November 2007
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November 28th, 2007
Thought-Crime Bill Passes US House
Text of the Bill
HR 1955, the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" has been passed
by the US House of Representatives in a landslide. It now moves onto the senate.
Contact your senator and tell them to stop this bill!
Democracy Now on the ThoughtCrime Bill - Part One - youtube video
Democracy Now on the ThoughtCrime Bill - Part Two - youtube video
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November 22nd, 2007
...the journal Stratfor reported on Monday that the "United States delivered a very clear ultimatum to
Musharraf in the wake of 9/11: Unless Pakistan allowed US forces to take control of Pakistani nuclear facilities,
the United States would be left with no choice but to destroy those facilities, possibly with India's help."
the Kurds, like the Tibetans and the Tuareg, are stuck in the Hell of the Landlocked Tribes, a seriously bad Hell
when countries are mostly defined by their chunk of coastline...this "Kurdistan" footprint, this peanut of land,
happens to be not just landlocked but dropped across the bloodiest borders in the world, the backwoods of the
Fertile Crescent that people have been killing each other over since Sumerians started telling war stories...
The Bush administration has covered up and ignored dissenting Pentagon war games analysis that suggests an
attack on Iran’s nuclear or military facilities will lead directly to the annihilation of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet
now stationed in the Persian Gulf.
...investors were becoming increasingly worried that funding problems among financial institutions could drive
the faltering US economy into a recession next year, curtailing global economic growth.
The Sacred Feast of Plastic Crap That You Don't Need
Originally posted November 26th, 2005
The madness has begun. I don't know how it goes in the rest of the "Christian" world, but North Americans
are about to be inundated with a month of consumption. American Thanksgiving was Thursday, that led to
"Black Friday" and the official start of the Shopping Season. Spend Spend Spend! Here is your chance to make
up for a year of disappointing your friends and family by trying to buy their love. Since entertainment companies
own the media, (and stand to profit by shaming people into buying what their parent companies sell)
reporters acted as cheerleaders on Friday morning. Correspondents were stationed at big box stores across
the US, capturing embarrassing footage of porcine consumers trampling each other in a race to the pile
of DVD's. These "reports" were little more than thinly disguised commercials for Wal Mart and the like.
They interviewed executive types who were thrilled to talk about the great deals that their stores offered.
They challenged viewers to get out there and consume, for the love of the economy, do your patriotic duty
and buy crap now!
In North America, Christmas has very little to do with Christ. It is a (month long) holiday that celebrates
our culture of consumption, nothing more. I would suggest that the very survival of our exploitative (not to
mention unsustainable) economic system is entirely dependent upon Christmas spending. Why is the day after US
Thanksgiving called "Black Friday?" It is the day that the retailers are expected to break even. In the last
month of the year, there are tremendous cultural pressures urging us all to spend lots of money. The beast needs
to feast before the end of the fiscal year. What does this have to do with Christianity? Though the gift-giving
tradition may originate with Oriental Kings following their astrologer's advice and making a pilgrimage to Palestine,
Santa Claus is nothing more than the bastard child of Coca Cola. Would the Christ want us to celebrate its birthday
by going into debt? Our culture tells us that we must be sure to match or outspend everyone else so as not to seem
cheap or uncaring. If they spend hundreds of dollars, we must do the same. Its a classic race to the bottom, inspired
more by pride and guilt than by love. Is this what the Christ would have wanted? We've really missed the point of
Christmas. There's nothing wrong with gift giving, but it has spiralled out of control. I challenge Christians to
tone it down this year, give the gift of time rather than money. In the end, it will be much more appreciated.
If you do intend to spend money, why not give it to the Red Cross, they need it more than Sony does.
Let us reclaim Christmas from the retailers. Let us once again make it about spending quality time with family.
Jesus was not a fan of merchants in the temple. The Beatles were right, you can't buy me love.
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November 7th, 2007
The Empire is Crumbling
Originally posted May 10th, 2006
US Economic Collapse Underway
Things look really bad for the US. Oil is now worth nearly $100. Gold just rose to $850. The Dollar is at record lows
against most other currencies. Even the Canadian dollar has appeared to rise, it is now worth 10% more than the greenback.
The story here is not the rise in the price of commodities or other currencies. The value of oil and gold
has not really gone up all that much, rather, the US Dollar is being rapidly devalued. It is time to sound the alarm.
I recommend that those of you in the market get out now. Put your money into something real, like metals.
The Dow lost 360 points today, at a time when everything else that is priced in US Dollars is skyrocketing.
If the Dow stocks had real value to them, their prices would be rising along with everything else priced in dollars. In order
to keep pace with the falling Dollar, the Dow should have risen to somewhere near 20,000 points just to break even. For it
to stay in one place or lose value in light of the oil and gold numbers only means one thing...the market crash has
begun, just as things are about to get worse. Foreign lenders who have kept the US economy afloat are getting tired
of watching their Federal Reserve paper become more and more useless. They are not about to watch the value of their
holdings disappear altogether. Good luck to my American friends, times are about to get harder.
...such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is already breaking down through historic
support levels....It would also cause a spike in US bond yields, hammering the US housing market and perhaps tipping
the economy into recession. It is estimated that China holds over $900bn in a mix of US bonds.
She repeated plans for a rally on Friday, despite an official ban, and called for a "long march" next week unless
General Musharraf changed course...a "strong threat" of another suicide bomb attack against Ms Bhutto, who survived
an assassination attempt in Karachi on 18 October that killed more than 140 people.
Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili has issued a decree declaring a state of emergency in the country's capital...
police detained two opposition leaders, and the chief of the news service at the Imedi television company
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November 2nd, 2007
...two US jets armed with tactical nuclear weapons carried out an attack on a suspected nuclear site under construction....
Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes.
The George W Bush administration would not flinch to betray its allies in Iraqi Kurdistan if that entailed a US "win"
in the Iraq quagmire. And it would not flinch to leave its Turkish North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies in the
wilderness as well - if that entailed further destabilization of Iran...one of these two double-crossing scenarios
will inevitably take place. Washington simply cannot have its kebab and eat it too.
The severe drought tightening like a vise across the Southeast has threatened the water supply of cities large and small.
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