The Hidden Hand Of Manipulation

Dig Deep If You Want To Travel With Any Semblance Of Former Dignity

Don’t want to be groped by the TSA or go through a body scanner? Just pay $100

"The Sturmabteilung-like Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is run by the atrocious Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is arguably one of the single most destructive plagues on America.

With their thoroughly reprehensible “grope-down” procedure, not to mention reportedly strip searching multiple elderly women, harassment of elderly terminal cancer patients and the severely mentally challenged, and the potentially dangerous and ludicrously costly naked body scanners (which can be circumvented with shocking ease), the TSA has become a bit of a joke in the United States.

Not to be outdone, they have now introduced a program which allows travelers to pay $100 to take part in a program where they are able to skip the degrading, dehumanizing procedures the rest of us are subjected to every time we’re unfortunate enough to travel by plane.

“It’s pay to play,” aviation analyst Michael Boyd said on MSNBC. “I don’t know how much it is going to do for security, but is a one time fee as far as I know.”

The fact that you only have to pay once has nothing to do with the absurdity of forcing people to be either groped by a TSA goon, blasted by potentially dangerous naked body scanners, or now, pay $100 to travel with dignity.

As of now, selected frequent flyers and “Trusted Travelers” as defined by Customs and Border Protection (another DHS agency) are the only people who are able to participate in the new “PreCheck” program.

Those who are accepted into the program and pay the fee are allowed to keep their shoes on along with their belts and jackets – something which us average individuals could never imagine – as they stroll through a metal detector, without any groping or naked body scanning.

These special individuals are even allowed to keep their laptops and the oh-so-dangerous liquids in their carry on baggage.


So far, almost 100,000 people on American Airlines alone have signed up for the TSA’s program, which translates to a whopping $10,000,000 in fees will be gathered just from passengers of this single airline.

The notion of allowing people to pay to get out of the insanely invasive TSA screening procedures is nothing short of laughable, but not much else can be expected from an agency like the TSA at this point.

They likely realize that this could leave massive security holes but since they also realize that there is, in fact, no terrorist threat facing the United States, making such security lapses are irrelevant."

How asinine has it become?

Yawning in the line at security? You're a potential terrorist, warns Homeland Security

now what was it in Afghan Cave Dweller time?

Government Declares You're Dead Then Steals Your Money

Government takes 92-year-old woman’s money after believing she died

"A 92-year-old woman from Port Angeles, Washington revealed Friday afternoon that she had lost thousands of dollars due to her bank and the government believing she was dead, according to KOMO-TV.

Betty Longshore told her unusual story Friday of how her bank, First Federal, was sent a notice by the U.S. Department of Treasury that she had passed away on July 20, 2011. By law, the bank withdrew $16, 953 from federal retirement benefits from her account during the time after they believed she died.

The bank called Longshore on February 29th after seeing her account was active and was obviously surprised to find out she was alive.

“They said, ‘Betty, is this you?’” she recalled. “‘We have a report you are deceased. Can you come down to the bank?’ I thought I’d go in and say, ‘Here I am, and I’m alive,’ and everyone would laugh, and that would be the end of it.”

When X Class Flares Turn Earth Into A Rotisserie, These Folks Will Survive

30 million Chinese people live in caves

"Reporting from Yanan, China—
Like many peasants from the outskirts of Yanan, China, Ren Shouhua was born in a cave and lived there until he got a job in the city and moved into a concrete-block house.

His progression made sense as he strove to improve his life. But there's a twist: The 46-year-old Ren plans to move back to a cave when he retires.

"It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It's quiet and safe," said Ren, a ruddy-faced man with salt-and-pepper hair who moved to the Shaanxi provincial capital, Xian, in his 20s. "When I get old, I'd like to go back to my roots."

More than 30 million Chinese people live in caves, many of them in Shaanxi province where the Loess plateau, with its distinctive cliffs of yellow, porous soil, makes digging easy and cave dwelling a reasonable option.

Each of the province's caves, yaodong, in Chinese, typically has a long vaulted room dug into the side of a mountain with a semicircular entrance covered with rice paper or colorful quilts. People hang decorations on the walls, often a portrait of Mao Tse-tung or a photograph of a movie star torn out of a glossy magazine.

The better caves protrude from the mountain and are reinforced with brick masonry. Some are connected laterally so a family can have several chambers. Electricity and even running water can be brought in."

To Keep Things In Perspective

The TSA according to South Park

Solid Rocket Booster Cam

Only a matter of time before we see the real space program.

Goodbye Shitty Little Terror Entity

Israel Too Small to Last Even One Week of Real War

"First of all we take every little threat serious even if it comes from the weakest country in the world,” he said in an interview with Danish television channel TV2.

Salehi added that Iran does not consider Israeli claims or threats as real threats.

“What is Israel? It is such a small entity that it cannot withstand one week of real war; not one week,” he emphasized.

The Iranian foreign minister further noted that if Israel really decided to attack nuclear facilities in Iran, Tehran’s response will be one of full force.

“If Israel ever makes that mistake [attacking Iran's nuclear sites], that will set the time for the end of Israel. They know it very well…. We don’t consider Israel a country. Israel is an entity, the extension of the US influence in the Middle East…. So, the real threat is the US,” he said.

The US and Israel have been escalating their war rhetoric against Iran in recent months, claiming that there is diversion in the country’s nuclear energy program towards a military program.

Tehran refutes their claims saying that as a member of International Atomic Energy Agency and signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has every right to peaceful uses of the nuclear energy.

Iranian officials have vowed a crushing response to any act of aggression against the country."

The racist, scumbag state will whine and cry to it's perennial gracious host to bail it out of it's latest stupidity. Let's see how much Obama wants to keep those tapes hidden.

Psst - Here's A Shitload Of Money, Come Be A Patsy

Fake terror plots, paid informants: the tactics of FBI 'entrapment' questioned
Critics say bureau is running a sting operation across America, targeting vulnerable people by luring them into fake terror plots.

"David Williams did not have an easy life. He moved to Newburgh, a gritty, impoverished town on the banks of the Hudson an hour or so north of New York, at just 10 years old. For a young, black American boy with a father in jail, trouble was everywhere.

Williams also made bad choices. He ended up going to jail for dealing drugs. When he came out in 2007 he tried to go straight, but money was tight and his brother, Lord, needed cash for a liver transplant. Life is hard in Newburgh if you are poor, have a drug rap and need cash quickly.

His aunt, Alicia McWilliams, was honest about the tough streets her nephew was dealing with. "Newburgh is a hard place," she said. So it was perhaps no surprise that in May, 2009, David Williams was arrested again and hit with a 25-year jail sentence. But it was not for drugs offences. Or any other common crime. Instead Williams and three other struggling local men beset by drug, criminal and mental health issues were convicted of an Islamic terrorist plot to blow up Jewish synagogues and shoot down military jets with missiles.

