtrails can also disperse pathogens.  If there is a flu or disease outbreak in the coming days or weeks among the human population in areas where the birds have fallen, the chemtrail connection could be made.  If this happens, the contagion could be blamed on a new, deadly bird flu.  A last possibility connected to chemtrails would be nanoparticles.

HAARP: Birds and fish can be susceptible to subtle frequency alteration.  An interesting YouTube post from a long-time fisherman mentioned the “pearl” plate behind the eye of the affected type of drum fish in this event.  He made a plea for anyone in the area to look for signs of damage to this plate.  Both birds and fish navigate in highly coordinated ways that indicate that they move and communicate via frequencies.  Could the HAARP array in Alaska have short-circuited their navigation systems?  Or, perhaps this is the beginning of a cascading effect from decades of electromagnetic pollution emanating from EMF and ELF waves shot around the planet via a wide range of modern communications.

Scalar Weapons: These directed energy beam weapons can be deployed via satellite and create a wide range of “natural disasters” that can be tuned to certain frequencies.  Their radius is reported to be several miles.  Even crazier is that we have been told that the dead birds encountered massive trauma.  One of the reported abilities of scalar weapons is to create a Tesla shield of plasma, like a bubble, that could explode anything that enters its airspace.  Some have speculated that this technology is in full operation.  But what if it truly is still at the testing phase?  Remember, this is happening in South America, too.

Project Blue Beam: Were they testing a sound generator for the global theater of alien invasion?  This one is “out there” for sure, but NASA itself has announced its preparation for such a scenario. Project Blue Beam, like its counterpart HAARP, uses the natural energy present in the ionosphere as both a visual and acoustical device.  Again, perhaps they are not at the ready stage yet, but, like Tesla, have made an unintentional misstep.

Geomagnetic and other Earth changes: As anyone can see from the above range of possibilities, we are facing an array of human tampering.  However, the backdrop to this are the anomalies beginning to take form with the apparent wandering of our magnetic pole, as even National Geographic reported that the north magnetic pole is racing toward Russia.  Add to this a dwindling magnetosphere and falling oxygen levels, and the deaths among more delicate species might portend a larger problem.  Finally, an increase in sun activity and magnetic storms might be weakening our overall natural habitat.

The widespread die-off of nature should lead us to look more intently at the world around us, and to question our relationship to it, and our effect upon it. Perhaps this is what we should have been doing all along.

Mystery of Mass Animal Death Epidemic Deepens after 8,000 Turtle Doves Fall Dead in Italy

From: Daily Mail Online…

• Blue stain believed to be sign of poisoning or hypoxia – lack of oxygen that is precursor to altitude sickness
• Cold weather and overbreeding blamed for deaths of two 2million fish in Chesapeake Bay
• Disease behind deaths of 100,000 fish in Arkansas River
• At least nine incidents of mass animal deaths across the globe
• Hundreds of confused birds plummeted to their deaths in multiple locations in the U.S.
• Rapid movement of Magnetic North Pole towards Russia may have caused bird deaths
  

Thousands of dead turtle doves rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town in the latest in a growing spate of mass animal deaths across the globe.

Residents in Faenza described the birds falling to the ground like ‘little Christmas balls’ with strange blue stains on their beaks.

Initial tests on up to 8,000 of the doves indicated that the blue stain could have been caused by poisoning or hypoxia.

A witness told www.examiner.com: ‘We have no idea why this happened all of a sudden.

‘The doves just started falling one-by-one then in groups of 10s and 20s.’

Hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, is known to cause confusion and illness in animals. It is also a common precursor to altitude sickness.

Experts said results from tests on the doves will not be available for at least a week.

They said that cold weather could have caused the birds’ deaths as the flock was swept into a high-altitude wind storm before falling to the earth.

It comes after two million dead fish were found to have washed up on shores in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

The alarming find is being blamed by authorities in Maryland on the stress caused by unusually cold water and overbreeding among spot fish.

That investigation comes just days after the deaths of an estimated 100,000 fish in northwest Arkansas, which is being blamed on disease.

A statement by the Maryland Department of the Environment said: ‘Natural causes appear to be the reason.

‘Cold water stress exacerbated by a large population of the affected species (juvenile spot fish) appears to be the cause of the kill.’

Preliminary tests of the water in Chesapeake Bay have showed the quality was acceptable, officials said.

The statement added: ‘The affected fish are almost exclusively juvenile spot fish, three to six inches in length.

‘A recent survey showed a very strong population of spot in the bay this year. An increased juvenile population and limited deep water habitat would likely compound the effects of cold water stress.’

Mass winter deaths among spot fish have occurred twice before in the Maryland area – in 1976 and 1980.

The incident is the latest mass animal death to hit the headlines in the last two weeks.

These include:

• 450 red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and starlings found littering a highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• 3,000 blackbirds on roofs and roads in the small town of Beebe, Arkansas
  
• Thousands of ‘devil crabs’ washed up along the Kent coast near Thanet
• Thousands of drum fish washed along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River
• Two million small fish in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland
• Thousands of dead fish found floating in warm Florida creek
• Hundreds of snapper fish found dead in New Zealand
• Scores of American Coots found dead on Texas highway bridge

Experts have speculated that New Year fireworks, thunderstorms, cold weather, parasites and even poisoning may be behind the deaths.

But conspiracy theorists have also speculated on the internet that secret government experiments could be behind them, with some even claiming it was a sign of a looming Armageddon at the end of the Mayan calendar next year.

Another theory is that the rapid movement of the Magnetic North Pole towards Russia may have affected the birds’ innate navigation systems.

Inbuilt navigation systems in birds and fish is believed to be affected by magnetism.

Scientists have said the Magnetic North Pole is shifting at an average of around 25 miles a year.

With birds and fish relying on it to travel to breeding grounds and warmed climes, there are fears that the shifting pole could be confusing the animals which means they do not migrate in time to avoid cold weather.

Tests are being carried out on the dead birds and fish, but results are not expected for several weeks.

Scientists have been baffled by the sudden deaths of hundreds of birds which have plummeted to the ground seemingly simultaneously in several locations.

Two hundred American Coots were found dead on a highway bridge crossing Lake O’ the Pines in Big Cypress Creek, Texas.

They are believed to have been hit by passing vehicles while walking or apparently trying to roost on the bridge.

Swedish experts blamed the shock of New Year fireworks for the unexplained deaths of 50 jackdaws found on a street in Falkoping, Sweden.

Many of the birds are believed to have died from stress or as a result of being run over while disoriented.

The largest incident took place in Beebe, Arkansas, were horrified revellers witnessed around 3,000 blackbirds crashing to their deaths into homes, cars and each other as they celebrated New Year.

Another 450 birds were found strewn along a highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after apparently hitting overhead power lines.

