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DEBT = Slavery!
Tuesday, June 26. 2007
"Children are completely egoistic; they feel their needs intensely and strive ruthlessly to satisfy them."
--Sigmund Freud
Frightening as it may be, the Earth’s fate rests in the hands of children. With incredibly formidable military firepower at its disposal, the United States could catalyze Armageddon at any time. And while they may be adults chronologically, our sociopolitical structure is dominated by emotional infants.
Nietzsche once pronounced God dead. In the United States, we have a more readily demonstrable (and perhaps related) problem. Our collective id has rendered its governing superego impotent, and perhaps dead. Our prevailing moral standards, as inconsequential as they have become, are of the Jerry Falwell variety. They are mean-spirited, self-serving, judgmental, narrow-minded, selfish, and belligerent. As far as US Americans are concerned, Christ may as well have preached the Sermon on the Mount from the lowest recesses of Death Valley.
Recall that our basic drives such as libido, hunger, and aggression flow from the infantile dimension of our psyche known as the id. In terms of psychodynamics, the superego’s role is to counter-balance the irresponsible, amoral, and essentially sociopathic nature of the id with a healthy degree of conscience and guilt. Yet in the United States, we are inculcated with a deep sense of our exceptionalism and entitlement from the moment we emerge from the birth canal, thus crippling our ability to empathize and seriously impeding the development of our superego.
Consequently, conscience, guilt, personal discipline, and delaying gratification are barely extant in the toxic cesspool of our sociocultural environment.
Let’s examine some of the spiritually corrosive social forces which have molded our malleable natures in such a way that our behavior as a nation closely resembles that of a depraved miscreant:
Michel Chossudovsky is a noted academic, author, activist and relentless researcher concentrating on America’s imperial crusade to control planet earth for its markets, resources and cheap exploitable labor. He’s a Canadian economist by profession having taught at the University of Ottawa as well as at academic institutions in Western Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia. In addition, he’s been an economic adviser to developing countries’ governments and a consultant for many international organizations, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, International Labour Organization (ILO), and World Health Organization (WHO). He’s also the editor of the Centre for Research on Globalization and its web site, Global Research.ca.
“America’s War on Terrorism” - An Overview
Chossudovsky’s book is a greatly expanded version of his 2002 book titled, “War and Globalization: The Truth behind September 11.” The current newly titled 2005 edition (post-9/11 and the 2003 Iraq invasion and occupation) includes 12 new chapters with those in the original edition updated. The author states the book’s purpose is “to refute the official narrative and reveal - using detailed evidence and documentation (not speculation based on opinion alone)” - the true nature of America’s “war on terrorism,” that’s as relevant now as when the book was first published.
Chossudovsky calls it a complete fabrication “based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden (from a cave in Afghanistan and hospital bed in Pakistan) outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus.”
Why did the Democratic Congress betray the voting public? Betrayal is often a consequence of wishful thinking. It’s the world’s way of delivering the life lesson that it’s time to shed the vanity of one’s innocence and grow-the-hell-up. Apropos, here’s lesson number one for political innocents: Power serves the perpetuation of power. In an era of runaway corporate capitalism, the political elite exist to serve thecorporate elite. It’s that simple.
Why do the elites lie so brazenly? Ironically, because they believe they’re entitled to, by virtue of their superior sense of morality. How did they come to this arrogant conclusion? Because they think they’re better than us. If they believe in anything at all, it is this: They view us as a reeking collection of wretched, baseborn rabble, who are, on an individuallevel, a few billion neurons short of being governable by honest means.
Yes, you read that correctly: They believe they’re better than you. When they lie and flout the rules and assert that the rule of law doesn’t apply to them or refuse to impeach fellow members of their political and social class who break the law — it is because they have convinced themselves it is best for society as a whole.
How did they come by such self-serving convictions? The massive extent of their privilege has convinced them that they’re the quin...
Tony Sutton of ColdType interviewed by Jason Miller
Nearly asphyxiated by the fetid stench wafting from the mendacious corporate media pundits I’ve been profiling, I decided to ascend from the intellectual sewer into which I had crawled in order to observe them in their natural habitat. At last some detoxified air! It was an incredible boost to my faltering faith in humanity when I recently had the privilege to conduct a cyber-interview with Tony Sutton, the editor and publisher of ColdType, an online journal which presents “Writing Worth Reading from around the World.”
As you will discover, Tony and his marvelous publication are two of the best kept secrets we political educators and agitators for social justice have in our arsenal. Domiciled in the Great White North, Tony publishes one of the finest radical journals in existence.
In terms of content, contributing writers, and presentation, ColdType’s quality is unparalleled.
Judge for yourself:
WASHINGTON -- In two important victories for President Bush and Republican interests, the Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for corporate-funded broadcast ads before next year's election and shielded the White House's "faith-based initiative" from challenge in the courts. Both came in 5-4 rulings led by new Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by Bush in 2005. The first decision will allow corporate and union money to play a bigger role in political campaigns, and the second will allow federal money to continue to flow to church groups and religious organizations that do charitable work or provide social services. The first case involved the McCain-Feingold Act passed by Congress five years ago. Part of the law banned pre-election "issue ads" that mention a candidate's name if they were paid for with corporate or union money. The court's decision Monday went a long way toward striking down that ban. Although unusual alliances lined up on each side, the ruling is expected to benefit Republican causes because more campaign-advertising money, generally speaking, is spent to support the GOP.