Even more shocking was that the organisation, money, weapons and motivation for this plot did not come from real Islamic terrorists. It came from the FBI, and an informant paid to pose as a terrorist mastermind paying big bucks for help in carrying out an attack. For McWilliams, her own government had actually cajoled and paid her beloved nephew into being a terrorist, created a fake plot and then jailed him for it. "I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone," she told the Guardian."

And why again do we have to rely on foreign media to declare this?

Beating Lifelong Submission into 11 Year Olds

Mossad/CIA/MI6 Wants You To Think A Homegrown Syrian Revolution Is Underway

Corrupt CBS propaganda calls it "this Arab spring".

Two massive blasts rock Syria's capital

"(CBS/AP) BEIRUT, Lebanon — Two "terrorist explosions" struck security targets in the Syrian capital Saturday morning, the state-run news agency SANA said.

At least 27 people were killed, many of them civilians, including children and senior citizens, according to a private Syrian TV channel, Al-Dunyia, which quoted Health Minister Wael Halaqi, who also said 97 people were wounded.

Reuters reported the fatalities figure, citing the TV channel.

CBS News' George Baghdadi, who's in Damascus, reports many of the wounded were brought to a Red Crescent hospital.

CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata, from London, says the number of dead is expected to rise, because many of the wounded are in critical condition.

SANA said preliminary information indicated the blasts were caused by car bombs that hit the aviation intelligence department and the criminal security department at around 7:30 a.m local time. Shooting broke out in the wake of the blast and sent residents and others who had gathered in the area fleeing, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.

SANA posted gruesome photographs of the scene, with mangled and charred corpses, bloodstains on the streets and twisted steel."

Don't be fooled. The clumsy, murdering idiots will be outed soon. Hello.
Syria Intercepts Car Loaded With Israeli Arms Destined For Terrorists

5 Reasons Why American Riots Will Be The Worst In The World

While I agree with the basic premise of this video I feel a couple of things were left out.

A major factor contributing to a Road Warrior environment after monetary collapse (and oh it is coming because all the inbred overlords know what to do at this point is to furiously print dollars and lie) will be the current positively unreal disparity of wealth distribution. Sure, the ultra megarich will be bunkered or islanded with private security and comfort, but the millions of former enabling wannabees who sold their souls for handfuls of dimes will be thrown to the wolves of desperation without a moment's thought. And I do agree with the maker of the video above that a grandiose vision of an all powerful centralized control system is stupid beyond comprehension. Nobody is going to ride to the rescue of the well off stooges and lackeys who helped precipitate economic disaster. It's going to get local, and it's going to get starkly real, when a hundred million families are without food. The carnage will be horrific.

Another contributing aspect of our current situation that will make the violent troubles to come far worse - current complacency. American society has been acculturated to pretend everything that's going on will last forever so that hardly anyone is ready for abrupt change. Few are prepared for any privation.
The ugliness will intensify immensely fast. It's the Kali Yuga after all.

Movies

'Dark Shadows' trailer: Johnny Depp/Tim Burton vampire soap opera coming this summer.

The Booming Hog Farm Business

Mysterious hog farm explosions stump scientists


"A strange new growth has emerged from the manure pits of midwestern hog farms. The results are literally explosive.

Since 2009, six farms have blown up after methane trapped in an unidentified, pit-topping foam caught a spark. In the afflicted region, the foam is found in roughly 1 in 4 hog farms.

There’s nothing farmers can do except be very careful. Researchers aren’t even sure what the foam is.

“This has all started in the last four or five years here. We don’t have any idea where it came from or how it got started,” said agricultural engineer Charles Clanton of the University of Minnesota. “Whatever has happened is new.”

A gelatinous goop that resembles melted brown Nerf, the foam captures gases emitted by bacteria living in manure, which on industrial farms gathers in pits beneath barns that may contain several thousand animals.

The pits are emptied each fall, after which waste builds up again, turning them into something like giant stomachs: dark, oxygen-starved percolators in which bacteria and single-celled organisms metabolize the muck.

Methane is a natural byproduct, and is typically dispersed by fans before it reaches explosive levels. But inside the foam’s bubbles, methane reaches levels of 60 to 70 percent, or more than four times what’s considered dangerous. The foam can reach depths of more than four feet.

Disturb the bubbles, and enormous quantities of methane are released in a very short time. Add a spark—from, say, a bit of routine metal repair, as happened in a September 2011 accident that killed 1,500 hogs and injured a worker—and the barn will blow.

If it’s easy to see what the foam causes, however, it’s much more difficult to understand what causes the foam."

Cattle Prod News

Officer Used Stun Gun on 9-Year-Old Boy

"A 9-year-old boy was reportedly shocked twice with a stun gun for refusing to leave his home with an Ohio police officer.

The boy’s mother said she never expected Mount Sterling police officer Scott O’Neil would (have her 9 year old boy) shocked twice with a stun gun for refusing to leave his home with an Ohio police officer.

“She certainly never wanted this to happen,” lawyer Tracy Comisford told The Columbus Dispatch.

According to a police report of the incident, O’Neil wrote that he went to Michelle Perry’s home Tuesday to serve a truancy complaint against her son Jared, who then refused to cooperate.

He described Jared as between 5’5” and 5’8” inches tall and weighing up to 250 pounds, the Dispatch reported.is Taser on her child during a truancy arrest last week, her lawyer said.

According to a police report of the incident, O’Neil wrote that he went to Michelle Perry’s home Tuesday to serve a truancy complaint against her son Jared, who then refused to cooperate.

He described Jared as between 5’5” and 5’8” inches tall and weighing up to 250 pounds, the Dispatch reported.

The boy “dropped to the floor and became dead weight ... flailing around” and lay on his hands to keep from being handcuffed, according to the police report.

After O’Neil fired his Taser into the air in a “show of force,” Perry told her son to cooperate or else he would he would be shocked next, according to O’Neil’s account.

The officer went on to shock Jared two times and the boy showed no signs of injury, he wrote. Jared's mother signed a medical waiver and the boy was hauled to the sheriff’s office, according to the report.

Mount Sterling’s police chief was put on paid leave for not reporting the incident, which is now being reviewed by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Dispatch reported.

The paper reported early Tuesday that the police chief had resigned, citing budget issues."