In both cases, the birds are believed to have become confused and were flying at a lower height than usual.

The deaths of tons of fish across the globe is being attributed to unusually cold water.

Thousands of Brazilian fishermen have been left struggling to make ends meet after the sale of seafood was temporarily suspended when masses of fish were discovered in Paranaguá, Antonina and Guaraqueçaba Pontal do Paraná.

Fish were also discovered rotting and floating in Spruce Creek, Florida, after another period of cold weather.

100,000 drum fish were found strewn along the shore of the Arkansas River.

And the cold snap has been blamed for the deaths of 40,000 Velvet swimming crabs – known as ‘devil crabs – found littering beaches in Thanet, Kent.

Fracking the life out of Arkansas and beyond

The last four months of 2010, nearly 500 earthquakes rattled Guy, Arkansas. [1]  The entire state experienced 38 quakes in 2009. [2]  The spike in quake frequency precedes and coincides with the 100,000 dead fish on a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River that included Roseville Township on December 30. The next night, 5,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings dropped dead out of the sky in Beebe. [3]  Hydraulic fracturing is the most likely culprit for all three events, as it causes earthquakes with a resultant release of toxins into the environment. [4]

A close look at Arkansas’ history of earthquakes and drilling reveals a shocking surge in quake frequency following advanced drilling. The number of quakes in 2010 nearly equals all of Arkansas’ quakes for the entire 20th century. The oil and gas industry denies any correlation, but the advent of hydrofracking followed by earthquakes is a story repeated across the nation.  It isn’t going to stop any time soon, either.  Fracking has gone global.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) pumps water and chemicals into the ground at a pressurized rate exceeding what the bedrock can withstand, resulting in a microquake that produces rock fractures. Though initiated in 1947, technological advances now allow horizontal fracturing, vastly increasing oil and gas collection. [5] In 1996, shale-gas production in the U.S. accounted for 2 percent of all domestic natural gas production, reports Christopher Bateman in Vanity Fair. “Some industry analysts predict shale gas will represent a full half of total domestic gas production within 10 years.” [6] In 2000, U.S. gas reserve estimates stood at 177 trillion cubic feet, but ramped up to 245 tcf in 2008. These new technologies prompt experts to increase global gas reserve estimates ninefold. [7]

The grid below shows a section of the Arkansas River, with Roseville Township at bottom, where the first reports of the fish kill originated. The green lines surrounding and crossing the river indicate gas pipes, ranging from 8-20” in diameter. Any number of leaks in the pipes can explain the fish kill. Gas wells are shown by yellow ‘suns’ (see red arrows) and range from 1,500 to 6,500 feet deep. (Disposal wells, where drilling waste products are injected at high pressures, go as deep as 12,000 feet.) The red numbers next to the ‘suns’ give the number of gas wells in that spot, numbering close to 50 in this small area. [8]

(The gray numbers relate to the Township Numbering System. Each square equals one square mile. Click map for larger image.)

In December alone, over 150 earthquakes rocked Arkansas. [1] The swarm of quakes in Guy likely results from six years of intense drilling. Guy sits within the Fayetteville Shale Formation which, according to the Arkansas Geological Survey (AGS), is “the current focus of a regional shale-gas exploration and development program.”  A billion cubic feet of gas has been produced from this area since 2004. [9]

Thousands of wells are in operation in North-Central Arkansas (blue section of the following map). [10] Beebe, where the bird kill occurred, is in White County and Guy is at the northern end of Faulkner Co., where the anomalous earthquakes continue.

Red-winged blackbirds roost in clusters up to a million or more birds, often with other species like starlings and cowbirds. (In the 1950s and ’60s, roosts could number 20 million birds.)  Blackbirds prefer low, dense vegetative cover in wetlands or near streams. Though some may perch 30 feet above the water, most perch within one to two feet of it, and some will roost with their feet resting in water. Blackbirds can range up to 50 miles a day from roost to feeding sites, but they all settle in for the night before sunset. [11]

An earthquake of whatever scale can release a stream or cloud of gas and fracking chemicals which could easily explain why sleeping birds would suddenly take flight, and then quickly die as they succumbed to the toxic fumes. Of note, eight measured quakes within 40 miles of Beebe, and within 75 miles of Roseville, hit the area on December 30 thru several minutes past midnight on January 1st. [12]  This excludes any micro- or miniquakes which can have the same effect.  Significantly, the area is known for its prolific microquakes — numbering 40,000 since 1982. [1]

Canadian Geologist Jack Century crusades against induced seismicity from irresponsible drilling. In a 2009 speech before the Peace River Environmental Society, he provided a brief explanation of how fracking induces earthquakes, completely refuting industry denial that fracking causes quakes. Fracking induces not only micro- and mini-seismic actions that can compromise the integrity of well casings, but also large earthquakes registering on the order of 5 to 7 on the Richter Scale, resulting in human deaths. [13]

Scott Ausbrooks, geohazards supervisor for AGS, told CNN in December that while earthquakes aren’t unusual in Arkansas, the frequency is. [14]  Indeed, they’ve had a 1,200 percent increase in earthquakes over 2009 data just in the last four months of 2010. All of the quakes registered less than 3 on the Richter Scale; over 98% of them occurred near Guy, where we find the largest concentration of gas wells; and 99% occurred outside the New Madrid Fault zone (circled in red below) where seismic activity is expected, implying they are human induced [1]:

Though AGS publicly claims no earthquake relation to drilling, in early December, Arkansas banned new drilling permits until further notice.

CNN reported that “According to the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, there are at least a half dozen ‘disposal wells’ within a 500-square-mile zone around Guy.” Ausbrooks noted similar “incidents in Colorado in the 1960s at Rocky Mountain Arsenal, where deep water injection was tied to earthquakes.” [14]

Arkansas Earthquake and Drilling History

When comparing Arkansas’ earthquake history with its drilling history, a causative correlation becomes obvious.