Sunday, June 24. 2007
Corporate greed, corruption, and the coming collapseThe U.S. government, once crafted as a system that would serve the interests of the people, has devolved into a system of plutocracy where corporations control both the government and the people. Virtually every government regulatory department, for example, is now run by the corporations it is supposed to be regulating. Just look at the FDA, USDA, FTC, FCC, NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) and most other government regulatory bodies and you'll find a room full of politicians and bureaucrats who utterly disregard the People while prioritizing the financial needs of influential corporations. Our nation's policies on health, finances, agricultural, national defense and even education are increasingly slanted towards enriching the corporations, usually at the expense of the People. Even worse, the People have come to fear their government here in the United States, and any time a government gains so much power that the people begin to fear it, the scenario is set for police state atrocities against the citizens. In a healthy society, you see, the government fears the people, and it's this fear of being replaced or kicked out of office that keeps government bureaucrats in line. But in America, that's been lost, replaced by a tyrannical system of government that treats the people like common criminals. Don't believe me? Just try to board an airplane without being detained and searched against your will. Try to bring a bottle of water on an airplane and see how much "freedom" you still have left in America today. How did the corporations gain so much power over government and the people? It's simple: Campaign finances. The corporations hire hoards of lobbyists who dart in and out of lawmakers' offices in Washington, leaving behind trails of cash and corruption. Most lawmakers hardly ever meet with the actual people they claim to represent. Instead, they spend their time cavorting with corporate rabblerousers who operate based on the simple principle of greed. Think Enron, but times a thousand. That's who controls Congress today. To keep the People in line, public protests have been limited and outlawed in many areas, where new fenced-in "free speech zones" have been set up to force protestors to protest out of the way somewhere. (Note to all: If free speech is limited to a "zone" then it isn't free speech at all!) At every turn, the U.S. government seeks to marginalize the power of the People and expand its own reach and power, usually at the behest of the wealthy corporations pulling the strings backstage. The natural cycle of collapse and rebirth So where is it all heading? To a desperate place, unfortunately.
Moore's Cuba crew fires back: feds 'sicko'
Three 9/11 workers who traveled with polemic filmmaker Michael Moore to Cuba for free health services said yesterday they were enraged by the government's investigation into the trip.
"The issue here is not about Cuba," said Bill Maher, 54. The New Jersey man devoted time on weekends to helping clean up Ground Zero and now has severe health troubles. "It's about what this country has done for health care and 9/11 responders."
The workers appear in Moore's new film, "Sicko," which hits theaters nationwide Friday. As part of the documentary - which unfavorably compares the U.S. health care system to other nations' - Moore travels to Cuba with 10 ailing Americans, including the three workers, for no-cost medical service.
In May, Moore received a letter from the Treasury Department saying he was the subject of an investigation over the March trip, which officials said violated U.S. trade restrictions with the Communist country.
Dougie Visits the Creation Museum
With the assistance of BEAST Editor-in-Chief Al Uthman, we had set up a website for our sham newspaper, the Special Times, “a Christian lifestyle journal for and by the developmentally disabled” (www.thespecialtimes.com). Our logo was glorious, rendered in the New York Times font, with a crucifix substituting for the “T” in times. A picture of me sitting in a wheelchair with my belly exposed, giving a thumbs-up, with the caption “Dougie and his trusty notebook,” dared anyone visiting the site to view it as transparent satire.
WELCOME TO THE SPECIAL TIMES!1!!” it read next to my picture. The number one, squeezed in amidst the exclamation points, was a stroke of pure retarded genius, I thought. We promised the paper would be “just super to read,” and would feature “top-notch stories relevant to developmentally disabled people of faith.”
The homepage was believable enough. The “About Us” page, by contrast, was particularly absurd, featuring a fictitious and preposterously named medical condition:
Saturday, June 23. 2007
Dear Mr. Vernon,
We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong.
But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...
In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.
But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain... and an athlete... and a basket case... a princess... and a criminal.
Does that answer your question?
Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.
Friday, June 22. 2007
Dictionaries define “yellow journalism” variously as irresponsible and sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the truth. It’s misinformation or agitprop disinformation masquerading as fact to boost circulation and readership or serve a larger purpose like lying for state and corporate interests. The dominant US media excel in it, producing a daily diet of fiction portrayed as real news and information in their role as our national thought-control police gatekeepers. In the lead among the print and electronic corporate-controlled media is the New York Times publishing “All the News That’s Fit to Print” by its standards. Others wanting real journalism won’t find it on their pages allowing only the fake kind. It’s because this paper’s primary mission is to be the lead instrument of state propaganda making it the closest thing we have in the country to an official ministry of information and propaganda.
Single-handedly, the Times destroys “The Myth of the Liberal Media” that’s also the title of Edward Herman’s 1999 book on “the illiberal media,” the market system, and what passes for democracy in America Michael Parenti calls “Democracy For the Few,” in his book with that title out earlier this year in its 8th edition.
In his book, Herman writes about the “propaganda model” he and Noam Chomsky introduced and developed 11 years earlier in their landmark book titled “Manufacturing Consent.” They explained how the dominant media use this technique...
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