The Cynical Smokescreen

JOSEPH KONY, The invasion begins in earnest: US Marines Dispatched to Five African Countries

"The hidden agenda in Uganda, Central Africa and the Horn of Africa is the conquest of oil and strategic mineral resources. Going after Joseph Kony and protecting Ugandan children is a cynical smokescreen, a pretext for a "humanitarian intervention" in a region where US sponsored "civil wars" (Sudan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia) have in the course of the last 20 years resulted in more than eight million deaths:

"Through AFRICOM, the United States is seeking a foothold in the incredibly resource rich central African block in a further maneuver to aggregate regional hegemony over China. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the world’s largest regions without an effectively functioning government. It contains vast deposits of diamonds, cobalt, copper, uranium, magnesium, and tin while producing over $1 billion in gold each year. It is entirely feasible that the US can considerably increase its presence in the DRC under the pretext of capturing Joseph Kony." (Nile Bowie, Merchandising and Branding Support for US Military Intervention in Central Africa, Global research, March 14, 2012)

In a recent decision, the Pentagon confirms the sending in of Marine Special Forces to train Ugandan troops in the fight not only against Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) but also against Al Shabab in Somalia. Joseph Kony is being used as a pretext for outright military intervention in five African countries.

"So far, the task force has deployed small teams to five African nations, including some threatened by the terror group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, according to a Marine news release" (Stars and Stripes, March 15, 2012 ).

Officially, the underlying framework is "peacekeeping" to be achieved through US sponsored "counterterrorism operations". The stated objective is to transform Ugandan soldiers into "counterterrorism engineers", namely Special Forces under US supervision, "who will then deploy to Somalia in support of infantry battalions."(Ibid)

The sending in of US Marines to Africa is upheld as "part of a new Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-12 based out of Sigonella, Sicily" which will dispatch small teams of Marine forces throughout the African continent. The initiative was launched in 2011 "as part of an effort to prepare African militaries to conduct counterterrorism operations" under US guidance."

UGANDAN OIL: US Africa Command a tool to Recolonise the African Continent

Junk Journalism

The "Assad" E-mails
Guardian skewers own credibility with hamfisted Wikileaks knock-off aimed at Syria.

"It is impossible to rule out the possibility of fakes in the email cache, but..." "The Assad E-Mails," London Guardian, March 14, 2012.

This sentence right here should have immediately halted the publication of anything revolving around an alleged cache of e-mails provided to the Guardian by the obviously compromised "Syrian opposition." The source is clearly biased, politically motivated, and their information unconfirmed. Yet the Guardian decided to run with the story anyway, casting doubt on their own objectivity, journalistic integrity, and their true motivation, which now is clearly not "journalism."

The true motivation is to demonize Syria just as the execrable MSM demonized Libya.
No one really knows how many people were slaughtered in Libya to achieve regime change for Israeli regional hegemony, but estimates start at around 50,000. War on Syria, which borders the shitty little terror entity, will butcher far more.
It doesn't dissuade corrupted media from ballyhooing anything to taint Syrians, all to paint the requisite villainous picture in your mind to justify war.
MSNBC runs with it. Please tell me you're astounded by these sinister revelations:

Syria email hack points to new 'information war'

"Details released so far range from evidence of Iranian support for Syria's crackdown to the spending of thousands of dollars on luxury items by Assad's wife and details of his iTunes account and Internet video viewing habits."

Brave Activist High Schoolers

The Real Story Of The Afghan Slaughter

Up to 20 US troops executed Panjwai massacre: probe

"KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): A parliamentary probe team on Thursday said up to 20 American troops were involved in Sunday’s killing of 16 civilians in southern Kandahar province.

The probing delegation includes lawmakers Hamidzai Lali, Abdul Rahim Ayubi, Shakiba Hashimi, Syed Mohammad Akhund and Bismillah Afghanmal, all representing Kandahar province at the Wolesi Jirga and Abdul Latif Padram, a lawmaker from northern Badakhshan province, Mirbat Mangal, Khost province, Muhammad Sarwar Usmani, Farah province.

The team spent two days in the province, interviewing the bereaved families, tribal elders, survivors and collecting evidences at the site in Panjwai district.

Hamizai Lali told Pajhwok Afghan News their investigation showed there were 15 to 20 American soldiers, who executed the brutal killings.

"We closely examined the site of the incident, talked to the families who lost their beloved ones, the injured people and tribal elders," he said.

He added the attack lasted one hour involving two groups of American soldiers in the middle of the night on Sunday.

"The villages are one and a half kilometre from the American military base. We are convinced that one soldier cannot kill so many people in two villages within one hour at the same time, and the 16 civilians, most of them children and women, have been killed by the two groups."

Lali asked the Afghan government, the United Nations and the international community to ensure the perpetrators were punished in Afghanistan.

He expressed his anger that the US soldier, the prime suspect in the shooting, had been flown out of Afghanistan to Kuwait."

Military sticks to it's usual "lone gunman" bullshit

"The official line for the atrocity carried out in Kandahar has now been clearly established: a US soldier went off base alone in the night and proceeded to kill 16 civilians in a nearby village before setting fire to the bodies. Condemned as “intentional murderers” by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the US government has announced the obligatory “rapid and thorough” investigation. Tensions were already inflamed over the burning of the Quran by American soldiers, and following on from the revelation of “kill teams” collecting body parts as “trophies” and the leaked footage of troops urinating on dead Afghans, there is much concern that the latest atrocity will escalate tensions and stretch even thinner an already fragile relationship between the occupying US Army and the local population.

The latest line from the US government on the killings has been to discuss at length the mental state of the gunman. Initially, he was described as being possibly “deranged” at the time of the shootings; then, it was stated that he had suffered a “mental breakdown”, yet another soldier from Fort Lewis-McChord (described by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes as “the most troubled base in the military”) to have buckled under the strain of warfare and gone on a killing spree (a considerably more common trait for US soldiers than their NATO allies).

It’s certainly plausible: on his fourth tour and allegedly undergoing marital problems, it doesn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to accept that this extreme outburst of violence may have been the result of insurmountable psychological pressures. Additional reports have since emerged pointing to a “traumatic brain injury”, although since this alleged injury he has had at least two health checks, including a mental health screening as part of his sniper training back in 2008, so the role this may have played in the killings is unclear.

So far, nothing seems out of the ordinary with this narrative – until you include the eyewitnesses."

Gaping Through The Windshield #2

My nostalgic romp through memories of fantastic vehicle trips that I highly recommend before gas prices trap us at home.
In no particular order.

North off road loop, Capitol Reef National Park

Most people drive blithely through this park on route 24, possibly stopping at the visitor center, and gawk at the towering sandstone cliffs by the side of the road. Few realize that this best kept secret of the National Park system has two magnificent off road loops, north and south, that take you through hallucenogenic scenery that will astound you.
Don't let "off road" deter, the only thing to be concerned about is fording the Fremont River which is most always barely a trickle. Any high clearance vehicle will do it with ease. South loop is nice too, car accessible.


Highway 101, Oregon and California

My most delicious motorcycle ride was along 101 on a bright, clear spring day when the ocean was brilliant blue and I breathed in the salty sea air. I swooned like a little girl at a Justin Bieber show.