The entire 19th century saw 15 recorded earthquakes and none in the first decade of the new century.  A total of 694 quakes rocked Arkansas in the 20th century.  That number was surpassed in 2009-2010, with the bulk (483) occurring the last three months of 2010. Table 1 was prepared using complete quake data thru 2009 [15], complete data from August thru December, 2010 [1], and just North Central Arkansas quake data from January thru July, 2010. [16]

Arkla, Inc., through its many morphs, mergers and acquisitions,  is and has been a key gas driller in Arkansas.  Between 1975 and the early 1980s, the company found more gas than it produced. By 1982, Arkla was able to sell Central Louisiana Electric Company more than 100 million cubic feet of gas daily. By the early 1990s, it operated the sixth-largest pipeline system in the United States and was among the ten largest operators of natural gas reserves. [17] Its production timeline coincides with the massive jump in earthquakes in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, 37 companies drill for gas and oil in Arkansas. [18]

Unregulated Fracking on a Global March

The U.S. and Canada are not alone in exploiting this highly destructive technology. Poland also embraces fracking. Several energy companies are currently exploring Poland’s reserves, including Conoco-Phillips, ExxonMobil, Marathon, Chevron, Talisman, Lane Energy, BNK Petroleum, Emfesz, EurEnergy Resources, RAG, San Leon Energy and Sorgenia E&P. [19]  These new technologies will significantly impact the global trade in natural gas, according to Forbes [20]:

“Poland consumes 14 billion cubic meters of gas a year and imports more than 70% of it from Russia. It is easy to see how the country could benefit from starting shale gas drilling as soon as possible. Not only could it decrease its dependency on Russia, it might even turn into a gas exporter.”

Bateman noted that Western and Central Europe have leased their lands to frackers. Australians are suffering from the same frack contaminations as Americans, and China is also exploiting the new technology. [6]

Josh Fox’s 2010 film, Gasland, documents a multitude of harmful consequences on animal and human life, as well as property values. The most infamous scene shows people able to ignite their contaminated tap water [21]:

Fox makes the point that Dick Cheney’s former company, Halliburton, lobbied for and won exemptions from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, Superfund, and the Safe Drinking Water Act, thanks to our corporate-owned Congress.

Nor do drillers have to disclose the toxic chemicals used, contrary to the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. [22]  Though it did not hesitate to pass on Wall Street’s gambling debts to the public (twice), Congress has not found the will to pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act.

In 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that fracking poses no threat to water supplies and that no further studies were needed. [23]  From some Orwellian nightmare, however, at least 65 of the chemicals used in fracking are considered hazardous by the EPA. They have been linked to “cancer; liver, kidney, brain, respiratory and skin disorders; birth defects; and other health problems,” according to a 2005 report by the Oil and Gas Accountability Project. Of primary concern to citizens, OGAP notes that “Approximately half of the water that Americans rely on for drinking comes from underground sources.” [24]

Wyoming took a proactive stance on full disclosure of fracking chemicals when it passed new rules in September. Loopholes, however, still allow companies to claim proprietary ownership of such information, restricting it from public view. [25]

Given the EPA’s position that fracking is safe, it’s not likely that Arkansas citizens will get much help from the federal government. Nor will they find a friend at the state level. The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has so far been unwilling or unable to stop UMETCO Minerals Corporation from illegally dumping toxic chemicals into streams. [26]

The same situation applies across the nation where state governments protect industry over environmental and human health.  Recently, outgoing Governor David Paterson vetoed legislation that would have put a moratorium on vertical and horizontal hydraulic drilling in New York. [27]  Already, Pennsylvania leases a third of its public lands to private energy drillers. [21]

Given government bias toward energy giants, and BP’s destruction of the Gulf of Mexico is a case in point, more direct action may be required by citizens, if environmental and human health are to be saved from the fossil fuel industry.

Notes:

1. Arkansas Geological Survey, “Arkansas Earthquake Updates.” http://www.geology.ar.gov/geohazards/earthquakes.htm

2. Arkansas Geological Survey, “2009 Earthquakes.” http://www.geology.ar.gov/xl/2009_Earthquakes.xls

3. Food Freedom, “Massive fish kill and 1000s of birds fall from the sky in Arkansas,” 2 Jan. 2010. http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/massive-fish-kill-and-1000s-of-birds-fall-from-the-sky-in-arkansas/

4. Earthworks, “Hydraulic Fracturing and Earthquakes.”  http://www.earthworksaction.org/fracturingearthquakes.cfm

Also see:

Ben Cassleman, “Temblors Rattle Texas Town: Residents Suspect a Drilling Boom Is Triggering Small Quakes, but Scientists Lack Proof,” Wall Street Journal, 12 June 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124476331270108225.html

James Glanz, “Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears,” New York Times, 23 June 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/business/energy-environment/24geotherm.html

James Glanz, Video: “The Danger of Digging Deeper,” New York Times, 23 June 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/23/us/Geothermal.html

5. U.S. Department of Energy, “Hydraulic Fracturing White Paper,” June 2004.  http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/uic/pdfs/cbmstudy_attach_uic_append_a_doe_whitepaper.pdf

6. Christopher Bateman, “A Colossal Fracking Mess,” Vanity Fair, 16 June 2010. http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/06/fracking-in-pennsylvania-201006?currentPage=all

7. Martin Walker, “Russia’s Fracked Future,” UPI, 1 Feb. 2010. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/2010/02/01/Walkers-World-Russias-fracked-future/UPI-21421265042152/

8. Arkansas Geological Survey, “Fayetteville Shale Gas Play West Map,” Last updated 2 March 2010. http://www.geology.ar.gov/maps_pdf/fossilfuels/Fay%20West%20Map%2042×44.pdf

9. Arkansas Geological Survey, “Gas.” http://www.geology.ar.gov/fossil_fuels/gas.htm

10. Arkansas Geological Survey, “Fayetteville Shale Gas Play.” http://www.geology.ar.gov/home/fayetteville_play.htm

11. Brooke Meanley, “The Roosting Behavior of the Red-Winged Blackbird in the Southern United States,” Wilson Bulletin, Vol. 77 No.3, pp 217-228, Sept. 1965. http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v077n03/p0217-p0228.pdf

12. U.S. Geological Survey, “Map Centered at 35°N, 93°W” Accessed Jan. 5, 2010: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/34.36.-94.-92.php

13. Jack Century, “Earthquake Risks: Building a Nuclear Power Plant near Peace River, Alberta,” Peace River Environmental Society, May 2009 (71 mins.) http://peaceriverenvironmentalsociety.org/; 8-part video at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=jack+century&aq=f

14. CNN, “Arkansas Earthquakes,” 13 Dec. 2010. http://www.wibw.com/nationalnews/headlines/Arkansas_Earthquakes_111815534.html

15. Arkansas Geological Survey, “Earthquake Archive,” 2009. http://www.geology.ar.gov/xl/Earthquake_Archive.xls

16. Arkansas Geological Survey, “Recent and Historical Earthquakes in North-Central Arkansas,” October 2010 http://www.geology.arkansas.gov/maps_pdf/geohazards/CentralArkansasMediaMap.pdf

17. Funding Universe, “Arkla Inc.” n.d. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/ARKLA-INC-Company-History.html

18. Manta.com, “37 Drilling Oil and Gas Wells Companies in Arkansas,” n.d.

http://www.manta.com/mb_44_E317D_04/drilling_oil_and_gas_wells/arkansas

19. STRATFOR, “Poland: Fracing On The Rise?” Forbes Magazine, 1 June 2010. http://blogs.forbes.com/energysource/2010/06/16/poland-fracing-on-the-rise/

20. TREFIS Team, “ConocoPhillips Has Big Fracking Plans For Poland, Stock Has Upside,” Forbes Magazine, 14 Dec. 2010. http://blogs.forbes.com/greatspeculations/2010/12/14/conocophillips-has-big-fracking-plans-for-poland-stock-has-upside/

21. Josh Fox, Gasland, 2010. http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/. See trailer showing ignited tap water at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrnnQ17SH_A.

