Turning Back From the Point of No Return

Implications of the Threat to Bomb Iran… The drums for war on Iran have been banging louder than ever lately, with a spate of articles by political commentators either directly encouraging the bombing of the Islamic Republic or otherwise offering a narrative in which this is effectively portrayed as the only option to prevent Iran from waging a nuclear holocaust against Israel. A prominent example of the latter is Jeffrey Goldberg’s article last month in the Atlantic magazine, “The Point of No Return”.[1]... Read article

An epidemic of ghosts

By Vaughanbell | MindHacks.com… Mozambique is being ravaged by an epidemic of spirit possession. These ‘outbreaks’ have traditionally been dismissed as superstition by commentators from afar, but it is becoming increasingly recognised that different cultures have different ways of expressing mental distress and social anguish – to the point where a team of medical scientists have just published the first large scale epidemiological study on spirit possession and its link to mental and physical illness... Read article

The Backward Slide into Recession

Ongoing deleveraging has slowed personal consumption and trimmed 2nd quarter GDP to a revised 1.6%. The economy is sliding backwards into recession. As Obama’s fiscal stimulus dries up and the private sector slashes spending, demand will continue to collapse pushing more businesses and households into default. The economy is now caught in a reinforcing downward cycle in which dwindling fiscal and monetary support is shrinking the money supply triggering a slowdown in activity in the broader economy. Far right policymakers... Read article

Will Ohio execute an innocent man?

Here we go again, this time in Ohio. There, death row inmate Kevin Keith is scheduled to be executed on September 15, despite strong new evidence of his innocence. Keith was convicted in 1994 for a shooting spree that killed three people and wounded three others. Eyewitness testimony was the primary evidence used to convict Keith. Along with the fact that eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable, the new evidence discredits the eyewitness identification in this case. The evidence also identifies an alternative suspect,... Read article

You Asked for It, You Got It: Obamacare

Socialism needs two legs on which to stand; a right and a left. While appearing to be in complete opposition to one another, they both march in the same direction. – Paul Proctor Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Dictionary definitions of eternal include “continued without intermission” or “valid or existing at all times.” We must be equally protective of our liberties at all times, regardless of who is in office, regardless of their party and regardless of how noble... Read article

Public Employee Unions Guarantee National Bankruptcy

Presidential executive orders have a long history. Both Democratic and Republican presidents exercise such commands. Are EO’s a privilege in law or are they simply a technique to skirt passing a Congressional statute? The executive branch adopts a pattern of rule that undermines the fundamental purpose of separation of power. The historic result is that the legislature is relegated to a junior collaborator in their partnership of crime. The bureaucracy has developed into a full-fledged imperial juggernaut that has a life... Read article

Make Sure the Bunker is Well Stocked

Robert Herz was forced to resign from his job as as chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) because he insisted that the banks assign a fair value to their assets. That’s not what you’ll read in the papers, but it’s true just the same. Herz was a major proponent of mark-to-market accounting, a simple means of determining the value of a bond or security by comparing the price of similar assets sold at market. In other words, Herz is a defender of universally-accepted accounting principles,... Read article

Wikileaks: The Real Stuff

After the tremendous coup of Wikileaks, this semi-clandestine site and organisation, which had recently brought to public knowledge so many government crimes through so many hundreds of thousands of documents (with even more of the way), has predictably come under attack. Not only from Pentagon hacks, but also from various bodies we would expect to back them rather than knife them in the back. Reporters Without Borders accused Wikileaks of being irresponsible, for having published the names of US agents in Afghanistan.... Read article

The Amazing adventures of Captain Neo in Blonde-land

Enough of boring stuff of Afghan stiffs and Pentagon staffs! Not a minute too early, when we were about to succumb to boredom of approaching rainy autumn, we were hit by the new release of … The Amazing adventures of Captain Neo in Blonde-land …as no doubt the story of Julian Assange’s escapades in Sweden will be known once it inevitably makes its way into the hands of one of the goofier Hollywood directors – say Robert Zemeckis or Mel Brooks, or perhaps Stephen Herek of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.... Read article

A Two-Tier Internet?

From: The Economic Collapse… The Internet as you know it is in serious, serious danger. Some of the most powerful communications companies in the world have been involved in negotiations and have been making agreements that would throw net neutrality out the window and would move us toward a two-tier Internet.  So exactly what would that mean?  It would mean that the big corporate giants that have a virtual monopoly on other forms of media and entertainment would be able to buy access to the blazing fast... Read article

The Role of Heroin In Sustaining The Afghan “war”

I just got an e-mail from Scottish journalist David Pratt, asking me to please let people know about the insidious effects of heroin on Afghanistan — and on Scotland. Of course I will. The two articles that Pratt wrote on this subject offer huge new insights into why the Bush-Obama “war” in Afghanistan is still going on after nine long bloody years of both physical pain and financial disaster for both Afghanistan and the United States (not to mention Scotland). I first met Pratt when we were... Read article

The Age of Reason

Has Something Gone Awry? Muslims are constructing a massive mosque at the former site of the World Trade Centers. It is likely the Supreme Court with a new Liberal, possibly prejudiced, member will determine the legality of homosexual marriage. While public support of Christian morality is forbidden by the courts, freedom of speech has been extended to gross coarseness. On CNN Dr. Laura Schlessinger was lectured on morality by that great paragon of righteousness, Larry King, and, after the required grovel, announced she... Read article

Bernanke Ponders the “Nuclear Option”

The equities markets are in disarray while the bond markets continue to surge. The avalanche of bad news has started to take its toll on investor sentiment. Barry Ritholtz’s “The Big Picture” reports that the bears have taken the high-ground and bullishness has dropped to its lowest level since March ‘09 when the market did a quick about-face and began a year-long rally. Could it happen again? No one knows, but the mood has definitely darkened along with the data. There’s no talk of green shoots... Read article

We Need A Revolution, Not A Movement

The elections of 2008 (and the early elections of 2010) produced two significant phenomena: the “Ron Paul Revolution,” and the “Tea Party Movement.” And, mark it down: both of them will have profound effects upon the upcoming November elections–and upon the 2012 elections as well. Call them what you want, however, America doesn’t need another movement; it needs a genuine revolution. The Tea Party movement, while still a force with which to be contended, has already been diluted and compromised. The primary elections... Read article

Why and How to Shut Down a Nuclear Weapons Facility

“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased…to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946 [Kansas City] Close to one-hundred concerned, thoughtful citizens attended the premier showing of Countdown to Zero, at the Tivoli theater August 13th, and many of them also attended... Read article

What happens when Diversity replaces America’s Language and Culture

For the past 30 years, somebody, somewhere, or a group of people in high places decided to destroy the successful equation of “melting pot” within America. That ‘entity’ decided to pitch diversity and multiculturalism as the new monikers dismantling English as America’s common language. “It” decided to inject hundreds of incompatible cultures and languages into America while adding another 100 million people to stress the environment even further. That same “It” worked its magic in France, Great Britain,... Read article

Next Page »