Shafer Canyon trail, Canyonlands

Fasten your seatbelt and take some dramamine. This is a drastically vertical (to say the least) and narrow old mining path that you take from the Canyonlands visitor center area down 1500 feet or so to the next mesa level above the Colorado River. From there you can explore around or exit back to Moab past the potash evaporation ponds.
When my wife and I went down she was a shattered, sobbing wreck until we got level. This is truly a thrill ride not for the faint of heart and once you start there's no turning back. But I guarantee you'll never regret doing it. As long as your brakes don't fail.


yes that's the "road", and yes that's where you go, way down there

Between Durango and Silverton, Colorado

Take a deep drink of the Rocky Mountains. There's two ways of doing this - one is to drive, the other is to take the narrow gauge steam train, depending on what you want to do. The train ride is a lot more scenic and historic, puffing through the San Juans along the Animas River, but if you drive you can spend time looking around high altitude Silverton and maybe dawdle at the brewery, or take off and hike through the magnificence.



Columbia River Gorge

Around twenty thousand years ago during the ice age, there was a huge body of glacier melt in western Montana called Lake Missoula. It was bracketed by ice dams. Periodically those dams failed and a volume of water comparable to a Great Lake blasted across eastern Washington forming scablands.
All this liquid ran into the Columbia River Gorge so suddenly that it gouged the system and backed up feeder systems for a hundred miles. Some of the greatest floods in earth's history. They also sculpted the gorge into the beautiful scenery we have today. A more picturesque drive can scarcely be imagined (if you aren't a Portland commuter).
Do not miss Multnomah Falls, my picture.

The Corrupt Repug Nomination Process Presages Yet Another Fraudulent Election

Battle of Athens (1946)

"The primary election was held on August 1. To intimidate voters, Mansfield brought in some 200 armed "deputies." GI poll-watchers were beaten almost at once. At about 3 p.m., Tom Gillespie, an African-American voter, was told by a sheriff's deputy that he could not vote. Despite being beaten, Gillespie persisted. The enraged deputy shot him. The gunshot drew a crowd. Rumors spread that Gillespie had been shot in the back. He later recovered.

Other deputies detained ex-GI poll-watchers in a polling place, as that made the ballot counting "public." A crowd gathered. Sheriff Mansfield told his deputies to disperse the crowd. When the two ex-GIs smashed a big window and escaped, the crowd surged forward. The deputies, with guns drawn, formed a tight half-circle around the front of the polling place. One deputy, "his gun raised high...shouted: 'If you sons of bitches cross this street I'll kill you!'"

Mansfield took the ballot boxes to the jail for counting. The deputies seemed to fear immediate attack by the "people who had just liberated Europe and the South Pacific from two of the most powerful war machines in human history."

Short of firearms and ammunition, the GIs scoured the county to find them. By borrowing keys to the National Guard and State Guard armories, they got three M1 rifles, five M1911 pistols and 24 M1917 rifles. The armories were nearly empty after the war's end. By 8 p.m. a group of GIs and "local boys" headed for the jail but left the back door unguarded to give the jail's defenders an easy way out.

Three GIs were fired on from the jail. Two were wounded while other GIs returned fire. Firing subsided after 30 minutes; ammunition ran low and night had fallen. Thick brick walls shielded those inside the jail. Absent radios, the GIs' rifle fire was uncoordinated. "From the hillside fire rose and fell in disorganized cascades. More than anything else, people were simply shooting at the jail."

Several who ventured into the street in front of the jail were wounded. One man inside the jail was badly hurt; he recovered. Most sheriff's deputies wanted to hunker down and await rescue. Governor McCord mobilized the State Guard, perhaps to scare the GIs into withdrawing. The State Guard never went to Athens. McCord may have feared that Guard units filled with ex-GIs might not fire on other ex-GIs.

At about 2 a.m. on August 2, the GIs forced the issue. Men from Meigs County threw dynamite sticks and damaged the jail's porch. The panicked deputies surrendered. GIs quickly secured the building. Paul Cantrell faded into the night, having almost been shot by a GI who knew him, but whose pistol had jammed. Mansfield's deputies were kept overnight in jail for their own safety. Calm soon returned. The GIs posted guards. The rifles borrowed from the armory were cleaned and returned before sunup."

Little Ricky Appeals To His Base

Santorum to Puerto Rico: Speak English if you want statehood

"(Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum told Puerto Ricans on Wednesday they would have to make English their primary language if they want to pursue U.S. statehood, a statement at odds with the U.S. Constitution."



Rick Santorum Relieved No One Has Asked Him About Interracial Marriage Yet

"LAFAYETTE, LA—Saying his campaign has "really dodged a bullet so far," Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told reporters today that, much to his relief, no one has asked his opinion on interracial marriage. "No question about it, what I'd have to say about the topic would absolutely terrify anyone with a conscience," said Santorum, adding that his longstanding and carefully thought-through views on whether two individuals of different races should be allowed to marry would put him so far out of the mainstream that it’d be "hilarious how insane [he]’d sound." "The truth is, if anyone decided to ask me flat out if I approve of marriages between black men and white women, for example, the flood gates would open and the bile I would spew would sink this campaign in 10 seconds tops."

The Obama Flag

Who Decided That It Was Okay To Replace The Stars On The American Flag With The Face Of Barack Obama?



"Democrat Party headquarters in Lake County, Florida has been flying an American flag with a face of Barack Obama on it. Yes, you read that correctly.

The "Obama flag" features a huge picture of the face of Barack Obama in the area where the stars are usually located. To many Americans today, the American flag may be "just a piece of cloth", but when I was young I was taught that one must never desecrate the American flag. The American flag is our highest national symbol. Millions of Americans have fought and died defending freedom and liberty under that banner. To see a photo of Barack Obama plastered on it is an absolute disgrace.

Sadly, there are lots of these flags floating around. In fact, you can buy them online for $12.95. Down in Florida, the chairwoman of the Lake County Democratic Party took down the "Obama flag" after a group of veterans protested, but she also said that she is not promising that she will not put it back up and that she is going to consult an attorney about all of this."

Talk about idiotic ideas.
Now I'm no extremist about the stars and bars symbology, coming from the Vietnam war protest generation when lots of clothes were made out of flags and it was burned on occasion. As a matter of fact to me disrespect has always been common from torching it to using it to peddle widgets to flying it wrong to Bush signing autographs on it and stepping all over it:




I'm not saying that pasting Obama's mug on flags is a fine thing to do but the worst you can exclaim about it is that it was a tasteless and unnecessarily stupid idea, akin to waving a red flag in front of a bull. People who go into apoplexy when they perceive a flag insult have got it all wrong. A flag is just a symbol used and abused in a thousand and one ways. The flag is an ideal that can never be stepped on or destroyed. Chill.

TSA Continually Persecutes A Potential Mouth Bomber

The more limbs they lack, the more suspicious they are.

For Years We Were Told It Was Innocuous

Now we learn it's a toxic biohazard.