22. Sarah Collins and Tom Kenworthy, “Energy Industry Fights Chemical Disclosure: Natural gas companies want to prevent oversight of fracking,” Center for American Progress, April 2010. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/fracking.html

23. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Evaluation of Impacts to Underground Sources of Drinking Water by Hydraulic Fracturing of Coalbed Methane Reservoirs Study,” June 2004. http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/hydraulicfracturing/wells_coalbedmethanestudy.cfm

24. Lisa Sumi, “Our Drinking Water at Risk: What EPA and the Oil and Gas Industry Don’t Want Us to Know about Hydraulic Fracturing,” Oil and Gas Accountability Project, April 2005. http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/DrinkingWaterAtRisk.pdf

25. Earthworks, Powder River Basin Resources Council, “Wyoming Requires Disclosure of Chemicals in Natural Gas Drilling,” 16 Sep 2010. http://earthworksaction.org/PR_WYdisclosure.cfm

26. Karoline Wightman, “UMETCO Minerals Corp not yet fined for releasing chemicals,” Fox News, 16 Nov. 2010. http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story/UMETCO-Minerals-Corp-not-yet-fined-for-releasing/cOwdIEMf-kugosx8EWbrQQ.cspx?rss=315

27. Tom Zeller, “New York Governor Vetoes Fracking Bill,” New York Times, 11 Dec. 2010. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/new-york-governor-vetoes-fracking-bill/

Australia rejects Israeli ordered Media censorship on Al-Manar

In issuing its findings of fact and conclusions of law ACMA found that Al Manar did not violate Australian law, and was free to broadcast in the country

Australia’s Parliament and main stream media may not differ all that much from other western countries when it comes to chronic groveling to its Zionist lobby. But like citizens in many countries, Australians sometimes courageously exhibit admirable independence and respect for their society’s own values.

On December 10, 2010, whether by design or coincidence, International Human Rights Day, Australia’s Communication and Media Authority (ACMA ) released its much anticipated decision on whether to ban Lebanon’s Al Manar TV channel from being broadcast down under via the Indonesian PT Indosat satellite ( Palapa D) that was launched on 12/27/09. As in the US, which does ban Al Manar, the popular stations programming would, even if banned, still be available via internet live streaming.

“The Beacon”

Al Manar (“ the Beacon”), affiliated with the Lebanese political party, social service organization and resistance movement Hezbollah, has been the target of an intensive Israel ordered international media assault for several years. Silvan Shalom, former Israeli Foreign Minister, at a 2004 Herzliya Convention, outlined his governments policy succinctly: “The Israeli Foreign Ministry intends to work actively to have Al Manar banned in other countries around the globe. It is Israel’s intention to bring the seriousness of Al-Manar’s broadcasts to the attention of the international community and to convince them to prevent Al-Manar from operating in as many countries as possible.”

The Arabic-language station, started in 1991, has twice been banned in Australia, but was cleared by ACMA (Australia’s Communication and Media Authority) in 2009 and now again in 2010.

How ACMA arrived at its decision

To its credit, Australia’s media watchdog agency took its work seriously and more than once resisted being railroaded by ‘Israel first’ groups. ACMA’s mandate was to address community concerns by aiming to prevent the broadcast of programs that directly attempt to recruit people, or solicit funds, for listed terrorist organizations.

Specifically ACMA wanted to know if Al Manar, via its programming, “directly recruited persons to join, or participate in, the activities of a listed terrorist organization; or solicited for or assisted in the collection or provision of funds for a listed terrorist organization.”

To determine this, ACMA translated, watched and carefully analyzed popular Al Manar program including the following:

Date of broadcast Program Description 26 December 2009 8th day of Ashura Speech given by the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah. 25 December 2009 7th day of Ashura Speech given by the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah. 15 December 2009 Advertisement Donation for al-Emdad charity. 15 December 2009 Interstitial Our Dignity is Attributed to Martyrdom. Message to resistance fighters. 15 December 2009 Interstitial Martyr memorial of Jihad Malek Hammoud. 1 December 2009 Manifesto speech We Want Lebanon Strong and United. Speech given by the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah. 17 November 2009 Drama program Syrian-produced drama series. 15 November 2009 Current affairs Youth. Presenter discusses social networking sites with viewers. 15 November 2009 Current affairs Ma’a Al Mushahideen (With the Viewer). Presenter discusses the war in Yemen with viewers. 5 March 2009 Children’s program What is it? Children explaining their illustrations. 28 February 2009 Current affairs With the Event. Presenter discusses Islamic and Christian Holy sites with guest.

In issuing its findings of fact and conclusions of law ACMA found that Al Manar did not violate Australian law, and was free to broadcast in the country, ACMA did however, issue a caveat regarding two of the above listed programs, With the Event and With the Viewer.

A majority of the ACMA board felt With the Viewers, on 15 November 2009, was in breach of clause 1.2 of the ACMA codes, and felt the program was not presented fairly. The ACMA also found the broadcast of the current affairs program, With the Event, on 28 February 2009, was in breach of clause 1.3 of the codes, as the program might gratuitously vilify a group on the basis of ethnicity and religion. However, ACMA still issued a clean bill of health to Al Manar.

A minority on the ACMA board felt that Al Manar should not be held responsible for any code breaches with these two particular episodes because the ACMA survey of Al Manar programming makes clear that Al Manar presenters and program moderators routinely introduce programs objectively and try to moderate objectionable demeanor from their guests or viewers. Moreover, they pointed out that the With the Viewers and With the Event programs feature live audience participation. With the Viewers, one of the most popular shows in the Middle East, features people calling in to express their opinions on certain issues and current events. During With the Viewers, the presenter will cut calls that cross the ethical, religious, lines. Defamation is not allowed no matter who or what views are being discussed. For example, Palestinian refugees might call in to talk about their sufferings from the occupation and sometimes passions rise. All in all, With the Viewers and With the Event are thought by some ACMA analysts to be rather tame compared to certain American and Israeli programs where racist slurs and ethnic incitements are more common.