Monsanto’s Roundup is Killing Human Kidney Cells

"Monsanto’s ‘biopesticide’ known as Bt is not only developing mutated insects and requiring excessive pesticide use, but new findings show that it is also killing human kidney cells — even in low doses.

Amazingly, Monsanto’s superweed-breeding Roundup also has the same effect. Scientists have demonstrated in new research that the Bt pesticide, in addition to Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Roundup, exhibit direct toxicity to human cells. The findings add to the long list of hazardous effects presented by Monsanto’s genetically modified creations.

These dangerous Bt crops currently engulf 39% of globally cultivated GMO crops, and Monsanto does not seem to be slowing down on their campaign to expand usage. Led by Gilles-Eric Séralini, a French scientist from the University of Caen, Séralini and his team are no strangers to the toxic effects of both Bt and glyphosate — the main component used in Roundup. Previously, Séralini and a group of other scientists found that Roundup is linked to infertility, killing testicular cells in rats. The report stated that within 1 to 48 hours of exposure, testicular cells of the mature rats were either damaged or killed.

At only 100 parts per million (ppm), Monsanto’s biopesticide lead to cell death. Furthermore, they found that Roundup at 57.2ppm killed half of the cell population – 200 times below agricultural use. This is concerning as researchers have previously detected Roundup in 41% of the 140 groundwater samples taken from Catalonia Spain that were actually above the limit of quantification. Even in very small doses, the research indicates that Roundup appears to be assaulting your biology.

It has also been divulged that Roundup is damaging other life outside of humans, shown to decrease the population of monarch butterflies by killing the very plants that the butterflies rely on for habitat and food. A 2011 study published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity found that increasing usage of genetically modified Roundup Ready corn and soybeans is significantly contributing to the decline in monarch butterfly populations within North America due to the destruction of milkweed.

The evidence that Monsanto’s biopesticide and Roundup alike are disrupting both nature and human safety is clear, yet little is being done about it. Even the EPA is being bombarded with calls to action, with 22 academic corn experts now warning the EPA that GMO crops are devastating the future of agricultural production. When will corporate giant Monsanto be held accountable for the devastation of their creations?"

I'm ashamed that I bought into the safety propaganda hoax when I worked in the Xmas tree business up in the NW. I did quit and move on when I got tired of the ever increasing use of sprays.

US Rep Wants To Sell Off National Parks

Yes, he's a repug.

Gaping Through The Windshield, Open Mouthed

As The Golden Age of motoring comes to a grinding halt with gas prices going through the roof, I thought I'd reminisce about drives I've taken that knocked my socks off. The memories are indelibly etched in granite in my mind. If you live anywhere near these places you really should do yourself a gigantic favor and invest in car trips of a lifetime.
In no particular order.

Mckenzie Pass Highway, Oregon 242 between Sisters and Springfield


This road from the Mckenzie River valley over to Bend goes up into the Cascades and passes through immense lava fields from volcanic eruptions. It's closed most of the year due to snow. Be sure to stop at the observatory at the summit.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

The longest bridge you will ever drive. 23 miles that dips down into tunnels at man made islands so boats can pass overhead.


Going-To-The-Sun Road, Glacier National Park

It was a project of the CCC during the FDR years that climbs over the continental divide, bisecting the park. Stop at the top and hike along North America's spine.

If you don't want to drive your vehicle you can take one of the park's Red Bus tours.
Waterfalls and wildflowers throughout the entire summer season.



Highway 12, southern Utah

Make sure that you're a passenger on this one because the scenery is non stop jaw droppingly awesome. In my opinion this entire swath of southern Utah should be a treasured national park, The areas between Bryce and Capitol Reef would be designated parkland anywhere else in the country. Here it's gorgeous country to motor through.
Drive along what's known as the Hogsback with thousand foot drops on both sides and you come to this sign at a wayside:


Titus Canyon, Death Valley National Park


From NPS.gov - "Titus Canyon has it all—rugged mountains, colorful rock formations, a ghost town, petroglyphs, wildlife, rare plants and spectacular canyon narrows as a grand finale."

Zion Valley, Zion National Park

A few years ago some of the national parks, including Zion and Bryce, barred all tourist traffic and instituted bus shuttle systems to cut down on congestion and pollution. It's not as touristy as it sounds - serious climbers and through hikers take them to drop off points. My wife and I were in Zion before that happened and after they did it. The difference was astounding. The exhaust, the crowding, the noise all disappeared. Busses arrive and depart from all the main attractions up and down the valley every 15 minutes or so and it's free.
Want to go on a bicycle ride of a lifetime? Put your bike on the front of a bus and take it to the top of the canyon and pedal alongside the Virgin River back to the campgrounds. No windshield with this one, just a quiet, serene glide through deep canyon paradise. Watch for the giant hummingbird moths.



Glacier viewpoint,Yosemite

All right, so this one entails a several hundred yard walk to the overlook after driving up out of Yosemite valley, but I included this one because it simply is the most astounding view you will ever take in. This is my picture.



I could go on but these few are all great places. If you have suggestions I'd love to hear about them.

The Ancient, Beautiful Nation Of Persia That Fascists Want To Obliterate For Israel

Gas Prices Just Down The Street From Obama’s White House

According To Ziofascists, It's Illegal To Harness The Sun

Palestinians prepare to lose the solar panels that provide a lifeline


"Two large solar panels jut out of the barren landscape near Imneizil in the Hebron hills. The hi-tech structures sit incongruously alongside the tents and rough stone buildings of the Palestinian village, but they are fundamental to life here: they provide electricity.

Imneizil is not connected to the national electricity grid. Nor are the vast majority of Palestinian communities in Area C, the 62% of the West Bank controlled by Israel. The solar energy has replaced expensive and clunky oil-powered generators.

According to the Israeli authorities, these solar panels – along with six others in nearby villages – are illegal and have been slated for demolition.

Nihad Moor, 25, has three small children. The family live in a two-room tent kitted out with a fridge, TV and very old computer. She also has a small electric butter churn, which she uses to supplement her husband's small income from sheep farming.

"The kids get sick all the time. At the moment, because of a change in the weather, they all have colds. Without electricity I wouldn't even be able to see to help them when they need to use the [outdoor] toilet at night," Moor says. "I don't want to imagine what life would be like here if [the panels] were demolished."

Imneizil's solar system was built in 2009 by the Spanish NGO Seba at a cost of €30,000 to the Spanish government. According to the Israeli authorities, it was built without a permit."

Limbacile Blames Obama For His Unfortunate Victimhood

Pig boy continues his bus plunge. He's exhibiting all the signs of repug mental illness - refusing to take responsibility for his actions and displaying that ever present projection syndrome, painting everybody else with his own fecal taint.