In fact, Al Manar has sometimes been criticized for being ‘too tame’ in its wish to be a family oriented station while avoiding controversy. This observer was disappointed with Al Manar when on August 13, 2010 it pulled the widely praised and award winning series, “The Christ” (Al-sayid al-masih) by famed Iranian Director Nader Talebzadeh because of some murmurs of criticism from certain Christian politicians. The story line shows the Muslim point of view of Jesus and brilliantly presents his life as a prophet. Al Manar said it took the action “in respect of some sensitivities and to avoid any attempt for negative exploitation.” However, they said, the series “reflects, with full honor and glorification, of Jesus’ life, picture, role, pain and sacrifices.”

What the ACMA decision means beyond Al Manar’s clean bill of health

Sometimes the symbolism of an event exceeds the significance of the specific act itself. Few freedom of speech and objective media and journalism advocates are not praising Australia’s stance in rejecting politically motivated assaults on broadcasting which is essentially all that the ACMA-Al Manar case represented.

In response, those crusading against Al Manar have issued their boiler plate objections including implying Australian anti-Semitism, ACMA incompetence and growing and dangerous Muslim influence.

Mark Leibler, AIJAC ‘s national chairman, said his organization was ” outraged that ACMA ignored evidence that ads of a particular charity, al-Emdad were shown on Al Manar. Claiming this was a breach of Australia’s anti-terrorism standards”.

The council’s executive director, Colin Rubenstein, urged ACMA, despite its findings, to ban the TV station ” because it is associated with Hezbollah, which itself is Terrorist listed by the federal government. Rubenstein added “Al-Manar’s raison d’etre is to radicalize Muslims around the world, including in Australia, to support Hezbollah’s terrorist methods and goals. AIJAC believes any media organization owned and/or operated by any banned terrorist organization should also be banned in Australia.”

Outside College Hall on the campus of the American University of Beirut, some students were discussing the ACMA decision. One young man from Egypt explained, “All Hezbollah has ever asked from those who may be wary of the Party for some reason or another is to keep an open mind. Sit with us, dialogue with us, give us a fair hearing on the facts as you see them. This is all Hezbollah or any party has the right to ask. Australia, to its great credit did just that. I have never met an Australian but I think they must be very fair minded people.”

One political consequence of ACMA ruling may be to kill H.R. 2278, Florida Congressman Gus Bilirakas’ “Terror TV” bill that AIPAC told him would target Al Manar and Hamas’ TV station Al Aqsa, but it turns out would affect more than 64 Arab and Muslim satellite channels in 24 countries. The bill is currently in John Kerry’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will likely never get out. “ It’s a goofy bill, we don’t need the problems it would cause especially given the near universal condemnation it received from every government in the Middle East”, one of Kerry’s aides explained.

The Grinch

Meanwhile, Australian’s Zionist lobby received a triple painful dose of disappointment from the Grinch who stole Hankakah this year when in addition to the ACMA shock, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced that his government would be tripling its contributions to, one of AIJAC’s long pursued targets for dismantlement, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) by providing AUD 18 million over the coming three years.

As if that were not enough holiday season punishment, AIJAC’s Reubenstein ruminated about the fact that Secret cables from the US embassy in Canberra, provided exclusively to the Sydney Morning Herald by fellow Australian Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, reveal that some Australian officials do not share the US-Israel assessment that Iran is a “rogue state”. Australian intelligence agencies, much like the CIA and other western intelligence, actually see Iran’s nuclear program as a strategy to deter foreign attacks, implying a possible positive aspect to Iran’s work in the nuclear field.

AIJAC, while not giving up trying to close Al Manar in Australia, is now planning a geographical shift of its crusade, for the time being. The executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim, on 12/11/10 called on Canberra to demand that the Indonesian government immediately cancel the PT Indosat satellite with Al Manar “and finally grasp the true nature of the station, particularly the danger al-Manar poses vis-a-vis the radicalization of Indonesian Muslims”.

What Israel and its international lobby appear concerned with, and not without some basis, given the potential penumbral effects of ACMA’s ruling and what it means for the rest of the US-Israel politically inspired terrorism lists.

The American justice system is obviously not perfect. But to quote Julian Assange’s on his release from Wandsworth’s Victorian era prison on 12/16/10 with respect to Britain, “If justice is not always an outcome, at least it is not dead yet.” In addition to what ACMA’s administrative agency and quasi judicial findings did for broadcasting rights and free journalism, lawyers in America are hoping to do for many individuals unjustly targeted with various T-listings. There are many egregious cases that have never been judicially reviewed since the Plaintiffs are abroad. Some are extreme cases including one where children are T listed from traveling to the US to visit loved ones, as is the case with one former Minister in Lebanon’s government and a leading political figure who has never been charged with terrorism and is not affiliated with Hezbollah or any other US T listed group.

Given the chance that American justice is not dead yet, it is hoped that, judicial review, on a case by case basis  will shed light on the disgrace that is the US Treasury Department’s over broad and likely to be found illegal corralling of citizens who might object to aspects of American foreign policy in the Middle East. If they receive a fair hearing on the facts, and unless a solid case to the contrary is proved and not merely hinted at, many are expected to be immediately de-listed.

If American courts apply the same fair standards exhibited by ACMA in Australia, in addition to the hapless fish netted individuals, Al Manar TV Channel, Nour Radio Station, and Jihad al Binna, and Waad Construction companies, among others, could be in a short line to be T de-listed. And none too soon.

How we trashed an entire continent in 150 years

On my coast to coast bicycle ride this summer, from San Francisco to Savannah, Georgia, I pedaled 3,300 miles across this amazing continent for the 7^th time.  I witnessed astonishing sights from sea to shining sea!  Fisherman’s Wharf and crashing waves along the Pacific Coast to Yosemite’s magic!  I cranked the pedals up 10,000 foot Tioga Pass in the high Sierra.  I sat to eat lunch at incomparable Tenaya Lake while watching a mama bear and her two cubs scamper across the lingering snow fields.  My friends and I descended into the utter desolation of Death Valley at 110 degrees heat.  From there, we climbed to Las Vegas and on to the Grand Canyon. Still further, the road led into the Painted Desert and on through the Petrified Forest.

Route 66 carried me along some amazing memories of the ’57 Chevy I once owned and .24 cent a gallon gasoline.  Several of the gas stations featured signed pictures of Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Jane Russell and Jimmy Stuart.  Even Strother Martin cocked his eye in one poster!  Loved that great character actor!  Look at Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes and Dale Evans!  How can anyone forget Clint Eastwood in the “Good, Bad and Ugly”? Steve McQueen and Marlon Brando!  Judy Garland, Kathryn Hepburn, Jane Mansfield and Mae West!  Lauren Bacall and Bogart!  Mickey Rooney and Barney Fife!   Babe Ruth!  Remember those old Corvettes and Route 66?  I have a shot of my bicycle and me in front of a ’55 red Corvette with a Route 66 sign!

What a great adventure for a man knockin’ on the door of 64!  Anyone my age knows that America no longer represents what it once enjoyed.  And, countless Americans that read my columns despair that we may never see our ‘traditional’ America again.  We face an overpopulated, polyglot future, and you know something, we brought it upon ourselves with our apathy.

Nevertheless, I pedaled into New Mexico’s enchanting mountains, across the plains of Texas, and through the trees and heat of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. I enjoyed some VERY unique moments on my bicycle.  Life provides all of us with great adventure opportunities.

“Bicycle adventure: if the roar of a wave crashes beyond your campsite, you might call that adventure.  When coyotes howl outside your tent–that may be adventure.   When the wind rips at your tent pegs—that too, may be called adventure.  While you’re sweating like a horse in a climb over a 12,000 foot pass, that’s adventure.  When a howling headwind  presses your lips against your teeth, you’re facing a mighty adventure.  If you’re drenched from head to toe in sweat as you pedal across a desert, that’s adventure.  If you’re pressing through a howling rainstorm, you’re soaked in adventure.   But that’s not what makes an adventure. It’s your willingness to struggle through it, to present yourself at the doorstep of Nature.  That creates the experience. No more greater joy can come from life than to live inside the “moment” of an adventure. It may be a momentary ‘high’, a stranger that changes your life, an animal that delights you or frightens you, a struggle where you triumphed, or even failed, yet you braved the challenge.   Those moments present you uncommon experiences that give your life eternal expectation.  That’s adventure!”  FW

But one thing really bothered me during my grand journey across America: within 150 years, we’ve turned this once pristine continent with all its inherent beauty, wildlife and treasures—into a giant garbage dump.  At 15 miles per hour, a person really ‘sees’ what happened to this country.  Black, brown, red and white Americans toss their trash EVERYWHERE!  They toss it into rivers, lakes, streams and along every road. They leave vehicles, trailers, couches and cans of oil by the hundreds of thousands if not millions EVERYWHERE in the woods, on abandoned lots and without rhyme or reason. They toss gallons of plastic containers of urine along the Interstate! They toss cans, plastic containers and bottles, and soiled baby diapers into the prettiest mountain streams and along hiking paths. Not just a little, but into the millions!

We Americans kill a vertebrate animal, known as road-kill, every 11.1 seconds. Deer, fox, eagles, hawks, mice, road runners, bear, elk, mountain lions, dogs, cats, song birds, geese and others suffer abrupt deaths because of our roadway systems.  That means we kill over 1.0 million daily that equals 365 million North American animals suffer death annually just trying to scamper across our highways to feed their young or live their lives.  On my way up one pass, one beautiful bird sang to his lover until he flew low onto the highway and crashed into a windshield. Tears streamed down my face from that awful sight.

Plastic bags hang from bushes, trees and fence posts!  I am convinced that plastic will prove the worst invention of humanity.  Why? Because we refuse to take responsibility for our own littering!  And, as you may have heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (on Oprah)—3.0 million tons of floating plastic containers in the Pacific Ocean 1,000 miles west of San Francisco, larger than the state of Texas—kill millions of marine creatures annually.  Why? Because businessmen like Peter Coors of Coors beer spent millions to make sure that bottle/return laws like Michigan’s never succeeded in Colorado or most states.  Thus, Colorado and 43 other states do not enjoy 10 cent deposit/return laws.  Pete Coors: a pretend environmentalist hiding behind a coat and tie!  He’s got plenty of others like him that remain responsible for all the container trash across our once-lovely landscape.  Coors’ legacy: every river I crossed during my ride, I saw plastic floating toward the ocean.

What happened to personal accountability?  What about personal responsibility?  How can millions of Americans trash this continent without any sense of honoring nature?

Why doesn’t the U.S. Congress enact a simple .10 cent deposit/return law for the entire nation like Michigan’s?  Simple, effective, responsible! If someone tosses a container, an army of kids picks it up!

Answer to the first question: this country’s leaders and citizens really don’t care nor do they take any action to clean up after themselves.  With another 100 million Americans expected within 25 years—we’ll see more trash, litter, garbage, junked trailers and debris piling up across this once-beautiful continent.  I hang my head in shame.

“Time means nothing now. It slips away as easily as grains of sand on a beach.  But those grains only trade places. On my bike, I change the same way—new locations in the passage of time.  The pedaling becomes incidental now—like breathing.   No conscious effort—only flow.  The hills and mountains come and go—my legs powering over them in a kind of winsome trance.  Grappling with headwinds only brings determination, while riding a tail wind brings ecstasy.   I transform into a state of bliss, much like a seagull gliding over the waves or floating on updrafts.  I see them standing on the beaches or soaring over the surf. Just living. Just being. Me too!”  Frosty Wooldridge, on the road.

US pushing drugged, vaccinated, chlorinated chickens on the world

After over half a billion eggs were recalled from two factory hen layer operations in Iowa,[1] New York lawmakers proposed mandating vaccines against salmonella. [2]  Mainstream media then blasted this message across the world.  As the world’s largest producer of poultry [3] and second largest exporter [4], the US continues to hammer Russia about its embargo of chlorinated chickens.[5] Home to the biggest pharmaceutical and chemical companies in the world, the US is fond of throwing drugs and chemicals at a problem instead of addressing the filth of factory farms.

Russia, the top importer of US poultry, produces only half of its chicken consumption. [6]  It banned chlorinated chickens on January 1, but recently reopened its doors to 70 US companies in line with a chlorine-free agreement between Presidents Obama and Medvedev in late June. [7]  Obama balked, however, when Russia asked to inspect the processing plants. [8]

On August 31, thirty US Senators sent a letter to Russia’s ambassador asking for a full lift of the ban, but failed to mention the chlorine issue. Instead, profits were stressed. [9]

Until 2008, the European Union also banned chlorinated poultry.  Greenpeace condemned the procedural maneuver that removed public debate on the issue. [10]

But the global market for US poultry more than made up for Russia’s hesitancy. June was a phenomenal month for US exports – marking a 20-month high. In its latest export report, the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) wrote: [11]

“Increases in shipments to Mexico (26%), the Baltic States (60%), Newly Independent States (including Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) (155%), Philippines (310%), Korea and Hong Kong (174%), and Japan (181%) all rose beyond last June’s shipment volumes.

In a single month, the Ukraine increased imports from one million pounds of poultry to almost 30 million.