Rush Limbaugh was set up by Obama to call Sandra Fluke a slut

"For a guy who's supposedly sorry for his unfortunate word choice—for three hours a day, for three days straight—not to mention a man who claims to be "huge on personal responsibility and accountability," Rush Limbaugh can't seem to stop finding new people to blame for his slut crusade against Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke.

After issuing his non-apology, in which he basically said he was sorry for calling Sandra Fluke a slut, but if she weren't such a slut, he wouldn't have had to call her a slut, he then explained his non-apology by saying Barack Obama's "socialist agenda" made him do it and that he "became like them" and "descended to their level" by attacking Ms. Fluke for the better part of a week."

Limbacile has gotten a free ride doing this shtick for almost 25 years. His manipulating handlers knew early on that the more outrageous he ranted the bigger the audience would be, with more advertising revenue, much the same as viewers are tuning into O'Reilly to see how angry he'd get on some punchbag guest.
Getting a pass for everything he did during his career as a bloviating gasbag, including being a pill popping perp, made sure that at some point his no limit sickness would crash and burn with extraordinary spectacularness. Unfortunately the millions he pocketed will sweeten his whoring legacy and there are countless Rush wannabees out there.

Rush Limbaugh Detained With Viagra

"Rush Limbaugh could see a deal with prosecutors in a long-running prescription fraud case collapse after authorities found a bottle of Viagra in his bag at Palm Beach International Airport. The prescription was not in his name.

Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at the airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. "

Rush Limbaugh's Dominican Stag Party

When We're Gone, Robots Will Probably Carry On For Years

Swimming robots break world distance record in Pacific

"Four robots have set a new distance world record, swimming more than 3,200 nautical miles (5,926km) across the Pacific Ocean.

The drones are taking part in a project to gather data about the composition and quality of sea water.

Built by US-firm Liquid Robotics, the PacX Wave Gliders are expected to cover 9,000 nautical miles (16,668km) by their journey's end.

The first leg of their voyage from San Francisco to Hawaii took four months.

The robots are designed to reach previously inaccessible areas of the ocean and gather data on how acidic the water has become and the shrinking size of fish stocks.

The previous Guinness World Record for the longest distance covered at sea by an unmanned device was 2,500 nautical miles (4,630km).

The gliders were launched from the St Francis Yacht Club at San Francisco harbour on 17 November 2011.

Each robot is composed of two halves: the upper part, shaped like a stunted surfboard, is attached by a cable to a lower part that sports a series of fins and a keel.


To move they do not use fuel but instead convert energy from the ocean's waves, turning it into forward thrust.

Solar panels installed on the upper surface of the gliders power numerous sensors that take readings every 10 minutes to sample salinity, water temperature, weather, fluorescence, and dissolved oxygen.

After a short stopover in Hawaii, the quartet will split.

Two drones will continue to Japan, crossing the Mariana Trench en-route - the deepest place on Earth.

The second pair will swim to Australia, passing the equator.

Researchers expect both "teams" to reach their destinations by late 2012 or early 2013."

They better stay clear of the garbage patches.

Paranoia Among Our Overlords Hits New Levels

In 'highly unusual' move, Marines asked to disarm before Leon Panetta speech

"In a highly unusual move, around 200 U.S. Marines were asked to leave their weapons outside the tent where U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was set to speak during his trip to Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Although the military said the order was not given in response to Sunday's shooting of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by an American soldier, it possibly underlined how high tensions were running after the incident.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

"You've got one of the most important people in the world in the room," Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus told reporters at Camp Leatherneck, dismissing concerns related to the shooting. "This is not a big deal."

He said he had given the order because the two dozen Afghan soldiers also there were unarmed and he did not want to treat them differently."

Oh what complete bullshit. Afghans have been treated with utter disdain just like all conquerors have treated their subjects. That this tidbit of information got leaked meant that the propagandists hurriedly huddled to come up with some half assed explanation when the real reason for it was growing distrust of their own warpawns.

FBI Urges Coffee Shops To Report Cash-Paying Customers To Authorities

"Use of paper money is a terrorist trait — if you don’t want to be considered suspect, the government commands you to use corporate-issued debit and credit cards, rather than its own currency. Via Boing Boing:

According to a set of guidelines sent out by the FBI as part of its Communities Against Terror program, ordinary citizens need to be on the lookout for suspicious characters who follow patterns of behavior of a covert operative.

The latest revelation from the FBI files? Paying in cash for coffee. The most recent update asks coffee shop owners, baristas and other customer-service specialists to lookout for the enemy who walks among us…Using cash for small purchases like a cup of coffee, gum and other items is a good indication that a person is trying to pass for normal without leaving the kind of paper trail created using a debit or credit card for small purchases."

The New Domestic War On Dissidents Is Underway

FBI agent: Midwest militia group had 'kill' list - The list included current and former U.S. presidents, top government officials and members of Congress

"A Midwest militia group whose members are accused of plotting to murder police had a "kill list" that included current and former U.S. presidents, top government officials and members of Congress, an FBI agent testified Tuesday in a federal trial.

The list from members of the group called the Hutaree was titled "Established Elite Still in Control" and included military officers, reporters and corporate executives, FBI agent Steve Haug said in federal court in Detroit.

Haug, who had gained access to the group by posing as a truck driver, said the list was circulated during the wedding of Hutaree leader David Brian Stone Sr. to Tina Stone. Haug served as the best man at the wedding.

Charges of sedition
Seven members of the Hutaree, including Stone and his wife, face federal charges of sedition, the attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and firearms offenses.

Defense attorneys have argued the group was merely engaging in angry expressions of free speech and did not intend to commit acts of terrorism. No attacks were carried out.

Also facing trial are David Brian Stone Sr.'s sons, David Brian Stone Jr. and Joshua Matthew Stone; Michael David Meeks, Thomas William Piatek and Kristopher Sickles.

Prosecutors played a recording for jurors of a conversation at Stone's wedding in which Joshua John Clough, a Hutaree member who pleaded guilty in December to weapons charges, told Meeks it was "a whole complete kill list."

"Mike showed me a piece of paper, a list of names and groups," Haug said. "Michael gave me a copy of it."

Haug said his "date" for the wedding was a female FBI agent from another division. Prosecutors showed wedding photos of members posed in camouflage gear with AR-15 rifles, a civilian version of the military M-16 assault rifle.

At the wedding, David Stone Sr. told Hutaree members they needed to practice loading and unloading a van and establish a base camp where they could patrol the perimeter.

The trial is the latest in prosecutions aimed at what the government sees as a growing threat of violence from home-grown anti-government groups. In early February, the FBI warned that such groups posed an increasing threat to law enforcement.

The deadliest act of home-grown violence, the 1995 bombing of a government building in Oklahoma City, killed 168 people and injured hundreds. It was the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil before the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington."