Chlorinated chicken poses a health risk

Despite global acceptance of US chicken decontamination procedures, chlorine is a known carcinogen. It reacts with and is retained by muscle tissue, but especially fats and the liver of chickens. [12]  It is a boon for the poultry industry, though. Chlorine treated chicken carcasses weigh more than those treated with unchlorinated water. [13]

As to carcass sanitation, “the most common (and recommended) disinfecting method is steamed/hot water (>180 ºF) instead of applying antimicrobial substances,” explains Marc Thibault of Green Age. [14]

The USDA reports that there are currently 280 million egg-laying hens in the US, producing about 77 billion eggs a year. [15]  Hens usually produce eggs until they are 18-26 months old. [16]  Once spent, some are rendered into “human food, pet food, mink feed and poultry feed,” reports United Poultry Concerns. [17]  While most layers do not make it into the food supply, some show chlorine contamination via commercial feed, which passes into their eggs. [18]

Both broilers and layers live in ghastly conditions in concentrated poultry houses, as recent films like “Fresh” and “Food, Inc.” revealed. Chickens raised for human consumption eat genetically modified feed laced with antibiotics. They are bred for large breasts – beyond what their legs can support. Not that there is room for mobility – most live in 68 square inches of space. A US farmer told Russian bloggers: [19]

“‘Modern’ poultry production condemns the poor chickens to living in their own filth leading to all kinds of problems from breathing in the fecal dust and excess ammonia.

“This produces a meat that is less than firm and very absorbent. This absorbency is terrible for us because of what happens when the chicken is cleaned. Because processing is highly mechanized… many intestines are torn during evisceration thereby soiling many of the carcasses, which are then ‘sterilized’ in a chlorine bath (better known as a fecal bath) which the absorbent meat sponges up for us to later eat.”

The difference in taste and texture between chlorinated, drugged chicken and organic, fresh chicken is obvious.

Vaccines not needed

The salmonella outbreak which began in the Spring has sickened 1,470 people. [20]  This comprises only one percent of 142,000 cases each year. [21]

Both companies involved in the egg recall, Hillandale Farms and Wright County Egg, use vaccinated hens. Wright spent over half a million dollars on vaccines, and 80 percent of Hillandale’s supply is vaccinated, yet salmonella managed to survive. [22]

The pharmaceutical industry, of course, pushes vaccines. Inactivated salmonella vaccines, as well as live and genetically modified ones, are used. One of the three main suppliers in the US, Lohmann Animal Health International, asserts, “Vaccination programs must be a major component of Salmonella control programs.” [23]

However, the new egg rules of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which became effective on July 9, do not require vaccines. Field trials did not conclusively proved them to be effective. Instead, the FDA mandated egg refrigeration and increased testing, cleaning and inspection, and only encourages vaccine use. [24]

Even assuming vaccine efficacy, they are not needed. In its apologetic statement this week [1], the Iowa Poultry Association reminded the public that the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA “both state that thoroughly cooked eggs are thoroughly safe eggs.

“Consumers should know that Salmonella is destroyed by the heat of proper cooking.  Eggs should be cooked until the whites and yolks are firm. For dishes containing eggs, the internal temperature should reach 160 °F.”

Russia’s Institute of Public Health agrees. “People don’t need to worry a lot about these infected chickens because, in fact, all of them are infected…. To avoid contamination, you should carefully wash the chicken and expose it to high temperatures until it becomes grey.” [25]

Since proper cooking kills salmonella, and thorough cooking kills salmonella, why vaccinate the hens?  The massive hype from corporate media about the need for more drugs in the food supply can only serve to generate profits for Big Pharma.

Antibiotic overuse

Chickens raised for human consumption are fed a steady stream of antibiotics. Although the FDA concluded ten years ago that this has led to drug resistance, [26] little has been done to end the practice. A renewed effort is now gaining traction.

The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (“PAMTA”) (HR 1549, S 619) would ban giving antibiotics to healthy farm animals. [27] The Union of Concerned Scientists explains:

“An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are regularly added to the feed of livestock and poultry that are not sick–a practice with serious consequences for our health. Bacteria that are constantly exposed to antibiotics develop antibiotic resistance. This means that when humans get sick from resistant bacteria, the antibiotics prescribed by doctors don’t work.” [28]

As to hens raised to produce eggs, Steve Roach, a Program Director for Food Animal Concerns Trust,[29] told Food Freedom that “bacitracin, erythromycin, and tylosin are approved for increasing lay.”  They may be legally used “in the 20 weeks before they go into production.”

This is where it gets tricky.  “The last two [drugs] are considered critically important with respect to human health and the potential for resistance.”

The group, Health Care Without Harm, provides a list of organizations in support of PAMTA and more resources for further reading. [30] You can also sign their petition in support of the bill. [31]

On September 16, you can listen to an hour-long webinar on “Superbugs, Super Problems: Agricultural Antibiotics and Emerging Infections.” The program starts at 1 pm EDT. You must pre-register. [32]  Three of the speakers recently testified before Congress on the issue.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy notes that one result of antibiotics overuse “is the emergence of new infections with farm links, including Salmonella resistant to multiple drugs (including the critical cephalosporins), resistant E coli, and MRSA.”

Buy Local: It’s safer and improves the local economy

As Russia weighs the benefits of cheaper, but chemically and biologically contaminated chicken from the US versus safer, locally raised poultry, it should consider its superior position. Not a part of the World Trade Organization, Russia does not have to sacrifice quality and can force the US to clean up its act. Half of all US exports to Russia comprised chicken – amounting to $900 million in 2008. [33]  That’s a hefty bit of leverage.

Nations are well-advised to consider food safety and food security before allowing our chemically adulterated supply into their markets.

US food has been attributed to our skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Recall that industry insiders run government agencies, a fact widely reported by watchdog groups. Also consider the recent push by US officials to get people to eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, despite scientific reports cautioning against it because of the destructive use of toxic oil dispersants, as well as the 200-plus million gallons of oil spilled. [34]

Instead of throwing another drug at filthy, concentrated animal feeding operations, safe and environmentally friendly alternatives abound. One is to raise your own backyard chickens. Author Patricia Foreman provides five good reasons to raise your own small flock in her new book “City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-reyclers, and Local Food Producers.”

The Rodale Institute summarized her work [35]:  In addition to giving you complete control over egg quality, it turns out the easily raised birds are also good for soil and gardens, and reduce landfills by recycling your organic waste.

Supporting local agriculture benefits local economies, reduces pollution and lowers the risk of pathogenic spread. A decentralized food system provides food security and economic sovereignty far superior to any trade agreement across borders.

NOTES

[1] Statement of the Iowa Poultry Association, 31 Aug 2010. http://www.iowapoultry.com/media_room.php?StoryID=9

[2] Erin Durkin, “New York pols push for bills requiring salmonella vaccination for hens after egg recall,” New York Daily News, 30 Aug 2010. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/30/2010-08-30_albany_pols_egged_on_by_salmonella.html?r=news#ixzz0yFOlQ4OM

[3] The Poultry Site, “Global Poultry Trends – Americas Are Largest Producer and Exporter of Chicken,” July 2010. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1774/global-poultry-trends-americas-are-largest-producer-and-exporter-of-chicken

[4]  Economic Research Service, “Poultry and Eggs: Trade,” US Dept. of Agriculture, 16 Apr 2009. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Poultry/trade.htm

[5] Meat Trade News Daily, “USA – What a pitiful indictment on USDA,” 31 Aug 2010. http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/310810/usa___what_a_pitiful_indictment_on_usda_.aspx

[6] Russia Today, “End of U.S. poultry imports leaves onus [on] domestic producers,” 15 Jan 2010. http://rt.com/Business/2010-01-15/poultry.html?fullstory

[7] Reuters, “’Technical Issues’ Keep U.S. Poultry Sidelined,” 5 Aug 2010. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/technical-issues-keep-us-poultry-sidelined/411707.html

[8] Dmitry Solovyov and Roberta Rampton, “Russia to partly lift chicken ban; US wants more,” Reuters, 13 Aug 2010. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE67C1SF20100813

[9] Senator Ben Cardin, Press Release, 31 Aug 2010. http://cardin.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=327417

[10] Greenpeace European Unit, “Greenpeace reactive statement on chlorinated chicken decision,” 28 May 2008. http://www.eubusiness.com/topics/food/greenpeace.08-05-28

Also see: EurActive News, “Outrage at plans to lift ‘chlorine chicken’ ban,” 29 May 2008. http://www.euractiv.com/en/food/outrage-plans-lift-chlorine-chicken-ban/article-172810

[11] Rachel J. Johnson, “Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook,” USDA, 18 Aug 2010. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/LDP/2010/08Aug/ldpm194.pdf

[12] European Food Safety Authority Scientific Panel, “Treatment of poultry carcasses with chlorine dioxide, acidified sodium chlorite, trisodium phosphate and peroxyacids,” EFSA Journal (2005) 297, 1-27, 6 Dec 2005. http://www.efsa.europa.eu/fr/scdocs/doc/afc_op_ej297_poultrytreatment_opinon_en-rev2,0.pdf

[13] H. M. Cunningham, G. A. Lawrence, “Effect Of Exposure of Meat and Poultry to Chlorinated Water on the Retention of Chlorinated Compounds and Water,” Abstract. Journal of Food Science, Volume 42, Issue 6, pages 1504–1509, November 1977. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1977.tb08411.x/abstract

[14] Marc Thibault, “European consumers organizations and farmers fight chlorinated chicken,” Green Age, 18 Jun 2008. http://www.green-age.org/blog/2008/06/18/european-consumers-organizations-and-farmers-fight-chlorinated-chicken/

[15] US Department of Agriculture, “Export Trade Booming for Livestock and Poultry,” Aug 2010. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/LDP/2010/08Aug/ldpm194tables.xls

[16] Food and Drug Administration, “Final Rule, Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production, Storage, and Transportation,” 9 Jul 2010, effective 9 July 2010. http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/EggSafety/EggSafetyActionPlan/ucm170746.htm

[17] United Poultry Concerns, “Catching, Transport, and Slaughter ,” n.d. http://www.upc-online.org/chickens/chickensbro.html

[18] Catherine Pirard and Edwin De Pauw, “Toxicokinetic study of dioxins and furans in laying chickens,” Abstract. Environment International, Volume 32, Issue 4, May 2006, Pages 466-469. http://snipurl.com/113mgx

[19] Windows to Russia, “Bad Move – Russia Lifts Chicken Ban on America,” 19 Aug 2010 http://windowstorussia.com/bad-move-russia-lifts-chicken-ban-on-america.html

[20] Betsy McKay, “FDA, Vaccine Manufacturers: No Worries of Salmonella From Flu Vaccines,” Wall Street Journal, 30 Aug 2010. http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/08/30/fda-vaccine-manufacturers-no-worries-of-salmonella-from-flu-vaccines/

[21] William Neuman, “U.S. Rejected Hen Vaccine Despite British Success,” New York Times, 24 Aug 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/business/25vaccine.html

[22] World Poultry, “Vaccines could have prevented US Salmonella egg recall,” 25 Aug 2010. http://www.worldpoultry.net/news/vaccines-could-have-prevented-us-salmonella-egg-recall-7851.html

[23] Lohman http://www.zootecnicainternational.com/article-archive/veterinary/704-spraying-chicks-with-salmonella-vaccines-at-the-hatchery-.html

[24] Food and Drug Administration, “New Final Rule to Ensure Egg Safety, Reduce Salmonella Illnesses Goes into Effect,” 9 Jul 2010. http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm218461.htm

[25] Russia Today, “80% of Moscow chicken meat contaminated with salmonella,” 2 Jun 2010. http://rt.com/prime-time/2010-06-02/chicken-meat-salmonella-moscow.html?fullstory

[26] Consumer Reports, “Chicken: Arsenic and antibiotics,” July 2007. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/food-safety/animal-feed-and-food/animal-feed-and-the-food-supply-105/chicken-arsenic-and-antibiotics/

[27] The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1549

[28] Union of Concerned Scientists, “Progress Curtailing the Use of Antibiotics in the Feed and Water of Animals,” n.d. http://www.ucsusa.org/action/progress/PAMTA-progress.html

[29] Food Animal Concerns Trust http://www.foodanimalconcerns.org/#Scene_1

[30] Health Care Without Harm, “Protect Antibiotics Action Center,” n.d. http://www.noharm.org/us_canada/issues/food/protect_antibiotics.php

[31] Petition in support of The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5140/t/8175/signUp.jsp?key=1459

[32] IATP Webinar “Superbugs, Super Problems: Agricultural Antibiotics and Emerging Infections,” September 16, 2010, 11 am-12 noon PDT; 12 noon-1pm MDT; 1-2 pm CDT; 2-3 pm EDT. Preregistration required:  http://www.iatp.org/healthyfoodbill/index.php?q=healthy-food-healthy-farms-webinar-series

[33] Dan Flynn, “Russia Bans U.S. Poultry Over Chlorine,” Food Safety News, 7 Jan 2010. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/01/russia-bans-us-poultry-over-chlorine/

[34] Kate Sheppard, “Is Gulf Seafood Really Safe?” Mother Jones, 17 Aug 2010. http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/08/gulf-seafood-really-safe

[35] Leah Zerbe, “5 Reasons Why Chickens Belong in Your City, Town, or Neighborhood,” Rodale Institute, 1 Sept 2010. http://www.rodale.com/urban-chickens?page=0%2C0&cm_mmc=DailyNewsNL-_-2010_09_01-_-Top5-_-NA

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