That"deadliest act of home-grown violence" was a successful effort by the federal government to chop a growing militia movement off at the knees. Fascists have no compunctions about slaughter to make political points, and that bombing in Oklahoma City was carried out by the feds to smear people dissatisfied with the way society was collapsing into totalitarianism. The murderous ploy worked back then because the fascist agenda hadn't yet gone balls to the wall after 9/11/01.
Militias were discredited and excoriated by corrupt, execrable MSM.

The fascists are attempting the same thing now, almost 20 years later, because they know very well too many people are waking up to the fact our posturing overlords will soon collapse the economy and plunge the world into yet another genocidal war. It's absolutely vital to them to taint any objection about this in the most dramatic fashion. Militias are being targeted again. Expect new false flag bloodshed to justify war abroad and fascist repression domestically.

My guess? Our decayed, collapsing infrastructure will be blamed on supposed homegrown terrorists, just like the twin towers' asbestos problem was solved by Afghan cave dwellers.

An Audience Is An Audience

Iowa politician gives speech to the wrong party

"An Iowa Republican running for Congress, by all accounts, gave a pretty good stump speech before the party convention this weekend at the Monroe County Courthouse.

It was just the wrong party's convention, the Quad-City Times reports.

It turns out that the Democrats were also meeting Saturday in the same building in Albia, Iowa, two hours earlier than the GOP.

Dan Dolan, who made 10 speeches around the state on Saturday, says his staffer had asked the crowd when they arrived if he could speak, and when he finished, "a guy raises his hand and says, 'I think you want to talk to the Republicans.'"

Psycho Scum Dug Their Own Graves

War Criminals Bush and Cheney Can No Longer Travel Outside the U.S.

"Everyone in the world seems to recognize the obvious crimes perpetrated by the Bush/Cheney regime. Their overwhelming negative status in the world has now confined them to personal prisons where they can no longer travel abroad for public events. It appears they're only welcome in heavily-secured private dragon lairs for the rest of their waking years. But even those locations are shrinking for these torturers and mass murderers.

Cheney, scheduled to speak in Toronto with his daughter next month, had to cancel the speaking appearance due to "security concerns stemming from their experiences in Vancouver in September 2011," according to a press release about the event.

The September event referred to in the press release was hardly a public event at all. It cost $500 a ticket to attend and took place at the Vancouver Club which the Canadian Press called "one of Vancouver's most exclusive clubs." Still, the public caught wind of the event and staged a rambunctious protest calling for Cheney's arrest. The angry crowd caused Cheney to be locked in the club for seven hours longer than he was scheduled.

In February of last year, George W. Bush had to cancel a speaking engagement in Switzerland because human rights groups put pressure on the Swiss government to arrest him over torture allegations if he enters the country. Even though officials claimed Bush had diplomatic immunity because he was a former head of state, they recognized that torture is a legitimate crime under international law. Organizers of the event felt the "atmosphere had become too threatening" and the gala went on without Bush.

Since Bush left office he has traveled outside the United States on two occasions with former president Bill Clinton. The first was a 2010 trip to Haiti after the devastating earthquake where he made a complete fool of himself. After shaking hands with a desperate survivor he scowled in disgust and wiped his hand on Clinton's shoulder as if it was covered in filth:



The second trip chaperoned by Clinton was to British Columbia, Canada for the Regional Economic Summit this past October where Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for his arrest citing his involvement in authorizing torture:

There is overwhelming evidence that Bush and other senior administration officials authorized and implemented a regime of torture and ill-treatment of hundreds of detainees in US custody, including at least two Canadian citizens. Under the Convention Against Torture, Canada is obligated to prosecute individuals suspected of committing torture found in its territory if other countries have failed to do so.

That trip was preceded by another event where Bush was to attend a private breakfast at an evangelical university, also in Canada, but was abruptly canceled due to a backlash of student protests.

In November 2011, a symbolic tribunal in Malaysia made up of the country's former premier and a former federal judge among others, found George W. Bush and UK's Tony Blair guilty of war crimes. “The evidence showed that the drums of wars were being beaten long before the invasion. The accused in their own memoirs have admitted their own intention to invade Iraq regardless of international law,” it concluded.

Although the Malaysia tribunal isn't officially binding as an arrest warrant, it shows the sentiment that is building around the world for calling these Western leaders what they are: international "child killers" and "war criminals."

All of these stories seem to indicate that the circles where these murderers are still welcomed are getting smaller and smaller. Whether they will ever be actually tried for their crimes remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, every time they venture out of their undisclosed bunkers, they get shoved right back in by angry mobs of humanitarians seeking justice for their wickedness."

Open Carry Trash Pick Up

Wanted: Human Internet Transmitters

Organizers Defend “Homeless Hotspots” at SXSW


" At SXSW, the annual tech startup conference in Austin, 13 homeless men are hanging around the conference center wearing white shirts that say "I'm _____, a 4G hotspot." Each is carrying a wireless internet device, and for a PayPal donation, will provide conference-goers with internet access for as long as they want. .

The men are part of a campaign called "Homeless Hotspots," devised by a marketing firm called BBH. It effectively debuted today, and started backfiring immediately.

The first person to flag the stunt as a little off was the New York Times's David Gallagher, who called the plan it "a little dystopian." Since then, the Internet's been aghast: The story has been both amplified and deprived of context, inspiring thousands of knee-jerk responses. It's really not going over very well at all."

Of course, there's no mention of the radiation risks.

Who Decided This?

from The American Dream

"Who decided that it would be a good idea for the Department of Homeland Security to help arrest prostitutes?

Who decided that it would be a good idea for the Federal Reserve to pay banks not to lend money to U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to become so dependent on foreign oil? The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is now $3.80.

Who decided that it would be a good idea for the United States to have the highest incarceration rate in the entire world?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to allow private companies to run many of our prisons?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to put large amounts of “pink slime” into the school lunches of America’s school children?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to require barbers and beauticians in Iowa to receive 2,100 hours of education before they are allowed to cut hair?

Who decided that it would be a good idea for the United States to have the most lawyers per capita in the entire world?

Who decided that it would be a good idea for Americans to take more prescription drugs than anyone else in the world?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to arrest people that are just trying to feed the homeless?

Who decided that it would be a good idea for police to drag women around by their hair and shoot pepper spray directly into their faces?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to allow our scientists to create “spider-goats” and other really weird genetically-modified creatures?

Who decided that it would be a good idea for Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to put an ingredient derived from human hair into our bread?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to run a 560 billion dollar trade deficit with the rest of the globe in 2011?

Who decided that it would be a good idea for the federal government to put thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug gangs?

Who decided that it would be a good idea “to accelerate fertility decline in the least developed countries“?

Who decided that it would be a good idea to put the Federal Reserve in charge of our money supply? Since the Federal Reserve took over, the U.S. dollar has lost more than 95 percent of its value.

Who decided that it would be a good idea for TSA agents to strip-search elderly women and grope their private parts in the name of airport security? Does seeing and feeling the private parts of elderly women actually make us all safer?"

Tit For Tat

Bill introduced to regulate men's reproductive health -Part of a trend, she likens the bill to men legislating ‘a woman’s womb.’

"COLUMBUS – Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way.

The Cleveland Democrat introduced Senate Bill 307 this week.

A critic of efforts to restrict abortion and contraception for women, Turner says she is concerned about men’s reproductive health. Turner’s bill joins a trend of female lawmakers submitting bills regulating men’s health. Turner said if state policymakers want to legislate women’s health choices through measures such as House Bill 125, known as the “Heartbeat bill,” they should also be able to legislate men’s reproductive health."

The Agitprop Continues

Propagandists learned their lesson from the Kuwaiti Incubator Hoax that fooled dimwitted americans int Operation Desert Storm almost a quarter century ago. Mouthbreathers react in the desired manipulated ways when bullshit contains hospital/women in peril/baby stories.
A few days ago we were supposed to believe Syrian doctors were torturing patients in their own facilities. The manipulators probably realized they'd gone a little too far and backed off somewhat from that absurd assertion meant to dredge up images of Dr Mengele, so now we're told the doctors are also victims.

Syrian forces target doctors and patients

"In Syria today, wounded patients and doctors are pursued and risk torture and arrest at the hands of the security services," said Marie-Pierre Allié, president of Doctors Without Borders. "Medicine is being used as a weapon of persecution."

WW1 poster

added - Al Jazeera Propaganda Machine on Syria

Actively Seeking Radiation Poisoning

On West Coast, Looking for Flotsam of a Disaster

"SAN FRANCISCO — John Anderson, a plumber by trade and a beachcomber by passion, has been trolling the shores of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State for more than three decades, and along the way has discovered almost every kind of flotsam one can imagine: toys, refrigerators, even the occasional message in a bottle.

But in recent months, Mr. Anderson has been making a new, and somewhat surprising, find: dozens of buoys marked with Japanese writing, set adrift, he believes, by last year’s catastrophic tsunami.

“That wave wiped out whole towns, I’m thinking just about anything could show up here,” said Mr. Anderson, 58, of Forks, Wash. “I’ve heard people talking about floating safes full of Japanese money.”

The tsunami — which struck after a massive offshore earthquake last March 11 — sent a wall of water sweeping across much of Japan’s eastern coastline and generated more than 20 million tons of debris, a jumbled mass of houses, cars, boats and belongings. And while it’s not clear what percentage of that wreckage was sucked back out to sea and what remains afloat, what is certain is that some of it is slowly making its way to American shores.

Computer models run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and by researchers from the University of Hawaii predict that debris has moved eastward from the coast of Japan, driven by currents and wind. The models predict that bits of detritus will begin washing up on the northwestern Hawaiian Islands this spring and along the western coast of the United States and Canada in early 2013.

“We don’t think there is a massive debris field out there,” said Nancy Wallace, director of NOAA’s Marine Debris Program. “It will come up in little spurts here and there, a small trickle over years.”

Researchers think most of it will never reach shore and will instead get caught up and broken apart in the “great Pacific garbage patch” a swirling gyre of currents in the middle of the Pacific Ocean known to collect and recirculate floating garbage.

But beachcombers say the debris has already begun to reach land.

“I feel like Paul Revere running through town, saying ‘The British are coming!’ and no lights are coming on,” said a retired oceanographer, Curtis Ebbesmeyer. “The tsunami debris is here, but no one is listening.”

Just A Coincidence

New Finding: Consuming Trans Fats Linked To Aggression

"In the first human study of its kind researchers have linked trans fatty acid consumption to increased aggression. Published in the Public Library of Science’s own journal, PLoS, March 5th 2012, researchers at the Dept. of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, reported:

“Dietary trans fatty acids (dTFA) are primarily synthetic compounds that have been introduced only recently; little is known about their behavioral effects. dTFA inhibit production of omega-3 fatty acids, which experimentally have been shown to reduce aggression. Potential behavioral effects of dTFA merit investigation. We sought to determine whether dTFA are associated with aggression/irritability.”

The study looked at 945 adult men and women who were not on lipid-lowering drugs, and who were without LDL-cholesterol extremes, diabetes, HIV, cancer or heart disease. Outcomes assessed adverse behaviors with impact on others based on both objective (life histories of aggression) and subjective (self-rated impatience and irritabilitly) sources of information. The researchers concluded:

“This study provides the first evidence linking dTFA [dietary trans fatty acids] with behavioral irritability and aggression.”

Military, chains join forces: fast food boosts troop morale - 25 years ago

"Military leaders joined with fast-food chain executives in urging Congress to eliminate restrictions on the placement of franchised restaurants on military bases.

In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Readiness, Morale, Welfare and Recreation, Rear Adm. Rodney Squibb told Congress that on-base fast-food restaurants not only generate millions of dollars in "recreational' funds for servicemen but also boost morale among the troops.

"The top echelon of our enlisted community, our fleet and force master chiefs, have been told again and again by our sailors that McDonald's is the best thing the Navy has done for the sailor.'

Oliver Brown, Burger King franchise affairs vice president, voiced similar support for the program, saying, "We believe that our relationship has served the military well in its goal of providing a better lifestyle for servicemen here and abroad.'

The U.S. Military Needs Its Speed

"Recalling the American airborne invasion of Normandy during World War II in his 1962 book Night Drop, Army colonel and combat historian S.L.A. Marshall wrote: "The United States Army is indifferent toward common-sense rules by which the energy of men may be conserved in combat."

Pilots from the Air Force 183rd Fighter Wing felt the reverberations of Marshall's assessment -- which is cited on page 3 of the Navy's official guide for managing fatigue -- last April. According to reports published in Canada, they misidentified a target during a bombing run over Iraq. Meeting with their commanders, they complained they were exhausted, that the "common-sense" rule of 12 hours of rest between missions was being ignored.

In return they got two pieces of advice: Stop whining and visit the flight surgeon for some "go/no-go" pills.

About a week later, two members of the 183rd, Majs. Harry Schmidt and William Umbach, launched a laser-guided bomb on a Canadian training force, killing four and injuring eight.

At a recently concluded Article 32 hearing to determine if the pilots should be court-martialed for manslaughter, assault and dereliction of duty, Schmidt and Umbach's attorneys claimed it was the Air Force's dextro-amphetamine (trade name, Dexedrine) tablets, aka speed, that killed the Canadians, not Schmidt and Umbach.

Originally used to treat asthma and other breathing disorders, amphetamines were discovered in the late 19th century. By the 1930s, their ability to stimulate the central nervous system had made them very popular as pep and diet pills. Today they are mostly used to treat narcolepsy, attention deficit disorder in children and, rarely, depression.

Military commanders, football coaches and students have turned to amphetamines for similar reasons: They can keep you fighting long after your body would otherwise give in to sleep."